This early Meccan Sura refers to an event that happened in the year of the birth of our holy Prophet, say about 570 A.D. Yaman was then under the rule of the Abyssinians (Christians), who had driven out the Jewish Himyar rulers. Abraha Ashram was the Abyssinian governor or viceroy. Intoxicated with power and fired by religious fanaticism, he led a big expedition against Mecca, intending to destroy the Kaba. He had an elephant or elephants in his train. But his sacrilegious intentions were defeated by a miracle. No defence was offered by the custodians of the Kaba as the army was too strong for them, but it was believed that a shower of stones, thrown by flocks of birds, destroyed the invading army almost to a man. The stones produced sores and pustules on the skin, which spread like a pestilence.
C.285-(Verses 1 to 5)-Let not man be intoxicated with power or material resources: They cannot defeat the purpose of Allah. So Abraha Ashram found to his cost. His sacrilegious attack on the holy Fane of Allah brought about his own undoing: What seemed but frail destroyed his mighty host in a day!
105:1 SURA 105. Fil, or The Elephant. In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with the Companions of the Elephant?
105:2 Did He not make their treacherous plan go astray?
105:3 And He sent against them Flights of Birds,
105:4 Striking them with stones of baked clay.
105:5 Then did He make them like an empty field of stalks and straw, (of which the corn) has been eaten up.
