Imam Nawawi's Forty Hadith

Imam al-Nawawi’s collection of 40 Hadiths is one of the most important collections of hadiths we have today. Imam al Nawawi actually compiled a total of 42 hadiths for this collection not 40. Imam al-Nawawi was one of the greatest scholars of Islam, he lived from 631 A.H. to 676 A.H, passing away at the age of 45. Allah (swt) granted him blessing and success in his work so that he could make great contributions to Islam before passing away at a relatively young age.

Imam al-Nawawi begins the “Forty Hadith” with and introduction. Many times we are in the habit of skipping the introduction or quickly looking through introductions. This is a mistake, especially when studying Islamic sciences. We need to move on to a point where we actually know what we know and we can present it to others. This is important in being able to carry the dawah. In his introduction, Imam al-Nawawi is telling us essentially why he wrote this book, what got him to write this book and this is important in understanding the purpose of the work.