Say, "I do not know if what you are promised is near or if my Lord will grant for it a [long] period." [He is] Knower of the unseen, and He does not disclose His [knowledge of the] unseen to anyone Except whom He has approved of messengers, and indeed, He sends before each messenger and behind him observers That he may know that they have conveyed the messages of their Lord; and He has encompassed whatever is with them and has enumerated all things in number. -- Surat Al-Anfal 72:25-28

"they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth." -- Isaiah 14