It is nothing but pure contentiousness—an actual admission of defeat. The Friend (Abraham) had proved the existence of the Maker by pointing to the origination of things we witness: the giving of life to creatures and their subsequent death. Such phenomena must necessarily proceed from an agent, for they cannot subsist on their own. Someone must be responsible for these observable events: their creation and subjugation, the movement of the heavenly bodies, the winds, the clouds and the rain; the bringing forth of living beings that we see with our own eyes, and then causing them to die. Hence Abraham declared, “My Lord is the One who gives life and causes death” (al-Baqarah 2:258).
As for the ignorant king’s reply, “I give life and cause death” (2:258), if he meant that he himself performs these very acts, then he was willfully denying the obvious truth. And if he meant what Qatādah, al-Suddī, and Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq reported—that he would order one condemned man executed and pardon another—his words had no bearing on Abraham’s argument at all; he refuted no premise and countered no proof.
Because many of those present, and others besides them, might not have realized that the king’s case had already collapsed, Abraham presented another proof that plainly established the Maker’s existence and openly exposed the falsity of Nimrod’s claim: “Allah brings the sun from the east; so bring it from the west” (2:258). In other words, this sun is subjugated, rising every day from the east exactly as its Creator, Controller, and Conqueror has ordained—Allah, there is no god but He, the Creator of all things. If you truly are, as you claim, the one who gives life and causes death, then make the sun rise from the west. For the One who grants life and death acts as He wills, unhindered and unopposed; He has vanquished everything and everything submits to Him. So, if you are as you allege, do this. If you cannot, then you are not what you claim—and you, and everyone else, know that you are incapable of any such thing. Indeed, you are weaker and more insignificant than to create even a gnat or fend one off. Thus Abraham demonstrated the man’s misguidance, ignorance and mendacity, and the futility of the path he boasted of before the ignorant among his people. Nimrod had nothing left with which to answer the Friend; he fell silent and withdrew.
Therefore Allah said, “So the disbeliever was confounded, and Allah does not guide a wrongdoing people” (2:258).
Al-Suddī (2) states that this debate took place between Abraham and Nimrod on the very day Abraham emerged from the fire; they had not met before that.
ʿAbd al-Razzāq relates—through Maʿmar, from Zayd ibn Aslam—that Nimrod had stores of food to which people would come for provisions. Abraham was among those seeking provisions, and the debate occurred between them. Yet Abraham was not given any food as the others were; he left empty-handed. When he neared his family, he came upon a mound of earth, filled his two saddlebags with it, and said, “I will keep my family occupied with this when I reach them.” Upon arriving, he unloaded his gear, reclined and fell asleep. His wife Sarah went to the two bags, found them filled with wholesome food, and prepared a meal from it. When Abraham awoke