In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Publisher’s Preface
All praise belongs to Allah alone, and may blessings and peace be upon the Prophet after whom there is no prophet, and upon his family and Companions.

This is the book Al-Thamar al-Mustatab fī Fiqh al-Sunnah wa’l-Kitab by the eminent ḥadīth scholar Shaykh Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī—may Allah have mercy on him and grant him spacious gardens—now presented to its readers and admirers after spending decades locked away in the Shaykh’s own library. The manuscript was completed in 1366 AH, as we found written in the author’s hand on the cover. By doing so, the Shaykh offers a practical lesson to those self-styled scholars we have seen selling publishers books that have not yet been written—books that exist only as vague ideas. Once they receive payment, they start foraging from here and there, compiling and inflating material until a mere cover becomes a single volume and a single volume turns into several. Afterwards they parade themselves as “editors,” “commentators,” and other dazzling titles. There is no might and no power except with Allah.

It appears to us that our Shaykh did not complete this work; rather, he stopped at the point now in your hands sometime before 1370 AH. Evidence for this is his opinion on the Palestinian refugees who took shelter in mosques during the 1948 Nakbah—see (ص 820) of this book.

We are scarcely in need of introducing the merits and unique features of this work—they are clear to every reader, Allah willing—yet we nonetheless feel obliged to mention some of its outstanding qualities. The most important are: