The Qur’anic Root A B L
Ibil: camels, their care and use; and abābīl: separate or successive groups
Qur’anic and lexical forms
الْإِبِل
(al-ibil)
Qur’anic collective noun: camels; twice, Al-Anʿām 6:144 and Al-Ghāshiyah 88:17
أَبَابِيل
(abābīl)
Qur’anic descriptive form: in groups or flocks; once, Al-Fīl 105:3
آبَال
(ābāl)
Lexical plural of ibil; absent from the Qur’an
آبِل / أَبِل
(ābil / abil)
Lexical descriptive forms: an owner or skilled keeper of camels
إِبَالَة / أَبَالَة
(ibālah / abālah)
Lexical verbal nouns for skill in, and care of, camel husbandry
أَبَّلَ
(abbala)
Lexical Form II verb: an increase in camels, with related uses concerning their care
أَبَلَ / تَأَبَّلَ
(abala / taʾabbala)
Lexical verbs: finding fresh herbage sufficient in this context
مُؤَبَّلَة
(muʾabbalah)
Lexical passive participle: arranged in herds or assembled to be kept
إِبَّالَة
(ibbālah)
Lexical noun: a bundle of firewood or grass; also a disputed proposed singular of abābīl
1. Introduction and Qur’anic forms
The Arabic root A B L is best known through إِبِل (ibil), “camels.” The same lexical family includes words for keeping and raising camels, skill in caring for them, owning camel herds, and certain features of these animals’ behavior.
Another branch of the family concerns grouping and gathering things together. In an established use, إِبَّالَة (ibbālah) denotes a bound bundle of firewood or plants, while أَبَابِيل (abābīl) describes groups moving separately or in succession.
In the Qur’an, abābīl describes birds sent against the people of the elephant. In its established Arabic meaning, however, the word does not name a particular species of bird: it describes their arrival and grouping.
A possible connection between abābīl and ibil also requires caution. Some lexicographers associate it with camel herds moving in separate groups. The image is understandable, but placing two words under one root in a dictionary or morphological index does not establish their historical derivation.
Qur’anic forms
In the Qur’anic morphological index, A B L occurs three times, in three verses, in two forms:
- الْإِبِل (al-ibil): camels; Al-Anʿām 6:144 and Al-Ghāshiyah 88:17.
- أَبَابِيل (abābīl): separate or successive groups; Al-Fīl 105:3, describing birds.
Other important Arabic forms recorded in this family include:
إِبِل (ibil): a collective noun for male and female camels. It has no ordinary singular formed from the same letters.
آبَال (ābāl): a further plural of ibil, referring to herds or collections of camels.
بَعِير (baʿīr) and نَاقَة (nāqah): independent Arabic words for camels. Neither is directly derived from ibil, although both concern the same animal.
آبِل (ābil) and أَبِل (abil): a camel owner or someone skilled in keeping and caring for camels, with differences in vocalization and usage.
إِبَالَة (ibālah) and أَبَالَة (abālah): skill in, or attention to, camel husbandry in some lexical uses.
أَبَّلَ (abbala): his camels became numerous. تَأْبِيلُ الْإِبِل (taʾbīl al-ibil) is also recorded for tending, raising, and fattening camels.
تَأَبَّلَ (taʾabbala): in one usage, to acquire camels; in another, to refrain from something or find something sufficient.
أَبِلَتِ الْإِبِلُ (abilat al-ibil): the camels became numerous. With the vocalization أَبَلَتِ الْإِبِلُ (abalat al-ibil) and other forms, the dictionaries also record camels finding fresh herbage sufficient and temporarily having no need to drink water.
إِبِلٌ مُؤَبَّلَة (ibil muʾabbalah): camels arranged in separate herds, or camels assembled to be kept as property.
إِبَّالَة (ibbālah): a bundle of firewood or grass gathered and tied together.
إِبِّيل (ibbīl), إِبَّوْل (ibbawl), and إِبَّالَة (ibbālah): forms proposed by some lexicographers as a singular or the name of one group corresponding to abābīl. Whether abābīl has a singular at all is strongly disputed.
These forms are recorded in a single lexical family, but they should not all be traced to one hypothetical original meaning. In particular, ibil, “camels,” and abābīl, “separate groups,” should first be understood through their actual uses.
2. Ibil in early Arabic: camels and the life surrounding them
Ibil: a collective noun for camels
In Arabic, ibil is a collective name for camels, including both males and females.
Early lexicographers state that it has no singular formed from its own letters: a simple form such as إِبْلَة (iblah) is not its ordinary singular for one camel.
Arabic instead has independent words such as baʿīr and nāqah.
Grammatically, ibil is normally treated as feminine, although it denotes a collection of male and female animals.
This appears in Al-Ghāshiyah 88:17, where the Qur’an says of the camels, كَيْفَ خُلِقَتْ (kayfa khuliqat), “how they were created,” using a feminine singular verb.
The feminine verb therefore does not mean that the verse concerns only female camels.
Nor does ibil necessarily denote a fixed number of camels. Some early usages apply it to a herd of a specified size, but those usages should not replace its familiar general meaning.
Camels in Arab life
Camels played an important role in the lives of many Arab communities, especially in dry regions with little water.
They were used for travel and carrying loads, and provided milk, meat, hides, and other products. Keeping camels also required knowledge of watering places, pastures, seasons, and routes.
This setting contributed to the many words and expressions relating to camels.
The meaning of ibil itself, however, should not be equated with all these benefits.
Ibil names the animal. Carrying loads, providing milk, herd management, and endurance during water shortages are features and uses associated with it in human life.
Qur’anic research should maintain this distinction.
Ābil: someone skilled in camel husbandry
Early Arabic records ābil and abil for someone who owns camels or is skilled in keeping and tending them.
Some explanations distinguish a camel owner from someone proficient in caring for camels.
A person may own many camels without being particularly capable of tending them. Conversely, someone may be skilled in grazing, watering, and assessing camels’ condition without owning a large herd.
This distinction mattered in Arabic usage.
A verse attributed to Ṭufayl al-Ghanawī says:
فَأَبَّلَ وَاسْتَرْخَى بِهِ الشَّأْنُ بَعْدَمَا
أَسَافَ وَلَوْلَا سَعْيُنَا لَمْ يُؤَبَّلِ
fa-abbala wa-istarkhā bihi al-shaʾnu baʿdamā / asāfa wa-lawlā saʿyunā lam yuʾabbali
“His camels became numerous, and his circumstances eased after his property had diminished; without our efforts, he would not have obtained such a herd.”
Here abbala concerns an increase in camels and an improvement in the person’s circumstances. Asāfa is explained in this verse as a decrease in property.
Some lexical transmissions give الْخَطْب (al-khaṭb) instead of الشَّأْن (al-shaʾn). This variation does not substantially change the sense relating to camels.
Ṭufayl al-Ghanawī is known as a pre-Islamic poet, and this verse appears in the collection attributed to him. Some copies of Al-Ṣiḥāḥ instead attribute it to Ḥumayd ibn Thawr. With its usual attribution to Ṭufayl, it is evidence for this family’s use in early poetry, but its variants and disputed attribution must remain part of any historical assessment.
The verb in this verse does not make “wealth” or “prosperity” the meaning of ibil itself. Camels could be valuable property, but the word still names the animal.
Abalat and taʾabbala: finding fresh herbage sufficient
For camels and certain wild animals, Arabic records verbs in this family for finding fresh, moist vegetation sufficient and consequently not needing to drink water for a time.
In this use, abala relates to a familiar characteristic of some animals in environments with little water.
A verse attributed to Labīd says:
وَإِذَا حَرَّكْتُ غَرْزِي أَجْمَرَتْ
أَوْ قَرَابِي عَدْوَ جَوْنٍ قَدْ أَبَلْ
wa-idhā ḥarraktu gharzī ajmarat / aw qarābī ʿadwa jawnin qad abal
Approximate translation: “When I move my foot in the stirrup, [my she-camel] quickens her pace; her running is like, or close to, that of a dark wild ass that has found fresh herbage sufficient in place of water.”
Here the poet compares his camel’s movement to the running of a dark wild ass. Abal refers to the latter animal, which, according to the lexicographers’ explanation, has found fresh herbage sufficient and can temporarily go without drinking water.
Lexical sources cite this verse for that usage. Labīd was a mukhaḍram poet who lived through both the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods; his name alone does not establish when this particular verse was composed.
This does not mean that all camels or other desert animals can live without water.
The expression concerns temporary reliance on moisture in plants, not an animal’s absolute independence from water.
Nor should this branch of meaning be transferred to the direct sense of abābīl in Al-Fīl.
3. “And of the camels, two”: camels in the discussion of lawful and unlawful food
Al-Anʿām, 6:144
وَمِنَ الْإِبِلِ اثْنَيْنِ وَمِنَ الْبَقَرِ اثْنَيْنِ ۗ قُلْ آلذَّكَرَيْنِ حَرَّمَ أَمِ الْأُنْثَيَيْنِ أَمَّا اشْتَمَلَتْ عَلَيْهِ أَرْحَامُ الْأُنْثَيَيْنِ ۖ أَمْ كُنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءَ إِذْ وَصَّاكُمُ اللَّهُ بِهَٰذَا ۚ فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ افْتَرَىٰ عَلَى اللَّهِ كَذِبًا لِيُضِلَّ النَّاسَ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ
wa-mina al-ibili ithnayni wa-mina al-baqari ithnayn; qul āl-dhakarayni ḥarrama ami al-unthayayni ammā ishtamalat ʿalayhi arḥāmu al-unthayayn; am kuntum shuhadāʾa idh waṣṣākumu allāhu bi-hādhā; fa-man aẓlamu mimmani iftarā ʿalā allāhi kadhiban li-yuḍilla al-nāsa bi-ghayri ʿilm; inna allāha lā yahdī al-qawma al-ẓālimīn
“And of the camels, two, and of the cattle, two. Say: Has He forbidden the two males, or the two females, or what the wombs of the two females contain? Or were you witnesses when The God instructed you concerning this? Who, then, is more unjust than someone who invents a lie against The God to mislead people without knowledge? Surely The God does not guide the wrongdoing people.”
Here al-ibil refers to camels and appears alongside al-baqar, “cattle.”
What does “two” mean here?
The preceding verse also mentions sheep and goats. With the addition of camels and cattle in verse 144, the passage presents eight individuals: a male and a female from each of four kinds of livestock.
In this context, ithnayn, “two,” refers to the male and female of each kind.
Thus وَمِنَ الْإِبِلِ اثْنَيْنِ (wa-mina al-ibili ithnayn) does not mean that only two camels exist in the world, or that ibil lexically means a pair of camels.
The number plays its part in the verse’s argument; ibil continues to mean camels.
The verse’s focus: attributing a prohibition to The God
The verse asks its audience whether the males have been forbidden, the females, or what the females’ wombs contain.
It then condemns those who attribute a ruling to The God without knowledge.
Its principal concern is therefore not simply to introduce four kinds of animals, but to examine and challenge a claim that they are forbidden.
This conclusion comes from the whole verse, not from ibil itself.
The root A B L cannot establish whether camel meat is lawful or unlawful. Questions of lawfulness, prohibition, and fabrication must be studied through the verses addressing those subjects.
For Forqan, al-ibil is best translated simply as “camels,” with the legal discussion placed in the verse’s interpretation.
4. “Do they not look at the camels?”: camels among the signs of creation
Al-Ghāshiyah, 88:17
أَفَلَا يَنْظُرُونَ إِلَى الْإِبِلِ كَيْفَ خُلِقَتْ
a-fa-lā yanẓurūna ilā al-ibili kayfa khuliqat
“Do they not look at the camels, how they were created?”
This is the Qur’an’s second occurrence of al-ibil.
The subject here is neither trade nor a food prohibition, but attention to creation.
Why are camels mentioned?
Camels were familiar animals to many of the Qur’an’s Arab hearers.
Their large bodies, the way they rise and kneel, their ability to carry loads and walk through dry terrain, and their particular needs could all invite observation and reflection.
The verse itself, however, names no specific biological feature such as stomach structure, the shape of the feet, or fat storage.
Details from modern knowledge of camels should therefore not become part of the lexical meaning of al-ibil.
The verse invites people to look and reflect on how camels were created.
Kayfa khuliqat concerns the manner of their creation, but the phrase alone does not provide a complete scientific or historical account of the stages through which camels came into being.
Camels, sky, mountains, and earth
The following verses direct attention to the sky, the mountains, and the earth.
Al-Ghāshiyah, 88:18
وَإِلَى السَّمَاءِ كَيْفَ رُفِعَتْ
wa-ilā al-samāʾi kayfa rufiʿat
“And at the sky, how it was raised?”
Al-Ghāshiyah, 88:19
وَإِلَى الْجِبَالِ كَيْفَ نُصِبَتْ
wa-ilā al-jibāli kayfa nuṣibat
“And at the mountains, how they were set up?”
Al-Ghāshiyah, 88:20
وَإِلَى الْأَرْضِ كَيْفَ سُطِحَتْ
wa-ilā al-arḍi kayfa suṭiḥat
“And at the earth, how it was spread out?”
In this sequence, camels stand alongside three other great phenomena in the world.
The order broadens the audience’s attention from a familiar animal in daily life to the sky, mountains, and earth.
Their juxtaposition does not mean that al-ibil must name a heavenly phenomenon.
Placing several things together in a sentence does not put them all in one category. An animal, the sky, mountains, and earth may appear together as different examples of creation.
The interpretation of al-ibil as clouds
Some early lexical and exegetical explanations suggest that al-ibil in Al-Ghāshiyah 88:17 refers to clouds.
In this interpretation, clouds are likened to camels because they move through the sky and carry water.
Al-Qurṭubī transmits a report from Al-Aṣmaʿī, citing Abū ʿAmr, distinguishing a pronunciation without consonant doubling from one with doubling: the former is explained as camels, the latter as rain-bearing clouds. This lexical report about pronunciation does not by itself establish the latter form’s standing among recognized Qur’anic readings.
These reports deserve acknowledgment, but they should not be equated with the ordinary, established Arabic meaning of ibil.
In Arabic, ibil directly names camels. This meaning is also entirely clear in Al-Anʿām 6:144.
Moreover, Al-Ghāshiyah 88:17 speaks of the creation of al-ibil, while the following verse names the sky separately.
The meaning “camels” thus has direct lexical support and is compatible with the passage’s structure.
“Clouds” may be recorded as a lexical and exegetical possibility, but it does not provide sufficient grounds for replacing the familiar meaning “camels” in the base translation.
Ibil, baʿīr, jamal, and nāqah
Arabic has various words for camels.
Ibil is a collective name for camels.
Baʿīr may denote an individual camel and is not restricted to males.
Jamal, in its familiar use, denotes a male camel.
Nāqah denotes a female camel.
The Qur’an also uses jamal, nāqah, and baʿīr elsewhere, but these are not derivatives of A B L.
Al-ibil in Al-Ghāshiyah 88:17 should therefore not be restricted to “one male camel” or “a female camel.”
“Camels” better preserves the word’s scope.
5. Abābīl: separate and successive groups
Al-Fīl, 105:3
وَأَرْسَلَ عَلَيْهِمْ طَيْرًا أَبَابِيلَ
wa-arsala ʿalayhim ṭayran abābīl
“And He sent against them birds in flocks.”
This is the Qur’an’s only occurrence of abābīl.
Abābīl is not the name of a bird species
The expression “birds of Abābīl” can give readers the impression that Abābīl names a particular species. The Arabic word itself needs to be distinguished from this way of naming the birds.
In early Arabic, abābīl is known for groups arriving separately or in succession.
Al-Akhfash gives the example of someone’s camels arriving abābīl: in separate groups.
The word was therefore not used only of birds.
In Al-Fīl, طَيْرًا (ṭayran) identifies the birds, while أَبَابِيلَ (abābīla) describes their arrival or grouping.
This distinction matters.
Abābīl alone does not identify the birds’ body shape, color, size, biological species, or habitat.
Those features are not contained in the word.
Separate groups or successive groups?
Early explanations emphasize two features.
First, groups come from different directions rather than forming one continuous, orderly body.
Second, the groups arrive one after another.
These two senses need not conflict.
Several groups may move from different directions and still arrive in succession.
Accordingly, “in groups,” “in flocks,” and “in separate, successive groups” can each convey aspects of abābīl.
The word does not supply an exact number of groups or of birds in each group.
Nor does abābīl alone mean flight in a particular geometric formation or a specific military arrangement.
Does abābīl have a singular?
Lexicographers disagree about whether abābīl has a singular.
Al-Akhfash and others treat it as one of the plurals without a known singular from the same wording.
Others propose forms such as إِبِّيل (ibbīl), إِبَّوْل (ibbawl), and إِبَّالَة (ibbālah) as a singular or the name of a single group.
Some lexicographers transmit these forms, while others expressly state that they found no independent singular in Arab speech.
It is therefore impossible to say with certainty that the singular of abābīl was necessarily ibbīl.
An English translation need not choose among these disputed forms.
“In groups” conveys the verse’s meaning without imposing an uncertain singular.
Abābīl and camel herds
Arabic uses إِبِلٌ مُؤَبَّلَة (ibil muʾabbalah) for camels divided into separate groups or herds.
Ibbālah can also denote a bundle or a bound collection.
On this basis, some lexicographers connect abābīl with groups of camels, as though flocks of birds moved like separate herds.
This suggestion is compatible with Al-Akhfash’s example of camels arriving abābīl.
Two claims must nevertheless be distinguished.
First, abābīl was used for separate groups: this meaning has clear lexical support.
Second, abābīl was necessarily derived from ibil, “camels”: that claim requires further historical evidence.
Grouping within this family may have developed through camel herds, but that possibility should not become a claim of certain derivation.
Ibbālah: a bundle of firewood or grass
In Arabic, ibbālah denotes a bundle of gathered and tied firewood or grass.
This underlies the proverb ضِغْثٌ عَلَى إِبَّالَةٍ (ḍighthun ʿalā ibbālah): adding another bundle to an existing load. The expression also came to mean adding one trouble to another.
This meaning relates to the idea of a group or collection.
It does not make “bundles of firewood” a suitable translation of abābīl in Al-Fīl.
What is sent in the verse is ṭayr, birds. Abābīl describes their grouping; it does not say that the birds are made of wood or grass.
A poetic witness for abābīl
Lexical sources transmit this poetic fragment:
أَبَابِيلُ هَطْلَى مِنْ مُرَاحٍ وَمُهْمَلِ
abābīlu haṭlā min murāḥin wa-muhmali
“Groups of slowly moving camels, from herds brought back to their resting place and from animals left to roam.”
Here abābīl concerns groups of camels comprising animals from herds brought together and animals left to roam.
Haṭlā in this context relates to slow and dispersed movement.
This witness shows that abābīl could be used for groups of animals other than birds.
The surviving wording is only part of a verse, however, and its attribution and exact date have not been clearly established. It should not be presented as securely dated pre-Islamic evidence.
With this qualification, the sense of grouping remains clear in the reliable lexical reports.
6. Abābīl in the full context of Al-Fīl
To understand the word’s role, it should be considered within the surah as a whole.
The people of the elephant and their plan
Al-Fīl, 105:1
أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَابِ الْفِيلِ
a-lam tara kayfa faʿala rabbuka bi-aṣḥābi al-fīl
“Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the people of the elephant?”
Al-Fīl, 105:2
أَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ كَيْدَهُمْ فِي تَضْلِيلٍ
a-lam yajʿal kaydahum fī taḍlīl
“Did He not bring their plan to ruin?”
These verses introduce a group called “the people of the elephant” and speak of the failure of their plan.
Fīl, “elephant,” however, does not belong to A B L.
Elephants and camels are different animals. That ibil belongs to A B L and the third verse of Al-Fīl uses abābīl does not establish an etymological relationship between elephants and camels.
Nor does the title “people of the elephant” alone establish the number of elephants, the army’s precise organization, or every historical detail of the event.
Birds in flocks
Al-Fīl, 105:3
وَأَرْسَلَ عَلَيْهِمْ طَيْرًا أَبَابِيلَ
wa-arsala ʿalayhim ṭayran abābīl
“And He sent against them birds in flocks.”
The verse speaks of birds being sent against that group.
Abābīl does not specify the exact number of flocks or the birds’ species; it describes their arrival in multiple groups.
Nor should abābīl be defined lexically as “divine emissaries.” The sending comes from أَرْسَلَ (arsala), and the birds are identified by طَيْرًا (ṭayran).
Abābīl itself denotes grouping.
Stones of sijjīl
Al-Fīl, 105:4
تَرْمِيهِمْ بِحِجَارَةٍ مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ
tarmīhim bi-ḥijāratin min sijjīl
“Striking them with stones of sijjīl.”
This verse states the action of throwing stones.
Abābīl does not mean stones, and the word itself does not determine their material or how they struck their targets.
Ḥijārah, “stones,” and sijjīl are independent words to be examined in their own root studies.
There are also different explanations of the precise nature of sijjīl and the event. These discussions should not be transferred without grounds into the meaning of abābīl.
The outcome
Al-Fīl, 105:5
فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍ مَأْكُولٍ
fa-jaʿalahum ka-ʿaṣfin maʾkūl
“Then He made them like eaten stalks and leaves.”
The verse describes the outcome through the image of plant remains that have been eaten.
That outcome comes from the surah’s final sentence, not from abābīl itself.
Abābīl should therefore not be translated as “destroyers,” “stone-throwers,” or “agents of military defeat.”
The events are connected in context, but each word makes its own contribution to the meaning.
Were abābīl mythical birds?
The Qur’an itself does not say that these birds were a species with the scientific or biological name “Abābīl.”
It also gives no description of their color, size, beaks, wings, or habitat.
Historical and exegetical reports offer various descriptions of the birds’ appearance, but those reports do not agree.
No single description can therefore be incorporated into this article as the lexical meaning of abābīl.
Conversely, a lack of precise biological information does not justify removing the verse’s clear meaning. The Qur’an speaks of ṭayr, birds, and abābīl describes their manner of arrival.
In a root study, it is therefore appropriate to retain birds as birds and confine the meaning of abābīl to their grouping.
The historical nature of the event is a separate subject of research.
8. Translation choices for Forqan
Al-ibil in Al-Anʿām 6:144
Suggested rendering: “camels.”
The verse’s opening:
“And of the camels, two, and of the cattle, two.”
The explanation should clarify that “two” in this passage means a male and a female.
That point should not be added to the lexical meaning of ibil itself.
Al-ibil in Al-Ghāshiyah 88:17
Suggested rendering: “camels.”
The verse:
“Do they not look at the camels, how they were created?”
This preserves the established Arabic meaning.
The interpretation involving clouds may be mentioned in a research note, but it provides insufficient support for replacing “camels” in the base translation.
Abābīl in Al-Fīl 105:3
Suggested rendering: “in flocks” or “in groups.”
The verse:
“And He sent against them birds in flocks.”
Where further explanation is needed:
“Birds arriving in separate, successive groups.”
For a general translation, “in flocks” is natural and sufficient.
It is better to avoid an unexplained expression such as “birds of Abābīl,” since readers may take Abābīl to be a particular bird species.
Brief meanings for word-by-word boxes
الْإِبِلِ (al-ibil): camels; a collective noun including male and female camels.
أَبَابِيلَ (abābīla): in flocks or groups; describing groups arriving separately or in succession.
The abābīl box may add that lexicographers disagree about its singular and historical derivation.
This morphological disagreement need not enter the direct translation of the verse.
9. Conclusion
The Arabic family A B L is best known through camels and their care.
Ibil is a collective noun for camels, including both males and females. The family also contains words for a camel owner, a person skilled in tending camels, herd management, and certain features of camel life in environments with little water.
Al-ibil occurs twice in the Qur’an.
In Al-Anʿām 6:144, camels appear among four kinds of livestock in a discussion of attributing prohibitions to The God.
In Al-Ghāshiyah 88:17, camels appear as a phenomenon of creation whose manner of creation invites human reflection.
The familiar meaning in both occurrences is actual camels. Some early sources report the interpretation “clouds” for Al-Ghāshiyah 88:17, but it is not the direct Arabic meaning of ibil and does not provide sufficient grounds for preferring it in the base translation.
The third occurrence is abābīl in Al-Fīl 105:3.
Arabic knows this word for separate or successive groups. Its singular is disputed, and its historical connection with ibil should not be treated as certain merely because of their similar letters.
In Al-Fīl, ṭayr names the birds and abābīl describes their arrival.
Abābīl is therefore not a securely established name for a bird species. By itself, it does not identify the stones’ material, the birds’ size or color, or how the people of the elephant were destroyed.
For Forqan, this family can be defined as follows: Ibil is the collective name for male and female camels. Its related Arabic derivatives concern owning, keeping, and tending camels. In Qur’anic usage, abābīl describes separate or successive groups. Some lexicographers connect it with the division of camel herds into groups, but its historical derivation is uncertain.
This definition preserves all three Qur’anic occurrences without turning camels into clouds, treating abābīl as the name of an unidentified bird species, or forcing every branch of the family under one invented meaning unsupported by usage.