In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

Editor’s Introduction

All praise belongs to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help and His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the consequences of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can mislead, and whomever He allows to stray, none can guide. I testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone with no partner, and I testify that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

To proceed:

The distinguished shaykh Manṣūr b. Yūnus al-Buhūtī al-Ḥanbalī—may Allah have mercy upon him—was one of the foremost Ḥanbalī scholars of the eleventh century AH; indeed, he was the uncontested master of the school. He lifted the veil from many juristic and doctrinal questions, clarified them for earnest students, and bestowed upon them healing gifts of lucid knowledge, so that Ḥanbalī jurisprudence in his day became a flourishing garden that gladdened hearts and toward which aspirations and resolves converged.

After living a life filled with learning and authorship, and after commenting on numerous important legal works, this eminent imam concluded that golden series of Ḥanbalī writings with a precious matn (concise textbook) into which he distilled the essence of the school in the briefest wording and the clearest expression: the book ʿUmdat al-Ṭālib li-Nayl al-Maʾārib.

Despite the value of this work and the lofty stature of its author, it had not, up to the time of writing this introduction, received the editorial attention it deserves, even though it has been printed more than once.

When I beheld the towering status and elevated rank of this text, and noticed the lack