Author’s Introduction
(Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-‘Uthaymin)

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful.

Indeed, all praise belongs to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils within ourselves and from our evil deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can lead astray; and whomever He leads astray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship but Allah alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. May Allah bestow prayers and abundant peace upon him, his family, his Companions, and those who follow them faithfully until the Day of Resurrection.

To proceed:

The book Zad al-Mustaqni‘ fi Ikhtisar al-Muqni‘, authored by Abu al-Naja Musa ibn Ahmad ibn Musa al-Hajjawi, is concise in wording yet rich in meaning. It is an abridgement of al-Muqni‘, in which the author confines himself to a single view: the preponderant position in the school of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Except in a few instances, he does not depart from the well-known position of the later scholars of the madhhab.

Beginning students of knowledge in the Hanbali school have been especially devoted to it, and many of them have memorized it by heart.

Our shaykh, ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Nasir ibn Sa‘di—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—would urge us to memorize it and would teach it to us.

By Allah’s praise, we benefited from it greatly. We then began teaching it to students in the Grand Mosque in ‘Unayzah, explaining its wording, clarifying its meanings, and mentioning the preponderant view along with its evidence or underlying reasoning. The students gave it careful attention, recording and writing it down.