The Romans (Al-Room)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Alif-Laam-Meem. (Alphabets of the Arabic language – Allah, and to whomever He reveals, know their precise meanings.) 1 The Byzantines have been defeated 2 (within a few years) they will be victorious. 3 Within three to nine years. To Allah belongs the command before and after. And that day the believers will rejoice 4 With the help of Allah; He helps whomever He wills; and only He is the Almighty, the Most Merciful. 5 (This is) Allah's promise! Allah will not fail 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 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 Then the end of those who committed evil was evil, for they belied the signs of God, and they derided them. 10