Accordingly, after completing my study of the hadith and its passages, tracing their corroborating reports among the hadiths mentioned above, and including it in my book “Silsilat al-Ahādīth al-Sahīha” (The Series of Authentic Hadiths) under number (2457), an appealing idea occurred to me: to gather those useful details, insert them at the appropriate places in the hadith of Abū Umāma (may Allah be pleased with him), and weave them together into a single continuous account. This was the approach I had followed in my book “The Hajj of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) as Narrated by Jābir (may Allah be pleased with him),” though there was a fundamental difference between the two hadiths. In the case of Jābir’s hadith, I had traced the additional details and placed each authentic addition at the appropriate point in his account (may Allah be pleased with him), as transmitted by Muslim through Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir, who narrated it from him.

As for the hadith of Abū Umāma (may Allah be pleased with him), I incorporated into it reports authentically transmitted from other Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), who numbered more than twenty, as already noted.

The idea kept returning to me, and I turned it over in my mind again and again, until it took hold of me and compelled me to bring it to fruition. I had come to recognize its importance and the need to present it to people in this elegant, continuous form, making it readily accessible to everyone—whatever their education or standing—and bringing within their reach the useful details scattered throughout the hadiths, which most people with specialist knowledge, let alone the general public, would be unable to extract themselves.