Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi was born in 631 AH (1233 CE) in the town of Nawa near Damascus, showing early signs of scholarly talent — he memorized the Qur'an as a boy. At around nineteen he moved to Damascus to study, attaching himself to its leading scholars of hadith, jurisprudence, and language, and soon became one of the foremost Shafi'i jurists of his era.
Al-Nawawi was renowned for his extraordinary diligence in seeking knowledge — he is said to have attended twelve lessons a day — combined with intense worship and asceticism; he reportedly never married so as to devote himself entirely to scholarship and writing. He headed the Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiyyah college in Damascus, combining teaching, issuing legal rulings, and prolific writing despite his short life.
His Scholarly Legacy
Al-Nawawi left works that remain foundational references in hadith, jurisprudence, and ethics to this day, most notably Riyad al-Salihin, the Forty Hadith (al-Arba'in al-Nawawiyyah), and his monumental commentary on Sahih Muslim. He passed away in his hometown of Nawa in 676 AH (1277 CE) at only forty-five years of age.
