Abraha built a large church in the city of Sana'a in Yemen. This church became known as Al-Qalis Church, and in modern day, its foundation is still preserved in the middle of an intersection in the city. The church was built with the intent of diverting the Arab pilgrims from their Hajj in Makkah towards Yemen instead. Abraha made the church as grand as possible to be attractive to pilgrims, and he also made sure the church roofs and bellfry were very tall. Hence, the church became known as Al-Qalis because of the height of its towers. Abraha then announced that everyone under his rule, even the Arabs, would need to stop venerating the Ka'bah and do pilgrimage towards the large church in Yemen instead. When the Arabs received this news, they were infuriated. So, one of them entered the church at night and defecated and urinated in it, before running off. The next day, the custodians of the church reported the incident to Abraha, saying, “One of the Quraysh has done this in anger over their House in whose place you have appointed this church!” Upon hearing this, Abraha swore to march to the Ka'bah in Makkah and demolish it stone by stone.
Abraha prepared himself and set out with a huge and powerful army so that none might prevent him from carrying out his mission. He himself rode and commanded a great, powerful elephant that had a huge body the like of which had never been seen before. This was a special elephant, sent to him by the Negus king of Abyssinia (probably Kaleb). This large elephant would be used to demolish the Ka'bah. When the Arabs heard of the coming of Abraha, they considered it an extremely grave matter. They held it to be an obligation upon them to defend the Ka'bah and repel whoever intended a plot against it. So, all the Arab tribal chiefs, warriors, priests, probably even the Jews of Yathrib, all gathered together to defend the Ka'bah. One of the noble Himyarites, a man named Dhu-Nafr, set out to confront Abraha. But his army was overpowered, and soon enough, Dhu-Nafr was taken captive. He begged Abraha to not kill him, saying,“O king! Kill me not, for to spare my life is better for you than to kill me.” Abraha agreed but tied him up in fetters.
The Abyssinians continued on their way until they came to Khath'am, where they were confronted by Nufayl ibn Habib Al-Kath'ami along with his people, the tribes of Shahran and Nahis. They fought against Abraha, but he defeated them and captured Nufayl ibn Habib. Initially he wanted to kill him, but he gave him a chance to be his guide to show him the way to the Hijaz. Nufayl agreed to this, and he led Abraha and his army to the Hijaz. Then they reached Ta'if, where the leader of the tribe there said, “O king, we are your slaves and at your disposal, and we have no dispute with you, for it is not Al-Lat that you want to demolish but rather, it is the House which is in Makkah that you desire to demolish, and we will send with you a man to guide you to it.” They sent with him a freed slave belonging to them called Abu Righaal. He set out with them until they reached a place called Maghnas. But on the way, he died of sickness and was buried there. The Abyssinians camped at Maghnas for a while.
From Maghnas, Abraha sent a man named Al-Aswad ibn Maqsud, leading his horsemen, who gathered the inhabitants of Makkah, after having seized two hundred camels belonging to the chief of Makkah in a place called 'Ark. The chief of Makkah at the time was Abdul Muttalib ibn Hashim, the grandfather of the Prophet ﷺ. A man called Hunaatah Al-Himyari was sent to the chief of Makkah with a message from Abraha in which he said, “I have not come to this land to fight with you, but rather to tear down this House.” When Hunaatah entered Makkah and met Abdul Mutallib, he said to him, “The king has sent me to inform you that he has not come to fight you unless you fight him, but he has come to tear down this House and then he will leave you.” Abdul Muttalib said, “We have no wish to fight him and we are unable to do so. We will not stand between him and the House, and if Allah leaves it for him to destroy, then by Allah, we have no power to protect it.” Hunaatah said, “Then come with me to him,” so Abdul Mutallib went with him.
When they arrived at the Abyssinian camp, Abdul Muttalib asked for Dhu-Nafr, who was his friend. He entered into his fortress and said, “Oh Dhu-Nafr, do you have any advice to avail us for what is happening to us?” He said, “What is the benefit of the advice of a captive who does not feel safe from being killed at any moment! However, I shall tell Unays, the elephant driver, to use his good contacts for you as much as he could with the king and exalt your honor and rank to him.” Dhu-Nafr sent somebody to call Unays and he said to him, “Abdul Muttalib is the chief of the Quraysh and the owner of the Makkah spring, he feeds the people in the valleys and the beasts in the mountains, and the king has taken from him two hundred camels, so, if you are able to help him then do so, for he is my friend.” Unays went to Abraha and said to him, “O king, this is Abdul Muttalib, the chief of the Quraysh and the owner of the spring of Makkah, who serves food to the people in the valleys and the beasts in the mountains. He is at your door, asking permission to enter and talk to you, and it is better to admit him as he has come to you showing no hostility and he has no dispute with you.” After a while, Abraha allowed Abdul Muttalib to enter.
Abdul Muttalib, even though he was getting old, was well-built and good-looking, so when Abraha saw him, he showed him respect and reverence . Abdul Muttalib said, “O king! You have seized significant assets from me, so return it to me.” Abraha then said, “I admired you when I first laid eyes on you, but not anymore.” He asked, “Why?” Abraha replied, “Here I am, about to tear down your sacred house, and you are here only asking about your camels? Don't you have any pride over your sacred object?” Abdul Muttalib said, “I am the owner of these camels, and the Sacred House has its own Lord who will protect it.” Abraha then proudly declared that Allah would not be able to stop him. Abdul Muttalib rolled his eyes while listening, saying, “Whatever you wish, then.”
Abraha returned the camels, them Abdul Muttalib returned to Makkah and told his people of what had occurred and ordered them to leave their homes and disperse in the mountain passages. In the morning, Abraha, who was in Maghnas, prepared himself to enter Makkah and mobilized his army. He drew his elephant close to him and loaded it with what he wished while it was standing. When the elephant was turned towards the Ka'bah, it stopped, bent towards the ground and was about to kneel. People beat it with a mattock on its head, but it refused to move. They thrust bent-headed sticks into the lower part of its stomach and legs until it bled, but it would not stand up. When it was turned towards Yemen, it would stand and run. When it was turned towards the direction of the Ka'bah once again, it again refused to budge. Finally, the elephant went off to one of the mountains and Allah sent huge multitudes of birds coming from the direction of the sea in flocks like swallows, each carrying three stones of hard clay, two in its feet and one in its beak. When these birds flew over the people, they showered them with these stones, and everyone who was touched by them died.
Abraha was afflicted by a disease in his body, and his army all returned as fast as they could in retreat, falling and dying one after another in every town they came upon on their way back to Yemen. The fingers of Abraha kept falling off, one after the other, and whenever a finger fell, a substance of pus and blood would flow. Eventually, his body parts started falling off too. When he reached Yemen with those who remained alive among his companions, he was as motionless and weak as a flapper, and he was mostly a stump with a head. Then his ribcage cracked, and it crushed his heart. He screamed and died on the spot in a pool of his own blood and pus (and probably even his own brown stuff, if his intestines were still intact).
Allah says in the Qur'an, “Have you not considered, O Muhammad, how your Lord dealt with the companions of the elephant? Did He not make their plan into misguidance? And He sent against them birds in flocks, striking them with stones of hard clay, And He made them like eaten straw.” (Surah al-Fil, ayah 1-5)
That year was indeed a bloody one due to this incident. But it was also a blessed one, because the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad ibn Abdullah, the Final Prophet ﷺ was born a few days later. The year of the elephant was essentially the death of evil and the birth of good. Despite the fact that the incident happened before he was born, the Prophet ﷺ knew about it. It was narrated by Al-Bukhari that when the Prophet ﷺ set out in the year of the treaty of Hudaybiyah, he proceeded until he reached the mountainous way through which one would go to the people of the Quraysh. Qaswaah, the she-camel of the Prophet then knelt down. The people tried hard to make the she-camel get up, but in vain, so they said, “Qaswaah has become stubborn! Qaswaah has become stubborn!” The Prophet said, “No, Qaswaah has not become stubborn, for that is not one of its traits; rather, but she has been stopped by He who stopped the elephant.”
As for the fate of Abraha's church, it fell into ruin. Several years after the passing of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ the Umayyad Caliph, Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, would rediscovered the church. He and his army removed three columns along with a number of mosaics from the church, which were used to restore parts of the Masjid al-Haram. But the church itself was still intact mostly, it is said that it was still used until the time of the Abbasid Caliph Abu Ja'far Abdullah al-Mansur, who looted it and removed bricks from the structure. In present day, only the foundation of this church remains, located at the intersection of a centre in the Old City of Sana'a. Moss has grown in it over time, and cars park around the structure.
Sources
Holy Qur'an - Surah al-Fil
Ibn Kathir - Tafsir on Surah al-Fil (ayah 1-5)
Ibn Hisham - As-Seerah an-Nabawiyyah