The Elephant
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[105:4]
which smote them with stone-hard blows of chastisement pre-ordained,

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* v.4 : Lit., “with stones of sijjīl.” As explained in note 114 on 11:82, this latter term is synonymous with sijill, which signifies “a writing” and, tropically, “something that has been decreed [by God]”: hence, the phrase hijārah min sijjīl is a metaphor for “stone-hard blows of chastisement pre-ordained,” i.e., in God’s decree (Zamakhsharī and Rāzī, with analogous comments on the same expression in 11:82). As already mentioned in the introductory note, the particular chastisement to which the above verse alludes seems to have been a sudden epidemic of extreme virulence: according to Wāqidī and Muhammad ibn Ishāq – the latter as quoted by Ibn Hishām and Ibn Kathīr – “this was the first time that spotted fever (hasbah) and smallpox (judarī) appeared in the land of the Arabs.” It is interesting to note that the word hasbah – which, according to some authorities, signifies also typhus – primarily means “pelting [or smiting”] with stones” (Qāmūs). – As regards the noun tā’ir (of which tayr is the plural), we ought to remember that it denotes any “flying creature,” whether bird or insect (Tāj al-‘Arūs). Neither the Qur’ān nor any authentic Tradition offers us any evidence as to the nature of the “flying creatures” mentioned in the above verse; and since, on the other hand, all the “descriptions” indulged in by the commentators are purely imaginary, they need not be seriously considered. If the hypothesis of an epidemic is correct, the “flying creatures” – whether birds or insects – may well have been the carriers of the infection. One thing, however, is clear: whatever the nature of the doom that overtook the invading force, it was certainly miraculous in the true sense of this word – namely, in the sudden, totally unexpected rescue which it brought to the distressed people of Mecca.