I don't know if it is appropriate to say this here but I have very negative feelings about Abraham as the man who destroyed the idol that his own father worshipped. Did he have to establish his faith by destroying another's faith?
It seems to be a way in human progress. Looking at Vedanta specifically the Archarya's tend to refute the predecessor in order to assert their own teachings. That subtlety may go unnoticed by many devotees of course as the point is that they are attracted to the new teaching and are reassured that they need not look back to their ancestors (in Abraham's case).
One thing which strikes me, reading the Quran is that the problem with the Pagan Arabs was their lack of understanding, they took the Idol as God rather than seeing it as being a mere reflection or image or form of God which Sananata Dharma is more clear on.
I think it all comes down to having your mind clearly focused, if you are told other's are wrong, you can knuckle down in your choosen faith.
This isn't exactly how the story goes. He didn't destroy the idol that his father personally worshiped; his father was an idol merchant and it was the idols that were for sale that he destroyed. It cost his father in profits, but these idols were worshiped by no one yet. So it was not the direct disrespect to his father that would have occurred if he destroyed his father's personal idol.
Some versions of the story say the idols destroyed were those in a temple whose worshippers had gone for a feast. When they returned and saw all the idols destroyed except the biggest one, Abraham said it was the biggest idol that destroyed all the other idols! The story continues that the worshippers, including Abraham's father, handed over Abraham to the King, who put him into the fire. Abraham came out of the fire unhurt. The intolerance of Abraham still comes through, though, and here I stand corrected, he did not destroy the personal idol that his father worshipped. Since he did not get burnt in the fire, I suppose God pardoned him or maybe God never thought he did anything wrong in the first place. Anyway, I am not grudging the preeminent position of respect Abraham has among the followers of three major religions of the world. Maybe the respect is largely because he relished destroying idols.
The story I just read about this does say Abraham blamed it on the biggest idol in his father's shop but, it also included Hanan, Abraham's oldest brother. When the King learned that the brother knew of Abraham's existence(Abraham was supposed to have been killed in infancy due to prophesy), the brother was thrown in to the fires with Abraham.
The fires were so hot that Hanan burst into flames and Abraham was left to walk through it unharmed. The king commanded Abraham to come out but he refused until the king denounced idol worship.
If I am permitted to say so, I really wonder what it is about God that so disturbs Him about idol worship. It does appear it is all about loyalty. If you notice that it is tin pot dictators who most require loyalty, you would not want to associate such a word with God. Strange that Abraham, who proved that he had the power to survive fire, used the circumstance as blackmail to get the King to denounce idol worship. Please pardon me for my position. I am not using this forum to denigrate the greatness of Abraham in any way. I am simply not able to understand this 'enmity' towards idol worship. If you or anyone else feels offended by my position, I shall delete this post. With best wishes.
Hi K.V
Personal understanding is there is a subtlety easily mistaken. God does not communicate any disturbance of Idol worship, God is not disturbed as such as God is omnisicence. The error is to mistake Him or His creation as an Idol. Taking an Idol as divine is grave error also. When they returned from the feat they were angry at the destruction of the Idols. This anger arises from false understanding because the highest truth is that man has no rights at all over anything, everything that exists, that is taken and is given is by God Himself.
To expect an idol-worshipper not to be angry when his idols are destroyed is simply going against basic human nature. Everybody needs his or her sacred space - how can it be violated? Idol worship occurs, one way or the other, when man is still at the dualistic stage. Only those who have attained the non-dual vision can do away with idol worship. And, ironically, a person of non-dual vision would never need to destroy an idol because when he sees all existence as one, he would see everything, including an idol, as an expression of the oneness. Saying that man has no right over anything is true for the non-dualist for the simple reason that a non-dualist does not suffer any sense of want and therefore he does not require a right over anything. But he also understands that in the absence of the capacity to see all space as sacred, men would require clearly defined sacred spaces if he is to grow to his spiritual potential.
The story I heard was that Abraham's father owned an idol shop, and left him in charge one day. Abraham took a stick and broke all the idols except the biggest one, and put the stick in it's hand. His father came home angry, and Abraham said the big idol did it, and pointed to the stick. His father said: "Don't be ridicilous, idols can't do anything." Abraham replied: "That's right father, idols can't do anything."
Idols can't do anything just as, say, a car or a computer cannot, by itself, do anything. What an idol, car or computer can do depends on how you programme them or, in the case of the idol with its esoteric science, the energy that has been transferred to it. Again, in the case of the car or computer, unless we have the capacity to drive it or operate it, it would be 'dead' for us. Similarly, in the case of those not well-versed with the science of worship of idols (apart from the qualified priests in this case) can only be passive beneficiaries and for those who do not understand idol worship at all, the idol remains a piece of stone - maybe only worth its antique value. Therefore the accusation that idols cannot do anything and thus they have to be destroyed would be the refrain of only those not sufficiently educated to the possibilities of man's genius.
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