God Arises
The Challenge of The Qur’an
~ 310 ~
received an epistle from an obscure citizen of
Makkah inviting him to acknowledge Mahomet as
the apostle of God. He rejected the invitation, and
tore up the epistle. It is thus, exclaimed the Arabian
Prophet, that God will tear the kingdom, and reject
the supplications of Chosroes. Placed on the verge
of the two great empires of the East, Mahomet
observed with secret joy the progress of their
mutual destruction; and, in the midst of the Persian
triumphs, he ventured to foretell that, before many
years should elapse, victory would again return to
the banners of the Romans. At the time when this
prediction is said to have been delivered, no
prophecy could be more distant from its
accomplishment, since the first twelve years of
Heraclius announced the approaching dissolution
of the empire’.
12
But other historians are in agreement that his
prediction does not relate to the epistle addressed to
Chosroes II, because this having been sent to the
emperor of Persia in the seventh year of Hijrah, in
628 A.D., whereas the prediction of the Roman
victory had been made in 616 A.D. in Makkah,
before the emigration.
