The Shaykh’s advice to one of the callers regarding being gentle with a dissenter and being patient with his harm.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

The questioner : How are you, my Shaykh?

The Shaykh : What was that commotion you caused for us last night?

The questioner : I caused a commotion, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Otherwise, the one who responds to the hot-tempered means he wants to become like him.

The questioner : By Allah, O Shaykh, honestly, this man knows your status; I have spoken a lot about you.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : So when he stopped and behaved in this manner, and seeing that no one was speaking to him, I told him to be quiet, that he would not get to speak, and that this talk would not happen.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : He was not willing, so I told him I would shut up.

The Shaykh: Allah is the Greatest!

The questioner : Of course, he said, I did not say this word to you so that you would hear me and raise your voice and challenge him and stand up, meaning a man, and it became... and so on, so it requires some intensity.

The Shaykh : By Allah, the man, without a doubt, overstepped and transgressed; if he were in his own house, he would not have the right to do this, yet he came with this aggression, cut the wires, and then objected. I was informed of very heavy words about him.

The questioner : Yes, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : But what I intended by my surprise at what I heard from you is that you should recall in such an incident the saying of Allah (Mighty and Majestic): , especially since I learned afterward that this is not the man’s character and not his habit.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Is this authentic?

The questioner : By Allah, this is what I know about him.

The Shaykh : So you should assume that he was struck by a temporary condition, and you should have taken him aside and been gentle with him, saying, "O Shaykh, you are a guest here now, and it is not appropriate to interrupt the Shaykh in his lesson."

The questioner : This is what I intended to do, but he did not leave me a chance. I wanted to speak to him about this and then go to our brother Abu Abdullah and say, "O Shaykh, hurry and write this book."

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : Let them go... meaning, we do not even understand the words you are saying...

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : Who understands the Shaykh’s words, because they do not understand at all.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : So, glory to Allah, he was very hasty and did this.

The Shaykh : May Allah guide him.

The questioner : Then he threatened me yesterday, of course, in front of the young men.

The Shaykh : Yes, he threatened you and cursed you, and he cursed me with you, too, for your sake, to lighten the load on you.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh. Honestly, I am very upset about this matter.

The Shaykh : Allah is the Helper.

The questioner : And I am coming today, of course, on my leave, so I am out. I came to the mu'adhdhin, and of course, he did not find me. I wanted to consult you about this matter, and he told the mu'adhdhin, "Tell him I want to pluck out his beard."

The Shaykh : May Allah guide him.

The questioner : So, honestly, my position regarding him now is that I say this man might overstep his limit, and honestly, if I meet him and he wants to speak, I will not allow him to speak, and perhaps if it comes to fighting, I will fight him. So I say, should I complain about him or not? I do not know. What is your advice?

The Shaykh : As for complaining about him, do not complain about him. To whom would you complain? May Allah bless you? To whom would you complain? So turn your attention away from that. As for meeting him with the same treatment, I tell you, first of all, you must be patient with him. You must be better than him. It is easy for a Muslim to be like others in lowliness, but it is not easy to be like them in elevation and rising above vice and ugliness and the like. Therefore, we must be patient, especially since we are in the time of estrangement and the time of fitnah (trial, discord or temptation). Here, I remind you of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), as it came in some hadiths that speak about the fitnahs that will occur in the last times: . Just now, meaning about a quarter of an hour ago, a person called me and said, "I sometimes go out with the Tabligh group and read to them from the book Riyaad al-Saaliheen, which is your edition."

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : So I read to them the supplication, which is the well-known and so on.

The questioner: All right.

The Shaykh : He said, "So I read it, 'O Allah, Lord,' because that is how it is printed." The imam of the mosque, who is a Tablighi, said to him, "This is a mistake; say 'O Allah, Lord' (Rabb)." I told him, "It is printed that way." The one speaking to me shouted at him, "He is telling you it is printed that way." He said to him, "In which book are you reading?" He said, "In the book of the Shaykh Al-Albani." He said to him, "This is a Jew. Listen now."

The questioner : There is no power nor strength except with Allah!

The Shaykh : It shows the one who is speaking like the one who is speaking with me now. Do you understand from me?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Yes, meaning he got excited and slapped him with his palm and said to him, "How do you declare this man a disbeliever, and this is such and such, and this is such and such," and so on. So I took exception to him and denied that he initiated with a slap, and I told him, "You had to remind him that whoever declares a Muslim a disbeliever has himself disbelieved, and this is not permissible. You are a man who does not know him," and so on. On the other hand, I told him, "You are right with him, because this is a printing error." The bottom line is that we agreed with him that he would go to him and say, "The Shaykh tasked me to come and apologize to you because I slapped you. In return, I advise you to retract your declaration of disbelief against the man, because this is a Muslim; at the very least, he testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, he prays, and so on. So you must stop and repent to Allah from declaring the man a disbeliever. Then you will tell him that the Shaykh supported you in that the correct form is 'Rabb' not 'Rabb,' and that 'Rabb' is a printing error. And I gave him a long lecture that if Al-Albani wrote a book or someone else, or edited a book or extracted a book, it does not mean that he is responsible for the printing of the book and its correction, and so on. So he is not responsible for the printing errors that occur. Even if your pride leads you to sin and you say that this man is a Jew, the man agreed, praise be to Allah, and promised me that tomorrow, if Allah wills, he will go to him. The point is, this is your equal if he comes to you and intends you harm, so be patient and use gentleness and wisdom. You know that some Bedouins grabbed the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) by the collar, and some of the ignorant among the Companions themselves, who appeared to be new to Islam, . So if the Prophet did what he did to him, then what is done to us is little. Therefore, I advise you to be patient. I advise you to be patient, O Hashim. This is all I have.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you.

The questioner : Now, O my master, perhaps if he comes, he might confront me directly with violence.

The Shaykh, if he confronts you with violence, do not turn the other cheek, because we are Muslims and not Christians.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And beware of that.

The questioner : May Allah bless you. By Allah, honestly, I was intending that if he comes, perhaps he will come later for reconciliation, for example.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : I was intending that if he wants to reconcile, I would say, "It is necessary that before the reconciliation, you call"The Shaykh : and apologize, so that he learns that when scholars are sitting in a place or in a scholarly session or in any place, they must have respect above all else.

The Shaykh : Fine, I am in your hands regarding this, with a slight modification.

The questioner: Go ahead.

The Shaykh : You will say to him this, and if they say to him, "The Shaykh advised me to forgive you."

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : There is no need to call him.

The questioner : Okay.

The Shaykh : Meaning, we will have killed two birds with one stone.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : He will have submitted to the truth, and we will have forgiven him from our side.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you.

The questioner : May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh: Is it clear?

The questioner : Clear, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Do you have anything else?

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : So.
Peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy.

The questioner : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings and His forgiveness.

The Shaykh : Welcome.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And to you, may Allah help you.