Regarding your writings, what has been completed and what has not?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Well, regarding your writings, Shaykh, what has been completed and what has not, meaning *Sahih Abu Dawud* and *Da'if Abu Dawud*.
The Shaykh : What has been completed is *Mukhtasar Sahih al-Bukhari*, *Sahih al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib*, and *Da'if al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib*. There may be some papers I do not remember. Do you remember anything?
*Al-Rawdah al-Nadiyyah*, as you know, is complete.
The questioner : Which was the first classification in your life?
The Shaykh : Yes, that is correct.
The questioner : Well, have you reviewed it, polished it, and so on, or is it as it is?
The Shaykh : It is in the process of review, but there are no reviews sufficient for printing; it requires a broader review. Yes, *Sahih Abu Dawud* and *Da'if Abu Dawud* have not been finished, naturally, because I have not focused on it in the sense that I hold onto it and do not let it go, but rather I leave it when I do not find a necessary matter to work on other than it.
The questioner : Well, what occupies you, Shaykh, during this period?
The Shaykh : I have things and many things, because due to people's relationship with me and the facilitation of contact by telephone, I am asked a lot about hadith and other fiqh issues, and both types sometimes require me to study hadiths I have not previously studied, then the matter expands for me, meaning sometimes a hadith comes up here, so I must enter into it and follow it to the end, so a topic that requires, for example, one or two hours takes me days.
I mean, for example, I give you an example of what I am in now: I am writing the introduction to the third volume of *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah*; it must be printed now, so it only needs the indexes and the introduction.
And this book is being printed, and I was surprised by articles published in some circulating newspapers like *Al-Sharq al-Awsat* and *Al-Ittihad*, especially in the Emirates and the like, in a very severe attack by the Minister of Awqaf in Dubai on the Salafi da'wah in general, and on Al-Albani in particular, and you know the accusations, meaning of ignorance and misguidance, and so on, so I saw it appropriate now to respond to this in the introduction to the third part of *Al-Da'ifah*, and then I was surprised by a letter that you must have seen, *Al-Radd al-Muqni' 'ala Al-Albani al-Mubtadi'*.
The questioner : I heard about it.
The Shaykh : I heard.
The questioner : Al-Ghamari.
The Shaykh : This is Abdullah al-Ghamari; I know him to be one who distorts the Sunnah, despite the fact that he and his family, meaning his brothers, are from the people of hadith, but they are not Sufis and way-followers, and this is the worst and most ignorant of them.
The point is: I had commented on the beginning of *Al-Sulol*, perhaps you saw it, I responded to al-Ghamari in four or five points, but there is no attack on him at all except describing him with reality, among which, for example, and here is the point, is a hadith:: I had responded to his attack on al-Dhahabi and then al-'Asqalani, where he judged this hadith to be invalid, and he responds to them saying: This is stubbornness and negligence from some of the rules they adhered to, and the hadith is weak, and then he says: He mentions for him two other paths by which the hadith might reach the rank of hasan. I am now in the process of responding to the hadith aspects only of the letter *Al-Radd al-Muqni'*, otherwise this requires writing a book to respond to him, and I am not in this business because my time, as you know, is tight, but I must respond to him from the hadith aspects.
So imagine now this hadith:: You ask me to write a special research that I placed in *Al-Silsilah al-Da'ifah*, so I found seven paths for this hadith, meaning seven from the Companions, and every path is weaker than the other, so it took me a lot of time, and there are many and very many examples like this.
I made Sunan Abu Dawud one of my secondary projects because of the unexpected events that befall me, as was said in the weak hadith:, do you remember this hadith?
For example, all day the telephone is ringing, fiqh questions, and whoever comes to me asks me about a hadith, I tell him: I do not have it at hand, I will review it for you, I review, and it opens up for me, a hadith here and a hadith there, and so on, so after the research, I either place it in *Al-Sahihah* or I place it in *Al-Da'ifah* until I am able to answer the questions, then the matter may require writing some papers or adding to them, and I wrote some papers, for example *Salat al-'Idayn fi al-Musalla*, - by the way, are you calling me or am I calling you, or not? -
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : What topic, the important thing is that you ask me what happened with *Salat al-'Idayn*, because it was supposed to be finished before the festival, and here we have started the new year!
So regarding *Salat al-'Idayn*, we decided that praying it in the Musalla is a recommended practice, so I placed... research we conducted, including the hadith:Sunan Abi Dawud 2473Hasan Sahih (Al-Albani), and so on, meaning my time is completely occupied with such matters, so if I find readiness, I work on Sunan Abu Dawud.
In addition to that, I have been working for about a year on explaining the grades of the book *Sunan Ibn Majah*, and it is now being printed in Beirut, as well as *Al-Tirmidhi*, and I am now in the process of working on *Sunan al-Nasa'i*, and so on.
The questioner : Well, what about the book, Shaykh, *Al-Thamar al-Mustatab*?
The Shaykh : You have to say it is a thing of the past, because this was one of my earliest projects; I started in it, then I was not able to return to it at all, like *Qamus al-Bida'*, but *Qamus al-Bida'* was actually ready for copying because I had collected the material from paper cuttings, then because of the move from Damascus to here, my library did not send me these cuttings.
The Shaykh : What has been completed is *Mukhtasar Sahih al-Bukhari*, *Sahih al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib*, and *Da'if al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib*. There may be some papers I do not remember. Do you remember anything?
*Al-Rawdah al-Nadiyyah*, as you know, is complete.
The questioner : Which was the first classification in your life?
The Shaykh : Yes, that is correct.
The questioner : Well, have you reviewed it, polished it, and so on, or is it as it is?
The Shaykh : It is in the process of review, but there are no reviews sufficient for printing; it requires a broader review. Yes, *Sahih Abu Dawud* and *Da'if Abu Dawud* have not been finished, naturally, because I have not focused on it in the sense that I hold onto it and do not let it go, but rather I leave it when I do not find a necessary matter to work on other than it.
The questioner : Well, what occupies you, Shaykh, during this period?
The Shaykh : I have things and many things, because due to people's relationship with me and the facilitation of contact by telephone, I am asked a lot about hadith and other fiqh issues, and both types sometimes require me to study hadiths I have not previously studied, then the matter expands for me, meaning sometimes a hadith comes up here, so I must enter into it and follow it to the end, so a topic that requires, for example, one or two hours takes me days.
I mean, for example, I give you an example of what I am in now: I am writing the introduction to the third volume of *Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah*; it must be printed now, so it only needs the indexes and the introduction.
And this book is being printed, and I was surprised by articles published in some circulating newspapers like *Al-Sharq al-Awsat* and *Al-Ittihad*, especially in the Emirates and the like, in a very severe attack by the Minister of Awqaf in Dubai on the Salafi da'wah in general, and on Al-Albani in particular, and you know the accusations, meaning of ignorance and misguidance, and so on, so I saw it appropriate now to respond to this in the introduction to the third part of *Al-Da'ifah*, and then I was surprised by a letter that you must have seen, *Al-Radd al-Muqni' 'ala Al-Albani al-Mubtadi'*.
The questioner : I heard about it.
The Shaykh : I heard.
The questioner : Al-Ghamari.
The Shaykh : This is Abdullah al-Ghamari; I know him to be one who distorts the Sunnah, despite the fact that he and his family, meaning his brothers, are from the people of hadith, but they are not Sufis and way-followers, and this is the worst and most ignorant of them.
The point is: I had commented on the beginning of *Al-Sulol*, perhaps you saw it, I responded to al-Ghamari in four or five points, but there is no attack on him at all except describing him with reality, among which, for example, and here is the point, is a hadith:
I am the master of the children of Adam, and Ali is the master of the Arabs
أنا سيد ولد آدم وعلي سيد العربSo imagine now this hadith:
I am the master of the children of Adam, and Ali is the master of the Arabs
أنا سيد ولد آدم وعلي سيد العربI made Sunan Abu Dawud one of my secondary projects because of the unexpected events that befall me, as was said in the weak hadith:
If you make me like the cup of the rider
لو تجعلوني كقدح الراكبFor example, all day the telephone is ringing, fiqh questions, and whoever comes to me asks me about a hadith, I tell him: I do not have it at hand, I will review it for you, I review, and it opens up for me, a hadith here and a hadith there, and so on, so after the research, I either place it in *Al-Sahihah* or I place it in *Al-Da'ifah* until I am able to answer the questions, then the matter may require writing some papers or adding to them, and I wrote some papers, for example *Salat al-'Idayn fi al-Musalla*, - by the way, are you calling me or am I calling you, or not? -
The questioner : ...
The Shaykh : What topic, the important thing is that you ask me what happened with *Salat al-'Idayn*, because it was supposed to be finished before the festival, and here we have started the new year!
So regarding *Salat al-'Idayn*, we decided that praying it in the Musalla is a recommended practice, so I placed... research we conducted, including the hadith:
there is no i'tikaf except in a congregational mosque.
لا اعتكاف إلا في المساجد الثلاثةIn addition to that, I have been working for about a year on explaining the grades of the book *Sunan Ibn Majah*, and it is now being printed in Beirut, as well as *Al-Tirmidhi*, and I am now in the process of working on *Sunan al-Nasa'i*, and so on.
The questioner : Well, what about the book, Shaykh, *Al-Thamar al-Mustatab*?
The Shaykh : You have to say it is a thing of the past, because this was one of my earliest projects; I started in it, then I was not able to return to it at all, like *Qamus al-Bida'*, but *Qamus al-Bida'* was actually ready for copying because I had collected the material from paper cuttings, then because of the move from Damascus to here, my library did not send me these cuttings.