الفيل
Surah Al-Fil
The Elephant · Surah 105 · Meccan · 5 verses
1أَلَمۡ تَرَ كَيۡفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصۡحَٰبِ ٱلۡفِيلِ ١Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with the owners of the Elephant.InsightElmalılı explains “Have you not seen?” as “Do you not know it as surely as if you had seen it?”, because many who had witnessed the event were still alive at the time.2أَلَمۡ يَجۡعَلۡ كَيۡدَهُمۡ فِي تَضۡلِيلࣲ ٢Did He not bring their stratagem to naught.InsightElmalılı explains “kayd” as secretly arranging an attack. Allah ruined their whole plan and scattered it.3وَأَرۡسَلَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ طَيۡرًا أَبَابِيلَ ٣And send against them swarms of flying creatures.InsightElmalılı explains “ababil” as birds coming in flocks, one after another, from different directions. The indefinite word “birds” also suggests they were strange, unfamiliar birds.4تَرۡمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةࣲ مِّن سِجِّيلࣲ ٤Which pelted them with stones of baked clay.InsightElmalılı relates from Ibn Hisham that “sijjil” meant very hard and firm among the Arabs. Some consider it to come from two Persian words, “stone and clay”.5فَجَعَلَهُمۡ كَعَصۡفࣲ مَّأۡكُولِۭ ٥And made them like green crops devoured (by cattle).InsightElmalılı explains “‘asf” as the leaves of crops: the straw left after harvest, chewed by animals. A great army was reduced to something that worthless.