Among those sources is the first part of the author’s own “Book of Forty Ḥadith on the Attributes of the Lord of the Worlds.” This is a manuscript copied from the author’s autograph and likewise housed in the National Library under catalogue number 11 – Majmūʿ. It repeats many of the imams’ statements found in the original al-ʿUlū and from it we drew several corrections to the chains of transmission of certain reports, among other benefits.

In sum, I ask Allah Most High that this Abridgement—together with the scholarly material transferred into it—will come as close as possible to the condition of the author’s own copy, may Allah have mercy on him, for I have relied on the manuscript just mentioned and on the other sources cited above.

The book’s title in the manuscript differs slightly from that in the printed edition. The manuscript reads: “al-ʿUlū li’l-ʿAli al-ʿAẓīm, and a Clarification of the Sound Reports from the Unsound,” whereas the printed version has: “al-ʿUlū li’l-ʿAli al-Ghaffār concerning the Sound and Unsound Reports.” I have preferred the wording of the manuscript for two reasons:

First, the manuscript is more accurate than the printed text, as noted earlier.

Second, the opening sermon of the book begins, “Praise be to Allah, the Most High, the Mighty,” so the manuscript title suits that wording better than the printed one. Moreover, I fear the printed title may have been altered by an editor or someone else.

In abridging the work I followed these principles:

1. I deleted the material that was repeated, and it is little.

2. I omitted weak, singular ḥadith that lack reliable supporting narrations by which they could be strengthened, in accordance with the established rules of corroboration in hadith methodology. The author himself seldom cited such reports except to invalidate them and expose their condition, as he said after one of them on p. 28 of the original, and about another on p. 45: “I have narrated it only as a warning against it.”