Ep. 05: Army of The Elephants | History of The Ka’bah

We are now jumping a few centuries ahead. It is the sixth century, AD, and Arabs have become very well populated in and around Makkah. The house that was established by Ibrahim (AS) have become their center of worship. Undoubtedly, many of the teachings of Ibrahim (AS) and Isma’il (AS) were lost during the last century or so. Idol worshipping had replaced pure Tawheed as a form of belief and faith, and many other traditions had been introduced in this area; however, people still observed the sanctity of the Haram of Makkah, just like how they upheld extreme reverence of Ibrahim (AS). They considered Ibrahim (AS) and Isma’il (AS) to be their forefathers and were extremely proud in the general traditions and practices observed by these people. However, Tawheed was replaced with shirk, and good akhlaq, or behaviors, have become largely replaced with other kinds of behaviors, and time was passing.

Somewhere in the background of this, another very significant incident had happened around Najran, and this was the incident of the trenches. In surah Al-Buruj, Allah (SWT) talks about [“Cursed were the companions of the trench.” Surah Al-Buruj: 4] the people of the trenches, and how he is sending his anger on the people who dug the trenches. There is a very long story behind this about the story of Abdullah bin Tamir and how Allah (SWT) helped him and how the entire region had accepted Islam, but the king of that region went into a blind rage, digging ditches and trenches along the streets and had fires lit in them, and anyone who did not accept him and his faith was thrown into the fire. The name of that king was Dhu Nuwas. After discovering what Dhu Nuwas had done, the negus of Abyssinia of that time sent his army to get rid of him. They came and defeated Dhu Nuwas, who escaped to the ocean and drowned there.

The king of Abyssinia then put two commanders in charge of that area of Yemen: Aryat and Abraha ibn Saba. These two men were capable fighters and excellent commanders, and had the trust of the king; however, only a short time had passed before power struggles started between these two. So, the momentum and tension of this struggle escalated to the point that they were at each other’s throats, literally and physically, and each gathered their own group of soldiers and began to fight with each other. This fighting got very ugly, and finally, one said to the other, “Instead of killing our soldiers, this problem is between the two of us; why don’t we settle it with a duel? Whoever wins gets control over the entire region and whoever loses, dies.” The duel began and each attacked each other with ferocity, and Aryat managed to strike Abraha’s face with his sword, due to which a massive cut occurred on the face of Abraha, splitting his face from the forehead down to his chin. His nose was slit in the process, and so were his lips. Then, a slave of Abraha jumped in and attacked Aryat, killing him. At this point, Abraha became the de facto ruler of the area, even though he was still under the king of Abyssinia. The king found out about this and became extremely angry, taking an oath to stomp all over Abraha’s land, bringing him to justice. He would also promise to shave his head to disgrace and belittle him. When Abraha found out, he became very scared; he knew he could not stand up against the king and his army, so he shaved his own head and collected the hair in a chest, along with the most expensive gifts he could find, and a chest of dirt to the king, along with the message, “I want to apologize. I am your loyal servant, and I know you have taken an oath and I know I deserve to be punished; however, you can fulfill your oath by stepping on this dirt; and as for shaving my head, I have already shaved it. I bring also gifts and I will do whatever is required to make you happy for forgiveness.” The king liked this approach and apology, so he decided to forgive him. Abraha, in turn, promised to build a massive cathedral in the name of the king.

Construction of this cathedral commenced. This was the fanciest, most elegant and beautiful structure in all of Arabia, and it was so tall that if a person were to look up, their cap would fall off, and so, the Arabs called it Qullays, meaning “the one that knocks your cap off.” Abraha wanted to make his cathedral the center of pilgrimage for the Arabs, in place of the Ka’bah at Makkah. As he talked about it, resentment grew in the hearts of the Arabs, who only knew one center of worship, not withstanding the fact that they were worshipping idols, but they would not compromise the importance and centrality of the Ka’bah for anything else. So, an Arab from Bani Kinanah entered into the cathedral at night and soiled it. Some narrations mention that some youngsters from the Arabs snuck in and lit a fire there, and the entire place burned down. In either case, when Abraha was informed that this occurred and that the people of Quraysh might have been involved, he took an oath that he would demolish the Ka’bah, in revenge for his cathedral. Based on this, Abraha starts to collect an army of tens of thousands of elite soldiers, and to make this army unstoppable, he decides to use massive elephants. At the head of the army, the largest and most ferocious elephant Mahmud was positioned, and with this army, Abraha began to march towards the Ka’bah.