The Albaani Site

Translation from the Works of the Reviver of this Century

Month: March, 2011

March 4, 2011

The Shaikh’s Life in his Own Words … 7


 

Appointed as a Lecturer at Medinah University

“I was a lecturer in the Science of Hadith at the Islamic University [in Medinah], from 1381 [1961 ce] to the end of 1383 [1963 ce].

In my car I would take with me whichever students I happened to meet on the way to the university and also back to Medinah.  So at all times, my car would be full of them, going and coming.”

His Shaikhs Benefitting from Him

“As for our Shaikhs today, then they are heedless of this legislated ruling.  Many of them will intend to go and pray in mosques such as this [i.e., mosques with graves in them or built on graves etc.].  I used to go with some of them to pray with them at the grave of Shaikh Ibn Arabi – when I was young and when I had not yet understood the Sunnah! Then when I learnt of the prohibition of that I discussed it with this Shaikh [who I used to go with] many times until Allaah, the Most High, guided him and he refrained from praying there.  He would later acknowledge that and would thank me saying that I was a reason for him being guided.  May Allaah, the Most High, have mercy on him and forgive him.

And all praise is due to Allaah who guided us and we would not have been guided were it not for the fact that Allaah guided us.”

What he would say when Praised

He would repeat the supplication of Abu Bakr, the Truthful, “O Allaah!  Do not hold me to account for what they say.  And make me better than what they think.  And forgive me that which they do not know.”

Hayaatul-Allaamah al-Albaani, rahimahullaah, bi qalamihi, pp. 15-16.

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March 4, 2011

Silsilah| The Authentic Collection| No. 3


أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ – صَلَّى الله عَلَيْهِ وسَلَّمَ – فَقَدَ كَعْباً، فَسَأَلَ عَنْهُ؛ فَقَالُوا: مَرِيْضٌ، فَخَرَجَ يَمْشِي حَتَّى أَتَاهُ، فَلَمَّا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهِ قَالَ: أَبْشِرْ يَا كَعْبُ! فَقَالَتْ أُمُّهُ: هَنِيْئاً لَكَ الجنَّةُ يَا كَعْبُ! فَقَالَ: مَنْ هَذِهِ الْمُتَأَلِّيَةُ عَلَى اللهِ؟ ! قَالَ: هِيَ أُمِّي يَا رَسُولَ اللهِ! فَقَالَ: وَمَا يُدْرِيْكَ يَا أُمَّ كَعْبٍ؟ ! لَعَلَّ كَعْباً قَالَ مَا لاَ يَعْنِيْهِ، أَوْ مَنَعَ مَا لاَ يُغْنِيْهِ

From Ka’b ibn Ujrah, may Allaah be pleased with him, “That the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, missed Ka’b and so asked about him, they replied, “He is ill.”  So the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, left and walked until he came to him.  When he entered upon Ka’b, he said, “Receive the glad tidings, O Ka’b!” So his mother said, “O Ka’b, congratulations!  For you is Paradise!”  The Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, said, “Who is the one who is taking an oath upon Allaah [that Ka’b has a place in Paradise]?”  Ka’b replied, “She is my mother, O Messenger of Allaah.”  So he, صلى الله عليه وسلم, replied, “And how do you know, O mother of Ka’b [that he is going to Paradise]?  Maybe Ka’b spoke about something which did not concern him or he withheld giving something which was insignificant?”[1]

As-Saheehah | no., 3103

[1] [i.e., would not have harmed him if he had given it, like wealth, knowledge, small kindnesses as mentioned in Surah Maa’oon, see Mullaa Ali Qaari’s explanation of the hadith of Anas (no. 4842) in Mishkaatul-Masaabih, والله أعلم] .

Note: Clarifications between square brackets [] and footnotes are those of the translator.


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March 4, 2011

Silsilah| The Authentic Collection| No. 2


 

آخِرُ مَا أَدْرَكَ النَّاسُ مِنْ كَلَامِ النَّبُوَّةِ الأُولَى: إِذَا لَمْ تَسْتَحِ فَاصْنَعْ مَا شِئْتَ

From Abu Mas’ud al-Badri, in marfoo form, “The last of what the people have obtained from the speech of the earlier prophethood is [the saying], ‘If you have no shame, then do as you please.’”

As-Saheehah, no., 684 | authentic

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March 3, 2011

Silsilah| The Authentic Collection| No. 1


 

Manners, Righteousness and
Keeping Ties of Kinship


آخَى – صلى الله عليه وسلم – بَينَ الزُّبَيرِ وبَينَ عَبْدِ اللهِ بْنِ مَسْعود

From Anas, who said, “The Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, formed a pact of brotherhood between Ibn Mas’ood and az-Zubair.”

As-Saheehah, no., 3166 | authentic

Shaikh al-Albaani said, “Ibn Abdul-Barr said, ‘The pact of brotherhood occurred two times: once between the Muhaajirs specifically and that was in Makkah, and once between the Muhaajirs and the Ansaar.’  And from the proofs of this first pact of brotherhood is this authentic hadith, because az-Zubair and Ibn Mas’ood were both Muhaajirs as is well known.  It seems that Shaikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, did not come across this hadith and others like it, since he denied this [first] brotherhood (11/99-100), al-Haafidh Ibn Hajr mentioned this and refuted that opinion based on this hadith and others.”

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March 2, 2011

The Shaikh’s Life in his Own Words … 6


 

The Shaikh of Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Albaani
in the same prison

“It was decreed that I was imprisoned in 1389 Hijri, which corresponds to 1969, along with a number of scholars for no other crime than calling to Islaam and teaching it to the people.  So I was taken to the fort prison[1] and others in Damascus, and then I was freed after a while, only to be taken back a second time and then exiled to the Island to spend a number of months in the prison there, something which I regard to be in the Way of Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic.

Allaah so decreed it that there was nothing with me [when I was put in prison] except my treasured book, Sahih Muslim, a pencil and an eraser.  It was there that I engrossed myself in fulfilling my dream of summarising and abridging it [i.e., Sahih Muslim], something which I completed in three months, toiling day and night, without feeling any weariness or boredom.  And so as a result that which the enemies of the Ummah had intended to be a punishment for me was turned on its head and became a blessing for us, with students of knowledge from the Muslims benefitting from it all round the world.

So all praise is for Allaah through whose blessings righteous actions are completed.

House Arrest

Allaah, the Most High, facilitated the completion of many knowledge based works for me.  I would not have had the opportunity to have given them the required time if my life had continued on the path it was on.  [And this was] because some of the successive governments had prevented me from going out to the cities of Syria for my monthly lectures where I would call to the Quraan and the Sunnah, and this is what is more commonly known as ‘house arrest.’

Likewise during these successive periods I had also been prevented from giving any of the many knowledge based lectures that I used to deliver, the preparation for which used to consume a large portion of my time.  This took away a lot of the work that I was doing and came between myself and meeting lots of people who used to take a great amount of my time.”[2]

Hayaatul-Allaamah al-Albaani, rahimahullaah, bi qalamihi, pp. 14-15.

[1] [Transl. note] And this is the same prison that the Shaikh of Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah was imprisoned in many hundreds of years earlier!  See the Arabic article here: http://www.alalbany.net/albany_serah.php

[2]  i.e., all of this gave the Shaikh extra time to get busy with his research and writings, may Allaah have mercy upon him.

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March 2, 2011

The Shaikh’s Life in his Own Words … 5


 

Some of the Contention Faced by the Shaikh

“The first of these was when a group of Shaikhs, among them one whom it was thought would have been a help to the Salafi da’wah, set up a petition claiming therein that I was spreading a Wahhaabi da’wah to cause trouble amongst the Muslims.  So they started collecting signatures for the petition from the people and then submitted it to the Mufti of Syria.  He, in turn, passed it on to the chief of police who summoned me in and questioned me about the affair, until in the end it came to nothing.

One day a friend of mine who I used to study with asked me about a certain hadith concerning the reward of fasting, so I explained to him that [this particular] hadith was weak.  This friend had heard the hadith from the Imaam giving the Jumu’ah sermon quoting it as a proof on the pulpit and he could not help but go back to this Shaikh who had given the sermon to mention what he had come to know about the weakness of the hadith and the reference where that could be checked.  So as a result, the next Jumu’ah sermon of this Imaam was an attack on the way of the Salaf and he started to accuse those who followed it as being Wahhaabis, characterising this way as misguidance, warning the people from approaching them and calling on them to protect their children from its callers.  The people listening to this [second] sermon were not all equal in accepting or rejecting what he said, and as a result there was a lot of disorder and confusion.

Hayaatul-Allaamah al-Albaani, rahimahullaah, bi qalamihi, pp. 13-14.

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March 1, 2011

Shaikh al-Albaani in an overturned car …


“Shaikh Ali Khashhaan, may Allaah protect him, in a piece he wrote entitled, ‘The Aider of the Hadith and the Reviver of the Sunnah, Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani’, said, “So by Allaah!  My eyes have never seen–as far as I know-anyone who cared more about the Sunnah and aided it with greater vigour or followed it more than al-Albaani.  One time between Jeddah and Medinah an-Nabawiyyah [he had an accident] and his car overturned and the people present rushed to him saying, “O Sattaar!  O Sattaar! يا ستار!  ياستار [i.e., O Concealer, meaning Allaah].”  So the Aider of the Hadith, Shaikh al-Albaani says to them while he is under the overturned car, “Say, ‘O Sitteer [يا ستير]’ and don’t say, ‘O Sattaar [يا ستار], because al-Sattaar is not one of His Names, the Most High!”

And in the hadith there occurs, “إن الله ستير يحب الستر – Allaah is characterised by modesty and concealment [sitteer] and loves that people conceal themselves.”[1]

Have you seen anyone who aids the Sunnah and the Hadith in a situation such as this in this time of ours?!  Never!  Except for what has been related from the likes of Umar ibn al-Khattaab, may Allaah be pleased with him, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others from the Pious Predecessors of this nation.””

Taken from Juhoodul-Imaamil-Albaani, of Ahmad Saalih Hussain al-Jabboori, pp. 7-8

[1] An authentic hadith reported by Abu Dawud (4012), an-Nisaaee (1/70), al-Baihaqi (1/198), by way of Zuhair from Abdul-Malik from Abu Sulaymaan al-Azrami from Ataa from Ya’laa, who said, “The Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, saw a man taking a shower in the bazaar without his lower garment on.  So the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, mounted the pulpit, praised Allaah and extolled him and then said, “Indeed Allaah is characterised by modesty and concealment, and He loves modesty and concealment.  So when one of you takes a shower let him conceal himself.” See Irwaaul-Ghaleel, no. 2335.

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March 1, 2011

The Shaikh’s Life in his Own Words … 4


Calling to Allaah, the Most High

“Communication began between acquaintances, friends and their friends and I made a place in the shop where we could gather and I would teach.  Then we saw it fit to move to the house of one of the brothers and then again to another bigger one until we had to rent out the floor of a building for this teaching.  The people attending increased in number until the space became congested and the vigour and activity to read hadith, its explanations and chains of narrations reached a high level.

We continued like this until the efforts of those who oppose us were directed at us and so matters became restricted until the lessons were cancelled and the sessions were disbanded.

And here we are, even now, [still] not free of these restrictions, so we gather whenever it is possible and when something comes between us and being able to meet I turn to writing and verifying instead, two things which I can never cut off from.

The Spread of Da’wah outside Damascus

From the results of this positive turn which the da’wah received was that we arranged a program to visit different places, like Aleppo, Latakia, Idlib, Salamiyah, Homs, Hama and ar-Raqqah, and despite the limited time that I had allocated for these cities, the journeys met with tangible success.  Since a large number of those who were keen to study the science of hadith would gather at lectures which resembled seminars, books of the Sunnah would be read, questions asked and beneficial debate would flare up.

Except for the fact that this travelling [to spread da’wah] doubled the intensity of the wrath from others [directed at us].  So they doubled their efforts to [cause trouble] before those in places of authority and as a result we were in the centre of one problem after another.”

Hayaatul-Allaamah al-Albaani, rahimahullaah, bi qalamihi, pp. 12-13.

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March 1, 2011

“Carpenter, change the side the door opens on …”


Shaikh Ali Hasan said, “The Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy upon him, called a carpenter to his house and requested that he change the side from which the door of his library opens from one side to the other!

So the carpenter responded, “From one side …” looking stunned, “… to the other?”  Trying to ascertain what use and benefit there would be in doing that.

So our Shaikh answered him saying, “When the door opens towards the left side then this increases the distance to my library by a number of steps!  And I go to the mosque [to pray] five times a day along with having to go out once or twice for household chores or for personal matters.  So how much of my time is wasted, when accumulated, as a result of all those extra steps which could be eliminated or reduced?

So when the opening of the door is changed from this side to that we can benefit from all of this lost time since it is so priceless and infinitely important.””

Su’aalaat of Ali Hasan al-Halabi, vol. 1, p. 38-39.

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