Last night I started looking inside the files for my translation of Zād al-Mustaqniʿ for the first time since 2005. I translated Zād when I was studying Ḥanbalī fiqh back in Damascus. I added explanatory comments for the first third of the text which comprises purification, prayer, zakāh, fasting, pilgrimage, and jihād. The full translation, with notes, occupies over 200 pages when printed on A4 paper.
I stopped working on Zād while in the middle of verifying its correctness and editing it to read like decent English. The text contains numerous inaccurate translations and reads poorly. The transliteration is inconsistent and incorrect transliterations since I worked on it before I had learned a transliteration system or had easy access to the needed characters.
Every word on the page is a responsibility the writer must bear. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on Zād before I can consider it more than a rough draft; even more is needed before I can accept responsibility for its release to the public. Gathering the old files and fitting them in to my current workflow is one minor, though vital, step towards getting it done.
I still hope that I will be blessed with the honor of presenting Zād al-Mustaqniʿ to English readers. And success comes only from Allāh.
al-Salamu ‘alaykum Sh. Musa
I hope that you are keeping well.
I was wondering when you anticipate to have the book published by?
There are many seekers of knowledge eagerly waiting for its release.
May Allah grant you tawfiq.
Your brother,
Adnan
wa alaykum al-salam
Zād is still on my list of projects to complete. But between its length and the need for Hanbali texts, I went ahead and translated the sections on worship from a shorter late Hanbali text. In sha Allah this first installment will be published before the end of 2016.