took place after Badr: at Badr the Muslims defeated the unbelievers, whereas on the day of Uhud the unbelievers prevailed. Indeed, many leading Muslim scholars are unaware of facts that are mass-transmitted among the People of the Book—and even among other Muslim scholars—such as the two destructions of Bayt al-Maqdis (the Jerusalem sanctuary) and the march of Bukht Naṣṣar (Nebuchadnezzar) against it. Yet Allah, exalted be He, has mentioned those two occasions in the Qur’an, where He says:

(4) “We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Scripture: ‘You will certainly cause corruption on the earth twice, and you will surely rise to a great height of arrogance.’” [al-Isrāʾ 17:4]

(5) “So when the promise of the first of the two came to pass, We sent against you some servants of Ours possessed of great might, and they swept through your dwellings; the promise was fulfilled.” [al-Isrāʾ 17:5]

(6) “Then We gave you back the turn over them, supplied you with wealth and sons, and made you more numerous in manpower.” [al-Isrāʾ 17:6]

(7) “If you do good, you do so for your own benefit; but if you do evil, it is to your own detriment. So when the promise of the latter occasion comes, We will bring others to darken your faces. They will enter the Mosque just as they entered it the first time, and they will utterly destroy whatever they overcome.” [al-Isrāʾ 17:7]