They say: Since Shaykh Al-Albani (may Allah preserve him) retracts his authentication or weakening of some hadiths
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The questioner: O Shaykh - may Allah reward you - ... .
The Shaykh: Go ahead.
The questioner: They say: Based on the fact thatThe Shaykh- (may Allah preserve him) - that he retracts on a hadith, moving it from authentic to weak or vice versa, and if we limit ourselves to the hadiths from "Sahih al-Jami' al-Saghir" ... there will be many hadiths that he has retracted onThe Shaykh : , so they say: Then this book is not one we rely on, [we do not rely on] the books ofThe Shaykh : now while he is still retracting, and they say: The dead are more worthy of being followed than the living. So when the hadiths come ... - for example - he says: I follow al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in his judgment; because al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar has passed away, and this is his judgment on the hadith, whereasThe Shaykh : Nasir weakens the hadith while he is alive ... - of course, they quote some of this speech - and he does not know that he might find a manuscript and thus not have graded the hadith as well as Ibn Hajar did; therefore, I follow the dead ... So how ... ?
The Shaykh: Well; where did this ruling come from that one follows the dead over the living? Where did this ruling come from?
The questioner: Of course, this is a famous phrase about .
The Shaykh: I know, but do not deviate from the answer. It is a famous 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? Who said - pardon me -; who said that following the dead is better than following the living? The dead one to whom one cannot reach by one means or another, whereas the living one can be contacted by any means - likewise - or another, and this one can retract, while that one cannot retract. How was this truth inverted by the words of the ignorant who have no knowledge, and that 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, unfortunately, have manifested in the present age among some of the elite; let alone some of the common people; let alone some of the fanatics.
So the summary is: the retraction that students of knowledge perceive in Al-Albani, this retraction from Al-Albani is obligatory; because persisting in error is another sin, whereas the error he fell into is 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 ... but I said it may not be known; because a person is only accountable for what he witnesses, as for what is beyond the unseen, it may be, as they say: "In the corners there are secrets." If this Al-Albani, as I said in some of the introductions to my books, that the science of hadith does not accept stagnation, but it is a science, all the science that falls under experience does not accept stagnation; every day it is in progress; 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 it, and I find it the duty of anyone who finds an error in one of my books to alert me to it; either I am indeed wrong and I thank him for pointing me to the good, or I go back and repeat to him that you are the one who is wrong, and this has happened many times from ... 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, and this is a reality? So I do not follow the living, but I follow the dead. I say: Do as you wish 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 that the dead is more worthy of being followed? As long as this living person, when his error becomes clear to him, retracts from it, whereas that dead one, you cannot say his error becomes clear to him or not; because he died and departed this worldly life.
I believe that ... and the word has a place or share of the truth in light of this ... , the dead is more worthy of being followed where he is not exposed to fitnah; that is: we see, in many cases, a person lives, may Allah will it, for a long time upright, then his foot slips and he deviates, much or little, from Islam; so in these matters related to morals, behavior, and creed: the dead is more worthy of being followed, but as for this knowledge that continues to be published and edited, there is no doubt that following the living is better than following the dead.
Yes.
The Shaykh: Go ahead.
The questioner: They say: Based on the fact thatThe Shaykh- (may Allah preserve him) - that he retracts on a hadith, moving it from authentic to weak or vice versa, and if we limit ourselves to the hadiths from "Sahih al-Jami' al-Saghir" ... there will be many hadiths that he has retracted onThe Shaykh : , so they say: Then this book is not one we rely on, [we do not rely on] the books ofThe Shaykh : now while he is still retracting, and they say: The dead are more worthy of being followed than the living. So when the hadiths come ... - for example - he says: I follow al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in his judgment; because al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar has passed away, and this is his judgment on the hadith, whereasThe Shaykh : Nasir weakens the hadith while he is alive ... - of course, they quote some of this speech - and he does not know that he might find a manuscript and thus not have graded the hadith as well as Ibn Hajar did; therefore, I follow the dead ... So how ... ?
The Shaykh: Well; where did this ruling come from that one follows the dead over the living? Where did this ruling come from?
The questioner: Of course, this is a famous phrase about .
The Shaykh: I know, but do not deviate from the answer. It is a famous 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? Who said - pardon me -; who said that following the dead is better than following the living? The dead one to whom one cannot reach by one means or another, whereas the living one can be contacted by any means - likewise - or another, and this one can retract, while that one cannot retract. How was this truth inverted by the words of the ignorant who have no knowledge, and that 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, unfortunately, have manifested in the present age among some of the elite; let alone some of the common people; let alone some of the fanatics.
So the summary is: the retraction that students of knowledge perceive in Al-Albani, this retraction from Al-Albani is obligatory; because persisting in error is another sin, whereas the error he fell into is 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 ... but I said it may not be known; because a person is only accountable for what he witnesses, as for what is beyond the unseen, it may be, as they say: "In the corners there are secrets." If this Al-Albani, as I said in some of the introductions to my books, that the science of hadith does not accept stagnation, but it is a science, all the science that falls under experience does not accept stagnation; every day it is in progress; 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 it, and I find it the duty of anyone who finds an error in one of my books to alert me to it; either I am indeed wrong and I thank him for pointing me to the good, or I go back and repeat to him that you are the one who is wrong, and this has happened many times from ... 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, and this is a reality? So I do not follow the living, but I follow the dead. I say: Do as you wish 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 that the dead is more worthy of being followed? As long as this living person, when his error becomes clear to him, retracts from it, whereas that dead one, you cannot say his error becomes clear to him or not; because he died and departed this worldly life.
I believe that ... and the word has a place or share of the truth in light of this ... , the dead is more worthy of being followed where he is not exposed to fitnah; that is: we see, in many cases, a person lives, may Allah will it, for a long time upright, then his foot slips and he deviates, much or little, from Islam; so in these matters related to morals, behavior, and creed: the dead is more worthy of being followed, but as for this knowledge that continues to be published and edited, there is no doubt that following the living is better than following the dead.
Yes.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.