• As for works on the Prophet’s biography, “al-Zād” was one of their principal references. Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH) relied on it in several passages of “al-Fusūl fī Sīrat al-Rasūl” without explicitly naming it, reproducing many of its expressions and turns of phrase unchanged, as a comparison reveals. Yahyā ibn Abī Bakr al-‘Āmirī (d. 893 AH) also quoted from it in “Bahjat al-Mahāfil”: 1/41 (Dār Sādir edition).

Al-Qastallānī (d. 923 AH) relied heavily on it in “al-Mawāhib al-Ladunniyya”, summarizing many of its chapters and sections while referring to it explicitly in only a few places: 1/118, 186, 369, 403, 451, 585, 599; 2/63, 167, 168, 177, 185, 189, 213, 220; 3/8, 33, 38, 42, 54, 194, 218, 222, 226, 246, 268, 276, 283, 357, 360, 421, 432, 466, 511 (al-Maktaba al-Tawfīqiyya edition, Egypt).

Muhammad ibn Yūsuf al-Sālihī (d. 942 AH) listed “Zād al-Ma‘ād” among his principal sources in the introduction to his encyclopedic work “Subul al-Hudā wa-l-Rashād” (1/4). He modeled his presentation of many chapters and sections on it and quoted very extensively from it throughout all his volumes. Examples include: 1/303, 400, 418; 2/18, 225, 226, 369… and many others (Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya edition).

“Tārīkh al-Khamīs fī Ahwāl Anfas Nafīs” by al-Diyārbakrī (d. 966 AH) contains passages quoted from it at: 1/222, 342; 2/190, 195 (Dār Sādir edition). The same is true of “Sharh al-Shifā” by Mullā ‘Alī al-Qārī (d. 1014 AH): 1/235, 301, 655 (Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya edition).

Nūr al-Dīn al-Halabī (d. 1044 AH) also drew extensively on it in “Insān al-‘Uyūn”