THE CHALLENGE OF THE QUR’AN

The Challenge of The Qur’an ~ 309 ~ expedition against the Romans. Cabades II, the son of Chosroes II, entered into a peace treaty with the Romans and handed over all Roman territories. The wood of the Holy Cross was restored at the urgent entreaties of Constantine’s successor. Chosroes’ son abandoned the conquests of his father with no apparent regret. ‘The return of Heraclius from Tauris to Constantinople was a perpetual triumph. After a long impatience, the senate, the clergy, and the people went forth to meet their hero, with tears and acclamations, with olive branches and innumerable lamps; he entered the capital in a chariot drawn by four elephants’.11 Thus the Quranic prediction about the Romans regaining their lost territories came true, to the letter, within the specified period of ten years. Gibbon expressed astonishment at this prediction but at the same time, in order to lessen its importance, he has quite wrongly related it to the epistle sent by the Prophet Muhammad to Chosroes II. Gibbon observes: ‘While the Persian monarch contemplated the wonders of his art and power, he