Bismillah.
غُلِبَتِ الرُّومُ فِي أَدْنَى الْأَرْضِ وَهُم مِّن بَعْدِ غَلَبِهِمْ سَيَغْلِبُونَ فِي بِضْعِ سِنِينَ
The Byzantines has been vanquished in a nearby land, but they, after their defeat, will be victorious in a few years.
(Sūrat al-Rūm No. 30, Āyāt 2-4)
At the time Islam emerged in the Arabian Peninsula, two dominant world powers stood on the global stage: the Sassanid Persian (Iranian) Empire and the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. The Sassanids practiced Zoroastrianism and ruled over territories that today encompass Iran and Iraq. Their capital was Mada’in, a city of great importance at the time but later overshadowed and abandoned after the Abbasids founded Baghdad nearby. The Byzantine Empire, on the other hand, was essentially the
Eastern continuation of the ancient Roman Empire. The Byzantines were Christian, and their heartland included much of what is now modern-day Turkey. Their capital was Constantinople, the city that would later become Istanbul.
During the early 7th century CE, just as the message of Islam was beginning to spread across Arabia, a dramatic sequence of events unfolded between these two great empires. In 590 CE, the Sassanid king Khosrow II (Parviz) was temporarily overthrown in a rebellion. Two years later, with military support from the Byzantine emperor Maurice, Khosrow regained his throne. However, in 602 CE, Emperor
Maurice was assassinated and replaced by a general named Phocas. Seizing the moment—and perhaps aiming to avenge Maurice’s death—Khosrow launched a major military campaign against the Byzantines.
The Persian offensive was remarkably successful and over the next decade, their victories continued to mount. By 614, the Persians had conquered Syria and Palestine, even capturing the revered Christian cross believed to have been used in the crucifixion of Jesus and carrying it off in triumph. In 618 CE, they took Egypt. At this point, Persian power was at its peak—the greatest it had been since the
Achaemenid Empire, over 900 years earlier. Their empire stretched from North Africa to the borders of China. The Byzantines, by contrast, were in a state of collapse: surrounded, weakened, and financially drained.
Amazingly, during this time—around the 8th year after the biʿthah (prophetic mission)— Sūrat al-Rūm was revealed. In the above opening verses of the sūrah, the Quran prophesied that despite their crushing defeats, the Byzantines would soon be victorious once again. This prediction seemed impossible at the time.
Some years earlier, towards the beginning of the Iranian victories, the deeply unpopular Byzantine emperor Phocas was overthrown by Heraclius, a devout Christian. The empire, especially the Christian population, had grown desperate under Persian occupation, and Heraclius’s rise was seen as a beacon of hope. Even distant Christian rulers, such as al-Najāshī (the Negus of Abyssinia), expressed their support.
It is reported that he made a vow: if the Byzantines triumphed over the Persians, he would walk on foot from Africa to Jerusalem—and he later fulfilled that vow.
The Byzantine Church now threw its weight behind Heraclius, donating generously to the war effort. By 622 CE, the tide began to turn. Heraclius launched a daring counter-offensive, personally leading the army northward through Armenia and into Persian territory. His forces dealt several critical blows to the Persians. He also forged an alliance with the Turks, opening a new front against the Sassanids. In one of
the most symbolic moments of the campaign, Heraclius marched into the sacred Zoroastrian fire temple of Ādur Gušnasp and destroyed it. The same cross that had earlier been taken by the Persians, was recovered and returned to Jerusalem in triumph.
The final and decisive Byzantine victory came in 625 CE, coinciding with the second year after Hijrah (2 AH)—the same year that the Muslims achieved victory at the Battle of Badr. In a truly remarkable alignment of events, both the prophecy of Sūrat al-Rūm and the triumph of the Muslims in Arabia were realized nearly simultaneously!
The prediction in the verse above was fulfilled, showing that it was truly from God alone. No human being could have foreseen the turn of events and made a confident statement of the victory of the Byzantines. It is one more evidence that the words of the Quran were not from the Prophet (s) himself. May the Almighty help us understand the miraculous nature of the Quran.
Resources: Muhammad Husayn Wakīlī, Bī Nihāyat; Ayatullah Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-e Namūneh.