The Shaykh al-Halag’s remarks on his edition of *Bidayat al-Mujtahid*.

The questioner : Therefore, if Allah wills, I will send you *Bidayat al-Mujtahid* in four volumes and *Wabil al-Ghamam*.

The Shaykh : I have extracted the *Bidayah*. Have you seen the *takhrij* of this al-Ghamari?

The questioner : I looked at it in the *Nihayah*. My brother, I think Abu Dujana, sent me a copy, so I looked at it. However, I followed a different approach: I mention the original sources of the hadith, then what was said about it, and then I mention your words, meaning that I did not leave a single hadith in the *Bidayah* without quoting from your statements.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. What I want to benefit from you is that I rarely refer to this book by al-Ghamari. In fact, the al-Ghamaris are all among the few in the Maghreb who engaged in the science of hadith. Had they not been afflicted with the innovation of *turuq* (Sufi orders) and Sufism, their benefit to Muslims would have been greater and greater. The point is that I rarely refer to this book. So what is your opinion? Does it, for example, provide the appropriate research for each hadith in terms of gathering the chains and corroborating narrations, and then issuing the appropriate ruling after this gathering? Or does it perhaps not do that?

The questioner : According to what I have read and looked at, it does not give a ruling on the hadith; it does not issue a ruling.

The Shaykh : So it is merely a compilation, then.