What is your opinion of the statement of some people: "We do not follow Shaykh Al-Albani because he continues to retract his judgments on hadiths in his books," and they say:
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : O Shaykh, may Allah reward you, this is a point raised in this topic that we present to you.
The Shaykh : Please proceed.
The questioner : They say that it is well known of Shaykh Nasir (may Allah preserve him) that he retracts from hadiths, moving them from authentic to weak, or vice versa. And when the new edition of *Sahih al-Jami' al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuhi* is published, there will be many hadiths from which the Shaykh has retracted. So they say, "How can we rely on the Shaykh's books now while he is still retracting?" And they say: "The dead are better for following than the living." So if a hadith about the sutrah, for example, comes up, he says, "I follow al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in grading it as good, because al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar has passed away, and this is his judgment on the hadith while he was alive, and we do not know, of course, they say some of this, and we do not know that he might find a manuscript and grade the hadith as good, as Ibn Hajar did. So I follow the dead, which is better. How can this be clarified?
The Shaykh : Now, where did they take this ruling that one follows the dead over the living? Where did they bring this ruling from?
The questioner : Of course, this is a well-known phrase among...
The Shaykh : I know, but do not withhold the answer.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : It is a well-known phrase, but we must examine this phrase and measure it by the scale of the Shari'ah. Who said that following the living is better than following the dead?
The questioner : On the contrary.
The Shaykh : Excuse me, who said that following the dead is better than following the living? The dead one to whom one cannot reach by any means, whereas the living one to whom one can connect by any means, and this one can retract while that one cannot. How can this truth be reversed by the words of the ignorant who have no knowledge? "I follow the dead and not the living." What is the evidence for this other than ignorance? Assuming there is no hatred or envy or similar morals that have manifested in the present age, unfortunately, in some of the elite, let alone some of the common people, let alone some of the fanatics. In conclusion, the retraction that students of knowledge observe in Al-Albani, this retraction by Al-Albani is obligatory, because persisting in error is another sin, whereas the error when it occurred was not a sin because he exerted his effort. And you see, by the grace of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), that the effort Al-Albani exerts to reach... and I do not praise myself, of course, but I said, one may not know, because a person is only responsible for what he witnesses, as for what is beyond the unseen, it may be as they say: "In the corners are hidden things". If this Al-Albani, as I said in some of the introductions to my books, if the science of hadith does not accept stagnation, but all knowledge that falls under experience does not accept stagnation, every day it is advancing. Therefore, a book I wrote twenty or thirty years ago cannot be reprinted in these days with the same knowledge and ijtihad that came from me at that time. Rather, I find it my duty to review, and I find it the duty of anyone who finds an error in one of my books to point it out to me. Either I am actually wrong and I thank him for directing me to the good, or I return and repeat to him that you are the one who is wrong. This has happened often of both types. If my retraction is good, why do they take the dead person, who cannot retract, as the model, and this living person who can retract? This is a reality. So I do not follow this living person, but I follow the dead. I say, it is your affair and what you want, because Allah is the Reckoner, He is the one who will hold you accountable first for this logic. Where did you come from in saying that the dead is better to follow, as long as this living person, when his error becomes clear to him, retracts from it? As for that dead one, you cannot say that the error becomes clear to him or not, because he died and departed this worldly life.
I believe that this statement has a place or a share of truth in other fields. The dead is more deserving of being followed where he is not exposed to fitnah. That is, we see in many cases a person lives, what Allah willed, for a long time upright, then his foot slips and he deviates, much or little, from Islam. In these matters related to morals, behavior, and creed, the dead is better to follow. As for this knowledge that continues to ripen and be clarified, there is no doubt that following the living is better than following the dead. Yes.
The questioner : O Shaykh, may Allah reward you, this is a point raised in this topic that we present to you.
The Shaykh : Please proceed.
The questioner : They say that it is well known of Shaykh Nasir (may Allah preserve him) that he retracts from hadiths, moving them from authentic to weak, or vice versa. And when the new edition of *Sahih al-Jami' al-Saghir wa Ziyadatuhi* is published, there will be many hadiths from which the Shaykh has retracted. So they say, "How can we rely on the Shaykh's books now while he is still retracting?" And they say: "The dead are better for following than the living." So if a hadith about the sutrah, for example, comes up, he says, "I follow al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in grading it as good, because al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar has passed away, and this is his judgment on the hadith while he was alive, and we do not know, of course, they say some of this, and we do not know that he might find a manuscript and grade the hadith as good, as Ibn Hajar did. So I follow the dead, which is better. How can this be clarified?
The Shaykh : Now, where did they take this ruling that one follows the dead over the living? Where did they bring this ruling from?
The questioner : Of course, this is a well-known phrase among...
The Shaykh : I know, but do not withhold the answer.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : It is a well-known phrase, but we must examine this phrase and measure it by the scale of the Shari'ah. Who said that following the living is better than following the dead?
The questioner : On the contrary.
The Shaykh : Excuse me, who said that following the dead is better than following the living? The dead one to whom one cannot reach by any means, whereas the living one to whom one can connect by any means, and this one can retract while that one cannot. How can this truth be reversed by the words of the ignorant who have no knowledge? "I follow the dead and not the living." What is the evidence for this other than ignorance? Assuming there is no hatred or envy or similar morals that have manifested in the present age, unfortunately, in some of the elite, let alone some of the common people, let alone some of the fanatics. In conclusion, the retraction that students of knowledge observe in Al-Albani, this retraction by Al-Albani is obligatory, because persisting in error is another sin, whereas the error when it occurred was not a sin because he exerted his effort. And you see, by the grace of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), that the effort Al-Albani exerts to reach... and I do not praise myself, of course, but I said, one may not know, because a person is only responsible for what he witnesses, as for what is beyond the unseen, it may be as they say: "In the corners are hidden things". If this Al-Albani, as I said in some of the introductions to my books, if the science of hadith does not accept stagnation, but all knowledge that falls under experience does not accept stagnation, every day it is advancing. Therefore, a book I wrote twenty or thirty years ago cannot be reprinted in these days with the same knowledge and ijtihad that came from me at that time. Rather, I find it my duty to review, and I find it the duty of anyone who finds an error in one of my books to point it out to me. Either I am actually wrong and I thank him for directing me to the good, or I return and repeat to him that you are the one who is wrong. This has happened often of both types. If my retraction is good, why do they take the dead person, who cannot retract, as the model, and this living person who can retract? This is a reality. So I do not follow this living person, but I follow the dead. I say, it is your affair and what you want, because Allah is the Reckoner, He is the one who will hold you accountable first for this logic. Where did you come from in saying that the dead is better to follow, as long as this living person, when his error becomes clear to him, retracts from it? As for that dead one, you cannot say that the error becomes clear to him or not, because he died and departed this worldly life.
I believe that this statement has a place or a share of truth in other fields. The dead is more deserving of being followed where he is not exposed to fitnah. That is, we see in many cases a person lives, what Allah willed, for a long time upright, then his foot slips and he deviates, much or little, from Islam. In these matters related to morals, behavior, and creed, the dead is better to follow. As for this knowledge that continues to ripen and be clarified, there is no doubt that following the living is better than following the dead. Yes.