What are your latest scholarly projects, and is there an intention to return to the Prophetic biography and its verification?

The questioner : A small question.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : He says: What are your latest scholarly projects? And is there an intention to return to the Prophetic biography and its verification?

The Shaykh : By Allah, the opportunity has now been given to us to print books or renew their printing, and this takes more time than I had allocated for following up on scientific research according to my known methodology. So, it is rarely that I find the time to complete, for example, my old project, which falls under the general project of bringing the Sunnah closer to the Ummah. I mean by the old project "Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud" and "Da'if Sunan Abi Dawud." It is rarely that I find the opportunity to work on this project, because I am now occupied with correcting the experiments and notebooks, which naturally account for many of my books. The latest in terms of printing is the fifth volume of "Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah" and also the fifth volume of the other series, "Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah." As for authorship, I am now in the process of, with as much continuity as possible, compiling an index that can serve as a general reference for those engaged in the science of the Sunnah.
The student : Peace be upon you

The Shaykh : Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings. Welcome, may Allah reward you. This is my son, Abd al-Razzaq. This project is that I took "Kitab al-Thiqat" by Ibn Hibban and began arranging it alphabetically. I want to name it, and it may be that I have a different name for it, "Taysir Ittibā' al-Khilān li-Kitāb Thiqāt Ibn Hibbān."
The student: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
This is because benefiting from this book is very, very difficult, because he divided the book into four tiers: the Companions, the Successors, the Successors of the Successors, and the Successors of the Successors of the Successors. So, when we come across a person and want to know his biography in Ibn Hibban's history, first of all, you must determine the tier. It is not usually easy to know if he is a Companion, but knowing if he is a Successor or a Successor of a Successor is not easy, and likewise knowing if he is a Successor of a Successor or from the Successors of the Successors of the Successors is not easy. Then, if we manage to determine the tier, and the determination of the tier may differ between Ibn Hibban and others, for example, he lists him in the tier of the Successors, while others list him in the Successors of the Successors, so it is likely, for example, that he is from the Successors of the Successors, so you go back and check his name in this tier in "Kitab al-Thiqat" and you do not find him because he listed him in the tier of the Successors, and vice versa.
And the last obstacle is that every tier contains names from A to Y. So, first, he does not arrange the names of the biographical subjects alphabetically. For example, if you want to know the biography of Ishaq ibn Ibrahim, you do not know if Ishaq is before Isma'il or Isma'il is before Ishaq, even though they are close to each other. And conversely, if you come across the name Azhar, you do not know if Azhar is listed before Isma'il and Ishaq or after them; you find it after them, and so on. And the greatest obstacle is that those named Isma'il, Ishaq, Ahmad, and Muhammad are not arranged by their fathers' names. So, if you want the name of a man named Muhammad, you may need to read the whole volume, and then you may find him or you may not. To remove these obstacles and difficulties, I began working on this book a few years ago, arranging it precisely so that a researcher can obtain a biography in one moment, containing a summary of what Ibn Hibban said about him, such as being a trustworthy narrator, or a trustworthy narrator who makes mistakes, or being relied upon, or similar. And while preserving the date of birth and date of death in the briefest possible phrase. This project is now in its final stages, and we hope that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will facilitate its completion. This is the scientific life he lives.