Marjani also has positive contacts with the official secular authorities. He fulfilled separate assignments of the Kazan provincial government: he supervised the publication of the text of the Koran in the Kazan printing press (subsequently published a book dedicated to the history and principles of the publication of the Koran in Russia), organized collection of money for Caucasian peoples affected by the earthquake, reported on births, marriages, deaths of Muslims for state institutions and participated in court hearings when swearing Muslims.

 

Over time, the name Marjani becomes famous far beyond Kazan: in 1870 his book "Nazratul-haq", with his new for his time and environment religious and reformist ideas, was published, and brought the author wide popularity not only at home but also in the Muslim East. He becam a prominent ideologue of religious reformism, which continued and deepened in the new historical conditions the traditions of his predecessors A. Kursawi and A. Utiz-imyane. Marjani's religious and reformist views included the concept of "opening the doors of ijtihad", as well as an appeal to the times of the Prophet Muhammad (Quran, Sunnah, words of the mujtahids) to "purify" Islam of new "layers" as well as the reform of teaching in madrassas. Referring to the times of the Prophet Muhammad, he thought was "renewal of faith."

 

His "return to the past" was to "clear" Islam from later "layers", to make it accessible for understanding in the new socio-cultural situation that arose in the Kazan region in the second half of the nineteenth century. But in the eyes of conservative religious figures such an approach was not a "return to the past." "Nazratul-haqi fi fardiyatil-`isha ma lam yaghib ash-shafak" (Review of the truth about the obligation of night prayer before dusk) - one of the most famous of his writings, Marjani wrote not so much to explain the deception of the clause about the insignificance of the night prayer in Kazan area, as to present his new understanding of the basic tenets of the doctrine, the reformatory in fact.

 

"Nazratul-haq" has gained wide popularity not only in the Volga region, but also in the Near and Middle East. This work of Marjani was highly appreciated by famous Muslim scholars of India of that time Sadiq b. Hasan al-Kinaudji and Abd al-Hai al-Laknawi, the Syrian scholar Jamal ad-din ad-Dimashqi, the Tunisian scholar Sheikh Muhammad Bayram. 70 - 80-ies of the nineteenth century - this is the time of Marjani's close acquaintance with Russian culture, scholars-orientalists of Kazan University. Marjani knew Professor I. Gotwald, Academician V. V. Radlov, Professor Kazembek, the first orientalist among women O. S. Lebedeva and many other Russian scientists. Through his student H. Faizkhanov, he establishes cooperation with V. Velyaminov-Zernov and Sheikh At-Tantawi - well-known St. Petersburg orientalists. Marjani was the first Muslim scholar to be elected to the Society of Archeology, History and Ethnography at the Kazan University, and actively participated in its activities.

 

His personality in the white turban and green chapan often attracted the attention of Russian scientists at the meetings of this Society. In 1877, the IV All-Russian Congress of the Society was held in Kazan, which attracted about 300 scientists from many cities of Russia and its borders. On August 13 at the congress, Academician Radlov read in Russian the report of Marjani on the history of Bulgar and Kazan. In 1884 this report in the Tatar and Russian languages ​​was published in the materials of the congress.

 

The pedagogical work of Marjani is another page of his enlightenment activity in the broadest sense of the word. September 13, 1876 the Tatar school of teachers with eight years of education was opened in Kazan. The school trained primary school teachers from among the Tatars. Teaching was conducted in Russian, except for the Sharia classes. Marjani first of the Tatar Muslim clergy agreed to the proposal of the inspector of the school V. Radlov to teach theology. At the opening of the school, he delivered a welcoming speech, in which he called on the Tatars to study at this school. 

 

For nine years Marjani taught at the Tatar school of teachers, was a member of the Pedagogical Council. However, as a result of disagreements with the inspector and some teachers, he was forced to leave the teaching. For this activity, conservative circles of the Muslim clergy called Marjani a missionary, a heretic, an apostate. In his madrassa Marjani conducts many classes according to his own program. In the eighties of the nineteenth century the scientific activity of Marjani himself was radically expanding, with philosophical and historical disciplines coming to the forefront.

 

During this period, Marjani is working on the handwritten biographical dictionary "Wafiyatul-aslaf wa tahiyatul-akhlaf" (Detailed information about predecessors and their greetings to descendants), which includes 6057 biographies of scholars, writers, philosophers and social and political figures of the Muslim East.