Accordingly, we collated the text of the “Original” with the text of “Ṣifat al-Ṣalāh” issued by our own press, Maktabat al-Maʿārif—the last edition prepared under the Shaykh’s supervision, may Allah have mercy on him—and recorded every addition unique to the printed version between the two symbols ﴿ ﴾, together with its footnotes where present. We likewise entered every wording the Shaykh had altered in his successive printings, treating this category as the sort of stylistic adjustments an author normally makes for various purposes.
An example of the first category is the extra passage: “He says: ‘Do not pray except toward a sutrah (prayer-screen), and do not allow anyone to pass in front of you; if he insists, then fight him, for with him is his qarīn (companion devil).’” This comes with its footnote (p. 115/ḥ (1)).
An example of the second category is his statement (p. 114): “He would stand close to the sutrah, so that between him and the wall there were three cubits.” In the archetype it had read: “He would stand close to the wall that lay between him and the qiblah, leaving between himself and the wall about three cubits.”
We also examined the concise marginal comments and source citations in “al-Ṣifah” so as to learn what new references and benefits the Shaykh had added. Here we had to pause more than once, for it is plain to any diligent researcher that the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—introduced into the various editions of “al-Ṣifah” a range of fresh sources, both printed works and diverse manuscripts. His hadith documentation there is brief and summary, whereas in the Original it is expanded and detailed. It was therefore necessary to consult those sources, scrutinize the chains of transmission and the texts, and insert the citations in their proper places.
We shall not prolong the explanation here; the task was extremely delicate and almost carried us beyond the limits of our commission in this book. Whatever we were able to reach we investigated and set in its appropriate place within ﴿ ﴾; whatever we could not, we merely indicated in a footnote. Throughout we strove for brevity and precision; should anyone find otherwise, let him excuse us.
Incidentally, we should add that on many occasions we recorded the numbers of the new printings