أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَابِ الْفِيلِ
ART THOU NOT aware of how thy Sustainer dealt with the Army of the Elephant? (1)
أَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ كَيْدَهُمْ فِي تَضْلِيلٍ
Did He not utterly confound their artful planning? (2)
وَأَرْسَلَ عَلَيْهِمْ طَيْرًا أَبَابِيلَ
Thus, He let loose upon them great swarms of flying creatures (3)
تَرْمِيهِمْ بِحِجَارَةٍ مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ
which smote them with stone-hard blows of chastisement pre-ordained, (4)
فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍ مَأْكُولٍ
and caused them to become like a field of grain that has been eaten down to stubble (5)
- and caused them to become like a field of grain that has been eaten down to stubble3 -
- 3 This passage is evidently continued in the next surah, which, according to some authorities, is part of the present one (see introductory note to surah 106).
- Then did He make them like an empty field6274 of stalks and straw, (of which the corn) has been eaten up.6275
- 6274 A field, from which all the corn has been eaten up and only straw with stalks or stubble is left, is a field dead and useless. And such was the army of Abrahahdead and useless. Another possible rendering would be: "like eaten straw and stubble found in the dung of animals". The meaning would be the same, but much more emphatic.
- 6275 The lesson to be drawn is twofold. For the Pagan Quraysh of Makkah it was: Allah will protect His own; if you persecute the Prophet, he is greater than the mere building of the Ka'bah: will not Allah protect him? For men in all ages it is: 'a man intoxicated with power can prepare armies and material resources against Allah's Holy Plan; but such a man's plan will be his own undoing; he cannot prevail against Allah'.
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Then did He make them like an empty field of stalks and straw, (of which the corn) has been eaten up.
— Abdullah Yusuf Ali -
And made them like green crops devoured (by cattle)?
— Marmaduke Pickthall -
So He rendered them like straw eaten up?
— M. Habib Shakir -
And made them like an empty field of stalks (of which the corn has been eaten up by cattle).
— Taqiuddin Hilali and M. Mohsin Khan -
Then He rendered them as stubble devoured.
— Abdul-Majid Daryabadi -
so that He made them like straw eaten (by cattle).
— Hasan Qaribullah and Ahmed Darwish -
then He made them like eaten up straw?
— Ayub Khan -
And thus made them like broken straw, eaten up.
— Sher Ali -
and caused them to become like a field of grain that has been eaten down to stubble
— Muhammad Asad -
and He made them like green blades devoured.
— Arthur Arberry -
and made them like straw eaten up (by cattle).{{7}}
— Abu'l Ala Maududi