Part 1

refuge with Him from the sins whi ch weigh upon the bac ks

o f mankind. I wo rship Him and seck Hi s aid in remo ving

hindrances and diffi culti es inl he pract ice c fm y re lig ion. I bear

wit ness that none has th e right to be worshipped except Allah,

Alone, without partners und I bear witn ess th at Muhammad

- who, by Alla h's leave, brought about the dawn of faith 10

the darkness and mi sguidance whi ch existed in the hearts

of mankind - is the slave and Messenger of Allah. May the

I'refi/ce to Ihe Revisioll 9

Blessin gs and Peace of A lla h be lIpo n him in pe rpetllity.

0 , All ah! We see k Your favor and through You we seck to

ward ofr am iction. We ask You to protect us an d to grant liS

mercy. Our Lo rd! Mak e not our hea rts deviate a fter You ha ve

a lready guided us. Make it easy for li S to perform our deeds

in th e way that You have taught us. Mak e us grate ful for what

You have given us and make plai n a path fo r us whi ch leads to

You. Open lip the doors between us and You by which we may

arrive before You. To You be long th e keys 10 the hcavcn s and

the Earth and You arc Most Abl e to do all things. To proceed:

Among the bless in gs whi ch All ah has bestowed upon li S, the

community of Muslim s is that He has made it easy for us to

fo ll ow th e pat h of g uidance, a nd He has o pened the doors of

knowledge by makin g avai lable to us th ese new publi catio ns,

which present to li S the writin gs of the early scholars and

reveal to us whm they said regarding lega l verdi cts, hi slOry,

event s, infonllati on and lessons. These scholars opcned a cl car

beacon of li ght for all those Muslim s seeking guidance and

they se t up for us a signpost in which th ere is neither devia tion

nor crookedness. W hoeve r fol lows it w ill arri ve sa fe ly at hi s

desi red destin ati on and whoeve r di ve rts from it w ill be lost

foreve r. They ha ve writtcn these books and treati ses and mad e

clear to LIS the re in eve nt s, informa ti on and virtues. Amo ng sti ch

books is thi s unique work , AI-Bidayah Wan-Nilw)'a/z, by the

Imam, the I-Iq[iz, the masler sc holar of /wdeelh , ' Imaduddeen

ISllla'eel Ibn Katheer A I-Quras hi - may A ll ah have mercy on

him . Th is book was greeted with appro val by th e vast maj orit y

of Mus li ms. No Islami c librnry wou ld be compl ete w ithout it.

In it. th e author has reco rded what A ll a h, Most High ha s mad e

easy for him abo ut the hi story of man kincl , from th e beg inning

of c reation. starlin g w ith the crea ti on of the Throne and th e

10 Prefa ce /(J the Rel'is;o/l

K ill's; ( Footstoo l), the heavens and the Earth and all that th ey

contai n an d a ll that li es between them, suc h as the ange ls,

the jinn and th e dev ils. He a lso described how Adam ~, was

c reat ed, and told the stori es o f the proph ets li p to th e days of

the Children o f Isra ' ee l and the Days o f Ignorance (Jahiliyyall),

until th e advent o f Proph et Muh ammad :iS, whi ch hera lded the

e nd of Prophe thood. He thcn rccorded his Seerah. o l Th en he

record ed the eve nts which loo k place up to hi s own tim e. He

al so spo ke o f the tria ls and battl es, the signs o f the approac h

of the 1·lour, th en the se nd ing forth o f mankind and the terrors

of the Resurrec ti on, which he desc ribed in de ta il. He th en

descri bed the Hell -fire , with a ll its horrors, a nd Paradi se a nd

all th e good thi ngs contained there in. He called thi s parti cular

vo lume of hi s book: AI1-Nilw)'oh FiI-FiIOI1 lVol-Molahill1 ( The

Ending ill Trials and Ba ffles ). As fo r th e book whi ch is in our

hands loday, it is AI-Bidayah.

By Alla h's Grace, I came to know brothe r Abdu l Ma li k

Mujahid, the ge nera l manager of Darussalam Pub lishing in

Riyadh. He visit ed me in my humble office in Dama sclls a nd

suggested to me the idea o f cre.lIing a summari sed ve rsion

of this wonderful book . I prayed for A ll ah's Gu idance in the

matter and sought he lp from Hi m in completi ng the proj ec t.

A llah enabl ed me to make the acquaint ance of a numbcr of

people of knowl edge and ex peri cnee in thi s field and a pla n of

ac ti on for th e work was wrillen. It co ns isted of ten principal

po ints and we then started the task, seekin g help frol11 the Lord

o f the heavens and th e Earth. A ll o f us ex erted our utmost

e lTort s in thi s task, mak ing repeat ed rev ision s and correc ti ons,

until we reached the point whe re, by Allah 's Penn issiol1, we

comp leted it a nd it was published in the fo n11 whi ch is in your

(I) Seem" : Biogmphy. li fe story. in panicILlar, of Prophet ~'I LIhall1ll1 a d j$.

P/·e!ace 10 Ih e Rel'isio // II

Tile Plan of Action for Tllis Book:

1. Summari za ti on of the tex t. Thi s was achie ved by

conce ntrating on the mos t important evcnts narratcd in

the book. In doing so, we took care not to lea ve out any

important details which would ca use loss of mcan ing or

2. We reli ed on a Ilumbcrofprintcd and handwrittcn copies of

the book and in cases where any contrad iction or omiss ion

was found, we succeeded in establi shin g the most accurate

a nd au th enti c text.

3. We left out the a/wdeel" which proved 10 be base less or

weak and confin ed ourse lves to th e alladeelll whic h arc

authenti c or lIasall (II and those which are accep table duc

to th e existcnce of othe r supportin g narration s. On rare

occasions, w hen it was found that there were no other

a/wdcelll in the c hap ter, wc included so me weak ahadeeth

whose weakness was not of an ex treme nature.

4. We perform ed takhreej (2) of the ahadeer" wi th ascripti on

of the number of the sec ti on and the page, th e number

of th e lIadeerh and in many cases, the prec ise location of

the Iwdeelll in the original source, th en the ruling on its

authenticity, if it was not fro m thc Saheehaill , m because

the alladeelli therein do not req uire any ruling on the ir

authenticity and th ey ha ve been w ide ly accepted by the

(1) Hasan: Good, sound. An acceptable liar/celli. although it docs 110\ reach

the level of salleell (authentic).

(2) Takllreej: Referencing the sources of a Iwdeelh and evaluilting Ihelll.

(3) Salleellain: Suheell AI-Bukl/{/ri and Sallee" MI/slim.

12 r'Il.'/11("1! III fltl! Ncl'ishm

Muslim V mlllah. ell As ror the a/wdee/h in this book, we

ha ve relied on the op ini ons of the Imams lind sc holms of

/uu/eelh - includin g the earli er sc ho la rs. the lat er scholars

and those o f th e present day. On so me occasions, we ha ve

recorded the weak alwe/eellt, while ma king it plain that

th ey arc not authentic. We ha ve not omitted them because

the author has incl uded them in ord er to wam the peo pl c

aga in st them du e to th eir wi despread popularity amongst

the Mu slim s in gene ral. In such cases, we desired not to

oppose the author in thi s e nort and so we left the m. at the

sa me tim e making the sc holars' ruling 0 11 them clear, so as

to warn the people again st th em.

5. We summari sed th e as(llleed e~) present in the book. inl110st

cases mentionin g onl y the Com panion who narrat ed th e

hadeelll, or the person who report ed it from him.

6. We omitted many of the Isra 'eeliy'\lat (J) found in thi s book

whi ch the aut hor referred to in the preface, where he said:

"We do not record th e Ism 'eeliy),al except those which the

Lawg ive r has pcrmill cd, i.e., those whi ch do not contra dict

the Book or All ah and th e Sunnah or I-lis Messcnger :t:;,

These a rc stori es whi ch are neither bel ieved nor belied and

th ey ha ve been recorded because th ey provide detail s or

uncla ri ficd narrati ves that we have, or th ey pro vidc na mcs

for people an d places that have only been mentioned in

passing in our Reve lati on. due to the re being no bene fit in

spec i rying them ror us. Thus we ha ve reported them in order

to provide ex tra detail and not with the intc nti on of citi ng

thcm as ev id encc or pl ac in g any reliance on th em. On ly th e

( I ) VII/111ft": Nation or people: in this case, what is rc lerred to is the scholars

(2) A!i(lll(!cd (sing. "" j.l'lIlIti): Chains of narrators of the almdl:elh .

(3) Ism 'eeliJ:\'(/f: Narr:LI ions of Jewish origin.

Book of A linh and the aut henti c Sunnah of Hi s Messenger