SURAH AL-FIL

Interpretation

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate,

Have you considered how your Lord dealt with the people of the Elephant?
Did He not bring their evil scheme to nothing?
He sent down upon them flocks of birds.
Shooting them with bullet-like stones of baked clay;
And so He rendered them like a field of grain devoured and trampled.

This surah which was revealed in Mecca comprises of five verses. The surah takes its title form the first verse. It explains the story of the “ashab al-fil” or “The army of the elephant.” When they wanted to destroy the Ka’ba, the house of Allah, the Almighty subjected them to their own evil scheme and protected His house from their rampage.

Commentary

1.“Have you considered (seen) how your Lord dealt with the people of the Elephant?”“Have you considered?” The addressee here is the Messenger of Allah. “Ru’yah” or “tara” (to see) can also mean the metaphor of vision, seeing with the heart, in other words O Muhammad! Certainly you know as if you witnessed it with your own eyes! Did news of this not reach you? However, according to certain interpreters of the Qur’an, although the addressee here appears to be the Prophet, it is in fact addressing the Qurayshi tribe, and at the same time, is also addressing all those who were in Saudi Arabia during that period.

“How your Lord dealt?” It is remarkable how the meaning here is the question “How,” “Under what circumstances” rather than “ma fa’ala” (What He did). Indeed, this question is aimed at emphasizing the miraculous aspect of this event. Another astonishing, magnificent and wonderful aspect of this occurrence is its nature. In order to invoke the wonder of the act of Divinity, there was an emphasis placed on the essence of the event, for those blind to the detail of essence can never duly perceive the One of essence. This is why those incapable of deliberating the nature of this carefully, assume this to be an ordinary event and deceive themselves by believing they have perceived the truth. Indeed, in order to prevent such heedlessness and to display the amazingness of this act, Allah the Almighty particularly brings attention to the nature of the event by asking: “Have you considered (seen) how your Lord dealt (with the people)?”

“With the people of the elephant?”

Here, Allah has not stated who the “ashab al-fil” are, where they came from, or why they came, as the addressees were familiar with the occurrences lead up to the event.

Ashab al-fil was the army of Abraha al-Ashram who had invaded the Yemen, and when he was the governor of Ethiopia, relying on his huge army and group of elephants lead by an elephant called Mahmud (mamud), Abraha marched towards the Ka’ba with this army destroying everything on their path in an attempt of demolishing the House of Allah. This is why they were called the “ashab al-fil” or the “army of the elephants” and among the Arabs, this year known as Amu al-Fil, the Year of the Elephant was the beginning of a new era. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was known to be born in the Year of the Elephant, and according to the most reliable reports, the noble Prophet was said to have been born fifty days after this event.

Certainly, this event was an indisputable miracle. There is no scientific explanation for the incident, and the account of the event is accurate as it occurred in Mecca forty years prior to the revelation of this surah, and many people of that period had personally witnessed this event. Despite the many adversaries, nobody objected to what the Prophet said.

This astonishing act of Divinity against Abraha’s army is explained briefly in these four verses:

“Did He not bring their evil scheme to nothing?”

Did He not overwhelm them amidst the ambush of their own deviance, conspiracies and traps? In other words, did Allah not inflict upon them suffering and cause them devastation? In Arabic, the words “kayd” and “makr” are used to define a secret plan to harm others. In the Turkish language, the word “kayd” also means to scheming, conspiring, plotting and ambush.

Because the verse “Did He not bring their evil scheme to nothing?” is a question aimed at evoking acknowledgment, it also means “Did you not see what Allah did?” So what were their plots, their schemes? As we know from reports, the army came with the elephants to destroy the Ka’ba to divert the people to perform the pilgrimage at the church Abraha constructed in Sana called Al-Qullays. They made several attempts both publically and in secret to achieve their objective, when they reached a place called Mughamma a few miles away from Mecca, they were unsuccessful in prompting the elephant they called Mahmud into Mecca. Initially, this is what ruined their plan, then, as explained in the following verses, they were subjected to destruction like “asfin ma’kul” (devoured grain/crops). Therefore, not only were they unsuccessful in destroying the Ka’ba, but they were subjected to devastation, and their church was destroyed… was this not the case? Indeed, only Allah could prevent and reverse such a plot. This is what was inflicted by your Lord.

The word “kayd” is used in the verse, it means a “secret plot” to harm someone. Some may ask what the secrecy is here. It was no secret that Abraha who marched from the Yemen to Mecca with elephants and an army of sixty thousand men had come to destroy the Ka’ba. Therefore we cannot call this a secret plot. However, the secret objective of the Abyssinians was to defeat the Quraysh by demolishing the Ka’ba. They wanted to take control of the trade route stretching from Southern Arabia to Damascus and Egypt by intimidating the Arabs, but they concealed this. On the surface, their attack on the Ka’ba appeared to be in retaliation because the Arabs acted disrespectfully towards their church.

3.“He sent down upon them flocks of birds.”

In row upon row, flock upon flock, one after another, in scores from all directions.

“Tayr” is the plural for “tair” meaning flying birds. The word tayran portrays indecisiveness of the kind of bird, and suggests that these were unfamiliar, strange birds. Indeed, according to reports, these birds were groups of strange birds that were large, small, black, green and white.

Among other reports of the event, the birds came from the Yemen and from the ocean. This sudden attack from the flocks of strange birds appearing above like the dark clouds of a storm showered destruction upon them. “Ababil” is a word for multiple. This means large groups or flocks that come one after the other. “Tayran ababil” means swarms, scores of birds coming one after another.

4. “Shooting them with bullet-like stones of baked clay;”

These birds casted hard stones of baked clay at the army of the elephants.

“Sijjil” means stones of baked clay resembling brick. Therefore, this means stones made of clay and hardened by baking. According to reports, these stones were the size of lentils, chickpeas and sheep droppings. Each bird carried three stones, one in each foot and one in the mouth, and it was reported that these stones entered through the skulls of the army, and exited leaving the body full of holes and infected wounds. Therefore, it would not be that difficult to imagine the condition of those subjected to the showering of stones thrown by flocks of birds from above, like machine guns firing bullets down upon them. This was the result:

5. “And so He rendered them like a field of grain devoured and trampled.” Immediately they (the army of the elephants) were rendered like devoured grain by the Lord. Stating that “asf” is grain leaves, interpreters of the Qur’an gave a few examples:

1.The remains of the grain leaves left behind on the field after harvesting, which are blown by the wind and eaten by animals.

2.Broken straw scattered in the wind.

3.The grain leaves that fell to the ground and are eaten by the worms and insects, and these leaves are full of holes. This signifies that the bodies of Abraha and his army were riddled with holes.

“Ma’kul” means that what is eaten or has been eaten. Indeed, Allah rendered the army of the elephants like a field of “eaten grain leaves and straw” in such an astonishing way, and in such a short time. An invasive army which could not consider a force, a power that could possibly resist, which relying on its elephants and vast numbers assumed it could destroy the Ka’ba was suddenly defeated by a disaster of Divinity, and fell to the ground like a eaten up, devoured leaves and perished. Undoubtedly, if He wills, Allah the Almighty has the power to inflict punishments and tribulations to the rebellious ones that nobody could ever imagine! And following the command “…and keep My House pure for those who will go round it in devotion, and those who will stand in Prayer before it, and those who will bow down and prostrate themselves in worship” (al- Hajj 22:26), in order to awaken the people to the fact that this was a Divine act particularly in preparation for the birth of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, who was to come into this world to declare and promote unification in purifying the House of Allah, the surah begins with the words “Have you considered how your Lord dealt with them?” rather than “How the Lord dealt with them.” Thus, this surah is an offering to the Prophet, tidings for the believers, a threat to the disbelievers and in particular rebuking the Quraysh who were heedless to the true value of this blessing.

Akgul, Muhittin. Tafsir: An Introduction to Qur’anic Exegesis. Tughra Books Press, Inc. 2013