“It is the most comprehensive and useful abridgement to be found in Mālikī fiqh.” (Farīd al-Anṣārī Mafhūm al-‘Ālimiyyah)
The works of Ibn Juzayy partake of a particular miraculous quality of the last of the Messengers of Allah, may Allah bless him and them and grant them peace: they unite concision and comprehensiveness.
Comprehensively, the author presents both the range of judgments within the school of the People of Madīnah as well as the range of judgments among the madhhabs at large, but with concision in a single modest Arabic volume. He covers not only ‘aqīdah and ‘ibādāt but also mu‘āmalāt, other matters of taṣawwuf, and yet others pertaining to history, i.e. the sīrah of the Messenger ﷺ, the khulafā’ and Andalus.
His main concern is to say with clarity what the dīn IS, and then to note the legitimate differences, and sometimes the illegitimate ones in order to dismiss them. To show the spectrum of valid differences is vitally important in the age of literalism that says “tell me the ṣaḥīḥ hadith so that I can act on it” or in its Mālikī version, “tell me the well-known judgment (mashhūr).” The author carefully lets the reader know the well-known judgments (mashhūr) but sets them within the spectrum of valid judgments from the luminaries among Mālik’s students, such as Ibn al-Qāsim, Ashhab, Aṣbagh, Ibn Wahb and Ibn al-Mājishūn et al, who, it is well to remember, may simply be acting on what they learnt from Mālik himself.
