Al-Hidayah

Al-Hidayah fi Sharh Bidayat al-Mubtadi (d. 593 AH/1197 CE) (Arabic: الهداية في شرح بداية المبتدي‎‎, al-Hidāyah fī Sharḥ Bidāyat al-Mubtadī), commonly referred to as al-Hidayah (lit. "the guidance", also spelled Hedaya), is a 12th-century legal manual by Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani, which is considered to be one of the most influential compendia of Hanafi jurisprudence (fiqh). It has been subject of numerous commentaries. The book played a key role in the development of the amalgam of Islamic and British law known as Anglo-Muhammadan law.

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. Al-Hidayah is a concise commentary on al-Marghinani's own compendium al-Bidayat al-mubtadi, which was in turn based on Mukhtasar by al-Quduri and al-Shaybani's al-Jami‘ al-saghir. 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.

During the era of British colonialism in South Asia, al-Hidayah played a central role in the development of the amalgam of Islamic and British law known as Anglo-Muhammadan law. Since the Hanafite school was predominant on the Indian sub-continent, the book was influential there as a substrate for commentaries, and — supplemented by professorial exposition — as a textbook for law colleges (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. The translation enabled British colonial judges to adjudicate in the name of sharia, which amounted to an unprecedented codification of Hanafi law, severed from its Arabic-language interpretative tradition. This served to accomplish two goals, which had been long pursued by the British in India: firstly, it limited the judicial discretion of the qadis and the influence of muftis in the sharia system, reducing their earlier role as "middlemen" between the Islamic legal tradition and the colonial administration; and, secondly, it replaced the interpretative mechanisms of fiqh by those of English law.

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