الروم

See 1:1.

Commentary:

See. 1:1.

1:1.

29:2.

Commentary:

The present Surah is second of the four chapters—29th, 30th, 31st and 32nd—which are headed by the abbreviated letters, Alif, Lam, Mim. This has not been done haphazardly as some Christian writers are prone to think or deliberately misrepresent. These letters have a deep significance and far-reaching bearing on the subject matter of the Surah. There exists a striking resemblance between the subject matter of all these four Surahs; even their diction and style are very similar. They deal with the defeat and destruction of the forces of disbelief and darkness, and the rise and triumph of Islam. It has been repeatedly declared in these Surahs that the old order is dying, and a new and better order is emerging from its ruins. In order to realize the full significance of this dominant theme, attention is drawn to history and to the laws of nature.

Moreover, each letter of the Arabic alphabet possesses a definite numerical value, and the combined letters الم have the numerical value 71 (ا having 1, ل 30, and م 40). As the central theme of the four chapters is the progress and ultimate triumph of Islam, the placing of الم in their beginning seems to signify that Islam will take about as many years to consolidate itself fully and attain the hey-day of its glory. And thus it actually came to pass. Beginning with the Migration, Islam went from strength to strength till in the year 71 A.H., with the coming into power of Yazid, son of Mu‘awiyah, the solidarity of Islam suffered the first serious blow.

29:2.

See {16}.

Commentary:

By the words "the land nearby" are meant the countries lying close to Arabia—Palestine, Jordan and Syria.

Palestine.

3:155; 13:32.

Important Words:

بضع (a few) is derived from بضع (bada‘a). They say بضعه i.e. he cut it; he cut it into pieces; he cut it length-wise. بضعmeans, a part or portion of the night; a time thereof. They say مضی بضع من اللیل i.e. a part of the night passed. The word also denotes a variety of numbers such as five, seven, ten, etc., but is generally understood to mean from three to nine. بضع رجال means from three to nine men. بضع سنین means, from three to nine years (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

In order fully to appreciate the significance of this and the preceding two verses it is necessary to cast a cursory glance over the political conditions that obtained in the two great Empires that lay on the borders of Arabia—the Persian and the Roman Empires—shortly before the advent of the Holy Prophet of Islam. They were at war with each other. The first round had gone in favour of the Persians whose tide of conquest began in 602 A.D., when in order to avenge the death of Maurice, his patron and benefactor, at the hands of Phocas, Chosroes II started the war with Rome. For twenty years the Roman Empire was overrun by Persian armies as it had never been before. The Persian armies plundered Syria and Asia Minor and in 608 A.D. advanced to Chalcedon. Damascus was taken in 613. The surrounding country on which no Persian had ever set foot since the founding of the Empire was utterly and completely laid waste. In June 614 Jerusalem was also captured. The whole of Christendom was horrified by the news that together with the Patriarch the Persians had carried off the cross of Christ. Christianity had been humbled in the dust. The flood of Persian conquest, however, did not stop with the capture of Jerusalem. Egypt was next conquered, Asia Minor again overrun, and the Persian armies were knocking at the very gates of Constantinople. The Romans could offer but little resistance as they were torn by internal dissensions. The humiliation of Heraclius was so complete that "Chosroes wanted to see him brought in chains to the foot of his throne and was not prepared to give him peace till he had abjured his crucified god and embraced the worship of the sun" (Historians’ History of the World, vol. 7, p. 159, vol. 8, pp. 94-95 & Enc. Brit. under "Chosroes" II & "Heraclius"). This state of affairs very much grieved the Muslims as they had much in common with the Romans who were the "People of the Book". But the Quraish of Mecca who, like the Persians, were idolaters, feigned to see in this discomfiture of Christian armies a happy augury for the overthrow and destruction of Islam. It was shortly after this complete debacle of Roman forces that in 616 A.D., came the revelation to the Holy Prophet which forms the subject-matter of the verse under comment and the two preceding verses. The verses possessed a twofold significance. They foretold, in circumstances then quite inconceivable, that the whole position would be completely reversed within the short space of eight or nine years and the erstwhile victorious Persian armies would suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of the utterly defeated, prostrated and humbled Romans. The Arabic word used in the verse to denote this period is بضع (bid‘un) which as shown under "Important Words," signifies a period from three to nine years. The significance of the prophecy embodied in the verses, however, lay in the fact that, within this short period, the foundations of the ultimate triumph of Islam and that of the defeat and discomfiture of the forces of disbelief and darkness would be firmly laid. The prophecy was fulfilled in circumstances beyond human calculation or comprehension. Regarding the extreme improbability of fulfilment of the prophecy under the prevailing circumstances, the following observation of Gibbon may be read with interest:

In the midst of the Persian triumphs he (the Holy Prophet) ventured to foretell that before many years should elapse victory would return to the banners of the Romans…At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered, no prophecy could be more distant from its accomplishment, since the first twelve years of Heraclius announced the approaching dissolution of the Empire (Rise, Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 5, p. 74).

After licking his wounds for several years, Heraclius was at last able to take the field against the Persians in 622, the year of the Holy Prophet’s Migration to Medina. In 624 he advanced into northern Media, where he destroyed the great fire-temple of Gandzak (Gazaca) and thus avenged the destruction of Jerusalem. This happened exactly within nine years, the period foretold in the verse, and to add to its importance and significance it happened in the year when the power of the Quraish also suffered a very serious reverse in the Battle of Badr, which recalled a Biblical prophecy foretelling the fading of the glory of Kedar (Isa. 21:17). In 627, Heraclius defeated the Persian army at Nineveh and advanced towards Ctesiphon. Chosroes fled from his favourite residence Dastgerd (near Baghdad), and after dragging on an inglorious existence was murdered by his own son, Siroes, on 19th February, 628. A.D.; and thus the Persian Empire, from the apparent greatness which it had reached a few years earlier sank into hopeless anarchy (Enc. Brit.).

The fulfilment of the prophecy was so remarkable and unforeseen that prejudiced Christian writers have been hard pressed to explain it away. Rodwell says that the vowel points of the Arabic expression سیغلبون were left undecided so that it would read either way, i.e. sa-yaghlibun meaning, "they will be victorious" or as sa-yughlabun meaning, "they will be defeated." He even adds that the ambiguity was intentional. The Rev. gentleman pretends not to understand this simple fact that the vowels of an expression which had been recited hundreds of times in daily Prayers and otherwise could hardly be left undecided. Mr. Wherry goes a step further. He says: "Our daily newspapers constantly forecast political events of this kind." The less said about this futile attempt to explain away and belittle the importance of this mighty prophecy, the better. If in the circumstances when Christianity lay humbled in the dust and Persian armies were knocking at the very gates of Constantinople and Heraclius had in vain sued for peace, a person situated as the Holy Prophet was, could forecast that within the short space of only eight or nine years the victors would become vanquished and the forces of Chosroes would receive a crushing defeat at the hands of the same Heraclius who only a few years back had very humbly but unsuccessfully sued for peace and the proud and mighty Persians would lie prostrate and exhausted, the forecast must indeed be considered to have proceeded from a superhuman source. What added to the remarkable character of the prophecy was the fact that the news of the victory of the Romans over the Persians reached the Muslims exactly at the time when they were themselves rejoicing over their own victory in the Battle of Badr.

The words: "Allah’s is the command before and after that," mean that it is God’s eternal and unalterable decree that disbelief is always defeated and humbled, and truth triumphs and progresses.

3:155; 13:32.

Bid‘ denotes a variety of numbers such as five, seven, ten, etc. but is generally understood to signify from three to nine (Lane).

In order fully to appreciate the significance of this and the preceding two verses it is necessary to cast a cursory glance over the political conditions that obtained in the two great Empires that lay on the borders of Arabia—the Persian and the Roman Empires—shortly before the advent of the Holy Prophet of Islam. They were at war with each other. The first round had gone in favour of the Persians whose tide of conquest began in 602 AD., when in order to avenge the death of Maurice, his patron and benefactor, at the hands of Phocas, Chosroes II, started the war with Rome. For twenty years the Roman Empire was overrun by Persian armies as it had never been before. The Persians plundered Syria and Asia Minor and in 608 A.D. advanced to Chalcedon. Damascus was taken in 613. The surrounding country on which no Persian had ever set foot since the founding of the Empire was utterly and completely laid waste. In June 614 Jerusalem was also captured. The whole of Christendom was horrified by the news that tog

Commentary:

The allusion in the words, "with the help of Allah," is to the help and succour which God vouchsafed to Muslims on the battlefield of Badr (3:124-126). On that day it was established beyond doubt that "Allah is the Mighty, the Merciful." The disbelievers, to their bitter dismay and mortification experienced the force of God’s might and the Muslims that of His mercy.

3:195; 39:21.

Commentary:

The reference in the words, "Allah has made this promise," is to the Divine decree alluded to in the words "that Allah might accomplish the thing that was decreed" (8:43) used with reference to the Battle of Badr.

3:195; 39:21.

The promise is referred to in 8:43.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that the knowledge of disbelievers is confined to the material side of this world and they are ignorant of things spiritual. The implication is that if disbelievers cannot understand how a people (the Romans) who had been completely broken and had lain exhausted and prostrate a few years back won a smashing victory over their powerful foe (the Persians) and how a handful of Muslims with no experience of war and having no arms and ammunition, succeeded in defeating a powerful army of the Quraish, three times their number, it is because the disbelievers’ knowledge is limited to an understanding of the physical causes of the incidents, but the causes of the defeat of the Persians and that of the Quraish lay deeper and were more spiritual than material or mundane.

The knowledge of disbelievers is limited to an understanding of the physical causes of the incidents, but the causes of the defeat of the Persians and that of the Quraish lay deeper and were more spiritual than material or physical.

7:186.

10:46; 29:24; 32:11.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that if disbelievers had reflected over the great powers and faculties with which man has been endowed and had reflected also over the very limited duration of their worldly existence they would have realized that man’s life on this earth is not the be-all and end-all of his creation and that there is a fuller and better life beyond the grave where man’s spiritual progress will know no end and that the present life is only a preparation for the life hereafter. See also v. 12 below.

10:46; 29:24; 32:11.

7:186

If disbelievers had reflected over the great powers and faculties with which man has been endowed and had reflected also over the very limited duration of their worldly existence, they would have realized that man’s life on this earth is not the be-all and end-all of his creation and that there is a fuller and better life beyond the grave where man’s spiritual progress will know no end and would have realized that the present life is only a preparation for the life hereafter.

12:110; 22:47; 35:45; 47:11.

4:41; 9:70; 10:45; 18:50; 29:32.

Important Words:

أثاروا (tilled) is derived from ثار which means, it was or became raised or stirred up; it spread; it rose. ثار الماء means, the water flowed forth with force; it gushed forth. أثارہ means, he raised or roused him or it. أثار الارض means, he tilled the ground or land; he cultivated it by ploughing and sowing. أثار الفتنة بینھم means, he excited mischief amongst them (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The verse indicates that there had lived in the past people who had attained to a very high stage of civilization and culture; particularly they had made great progress in the art of architecture, mining and cultivation. Recent researches in archaeology have borne testimony to this fact. The Quran had referred to this fact fourteen hundred years ago.

12:110; 22:47; 35:45; 47:11.

4:41; 10:45.