How to Choose the Best Editions of Beneficial Books
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Another letter from the brothers: Majdi Rami Hafez, Harith 'Abd al-Mu'nim al-Sa'di, and Ashraf 'Atif Mukhtar, Egyptians residing in Iraq. Our brothers have a set of questions; they ask and say: We know that the six authentic books are excellent books, so please inform us: Do these books differ from one edition to another? Because I—and due to the abundance of books—do not know what is correct among them. Please inform us about that? May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
Yes, they differ. Some editions are poor, and some contain errors. A student of knowledge should choose a good edition and ask the scholars he knows about good editions so that he can use them and buy them. Editions are not all the same, neither in the two Sahihs, nor in the four Sunans, nor in other books. Even the Qur'an may contain errors from the printers. So a student of knowledge... should be alert and have insight, so that he does not possess except the good edition that scholars have recognized as correct and free from errors. It is possible for each of you to ask about the good edition. If he is lacking and does not know, he asks the scholars. He says: I have such and such an edition, an edition of so-and-so, from the book of Tafsir by Ibn Kathir, from the book of al-Bukhari, the book of Muslim, the book of Sunan by al-Tirmidhi, or others. He asks the scholars they know, the ones he knows, so that they guide him and direct him to the good edition.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.
Another letter from the brothers: Majdi Rami Hafez, Harith 'Abd al-Mu'nim al-Sa'di, and Ashraf 'Atif Mukhtar, Egyptians residing in Iraq. Our brothers have a set of questions; they ask and say: We know that the six authentic books are excellent books, so please inform us: Do these books differ from one edition to another? Because I—and due to the abundance of books—do not know what is correct among them. Please inform us about that? May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
Yes, they differ. Some editions are poor, and some contain errors. A student of knowledge should choose a good edition and ask the scholars he knows about good editions so that he can use them and buy them. Editions are not all the same, neither in the two Sahihs, nor in the four Sunans, nor in other books. Even the Qur'an may contain errors from the printers. So a student of knowledge... should be alert and have insight, so that he does not possess except the good edition that scholars have recognized as correct and free from errors. It is possible for each of you to ask about the good edition. If he is lacking and does not know, he asks the scholars. He says: I have such and such an edition, an edition of so-and-so, from the book of Tafsir by Ibn Kathir, from the book of al-Bukhari, the book of Muslim, the book of Sunan by al-Tirmidhi, or others. He asks the scholars they know, the ones he knows, so that they guide him and direct him to the good edition.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.