on the treatise, along with a study of its principal questions, would be a duty incumbent upon me in serving the legacy of the early righteous generations—a legacy that calls for students of knowledge to exert effort and make sacrifices so that it may be presented in the sound form those luminaries intended.
3 – Moreover, the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—composed this work under extremely difficult circumstances. He wrote it while imprisoned in Egypt, where he was pressured to recant some of his convictions. They even drafted a memorandum listing the main doctrines they wanted him never to disclose. The present treatise is his response to that document. It stands as the fruit of his patience in the face of hardship, his separation from family and homeland, and his steadfast adherence to the Salafi creed drawn from the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger, and the path of the righteous forebears.
The Shaykh (1)—may Allah have mercy on him—hints at what I have just described, saying:
“I have written here some remarks concerning this ordeal which they demanded of me today. I have set forth how it entails altering the religion and following a way other than that of the believers, for in clarifying this there is benefit for the Muslims, and that from many angles….”
4 – This book addresses a momentous question—the question of the speech of Allah, exalted is He. It rebuts those who impugn it and dismantles the falsehood of anyone who tries to cast doubt upon the Noble Quran, the constitution of the Muslims and the means to their salvation. Belief in it is the very foundation of faith; hence the scholars of the ummah are obliged to defend it and expose the deviation of whoever assails it. Publishing this work in a verified, studied edition will, Allah willing, benefit the Muslims who are keen to safeguard their creed, just as the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—indicated at the beginning of the treatise (1) when he stated that he had incorporated in it what is beneficial for the Muslims.
5 – The book also treats the subject of the Book of Allah Most High, clarifying the correct belief that Muslims must hold and refuting the claim that the Quran is created—a contention whose real aim, unbeknown to many, is the negation of the divine attributes and the abrogation of the sacred laws (2).