Conclusion

All praise is due to Allah, by whose grace righteous deeds reach completion. May blessings and peace be upon His Messenger, the trustworthy Prophet, who left us upon a radiant path whose night is as clear as its day; none deviates from it except the doomed.

Thereafter: With Allah’s help and success, I have completed the critical edition of the book Iqtidaʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm li-Mukhālafat Aṣḥāb al-Jaḥīm by Shaykh al-Islam, Imām Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Halīm Ibn Taymiyyah. I am delighted at the great benefit I have gained—first through a careful reading of the work, and then through my service to it as I traced its ḥadiths and reports, examined its themes, prepared biographical notes on its figures, and so forth. This endeavor led me to consult works of ḥadith, Qurʾanic exegesis, biographical evaluation, history, jurisprudence, the Prophetic biography, and other fields, in addition to the author’s other writings.

Throughout the editing and study of this book I have tried, to the best of my ability, to serve both the reader and the text. Even so, I now feel that there are areas I have left untouched and others in which I have fallen short. Such is human effort: it is never free of flaw or deficiency. What is required is to aim for accuracy, come as close as possible to it, strive diligently, and expend every effort—and that, Allah willing, is what I have endeavored to do.