Its Title:

The title “Sincerity” appears without “Intention” in the original manuscript and in the works of al-Dhahabī, al-Baghdādī, al-Kattānī, and al-Zabīdī, at the places cited above.

However, al-Zabīdī in Ithāf al-Sādah al-Muttaqīn, 10/9, as well as al-Nadīm and Ibn Rajab, at the places cited above, mention it under the title Sincerity and Intention.

Scholars are known to cite only the opening part of a title rather than its full form. I therefore preferred to give the title as it appears in the sources rather than limit myself to what is found in the original manuscript. There is no harm in doing so, since it was explicitly stated by firmly reliable authorities renowned for the accuracy of their transmission and the mastery of their scholarship. After all, an addition from a trustworthy narrator is accepted—how much more so when it comes from several trustworthy authorities!

Method of Critical Editing:

1—I numbered the reports consecutively from beginning to end.

2—I fully vocalized the text, paying particular attention, as far as I was able, to the correct vocalization of names and expressions that might otherwise be unclear.

3—I expanded abbreviated transmission formulas: thanā and thā to haddathanā (“he narrated to us”), and anā and abnā to akhbaranā (“he informed us”). I wrote them as they are pronounced by hadith scholars, because hadith scribes used such abbreviations to write more quickly while receiving narrations orally from scholars and transmitters, and to conserve paper.

4—I provided a note on every report, giving brief biographical information on the narrators in its chain, explaining any unfamiliar terms, and citing the sources in which the report is found.