6 – This book exemplifies the creed of the righteous predecessors—may Allah be pleased with them—through the doctrinal issues it contains, in addition to the question of the Divine Speech. Shaykh al-Islam highlighted these matters in a way that accords with the Quran, the Sunnah, and the statements of the Companions and their Successors who followed them with excellence. They include the questions of Allah’s exaltedness above creation, His knowledge and power, His descent, His coming, His laughter, and the like.

7 – Reliable scholars have cited this work as evidence, among them Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him—Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn Hamad Aal Muʿammar (1), the Syrian scholar Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi (2), and Muhammad al-Saffarini (3). These names are mentioned by way of example, not limitation.

8 – The book also preserves excerpts from works that are now lost or have not yet been published, such as al-Sunnah by Abu Shaykh al-Asbahani, al-Sunnah by al-Tabarani, and others.

9 – The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—treated the subjects of this book with distinction, pointing the reader to a large number of primary references that assist researchers on the topic of Allah’s attributes. Some of these sources pertain to the hadiths of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, while others are authored treatises devoted to the subject. Through this effort, Shaykh al-Islam made his book a guide and a research roadmap for this major field of creed (4).

I encountered several difficulties during the verification process—difficulties that commonly confront researchers. Among them are the following:

1 – The frequent blank spaces that all the manuscripts share, ranging from a single word to several lines. This issue hindered me greatly, for I exerted—together with my supervisor, may Allah grant him success—considerable effort to supply certain words and phrases that match the Shaykh’s style, complete the meaning, and fit the context. Among these, for example: