A miraculous aspect of the Qur’an is its prediction of future events, all of which have so far been fulfilled. This is one of the proofs that the Qur’an is the Word of Allah. In the following pages, we will dwell on some of these events. An astonishing prediction is found in the initial verses of Surat ar-Rum, which refers to the Byzantine Empire, the eastern part of the later Roman Empire: The Byzantine Empire, which had met with a great defeat, would soon gain victory.

The (2-4) verses of Surah Rome (30th Surah) in holy Quran are as follows:

The Romans have been Defeated (2)
In the lands (lowest or) nearer, yet it is they, who in spite of this defeat, shall be the victors (3)
In few years, and to Allah belongs the command, before and after and on that day the believers shall feel pleasure (4)

In these three verses, there are two quranic prophesies. The first regarding the defeat of Persians at the hands of Romans, which got fulfilled during the life of holy prophet, and the second , the fight taking place at the lowest point on earth, which got verified, only when google earth cameras went up the air.

Both these prophesies are explained in details below:

In the early 7th century, the two most powerful empires at the time were the Byzantine and Persian Empires. In 614 AD, five years after Bi’thaat (appointment of Muhammed as the prophet), a battle occurred between Iran (Persia) and Rome (Byzantine) in a place near Jerusalem. King Khosro Parviz, the emperor of Iran invaded Jerusalem and committed genocide. After defeat, the Byzantines were sinking in troubles. The threats to them not only came from the Persians, but also from Avars, Slavians, and Lombards. Many governors rebelled against Heraclius (The Byzantium emperor) and the Kingdom was near almost collapse.

Since defeat the Romans were sinking in low ebbs, when the Quranic verses were bestowed to humanity predicting that soon the Romans shall defeat the Persians. In verse 4, the Arabic word “biḍa‘” that is translated as “a few”. That’s to say, the Romans shall be victorious over the Persians within few years of their previous defeat in 613–614 AD.

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

In-fact, Byzantine had been so heavily defeated that it seemed impossible for the Empire to even maintain its very existence, let alone be victorious again. Eventually, in 622 AD, Romans vanquished the troops of Parviz in the port of Isus, which was located in the south of Asia Minor and this was the beginning of Romans’ victory over the Persians. A decisive battle between The Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire was fought in the area around the Dead Sea, and this time it was the Byzantine army which surprisingly defeated the Persians. A few months later, the Persians had to make an agreement with the Byzantines which obliged them to return the territories they had taken from them. So, in the end, the victory of the Romans proclaimed by God in the Quran miraculously came through.


Lowest Point on Earth

In the above verse 3, The term “adna” is mentioned which in Arabic means both lowest and nearer. However, the first meaning is also there; that is, the lowest land. In this way, the Glorious Quran gives several meanings in one word.



The miracle revealed in the mentioned verses is the announcement of a -416 Lowest point on earth geographical fact that no-one would have been able to discover in that period. In the third verse of The Romans, it was mentioned that the Romans were defeated “in the lowest land” (Quran 30:3). Significantly, the places where the main battles took place (in Damascus and Jerusalem) lie in a vast area of low-lying land called the Great Rift Valley. The Great Rift Valley is a huge 5,000 km fault line in the earth’s crust that runs from northern Syria in the Middle-East of Asia to central Mozambique in East Africa. The northernmost extension runs through Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordon. The rift then extends south to the Gulf of Aden, makes its way through East Africa, then finally ends at the lower Zambezi River valley in Mozambique.

This interesting fact that has been discovered recently, with the help of satellite images, is that the area around the Dead Sea (located in the Great Rift Valley) has the lowest altitude on Earth. In fact, the lowest point on Earth is the shoreline of the Dead Sea, with an altitude of around 400 meters below sea level. The fact that it lies at the lowest point means that water does not drain from the sea. No land point on earth has a lower altitude than the shoreline of the Dead Sea.

Therefore it becomes clear that the country or prefecture which occupies the rift valley in the vicinity of the Dead Sea is what is meant in the Quran by “the lowest land.” This is a true miracle of the Quran because no-one could have known or foreseen such a fact in the 7th century because the satellites and modern day technology were not available at the time. Once again, the only possible explanation is that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had truly received divine revelation from God, the Creator and Originator of the universe.