Abyssinia (Ethiopia) invaded Yemen at the south west corner of the
Arabian Peninsula.Abyssinia’s religion
was Christianity.When they saw the
status of the Kabba amongst the Arabs, they decided to build a very large and
grand church well decorated and ornamented to attract the Arabs instead of the
Kabba built by Ibrahim peace upon him, and to attract them to Christianity.
This scheme gave some results in some parts of Yemen, however, not
in the rest of Arabia, which made the Abyssinian kind unhappy.He was made even unhappy and indeed angered
by someone defecating in this church.
The Abyssinian king was called “Abraha” and his nick name was
“Al-Ashram”, meaning the one with a cut lip.He sustained this injury in his fight over the thrown with another
military general.Abraha obviously
won.Abraha raised a large army of some
sixty thousand soldiers, and to put fear into the hearts of the Arabs and to
help destroy the Kabba he also had a very large elephant with the army, and
they marched aiming to reach and destroy the Kabba.
Some of the Arab tribes tried to resist Abraha and his army, but it
was minor resistance compared to the army of Abraha, and the Arabs never tried to
raise a big united army (Just like nowadays).
A man called Zo Nafar in Yemen gathered some men around him and
tried to fight Abraha’s army, but they were easily defeated and Zo Nafar was
taken prisoner.
In an area called “Khatham” a man called Nofil Ibn Habib lead an
army to fight the Army of Abraha, but again he lost and was taken prisoner and
was forced to lead the army of Abraha through the Arabian Desert.
When Abraha and his army went past Altaef, the people of Al-Taef
who belonged to a tribe called Thaqif went out in a peaceful demonstration
asking Abraha not to destroy their house, Al-Lat and he did not destroy it.
At the time in Makah, its leader and richest man too was a man
called Abd Al-Motaleb Ibn Hashem, who was the paternal grandfather of Allah’s
messenger Mohamed prayer and peace upon him.Abd Al-Motaleb real name was ‘Shyba’ which
mean grey haired.They thought that if
would be a good omen for them to live long.Shayba had a paternal uncle called Motaleb.
When Shyba’s father Hashem died, his mother took him and left Makah
to Yathrib (Medina now) where her family lived, and she brought his up
them.When he approached puberty, his
uncle Motaleb went to Yathrib to collect him to be brought up with his father’s
family.When he was seen bringing a
young boy with him when he entered Makah, the Makans thought the Motaleb bought
a slave boy, and Shyba was called Abd Al-Motaleb, meaning the slave of
Motaleb.This nick name stayed with him
all his life.
When the army of Abraha reached the outskirts of Makah, the army
camped outside and waited.Abraha sent
to the Makans telling them that he does not wish to fight or kill them, but
only to destroy the Kabba.The people of
Makah left their town and stayed in the mountains and valleys around it.
While the army was outside Makah, they took any animals they found
that can be useful for them to eat or carry things, and of what they took were
two hundred camels belonging to Abd Al-Motaleb.
Abd Al-Motaleb went to Abraha’s camp and asked to see him.Abraha thought that Abd Al-Motaleb went to
speak to him and beg him not to destroy the Kabba, but he did not.Abd Al-Motaleb asked Abraha to give him his
camels back, and Abraha was rather surprised about this.When Abraha expressed his astonishment that
Abd Al-Motaleb asked for the camels and not the safety of the Kabba, Abd
El-Motaleb said: “The camels are mine, I am their lord, as for the house, it
has a Lord who will protect it”.Abraha
gave Abd El-Motaleb the two hundred camels.
Abd Al-Motaleb returned to Makah and told its people to leave the
town to the mountains and valleys around.He went to the Kabba and kept praying for help against the army of
Abraha.
In the morning, the army of Abraha prepared to march into Makah,
they started marching, but the elephant refused to march in this
direction.They tried pulling him,
hitting him or poking him with an iron rode, but he still would not march
towards Makah.The strange thing was
than if they tried to get him marching towards Yemen or any direction other
than Makah, he would march, indeed run.
Then Allah the Highest sent flocks of birds, each carrying three
stones, one in it’s peak and two in its feet.They throw these stones on the army and they killed the person they
hit.The effect was devastating, and the
army started running away towards Yemen.Abraha was badly injured, and he even lost some of his finger, but he
was carried to Sanaa, the capital of Yemen where he died few days later.
Allah the Highest mentioned this even in the Quran in Sorah Al-Feel
(the Elephant) which says:
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE MOST MERCIFUL THE
COMPASSIONATE
DID YOU NOT SEE WHAT YOUR LORD DID TO THE PEOPLE OF
THE ELEPHANT * DID HE NOT MAKE THEIR PLOTTING GO ASTRAY * AND HE SENT THEM
FLOCKS OF BIRDS * STONING THEM WITH BAKED CLAY * AND HE MADE THEM LIKE DRY, BROKEN,
WIND BLOWN PLANT”.(S: 105)
This Sorah was sent down some forty years after the event, which
mean that it was still very well remembered, and there were many eye witnesses
of the event still alive.Mohamed Ibn Is,
haq narrated that Aysha Allah’s messenger’s wife said: “I saw the person who
lead the elephant and its keeper, blind and invalids, begging people for food”.
As a result, Makah became of greater prestige and esteem among the Arabs;
no one would dare to attack it or its caravans travelling in summer northwards,
and travelling in winter southwards, for trade and to bring food to Makah.Allah the Highest said about this:
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH THE MOST MERCIFUL THE
COMPASSIONATE
THE COVENANT OF SAFETY AND SECURITY FOR QURISH *
THEIR SAFETY AND SECURITY IN THE WINTER AND SUMMER TRIPS * LET THEM WORSHIP THE
LORD OF THIS HOUSE * WHO FED THEM AFTER HUNGER AND SECURED THEM AFTER FEAR.
Qurish and Makah still enjoy this security and prestige to this
day, and will continue Allah willing, until the Day of Resurrection.
