In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
A summary of the Tafsir of al-Tabari.
Abridged by Dr. 'Aqil ibn Salim al-Shammari.
Surah al-Fil.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant?
Did He not make their plot go astray?
“And send against them swarms of flying creatures,” (105:3)
“Which pelted them with stones of baked clay,” (105:4)
And He made them like eaten straw.
Have you not considered, O Muhammad, with the eye of your heart?
And seen through it how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant?
Those who came from Yemen, having arrived from Abyssinia, intending to destroy the Ka'bah.
Their leader was Abrahah al-Habashi al-Ashram.
Did He not cause the efforts of the Abyssinians, the companions of the elephant, to destroy the Ka'bah to be in vain?
Meaning, He caused their efforts to be lost regarding what they intended and attempted in destroying it.
And your Lord sent against them birds in separate groups.
Following one another from various directions.
These birds, the flocks that Allah sent, pelted the companions of the elephant.
With stones of baked clay.
So Allah made the companions of the elephant like crops eaten by livestock and then excreted.
It dried up and its parts scattered.
This likens the severing of their limbs to the punishment that befell them.
And the dismemberment of their bodies through it.
To the scattering of the remnants of dung that resulted from the consumption of the crops.
A summary of the Tafsir of al-Tabari.