Al- Hidaya (The Guidance) Vol 1

Book excerpt: The Hidayah has dominated the field of Islamic jurisprudence since the day it was written over 800 years ago. It has been the primary text used by Muslims jurist to issue authentic and reliable rulingson Islamic law according to the school of Imam Abu Hanifa (d 150H/767CE). The Hidayah commands such an authoritative position amonst the doctors of law that the knowledge of a scholar hoa has not read it is not considered reliable. It has been a standard text in the curricula of Islamic law schools since the 12th century. It was first translated into English by Charles Hamilton in 1791. Around 70 hude commentaries, some spread over more than a dozen volumes have been written on it. The number of explanatory glosses is in thousands. Comprehensive in content and conveniently organized, with the publication of this all previous workds that discussed Islamic jurisprudence according to the Hanafi law become outmoded and soon fell into disuse. If revealed books are not taken into account, never has a book received so much attention as the Hidayah. 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.