Mukhtasar Khalil - wa maahu Shifa al-Ghalil fi Hall Muqfal Khalil
- Author died
- 919 AH
- Editions
- Markaz Najībawiyyah lil-Makhṭūṭāt wa-Khidmat al-Turāth
Shifa al-Ghalil fi Hall Muqfal Khalil (The Healing of Thirst in Unlocking the Obscurities of Khalil) is a Maliki legal commentary written by the Moroccan jurist and scholar Ibn Ghazi (841–919 AH / 1437–1513 CE) on the foundational legal compendium Mukhtasar Khalil by Khalil ibn Ishaq al-Jundi (d. 776 AH) .
Purpose and Method
The work was conceived as a critical gloss and supplement to al-Sharh al-Saghir, the shorter commentary on Mukhtasar Khalil authored by Khalil's disciple, Bahram al-Damiri (d. 805 AH) . In the introduction, Ibn Ghazi acknowledges that while Bahram decoded many of the compendium’s intricate allusions and extracted its subtle legal treasures, several obscure phrases and dense passages remained either bypassed or insufficiently explained . Ibn Ghazi consequently directed his efforts toward tracking down these difficult instances, unpacking their grammatical and jurisprudential constructions, and correcting lapses in earlier explanations .
Rather than providing a running word-by-word commentary across the entirety of the text, the book selectively targets the most perplexing loci (al-muqfal / al-mushkil) in Khalil's concise prose . In his concluding remarks, Ibn Ghazi states that whoever combines this work with Bahram's al-Sharh al-Saghir will find that every difficulty in the Mukhtasar is rendered accessible .
Reception and Influence
Shifa al-Ghalil earned broad acclaim among later Maliki scholars and was integrated into educational curricula and reference literature across North Africa and Egypt . It became a primary source for major commentators on the Mukhtasar; al-Hattab (d. 954 AH) drew heavily from Ibn Ghazi's gloss in his own extensive commentary, Mawahib al-Jalil, noting the clarity with which Ibn Ghazi dismantled Khalil’s demanding phrasing .
Editions
The work has been preserved in multiple manuscript collections across Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, and Europe . A critical edition of the text, accompanied by the primary text of Mukhtasar Khalil, was prepared by Ahmad ibn Abd al-Karim Najib and published by the Najibawayh Centre for Manuscripts and Heritage Service in 2007 .
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