Al-Fil
Al-Fil (, "The Elephant") is the 105th chapter (surah) of the Quran. It is a Meccan sura consisting of 5 verses. The surah is written in the interrogative form. Text and meaning. Text and transliteration. ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ Meanings. Have you (O Muhammad (Peace be upon him)) not seen how your Lord dealt with the Owners of the Elephant? [The elephant army which came from Yemen under the command of Abrahah Al-Ashram intending to destroy the Kaaba at Mecca]. Did He not make their plot go astray? And sent against  them birds, in flocks, Striking them with stones of Sijjil. And made them like an empty field of stalks (of which the corn has been eaten up by cattle). Have you not considered, [O Muhammad], how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant? Did He not make their plan into misguidance? And He sent against them birds in flocks, Striking them with stones of hard clay, And He made them like eaten straw. Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with the Companions of the Elephant? Did He not make their treacherous plan go astray? And He sent  against them Flights of Birds, Striking them with stones of baked clay. Then did He make them like an empty field of stalks and straw, (of which the corn) has been eaten up. Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with the owners of the Elephant? Did He not bring their stratagem to naught, And send against them swarms of flying creatures, Which pelted them with stones of baked clay, And made them like green crops devoured (by cattle)? 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 possibly in the year 552 CE. 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 several 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 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 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. Period of revelation. Surahs in the Qur'an are not arranged in the chronological order of revelation because order of wahy or "chronological order of revelation" is not a part of Quran. Muhammad told his followers sahaba the placement in Quranic order of every Wahy revealed along with the original text of Quran. Wm Theodore de Bary, an East Asian studies expert, describes that "The final process of collection and codification of the  Quran text was guided by one over-arching principle: God's words must not in any way be distorted or sullied by human intervention. For this reason, no serious attempt, apparently, was made to edit the numerous revelations, organize them into thematic units, or present them in chronological order ...". "Surat Al-Fil?" is a Meccan sura and meccan suras are chronologically earlier suras that were revealed to Muhammad at Mecca before the hijrah to Medina in 622 CE. They are typically shorter, with relatively short "ayat", and mostly come near the end of the Qur'an's 114 surahs. Most of  the surahs containing "muqatta'at" are Meccan. Henceforth apart from traditions, this surah qualifies to be Meccan typically. Most of the "mufassirun" say that this is unanimously a Meccan sura; and if it is studied against its historical background it appears that it must have been sent down in the very earliest stage at Makkah. Principal subject. The principal subject of the surah is a specific historic event. The year of Muhammad's birth is identified as 'the Year of the Elephant', when Mecca was attacked by Abraha accompanied by an elephant. Quranic exegetes interpreted that God saved the Meccans from  this force by sending a swarm of birds that pelted the invaders with clay stones and destroyed them. The army of Abraha destroyed for attacking the Kaabah is a reminder and an example that Allah can save His house (Al-Ka'bah) by destroying an army of 60,000 with elephants, through a flock of birds. The origin of the word "sijjīl" (i.e. Lava stone from Volcanic eruption) in verse 4 has the etymology proposed as Persian "sang" and "gil" ('stone' and 'clay'), or Aramaic "sgyl" ('smooth altar stone'). In the Quran 'sijjīl' occurs in two other verses: 11:82 and 15:74. Theme  of the surah. There are almost 7 divisions in the entire Qur'an according to Themes. The final of these 7 sections starts from surah Al-Mulk [surah number 67] to surah Al-Nas [surah number 114]. This final part [last 7th of the Quran] focuses on; sources of Reflection, People, their final scenes they will face on Judgment Day and Hellfire and Paradise in general and Admonition to the Quraysh about their fate in the Herein and the Hereafter if they deny Muhammad, specifically. In this Surah, God's punishment which was inflicted on the people of the elephant is  referred to and described very briefly because it was an event of recent occurrence, and everyone in Makkah and Arabia was fully aware of it. That is why the Arabs believed that the Ka'bah was protected in this invasion, not by any god or goddess, but by God Almighty Himself. Then God alone was invoked by the Quraysh chiefs for help, and for quite a few years the people of Quraysh, having been impressed by this event, had worshiped none but God. Therefore, there was no need to mention the details in Surah Al-Feel, but only a reference to  it was enough. Javed Ahmad Ghamidi (b. 1951), a well-known Pakistani Muslim theologian, Quran scholar and exegete, and educationist, explains the theme of Surah Al-Fil is to inform the Quraysh that the God – Who routed His enemies in this manner before them – will also not spare them now that they too have shown enmity to Him. They will also be devastated in a similar manner. Coherence with adjacent surahs. The idea of textual relation between the verses of a chapter has been discussed under various titles such as "nazm" and "munasabah" in non-English literature and "coherence", "text  relations", "intertextuality", and "unity" in English literature. Hamiduddin Farahi, an Islamic scholar of the Indian subcontinent, is known for his work on the concept of nazm, or coherence, in the Quran. Fakhruddin al-Razi (died 1209 CE), Zarkashi (died 1392) and several other classical as well as contemporary Quranic scholars have contributed to the studies. Connection with previous surahs. In surahs Al-Qaria (No. 101) to Al-Humaza (No. 104), it is pointed to the Quraysh that they have remained so possessed with the love of wealth and children that they have grossly failed to fulfill the rights of God  as well as their fellow beings. Despite this, they still claim to be the heirs of Abraham and Ishmael and the custodians of the Baytullah (House of God) built by them. Connection with next surah. This Surah Al-Fil and the next one, Quraysh, form a pair about their subject-matter according to almost all of Quranic Scholars. The first surah in the current pair(105 & 106) warns the Quraysh, about the Incident of the Elephant, to fear God, while the second surah urges them to keep in mind the favors they enjoy, because of the Baytullah and consequently to give  up rebelliousness against God and worship Him only. In this particular surah and its dual counterpart, Surah Quraysh which succeeds it, they are cautioned that they have been blessed with peace and sustenance, not because of their efforts or because they were entitled to them, but because of the Prophet Abraham's invocation and the blessings of the House which he built. Therefore, instead of showing vanity, it is their obligation to worship the Lord of this House, who fed them in hunger and secured them against every kind of danger. A hadith about Surah Al-Fil. Tafsir is the  Arabic word for exegesis, usually of the Qur'an. A Quranic "tafsir" will often explain the content and provide places and times, not contained in Quranic verses, as well as give the different views and opinions of scholars on the verse. The first and foremost exegesis/tafsir of the Qur'an is found in hadith of Muhammad. Although scholars including ibn Taymiyyah claim that Muhammad has commented on the whole of the Qur'an, others including Ghazali cite the limited amount of narratives, thus indicating that he has commented only on a portion of the Qur'an. Ḥadīth (حديث) is literally "speech"; recorded saying  or tradition of Muhammad validated by isnad; with Sirah Rasul Allah these comprise the sunnah and reveal shariah. According to Muhammad's wife Aishah, the life of Muhammad was practical implementation of Qur'an. Therefore, a higher count of hadith elevates the importance of the surah from a certain perspective. This surah holds special esteem in hadith, due to historical context which can be observed by the related narratives.