RENAISSANCE NOVEMBER 2019

6 Monthly Renaissance November 2019 Qur’anic Exegesis S ū rah al-R ū m Javed A ḥ mad Gh ā mid ī ﺑﺴۡﻢ ٰ ﷲ ﻟﺮَﺣۡﻤٰﻦ ۡ ﻟﺮَﺣﻴ ﻢ ٓ ۚ﴿ ﻟٓـﻢ ١ ﴾ﻏﻠﺒَﺖ ﻟﺮوۡم ۙ﴿ ٢﴾ *َﻌۡﺪﻏَﻠَﺒﻬﻢۡ ﺳَﻴَﻐۡﻠﺒﻮۡنَ ۙ﴿ + ﻵۡﻹَرۡضوَ ﻫﻢۡ ﻣﻦ 2َ3ۡ ۡۤ َد 26 ٣﴾ 89 َ:ۡ; ۡ *ﻀۡﻊﺳﻨ 26 In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Ever Merciful. This is S ū rah Alif L ā m M ī m. 1 The Romans have been defeated in the nearby land but after this defeat of theirs they will soon be victorious 2 in the next few years. Whatever happened before this 1. What is the meaning of this name? I have explained in detail my view about it while discussing verse 2 of S ū rah al-Baqarah. 2. The actual words are: ﻵۡﻹَرۡض 2َ3ۡ َد . Here they refer to Syria and Palestine which were situated immediately adjacent to Arabia. At the birth of Mu ḥ ammad (sws), there existed two great empires: the Christian Roman Empire and the Magian Persian Empire. Both were persistent adversaries of one another. In 603 AD, the Persians attacked the Romans on the lame pretext of stifling a rebellion. After this, the Romans suffered one defeat after another until in 616 AD a greater part of the Eastern Roman Empire including Jerusalem was subdued by the Persians. This was the sixth or seventh year of Mu ḥ ammad’s prophethood. This prediction has been made by the Qur’ ā n somewhere between 617 and 620 AD. Gibbon says that “No prophecy could be more distant from its accomplishment, since the first twelve years of Heraclius announced the approaching dissolution of the empire.” ((Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , vol. 2 (New York: The Modern Library, n.d.), 788). The Qur’ ā n has stressed that by the latest this prediction would be fulfilled in the next decade ( َ ﺳﻨ;ۡ: *ﻀۡﻊ ). Thus, it was fulfilled precisely according to this announcement and in March 628 AD the Roman emperor returned to Constantinople with such splendour that four elephants were pulling his chariot and numerous people stood outside the city with lanterns and branches of olive to welcome back their hero. It was in such an explicit nature and certain style that this prediction