transmission. He was thoroughly acquainted with the book’s contents and with the distinction between it and Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid, as is clear from his own description, and for that reason we are confident that the work is rightly attributed to Ibn al-Qayyim.

When we examine the book itself we find further evidence confirming the attribution (1). The author cites three of his own writings: Ijtimāʿ al-Juyūsh al-Islāmiyyah ʿalā Ghazw al-Muʿaṭṭilah wa-l-Jahmiyyah (p. 4); al-Maʿālim (p. 10), by which he means Aʿlām al-Muwaqqiʿīn ʿan Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn; and “our large book on divine decree and predestination” (p. 36), i.e. Shifāʾ al-ʿAlīl fī Masāʾil al-Qaḍāʾ wa-l-Qadar wa-l-Ḥikmah wa-l-Taʿlīl.

He also refers to his teacher, Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, in several places, simply calling him “our shaykh” (pp. 12, 136, 153), and he quotes passages that can be readily located in Ibn Taymiyyah’s extant works; we have pointed these out in the notes.

We have already noted that both this book and Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid draw identically from Ibn al-Jawzī’s al-Mudhish—another indication that they share the same author.

Within the text itself Ibn al-Qayyim’s name appears explicitly at various points (pp. 4, 136, 152). This may have been inserted by the author himself, as many writers do, or by his students, later copyists, or by Ibn ʿUrwah when he incorporated the work into al-Kawākib. In any case, it is a strong piece of evidence for attributing the book to Ibn al-Qayyim.