The Year of the Elephant

An army marched on Makkah with a war elephant to destroy the Kaaba, and at the edge of the valley the elephant knelt and would not move. That same year, in that valley, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was born. Before he was eight, he would lose his father, his mother, and the grandfather who had stood before the elephant's king. Seerah, Episode 1. The life of the Prophet ﷺ, in order, from Nujum: Abraha's march on the Kaaba and ʿAbd al-Muttalib's answer, "the House has a Lord who will protect it"; the light Aminah saw; his birth on a Monday in Rabiʿ al-Awwal; Halimah of the Banu Saʿd, who took the orphan no one else wanted; the opening of his chest; his mother's death at al-Abwa; his grandfather's rug in the shade of the Kaaba; and Abu Talib, who took him in. 0:00 The Elephant Kneels 0:26 The House Has a Lord 2:08 A Light Over Busra 3:23 The Orphan Nobody Wanted 5:02 A Heart Washed with Zamzam 6:22 The Road to Yathrib 7:17 In the Shade of the Kaaba 8:19 Shelter 📜 Sources • Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-Nabawiyya (Ibn Ishaq's account), vol. 1, ed. al-Saqqa, al-Abyari and Shalabi • Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, The Sealed Nectar (Ar-Raheeq al-Makhtum), chapters 5 and 6 • Sahih Muslim 162 (the opening of the chest, Anas's words), 976 (the visit to his mother's grave), 1162 (fasting on Mondays), 1771 (Umm Ayman) • Musnad Ahmad 17163 (the light that lit the palaces of Sham) • Qur'an 93:6 (ad-Duha) Notes: the reports differ on the day of his birth (Ibn Hisham: the 12th of Rabiʿ al-Awwal; The Sealed Nectar: the 9th), so the video gives only "a Monday, in Rabiʿ al-Awwal". "About fifty days" after the elephant is a report the editors of Ibn Hisham cite. Most historians place his father's death before his birth. Halimah's account follows Ibn Ishaq; scholars differ on its chain. The translations of the quotes and of the verse are our own, from the Arabic. The Prophet ﷺ is never drawn: he is shown only as light. Map data: Made with Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com). #IslamicHistory #Seerah #ProphetMuhammad #YearOfTheElephant #Kaaba #Makkah #Halimah #Nujum