Shaykh al-Islām and defender of the Sunnah, peerless in his age and an ocean of knowledge, one of the remaining masters of independent legal reasoning and an authority for later generations, the crown of those who know Allah and the exemplar of discerning scholars, the scholar to whom seekers journey and the choicest of those firmly grounded in knowledge, the leader of ascetics and the ideal of those who strive, the luminous and authoritative imam, the godly scholar qualified for independent legal reasoning, Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-Abbās Ahmad ibn Abd al-Halīm ibn Abd al-Salām ibn Taymiyyah al-Harrānī—may Allah preserve his exalted standing in this world and the next, and grant him ascent to the summit of perfection, joyful at heart and wholly content—was asked:

“Concerning al-Murshidah (The Guide): how did it originate and come to be composed? Is it permissible to read it or not?”

He replied—may Allah Most High have mercy on him:

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

Its origins are as follows: it was composed by Abū Abd Allāh Muhammad ibn Abd Allāh ibn al-Tūmart, who assumed the title of al-Mahdī. He had emerged in the Maghreb in the early fifth century AH, some two hundred years ago. He had travelled to Iraq and acquired some knowledge, and he possessed a measure of asceticism and devotion to worship. When he returned to the Maghreb, he went up into its mountains, to a group of Berbers