my long-standing project, “Making the Sunnah Accessible to the Ummah,” to which I devoted my youth, spent my middle age, and with which I am now completing my old age. I ask Allah—Exalted is He in His loftiness—that I may be among those of whom the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The best of you is he whose life is long and whose deeds are good.”

I hope from Him, Glorious is His شأن, for a good end and death upon faith.

In conclusion, I must not fail to fulfil the duty of thanking my eldest daughter, Umm Abdullah. She deserves credit for facilitating the correction of the proofs of this volume and for drawing attention to many matters that any author may overlook—let alone one who has reached eighty years of age—such as the omission of a word or sentence, noting the repeated documentation of a hadith, or an incomplete discussion of it, and the like. May Allah reward her abundantly on my behalf.

Likewise, brother Ali al-Halabi: I benefited from the observations he wrote on the original manuscript in my own handwriting, some of which had been written decades ago, as well as from those he wrote on some of the proofs that he was able to examine. To him, and to everyone who played a part in preparing and publishing this volume under the supervision of my son-in-law, Nizam Skijha, proprietor of the Islamic Library in Amman, I extend my profound thanks.

And the last of our supplications is: praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

Amman, 27 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1415 AH
Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani