God Arises
The Challenge of The Qur’an
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place in Arabia. The Iranians worshipped a sun god
and fire, whereas the Romans believed in revelation
and prophethood. It made sense psychologically for
the Muslims to side with the Christian Romans,
whereas the Makkan idolaters sided with the
Zoroastrians, they too being nature worshippers.
The conflict between the Romans and Persians,
therefore, took on a symbolic value for the believers
and unbelievers of Makkah, in the sense that both
looked to the outcome of this transfrontier war as a
precursor to their own future.
In 616 A.D., the Iranians emerged victorious and all
the territories of the Roman Empire were annexed
to Persian territory. When this news reached
Madinah, the opponents of Islam made capital out
of it and began to demoralize the Muslims. They
taunted the Muslims with the fact that their Persian
brothers had prevailed over the Romans who were
adherents of a religion which was similar to Islam.
They claimed that in the same way they would
uproot the Muslims and their religion. In the weak
and helpless state the Muslims were in, these
sardonic words from the non-believers were like
salt to their wounds. It was at this time that the
