But Allah—Exalted is He—who has undertaken to preserve His Book, saying, “Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will surely preserve it,” and, “Do not move your tongue with it in haste. Indeed, upon Us rests its collection and its recitation. So when We recite it, follow its recitation. Then upon Us rests its clarification”—has thwarted, and continues to thwart, every attempt to cause this Book to be lost. It has been preserved in people’s hearts and in written lines, and Allah has raised up those who received its elucidation from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, so that the Muslim community might find what would help it understand the Book of its Lord and adhere to it properly.

Perhaps our imam, al-Baghawi, was among those who rendered the greatest service to the Book of Allah—Exalted is He—through this exegesis of his, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl (Landmarks of Revelation). In explaining the meaning of the verse under discussion, he relied on exegesis by transmission, as we shall explain in detail when discussing his methodology in exegesis.

We were keen to publish this book as an independent critical edition—after it had previously appeared in an old lithographic edition and as a marginal work alongside the exegeses of Ibn Kathir and al-Khazin—so that it might be of the greatest possible benefit. During our research, we came across a manuscript in the library of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and arranged to have it copied. We then asked the esteemed Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Arnaʾut to send us a copy of a manuscript held in the al-Zahiriyyah Library. He kindly complied and encouraged us to undertake the project; may Allah reward him well on our behalf.

We began the work, aware of its importance through our examination of the knowledge contained in the book—knowledge needed by the Muslim—and through the praise scholars had given to both the work and its author. But after we had made some progress, news came that two distinguished brothers had critically edited this book and that it was on its way to the bookstores. We therefore stopped, saying, “There is no need to waste effort and time; let us work on another book instead.” Then, when the book arrived in its four volumes, we examined it in order to assess how far its publication in that form had achieved the intended benefit. To our surprise—and, in all honesty, we must say this—the book had not been given the scholarly attention it deserved. We found in it:

1. Reliance on the printed edition, despite its many errors.
2. Most hadiths left without source documentation, except for the few that al-Baghawi had not cited with a chain of transmission.
3. Numerous errors, textual corruptions, additions, and omissions in comparison with the manuscript.

After reviewing some pages of the book with a number of scholars and showing them our work, they advised us to continue what we had begun so that this book, which had received scholars’ praise, might be properly benefited from. We therefore resumed the work, seeking from Allah Most High help, success, and reward for serving His mighty Book.

We are grateful to our esteemed teacher, Dr. Muhammad Adib al-Salih, who benefited us through his guidance. May Allah reward him with the best reward and grant the Muslim community the benefit of men like him. We also thank the following esteemed teachers:

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Arnaʾut, who graciously helped us obtain a copy of the manuscript from the al-Zahiriyyah Library.

Dr. Misfar Ghurm Allah al-Dumayni, for his valuable observations and suggestions. May Allah bless him and reward him.

Engineer Muhammad Yasir Safar al-Halabi, who worked alongside us for a long time in collation and review.