My Methodology in the Study:

I began by reading this epistle with deliberate, meticulous care. I then pursued a broad survey of most of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah’s works, so that I could compare what appears in this abridged treatise with what I encountered in his other writings. The survey and tracking encompassed more than forty of Ibn Taymiyyah’s compositions.

I likewise examined several books by his disciple Ibn al-Qayyim—such as Zad al-Maʿad, Ahkam Ahl al-Dhimmah, and Hidayat al-Hayara—measuring them against certain points cited in this concise epistle whenever I could not locate comparable wording from Shaykh al-Islam within it. This was done because Ibn al-Qayyim’s methodology, may Allah have mercy on him, is in reality no more than another expression of Ibn Taymiyyah’s own approach.