The ‘year of the Elephant’ and the birth of Prophet Muhammad SAW

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

Abrahah, who came from Abyssinia, a country in Africa, conquered Yemen and was made vice-regent there. Later, he noticed that at a certain time of the year, large numbers of people would travel from all over Yemen and the rest of Arabia to Mecca. He asked the reason for this and was told that they were going on pilgrimage to the Ka’bah. Abrahah hated the idea of Mecca being more important than his own country, so he decided to build a church of coloured marble, with doors of gold and ornaments of silver, and ordered the people to visit it instead of the Ka’bah. But no one obeyed him.

Abrahah became angry and decided to destroy the Ka’bah. He prepared a large army led by an elephant and set off towards Mecca. When the Meccans heard that he was coming they became very frightened. Abrahah’s army was huge and they could not fight it. But how could they let him destroy the Holy Ka’bah? They went to ask the advice of their leader, ‘Abd al-Muttalib. When Abrahah arrived outside Mecca, ‘Abd al-Muttalib went to meet him. Abrahah said, ‘What do you want?’ Abrahah had taken Abd al-Muttalib’s camels, which he had found grazing as he entered Mecca, so Abd al-Muttalib replied, ‘I want my camels back’. Abrahah was very surprised and said, ‘I have come to destroy your Holy Ka’bah, the holy place of your fathers, and you ask me about some camels?’ ‘Abd al-Muttalib replied calmly, ‘The camels belong to me; the Ka’bah belongs to Allah and He will protect it’. Then he left Abrahah and went back to Quraysh and ordered them to leave Mecca and wait for their enemies in the mountains.

In the morning, Abrahah prepared to enter the city. He put armour on his elephant and drew up his troops for battle. He intended to destroy the Ka’bah and…