Sijjil means "stones like lumps of dry clay.

Sijjil means "stones like lumps of dry clay." It is related to the verb sajala, which means "to record, write down," or "document." There are many interpretations of this ayah.

We do not know what this phenomenon was, whether an actual storm brought a swarm of tiny creatures that inflicted this large army with sijjil, which penetrated their flesh, or whether a disease sud­denly came upon them (many illnesses such as measles and small pox were not identified in those days), perhaps brought by birds and in­sects.

Despite the fact that this occurrence was widely known and dis­cussed, we still do not know the nature of the affliction, because at that time people's understanding of natural phenomenon was not as ours is now. We know only that this mighty army was suddenly, to­tally, and utterly devastated, just as it was approaching the Ka'bah. 5 So He made them as devoured straw.

The result of the attack was that the enormous army became like leftover stalks and leaves of grain or grass after having been beaten to a stubble and was razed to the ground. In some of the numerous descriptions, it is said that after this destruction the ground appeared as if a flat sheet made up of the thousands of men of the enemy army and their elephants had been laid down on it. Previous…