Who Was Abraha? Lord of the elephant in Islamic History
Before the worldBefore Adam
The first nationsAdam to Ibrahim
Egypt and Bani Israilc. 1300–1000 BCE
Arabia before Islam523–570 CE
Enemies of the Prophet ﷺ610–632 CE
After the Prophet ﷺ632–1260 CE
The end of timeStill to come
Ten signs before the Hour
Isa ibn Maryam descends
A landslide in the east
A landslide in the west
A landslide in Arabia
The smoke
The sun rises from the west
The Beast of the earth
A fire from Yemen drives people to their gathering
Sahih Muslim lists ten major signs before the Hour without fixing their order. This follows a common order given by the scholars. Sahih Muslim 2901a ↗
Villains of history11 / 26
أبرهة
Abraha
Lord of the elephant570 CE
Relied onWar elephants
→
Undone bySmall birds
Abyssinian ruler of Yemen who marched on Makkah with war elephants to destroy the Kaaba, in the year the Prophet ﷺ was born.
How it ended
Flocks of birds pelted his army with stones of baked clay, leaving them 'like eaten straw', as Abd al-Muttalib had said: 'The House has a Lord who will protect it.' Abraha died of his wounds soon after reaching Sana'a.
Have you not considered, [O Muhammad], how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant?
In the Quran, named by the commentatorsSurah al-Fil tells of 'the companions of the elephant'; his name comes from Ibn Ishaq and the commentators.
Every villain in Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal
Each entry is drawn from the Quran, authentic hadith (with links to sunnah.com), the classical commentators and the historians. Companions who fought Islam and later became Muslim are not included, nor are figures Muslims disagree about.
