Details of the Shaykh Al-Albani’s dispute with Zuheir Shawish

The Shaykh : The problem began as an academic issue, followed by a material one, which is secondary. We have lived this whole life while he prints my books, just as any printer prints others’ books, receiving a certain percentage of the profit. But naturally, the printer does not own the book. It became clear now, or about a year ago, that he was planning something far-reaching, from top to bottom. I do not see this planning, but there was a vow there. What was this vow? We used to erase it; we did not care about it, because he is our brother and friend, and he would not break his word.
The student : In the sense of seeking an excuse for your brother.

The Shaykh : This is the first thing, meaning it only stirred the question in me when he printed the book *Al-Halal wa al-Haram* by al-Qaradawi. I hope you will keep this in mind from me. And when the time comes, if you want to defend your brother, whether he is wronged or doing wrong, and you are truly, as we think, a man, you will say to Zuheir at that time, “Listen to the answer.” If this does not satisfy you or convince you, please do not try to convince me, for I was convinced at that time. But now I am not convinced. Do you understand this statement?
The student : Yes, yes.
Another student: Please allow us to take notes.

The Shaykh : I can allow it, I allow it, but...
The student : Yes, sir.

The Shaykh : The book *Al-Halal wa al-Haram* by al-Qaradawi; it is likely you have heard of it, it is well known to you.
The student : Yes, yes.

The Shaykh: All right.
The student : And we saw written on it: “Takhrij by Al-Albani,” an academic addition.

The Shaykh: Good.
The student : Not on the part from the outside, so that I can be precise about the inside.

The Shaykh : Well, a print edition came out with “Takhrij by Muhammad Nasir al-Albani,” and this is a lie. The book’s author is al-Qaradawi, like any book with commentary and text. The commentary below contains a very simple takhrij that matches al-Qaradawi’s knowledge in hadith sciences. It is a superficial takhrij. It writes below: “Takhrij by the hadith scholar of Sham, Muhammad Nasir al-Albani.” At that time, I was traveling between Damascus and Beirut, and my eyes fell on this. I said, “What is this, Zuheir?” He said, “By Allah, this is a mistake by one of the supervisors of the printing.” What did we do?
The student : We smoothed it over.

The Shaykh : We smoothed it over, because this vow had not yet caused the measure to overflow.
The student : We took it lightly.

The Shaykh : Yes, we saw a book, we saw a thesis. The first printing had “Copyright reserved” written on it, meaning for the author. And with time, “Copyright reserved” became for the publisher. What is this, Zuheir? He said, “This is so that thieves do not get greedy and steal the book. When they see that the book belongs to the publisher, the publisher is the Islamic Office, which has a certain awe in the hearts of thieves, this prevents the thieves from stealing.” And this went on with dozens of books. And what are we doing? We are smoothing things over. We printed a thesis and published a false news item: “The printing of the third volume of the series *Al-Ahadith al-Da'ifah wa al-Mawdu'ah* has been completed.” And we had not printed it until a year or two later. And I am here, not there. In a little while, another thesis will be attached to it: “The printing of the first volume of *Sahih Abu Dawud* has been completed.” This truly made me disturbed in a strange way, even though, by the grace of Allah, I am self-made and I control my nerves to a great extent. But here, I became confused, striking five against six.
The student : But I have a small comment, meaning the correction of Abu Dawud, meaning he considers it the Shaykh’s thesis of a lifetime.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student : Following the method of *Al-Sahih*, is this authentic or weak...

The Shaykh : This, do you see, this is *Sahih Abu Dawud* and *Da'if Abu Dawud*. The printing of the first volume has been completed. I began to ask myself how.
The student : It has not yet been completed... talk on the phone.
Another student: Turn off the phone.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student : We said, turn off the phone.

The Shaykh : Turn it off.
The student : What is the evidence, sir, for this answer?

The Shaykh : The women used to stay for forty days in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
The student : Before the forty days, you said once, our Shaykh, if she becomes pure before forty.

The Shaykh : Yes, but now the question is different, yes, that is right.

The questioner : By Allah, let us... a general question also regarding menstruation... differing from the duration of menstruation.

The Shaykh : The point is, when I read this news, I was very disturbed because I imagined that someone had stolen the first volume. But who would want to steal it, and the volume is with me? So, so, when the relations between me and Zuheir were good, perhaps I gave him a part to look at, or perhaps out of the tolerance that existed between us, we allowed him to make a copy of it, or he copied it without my knowledge, out of the affection that usually exists between brothers. It could be like this, it could be like that, and so on. Then, when the man saw the vacuum created by my migration here, and we no longer supplied him with our books, he took the opportunity and printed the book.
The student : But you do not remember that you allowed him.

The Shaykh : No, this is all speculation.
The student : This is speculation.

The Shaykh : It is all speculation, a question that made me disturbed, meaning.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : And also, this false news is coming out; he is admitting it, meaning you feel, how is it, one, two, how is it in hadith that every sin is a black spot in the heart, may Allah forbid, until what does it do to the heart? And all these effects affect the person. He added a comment to the thesis *Al-'Idayn* from his own side, stating that he does not see the imam going to the women to preach to them and remind them. This is contrary to the opinion. He is sticking his nose into my books and commenting as he pleases, as if he is the owner of the book or the author of the book. I felt this arrogance fully in this last period, especially when what they call the third piece of furniture came, which is *Al-Tankil*. I saw *Al-Tankil*. *Al-Tankil* is a book by one of the Yemeni scholars (may Allah have mercy on him), Shaykh Nasif (may Allah have mercy on him). His partners asked me to check the commentary on this book, which is in the author’s handwriting, and then to oversee its printing. I did this at the expense of Muhammad Nasif. That was about twenty years or more ago. The book remained like that, and we distributed it by order of Nasif. Beware, the thieves of this book, which is a very valuable book because its author is truly a scholar, stole it. A man in Egypt named Sharaf or Ashraf Hijazi, and in the sense of what we say in Syria, changing the appearance in order to eat, he came and printed the book that I had written. He printed it and published it, with the commentary and verification by Muhammad Nasir al-Albani, at the expense of Muhammad Nasif and his partners. This label went, and he put “Verification by Muhammad Nasir al-Albani and Abd al-Razzaq Hamza.” Abd al-Razzaq Hamza has no relation to the book at all. Why change the cover? He wants to sell the book. And this, and what will it be, this person, if he were here next to me, I would not let him get away with it. I would do something with him, I would go to courts and courts, to Allah the Complainant. But what is there? A line of poetry, O Yusuf, that is more severe.
The student : And the oppression of close relatives is more severe.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : And the oppression of close relatives is more severe.

The Shaykh : You have said it well, by Allah.
The student : “And the oppression of close relatives is more painful *** For a person than the blow of the sharp sword.”

The Shaykh : Yes, our friend Zuheir Shawish comes and prints the book, saying “Verification by Muhammad Nasir al-Albani, Zuheir Shawish, Abd al-Razzaq Hamza.”
The student : And these two have nothing to do with it.

The Shaykh : No, no, yes, he has something, he has something. Zuheir Shawish has a Jaha’s nail. Do you know Jaha’s nail?
The student : Meaning, a little bit.

The Shaykh : Haha, no, do you know the story of Jaha’s nail?
The student : When he sold the house and put a nail in it and started hanging things on it.

The Shaykh : And tying his donkey to it. What did our friend do? It is his habit. He comes and writes half a line of commentary, half a line of commentary, which has no substance, and puts “Z” for Zuheir. So this is Jaha’s nail again. After ten pages, another one like this. These are his comments here. The measure has overflowed; it can no longer bear it. It is enough. I have spent about three years here printing nothing. Why? Because I do not know anyone who prints. And even if I did, I would not be confident in them. In Sham, we know people we go to, they come to us, we say this is good, this is not good, and so on. We are strangers here. My son-in-law, Nizam, started to get a bit involved in printing, and we started to print with him, slowly, slowly. As for *Al-Tankil*, who buys the rights to this book? We sold it and got rid of the thefts.
The student : Complete.

The Shaykh : And I wrote an introduction. In this introduction, I did not just hint, I explicitly named the first thief, the Egyptian, and I hinted at the second thief, our old friend.
The student : In contrast.

The Shaykh : Yes, a hint, but sometimes a hint can be more explicit than a statement, meaning, yes.
The student : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, well, the important thing is.
The student : Yes, sir.

The Shaykh : I wrote the introduction, and Zuheir's temper flared. He called me for the first time from Beirut, even though he knew how to make a call. It seems that, in some way, from Cyprus to here, and so on, he talked for half an hour. I told him that the issue cannot be resolved over the phone. If possible, please honor us with your presence here so we can meet and gather. The story is long, but these issues are enough for you now to know what my grievance is.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : In the end, he formed a committee of three people from among his own.
The student : Here is a very important point before I forget it, if you please, Shaykh.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.
The student : I told him that these issues cannot be resolved by phone. Come to Jordan and we will discuss them. He came to Jordan and went to your house, or the committee came to you.

The Shaykh : I am telling you that I am the one who opened the topic of the committee, not you.
The student : Yes, I mean, when he came from Beirut, he came from Beirut knocking on the door of your house.

The Shaykh : He came from Beirut, meaning as a visitor, as is usual.
The student : Yes, and he came to you.

The Shaykh : How did he come?
The student : I mean, he came to the house.

The Shaykh : Of course, and we hosted him, him and the committee that came, and so on. The issues had not yet been raised.
The student : They were not raised.

The Shaykh : Things were proceeding normally. He formed the committee by his own choice from three people. Two of them I know, and one I trust completely. The second one I do not know; there is no transaction between me and him, but he is a friend of the one I trust. The third is an Egyptian lawyer whom I did not know before. The one I trust is named Abd al-Rahman al-Bani. He informed me by phone from Riyadh that he would come to you, God willing, and that Zuheir would also come so that we could resolve the dispute. The committee was established and we gathered together. Three lists were formed: a list of Zuheir's books, which are his right; a list of my books, which are my right; and a list of books we disagreed on, such as "this is yours" and "this is mine," and so on. We left that list aside. We agreed on the other two lists in some way, which is not important to discuss now. The committee took the two lists, one for him and one for me.
The student : We agreed on them.

The Shaykh : We agreed on them. The agreement, as far as I was concerned, was based on my trust in Zuheir. But this trust was completely destroyed later. As for this book, is it yours or mine? By Allah, I do not remember. Do you remember? Yes, this book is mine. Write it down as mine. Write it down, and so on. We finished with two lists. The next day, Zuheir called by phone and said there was an error in the lists and a meeting was necessary. We agreed to meet, and he came with one member of the committee, because the other members had traveled. He was talking about a book that was mistakenly listed in the two lists. A book was listed in his list.
The student : "The Good Word" is here, and "The Good Word" is here.

The Shaykh : Do you understand how it is?
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : It is an error. What is the correction? The book is *Mukhtasar al-Mundhiri* for *Sahih Muslim*. He said this book belongs to him. I told him, how can the book be yours? A book is yours only in one of two ways. The first way is the one we used to follow in the past, where I worked four hours for Zuheir's benefit in the Dar al-Kutub al-Mu'ayyada library, and he gave me compensation, which was four hundred Syrian pounds at the time. The work I did during this time belongs to Zuheir; I have no relation to it whatsoever. The second way is that you buy the book. But no book has been bought by you from me. How did this book become yours? This led to a heated discussion on the subject. I mentioned incidents that he knows well: that this book was first printed by so-and-so, not you. Then he wanted to print the second edition and did not want to give me my right. You know that a committee was formed in your library in al-Hazmiyyah in Beirut, and the committee ruled in my favor. How did the book become yours? Do you understand this point?
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : I mean, first, the one who printed the first edition of the book was not in Kuwait. Then the original publisher reprinted the book. For some reason, he did not want to give me my right. So the committee ruled in my favor. Zuheir knows this. How did the book become yours? This book is mine. At that point, the measure was full. I said to my companion, the publisher, "After this speech, there is no relationship left between me and Zuheir at all, because he denied the facts that he knows. This is the disaster. It is not just a matter of correct or incorrect belief, but of morals. 'Nations are sustained by morals as long as they remain,' and so on. And glory to Allah, when he claimed there was an error in the lists, Allah inspired me to return to the statements that Zuheir sends you. I went back, and the statements testify that this book is mine, because he is giving me the right of the editor and the author.
The student : Fifteen percent.

The Shaykh : How did this book become yours, and you are giving me a certain percentage continuously?
The student : That means the book is yours.

The Shaykh : Do you understand? I wrote an objection to the committee's ruling and gave it to the publisher. I said, "Please, read this to Zuheir." This was before I realized the issue was this heated. Zuheir left here, meaning he was driven out completely. The committee received the objection as well. They came another round, and then I am certain that it was all Zuheir's game. What does the Egyptian lawyer bring from Egypt? He comes here in two or three days, or so on, unless he is the one who planned the matter. Of course, he is a capable man financially. The committee came and took a lesson from the previous reconciliation and the severance that occurred. So they took a commitment from Zuheir and from me that their ruling would be binding. I read the text, and based on the documents, papers, and evidence, they would rule, and their ruling must be binding on both parties. As for the word "evidence," I proposed adding "legal evidence" in the text. I asked if there was an objection to the lawyer speaking, because he is the one who raised the issue of adding legal evidence. He said there was no objection. I wrote the legal evidence with my signature. The committee contacted me and him, and so on. They made a new list. Again, the measure was full. They were giving him two or three books by mistake. Now they have made me a partner with him in my *Mukhtasar* of *Sahih Muslim* and my *Mukhtasar* of *al-Bukhari*, making him a partner with me.
The student : Your *Mukhtasar* or *Mukhtasar al-Mundhiri* for Muslim?

The Shaykh : Two: *Mukhtasar al-Mundhiri* is a partner, and my *Mukhtasar* is for him, and *Mukhtasar al-Bukhari* is a partner with me, and so on.
The student : Knowing that he has no partnership.

The Shaykh : I am a partner with him in the printing. Look at the group, it is truly strange. In the sense that for the first time I am partnering with Zuhayr, I told him, "I want a share from you, because the authorship rights do not accumulate, so make me a partner with you in the printing." So I would get the author's rights and the partner's share equally. They made him a partner with me in the book as if he were a partner with me in authoring the book. The bottom line is, the transaction proceeded this way, and we do not know what is hidden in the end. The committee made a decision, and it was signed, signed, and how did it happen? It was arranged at night. We wanted to come to you, not to take up too much of your time. On that day, I had an appointment with my wife, and I said to him, "I am going down now." He said, "You and the car?" We said, "Good," and I went down in the car to the entrance. When they came, he said, "Let's go, paper by paper," and we signed. As they say in Syria, "O heedless one, what do you have besides Allah?" We returned and finished our evening gathering. We returned, for what... something that takes the mind. I went and wrote an objection. There was a member of the committee whom I trusted, and he was present. I went to his hotel, read my draft to him, and said, "I hope you will write it in your own hand and submit it to the committee." He did so, may Allah reward him with good. The days passed, and Zuhayr was moving things here and there, here and there. And what does he say about Shaykh Al-Albani? Allah knows best, but I see that people want to settle it. What is the settlement? And they do not know what he is doing. Finally, he submitted the committee's final report to the court to give it official status. Consequently, we submitted an appeal against this claim. Now the case is in court, they are putting in mediators here and there, and people want to settle it, but this case cannot be settled. So if someone wants to do good and apply this hadith, it is said to Zuhayr, for example: "You are claiming that you are a partner with the Shaykh in Sahih al-Bukhari and Mukhtasar al-Bukhari. How are you a partner with him? Did you partner with him in authorship? I think he will say no. If so, how did you become a partner with him? He may bring up matters related to printing, but they do not make him a partner in the authorship."
The student : We can say it is the right of publication.

The Shaykh : That is it, and the right of publication.
The student : He says, in his words, that a printing press was lost to me in Damascus because of Sahih al-Bukhari.

The Shaykh : What did he do for me? Does this have to do with becoming a partner with me?
The student: No.

The Shaykh : I was a partner with him. His loss was lost, and my loss was lost, and may Allah forgive what has passed. Then he printed a second and third edition, and I do not know how many editions, and so on. Allah opened up good for him because of these books he is printing. How did he become a partner with me?
The student : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student : And al-Mundhiri as well.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student : Al-Mundhiri.

The Shaykh : Likewise, Mukhtasar al-Mundhiri.
The student : Initially... a committee in Zuhayr's office ruled on it.

The Shaykh : Yes, the point is that there are very strange things, very strange things. Now, "Sahih al-Kalim al-Tayyib" has no relation to the judging committee, unless it does, because they ruled that Sahih al-Kalim belongs to him. And how does it become yours? By purchase? You did not purchase it. It did not become yours by purchase. So how is it yours? The new thing is: if you are far removed from the book, and its introduction is the introduction of the first edition, I say here: "As for what follows, my honorable brother, Professor Zuhayr al-Shawish, owner of the Islamic Office, suggested to me that I abridge the book 'Al-Kalim al-Tayyib' by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, which I had commented on and traced the hadiths of, and so on."