Surah Al-Fil: Meaning, Translation and the Story of the Elephant

Surah Al-Fil tells, in five verses, the story of an army that came to destroy the Kaʿbah with an elephant at its head, and of how Allah destroyed it with flocks of birds carrying stones. It happened in the year the Prophet ﷺ was born, and many in Makkah still remembered it when the surah was revealed.

This article gives the full surah in Arabic, a transliteration and the English translation, tells the story behind it, and explains it verse by verse.

The full surah

أَلَمۡ تَرَ كَيۡفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصۡحَٰبِ ٱلۡفِيلِ أَلَمۡ يَجۡعَلۡ كَيۡدَهُمۡ فِي تَضۡلِيلٖ وَأَرۡسَلَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ طَيۡرًا أَبَابِيلَ تَرۡمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةٖ مِّن سِجِّيلٖ فَجَعَلَهُمۡ كَعَصۡفٖ مَّأۡكُولِۭ

Transliteration

1. Alam tara kayfa faʿala rabbuka bi-aṣḥābil-fīl
2. Alam yajʿal kaydahum fī taḍlīl
3. Wa arsala ʿalayhim ṭayran abābīl
4. Tarmīhim bi-ḥijāratim-min sijjīl
5. Fa-jaʿalahum ka-ʿaṣfim-maʾkūl

English translation (Saheeh International)

Have you not considered, [O Muḥammad], how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant? Did He not make their plan into misguidance? And He sent against them birds in flocks, striking them with stones of hard clay, and He made them like eaten straw. (105:1-5)

If you learned to read the Quran in the IndoPak script, here is the same surah as it appears in a South Asian mushaf:

اَلَمۡ تَرَ كَيۡفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِاَصۡحٰبِ الۡفِيۡلِؕ اَلَمۡ يَجۡعَلۡ كَيۡدَهُمۡ فِىۡ تَضۡلِيۡلٍۙ وَّاَرۡسَلَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ طَيۡرًا اَبَابِيۡلَۙ تَرۡمِيۡهِمۡ بِحِجَارَةٍ مِّنۡ سِجِّيۡلٍۙ فَجَعَلَهُمۡ كَعَصۡفٍ مَّاۡكُوۡلٍ

You can read and listen to Surah Al-Fil with its translation, or read it with the Urdu translation.

About the surah

Al-Fil is the 105th surah of the Quran, with 5 verses, in the 30th juz. It is Meccan. Its name, al-fīl, means "the elephant". It is closely tied to the next surah, Quraysh: Allah protected Makkah from the army, so that Quraysh could live and trade in safety.

The story of the elephant

The story is told in the books of sīrah and tafsir, especially by Ibn Ishaq, and the details below come from them.

Abraha's church. Abraha al-Ashram ruled Yemen for the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). He built a great church in Sanaa and wanted the Arabs to make pilgrimage to it instead of to the Kaʿbah. When an Arab defiled the church in protest, Abraha swore to destroy the Kaʿbah.

The march. He set out with a large army and at least one war elephant, which the reports call Mahmud. Arab tribes who tried to stop him on the way were defeated. Near Makkah, his men took the livestock of Quraysh, including two hundred camels belonging to ʿAbd al-Muttalib, the Prophet's ﷺ grandfather and the leader of Makkah.

"The House has a Lord." ʿAbd al-Muttalib went to Abraha, who was impressed by him and asked what he wanted. When he asked only for his camels, Abraha was surprised that he said nothing about the Kaʿbah. ʿAbd al-Muttalib answered: "I am the lord of the camels. The House has a Lord who will protect it." He told the people of Makkah to leave for the mountains, and prayed at the door of the Kaʿbah.

The elephant refuses. In the morning, when they faced the elephant toward Makkah, it knelt and would not get up. Turned toward Yemen or any other direction, it rose and moved; turned toward the Kaʿbah, it knelt again. The Prophet ﷺ himself referred to this. At Hudaybiyah, when his camel al-Qaswaʾ knelt and would not go on, he said: "She has not become stubborn; she was held back by the One who held back the elephant" (Sahih al-Bukhari 2731). And on the day Makkah was conquered he said: "Allah held back the elephant from Makkah, and gave His Messenger and the believers authority over it" (Sahih Muslim 1355).

The birds. Then flocks of birds came from the sea, each carrying small stones, and threw them on the army. Those who were hit died, and the rest fled in panic. Abraha himself was struck and died on the way back to Yemen.

That year became known as ʿĀm al-Fīl, the Year of the Elephant, around 570 CE. Most historians say the Prophet ﷺ was born in it, about fifty days after the event.

Verses 1-2: Have you not seen?

أَلَمۡ تَرَ كَيۡفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصۡحَٰبِ ٱلۡفِيلِ أَلَمۡ يَجۡعَلۡ كَيۡدَهُمۡ فِي تَضۡلِيلٖ

Have you not considered, [O Muḥammad], how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant? Did He not make their plan into misguidance? (105:1-2)

"Have you not seen?" The Prophet ﷺ was born just after it; he didn't see it with his eyes. But it was so well known, with eyewitnesses still alive, that it was as good as seen. The question is really to Quraysh: you know this happened.

Their kayd, their plot, was "into misguidance": it went astray and failed completely. A huge army, the strongest weapon of its time, and they never reached the House.

Verses 3-5: Birds in flocks

وَأَرۡسَلَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ طَيۡرًا أَبَابِيلَ تَرۡمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةٖ مِّن سِجِّيلٖ فَجَعَلَهُمۡ كَعَصۡفٖ مَّأۡكُولِۭ

And He sent against them birds in flocks, striking them with stones of hard clay, and He made them like eaten straw. (105:3-5)

Abābīl means "in flocks", one group after another; it isn't the name of a kind of bird. Sijjīl is baked clay, hard as stone; the same word is used for the stones that rained on the people of Lut (11:82).

And the end: ka-ʿaṣfin maʾkūl, like straw or leaves that animals have eaten and trampled: chewed up and left. That is what remained of the army that came to destroy Allah's House.

Word by word

Arabic	Transliteration	Meaning
أَلَمۡ	alam	Have not
تَرَ	tara	you seen
كَيۡفَ	kayfa	how
فَعَلَ	faʿala	dealt
رَبُّكَ	rabbuka	your Lord
بِأَصۡحَٰبِ	bi-aṣḥābi	with (the) Companions
ٱلۡفِيلِ	l-fīli	(of the) Elephant
أَلَمۡ	alam	Did not
يَجۡعَلۡ	yajʿal	He make
كَيۡدَهُمۡ	kaydahum	their plan
فِي	fī	go
تَضۡلِيلٖ	taḍlīlin	astray
وَأَرۡسَلَ	wa-arsala	And He sent
عَلَيۡهِمۡ	ʿalayhim	against them
طَيۡرًا	ṭayran	birds
أَبَابِيلَ	abābīla	(in) flocks
تَرۡمِيهِم	tarmīhim	Striking them
بِحِجَارَةٖ	biḥijāratin	with stones
مِّن	min	of
سِجِّيلٖ	sijjīlin	baked clay
فَجَعَلَهُمۡ	fajaʿalahum	Then He made them
كَعَصۡفٖ	kaʿaṣfin	like straw
مَّأۡكُولِۭ	makūlin	eaten up

Living by Surah Al-Fil

• Allah protects what is His. The Kaʿbah's defence did not depend on the strength of Quraysh.
• Power is not the last word. The greatest army of its time ended as chewed straw.
• Do what is yours, and trust Allah with the rest. ʿAbd al-Muttalib asked for his camels and left the House to its Lord.
• Remember past help. The surah asks "Have you not seen?" so that we remember what Allah has already done.
• Read it with Quraysh. The next surah explains what the protection was for.

Open Surah Al-Fil to read and listen to it with its translation.