Abū al-Maʿālī, Muḥammad b. Niʿma b. ʿUbayd Allāh (d. after 458/1092), was a jurisprudent and author of the Bayān al-adyān, one of the earliest Persian works in the genre of al-Milal wa al-Niḥal (Religious Communities and Creeds). Information on Abū al-Maʿālī is particularly scant. The main source with a degree of information about him is the Bayān al-adyān itself.

It is not known when he was born or when he died; but we do know that he heard traditions from Qāḍī Abū al-Fatḥ al-Balkhī ʿAbd al-Raḥīm b. ʿAbd Allāh (d. 454/1062; Abū al-Maʿālī, ed. Iqbāl, 23…