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

The shaykh, the imām, the erudite, God-fearing scholar, Proof of Islam, destination of seekers, pillar of the ḥadīth specialists, adornment of gatherings, the unique figure of his age, reviver of the radiant Sunnah, scourge of the people of innovation and caprice, the piercing star, Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAsqalānī—widely known as Ibn Ḥajar—may Allah, by His grace and generosity, reward him with Paradise, said:

Praise belongs to Allah who opened the breasts of the people of Islam to the Sunnah, so they eagerly followed it and delighted in hearing it; and who extinguished the souls of the tyrannical with innovation after they had persisted in contention and gone to extremes in their novelties. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship but Allah alone with no partner, the One who knows the yielding and the resistance of hearts, who is fully aware of their secrets whether they diverge or unite. I bear witness that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger, because of whom the word of falsehood was brought low after being exalted, and through whose mission the lights of guidance were re-joined and their proof shone forth after being severed. May Allah’s blessings and peace remain upon him for as long as the heavens retain their loftiness and the earth its vastness; and upon his family and companions who broke the ranks of the rebellious, captured the forts of their citadels, abandoned pleasures and homelands out of love for the One who summoned them to Allah, never returning after their farewell, and who preserved his sayings, deeds, and states so that, through them, the noble Sunnah was secured from loss.

To proceed: The noblest expenditure of one’s precious days and the highest object deserving increased attention is engagement with the sacred sciences handed down from the Best of Creation. No intelligent person doubts that they revolve around the Book of Allah, to be followed, and the Sunnah of His chosen Prophet, and that all other disciplines are either tools for understanding them—the truly sought-after—or are foreign to them—the harmful and defeated. I observed that Imām Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bukhārī, in his Ṣaḥīḥ, devoted himself to drawing from their radiant lights, both establishing and deriving rulings, and to drinking deeply from their abundant springs, extracting and collecting. Thanks to the sincerity of his intention, he was granted success in what he compiled, so that both opponents and supporters conceded his excellence, and his judgments on authenticity were received with ready submission by those in agreement and those who differed.

After seeking Allah’s guidance, I resolved to append to that work brief pieces that elucidate its benefits, clarify its aims, and unveil his purpose in capturing its rare points and gathering its elusive gems. Before that I shall set forth an introduction that explains its principles and adorns its unique features—concise yet not deficient, easy to grasp, unlocking what is obscure, easing what is difficult, and opening hearts. With Allah’s permission, the discussion will be confined to ten chapters:

First: An account of the motive that prompted him to compose this book.

Second: A definition of its subject matter, a disclosure of its intent, a discussion of the verification of his criteria, and confirmation that it is the soundest of the works authored on Prophetic ḥadīth, together with remarks on his chapter headings—accessible in content yet inaccessible in match—through which he surpassed his peers and became renowned among his contemporaries.