It is reported from the Household (PUT)
that Nimrod and all the people of his kingdom went out in a festival
and Abraham hated to go out with them, so Nimrod appointed him to guard
the idols house. He offered the idols food and give it to one after
another and say to him: eat and talk, and when he gets no answer, and
he knows that he will not get an answer and how come a non-living thing
would answer him, he breaks its arms and legs with an axe until all of
them are broken, then he hanged the axe over the neck of the biggest
idol and it was in the middle of the place, and then when the king got
back with his people and saw what happened to their idols they said:
Who hath done this to our gods ? Surely it must be some
evil- doer(Al-Anbiyâ':59) Then they said: here is a boy that
remembers them called Abraham and he is the son of Azar, so then they
brought him with his father Azar, then Nimrod said to Azar: you
betrayed me and kept this boy away, then Azar said: O my king, this is
the deed of his mother and she said that she will defend for him, so
then Nimrod called Abraham's mother and asked her: what made you hide
this boy until he did what he did to our gods? So then she said: O
king, this is because I care about your people, he said then: and how
is that? She answered: because you used to kill the kids of your people
and this deed will decrease the population so I thought for myself that
if it was this boy he is seeking let him kill it and leave the people
alone and if he is not the enemy of the king then he would stay for us
so I see now I am right and you got him and he is yours so do whatever
you want to do with him and stop killing other people's children. Then
Nimrod looked at Abraham and asked: Is it thou
who hast done this to our gods, O Abraham ?
He said: But this, their chief hath done it. So question them, if they
can speak(Al-Anbiyâ':62-63). It is reported from Al-Sâdiq
(PUH): he (Abraham) said that their chief had done it and he did not
lie because he said he had done it if only he can speak.
So then Nimrod asked his people what to do with him so they told him:
burn him and make a victory for our gods if you want. Al-Sâdiq
said: the king of Abraham and his folks were not wise for they said for
Nimrod burn him, but the king of Moses and his folks were wise because
when he (the king) asked his folks for what to do with Moses they told
him to give him a chance with his brother and call every magician in
the land, then Nimrod captivated Abraham and collected the woods and so
when it was the day to throw him in the fire, Nimrod and his soldiers
showed up and he built before that a building to see what will happen
to Abraham when he is thrown in the fire and to see how the fire would
burn him and the Satan came to them and showed them how to make the
catapult because no one was able to approach the fire and they were
buffled how to throw him into that great flame, and birds were burnt
from a far because of it, so then they put Abraham onto the catapult
and it is said that Azar came and slapped him and told him to get back
to the religion but he did not care about it.
They mentioned that none of God's creation, except for the human
beings, wouldn't ask God to save Abraham, so the earth said: O Lord,
none on my back worships You except of him, would he be burnt! And
angels said: O Lord, Your friend Abraham is getting burnt. So then, God
did say: if he called for me, I will save him. And Gabriel said: O
Lord, Your friend Abraham is getting burnt and You sent Your enemy to
burn him. So then said God: Be silent, only a slave like you would say
this because he is afraid of being late. and he is My slave, I can take
him back whenever I want to, and if he called Me I would answer him. So
then Abraham (PUH) called his Lord by the words that are in the chapter
of Al-Ikhlâs: O Allah (God), O The One, O The eternally
besought of all, O One that begetteth not nor
was begotten, O One that there is none
comparable unto Him, save me from the fire by Your mercy. The narrator
said: then Gabiel met with Abraham in the air and he was put in the
catapult, and said to him: do you need me O Abraham? So then Abraham
answered: for you no, but for the Lord of universe yes, so he (Gabriel)
gave him a ring that has an engraving saying: No other god except for
Allah, Muhammad is the prophet of Allah, Allah is before my back, Allah
supports me, Allah got my life. Then when Abraham wore the ring, God
commanded the fire "be coolness", so then Abraham's teeth started to
shake and chatter because of the coolness, until He said unto it "and
peace for Abraham" and then Gabriel got down and sat beside him
and talking to him as if they were in a green garden. It is mentioned
also that Gabriel (PUH) brought a garment from paradise and he
(Abraham) wore it and then they sat together talking. This garment is
given by Abraham to Isaac, and Isaac gave it to Jacob, and Jacob gave
it to Joseph and he made it in his neck and so it was with him (with
Joseph) when he was thrown into the well and when he got into jail ,
and it is the garment that Joseph sent to his father from Egypt and
made him blind no more, and this is what has been told in the public
and it is transformed and narrated in different ways. Then Nimrod
looked at Abraham (PUH) and said: whoever had a god let him take a god
as the one of Abraham, so then a great man that Nimrod had said: I made
magic over the fire so it won't burn him, then immediately a column of
fire grew and burnt him. Then Nimrod looked at Abraham while he was
sitting in a green garden in the fire with an old man talking to him,
so then he said to Azar: the God of your son loves your son so much.
They mentioned also that after God's commandment to the fire to be
coolness and peace for Abraham, no fire worked on earth for three days,
and it is reported from Al-Râzi that he said: scholars had
different interpretations for the coolness of fire at that day in three
ways, one of them is that God removed the heat that was in the fire and
only the light in it remained, and the second way says that God created
in the body of Abraham (PUH) a protection against fire, as God do to
the keepers of hell, and the third way says that God created a veil
between Abraham and the fire and so the fire was kept away.
Investigators said that the first way is the most truthful since it is
apparent from God's saying: O fire, be coolness
and peace for Abraham(Al-Anbiyâ':69), it is apparent that fire
itself had been cool and so there are no protection or a veil and this
is the correct opinion, and as reported from the prophet (PUH) that
when Abraham (PUH) was thrown into fire, Gabriel (PUH) came down with a
garment from paradise and with a carpet, so he made him (Abraham) wear
the garment and lat him sit on the carpet and sat together talking.
In interpretations they say that after throwing Abraham into the fire
by Nimrod, and after he got out of it as if nothing happened to him,
Nimrod said to him then: O Abraham, who is your god? He answered: my
God is the One that gives life and take it. Then said Nimrod: I give
life and take it, then Abraham said to him: how come you give life adn
take it? Then Nimrod said: I bring two men that are to be executed, so
I give mercy for one of them and release him and keep the other and
kill him and so I gave life and took it. Then said Abraham to him: if
you were truthful then give life again to the one you killed, then he
said: leave this now, my God brings the sun from east, so bring it from
west, and so Nimrod was amazed. God said: Bethink
thee of him who had an argument with Abraham
about his Lord, because Allah had given him the kingdom; how, when
Abraham said: My Lord is He Who giveth life and causeth death, he
answered: I give life and cause death. Abraham said: Lo! Allah causeth
the sun to rise in the East, so do thou cause it to come up from the
West. Thus was the disbeliever abashed. And Allah guideth not
wrongdoing folk(Al-Baqarah:258). The speech in this holy phrase was
directed to our prophet (PUH) for God's saying "Bethink thee of him who
had an argument with Abraham..etc" And the prophet himself doesn't know
what is hidden in the future or destiny and only God knows, so He tells
him what happened between Abraham and the damned Nimrod, and the one
that had an argument with Abraham was Nimrod, and he was the first man
to be a tyrant and called himself a god, and it has been told that this
argument took place after throwing Abraham into the fire and being out
of it with no harm and guided by God, and Nimrod had such an argument
because of his high place and because people followed him and God gave
him the time, but he rebelled and refused because of the kingdom he had
and given by God, and the kingdom here is considered to be the
ornaments of life and a human being would rebel when he becomes a rich,
and such kingdom can be given to a faithful or a disbeliever, and
Solomon ben David (PUT) was given a kingdom and power that was nothing
like them, and God never gave something similar to anyone else and he
said: He said: My Lord! Forgive me and bestow on
me sovereignty such as shall not belong to any after me(Sad:35), and so
God gave him what shall not pass in the mind of anyone else and he is a
prophet and a son of a prophet, and also He had given Nebuchadnezzar
and the Pharaoh of Moses a kingdom and others a lot that were believers
or disbelievers.
For the kingdom by means of owing people's order and judgement and
getting the loyalty of people that God guided, such things are not
given by God except for one who God knows that they call for rightness
and guidance and it is not to be except for a prophet or a viceroy or
anyone faithful that God had chosen for His religion, and they know by
the guidance of God what do people need in their life for religion,
life matters and for the after-life. They say that when Abraham said to
Nimrod that God brings the sun from the east so bring it from the west,
Nimrod got surprised and couldn't answer because of his surprise and he
knew that Abraham got the rightful clue. Nimrod could have said to
Abraham let your God bring it from the west but he was afraid from
God's reply to Abraham as He saved Abraham before from the fire. When
Nimrod saw the miracles he knew that if he suggested that (bringing the
sun from the west) Abraham would do it without a doubt and would make
people believe him and in that way Nimrod would be ashamed, and God
guideth not the wrongdoing folks. As reported from Ibn-`Abbâs he
said that God sent a mosquito to Nimrod and stung his lip, and when he
tried to catch it it flied to his nose, and tried to get it out but
then she got into his brain, so then God tortured him for forty nights
then destroyed him.
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