Ubuntu comes with Firefox by default. If you’ve removed it and wish to reintall it, it’s available in the standard repositories. You can either use the point-and-click graphical interface of the Software Center or simply type
sudo apt-get install firefox
on the Terminal.
If you do wish to install Firefox (or any other program) from a tarball, you’ll need to be careful to enter exactly the commands you should. As Eduardo Cola said in a comment on your question, you probably want ./configure, with an initial dot. The command /configure will try to run a script in the root directory called configure: no such script exists, hence your error message. The same command with an initial dot will run the script called configure in your current directory, which you say does exist.