The author, Shaykh Al Islam, Burhan Al-Din Marghanani (d 593 AH/ 1197 CE) was considered to be the leading jurist of the Muslim world in his times. This landmark publication of the Hidayah not only has been translated in its entirety for the first time but has been done so from Arabic, the language in which it was written. If revealed books are not taken into account, never has a book received so much attention as the Hidayah. Comprehensive in content and conveniently organized, with the publication of this all previous works that discussed Islamic jurisprudence according to the Hanafi law become outmoded and soon fell into disuse. The number of explanatory glosses is in thousands. Around 70 huge commentaries, some spread over more than a dozen volumes have been written on it. It was first translated into English by Charles Hamilton in 1791. It has been a standard text in the curricula of Islamic law schools since the 12th century.
The Hidayah commands such an authoritative position amongst the doctors of law that the knowledge of a scholar who has not read it is not considered reliable.
It has been the primary text used by Muslims jurist to issue authentic and reliable rulings on Islamic law according to the school of Imam Abu Hanifa (d 150H/767CE). The Hidayah has dominated the field of Islamic jurisprudence since the day it was written over 800 years ago.
