Abū Qubayl reported: We were with ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ when he was asked which of the two cities would be conquered first, Constantinople or Rome. ʿAbd Allāh called for a box with rings and took out a book from it. He said: While we were around the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) writing, the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) was asked: Which of the two cities will be conquered first, Constantinople or Rome? The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said: "The city of Heraclius will be conquered first, meaning Constantinople." Narrated 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 and 4/508), and ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī in "Kitāb al-ʿIlm" (2/30/1), who said: "A ḥadīth with a good isnād." Al-Ḥākim authenticated it and al-Dhahabī agreed with him, and it is as they said. And (Rūmiyah) is Rome as mentioned in "Muʿjam al-Buldān," and it is the capital of Italy today. The first conquest was realized by Muḥammad al-Fātiḥ the Ottoman, as is well known, more than eight hundred years after the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) foretold the conquest. The second conquest will undoubtedly occur by the will of Allāh, and you will surely come to know of it in due time. There is no doubt also that the realization of the second conquest requires the return of the rightly guided caliphate to the Muslim ummah, and this is what the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) gives us glad tidings of in the ḥadīth: