The original title of the book, "The sword of Allah: Khalid bin Al-Waleed, His Life and Campaigns" was written by the late Lieutenant-General A.I. Akram of the Pakistan Army in October 1969. The author learnt Arabic in order to draw on the earliest historical sources and he visited every one of Khalid's battlefields in order to draw analyses from the viewpoint of military strategy, including reconciling conflicting historians' accounts.

Muslim history is replete with great military achievements and glorious feats of arms. In the annals of war there are no battles that surpass, in brilliance and decisiveness, the battles of Islam; no commanders who surpass, in courage and skill, the gifted generals of Islam. The sword has always held a place of honour in Muslim culture. And yet, very little is known in the world today about the military history of Islam.

Khalid bin Al-Waleed was the greatest military general in history and one of the greatest heroes of Islam. Besides him, Genghis Khan was the only other general to remain undefeated in his entire military life. A measure of Khalid's genious is that he was the only person to inflict a (temporary) defeat on the Prophet Muhammad (saw).