There are doubts circulating regarding the methodology of the Shaykh specifically, and the methodology of the people of hadith today from the Salaf in general, among which is that Shaykh al-Albani proceeded to the four Sunan
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The questioner : Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. There are doubts circulating regarding the methodology of the Shaykh specifically, and the methodology of the people of hadith from the Salaf today in general, among which is that Shaykh al-Albani proceeded to the four Sunan and dealt with them, bringing forth what had not been done before him, and classifying them into authentic and weak, even though the issue of authenticating and weakening is a matter of independent legal reasoning. As for what concerns the people of hadith today, they are occupied with refuting one another, and in the reality of the Muslims, they do not offer solutions to the problems of the Muslims, but rather they are occupied with refuting one another in specific issues of independent legal reasoning, where the disagreement is a disagreement of variety. So we ask you, O your excellence, to clarify such doubts?
The Shaykh : This, as it is said from old, is "a habit we know from Akhzam". Those who claim that the Salafis do not offer solutions to the problems of the present age are saying something that indicates their ignorance of Islam. And the first word you mentioned, if it is from their speech, is also, as it is said, "a bundle of straw on a camel".
It is true that al-Albani came to the four Sunan and gave every hadith in each of those books the rank that its chains of narration, its corroborating narrations, and its supporting chains require.
So we say to those who want to offer to the Ummah solutions to those problems they refer to: on what principle do they want to rely in offering them? There is no doubt that that principle is the first principle of the Islamic Shari'ah, the Noble Qur'an, and then the second principle, the Sunnah, also by the consensus of all Muslims. And if the Sunnah has been entered into, for a wisdom Allah intended for this Ummah, with what is not from it of weak and denounced hadiths, how can those solutions be established upon such hadiths in which the true and the false are mixed?
Therefore, the Salafis in reality are performing the obligatory duty of purification that the masses of Muslims have turned away from, both in the past and the present, and especially those who claim that they are offering solutions to those problems.
And how excellent is the saying of Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) when he said in his Risalah: "If the scholar is ignorant of the Sunnah, on what principle does he rely if he wants to perform analogical reasoning, and analogical reasoning is not valid except upon the two principles, the Book and the Sunnah? So if the independent legal reasoner performs analogical reasoning or derives a ruling from the Sunnah, the first condition is that this Sunnah be authentic according to the scholars of hadith and in accordance with their principles and rules".
So those who boast of what they do not have, that they are offering solutions to those problems, on what basis? On the basis of ignorance, because those who do not know the Sunnah and do not distinguish between its authentic and weak parts are not able to establish practical solutions that are in accordance with the Islamic Shari'ah. And reality confirms this; among them are groups or parties that have passed about half a century of time, or less or more, and they have not been able to do anything. The individuals of these parties have remained far from acting upon the Book and the Sunnah because they do not know, and one who does not know cannot act. As we mentioned above, the principle in every action is that it be established upon the Book and the Sunnah, and then that it be pure for the face of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).
So if we assume that every individual of the Ummah, including those groups or parties, is sincere in their actions, their actions will be rejected and not valid because they are not upon the Book and the Sunnah.
So the classification of the Sunnah into authentic and weak, as the questioner mentioned above, is this a work that al-Albani did alone? Is this a defect? The great Imams from the scholars of hadith have established for us this good practice that they made the hadith authentic and weak, and the most famous Imams in that are Imam al-Bukhari and Muslim. Was their work criticized badly, or was their work praised by the entire Ummah until their books, after the Book of Allah, became a reliance upon them for these long centuries? So that was a praiseworthy effort from them, and they are rewarded for this work with a reward that only Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) can estimate.
The truth, and the truth I say, is that criticizing al-Albani's work stems from not appreciating this knowledge, which enables its possessor to distinguish the authentic from the weak, or it stems from hatred, jealousy, and envy, and this is not from the morals of the Muslims. Instead of doing this work well and helping the author to make great progress in completing this work, they say this is a work that al-Albani did alone. So what do they want? That the Islamic Ummah remain confused whenever a hadith comes to them from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and they do not know its authentic from its weak, and the result and consequence of that is that they fall into fabricating against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and that is what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed about in many hadiths, the most important of which is his saying (peace be upon him):Riyad as-Salihin 1547 And if it is not permissible to transgress against the rebels or the oppressors, and the reward for a bad deed is a bad deed like it, then I say that those who do not appreciate this effort made in distinguishing the authentic from the weak, the meaning of that is that they are content to remain ignorant of the Sunnah, and consequently content to fall into lying against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), due to the aforementioned hadith, which is a very serious hadith and deals with a real matter: Al-Mustadrak lil-Hakim 20:70 Any writer who wrote a book, or any writer who wrote a letter, or any lecturer who delivered a lecture, they narrate in these articles hadiths from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) without distinguishing their authentic from their weak, so they have fallen, whether they wish it or not, into lying against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). This alone is sufficient for them to know that it is obligatory for dozens, indeed hundreds, of the Islamic Ummah to study this science of hadith well and to be able to distinguish the authentic hadith from the weak one, so that they spread the correct knowledge among the Muslims. At that time, the one who wants to establish those solutions mentioned above can establish them as Islamic solutions, otherwise they will be solutions far from Islam.
And we read every day articles in which things are permitted or forbidden merely by opinion; there is no "Allah said" or "the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said," even though it is known to the people of knowledge that in many of those studies, hadiths from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) have come, and yet in some of them no hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is mentioned. And this is a defect that some of the old scholars have spoken about in some schools of jurisprudence, where a person reads a book of Islamic jurisprudence from its beginning to its end and does not hear "Allah said" or "the Messenger of Allah said," but it is merely the school of jurisprudence and merely opinion.
And long ago I read a study by one of the famous writers about music and singing, and he did not address any of those hadiths that the scholars of hadith mentioned specifically regarding this issue, but rather he mentioned his opinions, and he may rely in some of them on some statements of some of the predecessors, but knowledge is not "so-and-so said" and "so-and-so said," but rather, as Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) rightly said:
"Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said *** The Companions said; it is not deception
Knowledge is not: you setting up foolish disagreement *** Between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist
No, and neither denying the attributes and negating them, out of fear of ta'til (denial of the divine attributes) and tashbih (likening Allah to creation) .
That research on singing and musical instruments did not mention the hadith that appears in al-Bukhari. Why did he not mention this hadith? Because, first, he has no knowledge of hadith, and second, if he had mentioned this hadith, his article would have collapsed from its foundation, and he would not have given any weight at all to what he said.
Is this how solutions are to be provided for the problems that Muslims face today? One must return to the Book and to the authentic Sunnah, and this is what the Muslims who adhere to the righteous Salaf keep repeating.
And finally, I say a very simple word. Let us assume that today’s Muslims are each in their own madhhab and on their own path, but without guidance from their Lord. Those who adhere to the righteous Salaf are merely removing the obstacles and clearing the thorns from this path. The reward for that work is to belittle their efforts and disparage them by saying they do not provide solutions. Solutions are only provided after the thorns and obstacles are removed from the path. This is among the meanings of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So, anyone who does not care about the Sunnah means that he has not even raised his head to the verses, let alone the hadiths that command Muslims to return to them, especially when they disagree on a matter, a ruling, or a methodology they establish for their current lives.
This is a reminder, and the reminder benefits the believers.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Yes, as he said...
The questioner : Ahmad Shakir in al-Musnad (may Allah have mercy on him).
The Shaykh : And Ahmad Shakir, I mean.
The questioner : ... to the authentic and the weak.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : The originals remain as they are, and the hadiths are traced in the footnotes.
The Shaykh : And what does this mean? This is how we do it.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : This is how it appeared to us. Can this be held against us?[Al-Baqarah 2:148] I mentioned earlier this objection. I pointed out earlier that this objection does not apply to al-Albani; it applies to Imam al-Bukhari and Muslim. Why did they collect the authentic hadiths in a book? Was it not as a kindness to the Ummah? So we make use of the knowledge they established for us to distinguish the authentic from the weak.
And when I planned this plan and proceeded with it, the first thing I proceeded with was "Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud" and "Da'if Sunan Abi Dawud". I thought deeply about whether I should follow the method that some people see, or follow the method for which Allah opened my heart. In the end, I said that if I came to "Sunan Abi Dawud", which is the first book of the four books of Sunan, and I started with it about forty years ago, if I left the Sunan as the author arranged it and then gave each hadith its grade of validity or weakness, the result would be that I would have truly distinguished them, but I would not have identified the authentic ones nor identified the weak ones. Not every individual in the Ummah, whether a student of knowledge or otherwise, is able to comprehend this entire book and focus in his mind on the authentic and the weak from it. Rather, most of them will find the matter confused in terms of memorization and precision; the matter will be confused for him between the authentic and the weak.
So I saw that this distinction helps every individual in the Ummah, even the memorizers of the Ummah, to memorize the authentic and memorize the weak.
For us today, it is sufficient to remember that a certain hadith is in the Sahih, in al-Bukhari, in Muslim, and if we are clear in our religion that this hadith cannot be among the weak ones. But if the book contains both the authentic and the weak sections, a person will remember that this hadith is in "Sunan Abu Dawud" and "Sunan Abu Dawud" contains the authentic, the good, the weak, the denounced, and others. In the other Sunan books, there are some fabricated ones. So the tangle will be mixed with the straight, and the authentic with the weak.
This is what my soul found peace with and my chest opened to. So what is the meaning of criticizing why I did this? This is my ijtihad. If I am correct, I have two rewards, and that is what I hope from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). And if I am wrong, we say to those critics: bring forth your work that is better and more beneficial for the Ummah than this. Please.
The Shaykh : This, as it is said from old, is "a habit we know from Akhzam". Those who claim that the Salafis do not offer solutions to the problems of the present age are saying something that indicates their ignorance of Islam. And the first word you mentioned, if it is from their speech, is also, as it is said, "a bundle of straw on a camel".
It is true that al-Albani came to the four Sunan and gave every hadith in each of those books the rank that its chains of narration, its corroborating narrations, and its supporting chains require.
So we say to those who want to offer to the Ummah solutions to those problems they refer to: on what principle do they want to rely in offering them? There is no doubt that that principle is the first principle of the Islamic Shari'ah, the Noble Qur'an, and then the second principle, the Sunnah, also by the consensus of all Muslims. And if the Sunnah has been entered into, for a wisdom Allah intended for this Ummah, with what is not from it of weak and denounced hadiths, how can those solutions be established upon such hadiths in which the true and the false are mixed?
Therefore, the Salafis in reality are performing the obligatory duty of purification that the masses of Muslims have turned away from, both in the past and the present, and especially those who claim that they are offering solutions to those problems.
And how excellent is the saying of Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) when he said in his Risalah: "If the scholar is ignorant of the Sunnah, on what principle does he rely if he wants to perform analogical reasoning, and analogical reasoning is not valid except upon the two principles, the Book and the Sunnah? So if the independent legal reasoner performs analogical reasoning or derives a ruling from the Sunnah, the first condition is that this Sunnah be authentic according to the scholars of hadith and in accordance with their principles and rules".
So those who boast of what they do not have, that they are offering solutions to those problems, on what basis? On the basis of ignorance, because those who do not know the Sunnah and do not distinguish between its authentic and weak parts are not able to establish practical solutions that are in accordance with the Islamic Shari'ah. And reality confirms this; among them are groups or parties that have passed about half a century of time, or less or more, and they have not been able to do anything. The individuals of these parties have remained far from acting upon the Book and the Sunnah because they do not know, and one who does not know cannot act. As we mentioned above, the principle in every action is that it be established upon the Book and the Sunnah, and then that it be pure for the face of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).
So if we assume that every individual of the Ummah, including those groups or parties, is sincere in their actions, their actions will be rejected and not valid because they are not upon the Book and the Sunnah.
So the classification of the Sunnah into authentic and weak, as the questioner mentioned above, is this a work that al-Albani did alone? Is this a defect? The great Imams from the scholars of hadith have established for us this good practice that they made the hadith authentic and weak, and the most famous Imams in that are Imam al-Bukhari and Muslim. Was their work criticized badly, or was their work praised by the entire Ummah until their books, after the Book of Allah, became a reliance upon them for these long centuries? So that was a praiseworthy effort from them, and they are rewarded for this work with a reward that only Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) can estimate.
The truth, and the truth I say, is that criticizing al-Albani's work stems from not appreciating this knowledge, which enables its possessor to distinguish the authentic from the weak, or it stems from hatred, jealousy, and envy, and this is not from the morals of the Muslims. Instead of doing this work well and helping the author to make great progress in completing this work, they say this is a work that al-Albani did alone. So what do they want? That the Islamic Ummah remain confused whenever a hadith comes to them from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and they do not know its authentic from its weak, and the result and consequence of that is that they fall into fabricating against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and that is what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed about in many hadiths, the most important of which is his saying (peace be upon him):
It is enough for a man to prove himself a liar when he goes on narrating whatever he hears.
كفى المرء كذبا أن يُحدّث بكل ما سمعIt is sufficient for a person to be a liar if he narrates everything he hears.
بحسب المرء من الكذب أن يُحدِّث بكل ما سمعAnd we read every day articles in which things are permitted or forbidden merely by opinion; there is no "Allah said" or "the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said," even though it is known to the people of knowledge that in many of those studies, hadiths from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) have come, and yet in some of them no hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is mentioned. And this is a defect that some of the old scholars have spoken about in some schools of jurisprudence, where a person reads a book of Islamic jurisprudence from its beginning to its end and does not hear "Allah said" or "the Messenger of Allah said," but it is merely the school of jurisprudence and merely opinion.
And long ago I read a study by one of the famous writers about music and singing, and he did not address any of those hadiths that the scholars of hadith mentioned specifically regarding this issue, but rather he mentioned his opinions, and he may rely in some of them on some statements of some of the predecessors, but knowledge is not "so-and-so said" and "so-and-so said," but rather, as Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) rightly said:
"Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said *** The Companions said; it is not deception
Knowledge is not: you setting up foolish disagreement *** Between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist
No, and neither denying the attributes and negating them, out of fear of ta'til (denial of the divine attributes) and tashbih (likening Allah to creation) .
That research on singing and musical instruments did not mention the hadith that appears in al-Bukhari
There will be among my Ummah people who will make lawful fornication, silk, wine, and musical instruments. They will spend the evening in amusement and play, and they will wake up having been transformed into apes and pigs.
ليكونن في أمتي أقوام يستحلون الحِرَ والحرير والخمر والمعازف يُمْسون في لهو ولعب ويصبحون وقد مُسِخوا قردة وخنازيرIs this how solutions are to be provided for the problems that Muslims face today? One must return to the Book and to the authentic Sunnah, and this is what the Muslims who adhere to the righteous Salaf keep repeating.
And finally, I say a very simple word. Let us assume that today’s Muslims are each in their own madhhab and on their own path, but without guidance from their Lord. Those who adhere to the righteous Salaf are merely removing the obstacles and clearing the thorns from this path. The reward for that work is to belittle their efforts and disparage them by saying they do not provide solutions. Solutions are only provided after the thorns and obstacles are removed from the path. This is among the meanings of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)
I have left among you two things by which you will not go astray as long as you hold fast to them: the Book of Allah and my Sunnah. They will not separate until they return to me at the Pool.
تركتم فيكم شيئين لن تضلّوا ما إن تمسّكتم بهما كتاب الله وسنّتي ولن يتفرّقا حتى يردا علي الحوضThis is a reminder, and the reminder benefits the believers.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Yes, as he said...
The questioner : Ahmad Shakir in al-Musnad (may Allah have mercy on him).
The Shaykh : And Ahmad Shakir, I mean.
The questioner : ... to the authentic and the weak.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : The originals remain as they are, and the hadiths are traced in the footnotes.
The Shaykh : And what does this mean? This is how we do it.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : This is how it appeared to us. Can this be held against us?
For each [religious following] is a direction toward which it faces. So race to [all that is] good.
لكل وجهة هو موليها فاستبقوا الخيراتAnd when I planned this plan and proceeded with it, the first thing I proceeded with was "Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud" and "Da'if Sunan Abi Dawud". I thought deeply about whether I should follow the method that some people see, or follow the method for which Allah opened my heart. In the end, I said that if I came to "Sunan Abi Dawud", which is the first book of the four books of Sunan, and I started with it about forty years ago, if I left the Sunan as the author arranged it and then gave each hadith its grade of validity or weakness, the result would be that I would have truly distinguished them, but I would not have identified the authentic ones nor identified the weak ones. Not every individual in the Ummah, whether a student of knowledge or otherwise, is able to comprehend this entire book and focus in his mind on the authentic and the weak from it. Rather, most of them will find the matter confused in terms of memorization and precision; the matter will be confused for him between the authentic and the weak.
So I saw that this distinction helps every individual in the Ummah, even the memorizers of the Ummah, to memorize the authentic and memorize the weak.
For us today, it is sufficient to remember that a certain hadith is in the Sahih, in al-Bukhari, in Muslim, and if we are clear in our religion that this hadith cannot be among the weak ones. But if the book contains both the authentic and the weak sections, a person will remember that this hadith is in "Sunan Abu Dawud" and "Sunan Abu Dawud" contains the authentic, the good, the weak, the denounced, and others. In the other Sunan books, there are some fabricated ones. So the tangle will be mixed with the straight, and the authentic with the weak.
This is what my soul found peace with and my chest opened to. So what is the meaning of criticizing why I did this? This is my ijtihad. If I am correct, I have two rewards, and that is what I hope from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). And if I am wrong, we say to those critics: bring forth your work that is better and more beneficial for the Ummah than this. Please.