Abul-Qāsim as-Sabtī—the scholar and world explorer—regarded a then 36-year-old Ibn Taymiyyah to be the most knowledgeable person he had encountered in the East and the West. Thus, he wrote to him requesting advice concerning four matters:

• Advice that would benefit him in his religion and his worldly life
• A comprehensive book that would suffice him in the field of knowledge
• The best supererogatory acts of worship
• The most profitable earnings

The result is a classic must-read book, concise in size yet immense in content. Explained by one of the leading scholars of jurisprudence, Shaykh Sulaymān ar-Ruḥaylī, this manuscript covers the subjects of seeking knowledge, the Hereafter, employment and trade, jurisprudence, repentance, ‘aqīdah, ḥadīth, du’ā', worship, etiquette, and much more.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah is one of the greatest scholars and reformers in Islamic history, who emerged at time of great turmoil and confusion to call the Muslims to return to the path of the Quran and Sunnah, the path of the Prophet (S) and the early generations of this ummah (Salaf).

Ibn Taymiyyah wrote many books, often under the most difficult of circumstances, that describe the path of the salaf and discuss the arguments of Muslim philosophers and of the Baatini and Raafidi groups, pointing out the flaws therein. His thoughts and arguments are still relevant today, at a time that is in many ways similar to his own era. The ummah is in turmoil, faced with decline and confusion, seeking a way out and beginning to realize, after trying so many isms and ideologies, and after being exposed to Raafidi propaganda and corrupt ideas, that the only way to escape this situation is to go back to the path of the Salaf, the path of the Prophet (PBUH) and the Sahabah.