A translation into English of An-Nawawi's Forty Hadith by Ezzeddin Ibrahim and Denys Johnson-Davies was first published in 1976 and has since then enjoyed numerous reprints, Although a faithful translation, it is limited to the text of each hadith. Al-Imam an-Nawawi had himself included some explanatory annotation, and numerous scholars subsequently contributed further explanation and commentary on an-Nawawi's Forty in Arabic. Most of this material, however, has remained inaccessible to those without knowledge to the language.

In an attempt to fill this gap and assist more people towards an understanding of these ahadith and the religion in general, a few of the better known and accepted explanations by early scholars have been compiled and abridged for the benefit of English readers.