Al-Fil

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

1. O Messenger! Do you not know how your Lord dealt with Abraha and his people: the people of the elephant, when they intended to demolish the Ka‘bah?

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

in), and will therefore be inside the columns. In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful: [105:1] Have you not considered (an interrogative meant to provoke marvel, in other words, ‘marvel at’) the way in which your Lord dealt with the Men of the Elephant?, who was named Mahmud, and the men were Abraha, King of Yemen and his troops. He had built a church in San'a’ in order to divert pilgrims away from Mecca to it. A man from among the Banu Kinana defecated in it and Stained its prayer niche with a deflowered virgins blood, in contempt of it.…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

2. Allah made their evil plot to destroy it in vain; they did not achieve what they desired in trying to turn the people away from the Ka‘bah. They did not succeed in the slightest.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

d. But when they turned to destroy the Ka'ba, God unleashed upon them what He relates in His words: [105:2] Did He not make — that is to say, He did [indeed] make — their Stratagem, to destroy the Ka'ba, go aSlray, [ending up] in failure and destruction, [105:3] and unleashed upon them swarms of birds, [birds] in droves, one following the next (it is said there is no singular form for it [abdbil], like asdtir; but some say that the singular is abul or ibdl or ibbil, similar [in constructed pattern] to ‘ajul, miftah and sikkin), [105:4] pelting them with Slones of baked clay,

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

3. Allah sent birds upon them, who came to them in flocks upon flocks.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

4. They pelted them with stones of clay.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

al-Maḥallī & al-Suyūṭī · 864–911 AH / 1459–1505 CE

constructed pattern] to ‘ajul, miftah and sikkin), [105:4] pelting them with Slones of baked clay, [105:5] thus making them like devoured blades?, like the leaves of crops which have been consumed, trampled and destroyed by animals. God destroyed each one of them with his own Stone, inscribed with his name, larger than a lentil [in size] but smaller than a chick-pea, able to pierce through an egg, a man, or an elephant and go through the ground.…

Al-Mukhtasar

Tafsīr Center for Qur'anic Studies · Contemporary

5. So Allah made them like the leaves of crops that have been eaten and trampled upon by livestock.

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

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