Among His greatest favors to them and His immense kindness—after He had created them, provided for them, smoothed the path (1) for them, and endowed them with speech—was that He dispatched His messengers to them and sent down His books, clarifying what He has declared lawful and unlawful, recounting His narratives and rulings, and setting out every detail concerning the origin and the return (2) up to the Day of Resurrection.

So happy is the one who receives these reports with affirmation and surrender, the commands with compliance, and the prohibitions with reverence; such a person attains everlasting bliss and is kept far from the station of the deniers in Hell—with its zaqqum, scalding water, and painful torment.

I praise Him with abundant, pure, blessed praise (3) that fills the breadth of the heavens and the earths, enduring forever and ever, throughout all ages until the Day of Judgment, in every hour, moment, time, and instant, in a manner befitting His tremendous majesty, His primordial sovereignty, and His noble Face.

I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, without partner; He has neither child nor parent, no consort, no equal, no minister or adviser, no supporter or rival (4), and no co-sharer. I further bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, His beloved and intimate friend, chosen from the purest lineage of genuine Arabs, the Seal of the Prophets, the owner of the great, thirst-quenching Basin, the possessor of the supreme intercession on the Day of Resurrection, and the bearer of the banner that Allah will raise at the Praised Station toward which all created beings—even the intimate friend Abraham—will yearn. May Allah bless, honor, and exalt him and all his brothers among the prophets and messengers with the most fragrant benediction and salutation, and with the highest honor and veneration,

and may Allah be pleased with all of his radiant, noble Companions—the eminent, distinguished leaders, the very elite of creation after the prophets—for as long as darkness mingles with light, as long as the herald proclaims the call, and as long as day effaces the blackness of night.

To proceed:

This is a book in which I recount—with Allah’s help and gracious facilitation—what He, by His power and might, has enabled me to relate concerning the beginning of created things: the creation of the Throne, the Footstool, the heavens and the earths and all they contain, and what lies between them of angels, jinn, and devils; the manner in which Adam (peace be upon him) was created; the stories of the prophets; and matters of that sort up to the days of the Children of Israel and the era of pre-Islamic ignorance, until prophethood (5) culminates in the days of our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) (6). We shall then set forth his biography as it ought to be told, bringing comfort to the hearts and thirsty souls, and removing the ailment from the afflicted.