Among the scholars who authored on this subject and rendered notable benefit—fully qualified to navigate its pathways and excel therein, a champion of both transmitted and rational sciences—was the exemplar, erudite imam, Shaykh al-Islam Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Ibn Taymiyyah al-Ḥarrānī, may Allah have mercy on him (d. 728 AH). He composed a manual on the rites early in his life, in which he simply followed the rulings of those before him. He later wrote in Iqtiḍāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm (2/339):

“Several authors of manuals on the rites have considered it recommended to visit the mosques of Mecca and its surroundings. I had included that in a manual I wrote before I ever performed ḥajj, at the very beginning of my life, for the sake of some shaykhs, compiling the views of various scholars. It then became clear to us that all of this is among the newly-introduced innovations that have no basis in the Sharīʿah.” (1)

He subsequently produced another manual toward the end of his life (2)—the very work now before us—after his capacity for ijtihād had fully matured and his knowledge had reached great heights. In it he set down what he had come to recognize as the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, in a concise and lucid manner. He did not bind himself to any single legal school; instead, he recorded the positions he deemed strongest, at times mentioning the areas of disagreement and leaving them without judgement. In this way, the manual emerged in the finest attire and most splendid form.

The book was first printed long ago at the Bustling Press in Egypt in the year 1323 AH,