1. Historical and Inscriptional Silence:
While South Arabian inscriptions independently document the 6th-century campaigns of the Axumite ruler Abraha, contemporary historical records from Roman, Persian, or Himyarite sources contain no trace of an army being annihilated by aerial bombardment or biological strike near Mecca.
2. Incorporation of Regional Folklore:
Surah 105:3–4 depicts Aṣḥāb al-Fīl (the Companions of the Elephant) being destroyed by flocks of birds (A_bābīl) dropping baked clay stones (sijjīl). Adopting unverified, regional oral legends as literal historical fact reflects the integration of pre-Islamic Arabian folklore into the Quranic narrative to elevate the prestige of the Meccan sanctuary.
Surah 105 (Al-Fīl) details the miraculous defense of the Kaaba against Abraha's army through swarms of birds that pelted the attackers with stones of baked clay. This legendary event supposedly occurring around the year of Muhammad's birth.
The narrative of this surah relies entirely on a pre-Islamic Arabian folklore myth that leaves absolutely no historical, archaeological, or contemporary trace.
Surah 105:3-4:
And He sent against them birds in flocks, striking them with stones of hard clay.
The surah claims that a massive Christian army from Yemen led by Abraha marched on Mecca with an elephant, but was completely obliterated when flocks of mythological birds (Ababil) dropped tiny baked clay pebbles that miraculously liquefied the soldiers like "eaten straw."
While Abraha's military campaigns are well-documented in actual South Arabian inscriptions, there is absolutely zero historical evidence that his army ever reached Mecca, let alone that they were wiped out by a massive, anomalous biological strike from the sky. The text adopts unverified, superstitious regional folklore and camp-fire legends, passing them off as factual historical reality to inject false historic prestige into the Meccan sanctuary.