—in Egypt in 1329 AH—and it comprises 288 large-format pages, each page containing 24 lines. This impression is replete with mistakes and misreadings, many of which I have pointed out in their proper places during the editorial process; some of them will be cited later. The text there breaks off at the same point as in copy (S), yet the publisher altered the final word—wa-dhālika (and that)—to wa-naḥwu dhālik (and the like) so that the reader would not sense an abrupt ending.

The book was later reprinted, with an introduction by Ḥasanayn Muḥammad Makhlūf, at the Dār al-Kutub al-Ḥadīthah Press in Cairo. This edition differs from the previous one only in that it includes the whole of volume five. For that reason I set it aside and based my investigation on the first printing, designating it with the letter (Ṭ).

From what has been said about the copies I used, I can summarize the reasons that led me to adopt the first copy as my principal source as follows:

1. It records the date of its transcription.
2. Both (S) and (Ṭ) break off before the work is finished: four and a half lines are missing from the end of each, and those very lines complete the book, as found in the original. After them come roughly another four lines in which the scribe states that this is all he found of this treatise by Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyyah, adding the year of his copying after invoking forgiveness and mercy for the Shaykh.
3. As already noted, copy (S) is also missing a page and a half.
4. The printed edition is, as mentioned, rife with errors and corruptions.

All of the aforementioned copies share one additional defect: numerous omissions and repetitions ranging from two full lines to a single word. Because they rarely coincide, it was relatively easy—by Allah’s grace and favor—for me to detect the gaps, supply the missing text, and eliminate the repetitions.

As for the printed book, besides lacking scholarly care, its physical presentation does not invite reading and makes some of its sentences hard to understand.