The night Abraham was born, a star appeared in the sky and swallowed four other stars from the four corners of heaven. Nimrod's astrologers saw it and rushed to the king with a warning: a child had been born who was destined to inherit both this world and the world to come. They urged Nimrod to pay off the parents and kill the boy immediately.
But Terah, Abraham's own father, was standing right there in court. He deflected with a parable about a mule offered barley in exchange for its head. "If you kill the son," he said, "who will enjoy the reward you give his parents?" The astrologers saw through him at once. Terah rushed home and hid his son in a cave for three years.
When Abraham emerged, he searched for the true God. He prayed to the sun all day, then switched to the moon at night. By the next morning, watching both rise and set, he concluded that neither was lord of the world—both were servants of a higher power. His father pointed him to the household idols instead. Abraham brought offering after offering to the stone figures. They did not eat. They did not drink. They did not answer.
The spirit of prophecy fell on him. Abraham set the idols on fire and burned them all. When Terah demanded an explanation, Abraham told him the large idol had attacked the smaller ones. "Fool," his father said, "how can a statue that cannot see or move do anything?" Abraham replied: "Then why do you worship them?"
Terah dragged Abraham before Nimrod, who demanded to know who created the heavens. "I did," Nimrod declared. Abraham challenged him: "Then command the sun to rise in the west." Nimrod was struck silent. His astrologers heated a furnace for seven days and threw Abraham in. The angels competed to rescue him, but God insisted on going Himself—"I am One in My world, and he is one in his generation." God descended in His own glory and brought Abraham out without a single burn.