Abrahah, who came from Abyssinia-a country in Africa
conquered Yemen and was made vice-regent there. Later, he
noticed that at a certain time of the year large numbers of
people would travel from all over Yemen and the rest of Arabia
to Mecca. He asked the reason for this and was told that they
were going on pilgrimage to the Ka'bah. Abrahah hated the
idea of Mecca being more important than his own country, so
he decided to build a church of colored marble, with doors of
gold and ornaments of silver, and ordered the people to visit it
instead of the Ka'bah. But no one obeyed him.
Abrahah became angry and decided to destroy the Ka1bah.
He prepared a large army led by an elephant and set off
towards Mecca. When the Meccans heard that he was coming
they became very frightened. Abrahah's army was huge and
they could not fight it. But how could they let him destroy the
Holy Ka'bah? They went to ask the advice of their leader, 'Abd
al-Muttalib. When Abrahah arrived outside Mecca, 'Abd al-
Muttalib went to meet him. Abrahah said, 'What do you want?'
Abrahah had taken Abd al-Muttalib's camels, which he had
found grazing as he entered Mecca, so ‘Abd al-Muttalib replied,
'I want my camels back.' Abrahah was very surprised and said,
'I have come to destroy your Holy Ka’bah, the holy place of
your fathers, and you ask me about some camels?' 'Abd al-
Muttalib replied calmly, ‘The camels belong to me; the Ka’bah
belongs to Allah and He will protect it.' Then he left Abrahah
and went back to Quraysh and ordered them to leave Mecca
and wait for their enemies in the mountains.
In the morning Abrahah prepared to enter the town. He put
armor on his elephant and drew up his troops for battle. He
intended to destroy the Ka'bah and then return to Yemen. At
that moment, however, the elephant knelt down and refused
to get up, no matter how much the soldiers tried to get it to
move by beating it.
But when they turned its face in the direction of Yemen it
immediately got up and started off. In fact, it did the same in
any other direction, but as soon as they pointed it towards
Mecca it knelt down again. Suddenly, flocks of birds appeared
from over the sea. Each bird carried three stones as small as
peas and they dropped them on Abrahah1s army. The soldiers
suddenly fell ill. Even Abrahah was hit by the stones and fled
in fear with the rest of his army back to Yemen, where he later
died. On seeing their enemy flee the Arabs came down from
the mountains to the Ka’bah and gave thanks to Allah.
After this, Quraysh gained great respect and became known as
'the people of Allah', and the year in which these events took place,
D 570 A.D, was named the 'Year of the Elephant'. In that year Allah
had saved the Ka'bah and he would soon bring forth a Prophet from
among Quraysh.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful:
“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)? (Koran cv.1-5)
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الثلاثاء 23 فبراير 2010 - 0:46
