The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

30. THE BYZANTINES
A Meccan sura which opens with a reference to the defeat of the Byzantines at
the hands of the Persians (613–14 ce) in Syria, and the subsequent victory of
the Byzantines in 624 ce. The sura urges people to reflect on the creation of
themselves, the heavens and earth, and all God’s wonders. God’s power to give
life to a barren land is repeated as an indication both of His ability to raise the
dead and of His mercy to mankind. The disbelievers are warned to believe
before it is too late; the Prophet is urged to persevere and to ignore the taunts of
the disbelievers.
In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy
1 Alif Lam Mim
2 The Byzantines have been defeated 3 in a nearby land. They will
reverse their defeat with a victory 4 in a few years’ time a ––God is in
command, first and last. On that day, the believers will rejoice 5 at
God’s help. He helps whoever He pleases: He is the Mighty, the
Merciful. 6 This is God’s promise: God never breaks His promise,
but most people do not know; 7 they only know the outer surface of
this present life and are heedless of the life to come. 8 Have they not
thought about their own selves? b God did not create the heavens and
earth and everything between them without a serious purpose and an
appointed time, yet many people deny that they will meet their Lord.
9 Have they not travelled through the land and seen how their
predecessors met their end? They were mightier than them: they
cultivated the earth more and built more upon it. Their own messengers
also came to them with clear signs: God did not wrong
them; they wronged themselves. 10 Later the evildoers met a terrible
end for rejecting and [repeatedly] mocking God’s revelations. 11 God
brings creation into being; in the end He will reproduce it and it is to
Him you will be recalled.
12 On the Day the Hour arrives, the guilty will despair 13 and they
will have no intercessors among those partners they ascribed to
a When fortunes were reversed and the Byzantines won a victory, this was to please
the believers. This was also the year of the Muslim victory at Badr. The earlier defeat of
the Byzantines had been viewed by the Meccan pagans as a victory for paganism.
b Or ‘within’ themselves. See also 41: 53.