Muslim by al-Mundhiri* (Abridgement of Muslim by al-Mundhiri), and Sifat al-Salah (The Description of the Prayer), both published by Maktabat al-Ma‘arif in Riyadh. What, then, might fair-minded readers say if they knew that, despite the aforementioned severance of relations, he still exercises control over my books, printing them however he wishes and in whatever quantities he wishes, as though he owned them, even though I repeatedly warned him that I did not consent to this?! Yet no!
His injustice did not stop with me alone; rather, it extended to the brothers with whom I began doing business and to whom I assigned the rights to some of my books—after I had offered this to him years earlier, but he refused it, behaved arrogantly toward me, and exalted himself over me. I still possess the letter he wrote me concerning what I have mentioned about him.
He continues to print the four books mentioned above, despite knowing that they have become their property. He also prints others, falsifying some of them, as he did with the book al-Tankil (Exemplary Punishment). Whoever wishes may compare the edition of Maktabat al-Ma‘arif with that of al-Maktab al-Islami, and he will see astonishing things—especially if he reads my introduction to the Ma‘arif edition. Nevertheless, he continues printing the books we have mentioned without any legitimate right, and advertises them in his catalogues without any restraint or deterrent.
If you were to open the first book listed in his latest catalogue for the year (1991 CE), you would find my book Adab al-Zifaf (The Etiquettes of Marriage). In the introduction to the aforementioned edition of Sifat al-Salah, I had made clear what should have been enough to deter him from continuing to publish it, since it had become the property of the owner of the Islamic Library. He himself acknowledged this to some people; yet it is plotting, transgression, greed, and avarice.
Further confirming this is that, when he removed from it my introduction, which amounted to (72) pages, the reader could no longer benefit from the references to passages occurring earlier or later, since they refer to pages in the authorized edition, while some refer to passages in the deleted introduction!!
So, readers at large! Do you think that someone who acts in this manner toward an author and his readers is truthful when he declares in the introduction to the aforementioned catalogue that he deals with them on the basis of sincere counsel and integrity? Or is the matter as Allah Most High said: “It is only a word that he speaks”?