Texts of Islam

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This is the thirtieth chapter (*Surah Ar-Rum*, "The Romans") of the Quran, a Meccan revelation in the Islamic scriptural tradition, rendered here in a nineteenth-century English translation. It opens with a specific historical prophecy: the Romans (Greeks), recently defeated, will reverse their fortunes within a few years — a claim the text presents as divine foreknowledge and a sign of God's sovereignty over worldly events. The chapter's central argument is that natural phenomena — the creation of spouses, the diversity of human languages and colors, sleep, lightning, rain reviving dead earth, and wind driving ships — are all legible "signs" of God's power and providence, offered as evidence for monotheism against those who associate partners with God. Running throughout is a sharp contrast between believers who recognize these signs and idolaters or sectarians who ignore them, with the chapter insisting that history itself (the ruins of fallen civilizations) testifies against those who reject God's messengers. A notably concrete ethical claim distinguishes charitable giving, which multiplies in God's sight, from usury, which does not — one of the Quran's explicit condemnations of interest-based wealth. The chapter closes by counseling the Prophet to patient steadfastness, since God's promise of ultimate judgment and vindication of believers is certain even if the disbelievers refuse to be moved.

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