Al-Hidayah fi Sharh Bidayat al-Mubtadi (d. 593 AH/1197 CE) (, al-Hidāyah fī Sharḥ Bidāyat al-Mubtadī), commonly referred to as al-Hidayah (lit. "the guidance", also spelled Hedaya[Charles Hamilton (trans.) The Hedaya: Commentary on the Islamic Laws (Delhi) 1994 (2nd Edition 1870)]), is a 12th-century legal manual by Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani, which is considered to be one of the most influential compendium of Hanafi jurisprudence ( fiqh).[Dr Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee (trans.) Al-Hidayah: A classical manual of Hanafi Law Laws (Bristol) 2006] It has been subject of numerous commentaries.[
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History and significance
The author, Shaykh al-Islam Burhan al-Din al-Farghani al-Marghinani (d.593AH/1197CE), was considered to be one of the most esteemed jurists of the Hanafite school.[W. Heffening. Encyclopedia of Islam, Brill, 2nd ed. "al-Marghinani", vol. 6, p. 558.][Knut S. Vikør: Between God and the Sultan': A History of Islamic Law. 2005, p.162, note.45] The significance of al-Hidayah in the Hanafite school lay not in its intrinsic virtues, but in its role as an authoritative and convenient basis for further commentaries.[ Thus, it constituted not a statement of the law in itself, but rather an interpretative framework for elaboration of jurisprudence in different times and places.][
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During the era of Colonial India, al-Hidayah alongside Fatawa-i-Alamgiri played a central role in the development of the amalgam of Islamic and British law known as Anglo-Muhammadan law[Robert W. Hefner; Muhammad Qasim Zaman: Schooling Islam, 2007, S.63 f.: „has served for centuries … the cornerstone of legal studies in South Asian madrasas“.] In the late 18th century, William Jones commissioned its translation into Persian, and this version was used by Charles Hamilton to produce an English translation.[
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Translations
Persian
Al-Hidaya was translated into Persian in 1776 by a group of Muslim scholars in Bengal, India. The translation was commissioned by Charles Hamilton, which he used to translate it later into English. The Persian translation was re-published twice in India, once in Calcutta and later in 1874 in Lucknow.
English
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Charles Hamilton's 1791 translation into English, which was made from a Persian translation rather than from the original Arabic text.
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Urdu
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1896 - Translation and commentary by Maulana Sayyid Amir Ali, entitled Ainul-Hidayah and published in Lucknow.
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1984 - Translation and commentary by Maulana Jamil Ahmad Qasmi Sakrodhawi, entitled Ashraful-Hidayah.
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2004 - Translation and commentary by Maulana Abdul-Halim Qasmi Bastawi, entitled Ahsanul-Hidayah.
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2008 - Translation and commentary by Sameeruddin Qasmi, entitled Asmarul-Hidayah.
Turkish
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1982 - Hasan Ege
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1990 - Ahmet Meylani
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2014 - Hüsamettin Vanlıoğlu, Abdullah Hiçdönmez, Fatih Kalender, and Emin Ali Yüksel.
