The Comprehensive Book

Muhammad ibn Rushd, may Allah be pleased with him, said, after praising Allah, Most High and Majestic, as He deserves, and invoking blessings upon His noble Prophet and servant:

In the first volume of al-Muqaddimāt, I explained the beliefs that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has made obligatory upon His servants who are accountable before Him: believing in Him, affirming His oneness, and knowing Him according to the attributes of His essence and His actions, through the proofs He has provided in His clearly expressed Book; believing in His Messenger Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, accepting as true what he brought from Him, and recognizing the truth of his messengership and prophethood through the manifest evidence and dazzling miracles that Allah Most High brought forth.

I also explained the rulings of the Book: its abrogating and abrogated passages, its specific and general expressions, its clearly explained passages and those requiring clarification, its unequivocal wording and that admitting more than one interpretation, and its literal and figurative expressions. I explained the rulings and classifications of the Sunnah, the true nature of consensus, the basis of analogy, and the obligation to rule by it in matters not addressed by an explicit text in the Book or the Sunnah, or by the consensus of the Muslim community. I also explained and clarified all the categories into which the rulings of religious law fall: obligatory, recommended, permissible, unlawful, and disliked.

In the remaining volumes, we included the rulings governing all the prescriptions of religion: their obligations, Sunnah practices, meritorious acts, and conditions of validity and invalidity. I therefore thought it fitting to conclude the work with a comprehensive volume containing matters important to know concerning the lineage of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, his wives, his children, and the highlights of