Discussion by some students with Shaykh Al-Albani regarding the issue of the prohibition of drinking while standing.

The student : But there are other hadiths, such as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) drinking the leftover water from his ablution. Abu Hurayrah used to narrate this hadith, so 'Ali ibn Abi Talib took offense at him for restricting what is broad for people. 'Ali performed ablution, then stood up and drank the leftover water from his ablution while standing, and he stated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had done so. This was in opposition to what Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) mentioned. The scholars derived from this, in reconciling these hadiths, that they said: The prohibition is for discouragement (tanzihi), and the action is to indicate permissibility.

The Shaykh : This is a pure error.
The student : And why?

The Shaykh : First: You have not brought a verbal hadith that contradicts the sayings of the Messenger (peace be upon him). You are still in the same previous position, which is that you are arguing with his action (peace and blessings be upon him). All that is in the hadith you mentioned is 'Ali's objection to Abu Hurayrah. When 'Ali objected to Abu Hurayrah, did he present an argument against Abu Hurayrah, along with that hadith and other hadiths, including that prohibiting hadith? Did 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) present an argument from the sayings of the Messenger (peace be upon him) other than that he saw the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) drinking the leftover water from his ablution? The answer is no. Allow me to say: In that case, we say: If the saying and the action conflict, the saying is given precedence over the action. Even if a Companion objected to a Companion, here comes the saying of the Exalted: This is the answer regarding the hadith, and that it does not depart from what we indicated regarding the other practical hadiths. But here comes something else, which is: This is specific to the leftover water from his ablution (peace be upon him). It is possible to exclude this if we want to give this action a special value. We say: This is specific to the leftover water from his ablution (peace be upon him), meaning, it is permissible to say that one may do so in imitation of him and following his example. As for me, I do not adopt this, because the prohibitor takes precedence over the permitter. This is answer number one. Answer number two: It is true that you mentioned that some scholars reconciled the hadiths by interpreting the hadiths of prohibition as tanzihi dislike. But I say with complete frankness: This comes from a lack of precision in the wording of the hadiths, or at least in the aggregate of the wordings that came regarding this prohibition. If there had been only the hadith where the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited it, it would have been possible to interpret this prohibition as tanzihi dislike, to reconcile his action (peace and blessings be upon him) with his prohibition. But I say: Here two things apply. One is: We have no knowledge, and no one has claimed, that his action (peace be upon him) was after his prohibition. If that were established, it would have been possible to interpret the prohibition as dislike, and the action of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) as an explanation that the prohibition is not for prohibition. But no one, to my knowledge, has made this claim. Therefore, we return to the two previous rules.
The student : But Shaykh, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib is the most knowledgeable of the Companions regarding the abrogating and the abrogated.

The Shaykh: No, no.
The student : He is the one who used to say to the admonisher: "Do you know the abrogating and the abrogated?" He said: "No." He said: "You have perished and caused others to perish." Does 'Ali ibn Abi Talib not know that this action was from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) after the prohibition came?

The Shaykh : May Allah forgive you. If you want to open this door, is it hidden from 'Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) that if a man has intercourse with his wife and does not ejaculate, he does not need to perform the full ritual bath? Is it hidden from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab that if a traveler does not find water, he remains without praying until he finds water and does not perform dry ablution? This is not possible, may Allah bless you. We do not deny the authentic hadiths of the Messenger simply by assuming the best of a great, noble Companion, such as one of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, assuming that he encompassed all knowledge. My brother, as he said, do you not know the saying of Imam al-Shafi'i: "There is no one but that a Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is hidden from him. So whatever I say, or whatever principle I establish, if the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) contradicts my saying, leave my saying and take the Sunnah of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)." Therefore, it is not permissible, may Allah bless you, to open the door of rejecting hadiths simply because a very great man, like 'Ali ibn Abi Talab, issued a ruling to the contrary. Otherwise, we would open a door for people of figurative interpretation and denial of the divine attributes of the sacred texts, which we are not capable of returning or closing. And after my answer was complete, I said: Because it is not permissible to interpret the prohibition of the Messenger (peace be upon him) as tanzihi dislike for the previous reason, which is: We do not know—at the very least—whether his action, which we could consider an explanation of his saying, came after his saying. We do not know that it came after his saying so that we could say: His action was an explanation of his saying, and that his saying does not mean prohibitive dislike, but rather tanzihi dislike. This is first.
Second: The hadith mentioned earlier, quoted from "Musnad Imam Ahmad," here you find the Messenger (peace be upon him) saying to the one who drank while standing: Do you believe that such an obligation is imposed on the one who brought a tanzihi disliked matter and made it a general law, that as long as you drank while standing, you must expel this water? This is the meaning of , and this does not need explanation. Add to that: . He said: No, O Messenger of Allah. . He said: . An action in which Satan participated with the children of Adam, is it said to be permissible with tanzihi dislike? This is one of the most astonishing things said. But those who say this, in reality, have not looked at these narrations as a group.