al-Marghinani

Burhan ad-Din Ali ibn Abu Bakr al-Marghinani (530-593 AH / 1135-1197 CE) was a major Hanafi jurist from Marghinan in the Fergana Valley (in present-day Uzbekistan) and the author of al-Hidayah fi Sharh Bidayat al-Mubtadi (Guidance in Explaining the Beginning for the Beginner), the single most studied text in Hanafi jurisprudence. He studied under the leading Hanafi scholars of Transoxiana and became one of the foremost authorities in the school.

Al-Hidayah is a commentary on his own earlier work, Bidayat al-Mubtadi, which itself combined two foundational Hanafi texts: al-Quduri's Mukhtasar and ash-Shaybani's al-Jami as-Saghir. Al-Hidayah presents the primary Hanafi positions alongside the evidence from the Quran, Sunnah, and legal reasoning, while also noting the views of the Shafii, Maliki, and Hanbali schools where they differ. Its balanced presentation, moderate length, and systematic coverage of legal topics made it the preferred teaching text in Hanafi seminaries worldwide. It has been the subject of dozens of commentaries, the most famous being Fath al-Qadir by Ibn al-Humam.

Al-Marghinani reportedly spent thirteen years composing al-Hidayah, fasting the entire time and breaking his fast each evening before working on the text. He died in 593 AH (1197 CE), during the Mongol invasions of Central Asia. His al-Hidayah has remained the backbone of Hanafi legal education for over eight centuries and continues to be studied in Islamic seminaries across South Asia, Central Asia, Turkey, and the Arab world.