Praise be to Allah, who has guided us to this; we would never have found guidance had Allah not guided us. O Allah, send blessings upon our master Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, just as You sent blessings upon Abraham and the family of Abraham, and bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad as You blessed Abraham and the family of Abraham. Truly, You are Praiseworthy, Glorious.

The work’s author, Yaḥyā al-Nawawī—may Allah forgive him—said: “I completed it on Monday, the fourteenth of Ramadan in the year 670 AH, in Damascus.”

[Explanation]
In the section of Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn that deals with the delights awaiting the people of Paradise—by which he concluded the book, and we ask Allah Most High to make this a good omen and to admit him and us into the Garden of Bliss—the author cites two hadiths about the believers beholding their Lord on the Day of Resurrection in Paradise, and about Allah’s bestowing His everlasting good-pleasure upon them so that He will never again be displeased with them.

The believers’ vision of their Lord in Paradise is established by the Book of Allah, the sunnah of His Messenger, and the consensus of the Companions and the leading scholars of the ummah. None denies it except one whose heart Allah has blinded—may Allah protect us. For this reason these narrations are among the mutawātir (mass-transmitted) hadiths from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

Allah, Exalted is He, says: “Faces on that Day will be radiant, looking toward their Lord” (75:22-23), and He says: “For those who excelled is the best reward, and even more” (10:26). The one most knowledgeable of Allah’s Book—Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah—explained that “even more” means gazing upon the Face of Allah. Allah, Exalted is He, also says: “Reclining on couches, they will be looking on” (83:23), that is, they will look at what