After the last Himyarite ruler, Yusuf Dhu-Nuwas, was destroyed by Allah in the Red Sea, the Aksumites sent a force of Christian warriors to occupy Yemen, under command of the Roman emperor Justinian. The ruler of Aksum sent his generals Abraha and Arbat to rule Yemen. But tensions broke out, and Abraha eventually killed Arbat over a disagreement. Abraha was appointed the commander of the Aksumite army in Yemen, as well as the governor of that region. With Yemen all to himself now, Abraha built a majestic cathedral in the town of Sana'a.
The purpose of the cathedral was to attract pilgrims away from the Ka'bah and into Yemen instead, so that pilgrimage would be done to the cathedral instead of the Ka'bah. Abraha had noticed how the Yemeni Arabs left Yemen to go on the Hajj, and he did not like this. He made the cathedral as majestic as he could, with gold and silver as well as previous gemstones lining the exterior. He made sure that his cathedral looked very appealing to divert the attention of the Arabs away from the Ka'bah towards his cathedral.
Abraha promoted his cathedral widely. But the tribes of Andan, Qahtan and Quraysh did not like this, especially the Banu Kinanah sect of the latter. A man from the Banu Kinanah entered the cathedral at night and urinated in it, before defiling its walls with excrement and piss. The next day, Abraha came to know that an Arab had vandalized his cathedral with filth. So he swore that he was going to destroy the Ka'bah. Abraha and his army immediately headed to Makkah on elephants, led by his personal elephant, Mahmud, which was the largest of them all. This elephant was rented from the Negus, the king of Aksum, and Abraha had special permissions to use it. He intended to use the elephant to tear down the walls of the Ka'bah, God forbid!
When Abraha and the army reached Makkah, he fought a small resistance force led by a Yemeni Arab, Dhu-Nafr. Abraha then captured the camels that belonged to the Arabs. The leader of the Quraysh and the custodian of the Ka'bah, Abdul-Muttalib, approached Abraha to ask him to return the camels. When Abraha saw Abdul-Muttalib walking towards him, he welcomed him with honour and asked him the reason for his visit. He replied, “Return to me the camels.” Abraha retorted, “I am surprised that I have come here to destroy the Ka'bah which is very holy to you and your ancestors, yet you do not discuss anything about that, and instead, you are asking me for your camels!” Abdul-Muttalib replied, “I am the owner of my camels, therefore I am asking for them, and the owner of the Holy Ka'bah will defend it. I have nothing to worry about that.”
Abraha returned the camels to Abdul-Muttalib, and then Abdul-Muttalib addressed the Arabs present, saying, “Go and hide in the caves located within the mountains and its valleys.” They obeyed him on his advice after which he held onto the gate of the Holy Ka'bah and made Du'a that Allah will protect it. After making the Du'a, he also climbed the mountain with his people. Abraha and the elephants advanced towards the center of Makkah, where the Ka'bah stood.
However, the elephants suddenly stopped moving. They would only stand up and move if they were directed to somewhere else other than the Ka'bah. This angered Abraha, who went to the Ka'bah and decided that he would demolish it by hand. Allah, may He be Exalted, would not allow this to happen. So, Allah sent a flock of birds from the ocean and they all came with stones; two in their claws, and one in the beak. The flock of birds began to throw the stones on Abraha's army so fiercely that his army was forced to step back and run away. The stones were small, but they were in fact the stones of Allah's torment. The stones pierced through their bodies and then fell on the ground. Some of Abraha's army managed to escape, but they died in excruciating conditions on their way back to Yemen.
Abraha himself managed to escape, but as he made his way back to Yemen, his bones started to crack, resulting in limbs falling off. By the time he was in Yemen, he was just a mere stump of a body with only a head. Finally, his ribcage shattered, and the bones crushed his heart. He screamed, and died after that. What a brutal death of an enemy of Allah.
At least fifty days after this incident, the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad ibn Abdullah ﷺ, was born. Masha'Allah. It was reported from Aishah (peace be upon her) that two of the Aksumites involved in the attack against the Ka'bah were still in Makkah, but they had become blind and severely handicapped. They were also peasants who went around begging. In this way, the traces of this event were seen even after the birth of the Holy Prophet ﷺ.
Source:
Ma'arif ul-Qur'an by Mufti Muhammad Shafi'i, tafsir on Surah al-Fil
As-Sirah An-Nabawiyyah by Abu Hatim As-Subti, page 34 to 39
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