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J . .) - . .) - : - - ৠ ࣩ .... ,,,, ... ,,,. l/J J. 2..iJ 34 ft; ( :_ 11., / .il./ "(/ / / . - -s r .rఉ Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi clothing is of the forbidden and his provisions are of the forbidden. How is he going to be responded to [by Allah)?" From his youth, Yahya al-Nawawi was not attracted to sports or playing. Indeed, the other children chided him for this. From an early age, he turned his attention to his studies. He hated any activity that would take him away from memorizing the Quran. On one occasion, the children forced him to play with them and he cried because of the time that he was wasting. 1 It is not surprising then that he memorized the Quran at an early age. At the age of eighteen, his father took him to Damascus to continue his studies. He excelled in the Shafi' ee school of fiqh, memorizing some of its most important texts. He performed the pilgrimage to Makkah, visited Madinah and other locations but then returned to Damascus to continue his studies. He remained in Damascus until just prior to his death, when he returned to his hometown ofNawa. Al-Nawawi's Personal Life His Pursuit of Knowledge Al-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 Shaikh of the school to ask if he had any housing, as many of the schools did house their students. They had no housing so the Shaikh 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 Ashrafiyah school, a number of years later. 2 It was stated that, when one visited him, the room was so small and the books were so many, that the only way one could sit down was to remove the books and pile them on top of each other to make some room to sit. After Saaramiyah, he continued his studies at the Rawaahiya school in Damascus. At one point in time, he was attending twelve lectures a day on assorted topics, including Arabic language, hadith, fiqh and Islamic legal theory. Some of his well-known teachers3 included lshaaq ibn Ahmad al­ Maghrabi al-Maqdisi (d. 650 A.H.), Abdul Rahmaan al-Anbari (d. 661 A.H.) and Abdul Azeez al-Ansaari (d. 662 A.H.). He studied Sahih Muslim from Abu lshaaq Ibraaheem al-Waasiti. In 655 A.H., at the age of 24, he began teaching at the Ashrafiyah school. His reputation and excellence as a scholar began to be recognized by the scholars and inhabitants of Damascus. 1 Al-Haddaad, p. 26. 2 Al-Haddaad, p. 32. 3 The most detailed discussion of the different teachers of Imam al-Nawawi may be found in al­ Haddaad, pp. 41-70. The Life of Imam al-Nawawi His pursuit of knowledge dominated his entire life. He would put all of his time into studying, learning and teaching. It is even stated that he would not sleep except when sleep would overtake him. He would rest on his book and sleep for a little, then he would act startled upon awakening and continue studying. He once said about himself, "I spent two years without lying on the ground [to sleep] on my side." That is, he would always study and write until slept overtook while in a sitting position. Al-Qutb al-Yauneeni said about him, "He would not waste any moment of the day or night but he would spend it busy with attaining knowledge. Even when he is walking in the streets he will be busy going over what he had remembered and reviewing his notes. He continued gaining knowledge in that way for a period of six years."1 It seems-- and only Allah knows the realitythat Allah truly blessed his time. Perhaps this was due to a sincere intention to please Allah. As mentioned above, he would attend up to twelve classes a day. Commenting on that fact, al-Diqr wrote, He used to have twelve study sessions a day with his teachers. These included explanations, verifications, commentaries, explaining the difficult aspects and expressions as well as exacting the correct wordings. This would take, as a least approximation, twelve hours a day. Then he would need to review what he had learned and memorize what needed to be memorized. The very least approximation is that this would also take twelve hours a day. This is twenty-four hours in a day! When would he sleep? When would he eat? When would he perform the acts of worship? When would he perform the voluntary late-night prayers? It is well-known that he performed those types of acts of obedience and worship. When would all of that take place? He was in need of studying and reviewing for all the twenty-four hours in a day and night.