Our mission is to make it easy to read and understand the Qur’an. It is believed this was part of the reason why the Surah was revealed to serve as a reminder to the Quraysh that they were not saved because they were superior in status but because Allah wished to protect the Kaaba and to give passage to His final Messenger who was also born the same year (i.e. The divine intervention led the Arabs to believe that the Quraysh who oversaw the Kaaba as being the chosen men of God and true custodians of the house of Allah. But Allah (سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ) had other plans, he protected the Quraysh and the Kaaba by sending a swarm of birds that carried stones and small pebbles and dropped them from extreme heights destroying Abraha’s army completely. Abraha then put together a military expedition of the largest army with several war elephants to stampede and destroy the Kaaba to gain popularity of his place of worship. The Arabs, however, failed to recognize the church, some traditions say some Quraysh members had actually defiled or tried to burn down Abraha’s church. An Abyssinian general having seen the prosperity a place of pilgrimage can bring tried to mimic Mecca’s success by building a church in Sana’a to compete with the Kaaba. There was a consistent influx of people traveling to Mecca for pilgrimage that helped to establish Mecca as a strong commercial center for commerce.

They supervised all the pilgrims who would visit the Kaaba to worship their idols. The Quraysh tribe before Prophet Muhammad’s (ﷺ) rise was still regarded as the dominant power in Mecca. Surah Fil is unanimously regarded as a Meccan surah, and studying its content reveals its revelation was early. Have you not considered,, how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant?

Transliteration meaning in english