The Critically Edited Work: Its Title and Date of Composition

1 – Its Title

The manuscripts diverge only slightly in the wording of the book’s title:

• In copies B, C, and D: Iqtidaʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm li-Mukhālafat Aṣḥāb al-Jaḥīm (“Following the Straight Path by Opposing the People of Hellfire”).

• In copy A: the final part of the heading is effaced, so all that can be read is Kitāb al-Iqtidaʾ (“The Book of Conformity”).

• In copy Ṭ: Iqtidaʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm fī al-Radd ʿalā Aṣḥāb al-Jaḥīm (“Following the Straight Path in Refuting the People of Hellfire”).

• In the Berlin manuscript: Iqtidaʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm wa Mujānabat Aṣḥāb al-Jaḥīm (“Following the Straight Path and Avoiding the People of Hellfire”).

• In King Saud University MS no. 1203: Iqtidaʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm fī Mukhālafat Ahl al-Jaḥīm (“Following the Straight Path by Differing from the People of Hellfire”).

• In the printed edition: Iqtidaʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm Mukhālafat Aṣḥāb al-Jaḥīm (“Following the Straight Path—Opposing the People of Hellfire”).

The author—may Allah have mercy on him—also mentions the work in his other writings. In Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, vol. 22, p. 154, he calls it Iqtidaʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm li-Mukhālafat Aṣḥāb al-Jaḥīm. Because most of the manuscript witnesses concur with this wording, I have adopted it as the definitive title for the book.