Prophecies in the Quran: Difference between revisions

A major theme in the Quran are prophecies of an escatalogical nature, i.e. concerning the last day. In Surah al-Rum, there is also a prophecy concerning contemporary military-political events, which too may have an escatalogical context and has been of considerable interest to academic scholars.

{{Quote|{{Quran-range|30|2|7}}|(2) The Byzantines have been defeated<BR />

(3) In the nearest land. But they, after their defeat, will overcome.<BR />

(4) Within three to nine years. To Allah belongs the command before and after. And that day the believers will rejoice<BR />

(5) In the victory of Allah. He gives victory to whom He wills, and He is the Exalted in Might, the Merciful.<BR />

(6) [It is] the promise of Allah. Allah does not fail in His promise, but most of the people do not know.<BR />

(7) They know what is apparent of the worldly life, but they, of the Hereafter, are unaware.}}

This famous Quranic passage does not mention the Persians (Sasanids), though it was understood in tafsir (commentary) tradition to be a reference to the long-running war between the Byzantines (Romans) and their Sasanian (Persian) imperial rivals. In 614 CE, the Sasanids captured Jerusalem from the Byzantine empire, a moment of great dispair for the Christian world and seems to be the defeat mentioned in Q. 30:2. In 622 CE the Byzantines had a significant victory over the Sasanids in Anatolia, modern Turkey. This marked the end of the first stage of the war and is commonly claimed to be the fulfilment of the prophecy. Fighting continued, with the Romans increasingly successful. The end of the war came in 628 CE when the Byzantine emperor Heraclius accepted the surrender of the Sasanids, regained Jerusalem and returned to that holy city the relic of the "true cross" which the Sasanids had taken as spoils of war during their conquest of Jerusalem 14 years earlier (see [[w:Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628|Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628]]).

The Arabic word translated "three to nine" is ''biḍ'ʿi'', which traditionally and in Arabic dictionaries indicates that specific number range (though there is some doubt about this definition, discussed below). Three to nine would fit the eight year gap between the capture of Jerusalem and the Byzantine victory under Heraclius in Anatolia, though critics sometimes point out that this was by no means the end of the war, which did not come until some years later (628 CE, fourteen years after Jerusalem was captured in 614 CE). Rather, Anatolia marked what turned out to be a turning point in Byzantine fortunes. As set out below, there is also reason to interpret this prophecy as part of a late antique escatalogical prophetic tradition, in which the final victory of the Romans (Byzantines) over the Persians was seen as an apocalyptic prelude to the end times.

In his article, '' 'The Romans Will Win!' Q 30:2‒7 in Light of 7th c. Political Eschatology'', academic scholar Tommaso Tesei is of the view that the traditional Meccan period dating of Surah al-Rum should be ignored and that the opening verses should be regarded as an ex-eventu prophecy

 

Tesei demonstrates that there were a number of similar contemporary Christian prophecies about the Byzantine-Sasanid war with an ultimate victory for the Romans.<ref name="Tesei2018">Tommaso Tesei (2018) [https://www.academia.edu/36263369 'The Romans Will Win!' Q 30:2‒7 in Light of 7th c. Political Eschatology.], Der Islam 2018; 95 (1): 1–29</ref> These are framed in an escatological context, with the final victory commencing a glorious period in prelude to the apocalypse. He writes, "the opening verses of sūrat al-Rūm bear a striking resemblance to prophecies circulating in the Middle East at the time when the Qurʾānic passage purportedly was formulated."

Similar prophecies occur in several 7th century Jewish works, including ''Sefer Elijah'', which links it to a prophecy in the Biblical Book of Daniel. According to common Rabbinical interpretation, the fourth and last great imperial power in that Biblical prophecy was the Byzantine empire, destined to collapse and be followed by the coming of the messiah. For Christians, a more positive interpretation had the Roman empire as that fourth power, with the Byzantines being a Christian continuation thereof as the final world power to prepare for the coming kingdom of heaven. Imperial campaigns were cast in this context as eschatalogical events of cosmic grandeur. A famous example of such propaganda is the ''Syriac Alexander Legend'', which alludes to Heraclius' 628 CE reconquest of Jerusalem as an ex eventu prophecy, and then wrongly predicts that its reign will last til the end of time.<ref name="Tesei2018" /> Thus, Jewish escatalogical prophecies were of a Byzantine defeat, whereas Christian versions end with their victory.  

Adam Silverstein concurs with Tesei's assessment that the Quranic passage should be viewed in a wider, eschatalogical prophetic context, though draws on and emphasises more strongly the Jewish sources before the 7th century which allows time for them to have influenced the Quran during the Meccan period when the verses were traditionally revealed and may support an alternative reading of the Quranic passage in which the Romans are prophecised to be finally defeated (see the section on variant readings below; Silvestein himself argues we must remain agnostic as to which reading is correct. In this alternative reading, the rejoicing of the believers in verse 4 would be due to the downfall of the Romans rather than their victory.<ref>Adam Silverstein (2020) [https://www.academia.edu/42956572 Q 30: 2-5 in Near Eastern Context], Der Islam 97</ref>

Silverstein further notes that the phrase biḍ'ʿi sinīn (three to nine years) in Q. 30:4 also occurs in {{Quran|12|42}}, where it refers to the imprisonment of Joseph, which in Genesis 4:1 lasted two years. He adds, "However, the earliest Muslim exegetes (the earliest being Zayd b. ‘Alī,

ca. 740 CE), interpret the phrase as meaning either 'three to five years' or 'three to nine years'."<ref>Ibid. p. 37</ref>  

===The Byzantine victory of 622 CE===

Tesei explains that Q. 30:4, which states that "And that day the believers will rejoice", should be interpreted in terms of escatalogical expectations that an ultimate Roman victory over the Sasanids would herald the unfolding of the final stage of sacred history, in line with the similar 7th century prophecies about the war. This is also supported by the fact that the phrase "on that day" has escatalogical connotations when it is used elsewhere in the Quran.

Given this late antique context, in which any prophecy of this nature (assuming the standard reading is correct) would be understood to refer to a final triumph of the Byzantines as an important event in sacred history (and probably with apocalyptic connotations), it is unlikely that the Quranic prophecy in verses 3-4 was intended as anything less than the ultimate victory of the Byzantines over the Sasanids. Critics would point out that this would not in fact come until 14 years after the Byzantines lost Jerusalem to the Sasanids and not within the 3-9 years predicted in Surah al-Rum. The verb ghalaba which occurs repeatedly in Q. 30:2-3 means "to overcome", "conquer", "become superior"<ref>Ghalaba - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000063.pdf Lane's Lexicon] page 2279</ref>.  

The Byzantine victory in Anatolia in 622 CE is often presented as the fulfillment of the Quranic prophecy within the required timeframe. However, that Roman victory marked the end of the first stage of the war, after which point the Byzantines became increasingly successful, culminating in the Sasanid capitulation to Heraclius which did not come until 628 CE. It may be that the verses in Surah al-Rum represent an ex-eventu prophecy shortly after the events of 622 CE, but before it became apparent that the last day was not imminent and the war still had a significant way to go.

Interestingly, a hadith in Sunan al-Tirmidhi, one of the main six Sunni hadith collections, states that this passage was not in fact intended as a prophecy but was uttered after an unspecified Roman victory at the time of the battle of Badr. The timing is a little off (Badr is believed to have occured in 624 CE, two years after the Byzantine victory in the Anatolian campaign), but there is conceivably a kernal of history here. The hadith is graded sahih in the Dar-us-Salam edition, though is generally graded weak due to the narrator. Some other narrations state instead that it was a prophecy made before the event, though include a rather unlikely story about a hasty bet made by Abu Bakr which seems intended to cement the definition of the time duration specified in the verse (see for example {{Al Tirmidhi||5|44|3194}}).

Sometimes it is claimed that adnā l-arḍi in verse 3 should be interpreted in verse 30:3 to mean "the lowest land" rather than "the nearest land" (adnā is from the same root as the word dun'yā and is primarily defined as "nearest"<ref>Dal-nun-waw - [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000087.pdf Lane's Lexicon page 921] and [http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000088.pdf 922]</ref>). By this interpretation the Quran is claimed to have miraculously revealed that the Dead Sea in modern Israel was the lowest point on earth, a fact not known by humans until modern times. Besides the very questionable linguistic interpretation, the main problem with this miracle claim is that the Byzantines did not fight the Persians beside the Dead Sea, which is part of the Jordan rift valley, but rather they beseiged and [[w:Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628|captured Jerusalem in 614 CE]], which is well above sea level.

Gog and Magog are mythical barbarian tribes with an eschatalogical role described in the New Testament book of revelation. The first century CE historian Josephus recorded that Magog was shut behind an iron wall built between mountains by Alexander the Great. In late antiquity legends further developed the story in which they would break free and overun the earth in the last days, as seen in the ''Syriac Alexander Legend'' and its 7th century derivatives (see [[Dhul-Qarnayn and the Alexander Romance]]). The earth was envisioned to be flat and largely unexplored in these legends, [[Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth|as does the Quran]], so it would be easy to imagine these tribes being walled off behind the world encircling mountains with no way around.

===Contradictiory prophecies regarding the last day and punishment of disbelievers===

Is Paradise a better accommodation or the tree of zaqqum? Indeed, We have made it a torment for the wrongdoers. Indeed, it is a tree issuing from the bottom of the Hellfire, Its emerging fruit as if it was heads of the devils. And indeed, they will eat from it and fill with it their bellies. }}

Regarding these verses and others, see the article [[Contradictions in the Quran]].