105- AL-FIL
THE ELEPHANT
Al-Fīl is an early Makkan sūrah believed to have been revealed after Sūrah 109, al-Kāfirūn. It takes its title from the discussion of the masters of the elephant, whose destruction it relates. It is said that Abrahah, an Abyssinian general who ruled Yemen, had built a church in Sanʿāʾ in order to divert pilgrims from the Kaʿbah in Makkah. But when the pilgrims did not abandon their worship at the Kaʿbah, Abrahah sent an army against Makkah in the year 570, the same year in which the Prophet Muhammad is believed to have been born. According to some, a few members of the Quraysh had either defiled or burned down Abrahah’s church. Along with the largest army that had ever been assembled in Arabia, Abrahah sent an elephant, which he intended to use to pull down the Kaʿbah. God, however, protected the Quraysh and the Kaʿbah by sending against them a swarm of birds that pelted them with stones.
Many interpret Sūrahs 105 and 106 together as a warning to the Quraysh that they were not protected because of their status, as they were given to believe, but because God wished to protect the Kaʿbah and to make way for the coming of His final Messenger. It is said that the Prophet Muhammad invoked the memory of this event during his conquest of Makkah, saying, “Verily, God restrained the elephant from Makkah and has given His Messenger and the believers authority over it. And He has returned its sanctity (ḥurmah) to it today just as its sanctity was yesterday; so let those who are present inform those who are absent”.
(source: “The Study Quran” a new translation and commentary by Seyyed Hossein Nasr)
Comments
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
John Doe
23/3/2019Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.