= Saleh bin Ahmad commented on this book: “This is a work my father composed in his circle as a refutation of those who rely on the apparent meaning of the Quran while abandoning what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) explained and whatever follows from adhering to it.” (1) Abu Bakr Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Harun al-Baghdadi al-Hanbali (234–311 AH), known as al-Khallāl, was a jurist, hadith scholar, and author of ‘Ilm Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal wa Jāmiʿuhu wa Martabuhu and the three-volume Sunan wa Alfāẓ Aḥmad wa ad-Dalīl ‘alayhā min al-Aḥādīth. He also compiled al-Jāmiʿ li-ʿUlūm al-Imām Aḥmad in Hanbali fiqh, a work unparalleled in his madhhab. See Tarīkh Baghdad (al-Baghdadi), vol. 5:112–113; Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ (al-Dhahabī), vol. 3:785–786; Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābila (Ibn Abī Ya‘là), vol. 2:12–15; Kashf al-Zunūn (Ḥājjī Khalīfa), vol. 1:576; al-A‘lām (al-Zarkalī), vol. 1:196; Mu‘jam al-Mu’allifīn (Kahāla), vol. 2:166. (2) In Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (vol. 12:238), the Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) states: “In this compilation he gathered the statements of Imam Aḥmad and other imams of the Sunnah on the chapters of creed.” And Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him), in Ijtimāʿ al-Juyūsh al-Islāmiyya (pp. 124–125), observes: “… Abu Bakr al-Khallāl presented the entire Kitāb ar-Radd ‘alā al-Jahmiyya in his Sunna, collecting Aḥmad’s texts and utterances; following his example, al-Bayhaqī composed Jāmi‘ an-Nusūs min Kalam ash-Shāfi‘ī. Both are monumental works indispensable to every scholar.” This treatise ranks among the foremost works on the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā‘a. Its manuscript survives at the British Museum (Supplement 168, Oriental Manuscripts 2675) as al-Musnad min Masā’il Abī ‘Abd Allāh Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in the recension of Abū Bakr al-Khallāl (seven volumes extant). Dr. ‘Aṭiyya ‘Atīq az-Zahrānī edited the first three volumes for his PhD in ‘Aqīda at the Islamic University of Madīna under the title Tahqīq wa Dirāsa li-Ajzā’ Kitāb al-Sunna. The Shaykh al-Islām (may Allah have mercy on him) frequently cites it in his works, including the present one, as will become evident. For details on the book and its manuscripts, see the Fiqh section of Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums (Sezgin), vol. 1/3:233–234. (3) Abu al-Ḥasan ‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin Yaḥyā bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin Muslim al-Kinānī al-Makkī …