The Sassanids, a powerful behemoth at its peak, reduced to ashes.

After many years of suffering, the Muslims could finally consider spreading the message of Islam.

The pagans of Mecca had tortured and killed the Muslims for many years. For nearly a decade, the pagans cut up Muslims with spears and forced them to wear metal chainmail while standing in the scorching sun. Slaves and families were beaten and killed solely for rejecting the idols of the pagans. Eventually, an opportunity came for the Muslims to escape to a nearby city now known as Medina. After they had migrated, the Muslims worked on inviting other tribes and peoples to Islam. The Prophet (ﷺ) then decided to reach out to rulers of contemporary empires with letters, one of the kings being Khosrow II, the king of the Persian Sassanids. As Khosrow II received the letter, he only saw one thing; he saw the Prophets’ name written before his. [1]

For something so insignificant, the letter was torn up.

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. [2]

Keep in mind the context of the situation here. The Sassanids were an enormous world superpower at the time. They survived for centuries and were annexing the land of the Byzantines, another world superpower. The Persian Sassanids took Byzantine Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Anatolia, and even the Byzantines’ “True Cross” artifact. [3] The Sassanids were humiliating the Byzantines, and they struck fear in anybody who dared stand in their way.

Thus, the Sassanids’ morale and strength were at an all-time high.

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?

Well, that’s what ended up happening.

Very soon after the prophecy, the Byzantines forced the Sassanids back to where they started before their major wars. This also happened to fulfill a different Islamic prophecy about the Byzantine's comeback. The prophecy stated that after the Byzantines’ major defeat, they would become victorious again.

Here is what Edward Gibbon had to say in “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” about the Islamic prophecy concerning the Byzantine comeback mentioned above.

“… In the midst of the Persian triumphs, [The Prophet] 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, [the Byzantine king], announced the approaching dissolution of the [Byzantine] empire.” [4]

Click for more detail on this prophecy.

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 went from being tortured in the streets of Mecca to becoming the leaders of Arabia. Thus came the final blow to the Sassanids. By the Muslim Rashidun Caliphates’ hand, the once-great Sassanid empire had been reduced to nothing and was taken over by the Muslims. [5]

Now under a just rule by the Muslims, the prophecy had fully come true.

The massive empire of Khosrow II was torn apart right after he tore apart the letter. It went from the strongest empire on Earth to a humiliated and chaotic mess which eventually dissolved into nothing. Exactly as the Prophet ﷺ said it would.

References:

1. When the Moon Split: (a Biography of Prophet Muhammad), by Mubārakfūrī Ṣafī al-Raḥmān. et al., Darussalam, 2002.

2. Ibid, pp. 220–221.

3. Daryaee, Touraj. SASANIAN PERSIA: the Rise and Fall of an Empire. BLOOMSBURY, 2021, pp. 33.

4. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, vol. 8, DeFau, 1907, p. 48.

5. Daryaee, Touraj. SASANIAN PERSIA: the Rise and Fall of an Empire. BLOOMSBURY, 2021.