Editing Al-Fil (section)

==[[Asbab al-nuzul]]==
Taking its name from the mention of the "Army of the Elephant" in the first verse, this surah alludes to the [[Habesha people|Abyssinian]] campaign against [[Mecca]] possibly in the year 570 CE. [[Abrahah]], the Christian viceroy of the [[Yemen]] (which at that time was ruled by the Abyssinians), erected a great [[cathedral]] at [[Sana'a]], hoping thus to divert the annual Arabian pilgrimage from the Meccan sanctuary, the [[Kaaba|Kabah]], to the new church. When this hope remained unfulfilled, he was determined to destroy the Kabah; and so he set out against Mecca at the head of a large army, which included several [[war elephant]]s as well, and thus represented something hitherto unknown and utterly astounding to the Arabs: hence the designation of that year, by contemporaries as well as historians of later generations, as "the [[Year of the Elephant]]". Abrahah's army was destroyed on its march <ref>[[Ibn Hisham]]</ref><ref>[[Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi]] I/1, 55 f</ref> - by an extremely huge flock of [[Martin (bird)|martin swallow]] birds ([[Ababil (mythology)|ababil]]) that dropped tiny stones onto them and turned them to ashes.<ref>[[The Message of The Qur'an]] The Hundred-Fifth Surah Al-Fil (The Elephant) Note#2</ref> - and Abrahah himself died on his return to Sana.<ref>[[Muhammad Asad]] – [[The Message of The Qur'an]] 1980</ref>

The Arabs{{who|date=February 2017}} describe the year in which this event took place as the Year of the Elephant, and in the same year, Muhammad was born. The traditionists and historians almost unanimously state that the event of the people of the elephant had occurred in [[Muharram]] and Muhammad was born in [[Rabi' al-awwal]]. A majority of them states that he took birth 50 days after the event of the elephant.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://englishtafsir.com/Quran/105/index.html|title=105. Surah Al-Fil (The Elephant) - Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an}}</ref>