In all of this there lay a clear proof for them, had they only used their reason: what befell the very deities they used to worship. Had those idols truly been gods, they would have defended themselves against anyone who sought to harm them. Yet, in the blindness of their ignorance, their feeble intellects, and their deep-seated misguidance and confusion, they said, “Who has done this to our gods? He must indeed be one of the wrongdoers.” They also said, “We heard a youth speaking of them; he is called Abraham” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:59–60).
That is, they had heard him denounce the idols, belittle them, and pour scorn upon them; he was the one who persisted near them and shattered them. According to Ibn Masʿūd, they were referring to his earlier words: “And by Allah, I shall surely plot against your idols once you have turned your backs and gone away” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:57).
They continued: “Bring him before the eyes of all the people, so that they may bear witness” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:61)—meaning, “Bring him to the grand assembly, before the multitude, that they may hear his statement, listen to his words, and see with their own eyes the retribution that will befall him.” This, in fact, was one of Abraham’s chief aims: that everyone should gather so he could establish against every idol-worshipper the proof of the falsity of their creed—just as Moses said to Pharaoh: “Your appointment is on the Day of Adornment, when the people will be assembled at mid-morning” (Ṭā Hā 20:59).
When they had assembled and brought Abraham forward as planned, they asked, “Is it you who did this to our gods, O Abraham?” He replied, “Rather, it was this largest one of them that did it” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:62-63). Some said his meaning was, “He is the one who drove me to break the rest,” yet he only hinted at this and added, “Ask them, if they can speak” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:63). His intent was that they would immediately say, “These idols do not speak,” thereby admitting that they were lifeless objects like any other inanimate thing. “So they turned inward upon themselves and said, ‘Indeed, it is you who are the wrongdoers’” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:64)—that is, they blamed themselves, saying, “You are at fault for leaving the idols without any guard or protector.”
“Then they were overturned upon their heads” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:65). Al-Suddi explained: they slipped back into their old misguidance—so, on this reading, their words “Indeed, it is you who are the wrongdoers” mean “wrong in worshipping them.” Qatādah said: a terrible perplexity seized the people; they lowered their heads and then said, “You surely know that these do not speak.” In other words: “O Abraham, you know they cannot speak, so how can you tell us to ask them?”
At that point Abraham said, “Do you then worship, instead of Allah, what cannot benefit you in the least nor harm you? Fie upon you and upon what you worship besides Allah! Will you not, then, reason?” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:66-67). The Qurʾān also says: “And they advanced towards him hastening” (as-Ṣāffāt 37:94); Mujāhid commented: they rushed at him. Abraham said, “Do you worship what you yourselves carve?” (as-Ṣāffāt 37:95)—that is, how can you worship idols that you yourselves carve from wood and stone, fashioning and shaping them as you wish—“while Allah created you and what you do”? (as-Ṣāffāt 37:96). Whether “what” here is taken as a verbal noun or a relative pronoun, the purport is the same: you are created, and so are these idols. How, then, can a created being worship another created being like itself? Your worship of them is no more warranted than their worship of you. Since that is false, the opposite is equally false by default, for worship is fitting and obligatory only for the Creator, without partner.
They therefore said, “Build a structure for him and cast him into the blazing fire.” They sought to scheme against him, “but We made them the lowest” (as-Ṣāffāt 37:97-98). Having been silenced and defeated in argument, they abandoned debate and discussion altogether; no proof or even a semblance of one remained for them—only the resort to brute force and authority.