Imam An-Nawawi (631–676 AH)

Few scholars in the history of Islam have reached as many Muslims as Imam Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi (631–676 AH / 1233–1277 CE). He lived barely forty-five years, taught for less than twenty, and yet Riyad-us-Saliheen, Al-Arba‘in, Al-Adhkar and Sharh Sahih Muslim are still read in mosques and homes from Damascus to Houston, seven and a half centuries later. What follows is a documented sketch of his life, drawn from the classical biographical works, together with an honest note on his creed as understood by Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama‘ah.

Name, Lineage and Birth

His full name was Yahya ibn Sharaf ibn Murri ibn Hasan ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn Jum‘ah ibn Hizam al-Hizami an-Nawawi ad-Dimashqi, and his kunyah was Abu Zakariyya — a kunyah he adopted by convention, since Yahya (peace be upon him) was the son of Zakariyya, though the Imam himself never married.

He was born in Muharram 631 AH (October 1233 CE) in Nawa, a town on the Hawran plain roughly ninety kilometres south of Damascus, from which his nisbah “an-Nawawi” is taken. His father was a shopkeeper of known piety.

Ibn al-‘Attar records from Shaykh Yasin ibn Yusuf al-Marakishi that he saw the young Nawawi, about ten years old, being pushed by other boys to join their games while he wept and fled from them, reciting the Qur’an instead. Al-Marakishi went to the boy’s teacher and told him that this child was destined to become the most learned and most ascetic man of his age — and when asked whether he was a fortune-teller, he replied that Allah had simply caused him to say it. The teacher relayed this to the boy’s father, who from then on devoted his son entirely to seeking knowledge.

Damascus: Twenty-Seven Years of Study and Teaching

In 649 AH, when he was nineteen, his father brought him to Damascus — then the intellectual capital of the Muslim world, with over three hundred colleges of Islamic learning. He enrolled at Madrasah ar-Rawahiyyah, attached to the Umayyad Mosque, and lived on its stipend for two years. He performed Hajj with his father in 651 AH, then returned to Damascus and did not leave it again until the year of his death.

Ibn al-‘Attar reports that his teacher took twelve lessons daily, in tafsir, hadith, fiqh, usul, grammar and morphology, writing commentary and marginal notes on every one of them. He allowed himself minimal sleep, dozing propped against his books when exhaustion overcame him, and restricted himself to a single meal a day. Adh-Dhahabi describes him as having reached “the utmost limit” in memorisation, precision and abstinence from the world.

Among his principal teachers:

• Abu Ibrahim Ishaq ibn Ahmad al-Maghribi — hadith
• Abu Muhammad ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ibrahim al-Fazari, known as Ibn al-Firkah — Shafi‘i fiqh
• Radi ad-Din Ibrahim ibn ‘Umar ibn Mudar al-Mudari
• Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn ‘Isa al-Muradi — from whom he read Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari
• Abul-Baqa’ Khalid ibn Yusuf an-Nabulusi — hadith and its sciences

In 665 AH, following the death of Abu Shamah al-Maqdisi, an-Nawawi was appointed head of Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiyyah — the most prestigious chair of hadith in Damascus — a post he held until his death. He is reported to have taken no salary from it. His foremost student, ‘Ala’ ad-Din Ibn al-‘Attar, became known as Mukhtasar an-Nawawi (“an-Nawawi in miniature”) and is our single most reliable witness to his life. Others include Ibn Abi al-Fath, Shihab ad-Din Ahmad ibn Farah al-Ishbili and al-Mizzi’s teachers among the Damascene hadith scholars.

Zuhd and Standing Before the Sultan

His asceticism was not merely private. Ibn al-‘Attar and as-Sakhawi both record that he wore patched clothing, ate only the food his father sent from Nawa — declining the fruits of Damascus out of scruple over the ownership of its orchards — and left behind no property beyond his books.

The most celebrated episode of his public life came during the reign of Sultan az-Zahir Baybars. When the Sultan sought fatwas permitting him to seize the property and gardens of the people of Sham to fund his campaigns, the scholars of Damascus signed — and an-Nawawi refused. Summoned before Baybars and asked why, he replied that he knew the Sultan had come to Sham as a slave with no wealth, and that Allah had granted him rule; he would not sign away what belonged to the Muslims. When threatened with the loss of his teaching posts, he answered that his posts would not add to or subtract from him. Baybars, restrained from harming him, is reported to have said that he feared him. Ibn Kathir records that the Imam also wrote to the Sultan on behalf of the poor of Damascus during a year of drought and heavy taxation, and that the unjust levies (mukus) were subsequently lifted.

His Works

Adh-Dhahabi observed that had the Imam lived longer, his books would have filled a library on their own. As it stands, several of his works became the standard reference in their field within his own century and have never been displaced.

A frequent error worth correcting: an-Nawawi did not complete a commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari. He began one, and it survives only as a fragment covering the introduction and a portion of the Book of Faith. Likewise his commentary on Sunan Abi Dawud is incomplete. The full commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari that scholars rely upon is Fath al-Bari of Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani.

A Necessary Note on His ‘Aqidah

Honesty in ‘ilm ar-rijal requires that a scholar be described as he was. Imam an-Nawawi, may Allah have mercy on him, followed the Ash‘ari method in a number of places concerning the Divine Attributes, interpreting some of them figuratively (ta’wil) rather than affirming them as they came, in the manner of the Salaf. This appears in parts of Sharh Sahih Muslim in particular.

The scholars of Ahlus-Sunnah have addressed this with the balance it deserves. Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Baz, may Allah have mercy on him, said of an-Nawawi and Ibn Hajar that they erred in interpreting some of the Attributes, that they were mistaken in that and are not to be followed in it — but that they were mujtahids who did not intend to oppose Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, and that their good far outweighs it. He added that a Muslim should benefit from their books while being aware of this, and should ask Allah’s forgiveness for them.

This is the position we hold at Dar-us-Salam: Riyad-us-Saliheen, Al-Arba‘in and Al-Adhkar are among the most beneficial books a Muslim household can own; and where the Imam differed with the way of the Salaf in the Attributes, the truth is with the Salaf, without this diminishing his rank, his sincerity or our love for him. Allah says:

His Death

In 676 AH, after twenty-seven years in Damascus, he returned the books he had borrowed from the endowments, visited the graves of his teachers and the tombs of the Companions, made ziyarah to Bayt al-Maqdis and al-Khalil, then went home to Nawa to visit his parents. He fell ill there and died on the night of Wednesday, 24 Rajab 676 AH (December 1277 CE), at the age of forty-five. He was buried in Nawa. Ibn Kathir records that when news reached Damascus, the city was overtaken by grief and prayers in absentia were held for him.

He left no wealth and no children. What he left instead has taught more Muslims than most dynasties ever ruled. The Prophet ﷺ said:

May Allah have mercy on Imam an-Nawawi, forgive him, and reward him on behalf of the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ.

Books by Imam An-Nawawi at Dar-us-Salam

• Riyad-us-Saliheen (2 Vol. Set)
  The complete work with Arabic text, English translation and the commentary of Hafiz Salahuddin Yusuf. The reference edition for the English-speaking reader.
• Collection from Riyad-us-Saliheen (Full Color Edition)
  The most important hadith of the two-volume work in a single full-colour volume — an excellent gift and family copy.
• Collection from Riyad-us-Saliheen
  A concise selection made by Shaykh Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, with commentary on each hadith. Available in more than one size.
• Forty Hadith of An-Nawawi (Pocket Size)
  Arabic with English translation, 144 pages. The ideal first hadith text for a beginner, and small enough to carry daily.
• Explanation of Riyad-us-Saliheen (6 Vol. Set)
  Sharh Riyad-us-Saliheen — the detailed explanation of every hadith of the collection by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-‘Uthaymeen, may Allah have mercy on him. The serious student’s companion to the Imam’s masterwork.

Browse the full Hadith & Sunnah collection or read more author biographies at Dar-us-Salam Islamic Bookstore, Houston.