Burdur İlahiyat Dergisi

Öz

This study deals with the criticism of a claim put forward in the article titled “Ṭayr-Cloud Relationship and the Meaning of Surah Elephant” written by Mehmet Apaydın in terms of the Arabic language, poetry, and narrations. According to Apaydın, the word “Ṭayr” in Surah Fīl means “sand, stone, and soil storm” or “cloud” formed as a result of it. According to the author’s claim, the word Ṭayr in the aforementioned surah does not describe the birds throwing stones, but rather the storm, which resulted from a natural event, spreading sand, stone, and soil on Abraha’s army. Therefore, according to the author, the verse informs a natural event, not an extraordinary event. In the article, the author put forward the use of the word “Ṭayr” in the sense of “cloud” in poems dated to the early period, as well as in verses and some narrations, as evidence to prove his claim. As a result of this research, it has been determined that the poems and narrations put forward in the article are not qualified to prove the author’s claim. Poems used as evidence have many problems in terms of Arabic language rules, indicating the meaning meant by the author. These problems can be summarized under the following items: In the poems used as evidence in the related article, sentence elements such as subjects, objects, status, and causal objects were incorrectly identified. The kinds and structure of the words are not taken into account. Adjectives showing that the word Ṭayr is used in the sense of birds are ignored. Object, which is used as a sentence, has been mistranslated. References some pronouns are not taken into account. The words used as definite nouns and indefinite nouns are used outside of their meanings. In the article, it was determined that many rhetoric rules were also neglected. While determining the meaning of the poems and narrations, there are errors caused by the incorrect determination of analogies, which is one of the most important subjects of the science of statement, not being reflected in the translation and not being taken into account. There are interventions to the poem due to the inability to resolve the verbal complexity caused by the problems in the sequence of the sentence elements, and misinterpretations. Since the meanings of some words cannot be determined correctly, mistakes related to lexicology are also noteworthy. There is a substantial number of translation and declension errors in the article. Although some of the wrong translations do not directly affect the correct determination of the meaning of the word Ṭayr, which is the article’s claim, these do not comply with the rigor required in a scientific article. In some examples, it is seen that the meanings that have no equivalent in the text are included in the translation. Some analogies, metaphorical expressions, and stylistic forms, which are used as counter-evidence in Arabic poetry, are also not discussed in the article. In various narrations about the Elephant event, many statements that would refute the article’s claim were not touched on, and an eclectic approach was displayed among the relevant evidence. The points mentioned make it impossible for the word Ṭayr, which is mentioned in all of the poems and narrations, to signify cloud or storm. Although the author explains almost all of these indications with probabilistic expressions, it is contradictory that he presents his thesis as a definite determination instead of a possible meaning or interpretation in the conclusion part. Although the author stated that some expressions in the narrations about the Elephant event may have been added later, he did not present any evidence to prove this claim. Revealing that the word Ṭayr, which is mentioned in the poems and narrations of the ignorant poets, is used not in the sense of sand, stone, and soil storm or cloud, but in the meaning of birds, will also show that the word Ṭayr in Surah Fīl is also used in the meaning of birds. In addition, this will prove that the word Ṭayr was understood as birds by those who witnessed and reported the event from the first period. On the other hand, it should not be overlooked that the author’s claim that the word Ṭayr in Surah Fīl means cloud or storm is a claim that has not been voiced by scholars of tafsīr, hadīth, history, sīrah, and language. Although criticism has been written on Apaydın’s work before, the reason for writing this article is due to the detection of many new evidence and examples that have not been touched upon before in the context of Arabic language, poetry, and narrations. In addition, this study contains many original aspects in terms of preference, interpretation, analysis, criticism, inference, and source on the subject.