The story that happened to Al-Albani with a man who is claimed to be a wali (close friend of Allah).
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The Shaykh : As for me, I will tell you about an incident that happened to me personally. I was in Dayr 'Atiyyah, a village on the road to Aleppo, thirty or forty years ago. I was there staying the night, and we heard a knock on the window, not the door. So the host, the owner of the house, went out to see who was knocking. We heard him showing great enthusiasm and exaggeration in welcoming the man who had come. When we saw him, he said, "Welcome, Abu So-and-so." Myself and the people in the gathering, of course, wanted to see who this noble guest was. It was a surprise to me from him and to him from me, because we were two opposites who had met. I knew the man, and perhaps some of those present now share my acquaintance with him. He is from the 'Amara district. This man who entered used to sit always and forever next to the southwest corner of the al-Juzi Grand Mosque, in the square in front of my shop. In Ramadan, he would smoke openly. His clothes were tattered, his eyes were bulging and red, God knows from smoking hashish and tobacco. This man, the owner of the house believed he was a close friend of Allah, and therefore he welcomed him with excessive enthusiasm. When the man entered and was surprised to see me, he pretended to be a fool or a madman or possessed, as they say. He started bowing and prostrating without awareness and reciting words that, as the grammarians say, were an incomplete sentence, but strange words like "eggs and eggplants" and such words.
Eggs and eggplants, but what did he eat? Eggs? He did not mention anything, but he just mixed up his words. At that time, I opened my speech by saying, "Allah the Exalted said:[Yunus 10:62] Who are they? [Yunus 10:63-64] [Yunus 10:63] I commented on the words 'faith and righteousness,' and you do not need such a comment.
So, the summary is that the close friend of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the one who believes in Allah with firm belief in what came in the Book and the authentic Sunnah, and acts according to the rulings of the Shari'ah, both in obeying and avoiding. And without a doubt, I did not start speaking about this except to reach our guest, to say that there are people who pretend to be close friends of Allah, and they may bring about matters that are extraordinary, which some people think are miracles granted to a righteous person, but they are actually insults. I spoke at length on this matter, then I fell silent. Then I was surprised by the words of the host, a rational man. He said, "By Allah, Professor, we used to believe in this, just as you say, that the miracle granted to a righteous person and being a close friend of Allah is acting according to the Book and the Sunnah. The point is not here; the point is in what this man says about how he developed his correct belief into a false belief by the coming of a man who was from the people of the village and lived in al-Azhar al-Sharif for twenty years or so. He returned to them and taught them the opposite of Islam, that the 'muhabbil'—these, these—are the close friends of Allah, and "the stone, if it does not please you, it will break you".
He said, "We used to believe that this is faith and this is Islam, as we mentioned, until this Shaykh came to us. He started telling us stories and tales that summarize to the fact that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has people in whom He has a secret. If you look at them, you will not like their deeds, their words, or their actions, but these are among the great close friends of Allah. You will see them here abandoning prayer, but the five daily prayers are performed for them in the Sacred Mosque. You will see them breaking their fast, eating in Ramadan, but the truth is they are fasting. You see them breaking their fast like this."
These are absurdities and lies, but the important thing is the following story that the Shaykh from al-Azhar told the group, which turned the people of the village into people like these, who believe in superstitions and falsehoods that contradict the Shari'ah. What is the story? The Shaykh from al-Azhar said to the people of the village in his gatherings: "In the past, there was a man who was a noble scholar and one who enjoined good and forbade evil. He would count it as a good deed, going down to the market to enjoin good and forbid evil. Until one day he stopped at a perfumer who was selling forbidden, intoxicating hashish. He rebuked him, as was his habit in forbidding evil. The Shaykh from al-Azhar said to his companions: 'Barely had the Shaykh rebuked the seller of hashish when his mind was stripped from him, and he returned as if he were a beast, understanding nothing. His followers and students were around him, so they took him to his house while he was unaware of anything, like an animal. But they were concerned about the matter, so they started asking: How is the treatment? Whom do we ask? Whom do we seek to treat him?' And so on."
He said, "They were directed to a man with two wings, and this is equal to two catastrophes. 'A man with two wings' means he knows the Shari'ah and the reality, meaning the knowledge of the apparent and the knowledge of the hidden."
And this is among the deceptions that were introduced into Islam to allow the enemies of Islam to destroy Islam in the name of Islam.
What is this, my brother? This is reality. Reality is one thing and the Shari'ah is another.
What is this? This is from the knowledge of the hidden. The knowledge of the hidden is one thing and the knowledge of the apparent is another. So they were directed to a man with two wings, they claimed. They came to him and told him the story of their scholar. He quickly said to them, and here is the lesson: "That seller of hashish is a man among the great close friends of Allah. Therefore, your scholar was afflicted because of his objection to that close friend of Allah. I will reconcile the two opposites in his description: the close friend of Allah who is a hashish seller. This is the reality of his matter. He is a close friend of Allah, he is a seller of hashish. This close friend of Allah who is a hashish seller is among the great close friends of Allah in the eyes of these people. Therefore, the man with two wings advised the students of the scholar to take him, to lead him, while he is still like a beast, to that close friend of Allah, to that close friend of Allah who is a hashish seller, yes, and to ask him for pardon and forgiveness for their scholar, and to apologize on his behalf, until... himself. And so they did. Barely had the heart of the close friend of Allah who is a hashish seller become pleased with the scholar who acted according to his knowledge, and it was like a person who was sleeping and woke up."
Then the scholar, of course, became aware of his affliction and also apologized in his turn to the close friend of Allah who is a hashish seller. This story was told to me by the owner of the house about his Shaykh, the Shaykh of the village, and that stories like these made the village believe in such catastrophes and such nonsense.
Eggs and eggplants, but what did he eat? Eggs? He did not mention anything, but he just mixed up his words. At that time, I opened my speech by saying, "Allah the Exalted said:
Unquestionably, [for] the allies of Allah there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve
ألا إن أولياء الله لا خوف عليهم ولا هم يحزنون(63) Those who believed and were fearing Allah (64) For them are good tidings
الذين ءامنوا وكانوا يتقون لهم البشرىThose who believed and were fearing Allah
الذين ءامنوا وكانوا يتقونSo, the summary is that the close friend of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the one who believes in Allah with firm belief in what came in the Book and the authentic Sunnah, and acts according to the rulings of the Shari'ah, both in obeying and avoiding. And without a doubt, I did not start speaking about this except to reach our guest, to say that there are people who pretend to be close friends of Allah, and they may bring about matters that are extraordinary, which some people think are miracles granted to a righteous person, but they are actually insults. I spoke at length on this matter, then I fell silent. Then I was surprised by the words of the host, a rational man. He said, "By Allah, Professor, we used to believe in this, just as you say, that the miracle granted to a righteous person and being a close friend of Allah is acting according to the Book and the Sunnah. The point is not here; the point is in what this man says about how he developed his correct belief into a false belief by the coming of a man who was from the people of the village and lived in al-Azhar al-Sharif for twenty years or so. He returned to them and taught them the opposite of Islam, that the 'muhabbil'—these, these—are the close friends of Allah, and "the stone, if it does not please you, it will break you".
He said, "We used to believe that this is faith and this is Islam, as we mentioned, until this Shaykh came to us. He started telling us stories and tales that summarize to the fact that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has people in whom He has a secret. If you look at them, you will not like their deeds, their words, or their actions, but these are among the great close friends of Allah. You will see them here abandoning prayer, but the five daily prayers are performed for them in the Sacred Mosque. You will see them breaking their fast, eating in Ramadan, but the truth is they are fasting. You see them breaking their fast like this."
These are absurdities and lies, but the important thing is the following story that the Shaykh from al-Azhar told the group, which turned the people of the village into people like these, who believe in superstitions and falsehoods that contradict the Shari'ah. What is the story? The Shaykh from al-Azhar said to the people of the village in his gatherings: "In the past, there was a man who was a noble scholar and one who enjoined good and forbade evil. He would count it as a good deed, going down to the market to enjoin good and forbid evil. Until one day he stopped at a perfumer who was selling forbidden, intoxicating hashish. He rebuked him, as was his habit in forbidding evil. The Shaykh from al-Azhar said to his companions: 'Barely had the Shaykh rebuked the seller of hashish when his mind was stripped from him, and he returned as if he were a beast, understanding nothing. His followers and students were around him, so they took him to his house while he was unaware of anything, like an animal. But they were concerned about the matter, so they started asking: How is the treatment? Whom do we ask? Whom do we seek to treat him?' And so on."
He said, "They were directed to a man with two wings, and this is equal to two catastrophes. 'A man with two wings' means he knows the Shari'ah and the reality, meaning the knowledge of the apparent and the knowledge of the hidden."
And this is among the deceptions that were introduced into Islam to allow the enemies of Islam to destroy Islam in the name of Islam.
What is this, my brother? This is reality. Reality is one thing and the Shari'ah is another.
What is this? This is from the knowledge of the hidden. The knowledge of the hidden is one thing and the knowledge of the apparent is another. So they were directed to a man with two wings, they claimed. They came to him and told him the story of their scholar. He quickly said to them, and here is the lesson: "That seller of hashish is a man among the great close friends of Allah. Therefore, your scholar was afflicted because of his objection to that close friend of Allah. I will reconcile the two opposites in his description: the close friend of Allah who is a hashish seller. This is the reality of his matter. He is a close friend of Allah, he is a seller of hashish. This close friend of Allah who is a hashish seller is among the great close friends of Allah in the eyes of these people. Therefore, the man with two wings advised the students of the scholar to take him, to lead him, while he is still like a beast, to that close friend of Allah, to that close friend of Allah who is a hashish seller, yes, and to ask him for pardon and forgiveness for their scholar, and to apologize on his behalf, until... himself. And so they did. Barely had the heart of the close friend of Allah who is a hashish seller become pleased with the scholar who acted according to his knowledge, and it was like a person who was sleeping and woke up."
Then the scholar, of course, became aware of his affliction and also apologized in his turn to the close friend of Allah who is a hashish seller. This story was told to me by the owner of the house about his Shaykh, the Shaykh of the village, and that stories like these made the village believe in such catastrophes and such nonsense.