105
اَلْفِيْلِ
The Elephant

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ۔

اَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِاَصْحٰبِ الْفِيْلِ۔ؕ اَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ كَيْدَهُمْ فِيْ تَضْلِيْلٍ۔ وَّ اَرْسَلَ عَلَيْهِمْ طَيْرًا اَبَابِيْلَ۔ تَرْمِيْهِمْ بِحِجَارَةٍ مِّنْ سِجِّيْلٍ۔ فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍ مَّاْكُوْلٍ۔

In the name of God—the most compassionate, the most merciful.

Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with the owners of the Elephant? Did He not cause their plan to miscarry, and sent birds in flocks against them which threw stamped clay pellets at them? It left them just like chewed-up chaff.

The historic reference is to the time when the Abyssinians ruled Yemen in southern Arabia. In the year 570 of the Christian era, the very year when the Prophet was born, they invaded the territory of Mecca under their King Abraha. Fortunately they were repulsed, as this chapter shows, but the campaign became legendary as the Year of the Elephant.

Abraha was a Christian ruler of Yemen in southern Arabia in the sixth century A.D. Out of religious fanaticism, he attacked Mecca in the year 570 A.D. (the year of the Prophet’s birth) with a view to destroying the Kabah by demolishing it. He had with him an army of sixty thousand soldiers and about a dozen elephants. That is why they were called ‘the People of the elephant’. As these people approached Mecca, the elephants refused to move ahead. Besides that, flocks of birds flew over them carrying pebbles in their beaks and claws. They showered these pebbles on Abraha’s army and the whole army was afflicted by a strange disease. The army was terrified and took flight. But many of its soldiers, including Abraha died on the way.

This was a sign that whoever set himself against the Prophet or his mission would be defeated like the army of the elephants.

This was Almighty God’s way of showing that the Prophet was associated with domination. The divine book revealed to him would be preserved by God for all time to come for the guidance of all mankind.