—and a number of eminent jurists and scholars of ḥadith have acted upon it.

His refusal, then, is nothing but partisanship to the subsidiary rulings of his own school, contrary to what has been reliably transmitted from his Imām as one of his guiding maxims: “When a ḥadith is authentic, that is my position.”1

I first published these studies in the distinguished journal al-Tamaddun al-Islāmī (issues 25–36, 1379 AH) as three consecutive articles. It has now occurred to me to separate them from the journal and issue them as an independent booklet, exactly as they appeared there, in the hope that the benefit will spread more widely and that our reward—Allah willing—will thereby be greater.

I ask Allah to make it purely for His Noble Countenance and to grant it far-reaching benefit.

Damascus, evening of the Day of ʿArafah, 1379 AH.

Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī.