Destruction of the Sassanids
The Sassanids, a powerful behemoth at its peak, reduced to ashes.
After enduring years of persecution, the Muslims could finally focus on spreading the message of Islam. For over a decade, the pagans of Mecca subjected Muslims to brutal torture and killing. Slaves and entire families were mercilessly beaten and killed solely for renouncing idolatry.
a nearby city, now known as Medina. Once settled there, they began inviting other tribes and peoples to Islam. The Prophet ﷺ extended his outreach by sending letters to the rulers of major empires, including Khosrow II, the king of the Persian Sassanian Empire. As Khosrow II received the letter, he only saw one thing; he saw the Prophets’ name written before his. For something so insignificant, the letter was torn up in anger. When news of this came to the Prophet ﷺ, he said that the same way Khosrow tore up the letter, his kingdom will be torn apart. [1] [2]
Keep in mind the context of the situation here. The Sassanian’s were an enormous superpower at the time. They survived for centuries and were occupying the land of the Byzantines, another superpower. The Persian Sassanian’s took Byzantine Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Anatolia, and even the Byzantines’ “True Cross” artifact. The Sassanian’s were humiliating the Byzantines, and they struck fear in anybody who dared stand in their way. [3]
Thus, the Sassanids’ morale and strength were at an all-time high.
The Sassanids’ massive landmass at the time, stretching from modern-day Egypt to modern-day Pakistan.
Does it sound plausible to say that such a superpower will be soon ripped apart? To say that it will happen while they are the strongest empire in the world? As shocking as it sounds, that’s exactly what ended up happening. Very soon after the prophecy, the Byzantines forced the Sassanian’s back to where they started before their major wars. After the Persians humiliating defeat, Khosrow’s own son, Kavad II, decided to take matters into his own hands. Kavad II imprisoned his father and declared himself king, then slaughtered all of his brothers. Khosrow II saw the destruction of everything he held dear. His empire had lost all hope of a future competent ruler, his family had been slaughtered, and his own flesh and blood turned against him.
Humiliation upon humiliation.
Daryaee Touraj states in “SASANIAN PERSIA: the Rise and Fall of an Empire”:
“In a matter of years, Khusro II went from a world conqueror, emulating the Achaemenid territorial integrity, to a humiliated king…” [3]
Things did not end there though, because Khosrow’s kingdom had still not been completely torn to shreds.
After some chaotic years of civil war and many rulers trying to take the throne, the entire empire had been reduced to a shell of its former self. The empire was headed for destruction. Additionally, the Muslims had become much stronger at this point. They had become the leaders of Arabia, and thus came the final blow to the Sassanian’s. By the Muslim Rashidun Caliphates’ hand, the once-great Sassanian empire had been reduced to nothing and was annexed by the Muslims in its near entirety. Soon after this prophecy was made, one of the most powerful empires on Earth was reduced to nothing.
References:
When the Moon Split: (a Biography of Prophet Muhammad), by Mubārakfūrī Ṣafī al-Raḥmān. et al., Darussalam, 2002.
Ibid, pp. 220–221.
Daryaee, Touraj. SASANIAN PERSIA: the Rise and Fall of an Empire. BLOOMSBURY, 2021, pp. 33.
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, vol. 8, DeFau, 1907, p. 48.
Daryaee, Touraj. SASANIAN PERSIA: the Rise and Fall of an Empire. BLOOMSBURY, 2021.
