The land of Babylon.

O great Ishtar.

O mother goddess, compassionate and pure, goddess of fertility and birth.

Bring joy to the heart of this anxious mother and heal her child, and in return.

I promise to adorn your temple with valuable gifts and offerings.

I asked the great Ishtar to protect your child so he would not die, and she answered my prayer. You must fulfill your vows to her.

We raised your children so that they would be among the devotees and followers of Ishtar. I am grateful to you and to kind Ishtar.

Long live great Ishtar, I thank you very much. My son was on the verge of death, but you brought him back to life.

I tell you.

There is no doubt that our child will be healed and cured like this child.

Ishtar is a kind and powerful goddess as well, there is no doubt she will answer our prayers. She will definitely answer, come on. What is wrong with you, people?

You are from the descendants of the Prophet to whom the angels performed sujud, and now you are rubbing your foreheads before what you have made.

I see you bowing to a cold, lifeless stone and submitting to it.

While this entire existence is subservient to you and at your command if you obey Allah. You bring these absurdities from yourself and dare to insult our gods without reason. I do not speak from myself.

Rather, I am the Messenger of Allah to you, and my words are from the Book of Allah. Yes, this is the scripture.

The heavenly book that was revealed to our ancestor Ibrahim the Prophet.

And I follow the religion of my grandfather, conveying from Allah and teaching people about this book.

I do not act on my own. And does this heavenly book tell you to insult our gods? I do not insult or mock.

I am only asking you, so answer me if you know, and if you do not know, you have nothing to do but submit to the word of truth.

The idols of the temple of Ishtar are the ones who made you.

Or are you the makers? Is Ishtar the one who has power over you, or are you the ones in control?

Is she the one who commands you, or are you the ones who command? If Ishtar were just a cold stone, with no power or strength,

she would not have been able to heal her child for me. He is right, we saw that. This is the truth itself. I saw with my own eyes how her child recovered by the blessing of Ishtar.

It was your child who was healed by the All-Hearing, All-Knowing, who heard your plea and your tears, not Ishtar. Even though you turned to someone other than Allah,

and asked others besides Him for help and support.

But He, who knows the conditions of all His servants.

He has bestowed His mercy upon you and encompassed you with His kindness.

You have an eye that sees Ishtar the idol, but your insight.

Was blinded from seeing the true Healer. The meaning of Yaqub's words is his call to you to abandon your gods and worship his God alone, isn't that so?

We have not seen any good from these gods, and your God will not benefit us in any way.

I am calling you to worship Allah, the Most High and the Greatest.

Who created existence and everything in it.

And that we should know that your god is better than the rest of the gods.

And how do we know that you and your god are like the gods of the temple of Ishtar.

They care about nothing except collecting gold and silver. You all know that I tend the sheep of Luban, and I own nothing for myself. Do you see me asking you for a reward or money?

Or have you seen me working at anything other than tending sheep?

And what if you ask us again from now on? You are a man without authority, otherwise you and the priests are the same. All of you are alike.

So when the pillow of authority was placed under your heads, you filled your bellies and began hoarding silver and gold. You are not to blame.

You lost your only son without finding anyone to help you treat his illness. Not Istar the sorceress, nor Ishtar the goddess of the temple.

You are not to blame if you turn away from all the gods.

I have nothing to do with Ishtar, the powerless goddess.

Direct your words to your unseen god.

We have suffered enough from these lifeless stone gods, and we have no strength to turn to a new god. The temple guards have arrived.

Run! Come on, run!

That way.

Listen, catch him. Don't let him escape. Leave him alone. Make sure he doesn't get away from you.

Please, don't hurt him.

If you weren't Lebanon's governor, I'd show you how to discipline you. I'm not afraid of you or the temple guards.

Leave this place.

Enough listening to the rumors and nonsense of Yaqub. Disperse. Don't you see that Yaqub's rumors have brought drought and dryness to our city, Faddan?

He is right. Come on, disperse. Let's go before the wrath of the goddess Ishtar befalls us. Let's go.

Disperse.

If the sky does not rain soon, the crops and people of the city of Faddan will perish.

I ask Allah, the Exalted, to send down rain upon this city soon.

What is happening there, father? This is an old custom among the people of Faddan.

They burn the enemies of their goddess Ishtar, they throw them into the fire with the catapult.

For what am I being punished?

Forgive him, priest. Please forgive him. Please have mercy on us. Get away from me. For what am I being punished?

And what crime have I committed? Leave me alone.

Stay to guard the flock while I go find out what's going on.

Get away from me! Please, you love us. I haven't committed any sin, leave me now.

Yaqub the shepherd, the governor's nephew, came to Laban. Pardon us, priest, for the Boumash has committed no crime. This is the fate of the disbelievers.

People of Faddan, help me, I am innocent.

Fares must be punished.

I am innocent, I have no sin. Have mercy on me, people of the city of Faddan. I did not commit a sin, people of Faddan.

The accused, Fares, is considered one of the enemies of Ishtar.

He stoned our goddess Ishtar.

And he described her as a trivial deity, unworthy of being worshipped. Therefore, following the tradition of our ancestors in Fadan, those people must be thrown into the fire by the catapult.

Those who show disrespect to our great deity Ishtar.

Leave me alone, why am I being punished?

I have done nothing but demand my right.

People of Fadan, residents of this city, have mercy on me. What a poor soul you are.

I am innocent, without any sin. Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, people of this city.

What is my crime? For what. else? I am innocent, innocent. He has not committed any sin.

Have mercy on us, great priest, have mercy on us please, for he has committed no sin. Save me, for I am innocent and have no sin, I am innocent, great priest.

Stop the shouting that is of no use, either you pay the blood money for your life.

Or you will be thrown into the fire to burn. Do not burn my husband in the fire!

Do not burn him! Have mercy on me, people of the city of Faddan.

How much is his blood money? I will pay it for him.

Will you pay his blood money? No, he does not have the right to do that.

He himself is one of the enemies of Ishtar. You are one of the enemies of the gods and you must pay the blood money for your life. So why do you not arrest him?

We, as a people, have inherited this kind of punishment from generation to generation. My grandfather Ibrahim, the Prophet, was once thrown into the fire by order of Nimrod.

If it weren't for your relation to the ruler, you would have been imprisoned long ago. You are the son-in-law of Laban and his nephew.

Do you mean that those close to the court can escape punishment? They have insulted your gods.

Arrest him and throw him into the fire as his grandfather was thrown before.

Get away from me, both of you! Let me go!

Stay away from me! People, what is happening here?

Leave him alone, and release the condemned man.

Fares must be punished. When Yaqub says he will pay the blood money, you have no right to burn him.

Do not release him.

Yaqub.

You must pay five hundred dinars as blood money for Fares.

That's fine, I will pay this money.

May Allah protect my uncle Lifan. How long do I have to keep watching you out of fear that you might make a mistake?

Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. This is kindness.

I thank you.

I will work hard for you and I will serve you until I repay you the blood money that I have committed to pay.

You saved me, Faris. You saved us from death. Let's go, let's go.

He is a good man. This poor man never stops working.

Years pass and Ashtar is busy sacrificing, from the people of Bab al-Wufdan.

If it weren't for your father, he would have reached our daughter.

They would have burned you one night.

A knight, after you saved him from death, must stop worshipping Ishtar and become a believer in Allah. He must turn to tawhid. Tawhid.

He became a believer at the moment he was saved from death.

When will our child see the light?

Soon, O Prophet of Allah, the time has come.

I have longed for a child from you for years.

And by Allah's will, I will soon be rewarded for my waiting.

Greetings to Isrdum and those with him.

Greetings to Yaqub the shepherd. I thank you.

I see that you are carrying gifts to the temple of Ishtar.

We must please the gods, or else we will not see rain this year.

Don't you think your family needs these dates more than the gods?

Then a price that insults the family, angers them, and we, the poor, pay for the sins of others.

And do you really think that rain will fall by the will of lifeless stone idols?

In the temple of Ishtar, your lies angered the gods, so they drove the rain clouds away from our city and our homes. Stop insulting the gods, Yaqub.

You abandon the worship of Allah, the All-Powerful, and devote yourselves to lifeless, powerless idols. You are wronging yourselves.

Why do you not water the barren desert of your souls with the sweet water of iman sent down from Allah, the One?

O great Ishtar, O goddess of fertility, I will purify your temple by shedding the blood of your enemies.

May you keep drought and dryness away from our lands, and send down the rain of your mercy upon the people of the city of Harran.

O great Ishtar, I will purify your temple with the blood of your enemies.

May you keep drought away from our lands, and send down rain upon us with your kindness and compassion.

I will purify your temple by drowning it in the blood of your enemies. Here he stands before us, defying the gods.

And send rain upon the fields of the city of Hira, but I did not hear them well. O great Ishtar, I will purify your temple.

Turn drought away from us, and send down rain upon us. May you turn drought away from our lands, O great Ishtar.

Yaqub returned to his lies.

I wish he would be afflicted with a curse from the count of the gods.

What should we do with him? Call Laban here.

Leave the rest to me.

Hurry and summon the governor, Lavan.

My lord, the high priest of the temple of Ishtar is calling you to join him in the temple immediately. Is it urgent? Yes, governor. Leave him alone.

If you scream again, I will whip you to death.

I promise you, my lord, I will not steal again. Untie him. You, come with me.

It seems to me that this matter is connected to Jacob the shepherd. Jacob is responsible for his own actions, I have nothing to do with that. But he says things against the gods. Confronting Jacob is the task of the priests, let them respond to his words.

And if they are unable to do that, then they have no right to disturb me.

The gods of the gods, great Ishtar has become angry with us.

I see drought and dryness, ruined crops, and death reaping the people of the city.

My lord the governor, wait a moment so the priestess can be informed of your arrival. He has angered Ishtar, and she does not accept disbelief in her status.

Someone has angered Ishtar. The one who insulted our gods will be punished soon.

Ishtar demands that we offer her sacrifice. Very well.

Why do you stand between your nephew and his lies? You are the ones entrusted with protecting the religion and the people. I am not a priest.

Let Yaqub bear the burden of his actions.

But he is your nephew and the husband of your two daughters.

My duty is to maintain security and stability, and I am not concerned with what my nephew does. You must stop him from speaking. The affairs of Faddan have become troubled because of him.

And you must restore calm to it. Soon, drought and barrenness will engulf our city, and this Yaqub is the cause of these calamities.

And how can it be that Yaqub is the reason for abundance and the increase of sheep in his flock?

Now he has become the cause of drought and misery in Faddan, because he openly rejects our gods.

His rejection of the gods of Babylon is nothing new.

Why then? At that time, he used to conceal his belief.

But now he declares it openly. He insults Ishtar openly, in broad daylight, and in front of everyone. We must force him to remain silent. Must we? Yes, we must.

Perhaps you have forgotten why the government of Babylon appointed you as governor over Faddan.

Since you know who appointed me as governor over the city, you should also know that I.

I receive orders from the government of Babylon, not from you, nor from the temple of Ishtar.

So you don't mind if we inform the high priest at the temple of Ishtar in Babylon about what has happened and what is happening.

I will speak to Yaqub about this matter.

Tell Yaqub that if any harm comes to me or my family from his side, I will burn him and his family with fire, every last one of them. The puppy that barks before its father and mother,

quickly becomes easy prey for the wolves.

Watch your tongue, boy. I will forgive you this time, but there will be no forgiveness next time.

If the drought causes my crops to perish, I will not keep Yaqub and his family alive, and I have lost hope in this year's harvest.

Welcome, father. It's good to see you. Peace be upon you, father. How surprising, the great man of Faddan and its ruler has found time to visit his daughters.

Will Jacob never stop his actions?

What happened, father? Did the temple priests complain to you about Jacob again? Do you blame the priest for all the troubles that have befallen the city and absolve Jacob of them?

You know that Jacob only conveyed the message and fulfilled the duty placed upon him. He has nothing to do with the inherited beliefs of the temple of Ishtar.

If he wants to speak about the religion of his grandfather, let him do so, and let him also speak about the religion of my grandfather.

But he must not insult the beliefs of others. You are mistaken, father, they do not even accept that he speaks about the religion of Ibrahim.

Father, Yaqub is commanded to call to tawhid, the belief of his father Ishaq and his grandfather Ibrahim, and you are responsible for maintaining security for the people of the city of Faddan.

You should focus on your work, and he should focus on his mission.

You two have also become just like him. If I did my job as required, you would all be exiled to the desert.

Father, you know that my sister Layla and I follow the religion of our husband, and we will support him with all our strength in his call to the belief in tawhid.

You have gone mad. Why do you not care about my position? Do you know what will happen to me if the high priest at the temple of Ishtar in Babylon finds out?

That my nephew is insulting his temple and his gods? I am the one who will be blamed.

The power of the God of Yaqub is broader and greater than the authority of the priests, so it is fitting for us and for you to fear Allah, Lord of the worlds.

And not the idols. I have nothing to do with either the God of Yaqub or the gods of the priests.

What I am saying is that Yaqub should not harm my status in this city. What is it, Raheel? Raheel.

Raheel.

Raheel, what is wrong, my daughter? Why are you so pale? It is time for the birth.

Bilhah, bring the midwife immediately. Yes. Help me.

Fares, yes my master, go to the plain of Gidun where Yaqub is and tell him to come here immediately. Hurry.

Take my horse, not the tomatoes.

The shepherds guide the flock, and the prophets guide the creation.

And perhaps for this reason, most of the prophets were from among the common people, and that the Prophet of Allah, Israel.

I brought my children with the flock to the desert so they could see how a man remains calm in the face of what is beneath him.

So what is wrong with you, O Children of Israel, that you compete among yourselves with force and dominance.

O Allah, bear witness that I never taught them that.

The winner among us becomes the head of the family and the successor of the father.

Stand up, get up. Move away.

Come on, get up. My successor and the head of my family is the one among you who is closest to Allah and most beloved to Him.

And not the strongest or the most forceful among you. Ibrahim and Ishaq were the best of Allah's creation, not the most violent.

What's going on?

Gather the flock.

Where did our father go? Don't worry, gather the flock, we'll return to Medina.

Really? Yes. Did your ewe leave? Yes. And are you two friends or are you fighting? We were friends until today.

Yaqub and Raheel were both kind to me, but they won't pay any attention to me from now on, since they have a child now.

Don't say that. Yaqub and Raheel are very good people. Yaqub loves Raheel deeply, and there's no doubt he will favor her over his other wives now that she has given him a son.

And how many wives does he have? Four. Are they all his wives? But I, Walia, and Zulfa have been forgotten.

Hurry up, if we're late they'll blame me for everything. I don't agree with you, Yaqub is a just and compassionate man.

If you replaced the envy in your heart with a little love, you would see how much he loves and cares for you.

Long live the wise ruler.

I bring you great news. I want Rachel and her child to be safe. There's no need to worry, I am a well-known midwife.

Don't worry, Rahim, Allah is kind and merciful.

Departure! Departure! Departure!

Departure, departure, departure.

She lost consciousness. Departure. Departure. Departure. Departure.

I believe it. Perhaps the gods were angry with her, so what you see happened to her.

Take this boy away from me.

Pray for the recovery of your aunt Rahim, for your du'a is answered the fastest.

Why don't you do something?

Someone has angered the goddess Ishtar.

If he sees fire and blood.

I see the specter of the Black Death hovering everywhere. The fire of rumors will consume, first of all, the disbeliever.

This is how it is for the one who transgresses against the gods.

He will soon meet his inevitable punishment. Perhaps the gods were angry with her for her disbelief, so they tormented her.

Did you see? Ishtar used to curse them in the temple. Yes. She said the fire of rumors would consume the disbeliever.

It means that whoever dares to challenge the gods will be punished and will receive his due.

Is my wife Raheel okay? No, she is not well.

Do something, because Raheel's condition is getting worse.

Calm down, Allah is with us.

Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us.

People are whispering and gossiping, saying that Rahil has been afflicted by the curse of Ishtar and the magic of Easter.

It's okay. Now we will see, Leah, which is stronger: Rahil's God and her son,

or the goddess Ishtar.

Take care of Rahil.

I will come back. Where are you going?

Don't leave us alone in this situation.

I said calm down, I need some time alone.

Do whatever you want with your God.

But I cannot stand by and do nothing.

We must think about medicine, or treatment, or a doctor.

And I am going to the doctor as well.

To the real doctor.

It has also become a trial.

It was bad for the people of Faddan, and now it has become so for my family.

He worked with him.

Why don't they send for Esther? She is a respected midwife. You are right.

Commander Laban, send for Esther. If she comes, she is a capable midwife.

Can Esther do that? I will give her whatever she asks for. Tell Esther, if she can save my daughter.

Promise her that I will send Jacob out of Faddan, and I will save the temple of Ishtar from his evil. Go ahead.

Jacob was afflicted with the curse of the gods of Babylon as a punishment for his disbelief in Ishtar.

Be quiet, woman! Excuse us.

Tell me, Jacob, why doesn't he ask his god for help? If I were in his place in these hardships, I would never forget my god at all.

It was Master Laban who sent me, not Jacob. He promised that if I could save his daughter, he would let Jacob leave Paddan.

I think it's a good opportunity.

The people of Paddan should know the true power of Ishtar.

And the drugs of Ishtar, the sorceress of the temple of Ishtar. The bombing, the life of Raheel, will surely increase the faith of the people of Faddan.

And the place will be adorned. And the death of Raheel has this result as well. So let her die. Excellent.

Tell this to the people. Say that Raheel's death was because of disbelief in Ishtar. Say that this is the result of worshipping the One God and belittling the power of Ishtar.

How beautiful it would be for rain to fall again on Faddan after Raheel has died.

If she does not regain consciousness, the teeth will die.

The smoke will kill her and it will not benefit her.

Don't you know? No, I want to know the outcome of the matter.

Will the God of Jacob prevail or the god of the temple? This is clear. Victory will be on Ishtar's side.

What made you bother me by coming here?

Yaqub said he has a powerful God with no equal, so why doesn't he ask Him for help?

Rachel's life is in your hands, help her.

I did not expect, people, that Yaqub would so quickly reach out for help from the temple of Ishtar.

This is absurd thinking and a false notion. What made you think like this?

Soon this notion will become reality when you see your wife and son die before your eyes. Life and death are in the hands of Allah.

And not in the hands of Ishtar. I am the one who asked Ishtar to come.

Rahil is in a bad state. Rahil needs nothing but her god. Get out of my house.

Get out. Wait, Yaqub, I'm talking to him. I said get out. She ordered your wife and son tonight, for Ishtar's anger will never calm without the loss of your loved ones. My wife Rahil did not.

She did not come by your du'a so she would leave by your curse. Get out!

He does not have mercy on himself nor on you. His disbelief will bring you misfortune and drought, and also death to his wives and son.

Soon, soon, you will see Esther's magic and Ishtar's power. You will see calamities. Woe to you.

If any harm befalls this man's daughter.