Arabia Before Islam
6 of 6 · c. 570 CE · Year of the Elephant · Outskirts of Makkah
The Year of the Elephant
Before his birth · 570 CE
Abraha, the Abyssinian Christian ruler of Yemen, built a magnificent church in San'a and hoped to draw the Arabs' pilgrimage away from the Ka'bah. When this failed — the reports say an Arab insulted the church — he marched on Makkah with a great army and at least one war elephant, determined to destroy the Ka'bah.
His soldiers seized the herds grazing outside the city, including some two hundred camels of 'Abd al-Muttalib. The historians report that when 'Abd al-Muttalib went to Abraha, he asked only for his camels. Surprised, Abraha asked why he did not plead for the Ka'bah. He replied, "I am the owner of the camels. The House has a Lord who will protect it." Quraysh withdrew into the hills to wait.
The Qur'an tells what followed: Allah sent ﴿طَيْرًا أَبَابِيلَ تَرْمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةٍ مِّن سِجِّيلٍ فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍ مَّأْكُولٍ﴾ (“flocks of birds, striking them with stones of baked clay, and made them like chewed straw”) (105:1–5). The reports add that the elephant knelt and would not move towards Makkah. Decades later, when his camel knelt near Makkah at Hudaybiyyah, the Prophet ﷺ said she had been held back by the One who held back the elephant (Sahih al-Bukhari 2731). The Arabs dated events from this year — the year he ﷺ was born.
The House was protected not by its people but by its Lord, in the very year the final Prophet ﷺ would arrive.
What in your life are you trying to protect alone that you could entrust to Allah while doing your part?
- Qur'an 105:1-5
- Sahih al-Bukhari 2731 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-NabawiyyahHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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