His phrase “a few brief words” clearly indicates that the author, may Allah have mercy on him, intended to compile a concise account of the Prophet’s life and guidance (peace and blessings be upon him), particularly as he was travelling, distracted and far from his books. It seems that when he wrote the opening chapters on the Prophet’s life and guidance (peace and blessings be upon him), he had only a few books at hand. The most important were The Greater Abridgment of the Messenger’s Life (peace and blessings be upon him), by ‘Izz al-Dīn Ibn Jamā‘a, and al-Qarmāniyya, a treatise by Shaykh al-Islām describing the Prophet’s clothing, weapons and riding animals. The chapter on trimming the moustache (1/ 191), for which he drew upon Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr’s al-Tamhīd (The Introduction), was added later. Likewise, he added a passage from al-Tamhīd concerning the Prophet’s circumcision (peace and blessings be upon him) at (1/ 67). The same applies to the material concerning his marriage to Umm Salama (1/ 95 - 98), along with other additions that we have identified in our annotations.

It appears, however, that once the author had settled and obtained access to his books, his keen intellect, vast learning and fluent pen would allow him nothing less than to expand his discussion in his customary manner: presenting the different schools’ positions, examining the evidence, weighing the opinions and discussing hadiths and transmitted reports. The book’s structure consequently changed, departing entirely from his original plan. Although he had intended a concise work, it grew and expanded until it reached “four volumes,” as al-Safadī and others mention in their biographies of him. Whereas the expectation had been that he would confine himself to what was authentically established of the Prophet’s guidance (peace and blessings be upon him), without addressing disagreements among jurists or adjudicating between their opinions, some of its chapters came to resemble sections of an extensive work on comparative jurisprudence.

Among the clearest indications of this change in the book’s plan is the section on Prophetic medicine. In one of the chapters of the first section, the author, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “The foundations of medicine are three: dietary restraint,