al-Nawawi
- Died
- 676 AH
- Born in
- Nawa
Abu Zakariyya al-Nawawi (631–676 AH / 1233–1277 CE) was a Syrian Shafi'i jurist and hadith scholar based in Damascus, widely recognized as the foremost standardizer of the late Shafi'i legal school and renowned for his legal manual Minhaj al-Talibin .
Early life and education
His full name was Yahya ibn Sharaf ibn Murri ibn Hasan ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn Jum'a ibn Hizam al-Hizami al-Hawrani al-Dimashqi . His ancestral lineage traced back to his forefather Hizam, who had settled in Nawa, a village in the Hawran region south of Damascus from which his nisba derives . Although customarily given the kunya Abu Zakariyya, he never married and had no children . He was given the honorific title Muhyi al-Din ("the Reviver of the Religion"), but he disliked the epithet out of humility and reportedly stated that he did not excuse anyone who applied it to him .
He was born in Nawa in the middle ten days of Muharram 631 AH (a variant report places his birth in the first ten days) . He memorized the Quran in his hometown around the age of puberty . A visiting shaykh, Yasin ibn Yusuf al-Marakashi, observed him as a boy weeping while running away from peers who pressed him to play so that he could recite scripture, and he advised his father to devote him to religious learning .
In 649 AH (1251 CE), at the age of nineteen, his father brought him to Damascus to further his studies . He took up residence at the Rawahiyya Madrasa, adjacent to the east side of the Umayyad Mosque, where he remained for nearly two years without lying down to sleep on the ground, subsisting solely on the school's daily bread allowance . Under his principal teacher, Kamal al-Din Ishaq ibn Ahmad al-Maghribi, he memorized Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi's legal manual al-Tanbih in four and a half months and committed one-fourth of al-Muhadhdhab to memory during the remainder of the year; impressed by his diligence, al-Maghribi appointed him to repeat lessons for his circle . In 651 AH, he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca with his father, spending roughly a month and a half in Medina; his father noted that fever afflicted him from their departure from Nawa until the Day of Arafat, yet he did not complain .
Returning to Damascus, he maintained an intense daily routine, attending twelve lessons each day before his teachers across jurisprudence, hadith, biographical evaluation of transmitters, legal theory, theology, and Arabic grammar . His prominent teachers included Ibn Malik, Abd al-Rahman ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Firkah, al-Radi ibn al-Burhan, Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad al-Ansari, Zayn al-Din Abd al-Da'im, and Ibrahim ibn Isa al-Muradi . His notable students included Ala al-Din Ibn al-Attar, Badr al-Din Ibn Jama'a, Yusuf ibn al-Rahman al-Mizzi, Ahmad ibn Farah al-Ishbili, Muhammad ibn Abi al-Fath al-Hanbali, and Rashid Ismail ibn al-Mu'allim al-Hanafi .
Career and asceticism
In Damascus, he served as a substitute instructor at the Iqbaliyya madrasa on behalf of Ibn Khallikan, and taught at the Falakiyya and Rukniyya schools . In 665 AH, following the death of Abu Shama, he was appointed head of the prestigious Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiyya, where he taught without accepting any salary .
He practiced rigorous asceticism, wearing coarse clothes, fasting continuously, eating only a single meal after the night prayer, and taking a single drink at dawn . He refused gifts and avoided the fruits of Damascus orchards because of legal ambiguities surrounding their land tenure, sustaining himself on dried bread and figs sent by his father from Nawa . He was also active in commanding right and forbidding wrong; he confronted Mamluk authorities directly and, alongside leading scholars of Damascus, drafted written petitions to the sultan al-Zahir Baybars urging the reduction of wartime levies and uncanonical taxes imposed on the population .
Scholarly standing
Biographers characterized him as a leading jurist and traditionist who served as the primary editor and codifier of Shafi'i doctrine . Ibn Kathir praised his vast command of legal opinions and traditionist critique, singling out his legal compendium al-Majmu Sharh al-Muhadhdhab—which he left incomplete at the chapter on usury—as unmatched in its domain for its synthesis of comparative law, hadith authentication, and linguistic analysis . His hadith scholarship was further demonstrated in his celebrated commentary on Sahih Muslim (Sharh Sahih Muslim), which established authoritative chapter headings and legal deductions across the collection .
Death
Towards the end of his life, he traveled to Jerusalem and Hebron before returning to Nawa . He fell ill at his parents' house and died on the night of 24 Rajab 676 AH (22 December 1277 CE; another report gives 14 Rajab 677 AH), at around forty-five years of age . He was buried in his native town of Nawa, where his grave became well known .
Answer updated
List of Works
Rawdat al-Talibin wa Umdat al-Muftin (also recorded as Rawdat al-Talibin wa Umdat al-Muttaqin) is a reference work of Shafi'i substantive law (furu'). It abridges and elaborates upon al-Sharh al-Kabir (also titled Fath al-Aziz or al-Aziz) by Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Karim ibn Muhammad al-Rafi'i.
al-Majmu' Sharh al-Muhadhdhab is an extensive legal commentary on Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi's foundational Shafi'i text al-Muhadhdhab. It serves as a comprehensive reference for Shafi'i jurisprudence and comparative Islamic law across different legal schools.
al-Idah fi Manasik al-Hajj wal-Umra is a legal treatise on the rituals of Hajj and Umrah according to the Shafi'i school. Completed in Rajab 667 AH (1269 CE), it is structured into eight chapters as a concise manual covering the primary objectives and practical rules of the pilgrimage.
Khulasat al-Ahkam (Khulāṣat al-Aḥkām fī Muhimmāt al-Sunan wa-Qawā‘id al-Islām) is a collection of legal hadiths that compiles and evaluates prophetic traditions serving as primary textual proofs across legal subjects.
al-Adhkar lil-Nawawi (formally titled Hilyat al-abrar wa-shi'ar al-akhyar fi talkhis al-da'awat wa-al-adhkar) is a manual of prophetic remembrances, supplications, and daily devotions designed to provide an accessible handbook for practitioners.
al-Taqrib wa al-Taysir (in full: al-Taqrib wa al-Taysir li-Ma'rifat Sunan al-Bashir al-Nadhir) is a concise manual on Hadith terminology and principles (usul al-hadith). Designed as an ultra-condensed summary to serve as an accessible reference for students, the work preserves the thematic arrangement and sequence of hadith categories from foundational traditionist literature, achieving extreme brevity through concise rules while ensuring clarity of phrasing.
Sharh al-Nawawi ala Muslim (formally al-Minhaj fi Sharh Sahih Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj) is an intermediate-length commentary on the canonical hadith collection Sahih Muslim. It features an extensive theoretical preface on hadith methodology and narrator criticism, systematically supplies precise chapter headings (tarajim al-abwab) for narrations, clarifies obscure names and linguistic nuances, reconciles apparent contradictions, and derives legal rulings and ethical insights.
al-Usul wa al-Dawabit (The Principles and Controls) is a legal treatise on Shafi'i jurisprudence and legal maxims. It serves as a focused manual of legal maxims (qawa'id) and regulating principles (dawabit) governing substantive legal branches, gathering essential rules, principles, and succinct legal objectives for students of the Shafi'i school.
Adab al-Fatwa wa al-Mufti wa al-Mustafti (The Etiquette of Fatwa, the Mufti, and the Questioner) is a specialized legal treatise on the rules, qualifications, and proper conduct governing Islamic legal consultation and adjudication. Synthesizing earlier scholarship into a concise handbook, it addresses the gravity of issuing legal opinions, the qualifications and classes of jurisconsults, the practical protocols of delivering rulings, and the duties and etiquette of lay petitioners.
Al-Arbaun al-Nawawiya ma Ziyadat Ibn Rajab (The Forty Hadiths of al-Nawawi with the Additions of Ibn Rajab) is a collection of fifty comprehensive prophetic traditions (jawami al-kalim) that encompass core principles of Islam. It pairs an original core of forty-two authentic traditions, chosen predominantly from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim with transmission chains omitted for ease of memorization, with eight supplementary traditions covering vital legal and ethical axioms.
al-Ijaz fi Sharh Sunan Abi Dawud (The Concise Commentary on the Sunan of Abu Dawud) is an incomplete commentary on the hadith collection Sunan Abi Dawud. The work addresses hadith authenticity, transmitters, linguistic definitions, and legal rulings derived from the narrations.
al-Arbaun al-Nawawiya (The Forty [Hadith] of al-Nawawi), fully titled al-Arbaun fi mabani al-Islam wa-qawaid al-ahkam (The Forty [Hadith] on the Foundations of Islam and the Rules of Rulings), is a collection of prophetic traditions. It gathers forty-two authentic narrations representing comprehensive foundational principles of the religion, stripped of their chains of transmission for easy memorization.
Juz fihi Dhikr I'tiqad al-Salaf fi al-Huruf wa al-Aswat (Tract Mentioning the Creed of the Early Generations Regarding Letters and Sounds) is a theological treatise on the nature of divine speech. It summarizes the positions and core beliefs of the early generations regarding letters and sounds in response to widespread doubts, polemics, and partisan disputes on the subject.
Riyad al-Salihin (The Gardens of the Righteous) is a hadith compendium focused on ethics, devotional practices, and spiritual refinement. It serves as a concise manual of sound traditions designed to guide the seeker toward the Hereafter and foster inward and outward proper conduct across themes such as moral discipline, asceticism, and character refinement.
Irshad Tullab al-Haqaiq ila Marifat Sunan Khayr al-Khalaiq (Guiding Seekers of Realities to Knowing the Traditions of the Best of Creation) is a manual on hadith terminology and methodology. Composed as an abridgment of Ibn al-Salah's Ma'rifat Anwa' 'Ilm al-Hadith, it covers sixty-five distinct categories of hadith disciplines while adding original scholarly expansions and practical applications.
Bustan al-Arifin (The Garden of the Knowers) is a treatise on Sufism, spiritual ethics, and heart-softening traditions (tasawwuf and raqa'iq). Belonging to the genre of spiritual discipline and ascetic wisdom, the work compiles narrations, aphorisms, and insights on sincerity, truthfulness, asceticism, and the graces of the righteous.
Tahrir Alfaz al-Tanbih (The Clarification of the Vocabulary of al-Tanbih) is a specialized legal glossary designed to explain and vocalize the vocabulary and unfamiliar expressions found in Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi's Shafi'i manual al-Tanbih fi Furu' al-Shafi'iyya. Characterized by concise phrasing and precise phonetic vocalization, it serves to define terminology used widely across authoritative texts of the Shafi'i school.
Fatawa al-Nawawi, also known as al-Masa'il al-Manthura and al-Manthurat wa-‘Uyun al-Masa'il al-Muhimmat, is a collection of legal responsa (fatwas). The work gathers progressive answers issued for real-life inquiries and cases, focusing on clear explanations and the soundest positions within Shafi'i jurisprudence, arranged systematically across standard chapters of fiqh.
Minhaj al-Talibin wa Umdat al-Muftin fi al-Fiqh (The Pathway of the Seekers and the Reliance of the Muftis in Jurisprudence) is a core legal manual of Shafi'i jurisprudence that summarizes the school's authoritative legal rulings (furu'). Condensed from Abu al-Qasim al-Rafi'i's compendium al-Muharrar, it provides a precise, accessible synthesis of substantive law using a structured technical terminology to designate the relative weight of differing opinions.
al-Tibyan fi Adab Hamalat al-Quran (The Clarification on the Etiquettes of the Bearers of the Quran) is a concise handbook covering the virtues, manners, and legal rulings governing the recitation, memorization, teaching, and handling of the Quran. Drafted to provide accessible guidance for students, teachers, and memorizers, it outlines personal conduct, pedagogical responsibilities, recitational etiquettes, and the veneration of the physical scripture.
Tahdhib al-Asma wal-Lughat is a biographical and lexical reference work compiled to explain the names of figures and clarify the vocabulary found across six foundational texts of Shafi'i jurisprudence: al-Muzani's Mukhtasar, Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi's al-Muhadhdhab and al-Tanbih, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's al-Wasit and al-Wajiz, and Rawdat al-Talibin.
Tahqiq Riyad al-Salihin lil-Albani is a critical edition and hadith verification of the renowned collection Riyad al-Salihin. It evaluates the chains of transmission for each narration to explicitly distinguish authentic hadiths from weak ones while preserving the original thematic arrangement and chapter numbering.
Daqaiq al-Minhaj is a concise legal treatise on Shafi'i jurisprudence that explains the precise terminology, stylistic revisions, and legal qualifications in the manual Minhaj al-Talibin in comparison with its source text, al-Rafi'i's al-Muharrar.