The Aristotelian philosophy of science had a major impact on conception of sciences, not only philosophical but religious sciences in Islamic history. This can be attested to by the way sciences were presented in the introduction of the textbooks during the postclassical period. According to the Aristotelian theory which was reworked by Farabi and Ibn Sina, each science consists of three elements (ajzāʾ): subject matter, principles, and inquiries. Typically, in the introductory sections of the handbooks in a given discipline, the subject matter would be pointed out. Other preliminary issues would be also discussed in line with a long established practice of commenting on books, a practice that long preceded the rise of Islam, and was adapted by Muslim scholars in their own works. According to that tradition, a work would begin with a prolegomenon that dealt with several topics, a.k.a. eight headings (ruʾūs al-thamāniya). The Islamic philosophical and scholarly tradition appropriated both of these two features of peripatetic philosophy i.e. (1) their theory of science as consisting of three elements, and (2) their tradition of writing a proper prolegomenon that is introducing a work by discussing several topics which were also later dubbed ten beginnings. These two issues could, and in fact did frequently, intersect in the commentaries and glosses on the prolegomena of handbooks in later Islamic intellectual history. Here, we will particularly focus on the case of a handbook in Islamic legal theory which stimulated such discussions that reflect intersection of the elements of sciences theory with the practice of writing a proper prolegomenon. The handbook is the Mukhtasar al-Muntahā of Ibn Hajib. This work was subject to dozens of commentaries and glosses. In this paper, I will look at those written during the long fourteenth century, including those by Qadi Baydawi, Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn al-Tusī (d. 706/1306-7), Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 710/1311), Jamāl al-Dīn al-Ḥillī (d. 726/1325), ʿAḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī’s (d. 756/1355), Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī (d. 792/1390) and al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī (d. 816/1413). Their discussion of two preliminary sentences indicates a tension between the notion of mabādiʾ as proper beginning or principles. The paper will show how Ibn Hajib’s vague usage of that notion stimulates a lively discussion among commentators some of whom appeal to the philosophical theory of science to resolve the issue while others invoke the tradition of proper prolegomenon to a book.