(Revealed before Hijrah)
The Surah was revealed very early at Mecca. Its title is taken from the expression Ashabul-Fil (Owners of the Elephant), occurring in the 2nd verse; Abrahah’s army was so called because there were one or more elephants in it. The Surah refers to the invasion of Mecca by Abrahah Ashram—the viceroy in Yemen of the Christian King of Abyssinia—who came with the intention of destroying the Ka‘bah. In order to curry favour with the Negus, the King of Abyssinia, and to break the national unity of the Arabs, or, as tradition goes, to stem the apprehended tide of Arab nationalism under a great Prophet whose appearance was eagerly awaited and was expected to take place very soon, and in order also to divert the attention of the Arabs from the Ka‘bah and to preach and disseminate Christianity in Arabia, Abrahah built a church at San‘a’, capital of Yemen. When, however, he failed to cajole or coerce the Arabs into accepting the church at San‘a’ in place of the Ka‘bah as their central place of worship, he was stung with rage; and being intoxicated with great military power, he marched on Mecca with an army of 20,000 strong, in order to raze the Ka‘bah to the ground. Arriving at a place, a few miles from Mecca, he sent for the leaders of the Quraish in order to negotiate with them about the fate of the Ka‘bah. The Quraish deputation, led by the venerable ‘Abdul-Muttalib, grandfather of the Holy Prophet, met Abrahah who treated him with great honour. But to Abrahah’s great surprise and contempt, ‘Abdul-Muttalib, instead of beseeching that the Ka‘bah be spared, only requested that his two hundred camels, which Abrahah’s men had seized, be restored. ‘Abdul-Muttalib, on being told by Abrahah that he had not expected such a paltry request from him when he had come to destroy their holy House of Worship, poured out the anguish of his heart and expressed his firm faith in the invulnerability of the Ka‘bah in the words: "I am the master of the camels and the Ka‘bah has a Master of its own Who will protect it" (Al-Kamil, vol. I). Naturally, the negotiations broke down, and finding that they were too weak to offer effective resistance to Abrahah, ‘Abdul-Muttalib advised his compatriots to repair to the surrounding hills. Before leaving the city, ‘Abdul-Muttalib, holding the skirts of the Ka‘bah, prayed to God in words, full of extreme pathos, of which the rendering in English is something like this: 'Just as a man protects his house and property from plunder, so do Thou, O Lord, defend Thine own House and suffer not the Cross to triumph over the Ka‘bah' (Al-Kamil & Muir). Abrahah’s army had hardly moved when Divine scourge overtook them. 'A pestilential distemper,' says Muir, 'had shown itself in the camp of Abrahah. It broke out with deadly pustules and blains which was probably an aggravated form of smallpox. In confusion and dismay his army commenced retreat. Abandoned by their guides, they perished among the valleys, and a flood swept multitudes into the sea. Scarcely anyone recovered who had once been smitten by it. And Abrahah himself, a mass of malignant and putrid sores, died miserably on his return to San‘a’.' It is particularly to this incident that the Surah refers. The fact that the disease which destroyed Abrahah’s army was smallpox in a virulently epidemic form is supported by the great historian Ibn Ishaq. He quotes ‘A’ishah, the Holy Prophet’s very noble and talented wife, as saying that she saw two blind beggars in Mecca and on enquiring who they were, she was told that they were the drivers of Abrahah’s elephants (Manthur).