The Miracle of Ibrahim's (Alayhi As-Salam) “The Fire that Does Not Burn”: Lessons to Today's Health Professionals

Abstract

Fire is a state, process, or instance of combustion in which fuel or other material is ignited and combined with oxygen, giving off light, heat, and flame.1 Allah first created angels and Jinns, and then Adem (Alayhi As-Salam [AS]), the first man and the first prophet.2–4 Allah created Jinns5,6 and Iblis (also known as shaitan, devil, demon, or satan), one of the Jinns7 from the fire. The Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu AlayhiWa Sallam) said, “Angelswere created from light, Jinns were created from a smokeless flame of fire, and Adem (AS) was created from that which you have been told (i.e., sounding clay like the clay of pottery).”8 Based on these data, it is too clear that fire was created long before Adem (AS). Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment for and warning against crimes such as treason, heresy, and witchcraft.9 However, currently, immolation cases have been rarely reported.10 The Prophet Ibrahim (AS) is accepted as the greatest ancestor by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The period in which Ibrahim (AS) lived is not known exactly. It is noted that he lived in the 22nd–20th centuries before Christ. Ibrahim (AS) invited the Babylonian ruler Nemrud (Nimrod) to Allah’s religion, but he was thrown into a fire burning so big and so strong with a catapult by Nemrud, who did not accept this invitation. However, he miraculously survived the fire. The fire did not burn Ibrahim (AS) as a miracle, with Allah’s permission, and the place where he fell turned into a rose garden.11 Furthermore, although Ibrahim (AS) was thrown from the catapult set up on a very high hill, he had no traumatic brain injury, injury to the abdominal or thoracic cavities, fractures, or complex soft tissue injury with Allah’s protection. Herein, we discussed the miracle of Ibrahim’s (AS) “the fire that does not burn” from Islamic perspective to emphasize that the Quran also addresses today’s people including health professionals with Ibrahim’s (AS) miracle. The fourteenth surah including 52 ayats of the Quran is the surah Ibrahim. Themain idea and purpose of the surah is to deter the infidels, who rejected the Prophet Muhammad’s invitation and continued to increase their hostility toward him, by harshly warning and threatening. Its subject is fundamental issues of faith related to tawhid, revelation, and prophethood. There is information about the troubles endured by the prophets for the sake of spreading the true religion.12,13 The miracle of Ibrahim’s (AS) “the fire that does not burn” is described in detail in surah Al-Anbiya of the Quran.14Nursi15 noted three subtle indications in the ayat 69 of surah Al-Anbiya (We said: “O fire! Be cool and a means of safety for Ibrahim), which is about Ibrahim’s (AS)miracle: (1) Like other natural causes, fire does not act according to its ownwishes and nature, blindly, but performs a duty under a command. Thus, it did not burn Ibrahim (AS) because it was commanded not to burn him. (2) There is a degree of heat which burns through its coldness. That is, it has an effect like burning. Through the word, Be cool! (One Quranic commentary [tafsir] states: If He had not said: Be cool! it would have burnt him with its coldness), Almighty Allah is saying to the coldness: “Do not burn him with your coldness, the same as your heat!” That is to say, through its coldness, fire at that degree has an effect like burning. It is both fire and cold. In fact, in natural science, there is a degree of fire, the state of “white heat,” the heat of which does not spread to its surroundings. It attracts the heat around it to itself and with this cold and freezes surrounding liquids such as water, in effect burning them through its cold. Thus, intense cold is a