even though among them are people who are only accompanying the army for trade and others who do not really belong to it?” He replied, “The first of them and the last of them will all be swallowed up, and then they will be raised on the Day of Resurrection according to their intentions.” Agreed upon; this is al-Bukhārī’s wording.

Explanation
The author cites the ḥadith of ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) in which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, foretold that an army would march against the Kaʿbah—the Sacred House that Allah has protected and saved from every evil.

The Kaʿbah is the House of Allah. Abraham and his son Ishmael, peace be upon them both, built it, raising its foundations while praying, “Our Lord, accept this from us. Indeed, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing” (Qur’an 2:127).

Abraha once set out from Yemen intending to attack this House. He advanced with a vast army headed by a huge elephant, hoping to demolish the Kaʿbah. When he drew near and reached a place called al-Mughammis, the elephant balked and refused to move forward. They tried to drive it toward the Kaʿbah, but it would not budge; yet whenever they turned it back toward Yemen it would trot off swiftly. For this reason, during the truce of al-Hudaybiyyah, when the Prophet’s she-camel stopped and knelt without any apparent cause, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Al-Qaṣwāʾ has not balked, and such behaviour is not in her nature!” Thus the Prophet defended an animal,