The Role of the Concept of Condition in Shaping Jurisprudential Rulings in Khalīl’s Mukhtaṣar: An Analytical Study on Guardianship in Marriage and Defective Marriages

Abstract

This study seeks to examine one of the central methodological issues associated with the juristic approach adopted by Imām Khalīl ibn Isḥāq al-Mālikī in his renowned work al-Mukhtaṣar, namely: the concept of the condition (mafḥūm al-sharṭ) and its impact on the construction of juristic rulings in Khalīl’s Mukhtaṣar: a fiqh-based study of issues of guardianship in marriage and invalid marriages. The research undertakes an applied analytical reading of selected (cases) concerning guardianship in marriage and defective marriages within the Book of Marriage in al-Mukhtaṣar.

The study is grounded in Khalīl’s statement in the preface to his work: “Among the implicative concepts, I consider only the concept of condition.” It seeks to explore the extent to which the author consistently adhered to this foundational methodological principle throughout the text.

The research is structured into two main sections. The first addresses the conceptual framework of the concept of condition in terms of its definition, classifications, and its position within the discussions of usūl al-fiqh related to linguistic implication, along with a concise presentation of jurists’ views on its evidentiary authority. The second section focuses on the applied framework through the analysis of selected examples from the Book of Marriage in al-Mukhtaṣar, particularly those related to guardianship in marriage and invalid marriages, with the aim of demonstrating the impact of Khalīl’s reliance on the concept of condition—rather than other forms of implicative meaning—on the formulation of juristic rulings within the Mālikī school.

The study concludes that Khalīl’s restriction to the consideration of the concept of condition, to the exclusion of other forms of mafāhīm al-mukhālafah (contrary implications), had a profound methodological effect on the structuring of the issues in al-Mukhtaṣar, not only in the chapter on marriage but also in other chapters. It further highlights the author’s strict commitment to the scientific methodology he articulated in the introduction to his book.