except for its third and final volume, which begins with “Section on his ﷺ ruling concerning someone who embraced Islam while married to more than four women or to two sisters” (5/ 162), and continues to the end of the book.
Its first page bears the seal of “Sultan ‘Abd al-Majīd Khān” and another inscribed “Endowment of Sharīf ‘Abd al-Muttalib, son of the late Sharīf Ghālib, son of the late Sharīf Musā‘id.” ‘Abd al-Muttalib ibn Ghālib (1209–1303 AH) was one of the emirs of Mecca. He assumed its emirate in 1243 AH and was removed from office after serving three terms totalling eight years (1).
In the margin of the first page is an ownership inscription: “This volume has passed into the ownership of Husnī ibn Qāsim ... al-Yamānī, who stands in need of Allah.”
The manuscript is written in a beautiful hand, but contains numerous errors, corrupt readings, and omissions. Some readers in modern times corrected many of these errors using pens of different colours. We have not noted many of these corrupt readings and errors in the footnotes, recording only some significant differences between this manuscript and the others.
- The Qarawiyyīn manuscript (ق)
It is preserved in the Qarawiyyīn Library in Fez under shelfmark (237/ 1). It comprises 258 folios, with 25 lines on each page.
The title page reads: “Zād al-Ma‘ād fī Hady Khayr al-‘Ibād (Provisions for the Hereafter in the Guidance of the Best of Servants), by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya—may Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him.” Beneath this is an endowment inscription in Maghribī script, whose wording could not be deciphered because of the poor photographic reproduction. The first folio is in a modern hand, as is almost an entire quire