1. Canonized Translation Error:
The story of Abraham surviving a literal fire is absent from the Hebrew Bible, which simply says he left "Ur [the city] of the Chaldeans." Because the Hebrew Ur means "city" but sounds like "fire," later storytellers mistranslated "out of the city of the Chaldeans" as "out of the fire of the Chaldeans."
2. Reliance on Folklore:
By adopting this myth (codified in the 5th-century Genesis Rabbah), the author mistook a late Jewish translation error for real history.
The Quran Verse
Surah 29:24
But the answer of his [Abraham's] people was not except that they said, 'Kill him or burn him.' But Allah saved him from the fire. Indeed in that are signs for a people who believe.
The Relevant Source Text (Jewish Folklore)
Midrash Rabbah (Genesis 38:13):
This 5th-century Jewish commentary tells a story where Nimrod throws Abraham into a "fiery furnace" because Abraham refused to worship idols. Abraham emerges unscathed.
This story is entirely absent from the Hebrew Bible. The Bible states Abraham simply left "Ur of the Chaldeans."
The Error of Translation:
Scholars believe this legend arose from a linguistic mistake. In Hebrew, Ur means "city," but it also means "fire." Later Jewish storytellers misinterpreted "God brought Abraham out of the Ur (city) of the Chaldeans" as "God brought Abraham out of the fire of the Chaldeans."
The Quran adopts this translation error and the resulting folklore as a literal historical event. To the critic, this proves the Quranic author was listening to contemporary Jewish "Sunday school" stories rather than receiving an accurate historical record from a divine source.