Imam al-Nawawi

The great Shafiʿi jurist and hadith scholar of Damascus wrote Riyad al-Salihin, al-Arbaʿin, al-Adhkar, a commentary on Sahih Muslim and major works of fiqh.

Imam Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi was born in Muharram 631 AH in Nawa, a village in the Hawran south of Damascus. As a boy he preferred reading the Quran to playing, and his father, a shopkeeper, supported his studies. At about eighteen he came to Damascus and lived in the Rawahiyyah madrasa, studying up to twelve lessons a day with its scholars — in fiqh, hadith, usul, Arabic and more.

He went on Hajj with his father in 651 AH and soon became a leading Shafiʿi jurist and hadith master. From 665 AH until his death he headed the Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiyyah in Damascus, and he is reported to have taken no salary. He lived very simply, never married, and was known for speaking the truth to rulers on behalf of the people.

In a life of only about forty-five years he wrote works that the whole Muslim world still reads: Riyad al-Salihin (The Gardens of the Righteous), al-Arbaʿin al-Nawawiyyah (the Forty Hadith), al-Adhkar, al-Tibyan on the etiquette of the people of the Quran, al-Minhaj — his commentary on Sahih Muslim — Minhaj al-Talibin and Rawdat al-Talibin in Shafiʿi fiqh, and al-Majmuʿ, which he did not live to complete.

Shortly before his death he returned the books he had borrowed, visited his teachers’ graves and went back to Nawa, where he died on 24 Rajab 676 AH. He was buried in his village.