This epistle of Ibn Taymiyyah is said to have been printed in Majmuʿ al-Fatāwā, the thirty-five-volume collection prepared by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Qāsim. Yet—after turning every page and consulting the detailed indices—I have regrettably found no trace of it at all … (1).

Third: Many people continue to ask about Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah’s view on the question of the annihilation of Hell; the publication of this treatise will, God willing, serve as an answer.

Fourth: Ibn Taymiyyah’s opponents have treated this very letter as a pretext for attacking and denigrating him since his own time. Foremost among them is Shaykh ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī al-Subkī, d. 756 AH, who composed a refutation entitled al-Iʿtibār bi-Baqāʾ al-Janna wa’l-Nār (Consideration of the Everlastingness of Paradise and Hell) (2). In that work al-Subkī was unduly harsh and unfair toward Shaykh al-Islam. His treatise later made its way into print and has been promoted by contemporary critics of Ibn Taymiyyah and those who follow in their footsteps. It has therefore become necessary to set the matter straight, as will be shown, God willing (3).

Fifth: Because manuscript copies of this epistle are so rare, scholars have differed over whether it can truly be ascribed to Shaykh al-Islam, as we find in the remarks of Dr. ʿAlī al-Harbī in a printed treatise that is now in circulation (4).