Al-Albaani’s Humility
“I am only, as I always and forever say, a student of knowledge.”
Al-Albaani
The Albaani Site
Translation from the Works of the Reviver of this Century
Category: Miscellaneous snippets from the Shaikh’s life
October 23, 2011
When he was operated on …
Dr. Abdul-Aziz as-Sadhaan said, ‘Shaikh Esaam Haadi said, ‘When our Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, was admitted to hospital I visited him and asked how he was.
He praised Allaah and then said, ‘So far they have performed more than one endoscopic procedure on me but the cause of the illness is still not clear. And these operations hurt me a great deal. But I seek aid in overcoming them by remembering Allaah and thinking of what happened to our brothers in the way of Allaah, so I say, ‘What have we been through in comparison to what they went through?’
Then he cried, may Allaah have mercy on him.’’
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 90.
October 10, 2011
He Cut off his Lesson to Receive Shaikh Ibn Baaz
Dr. Abdul-Aziz as-Sadhaan said, ‘And an old person in Madinah told me that one time Shaikh Naasir al-Albaani was in a religious gathering with the students around him. At the beginning of the lesson one of the people present whispered something in his ear.
So the Shaikh excused himself from continuing the lesson and explained that Shaikh Ibn Baaz was about to arrive in Medinah and that he was going to give salaam to him or that he would receive him at the airport, and that was when Shaikh Ibn Baaz was at Medinah University.
But what I am not certain of is whether this occurred when Shaikh Naasir was a teacher at the university or when he was visiting Medinah and his presence there happened to coincide with the return of Shaikh Ibn Baaz from one of his journeys.’
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 257.
September 16, 2011
Jump the Queue
Long ago when repairing watches at his shop, the Shaikh would give each customer a receipt for when to collect his watch. One of the customers was not happy with the time he was given and asked to be placed ahead of others [who were also waiting].
So the Shaikh said, ‘I’m a Muslim.’
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 96.
September 14, 2011
“Separately! Separately!” Al-Albaani’s Dream
Translated by Ahmed Abu Turaab
Al-Albaani said, “There was a problem with my eye so the doctor asked me to rest and stop reading and writing for some time. I said [to myself]: so that time is not wasted, I’ll give one of our brothers a small manuscript to copy out for me, such that by the time he finishes, I would have taken sufficient rest.
The brother started to copy out the manuscript and I would look through what he had copied, consoling myself by saying that such reading would not [adversely] affect [my eye] or overstrain it.
[While doing so] I came across a word [in the copy] which I didn’t understand and which I could not read. I went back to the manuscript [the copy was taken from] and found that the brother had copied the word [correctly] just as it appeared in the manuscript, he was a [skilled] scribe.
I started to look over it and ponder, hoping that I’d discover the correct way of reading it. I didn’t [however] and became preoccupied with it.
When the evening came and I slept, I awoke from a dream and I started saying, “Separately, separately! Separately, separately!”
I had no idea what this dream meant? So I said [to myself], ‘O Naasir, write down what happened,’ so that I wouldn’t forget the dream and in the morning I could take a look at it.
So indeed in the morning I started to think and said: maybe it has a connection to the [difficult] word [that I am trying to read in the manuscript].
I brought the manuscript and started to look at the [difficult] word and [at the same time] started to repeat the word [that I said when I woke up from the dream, i.e., ‘Separately!’]–until I came upon the solution to the problem.
The word found in the manuscript was [in fact] two words joined together by the scribe, so I separated them and was able to read it.
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 58.
September 14, 2011
His time …
He said, “Sometimes a hadith will take up hours of my time, sometimes days–and sometimes I will remain on a single hadith for a whole week.”
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 57.
September 11, 2011
Ibn Uthaimeen Angry and Annoyed in Defense of al-Albaani
Dr. Abdul-Aziz as-Sadhaan said, “Shaikh Abu Muhammad Abdullaah Rashid al-Anazi wrote to me saying, ‘Someone I trust told me that he had heard some of those who are falsely counted among the people of knowledge saying that, ‘Shaikh al-Albaani has grown old and has started to become confused/mixed up in some issues related to creed!’
So I made up my mind to travel to the person who made this statement in order to defend this noble Imaam. Before meeting the one who made the statement I attended a lecture by Shaikh Ibn al-Uthaimeen, may Allaah have mercy on him. After he finished his lecture I followed him outside the hall and told him about what I had heard.
When I did I saw the signs of anger and annoyance on his face, may Allaah have mercy on him, and after I had finished saying what I wanted to him, he said:
‘By Allaah! Whoever says that Shaikh al-Albaani, ‘… has started to become confused/mixed up …,’ [then] by Allaah, he is the one who is confused/mixed up and not the Shaikh!’
Then he said:
‘Indeed before the da’wah of the Shaikh [i.e., al-Albaani], many of the Shaikhs would not differentiate between an authentic, weak or fabricated hadith. And from the Shaikhs were those who would issue religious verdicts and would base them upon weak hadiths, in fact some of them were [even] fabricated! Then the Shaikh [i.e., al-Albaani] started to spread this noble knowledge until the people were enlightened and came to know the authentic from the weak, so may Allaah reward him with the best of rewards …’
Then Shaikh Ibn Uthaimeen began to advise me and warn me against those people who slander and speak ill of the scholars …’’”
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 245.
August 17, 2011
Al-Albaani as I knew Him | End
Dr. Abdul-Aziz continues, “In the sittings of Shaikh al-Albaani, at some of which I was present, you would feel the veneration of the Sunnah, let alone the delight the listeners would feel at the mention of the names of the narrators of hadiths and the authors of the works of hadith, [along with] a mention of some of the well-known works of the books of the Sunnah and the names of the books of narrators and the defects found in hadith.
I have never seen or felt the likes of such gatherings, in my experience, except in the sittings with Shaikh Ibn Baaz.
And one of the things I remember from Shaikh al-Albaani’s gatherings is the fact that he would always touch upon the situation of the Muslims and [mention] that the reason for their splitting and many differences was their distance from the methodology of the Pious Predecessors; and that the callers to rectification bear a great burden due to their neglecting the need to pay attention to rectifying what they are able to from the creed of many of their people which has been polluted by verbal statements and actions damaging to the creed.
And I heard him directly, just as I have heard it on more than one occasion on audio cassettes, express sorrow and grief at those who have been set up by the people as callers to Allaah but who then paint certain innovations with the colour of the Sharee’ah, either due to ignorance or due to their imitating those they blindly follow.
And the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, had an amazing ability to absorb and respond calmly to overzealous zeal.
One of them would come to him, impassioned for a particular notion, having introduced it with an opening comprised of Quranic and Prophetic texts, no sooner would he finish speaking than the Shaikh would surprise him with a question, followed by another, quoting things related to the question itself, all of this with calm and tranquillity. Then he would start to give and take with the questioner, discussing, and it would only be a mere hour and that fervour would disappear.
The point I want to make from [all] this is [to demonstrate] the effect of knowledge in taming inflamed emotions and passions and [to show] how a scholar listens to them magnanimously in such a way that once they have unloaded their burdened souls, he cures those wrought up emotions with kindness and unhurriedness.
If it were not for the Grace of Allaah the Most High and then the forbearance of the Shaikh and his lenience in answering, those stirred up emotions would have turned into a raging tempest.
That which I noticed about Shaikh al-Albaani, may Allaah the Most High have mercy on him, was his endurance during discussions in a good-hearted manner, which would be intermitted with joking sometimes, and [such joking] would mainly occur when the Shaikh would have cornered the disputant on a particular premise, so when that person would begin to stutter in his counter answer, the Shaikh would throw a joke at him or a Syrian proverb relevant to the situation, and so everyone present would be engulfed in a friendly and cheerful atmosphere.
And in that respect it is appropriate to mention that I read a description of Yusuf the son of Imaam Ibn al-Jawzi when he would debate, and I saw that Shaikh al-Albaani was the most worthy of the scholars [in resembling this characterstic from those] who I had compared to this description; I saw the report I am referring to in Dhail Tabaqaat al-Hanaabilah and a summary of it is that: Yusuf the son of Imaam Ibn al-Jawzi would not move a limb when debating.
Part of another description of Shaikh al-Albaani has already preceded, for in the book just quoted from [above there occurs], ‘Abdullaah ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Qudaamah would not debate anyone except that he would be smiling. So much so that some people said, ‘This Shaikh kills off his opponent with his smile.’’
I visited him a month before his death in his house in Amman which was in the Hamlaan district, on ShahrZaad street.
His body had become weak due to his illness and I said to him while holding his hand, ‘O Shaikh, receive the glad tidings, for you are upon good.
Those who love you are many, as are those who supplicate for you, and Allaah the Most High has caused there to be [great] benefit through your books which have spread across the world.’
So he mustered up his strength and raised his left hand putting my hand between his and squeezed them lightly–and the signs of weakness were so clearly visible on him–and then in a frail voice, said, ‘Jazaakallaahu khairaa.’
And then I left.
When I was in Shaikh Muhammad Ibrahim Shaqrah’s house in Ammaan, he said that, ‘One of them had seen a dream where two stars had shot down from the sky. One of them fell to the earth and caused a terrifying boom. The other almost reached the earth but stopped [just before it].’
I interpreted it to mean the death of two great men.
Muhammad Shaqrah said, ‘Some time after the dream, news reached us of the death of Shaikh Ibn Baaz so I said, ‘From what someone who loved the Shaikh said, I understood that he expected al-Albaani to be the second star.’
I say: And that is not far-fetched, for Shaikh al-Albaani passed away a few months after Shaikh Ibn Baaz. Shaikh Ibn Baaz passed away at Fajr time on Thursday, 25/1/1420 and Shaikh al-Albaani at Asr time on Saturday, 23/6/1420.
May Allaah the Most High have mercy on both Imaams, and gather us and them in the Highest Firdous, aameen.”
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, pp. 306-310.
August 15, 2011
Al-Albaani as I knew Him | 1
Dr. Abdul-Aziz as-Sadhaan, said, “The first time he was mentioned before me was when I was leaving the Imaam Turki ibn Abdullaah Jaami Mosque from the north door in the year 1397ah [1977] or just before that, after having listened to a lecture of Shaikh Ibn Baaz, may Allaah the Most High have mercy on him.
Some of the people I was with were talking about Shaikh Ibn Baaz and the extensiveness of his knowledge, then they went on to talk about the care he paid to hadith when one of them said, “And likewise Shaikh al-Albaani is also a well-known scholar of hadith.”
When I heard his name and that he was from Syria I asked them about him so they replied saying that he has books about hadith and that he devotes his attention to the authentic [from them], clarifying those that are weak.
When I travelled with some of them to Medinah I heard that al-Albaani would be present in a house known as, ‘The house of the brothers,’ so we went there, those of us who had come from Riyadh, and entered that house.
We found a crowded group of people there, some of whom were wearing a turban, others a white and red scarf, others just the white one, and some had their heads uncovered. The gathering was on the roof of the house, and I saw a chair placed at the centre of the gathering, and it was surrounded, in fact swarmed, by the people close to it.
I was waiting for Shaikh al-Albaani to enter, may Allaah the Most High have mercy on him.
While I was sitting in the row before the last a man appeared full of dignity and veneration, and that solemnity would increase when he would look at you, calmly walking between the people who had cleared a way for him until he got to the chair and sat down. He was wearing a loose fitting thawb whose colour was close to light brown, and he had on a gulf type hat [skull cap].
When he began his lecture those present gave him their complete attention, and many of them, especially those sitting around him, had their pens and were making a note of some of what the Shaikh said, may Allaah the Most High have mercy on him.
The Shaikh finished his speech and the questions started to come from those present while he answered. Then, as far as I could tell, he excused himself before those present and asked for permission to leave. When he stood some of the people encircled him and they started to walk with him while asking him questions. I was walking behind them.
Then when he reached, or almost reached, his car I got the chance to speak to him, and so I asked him about a hadith I had read in the book, Tuhftudh-Dhaakireen, and this hadith included a supplication which is to be said after having eaten. So the Shaikh said to me in a word, “I do not regard it to be authentic.” Then I bid him farewell and came back and my love for him and his standing had found a place in my heart.
I met him in Munaa during Hajj in the year 1398ah and I recall that someone asked him in a loud voice saying, “O Shaikh, when I read a hadith in any of the books of the Sunnah and then I find that in its chain of narration is a man who is a weak narrator, should I then say, “This hadith is not authentically attributed to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)?”
So the Shaikh gave an answer whose meaning was: your negation of the hadith being attributed to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) could be invalid. May be it is that the hadith has been authentically reported through a different path? So it is more fitting that you limit the [judgement] that the hadith is weak to that [specific] chain of narration, so you say, for example, “This hadith in Ibn Maajah is weak.”
After that I met the Shaikh again during Hajj where he was staying in the tents set up for those working for the Civil Defense Hospital in Munaa. I visited him there with Shaikh Abdul-Kareem al-Muneef and there was no-one with him apart from his son, I think it was Abdul-Musowwir.
When our visit was over we got up and were going to leave when I came back to him and said, “O Shaikh, some of the people who love you spoke about you in Makkah and I said something which was not slander of you, Allaah forbid, but still I regret saying it. And I want you to forgive me.”
So he never asked me, may Allaah the Most High have mercy on him, what it was that I had said, rather he said something which I, inshaa Allaah, remember word for word, he said, “May Allaah absolve you of what you said, what you will say, and what you didn’t say.” So I kissed his head and bid him farewell.
The Shaikh came to Riyadh so I called him to breakfast at my house and that was after morning prayer on Thursday 6/7/1410ah [2/2/1990]. He came and along with him came a group of noble people at the head of whom was his Excellency, the Shaikh, Abdullaah ibn Qu’ood, may Allaah the Most High have mercy on him.”
June 2, 2011
His dislike of fame
Translated by Ahmed Abu Turaab
One time a man saw the Shaikh while he, may Allaah have mercy on him, was sitting in his car, so the man rushed to him and said, ‘You’re Shaikh al-Albaani?’
So the Shaikh started to cry.
When he, may Allaah the Most High have mercy on him, was asked why he started to cry he replied, ‘It befits a person to strive against his own soul and not to become deceived by the people pointing to him.”
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 126.
May 29, 2011
Al-Albaani wishing he was a millionaire …
“A man who was sick and whose treatment was by way of injections came [to the Shaikh], one of these injections would cost twenty dinars and he needed fifteen of them. So the Shaikh asked me [Muhammad al-Khateeb] to go to his house and confirm the veracity of what he had said. When we came to know that what he had said was true, the Shaikh gave me some money and we bought the injections for him.
When I had intended to build a house I needed [to borrow] some money. So I knocked many doors [i.e., asked a lot of people], but I did not come across anything. Then I remembered a rich man who the Shaikh knew so I said to the Shaikh’s wife, ‘Maybe you could ask the Shaikh to intercede on my behalf with the man so that he might lend me [what I need].’
The next day while I was sitting at my desk the Shaikh said to me, ‘O Muhammad! You want me to intercede on your behalf with so and so to lend you some money?’
So I said, ‘Yes.’
He said, ‘I am closer to you than him. I will give you what you want.’ So I cried and said, ‘Our Shaikh! May Allaah reward you with good.’ But, by Allaah, it never occurred to me that I would get what I needed from the Shaikh …
Then when he gave the money he said, ‘This is a gift of a thousand dinars which are not included [in the loan].’ So I cried a second time, may Allaah reward him with abundant good and may He, the Most High, have mercy on him.
Another story that occurred recently was when the Shaikh was in hospital and a woman came to him complaining about the fact that she had fallen prey to the banks. She had borrowed nine thousand dinars from one of them and then the amount she owed began to multiply due to interest. She came to the Shaikh appealing to him to help rid herself of this problem.
So the Shaikh, as was usual, asked me to verify the facts. After I did so and was sure of the truthfulness of the woman he agreed to loan her seven thousand dinars.
The lady came along with her children and the Shaikh said, ‘Here is a thousand dinars as a gift, and here is the other amount that you requested.’ So the lady was delighted as were her children and they supplicated for the Shaikh and I did too. The lady asked Allaah to reward the Shaikh with good.
Then the Shaikh looked at us and said, ‘O brothers, by Allaah, truly I wish that I become a millionaire so that I can take thousands more women like this one out of the shackles of interest.’”
Al-Imaam, al-Mujaddid, al-Allaamah, al-Muhaddith, Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani, pp. 62-63.
May 28, 2011
Shaikh al-Albaani’s independence from the rulers …
Shaikh Muhammad Musa Nasr said, “We do not know from the life of our Shaikh and through the times we accompanied him which spanned over twenty years that he ever entered upon a ruler, or those in authority or a judge, or ever fawned on one, or was ever appointed in a religious position under one, or ever ate at the table of one: which was the thing that made him independent in the stances he took; and his religious verdicts were not issued due to political or religious pressure …
So his religious verdicts were never to please Zaid or Amr. Allaah had made him free of having a need of the people, and provided for him through what his own hands earned where he worked repairing watches for many long years, “The best of what a man eats is that which his own hands have earned …”
And I took his hand one day and said to him, “Our Shaikh! Have you ever shaken hands with any of the tyrants of this world?”
He replied, “No.”
I said to him, “And have you ever eaten at their tables or entered upon them?”
He said, “No.”
So I took his hand to kiss it and he prevented me from doing so, but I overcame him and kissed it. After which he severely reprimanded me, so I said, “And why shouldn’t I kiss a hand that has never shaken that of a tyrant? And which has served the Sunnah of the Messenger صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ for more than half a century?”
And the Shaikh would reprimand me many times for my exaggeration in the love and honour for him, and in my view this was less than what he deserved.
But this did not prevent us from opposing him, sometimes, in some of the independent judgements [ijtihaad] he would come to, may Allaah have mercy on him. For everyone’s saying is accepted and rejected except for the companion of this grave [i.e., the Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ] as Imaam Maalik, may Allaah have mercy on him, said …”
Al-Imaam, al-Mujaddid, al-Allaamah, al-Muhaddith, Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani, pp. 63-64.
May 27, 2011
Al-Albaani’s Finances: Writing Ad-Da’eefah on Gift Paper and Red Paper Bags Used to Weigh Rice and Sugar In
Shaikh Mashoor Hasan said, “Our Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, charged me with reviewing some of the volumes of As-Silsilah ad-Da’eefah before it was printed … he gave me the fifth volume of Ad-Da’eefah. So I took the volume from him [which was written] in his own handwriting before it was printed.
When I took it out of the bag [it was in] and saw it I started to cry.
The Shaikh asked me, “What is wrong with you?”
So I didn’t say anything, and the Shaikh saw the tears in my eyes—the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, had written the fifth volume of Ad-Da’eefah on gift paper, and on the paper bags used for sugar and rice, the red [paper] bags which the people would weigh sugar and rice in.
So the Shaikh said to me, “I used to have thread which I would place in ink. Then I would place this thread on the paper and so the paper would become lined.” And he said, “I didn’t have any money to buy paper with.””
Transl. note: The fifth volume of Ad-Da’eefah which is printed is 524 pages long.
Taken from this lecture of Shaikh Mashhoor in Arabic, at the 67th minute:
May 27, 2011
Shaikh al-Albaani when he was beaten
Translated by Ahmed Abu Turaab
As-Sadhaan said, “Shaikh Muhammad Ziyaad at-Tuklah, may Allaah reward him, wrote to me stating that Shaikh Abdullah Aloosh said, ‘One time we came along with Shaikh Naasir to pray in one of the Jaami mosques in the Maidaat district, and the Imaam was ‘so and so’ (one of the bigots and he named him for us). So when the Imaam turned around and was about to say Allaahu Akbar to start the prayer, he saw Shaikh al-Albaani and so in a loud voice in front of all the people he said, “Come on! Get out! Get out! Get out!’”
And he also wrote to me narrating from one of the students of Shaikh al-Albaani that Shaikh Naasir was once assaulted in Damascus by being beaten in a street by a fool who had been paid to do so.”
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullah as-Sadhaan, p. 47.
May 17, 2011
Why Al-Albaani almost felt like wishing for death …
As-Sadhaan said, quoting from Saheeh Mawaarid adh-Dham’aan, “And he, may Allaah have mercy on him, said concerning the hadith, “The life spans of my Ummah are between sixty and seventy. Few of them pass that,” Ibn Arafah said, “And I am from those few.”
So Shaikh al-Albaani said commenting on the saying of Ibn Arafah, “And I too am from those few. For I have passed eighty-four years in age, all the while asking the Protector [mawlaa], far removed be He from all defects, that I be from those whose lives are prolonged and whose actions get better.
And yet along with that I almost wish for death due to the deviation from the religion that has afflicted the Muslims.
But far be it that I wish for death when the hadith of Anas has been before me since childhood, so it is not for me but to say as my Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) ordered me to, “O Allaah, give me life as long as life is better for me. And take my soul if death is better for me,’” [also] supplicating with that which he (صلى الله عليه وسلم) taught me, “O Allaah! Let us enjoy our hearing and vision and strength for as long as You grant us life and make it our legacy.”
And He, the One free of all defects, has favoured me and responded, allowing me to enjoy all of that. So here I am still researching and verifying, still writing actively the like of which is rarely seen, and I pray the optional prayers standing, and I drive my car for long distances by myself, and at a speed which some of those dear to me advise me to reduce, and I have an elaboration for that which some of them know!
And I say all of this by way of, “And as for the favour of your Lord, then proclaim [it] …” [Ad-Duhaa 93:11], hoping that the Protector, free is He from all defects and the Most High, increases the Bounty He has bestowed upon me, and that He makes all of it my legacy. And that He takes my soul as a Muslim upon the Sunnah which I dedicated my life to, calling to it and writing about it. And that He gathers me with the martyrs and the righteous, and what an excellent company that is. Indeed He is the All-Hearer, the One who answers supplications.””
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, pp. 286-287.
May 14, 2011
Al-Albaani Debating with Takfeeri Youths for Three Nights and What Happened to Some of Them Later …
As-Sadhaan said, “Shaikh Baasim Faisal al-Jawaabirah, may Allaah the Most High protect him, said, ‘… I was a student at secondary school, and in those days I was part of a group of youths who would declare the Muslims to be disbelievers and would not pray in their mosques arguing that they were [from] a society of ignorance!
The people who would oppose us in Jordan would always threaten us with Shaikh Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani, [saying] that he was the only one who would be able to debate with us and convince us [of the Truth] and bring us back to the Straight Path. When Shaikh Naasir came to Jordan from Damascus he was told about a group of youths who declare the Muslims to be disbelievers and so he wanted to meet us. So he sent his son in law, Nidhaam Sakkajhaa, to us who informed us of the Shaikh’s desire to meet us.
We replied, ‘Whoever wants to meet us, then let him come to us, we won’t go to him!’ But [the person who was] our Shaikh in declaring people to be disbelievers [takfeer] told us that Shaikh Naasir was from the scholars of the Muslims who had excellence due to his knowledge and old age and that we had to go to him.
So we went to him in the house of his son in law, Nidhaam, just before ishaa prayer. One of us made the call to prayer and then we stood to pray and Shaikh Naasir said, ‘Shall we pray behind you or will you pray behind us?’ So our takfeeri Shaikh said, ‘We believe that you are a disbeliever!’ So Shaikh Naasir said, ‘As for me, then I hold that you have faith [i.e., that you are Muslims].’ Then our [takfeeri] Shaikh led us all in prayer [including Shaikh al-Albaani].
Then Shaikh Naasir sat down debating with us continually until late at night, most of it being with our Shaikh. As for us youth, we would stand and then sit, stretch out our legs and then lie down on our sides, as for Shaikh Naasir, he sat in the same position from the start of the gathering until its end, never once changing. Always debating with this [person], and this [person] and then that [person], I was amazed at his patience and fortitude. Then [when it ended] we promised to meet the next day. We went back to our houses gathering the evidences which, so we believed, proved [our stance] in declaring Muslims to be disbelievers [takfeer].
On the second day Shaikh Naasir came to the house of one of our brothers, and we had prepared the books and replies to his proofs. The debate continued from after ishaa [prayer] until morning prayer [fajr]. Then [when it ended] we promised to go to his house [the next day], and so we went there after ishaa on [this] the third day.
The discussion continued until the mu’addhin made the call to prayer for fajr, and we were continually debating mentioning many aayahs [from the Quraan] which apparently proved [our stance of] declaring Muslims to be disbelievers [takfeer], and likewise we would mention hadiths which [again], apparently, proved [the stance we had taken of] declaring those people who had committed major sins to be disbelievers. And Shaikh Naasir was like a towering mountain answering this proof, and [explaining] the objective of other proofs, and reconciling between those which on the surface seemed to be contradictory, quoting the sayings of the Salaf and Imaams who are relied upon from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah.
And then after the call to prayer for fajr nearly all of us went with Shaikh Naasirud-Deen to the mosque to perform the morning prayer, after Shaikh Naasir had convinced us of the error and deviation from the [correct] methodology that we had been continuing upon.
We turned back from our takfeeri thinking, and all praise is due to Allaah.
Except for a small group [of us]—who ended up apostatising from Islaam a few years after that.
We ask Allaah for well-being.’”
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, pp. 157-158.
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.
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.
February 26, 2011
A month before he died …
“In Dubai Ali ibn Hasan al-Halabi told us, “A month before his death, the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy upon him, spent three days researching one hadith. And he dictated eighteen pages to his grandson, Ubaadah, while I was watching.””
Safahaat Baidaa min Hayaatil-Imaam Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani, rahimahullaahu ta’aala, of Abu Asmaa Atiyyah ibn Sidqee Ali Saalim, p. 94.
February 25, 2011
He stood up and turned to the people …
“At Jumu’ah prayer the Imaam giving the sermon mentioned amongst other things the hadith, “The believer to the believer is like a [solid] building, some [parts of it] support others …” [Bukhaari and Muslim] adding the word, ‘… solid …’ [which is not part of the narration]. So after the jumu’ah prayer ended Shaikh al-Albaani stood up and turned to the people and made clear the absence of the word ‘solid’ in the narration of the hadith and urged that the hadiths be narrated as they came without any additions.
So, by Allaah, his critique was better than the sermon itself.”
Muhaddithul-Asr, Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani of Samir ibn Amin al-Zahraani, pp. 31-32.
February 25, 2011
Enjoining the good and forbidding the evil …
“I saw him one time when he was sick, one of the nurses came in and he was clean shaven. After he had given the Shaikh his medicine and was about to leave, he said, “Pray to Allaah for me, O Shaikh.” So the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, said, “May Allaah beautify you with that which he beautified men with.””
Muhaddithul-Asr, Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani of Samir ibn Amin al-Zahraani, p. 31.
February 24, 2011
Al-Albaani and The Ladder
Shaikh Baasim Faisal al-Juwaabirah said, “And from that which showed the Shaikh’s patience and fortitude in seeking knowledge was what Dr. Mahmood al-Meerah, may Allaah protect him, told me: that Shaikh Naasir climbed up a ladder in the Dhaahiriyyah library in Damascus to take a book, a manuscript, so he got the book and opened it and then started to read it while standing on the ladder—and stayed there reading for more than six hours.”
Al-Imaam al-Albani, Duroos wa Mawaaqif wa Ibar, p. 63.
February 24, 2011
Going to the mosque
“Saami Khalifah wrote to me telling me that, ‘When the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy upon him, would pick somebody up in his car on the way to the mosque, he would wait after the prayer would finish for that same person so that he could take him back and drop him up off at the place where he picked him up.’”
Al-Imaam al-Albani, Duroos wa Mawaaqif wa Ibar, p. 175.
The Albaani Site 