[105.1] Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with the possessors of the elephant?
[105.2] Did He not cause their war to end in confusion,
[105.3] And send down (to prey) upon them birds in flocks,
[105.4] Casting against them stones of baked clay,
[105.5] So He rendered them like straw eaten up?
If this is the first time you read this chapter then you will have no clue about it's meaning. You can garner that some people had an elephant and that they were at war with another people and God was angry so he sent a flocks of birds to throw stones on them until they were annihalated.
In more detail, according to the commentators, our story begins with a Christian king of Abbysinian (Ethiopian) origin called Abrahah who marched up to Makkah with an army from Yemen. Abrahah had begun to spread Christianity in Yemen and built a large church called Al-Qullays and had envisioned the Arabs make pilgrimage to it instead of the Kaabah, but the Arabs were not satisfied with the church and stuck to their traditions. The Quraish tribe of Makkah were furious with his demand to abandon the Kaabah and one of them took revenge by going alone to the church and relieving himself inside it before running away! Some Quraishis even went further and set the church on fire. This made Abrahah very angry so he decided to destroy the Kaabah so no-one would visit it again and set off with a large army with at least one elephant towards Makkah.
Approaching the valley of Makkah with his army, Abrahah sent his troops on a foray to capture the camels and other grazing animals of the Makkans, which they did, including about two hundred camels belonging to `Abdul-Muttalib. `Abdul-Muttalib was the leader of Makkah and paternal grandfather to Prophet Muhammed, although Muhammed was not born by that time. Then Abrahah sent an emissary to fetch the leader and also commanded him to inform him that the king will not fight the people of Makkah unless they try to prevent him from the destruction of the Ka`bah.
When Abrahah saw `Abdul-Muttalib approach, he was impressed so he descended from his seat and sat with him on a carpet on the ground. Then he asked his translator to say to him, "What do you need'' `Abdul-Muttalib replied to the translator, "I want the king to return my camels which he has taken from me which are two hundred in number.'' Abrahah then told his translator to tell him, "I was impressed by you when I first saw you, but now I withdraw from you after you have spoken to me. You are asking me about two hundred camels which I have taken from you and you leave the matter of a house which is (the foundation of) religion and the religion of your fathers, which I have come to destroy and you do not speak to me about it'' `Abdul-Muttalib said to him, "Verily, I am the lord of the camels. As for the House, it has its Lord Who will defend it.'' Abrahah said, "I cannot be prevented (from destroying it).'' `Abdul-Muttalib answered, "Then do so.''. `Abdul-Muttalib then went to watch the attack from the mountains that surround the valley of Makkah.
So the next morning Abrahah was ready to march on Makkah with his army but his elephant refused to move towards Makkah. He eventually abandoned it and marched with his army towards the Kaabah. Then Allah sent against them some birds with each bird carried three stones the size of chickpeas and lentils, one in each claw and one in its beak. Everyone who was hit by them was destroyed, though not all of them were hit. They fled in panic and thus the Kaabah was saved.
OK. So that's the story. Indeed it does sound like a nice fairytale but it is related in the Qur'an so Muslims are obliged to believe in it. In some narrations the stones are described as being hot and burnt the army of Abrahah. The birth of Prophet Muhammed happened in the same year as this event and it is seen by Muslims as a miraculous sign or some kind of premonition of the coming of the Prophet.
The simple conclusion from this story - if it is to be believed - is that Allah protects the Kaabah. But we ask ourselves now if he has always protected the Kaabah, the holiest of holy shrines, the house of God, built by Prophet Adam, re-built by Prophets Abraham and Ishmael, containing the holy black stone that was brought down from heaven, and the shrine which God protected from destruction at the hands of Abrahah and his mighty army?
First, let us look at the period of time it was in the hands of the Arabs after the passing of Ishmael, who is considered the father of the Arabs. Ishmael had brought the Arabs the religion of his father - monotheism, but the Arabs quickly reverted to paganism and polytheism after his death and since God had left them by themselves for hundred or thousands of years there was virtually no faithful people left, apart from, so we are told, most of the tribe of the Prophet Muhammed (Quraish) who still believed in the old monotheistic religion. One wonders how the Kaabah was treated in their presence and while knowing that aparently `Abdul-Muttalib was the town's leader?
We are told in the history books of the Muslims that during the pre-Islamic times the Kaabah contained upto 360 Pagan idols! That it was visited regularly by pagans who came as pilgrims offering prayers to their many deities and swearing oaths and making offerings to particular gods. They would carry out rites of worship such as circumambulation, or going round the kaabah, and chanting. Some of these worshippers, male and female, would strip off and do so naked while singing! Some would also come to sacrifice their livestock there in homage to their pagan gods and spill the blood in its vicinity. This is all related in the history of the Muslims. One wonders, considering how angrily God speaks about paganism and polytheism and the worship of false gods, how Allah would allow this to continue happening for hundreds of years and not do anything about it? One also wonders how `Abdul-Muttalib, custodian of the Kaabah and leader of Makkah would sit and watch this happen all the while believing in God and the original religion? Perhaps he had given up on God actually doing anything about the polytheists as he just let Abrahah get on with his attack to absolutely destroy the shrine and cared more about his camels than the holy house of God.
It was only when the Prophet Muhammed captured Makkah at the age of 61, about 2 years before he died, that he managed to destroy all those idols in the Kaabah. Up to this time, for hundreds of years, the Kaabah had been defiled by polytheism with hudreds of idols, false oaths, naked people, the blood of unholy sacrifice and the presence of polytheists themselves, who are considered impure in Islam. It really makes you wonder!
Then what happened after Islam? Did God protect the Kaabah from thereon? Well, no. We read in Sahih Muslim (7.3083): "`Ata' reported: The House was burnt during the time of Yazid b. Muawiya when the people of Syria had fought (in Mecca)". In 683CE, during one of the civil wars of the Muslims after the passing of the Prophet Muhammed, there was an assault on the Kaabah and it was catapulted with missiles and caught fire and by the end was left charred and almost entirely demolished. Also, people were killed and Muslim blood was spilled in its vicinity. The leader who ordered the attack was Yazid b. Mu'awiyah who was the khalif, or leader of the whole Muslim empire and he had previously murdered the grandson of the Prophet and his family, attacked Madinah killing its men and raping its women and afterwards he charged his commander Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf Al-Thaqafi to attacked Makkah and its people. God did not intervene to stop him at any point, not when he spilled blood in the holy precinct nor even when he destroyed the Kaabah. The Kaabah was left so damaged that it had to be demolished and rebuilt. This ironic quote from the same hadith relates: "After seeking good advice thrice, [Ibn Zubair] made up his mind to demolish it. The people apprehended that calamity might fall from heaven on those persons who would be first to climb (over the building for the purpose of demolishing it), till one (took up courage, and ascended the roof), and threw down one of its stones. When the people saw no calamity befalling him, they followed him, demolished it until it was razed to the ground.". How funny that after seeing it attacked and destroyed the superstitious Muslims are still worried about God seeking retribution against the people who had come to repair it!
Another incident that shook the sanctity of the Kaabah involved the theft of the black stone, a holy artifact described as a stone brought down from heaven that was once white but over time turned black with the sin of man. In 930CE, a crazy Ismaeli cult known as the Qarmatians sacked Makkah, killing pilgrims and dumping their corpses into the holy well of Zamzam. Not only that, they robbed the black stone! They held it ransom for many years until they were paid and it was returned. The Qarmatians were truly a deranged sect and had no qualms about killing innocent Muslims. They were well known for killing caravan-loads of pilgrims during the hajj season. And the Qarmatians also sacked Madinah and murdered its people. The Muslims struggled with the Qarmatians for over a century.
Then under the rule of the House of Saud, in recent history in 1979, a cult leader called Mohammed Abdullah Al-Qahtani and his devout brainwashed followers seized control of the holy mosque where the Kaabah resides. This man claimed to be the long awaited saviour of the world according to Muslim legend, the man prophesied to be called Al-Mahdi and would share the name of the Prophet Muhammed too (Mohammad Abdullah). He and his followers smuggled weapons, much ammunition and explosives into the holy mosque and held the pilgrims hostage. They demanded the Saudi government to withdraw and let the false Mahdi take power so that he would transform the country to its ideal utopian Islamic state and from thereon you would imagine he would spread into neighbouring countries. The Saudi government fought for two weeks (!) to reclaim the mosque and resulted in at least 255 pilgrims killed and 560 injured. The militant deathtoll was 127 dead and 451 injured. So much bloodshed!
OK, ok. So you might say it's the fault of people that these things happened and God was trying to show how vile the pre-Islamic polytheists were, how cruel Yazid b. Mu'awiyah was, how evil the Qarmatians were, and how deluded and misguided Mohammed Al-Qahtani and his followere were... Well, what if I told you that the Kaabah collapsed due to "an act of God"? It is reported in 1629CE, the Ottoman khalif Murad IV ordered the demolishing of the Kaabah so that it could be rebuilt after torrential rain and heavy flooding caused its walls to collapse (1). It is not so uncommon for it to rain during the Hajj season - it rained when I was there - but for such a heavy rain to come and lead to its collapse means either God sent it or God did not intervene, once again.
So in conclusion, after reading the Surah Al-Fil, the chapter in the Qur'an called The Elephant, we really have to wonder about the whole story and the meaning it is supposed to impart. Does God protect the Kaabah? The only conclusion we can arrive to after reviewing the history of the Kaabah is a resounding NO. We have to ask ourselves what value the original story had in order to be included in the Qur'an. Are we really supposed to believe Allah sent birds with stones to kill an army of Christians attacking the Kaabah when he did nothing to stop the army of Yazid, the Qarmatians, the false Mahdi or the torrential rainclouds destroying the Kaabah? Yet the Muslims are obliged to believe in the story of this surah. When will they realise it doesn't make sense?
(1) The Heritage of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by Wahbi Hariri-Rifai, Mokhless Hariri-Rifai.
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