—peace and blessings be upon him—in any aspect of his Sunnah; that no Muslim may overstep the bounds with respect to any one of those imams or diminish his standing; that all of them are unanimously and unequivocally agreed on the obligation of following every authentic text that is free of contradiction; and that it is impermissible to give anyone’s opinion precedence over a hadith of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Ibn Taymiyyah then detailed the factors that might lead a mujtahid to refrain from acting on a particular text and offered a valid excuse for him. He further clarified that the excuse afforded to the imam does not extend to the blind-follower once the truth has become clear to him. He also described the situation of the uninformed layman who lacks the ability to investigate: his legal school is that of the scholar from whom he seeks fatwa, and he must continue to engage in taqlid as long as he remains ignorant. All of this applies only to the person who cannot distinguish the proofs, whereas anyone who has acquired some knowledge is duty-bound to act upon it. Under no circumstances is sectarian bigotry permissible.

Despite its brevity, this treatise attests to the piety of this imam and to the perfection of his understanding in honoring the statements of the earlier scholars and the imams of the four legal schools. May Allah have mercy on the one who recognizes the worth of this imam and of the other leaders of Islam and accords them the rank they deserve.

This treatise has already been printed several times, the last of which was the Beirut edition in Syria edited by Shaykh Zuhayr al-Shawish; yet this edition, notwithstanding the features that distinguish it