The Albaani Site

Shaikh Saalih as-Suhaimi, may Allaah protect him, said, “So it is not allowed to be bigoted for personalities nor to consecrate them—men are known by the truth, it is not the truth which is known by men.

And there is a situation that occurred which I will relate about our Shaikh, Shaikh Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani, may Allaah have mercy on him, when I visited him just before his death by about a month and a half.

After I gave him salaam some of the brothers introduced me to him, so he said, ‘You’re introducing him to me, the disputant concerning fasting on Saturday and praying more than one Jamaa’ah [in a mosque]?’

So I said to him, ‘O Shaikh of ours! I still hold that opinion, I hold it to be permissible to repeat the congregational prayer more than one time and I still hold the legitimacy of fasting on Saturday as long as a person doesn’t single it out alone as the day to be fasted on, in opposition to you—and you are the one who taught us this, O Shaikh of ours.

So he tightened his grip on my hand, may Allaah have mercy on him, and I have never forgotten the pull of his hand at that moment, and said, ‘This is how we want the students of knowledge to be—not being bigoted towards me nor others—so may Allaah reward you with good.’

And I attended a debate between him and our Shaikh, Shaikh ’Abdul-Muhsin al-’Abbaad al-Badr where each one of them revered the other, [the debate being] about cutting off more than a fistful of the beard which was the opinion Shaikh al-Albaani held based upon the narration of ’Abdullah ibn ’Umar, so we enjoyed this debate for about two hours, with each of them, both our Shaikh, Shaikh ’Abdul-Muhsin al-’Abbaad al-Badr and our Shaikh, Shaikh Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani, respecting each other [throughout].

And when Shaikh Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani met our Shaikh, Shaikh Humood at-Tuwaijiri, may Allaaah have mercy on him, [prior to which] there had been strong rebuttals [between them] concerning the issue of the hijaab, when they met they honoured one another and when a question was put forth each one of them would refer it to the other.

‘These are my forefathers so bring me their likes
When, O Jarir, the places of assembly bring us together.’

These are the peerless scholars who left, and a huge breach was created because of their departure.”