We ask you for a recommendation and advice for students of knowledge, pointing us to useful and beneficial books in the following areas: tafsir, seerah, and fiqh.

The Shaykh: Your Eminence, after this kind word, we ask you for a recommendation and advice. We are students of knowledge who wish to learn about useful and beneficial books in the following areas: tafsir, seerah, fiqh, morals and conduct, and tawhid (the oneness of Allah).

The Shaykh: Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his Companions, and whoever follows them.
I believe that the best books written on tawhid (the oneness of Allah) based on the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and on the methodology of our righteous predecessors, are generally the books of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and his student Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. They are among the most prominent scholars who wrote in this field and excelled in it, becoming a model for those who came after them. This does not deny that Muslim scholars, particularly from the people of hadith, preceded them. However, those who wrote in the past wrote for their own time, and what they wrote previously is not suitable for the general Muslim public today, but only for the specialists. For example, the book "al-Sunnah" by Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (may Allah have mercy on him), and the book "al-Sunnah" by Ibn Abi 'Asim, and similar books by the scholars of hadith. These are the reference and foundations for the people of knowledge. As for the books of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, they are beneficial, if Allah wills, for the general Muslim public who have some knowledge of the Arabic language and its literature.
There are also some abridgments and some commentaries for those who preceded the two Shaykhs, but with some adherence to views that contradict what our righteous predecessors were upon. By this last statement, I am referring to the book "al-'Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah" by Imam Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi al-Hanafi. He was one of the Hanafi scholars in fiqh, and one of the distinguished scholars of hadith in memorization and in transmitting the chains of narration for the hadiths he mentions in his books, such as his book "Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar" and his other book "Mushkil al-Athar." In reality, he is one of the rare Hanafi scholars who combined fiqh and hadith on one hand, and correct 'aqidah on the other. He deposited his 'aqidah in the aforementioned book or treatise, "al-'Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah." A group of Hanafis and others have commented on it. The best commentary on this book, following the methodology of the righteous predecessors and drawing its explanation from the book of Ibn al-Qayyim and the books of Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, have mercy on him), is... In this book, there is only one issue in which he differed from the scholars of hadith regarding 'aqidah, and everything else is entirely in accordance with the Sunnah. It is very rare to find among those who follow the madhahib (schools of jurisprudence) followed today someone who does not deviate from the methodology of the Salaf except in one issue. This is a very great matter, because we do not imagine a person to be free from error: so .