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105. The Elephant

THIS CHAPTER of 5 Meccan verses was revealed after Disbelievers (OR Atheists) 109 and before Dawn 113. It has a rhyme in -iI to parallel the title word of fi'l or 'elephant'.

The historic reference is to the time when the Abyssinians ruled Yaman in southern Arabia. In the year 570 of the Christian era, the very year when the Prophet was born, they invaded the territory of Mecca under their King Abraha. Fortunately they were repulsed, as this chapter shows, but the campaign became legendary as the Year of the Elephant.

In the name of God, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful!

* Have you not considered how your Lord dealt
with the owners of the Elephant?
* Did He not cause their plan to miscarry,
* and sent birds in flocks against them
* which threw stamped clay pellets at them?
** It left them just like chewed-up chaff.


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Published with authorization from Dr.T.B.Irving.