Milk and Arnauts.

The Shaykh : Most of them are Albanians and Yugoslavs, and he complains about their fanaticism and ignorance, and he has the right to do so; meaning, of course, this does not harm me, because...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : This is it; the important thing is that he asks me, through his son who is here, to send him two copies of "Description of the Prayer" and to write a letter in the Albanian language for the Albanians living there, so that perhaps they will alleviate a bit of their ignorance and their fanaticism for their school of jurisprudence. That is, he hardly orders them to follow a Sunnah without finding them... what? Fighting against it. We see the Arabs fighting the Sunnah; so what can be said about the Albanians?
The Shaykh: I believe that there is a big difference between the Yugoslavs and the Albanians, and a big difference between the Albanians and the Arnauts who live in Yugoslavia. There are villages—for example—called "al-Qusur," do you know Damascus and non-Damascus? Currently, there were many migrants who fled from the injustice of the Yugoslavs, speaking words that we did not know before. We are Albanian Arnauts, but the name "Arnaut," like the name "Arabs," is a generic name; it includes the Egyptian, the Hijazi, the Saudi, the Yemeni, and so on. Likewise, the word "Arnaut" includes many peoples, among them the Serbs, the Arnauts, and the Albanians. So we used to gather together in Damascus, Arnauts, Yugoslavs, and Albanians, and we did not understand many of their words. So how can you say that the Yugoslav language is close to the Albanian?! And you, you have been put to the test! I brought you four or five examples, and you did not understand anything of them at all!

The questioner : ... You tell, you tell with...The Shaykh : You, perhaps he will understand you.

The Shaykh : He said a sentence to me, and I said to him: Now we have exchanged positions. How was it that I was speaking to you and you did not understand me, and now you are speaking to me and I do not understand you!

The questioner : This is evidence against him too, our Shaykh!

The Shaykh : It is this.

Another questioner : Because originally, there is no Yugoslav language; each republic speaks according to its own tongue. Because in the lands, originally, there are Albanians, and most of the Muslims who hold fast to their religion... a while ago, even the ruler of the Muslims killed four in the secret police. And what is most feared is the tightening of restrictions on the Muslims—the Albanian Muslims. That is, most of the Muslims in the south, the south of Yugoslavia... Skopje and the republics... this tightening in the south is because most of them are Albanians. I used to see, for example, the Islamic Center attending religious occasions, like the Mawlid. They would bring young men from the youth of the south, and when they spoke, we had classmates studying there. They spoke there, they spoke in the street, they spoke Albanian. But we say that, in general, most of the words are understood; you understand their words. But a "Chobit" man could change some of the dialect, of course, some of the words, because there are three languages in it. So we used to use, on some days, when the call to Islam was praised, we would say, for example, that we use, for instance, "our Shaykh" and "the Albanian among you," and this is what we try to do.
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