1 – From his earliest years our Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—has been fiercely protective of tawḥīd. You will thus find that he devotes more than twenty pages (pp. 357–380) to prohibiting prayer in graveyards and in mosques erected over graves.

2 – Despite the lofty station he attained, especially in the science of ḥadīth, our Shaykh remained God-fearing and scrupulous in grading narrations. At times he would even perform istikhāra, seeking Allah’s guidance before declaring a ḥadīth authentic or weak, as on p. 543.

3 – As in all his writings, you will see him fold up the banner of partisanship—undaunted and unhesitating—while unfurling the banner of following the Leader of all leaders, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, a stance for which he became renowned.

4 – From the very start he has venerated the righteous predecessors, never advancing an opinion for which he can cite no Imām, as is clearly shown on pp. 214 and 628.

5 – You will also notice that on a few issues in this book our Shaykh voiced views different from the ones he finally held at the time of his death, a fact evident in his later publications. Thus he once deemed it impermissible for a husband to approach a menstruating wife who has become pure until she performs the ritual bath (p. H4); see his retraction in “Ādāb al-Zifāf” (pp. 125–129, Islamic Library edition). Likewise, regarding the limits of a man’s ʿawrah (p. 246), compare his earlier stance with “Tamām al-Minna” (p. 159). He also reversed some of his rulings on the authenticity of certain ḥadīths—for example, the ḥadīth “Whoever guards the prayer …” cited below (p. 52); compare this with “Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb” (no. 312), and other instances. Such readiness to retract is a virtue embraced only by one who fears Allah in what he writes and pays no heed to people’s criticism, for a change of ijtihād—for the well-known reasons—