Allah (swt) willed to debate with this group of people who thought highly of themselves because they were linked to Prophet Abraham (PBUH).  He also willed to give solace to the heart of the Prophet (saws) by giving arguments against these same people who were worshipping Lat, ‘Uzza and the other idols found then. So, Allah (swt) says:

(… وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ) (And [mention, O Muhammad], when Abraham said …): The verse means: ‘Remember, O Muhammad, the time in which Abraham was in’.

(… لِأَبِيهِ آزَرَ… ) (…to his father Azar,…): Why does the Holy Quran mention the name of the father? Whereas normally, names are normally not mentioned in the verses except if there are specific indications to be derived from these names, for example, Allah (swt) says: 

 إِذْ قَالَتِ امْرَأَةُ عِمْرَانَ

(Remember) when the wife of ’Imran said) (Ali-Imran: 35)

 قَالَتِ امْرَأَةُ الْعَزِيزِ

(Then the ‘Azeez (Chief Minister)’s wife said) (Yusuf: 51)

 وَقَالَتِ امْرَأَتُ فِرْعَوْنَ

(And Pharaoh’s wife said) (Al-Qassqass: 9)

However, in this verse, the name of the father is mentioned. We find that the Prophet (saws) mentioned in a Hadith:

“I was continuously transferred from the ribs of pure men to the wombs of pure women.”[1]

Therefore, how could the father of Prophet Abraham (PBUH) be of the idol-worshippers, while the Holy Quran says:

 إِنَّمَا الْمُشْرِكُونَ نَجَسٌ

(Indeed, the polytheists are impure) (At-Tawbah: 28)

Thus, his father must be a monotheist.

The scholars have stopped to discuss regarding this verse, and found that in the Holy Quran, the term ‘father’, other than referring to the father, is also used to refer to the grandfather, great-grandfather and the paternal uncle. This is proven by the usage in the following verse:

 أَمْ كُنتُمْ شُهَدَاء إِذْ حَضَرَ يَعْقُوبَ الْمَوْتُ إِذْ قَالَ لِبَنِيهِ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن بَعْدِي قَالُواْ نَعْبُدُ إِلَهَكَ وَإِلَهَ آبَائِكَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَقَ إِلَهًا وَاحِدًا وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ

(Or did you witness when death came to Jacob? He asked his children, “Who will you worship after my passing?” They replied, “We will (continue to) worship your God, the God of your forefathers—Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac—the One God. And to Him we (all) submit.”) (Al-Baqara: 133)

Jacob is the son of Isaac who is the son of Abraham. Therefore, Prophet Abraham is the great-grandfather of the children of the Prophet Jacob. Prophet Isaac is their grandfather, while Prophet Jacob is their father. However, also mentioned in the verse is Prophet Ismael, who is the brother of Prophet Isaac and thus, the paternal uncle of Prophet Jacob. So, we can observe that the uncle is also called a ‘father’ in this verse.

In view of all this, the scholars have said that when the Quran explicitly mentions the name Azar, it refers to the uncle of Prophet Abraham (PBUH), who had raised him. As for the father of Prophet Abraham, his name was Tarikh and not Azar. Prophet Abraham was in the care of his uncle who had raised him, as his father had already passed away.

To illustrate this point further, in the Arabic Language for example, when a person knocks on the door and a young child opens it, this person will say to the child, “Call your father”, instead of saying, “Call your father Ahmad”. This is because, the child already knows his father’s name and it does not have to be mentioned. So, when the name is explicitly mentioned, it will be because he is referring to someone other than his real father.

(… أَتَتَّخِذُ أَصْنَامًا آلِهَةً… ) (…Do you take idols as deities? …): We know about the debates and dialogues that have been carried out, which indicate that Islam relies upon dialogues, arguments, proofs and the intellect to establish the Islamic creed, instead of force.

What is the different between the two Arabic words Asnam and Awthan? Both are normally translated as idols, but the difference is that Asnam are stones which are shaped according to a living example, for example, Asnam which are formed in the shape of a person or in the shape of the moon. However, Awthan are stones which have not been changed and remain in their original form.

Since Prophet Abraham (PBUH) uses the word Asnam here, it means that during that time, they used to make the stones in the form of the stars, sun and moon, to suggest that they were gods.

(  إِنِّي أَرَاكَ وَقَوْمَكَ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ… ) (…Indeed, I see you and your people to be in manifest error.): The Arabic word of (error) used here means ‘losing the way and losing the target’. When a person loses the target he was headed for, then that is the manifest misguidance.

[1] Subul al-Huda wa ar-Rasyad Fi Sirah Khair al-‘Ibad, Volume 1, page 256.