Al-Fil

Huma Jabri

July 26, 2019

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Sūrat al-Fīl (Arabic: سورة الفيل‎, “Chapter of the Elephant”) is the 105th chapter (surah) of the Quran. It is a Meccan sura consisting of 5 verses

Asbab al-nuzul:

Taking its name from the mention of the “Army of the Elephant” in the first verse, this surah alludes to the Abyssinian campaign against Mecca in the year 570 of the Christian era. Abrahah, the Christian viceroy of the Yemen (which at that time was ruled by the Abyssinians), erected a great cathedral at Sana’a, hoping thus to divert the annual Arabian pilgrimage from the Meccan sanctuary, the Kabah, to the new church. When this hope remained unfulfilled, he was determined to destroy the Kabah; and so he set out against Mecca at the head of a large army, which included a number of war elephants as well, and thus represented something hitherto unknown and utterly astounding to the Arabs: hence the designation of that year, by contemporaries as well as historians of later generations, as “the Year of the Elephant”. Abrahah’s army was totally destroyed on its march – by an extremely huge flock of martin swallow birds (ababil) that dropped tiny stones onto them and turned them to ashes.- and Abrahah himself died on his return to Sana.

The Arabs[who?] describe the year in which this event took place as the Year of the Elephant, and in the same year Muhammad was born. The traditionists and historians almost unanimously state that the event of the people of the elephant had occurred in Muharram and Muhammad was born in Rabi’ al-awwal. A majority of them states that he took birth 50 days after the event of the elephant.