The Elephant Refuses to Move

Abrahah who came from Abyssinia, a country in Africa-conquered the 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 the Yemen and the rest of Arabia to Makkah. He asked the person for this ans was told that they were going on pilgrimage to the Kab'ah.
          Abrahah hated that idea of Makkah 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 Kab'ah. But not one obeyed him.
          Abrahah became very angry and decided to destroy the Kab'ah. He prepared a large army led by an elephant and set off towards Makkah. When the Makkans 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 Kab'ah? They went to ask the advice of their leader Abd al-Mutalib.
 When Abrahah arrived outside Makkah, Abd al-Mutalib went to meet him. Abrahah said, "What do you want"?
          Abrahah had taken Abd al-Mutalib's camels,which he had found grazing as he entered Makkah, so Abd al-Mutalib replied, "I want my camels back".
          Abrahah was very surprised and said, "I have come to destroy your Holy Kab'ah, the holy place of your fathers, and you ask me about some camels?"
          Abd al-Mutalib replied calmy, "The belongs to me; the Kab'ah belongs to Allah and He will protect it";  Then he left Abrahah and went back to Quraysh and odered them to leave Makkah and wait for their enemies in the mountains .
          In the morning Abrahah prepared to enter the town. He put armour on his elephant and drew up his troops for battle. He intended to destroy the Kab'ah and then return to the Yemen. At that moment, however, the elephant knelt down and refused to get up, no matter how much the soldiers tried to get it to move by beating it. But when they turned its face into the direction of the Yemen it immediately got up  and started off. In fact, it did the same way in other direction, but as soon as they pointed towards Makkah it knelt down again.
          Suddenly, flocks of birds appeared form over the sea. Each bird carried three stones as small as peas and they dropped them on Abrahah's army. The soldiers suddenly fell ill. Even Abrahah was hit by the stones and fled in fear with the rest of his army back to the Yemen, where he later died. On seeing their enemy flee the Arabs came down form the mountains to the Kab'ah and gave thanks to Allah.
          After this, Quraysh gained great respect and became known as 'the people of Allah', and the year in which these events took place, 570 AD, was named as the 'year of the Elephant'.In that year Allah had saved the Kab'ah and He would soon bring forth a prophet form among the Quraysh.

• In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
• Hast thou mot seen how thy Lord dealt with the owners of the Elephant?
• Did He not bring their stratagem to naught, And send against them swarms of flying creatures, Which pelted them with stones of baked clay, And made them like green crops devoured (by cattle)?

(Qur'an cv. 1-5)