Tafsir - Semester 4 - Lecture 15 | Shaykh Dr. Ahmad ibn Saifuddin | Zad Academy English
c9aw0NwvzBc • 2025-08-05
Transcript preview
Open
Kind: captions
Language: en
for
[Music]
forman.
[Music]
Alhamdulillah.
In the name of Allah, the compassion,
the merciful. All praise is due to
Allah. And may the peace and blessings
of Allah be upon his prophet Muhammad,
his family, his companions, and his
followers all until the day of
reckoning. I welcome you to this new
lesson and episode um in the on the
series of level four at Zed Academy. And
we are dealing today with surah al this
is a meccan surah re revealed before al
hijra. In this surah, Allahel is saying
after
So these are five ayats where Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says the meaning of
which have you not considered oh
Muhammad
how your lord dealt with the companions
of the elephant? Did he not make their
plans go AI? And he sent against them
birds in flocks, striking them with the
stones of hard clay.
And he made them like eaten straw. These
are five verses in surah al. Now the
name of the surah we know that most
commentators
um in fact uh in the early generation
the name surah was different. It was
alam alam t. So that's have you not
considered or have you not seen with
your mind? This is the name that al-
bkari gives it. However, in al- mus and
books of taps or exiges, it is called
surah al or the elephant. What has uh
been narrated concerning the story of
the elephant? Well, alkari
this is an alkari Muslim. It is narrated
that on the day of the conquest of Mecca
when the prophet conquered Mecca uh in
the eighth hijra um uh that's the
messengeratam said indeed Allahel
held the elephant from Mecca and has
given his messenger and the belie and
the believers power over it. Indeed, no
one was ever given permission to fight
in it before me and no one will be given
permission to fight in it after me.
Indeed, permission to fight in it was
granted to me only for part of a day.
Indeed, from this hour on it is
forbidden to fight in it, for it is
sacred. He said,
meaning at this time it is sacred and
not uh and no permission is given to
anyone to fight in it. This is the
sanctuary of Allahel in Mecca al- Muk.
Now the commentary for this verse is
have you not considered oh Muhammad
how your Lord dealt with the companions
of the elephant? That is, have you not
seen in your mind's eye, oh Muhammad,
how your Lord dealt with the companions
of the elephant who came from Yemen,
intending to destroy the Cabba. They
were Ethiopians and their leader was
Abra
alabashi alam.
And this was one of the blessings of
course of allahel
uh bestowed upon Quraysh. He averted
from them the companions of the elephant
who had decided to destroy the Cabba and
erase all traces of it. They were
Christian people. Allah destroyed them,
humiliated them, thwarted their plans,
caused their efforts to fail and repel
them in the worst manner.
Abd Mutalib spoke his famous line uh of
of verse. He said, "Oh Allah, every
slave of yours will protect his
property. So protect your sanctuary,
their cross and their plan will not
overcome your plan." And that's exactly
what took place. Did he not make their
plan that is their plot um and their
efforts to destroy the Cabba go AI that
is uh result in loss in waste and be
rendered futile he destroyed them in the
worst manner and he has sent against
them birds in flux that's that's the
punishment and the destruction that
happened to them that is Your Lord has
sent against them many groups of birds
one after another coming from all
directions.
And that's the meaning of ababil. The
word ababil translated as flocks and as
flocks is plural. There is no singular
form from the word ababil striking them
with stones of hard clay. That is these
flocks of birds pelted the companions of
the elephant uh with stone
of hard clay.
Meansil is hard clay referred to as
baked clay because when you bake a clay
you make it hard. You make it harder.
And the commentators uh said each bird
had three stones, two stones in its uh
talons and one in its beak. And they
started pelting them with these stones.
And the stones were no larger uh were
were not large rather they were small in
size but very sharp and very effective
in killing and hitting the the people.
So to the extent that the um when a
stone stuck one of these people uh in
the head, it emerged from their end, you
know, down at the bottom. Subhan Allah.
Or look at this. How hard and how strong
these were and he made them like eaten
straws. The word
translated here as straw refers to dried
up plants that have been eaten. Allahel
made the companions of the elephant-like
plants that are eaten by animals which
then defects uh defecate and the uh dung
or what we call in Arabic ar dries out
and becomes scattered. Ash again one of
the mufasin said the word translated he
straw refers to the to the leaves of
crops. It is the plural of the word
or orafa
or as as we said uh and it refers to
whom uh to when animals get into the
crop and uh uh eat it, trampling it with
their feet and eating the tops and the
sides of the plant, pushing them to the
ground after they were uh green and
fresh. This is a depiction of the state
just only giving you the example and and
and u making the image so close in your
mind u to the state which the companions
of the elephant ended up uh in after
having been strong and powerful and how
they felt uh how they fell to the ground
dead. They they thought that they're
going to destroy the Cabba and be
superior there and and and and erase
Islam from Mecca and from the earth and
let people go to the Cabba they they
built in in Yemen. But all this went
into uh uh uh uh loss and and and
destruction. Now what we learn from
these verses is that first the Kaa is
the sanctuary of allahel and Allah
protected it from those who intended uh
ill towards it. He manifested his anger
against them and punished them. And
that's a reminder to that the one who
did that was the lord of the cabba. they
because it was the cabba of Allahawel
and uh actually the idols that there
were in in the Kaba had nothing to do
with this saving of the Caba and it's
Allahel who saved the Cabba not these
idols that the Qurashites before uh the
coming of the prophet used to to
worship. Secondly,
uh the surah gave reassurance to the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that
if Allahawel protected his house, surely
he will protect the messenger, his own
messenger sallallah.aii
wasallam from the plots against him by
uh those who plotted against him among
the
the polytheists and the enemies of
Islam. And uh if he protected his house,
surely he will protect his prophet
sallallam and therefore he will protect
believers wherever they may be at any
time in any place. Uh thirdly, the surah
was a reminder that Allah's decree
always prevails that the polytheists
should not be deceived by their own
power. They thought that they are they
have they had the power. And of course,
look at this uh uh power of of the
elephant and the big army that came from
Yemen crossing all these lands and and
deserts and far places until they
reached close to Mecca. Um and they were
so stronger than the people of Qur. But
allahel
destroyed them. and uh uh uh of course
uh their plot went into disarray and
they were not able to complete it. So
this is a reminder for the people of
Quraysh to think that uh these people
who were stronger than them were
destroyed. So allahel is able to destroy
them as well if they do not follow the
truth. So that is important. This is
what we can learn from the surah uh of
coming to the activities explain the
meaning of the following words
not it's
in Arabic and it should be t a d h l e l
meaning uh loss and waste
uh abil meaning flocks one group after
the other. Sil is a baked baked clay
meaning it was baked in fire so that it
will make it hotter. As meaning uh dried
up plants that have been uh eaten by by
animals. Now number two is a story of
the companions of the elephant mentioned
again in the Quran. No, only mentioned
once in the glorious Quran as many other
stories are mentioned repeatedly in the
glorious Quran. List the the three
things that we uh we learn from the
story of the companions of the elephant.
Well, we can learn many things among
which allahel protects protects his
house as he protected it during this
event of uh of the elephant and allahel
protect protects his messengeratam
and protects his religion. Uh thirdly,
the enemies of Islam should not be
deceived by their power because no
matter how powerful uh a person who
wanted to uh uh invade the the Kaa the
house of Allahawel in Mecca or try to um
crush his religion, Allahel will crush
them and will throw them into hellfire
and will um not make their plans
successful. So that brings us to the end
of uh today's lesson. Until I see you
inshallah in the coming lesson, I leave
you with Allah's care and protection.
for
[Music]
me to
[Music]
push. Foreign
[Music]
Resume
Read
file updated 2026-02-12 02:37:42 UTC
Categories
Manage