Ar-Rum

Surah 30 of the Quran

سورة الروم‎ Sūrat al-Rūm The Romans
Arabic text English text
Classification	Meccan
Other names	The Byzantines, The Greeks
Position	Juzʼ 21
No. of verses	110
No. of Rukus	6
No. of Sajdahs	none

See Rûm for the Arabic term for the Byzantine Empire itself.

Surat Ar-Rum (Template:Lang-ar, "Sura of the Romans", referring to the Byzantine Empire) is the 30th sura of the Qur'an with 60 ayat.

The surah begins by noting the recent defeat of the Romans by the Persians. It in turn calls Muslims to look forward to the victory it prophesies of the Emperor Heraclius' Christians over the Persian Zoroastrians. In it, Christianity is shown preference over non-Abrahamic faiths.

The early Muslim community perceived the Greeks of the Christian Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Romans, therefore ar-Rum) as nearer to their religion, whilst the Meccan idolaters felt more inclined to the Persian religion which was also idolatrous. According to Muslim tradition, the Meccans taunted the Muslims by pointing to the recent military defeats of the Byzantines by the Persian Sassanid Empire, that adhered to Zoroastrianism, and predicted that the Christian Byzantines were about to be defeated, and that the Muslims were next in line.

External links

• Ar-Rum Altafsir.com

See also

• Hadith of the prediction in Sura al-Rum