and perhaps among the good that Allāh has decreed for us during this extended period for the printing of the book and the aforementioned difficulties is that He granted me the opportunity to benefit from some newly printed or photographed ḥadīth books, which I reviewed after this volume was typeset. I had not had the chance to benefit from them before, which enabled me to draw from them much of the material for the "Addendum" that the reader will find at the end of the book, in accordance with his saying (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam): "... the affair of the believer is all good," and all praise is due to Allāh, by whose grace good deeds are completed. It may be useful to point out here an important matter about which I have often been asked, both in writing and verbally, which is their saying: What is the reason for your differing in authentication and weakening from some of the earlier ḥadīth scholars like al-Suyūṭī and al-Manāwī and others, as well as some contemporary ḥadīth scholars? The answer: A- As for the earlier ḥadīth scholars, the reason goes back to two main points: First, it is human nature to err and forget, and this is no different between the earlier and later scholars. An earlier scholar may forget or make a mistake, and a later scholar may correct him. As they used to say: How much did the first leave for the last. Thus, the judgment is for the evidence and proof, and whichever one has it is followed. The other, which is more important, is that a later scholar knowledgeable in this field may expand in tracing the paths from the collections of the sunnah for a particular ḥadīth, which helps him strengthen the ḥadīth due to his knowledge of its supporting and corroborating narrations. This is part of my methodology in takhrīj, as I have indicated in what follows