[1] Al-Nakha'i was affiliated with the students of Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, a companion of Muhammad, which included his uncle Alqama who became his principal mentor of fiqh.

[2] He began travelling to the Hejaz from a young age,[2] and in his youth performed the Hajj with Alqama and Aswad ibn Yazid, during which he attended a gathering of Aisha.

[1] While he met the companions of Muhammad, some of whom still lived in Kufa at the time of his death,[2] he is not believed to have directly narrated hadith from them, and the isnad of those where he appears to do so are considered to be mursal.

[3] Teaching in the Great Mosque of Kufa, al-Nakha'i accepted Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman into his halaqa (study circle), who became his foremost student.

[5] Both prophetic hadith and athar from Muhammad's companions were considered by al-Nakha'i to be authoritative;[6] the views of Ibn Mas'ud in particular formed the basis of his legal thought.

[5] Zafar Ishaq Ansari has argued that al-Nakha'i was motivated by a "conscious search for greater coherence and consistency" in the law, underpinned by a "notion that that the teachings of the Prophet were embodiments of general principles, rather than arbitrary fiats.