Abrahah, the King of Yaman, gave orders to destroy the Ka^bah
Before Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, was born, the governor of Abyssinia, Abraha Al-Ashram, had built a place of worship and asked all Arabs to worship there. This site was richly decorated with treasures from the collection of Bilqis, Queen of Saba. He erected gold and silver crosses, built ebony and ivory pulpits, and raised the site’s stature and expanded its width. But the Arabs refused to bow down. Their loyalty lay with the Ka^bah, built by prophet Ibrahim, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam.
An Arab, in defiance and mockery of Abraha’s command, desecrated at the place of worship, angering him so much that he swore to destroy the Ka^bah. The Abyssnians had tame elephants that they used in wars. Abraha gathered his army of men and elephants and marched towards Makkah. As he advanced towards the Ka^bah, he defeated the tribes, enslaving the people and seizing their property. Included in this were two hundred camels that belonged to ^Abdul Muttalib Ibn Hashim, the Prophet’s grand father, who was then, the leader of the Quraish. The tribes of Quraish, Kinanah and Hudhail decided to fight against Abraha, but they realized that they could not afford such a war and gave up the plan.
^Abdul-Muttalib, the grandfather of Prophet Muhammad, was among the Arabs living in Makkah at that time.
Abraha, meanwhile, sent a messenger to the Quraish, who were taking care of the Ka^bah. In his message, Abraha declared that he had come only to destroy the Sacred House and wouldn’t harm anyone unnecessarily. He said that if the people didn’t want to fight, their leader should come and meet Abraha.
^Abdul Muttalib, after listening to the message, said: “By Allah! We do not intend to fight. Really we cannot afford it. This is the Sacred House of Allah and His Khalil Ibrahim, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam. He Alone can protect it if He wills to.”
The messenger then took him to Abraha. ^Abdul Muttalib was a dignified looking, handsome man. His noble appearance impressed Abraha. He did not want to insult him, nor did he want to give a potential enemy an equal status, so Abraha sat down on the rich carpet beside ^Abdul Muttalib. Through an interpreter, Abraha asked what the chief of the Quraish wanted. ^Abdul Muttalib asked for a compensation for the two hundred camels that were taken from him and did not say a word about the expected attack on the Ka^bah. When Abraha expressed surprise, ^Abdul Muttalib answered: “I am the master of the camels, whereas the Ka^bah has its Lord to defend it.”
Abraha, arrogantly claimed that no one could defend the Ka^bah from him to which ^Abdul Muttalib replied: “You are on your own!” Abraha then gave him his camels back. ^Abdul Muttalib went home and told the Quraish about his conversation with Abraha and ordered them to evacuate Makkah and move to the mountains. He then went to the Ka^bah, along with some men, and holding the ring of the Ka^bah’s door, supplicated Allah and sought His aid against Abraha and his troops.
Sixty thousand soldiers advanced from the south, towards Makkah. They were the enemy and they were strong. They were coming from Yaman with orders from Abrahah, the King of Yaman, to destroy the Ka^bah. With them was a very large and very strong elephant named Mahmud, upon whom armed soldiers sat. Mahmud was trained to protect himself with his great tusks and trunk from the soldiers trying to stop him, and to step on and crush those trying to halt his advance. Like this, they came mile after mile, getting closer and closer to their destination–Makkah and the honorable Ka^bah. None of the Arab tribes along the way were able to stop their advance because of this great elephant.
^Abdul Muttalib set out with all the Quraish to the mountains seeking shelter and waiting to see what would happen next. The next morning, Abraha prepared himself, his troops and his elephant, Mahmud, to enter Makkah.
When Mahmud was directed towards Makkah, Nufail Ibn Habib came near him and whispered in his ear: “Kneel down Mahmud and go back home safe, you are in Allah’s Sacred Town.” He let go his ear and the elephant kneeled down. Nufail Ibn Habib then went away and climbed up the mount till he was far and safe. The Abyssinians tried everything to make the elephant stand again but1 in vain. They beat him, hurt him with weapons but still the elephant refused to get up and march towards Makkah. While trying to get him to stand they turned his direction to Yemen and he immediately got ready to move. Similarly he was ready to go to Sham (Syria) but still refused to budge in the direction of the Ka^bah.
However, when they reached close to Makkah the Ka^bah, Mahmud sat down and refused to advance any further.
Allah sent rescue came from the east, from the direction of the Red Sea, in the form of black birds–the likes of which had never been seen in that area before i.e. a kind of bird not usually found in the area of Hijaz. They numbered in the thousands. Each bird carried three small pebbles, one in his beak and one in each of his feet. There were small pebbles–larger than the size of a lentil and smaller than a chick pea. On each pebble was written the name of one of the soldiers in Abraha’s army. Each pebble was pre-ordained by Allah to kill the soldier whose name was written on it.
The birds began to drop the pebbles on the soldiers. The pebble would hit its mark, killing the soldier by entering through his head, and exiting out through the buttocks. Some of the soldiers tried to run away and retreat back to Yaman, but the birds followed them. All of them were killed, except for a very few who managed to reach back to Yaman. They informed Abrahah of what had happened with them and how Allah had protected his honorable house by those birds.
After Abrahah learned about this, he developed a very strange disease. His body extremities started falling off–one finger, then the other, then his hand, and so on, until finally his chest split opened, and his heart appeared, and by this, he died.
The leader of that army, Abu Maksum, then went to Abyssinia, to inform the king there of what had happened–all the while the bird with the pebble with Abu Maksum’s name was following him. Abu Maksum reached the King of Abyssinia, told him what happened, then the bird killed him with that pebble.