The Romans (Al-Room)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Alif, Lam, Meem. 1 The Romans have been defeated 2 in the neighbouring land; but after their defeat they shall gain victory 3 Within ten years - Allah's is the command in the former case and in the latter - and in that day 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 The promise of Allah; Allah does not renege on His promise, but most people do not know. 6 They know only the outside appearance of the life of the world (i.e. the matters of their livelihood, like irrigating or sowing or reaping, etc.), and they are heedless of the Hereafter. 7 Do they not ponder about their own selves? God has created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them for a purpose and for an appointed time? Yet many deny they will ever meet with their Lord. 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 Then evil was the end of those who did evil, because they rejected the communications of Allah and used to mock them. 10