Prophet Muhammad was born 50 days after the event of the Year of the Elephant. What is the Year of the Elephant? It refers to a very famous incident that took place in the Arabian country and it demonstrates how God protected the land that was to become the focal point of the last revelation. Chapter 105 entitled The Elephant consist of five short verses, described briefly because it was an event still clear in the minds of those people in Mecca and the surrounding areas.

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
慈悲あまねく慈愛深きアッラーの御名において。

اَلَمْ تَرَكَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِاءَصْحٰبِ الْفِيلِ

Have you not considered, [O Muhammad], how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant? [あなたの主が，象の仲間に，どう対処なされたか，知らなかったのか。]

اَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ كَيْدَ هُمْ فِى تَضْلِيلٍ

Did He not make their plan into misguidance?
[かれは，かれらの計略を壊滅させられたではないか]

وَاَرْسَلَ عَلَيْهِمْ طَيْرًا اءَبَا بِيلَ

And He sent against them birds in flocks,
[かれらの上に群れなす数多の鳥を遣わされ，]

تَرْمِيهِم بِحِجَا رَةٍ مِّن سِجِّيلٍ

Striking them with stones of hard clay,
[焼き土の礫を投げ付けさせて]

فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍ مَّاءْ كُولِ

And He made them like eaten straw.
[食い荒らされた藁屑のようになされた。]

Various historical reports tell us that the Abyssinians had expelled the Persians from Yemen.  They established their rule there under the Abyssinian governor Abrahah.   He established a splendid and expensive church in his capital because he had witnessed the love and enthusiasm the Yemeni Arabs had for their Holy House at Mecca, and he hoped to entice them away from there and to his capital at Sa’na.  He hoped to divert the annual pilgrimage from the Ka’bah to the new church.

Because his intention did not happen, he determined to destroy the Holy House. He set out for Mecca with a large army which included thirteen elephants, with the target of demolishing the Ka’bah.  As Abrahah’s armies approached the city, God intervened.  It is said that the lead elephant sat down and refused to move towards the city.  The elephant trainers tried all they could to make the elephant move but he refused.  When he was encouraged to move in a different direction the elephant cooperated but when turned towards Mecca he refused.

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