He studied the Qur'an starting at a very young age and received his first general degree of authorization from his first teacher, shaykh Muhammad al-Kuzbari al-Kabir, when he was about 12 years old.

After reciting the Qur'an at his father's shop and receiving criticism for it, he sought to perfect his work and studied vigorously under several well-known scholars.

The general rules for the decision making are that one must first base his answer on what the Prophet did and the Qur'an, then on what the head of their particular school of law did, then on their mufti predecessors.

He states that, "jurists should not proceed by strictly and rigidly adhering to the authoritative books and opinions of the madhhab, but should also pay attention to the needs of the people of his time, or else the harm he does will outweigh the benefit.

However, Ibn Abidin uses great amounts of effort in order to determine the correct answer to a problem in his fatwa, using the knowledge of the common urf and his own reasoning.

If not, then we look for views by Abu Yusuf, then Muhammad al-Shaybani, then Zufar, then Hasan, then some other lesser jurists, but if no one has an answer at all, then it is incumbent on the mufti to look into it by way of deep thinking and ijtihad.

He classified those in the lowest class to consist of barbers, metal workers, shepherds, and bath-keepers, but added that there was not a clear distinction because it depended on the custom of the location the persons lived in.

[15] Each child, male and female, was assigned a wali (guardian) to find them a spouse and arrange their marriage.

However, males were free to pick their wives while the women were considered to approve of a marriage if they were silent after having been told all the specifics of an offer.

After marriage, Ibn Abidin said that the husband was obligated to provide for the wife no matter what her financial situation based on her social standing.

His funeral prayer was led by his own teacher Saýīd al-Ĥalabī who broke down, weeping and clutching his own beard said: 'I was treasuring you, for what comes after my old age'.

Prayers were held in the Sināniyyah mosque and he was buried – in accordance with his will – near the grave of Shaykh Álāuddin al-Ĥaşkafī, the author of Durr al-Mukhtār and next to the great muĥaddith Şāliĥ al-Jaynīnī in Damascus.

However, Ibn 'Abidin would teach us the same lesson the next day and not only cover everything that I had researched but would also provide further clarification and deeper understanding in them, and would add to it many other beneficial points than I had even come across in any of the works nor even thought about."

As such, Radd al-Muhtar is considered one of the most comprehensive, encyclopaedic compilations of the Hanafi school, even more extensive than the Fatawa Hindiyya, a slightly earlier work commissioned by the Mughul emperor, Aurangzeb.

In this same context, he compiled his most famous book: Radd al-Muhtar 'ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar, a voluminous extension of Imam Hasfaki's Durr al mukhtar.