Tuhfat al-Masul fi Sharh Mukhtasar Muntaha al-Sul
- Author died
- 773 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Buḥūth lil-Dirāsāt al-Islāmīyah wa-Iḥyā’ al-Turāth
Tuhfat al-Masul fi Sharh Mukhtasar Muntaha al-Sul ("A Gift for the Inquirer: Commentary on the Abridgment of the Ultimate Quest") is a work on Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh) by the Maliki jurist and logician Yahya bin Musa al-Rahuni (d. 773 AH / 1371 CE; other reports state 774 or 775 AH). It is a commentary on Mukhtasar Muntaha al-Sul wa-al-Amal fi Ilmay al-Usul wa-al-Jadal (commonly known as Mukhtasar Ibn al-Hajib), the foundational treatise on legal theory and dialectic by Ibn al-Hajib.
Purpose and Method
In his introduction, al-Rahuni highlights the widespread importance of Ibn al-Hajib's text among scholars and notes earlier commentaries by figures such as Mahmud ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Isfahani, al-Tustari, and al-Qutb. He explains that his purpose in writing the commentary was to produce an exposition that clarifies the principles of legal theory specifically in accordance with the Maliki school of the original author, to elucidate Ibn al-Hajib's aims, to resolve ambiguities and doubts, and to critically note points where the base text contained oversights or errors.
Structure and Scope
Following the organization of Ibn al-Hajib's treatise, the commentary examines the core topics of legal theory across four main divisions:
- Preliminaries (al-Mabadi'): The definition, utility, sources, and foundational conceptual and logical prerequisites of legal theory.
- Transmitted proofs (al-Adilla al-Sam'iyya): The primary scriptural and textual sources of law, their linguistic indications, and legal rulings.
- Preference (al-Tarjih): Methods for evaluating and weighing apparent contradictions between legal evidences.
- Legal derivation (al-Ijtihad): The qualifications for independent legal reasoning, the status of legal imitation (taqlid), and related rulings.
Reception, Manuscripts, and Editions
The biographer Ibn Farhun praised al-Rahuni's commentary in al-Dibaj al-Mudhahhab, remarking that al-Rahuni was distinguished in his rigorous textual and conceptual verification of Ibn al-Hajib's Mukhtasar, producing a fine and beneficial exposition.
Manuscripts of the work are held in institutions such as the National Library of Algeria in Algiers and the Princeton University Library in the United States. The text was edited as a doctoral dissertation at Umm al-Qura University and subsequently published by Dar al-Buhuth li-l-Dirasat al-Islamiyya wa-Ihya al-Turath in Dubai, edited by al-Hadi ibn al-Husayn Shubayli alongside Yusuf al-Akhdar and Yusuf al-Qayyim.
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