The Shaykh’s account of his life and teaching at the Islamic University.

The Shaykh : My experience at the university was, in my opinion, rare for a professor of a subject taught there. I was with the students as if I were one of them. There are images that bring this reality closer to them. For example, when I finished my teaching session and the break came, usually the professors would rush from their class to the room, where they would sit for the duration of the break—I think it was ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, I no longer remember exactly—drinking tea and coffee and talking about all sorts of things. As for me, I would turn away from all that, go out from the class to the courtyard, and sit on the sandy ground. The students I had been teaching just minutes before would gather, and students from all years would gather in this open-air circle. I would give them some guidance, some advice, and answer some of their questions. And so I spent all three years that I taught at the university. I remember clearly that the one called, in university terminology, the *mu'add* (teaching assistant), passed by me one day and said: "Peace be upon you." I said: "And upon you, peace." He said: "Do you know, Shaykh, that the real lesson is this one?" As if he were informing me... In this circle, they were taking their freedom and their glory.
In the regular class, yes, I was also broad with them, but even so, the matter had to have limits, I mean, constraints. This was the image of Al-Albani’s distinctiveness among all the professors there at the university. And it had other good effects. For example, when Al-Albani entered the university a few minutes before the class, they would gather around the car until the car was lost among them and could not be seen. And each one would race his brother to direct a question he had. And when I came out, they would also race to ride with him to the city, first so that they would not be late in going.
Second: they would gain an opportunity, as our friend does, hehehehe. And so this was my routine in going and returning, even though there was no one with me in my car, but it was loaded with students going and returning.
On the way there, I would find students who had been left behind on the road, even though they had a special bus. The bus would stop at the Prophet’s Mosque and depart at a specific time. And inevitably, some students would be late and would run on foot from the city to the university. So I would pick them up in my car and load it beyond its usual weight so that they would catch the lesson at its beginning. Meanwhile, you would see the other professors as if they were kings; they would not let anyone ride with them at all. So it is not hidden from you that this situation created in the hearts of the students an attachment to Al-Albani and a very strange love. Add to that that he brought them knowledge they had not heard before. The professor of Tafsir, Fiqh, and Usul would narrate to them hadiths that corresponded to their lessons. So the professors themselves began to hear a new language: "Professor, who narrated this hadith?" "So-and-so." "Okay, is its chain authentic?" The professors were surprised by this tone.
And I also remember clearly an incident that happened: The professor of Usul brought a hadith, a hadith related to Usul. Yes: , I think this or something similar to it. Do you remember a hadith similar to it, and it is not authentic?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No, this one is authentic. The important thing is...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No, this hadith is the hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal, the hadith of Mu'adh ibn Jabal: .
So he brought them this hadith in the Usul class, arguing with it against qiyas (analogical reasoning), of course. Our brother Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Khaliq, who is in Kuwait, was in the class. This was the third year. He said to me: "Professor, is this hadith authentic?" He said to him: "Yes." He said: "We heard Shaykh Al-Albani say that this hadith is munkar (denounced)." I do not know what his answer was, but he was, of course, not pleased with the situation regarding this student. A few days later, the Shaykh who was teaching the Usul subject came to my house. He said to me: "It has reached me such and such, that you say about this hadith that it is munkar." I said: "Yes." He said: "Where did you write something on this topic?" I said: "Yes, in *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah* (The Chain of Weak Hadiths), and this is in the second volume, as you know, and it had not been printed at that time." He said: "Can I look at it?" I said: "Yes." And I showed him the article. I had listed there all the routes that are mentioned and explained their weak defects. And then, in another lesson, he affirmed to them that the hadith is authentic, and that Shaykh Al-Albani himself brought this hadith with routes that strengthen it, while they only add weakness upon weakness.
I mean, an image like this, and this very strange phenomenon in a university, and the clustering of students around me, aroused the resentment of some of the professors. So they wrote to the Mufti—Allah knows best—directly, or to the King, and portrayed to them that he was forming a party and it was feared that he would do something. And the third year ended, and I returned to Damascus, my place, to spend the summer vacation. At that time, Shaykh Ibn Baz—may Allah reward him with good—was the Vice President, or the actual president; you were the honorary president. And he wrote to me a week or two before my return to the city. I remember clearly that one of my sons, and it was Abd al-Latif, had to complete a lesson from the lessons, so I sent him ahead of me to take the exam. And I was surprised by the letter from Shaykh Ibn Baz that a letter had come to him from the Mufti that there was no need this year to renew the contract with Shaykh Al-Albani. And so my relationship with the university ended. And he wrote to me a kind word, may Allah reward him with good, saying: "And you, I mean, in any post, you fulfill your duty", yes, indeed.
So the summary of the answer is that I was requested to teach. It appears that because they were no longer bound by the university laws, and because they needed a person they trusted in his knowledge and his creed at the same time, this and that is what led them to appoint me to teach.