deeply ingrained in the nature of all creation. Thus, when distress befalls them, you see them turn their eyes toward heaven, raise [their hands] toward it in supplication, and await relief from their Lord, giving voice to this with their tongues. None denies this except an innovator extreme in his innovation, or someone deluded into imitating him and following him in his error.” He said:

“In this treatise, I shall mention some of the reports concerning this that have reached me from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, his Companions, and the imams who followed his Sunnah, in a manner [through which] absolute certainty concerning their authentic attribution to them is attained, and their mass transmission through various channels becomes evident. This is so that believers who read it may increase in faith, and those unaware of it may be awakened, until it becomes as though they had witnessed it with their own eyes, and so that it may serve as proof and evidence for those who adhere to the Sunnah. Know—may Allah have mercy on you—that valid mass transmission, which yields certainty, does not require any single report to have the requisite number of transmitters. Rather, whenever numerous reports conveying one meaning are transmitted through mutually corroborating channels, and nothing has emerged to contradict them [أ] and undermine them, until that meaning becomes firmly established in people’s hearts and they become certain of it, mass transmission has been established,