Edited: Hasan Israr
Email:
ihasanfaq@yahoo.com
Date: 10th
Nov. 2015.
Abdul Muttalib (Prophet’s
Grandfather) did witness two important events in his lifetime—digging of the Zamzam
spring and the Elephant raid on al-Ka’bah.
He had received a revelation in his
dream to dig the Zamzam spring in a particular place. We have seen and read
this episode in our previous story. He had found few swords, armors and two
deer made of gold. Later, the gate of al-Ka’bah
was stamped from those gold findings.
The second event was the event of
Abraha As-Sabah Al-Habashi, the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) viceroy in Yemen. He had seen that the Arabs made their
pilgrimage to Ka’bah so he built a large church in San’a in order to attract
the Arab pilgrims to it to the exclusion of Makkah. This he intended to divert
the trade and commerce benefits from Makkah to Yemen. The King of Ethiopia
agreed to his proposal. The church was built and he named it Al-Qullais. There
was no church of its like at that time.
A man from the Kinanah tribe of
Makkah visited the church and understood Abraha’s motive. He entered the church
under the cover of night smearing excrement on its front wall. When Abraha learned of this, he became
enraged and led a great army of sixty thousand warriors to demolish al-Ka’bah. His army included thirteen elephants. He chose the biggest elephant, named Mahmud
for himself. He continued marching and
none amongst the Arab tribes that faced them but was killed and defeated till
the army reaches a place called al-Magmas.
There took place negotiations between Abraha and the chief of Makkah,
Abdul Muttalib. It was concluded that
Abraha would restore the camels of Abdul Muttalib which he had taken away, and
then Abraha would decide himself as regards al-Ka’bah. Abdul Muttalib ordered the men of Makkah to
evacuate the city and go to the top of the mountains along with their wives and
children in case some harm should come to them from the invading army.
When Abraha reached the Muhassir
Valley between Muzdalifah and Mina, the elephant named Mahmud which Abraha was
riding on, knelt down and refused to go forward. Whenever they directed to the north, south or
east, the elephant moved quickly, but when directed towards al-Kabah in the
west, it knelt down. Meanwhile, huge
number of birds clouded over them throwing stones of clay upon them like
scattered chaff, as described in the Qur’an in Chapter al-Fil (Sura 105). These birds were very much like swallows and
sparrows, each carrying three stones: one in its peak and two in its
claws. The stones hit Abraha’s men, and
cut their limbs and killed them. A large
number of soldiers were killed in this way and the others fled in panic, and many
died in their way back. Abraha himself
had an infection that required his fingertips to be cut off. When he reached San’a he was in a miserable
state and died soon after.
The Quraishites of Makkah had fled
for their lives to the hillocks and mountaintops when they heard of Abraha’s coming
for attack. When the enemy was routed, they returned home safely.
The Elephant incident took place in
the month of al-Muharram, fifty-five days before the birth of the Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH), which corresponded to early March 571 C.E.
By contrast, Jerusalem had suffered
the atrocities of enemies, once by Bakht Nassar (Nebuchadnezzar) in 587 B.C.
and the Romans attacks in 70 C.E. Al-Kabah never came under the hold of any
foreign power, although the influences of Persian and Roman Empires were
scattered throughout Arabia in the population of Christians, Jews and polytheists
in and outside of Makkah.
Sources: Ibn
Hisham’s Seerat Rasool Allah; Tarikh
at-Tabari; Tabaqat Ibn Sa’ad;
Notes from English Translation of The Noble Qur’an by Dr.Muhammad Taqiud Din Al-Hilali and Dr.
Muhammad Muhsin Khan of
Islamic University, al-Madinah Munawwarah.
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