Bidayat as-Sul fi Tafdil ar-Rasul (The Beginning of the Quest for the High Esteem of the Messenger) is a concise work summarising succinctly forty distinctive virtues and characteristics of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace). The author Imam ‘Izz ibn ‘Abd al-Salam, nicknamed the Sultan of Scholars, produced a number of brilliant works in Shafi’i jurisprudence, Quraanic exegesis, methodological fundamentals of Sacred Law, formal legal opinion, government, and Sufism, and a masterpiece on Islamic legal principles, Qawa’id al-ahkam fi masalih al-anam [The Bases of Legal Rulings in the Interests of Mankind].
