This book is the first translation into English of a well known and widely used, six hundred year old classical Arabic text, its author, Qadi Safadi of Damascus, designed it for his contemporaries as a reference book to acquaint the followers of the four schools of fiqh with the ruling of the other schools, so that needless antagonism and misunderstandings did not spring up out of ignorance and prejudice. The need for such a book is even more pressing in the present circumstances, and this excellent and sufficient book which covers the whole spectrum of the Deen is a timely and much needed addition to the Islamic source material available in the English language