A Simplified Explanation of Sūrah Al-Fīl from Al-Tafsīr Al-Muyassar

Al-Fīl

Verse 1

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَابِ الْفِيلِ ١

Did you not know, O Messenger, how your Lord dealt with the ones [who came] with the elephant–Abrahah the Abyssinian and his army–those who sought the destruction of the blessed Kaʿbah?

Verse 2

أَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ كَيْدَهُمْ فِي تَضْلِيلٍ ٢

Did He not make what they had plotted of evil [come] to no effect and [end in] loss and destruction?

Verse 3

وَأَرْسَلَ عَلَيْهِمْ طَيْرًا أَبَابِيلَ ٣

And He sent upon them birds in flocks, one after another….

Verse 4

تَرْمِيهِمْ بِحِجَارَةٍ مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ ٤

 …hurling upon them stones of clay made hard as rocks.

Verse 5

فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍ مَأْكُولٍ ٥

Then He turned them into pulverized [masses] with [that], like the dried leaves of crops that [some] four-legged animals eat and then cast off [as excrement].

Source: Al-Tafsīr Al-Muyassar. King Fahd Qurʾān Printing Complex. Madīnah: 1434 H.