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The Life of Imam An-Nawawi 1

The Life of Imam An-Nawawi

Kevin L. Warren

BAIS Guidance College

HAD111: Analytical Interpretations of Hadith

Dr. Muhammed Haq

DD: August 2, 2021PD: July 27, 2021

Author Note

Kevin Warren

I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to

Kevin Warren

Email: [email protected]


Abstract

Imam An-Nawawi’s greatness as a scholar is reflected in the fact that while he is

Shafi’i in his fiqh, the scholars of the Hanbali, Maliki, and Hanafi schools all respect his

work and use his work as a reference. His expertise was not limited to fiqh, however. He was

also a highly respected scholar of hadith. His deep understanding of both of these sciences

resulted in his fiqh being heavily grounded in hadith. Records of his interactions with the

rulers of Damascus, the people of Damascus, and the other scholars of Damascus, all paint a

picture of a man who was firmly dedicated to the truth. From humble beginnings,

An-Nawawi would first become one of the most respected men in Damascus, and then one of

the most respected scholars of all time.

Keywords: Fiqh, An-Nawawi, Nawa, Damascus, Syria, hadith, Saaramiya school,

Rawaahiya school, Ashrafiyah school, Shafi’i, al-Rafi'ee, al-Majmu, Ibn Al-Attar


The Life of Imam An-Nawawi

The Syrian province of Hawran, the location of Imam An-Nawawi’s hometown of

Nawa, has been the birthplace of a number of other prominent scholars, including Ibn Kathir

and Ibn al-Qayyim. Damascus, where An-Nawawi would spend most of his adult life, was a

great center of learning at a time when the appreciation of education was rapidly growing.

And An-Nawawi himself was born with a desire for knowledge which would become

life-consuming, to a family that was very supportive of his desire to learn as much as possible.

Even though his family was not wealthy, everything around An-Nawawi appeared ideally

situated to allow him to pursue and achieve his learning goals, yet it is still difficult to

imagine how he managed to accomplish all that he accomplished within such a short amount

of time. One could weigh An-Nawawi’s impact based on the number of books he authored, or

one could weigh An-Nawawi’s impact based on the number of people who have benefited

from his knowledge, both in his era, and in subsequent generations, or one could weigh

An-Nawawi’s impact based on the sincerity and devotion to truth which he displayed

throughout his life. Regardless of which measure one chooses, there have been very few

people whose contributions to Islam have been as significant as the contributions of Imam

An-Nawawi (Al-Zouebi,1999).

Imam An-Nawawi’s upbringing

Imam An-Nawawi (Muhi al-Deen' Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Hizaami

al-Nawawi) was born in the Syrian village of Nawa in 631 AH (1233 CE), during a period of

significant political change for the region. Beginning in 616 AH (1219 CE) the Mongols and

Tatars, led by Gengis Khan, began an expansion through which they would soon occupy the

Arabian peninsula, Egypt, and Syria. By 656 AH (1258 CE) the Tatars had toppled the

Abbasid Caliphate and killed most of the people of Baghdad. And continuing their advance,

the Tatars invaded Damascus in 658 AH (1260 CE), where Imam An-Nawawi had moved


eight years earlier at the age of 19. Shortly after the Tatar invasion of Damascus, the

Mamluks in Egypt launched a counter-attack against the invading Tatars and quickly ended

their occupation of Syria. The relative stability which followed the Mamluk victory over the

Tatars would last the majority of Imam An-Nawawi’s life and is the backdrop for much of his

story (Al-Zouebi, 1999; Zarabozo, 2009).

Imam An-Nawawi did not come from a family of wealth or fame. And his father was

not a scholar, but his father was known as a very pious man, which may have contributed to

An-Nawawi’s childhood dedication to his studies and to his early memorization of the Quran.

At the age of 19, An-Nawawi’s father took him to the Saaramiya school in Damascus where

he began his formal studies. His stay at the Saaramiya school was brief, however, as they

could not offer him housing. As a result, he soon moved into a small room at the Rawaahiya

school in Damascus, where he would attend as many as 12 lectures per day on topics such as

Hadith, Fiqh, and the Arabic language (IDP, 2018).

Regarding Imam An-Nawawi’s full name, Muhi al-Deen' Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn

Sharaf al-Hizaami al-Nawawi, there are a couple of facts worth noting. The nickname, “Muhi

al-Deen”, meaning “The One who Gives Life to the Religion”, was disliked by Imam

An-Nawawi, perhaps because he knew that Islam did not need anyone to give it life. And,

although he never had a child, he was given the name, “Abu Zakariya”, meaning, “The father

of Zakariya”. He was given this name as a young child. At that time it was common practice

for male children to be given such a name, known as an agnomen (Zarabozo, 2009).

Imam An-Nawawi’s Pursuit of Knowledge

An unending pursuit of knowledge is the dominant characteristic most associated with

Imam An-Nawawi. After arriving in Damascus at age 19, An-Nawawi first met Jamal al-Din

'Abdul Kafi al-Rab'i, the Imam of the Umawi Mosque. Al-Rab'i introduced An-Nawawi to


the learning circle of Mufti al-Sham, 'Abd al-Rahman Ibn Ibrahim al-Firkah, who would

teach An-Nawawi for some time. Eventually al-Firkah introduced An-Nawawi to a former

teacher at the Rawaahiya school named Shaykh Ishaq al-Maghribi.

In An-Nawawi’s time, the Umawi Mosque was one of the most famous mosques in

existence. It housed teaching groups for all four of the primary madhabs (Maliki, Hanafi,

Shafi 'i and Hanbali). In addition, Damascus was home to more than 300 colleges, institutes,

and universities, including more than twenty Hanafi schools, more than thirty Shafi’i schools,

and four Hanbali schools. Damascus was a major center of learning at a time when education

was receiving increased focus. This was the ideal scenario for An-Nawawi to further develop

and share his knowledge (40HadithNawawi.com Project, n.d.; Al-Zouebi,1999).

Just as he had done throughout his childhood, in Damascus An-Nawawi devoted all of

his efforts to learning and teaching, often forgoing sleep in favor of studying. On the topic of

An-Nawawi’s ability to stay focused on his studies every moment of every day, al-Diqr

commented, “Allah blessed and graced this man. Allah blessed him in his time. He gave him

the ability to complete in one day what it takes everyone else two days to do, and in one year

what takes others two years to accomplish. This is the only way we can explain this

tremendous undertaking that made him one of the greatest scholars of his time in about ten

years”. By the age of twenty-four An-Nawawi was teaching at the Ashrafiyah school, living a

very-simple and modest life. He displayed no desire for the pleasures of this world, eating

very little, owning few clothes, accepting little money, and focusing only on work and

worship (Zarabozo, 2009).

Imam An-Nawawi’s Influences and Teachers

In Damascus, An-Nawawi had more than twenty well-known teachers. Some of his

instructors in fiqh were: Abu Ibrahim Ishaq b. Ahmed b. 'Uthman al-Maghribi, his first


teacher of fiqh, and Abu al-Fath 'Umar Ibn Bundar al-Taflisi, under whom he studied the

books al-Muntakhab and al-Mustasfa. Others under whom An-Nawawi studied fiqh include:

Abu Muhammad Abd al-Rahman b. Nuh al-Maqdisi, al-Kamal Sallar Ibn al-Hasan al-Irbili,

and Abu Hafs 'Umar b. As'ad b. Abi Ghalib al-Irbili.

Those who instructed An-Nawawi on hadith include: Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. 'Isa

al-Muradi, under whom he studied Sahih Muslim, Sahih al-Bukhari, and al-Jam' Bayn

al-Sahihayn, and Abu al-Baqa' Khalid b. Yusuf al-Nabulsi, under whom he studied Asma'

al-Rijal, by aI-Hafiz' Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi. Others under whom An-Nawawi studied

hadith include: Abu al-Fadl 'Abd al-Karim b. 'Abd al-Samad (the orator of Damascus), Ismail

b. Ibrahim b. Abi al-Yusr al-Tanukhi, Zayn al-Din Abu al-'Abbas b. Abd al-Da'im al-Maqdisi,

and Abd al-' Aziz b. Ahmad b. Abd al-Muhsin aI-Ansari (Al-Zouebi,1999).

Imam An-Nawawi’s Beliefs

In attempting to gain a grasp on the belief’s of Imam An-Nawawi, many scholars

have had a particularly difficult time finding clarity in understanding his Aqeedah. One area

of interest in this regard is An-Nawawi’s commentary to Sahih Muslim, in which he engages

in taweel (interpreting the Quran’s descriptions of Allah) and is seen as diverging from the

Salafi school. In his commentary to Sahih Muslim his approach varies greatly, sometimes he

engages in taweel, other times he states that the characteristics of an attribute of Allah is

known only to Allah (tafweedh). This inconsistency has led some to consider

An-Nawawi as a Salafi, and others to consider him an Ashari.

While one can find the influence of the Ashari school in the writings of An-Nawawi,

he clearly followed the beliefs of the Salaf on most matters. After reviewing his writings, the

majority of scholars conclude that it is not necessary to condemn such a great man for a

couple deviant views. After all, in spite all of An-Nawawi’s mass of knowledge, he was not a


specialist in aqeedah. One can refute his mistakes regarding aqeedah, refuse to follow these

mistakes, but still gain benefit from the enormous knowledge of Islam which An-Nawawi left

for future generations (Zarabozo, 2009).

Imam An-Nawawi’s Fiqh

Although Imam An-Nawawi had a deep understanding of the fiqh of other madhabs,

he was a scholar of the Shafi’i school of thought (Muhammad, 1999). In fact, along with

al-Rafi'ee, An-Nawawi was one of the most influential scholars of the Shafi’i school. These

two were know as the “two Shaykhs” (al-shaikhain) among the Shafi’is.

An-Nawawi was not, however, one to blindly follow a particular madhab. On this

topic, in his book, al-Majmu, An-Nawawi quotes an earlier Shafi’i faqeeh, Ibn al-Salah, as

saying, “If a follower of the Shafi’i school finds a hadith that contradicts his madhab, then if

he possesses the qualifications of an absolute mujtahid, or a mujtahid on that particular

subject or issue, then he should research the matter and he has the right to independently

follow that hadith”. Furthermore, in his commentary to Sahih Muslim there are a number of

instances in which An-Nawawi deviates from the Shafi’i opinion on a matter, in favor of a

competing opinion.

His fiqh was much more grounded in hadith than many other fuqaha of his time. In

fact An-Nawawi’s knowledge of hadith was respected to such a great degree that when

An-Nawawi differed with al-Rafi'ee on a matter, the Shafi’is were faced with the tough

question of which Shaykh to follow. Some preferred al-Rafi’ee because his rulings tended to

be more in line with the foundations of the Shafi’i school of thought. But many preferred

An-Nawawi because of his superior knowledge of hadith and because of his adherence to the

authentic Sunnah. (IDP, 2018; Zarabozo, 2009).


Imam An-Nawawi’s Writings

Within a small window of time of only about a dozen years, Imam An-Nawawi

produced a large number of the most well respected books of Islam. His unfinished

commentary on the fiqh of the Shafi’i school, known as Al-Majmu, is considered by some to

be one of the best books on fiqh ever compiled. And his twelve volume commentary on Sahih

Muslim, titled Al-Minhaj bi Sharh Sahih Muslim, is one of the most respected commentaries

of a hadith collection. In total, he has more than fifty books to his credit. Some of his other

works include:

1. Kitab Al-Adhkar. Translates to “The Book Of Remembrances”. A collection of

words of remembrance, glorification, and supplication from the Prophet Muhammad.

2. Al-Tibyan fi adab hamalat al-Qur'an: “Etiquette with the Quran”. An explanation

of the proper etiquette of handling, teaching, studying, and reciting the Quran.

3. Matn Al-Arba'een: “The 40 Hadith”. A collection of 40 hadith that are seen as

essential to having a minimum level of understanding of Islam.

4. Riyad al-Salihin: Translates to “The Gardens of the Righteous”. A collection of

hadith on ethics, conduct, and worship.

5. Sharh Sunan Abi Dawud: A commentary on Sunan Abi Dawud. Sunan Abi

Dawud is one of the “Kutub al-Sittah”, the six major collections of hadith.

6. Tahdhib-al-Asma wa al-Lughat: A compilation of biographies of a variety of

people including Sahaba, Angels, and Jinn. The work also contains a dictionary of

technical terms, places, and difficult words.

7. And numerous others books, including: Al-Irshad wa'l-Taqrib fi 'Ulum al-Hadith,

Kitab-ur-Raudah, Muhimmatul-Ahkam, Mukhtasar At-Tirmidhi, and Tabaqat Ash

Shafi'iyah


The impact of An-Nawawi’s writing continues today, as his books are still used in formal

instruction on hadith and fiqh (Badi, 2002; Zarabozo, 2009).

Imam An-Nawawi’s Students

During his many years of teaching, Imam An-Nawawi influenced many well-known

scholars, including, Ibn Al-Attar, Abu Al-Abbaas ibn Faraah, Abu Al-Rabi Al-Haashimi,

Jamaal Al-Deen al-Mizzi, and Al-Badr Muhammad ibn Jamaah (IslamicFinder, n.d.).

One of his most prominent students, Ibn Al-Attar, wrote the book, Al-Itiqad alKhaalis

min al-Shakk wa al-Intiqaad (The Belief that is Free of any Form of Doubt or Criticism).

This book includes a complete refutation of taweel (interpreting the Quran’s descriptions of

Allah), something which Imam An-Nawawi had occasional engaged in. Ibn Al-Attar knew

An-Nawawi better than most students, having committed himself An-Nawawi as his only

teacher. Al-Attar described some of his interaction with An-Nawawi as follows, “I read in his

presence quite a lot of his written works, correcting and perfecting them. He permitted me to

correct the work he allotted me and showed me his approval. (Al-Zouebi,1999; Zarabozo,

2009).

An-Nawawi was never hesitant to share knowledge with anyone, and as a result he

had an impact that was broader than just his formal students. When he saw others doing

wrong, he eagerly shared his knowledge with them, offering sincere advise to guide them.

Speaking softly from the Quran and Sunnah, he had the ability to frame convincing

arguments that taught valuable lessons to countless people, whether they were his students or

not (Al-Zouebi,1999).

Imam An-Nawawi’s Relationship with Rulers

Imam An-Nawawi did not hesitate to stand up to rulers who were in the wrong.

Al-Sultan al-Dhaahir, who was viewed as a hero for his role in defeating the Mongols, was


the leader of the Muslims for a great portion of Imam An-Nawawi’s life. Imam An-Nawawi

confronted the Sultan on multiple occasions, urging him to do right, whenever An-Nawawi

believed the Sultan was doing wrong. In response to these repeated clashes, the Sultan

ordered that An-Nawawi be removed from Damascus. And, despite the efforts of other

scholars to persuade An-Nawawi to return to Damascus, he refused to do so (IslamicFinder,

n.d.).

Imam An-Nawawi’s Relationship with the People

By opposing, without hesitation, those who stood against the Quran and Sunnah,

An-Nawawi earned a reputation as a defender of the truth and of the masses. But, just as with

his interactions with the rulers, when dealing with the public at large he did not hesitate to

offer guidance and advice if he witnessed wrongdoing. He sought to establish good and

eliminate evil among all, from the most powerful rulers to the poorest people among them.

Sometimes this meant pointing out illegal innovations, which at that time, were practiced

among the masses. The people, however, understood that An-Nawawi dealt with the rich and

with the powerful using the same application of Islamic law that he used when dealing with

them. They witnesses his fairness firsthand. Already respected for his great knowledge,

dedication, piety, and character, this even-handed approach to his dealings with other people

further increased the affection that the public had for An-Nawawi (Zarabozo, 2009).

Imam An-Nawawi’s Relationship with other scholars

The great amount of respect which Imam An-Nawawi had for other scholars is

evident in his writings, in which he would often offer praise for their efforts. Yet, at the same

time, An-Nawawi was never hesitant to correct another scholar if that scholar’s teaching was

not sound. He was particularly firm anytime he encountered a scholar whose intentions were

not pure, offering his most stern advice to such scholars.


Other scholars thought highly of An-Nawawi as well. His reputation as a meticulous,

dedicated, modest man of knowledge followed him throughout his short life. The respect that

others had for him is reflected in the words of other scholars when writing and speaking of

him. One prominent scholar of hadith, Abu al-Abbaas ibn Faraah, said of Imam An-Nawawi,

“The shaikh had reached the top in three areas. Every one of these areas is such that a person

should be willing to mount his camel and travel in order to seek it. One is the level he

attained when it comes to knowledge. The second is the level he attained when it comes to

asceticism. And the third is the level he attained in ordering good and eradicating evil”.

Imam An-Nawawi’s Return to Nawa

After the Sultan ordered that he be removed from Damascus, An-Nawawi returned to

his hometown of Nawa. And, on the 24th of Rajab in 676 AH, not long after returning home,

he became ill and died. Upon receiving word of his death, the people of Damascus became

collectively saddened at the loss of the great scholar at the age of only 44 (Zarabozo, 2009).

Imam An-Nawawi, in accordance with the Sunnah, had wished for his grave to be a

simple one, leveled and modestly marked, in his hometown of Nawa, where he died. Still,

some people decided, against the Imam’s wishes, to have a dome built over his grave anyway.

In the end, Imam An-Nawawi would get his way, as no matter how many structures were

erected over his grave, they would all end up destroyed. Eventually, the effort to have the

grave covered was abandoned, and the grave, while well-known, now has the very modest

marking that Imam An-Nawawi had wanted (IslamicFinder, n.d.).

Conclusion

From the earliest years of his childhood, An-Nawawi showed a special intellectual

capacity and a unique drive to learn. And his family, though not wealthy, recognized his

potential and took him to Damascus, where he would be exposed to, and influenced by, some


of the greatest Islamic scholars of his time. Making the best of his opportunities, An-Nawawi

quickly solidified his own reputation as a great scholar, writing over 50 books on fiqh, hadith,

and other topics, teaching numerous students who would go on to become well-known for

their own work, and standing in opposition to wrongdoing anywhere he witnessed it. He lived

a short, righteous, and simple life, but he did not waste a single moment of it. One of the most

productive scholars in the history of Islam, he made the most of what Allah gave him.

The collection of work he left behind continues to benefit millions of people today, all around

the world.


References

40HadithNawawi.com Project (n.d.). Imam Nawawi’s 40 Hadith, Narrations, and

Commentary. https://40hadithnawawi.com/posts/the-imam/

Al-Zouebi, Abdullah (1999). Al-Tahrir Fi Sharh Alfaz Al-Tanbih by Al-Nawawi. PhD Thesis

Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies University of Glasgow. http://theses.gla.

ac.uk/id/eprint/5005

Badi, Jamal Ahmed (2002). Sharh Arba'een an Nawawi Commentary of Forty Hadiths of

An-Nawawi. https://ahadith.co.uk/downloads/Commentary_of_Forty_

Hadiths_of_An-Nawawi.pdf

IDP Research Division (2018). The Biography of Imam An-Nawawi. Islamic Digital

Publishing.

IslamicFinder (n.d.). Brief Biography of Imam Al-Nawawi. https://www.islamicfinder.org/

knowledge/biography/story-of-imam-alnawawi/

Muḥammad, Umm (1999). The Forty Hadith of Al-Imam An-Nawawi. Abul-Qasim

Publishing House.

Zarabozo, Jamaal al-Din M. (2009). Commentary on the Forty Hadith of Al-Nawawi.

Al-Basheer Company for Publications & Translations.

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