Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/49

Rh in great distress, Ibrahim exclaimed, “ Verily, I was in error, the moon could not have been my Lord; for I love not things that change.” Soon after this the sky was tinged with all the glorious colours of the sunrise, and the sun arose in all his brightness, waking men and birds and insects to life and energy, bathing all things in a golden glory. At his splendour, the boy cried, “Surely this is my Lord!” But, as the hours wore on, the sun also began to sink westwards, and the shadows to lengthen, till at last the shades of night again covered the earth, and in bitter disappointment the child said, “Verily I was again in error, neither star nor moon nor sun can be my Lord. I love not the things that change.” And in the anguish of his soul he prayed: “O Allah, Thou Great, Unsearchable, Unchangeable One, reveal Thyself to Thy servant, guide me, and keep me from error.”

The petition was heard and Gabriel sent to instruct the earnest seeker after truth. As a child of ten years of age, Ibrahim already began to exhort the people to worship Allah only. One day he entered the idol temple, and, finding nobody present, he broke up all the images except the largest with an axe, which he then laid on the lap of that which he had spared. When the priests entered the temple they were very angry, and, seeing Ibrahim, accused him of sacrilege. He told them there had been a quarrel amongst the gods, and that the greater one had destroyed those who had provoked him. When they answered that this could not be, he showed them from their own mouths the folly of their