except for Muḥammad (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), unlike others who do not belong to the ḥadīth and its practice, for they show fanaticism for the opinions of their leaders—though they have been forbidden from this—just as the people of ḥadīth show fanaticism for the sayings of their Prophet! So it is no wonder after this explanation that the people of ḥadīth are the manifest group and the saved sect, and indeed the middle nation, witnesses over creation. I am pleased in this context by the words of al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī in the introduction to his book "The Honor of the Companions of Ḥadīth," in defense of them and in response to those who opposed them: "If the critic of reprehensible opinion were occupied with what benefits him from the sciences, and sought the sunnahs of the Messenger of the Lord of the worlds, and followed the paths of the jurists and the ḥadīth scholars, he would find in that what suffices him from others, and he would be content with the tradition over his own opinion, because the ḥadīth encompasses the knowledge of the fundamentals of tawḥīd and the explanation of what has come regarding promises and warnings, and the attributes of the Lord of the worlds—exalted above the statements of the atheists—and reports about the description of Paradise and Hell, and what Allāh has prepared therein for the pious and the wicked, and what Allāh has created in the earths and the heavens, and the varieties of wonders and great signs, and the mention of the close angels, and the description of those who stand in rows and those who glorify. In the ḥadīth are the stories of the prophets, the accounts of the ascetics and the saints, the admonitions of the eloquent, the words of the jurists, the histories of the kings of the Arabs and the non-Arabs, the tales of the ancient nations, the explanation of the military expeditions of the Messenger (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), his campaigns, the summaries of his rulings and judgments, his sermons and admonitions, his signs and miracles, the number of his wives and children, his in-laws and companions, the mention of their virtues and merits, the explanation of their news and noble qualities, the extent of their ages, and the clarification of their genealogies. In it is the interpretation of the great Qurʾān, and what it contains of the news and wise reminders, and the sayings of the Companions regarding the rulings preserved from them, and the naming of those who adhered to the opinion of each one of them, from the subsequent leaders and the diligent jurists. Allāh has made its people the pillars of the sharīʿah, and through them, He has demolished every heinous innovation. They are the trustees of Allāh among His creation, the intermediaries between the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and his community, and the diligent preservers of his religion, their lights