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There's no city on earth like Jerusalem.

It is the site of Solomon's temple, the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son,

the eternal capital promised by God himself.

For Christians, it is the land where Jesus himself walked, where he preached, where he was crucified,

and according to them, and what they believe, where he was resurrected. The very ground, according to them, where salvation unfolded. For us Muslims, it is the home of Al-Aqsa. It is the first Qibla. It is the place where the prophet,

Sallu al-a-a-a-u-slam

ascended to the heavens

in the miraculous journey of a liturated. It is the place where the Prophet, Sallu'u'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'a'ra'a'a'ra'a'a'ra'a'a'ra'a'ra'a'ra'a'ra'a'ra'an'a'an'a'an'a'an'a'an'a'an'a'an'a'an'a'an'a'an'''''''''''''''' sacred trophy. The Babylonians took it by force. The Persians conquered it with their blood.

The Romans claimed it with legions. Each empire that held it understood one truth.

Whoever controls Jerusalem controls something far greater than stone walls and ancient streets. In 637 CE, that symbol belonged to the Roman

Byzantine Empire, the Christian superpower of the age, protected by fortifications that had

withstood siege after siege, defended by soldiers loyal to an emperor who ruled from Constantinople to the edges of North Africa.

And yet, outside those ancient walls, an army waited.

Not the Persians, their age-old rivals, not another Christian army vying for control,

an army from the deserts of Arabia, led by men who, just a few

years earlier, had been traders and shepherds and Bedouins. But how did this happen? How did an empire

over a thousand years old, an empire that ruled the Mediterranean, that redefined war, that built its

power on centuries of military dominance, lose its holiest and most prized city to a people

it barely even noticed a generation earlier. Let us go back to the beginning of the chalafa.

Abu Bakr, Siddiqu, Radi al-Assad, sent out various expeditions throughout Bilaida

Shamm to fight the Byzantines, continuing what the prophet, Sallu'll a

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