In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

Introduction

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His help and forgiveness, and seek refuge in Allah from the evil within ourselves and from our evil deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can lead astray; and whomever He leads astray, none can guide.

I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah alone, without partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

To proceed: this is the sixth volume of my major work, Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah (The سلسلة of Authentic Hadiths). Between its covers it contains a fresh, fragrant selection from the hadiths of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, his purified sunnah, and his noble biography.

Like its predecessors, the hadiths in this volume encompass various matters of creed; different forms of etiquette and character; diverse subjects of jurisprudence and legal rulings; and branches of the technical disciplines of hadith, as well as other material from which—Allah willing—Muslims in general, students of knowledge in particular, and most particularly the callers to the sunnah and its adherents will benefit.

So that our noble reader-brothers may be aware of what I have said and know what I have indicated, I shall mention in this brief introduction the most important hadiths, narrations, and scholarly discussions that occurred to me in this volume:

Among them, in my view, are certain hadiths or issues in which it became apparent to me—either through my own reconsideration or through another’s indication—that there had been a change of opinion, a difference in independent legal reasoning, or an error that became apparent