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Sūrat al-Fīl (The Elephant) is a very early Makkan revelation which comments on the infamous incident of the elephant-led army attempting to flatten the Kaʿbah. Allah ﷻ briefly mentions how He protected it and destroyed those wishing His house harm. It seems that the sūrah may be observed as a small ring structure.
A simpler way to look at it:
CONNECTIONS
[A]/[A’] – The sūrah begins with a question, which gets answered with the particulars in the later half. How did Allah ﷻ deal with the people of the Elephant? He sent birds against them, struck them with stones, and pummeled them into the earth.
[B] – The center is the summary of the surrounding text. It answers the question and condenses the details that follow into a concise statement.
And Allah ﷻ knows best.
The conciseness of the chapter and all that it holds make so much sense when you consider the events that preceded and seceded it. Beautiful piece.
Subhaanallāh, when I was teaching this surah recently in a Tadabbur class, I thought about how the chapters in the Quran with fewer verses don’t get a lot of attention when it comes to Tafsīr and Quran conversations save for a few.