Verse 2
The Elephant • makkah
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Commentary:
This verse refers to Abraha, who marched on Mecca with a large army in 570 A.D., the year of the Holy Prophet’s birth, in order to destroy the Ka‘bah. The Holy Prophet’s birth taking place in the year of Abraha’s attack on the Ka‘bah and the utter destruction of his army implied a Divine hint that because the great Prophet for whose sake the Ka‘bah had been built and who was to preach the Last Heavenly Message from there was about to be born, it militated against God’s eternal plan that it should suffer destruction at the hands of an arch-infidel. Abraha had a number of elephants with him. They were destroyed by a plague or epidemic, of the nature of smallpox, and their rotting bodies were eaten up by swarms of birds. For a detailed account of this incident see Introduction.
The expression کیف فعل refers more to the dreadfulness of the scourge which destroyed Abraha’s army than to the manner of their destruction.
Abrahah, the viceroy in Yemen of the Negus, marched on Mecca with a large army in 570 A.D., the year of the Holy Prophet’s birth, in order to destroy the Ka‘bah. He had a number of elephants with him. A plague or epidemic of the nature of smallpox, completely destroyed his army and their rotting bodies were eaten up by swarms of birds. See Introduction to the Surah.