Preface to the Third Edition
Praise be to Allah, and may blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
This is the third edition of the complete edition of Islamic Governance. We are reissuing it ten years after its first printing. This edition is distinguished by the following:
-
It has been collated against the oldest known manuscript of the book, copied in 705 AH, before the Shaykh traveled to Egypt. One of the most important corrections furnished by this manuscript concerns my statement in the preface to the first edition that the Shaykh composed the book in 709 AH. The date of this manuscript conclusively establishes otherwise, as will be discussed in the appropriate place. As for its text, it belongs to the abridged manuscript tradition of the book. Its text is generally sound, though it contains some errors and scribal distortions, which are not numerous. The esteemed brother Musab al-Lahw kindly made it available to me.
-
Numerous corrections have been made throughout the book—in its introduction, main text, and footnotes. These observations were received from several esteemed individuals. The first to provide me with them was Dr. Taha Abu al-Naja, followed by the Proofreading and Review Unit at the Ministry of Endowments in Qatar. May Allah reward them all with goodness.
Alī ibn Muhammad al-Umrān