Riyadh as-Salihin | Gardens of the Righteous

Imam an-Nawawi ﵀ (d. 676 AH)

The village of Nawa (modern Syria) was the birthplace of Muhyiddin Yahya bin Sharaf an-Nawawi ﵀, the definitive symbol of academic brilliance and complete worldly detachment. His foundational years were shaped by an early, intense desire to protect the prophetic legacy. Recognising his genius, his father brought him to Damascus to study at the historic Madrasah al-Rawahiyyah. Guided by mentors such as Al-Rida ibn al-Burhan ﵀, he quickly mastered the spectrum of sacred sciences, from Shafiʿi ﵀ jurisprudence and Hadith analysis to Arabic philology. Driven by an acute consciousness of his accountability before Allah ﵎, he read twelve extensive lessons a day, famously avoiding sleep to maximise his hours for study by resting only his head on his manuscripts.

Navigating the volatile political landscape of the Mamluk era, Ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi distinguished himself through an uncompromising commitment to asceticism (Zuhd). He lived in a tiny, spartan room, refused to accept any state salary, and limited his food to a single daily meal of dry bread and olives sent from his village. He even avoided the fruits of Damascus out of scrupulous concern for the ethical purity of the city’s orchard titles. Yet this gentle ascetic possessed fierce moral courage. When the formidable Sultan Al-Zahir Baibars demanded heavy, mandatory taxes from the citizens of Syria, other court judges signed the decree out of fear. Imam an-Nawawi ﵀ stood completely alone in his defiance. Confronting the iron-fisted ruler directly in his palace, his moral authority forced the Sultan to back down, successfully shielding the public from financial ruin.

Though threatened with execution and forced into a temporary banishment from Damascus, the Imam’s unyielding stance successfully halted the unjust taxation of the masses. Having exhausted his physical health through continuous fasting, night prayers, and intense academic writing, Imam an-Nawawi ﵀ passed away in 676 AH at the age of 45. He left behind zero material wealth, but an immortal legacy of scholarship and courage.

His extensive bibliography includes monumental academic treatises like Al-Minhaj fi Sharh Sahih Muslim and his exhaustive legal encyclopaedias Al-Majmuʿ and Rawdat al-Talibin. Alongside these technical works stand his celebrated prophetic tradition compilations, Al-Arbaʿun al-Nawawiyyah (The Forty Hadith) and Riyadh al-Salihin.