His wedding day is now close—may Allah make it blessed for him, for his family, and for his offspring. I therefore considered it a duty to hurry and answer his request, fulfilling his wish despite the shortness of my time and my engagement with the project I have entitled “Bringing the Sunnah Within Reach of the Ummah.” I began that work more than two years ago, starting with Sunan Abū Dāwūd, but suspended it several months ago when an ailment struck my right eye. I pray that Allah, exalted is He, will remove it from me by His grace and generosity.

In spite of this, I hastened to prepare this valuable epistle and then presented it to him as a gift, hoping it would help him—and anyone else who may come across it—to obey Allah and His Messenger in this matter that most people today treat lightly. Among them are many scholars who, by rights, should serve as examples to others in every affair of the Sharīʿah, let alone in this one. As you will see, it has become rare in these lands to find someone who abides by the limits laid down by the Law.

Yet we praise Allah, exalted is He, that a group from the Prophet’s ﷺ Community still stands firm upon Allah’s command; those who forsake or oppose them do them no harm until Allah’s decree arrives while they remain manifest over the people.⦗1⦘

I ask Allah, exalted is He, to make us among that group, and to render this treatise—and everything I have written and will write—sincere for His sake, a means to earn His pleasure and win His Gardens. He is the best One to be asked.

Damascus, 7/5/1370 AH

Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī