Benefits of Surah Fil The benefits of Surah Fil are very wide-ranging. The Prophet (PBUH) said that whoever recites Surah Fil will be protected by Allah from evil and moral change. When Surah Fil is recited 3, 5, 7 times, victory is achieved against enemies. When Surah Fil is recited 250 times between Maghrib and Isha, enemies are repelled. It has been said that whoever recites Surah Fil 1000 times between Maghrib and Isha will attain all his wishes. Tafsir of Surah Fil Knowing the Tafsir of Surah Fil helps us understand the meanings in the surah. According to the sources of tafsir and history, Abraha, the governor-general of Yemen, which was under the rule of Abyssinia at the time, had a large cathedral built here called Qulleys or Kalis (church) in order to attract Arab pilgrims who visited the Kaaba in Mecca every year. He sent propagandists to various regions and invited the people to Sana'a to visit the temple. However, when this hope did not come true, he decided to destroy the Kaaba and probably in 570, he marched on Mecca with a large army that included an elephant named Mahmud (mammoth) (for different views on the date and causes of the event, see Mustafa Fayda, “The Elephant Incident”, DIA, XIII, 70-71). Abraha continued on his way after neutralizing some forces that tried to prevent his movement. A detachment he sent captured a large number of camels belonging to the Meccans, including 200 camels belonging to the Prophet's grandfather, Abdulmuttalib. Abdulmuttalib came to Abraha and asked for the return of his camels; when Abraha asked about the Kaaba, he said that he was not curious about the Kaaba because its owner would protect it. The next day, Abraha ordered his army to move in the direction of the Kaaba. However, according to sources, the elephant (mammoth) in the forefront did not move and the soldiers were annihilated by flocks of birds that rained petrified mud on them like “eaten and trampled grain” – as the verse suggests. Some interpreters of the verse are of the opinion that the word abâbîl, translated as “flock of flocks”, is the name of a species of bird. Accordingly, the 3rd verse should be interpreted as “did he not send the ebâbîl birds?”; however, when the narrations and exegesis on the subject are taken into consideration, this view does not seem convincing (for information, see Elmalılı, IX, 6102-6105). According to popular belief, this event took place fifty-fifty-five days or three months before the birth of the Hz. Prophet. The Hz. Prophet is addressed in the surah in verses 1-2. In the verses, it is stated that he was aware of the magnitude of the disaster that befell the elephant army and that their plan to destroy the Kaaba was thwarted. Although the Prophet did not witness the event in person, the address “didn’t you see?” addressed to him is a metaphorical expression, indicating that even if he did not see the event with his own eyes, he heard it from those who did and it was described to him as if he had seen it. Verses 3-5 express how the disaster took place, that is, how flocks and birds sent by Allah rained down hardened brick-like stones on the elephant army, turning them into crop residue eaten by animals and vermin. According to Razi, the fact that the evil intentions of Abraha and his soldiers are expressed with the word keyd (plan, trap) in the sura shows that they did not only aim to destroy the Kaaba. Because, since they had explained it in advance, the idea of ​​destroying the Kaaba was no longer a “trap”. In this case, the word keyd here expresses other insidious plans that Abraha's side nurtured against the Arabs (XXXII, 99; for what these plans and traps could be, see Fayda, ibid.).