Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn Sharaf ibn Murri ibn Hasan an-Nawawi ad-Dimashqi

Yahya ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi was born in Nawa, a village south of Damascus, in 1233 CE (631 AH). He moved to Damascus at age 18 to pursue Islamic scholarship and enrolled at the Rawahiyyah school, where he lived with remarkable austerity — it is reported that he never married, owned minimal possessions, and ate only one meal per day, dedicating every waking hour to study, teaching, and writing. His ascetic lifestyle and intense scholarly productivity have become legendary.

Despite living only 44 years, an-Nawawi produced a body of work that is staggering in both volume and quality. His commentary on Sahih Muslim (Al-Minhaj Sharh Sahih Muslim) remains the standard reference for understanding this foundational hadith collection. His compilation Riyad as-Salihin (Gardens of the Righteous) is one of the most widely read hadith books in the world, found in virtually every mosque and Muslim home. His Forty Hadith collection (Al-Arba'in an-Nawawiyyah) is often the first text of hadith that students memorize, containing the most foundational prophetic traditions on Islamic practice and belief.

In jurisprudence, his works Al-Majmu' Sharh al-Muhadhdhab (an incomplete but monumental commentary on Shafi'i fiqh) and Minhaj at-Talibin (The Path of Students) remain authoritative references for the Shafi'i school. His Kitab al-Adhkar (The Book of Remembrances) compiled the prophetic supplications and dhikr for every occasion of daily life. His contribution to Hajj scholarship is substantial, with detailed rulings on pilgrimage found throughout his fiqh works. He passed away in Nawa in 1277 CE (676 AH), having accomplished in four decades of life what most scholars could not achieve in eight.