About the Author of Umdat al-Aqa'id : :

He is Imam Abu al-Barakat Hafiz al-Din Abd Allah b. Ahmed bin Muhammad al-Nasafi, al-Hanafi. He was born in town called Idhaj, in Samarqand and he died there as well in 710 hijri. He travelled to Iraq for knowledge and learned much from the scholars when he eventually returned to his home town.

 
He was an expert on Usul, Fiqh, Kalam, Hadith being an Imam in all those fields. He was Sufi and didn't value much of the world and lived a humble life. He was raised in an enviroment of scholarly upbringing.  Imam al-Lacknawi called him "The full fledged Imam, head of jurisprudence and Usul, expert in Hadith sciences and its finery" while Ibn Hajar said of him "the expert [scholar] of the world".


Amongst his teachers were the likes of;

---Shams al-A'imah al-Kurdi, Muhammad b. Abd al-Sattar [d. 642h],
---Badr al-Din Khawahir Zadah, Muhammad b. Muhamud [d. 651h],

---Hamid al-Din al-Dharir, Ali b. Muhammad [d. 666h],

and many others. Imam Abu al-Barakat al-Nasafi also had many popular students ;

---Al-Hussayn b. Ali b. Hajjaj Hisam al-Din al-Safnaqi [d 714h],
---Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Jayli.

Some of his popular published works include;

---Madarik al-Tanzil waHaqa'iq al-Ta'wil (Tafsir al-Nasafi),
---'Umdat 'Aqidat Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l Jama'ah,
---Kashf al-Asrar fi Sharh al-Manar,
---Kanz al-Daqa'iq (Hanafi fiqh),
---Al-Manar al-Anwar fi Usul al-Fiqh.