Tafsir of Al-Anbiya' 21:68

They said (meaning some said to others, when they were unable to debate and their ruses grew narrow; this is the custom of the falsifier who is defeated by argument; when he is struck dumb by proof and possesses power, he resorts to hostility):

"Burn him and support your gods" (by taking vengeance on their behalf),

"if you are to act" (meaning: if you are truly to be supporters of your gods with an overwhelming support, then choose this for him, otherwise you have been negligent in supporting them, as if you have done nothing at all for them. The deviation from the phrasing "if you would support your gods, then burn him" to what is in the Noble Order [of the Quranic text] intimates this).

It was Nimrod, son of Canaan, son of Sinharib, son of Nimrod, son of Cush, son of Ham, son of Noah—peace be upon him—who suggested this, and everyone agreed to it. Ibn Jarir recorded from Mujahid, who said: I recited this verse to Abdullah ibn Umar, and he said: "Do you know, O Mujahid, who suggested burning Abraham—peace be upon him—with fire?" I said: "No." He said: "A man from the Bedouins of Persia," meaning the Kurds. Ibn Atiyyah explicitly stated that he was a Kurd and mentioned that Allah, the Exalted, caused the earth to swallow him up, and he is sinking down into it until the Day of Resurrection. His name, according to what Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim recorded from Shu'ayb al-Jabbari, was Hayyun; it is also said to be Hadir. In al-Bahr, it is mentioned that they cited a name for him that is disputed, and no truth can be firmly established from it.

It is narrated that when they intended to burn him, they detained him, then built a structure like an enclosure in Kutha, a village among the villages of the Nabataeans on the borders of Babylon in Iraq—and that is the saying of the Exalted, "They said, 'Build him a structure and throw him into the hellfire.'" They gathered for him hard firewood of various types of timber for a period of forty days, then lit a great fire so intense that a bird could barely fly over it at the highest altitude due to the severity of its heat. They did not know how to cast him—peace be upon him—into it, so Iblis came and taught them how to make a catapult, and they made it (it is said the Kurd who suggested the burning made it, then was swallowed by the earth). Then they went to Abraham—peace be upon him—and placed him in the catapult, shackled and chained.

The angels of the heavens and the earth cried out: "Our God, there is no one on Your earth who worships You except Abraham—peace be upon him—and he is being burned for Your sake! So grant us permission to support him." The Glorious and Exalted replied: "If he calls for help from any of you, then support him. But if he does not call upon anyone other than Me, then I am most aware of him and I am his guardian. Leave him to Me, for he is My friend (Khalil); I have no friend other than him, and I am his God; he has no god other than Me."

The keeper of the winds and the keeper of the waters came to him, seeking permission to extinguish the fire. He—peace be upon him—said: "I have no need of you; Allah is sufficient for me, and He is the best Disposer of affairs." It is narrated from Ubayy ibn Ka'b that when they bound him to throw him into the fire, he said—peace be upon him: "There is no god but You, glory be to You; Yours is the praise and Yours is the dominion; there is no partner unto You." Then they threw him.

Gabriel—peace be upon him—came to him and said: "O Abraham, do you have any need?" He said: "As for you, no." Gabriel—peace be upon him—said: "Then ask your Lord." He replied: "His knowledge of my state is sufficient for me without my asking." It is narrated that the gecko was blowing into the fire, and this has come in a narration of al-Bukhari. In al-Bahr, the commentators mentioned things that were done by the gecko, the mule, the swallow, the frog, and the lizard. And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.