Surah 30. Ar-Rum

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Verses [Section]: 1-10[1], 11-19 [2], 20-27 [3], 28-40 [4], 41-53 [5], 54-60 [6]

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Quran Text of Verse 1-1030. Ar-Rumبِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِیْمِالٓمّٓۚAlif Lam Mim غُلِبَتِHave been defeatedالرُّوْمُۙthe Romans فِیْۤInاَدْنَی(the) nearestالْاَرْضِlandوَ هُمْBut theyمِّنْۢafterبَعْدِafterغَلَبِهِمْtheir defeatسَیَغْلِبُوْنَۙwill overcome فِیْWithinبِضْعِa fewسِنِیْنَ ؕ۬yearsلِلّٰهِFor Allahالْاَمْرُ(is) the commandمِنْbeforeقَبْلُbeforeوَ مِنْۢand afterبَعْدُ ؕand afterوَ یَوْمَىِٕذٍAnd that dayیَّفْرَحُwill rejoiceالْمُؤْمِنُوْنَۙthe believers بِنَصْرِWith (the) helpاللّٰهِ ؕ(of) AllahیَنْصُرُHe helpsمَنْwhomیَّشَآءُ ؕHe willsوَ هُوَAnd Heالْعَزِیْزُ(is) the All-Mightyالرَّحِیْمُۙthe Most Merciful 30. Ar-Rum Page 405وَعْدَ(It is the) Promiseاللّٰهِ ؕ(of) Allahلَا(Does) notیُخْلِفُfailاللّٰهُAllahوَعْدَهٗ(in) His promiseوَ لٰكِنَّbutاَكْثَرَmost (of)النَّاسِ[the] peopleلَا(do) notیَعْلَمُوْنَ know یَعْلَمُوْنَThey knowظَاهِرًا(the) apparentمِّنَofالْحَیٰوةِthe lifeالدُّنْیَا ۖۚ(of) the worldوَ هُمْbut theyعَنِaboutالْاٰخِرَةِthe Hereafterهُمْ[they]غٰفِلُوْنَ (are) heedless اَوَ لَمْDo notیَتَفَكَّرُوْاthey ponderفِیْۤwithinاَنْفُسِهِمْ ۫themselvesمَاNotخَلَقَAllah (has) createdاللّٰهُAllah (has) createdالسَّمٰوٰتِthe heavensوَ الْاَرْضَand the earthوَ مَاand whatبَیْنَهُمَاۤ(is) between themاِلَّاexceptبِالْحَقِّin truthوَ اَجَلٍand (for) a termمُّسَمًّی ؕappointedوَ اِنَّAnd indeedكَثِیْرًاmanyمِّنَofالنَّاسِthe peopleبِلِقَآئِin (the) meetingرَبِّهِمْ(with) their Lordلَكٰفِرُوْنَ surely (are) disbelievers اَوَ لَمْHave notیَسِیْرُوْاthey traveledفِیinالْاَرْضِthe earthفَیَنْظُرُوْاand observedكَیْفَhowكَانَwasعَاقِبَةُ(the) endالَّذِیْنَ(of) thoseمِنْbefore themقَبْلِهِمْ ؕbefore themكَانُوْۤاThey wereاَشَدَّmightierمِنْهُمْto themقُوَّةً(in) strengthوَّ اَثَارُواand they dugالْاَرْضَthe earthوَ عَمَرُوْهَاۤand built (on) itاَكْثَرَmoreمِمَّاthan whatعَمَرُوْهَاthey have built (on) itوَ جَآءَتْهُمْAnd came (to) themرُسُلُهُمْtheir Messengersبِالْبَیِّنٰتِ ؕwith clear proofsفَمَاSo notكَانَwasاللّٰهُAllahلِیَظْلِمَهُمْto wrong themوَ لٰكِنْbutكَانُوْۤاthey wereاَنْفُسَهُمْthemselvesیَظْلِمُوْنَؕ(doing) wrong ثُمَّThenكَانَwasعَاقِبَةَ(the) endالَّذِیْنَ(of) those whoاَسَآءُواdid evilالسُّوْٓاٰۤیthe evilاَنْbecauseكَذَّبُوْاthey deniedبِاٰیٰتِ(the) Signsاللّٰهِ(of) Allahوَ كَانُوْاand wereبِهَاof themیَسْتَهْزِءُوْنَ۠making mockery

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Translation of Verse 1-10In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

(30:1) Alif. Lam. Mim.

(30:2) The Romans have been defeated

(30:3) in the neighbouring land;¹ but after their defeat they shall gain victory in a few years.

(30:4) All power belongs to Allah both before and after.² On that day will the believers rejoice

(30:5) at the victory granted by Allah.³ He grants victory to whomsoever He pleases. He is the Most Mighty, the Most Compassionate.

(30:6) This is Allah's promise and He does not go back on His promise. But most people do not know.

(30:7) People simply know the outward aspect of the worldly life but are utterly heedless⁴ of the Hereafter.

(30:8) Do they not reflect on themselves?⁵ Allah created the heavens and the earth and whatever lies between them in Truth and for an appointed term.⁶ Yet many people deny that they will meet their Lord.⁷

(30:9) Have they not travelled through the earth that they may observe what was the end of their predecessors⁸ who were far mightier and tilled the land⁹ and built upon it more than these have ever built?¹⁰ And Allah's Messengers came to them with Clear Signs.¹¹ It was not Allah Who wronged them, but it is they who wronged themselves.¹²

(30:10) Evil was the end of those evil-doers, for they gave the lie to Allah's Signs and scoffed at them.

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Commentary

1. It is evident from the statements of ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbas and other Companions and Successors that in this war between the Roman and Persian Empires, the Muslims’ sympathies lay with the former whereas the Makkan unbelievers sympathised with the latter.

This was so for several reasons. First, the Persians had portrayed this war as a war between Zoroastrianism and Christianity. They were trying to use the war not only for territorial expansion, but also as a means to spread their faith. The letter that Khosrau wrote to Caesar after the conquest of Jerusalem carries this unmistakable note for he interpreted his victory as a proof of the truth of his faith, Zoroastrianism. Moreover, in substantive terms, Zoroastrianism bore some resemblance with the religion of the Makkan polytheists. Common to both was the rejection of monotheism. The Zoroastrians believed in a duality of gods and worshipped fire. The Makkan unbelievers, being polytheists, naturally felt a degree of affinity with the Zoroastrians.

At the other end of the spectrum were the Christians. Notwithstanding the polytheistic elements that might have penetrated their religious beliefs and practices in the course of time, in principle they subscribed to God’s unity and considered it to be the quintessence of the true faith. They also believed in the Hereafter and regarded revelation and prophecy as the main source of guidance. Thus, the core of their belief system resembled the Islamic faith. The Muslims, therefore, had a natural sympathy for the monotheistic Christians and an uncomfortable distaste for the Zoroastrian polytheists.

The second reason why the Muslims had a certain sympathy with the Christians had to do with the fact that the adherents of every Prophet are reckoned as Muslims until a new Prophet is raised. However, if they reject the new Prophet after receiving his message, they are no longer considered believers. (See Towards Understanding the Qur ‘an, Vol. VII, al- Qasas 28: n. 73, pp. 229-232.) it was some five or six years after the Prophet Muhammad’s advent that the Romans suffered their defeat at the hands of the Persians. By then, the Prophet’s message had not found its way beyond the confines of Arabia. The Muslims, therefore, did not consider the Christians as unbelievers. Their attitude towards them though was distinct from that they held towards the Jews whom they counted as unbelievers for their rejection of Jesus’s Prophet hood.

The third reason behind this solicitude for the Christians can be attributed to the kind and sympathetic treatment the Muslims received from them during the early days of Islam, as mentioned in al-Qasas 28:52-55. - and al-Ma‘idah 5:82-85. Not only that, but quite a number of Christians had begun to accept Islam with open hearts. The Muslims also had goodwill for the Christians because the Christian emperor of Abyssinia, Negus, had provided a safe haven for Muslim migrants to his realm and had rejected the Makkan unbelievers’ demand that they be handed over to them.

2. The fact that the Persians gained a considerable victory did not at all mean that God was weak and had been overpowered. Nor did the subsequent victory of the Romans mean that God’s dominion had thereby been restored. For sovereignty in any case belongs exclusively to God. It was God Who had granted victory to one party earlier and later to the other. No one can gain the upper hand against anyone merely by dint of power alone. It is God Who ultimately decides who should rise and who should fall.

3. According to ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbas, Abu Sa ‘id al-Khudri, Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Suddi and others, the Romans’ victory over the Persians coincided with the Muslims’ victory over the Makkan polytheists in the Battle of Badr. (See Tafsir, comments on al-Rum 30:41 —Ed,) The Muslims’ rejoicing, therefore, was twofold. This is corroborated by both Persian and Roman records of the time. It was in 624 C.E. that the Battle of Badr took place and it was in the same year that Caesar razed the largest fire temple of the Zoroastrians to the ground and ravaged Zarathustra’s birthplace.

4, There are myriad signs and evidences which confirm the imminence of the Hereafter. If the unbelievers disregard these signs — and there is no good reason for them to do so — they themselves are to blame. It is their own fault if they fix their gaze on the outward appearances of worldly life and become oblivious to what lies behind it and which is bound to overtake them. Such negligence is strange in view of the repeated warnings they received at God’s behest.

5. This in itself is persuasive proof of the imminence of the Hereafter.

Were the unbelievers only to reflect on themselves, they would have found convincing proofs that the Next Life will follow the present one.

Man is, after all, distinguished from all other creatures by the following . three features: i. Innumerable objects on earth and its environs have been yoked to man’s service and man has been vested with a wide range of abilities so that he can make use of these.

ii. Man has been granted freedom to choose his course in life. He is free to believe or to disbelieve, to obey or to disobey, to do good or evil. He may opt for truth or falsehood, for right or wrong. But once he makes the choice, he is enabled, by the nature of things, to pursue his choice and, in so doing, can use the resources which God has created regardless of whether he wants to use them in obeying God or disobeying Him.

iii. Man has been inherently endowed with moral consciousness.

Thanks to this, he instinctively differentiates between voluntary and involuntary acts and judges some voluntary acts to be good — and others to be evil. He also concludes that good acts merit reward and evil acts merit punishment.

These innate traits indicate that at some point in time man should be called to account; that he should be asked how he used the abilities, power and authority that were granted to him in the world and how he exercised his free-will to choose between good and evil. These traits also require that man’s voluntary acts should be appraised and that he should be rewarded or punished for his good and bad acts respectively. It is also evident that the appraisal of man’s performance is possible only after the term granted to him to act comes to an end. Furthermore, this can only happen when the actions of not just one individual or nation, but of all human beings, come to a final end: This, because an individual's death or even the disappearance of a whole nation does not bring about an end to the total effects of a person’s actions. In fact, all the good and evil effects of a person’s actions should be taken into account when passing the final judgement on him.

For until the full impact of a person’s actions materialize, how can he be judged and requited in keeping with the strict requirements of justice? Thus, man’s own being and the position he enjoys in this world require that there should be an Afterlife in which everyone will be judged in the light of his life’s record and be recompensed in accordance with his performance.

6. Two additional arguments in support of the Hereafter are adduced in this verse. If man looks carefully.at the order of the Universe external to himself, the following two facts emerge: i. This Universe has been created in truth. It is not a child’s play crafted for the mere fun of it. Creation did not take place for sheer amusement. The Universe is not a child’s play house of sand or clay devoid of any serious meaning and purpose, a play house about which it could be said that it would be all the same whether it was made or destroyed. On the contrary, the Universe is characterized by the prevalence of an order actuated with profound purpose.

Every atom of the Universe bears witness that it has been created for a definite end, that a well-defined law permeates all its objects, and that everything in it serves a definite purpose.

This is evident from the whole gamut of human culture and economy and the entire accumulation of human knowledge and expertise. Man has been able to make advancements in various domains only after identifying the laws of nature that govern the operation and purpose of everything. Had he been a mere puppet in this vast yet meaningless spectacle, no advancement could have been accomplished either in the domains of science, culture or civilization. Given this, how can the unbelievers entertain the preposterous notion that God created man without any purpose? How can anyone be led to such a belief when it is evident that the All-Wise God ingrained a sense of purpose in the whole of creation and also equipped man with the highest intellectual and physical faculties? Moreover, God has imbued man with a moral sense, has granted him free-will, and has placed innumerable objects and forces of the Universe at his disposal. How is it even conceivable that God would do all this and yet endow man’s existence with no purpose? How can it stand.to reason that man, after doing much that is good or evil, just or unjust, and right or wrong, will simply _ be reduced to dust after he dies without facing the consequences for any of his deeds? The fact is that man’s every action affects the lives of thousands upon thousands of human beings like himself as well as upon innumerable objects in the Universe. How is it possible that no sooner than a person dies the whole record of his deeds will be reduced to naught without him bearing any responsibility for them? ii. Another fact that becomes evident by studying the order of the Universe is that nothing in it is everlasting. There is an appointed term for everyone and everything. Upon the expiry of that term, it comes to an end. The same holds true for the Universe as a whole.

All the forces that are at work in it are finite. At a given point in time, all of them will finish and the present order will cease.

In the past, owing to lack of knowledge some people were taken in by the contentions of those philosophers and scientists who claimed that this world neither had a beginning nor an end. However, modem science has almost definitively cast its vote in favor of the position of those who believe that the world will someday come to an end. It has, thus, resolved the long drawn-out debate between atheists and theists regarding whether this Universe has existed from eternity or was created in time. Atheists can no longer invoke reason and logic to claim that the world has always been and will always be.

The contention of the materialists of ancient times rested on the notion that matter is imperishable and that it only changes its form, that the total quantum of it always remains the same. Consistent with this notion, it was held that this material world is without a beginning and an end.

The discovery of atomic energy has dealt a severe blow to this. It is now fairly clear that there is a permanent nexus between matter and energy. Matter changes into energy, and vice versa and neither retains a fixed form or structure. The second law of thermodynamics has demonstrated that this material world has neither always been nor will always be; it necessarily had a beginning in time and at some point is bound to end.

One can, therefore, no longer invoke science to deny the Afterlife. That being the position, itis obvious that philosophy, unsupported by science, is in no position to deny Afterlife.

7. The unbelievers reject the idea that after death they will have to return to and stand before their Lord for His judgement.

8. This argument in support of the Hereafter is drawn from history.

Throughout history a large number of people denied the notion of the Hereafter. There have been a very large number of people, in fact whole nations, who either denied the Hereafter or altogether disregarded it.

There have also been others who fabricated totally false notions about it, seeking to reduce it to an absurdity.

It is noteworthy, however, that all through history whenever the Hereafter was denied it always led to moral corruption. It made people consider themselves as devoid of all responsibility, thus making them unfettered brutes. They intermittently committed evil and brazenly perpetrated injustice and oppression. It was this which inexorably led many nations to be decimated. Does this lesson from history down the ages not prove that the Afterlife is an incontrovertible reality, a reality whose denial entails disastrous consequences for mankind? Man was persuaded to accept the law of gravity because he has invariably observed material objects gravitate to the earth. Likewise, man has considered poison to be fatal because he has witnessed its deadly effect. By the same token, when it is a proven fact that the rejection of the Afterlife has always led to man’s moral impairment, this should be a sufficient basis to affirm belief in the Afterlife and to conclude that man cannot live a wholesome life without believing in it.

9. The Qur’anic expression “atharu al-ard” may refer to a range of activities such as ploughing farms, digging the earth to draw subterranean water, constructing over ground and subterranean canals, and mining, etc.

10. This is a rejoinder to those who regard the material prosperity of a community as proof of the rectitude of its behavior. Such people contend that it is absolutely inconceivable that God would make those who had been conspicuously successful in the world, who had skillfully exploited natural resources on a wide scale, carried out massive construction works, and established a glorious civilization the fodder of Hell-fire. The Quranic view on the issue, however, is that these constructive tasks were also accomplished by many communities in the past. Now, it is common knowledge that those communities, which had once boasted flourishing cultures and civilizations, were destroyed by God's scourge and all their architectural accomplishments razed to the ground. Divine scourge seized those nations that had attained material prosperity but that had done so without adhering to right beliefs and following the norms of good conduct. This is how God’s Law of Retribution operates in the world. Such being the case, how can wicked people escape God’s. Retribution in the World-to-Come?

11. The Messengers brought with them Clear Signs that were sufficient to establish their veracity. Mention of the advent of Messengers in this context means, on the one hand, that evidence for the Afterlife is found in man’s own being, in the workings of the Universe, and in the record of human history. On the other hand, God’s Messengers were raised in succession and were endowed with those Signs and miracles which confirmed their Prophet hood. They too warned mankind of the impending Afterlife.

12. When these communities failed to respond to the call of the Messengers who came to them with Clear Signs from God, they were utterly destroyed. This was certainly not an act of God's injustice and _ cruelty to them; rather, it is these communities themselves that had invited destruction upon themselves. If an individual or a community does not see reason and pays no heed to the admonitions of those who sincerely warn and counsel them to follow the Straight Way, it is not God but they themselves who are to blame for the disastrous end that overtakes them. This, because God has made true guidance available to mankind through His Books and Prophets. Additionally, He has endowed man with knowledge and intellect wherewith he can ascertain the soundness of the knowledge imparted by the Prophets and Scriptures. Had God not made such guidance available to mankind or had He not endowed man with these capacities, there would have been at least some basis to aver that God had engaged in wrong-doing.