Mustaʿmalah means that the original literal sense remains a living and possible use of the expression. The legal question is then whether, and on what grounds, the interpreter may prefer an associated figurative sense.
There are two cases:
1. The literal sense remains in use and has no established competing figurative use; the literal sense takes precedence.
2. Both a literal use and an established figurative use exist; the chapter records disagreements between Abu Hanifa and his two prominent students in certain applications.
It would be an error to apply the rules of abandoned literal usage automatically to this competing-usage case.