such ancillary rulings as resemble and complement the legal implications of the ḥadīth, rulings that go beyond what is usually understood from the text itself or from the chapter at large. For that reason I have set them off with a distinct heading, writing “Benefit” or “Benefits.”

Special conventions in this commentary:
– When I say “the Shaykh,” I mean Shaykh al-Islām Aḥmad ibn Taymiyyah.
– When I say “Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī said,” the quotation is taken from his work al-Muḥarrar.
– When I say “in the Talkhīṣ,” I refer to Talkhīṣ al-Ḥabīr by al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar.
– When I say “al-Ṣanʿānī said,” it is from Subul al-Salām.
– When I say “al-Shawkānī said,” I mean from Nayl al-Awṭār.
– When I say “Ṣiddīq Ḥasan said,” it is from al-Rawḍah al-Nadiyyah.
– When I say “al-Albānī said,” it is from Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl and, on a few occasions, from his marginal notes to Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ.
– By “al-Rawḍ” I intend al-Rawḍ al-Murbiʿ; by “al-Ḥāshiyah,” the marginal commentary on al-Rawḍ by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Qāsim.
– A single word of ḥadīth may be explained more than once; my aim is to spare the reader the burden of cross-referencing.

After that:
I rejoice—most heartily—in this blessed Islamic resurgence and the civic awareness that has become so prominent among our young men and women. I ask Allah, exalted is He, to bless it, to support and strengthen it, and to guard it against every harmful affliction, against the schemes of the wicked, and against the plotting of enemies.

My advice to my brothers and sisters, to my sons and my daughters, is that they strive to bring hearts together, to unite the ranks, and to close any rift. This will only be achieved by overlooking subsidiary points of disagreement in matters open to independent reasoning.