- Important Notices for the Reader:
• References. I made every effort to rely on one uniform edition of each source so that both reader and researcher may easily consult the works I have cited. For that reason I have not indicated editions in the footnotes, contenting myself with the bibliography at the end of the book. Only on very rare occasions did I have to consult an alternative edition; when that occurred, I identified the differing edition in the footnote.
• Biographical entries. I provide a brief biography for each scholar the first time the author mentions him, except in a few instances—when that happens I direct the reader to the location of the biography. If the reader encounters a name without its biography, he should consult the biographical index to locate where the entry appears in the book.
• Ḥadīth numbers in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. Whenever I cite a number from Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, I mean the overall serial number of the ḥadīths, not the numbering within each individual book. This follows the numbering system of Muḥammad Fu’ād ‘Abd al-Bāqī.
• Symbols for biographical works. When referring to certain biographical and rijāl compilations, I place the symbol (t) followed by a number. As is well-known among researchers and in works of biography, this denotes the entry number of the individual in the source cited.
• Repetition of ḥadīth documentation. At times I repeat the documentation of a single ḥadīth in more than one place when I deem that necessary for the argument being advanced and the original documentation is located far from the present discussion. This is done to complete the benefit.