Ibn Abidin

Ibn Abidin

Muhammad Amin Ibn Abidin (1198–1252 AH / 1783–1836 AD) also known as Imam Ibn Abidin ash-shami was a prominent Islamic scholar and Jurist who lived in the city of Damascus in Syria during the Ottoman era. He was the authority of the fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) of the Hanafi madhhab (school of law). He was a state employee with the title of Amin al-fatwa. This meant that he was the mufti that people would go to when they had legal questions in Damascus. He composed over 50 works consisting of a major fatwa (legal statement) collection, many treatises, poems, and several commentaries on the works of others.

His most famous work was the Radd al-Muhtar ala Ad-Durr al-Mukhtar. This is still considered the authoritative text of Hanafi fiqh today.