The Quran consists of 114 chapters or surahs that are arranged with the longer chapters coming before the shorter ones, at least in a rough manner. The 105th chapter of the Quran comprises of 5 short verses. When kids are being taught the Quran, this chapter is usually included in the list as well because of its small size and I was no exception. For me it was of special interest because of its name, Al-Fil or The Elephant in English. What sort of surah is this that talks about an animal? Surely a religious book isn't supposed to name chapters after silly things like animals? Well at least that's what I thought when I was memorizing it.
As I grew older and I started to read the translation of the Quran, this surah was I believe one of the first that I read. And what I found made me interested in it even more up to the point that it became one of my favourite Surahs.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
- Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the owners of the Elephant?
- Did He not make their plot go astray?
- And He sent against them birds, in flocks,
- Striking them with stones of Sijjil (baked clay)
- And He made them like (an empty field of) stalks (of which the corn has been eaten up by cattle).
Being a school kid at the time, I was obviously into action movies and the story told in this chapter seemed right out of one those movies, kind of like the movie "The Ten Commandments" where Charlton Heston parts the sea for the children of Israel and the Egyptians drown while chasing them.
But now at this point in life I an attempt to fully understand what this Surah is all about. Even though the surah is not a big one, the small size doesn't take anything away from the themes it. The themes of Allah's power over everything, of man's arrogance against Allah, of Allah's justice where He uses a small bird to defeat the largest land animal, the elephant. I am sure there are more themes but at least these are some that spring to my mind easily.
The incident that is related in this surah is not just amazing but is of great significance to the world. But more on this later. The incident of the Elephant is really the story of one man, Abraha. Abraha had come to Arabia around 520 AD as part of the Christian Aksum army that set out from modern day Ethiopia to punish the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas for crimes against the Christians of the region (A subject matter that deserves its own post, Insha Allah). After Dhu Nuwas was defeated, Yemen became a colony of the Aksum empire with Abraha as its governor. In time Abraha rose to become the de facto ruler of Yemen paying nominal tribute to the King back home while setting up his capital in the city of Sana'a.
Abraha was a zealous Christian and he had constructed a great church in Sana'a called Al-Qullays which quickly acquired widespread fame. He encouraged the idea that Al-Qullays was purer than any other house of worship in the region because of never being defiled by the housing of idols. But even then noticed that the pagan Arabs continued visiting Makkah rather than the church in Sana'a. Religion in Arabia at that time was mostly pagan with some pockets of Jewish and Christian faith. Ibrahim along with Ismail (PBUT) had built the Kaaba centuries ago based on a monotheistic belief, a belief that had now changed into something that included idols and many gods. The pagans of the time believed in Allah as well but they had this concept of Allah being the "president of gods" with other gods such as Hubal, Lat, Uzza etc being on the godly panel which was why they still visited Makkah even though now the Kaaba was filled or surrounded by idols that numbered around 300.
Abraha either due to his zealous nature or realizing the loss of trade revenue because of Makkah was already in a bad mood when one of the Quraish, the ruling class of Makkah slipped into Sana'a and defiled the church, some say by defecating in it. This act of defilement incensed Abraha so much that he set off to destroy the Kaaba with an army of forty thousand that was led by an elephant called Mahmud along with other elephants. Many Arab tribes tried to fight him but were all defeated, the elephants being the main architect as no one had ever seen huge creatures.
When the army neared Makkah, they captured some livestock that belong to Abdul Mutallib who was one of the prominent leaders of Makkah. Abraha then sent an envoy to Makkah to explain his terms. This envoy said, "
"The king has sent me to tell you that he did not come here to fight you unless you fight him first. Rather, he came to destroy this house (meaning the Kaaba). Then he will leave you."
Abdul Mutallib replied, "We do not have the ability to fight him. We will not try to confront him."
Abraha's envoy returned to Abraha along with Abdul Mutallib and other leaders of the Quraish. Abraha knew about the prominence and prestige of Abdul Mutallib, on top of which his personality was very impressive. When he entered Abraha's tent, Abraha rose to greet him and seated him on the carpet beside his throne. During the conversation, Abdul Mutallib asked Abraha,
"My request is for the 200 camels that were taken from me during the attack to be given back to me"
Abraha was shocked at this request. He replied,
"When my eyes fell upon you, I was so impressed by you that had you requested me to withdraw my army and go back to Yemen, I would have granted that request. But now, I have no respect for you. Why? Here I have come to demolish the House which is the religious centre of yours and of your forefathers and the foundation of your prestige and respect in Arabia, and you say nothing to save it; instead, you ask me to return your few camels back to you?!"
Abdul Mutallib simply replied,
"I am the owner of the camels therefore, I tried to save them, and this House has its own Owner Who will surely protect it."
Abraha was shocked to say the least, who wouldn't be? He handed over the camels to Abdul Mutallib and let them go.
The next day Abraha readied his army to enter Makkah and destroy the Kaaba. The Quraish on the other hand had already left Makkah and gone to the hills to protect themselves. Before leaving Abdul Mutallib who sources say was a believer of Ibrahim's faith or Hanif held onto the door of the Kaaba and while crying asked Allah to protect His house.
Abraha ordered his army to march into Makkah but Mahmud, the elephant refused to move despite being being beaten and ordered to. When they ordered Mahmud to move towards another direction, he would do so immediately which surprised them immensely.
Then Allah sent small birds in small groups from the west carrying two pebbles the size of lentils in their claws with one pebble in their beaks. These birds descended on Abraha's army and let loose a shower of pebbles. These pebbles were such that when a man was struck by them, they would simply pass through him killing him in the process. Within minutes, Abraha's huge army was destroyed with Abraha himself being seriously wounded. The survivors fled towards Yemen taking Abraha with them but he died on the way before reaching home.
The year this incident happened was 570 AD, and it became so famous in Arab history that afterwards it came to be known as the Year of the Elephant. For Muslims, the significance goes even further, because it was in this year that a boy was born to Abdullah, the youngest son of Abdul Mutallib. This boy would grow up to bring great changes in the world, changes that are evident to this day. The boy's name was Mohammed (PBUH).
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