Murshid al-Hayran ila Marifat Ahwal al-Insan
- Author died
- 1306 AH
- Editions
- al-Maṭba‘ah al-Kubrā al-Amīriyyah bibūlāq
Murshid al-Hayran ila Ma'rifat Ahwal al-Insan (Guide for the Perplexed to Understanding Human Affairs) is a late nineteenth-century codification of Islamic civil transactions according to the Hanafi school, authored by the Egyptian jurist and statesman Muhammad Qadri Basha (1237–1306 AH / 1821–1888 CE) .
Background and Purpose
The work was conceived as part of legal modernization efforts in Egypt during the late nineteenth century, aiming to systematize traditional Hanafi jurisprudence (fiqh) on financial and civil transactions (mu'amalat) into clear, modern statutory articles modeled on contemporary civil codes while remaining tailored to the customs of Egypt and other Islamic lands . Qadri Basha had been tasked around 1882 CE (1300 AH), during his tenure as Minister of Justice (nazir al-haqqaniyyah), with formulating a civil codification derived from Islamic law . Although official promulgation as state legislation faced political obstacles, he completed the project independently .
The book forms part of a seminal codification trilogy composed by Qadri Basha on Hanafi law, alongside Kitab al-Ahkam al-Shar'iyyah fi al-Ahwal al-Shakhsiyyah (devoted to personal status) and Qanun al-'Adl wa-al-Insaf li-al-Qada' 'ala Mushkilat al-Awqaf (governing religious endowments) .
Structure and Content
Murshid al-Hayran arranges substantive Hanafi rules into numbered legal articles, drawing on classical Hanafi authorities as well as principles from the Ottoman Majallat al-Ahkam al-'Adliyyah . The total number of articles is recorded in sources as 914 articles, while another account gives 1,045 articles .
The text addresses:
- Property and Ownership (al-amwal): Defining real property ('aqar), movable property (manqul), public and state lands (al-aradi al-kharajiyyah and al-amiriyyah), endowment property, and public utilities .
- Rights in Rem and Easements: Notably, Qadri Basha was among the first in modern Islamic legal writing to coin and systematically define easement rights (huquq al-irtifaq), formulating it as a right established over an immovable property for the benefit of another property belonging to a different owner .
- Obligations and Contracts: Comprehensive statutory provisions regulating sales, leases, partnerships, and other standard civil transactions .
Review, Publication, and Impact
On 10 September 1890 CE, the Egyptian Ministry of Public Education (Nizarat al-Ma'arif al-'Umumiyyah) issued Decision No. 164 approving the publication of the book and authorizing its curriculum use across state schools . This decision followed formal review and certification by a scholarly committee that included the Grand Mufti of Egypt and Hassunah al-Nawawi, then professor of Islamic law at Dar al-Ulum and the School of Law .
The work saw an official second edition printed at the Bulaq Press (al-Matba'ah al-Kubra al-Amiriyyah) in 1308 AH / 1891 CE . Under a subsequent Ministry of Education decree dated 15 September 1895 CE, it was printed at state expense with an accompanying analytical index detailing the specific Hanafi textual citations and page references underpinning each statutory article .
Though never formally enacted as binding state law in Egyptian civil courts, Murshid al-Hayran became a widely utilized manual and historical document in Arab and Islamic jurisprudence, leaving an enduring mark on subsequent civil legislation and comparative legal scholarship across the Arab world .
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