Balıklıgöl is located in Şanlıurfa province in Turkey. Known as the city of prophets, Şanlıurfa has been the subject of many legends. The legends about the formation of Balıklıgöl make this lake special. The lake, which is visited by millions of local and foreign people every year, Hz. It is known as the place where Abraham was thrown into the fire. Balıklıgöl is located in the southwest of Şanlıurfa, in front of the Urfa Castle.
The Formation and Story of Balıklıgöl
The name of Balıklıgöl is also known as Halil-ur Rahman, which means friend of Allah. Because of the belief and loyalty of the Prophet Abraham to Allah, he was called “Halilim” (my friend) by Allah. According to the legend told about Balıklıgöl; When Prophet Abraham was thrown into the fire, the fire turned into water in the lake, and the wood turned into fish in the lake.
Once upon a time, a king named Nemrut ruled in and around Balıklıgöl. Declaring himself as a god, Nemrut persecuted the people and demanded that he be worshiped. Nimrod, He had his own statues made in his empire and forced the people to worship these statues. But one night, Nemrut had a dream and had it interpreted by the soothsayers. In his dream, it was prophesied that one of the sons who would be born that year would kill Nemrut, destroy idolatry and seize the kingdom. Nemrut on this event; He ordered the killing of all male children born that year. According to the accounts, approximately 100 thousand boys were killed for this reason.
One of Nemrut’s soldiers, Azer, also known as Taruh, takes his wife, who will give birth in a short time, to a cave near Urfa Castle. His wife, who gave birth in the cave, gave birth to a son and named him İbrahim. Because they are afraid of Nimrod, they leave the Prophet Abraham in the cave and return home. The baby, left in the cave, is breastfed by her mother occasionally. Once he went, he saw that the Prophet Abraham was sucking his fingers and miraculously, oil, honey, milk and date juice flowed between his fingers. The childhood of Prophet Abraham passed in the cave and when he came out, he started to preach the belief of tawhid.
One day, Prophet Abraham, who was caught by Nemrut’s soldiers, is brought before Nemrut. Nemrut, who has no children, loves him as soon as he sees him and adopts him. Prophet Abraham begins to hate Nemrut because of his cruelty. He cannot understand why he forces people to worship idols that do not even help themselves. He begins to tell people that worshiping idols is of no use because of the belief in Allah that has formed in him over time. In the same period, Nemrut also adopted a girl named Zeliha. Zeliha is in love with Prophet İbrahim and finds what he said justified. Some of the people also give the right to the Prophet Abraham, but they can’t do anything for the seats from Nemrut.
Prophet Abraham; One day, when no one was there, he entered the temple with an ax and smashed all the idols. He hangs the ax in his hand on the neck of the biggest idol. Hearing the news, Nemrut gets very angry and takes the ax on the big idol and shouts how a piece of stone can do this. Thereupon, Prophet Abraham explains that it is not right to expect these pieces of stone, which cannot even protect themselves, to protect believers. Seeing that he was opposed, Nemrut got angry and ordered a big fire to be lit and the Prophet Abraham to be burned in that fire in front of the people. All the wood in the vicinity is collected and no one else is allowed to light a fire that day. A great fire is lit and the Prophet Abraham was thrown into the fire by being tied to a catapult on two pillars known as the Urfa Castle.
The fire in which the Prophet Abraham was thrown suddenly turns into a lake, and the wood turns into a fish, by Allah’s command. Today, there are black spots on the fish in Balıklıgöl. These spots are said to be traces of burnt wood. In the immediate vicinity of Balıklıgöl, there is Ayn-ı Zeliha Lake in front of the Urfa Castle. According to what is told, when Prophet Abraham was thrown into the fire, Zeliha was very upset and her tears caused a lake to form here. It was named “Ayn-ı Zeliha Lake”, which means Zeliha’s tears.
Nemrut, who was very angry at all these events, continued to deny Allah. According to the narrations, a fly sent by Allah entered Nimrod’s ear and began to wander in his brain. Nemrut, who constantly feels pain in his head because of the fly, constantly hits his head with a wooden mallet to reduce the pain. As the pain increased, the hammer hits increased and one day, his head exploded and he died.
