“Alif. Lām. Mīm. The Romans have been defeated in the neighbouring land; but after their defeat they shall gain victory in a few years. All power belongs to Allah both before and after…. He grants victory to whomsoever He pleases. He is the Most Mighty, the Most Compassionate.”
(Al Qur’ān – 30:1-5)
It is evident from the statement of Abdullah bin Abbas and other Companions and Successors that in the war between the Roman and Persian Empires, the Muslims’ sympathies lay with the former whereas the Makkan unbelievers sympathised with the latter.
The Persians had portrayed this war as a war between Zoroastrianism and Christianity. The Zoroastrians believed in a duality of gods and worshipped fire. The Makkan unbelievers, being polytheists, naturally felt a degree of affinity with the Zoroastrians. At the other end of the spectrum were the Christians, the core of whose belief system resembled the Islamic faith. The Muslims, therefore, had a natural sympathy for the monotheistic Christians and an uncomfortable distaste for the Zoroastrian polytheists.
The fact that the Persians gained a considerable victory did not at all mean that God was weak and had been overpowered. Nor did the subsequent victory of the Romans mean that God’s dominion had thereby been restored. For sovereignty in any case belongs exclusively to God. It was God Who had granted victory to one party earlier and later to the other. No one can gain the upper hand against anyone merely by dint of power alone. It is God Who ultimately decides who should rise and who should fall.