These were the enemies of Abraham, the Close Friend of Allah, who called them to worship Allah alone. His birthplace (1 according to most people 1) (1) [was either in Iraq or] (2) Harrān (3 as stated in the Torah 3) (3). For this reason, he debated them concerning the worship of celestial bodies and idols. Allah relates of him that, when he saw that it (4) was a star, {“he said, ‘This is my Lord’”} [until His words: {“I do not love those that set”}] (5), and continuing to His words:

{“Then, when he saw the sun rising, he said, ‘This is my Lord; this is greater.’ But when it set, he said, ‘O my people, I am indeed free of whatever you associate with Allah. Indeed, I have turned my face toward the One who originated the heavens and the earth, inclining toward truth, and I am not one of the polytheists.’”}

[Surah al-An'ām: 76–79]—to the end of the cited verses.

A group of the Jahmiyyah, the Mu'tazilah, and others supposed that by his words {“This is my Lord,”} he meant, “This is the Creator of the universe,” and that he (6) used its setting—which they understood as motion and spatial transition—as evidence that it could not be the Lord. They claimed that this argument demonstrates the temporal origination of bodies and of the universe.