Allah
(SWT) caused Nimrod’s death with his weakest creation to prove that only the
Creator of the Universe is worthy of worship.
Nimrod,
the one who built the huge Tower at Babylon: “Allah struck at the foundation of
their building, and then the roof fell down upon them…”
Nimrud built his extensive empire from south to north,
indicating a third-millennium BC setting (3000–2000 BC). Therefore, he must
have ruled in this region during this period.
Like Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him),
Ibrahim (peace be upon him) was born at a time when ignorance was at its peak,
at Babylon in Iraq during the reign of a tyrant disbeliever Nimrud. He had
proclaimed himself to be the Almighty and wanted to prove that there was no God
except him.
Nimrud was filled with misguidance. He used
to term himself as lord of everything. Allah tells us in the Qur’an, how
Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) debated with this ignorant ruler to explain
that Allah is the Lord of everything that exists.
His despotism knew no bounds.
He summoned Hazrat Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam) and said to him, “Tell your Allah
that I neither fear Him nor need Him! Go tell Him that the whole world is in
awe of me. All people are obedient to my command.
If He is the God of heaven, I am God of the
earth. Where are His armies? If the sky fell on my troops, they could hold it
up with their lances. Tell Him I challenge Him to a battle. He has no say on
earth. The whole earth belongs to me; it is my kingdom!”
The answer was revealed to Hazrat Ibrahim
(Alaihis Salaam): “Let him come to such and such a place, where I shall do
battle with him!” The venerable Ibrahim Khaleelullah (Alaihis Salaam) passed
the news to Nimrud.
On
the day appointed, the brigades and regiments assembled on the battlefield,
forming themselves in ranks. The Glorified and Exalted Rabb gave His army of
mosquitoes their orders, and then sent these humble creatures into action
against the proud and stubborn unbeliever who claimed to be deity.
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| Nimrud |
The skies turned black as Nimrud’s horde
stood ready for battle. When the order was given, the host of mosquitoes hurled
themselves in their hundreds of millions against the army of the enemy of
Allah. They filled the soldiers’ mouths, eyes and ears, biting with a
vengeance.
When the cavalry horses met the mosquitoes’
onslaught, they started to bolt in all directions, unseating their riders as
they fled. In the space of half an hour, destruction had overtaken Nimrud’s
army, more than a hundred thousand strong.
Namrood
himself left the battlefield, taking refuge in one of his castles. He thought
he had saved his life by stopping up all doors and windows.
In spite of the great miracle he had
witnessed, he could not bring himself to repent and accept the Oneness of Allah
Ta’ala. How could he do so, without overcoming his arrogance and pride? The
scoundrel was willfully obstinate in his disbelief.
One lame mosquito, with a damaged wing, had
been unable to obey the Divine Command to attack this stubborn infidel. It now
addresses itself to Allah Ta’ala, saying, “Oh Allah, what a sinful and luckless
creature I must be, that you should deprive me of my share in this battle.
If only my leg and my wing had been sound, I
would have done my bit in fighting this enemy of yours!” Almighty Allah, Lord
of the worlds, then gave it the command, “Go now! You destroy that accursed
one!”
The lame
mosquito made its way, limping to the castle where Nimrud was hiding. Getting
in through a keyhole, it went and settled on Nimrud’s knee. There it rested,
recovering from its exhaustion.
Nimrud spotted the insect and tried to kill
it, but the mosquito settled on his other knee.
As it rested there, it seemed to say, “You
once told the venerable Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam) that you had the power of life
and death. You sought to prove it by killing one man and letting another go
free. Come, what is stopping you from killing me now?” Nimrud could not kill the insect, no matter
how hard he tried.
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| The Tiny Mosquito |
Allah
Ta’ala was demonstrating his weakness to him, as if to say, “Unless I will it,
you cannot kill! When you killed men by my will, you imagined that you had
granted them death. Look, you are a nonentity. You used the kingdom I gave you
as a pretext for disobeying me.
You are nothing! What has become of the
arrogance of yours? Where are your armies? Where is your divinity? Look, you
have been conquered by that humble creature of mine, the mosquito. You have
been disgraced!”
For all his efforts Nimrud still could not
kill the mosquito, which now went up inside his nose. Once upon a time, Nimrud
had wanted to burn Hazrat Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam) in the fire, but in that he
had also failed. The fire would not burn. Fire is only the secondary cause, the
Real Cause being Almighty Allah.
The
mosquito started eating the membrane of Nimrud’s brain. The tyrant beat his
head from rock to rock. Now he had really begun to feel the pain of his defeat.
He had felt no sympathy for the hundred thousand soldiers he had left on the
battlefield, nor for their bereaved parents.
His only thought had been to save his filthy
skin and rotten soul by running to hide in his castle; but hiding could not
save him from the dreaded claws of death.
How many lives he had slaughtered how many
houses he had destroyed, how many brains he had dashed out. Now he was dashing
his own head against the rocks and walls; now he was suffering himself the pain
he had inflicted on others.
Those people who oppress others should take
heed of Nimrud’s condition and remember that Allah Ta’ala will give you enough
time and respite, but the day His Wrath befalls you then there is no escape. Nimrud appointed salaried officials to hit
him on the head with mallets.
The blows gave him a brief respite, since they
interrupted the insect’s work. As soon as the mosquito began eating his brain
once more, he would cry, “Help! Hit me!” He would get angry with those who did
not hit him hard enough, while he increased the salaries of those who were hard
hitters.
The so
called ‘God of the earth’ was being beaten by his own servants. One day, one of
these servants wielded the mallet too hard, and Namrood’s evil soul departed.
They laid his filthy corpse in the pit of hell which was his grave.
We should learn from this incident that arrogance and pride
will lead us to nothing but destruction in both the worlds. The more arrogant
one is the more disgraced one would end up.
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| Tower of Babylon |
This
can be seen from the fact that Nimrud gave himself such a high status that he
considered himself as God, yet he was disgracefully defeated by one of the
weakest and most humble creatures of Allah Ta’ala.
This is the Quadrat of Allah Ta’ala. And the
more we remind ourselves of the Power of Allah Ta’ala and His Bounties, the
further away arrogance and pride will be from us because we will realize that
everything that we have achieved and attained is due to the Blessings that
Allah Ta’ala has bestowed upon us, not because of our own doings.
May Allah Ta’ala save us from pride and
arrogance and may He in His Infinite Mercy grant us the Taufeeq to constantly
remind ourselves that “I am Nothing, He is Everything,” Ameen.
