Page 114 - Islam and Karma

ISLAM AND KARMA

gold and silver in churches to be melted and turned into money in order
to meet the expenses of the army. When these proved insufficient, even
bronze statues were melted down to be turned into money. Many gover-
nors had revolted against Emperor Heraclius, and the empire was on the
point of collapse. Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and
Armenia, which had earlier belonged to Byzantium, were invaded by the
idolater Persians. 13
In short, everyone was expecting the Byzantine Empire to be de-
stroyed. But right at that moment, the first verses of Sura Rum were re-
vealed, announcing that Byzantium would triumph in a few years' time.
This victory seemed so impossible that Arab polytheists had gone so far
as to make fun of these verses. They thought that the victory announced
in the Qur'an would never come true.
Around seven years after the revelation of the first verses of Sura
Rum, in December 627 AD, a decisive battle between Byzantium and the
Persian Empire was fought at Nineveh. And this time the Byzantine army
unexpectedly defeated the Persians. A few months later, the Persians had
to make an agreement with Byzantium, which obliged them to return the
territories they had taken from it. 14
At the end, "the victory of the Romans," proclaimed by Allah in the
Qur'an, miraculously came true.
Another miracle revealed in these verses is the announcement of a
geographical fact that could not have been known by anyone at that time.
In the third verse of Surat ar-Rum, we are informed that the Romans
had been defeated in the lowest region of the Earth. This expression,
"Adna al Ard" in Arabic, is interpreted as "a nearby place" in many trans-
lations. Yet this is not the literal meaning of the original statement, but
rather a figurative interpretation of it. The word "Adna" in Arabic is de-
rived from the word "deni", which means "low" and "ard", which means
"world". Therefore the expression "Adna al Ard" means "the lowest place
on the Earth".
Most interestingly, the crucial stages of the war fought between the

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