al-Ikhtiyar li-Talil al-Mukhtar
- Author died
- 683 AH
- Editions
- Matba'at al-Halabi
al-Ikhtiyar li-Talil al-Mukhtar (The Choice for Reasoning The Selected Text) is a thirteenth-century legal manual of the Hanafi school composed by Ibn Mawdud al-Mawsili (599–683 AH / 1202–1284 CE) as an extensive commentary on his own legal primer, al-Mukhtar lil-Fatwa .
Background and Composition
During his youth, al-Mawsili composed a concise introductory primer in Hanafi jurisprudence for beginners among his students, naming it al-Mukhtar lil-Fatwa . In this base text, he restricted himself primarily to the legal doctrine and rulings of Abu Hanifa, regarding his views as the most authoritative . To indicate dissenting positions concisely without elongating the primer, he introduced letter symbols at the request of younger relatives: Sin (س) for Abu Yusuf, Mim (م) for Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, Sin-Mim (سم) for both, Za (ز) for Zufar ibn al-Hudhayl, and Fa (ف) for al-Shafi'i .
After al-Mukhtar gained widespread circulation and memorization among students of law, jurists requested that al-Mawsili compose a commentary explaining the legal rationales ('ilal) and underlying meanings of its issues, detailing their practical applications, and clarifying disputed transmissions . In response, he wrote al-Ikhtiyar li-Talil al-Mukhtar, expanding the work to address matters of widespread legal necessity (ma ta'ummu bihi al-balwa) and transmissions essential for issuing fatwas .
Structure and Method
The work follows the traditional organization of Islamic legal treatises across books (kutub) and chapters (abwab), beginning with the book of purification (Kitab al-Taharah) and the book of prayer (Kitab al-Salah), and proceeding through personal status, commercial transactions, and judicial administration .
In al-Ikhtiyar, al-Mawsili pairs the concise rulings of al-Mukhtar with legal proofs and linguistic explanations. For each ruling, he cites textual evidence from the Quran, prophetic hadiths, and scholarly consensus (ijma'), alongside rational deduction and juristic reasoning (ta'lil) . He also records disagreements among Abu Hanifa's principal disciples and provides balanced assessments of their respective arguments .
Significance and Reception
Al-Mukhtar became categorized by later scholars among the canonical "Four Texts" (al-mutun al-arba'ah) of the Hanafi school—alongside Kanz al-Daqaiq, al-Wiqayah, and Majma' al-Bahrayn—which served as core pedagogical references whose contents were given precedence in legal rulings over unverified secondary compilations . Jurists and commentators praised both al-Mukhtar and its commentary al-Ikhtiyar as highly reliable reference works utilized by beginner students and advanced jurists alike .
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