The Shaykh Al-Albani’s remarks on his homeland, Albania, and the invitation he received to visit it
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The Shaykh: And I say, on this occasion, a few days ago I was outside Amman. When I came here to the library, I was told that Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Banna—perhaps you have heard of him.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: Or do you know him personally? He was with us at the Islamic University as a teacher there. At the time, 'Abd al-Rahman 'Abd al-Khaliq was there as a student or pupil. In any case, the goodwill, praise be to Allah, between me and him continues until the last breath of life, if Allah wills. The point is, he called me by phone while I was absent and asked some of the brothers here to inform me that after Hajj he would pass through here and continue his journey to Albania. He urgently wants, naturally, for me to be with him. I now realize the importance of my going to Albania much more than before, in my opinion, whether I am right or wrong—let that aside. I believe that my going to Albania is an individual obligation (fard 'ayn) for me, but I am hesitant whether to go or not. I discussed this matter with some of my family and some of my friends. Why? Because I am approaching eighty years of age, and I have been away from my homeland for exactly seventy years. I know that customs, traditions, and communism have done their work there. So I ask myself: am I able to do anything there? A country that has lived in disbelief (kufr) is not like the countries I was in recently, such as Syria, or the one I live in, or the one I am moving to, such as the Emirates or Saudi Arabia, or similar. There is no doubt that the countries I mentioned last have a readiness to accept the call to the truth, the Book and the Sunnah. But there in Albania, what is the Book and the Sunnah, and the methodology of the pious predecessors (Salaf)? This is a matter they do not know and have not heard of. So I am now, as they say, in a state of indecision regarding preparing myself to respond to our brother al-Banna’s request, given my old age, my distance from my birthplace, as they say, and for other matters, and many other things.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: Or do you know him personally? He was with us at the Islamic University as a teacher there. At the time, 'Abd al-Rahman 'Abd al-Khaliq was there as a student or pupil. In any case, the goodwill, praise be to Allah, between me and him continues until the last breath of life, if Allah wills. The point is, he called me by phone while I was absent and asked some of the brothers here to inform me that after Hajj he would pass through here and continue his journey to Albania. He urgently wants, naturally, for me to be with him. I now realize the importance of my going to Albania much more than before, in my opinion, whether I am right or wrong—let that aside. I believe that my going to Albania is an individual obligation (fard 'ayn) for me, but I am hesitant whether to go or not. I discussed this matter with some of my family and some of my friends. Why? Because I am approaching eighty years of age, and I have been away from my homeland for exactly seventy years. I know that customs, traditions, and communism have done their work there. So I ask myself: am I able to do anything there? A country that has lived in disbelief (kufr) is not like the countries I was in recently, such as Syria, or the one I live in, or the one I am moving to, such as the Emirates or Saudi Arabia, or similar. There is no doubt that the countries I mentioned last have a readiness to accept the call to the truth, the Book and the Sunnah. But there in Albania, what is the Book and the Sunnah, and the methodology of the pious predecessors (Salaf)? This is a matter they do not know and have not heard of. So I am now, as they say, in a state of indecision regarding preparing myself to respond to our brother al-Banna’s request, given my old age, my distance from my birthplace, as they say, and for other matters, and many other things.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.