Adherence to the guidance of the Prophet ﷺ is required of every Muslim, and the scholars of this community have produced a great deal on what that guidance consists of — in worship, in dealings and in ordinary habits. Of everything written on the subject, Zad Al-Ma'ad is among the most famous.
What Makes It Unusual
Most books do one thing or the other. A Seerah tells you what happened; a fiqh manual tells you what to do. Ibn Al-Qayyim's method here does both at once: he explains the Sunnah through the Seerah, and the Seerah through the Sunnah.
So a chapter on the Prophet's ﷺ guidance in prayer is not a list of rulings abstracted from their setting, and it is not a narrative either. It is what he actually did, when, with the ruling drawn out of the incident. Readers who have found fiqh dry and Seerah insufficiently practical usually find this the book that joins them.
How It Was Written
The original is a substantial classic running to thousands of pages, and Ibn Al-Qayyim wrote it on the road — during the Hajj journey from Damascus to Makkah, away from his library, working from memory.
Several thousand incidents, hadiths, verses, points of fiqh and the names of the Companions attached to each were recorded remarkably close to accurate, with only marginal errors. Anyone familiar with Ibn Al-Qayyim's standing and his precision will not be surprised. It remains astonishing that it was possible at all, under the hardships of travel and without access to sources.
The Summary
This edition is the abridgement by Imam Muhammad ibn 'Abdul-Wahhab At-Tamimi — which is the reason to read this version rather than wait for the full one. It covers the obligation to know the Prophet's ﷺ guidance, and then that guidance in wudu, in prayer, in Qiyam Al-Layl, in the Friday prayer and its special characteristics, and onward through the acts of worship, dealings and habits of an ordinary life.
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