Muhammad Zahiri al-Najjar and Shaykh al-Albani.

The Shaykh : A man named Muhammad Zahiri al-Najjar; perhaps some of the people present remember this name, because later he became a student at al-Azhar and graduated from al-Azhar, and he began to annotate some of the hadith books. Among those was that he printed the book *Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar* by Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi, which had been printed in India, so he printed it in Egypt in volumes and added some annotations to it. This man, Muhammad Zahiri al-Najjar, I did not know him previously. My first meeting with him was at a book seller in Damascus, whom I used to visit frequently. One time when I went to him, I found he had customers, and among them was a man who offered him a book to sell to the owner of the bookstore. It was a book by al-Qasimi, that Najdi who later became an innovator. What was the name of the book? I do not recall the name now. The point is, he offered it so I would buy it. My heart leapt for the book, because I had information about this man, before he deviated, that he was a Salafi and a strong debater. He had a book called *Shuyukh al-Azhar*, in which he refuted them with a scholarly response. The point is, as soon as I saw this book and the author's name, I said to the bookstore owner, "If you buy it from him, I will buy it from you." He heard this from me, took me aside from the shop, and began to advise me. I was young at the time, as they say, my mustache and beard had not yet grown much here, and this is better than I am now. He was very light-headed. He said to me, "These are Wahhabis. These people deny *tawassul* (seeking nearness to Allah through a means) and such." And he began to list some of their defects in his view. When I stood up to respond to him, he was surprised by me. He was a student of knowledge, wearing a black *jibbah* (robe) and a white *'imamah* (turban). Indeed, he was a strong student of knowledge, Hanafi in madhhab (school of jurisprudence), and he was surprised by my response to him. Of course, I silenced him. My second meeting was in front of my brother Abu Ja'far al-Mansur's shop in al-Miskah.

The questioner : Peace be upon you

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace. The occasion arose regarding the addition of sending blessings upon the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) after the *adhan* (call to prayer). And if this man, as I later learned, was a neighbor of thisThe Shaykh : old man of iron temperament, whose name was 'Abd al-Fattah al-Imam. He had some books, and in the School of Tailors in Damascus, this school has a mosque. The school has a corridor above rows of rooms for the students.The Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah al-Imam had taken a room. Of course, this went out of effect and its system changed, so it was given to some people, students of knowledge, as individuals.The Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah al-Imam took an eastern room, and this Muhammad Zahiri al-Najjar took a western room. And between them was a disagreement that forged iron. 'Abd al-Fattah al-Imam was a Salafi, a free spirit, hot-tempered. That one was cold, Hanafi, and Shadhili, combining both misfortunes. But there was no severance between them, though there was no agreement or harmony. It appears, or certainly, as I later learned, that he cameThe Shaykh : Muhammad al-Zahiri, after the two times I had met him, said to Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattah, "I found for you a Wahhabi who will please you, O Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattah." And he adds to that that he did not bring a hadith but would say, "This hadith is weak," and "This is authentic," I do not know what, and it confused me.

The questioner : How old were you...?

The Shaykh : I mean, how much younger are you than you? How old are you?

The questioner : Seventeen years old.

The Shaykh : I mean, in these limits. The point is, that one did not believeThe Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah. He had heard of such a person, especially when he heard the merit of the hadith. And one day he came to me in the shop, and I was at my hours, and I was seeing him for the first time. "Peace be upon you," "And upon you be peace." He took a pocket watch out of his pocket. Pocket watches are finished today. Today they are wristwatches. He took it out and said to me, "Look at this watch for me. I have repaired it repeatedly and repeatedly, and they did not advise me about it." I, as usual, naturally took the watch and took the knife with which the cover is opened and put on the magnifier. And because of the sharpness of his character, he said to me, "Put the watch down for me. I did not come for it." -He laughs-The Shaykh : and the students- I said to him, "Good, if Allah wills." He said, "I have heard things about you, and I want to verify them." I said to him, "Please." He said, "What is your opinion on *mawlid* (celebrations)?" I said to him,

The questioner : ...

The Shaykh : Yes, and so the matter did not last long, meaning he was like what he heard and more. He said to me, "And I heard that you have a study in hadith." I said to him, "By Allah, some of it." He said to me, "I have a book called *The Voice of Nature Calls to the Greatness of Allah*. This is a printed book, and indeed it is in a beautiful modern style, but I have no value for it because with this voice he proves *tawhid al-rububiyyah* (oneness of lordship), and *tawhid al-rububiyyah* is something people are created with. And we are in need of *tawhid al-uluhiyyah* (oneness of worship) and *tawhid al-asma' wa al-sifat* (oneness of the names and attributes). But the book is beneficial and does not harm." He said to me, "I have this book and I have hadiths, and I want to hold sessions with you so we can extract them, and as they say in our land in Sham, without a long story, we agreed with him that every Friday after the prayer we would gather at his place. And here is the point. We would put the table and sit, he and I, facing the table between me and him, and he would read from the book.The Shaykh : Muhammad Zahiri al-Najjar would come out of his room, and he would walk around, because the rooms are like this on one side and like this on the other, on the second floor. And here is a sky space and below is a courtyard, in the old style. He would walk around in a circle and come out to the market. But when he saw us sitting here together, he would look a look that had meaning, as if in his heart he was saying, "What have we done? We were in one misfortune and became in two misfortunes." -He laughs- But the point is, with our friend 'Abd al-Fattah, when I sawThe Shaykh : him pass by, I would call him and say to him, "Please, O Shaykh Muhammad." He would smile a smile like this, cold, meaning he did not like the session. What could he do in it? And he would leave.The Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah... leave him, there is no good to be gotten from him. It has been six months I have been working on him, there is no good to be gotten from him, leave him. And he would shout at the top of his voice. I would say to him, "O Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattah, matters are tied to their times, and they need patience and long temper." With my frequent visits toThe Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah to trace the book to its sources repeatedlyThe Shaykh : Zahiri would pass by us. And I would call him the first time, the second time, the third time. In the end, I hung the net, and he came and attended with us. And he began to attend with us, and we would sit and discuss.The Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah with his shouting, and I with my cold blood, to the end. The man, as I told you, was a man Hanafi in madhhab and a strong student of knowledge. Then he was a follower of the Shadhili method. His Shaykh was Muhammad al-Hashimi al-Tilimsani al-Maghribi. We began to talk to him about the path... types in which you do not find good. The discussion began between me andThe Shaykh : Zahiri, first of all, about the path and *dhikr* (remembrance of Allah). We said to him, "O Shaykh Muhammad, you are a student of knowledge and you say you are Hanafi. Well, do you not know what came in the marginal notes of Ibn 'Abidin regarding those who dance with *dhikr*? That the earth in which they remember Allah in the mosque must have its soil dug up and thrown away, and then this...

The questioner : Is this the saying of Abu Hanifa, O our Shaykh?

The Shaykh : No, this is the saying of the later scholars, because Abu Hanifa did not see these bad scenes. And then I reminded him or taught him, I do not know. I said to him, in a treatise by Shaykh MuhammadAl-Halabi : , the author of a small book in the Turkish expression, a Hanafi jurist whose style is completely different from the jurists, because he answers the issue and answers its evidence from the madhhab, even though he is not free from *taqlid* (following a scholar without knowing his evidence), but he takes steps when he brings the evidence. This man was originally from Halab. By his grace, he authored a treatise titled "It Satisfies You of Its Content," *Al-Rahs wa al-Waqas* for the one who permits dancing. *Al-Rahs wa al-Waqas* for the one who permits dancing, with such quotations and long temper with Muhammad Zahiri al-Najjar, the man turned around and became with us. But he appeared to be slow, and he had the right to that. He was attending the *dhikr* circle of his Shaykh Muhammad al-Hashimi. And these Shadhilis stand and hold each other's hands, and the circle ignites, going right and left, so you find the whole circle going back and forth, right and left. When we showed him that this is not *dhikr* of Allah, and they took their religion as fun and play, he was not able to get rid of the circle, but the veil was lifted on his turning around. He would stand like a pole, like a pillar, a single piece, while the circle moves right and left, and he stands like an iron bar. The man was revealed in this way. Look, what happened? His group... I forgot to tell you that this, by his politeness and knowledge, he was a candidate to be the *khalifah* (successor) afterThe Shaykh : As is their custom, what happened to this Muhammad Zahiri al-Najjar? They started circulating talk about him, and naturally the talk reached the Shaykh, andThe Shaykh : I saw it with my own eyes, as it is for a wisdom that Allah wills, and I was withThe Shaykh : Muhammad 'Abd al-Fattah after the Friday prayer, we sawThe Shaykh : al-Hashimi, and we learned later that it was the first time he visited his student, the first time he came to his room to visit him. When he left, the student came out to see him off,The Shaykh : and after he saw him off, he came to us smiling. We said to him, "Tell us what he advised you."The Shaykh : He told us, just as he had advised me, that these are Wahhabis, the same label, a carbon copy. He advisedThe Shaykh : his student that these are people you must not associate with, that their creed is corrupt, that these are such and such, and so on. Later, the man was appointed imam of a mosque in a neighborhood close to my shop, which is my father's shop, in a district called al-'Uqayba near us. Glory be to Allah, the news reached the imam of the mosque, which is opposite my shop, called the Mosque of Repentance, whose imam isThe Shaykh : Sa'id al-Barhani, one of the students ofThe Shaykh : al-Hashimi, meaning they were companions on the path, and also in the school of jurisprudence, both being Hanafi in school. So thisThe Shaykh : set the people of the neighborhood against Muhammad Zahiri al-Najjar, and they started throwing banana peels and orange peels at him whenever they saw him on the street, meaning they were humiliating him. What was the reason? It became that when he called the adhan, he did not add the extra phrases. This became known as being Wahhabi. The news reached Shaykh Sa'id, who was a student with him underThe Shaykh : al-Hashimi, meaning he was being humiliated. He could not bear it, so he left Damascus and went to Aleppo, and from there he arranged a trip to Egypt. In Egypt, he entered al-Azhar, and he was diligent and strong in knowledge. He obtained the degree and graduated, and he is still there. The point I was making is thatThe Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah

The questioner : is alive and well now.

The Shaykh : Yes, as far as I know, and I have no new news. The point I was making to Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattah was, "O Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattah, do not say there are no special people. ThisThe Shaykh : Zahiri has become a special person. Who would have thought that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, with his intense hostility toward the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), would become someone from whom the Shaytan fears? Therefore, the call requires patience, forbearance, and a long temper. The point is that our brother Abu Yusuf, may Allah have mercy on him, praise be to Allah who showed us this outcome, that he later became righteous. This is the result of knowledge, meaning knowledge and sincerity in it. May Allah have mercy on us and on him. Perhaps he left behind someone after him to take his place there?

The questioner : None of his sons, for his sons did not accompany him in his gatherings.

The Shaykh : Allah is the Greatest. There is no power or might except in Allah.

The questioner : And we would sit for hours in his diwan, and his sons did not attend his gatherings, but they are not sinners.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.

The questioner : They are from the general public, ordinary people.

The Shaykh : How old is the eldest?

The questioner : Twenty-five, twenty-four, meaning they are from the general public. They love the Salafi call, and you can say that the eldest of them is a Salafi, because he used to sit with his father.

The Shaykh : Good, praise be to Allah.

The questioner : As for the middle one, 'Abdullah, he is a craftsman.

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner : A craftsman.

The Shaykh : A tradesman.

The questioner : He works...

The Shaykh : Meaning he is concerned with his livelihood.

The questioner : Yes, he does not sit in the gatherings of knowledge, meaning he is an ordinary person from the general public.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : And the younger 'Abdullah, he is in the middle.

The Shaykh : From the eldest?

The questioner : Yusuf.

The Shaykh : Yusuf and the second.

The questioner : 'Abdullah and 'Abd al-'Aziz, the younger one is 'Abd al-'Aziz.

The Shaykh : You spoke about Yusuf, 'Abdullah, and 'Abd al-'Aziz. What is his news?

The questioner : The youngest 'Abd al-'Aziz, they are all bearded.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.

The questioner : 'Abd al-'Aziz is also bearded, and he loves his father, and they love

The Shaykh : their father.

The questioner : Their father, and they love the Salafi call and belong to it.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.

The questioner : But they are not, meaning, like the students of knowledge.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : Meaning, I do not call them students of knowledge, except only the eldest.

The Shaykh : The eldest, we consider him a student of knowledge.

The questioner : Yes, a student of knowledge.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, and he has no one else but these three.

The questioner : Yes, these three.

The Shaykh : He has no one else but them.

The questioner : He has four daughters.

The Shaykh : Are they married?

The questioner : Two are married and the two are not married.

The Shaykh : How old is the youngest?

The questioner : One is eighteen and the other is fourteen.