The Romans (Al-Room)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
۞ Alif-Lam-Mim. 1 The Romans have been defeated in a nearby land and after this defeat, 2 In the nearer land, and they, after their defeat will be victorious 3 In a few years (less than ten). God's is the imperative first and last. On that day the believers will rejoice 4 in God's succour: [for] He gives succour to whomever He wills, since He alone is almighty, a dispenser of grace. 5 (It is) a Promise of Allah (i.e. Allah will give victory to the Romans against the Persians), and Allah fails not in His Promise, but most of men know not. 6 People simply know the outward aspect of the worldly life but are utterly heedless of the Hereafter. 7 Do they not think deeply (in their ownselves) about themselves (how Allah created them from nothing, and similarly He will resurrect them)? Allah has created not the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, except with truth and for an appointed term. And indeed many of mankind deny the Meeting with their Lord. [See Tafsir At-Tabari, Part 21, Page 24]. 8 Have they, then, never journeyed about the earth and beheld what happened in the end to those [deniers of the truth] who lived before their time? Greater were they in power than they are; and they left a stronger impact on the earth, and built it up even better than these [are doing]; and to them [too] came their apostles with all evidence of the truth: and so, [when they rejected the truth and thereupon perished,] it was not God who wronged them, but it was they who had wronged themselves. 9 In the long run evil in the extreme will be the End of those who do evil; for that they rejected the Signs of Allah, and held them up to ridicule. 10