Egypt was a Citadel of Knowledge, understanding and Piety right from the time of the Sahābah when it was liberated. It had homed the Ulamā of the Past many of whom were mentioned by Imām Abū Muhammad Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusī in Al-Ihkām.
Of these Imāms was the Imām and Faqīh Khalīl bn Is’hāq bn Mūsā Al-Mālikī. He was known as Al-Jundi because of his always wearing the attire of the Mujāhidūn and his love of Jihād.
Among his teachers were Al-Manūfī, Ibn ‘AbdilHādī and Ar-Rashīdī who were authorities of their respective sciences in the time.
Khalīl bn Is’hāq excelled in the Sciences of Hadīth and Fiq’h and was known for his mastery of the Mālikī Fiq’h and therefore became the focal point in his era and after him.
The Mukhtasar is the last of the books that were written by Imām Khalīl rahimahullāh and it is mentioned that he spent over 20 years in it’s writing. The fact that it took him over 20 years is an indication of how cautious he was and his detail in the choice of words and terminologies.
In his writing of it, he relied on all the reference books known as the Ummahāt that preceded him by the Ulamā. The most important of them upon which he relied was the Jāmi’ of Ibn Al-Hājib – rahimahullāh – and the Mudawwanah.
The Mukhtasar was authored to consist 64 Chapters ( Abwāb) in accordance with the organization of the Mudawwanah. He passed away when he got to the Chapter on Nikāh though his students after him to include Bahram and Al-Afqahsī rahimahumullāh, completed it’s gathering.
The position of Khalīl was strengthened to his contemporaries with the authorship of the Mukhtasar and the world of Mālikī Fiq’h accepted all that came in it as a Summary of all the reference books that came before him and their Madh’hab.
Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah said about it:
“The winds of the Kindness of Allāh upon the Mālikiyyah did not cease to the extent that He raised for them a young man who gathered for them (all the matters of) their Madh’hab in few scrolls that a man can carry under his armpit and go out with it.”
When a man is able to summarize all the giant works of the Imāms of the past and be detailed in the relaying of the Knowledge in them to such a near perfection as is the Mukhtasar, it warrants the attention the Mukhtasar got and continues to get.
For this reason, the Mukhtasar remains the main text of the Mālikī Madh’hab to date.
It is a necessary thorough study upon the Path of Mālikī Fiq’h.
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazakumullāhu Khayran
