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Breaking The Idols and Throwing Abraham in The Fire
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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