Scholarly Reception and Lasting Influence

Ash-Sharh al-Kabir achieved immediate recognition as the most authoritative commentary on Mukhtasar Khalil and became the primary reference for Maliki jurisprudence in Egypt and, through Egyptian scholarly influence, across North Africa and West Africa. The work was adopted in al-Azhar's Maliki curriculum and became the text through which generations of Maliki students in Egypt learned the advanced rulings of their madhab.

The work's most significant legacy is as the base text for ad-Dasuqi's hashiya — the super-commentary that will be discussed separately. Ad-Dasuqi's hashiya on the Sharh al-Kabir is in many respects even more widely used than the work on which it comments, but ad-Dardir's text remains an essential reference in its own right, particularly for its detailed exposition of the evidential bases of Maliki legal positions.

Ad-Dardir's influence extended beyond the Sharh al-Kabir through his teaching. He trained students who became prominent Maliki scholars in their own right and who carried his methods and positions into new generations. The continuity of the Egyptian Maliki tradition through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries owes much to the scholarly lineage that ad-Dardir helped establish.

In the modern period, the Sharh al-Kabir (usually read with ad-Dasuqi's hashiya) remains the primary advanced reference for Maliki jurisprudence in Egypt, Sudan, North Africa, and West Africa. Maliki courts and fatwa institutions in these regions consult ad-Dardir as the authoritative voice of the madhab. The work's influence on the codification of personal law in North African states — which drew on the Maliki tradition for family law — was also substantial. The clarity of ad-Dardir's legal reasoning made his positions the natural starting point when legislators and jurists undertook codification projects, since the Sharh al-Kabir had already organized the Maliki tradition into its most refined and accessible form. For any student seeking to understand the living Maliki legal tradition as practiced across the African continent, engagement with ad-Dardir's commentary remains indispensable.