It is said that al-Sarakhsi was imprisoned due to his opinion on a juristic matter concerning a ruler; he criticized the king by questioning the validity of his marriage to a slave woman.
[4] These factors make the Mabsut a very influential piece of juristic literature: it was an important work of furū‘ in the Hanafi school until the 19th century.
Its significance in earlier times is reflected in the statement of the 15th-century Hanafi jurist, 'Ala' al-Din al-Tarabulusi (d. 1440): “Whoever memorizes al-Mabsut and the doctrine of the ancient scholars becomes thereby a mujtahid.
"[7] Al-Sarakhsi deals with many themes in his Mabsut, these include juristic preference, the legality of doing activities with illegally obtained objects, zakat (alms tax, one of the Five Pillars of Islam) and land reclamation.
This is explained in the following passage from the Mabsut, which is quoted in Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of Religious Literature, by Norman Calder, Jawid Ahmad Mojaddedi, and Andrew Rippin: Al-Sarakhsi also mentions the views of Abu Hanifa on land reclamation.
This passage is from al-Sarakhsi's Mabsut, as quoted by Sherman A. Jackson: This work is a commentary on the Kitab al-Siyar al-kabir of al-Shaybani.
[5] The Sharh al-Siyar al-Kabir shows the same widespread coverage, the development of rules and careful consideration of hermeneutical argument that is seen in the Mabsut.