The Guiding Light — Page 60
S u rah al-F i l, Chapter 105 60 ‘Abdul-Mu tt alib’advised his compatriots to repair to the surrounding hills. Before leaving the city, ‘Abdul Mu tt alib’, holding the skirts of the Ka‘bah, prayed in the following words full of extreme pathos: ﻻ ﻫﻢ ﺇﻥ ﺍملﺮﺀ ميﻨﻊ ﺭﺣﻠﻪ ﻓﺎﻣﻨﻊ ﺣﻼﻟﻚ ﻻ ﻳﻐﻠنب ﺻﻠﻴﺒﻬﻢ ﻭحمﺎهلﻢ ﻏﺪﻭﺍ حمﺎﻟﻚ i. e. , just as a man protects his house and property from plunder, so do thou O Lord, defend Thine own House and suffer not the Cross to triumph over the Ka‘bah (“T a rikh Al-K a mil”, by Ibn-e- Ath i r. Vol; 1. P 156 & Muir). Abrahah’s army had hardly moved when the Divine scourge overtook them. “A pestilential distemper,” says Muir, “had shown itself in the camp of Abrahah. It broke out with deadly pustules and blains and was probably an aggravated form of smallpox. In confusion and dismay the army commenced retreat. Abandoned by their guides, they perished among the valleys and a flood swept multitudes into the sea. Scarcely any recovered who had once been smitten by it and Abrahah himself, a mass of malignant and putrid sores, died miserably on his return to Sana. ” It is to this incident particularly that the S u rah refers.