Nawawi Books
Kahlil Algya
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.[14]
During his stay at Damascus, he studied from more than twenty teachers[16][17] 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.[18]
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.[19]
Al-Nawawi drew the ire of Mamluk Sultan Rukn al-Din Baybars twice. Once, at a time when the people of Damascus sought relief from a heavy tax burden after a years-long drought,[20] Al-Nawawi wrote that if Baybars did not stop taxing its residents abusively then Allah will tax his misdeed in the afterlife.[21] This prompted Baybars to threaten to expel him from Damascus.[22] To this, he responded:
The second time Al-Nawawi addressed Sultan Baybars was when he wanted the ulama to issue a fatwa that decreed that the waqf be collected solely for the ruler, despite originally being meant for the people. In effect, Al-Nawawi scolded him, urging him to fear Allah and rein in his greed, which the Sultan accepted. Some people asked Baybars why he did not imprison Al-Nawawi in retaliation, to which Baybars replied that whenever he thought of locking up Al-Nawawi, a fear flowed through his heart.[21] In both encounters, Baybars abided by Al-Nawawi's counsel.[21]
An-Nawawi's lasting legacy is his contribution to hadith literature through his momentous works Forty Hadiths and Riyadh as-Saaliheen.[24] This made him respected in all madhabs, despite him being of Shafi'i jurisprudence.[25] 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.[21] Ulama's praise him for 3 characteristics:
During his life of 45 years[27] he wrote "at least fifty books"[28] on Islamic studies and other topics. Some scholar counted pages he written and calculated that he wrote 40+ pages daily from age 18 till his death. Some his writings is still reached vastly as no author has superseded him in those writing. These include:
Imam Muhyi ddin Abi Zakariyya Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi known simply as Imam Nawawi was Born in the village of Nawa in Southern Syria. He spent most of his life in Damascus where he lived in a simple manner, devoted to Allah, engaging single-mindedly in worship, study, writing, and teaching various Islamic sciences.
Although best known for his works in hadith, Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi (d. 676/1277) was also the Imam of the later Shafi'i school of Jurisprudence, and widely acknowledged as the intellectual heir to Imam Shafi'i. He was a renowned scholar and jurist who dedicated his life to the pursuit of Islamic learning.
Imam Nawawi died at the young age of 44 years, leaving behind him numerous works of great efforts and knowledge. He is well know for books which are easy to understand.
We can learn a lot by looking at the lives of the pious predecessors. They should be our role models and the ones we strive to immitate. I personally love to read about the companions, scholars and prophets. Their stories are so uplifting and really make me feel shameful for how much time I waste and the life I live. Their examples are such an inspiration for Muslims everywhere.
An-Nawawi first studied at the Saaramiya school in Damascus. This is where his father left him. He had no housing there whatsoever. After some time, he approached the Shaykh of the school and asked f he had any housing, as many of the schools did house their students. They had no housing so the Shaykh suggested that he go to the Rawaahiyah school. There, he was given a very small room in which he lived for a number of years. In fact, he remained in that small room until he was named the head of the Ashrafiya school, a number of years later. It was stated that, when one visited him, the room was so small and the books were so many, t hat the only wy to sit was to remove the books and pile them on top of each other to make some room to sit.
His life was consumed by learning. At one point, he attended 12 lectures a day! At the age of 24, he began teaching at the Ashrafiyh school. His reputation and excellence as a scholar began to be recognized by all the scholars and inhabitants of Damascus.
At one point in time, he would not eat anything except some cake and olives that his father would send him from time to time from Nawa. One of the reasons for this was that he was certain that such food came from permissible sources. He would refuse even permissible things out of fear that they may lead him to doubtful matters.
I had originally thought this may just be a quirk of translation (my copy is translated by Ezzeddin Ibrahim and Denys Johnson-Davies), but I have seen the same 42-hadith breakdown used in Sunnah.com's collection; not sure which translator they used, but the translation is clearly different from my own copy.
Having never read the original Arabic compilation, I can't be certain that this isn't yet a translation quirk, but two separate translations with the same clearly-defined numbering scheme casts doubt on that theory.
Presumably, in addition to being one of the most celebrated scholars in Shafi'i jurisprudence, Imam An-nawawi was at least basically competent in counting. Which leaves me scratching my head over the question, why does his famous Forty Hadith have two too many ahadith?
Sheikh ibn 'Otaymeen said explaining this issue:
"The forty hadith of an-Nawawi and strictly speaking they are not forty, but forty-two, but the Arabs used to round fractions in numbers, so they say: forty even if it was more by one or two or less by one or two.
These forty should be memorized by any student of knowledge because they are chosen out of many ahadith out of many different topics. In difference to most other books for example, if we take 'Omdat al-Ahkam which indeed is a good selection, but it only covers one single topic: fiqh. The forty of hadith of an-Nawawi cover different topics, and we ask Allah for help and guidance to comment on them. And Allah is the Compromising"
و بين فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين الأربعون النووية وهي ليست أربعينبل هي اثنان وأربعون لكن العرب يحذفون الكسر في الأعداد فيقولون: أربعون. وإن زاد واحداً أو اثنين أونقص واحداً أواثنين.
هذه الأربعون ينبغي لطالب العلم أن يحفظهالأنها منتخبة من أحاديث عديدة. وفي أبواب متفرقةبخلاف غيرها من المؤلفات فلو نظرنا إلى عمدة الأحكام لوجدناها منتخبة لكنها في باب واحد وهو باب الفقه أما الأربعون النووية فهي في أبواب متفرقة متنوعة. ونحن نستعين بالله تعالى في التعليق عليها. والله الموفّق. .(source)
In his commentary on the 40 ahadith ibn Daqiq al-'Id commented the weak hadith about forty ahadith in imam an-Nawawi's introduction, explaining that 40 is the first number which has a "full number" (natural number) as the result of the fraction (for Zakat on capital assets) of the quarter of the tenth (1/40) and from the hadith -he didn't mention which exactly- one can conclude that the quarter of the tenth cleans the rest of the wealth. And this applies for those whom apply any (one) of these ahadith in their lifes.
Ibn Daqiq al-'Id didn't comment on the fact that the collection includes 42 instead of 40 ahadith, as if this was something unimportant, which seems to emphasize the statement from above, that it was "business as usual" or "usual practice" to speak about 40 ahadith while they were 42.