Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi (d. 676/1277)
Imam Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi was Born in the village of Nawa in Southern Syria, Nawawi 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. The life of this world seems scarcely to have impinged upon him. He was a versatile and extremely dedicated scholar whose breadth of learning was matched by its depth. .
Imam Nawawi died at the young age of 44 years, leaving behind him numerous works of great importance, the most famous of these being:
al-Arba'un Nabawi (An-Nawawis Forty Hadith)
Riyadhus saleheen
al-Maqasid (Al-Nawawi's Manual of Islam).
Kitab al-Adhkar,
Minhaj al-Talibin (a main reference for Shafi'i fiqh)
Shar' Sahih Muslim (he was the first to arrange the sahih of Muslim in the now familiar categories)
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.
The Arabic word Sunnah lexically means "road" or "practice." In the language of the Prophet {saw} and the Companions it denotes the whole of lawful practices followed in the Religion, particularly the pristine path of Prophets, whether pertaining to belief, religious and social practice, or ethics generally speaking.
