PDF: Is the Sufi’s Stabbing themselves with Skewers a Miracle?
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August 10, 2011
Is the Sufi’s Stabbing themselves with Skewers a Miracle? | End
I had travelled to Aleppo from Damascus for da’wah and gave a lesson after which the people dispersed. Normally four to five people from our brothers, our friends, stay behind. [This time] another person stayed behind with them who I had never seen before. He was sitting there, far away from me. His stomach was like this, he was not overweight, slim, yet along with that his stomach was like this [i.e., sticking out].
I said to him, ‘What is this?’
He said, ‘This is ‘Rahmaaniyyah.’’ That was the first time I heard this word, [I heard it] there in Aleppo. I said, ‘What does Rahmaaniyyah mean?’
He said, ‘It means the skewers.’
I said, ‘So why did you come to me?’ I knew why. He said:
‘To show you our miracles [karaamaat].’
I said to him, ‘This is easy [to deal with].’ That day I had a two-sided blade with me to sharpen my pencil, each side was like this, small.
I said to him, ‘[If that’s the case], I’ll hit you with this blade using my hand.’
So he said, ‘[No], with my hand,’ i.e., he wanted to strike himself with the blade which I would give him.
So I said, ‘No, with my hand.’
He said, ‘With my hand.’ So the people started to look at these words being repeated by both sides, I was saying, ‘With my hand,’ and he was saying, ‘With my hand.’
‘With my hand.’
‘With my hand.’
‘With my hand.’
‘With my hand.’
‘With my hand.’
And I naturally was more patient than him because firstly, I knew I was upon the truth and secondly so many years have passed by me, as many as Allaah has willed, calling all types of people to the true religion of Allaah.
So he became tired and fed up.
[And when he did] the last thing he said was, ‘What’s the difference?’
I was saying to him, ‘With my hand.’ And he was saying to me, ‘With my hand. With my hand.’ Afterwards he got tired and became fed up, and said, ‘What’s the difference?’
I said, ‘If there is no difference, [then] with my hand.’ He then turned the topic on its head, and this is from their ignorance.
He called the person whose house it was, and his name was Abu Ahmad, he said to him, ‘O Abu Ahmad! Bring the brazier [i.e., a metal container for carrying hot coal, etc.].’
I understood what he meant and so I said, ‘O Abu Ahmad, don’t bring the brazier, bring a matchstick.’ Subhaanallaah, he was from the Sufis and they were used to wearing a white head covering without the head cord [iqaal, the round black cord Arabs wear to keep the head covering in place].
So he brought the matchstick. I lit it and got up going towards him and said, ‘You will denounce this false claim of yours or otherwise I will burn you.’
Miskeen, he was speechless, silent, not saying a single word.
I was moving towards him step by step until I came close to him–and I really put the matchstick onto his head covering, and it started to catch fire.
Then I took it and rubbed it against itself like this [i.e., put it out after having proved the falsehood of his claim], fearing that the sparks would increase, I [put it out] like this, and then said to him, ‘Go to those Shaikhs of yours and tell them:
‘These are the miracles [karaamaat] of the Salafis.’
Mawsoo’atul-Allaamah, al-Imaam, Mujaddidil-Asr, Muhammad Naasirid-Deen al-Albaani, of Shaikh Shady Noaman, vol. 3, pp. 965-972.
August 9, 2011
Is the Sufi’s Stabbing themselves with Skewers a Miracle? | 2
So these are two forbidden matters that have come together in these people: beating the daff during the remembrance of Allaah, and stabbing themselves with skewers. Along with harming oneself, this is something which misguides the Muslims in addition to the fact that they try to deceive the people into thinking that this act is a miracle [karaamah].
Whereas the reality is that, firstly, it is not a miracle but rather indignity. Secondly it is [but] an exercise which the most profligate of sinners can do just like them. The non-Muslim can do it. The non-Muslim who doesn’t believe in Allaah and His Messenger [can do it], why?
Because it is [acquired by] practice, [just] an exercise. And maybe all of you have heard of some of the strange things the Hindus and idol worshippers do; those who bury themselves alive in plain view of the people and examining doctors, who have gathered specifically to see how this person can be buried underground and then come out alive, [and to see] how he can breathe?
Does this then mean that this idol worshipper who survived underground for days not just hours and then comes out alive is from the major Allies of Allaah [Awliyaa’ullaah]? How perfect is Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic!/Allaah forbid!
This is practise and exercise, and exercise can result in some strange things. For example you have seen many, many incidents … a rope stretched out on to the sea–if we were to walk on a narrow bridge [it would be something!]–but as for this person he is walking on a rope–so [now] what, this is a miracle?
This has no connection whatsoever to do with miracles.
This is practice. The righteous and the sinner, the believer and the disbeliever all share in it. And the Muslim’s scholars, both past and present, have experience with these people who do not know anything about their religion except these exercises which they have become accustomed to and by which they then misguide the people, whereas the scholars say:
If you see a person who may fly
And on the ocean does walk
Yet does not stop at the limits of the Legislation
Then an innovator is he
being lead to destruction progressively
Why did they say that? Because supernatural events can be split into three categories:
1) Miracles [Mu’jizah].
2) Miracles of a lesser degree [karaamah].
3) And something which leads to destruction progressively [istidraaj].
Miracles [Mu’jizah] are done by a Prophet. Miracles but of a lesser degree [karaamah] are done by an Ally of Allaah [Waliyullaah]. And istidraaj is performed by the disbeliever and the hypocrite.
You are not in need of us speaking about miracles, they are mentioned in the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah, maa shaa Allaah, extensively, as are karaamaat.
The karaamaat of the true Allies of Allaah and the righteous people, alhamdulillaah, are many. He, the Most High, says, “Everytime Zakariyyaa entered the Mihraab [prayer room] to visit her, he found her supplied with sustenance.” [Aali Imraan 3:37]. This was a karaamah of Maryam عليها السلام. And there are books written about this topic, from the best of them is that of Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allaah have mercy on him, what is it called?
Questioner: …
Al-Albani: Yes?
Questioner: The Maxim of the Miracles of the Allies of Allaah …
Al-Albani: No, no, remind us of its name, O people.
Questioner: Al-Karaamah and the Miracles of the Messengers and Prophets of Allaah.
Al-Albani: No.
Questioner: The Maxim of the Miracles of the Allies of Allaah … [The compiler of the book, Shaikh Shady Noaman said, ‘It appears to me that the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, meant the book called, ‘The Criterion between the Allies of The Most Merciful and the Allies of the Devil. [Al-Furqaan bayna Awliyaa’ir-Rahmaan wa Awliyaa’ish-Shaitaan].
Al-Albani: In summary, the topic that we should talk about is istidraaj. In many authentic hadiths, rather mutawaatir even, it is mentioned that the greatest Dajjaal at the end of time will say to the sky, ‘Rain.’ And it will.
He will say to the earth, ‘Bring forth your produce.’ And it will.
He will say to some desolate land, ‘Bring out your treasures.’ And it will and will follow him.
He will cut a man into two with a sword and will then bring him back to life–are these miracles of an Ally of Allaah [karaamaat]?
These are extraordinary/supernatural occurrences which Allaah will cause to happen at the hands of this great Dajjaal who the Prophet عليه السلام told us about, saying, “There is not, between the creation of Aadam and the Hour, a trial greater than that of Al-Masih ad-Dajjaal.’ So here is this Al-Masih ad-Dajjaal coming with these supernatural occurrences.
Thus, supernatural events do not show the validity of something, ever.
Validity/goodness is only through righteous actions. For this reason the previously mentioned poet said:
If you see a person who may fly
Namely, he flies without wings, not in a plane, the non-Muslims fly in planes and beat us to it.
If you see a person who may fly
And on the ocean does walk
Yet does not stop at the limits of the Legislation
Then an innovator is he
being lead to destruction progressively
So these people who strike themselves with skewers, these are exercises, and from the greatest proofs of that is that if you were to say to one of them, ‘Come, I’m going to strike you with a small pin, he will say to you, ‘No.’ Why? If he really is a person who can perform miracles, let him bring his miracle to any person who wants to hit him in any place.
[But, no] he will say to you, ‘No.’ Why? Because he’s not trained to have himself struck here in his chest, in the heart, nor here, or here, but only here, where there is muscle, where there is meat, not where the nerves and bones are.
I said to you just now, throughout time the scholars of the Muslims have had a lot of experience with these Dajjaals.
The most famous of them was the Shaikh of Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allaah have mercy on him, who challenged the Shaikh of the Rifaa’ees of his time. [The Rifaa’ees] were known as Battaa’ihiyyah [in attribution to al-Bataa’ih, the village where Ahmad ar-Rifaa’ee, the founder of the Rifaa’eeyah came from].
This Rifaa’ee Shaikh used to make it appear as though he could enter fire without getting burnt.
So Ibn Taymiyyah challenged him.
News of this challenge reached the then Amir of Damascus who accordingly summoned the Shaikh of the [Rifaa’ee Sufi] Tariqah, along with Shaikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, so that he could see how they would debate and what they would do in the end. So Shaikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah spoke with the knowledge he had, [stating] that these people were from the worst of the creation, from the worst of creation, that they have no knowledge nor piety [taqwaa] and no righteousness and that they only deceive the people through matters which both the righteous and the wicked, the believer and the disbeliever, share in.
Part of what he said was that they oil their bodies with a special substance, and their thowbs too, and then enter the oven and the fire does not burn them. And I challenge them with one condition, O Amir, that they take off these thowbs and are given thowbs that have been washed by you, and that you order them to wash their bodies with water and vinegar, then they are to wear those [clean], white thowbs–and at that time I too will enter the fire with them, and whoever from us burns is the liar.
So when the [truth of the] matter concerning that Dajjaal was uncovered, he turned and fled.
[And there are] many, many [such] incidents–and maybe it is beneficial that I mention a very short story about something that happened to me, and I am the poor, needy servant of Allaah …
August 8, 2011
Is the Sufi’s Stabbing themselves with Skewers a Miracle? | 1
Questioner: In relation to some of the Sufis lodges [zawaayaa], they beat the daff and use skewers, yes, what is the ruling regarding this issue?
Al-Albani: Striking the daff for entertainment is haram, but that which is even more severe than this haram is to include it as a part of worship in the remembrance of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic.
This is haram and is not permissible.
Because committing an act of disobedience is [in and of itself] disobedience, but more severe than that is seeking nearness to Allaah the Blessed and Most High, through it.
These Sufis or those who follow these tariqahs who dance when performing dhikr and beat the daff, indeed even the drum [tabl], the saying of one of the people of knowledge applies to them:
“When did the people come to know that in our religion singing is a Sunnah which is followed
And that a man eats just as a donkey does and dances amongst hordes until he falls
And they say, ‘We are drunk with the love of Allaah.’ But nothing intoxicated them except a platter stuffed with food
Just like the animals who prance around once quenched and satiated
So O People of Intellect and O Men of Understanding! Is there not one from you to denounce such innovations?
Our Mosques are disgraced by listening [to Music] and are now ‘honoured’ as churches are?” [i.e., singing and dancing is part of worship in churches under the pretense that they are honouring their places of worship through that, so these Sufis have imitated them in this by dancing and singing in the mosques].
And another said:
“O You evil, innovating generation!
You have come with an affair which is inconceivable.
Was it in the Quraan that my Lord told you–
to ‘Eat like animals and dance for Me?!”
Far be it.
So, the forbiddance of beating the daff or the drum [tabl] as part of dhikr is more severe than beating the daff as part of mere entertainment. Because the [following] Saying of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic in His Book applies to them, “Those who took their religion as amusement and play and the life of the world deceived them.” [Al-A’raaf 7:51]. And the Blessed and Most High said regarding the polytheists, “Their prayer at the House was nothing but whistling and the clapping of hands.” [An’aam 8:35].
“Their prayer …” i.e., their worship, “… at the House …” the Haram, [Ka’bah].
“… was nothing but whistling …” whistling, and nowadays you see how the youth whistle. This is a legacy which the disbelievers have inherited one from another. During the Days of Ignorance the polytheists would seek nearness to Allaah through whistling and clapping.
“Their prayer at the House was nothing but whistling and the clapping of hands.” Likewise some of the Muslims today do the same thing, and you have come to know the censure of the faqihs of the Muslims and their severe repudiation of them. So much so that some of them declared that the place where these eating dancers perform their ‘remembrance’ be razed because it is impure, i.e., the disobedience of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic having occurred therein.
That dhikr which they regard as being remembrance [of Allaah] is only idle speech.
As for striking oneself with skewers, this is the calamity of all calamities–that there are hundreds of thousands of Muslims who falsely assume that harming oneself in this way is a miracle. It is a miracle [karaamah] for those people who falsely think that they are on some [sort of Truth] in regards to the religion.
But they follow nothing.
Because the religion is [nothing but] following what the Prophet was upon عليه السلام. And neither the Messenger of Allaah صلى الله عليه وسلم nor his noble Companions remembered Allaah in this manner. [A method of remembrance] which you have come to know something about from the lines of poetry that I recited to you.
August 8, 2011
PDF of Shaikh al-Albaani’s Meeting with ‘the Hashish Wali’
Here is the PDF version of all the separate posts in one place. If you want to save it, right click on the link and go to ‘Save Link/Target As’:
Here’s the YouTube video:
August 7, 2011
Al-Albaani and the time he met the Druggie who was a Wali [an Ally] of Allaah! | End
There used to be a Shaikh who had followers [mureeds]. He said to one of them, ‘Come here my son. Go and bring me your father’s head.’
‘I hear and I obey,’ [said the boy], since this is what he had learnt, i.e., that when the Shaikh orders something it is obligatory to follow him even if it opposes Allaah’s Legislation.
The boy went home and chopped off his father’s head while he was asleep next to his wife. He then came to his Shaikh full of joy. Why? Because he had carried out his Shaikh’s order.
So the Shaikh smiled at him and said another one of those recurring falsehoods given as answers by such people, ‘You think you killed your father? No. My son, your father is on a journey. As for this person who you killed, then he is your mother’s boyfriend. You think I was [really] going to order you to kill your father?! Allaah forbid. This person [who you decapitated] was your mother’s boyfriend, he was fornicating with her. That is why I ordered you to kill him.’
So when the Shaikh narrates this story with the [dramatic] ending it has, these poor souls, doped on this type of opium fill the mosque with what? With cries of Allaahu Akbar and so on.
This story happened in Ramadaan about ten years ago. One of the brothers came to me after we had prayed taraawih in one of the mosques in which [implementing] the Sunnah was [unfortunately] abandoned. In those days at the start of the da’wah we used to gather in my shop while I would be repairing watches, he said to me, ‘Do you know what Shaikh so and so said today?’
I replied, ‘No, what happened?’ He mentioned the story to me and while we were talking about it a relative of this man speaking to me passed by the shop, his maternal cousin to be exact. He was known as Abu Yusuf and was one of the committed followers [mureeds] of the Shaikh who narrated the story.
My brothers, the reality is that it is obligatory upon us to praise Allaah the Mighty and Majestic who has protected us from such opium. Because it is more dangerous than actual opium. It is true that real opium does take away a person’s senses–but [the effect is] not there all the time, [it wears off]. But the one who takes this abstract opium is lost, taken, gone.
The proof [that this is the case] is at the end of the story. So Abu Yusuf is in front of the shop, this person inside the shop with me, his cousin, calls him, ‘Abu Yusuf, come here.’ He enters and he says to him, ‘What do you think about tonight’s lesson, the Shaikh’s lesson?’
He said, ‘Maa shaa Allaah, tajalleeyaat, tajalleeyaat.’ [i.e., kashf which the Sufis claim, they claim that certain things, realities, manifest themselves to the Sufi Shaikhs which do not manifest themselves to others, so when he says ‘Tajalleeyaat,’ it’s like he’s saying that the story is just proof that, ‘… amazing realities manifest themselves to the Shaikhs.’]
We have a joke here in Syria, Damascus specifically. In Damascus there is a place especially for the Christians called Baab Tawmah. There is a shop there, the owner of the shop which has two entrances sells alcohol and on the shop sign there is written, ‘Tajalleeyaat Baqlah.’ Baqlah is the name of the Christian and he has called his shop by a name which doesn’t actually inform you as to what he sells. So when these Sufis say about such [ridiculous stories], ‘Maa shaa Allaah, tajalleeyaat,’ we follow up by saying, ‘Tajalleeyaat Baqlah!’ [i.e., this Christian whose name was Baqlah called his shop ‘tajalleeyaat’ the same word the Sufis use for their shaikh’s manifestations. So he called his shop ‘Tajalleeyaat Baqlah,’ or ‘Baqlah’s Manifestations/Revelations,’ because when you drink alcohol certain realities become clear to you that are not clear to those other sober folk! So Shaikh al-Albaani said that when these Sufis come and relate such far-fetched stories claiming them to be manifestations of realities that their shaikhs see, i.e., ‘tajalleeyaat,’ he follows up by saying, yes, just like Tajalleeyaat Baqlah!]
The point is that Abu Yusuf was saying, ‘Maa shaa Allaah, tajalleeyaat,’ [Shaikh al-Albaani adds] Baqlah. His cousin [who was with me in the shop] asked him, ‘What is your opinion about this story?’
He said, ‘It’s true. You wahhaabis reject the karaamaat [miracles] of the Allies of Allaah.’ In his mind he thought it was a miracle. So his cousin [who was with me in the shop] started to debate with him, but he was at the same level of knowledge as his cousin, Abu Yusuf.
I was sitting behind the table fixing watches. I felt as though there was no benefit in [what was being said between] the two of them, no result, no benefit. So I said [to myself] I must enter the discussion, so I got up and sat next to them both and started to talk to Abu Yusuf.
I said to him, ‘O Abu Yusuf, may Allaah bless you. Pay attention. The story [itself] shows you that it is fabricated and put together. So you see when the Shaikh spoke saying, ‘This is your mother’s boyfriend and because he fornicated with your mother I told you to kill him, to slaughter him, and do you really think I was going to tell you to kill your father?’ Okay, from this it is clear that he is upon ignorance from three angles.
The first: is it for anyone other than a Muslim ruler to carry out the prescribed punishment? [It’s not] because [if other people do it] discord will occur amongst the people.
Secondly: is the penalty for someone who is married and commits fornication that he be decapitated or that he be stoned to death? [It is that he be stoned to death].
Thirdly and lastly: why did he carry out the punishment on this fornicator, this man–who may not have been married [and thus it would not be allowed to kill him]–while he left the fornicating mother just as she was [who, according to the story, we know is married and so should have had the punishment applied to her]?
So it is clear that the story is fabricated and does not require any debate, there is no benefit in it, ‘Deaf, dumb and blind. They understand not.’
Finally I said to him–and we have no weapon except that of [trying to make them understand by appealing to their] sentiments, and there is no movement nor power except by the Will of Allaah–I said to him, ‘O Abu Yusuf, now, in short, if the Shaikh, your Shaikh who narrated this story to you, ordered you to slaughter your father, would you do it?’
A very uncomfortable question, and someone from the common Muslims in answer to this question would say, ‘I seek refuge with Allaah from killing my father.’ Do you know what he said [instead]?
He said, ‘I have not reached that level yet,’ and fled, leaving [the shop] while I was saying to him in our Syrian dialect, ‘You’ll never get there inshaa Allaah.’ He thinks that his reaching the level is when his Shaikh orders him to kill his father and he carries it out then, maa shaa Allaah, he has arrived. But he’s not there yet. So I said to him, ‘You’ll never get there inshaa Allaah.’
For this reason the remedy is to return to the Book and the Sunnah and not what is said or was said or reported [in such false stories].
End.
Al-Hudaa wan-Noor, no. 195, at 47:36, carries on to tape 196. If you make a video send me a link to it please. Mawsoo’atul-Allaamah, al-Imaam, Mujaddidil-Asr, Muhammad Naasirid-Deen al-Albaani, of Shaikh Shady Noaman, vol. 3, pp. 957-965.
August 5, 2011
Al-Albaani and the time he met the Druggie who was a Wali [an Ally] of Allaah! | 3
He said, ‘There used to be a Shaikh, who would enjoin the good and forbid the evil, hoping for Allaah’s reward in that and not seeking any material gain from it. He would go out to the marketplace along with some of his keen students. Every time he saw an evil in the market [perpetrated] by a merchant, by a store owner, by a spice dealer, he would advise and remind them.
Until one day he stopped by a store owner and saw him selling hashish to another person so he criticised him strongly, ‘O disobedient one! O criminal! You sell that which harms and does not benefit …’ and so on. So this Azhari Shaikh said to them that this noble scholar who used to enjoin the good and forbid the evil had not completed his sentence except that he became just like an animal that doesn’t understand anything.
[Little did he know that] the store-owner was a Shaikh and one of the major Allies of Allaah and righteous people. For this reason, when that noble Shaikh criticised him, the store-owner-Shaikh stole and took away his intellect and reasoning.
His students were now perplexed regarding their Shaikh so they started to ask about the remedy to this problem which they did not know the cure for. They asked one person and another, going from one place to the next, until [finally] they came to a person who told them that no one could tell them [anything] about this person’s problem except so and so, for he is someone who has ‘two wings’, i.e., has gathered both the [knowledge of the] Sharee’ah and the ‘Reality,’ so go to him.
They did and told him the story. So he said that the store keeper–and I [Shaikh al-Albaani] am going to call him the ‘Hashish Wali’–is from the major Allies of Allaah [Awliyaa’ullaah] and from the major righteous people, ‘Your Shaikh’s cure is that you take him to that Hashish Wali and try to appease him so that he becomes pleased with this Shaikh [of yours, and when that happens,] the Shaikh will return to being just as he was.’
They went to him, they went to him and said, ‘Our master, don’t blame the Shaikh, the Shaikh didn’t know your rank and standing …’ –i.e., just as the alleged two-winged one had directed them, the one who had gathered between the Sharee’ah and the Reality–they kept on trying to please him in this manner until the Hashish Wali became pleased with the Shaikh, the Shaikh who would enjoin the good and forbid the evil.
And just like one asleep, [behold] the Shaikh awoke and the group [of students] felt that, truly, what the two-winged one had said was correct, i.e., the Shaikh returned to being just as he was.
And thus, the Shaikh, in turn, started to apologise and excuse himself before the Hashish Wali, ‘Don’t blame us for we did not know your rank and standing and your station before Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic.’
So where is the lesson?
The Hashish Wali said to this scholar, ‘You, O Shaikh, think that I sell Hashish, the drug. [But] I sell hashish which looks just like hashish but its effect is the opposite to hashish. No one buys this from me except that he is cured from smoking hashish.’
In this way they dispensed with the laws of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic and the intellect of the people so as to enslave and subjugate them.
And I know shaikhs in Damascus, in Syria, and a man in Aleppo who openly declare in their general lessons in big Jaami mosques, ‘If you see a Shaikh and he has hung a cross around his neck, then do not criticise him. For he sees what you do not, and knows that which you know not.’
And the proof for that is the following story …
August 4, 2011
Al-Albaani and the time he met the Druggie who was a Wali [an Ally] of Allaah! | 2
The story of the wine and vinegar–and this is the calamity of this time–and researching this reality will take a long time … especially when some of the scholars permit reporting what is even more dangerous than this narration where [it was mentioned that] this person called upon Allaah to transform forbidden wine into permissible vinegar.
But what do you think then–and [such] stories are numerous indeed–of a person who drinks wine and is rebuked and he answers by saying, ‘He is drinking from the wine of Paradise. It has nothing whatsoever to do with your [wordly] wine!’
And another one is selling hashish and when he is refuted he says, ‘You think I’m selling hashish, the drug? I’m selling hashish that is the antidote to that hashish. And every person who buys this hashish from me is able to quit his addiction to [that other harmful] hashish.’
And through such means they paralysed people’s intellects and dispensed with the Sharee’ah. And enough for you [in this regard] is their saying, ‘There is the Sharee’ah and then there is the reality.’ And the reality contradicts the Sharee’ah, and they have other extremely dangerous sentences [too].
And maybe it is fitting that I mention a story that happened to me personally.
As was my habit, I [once] travelled to go to my brothers in Aleppo. On the way we got a house to spend the night in, in a town about twenty kilometres from Damascus, called Deer Atiyyah.
While we were chatting at night, having stayed up, instead of the door [of the house] being knocked–and the house was a single floor [i.e., like a bungalow, no upstairs]–instead of the door being knocked, the window was.
So the landlord went out to see who this strange night comer, knocking in an odd manner, was. [Like I said] instead of knocking the door he’s knocking the window. So we were all taken aback by the loud welcoming cries of the landlord for this night visitor, ‘Welcome so and so!’
We craned our necks to try and see this noble guest to whom the landlord had given such a hearty reception.
This guest enters [the house] and I was surprised when I saw him just as he was when he saw me.
He was a man given to taking hashish, one who had left praying, wouldn’t fast in Ramadaan, would smoke in Ramadaan while leaning back on one of the outside corner walls of the mosque, with his yellow eyes gazing and fixed in a stare due to the effect of the hashish.
I was surprised as to why this landlord with whom we were guests was welcoming [someone who was] a hashish addict, was disobedient [faasiq] and a criminal [faajir]–if not a disbeliever.
He was surprised to see me because he was my neighbour.
My shop was next to that mosque [where this druggie would sit], so every time I left for prayer he would be taking his hashish, smoking and naturally it had hashish in it. Every time he would see me he would sit far away from me and act as though he was overcome, i.e., captivated, in a [sufi] state of haal, i.e., he would start bowing and prostrating saying things which in Syria we call broken speech, i.e., in Arabic it is called an incomplete sentence, like, ‘Tomoatoes, hashish, eggs, aubergine.’ It’s not a sentence, it’s incomplete.
It was then that I realized that the landlord believed that this person was from the major Allies of Allaah [Awliyaa’ul-Allaah]. So I started to speak at the spur of the moment and opened what I said with the aayah, “Behold! Verily on the friends of Allaah there is no fear, nor shall they grieve. Those who believe and fear Allaah much. For them are glad tidings, in the life of the present and in the Hereafter …” [Yunus 10:62-64]. What is taqwaa? What is eemaan, we spoke in this vein.
Then we spoke about the likes of this Dajjaal [i.e., the stranger].
That this was nothing to do with Islaam at all. That the honour of the Muslim was only through his faith in Allaah and his taqwaa of Him. And that this was all there was to it, whether a miracle occurred at his hands or not. One of the Shaikhs with us in Damascus said:
When you see a person who may fly
And on the ocean does walk
Yet does not stop at the limits of the Legislation
Then an innovator is he
Being lead to destruction progressively
I don’t recall [exactly] what we said in this regard but we spoke about the fact that the landlord believed that this man, a disobedient sinner and criminal, who makes out as though he is someone who is so overcome with the remembrance of Allaah that he does not know what is going on around him, is from the major Allies of Allaah.
And then the landlord said, ‘O Shaikh, by Allaah, in this town we …’–and herein lies the lesson–‘… in this town we used to be as you said. [We used to hold] that eemaan and taqwaa is what Islaam is about. But then Shaikh so and so came to us, and he had studied in Azhar University for twenty years, he left his town for twenty years, and then he came, warning the people and teaching them in the mosque at night. More than once we would hear him say that Allaah has special, chosen people in [certain] places and times … common phrases [oft-repeated by innovators].
And that the jewel that doesn’t impress you will harm you. The jewel that doesn’t impress you will harm you: if you see a person who is drinking wine, taking hashish, it is possible that he is one of the major Allies [of Allaah] from the righteous people. Just don’t ever, don’t ever criticise him or else you will fall into problems with this righteous ally [of Allaah!].’
Then [the landlord said that] the [Azhari] Shaikh reported the following story to them …
August 1, 2011
Al-Albaani and the time he met the Druggie who was a Wali [an Ally] of Allaah! | 1
Questioner: My question is concerning the subject that the brother, Shaikh Muhammad mentioned concerning stories and hadiths which some Shaikhs mention, for example, the story which I heard and which Abdul-Hamid Kishk reported. A story which I see great contradictions in such that I cannot believe that it is attributed or even mentioned in history [before].
The story as he himself says is that a person used to drink wine from a bottle. Umar ibn al-Khattaab passed by him the first time and when he saw him he threatened him that he would be whipped if he saw him drinking wine a second time. So he passed by him a second time at a distance, the man saw Umar ibn al-Khattaab and so asked Allaah to turn the wine into vinegar. When Umar ibn al-Khattaab asked him what was in the bottle, he replied, ‘It is vinegar.’ So Umar ibn al-Khattaab smelt it and it was [indeed] vinegar.
In my opinion this story has some contradictions and is also in opposition to [correct] fiqh. What I mean is that that person was committing a sin, and [then] calls on Allaah to save him from it while he is still doing it. Also, it has been mentioned that Abdul-Hamid Kishk reports or quotes some weak hadiths whose chains of narration are not authentic.
My question is in regard to this, because I know that Abdul-Hamid Kishk has a big effect on the youth today and he mentions weak hadiths and stories.
We’d like your input on this?
Al-Albani: The reality is that I have never come across this story which you just related about that man–[I’ve never seen it mentioned] amongst the authentic hadiths, nor the hasan hadiths, nor the weak ones, nor the fabricated ones and not even those that have no basis.
And another painful reality is that no one is denying that Shaikh Kishk’s style in effecting the people is uncanny, but I do not mean [by saying that] that his style is a legislated one. Because he uses emotion, inflaming the emotions of those present by such things as ordering that salaah be sent upon the Prophet [by saying], ‘Send more prayers!’ and ‘Let me hear you send prayers upon him,’ and so on. But in the end, his style leaves an affect.
But he, with great remorse, is a storyteller and not a scholar especially in that which is connected to the field of prophetic hadith. So along with being a storyteller he is also one who [just] rounds up and gathers things. He collects all kinds of hadiths [not caring about their authenticity] and then admonishes the people with them, reminding them using such hadiths.
And it is here that the alleged rule which leads admonishers such as this to deviate makes its entry. [A principle] which is mentioned in some of the books of the science of hadith as though it is something undisputed and without blemish: that it is allowed to act upon those weak hadiths which talk about the excellence [or merit] of [certain] actions [Fadaa’ilul-A’maal]. Whether this sentence is accepted or rejected is something disputed amongst the scholars of hadith.
That which I hold and which I have mentioned in more than one book or treatise is that it is not allowed for a Muslim to seek nearness to Allaah the Blessed and Most High through a hadith which he knows is weak. This is what I hold.
But [we must bear in mind that] those who adopted this rule laid down conditions [that must be met] to act upon such hadiths. So when the majority of the people who came later and who adopted this rule [actually] broke it, [the result was that] weak and fabricated hadiths became widespread.
We have very extensive experience with those who associate themselves to knowledge: when one of them mentions a hadith and we know for sure that he does not know where this hadith has come from, he doesn’t know whether it is authentic or weak, but when he is taken aback after he is repudiated and it is said to him, ‘O my brother, you’re relating this hadith and it is weak,’ he replies immediately with the alleged rule, ‘But weak hadiths can be acted upon in relation to the excellence of [certain] actions.’
But this rule is not taken without exception.
Do you [actually] know that the hadith you just related is [in fact] weak?
He doesn’t know anything about that. Thus, he has broken the rule, for conditions were laid down for it, from them being the fact that he should know that this hadith [which he is quoting] is weak so that he does not become mixed up [in differentiating between the] the weak hadith and the authentic one.
[The incorrect implementation of] this rule helps the admonishers, storytellers and preachers not to be cautious when narrating hadiths from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
If the hadith were authentic then alhamdulillaah, and if it were weak [and the conditions applied] then it can be acted upon in relation to the excellence of [certain] actions. [I.e., Trans. note: the Shaikh does not agree with this rule but here mentioned the opinion of those who do hold it to be permissible, i.e., at the very least if these storytellers knew that a hadith was weak maybe this rule could then be implemented according to those who hold it to be permissible, but therein lies the problem, normally the storytellers don’t even know if it is weak: it could be worse than being just weak, i.e., it could be fabricated or have no basis whatsoever, so when they are not sure about the grading of the hadith how can they implement the rule that, ‘Weak hadith can be used concerning the excellence/merit of certain actions,’ correctly?]
So the aforementioned Shaikh does not have knowledge of hadith and for this reason in his stories and admonitions he narrates all kinds of hadith. So it is not strange that he should report narrations which have no basis whatsoever and have no connection to the sayings of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
[Sorry folks, the druggie comes later!]
August 1, 2011
Is it Allowed to Seek the Assistance of the Jinn?
Questioner: Regarding the jinn, there are two questions regarding them, the first is about seeking assistance from them. It is known that amongst the jinn there are disbelievers, sinners [faasiq] and Muslims.
Al-Albani: Yes, by Allaah.
Questioner: So is it permissible for a Muslim, if he is able to, or some things happen [as a result of which] it becomes clear to him that the jinn, for example, is a Muslim, and so he seeks his assistance in some worldly affairs. So is it permissible for a Muslim to use this jinn …, in the same way that I seek the assistance of a human Muslim brother?
Al-Albani: When you mentioned seeking assistance from the Muslim jinn, how do you know he is a Muslim?
Questioner: He says so!
Al-Albani: He says so?
Questioner: Yes.
Al-Albani: And you do not know him [he is unknown].
Questioner: Yes.
Al-Albani: And you do not know him [he is unknown].
Questioner: Yes. Unknown because I do not know him.
Al-Albani: So how do you judge with the testimony of someone unknown?
Questioner: And he, namely, in reality, he is just like one of the brothers.
Al-Albani: No I am asking you, if there were a brother next to you, how do you know if he is a Muslim and a righteous one if you do not know him?
Questioner: I don’t know.
Al-Albani: Thus, the question from its general, initial, onset was wrong. Is it permissible to seek assistance from the jinn or not? The answer is no.
As for categorising the jinn then it can be [done] in two ways. Dividing them in terms of there being amongst them those who are righteous and those who are sinners, believers and disbelievers. This is correct, “There are among us some that are righteous, and some the contrary; we are groups each having a different way.” [Jinn 72:11]. This is from the angle of there being an unseen reality, something which we do not see.
As for dividing the jinn in terms of their relation to us humans/mankind, then such a division is lost on us. We cannot say, “So and so who speaks to us is a Muslim jinn, or a non-Muslim jinn, or a righteous Muslim jinn … no, we cannot make apparent such judgements. Because this is a judgement about something which is behind–as they say today–nature, i.e., in sharee’ah terminology, the Unseen. We do not know the Unseen.
And at the same time as it not being something legislated, believing someone who is unknown and from the Unseen, is also stupidity. Because if a person who you do not know at all were to come to you and say, ‘I am a trustworthy Muslim. And I want to share with you [in something].’ You would not agree to it, because you don’t know him. So then it is even more fitting that you do not accept the testimony of someone who is behind a wall who says, ‘I am a good, righteous Muslim. And I am going to interact with you from behind this wall based upon the fact that the religion is sincerity.’
Questioner: Yes.
Al-Albani: Would a person accept such a dealing?
Questioner: No.
Al-Albani: So what do you think about [someone] behind a wall, behind all matter [i.e., someone from the Unseen].
Thus, the correct question is: is it permissible to interact with the Jinn at all?’ The answer is that it is not allowed at all.
The only thing that is allowed in that which is connected to Jinn and mankind is that if one were pretty sure that there is a person who has been possessed by a Jinn, then some aayahs can be recited on him, and [the Jinn] can be warned through such recitation … this is what has been established in the Sunnah.
As for the Quraan then it warns us against seeking the assistance of the Jinn [this having been quoted] from the believing Jinns [themselves] who came to the Prophet عليه السلام and believed in him. They spoke about their situation such as saying, ‘And verily, there were men among mankind who took shelter with the masculine among the jinns, but they (jinns) increased them (mankind) in sin and disbelief,’ [Jinn 72:6] i.e., … in misguidance.
Because of this it is not allowed to seek the assistance of the Jinn. This is the answer to the question. End of Shaikh al-Albaani’s words.
I’ve seen some of the translations that have been put up on the blog have been taken and made into YouTube videos. I happened to chance by some of them. I don’t mind anyone taking such an initiative since I had been hoping someone could do it, may Allaah reward you guys well, whoever you are. At the same time I’d like it if you could send me a link to inform me of such videos. If they’re done well, I can then put up a link to them on the blog here. Shukran.
Al-Hudaa wan-Noor, Tape no. 704, starts at 3 minutes and 50 seconds approximately.
Mawsoo’atul-Allaamah, al-Imaam, Mujaddidil-Asr, Muhammad Naasirid-Deen al-Albaani, of Shaikh Shady Noaman, vol. 3, pp. 1053-1055.
The YouTube video:
July 29, 2011
A Question About Some Sentences Connected to Creed
Questioner: There are some sentences or phrases which many people have fallen into saying. [We would like a clarification] about their permissibility or impermissibility. Some of them say, ‘O Faasiq! [one who is rebellious and disobedient to Allaah]. Or, ‘O Fattaal! [like faasiq]’ And, ‘[The answers to my problems are] with Allaah and then you,’ or when someone says, ‘Come and [eat] with us,’ they reply, ‘May Ar-Rahmaan eat with you,’ or ‘May Ar-Rahmaan be with you,’ and such words …
Al-Albani: These [words] are [said] amongst you?
Questioner: Yes.
Al-Albani: How strange! We have words that are similar to these and all of them are not allowed. Here in Syria they say, ‘We trust in Allaah and you.’ There is no doubt that some of those phrases which the question is about are incorrect. Like I just said to you in some places in Syria we have sayings that resemble those, like, ‘We trust in Allaah and you,’ this is shirk. Also, ‘Whatever Allaah wills and you will,’ is shirk. The correct wording is, ‘Whatever Allaah wills and then you will.’
Most of the Arabs today do not differentiate between ‘then’ and ‘and.’
The sentence, ‘‘We trust in Allaah and you,’ is disbelief in His Saying, “… and in Allaah (Alone) let those who trust, put their trust.” [Ibraaheem 14:12]. Namely, [we trust] in Allaah alone. So without a care such a person says, ‘We trust in Allaah and you.’
The saying, ‘We trust in Allaah and you,’ is shirk. Here amongst us they also say, ‘Allaah’s Hand and your hand …”
Another questioner: Or they say this other wording, for example, [if someone invites you to eat, saying], ‘Come and eat with us, O Shaikh,’ he will reply, ‘May Ar-Rahmaan eat with you,’ ask about this, is there anything wrong with this?
Al-Albani: What is the second wording?
Questioner: He said, ‘May Ar-Rahmaan eat with you … may Ar-Rahmaan eat with you.’
Al-Albani: And there is nothing wrong with this?!
Questioner: This phrase … I’m not saying there is something about it.
Al-Albani: Is there something with it or not?
Questioner: I don’t know.
Al-Albani: He eats, Allaah eats?!
Questioner: We, yes … may Ar-Rahmaan eat with you.
Al-Albani: Our Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, eats? No, this is disbelief. This is likening the Creator to His Creation. This is not allowed. Is there anything else they say?
Questioner: Some of them say, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you.’
Al-Albani: Ar-Rahmaan is with you?
Questioner: [If one of them were to invite you, saying], ‘Come with us.’ The other person replies with, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you.’
Al-Albani: Let us hear its interpretation …
Questioner: He’s saying, [when someone calls you saying], ‘O Shaikh, come to us … with us.’ He replies, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you.’ Namely, he is excusing himself [by saying that]. He doesn’t say, ‘No, I’m not coming.’ He [excuses himself by] saying it in a softer way.
Al-Albani: But what is the meaning of, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you?’
Questioner: Namely, [by] Ar-Rahmaan [they mean] blessings, goodness, ‘I can’t sit with you … [but] Ar-Rahmaan is with you.’
Al-Albani: He doesn’t want to give a harsh reply so [instead] he says something which is not fitting to be said [in the eyes of the] Shariah?
Questioner: Because of his notion that it is something good.
Al-Albani: Because of his notion. But we want to correct his notion.
Questioner: No problem. If there is something blameworthy in it he should be stopped.
Al-Albani: It is not allowed to say, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you.’ Because … look now, the people of innovations … the people of hadith and those who cling to what the Pious Predecessors were upon, and those who believe in the aayahs and hadiths about Attributes are called mushabbihah [by the people of innovation] … they say that they are mushabbihah, mujassimah [anthropomorphists/people who liken Allaah to His Creation]. Namely, they say about us that we are mujassimah, why? Because we say, ‘[Ar-Rahmaan] The Most Beneficent rose over the Throne,’ [Taa Haa 20:5] i.e., He rose over it in a manner that suits and befits His Perfection. So when explaining this aayah if you say rose over means He sat on the Throne you would have opened the door for them to vilify you and would have given them support in their claim that you are a mujassim.
This saying, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you,’ they [already] deny that Ar-Rahmaan rose over the Throne, [even though] it is an aayah which we explain as the Salaf did, i.e., they deny the meaning of rose over because they falsely think that such a statement contains tashbeeh of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic as though He is sitting on a seat, [whereas] He is the One free of all creation. So what would the case be if they hear this saying, ‘With you is Ar-Rahmaan,’ i.e., Ar-Rahmaan is a guest with you. … Ar-Rahmaan is sitting with you, these are extremely vile meanings. [Rather], ‘[Ar-Rahmaan] The Most Beneficent rose over the Throne.’
Maybe it is possible to interpret this [saying] with a good meaning but from the cultivation that the Prophet عليه السلام taught his believing followers is his saying, ‘Do not say anything which requires an excuse before Allaah.’
So [after saying such dubious statements maybe someone will say], ‘I don’t mean that Ar-Rahmaan is with you in Essence, the Most High, but I mean His good, His aid and His blessings and so on,’–so this is an interpretation, but this interpretation does not contain good, [for] in another hadith there occurs, ‘Beware of that which requires an excuse,’ i.e., don’t say things after which you will be required to say, ‘By Allaah, I meant such and such.’
Questioner: Leave that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you doubt.
Al-Albani: Well done, precisely.
Mawsoo’atul-Allaamah, al-Imaam, Mujaddidil-Asr, Muhammad Naasirid-Deen al-Albaani, of Shaikh Shady Noaman, vol. 3, pp. 1186-1189.
July 26, 2011
A Conversation with his Wife |End | Something which Distressed the Shaikh; details of his Bank Account
See here for part five.
“There must be a situation which affected the Shaikh in a big way. Something whose effect on the Shaikh can’t be forgotten, can you tell us what such an occurrence was, whether happy or sad?”
As for that which occurred in my time and which greatly affected the Shaikh, then it was his disagreement with Shaikh Zuhair ash-Shaaweesh, may Allaah protect him. And that is because Shaikh Zuhair was from the closest of people to the Shaikh and the most beloved. And disputes with the people you love and are devoted to is something which will always affect a person.
I ask Allaah to have mercy on both Shaikhs and to forgive them both, and to gather them in the Gardens of Eternal Bliss. Aameen.
“As-Salaamu alaikum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu. My noble mother, how would the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, gather between da’wah and lessons [he taught] and his wife, home and the upbringing of his children?”
Wa alaikum salaam wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu wa maghfiratuhu. The Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, was very organised in his time, and he would often say, ‘My profession as a watch-maker taught me precision and organisation.’ He would not let anything from his affairs overtake something else, everything had its turn.
“What is the story of his exit from the Emirates and Saudia and [the fact that] he was refused entry into Jordan and waited at the borders until someone of high standing in Jordan took on his case, I wish we could get to know that story, if you would be so kind as to tell us.”
As for the story about his exit from Jordan: then the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, was expelled from it in 1982 to Syria whose government was after him such that the secret service gave him a piece of paper asking him to return to them [on a certain date], but the Shaikh sought the counsel of his brothers in Syria and immediately left for Beirut where his friend–at that time–Shaikh Zuhair ash-Shaaweesh received him. He remained as a guest with him for about three months then one of his students hosted him in the Emirates in Sharjah so we went to him for about two months. And we went to Qatar for a month, staying at the Waahah hotel. Then [we stayed in] Kuwait for ten days, then the Emirates.
At that time Shaikh Muhammad Ibrahim Shaqrah was trying to get him back to Jordan using the highest channels that understood the situation of the Shaikh and his standing in knowledge and service to the Prophetic Sunnah. So they allowed him to return to Jordan … we came back by way of the airport and there was no waiting at the borders as you mentioned. And we will not forget the effort of Shaikh Abu Malik Shaqrah in that; Shaikh al-Albaani would acknowledge that about him, all the way to the end of his life, may Allaah reward him with good. May Allaah have mercy on the Shaikh and record that deed in his scale of good.
As for Shaikh al-Albaani himself then he didn’t have any connection with those politicians in authority in the Arab and Islamic lands whatsoever. And he would always follow the saying of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, ‘Whoever goes to the doors of the ruler, will be put to trial.’
“After reading through his biography, may Allaah have mercy on him, [I came to know that] he wrote in his will that his books should be bequeathed to Medinah al-Munowwarah. But didn’t anything of his remain in his house, like his notes or papers he may have written which he never completed, his mushaf, so that we can get to know what is in such documents and other than them which he may not have completed? May Allaah bless you.”
Yes, the Shaikh bequeathed all of his books and his papers which he had written with his own hand and his manuscripts to the library at the Islamic University in Medinah al-Munowwarah. Nothing from that remained in his house. The Shaikh didn’t have notebooks [as such], his notebooks were his books and treatises in which he would put down summaries of his thoughts and experience. The Shaikh didn’t have a specific mushaf, rather we had many mushafs in the house which we would read.
As for other than that which he did not complete, then they are many, and they are his knowledge-based projects which need many times the life of the Shaikh to be completed. We ask Allaah to prepare from the Muslims those who will complete them and reward them on behalf of the Muslims with the best reward.
“We’ve heard of a situation which caused him to cry, so what is the situation which made him laugh, may Allaah have mercy on him?”
As for the situations that made him laugh, may Allaah have mercy on him, then the Shaikh would only laugh a little, may Allaah have mercy on him, and he would not become happy at anything from the affairs of the world, rather he would become pleased at the obedience of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic and aiding the Prophetic Sunnah.
To the extent that when the news of the King Faisal Award came to him no signs of happiness were seen on him at all, rather he said, ‘It came late.’ For it came at the start of his illness from which he died, may Allaah have mercy on him.
And the Shaikh did not have an account in any of the banks which were widespread [i.e., easily accessible]. And he refused to open a bank account to receive the prize money for the King Faisal Award which Shaikh Abu Maalik Shaqrah, may Allaah protect him, received on his behalf.
End.
Taken from: http://majles.alukah.net/showthread.php?t=17903
See here for the PDF.
July 25, 2011
A Conversation with his Wife | 5 | Her Advice to the Sisters and Her Reaction to those who Lied Against the Shaikh
See here for part four.
“Do you feel the extent of the love of the Muslims for your husband, may Allaah have mercy on him, or do you feel that they have fallen short in that?”
Yes, my children, I know the extent of the people’s love for the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, but I want them to always remember him by supplicating for him, [asking] that Allaah reward him with the best of rewards on behalf of the Muslims.
I personally bought a small apartment opposite the graveyard in which he was buried in South Marca, Amman. And believe me, I always wake up at night and look at the graveyard and supplicate for him and his student Abu Mu’aadh and the daughter of our brother Abul-Yamaan, Sumayyah, may Allaah have mercy on them all. And may Allaah have mercy on all of the deceased Muslims, and may He gather us with them in Paradise with the Chief of the Messengers. Aameen.
“How can we, when we are deprived of the presence of a great scholar amongst us, recall the times that the great Shaikh would give his lectures in when we were not present at those lectures whose loss to us Allaah knows the extent of?”
My brother, it is possible for you to recall those beautiful times with the Shaikh through his recorded tapes which are widespread and in their thousands, the same goes for his books in the Islamic bookshops.
“Did any of the Shaikh’s sons take their fathers lead in seeking knowledge and excelling in the Science of Hadith? And did the Shaikh have an effect in that?”
The one who followed his lead the most in the science of hadith was his daughter, Umm Abdullaah, may Allaah protect her.
“I ask that you don’t deprive us ladies of advice on what our role in nurturing a generation of those who strive should be? And I repeat my thanks and gratitude to those who came up with this idea and strove to implement it.”
My advice to my daughters, the Muslim girls, is that they fear Allaah the Mighty and Majestic, and learn their religion especially that which concerns the Muslim woman’s role in her home and such circumstances, and that which is connected to raising their children. And that the Muslim sister concentrate on the affairs of her household, on nurturing her children herself, and taking care of her husband, in compliance with the Saying of the Most High, “… and stay in your houses …” [Al-Ahzaab 33:33]. And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, ‘When the woman prays her five, fasts her month, guards her chastity, obeys her husband, it is said to her, ‘Enter Paradise from whichever gate you wish,’’ what more do you want?
“What was the reaction of the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, to those people of unsound creed who are widespread in Jordan and other countries when they would attack and lie against him in the newspapers and other such media?”
The Shaikh would treat those who attacked and lied against him as noble people do, [their example is that] of an ibex striking a rock with its horns, [in the end it only weakens its own antlers].
And I remember one time I was with him in the car, and he had turned on the cassette of a sermon delivered by a man who was attacking and lying upon the Shaikh and declaring him to be a disbeliever and so on, may Allaah have mercy on him.
I was about to explode in rage.
I was watching the Shaikh [i.e, his reaction] and it was as though nothing had happened! Until I [finally] said to him, ‘What is wrong with you? Can you hear what he is saying?’ So he signalled to me that it’s no problem, don’t worry about it.
The important thing is that Allaah accepts it, may Allaah have mercy on him and make both us and you from those whose actions are accepted.
See here for the last post in the series.
July 24, 2011
A Conversation with his Wife | 4 | How did Umm al-Fadl help the Shaikh in his Knowledge?
See here for part three.
“Our noble mother, did you have a role to play with regard to the level that our scholar and Shaikh, al-Albaani, reached in terms of excellence and knowledge in the religion of Allaah and the Sunnah of His Messenger عليه الصلاة والسلام. Because this concerns us greatly, how can we encourage and help our brothers and families in seeking knowledge? Was there a piece of research or an opinion in a matter or point of knowledge that may have popped up that was shared between you and the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, and did you benefit from his knowledge? Your daughter and someone who loves you for the sake of Allaah.”
As for benefitting from [his] knowledge, then all praise is due to Allaah, we benefitted vastly from him. In fact, my family, Aal-Aabideen, and others benefitted from him after we got married. Many times people will ask me about a legislative ruling so I say, ‘The Shaikh used to say such and such about that,’ and if I don’t know, [then] on their behalf I ask some of the Shaikh’s students who were close to him and who he trusted.
As for my role in his knowledge, then I am not even a student of knowledge, and how can someone like me share with him in his knowledge and his precise knowledge-based research?
But I used to prepare the environment for him, as they say, as much as I was able to. I would serve him, his guests and his students as much as I could, for he did not have a maid and he would never accept having a maid in the house.
May Allaah grant you success, was-salaamu alaikum.
“What effect did leaving Medinah al-Munawwarah have on our great scholar, i.e., when he moved from there?”
The Shaikh was greatly affected when he left Medinah an-Nabawiyyah. He used to regard the days he spent in the City of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم as the best of his life. But [at the same time] that did not ever stop him from continuing in his knowledge-based projects.
“What is the most distinguished Islamic event that he participated in while residing in Medinah al-Munawwrah?”
As for the most distinguished Islamic even that occurred there then I do not know for I was not with him.
“In the opinion of our Khaalah, Umm al-Fadl, how do we honour a great scholar like him?”
As for honouring the Shaikh then there is nothing like supplicating for him and adhering to the methodology which he would always call to and which he would summarise in two words: purification and cultivation. Namely, purifying the methodology of the Muslims and their heritage from the innovations, heretical superstitions [khuraafaat] and weak hadiths and so on, while cultivating [the people] upon the true methodology and the upright religion. The Shaikh used to regard one of the greatest problems of the Muslims, especially those who claim to be following the Sunnah, to be correct cultivation upon the sound methodology. And by and large, this cultivation requires a long period of time and great effort.
See here for part five.
July 23, 2011
A Conversation with his Wife | 3 | A Description of his Day
See here for part two.
“Our noble mother, we’d like you to give us a description of a complete day from his life, may Allaah have mercy on him, from the time he would wake up for fajr until the time he’d go to bed at night.”
A description of a full day from the Shaikh’s life. The Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, would wake up for the morning prayer, if not before it, and would also wake some of his students through the phone. Then he would, as long as he was physically able, go and take his students from their houses or from the road where they’d be waiting for him. They would pray the morning prayer in a mosque where the Imaam would strive to implement the Sunnah and shun innovations, like the qunoot in fajr, and most of the time the mosque was far away from our area.
Then if there was no sitting with his students in the mosque, the Shaikh would come back to his library and stay there amongst his books and his research up until seven o’clock in the morning at which time I would have prepared some breakfast for him. So he would take his breakfast and then return to his library and stay there until it was time for the siesta [qailulah], which was when the Shaikh would begin to feel sleepy. So he would go and sleep for a short while and then return to his library.
And this was how his lunch would be too, at one o’clock. As for dinner, then the Shaikh would not desire it. He would answer calls on the phone after ishaa prayer, for he had appointed two hours for issuing religious verdicts on the phone. As for visits, he had set the time between maghrib and ishaa for them during the days when his circumstances would allow him to do so.
“How would the Shaikh react to what the Islamic nation was going through and what affect did that have on him?”
As for the reaction of the Shaikh to what was occurring in the Islamic ummah, then we did not have a television in the house, because the Shaikh did not want to bring that upon us, and he wouldn’t buy newspapers but [at the same time] he would be extremely hurt at what was happening to the Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and the other Islamic countries.
And he was often moved by his Muslim brothers in Syria at the time of the events that occurred in the eighties with the Alawites. Since many times the Muslim youth would come to him and seek his counsel and he would honour them and receive them in the best way possible.
See here for part four.
July 22, 2011
A Conversation with his Wife | 2 | Did he help his Family or Neglect them due to his Teaching?
See here for part one.
“Can you, O Khaalah, tell us briefly about the times the Shaikh had to relocate?”
The Shaikh emigrated from Albania with his father to Damascus when he was about ten years old. He then emigrated to Jordan in 1980 and settled in South Marca, Amman. Then he was compelled to go back to Damascus and from there to Beirut, Lebanon, in 1981. Shaikh Zuhair ash-Shaaweesh hosted him there in his house. After that he travelled to Sharjah and stayed there for two months, calling to the Salafi manhaj. After which he went to Qatar for one month, then Kuwait, staying there for ten days. Then Sharjah and from there back to Jordan where he stayed until he passed away on Saturday, 2/10/1999.
“Being the wife of this noble scholar, did you see that his knowledge, seeking knowledge and teaching it to the people took away from his coexistence with you as the head of your household? And did this have a negative effect on his children? And my dear mother, can I ask you to single me out with some supplication for I am in dire need of it. May Allaah protect you and give you good.” Wa alaikum Salaam wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu
I thank you for your warm sentiments and I want to let you know that seeking knowledge would not prevent the Shaikh from carrying out any of his family obligations.
Rather, the total opposite was true.
For he, may Allaah have mercy on him, was an exemplary head of a household, cooperating with his family.
And believe me, my son, he used to help me a great deal in the household chores such that I would feel embarrassed in front of him due to it. So much so that one time he was cleaning the patio with me, to which I said, ‘O Shaikh! Don’t disgrace me in front of the neighbours, they will say that you are doing your wife’s work.’ He replied, ‘This is not a disgrace. Don’t you know that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would be at the service of his family?’
When I would ask him for anything [I needed] for the house, for example, an extra shelf somewhere, he would assess the situation and think about it and if he found that it was appropriate he would go ahead with it and do it with his own hands. And if he needed to go and buy something for it, he would do so in his car and then come back and do what I had requested of him.
One of his hobbies was to go on trips, may Allaah have mercy on him, like Syrians do, the [picnic] basket was always in the car. We would go together in spring, summer, even winter, looking at the snow and [the] wintertime [landscape]. He would complement me by drinking tea and coffee, even though it was not his habit to drink either of them.
But he would never leave his books on any outing we would go on. Books were his companions wherever he went.
In fact, there were many times when I would wake up and would not see him on the bed. So I would look for him and find him in his study, having turned on the lamp, engrossed in his books. I’d be surprised and he would say, ‘These are my beloved!’ May Allaah have mercy on him.
May Allaah grant you succees, remove your distress and calamity and make you from those happy in this world and the Hereafter. Aameen.
See here for part three.
July 20, 2011
A Conversation with the Wife of Shaikh Al-Albaani | 1
“Could you tell us your name and place of birth?”
Yusraa Abdur-Rahmaan Aabideen, Umm al-Fadl.
Place of birth: Salt [Jordan], and on the birth certificate it mentions Jerusalem, 1929.
“O Khaalah [lit: maternal aunt/aunty], could you tell us about your upbringing up until the time you married the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him?”
I grew up in Jerusalem, in the area of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. My father worked as a trader, but I never knew him, for he died when I was still young. So I was raised by my brother, Nadhmee, may Allaah have mercy on him.
I remained in Jerusalem until 1948, after which I moved for good to Jordan. The Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on him, proposed to me in 1981. I used to live in North Marca, so he took me to South Marca, a place I had wanted to get to know more about, so the Shaikh caused me to settle there, may Allaah the Most High have mercy on him.
The Shaikh married his first wife, Umm Abdur-Rahmaan in Damascus, she was Yugoslavian. And she gave birth to Abdur-Rahmaan, Abdul-Lateef and Abdur-Razzaaq, and others [too] who Allaah caused to pass away. Then she too passed away.
The Shaikh then married his second wife, Naajiyah, she was also Yugoslavian. He had nine children with her, four boys and five girls. The boys were: Abdul-Musowwir, Abdul-A’laa, Muhammad and Abdul-Muhaimin. The girls: Aneesah, Aasiyah, Salaamah, Hassaanah and Sukainah.
He married the third while he had been married to the second for about two years. Her name is Khadijah al-Qaadiri and she is Syrian. She is the sister of Dr. Muhammad Ameen al-Misri’s wife, may Allaah have mercy on him, the well-known teacher at the Islamic University of Madinah, and a friend of the Shaikh, may Allaah have mercy on them both.
The Shaikh had one daughter from his wife Khadijah, Hibatullaah. And he divorced his second wife who he used to live with in the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus.
Then he migrated with Khadijah to Jordan in 1980 and settled in South Marca, Amman, close to Shaikh Ahmad Atiyah who was from the closest of people to the Shaikh. [But] then Ahmad Atiyah separated himself from Shaikh al-Albaani and his methodology, and became a Sufi, and then he embraced Baha’ism. We ask Allaah for well-being.
His third wife, Khadijah only stayed in Amman for a short while after which she moved to Damascus and refused to reside in Amman. After approximately six months, the Shaikh sent divorce papers to her and she returned their joint-passport which was with her to him.
Ahmad Atiyah, along with his cousin, Shaikh Jameel, came to South Marca to my brother’s shop and asked him for my hand in marriage [on behalf of the Shaikh] in 1981.
We finalised the marriage contract [i.e., the nikaah], in my cousin’s house in Marca. The Shaikh stipulated the dowry himself! For he informed us that this was the legislated [thing to do]–i.e., that the one proposing marriage stipulates that which he sees fit so that the dowry for his wife will be within his means, so he gave me two hundred dinaars at that time. And he did not stipulate a delayed dowry, for that is not from the Sunnah.
I went with him to the market and we bought some non-circular gold with the dowry, since he did not hold it to be permissible to wear circular gold.
We agreed to get married [i.e., that she would go and live with him] after about two months after the Shaikh would finish building his new house in South Marca. We got married half way through the blessed month of Ramadaan.
See here for part two.
July 16, 2011
Then How Big is the Throne?
أُذِنَ لِي أَنْ أُحَدِّثَ عَنْ مَلَكٍ مِنْ مَلَائِكَةِ اللهِ مِنْ حَمَلَةِ الْعَرْشِ، إِنَّ مَا بَيْنَ شَحْمَةِ أُذُنِهِ إِلَى عَاتِقِهِ مَسِيرَةُ سَبْعِ مِائَةِ عَامٍ
From Jaabir, may Allaah be pleased with him, from the Prophet صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ, “I have been given permission to speak about an angel from Allaah’s Angels, from the Bearers of the Throne. Indeed between his earlobe and his shoulder is a distance of seven hundred years travel.”
Silislah | 152 | Sahih
July 14, 2011
A Gift of Soil?
Sukainah, the daughter of Shaikh al-Albaani said, “I asked my father, may Allaah have mercy on him, ‘One of the female callers [daa’iyah] said in a fiqh lesson that the best gift that you can give to a sick person who cannot perform ablution is a bag of soil, or a container that has soil in it, so that (s)he can perform dry ablution [tayammum] from it. And likewise, a traveller should carry some soil with him in order to perform tayammum with it. What is your opinion?’
So he answered, ‘According to this school of thought when the Prophet عليه السلام travelled from Medinah to Tabuk he should have taken some soil with him so he could perform tayammun with it!
This is futile.
For there are two mistakes: the first is to limit the performance of tayammun to soil alone, for it is possible for a person to strike a wall once and the matter is over.
The second is that this is a new classification which has no basis. For it has not been reported that they would carry soil with them in their journeys.
This is a modern-day feigning of knowledge, due to the lack of striving and working hard to acquire it.’”
Taken from her blog.
July 9, 2011
How does a Menstruating Woman Worship During the Night of Decree?
Translated by Ahmed Abu Turaab
Sukainah the daughter of Shaikh al-Albaani said, “I asked my father, may Allaah have mercy on him, ‘How does the female who has the excuse accorded to her by the Sharee’ah [i.e., menses] perform worship on the Night of Decree?’
So he answered me, saying, ‘By supplicating, remembering Allaah [dhikr] and reciting the Quraan, and there is no problem in her doing that. And I think that you are sure about the fact that it is not disliked for the menstruating woman to recite the Quraan. So this is the way out from one angle.
And from another, it is fitting for the Muslim in such circumstances, whether he is male or female, to emulate the Prophet عليه السلام who said, ‘Seize the benefit of five before five: your youth before you become old, and your health before you become ill …’ [Saheeh at-Targheed wat-Tarheeb, no. 3355]. For what reason [did he say this?] Because in Sahih al-Bukhari it has been reported that, ‘When a slave [a believer] falls ill or travels, then he will get written to his accounts [the reward] similar to that which he used to get for his good deeds practised at home and in good health [as if he is doing them on his journey and in illness].’ [Bukhaari 2996]
So it is upon such a woman to seize the opportunity of benefitting from her time when she is clean and is able to stand during the last ten nights, or at least the odd nights, or at the very least the day or night of the twenty-seventh.
For indeed when Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, knows that His female servant used to do that when she was able to stand in prayer then suddenly comes into a state where she is excused, He records for her what used to be written for her when she was in a state of purity.
This is a very important point. Its fruits are that the Muslim should strive as was just explained: that he should always spend his time in obedience as much as he is able to. Such that when his obedience increases and the worship then passes him by [due to him becoming ill or travelling, the reward] is still written for him even if he is not able to actually perform it.’”
Taken from her blog.
July 8, 2011
Shaikh al-Albaani’s Daughter asking her Father about Devoting Oneself to Reciting the Quraan to the Exclusion of other Acts of Worship in Ramadaan
Sukainah the daughter of Shaikh al-Albaani said, “I asked my father, may Allaah have mercy on him, [a question] the summary of which is: I read that when Ramadaan would begin some of the scholars would devote themselves to reciting the Quraan, even though they were people of knowledge who would issue religious verdicts for the masses. So they would even stop giving religious verdicts. Is this correct? Should I single out this month for the Quraan and leave reading hadiths, their explanation and lessons in the dialects of the Quraan and other than that?
So in answer to this he said, “This particularisation has no basis in the Sunnah–but that which is in the Sunnah and is known [from a hadith] reported in the two Sahihs[1] is to increase in the recitation of the Quraan in Ramadaan. As for particularising the month of Ramadaan solely for the recitation of the Quraan to the exclusion of any other act of worship like seeking knowledge, teaching hadith, and explaining them–then that has no basis. Likewise that which is included in this topic is giving in charity, giving sadaqah, being good to the people and … and … etc.
Devoting oneself to recitation has no basis. That which does have a basis is only to increase in it.
[1] From Ibn Abbaas, may Allaah be pleased with them both, who said, “Allaah’s Messenger صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ was the most generous of all the people. And he used to reach the peak in generosity in the month of Ramadaan when Jibreel met him. Jibreel used to meet him every night of Ramadaan to teach him the Quraan. Allaah’s Messenger صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ was the most generous person, even more generous than the fair winds [sent (by Allaah) with glad tidings (rain), in readiness and haste to do charitable deeds]. [Bukhaari, no. 6.]
Imaam an-Nawawi, may Allaah have mercy on him, said, “Our companions said, ‘The Sunnah is to recite the Quraan in abundance in Ramadaan and to study it with someone–that he recites it to someone and someone recites it to him due to the aforementioned hadith from Ibn Abbaas.’” Al-Majmooh Sharh al-Muhaddhab (6/274). And al-Haafidh Ibn Rajab, may Allaah have mercy on him, said about this hadith, “And in it is evidence for the desirability/recommendation to increase in the recitation of the Quraan in the month of Ramadaan.” Lataa’iful-Ma’aarif, p. 169.
Taken from her blog at:
Sukainah bint Muhammad Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani’s Blog
And here’s the Youtube video:
July 7, 2011
A Rooster Whose Neck is Under the Throne of Allaah
إِنَّ اللهَ أَذِنَ لِي أَنْ أُحَدِّثَ عَنْ دِيْكٍ قَدْ مَرَقَتْ رِجْلَاهُ الْأَرْضَ، وَعُنُقُهُ مُنْثَنٍ تَحْتَ الْعَرْشِ وَهُوَ يَقُوْلُ: سُبْحَانَكَ مَا أَعْظَمَكَ رَبُّنَا، فَيَرُدُّ عَلَيْهِ
مَا يَعْلَمُ ذَلِكَ مَنْ حَلَفَ بِي كَاذِبًا
From Abu Hurairah in marfoo form:
“Indeed Allaah has given me permission to inform you about a rooster whose legs have penetrated the earth and whose neck is bent under the Throne and he says, ‘Glory be to You! How great You are, Our Lord!’ So He answers him [saying], ‘The one who takes a false oath in My Name does not know that.’”
Shaikh Al-Albaani said in Silsilah:
“Reported by al-Tabaraani in Al-Awsat (1/156/1), and Abu Shaikh in Al-Udhmah (3/1003-1004) who both said, ‘Muhammad ibn al-Abbaas ibn al-Akhram reported to us [saying]: Al-Fadl ibn Sahl al-A’raj reported to us [saying]:Ishaaq ibn Mansoor reported to us [saying]: Israail reported to us from Mu’aawiyah ibn Ishaaq from Sa’eed ibn Abi Sa’eed from Abu Hurairah in marfoo form, and he said, ‘No one reported it from Mu’aawiyah except Israail, Ishaaq being alone in narrating it.’
I [Al-Albaani] say: And he is trustworthy [thiqah] from the men who the two Shaikhs [Bukhaari and Muslim] narrated from, and the same goes for all of the narrators, they are all trustworthy from the men of Bukhaari except for Ibn al-Akhram, who is from the precise preservers of hadith, and Fuqahaa, as is mentioned in Lisaanul-Meezaan.
So the chain of narration of the hadith is authentic.
And al-Haithami said in Al-Majma (4/180-181), “Reported by al-Tabaraani in Al-Awsat and its men are those of the Saheeh.” And in this declaration there is a mistake as will not be hidden, especially when in another place he said, (8/134), “Reported by al-Tabaraani in Al-Awsat, and its men are those of the Saheeh except that I do not know the Shaikh of al-Tabaraani, Muhammad ibn al-Abbaas from Fadl ibn Sahl al-A’raj.”
I [Al-Albaani] say: And we know him, and all praise is due to Allaah, and he is trustworthy, so the hadith is authentic, and Allaah is the One Who grants success.
And in Al-Majma’ there occurs, “Suhail,” and this is a printing error, ‘Sahl,’ is correct, as has preceded in the chain of narration, and as occurs in the books of narrators.
Bearing in mind that he was not the only one to narrate it, for Abu Ya’laa (1/309) reported it through another chain of narration from Mu’aawiyah from Ishaaq with a wording similar to it, “And the Throne is on his shoulders, and he is saying, ‘Glory be to You! Where were You? And where will You be?’
Thereafter, there is a point to be had in al-Tabaraani’s saying that, ‘Ishaaq is the only one who reported it.’ For Ubaidullaah ibn Moosaa narrated it [saying] that Israail informed us of it. Reported by al-Haakim (4/297) and he said, ‘It’s chain of narration is authentic,’ and adh-Dhahabi agreed with him.
And al-Mundhiri said (3/48), ‘Reported by al-Tabaraani with an authentic chain of narration, and al-Haakim said, ‘Its chain of narration is authentic.’’”End of Shaikh al-Albaani’s words.
Silsilah, vol. 1, pp. 281-282.
July 6, 2011
Revive a Sunnah: The Answer to, “Who Created Allaah?!”
From Aishah, may Allaah be pleased with her, that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “Indeed the devil comes to you and says, ‘Who created you?’ He says, ‘Allaah.’ He says, ‘So who created Allaah?’ So when one of you finds that [i.e., such whisperings], let him read, ‘I believe in Allaah and His Messengers,’ for verily that will leave him.” [Silsilah 116 Hasan]
From Abu Hurairah, may Allaah be pleased with him, who said, “The Prophet of Allaah صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “The devil comes to one of you and says, ‘Who created such and such? Who created such and such? Who created such and such?’ Until he says, ‘Who created your Lord?’ When he reaches that [level], then let one seek refuge with Allaah and refrain from such thoughts.” [Bukhaari and Muslim, Silsilah no. 117]
“The people are about to question each other, such that one of them will say, ‘(This saying of yours that) Allaah created the creation (is well-known), so who created Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic?’ When they say that, then say, ‘Allaah is One. Allaah is the Self-Sufficient Master. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none co-equal or comparable to Him.’ Then let him spit [dry-spit] to his left three times and seek refuge from the Devil.” [Silsilah 118 Hasan] [Trans. note: the additions in parentheses () were taken from Awn al-Ma’bood.]
Shaikh al-Albaani said, “These authentic hadiths show that it is incumbent upon the one to whom the Devil has whispered by saying, ‘Who created Allaah?’ to turn away from arguing with him and instead answer him with what has been reported in the aforementioned hadiths.
And the summary is that he should say:
آمَنْتُ بِاللهِ وَرُسُلِهِ
اللهُ أَحَدٌ اللهُ الصَّمَدُ
لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ
وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ
Āmantu billāhi wa rusulihi̱.
Allāhu Aḥad. Allāhus-Ṣamad.
Lam yalid, wa lam yūlad.
Wa lam yakullahū kufuwan aḥad.
‘I believe in Allaah and His Messengers.
Allaah is One. Allaah is the Self-Sufficient Master.
He begets not, nor was He begotten.
And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him.’
Then spit to his left three times and then seek refuge with Allaah from the Devil and finally refrain from drifting away with the whisperings.
And I believe that whoever does so, out of obedience to Allaah and His Messenger, being sincere in it, then the whisperings will certainly leave him. And his devil will be vanquished, due to his saying صلى الله عليه وسلم, “… for verily that will leave him.”
And this noble, prophetic instruction is more beneficial and more final in terminating the whisperings than logical argumentation in this issue. For indeed argumentation rarely benefits in issues such as it.
And what a pity it is that most people are ignorant of this precious, prophetic instruction!
So take heed, O Muslims!
And become acquainted with the Sunnah of your Prophet, and act upon it–for verily, in it is your cure and your honour.”
Silsilah, vol. 1, pp., 233-236.
July 3, 2011
From the Amazing Signs of the Hour
وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ لَا تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى تُكَلِّمَ السِّبَاعُ الإِنْسَ، وَحَتَّى تُكَلِّمَ الرَّجُلَ عَذَبَةُ سَوْطِهِ وَشِرَاكُ نَعْلِهِ وَتُخْبِرَهُ فَخِذُهُ بِمَا حَدَّثَ أَهْلُهُ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ
From Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri that the Messenger of Allaah صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “By Him in whose Hands is my soul! The Hour will not be established until the beasts of prey talk to people. And the tip of a man’s whip and the straps on his sandals speak to him. And his thigh informs him of what his family did after him.”
Silsilah | 122 | Saheeh
July 1, 2011
A Discussion Concerning the Difference of the Companions in Creed [Aqidah] | 2
Continuing from the first post.
Shaikh al-Albaani continues, “And a group called the mufowwidah can be found which is between these two.
They [incorrectly] do not believe or accept the apparent meaning of the proofs from the Book and the Sunnah which are connected to the Attributes [of Allaah] while declaring Him free of any likeness to His creation and not ascribing the qualities of the creation to Him [tanzeeh]. They do not perform ta’weel as the Khalaf do about whom we spoke earlier and who are the ones who say, ‘Indeed the madhhab of the Salaf is safer, but the madhhab of the Khalaf has more knowledge and is more precise.’
So the disagreement [with these groups] is not in the [subsidiary] parts, it is not possible to escape that, but rather in the foundational principle.
What is the rule that the Salaf go by?
It is to have that faith in everything reported from Allaah and His Messenger which includes believing in the apparent, clear, linguistic meanings [of the words reported] in the texts while declaring Him free of any likeness to His creation and not ascribing the qualities of the creation to Him [tanzeeh], as occurs in the Most High’s Saying–and this is a proof which is often used, “There is nothing like Him. And He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer.” [Shooraa 42:12]
So in this sentence our Lord the Mighty and Majestic firstly mentioned, “There is nothing like Him …” declaring Himself free from having any likeness to His creation and then He followed this negation of likeness with an affirmation, which is His Saying, “… And He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer.”
So now, when we want to tread upon the path of the Salaf, [we find that] they did not differ whatsoever in understanding [the meaning] of “… the All-Hearer, the All-Seer.” For the belief they held was that the attribute of Hearing is not like that of Seeing and that [in addition to this] both of the attributes are just like the rest of the Divine Attributes: we affirm them as they have been reported while differentiating between each one and while declaring Allaah, the Blessed and Most High, to be free of any likeness to anything from His creation [tanzeeh].
What is the stance of the Mu’tazilah, the ones who negate the Attributes? They take the first part of the aayah, “There is nothing like Him …” [believing in it] declaring Allaah to be free of any likeness to His creation and not ascribing the qualities of the creation to Him [tanzeeh]–but they went to extremes in this tanzeeh and they [ended up] negating the meaning. So they said the meaning of, “… And He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer,” is ‘The All-Knowledgeable.’
Thus they negated these two Attributes, because humans can hear and see and so they thought [that by affirming this it would mean that] they were the same [as Allaah]. And they thought that by fleeing from affirming these two Attributes they were performing tanzeeh without ta’teel [negation of the Attribute], but they didn’t notice that the thing which they thought they were fleeing from is what they fell into …
So there is, as the Shaikh of Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allaah have mercy on him, said, an association in the wording but no such real association [between Allaah and the creation] in the meaning.
The Attributes of Hearing and Seeing and the Eye, are three Attributes which our Lord, the Blessed and Most High, has been described with in the Quraan just like [He has been described with] the other Attributes mentioned in the Quraan.
But that does not mean that a person’s hearing, seeing and knowledge is like the Hearing, Seeing and Knowledge of Allaah.
For this reason, when the Mu’tazilah fled to this incorrect interpretation of the Hearing, Seeing and Knowledge [of Allaah], it is said to them that they negated two true and real Attributes from the Attributes of Allaah, the Blessed and Most High.”
June 30, 2011
A Discussion concerning the Difference of the Companions in Creed [Aqidah] | 1
باب الكلام حول خلاف الصحابة في العقيدة
Chapter Being a Discussion of the Difference of the Companions in the Islamic Creed [Aqidah]
Questioner: In the Name of Allaah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. [All] praise is [due] to Allaah, Lord of the worlds and may the peace and praise of Allaah be upon the Messenger of Allaah.
As for what follows:
The questioner says, ‘Noble Shaikh! You claim that creed is a matter which the Righteous Predecessors were united upon, yet along with that we find that there is difference between them in affirming an Eye or two Eyes.
Al-Albaani: Firstly, [what did you say], ‘You …’ what?
Questioner: You claim.
Al-Albaani: Claim, ok. Would that he worded it slightly more softly.
Questioner: … that creed is a matter which the Salaf were united upon yet along with that we find that there is a difference [of opinion] amongst them in affirming an Eye, or two Eyes, and the Shin. For it has been reported from Ibn Abbaas, may Allaah be pleased with them both, that he interpreted the Saying of Allaah the Most High, “The Day when the Shin shall be laid bare.” [Al-Qalam 68:42] to mean hardship and the suffering [of that Day].
The same is said about the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم seeing his Lord, the Majestic and Most High. Whoever affirms it then it is obligatory upon him to believe that, and whoever negates it then it is obligatory upon him to believe that which the negation means.
So what should our stance be, may Allaah reward you with good?
Al-Albaani: It was befitting that the question [be posed] without this warning, since I don’t think the questioner was relating my opinion and [thus] building the direction of his question upon that. That is because we are the ones who hold it to be religion that there is no difference between what is called usool and between what … [part of the recording is lost here]
… that they should be in agreement and united when they are able to. As for when it is possible that that may not be the case in the usool let alone the furoo [subsidiary issues] then the affair goes back to the mujtahid: if he had striven to come to the Truth and was correct he has two rewards, and if he made a mistake then he has one. As we said there is no difference in that between the usool and the furoo.
As for the claim that there is unity in all of the usool in contrast to the subsidiary issues [furoo] then I do not believe that this is something which a scholar would say with absolute certainty.
The most we can say is that the Salaf agreed that the foundation regarding the Attributes of Allaah which occur in the Book or the Sunnah is that they be taken as they are without any ta’weel–this is what it is possible to say they were united upon … but this does not negate the fact that some difference can occur in some of the issues connected to this methodology.
And it is true that difference occurred concerning the example which the questioner mentioned regarding the interpretation of the Shin.
But is there difference amongst these [people from the Salaf] who may have differed in some of those parts connected to creed or tawheed, is there difference amongst them in the principle foundation [al-asl] of the rule? The answer is no.
And this is the difference between the followers of the Salaf and the followers of those who came later [the Khalaf]. For this is the rule with the Salaf, i.e., to believe in everything that has been reported from Allaah and His Prophet without making ta’weel and without ta’teel.
As for the Khalaf, then the rule with them is ta’weel which is not submission/or the rule with them is not submission.
Click forherethe second part.
June 29, 2011
On Hizbut-Tahrir | End
Shaikh al-Albaani continues, “And I will finish my talk by mentioning a discussion that took place between one of the Salafees and another person who would call to the Book and the Sunnah but was not mindful of this addition, i.e., ‘following the path of the believers.’ And the call of the Islamic groups will not become correct except by adopting it as [their] ideology firstly, and secondly, by implementing it through action.
I said to him: This is a deficient answer.
He said: Why?
I said: Because every Muslim no matter how deviated he is or how upright says, ‘I am a Muslim.’ For example, we’ll start with the easiest first. When a hanafi is asked what his madhhab is and he doesn’t want to get himself into a debate, he will say, ‘My madhhab is Islaam,’ and the shaafi’ee will say the same, ‘I am a Muslim …’ and so on.
But the Hanafis say that faith [eemaan] does not increase or decrease, and the Shaafi’ees says that faith [eemaan] increases but does not decrease and so on. So your answer that you are a Muslim and that [person’s] answer that he is a Muslim does not specify your madhhab fully. So he understood and said, ‘Then I say that I am a Muslim upon the Book and the Sunnah.”
So I said to him: Likewise, all of the Muslims [say the same] even [the people mentioned] in the examples I just showed you, is there a Hanafi who says, ‘I am a Muslim [but] not on the Book and the Sunnah?’ Is there a Shaafi’ee who says, ‘I am not on the Book and the Sunnah?’ [Indeed] I say to you is there an Ibaadee from the Khawaarij present today in the land of the Muslims who says, ‘I am not on the Book and the Sunnah?’ Rather, is there a Shi’ite, is there a Raafidee who says, ‘I am not on the Book and the Sunnah?’ This is what was just explained.
All of the Muslims no matter how severe and numerous the differences between them, all of them say, “Upon the Book and the Sunnah.” But none of them say, “And upon the methodology of the Salaf as-Saalih,” except those who affiliate themselves to the methodology of the Salaf as-Saalih. And we say when we are asked, “I am a Salafi,” end of matter. Because the meaning of Salafi is: upon the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the Salaf as-Saalih.
When I explained this to him I said to him that it is not enough for you to say that I am a Muslim upon the Book and the Sunnah, because all of the groups and Jamaa’ahs say: upon the Book and the Sunnah.
He said, “Then I say, ‘I am upon the Book and the Sunnah …’ because after this lecture, or lectures he believed along with me … [so] he said, ‘I am upon the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the Salaf as-Saalih.”
So I said to him knowing that he was a writer and author, ‘Do you not find in your Arabic language that you have learnt, spoken with and authored in, words that will summarise this answer of yours: ‘I am a Muslim upon the Book and the Sunnah and upon the methodology of the Salaf as-Saalih?’
So he became silent. I said to him that when we say, ‘I am a Salafi,’ doesn’t this convey [the same meaning as] your long definition, ‘I am upon the Book and the Sunnah and ….?’
So he replied in the affirmative.
This is the reality of the Salafi call, and those are the mistakes of Hizb al-Tahrir, and all of the other groups … and it is only our circle that is wider than that of any such adopted by any group on the face of the earth.
I know that the system of Hizb al-Tahrir is that when an individual from their members adopts an opinion that opposes its opinion, i.e., opposes the stance taken by Hizb [al-Tahrir as a group] then he will be expelled and it will be said to him, ‘You are not from us.’
We do not say this.
I know for example, that from Hizb al-Tahrir’s ideology is that a woman has the right to vote and be voted for, so you will not find a Tahriri from their writers saying that it a woman’s field is not to enter into such affairs, which today are called politics, [but that] she has the right to learn that which befits her femininity, that which befits her delicacy, gentleness and so on.
As for her voting and being voted for, if a person from Hizb al-Tahrir adopted an opinion in which he opposed Hizb al-Tahrir then he will be expelled. As for us, then we accept Hizb al-Tahrir, and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Tablighi Jamaa’ah, but upon the basis of: “Say, “O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians): Come to a word that is just between us and you, that we worship none but Allah, and that we associate no partners with Him, and that none of us shall take others as lords besides Allah.” [Aali-Imraan 3:64].
So we call every Muslim to adopt this foundation, and there are many subdivions which branch off from it, many indeed. [And if they do so] then they will be with us, maybe they will differ with us in its implementation, because the implementation requires knowledge.
We say that very regrettably the Islamic groups do not give importance to the knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah yet along with that they want to establish an Islamic state while being ignorant of Islaam.
So we say, “Indeed in the Messenger of Allah you have a good example to follow for him who hopes in (the Meeting with) Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah much.” [Al-Ahzaab 33:21].
The Messenger of Allaah started by teaching the people, by calling them to aqidah [creed] first, then to [the matters of] worship and improving their manners secondly, and this is how it is befitting that history repeats itself.
And in this much there is sufficiency, and all praise is due to Allaah, the Lord of all worlds.”
Mawsoo’atul-Allaamah, al-Imaam, Mujaddidil-Asr, Muhammad Naasirid-Deen al-Albaani, of Shaikh Shady Noaman, vol. 1, pp. 230-254.
June 29, 2011
The Gates of Paradise and Hell
اَلْجَنَّةُ لَهَا ثَمَانِيَةُ أَبْوَابٍ، وَالْنَّارُ لَهَا سَبْعَةُ أَبْوَابٍ
From Utbah ibn Abd as-Sulami who said that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “Paradise has eight gates and the Fire has seven gates.”
Silsilah | 1812 | Authentic.
June 28, 2011
On Hizbut-Tahrir | 7
Translated by Ahmed Abu Turaab
Shaikh al-Albaani continues, “A question has come to me now and I wanted to delay it for later since it might cut off my train of thought yet even so I will not forestall the questioner, and will answer the question which is: there is a narration which says that when the Prophet was asked about the Saved Sect he replied by saying it was the Jamaa’ah.
Yes, this narration is authentic and we believe in it, but this narration [with the wording] “Jamaa’ah” is explained by the one we mentioned, because if we mention the word, “Jamaa’ah,” i.e., [as occurs in] this narration the question is about, then we must explain it with the explanation that has just passed.
So we will end this sitting by answering the last question. And I say: there are two narrations, when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was asked about the Saved Sect, he answered with two narrations.
The first is the one I mentioned just now, “That which I and my Companions are upon.” The other is the one the question is about, “It is the Jamaa’ah.”
But I feel as though the questioner thinks that based upon what she has read from the writings of Hizb at-Tahrir that this narration, i.e., that which mentions the Jamaa’ah goes against the narration which I spoke about.
So I say to her and to bring this answer which is in the negative closer to home: there is no disparity between the two narrations. Suppose now that the first narration, i.e., “That which I and my Companions are upon,” has no basis whatsoever and that the narration is, “The Jamaa’ah.” So we will say, “Who is the Jamaa’ah? Who is the Jamaa’ah today? Is it Hizb at-Tahrir? The Muslim Brotherhood? The Tableeghee Jamaa’ah?”
The answer is:
And everyone claims the love of Laylaa but Laylaa does not acknowledge it for them
The Jamaa’ah is, as has authentically been reported from Ibn Mas’ood, may Allaah the Most High be pleased with him, “Whoever is upon the Truth even if it is only one person.”
When Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, sent the Messengers and the Prophets as givers of good tidings and warners, they were individuals, [but] they were the Jamaa’ah.
Ibrahim was an Ummah on his own.
So whoever follows this Ummah, i.e., the Jamaa’ah, and in reality he was only one person in and of himself but he was the Jamaa’ah in his call, and whoever follows his way, traversing upon his path, then he is the Jamaa’ah even if he is only a single individual.
So now, [for argument’s sake and] upon the supposition that the first narration which described the Saved Sect did not exist at all, this Jamaa’ah is the path of the believers, the Jamaa’ah is the Jamaa’ah of the rightly-guided Caliphs.
So the hadith of al-Irbaad ibn Saariyah is not two narrations [as is the case here] such that it can be said or there can be doubt about it, as it is possible someone might want to doubt/distrust the narration, “That which I and my Companions are upon.” The Jamaa’ah is the Path of the Believers which I have just explained from the Book and the hadiths. So how does it harm us to explain the Jamaa’ah here with the first narration, “That which I and my Companions are upon?”
Because his Companions, his Companions (صلى الله عليه وسلم) are the believers whose opposers have been threatened with Hell in the aayah which I first cited as a proof [where I mentioned] that it is not enough to rely solely on the Book and the Sunnah, but that the path of the believers mentioned in the noble aayah must be added to that.
So whoever explains the Jamaa’ah mentioned in the hadith about the Saved Sect to mean that it is his group only without bringing any proof from the Book and the Sunnah for that: [proving] that he is upon what the first believers were upon, then he would have given it an interpretation other than the correct one, and would thus have explained this hadith incorrectly.”
The Albaani Site 