The Blog of aamsaafank

Prophet Mohamed’s Life 3

The Elephant

Abyssinia (Ethiopia) invaded Yemen at the south west corner of the Arabian Peninsula.  Abyssinia’s religion was Christianity.  When they saw the status of the Kabba amongst the Arabs, they decided to build a very large and grand church well decorated and ornamented to attract the Arabs instead of the Kabba built by Ibrahim peace upon him, and to attract them to Christianity.

This scheme gave some results in some parts of Yemen, however, not in the rest of Arabia, which made the Abyssinian kind unhappy.  He was made even unhappy and indeed angered by someone defecating in this church. 

The Abyssinian king was called “Abraha” and his nick name was “Al-Ashram”, meaning the one with a cut lip.  He sustained this injury in his fight over the thrown with another military general.  Abraha obviously won.  Abraha raised a large army of some sixty thousand soldiers, and to put fear into the hearts of the Arabs and to help destroy the Kabba he also had a very large elephant with the army, and they marched aiming to reach and destroy the Kabba.

Some of the Arab tribes tried to resist Abraha and his army, but it was minor resistance compared to the army of Abraha, and the Arabs never tried to raise a big united army (Just like nowadays). 

A man called Zo Nafar in Yemen gathered some men around him and tried to fight Abraha’s army, but they were easily defeated and Zo Nafar was taken prisoner. 

In an area called “Khatham” a man called Nofil Ibn Habib lead an army to fight the Army of Abraha, but again he lost and was taken prisoner and was forced to lead the army of Abraha through the Arabian Desert.

When Abraha and his army went past Altaef, the people of Al-Taef who belonged to a tribe called Thaqif went out in a peaceful demonstration asking Abraha not to destroy their house, Al-Lat and he did not destroy it.

At the time in Makah, its leader and richest man too was a man called Abd Al-Motaleb Ibn Hashem, who was the paternal grandfather of Allah’s messenger Mohamed prayer and peace upon him.   Abd Al-Motaleb real name was ‘Shyba’ which mean grey haired.  They thought that if would be a good omen for them to live long.  Shayba had a paternal uncle called Motaleb. 

When Shyba’s father Hashem died, his mother took him and left Makah to Yathrib (Medina now) where her family lived, and she brought his up them.  When he approached puberty, his uncle Motaleb went to Yathrib to collect him to be brought up with his father’s family.  When he was seen bringing a young boy with him when he entered Makah, the Makans thought the Motaleb bought a slave boy, and Shyba was called Abd Al-Motaleb, meaning the slave of Motaleb.  This nick name stayed with him all his life.

When the army of Abraha reached the outskirts of Makah, the army camped outside and waited.  Abraha sent to the Makans telling them that he does not wish to fight or kill them, but only to destroy the Kabba.  The people of Makah left their town and stayed in the mountains and valleys around it. 

While the army was outside Makah, they took any animals they found that can be useful for them to eat or carry things, and of what they took were two hundred camels belonging to Abd Al-Motaleb.

Abd Al-Motaleb went to Abraha’s camp and asked to see him.  Abraha thought that Abd Al-Motaleb went to speak to him and beg him not to destroy the Kabba, but he did not.  Abd Al-Motaleb asked Abraha to give him his camels back, and Abraha was rather surprised about this.  When Abraha expressed his astonishment that Abd Al-Motaleb asked for the camels and not the safety of the Kabba, Abd El-Motaleb said: “The camels are mine, I am their lord, as for the house, it has a Lord who will protect it”.  Abraha gave Abd El-Motaleb the two hundred camels.

Abd Al-Motaleb returned to Makah and told its people to leave the town to the mountains and valleys around.  He went to the Kabba and kept praying for help against the army of Abraha.

In the morning, the army of Abraha prepared to march into Makah, they started marching, but the elephant refused to march in this direction.  They tried pulling him, hitting him or poking him with an iron rode, but he still would not march towards Makah.  The strange thing was than if they tried to get him marching towards Yemen or any direction other than Makah, he would march, indeed run.

Then Allah the Highest sent flocks of birds, each carrying three stones, one in it’s peak and two in its feet.  They throw these stones on the army and they killed the person they hit.  The effect was devastating, and the army started running away towards Yemen.  Abraha was badly injured, and he even lost some of his finger, but he was carried to Sanaa, the capital of Yemen where he died few days later.

Allah the Highest mentioned this even in the Quran in Sorah Al-Feel (the Elephant) which says:

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE MOST MERCIFUL THE COMPASSIONATE

DID YOU NOT SEE WHAT YOUR LORD DID TO THE PEOPLE OF THE ELEPHANT * DID HE NOT MAKE THEIR PLOTTING GO ASTRAY * AND HE SENT THEM FLOCKS OF BIRDS * STONING THEM WITH BAKED CLAY * AND HE MADE THEM LIKE DRY, BROKEN, WIND BLOWN PLANT”.  (S: 105)

This Sorah was sent down some forty years after the event, which mean that it was still very well remembered, and there were many eye witnesses of the event still alive.  Mohamed Ibn Is, haq narrated that Aysha Allah’s messenger’s wife said: “I saw the person who lead the elephant and its keeper, blind and invalids, begging people for food”.

As a result, Makah became of greater prestige and esteem among the Arabs; no one would dare to attack it or its caravans travelling in summer northwards, and travelling in winter southwards, for trade and to bring food to Makah.  Allah the Highest said about this:

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE MOST MERCIFUL THE COMPASSIONATE

THE COVENANT OF SAFETY AND SECURITY FOR QURISH * THEIR SAFETY AND SECURITY IN THE WINTER AND SUMMER TRIPS * LET THEM WORSHIP THE LORD OF THIS HOUSE * WHO FED THEM AFTER HUNGER AND SECURED THEM AFTER FEAR.

Qurish and Makah still enjoy this security and prestige to this day, and will continue Allah willing, until the Day of Resurrection.

Dr. Ahmed Saafan