سُورَةُ الفِيلِ
Surah 105 - Al-Fil
The Elephant
- 5 verses
- Juz 30
- Page 601 of the Mushaf
Al-Fil has five verses and forms a single sentence, addressed to a “you”. It opens on a question that calls for no answer: it recalls an action of the Lord of the one being spoken to. The text designates those it deals with by an expression tying them to the elephant, adding nothing else about them, and states the matter first in the negative: their plan came to nothing. It then says what was sent against them, birds flying in groups, and what those birds carried. The last verse gives the outcome through a comparison, and the text stops there, naming neither date nor place.
The main parts
The text of the surah
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَٰبِ ٱلْفِيلِ
Have you not considered, [O Muhammad], how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant?
أَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ كَيْدَهُمْ فِى تَضْلِيلٍۢ
Did He not make their plan into misguidance?
وَأَرْسَلَ عَلَيْهِمْ طَيْرًا أَبَابِيلَ
And He sent against them birds in flocks,
تَرْمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةٍۢ مِّن سِجِّيلٍۢ
Striking them with stones of hard clay,
فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍۢ مَّأْكُولٍۭ
And He made them like eaten straw.
Key verses of the surah
The opening verse: it asks the question and designates those the surah speaks of, saying nothing more about them.
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَٰبِ ٱلْفِيلِ
Have you not considered, [O Muhammad], how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant?
What is surah Al-Fil about?
Of an episode the text reports without placing it: a group designated by the elephant, a plan that fails, what is sent against it, and the state it ends in. It all holds in five verses and one sentence, put as a reminder to one listener.
Who are the people of the elephant in surah Al-Fil?
The text says almost nothing about them. It designates them by that expression alone, indicates they had a plan, and says what became of it. No name, no place, no date: the surah keeps only the outcome, and describes no further the animal that names them.
How is surah Al-Fil built?
In one sentence of five verses, in two moves. Two negative questions come first, the second following on from the first. Then three verbs follow one another with no further question: what is sent, what it carries, what comes of it.
How does surah Al-Fil end?
With a one-clause comparison, in the fifth verse: the state this group is reduced to is said through a plant image, that of chewed straw. The text stops on it, drawing no lesson and adding no comment.
Why is surah Al-Fil called that?
“Al-Fil” means “the Elephant”. The name comes from the first verse, which designates those the surah speaks of as the people of the elephant. The animal is neither described nor taken up again: the word only serves to name that group, and it appears once in the text.
How many verses does surah Al-Fil have?
Surah Al-Fil has 5 verses. It stands at number 105 in the order of the Mushaf, which holds 114.
The Arabic text is that of the Mushaf. The summary, the outline and the answers on this page describe the text and how it is built: they are not religious commentary.