The Hadith Qudsi (sacred tradition), also called Hadith ilahi or rabbani (divine or lordly tradition), differs from the Hadith tout court, which implies the hadith nabawi (prophetic tradition, word of the prophet), by the inclusion of divine words in speech, words that always come in a direct mode, in the first person, often in a dialogue exchanged between God and His Servants: Prophets, men or angels.

Between the Koran (word of God) and the prophetic Hadith (word of the Prophet) the Hadith Qudsi has an intermediate status. It has the characteristic of being in its quasi totality a herald of the immense Mercy of God, and of the value of pious works.

Imam Nawasi, a great traditionist who died in the year 676H/1277, collects in this book a large number of Hadiths Qudsi which he classifies by theme to facilitate access to them for readers.

A great connoisseur of the science of Traditions, Imam Abu Zakariyyâ Ibn Sharaf Ibn Murî al-Hawrânî al-Dimashqî al-Shâfi'î Muhyddîn al-Nawawî was born in the month of muharram 631 of the Hegira / October 1233 in the town of Nawa : located some hundred kilometers southeast of Damascus. At the age of eighteen, he left his native city of Nawâ to settle in Damascus where he spent twenty-seven years devoted to studious life and teaching in his large madrassas (schools) before returning to his native city to die there relatively young, at the age of forty-five, at the end of an austere life, spent in devotion, teaching and the composition of works and treatises which consecrated his reputation as the one of the great masters of the Muslim tradition.

On his intellectual training, let us note that it lasted more than ten years during which al-Nawawî followed courses and teachings given in several famous madrassas , in particular those of Damas al-Badriyya, al-Nûriyya and Dâr al-Hadîth al -Ashrafiyya where he assiduously attended the courses of Qâdî Abdelkarîm Ibn al-Harastânî, successor of the great specialist in Hadith Ibn Salah al-Shahrâzûrî. In reality, Nawawî's biographers assure us that the masters who marked his intellectual formation were in their twenties, the majority of whom belonged to the Shâfi'ite school. It remains that beyond the general list of his masters, al-Nawawî, according to his biographers, was influenced by a particular master called the shaykh Yâssîn al-Magribî who seems to have played a decisive role in the spiritual training of Imam al-Nawawî, because all his work is marked by a spiritual dimension which cannot be explained solely by his training as a traditionist.

Be that as it may, after this long period of training and studies, Imam al-Nawawî had joined the al-Iqbâliyya school in Damascus as a substitute for Shams al-Dîn Ibn Khillikân who was promoted to Grand Qadî General of the four legal schools in Damascus. But it was at the great Al-Ashrafiyya school that he gave the measure of his talent as a teacher and pedagogue by occupying the position of rector of this school for eleven years until his death in 676H/1277AD. in his hometown Nawa. His teaching at al-Ashrafiyya would allow Imam al-Nawawî to quickly acquire the reputation of a great scholar, particularly in matters of law ( fiqh ) and the science of Traditions Thanks to a series of important works such as Minhâj al-Tâlibîn wa 'Umdat al-Muftîn, Kitâb al-Taqrîb wa al-Taysîr Lima'rifat Sunan al-Bashîr al-Nadhîr, Tashîh al-Tanbîh, his great commentary on Sahîh Muslim , his Riyâdh al-Sâlihîn (the gardens of piety) , his Kitâb al-Adhkârs (the invovations), his Forty Hadîths with their commentary, his Bustân al-Arifîn fî al-Zuhd wa al-Tasawwuf which remained unfinished.