The Romans (Al-Room)
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ Alif. Lam. Mim. 1 The Romans have been defeated in a nearby land and after this defeat, 2 In a land close by; but they, (even) after (this) defeat of theirs, will soon be victorious- 3 in a few years. To Allah belongs the Command before and after, and 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 The promise of Allah! Allah does not fail His promise, yet 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 The end of the evil-doers was terrible, for they had rejected the revelations of God and mocked them. 10