The Shaykh Al-Albani’s explanation of the rigidity of the Tahrir Party’s methodology, and his providing examples thereof.

The Shaykh : And so, I used to make fun of them, to illustrate to our listening brothers the rigidity of their thinking, even in matters where the harm is clearly evident. I used to say: They claim that if a young man stands on the balcony in the morning, washes his face after sleeping, and sees movement in the mirror—the shadow is moving, of course, because the movement is opposite—he looks up and sees a girl from his neighbors, one of the most beautiful things Allah has created, who is also washing her face, combing her hair, and fixing her appearance because she is going, for example, to school or the university, and so on. He does this and sees her! This is forbidden, so he looks up to his fill, and perhaps he goes down to something lawful. Why? This is an image, for example, and that is reality. This is forbidden and that is lawful! This is based on a concept that I do not think Imam al-Shafi'i would say, but it exists in the Shafi'i school, and there is a counterpart to it in the Hanafi school—excuse me, not a counterpart, but the same thing. In the Shafi'i school: looking at an illusion, why is there a problem? This is an illusion. They built this great disaster upon this legal branch: cinema, obscene magazines, and so on. And they do not look at the principle: "Unrestricted public interest." They do not adopt it, even though it is, in reality, a principle of the greatness of Islam: unrestricted public interest. In the Hanafi school, there is the concept that the echo of a sound has no ruling of the sound itself. I read this in Hanafi jurisprudence in *Maraqi al-Falah*, and they built a ruling or rulings upon it, among which is: a man in a valley hears an echo—we can hear this from some radio stations if you have not noticed; sometimes you hear the verse with a low voice, and then the voice comes out high!

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : This echo has its philosophy and mechanical explanation. So, in some places in the valleys, a person can hear an echo if he calls out with his voice: "Waaa." Here, when the mu'adhdhin calls, if you have noticed what happens, you hear the adhan from here, and you hear the adhan from there; it is the echo. They said in Hanafi jurisprudence: If one hears the echo of the recitation of a prostration verse, is it obligatory for him to prostrate in prostration of recitation, or not? They said: No, because this is not the sound itself, but the echo of the sound. And there was a joke among us in Syria with the Mufti of Syria, Abu al-Yusr 'Abidin. He went up to Mount Qasiyun, which has the radio and television station. One of our brothers, what is his name? Taysir Talu, an employee there, with a beard in accordance with the Sunnah, perfectly. You know, the state, however disbelieving and wicked it may be, when they present an official, even a religious one, they like to walk him with someone, to mix with him. So they presented this Muslim young man, our Salafi brother. So he became, as usual, visiting, going here and there. The important thing is that at the end, he said to him: I want to ask you a question. He said: Go ahead. He said: Is this voice we hear on the radio the voice itself, or the echo of the voice? He said: No, this is the voice itself. It was as if the Mufti did not want this answer, or it did not please him. He said: No, I do not think it is anything but the echo of the voice. He tried to convince him by scientific means, of course, the Mufti, like in my story, what does he know about these issues? But our friend noticed that the Mufti wanted to drag him into giving a fatwa against his will, that this is not the sound but the echo. Our friend noticed that there was something in the matter. What is the difference to the Mufti if this is the echo or the voice itself? He said to him: Well, my master, is there a difference? What do you mean? I did not understand? He said: You mean there is no difference! There is. He said: What, my master? He said: Now, the voice we hear on the radio is the voice of Umm Kulthum. If this is the voice itself, then listening to it is forbidden. And if it is the echo of the voice, then listening to it is lawful. Hahaha. This exists, and this is one of the things upon which the Tahrir Party proceeds. And perhaps you have heard their fatwa issuing a bulletin on the permissibility of a Muslim woman kissing, not just shaking hands, kissing but without desire, with a good intention, hahaha.

The questioner : I seek refuge in Allah!