Sūrah al-Rūm

Overview

Sūrah al-Rūm is a Makkan sūrah with 60 āyāt. The word rūm is an Arabic transliteration of ‘Romans’, though the Arabic term is much more generic, including Slavs, Greeks, as well as actual Romans within its connotation. The sūrah begins with an assertion and a prophecy—the Romans have been defeated by the Persians, but in a short number of years, they will be victorious against them. This is tail-ended by a pertinent reminder: victory is in the hands of Allah alone (30:1-6).

Allah makes a distinction between two types of knowledge—the disbelievers know ‘apparent matters of the worldly life, while they lie heedless of the Afterlife’. True knowledge is that which draws one closer to Allah. An example of this is the previous civilisations which roamed the earth. They were greater in number and prowess than the pagan Quraysh, but where are they now other than the annals of history? The end of the wrongdoers is doom, and that of the righteous is bliss. Glory and praise be to Allah at all times! (30:7-19). Allah thereafter adumbrates the cosmic signs He has laid out in the creative order as a demonstration of His majesty. Six times we hear: wa min āyātihī… in this passage. To Him belongs the loftiest example and the highest similitude (30:19-27).

After a parable confuting shirk, Allah speaks about the fiṭrah, and that its consequence is a perpetual reorientation to the Divine. The polytheist is he who divides his heart and consequently his dīn, lost in confusion. Man is weak, overjoyed in prosperity, despairing in paucity—Allah is the distributor of provision. He relates the latter to be a result of man’s own corruption. For example, usury is a rotten transaction which will see no real returns, but Allah multiplies ṣadaqah for its giver. Another usage of wa min āyātihī appears, this time in reference to the winds. All these signs are ‘the imprints of Allah’s mercy’ (30:28-50).

Allah reminds man of the cycle of his creation: we are created weak and dependent, then Allah gives us strength in youth, then this strength turns again to weakness in old age. The sūrah concludes with a description of how the criminals will react on the Day of Judgment compared to those of true knowledge. The signs were there aplenty, if only they could see (30:51-60).

Context

There was an ancient, well-recorded feud between the Greco-Roman and the Persian worlds. They were the two superpowers of antiquity. At the time of the advent of Islam, the Romans were Christian, while the Persians were polytheists. By virtue of their creeds, the Levantian Arabs, many of whom were Christians, were supporters of the Romans, while the Arabs of the Hijaz were supporters of the Persians. On one battle of this long-standing war, the Persians won dramatically. As a result, the pagan Quraysh used this as fuel to deride the Prophet ﷺ and the Companions—just as polytheists defeated a people of scripture there, so will they do here. Allah revealed Sūrah al-Rūm to quash the disbelievers’ vanity.

Themes

• The awesome signs of Allah in His creation.
• Corruption being man’s own doing.
• Knowledge and the ākhirah.

Unique Features

• The primordial, pure, natural disposition Allah created us upon, the fiṭrah, is mentioned explicitly only in this sūrah. (30:30)
• The prophecy, of course, came true. On the year of the Pledge of the Tree (Bayʿah al-Shajarah, also Bayʿah al-Riḍwān), seven years after the revelation of Sūrah al-Rūm, the Romans defeated the Persians. There is also a possibility that the defeat in fact took place the same time as the Battle of Badr (in the second year after Hijrah).
• The word ḍaʿf which comes up thrice in the 54th āyah of the sūrah may be recited as ḍuʿf within the same riwāyah of Ḥafṣ.
• The Qur’an contains 11 āyāt which begin with: wa min āyātihī… “Among His signs are…” Seven of those are in Sūrah al-Rūm.

Lessons

• What we witness around us of corruption is almost always our own doing. The created order is finetuned to a sensitive equilibrium. Being atop of it necessitates that we be good stewards and proper earthly representatives (khulafāʾ) of the divine will. When that balance is upset through avarice and greed, we see what we all see around us today. Allah warns us: “Corruption has become manifest in the land and sea due to what mankind have earned so that He make them taste some of what they did, so that perhaps they may return.”
• The absolute unifying principle is tawḥīd. Plurality points to singularity, and the polytheist is he who cannot get past the many to witness the One. Every intention must ultimately recognise and yearn for Allah. The alternative is the one religion of God turning into many false religions, ‘each party well pleased with what they have’. (30:32)
• The union between man and woman is among the most sacred of Allah’s signs. In a passage where Allah speaks about the creation of man, the heavens and the earth, ethnicities and languages, thunder and lightning, and even the Day of Resurrection, He tells us: “From His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates so that you may find rest therewith, and He made between you affection and mercy. Indeed in this are signs for a people who contemplate.”

Virtues and Valuable Information

• When Allah revealed the beginning of Sūrah al-Rūm, Abū Bakr roamed Makkah and kept proclaiming the first āyāt to the idolaters as a retort to their arrogance. Ubayy ibn Khalaf challenged him to a wager, which Abū Bakr accepted: if the Romans do indeed beat the Persians in biḍʿ (3-9) years, Abū Bakr wins, and if they don’t, Ubayy wins. Ubayy was killed in Uḥud, and Abū Bakr took what was wagered from his inheritors. This was prior to the prohibition of gambling.