الفيل
The Elephant
Explanations are simplified from tafsirs by Ibn Kathir, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, and Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Spot an inaccuracy? Let us know.
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
alam tara kayfa faʿala rabbuka bi-aṣḥābi l-fīli
Have you not considered, [O Muḥammad], how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant?
alam yajʿal kaydahum fī taḍlīlin
Did He not make their plan into misguidance?
wa-arsala ʿalayhim ṭayran abābīla
And He sent against them birds in flocks,
tarmīhim biḥijāratin min sijjīlin
Striking them with stones of hard clay,
fajaʿalahum kaʿaṣfin makūlin
And He made them like eaten straw.