The fabrication against Shaykh Al-Albani in one of the Moroccan newspapers and the accusation of his collaboration with the Jews, and the defense of the Salafis for him.

The questioner: Did the scholar Abdul Aziz ibn al-Siddiq, may the Shaykh preserve him, permit the Salafi Shaykh Nasir al-Din Al-Albani? The article says: "After the news published by the magazine Al-Alam, issued in London on July 3, 1993, which stated that the Salafi speaker, Shaykh Nasir al-Din Al-Albani, had issued a fatwa requiring the Palestinian people to leave the land of Palestine and leave it to the Jews, and what Shaykh Al-Albani added, saying that the Palestinian Hamas movement is a struggling movement, not an Islamic one, but a purely political movement, and following this strange fatwa issued by the Salafi Shaykh Al-Albani, the scholar Abdul Aziz ibn al-Siddiq—who I have nicknamed Abdul Aziz the Heretic—confronted him in a large article published by one of the local newspapers in the city of Tangier, in which the scholar ibn al-Siddiq stated that whoever is content with submitting to the rule of disbelievers and works to hand over the land of Muslims to them is a disbeliever, an apostate, and his blood is lawful. Then Shaykh ibn al-Siddiq added that there is no dispute in this ruling and that the scholars have reached a consensus on it. The article of the scholar Abdul Aziz ibn al-Siddiq was characterized by sharpness and strictness, and he did not hesitate to describe Shaykh Al-Albani with ignorance, collaboration, and betrayal... or as the scholar ibn al-Siddiq called him, the 'Bahali.' The scholar Abdul Aziz ibn al-Siddiq says: 'What I must draw attention to here is that this fatwa was issued under the inspiration of the White House, which saw that the best way to deal with its struggling and fighting enemies in the path of their freedom and to weaken them is to recruit clients who are famous for knowledge and jurisprudence to... within the ranks to weaken the spirit of resistance in the name of Islam and to trivialize the matter of the enemies' occupation of their lands and to work on brainwashing from the concept of jihad in the path of liberation. And the master scholar ibn al-Siddiq concluded: "And I always say, I call him the Heretic."

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.
The student: "Al-Siddiq's article describes Shaykh Al-Albani as a slave to the dinar and the dirham. Do you see what is the position of the Moroccan Salafis regarding their Shaykh Al-Albani? This is the end of the article" ... The Shaykh is as follows: I ask the noble father to help me against this enemy who has shown his enmity toward the Salafiyyah after enduring him, and what was attributed to you, O honorable Shaykh, until it is possible for me... to respond directly to this claimant who has become prominent in issuing fatwas in the next issue of this newspaper that published this false news, which no sane person doubts except the enemies of the Salafiyyah. Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.

The Shaykh: Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings. First, we say: Glory be to You, this is a great slander. We, the students of knowledge, have a model in the prophets and messengers and the righteous who are sincere in their calling. If Allah—Mighty and Majestic—addressed His Prophet (peace be upon him) and consoled him with His saying: Then what can be said, or whatever is said, about me as a student of knowledge is less than what was said about the messengers and prophets, and even about the master of the messengers and prophets. Therefore, our consolation in what we are accused of, namely collaboration, and what you made us hear in that unjust newspaper, the injustice of that claimant who is ibn al-Siddiq, is that we have heard here in Oman and it was published in the newspapers much more than what was published there, by a very large margin. They preached against me on the pulpits, and the story is long and very long. Therefore, one of our sincere brothers in the call rushed to publish a letter titled "What Do They Have Against the Shaykh?" I want to send it to you so that you may take it as provision for what you will say or what you will write. So give me your address so that we may proceed to send it to you, if Allah wills.
The student: May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh. This is my address.

The Shaykh : Go ahead, what is it?
The student: Abdul Qadir Munir.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student: Jarsis Street.

The Shaykh: Street.
The student: Jarsis.

The Shaykh: Count the letters because they are strange words to us.
The student: J, R, S, Y.

The Shaykh: Yes, after that.
The student: Jarsis number.

The Shaykh: Number.
The student: Forty-one.

The Shaykh: This is the postal code.
The student: No, the house number.

The Shaykh: The house.
The student: Forty-one.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student: Al-Inbi'ath neighborhood.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student: Salé.

The Shaykh: Yes, what did you say?
The student: After Al-Inbi'ath neighborhood.
Another student : This is the name of the city, O honorable Shaykh, Salé.

The Shaykh: This, we passed through it in our time.
The student: You passed through it, yes.

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.
The student: The Kingdom of Morocco.

The Shaykh : Yes.
The student: I am waiting for you eagerly, O honorable Shaykh.
Another student : After Jarsis Street, what is the word?
The student: Jarsis Street, number forty-one, Al-Inbi'ath neighborhood, Kingdom of Morocco.

The Shaykh: Soon, if Allah wills, a registered guaranteed letter will reach you, if Allah wills.
The student: May Allah bless you, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : And may Allah protect you, if Allah wills.
The student : Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy.

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