The days of Imam Nawawi’s studies were something carved out of stone—unyielding, focused, and filled with fire.

Each day, he attended twelve classes, each one demanding his full presence. Twelve lessons, twelve teachers, twelve spheres of thought—filling up nearly twelve hours. The remaining hours were given to revision, annotation, transcription, and reflection. Naturally, there was no time for anything else. No distractions. No diversions. His classes spanned across every branch of sacred and rational sciences.

Hadith studies. Jurisprudence. Logic. Grammar. Philology. Rhetoric. Diagnostics. Lexicography. Each subject, a world of its own. Each class, a step up the ladder of knowledge.

And the texts? They weren’t light reading. He studied al-Wasīṭ, the legal manual; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, the Hadith collection; al-Luʾa by Ibn Jinnī, on the intricacies of Arabic language; Iṣlāḥ al-Manṭiq, a foundational book in logic and grammar; al-Muntaqhab by Imam al-Rāzī; and more.

Years later, Imam Nawawi would recall: “I brought energy into my studies. I engaged every text fully—seeking clarity of language, precision in meaning, coherence in structure. Allah blessed my time with a special kind of barakah. I was able to complete my tasks beautifully and accurately.”

He did not study with just one or two teachers. He sought out specialists in every field, learning from the best minds of his time.

But two fields stood above the rest in his life: Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and Hadith.

In jurisprudence, his foremost teachers were Shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn, Shaykh al-Firkāḥ, Isḥāq al-Maghribī, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Nūḥ. Imam Nawawi treated them with great reverence, documenting not just their names, but the isnāds (chains of transmission) that connected them all the way back to Imam al-Shāfiʿī—and ultimately, to the Prophet ﷺ himself.

In Hadith, he had a whole constellation of teachers. One of the most distinguished was Ibrāhīm ibn ʿĪsā. Nawawi said about him:“I was in contact with him for nearly ten years, and not once did I observe anything objectionable in his character.”

He studied Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim from Abū Isḥāq, and presented the unbroken chain of teachers linking himself back to the Prophet ﷺ with deep pride. His list included scholars like Rajiyy ibn al-Burhān, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad, Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Taqī al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad, and Shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn—a line that stretched, pure and intact, through generations of scholarship.

In Usūl al-Fiqh (principles of jurisprudence), he learned from many scholars as well, especially Qāḍī Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Bandār, who taught him selections from both al-Muntaqhab of al-Rāzī and sections of al-Mustaṣfā by Imam al-Ghazālī.

His principal grammar teacher was Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Sālim al-Miṣrī. But none of this was passive reading.

Every book, every text—he studied with pen in hand. He wrote extensive marginalia, provided clarifications, corrected errors, added context. His engagement was research-driven. And through his hands, the fields of knowledge were polished and renewed. He made complex works easier for other students. Reworded dense passages. Edited key texts. His goal was simple: to make knowledge accessible without losing depth.

For Imam Nawawi, learning was life, and life was learning. He did not separate the two. There was no border between his body and his books, no distinction between breath and study. His days were filled with the ink of scholarship and the silence of devotion. He lived as if every hour might be his last—and he spent it reading and toiling.