This abridgment is distinguished by several important features:

First, its language is simple and clear, making its meaning readily comprehensible and presenting it plainly to the reader.

Second, many of its sentences and expressions incorporate passages from the Noble Quran and the authentic, purified Sunnah. Those sentences thus combine the ruling with its supporting evidence, while safeguarding both wording and meaning from error.

Third, the author—may Allah have mercy on him—did not confine himself to the well-known position of the school. Rather, he selected from it the positions supported by the strongest evidence, whether they accorded with all three other schools or only some of them.

Fourth, he limited the work to the most important issues and rulings of practical relevance in worship and everyday affairs.

Fifth, the author—may Allah have mercy on him—wrote the book for beginning students of sacred knowledge and entrusted it to his senior student, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Azīz al-Mutawwa, so that he would teach and read it repeatedly to those students and consult its author whenever he saw a need to replace one word with another or alter a particular meaning. The book thus emerged carefully revised and edited, sound in both wording and meaning.

As for the book’s critical edition, its editor, Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Azīz al-Khudayrī—may Allah Most High preserve him—has rendered the fundamentals of jurisprudence a great service through this book,