ZS1: Imam Nawawi Shrine at Nawah

Amir knocked our door around 09:10 hours, however, mainly due to the hectic journey from Alexandria-Cairo-Latakia and Damascus, we hastily responded 5 minutes later. That was not good though, because it has affected the rest of the program. Hence the hustle of coming up with the catch-up plan. Anyway, 15 minutes later, we commenced our Day 1 Agenda to Busra by 10-seat coaster prearranged by Amir. As I have mentioned earlier, it was indeed a good idea to have a ‘tourist guide’ like Amir. Besides showing and guiding us to the historical places, etc., he arranged and negotiated another aspect like transportation, accommodation and even helped us (especially Nana) to deal with the Syrian on the shopping things. Less headache and worries!! It was killing three birds with one stone.

As part of the catch-up plan, we had our run-away breakfast inside our coaster. It was purely scrumptious Syrian delicacies, Mahalli, etc. Used to have fried rice in the morning, but to avoid hypoglycemia and hunger wreck havoc our mood, we walloped all whar Amir had bought us. The first visit was the tomb of Imam Nawawi at Nawah. We arrived there at around 11:30 and spent about 15 minutes exploring the area. Amir explained us on the history of the tomb and briefly on the Imam Nawawi’s biography.

A little bit about his biography: The full name of Imam Nawawi is Abu Zakaria Mohiuddin Yahya, son of Sharaf AnÄNawawi. Nawawi refers to the district where he was born in 631 AH, called Nawa, in the suburb of the city of Howran. He was very popular on the Islamic Sharia’ah legal matters. His father, a virtuous and pious man, resolved to arrange for proper and befitting education as he had discovered the symptoms of heavenly intelligence and wisdom in his promising child at an early stage.

It is claimed that his body was buried under the tree (in the above photo) when he passed away in 676 AH. Al Fatihah....The Caretaker of this graveyard shown us some quranic verses that appeared on the trunk of the tree that proven the piousness of the Imam Nawawi. Allah hu alam - Allah swt knows best.

Imam Nawawi had endless thirst for knowledge, proven from his daily practice of studies. He used to read daily twelve lessons and write explanation and commentary of every lesson and made important additions. Whatever the book he read, he put down the marginal notes and explanations on that book. His intelligence, hard work, love, and devotion with his studies amazed his teachers. Other than reading and writing, he spent his time contemplating on the interacted and complex issues and in finding their solutions. This learned Imam had a very short life though, but even during this short period, he had written a large number of books on different subjects - a masterpiece and a treasure of knowledge.

Stunned and amazed by the stories, and what we saw in front of us, we left the place with mixed feeling.