Section: The Story of the Elephant and the Guarding of the Heavens as Signs of Prophethood

Among the signs of Muḥammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and the proofs of his prophethood found in the Quran is the story of the Elephant, for the Exalted has said:

“Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with the companions of the Elephant? Did He not make their scheme go astray? He sent against them birds in flocks, striking them with stones of baked clay, and He made them like eaten straw.” [al-Fil 105:1–5]

The account of the people of the Elephant has reached the level of mass-transmitted certainty. It relates that the Christian Abyssinians 72 set out with a great army, bringing an elephant with them, to demolish the Kaʿbah after some Arabs had desecrated their church in Yemen. Determined to disgrace the Kaʿbah and exalt their own churches, they advanced—but Allah sent flocks of birds that annihilated them. This took place in the very year the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was born. At that time the neighbours of the Sacred House were idol-worshipping polytheists, and the Christians’ religion, was still better than theirs.