forgotten. Allah instills their love in people’s hearts and inspires them to preserve their affection for them. Their graves are visited as though they were alive in their homes. Thus Allah causes their renown to spread after their deaths, so that the remembrance of them is not effaced over the years, nor are their names worn away by the passage of days. May Allah’s mercy and pleasure be upon them, and may He gather us and them in the Abode of Peace.

[Preserving the Creed of the People of Hadith]

In every age, there has always been an imam from the early generations or a scholar from the later generations, upholding Allah’s due and offering sincere counsel for His religion. He directs his efforts toward compiling the creed of the People of Hadith in accordance with the teachings of Allah’s Book, His Messenger, and the transmitted reports of his Companions. He strives to compose it and labors to refine it, seeking thereby to revive His sunnah, renew His law, and keep the mention of both fresh in the ears of those from his community who hold fast to them; or to restrain one excessive in his innovation, one wholly absorbed in calling to his misguidance, or one deluded by his ignorance due to his lack of insight.

[The Author’s Utmost Effort in Compiling This Work]

I therefore devoted my utmost effort to this task and wearied myself over it, hoping for Allah’s reward and for the fulfillment of His promise: to enlighten one who is ignorant, rescue one who has gone astray, set right one who has turned aside, and guide one who is perplexed. I ask Allah to grant success in what I relate and to pardon any error in what I set forth and intend.