Some were surprised that the elephant that appears in the Qur’an, known as an elephant Abraha al-HabashiHis name is “Mahmoud”, as if they are hearing it for the first time, even though the books of Islamic heritage mention his name every time the story is mentioned.. How is that?
Ibn Kathir tells in (Exegesis of the Great Qur’an) about the elephant Abraha, who was at the forefront of the army of the King of Abyssinia to demolish the Kaaba, but when he arrived there, he refused to demolish the holy building. He was called Mahmud, and the Negus king of Abyssinia had sent him for that. It is said: He also had eight elephants with him. And it was said: twelve elephants. At the neck of the elephant, then he rebukes to throw the wall at once.When the Arabs heard of his march, they greatly exalted that, and they saw that they had the right to veil rather than the house, and whoever wanted it responded with malice“.
Al-Qurtubi says in his interpretation in the twentieth part: “When Abraha prepared to enter Mecca, he prepared his elephant and mobilized his army. Next to the elephant, then he took his ear and said to him: Bless Mahmoud, and return an adult from whence you came, for you are in the sacred land of God. Then he sent his ear, so the elephant bristled, and Nufail bin Habib came out getting stronger, until I ascended the mountain. his head in Tabarzin to get up, but he refused“.
Abraha al-Habashi
Ibn Kathir says
“It was presented in the story of the owners of Al-Ukhdood that Dhu Nawas, the last king of donkeys and he was a polytheist, was the one who killed the owners of Al-Ukhdood, and they were Christians, and they were close to twenty thousand. To the Negus, the king of Abyssinia, because he was closer to them, he sent with him two princes: Aryat and Abraha bin Al-Sabah, Aba Yaksum, with a heavy army..
And the Abyssinian took the king of Yemen, and on them were these two princes: Ariat and Abraha, so they differed in their matter, and they communicated and fought and came to terms with each other. One of them said to the other: There is no need for us to clash between the two armies between us. One of them was Qanat, so he carried Aryat on Abraha and hit him with the sword, so he cut his nose and mouth and slashed his face. To tread on his country and mow his forelock, so he sent Abraha to him to pat him and make it, and he sent with his messenger gifts and antiques, and a pod in it from the soil of Yemen, and cut his forelock, so he sent it with him, and he says in his book: Let the king trample on this sack and his oath will be fulfilled, and this is my forelock that I have sent to you, when that arrived. To him he liked him, was satisfied with him, and approved of his work.
And he sent Abraha to say to the Negus, “I will build you a church in the land of Yemen that has not been built before, so he proceeded to build a huge church in Sana’a of high construction, high courtyard, ornate throughout. The Arabs called it Al-Qalees, because of its height, because the one who looks at it almost drops his hood from his head from the height of its construction, and the determination Abrahah al-Ashram insisted that the Arabs’ pilgrimage be spent on it as he makes the pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca, and he called for that in his kingdom. The Adnanites and the Qahtaniyah Arabs hated that, and the Quraysh became very angry because of that, until some of them sought it, and concluded that he entered it at night, and he made a den returning, when the Sadah saw that They raised their case to their king, Abraha, and said to him, “This man made some of the Quraysh anger to their house, which I matched this to, so Abraha swore to go to the house of Makkah, and to destroy it stone by stone.”.
So Abraha prepared for that, and he was in a heavy army, so that no one would stop him, and he accompanied with him a great elephant with a large body he had not seen like him. Ten villas, and it was said others, and God knows best.