Surah Ar-Rum: Thematic English Translation (Mustafa Çevik)

Alif. Lam. Mim. Allah’s verses are being conveyed to you in words formed from the letters of your language.

O believers! The Romans have been defeated by their enemies in a region near you, the lowest place on earth; but after a while they will prevail. So a grave danger will be turned away from you, and you will rejoice. It is Allah who will grant victory to those who deserve it.

Do not forget that Allah brings success to those who strive. He is supreme in knowledge and power, and most compassionate, merciful, and protective toward the believers. This is Allah’s promise to the believers. Allah never goes back on His promise, but many people cannot grasp its importance.

Most people concern themselves with the outward, fleeting side of worldly life, its play and distraction, and pay no heed to the lasting, enduring life of the Hereafter and take no interest in it.

Even when they are alone with themselves, such people never wonder what Allah’s purpose was in creating the heavens, the earth, and what is between them.

Yet Allah created these for people, and people so that they might build a system of life whose rules Allah has set. But most people do not wish to believe this truth, nor that they will be raised after death and called to account.

Do those who associate partners with Allah, as they travel through the land, never consider what became of those before them? Yet those were mightier than they, left deeper marks on the earth, and built up and developed the places where they lived far more. Their prophets too warned them in Allah’s name with Books and miracles, and invited them to live by the order that best accords with their innate nature. But they turned away from these truths, deserved the punishment, and so wronged themselves.

Surely the end of those who are ungrateful to Allah, pay no heed to His call, call it a lie, and mock it will be ruin.

Allah, who created the human being and brought him into being from nothing, will raise him again after his death, gather him in His presence, and call him to account for the stance he took toward His call.

When the Day of Reckoning comes with the Resurrection, those who turned away from Allah’s call will suffer the helplessness of being unable to escape the punishment they have deserved; those they took as gods will be of no help to them at all. So they will have understood the truth far too late, and will disown one another.

On That Day those who believed in Allah’s call and those who lived turning away from it will be set apart from one another.

Then the believers who obeyed their Lord will be settled, as a reward, in the Gardens, the home of blessings of matchless beauty.

But those who ended their worldly lives with their backs turned on Allah’s verses will be cast into Hell to be struck with the punishment they have deserved.

So, O people! Before that day comes, heed these warnings, keep away from shirk and disbelief, and turn to Allah’s call; give thanks to your Lord morning and evening and remember His greatness and power.

It is Allah who created and provides for all that is in the heavens and on the earth, and He alone is worthy of praise and thanks. When you reach midday, remember your Lord then too, and never forget that you are always in His presence.

Allah brings forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living. Just as He gives life to dead earth and revives it, so He will raise you again after you die.

Allah’s creating you from dust is the work of His boundless knowledge and power; then you multiplied and spread over the earth.

That He has created spouses for you of your own kind, so that you may find peace with them, and has placed love and mercy between you, is also among the proofs of Allah’s knowledge and power. In this there are lessons for those of pure understanding.

The creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your languages and your colors, are also the work of Allah’s knowledge and power.

Surely in all this there are proofs and lessons for those who wish to grasp Allah as He deserves and turn to His call.

It is Allah, too, who made the night dark for you to sleep and rest, and the day bright for you to work and benefit from His blessings. There are lessons in this for those who listen to Allah’s verses and reflect on them.

His making the lightning flash, which on the one hand frightens you with the sounds it brings and on the other gives you hope as the herald of rain, and then sending down the rain and reviving dead earth, are also among the proofs of Allah’s knowledge and power.

Only those who reflect on the reason for their creation and wish to fulfill their responsibilities toward Allah can understand the importance of these signs.

That the heavens and the earth are in perfect order, bound to the order and laws Allah has established, is also among the clear proofs of the greatness of His knowledge and power. Allah will raise you after you die, gather you in His presence, and call you to account for the way you used what He bestowed on you.

Allah is the Creator and true Owner of all that is in the heavens and on the earth. Each of them is bound to submit to Him. The right to govern what He has created by the order He has established and the laws He has set belongs to Him alone too. So you too, O people, submit to your Lord’s call!

Allah, who created people, brought them into being from nothing, and constantly repeats creation, will create the human being again after death too; for Allah this is very easy. Allah, who created what is in the heavens and on the earth, possesses absolute knowledge and power. He has power over everything; He has no equal and no partner.

Reflect on this example Allah gives you from your own lives! Would you ever make those who work beside you and under your command partners in the property We have granted you, treat them as your equals, make them partners in managing what you own, and give them a say? No, you would not consent to it; you would not allow such a thing. Likewise Allah, the true Owner of you and of all He has created along with you, makes no one a partner in the governance of what He owns; the right to govern what He has created, establish their order, and make their laws belongs to Him alone. Thus do We explain Our verses, so that those who use their reason may know the truth.

The wrongdoers follow their own desires and interests without any knowledge or proof from Allah. They associate partners with Allah and choose to deny the truth. There is no one to bring such people to the right path or to help them.

Be hanifs (people of upright faith), turning with your whole being to the system of life (religion) that is Allah’s call! This is the religion that best accords with human nature. Do not set about changing your innate nature. Do not cause corruption and decay by trying to change this quality Allah has placed in your nature!

Never forgetting that you will be held responsible for this before Allah, take Him alone as Lord and God and perform your prayers with care and constancy. Do not be among the ignorant and those who associate partners with Allah, who split the religion that is Allah’s order into pieces, forming sects, and then pride themselves on what is left in their hands.

When hardship befalls those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth, they at once turn to Allah and begin to plead and implore Him alone. Then, when Allah delivers them from their hardship, lo, some of them return once more to a life of associating partners with Him.

Let them go on being ungrateful to Allah, then, and enjoy the blessings of the world; in any case, when the day comes they will be punished with the punishment they deserve in return for what they did.

Have We given them any warrant to take other lords and gods alongside Allah, on the strength of which they choose to associate partners with Him and deny the truth?

Whenever We grant them a life of plenty, instead of thanking their Lord they rejoice in what He bestows and grow spoiled. And when, because of their ingratitude, their shirk and disbelief, a calamity or hardship befalls them, they at once fall into despair, collapse, and begin to plead and implore.

Allah makes provision abundant for whom He wills, when He wills, and restricts the provision of whom He wills. But most people do not wish to understand that this is a test from Allah. There are lessons in this for those who take Allah alone as God and believe in His verses.

O believers! Give their rights to the poor among your kinsfolk, to the other poor, and to the stranded traveler, and meet their needs. Allah is pleased with those who act so and rewards them many times over for what they do.

Whatever someone gives by way of riba (usury), thinking to take back more than he gave out of others’ wealth, what he gains wrongfully has no value and no reward at all in Allah’s sight.

You will find the recompense for what you spend and give in charity seeking Allah’s good pleasure many times over with Him.

Do not forget that it is Allah who created you, who provides for you, and who will raise you after your death and call you to account.

Can any of those you take as lords and gods alongside Allah do any one of these things? No, never.

No one but Allah has the power to do these things. Allah is far above the partners associated with Him, the Exalted, the one true God.

Because of the systems of shirk and disbelief that people have set up themselves, corruption, decay, chaos, and mischief have broken out on land and sea. Allah will make them taste in this world some of the evil consequences of what they have done, so that they may come to their senses and return to living by the divine order that is the reason for their creation.

Say: “Travel through the land, ask and inquire, and learn what became of those before you who rejected Allah’s call.”

O people! Before that dreadful Day of Resurrection and Reckoning comes, which Allah has decreed and which cannot possibly be averted, turn your faces to Allah’s call, and so enter the religion that is firm and the only right one.

When that day comes, people will be separated into groups according to the way they lived.

Rewards in Paradise await those who in their worldly lives used the time and blessings Allah bestowed in the direction of His good pleasure.

But the punishment of Hell awaits those who rejected Allah’s call and squandered the time and blessings bestowed on them. The truth is that while Allah is most compassionate and merciful toward the believers who believe in His call, He withholds His compassion and mercy from those who associate partners with Him and deny the truth.

Allah sends the wind before Him as a bearer of good news, and has it carry the rain clouds laden with mercy and plenty. And by the laws He has set in the seas He has you and your loads carried by ships.

Should you not give thanks to your Lord, whose countless blessings created for you you enjoy, and turn to Him?

O Prophet! We sent the prophets before you to people with verses that set forth the truth plainly and with certain miracles. Yet despite this many called them liars and refused to believe.

We saved the believers among them who believed in the call. Allah has taken it upon Himself to help the believers. And those who did not believe We destroyed with Our punishment.

Allah raises the clouds high with the winds, spreads them in the sky as He wills, breaks them up and scatters them, and sends down the rain on the lands of whom He wills of His servants, gladdening them. Yet before this came to them they were in utter despair and helplessness.

Just as Allah revives dead earth with the rain He sends down in His mercy, have no doubt that He will likewise revive and raise you after you die, and give you the recompense you deserve according to whether or not you lived in keeping with the reason for your creation.

Allah’s knowledge and power suffice for everything.

Even if Allah sent a scorching wind upon the crops of those who turn away from His call and destroyed them, they would still persist in their denial.

O Prophet! Just as you cannot make the dead hear your call, neither can you make those hear it who stop their ears and turn their backs and walk away.

You can warn only those who wonder about the reason for their creation, and who see and reflect on the order in the universe and the harmony among created beings. These are the ones who can grasp the meaning and importance of the Allah-centered system of life to which they are invited.

Allah first creates you as a weak and powerless being; after your infancy and childhood He gives you strength and vigor in your youth; then He turns you to old age, with your hair and beard turned white, to your helpless and powerless state.

Allah creates what He wills, in the way He wills, and turns it to the state He wills. He knows what is truest in everything, and He has power over everything.

When people are gathered together for the Day of Reckoning after the Resurrection, those who ended their worldly lives associating partners with Allah and denying the truth will swear oaths that they lived in the world for only an hour, and will make excuses that, had they stayed longer, they would have reached what is right.

They always took refuge behind lies like these in denying and twisting the truths.

But those who lived their worldly lives believing in Allah’s call and fulfilling what it requires will call out to those who associated partners with Allah and denied the truth: “By Allah’s law, you too were given time enough to live accepting or rejecting the order and morality to which you were invited. But you paid no heed to this resurrection and Day of Reckoning and did not believe in it.”

On That Day their baseless excuses will be of no use to them at all. Nor will their wishes to return to the world and live in keeping with the reason for their creation be accepted.

Through these verses of the Quran We have set forth plainly, with examples and repetitions, what the right and the wrong ways of life are.

O Prophet! Even if you showed miracles to those who have made denial their nature, you could not make them accept the call. They would still say, “You are trying to upset our order with baseless, empty claims.”

Because of their ingratitude to Allah, their stubbornness, and their insolence, unhappiness and discontent take root in the hearts of such people.

O Prophet, and you believers! Be patient, without compromising your faith, in the face of the difficulties and hardships those who associate partners with Allah and deny the truth put in your way. Allah’s promise of victory to you will surely be fulfilled.

Never let the provocations of those who turn away from your Lord’s call and attack you unsettle you and drive you to despair.