Questioner: A hadith reported from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that he said, “Indeed Allaah created the son of Aadam in the image of the Most Merciful [ar-Rahmaan]?”
Al-Albaani: [A] false [hadith [baatil]].
Questioner: False huh?
Al-Albaani: Yes.
Questioner: May Allaah reward you with good and have mercy on your parents.
Al-Albaani: May Allaah protect you.
Questioner: And those people who say that it is authentic?
Al-Albaani: Those who say it is authentic don’t know authentication.
Questioner: May Allaah reward you with good.
Al-Albaani: May Allaah protect you. The hadith is with the wording, “Indeed Allaah created Aadam in his image,’ not, ‘… in the image of The Most Merciful [ar-Rahmaan].’
Questioner: ‘…in his image,’ Aadam is the one who is intended here …
Al-Albaani: Listen. This is the famous wording, well-known in the two Sahihs, and a narration reported in Bukhaari explains the first one, [it being], ‘Allaah created Aadam in his image, his height being sixty cubits,’ so it is Aadam.
Questioner: Yes, yes, may Allaah reward you with good.
Al-Albaani: May Allaah protect you.
Questioner: Don’t forget us in your du’aa, O Shaikh, may Allaah reward you with good.
Al-Albaani: And you, likewise, don’t forget us in your du’aa for good.
Questioner: [I leave you] in the protection of Allaah.
Questioner: People strive to attain happiness, their ways in achieving it being diverse, if our Shaikh would clarify for the people some milestones in their path to attain it?
Al-Albaani: I don’t think there is any differing in this except among the philosophers.
Amongst the Muslims who believe in Allaah and His Messenger and who believe that there is no path to happiness in this life or the next except by clinging to Islaam there is no multiplicity of answers–[the only answer] is to cling to Islaam.
And vice versa, whoever wants misery should turn away from Islaam, and this is very clear from many verses, like His Saying, the Most High, in the well-known aayah, “And whoever turns away from My remembrance–indeed, he will have a depressed [i.e., difficult] life, and We will gather [i.e., raise] him on the Day of Resurrection blind. He will say, ‘My Lord! Why have you raised me blind while I was [once] seeing?’ He will say, ‘Thus did Our signs come to you, and you forgot [i.e., disregarded] them–and thus will you, this Day, be forgotten.’” [Taa Haa 20:124-126]
But the thing we must pay heed to, something which is a very big reality and painful from another angle due to many of the Muslims lacking it, many of them [lacking it] in terms of knowledge and some of them practically, is that Islaam with the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of Allaah’s Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم upon the understanding of the Salaf as-Saalih is the cure for all diseases and psychological illnesses which have afflicted a people who have not tasted happiness.
Islaam derived from the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the Salaf as-Saalih is the cure.
But the thing I want to mention now is that many alien matters have entered this cure, which, if we don’t say have corrupted it completely then at the very least have prevented it from being an absolute one, [and I’m referring here to] those things which have come into Islaam which are not a part of it, whether they be in creed, worship, behaviour or manners, and due to these things which have afflicted it, this Islaam is turned inside out … its effect is not manifested in the community that practices it.
So the fault is not with Islaam but rather those things that have been added to it.
That is why we always and forever insist on saying that if we want this happiness, there is no way to it, as we already mentioned, except through Islaam–but not, if the expression be correct, Islaam with an ‘elastic’ understanding but with the special understanding based upon the Book, the Sunnah and the methodology of the Salaf as-Saalih.
It is then that it, and nothing else, will be the spring of happiness.
Whatever the case, I hold that questions like this are studied in universities which do not specialize, in fact, do not give importance to studying Islaam, but are concerned with studying general culture whether that be Islaam, or philosophy, or secularism or things like it [i.e., they don’t know that happiness is found in following the true Islaam so they spend time trying to find other ways to achieve it].
Amongst the Muslims, the understanding is that there is no happiness except by clinging to Islaam–I just wanted to add [through this answer the point about] clinging to Islaam with its correct understanding …
Interjector: O Shaikh! I had taken a booklet from you which I photocopied, called, ‘Useful Ways of Leading a Happy Life,’ by Shaikh ’Abdur-Rahmaan ibn Naasir as-Sa’di [who was Shaikh Uthaimeen’s teacher, may Allaah have mercy on them both], even though it is only a few pages long, it’s a very great book, O Shaikh.
Al-Albaani: Maa shaa Allaah.
Interjector: If a person was depressed, sad, ill at ease, overburdened with sorrow, and read it, subhaanallaah! Namely, if the expression is allowed, it’s as though it’s magic.
Al-Albaani: Maa shaa Allaah.
Interjector: Yes, by Allaah, ‘Useful Ways of Leading a Happy Life,’ truly amazing, O Shaikh. [Click here for the book]
Al-Albaani: You should read it.
Interjector: It is great, subhaanallaah! By Shaikh ’Abdur-Rahmaan ibn Naasir as-Sa’di. [Click here for his website]
Questioner: There is an authentic hadith which states that at the start of every hundred years [Allaah will raise someone] who will revive this Ummah’s religion for it, is it a condition that these revivers [Mujaddids] be from Ahlus-Sunnah or not?
Al-Albaani: No doubt. It is a fundamental condition and this is the reality that I hold [to be the case]. In my opinion, this question is like if someone were to ask–and I hope that such a question does not actually emanate from a questioner—it’s like if someone were to ask, ‘Is it a condition that he be a Muslim?’ Naturally, such a question will not be asked, ‘Is it a condition that a reviver [mujaddid] be a Muslim?’ I think this will never occur to someone [to ask].
As for whether it is a condition that he be from Ahlus-Sunnah, then such a question may occur to some people, and for this reason it was raised just now.
The answer is that he definitely has to be from Ahlus-Sunnah, and [by saying that he has to be from] Ahlus-Sunnah, I don’t mean that he has to be from the scholars … but rather that he be upon the methodology of Ahlus-Sunnah and not deviated from the path which has come to us from the Salaf as-Saalih, may Allaah be pleased with them, this is a must, but the reviver [mujaddid]—and even though this [point] is not connected to the question I still believe that there is a huge benefit in it—it is not a condition that the reviver be a reviver of the religion only, rather he can be a reviver in everything which benefits the Muslims. So he could, for example, be a reviver in history, a reviver in medicine—but within the aforementioned parameters, i.e., of being from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah.
So based upon this, in the end we can picture that during one time there can be more than one reviver, when we take this wide meaning into consideration, it is possible for me to picture, at one period, a gathering of a number of revivers, each one in his own specialist field.
The Imaam said, “Know that ‘as-Samr,’ which is to talk at night, is prohibited in more than one hadith [reported] from him صلى الله عليه وسلم [unless it is concerning knowledge as the Shaikh clarifies].
So what the majority of people today do in spending the night awake in front of the television and things like it is from the tribulations which have afflicted the Islamic world in the present age.
We ask Allaah for safety from all tribulations, both apparent and hidden, indeed He is the All-Hearing, the Responsive.”
Questioner: Tell me your opinion regarding the Ansaarus-Sunnahal-MuhammadaiyyahJamaa’ah [in Egypt] and then after that I will ask you the rest of the question [that I have].
Al-Albaani: Take their knowledge and/but leave their actions.
Questioner: Huh?
Al-Albaani: Take their knowledge and leave their actions, take their knowledge and leave the actions of individuals from them, have you understood me? This is enough for you, this is enough for you … as-salaamu alaikum.
“I ask Allaah to protect me and you from fanatical ‘madhhabism’, and that He grants us and you success in following the truth whoever it is with and that we go wherever it does.”
Renouncing some of the fanatical Hanafis, the Shaikh said, “[This is] enough twisting and turning, O people, in defence of your Imaam even though he is not to blame, because he stopped at what he knew, so you have to follow what is established in the Sunnah, for it is the foundation. And if it [i.e., a particular proof] eluded your Imaam then it hasn’t eluded you, and through it, the proof has been established against you.”
“Honouring the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in the legislated manner is done by believing in everything that has been authentically affirmed from him, and by doing so, belief in him being both a slave and Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم is brought together, without going to extremes or falling short.
For he صلى الله عليه وسلم is a man, according to the testimony of the Book and the Sunnah—but the Chief of Man and, unequivocally, the best of them according to the texts of the authentic hadiths, and as his life’s chronicles and biography prove, and due to the noble manners and praiseworthy characteristics that Allaah the Most High bestowed upon him which were not perfected in any man as they were in him صلى الله عليه وسلم, and Allaah the Most Great spoke the Truth when He addressed him with His Noble Statement, “And verily, you are on an exalted [standard of] character.”” [Qalam 68:4]
“The one who prefers taking an oath by someone apart from Allaah over taking an oath by Allaah has made him a partner with Allaah, and unfortunately most of the Muslims do not know this type of shirk.”
Questioner: Okay, O Shaikh, regarding what is happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina, may Allaah protect it and the Muslims from evil, some Bosnian Muslim women have started to kill themselves and commit suicide when they come to know that the unbelievers or the Serbs are going to commit fornication with them, is that allowed?
Al-Albaani: It is not allowed.
Questioner: Even in their case?
Al-Albaani: It is not allowed.
Questioner: And the solution, what is it, they should defend themselves?
Al-Albaani: Yes.
Questioner: Even if it leads to fornication being committed with them?
Al-Albaani: The answer to this has already finished: even if.
Questioner: Is it allowed to backbite someone who is defiantly disobedient [a faasiq] in order to warn against him and so as not to fall into trials [fitnah] like fornication and stealing?
Al-Albaani: Naturally, [that is] the least that can be said, otherwise it is obligatory.
Questioner: During tawaaf for Umrah [as part of Hajj] someone tried to prevent an incorrect act, which was that someone else was touching and kissing the standing place of Ibraahim [Maqaam]–but the way he stopped this act was with harshness and he raised his voice and also hit [the other person]. Can the Hajj of this person be regarded as a correct and valid one [mabroor]? Bearing in mind that the person asking the question has repented to Allaah, and is ardently waiting for an answer? He hit the other person … it reached such an extent that he hit the other person …
Al-Albaani: Wasthe one who was performing Hajj the one who struck [the other person] or the one who was hit?
Questioner: Both of them … it was during tawaaf.
Al-Albaani: Namely,they were both performing Hajj?
Questioner: Yes. It was during the tawaaf of the Umrah [which is part of Hajj at-Tamattu], one of them disapproved of what the other was doing but he didn’t respond so he hit him.
Al-Albaani: Naturally, this is not compatible whatsoever with the Prophet’s عليه السلام saying … in fact, [it is not compatible whatsoever with] the verse, “So whoever has made Hajj obligatory upon himself therein there is [to be for him] no sexual relations and no disobedience and no disputing during Hajj,”[Baqarah 2:197] since firstly, enjoining the good and preventing the evil shouldn’t be done with cruelty or harshness, especially when most people do not know [the truth].
We should regard the people as being ill and that they are in need of being treated with kindness, sympathy and mercy and not with cruelty or harshness. This is as a general rule. So what is the situation when we are, firstly, talking about [such harshness occurring during] Hajj, and, secondly, [that it occurred] in the Masjid al-Haraam?
There is no doubt that this action of his has nothing at all to do with a correct Hajj [mabroor].
Questioner: Did the Messengers fall into minor sins?
Al-Albaani: Before answering this question right away, [I’d like to say that] I believe it is a non-issue as they say today, because it is not connected to methodology or to the rectification of our aqidah or actions. It is only something connected to those Messengers or Prophets who preceded the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, so I do not hold that questions like this should be given much notice, but [having said that] we have to answer it to disclose the knowledge we have regarding this issue.
We believe that the unequivocal infallibility of the Prophets and Messenger is, firstly, regarding conveying the da’wah, and, secondly, from knowingly falling into major sins.
As for falling into minor sins which do not result in anything except [to show] an absence of absolute perfection then there is no harm in some of that occurring by the Prophets and Messengers–and this is so that it remains established in the hearts of the believers that absolute perfection is for Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds, Alone, Who has no partner.
And there are many parts and proofs in the Quraan establishing this reality concerning more than one Prophet or Messenger. [For example] the story of Aadam عليه السلام when the Lord of the Worlds prohibited him from eating from the tree, and His Saying, “And Adam disobeyed his Lord and erred.”[Taa Haa 20:121], and the Noble Quraan saying concerning our Prophet عليه السلام, “He frowned and turned away,” [Abasa 80:1]“May Allaah pardon you, [O Muhammad]. Why did you give them permission [to remain behind]?”[Tawbah 9:43]. All of this proves that it is possible that a Prophet may be susceptible to minor sins which do not befit the rank of Prophethood–but are they blemished by that? The answer is no, because these are human traits.
[For example]: is a Prophet or Messenger criticised for being susceptible to that which people in general are susceptible to, like making an unintentional mistake or forgetting? We say no, there is nothing preventing the fact that a Messenger or Prophet may be susceptible to such things, because such things do not affect the station of da’wah which the Messengers were sent to all mankind with.
So his saying عليه السلام reported by the two Shaikhs from Abdullaah ibn Mas’ood, may Allaah be pleased with them both, [in which he stated that] the Prophet prayed five rak’ahs for the midday prayer, so when he gave salaam they said, ‘You prayed five,’ so he performed two prostrations of forgetfulness and then said عليه السلام, ‘I am only a man like you, I forget as you do, so when I forget, remind me.’ [Bukhari and Muslim]
So it does not harm the status of Prophethood or that of being a Messenger that something should transpire from them which had it not would have been more perfect–but absolute perfection is for Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic.
It would be more perfect if the Messenger عليه السلام did not forget, but Allaah’s Wisdom necessitated that he did, but this forgetting does not affect the da’wah because he does not forget that which is connected to conveying the message [da’wah], and our Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, points to this reality by His Saying, the Most High, “We will make you recite and you will not forget, except what Allaah should will,”[A’laa 87:6-7] like [for example] an aayah which he had conveyed to the people which he might forget, i.e., he has conveyed the Message and fulfilled the trust [that was upon him] … it is possible that after performing this obligatory conveyance [of the Message] the Messenger عليه السلام may forget something which he had [previously] conveyed to them, as occurs in Sahih Bukhari where he entered the mosque one day and heard a person reciting the Quraan and so said, ‘May Allaah have mercy on so and so, he reminded me of an aayah I had been made to forget.’
So the Prophet’s forgetting عليه السلام an aayah like this does not harm that which is connected to conveying it–because he already has–and that is why that person was able to recite it, and when he did, the Messenger عليه السلام remembered it.
So such forgetfulness does not harm him.
Likewise, some of the Prophets and Messengers falling into some minor sins does not harm them, because it does not turn those who are being called away from their call in opposition to falling into major sins, and for this reason, they are too exalted from falling into major sins to the exclusion of minor sins.
Al-Albaani: In the form Allaah created them in, no. In forms which they may imitate, then of course.
And Ai’ishah, may Allaah be pleased with her, and others saw Jibreel in the form of Dihyah al-Kalbi. As for seeing Jibreel in his original form, then that was not granted to anyone except the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
Questioner: Our Shaikh, are there people from the Companions who will be called to account and then punished and who will then enter Paradise? Are any of them of such levels?
Al-Albaani: Why are you concerned about that? [Lit: what concerns you about that question?]
Questioner: Wallaahi, it’s a question that came to mind.
Al-Albaani: I don’t think it crossed your mind … [starts laughing]
Questioner: [laughs]
Al-Albaani: From some angles these are whisperings [of the Devil, waswasah] … why are you concerned about that … why are you concerned about that … does it have a connection to your aqidah? [Is it] something which you will correct [your aqidah] with?
Ask about what is relevant to you, Yaa akhi, because this is a door Shaitaan enters through.
“There used to be a fig tree in his house in Amman [Jordan], from which he would take figs while seated on his balcony. He would do so by using a long stick that he had devised where he had split and overlapped it so that he controlled how long or short he wanted it. At its end he placed a sharp, pointed cup, so that when he touched them with the tip of the stick, the figs would fall into the cup.”
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 111.
Questioner: If I have turned to [wanting to practise] the religion and have no knowledge and an Islamic group asks me to go out with them for da’wah and some brothers at the mosque warn me stating that this jamaa’ah is called the Tableeghi Jamaa’ah and it is not right for me to go out with them because they have corrupt beliefs, what should I do?
Al-Albaani: Seek knowledge, what’s the problem, seek knowledge.
Questioner: Ya’ni, is it permissible for me to go out with them now?
Al-Albaani: Their going out is not from the Sunnah. Their sitting in the mosques and seeking knowledge and studying the Book of Allaah as occurs in the authentic hadith, that is what is legislated. As for their going out like this in groups, and most of them only know very little about Islaam, this is something which they have opposed the Muslims from the time of the Prophet to this day in.
Before this time, thirty or forty years ago, there was no Jamaa’ah that would go out like this with tens or hundreds of people without even a single scholar found amongst them.
The people of knowledge are widespread in Jordan and Syria and we advise these people to sit in the gatherings of knowledge and to learn, and this is what we advise you with too. We say to you: attend the gatherings of knowledge, the sittings of knowledge and learn.
As for this going out [khuruj]–it has no basis in the Sunnah.
He said, “I bought a bicycle to ride and it was the first time the Damascenes saw such a spectacle: a turbaned Shaikh riding a bicycle!
They were astonished at such a sight.
There used to be a magazine called Al-Mudhik al-Mubki1 which a Christian man would publish, he mentioned this incident among the witty jokes [therein, but] I wouldn’t care about these petty issues—all that concerned me was time.”
1A comedic magazine published in Damascus by a journalist called Habeeb Kahaalah. In each edition he would print a picture which would be the talk of the town for the whole week.
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 111.
Questioner: A questioner says, ‘When some scholars give a religious verdict [fatwaa] in a certain issue and another group of scholars give a verdict which is the opposite of the first, which one should the common Muslim follow?’
Al-Albaani: The common Muslims must have a general education … the common masses must have a general, Islamic education; by ‘general education’ I mean the one which it is obligatory on every Muslim to know even if he is from the common masses, that he know the truth is not pluralistic.
So when, as occurs in the question, there are two contradictory statements, this common Muslim must call to mind that one of them is correct and the other is a mistake, due to His Saying, the Mighty and Majestic, “So after the truth, what else can there be, save error?” [Yunus 10:32]
So when he brings this principle to mind it will motivate him to ask the people of knowledge, ‘You say it’s permissible … and you say it’s not … what’s your proof? And what’s your proof?’ This will open up a path to understanding and awareness and then he can choose what he feels at ease with and what his heart opens up to, and he will be rewarded.
As for him going against this legislated principle and saying as many of the people today do that, ‘Whoever blindly follows a scholar will meet Allaah safe and sound,’ [then] where has this sentence come from? It is not in the Book of Allaah and nor in a hadith from Allaah’s Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم, it’s only a sentence [prevalent] on the tongues of the common folk, ‘Whoever blindly follows a scholar will meet Allaah safe and sound …’ no.
Rather whoever follows Allaah’s Guidance is the one who is rightly guided, and whoever goes astray then it goes against himself, I just said to you now that Allaah said, “So ask the people of the message if you do not know,” [Nahl 16:43] He said, “… the people of the message [dhikr] …” hereby the word ‘message’ [dhikr] what is not intended is the dhikr which some of the ignorant Sufis are familiar with, dancing while doing dhikr and going crazy in it, and they call it, as he عليه السلام said regarding something else [but which still applies here], “… they will name it with other than its [real] name …” they call dancing and ecstasy [tawaajud] the remembrance of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic, but on the contrary it is play and amusement, in addition to another sin, which is to call things by names other than their legislated ones.
So the dhikr mentioned in the verse is the Quraan, as He the Mighty and Majestic said, “And We revealed to you the message [i.e., the Quraan] that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them …” [Nahl 16:44] so the dhikr here is the Quraan, “So ask the people of the message if you do not know.”
And there is another caveat for this questioner [to bear in mind] here: this person says [the thing being discussed is] permissible and that one says it’s not permissible, Yaa akhi, are these people really scholars? Are they scholars of the Book of Allaah and the hadith of His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم? Or do they differ most greatly? This one giving a fatwa according to the Book of Allaah and the hadith of His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم and that [other] one maybe walking on all fours, i.e., not walking according to the Book or the Sunnah but only according to the four madhhabs, taking whatever he fancies from them.
What a difference there is between these two.
For this reason, it is fitting that the common Muslim—and [when] I say, ‘The common Muslim,’ [it] doesn’t mean that he doesn’t understand … no, if he couldn’t understand it would mean he is mad, and if he was mad then he would not be accountable—but [on the contrary] he can understand, it’s only that he is not a scholar—thus, he must use his intellect, so when two statements come to him, one of them will have come from someone who is not a scholar, and so such a statement has no weight, and thus the first opinion stands.
And it may happen and we do not deny it: that both of them may be scholars of the Book and the Sunnah but the issue may be a disputed or controversial one, and this happens as it did in the past, and it can happen today, here the common Muslim must use his brain and strip away his desires and not follow them which would be something that would lead him away from Allaah’s Path, and he عليه السلام, “The mujaahid is the one who strives against his desires for the Sake of Allaah.”
But most regretfully, when the elite, the elite of the people today seek out the fatwa which suits them … he will say to you—Yaa akhi, and all of them say that they go back to the sayings of Allaah’s Messenger—[but then] he takes whatever suits him from these madhhabs, [if this is the case with the elite] what are we to say about the common folk then? And as was said:
If the man of the house is beating the daff, those living in it will dance along.
So if this is the case with the elite, except for those whom Allaah has had mercy on, and how few they are, then what will the state of the general folk be?
I remind the elite and the general masses that the religion is not desires but rather knowledge, and it is upon the general folk to learn how to ask questions.
And maybe in some of these blessed, inshaa Allaah, gatherings I have on more than one occasion mentioned that hadith narrated by Abu Dawud in his Sunan that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم sent a detachment to fight in the Way of Allaah, whereupon one of them received wounds to his body, when he awoke in the morning, he found that he needed to take a ghusl, and so he asked those around him whether they knew of an excuse for him not to have to bathe, they said no, that he must take a ghusl, so he did and died because when the water got on his wounds they festered … and so on and his temperature rose and he died.
When news about what happened to him reached the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he became extremely angry عليه الصلاة والسلام and said, “They killed him, may Allaah kill them,” i.e., the ones who gave the fatwa that he had to take a ghusl were the reason for his death, “They killed him, may Allaah kill them,should they not have asked if they didn’t know?! Verily the cure for ignorance is to question! It would have been enough for him had he performed tayammum.”
So, those [Companions] gave him a fatwa without knowledge, so we take a lesson from this hadith, that it is not fitting for the common folk to ask [just] anyone who claims knowledge, or who it is claimed has knowledge, but rather, O Muslim, the person who you know does not give fatwas except based upon, ‘Allaah said … Allaah’s Messenger said,’ such a person is the one you should direct your question to, as for those people who say what they do not do, and who give fatwas that aren’t based upon the Book and the Sunnah, then such people are not scholars.
And these are the people the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم foretold [us] about when he said, as occurs in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim from the hadith of Abdullaah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas, may Allaah the Most High be pleased with them both, that, ‘Allaah’s Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “Verily, Allaah does not take away knowledge by snatching it from the breasts of the scholars, but He takes it away by taking away the scholars such that when no scholar remains the people take the ignorant ones as leaders and so they are asked and give religious verdicts without knowledge and [thus] are misguided and lead others astray [too].”
This is the state of affairs of many of those in places of responsibility today who it is thought are from the people of knowledge [but who really aren’t], and so the commoner who asks [them] a question becomes confused: ‘This one says haraam and that one says halaal, or this one says obligatory and that one says sunnah,’ or other such things from the issues which are disputed.
A process of purification must be carried out in the minds of all the common folk: the scholar of the Book and the Sunnah must be filtered from the one who, as some of the witty people in our country Syria say, ‘The scholars are of two types. One is a scholar-doer, the other is the doer-scholar!’ The ‘scholar-doer’ i.e., is a scholar who acts upon his knowledge, and the ‘doer-scholar’ is the one who does things and whose status is that of a scholar but who has nothing whatsoever to do with knowledge.
And unfortunately this is present, and whoever doesn’t know, let him go and try [and he’ll see how true what I am saying is].
Ask whoever you want from those who you think are from the people of knowledge well-known amongst the people, and I will not name them even if only by title, ask whoever you want, even though it [i.e., a certain situation] may be a fiqh issue in which there is difference of opinion, he will answer you according to the madhhab he grew up on, was nurtured on, and became old on, he will give you a fatwa according to it, and then you will say, ‘What’s the proof?’ And he will say [rhetorically], ‘We are people of proof? How can we understand the proof?’ This is if he is forthright [admitting that he doesn’t know the proof], but if he is someone who hides things, he will say, ‘How are you going to perceive the proof?’ So he covers his own ignorance by declaring others to be ignorant.
This, unfortunately, is the reality of many people today, and the One whose Aid is sought is Allaah.
Questioner: What is the correct view regarding al-Hajjaaj ibn Yusuf ath-Thaqafi? Was he a kaafir?
Al-Albaani: Even though we attest to the fact that al-Hajjaaj was a profligate oppressor, we do not know that he denied anything known to necessarily be from the religion. So it is not allowed to declare him to be a disbeliever based only on the fact that he was wicked, oppressed and killed innocent Muslims.
Questioner: A man that Allaah has put to trial through his aged father who does not abstain from sinning, like listening to singing, looking at women dancers and disparaging some of the Companions, and when he advises him he doesn’t listen, so is he sinful if he angers him when he does that which contradicts the legislation?
Al-Albaani: It is not allowed for the son to anger his parents. Rather it is only for him to advise them both, acting in accordance with the obligation of advising from one angle and due to His Saying, “And your Lord has decreed that you not worship except Him, and to parents, good treatment,” [Israa 17:23] from another.
Al-Albaani: The reality is that the case with every beginner student of knowledge, and I was like that and probably still am, I used to read this hadith and it would be problematic, because in some narrations [there occurs], “There is nothing between a man and disbelief except abandoning the prayer. So whoever abandons the prayer has disbelieved,” and in some narrations, “… then he has committed shirk.”
Interjection: Subhaanallaahil-Adheem.
Al-Albaani: I used to ask how can he have committed shirk? Yaa akhi, this person who has left praying, especially the one who does so out of laziness, how has he committed shirk?
I used to think that maybe there was a mistake on behalf of the narrator [of the hadith], I was a student of knowledge, then later our Lord granted me success in understanding, even if it was when I was older alhamdulillaah, [he granted me success in understanding it] such that I recognized that legislatively, as opposed to linguistically, there is no difference between kufr and shirk.
So all kufr is shirk and all shirk is kufr there is no difference between them legislatively, linguistically there is, because in the language kufr means to cover. Shirk is to make something a partner of another, like the polytheists who make equals with Allaah.
But later I came to recognise that every unbeliever, even if he wasn’t a polytheist linguistically, he was in reality. No unbelieveris free from being anything but a polytheist [mushrik], our Lord said, “Have you seen he who has taken as his god his [own] desire?”[Jaathiyah 45:23] He took as his god his own desires, so, everyone who follows his desires has made it a partner with Allaah, thus, any kufr–[for example] if someone were to reject a letter from the Noble Quraan it would mean that he has put his intellect in charge and has taken it as a god and it is from this angle that the shirk has come.
So, the one who said that all disbelief is polytheism and all polytheism is disbelief spoke truthfully, not like the one who says that not all kufr is shirk like you heard from at-Tahawi.
In reality this is knowledge which is very rare and is something through which many, many problems are resolved, from them being the verse, “Indeed, Allaah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills.”[Nisaa 4:48]
I read [a mention of] a problem about this verse in the Al-Manaar magazine which Sayyid Rashid Rida used to publish. An objection came his way which stated that the meaning of the aayah is that these unbelieving Europeans who believe in ‘nature’, they call it nature, i.e., that this universe has a creator and who do not know any more than that, it is possible that Allaah will forgive them because they are not polytheists. And so Sayyid Rashid Rida at that time was not able to give an answer like this one which if he had known then would have been the conclusive judgement, [i.e., that] all kufr is shirk and all shirk is kufr.
“The point from this hadith is that it gives us a new benefit which was not mentioned in the previous one, and this is how it is obligatory on every researching faqeeh of the Sunnah to collect and gather all of the hadiths reported concerning an issue so that by doing so he has a complete case without any deficiency.
[So] here the Prophet عليه السلام tells us by saying, “For surely, he who lives from amongst you will see much differing,” … it’s as though someone asked [him a question] but the reality is that no-one did … because Allaah عز وجل inspires His Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to answer before someone asks … it’s as though a questioner said, ‘O Messenger of Allaah! When we see this differing which you are informing us about by your saying that, “For surely, he who lives from amongst you will see much differing,” what should we do, O Messenger of Allaah, when we see this much differing, what should we do?’
So he عليه الصلاة والسلام answered them without being asked as we just said, [saying], “It is upon you to be upon my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs,” to the end of the hadith.
Thus, salvation from any division and from any difference which occurs between the Muslims is to turn back to the path of the first believers, since he عليه السلام said in a clear, Arabic tongue, that when you see the differing, “It is upon you to be upon my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.”
So do the Muslims who fall into a disputed issue today go back and comply with this order of his عليه السلام and other [such orders] that have been mentioned in the Quraan and the Sunnah? [That] when you see some differing, “It is upon you to be upon my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs,” [do the Muslims comply with this today?]
Unfortunately, the answer is that few are the ones who [actually] do that amongst the Muslims, and they are the ones who greatly aspire after two things which cannot be split or separated, and they are, firstly, knowing the Sunnah which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was upon and then, secondly, to crave after implementing it themselves and then amongst those who[se company] they enjoy and then those who live around them and so on.
[So] now we are discussing one issue which is that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم censured innovation universally, all innovation in the religion–so have the Muslims stood by this universal censure of every innovation connected to worship in Islaam or have they differed concerning it?
The reality is that they have differed, because I believe that the students of knowledge amongst you, in fact, even those of you who listen to knowledge [being imparted even though you may not be dedicated students of knowledge and who do so] in compliance with the narration reported from Mu’aadh ibn Jabal, may Allaah the Most High be pleased with him, who said, ‘Be a scholar, or a student, or someone who listens to knowledge, but don’t be the fourth and end up being destroyed.’
So you are either students of knowledge or at the very least you are from those people who sit in the gatherings of knowledge so you must have someday heard that statement that is made on such occasions, ‘Whatever the Muslims hold to be good is good,’ and in addition to that some of them say, ‘No, my brother, in Islaam there are good innovations, so how can you say that, ‘Every innovation is misguidance?’
It is obligatory that the Muslim who really wants to comply with the verse we are in the middle of explaining [understands] this point, [the verse being], “So whoever would hope for the meeting with his Lord, let him do righteous work …”[Kahf 18:110]–so the innovations which are foreign/have been added to Islaam have nothing whatsoever to do with Islaam, and [thus] naturally, have nothing whatsoever to do with righteous work [as mentioned in the verse].
So a Muslim who tries to get closer to Allaah عز وجل with something Allaah has not legislated on the tongue of His Messenger [should know that] that action is not righteous and as a result it is an action which you cannot hope to be saved by on the Day of Resurrection.”
Questioner: We hear a lot about the Ash’aris but we don’t know about them or their actions except that they misinterpret the Attributes [of Allaah], so could you tell us more about them?
Al-Albaani: The Ash’arimadhhab is a madhhab in aqidah, likewise is the Maaturidimadhhab. They share with the People of Hadith the fact that they believe in some of the Attributes in opposition to the Mu’tazilah, so they are with the [Ahlus]-Sunnah in some things and with the Mu’tazilah in others.
And I advise the students of knowledge not to busy themselves with becoming acquainted with opinions that oppose the Sunnah, on the contrary, I advise them to learn the Sunnah and the correct aqidah. After that, if the opportunity arises and they are able to become acquainted with the madhhabs that oppose that of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Hadith and are able to refute them and defend the madhhab of Ahlus-Sunnah, then they do so, and if not, then it is enough for them to know the madhhab of the truth and it is not upon them, after that, to become acquainted with what opposes this madhhab.
Questioner: There’s a very big issue relating to aqidah, namely the Ash’aris, we find that a lot of universities in Arab countries study the Ash’ariaqidah, and we ask Allaah for safety, we find that the aqidah is not in agreement with Ahlus-Sunnah, and this is something that is hidden from many, and many students of knowledge argue about this issue without knowledge even though the scholars, major scholars have differed so it is obligatory that the students of knowledge …
Al-Albaani: This, unfortunately, is the case today, but, “… whoever Allaah wants to guide–He expands his breast to [contain] Islaam,”[An’aam 6:125], and the poet said, ‘And whoever wants loftiness, spends his nights awake,’ i.e., a person who wants to know the truth concerning those things the people have differed in has to strive, and he has to study, if he is a person of knowledge he can study himself, and if he is not then it is as He, the Most High, said, “So ask the people of the message if you do not know.” [Nahl 16:43]
This is enough for now, my son. As-salaamu alaikum.
Questioner: May Allaah reward you with good. Regarding mentioning [Allaah’s] Names and Attributes, some people say that the callers to Allaah must not speak about this issue in front of the common masses and riffraff, because delving into such things leads to placing doubt in them, so how true is this statement?
Al-Albaani: We say to these people: then you [find and] speak about something in front of the common folk which is better than that, you speak about something which is better than that.
And if talking about that does not impress you then you have to speak about something which does other than that, and if you can’t [find something better than Allaah’s Names and Attributes to talk about]–and you won’t be able to–then you will hear what will not please you and this is the thing that doesn’t please you, [but] what is important is that it pleases your Lord. And this is what has reached us from the Salaf’s knowledge and what we hold as religion before Allaah.
And the common folk, as I said to you just now, are upon the natural inborn inclination [that Allaah created man on, al-fitrah], when it is said to them that, ‘[Allaah is] not above, and not below …’ [as the deviant sects say when explaining Allaah’s Names and Attributes] their hearts disapprove of that, but when it is said to them that, ‘Allaah is above all of His creation and there is no created thing above Him,’ [as is the aqidah of the Salaf], then this is what goes with the sound inborn inclination [that Allaah created them on], “… the fitrah of Allaah which He has created [all] people upon.” [Rum 30:30].
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