Surah Al-Fil
الفيل
Read this surah in the Quran Reader- Revealed
- Makki
- Ayahs
- 5
- Juz
- 30
- Mushaf pages
- 601
- Words
- 23
- Order revealed
- 19th (according to Ibn Abbas)
- Year
- 5th year of Prophethood
About Surah Al-Fil (105)
The Surah reminds about the event when the Ka’bah was attacked by an army from the Southern part of Arabia, but Allah destroyed this army. It is the…
The Surah reminds about the event when the Ka’bah was attacked by an army from the Southern part of Arabia, but Allah destroyed this army. It is the same God who protected the Ka’bah, His message is now presented by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
This Surah takes its name from the first Ayah, “Have you not considered, (O Muhammad )ﷺ, how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant?” (105:1).
The word “elephant” only appears in this Surah and nowhere else in the Qur’an. There are 5 Ayat in this Surah.
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The 5 ayahs of Surah Al-Fil
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Themes of Surah Al-Fil (105)
If this Surah is studied in the light of the historical details as given above, one can fully well understand why in this Surah only Allah’s…
If this Surah is studied in the light of the historical details as given above, one can fully well understand why in this Surah only Allah’s inflicting His punishment on the people of the elephant has been referred and described so briefly. It was an event of recent occurrence, and everyone in Makkah and Arabia were fully aware of it. The Arabs believed that the Ka’bah had been protected in this invasion not by any god or goddess but by Allah Almighty Himself. Then Allah alone had been invoked by the Quraysh chiefs for help, and for quite a few years the people of Quraysh having been impressed by this event, had worshipped none but Allah.
Therefore, there was no need to mention the details, but only a reference to it was enough so that the people of Quraysh, in particular, and the people of Arabia, in general, should consider well in their hearts the message that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺwas giving. For the only message that he gave was that they should worship and serve none but Allah. Then, they should also consider that if they used force to suppress this invitation to the truth, they would only be inviting the wrath of Allah, who had so completely routed and destroyed the people of the elephants.
Key words of Surah Al-Fil
Arabic builds its words from a three-letter root; change the pattern around the root and the meaning changes with it. These are the roots this surah keeps returning to, and the words built on each — every word links to the ayah it sits in. More in the Grammar Guide.
| Root | Times | Words in this surah |
|---|---|---|
| جعل | 2 | |
| راي | 1 | |
| كيف | 1 | |
| فعل | 1 | |
| ربب | 1 | |
| صحب | 1 | |
| فيل | 1 | |
| كيد | 1 | |
| ضلل | 1 | |
| رسل | 1 |
Introduction and themes from The Qur’an Companion (Qur’an Wiki), Institute of Qur’anic Studies, reproduced unchanged. Key roots are their selection; every word, meaning and count shown here is from ILMHUB’s own Quran database.
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