The Importance of the Book *Riyad al-Salihin*

The Shaykh : And after that: It has now come time for us, after the means and circumstances have been made easy for us, to meet with you at least once a week to study Islam from its two pure sources: the Book of Allah and the Hadith of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Such a lesson must have a foundation to rely upon for the teacher, first so that it serves as a support and aid for him in determining the topic, and second so that any of our brothers among the students of knowledge present who wish to do so can associate themselves with this book to study it themselves and to recall the previous lessons. My choice fell upon the book of Imam al-Nawawi, known as "Riyad al-Salihin from the Speech of the Master of the Messengers" (may the best of prayers and the most perfect of peace be upon him); and this is for two reasons. The first is that this book is one of the rare books of Hadith in which its author intends to include authentic Hadiths and avoids, as much as he is able, weak Hadiths, let alone fabricated Hadiths. This is a very important quality in the many books of Hadith, because the vast number of famous books of Hadith that are circulated by scholars, let alone by students of knowledge, have contained many weak, denounced, and even fabricated Hadiths.