Tafseer Ibn Kathir of AL ANBIYAA' [68]

68. They said: ”Burn him and help your gods, if you will be doing.'' 69. We said: ”O fire! Be you cool and safety for Ibrahim!'' 70. And they wanted to harm him, but We made them the worst losers. When their arguments were refuted and their incapability became clear, when truth was made manifest and falsehood was defeated, they resorted to using their power and strength, and said:

(”Burn him and help your gods, if you will be doing.'') So they gathered together a huge amount of wood. As-Suddi said, ”I if a woman was sick, she would make a vow that if she recovered she would bring wood to burn Ibrahim. Then they made a hole in the ground and set it aflame, and it burned with huge sparks and immense flames. There had never been a fire like it. They put Ibrahim, peace be upon him, into a catapult, at the suggestion of a nomadic Kurdish man from Persia.'' Shu`ayb Al-Jaba'i said, ”His name was Hayzan, and Allah caused the earth to swallow him up, and he will remain sinking into it until the Day of Resurrection. When they threw him he said, `Sufficient for me is Allah, and He is the best disposer of affairs.' '' This is similar to what Al-Bukhari recorded from Ibn `Abbas that Ibrahim said, ”`Sufficient for me is Allah, and He is the best disposer of affairs,'' when he was thrown into the fire, and Muhammad said it when they said:

(Verily, the people have gathered against you, therefore, fear them. But it increased them in faith, and they said: ”Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs.'') ﴿3:173﴾. Sa`id bin Jubayr reported that Ibn `Abbas said: ”When Ibrahim was thrown into the fire, the keeper (angel) of the rain said: `When will I be commanded to send rain' But the command of Allah was more swift. Allah said:

(O fire! Be you cool and safety for Ibrahim!), and there was no fire left on earth that was not extinguished.'' Ibn `Abbas and Abu Al-`Aliyah said: ”Were it not for the fact that Allah said,

(and safety), Ibrahim would have been harmed by its coldness.'' Qatadah said: ”On that day there was no creature that did not try to extinguish the fire for Ibrahim, except for the gecko.'' Az-Zuhri said: ”The Prophet commanded that it should be killed, and called it a harmful vermin.''

(And they wanted to harm him, but We made them the worst losers.) they were defeated and humiliated, because they wanted to plot against the Prophet of Allah, but Allah planned against them and saved him from the fire, and thus they were defeated.