4 – Abū Qabīl said: “We were with ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ when he was asked, ‘Which of the two cities will be opened first—Constantinople or Rome?’ ʿAbdullāh called for a casket that had metal clasps, took from it a written document and said, ‘While we were sitting around the Messenger of Allah ﷺ writing, he was asked, “Which of the two cities will be opened first, Constantinople or Rome?” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “The city of Heraclius will be opened first,” meaning Constantinople.’”

It was transmitted by Aḥmad (2/176); al-Dārimī (1/126); Ibn Abī Shaybah in al-Muṣannaf (47/153/2); Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī in al-Sunan al-Wāridah fī al-Fitan (116/2); al-Ḥākim (3/422; 4/508); and ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī in Kitāb al-ʿIlm (2/30/1). The last of these said, “A hadith of sound isnād.” Al-Ḥākim declared it authentic and al-Dhahabī concurred, and that is indeed the case.

(Rūmiyyah) is Rome, as stated in Muʿjam al-Buldan; it is the capital of present-day Italy.

The first conquest was accomplished, as is well known, by the Ottoman ruler Muḥammad al-Fātiḥ—more than eight hundred years after the Prophet’s ﷺ prophecy. The second conquest will, by Allah’s permission, most surely take place, and in time you will come to know of it.

There is also no doubt that for the second conquest to be achieved, the rightly guided caliphate must once again return to the Muslim nation; this, too, is among the glad tidings the Prophet ﷺ gave us when he said in the ḥadīth: