Al-Nawawi facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī
Title	Imam
Born	Muharram 631 AH/ October 1233 Nawa, Ayyubid Sultanate
Died	24 Rajab 676 AH / 21 December 1277 (age 45) Nawa, Mamluk Sultanate
Resting place	Nawa, present Syria
Occupation	Historiographer, bibliographer, scholar, jurist.
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni
Creed	Ash'ari
Main interest(s)	Fiqh, Usul, Hadith, Mantiq
Arabic name
Personal (Ism)	Yaḥyā
Patronymic (Nasab)	Ibn Sharaf ibn Marri ibn Ḥasan ibn Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Jumah ibn Ḥazm
Teknonymic (Kunya)	Abū Zakariyyā
Toponymic (Nisba)	al-Nawawī

Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī (Arabic: أبو زكريا يحيى بن شرف النووي;‎ 1233–1277), popularly known as al-Nawawī or Imam Nawawī (631–676 A.H./1234–1277), was a Sunni Shafi'ite jurist and hadith scholar. He authored numerous and lengthy works ranging from hadith, to theology, biography, and jurisprudence. Al-Nawawi never married.

Early life

Background

He was born at Nawa near Damascus, Syria. As with Arabic and other Semitic languages, the last part of his name refers to his hometown.

Yasin bin Yusuf Marakashi, says: "I saw Imam Nawawi at Nawa when he was a youth of ten years of age. Other boys of his age used to force him to play with them, but Imam Nawawi would always avoid the play and would remain busy with the recitation of the Noble Qur'an. When they tried to domineer and insisted on his joining their games, he bewailed and expressed his no concern over their foolish action. On observing his sagacity and profundity, a special love and affection developed in my heart for young Nawawi. I approached his teacher and urged him to take exceptional care of this lad as he was to become a great religious scholar. His teacher asked whether I was a soothsayer or an astrologer. I told him I am neither soothsayer nor an astrologer but Allah caused me to utter these words." His teacher conveyed this incident to Imam's father and in keeping in view the learning quest of his son, decided to dedicate the life of his son for the service and promotion of the cause of Islam.

Education

He had no academic or scholarly atmosphere and there were no religious academies or institutes where one could earn excellence in religious learning, so his father took him to Damascus, which was considered the center of learning and scholarship, and the students from far and wide gathered there for schooling. During that period, there were more than three hundred institutes, colleges and universities in Damascus. Imam Nawawi joined Madrasah Rawahiyah which was affiliated with the Ummvi University. The founder and patron of this Madrasah was a trader named Zakiuddin Abul-Qassim who was known as Ibn Rawahah. Madrasah was named after him. Noted and eminent teachers of the period taught in that Madrasah. Imam Nawawi says, "I studied in this institution for two years. During my stay in Madrasah Rawahiyah, I never had complete rest and lived on the limited food supplied by the institution." As a routine, he used to sleep very little at night. When it became irresistible as a human being, he would lean and slumber for a while against the support of books. After a short duration he would again be hard at his scholastic pursuits.

Life as a scholar

He studied in Damascus from the age of 18 and after making the pilgrimage in 1253, he settled there as a private scholar.

Notable teachers

During his stay at Damascus, he studied from more than twenty teachers who were regarded as masters and authority of their subject field and disciplines they taught. An-Nawawi studied Hadith, Islamic Jurisprudence, its principles, syntax and Etymology. His teachers included Abu Ibrahim Ishaq bin Ahmad AI-Maghribi, Abu Muhammad Abdur-Rahman bin Ibrahim Al-Fazari, Radiyuddin Abu Ishaq Ibrahim bin Abu Hafs Umar bin Mudar Al-Mudari, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim bin Isa Al-Muradi, Abul-Baqa Khalid bin Yusuf An-Nablusi, Abul-Abbas Ahmad bin Salim Al-Misri, Abu Abdullah Al-Jiyani, Abul-Fath Umar bin Bandar, Abu Muhammad At-Tanukhi, Sharafuddin Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad Al-Ansari, Abul-Faraj Abdur-Rahman bin Muhammad bin Ahmad Al-Maqdisi, and Abul-Fada'il Sallar bin Al-Hasan Al Arbali among others.

Creed

He did ta'wil on some of the Qur'an verses and ahadith on the attributes of Allah. He states in his commentary of a hadith that:

This is one of the "hadiths of the attributes," about which scholars have two positions. The first is to have faith in it without discussing its meaning, while believing of Allah Most High that "there is nothing whatsoever like unto Him" (Qur'an 42:11), and that He is exalted above having any of the attributes of His creatures. The second is to figuratively explain it in a fitting way, scholars who hold this position adducing that the point of the hadith was to test the slave girl: Was she a monotheist, who affirmed that the Creator, the Disposer, the Doer, is Allah alone and that He is the one called upon when a person making supplication (du'a) faces the sky--just as those performing the prayer (salat) face the Kaaba, since the sky is the qibla of those who supplicate, as the Kaaba is the qibla of those who perform the prayer--or was she a worshipper of the idols which they placed in front of themselves? So when she said, In the sky, it was plain that she was not an idol worshiper.

Relationship with the Mamluk Sultanate

Nawawi drew the ire of Mamluk Sultan Rukn al-Din Baybars, when he petitioned on behalf of residents of Damascus who sought relief from heavy tax burdens during a drought that lasted many years. This prompted Baybars to threaten to expel him from Damascus. To this, he responded:

"As for myself, threats do not harm me or mean anything to me. They will not keep me from advising the ruler, for I believe that this is obligatory upon me and others."

Death and legacy

He died at Nawa at the relatively young age of 44.

Imam Nawawi's Forty Hadith taught in the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan in Cairo, Egypt

An-Nawawi's lasting legacy is his contribution to hadith literature through his momentous works Forty Hadiths and Riyadh as-Saaliheen. This made him respected in all madhabs, despite of him being of Shafi'i jurisprudence. According to Al-Dhahabi, Imam Nawawi's concentration and absorption in academic love gained proverbial fame. He had devoted all his time for learning and scholarship. Other than reading and writing, he spent his time contemplating on the interacted and complex issues and in finding their solutions. Sheikh Mohiuddin expresses his impression about Imam Nawawi as thus:

Imaam an-Nawawi had three distinctive commendable qualities in his person. If anybody has only one out of these three, people turn to him in abundance for guidance. First, having knowledge and its dissemination. Second, to evade completely from the worldly inclinations, and the third, inviting to all that is good (Islam) enjoining virtue and forbidding vice. Imaam an-Nawawi had all three in him.

Destruction of tomb

In 2015, during the ongoing Syrian Civil War, his tomb was demolished by rebels linked to Al Nusra.

Works

During his life of 45 years he wrote "at least fifty books" on Islamic studies and other topics. These include:

• Al Minhaj bi Sharh Sahih Muslim (شرح صحيح مسلم), making use of others before him, and is considered one of the best commentaries on Sahih Muslim. It is available online.
• Riyadh as-Saaliheen (رياض الصالحين); collection of hadith on ethics, manners, conduct, popular in the Muslim world.
• al-Majmu' sharh al-Muhadhab (المجموع شرح المهذب), is a comprehensive manual of Islamic law according to the Shafi'i school has been edited with French translation by van den Bergh, 2 vols., Batavia (1882–1884), and published at Cairo (1888).
• Minhaj al-Talibin (منهاج الطالبين وعمدة المفتين في فقه الإمام الشافعي), a classical manual on Islamic Law according to Shafi'i fiqh.
• Tahdhib al-Asma wa'l-Lughat (تهذيب الأسماء), edited as the Biographical Dictionary of Illustrious Men chiefly at the Beginning of Islam (Arabic) by F. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1842–1847).
• Taqrib al-Taisir (التقريب والتيسير لمعرفة سنن البشير النذير), an introduction to the study of hadith, it is an extension of Ibn al-Salah's Muqaddimah, was published at Cairo, 1890, with Suyuti's commentary "Tadrib al-Rawi". It has been in part translated into French by W. Marçais in the Journal asiatique, series ix., vols. 16–18 (1900–1901).
• al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyya (الأربعون النووية) - 'Forty Hadiths,' collection of forty-two fundamental traditions, frequently published along with numerous commentaries.
• Ma Tamas ilayhi hajat al-Qari li Saheeh al-Bukhaari (ما تمس إليه حاجة القاري لصـحيح البـخاري)
• Tahrir al-Tanbih (تحرير التنبيه)
• Kitab al-Adhkar (الأذكار المنتخبة من كلام سيد الأبرار); collection of supplications of prophet Muhammad.
• al-Tibyan fi adab Hamalat al-Quran (التبيان في آداب حملة القرآن)
• Adab al-fatwa wa al-Mufti wa al-Mustafti (آداب الفتوى والمفتي والمستفتي)
• al-Tarkhis fi al-Qiyam (الترخيص بالقيام لذوي الفضل والمزية من أهل الإسلام)
• Manasik (متن الإيضاح في المناسك) on Hajj rituals.
• al-Hatt ala al-Mantiq (الحت على المنطق) - 'The Insistence upon Logic,' written to address epistemological and historical criticisms of logic
• Sharh Sunan Abu Dawood
• Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari
• Mukhtasar at-Tirmidhi
• Tabaqat ash-Shafi'iyah
• Rawdhat al-Talibeen
• Bustan al-`arifin

Recent English language editions

• Bustan al-ʿarifin (The Garden of Gnostics), Translated by Aisha Bewley

Minhaj al-Talibin

• Minhaj et talibin: A Manual of Muhammadan Law ; According To The School of Shafi, Law Publishing Co (1977) ASIN B0006D2W9I
• Minhaj et talibin: A Manual of Muhammadan Law ; According To The School of Shafi, Navrang (1992) ISBN: 81-7013-097-2
• Minhaj Et Talibin: A Manual of Muhammadan Law, Adam Publishers (2005) ISBN: 81-7435-249-X

The Forty Hadith

• Al-Nawawi Forty Hadiths and Commentary; Translated by Arabic Virtual Translation Center; (2010) ISBN: 978-1-4563-6735-0
• Ibn-Daqiq's Commentary on the Nawawi Forty Hadiths; Translated by Arabic Virtual Translation Center; (2011) ISBN: 1-4565-8325-5
• The Compendium of Knowledge and Wisdom; Translation of Jami' Uloom wal-Hikam by Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali translated by Abdassamad Clarke, Turath Publishing (2007) ISBN: 0-9547380-2-0
• Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadith, Translated by Ezzeddin Ibrahim, Islamic Texts Society; New edition (1997) ISBN: 0-946621-65-9
• The Forty Hadith of al-Imam al-Nawawi, Abul-Qasim Publishing House (1999) ISBN: 9960-792-76-5
• The Complete Forty Hadith, Ta-Ha Publishers (2000) ISBN: 1-84200-013-6
• The Arba'een 40 Ahadith of Imam Nawawi with Commentary, Darul Ishaat
• Commentary on the Forty Hadith of Al-Nawawi (3 Vols.), by Jamaal Al-Din M. Zarabozo, Al-Basheer (1999) ISBN: 1-891540-04-1

Riyad al-Salihin

• Gardens of the righteous: Riyadh as-Salihin of Imam Nawawi, Rowman and Littlefield (1975) ISBN: 0-87471-650-0
• Riyad-us-Salihin: Garden of the Righteous, Dar Al-Kotob Al-Ilmiyah
• Riyadh-us-Saliheen (Vol. 1&2 in One Book) (Arabic-English) Dar Ahya Us-Sunnah Al Nabawiya

See also

In Spanish: Al-Nawawi para niños