Preface by Imām al-Albānī

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy.

All praise belongs to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and ask His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil within ourselves and from the consequences of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can mislead, and whomever He allows to stray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. May Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him, his family, his Companions, and all his brethren until the Day of Judgment.

To proceed:

Before the honorable reader lies my abridgment of the distinguished work Al-ʿUlū li-l-ʿAliyy al-ʿAẓīm wa-Īḍāḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Akhbār min Saqīmihā (The Exaltation of the Most High and a Clarification of the Authentic Reports from the Unsound Ones) by the ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbdillāh Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qaymāz al-Dimashqī al-Atharī, better known as al-Dhahabī. It is the very “Book of the Throne” cited by Ibn al-ʿImād in his biographical entry on the ḥāfiẓ in al-Shadharāt (8/156) and similarly by al-Saffārīnī in his Lawāmiʿ al-Asrār, from which he frequently quotes, as I have seen in its abridgment 1 prepared by the learned Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Sallūm.

The credit for my decision to abridge—indeed, to publish—this noble work, after Allah, goes to my brother in faith Professor Zuhayr al-Shāwīsh. During a scholarly discussion with him about the books written on creed, this particular work was mentioned 2, whereupon he suggested that I undertake