in this noble discipline, and the distillation of his thought and jurisprudential insight. The reader will find all of this in this book—with its three parts—abounding in valuable hadith and juridical studies, scholarly refutations, and the insights Allah bestowed upon the Shaykh, may Allah have mercy upon him and grant him an abundant reward.

It is appropriate to note here that the Shaykh, may Allah have mercy upon him, cited two hadiths as nos. 3106 and 3528, but later withdrew his authentication of them and transferred them to The Weak Hadith Series, as nos. 6720 and 5848. The Shaykh himself indicated the transfer of the first of these, and we have noted the transfer of the other in its proper place.

Finally, we have printed the book as it appears in the Shaykh’s original, correcting such evident errors as no human being is immune from. We have also prepared its scholarly indexes, as far as possible, in the manner in which they were prepared during the Shaykh’s lifetime, in cooperation with some of our brothers among the seekers of knowledge. May Allah reward them well.

We ask Allah to benefit the Muslims in the East and West through this volume, just as He benefited them through those that preceded it; to grant the Shaykh an abundant reward; and to bless him with forgiveness. Indeed, He is All-Hearing, Responsive.

And the last of our supplications is that all praise is for Allah, Lord of the worlds.

The Publisher
8 Jumada al-Akhirah 1421 AH *