Jurisprudential Rectification in Mukhtasar Khalil: A Foundational Study and Applied Examples

Abstract

Maliki legal texts, foremost among them Mukhtasar Khalil, constitute a fertile field for juristic scrutiny and critique owing to their extreme concision, which has led to subsequent clarification and supplementation by scholars and commentators. This study aims to clarify the nature of jurisprudential rectification and its methods, as well as the reasons that prompted commentators to review the wording of the abridgement and correct its basis. 

Methodologically, the study takes a descriptive approach, grounding the concept of rectification and its theoretical justifications; an inductive approach, surveying applied examples drawn from commentaries on the abridgement; and an analytical approach, disassembling the rectified statements and examining the commentators’ strategies in pursuing, interpreting and guiding legal positions. The research concludes that jurisprudential rectification represents a principled, critical movement intended to preserve the doctrine of the school and correct its trajectory in issuing fatwas. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the primary motivation for the jurists’ follow-up was the severe concision that created ambiguity, necessitating the removal of confusion and the completion of overlooked or exceptional qualifications.