Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
9. The Prophetic Method
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divert this great source of wealth towards his own
land—the Yemen, which lay south east of Makkah.
He had shown his willingness to resort to any
means for the achievement of his ends by killing the
previous Yemenese governor, taking over the
country, and forcing the king of Abyssinia to
recognize his authority in the province. A Christian
by faith, Abrahah had built a huge church in the
town of San’a’, after which he launched an intensive
propaganda campaign to induce people to go on
pilgrimages to it. In this way he hoped to divert the
lucrative pilgrim trade from Makkah to San’a’. It is
recorded in Arab history that when all his efforts
failed, he set out to destroy the Ka’bah, so that
people would have nowhere left to make their
pilgrimage to, save the church that he had built in
San’a’. For this purpose he took an army of
elephants, which gained him the name of “Lord of
the Elephants.” Even the names of some of the
people who built his church are known. The Arabs
called the road that he passed along, ‘The Road of
the Elephants.” The spring from which they drank,
the gate through which they entered Makkah and
the year of their attack were also similarly named.
