[Reason for Writing]

The scholars repeatedly urged me, time and again, to explain the creedal positions of the People of Hadith—may Allah sanctify their souls and make our mention of them a means of mercy and forgiveness. I therefore complied with their request, in view of the benefit it would bring and the complete benefit it would yield in upholding the Sunnah—especially in these times, whose scholars have neglected the established teachings of the People of the Sunnah and occupied themselves instead with newly introduced disciplines. As a result, the original foundations upon which the Sharia was established have been lost—foundations to which the scholars of the early generations called, to whose path they guided others, and upon which they relied. I have therefore revived this approach so that its meanings and evidences may be known, and so that people will not be content merely to hear its name without knowing its true nature.

[The Author’s Methodology and Conditions]

I began explaining this book only after examining the greater part of the works of all the earlier imams—may Allah be pleased with them all—and after becoming familiar with their doctrinal positions, the methods they followed in their writings to instruct the Muslims, and the proofs they cited concerning these issues over which disagreement arose between the People of the Sunnah and those who claimed affiliation with Islam. I have thus set out these issues in detail and indicated in their chapter headings when disagreement over each issue first arose in Islam, and who first introduced it