Exegesis of Al-Fīl (Q. 105)

In the Name of Allah the Most Merciful the Most Gracious...
He, upon him be peace, was asked about the interpretation of: {Didst thou not see how thy Lord dealt with the Companions of the Elephant? Did He not render their plans awry and send against them flocks of birds...}
The meaning of {Didst thou not see} is not vision with the eyes, but to know and recognise.
Because Allah‟s Messenger, upon he and his folk be peace, did not see it with his two eyes.
He saw it by means of knowledge and certainty by what Allah said and His description,
"Didn‟t you see" means: "Didn‟t you know." By both, certainty is meant, as well as cognition.
The interpretation of {...how thy Lord dealt} is: ...what did your Lord do.
{Companions of the Elephant}: those who came or were sent with it too.
This is because everyone with his elephant is considered its companion real.
The one who dispatched it, though he didn‟t accompany it, is a companion still.
Their {plans} means: their intended goal, because "plan" means "objective."
Says the poet: "I plan, you plan—a good goal. We‟re together, even if it‟s defective."
The {Companions of the Elephant} planned; that is, they had an aspiration
That they would destroy the Ka‟ba and render it a place of devastation;
Because, at that time, an Ethiopian church was destroyed by an Arab faction.
There was a king named Abraha bin as-Sabāh, a man of Yemeni extraction.
He wanted to retaliate against them, so he dispatched the Companions of the Elephant.
So Allah, the Glorified, sent against them what He mentioned in the verses relevant:
{...flocks of birds. They stoned them with rocks of baked clay and rendered them as consumed stalks}
No one escaped the affliction by the stones and there remained none.
{...flocks of birds} are a group of big birds who congregate as a squadron.
Not one of them came from another‟s place. They came from every direction.
{...baked clay} refers to earth. When hardened, there‟s no softness or protection.
So, it does not fall upon something except that that the thing is destroyed.
It is brought to ruin. As Allah says, it is like {consumed stalks}, void.
The {stalks} refer to cane grass planted in vast bundles eaten and entered.
It can be scattered, woven; and {consumed} means: eaten from the centre.

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