Taysir al-Wusul ila Minhaj al-Usul
- Author died
- 874 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Fārūq al-Ḥadīthah lil-Ṭibā‘ah wal-Nashr
Taysir al-Wusul ila Minhaj al-Usul (Facilitating Attainment to the Pathway of Legal Principles) is a commentary on legal theory (usul al-fiqh) by the Shafi'i scholar Ibn Imam al-Kamiliya (808–874 AH / 1405–1469 CE; also reported d. 864 AH) . It serves as an exposition of Minhaj al-Wusul ila 'Ilm al-Usul, the widely studied foundational primer authored by Nasir al-Din al-Baydawi (d. 685 AH / 1286 CE) .
Composition and Method
In his prologue, Ibn Imam al-Kamiliya describes the work as an expansive treatise that he originally composed to elucidate the base text's intricacies and resolve its complex questions . Because of the extensive nature of the initial formulation, he refined it into an intermediate treatment designed to avoid both confusing brevity and tedious verbosity .
The commentary methodically tackles the base text by:
- Unraveling difficult and compressed phraseology .
- Expanding upon concise and implicit allusions .
- Supplying necessary legal and logical qualifiers (quyud) and illustrative examples .
- Clarifying complex grammatical dependencies and ambiguous pronominal references .
Scholarly Sources and Structure
Throughout the commentary, Ibn Imam al-Kamiliya draws upon grammatical, theological, and legal authorities to analyze al-Baydawi's statements . In theological and linguistic matters, he cites figures such as Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Ibn Jinni, Ibn Hisham, al-Halwani, and Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi . In discussions of legal theory and semantic conditions, such as the requirements of metaphorical usage (majaz), he engages the opinions of theorists including Ibn al-Hajib, Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi, Taqi al-Din al-Subki, and al-Iraqi .
Reception and Manuscripts
The commentary gained wide circulation among students and scholars of legal theory . Manuscript copies of the text have been preserved in several historical collections, including the al-Abdaliyya Library at the Zitouna Mosque in Tunis and the library of the Islamic University of Madinah .
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