An-Nawawi

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The full real name of An-Nawawi was Abu Zakaria Mohiuddin Yahya ibn Sharaf An-Nawawi [1] Like with many arabic, and semetic names the last part referes to the hometown of the individual. Nawawi was a suburb of a city near Damascus in Syria. He was born in 631 A.H. / 1255 CE. From a young age he showed signs of great inteligence and so his father paid for a great education. As a Quadi, Judge, he was much sought for advice and edjudication of disputes.

The celebrated Shaykh Mohiuddin expresses his impression about Imaam an-Nawawi 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 Al-Ma'ruf [i.e., Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to do] and forbidding Al-Munkar [polytheism and disbelief and all that Islam has forbidden]. Imaam an-Nawawi had all three in him."

Accomplishments

During his short life of only 45 years [2] he wrote many books on Islamic studies and other topics as well. He collected and sourced 40 hadith's back to one of the shahabaeen (companions of Muhammad)[3]. Which is no small task.

References

[link] The Islamic Network - www.islaam.net A Short Biography of Imaam an-Nawawi

[link] The Islamic Network - an-Nawawi and his works.

[link] An-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths-Translation of Imam An-Nawawi's Book

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