A PART FROM PREFACE OF MIFTÂH-UL-JANNA (I)

Allâhu ta’âlâ sent Prophets ‘’alaihim-us-salâm’ to His born slaves so that they should attain happiness, comfort and peace in the world and in the Hereafter and lead a brotherly life by attaching their hearts to one another, and for the purpose of teaching them how to perform their duties as His slaves. Through those select people, the highest of mankind in all respects, He let His born slaves know the best way of living. He announced that Muhammad ‘’alaihis-salâm’, the highest and the aftermost of His Prophets ‘’alaihim-us-salawât-u-wa-t-teslîmât’ is the Prophet of all people that will be living all the world over until the end of the world. In His grand heavenly book named the Qur’ân al-kerîm and which He revealed to this most beloved Prophet of His through an angel piecemeal in a proces of twenty-three years, He declared His commandments and prohibitions. Because the Qur’ân al-kerîm is in the Arabic language and provides extremely subtle teachings and ultramundane pieces of knowledge beyond the grasp of human mind, Muhammad ‘’alaihis-salâm’ explained the entire book, from the beginning to the end, to his Sahâba ‘’alaihim-urridwân’. He said: “Anyone who explains the Qur’ân al-kerîm in a way at variance with my explanations will become an unbeliever.” Islamic scholars, who heard from the Ashâb-i-kirâm the explanations made by our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’, made them clear and plain enough to be understood by everybody and wrote them in books of Tafsîr. These scholars are called the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat (or Sunnî scholars). Books which the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat wrote by compiling semplars of explanations from the Qur’ân al-kerîm and our Prophet’s ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’ utterances, which are called hadîth-i-sherîfs, are called books of ’Ilm-i-hâl. People who want to acquire true and tenable knowledge of the Islamic religion which Allâhu ta’âlâ teaches in the Qur’ân al-kerîm have to read these books of ’ilm-i-hâl.