• The best book on the subject of tafsīr for the beginner student of knowledge is: Tafsīr al-Baghawī.

• The best book on matters of ʿaqīdah which the Muslim needs is: Kitāb al-Tawḥīd by Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (d. 1206 ^AH)

• The best explanation of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī is: Fatḥ al-Bārī by Ibn Ḥajr (d. 852 ^AH)

•  The best book on the methodology of calling to Islam is: Manhāj al-Anbīyā fī al-Daʿwāt īla Allāh by Shaykh Rabīʿ ibn Ḥādī al-Madkhalī

• The best book on aḥādīth pertaining to conduct and mannerism is: Riyaḍh al-Ṣāliḥīn by al-Nawawī (d.676 ^AH)

• The best book on the sciences of ḥadīth is: Marifatu Anwāʿī ʿUlūm al-ḥadīth By Ibn Ṣalāḥ (d.643 ^AH)

• The best book on Arabic terminologies and expressions is: Muʿjam Maqāyīs by Aḥmad Ibn Fāris al-Qazwīnī (d.395 ^AH).

• The best book on the methodology of verifying manuscripts is: the book by ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, Taḥqīq al-Nūṣūṣ.

• The best book on the methodology of authoring knowledge-based research is: Kayfa Taktub Baḥthan aw Risālatan by Aḥmad Shalabī.

•  The best book in refutation of the Shīʿāh is: Minḥāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawīyyah by Ibn Taimiyyah (d.728 ^AH)

•  The best book on illustrating the guidance of the Messenger ﷺ is: Zād al-Maʿād fī Ḥādī Khair al-ʿIbād by Ibn al-Qayyim (d.751 ^AH)

• The best book on the laws of Islamic governance is: al-Aḥkām as-Sulṭānīyyah by al-Māwardī (d.450 ^AH)

• The best book on comparative fiqh is: al-Awṣāṭ by Ibn al-Munthīr & al-Mughnī by Ibn al-Qūdāmah.

• The best book on the obscurities and intricacies of ḥadīths is a book entitled: Mushkil al-Athār by al-Ṭaḥawī.

• The best book on information regarding the companions is: al-Isābah by Ibn Hajr.

•  The best explanation of al-Miwaṭṭa by Imām Mālik is a book entitled: al-Tamhīd & al-Istithkār both authored by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr al-Namrī.

• The best book that focuses on the Prophetic biography is: al-Sīrah by Ibn Hishām (d.218 ^AH) which he summarised from ibn Isḥāq’s (d.151 ^AH) al-Maghāzī wa al-Siyār (may Allāh have mercy on them both).

• The best book on the concepts of syntax (and functions of the particles, conjunctions and prepositions) is Mughnī al-Labīb ʿan Kutub al-Aʿrīb by Ibn Hishām an-Nahwī. He was ʿAbdullāh ibn Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Yūsuf, Abū Muḥammad, Jamāl al-Dīn (d.761 ^AH).

•  The best explanation of al-Nawawī’s Forty Ḥadīth is: Jāmī al-ʿUlūm wa al-Ḥikam by Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī.

• The best book explaining al-ʿIlal (defects of ḥadīth) is: Sharḥ al-ʿIlal al-Ṣaghīr of al-Tirmithī by Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī.

• The best book on the narrations of the Companions is: al-Muṣannaf by ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī and al-Muṣannaf by Ibn Abī Shaybah.

•  The best book in refutation of al-Kawtharī is: al-Tankīl biome fī-Taʾnīb al-Kawtharī min Abāṭīl by al-Muʿallimī.

• The best book on the abrogating and abrogated verses of the Qurʾān is: the book of Ibn al-ʿArabī al-Mālikī and Ibn al-Jāwzī al-Hanbalī.

• The best book on the abrogating and abrogated ḥadīths is: al-Iʾlām al-ʿĀlam baʿdad Rūsūkhi bī Nāsīkh al-Ḥadīth wa-Mansūkhī by Ibn al-Jāwzī.

• The best encyclopaedic book on the subject of fiqh is: Mawsūʿat al-Fiqh al-Kūwaitīyah, which is unparalleled.

• The best books on matūn al-ḥadīth are the six books of the Sunnah: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Sunan al-Nisāʾī, Sunan Abi Dāwūd, Sunan al-Tirmithī and Sunan ibn Mājah.

• The best Musnād is: al-Musnād by Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal

• The best book which combines the six ḥadīth books is: Jāmīʿ al-ʾUsūl with the checking of ʿAbd al-Qādr al-Arnāʾūṭ.

• The best book on the laws of funerals is: Aḥkām al-Janāʾiz by al-Albānī.

• The best book in explaining the difficult (words of) ḥadīth is: al-Nihāyah fī Gharīb al-Ḥadīth wa al-Athar by Ibn al-Athīr.

• The best explanation of Sunan Abī Dāwūd is: ʿAwn al-Maʿbūd by Shams al-Haqq ʿAthīm Abādī.

• The best explanation of Sunan at-Tirmithī is: ‘Āriḍat al-Aḥwadī by Ibn al-Arabī and Tuḥfat al-Aḥwadī by al-Mubārakfūrī.

•  The best book on ḥadīths pertaining to Islamic rulings is: al-Mantaqā min al-Aḥkām by Majd al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Taymīyah and Bulūgh al-Marām by Ibn Ḥajr al-Asqalānī.

• The best books on the exegesis of ḥadīths that pertain to Islamic rulings is: Al-Badr al-Tamām by Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Maghribī al-Yemenī. It has been summarized by al-Ṣanʿānī in Subul al-Salām, which is also an explanation of Bulūgh al-Marām. Another exceptional book on this subject is Nayl al-Awṭār by al-Shawkānī.

• The best explanation of Mishkāt al-Maṣabiḥ is composed by Mulla ʿAlī al-Qārī and Marʾāt al-Mafātīḥ by Abūl-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbaydullah ibn al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Mubārakfūrī.

• The best book on Hanafi fiqh is Badāʿī al-Ṣanāʿi fī Tartīb al-Sharāʿī by al-Kāsānī (d.587 ^AH); and al-Hidāyah by al-Marghinānī (d.593 ^AH), along with its explanation by Ibn al-Hamām al-Mowsūm in Sharḥ al-ʿAjīz al-Faqīr Fatḥ al-Qadīr ʿAlā al-Hidāyah by Ibn al-Hamām. He reached the chapter of guardianship, and death over took him before he could complete. It was completed by others. And the explanation of al-Bināyah ʿalā al-Hidāyah by al-ʿAynī is praised.

•  The best books on Māliki fiqh are the books by al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAlī ibn Nasr al-Thaʿlabī al-Mālikī, Abī Muḥammad (d.362 ^AH), and specifically the books al-Maʿūna fī al-Fiqh and al-Talqīn [fī al-Fiqh al-Mālikī] and al-Kāfī by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr al-Namarī (d.463 ^AH).

•  The best book on Shāfiʿī fiqh is: al-Umm by ash-Shāfiʿī (d.204 ^AH) and its abridgement [al-Mukhtaṣar] by his student al-Muzanī. And its explanation Nihāyah al-Muṭṭalib fī Darayatil Math-hab by al-Juwaynī (d.478 ^AH)] which [al-Ghazālī (d.505 ^AH)] the author of al-Baṣiṭ relied on and abridged in al-Waṣīt. He then abridged al-Waṣīṭ in al-Wajīz [both by the same author of al-Baṣiṭ, al-Ghazālī (d.505 ^AH)]. Then ar-Rafīʿaī (d. 623 ^AH) summarised al-Wajīz with al-Muharir with two explanations [Fatḥ al-ʿAzīz Sharḥ al-Wajīz and Sharḥ al-Ṣaghīr] which were abridged thereafter. One of them was abridged by al-Nawāwī in al-Rawḍat al-Ṭālibīn. After them, Nihāyat al-Muḥtāj by ar-Ramlī and Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj by Ibn Ḥajr al-Haytamī.

• The best books on Ḥanbalī fiqh are: al-Muqniʿ and al-Kāfī both authored by ibn Qudāmah (d.623 ^AH). The most important explanations of al-Muqniʿ are: al-Mubdiʿ fī Sharḥ al-Muqniʿ by Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdillah ibn Mufliḥ al-Ḥanbalī, Abū Isḥāq (d.884 ^AH) and al-Inṣāf fī Maʿrifati al-Rājiḥ min al-Khilāf ʿAla Math-hab al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal by ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān al-Mardāwī, Abūl Ḥasan (d.885 ^AH). And from the best books of the math-ḥab are: Kashāf al-Qinʿa and Daqāʾiq ʾUli al-Nohā li Sharḥ al-Muntahā commonly known as Sharḥ Muntahā al-Irādat by Manṣūr ibn Yūnus ibn Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn ibn Ḥasan ibn Idrīs al-Bahūtī al- Ḥanbalī (d.1051 _^AH).

• The best book on Usūl al-Fiqh is: al-Risālah of al-Shāfiʿī (d.204 ^AH) for the non-beginner student. And the best books for a beginner student of knowledge are those authored by Abū Ishāq al-Shirāzī (d.476 ^AH), specifically al-Lumʿa [fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh] upon which Abū Walīd al-Bājī based his book, Iḥkām al-Fusūl fī al-ʾUsūl; and the book al-Rawḍat al-Nāthir by ibn Qudāmah which has been summarised from [al-Ghazālī’s] al-Mustaṣfa and Muthakirah ʿAla Rawḍat al-Nāthir Uṣūl al-Fiqh by al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad al-Amīn al-Mukhtār al-Jaknī, al-Shanqiṭī, the author of Aḍwā al-Bayān. It contains precious edits and audits. May Allāh reward him with good.

•  The best book on Takhrīj al-Furūʿ ʿAlā al-Uṣūl is: the book of [Shihab al-Dīn Maḥmūd] Zinjānī Takhrīj al-Furūʿ ʿAlā al-Uṣūl; and the book Miftāḥ al-Wuṣūl ilā Binā al-Furūʿ ʿAlā al-Uṣūl by al-Talmasānī; and Aḥkāmu al-Aḥkām Sharḥ Umdatul Aḥkām by ibn Daqīq al-ʿEīd. And al-Shanqiṭī placed great concern on this subject in ʿAḍwa al-Bayān. May Allāh have mercy upon them all.

I will end with the following conclusions:

1. I have mentioned these books based upon my knowledge and study of them, however with some of these works, I have followed the statements of the people of knowledge regarding them.
2. Mentioning the best book on such a thing is similar to the statements of the muḥadithīn: “The most correct thing in this subject [is such and such]”. I do not mean by mentioning the best book on such a thing – that everything it contains is correct. Certainly, Allāh ﷻ  has refused perfection except for His Book. And the praise is given for whose good has outweighed its bad.
3. If any author of the aforementioned books fell into error, then the correct position that we hold towards him is that he is a person of knowledge. We take that which he was accurate in and leave that which he erred in. And we presume that he has two rewards in that which he is correct and one reward for that which he as erred in.
4. Some of the aforementioned books are suitable for both the beginner and advanced student of knowledge, whilst some others are not suitable except for the advanced. If the student of knowledge reads a book and does not understand it, he should search for a shaykh to explain it to him. If he does not find a shaykh, he should look for another book on the subject which is easier for him.
5. Fifthly: There is no problem if one finds a shaykh from the people of Sunnah, who is firmly grounded to teach him any of these books or other titles. Since the basis of studying is at the hands of the shaykh and not the book.
6. Lastly, the best of books after the Book of Allāh ﷻ  and the books of the Prophetic sunnah are those based upon the Qurʾān and the sunnah. They do not oppose the Islamic legislation nor aid innovations, and they follow the reliable proof without straying from the path of the Salaf. Any of these books which are related to instrumental knowledge, it is sufficient to familiarise oneself with its fundamentals, and there is no need to delve heavily into them. Such as the knowledge of language, al-ʾUṣūl, expressions, grammar [al-Naḥw], terminologies [al-muṣṭalah] and the like. The intended acquisition is knowledge of the explanation of the Qurʾān and the meanings of the noble aḥādīth, and to implement them so as to obtain happiness in this life and the next.