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B1 · مقدمة · The author's introduction (v1/9–11)

1. B1.01 · غرض الكتاب · Sarakhsī wrote this uṣūl to expose the principles behind his commentary on Muḥammad's books (v1/9–11)

B1.01 · غرض الكتاب · Sarakhsī wrote this uṣūl to expose the principles behind his commentary on Muḥammad's books (v1/9–11)

• Setting: the opening says he dictated it «فِي زَاوِيَة من حِصَار أوزجند» — "in a corner of the fortress of Uzjand", on the last day of Shawwāl 479. (v1/9)
• What complete fiqh needs: three things: knowledge of the revealed rulings (mashrūʿāt), then «والإتقان فِي معرفَة ذَلِك بِالْوُقُوفِ على النُّصُوص بمعانيها وَضبط الْأُصُول بفروعها ثمَّ الْعَمَل بذلك» — "mastery of it by knowing the texts with their meanings and holding the principles together with their branches, and then acting on it." Knowing the rulings without mastery makes one a transmitter; mastery without practice makes one a faqīh "in one respect only". (v1/10)
  • The complete faqīh: «فَهُوَ الْفَقِيه الْمُطلق الَّذِي أَرَادَهُ رَسُول الله» — "he is the faqīh without qualification whom the Messenger meant". Sarakhsī names the early imams: Abū Ḥanīfa, Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad. (v1/10)
• Purpose, in his words: after dictating his commentary on the books of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan, he set out «أصُول مَا بنيت عَلَيْهَا شرح الْكتب ليَكُون الْوُقُوف على الْأُصُول معينا لَهُم على فهم مَا هُوَ الْحَقِيقَة فِي الْفُرُوع» — "the principles on which I built the commentary on the books, so that knowing the principles helps them understand what is true in the branches." His second aim: to guide them to where expositions of the branches went wrong. (v1/10)
  • «فالأصول مَعْدُودَة والحوادث ممدودة» — "The principles are countable; new cases are endless." (v1/10)
  • «فَخير الْأُمُور الِاتِّبَاع وشرها الابتداع» — "The best of affairs is following; the worst is innovating." He presents himself as following earlier authors. (v1/10)
• Why he starts with al-amr and al-nahy: «فأحق مَا يبْدَأ بِهِ فِي الْبَيَان الْأَمر والنهى لِأَن مُعظم الِابْتِلَاء بهما» — "The first thing to explain is command and prohibition, because most of the test [of obligation] lies in them." (v1/11)
• [Editorial] Debate note: Sarakhsī himself describes this uṣūl as the principles on which he built his exposition of Muḥammad's furūʿ. That is useful in discussions of how Ḥanafī uṣūl relates to the imams' furūʿ, but it is his statement about his own book. It is not a claim about how the imams themselves reasoned.

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