The questioner’s acknowledgment of the favor of Shaykh al-Albani upon him and his brothers in America in understanding the Salafi methodology.
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Abu Layla : Brother Muhammad, take the seat ofThe Shaykh : Salim.
The questioner : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can mislead, and whom He leaves to mislead, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for what follows, the best of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). The worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. As for what follows.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The questioner : We have, meaning, some questions, if Allah wills, that we will put to our honorable Shaykh, but before that, I would like to begin with a few words. I say that our love for Shaykh Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, exceeds our love for anyone we have met in our time.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.
The questioner : And you, if Allah wills, and this is despite the fact that we have not metThe Shaykh : closely before, but we met him through his books and tapes and benefited from them in a way I do not think we benefited similarly from our parents or from anyone we knew or who was our contemporary. And we, O our Shaykh, pray for you along with the fish that pray for the teacher of people in goodness in the water, and along with the birds in their nests. And with that, we do not claim for you infallibility, nor do we follow you blindly, but we learned from you to follow the saying of Allah (Mighty and Majestic)[Yusuf 12:108] And in reality, we did not understand the correct methodology from anyone other than you. We have looked at writings and works, and I say, many people, and we met with many scholars in various lands, and we do not exaggerate if we say that we did not benefit from this true methodology except from you. May Allah reward you for us and for the Muslims with good.
The Shaykh : Amen.
The questioner : And you have a favor upon us, and Allah knows, that cannot be described, and I ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to reward you with the best reward for us. We have responded in following your true methodology, and I do not say, I repeat, that this is blind imitation of you, but rather following the methodology we learned from you. We encountered hostility from many people in this, and praise be to Allah, this only increased our holding fast to the truth. This caused us harassment and accusations, and often we heard people saying, "You call people to sectarianism, but you are Albanis," and so on. And we affirm and clarify that we follow the truth wherever it is, and this is what we learned from our Shaykh, may Allah reward him with good. These are a few words that I do not think express the many feelings in our hearts that we hold for you. And I do not think that our brothers here, who know you and sit in your gatherings continuously, can claim that they surpass us in love for you. Rather, we affirm that our love for you exceeds their love for you.
The Shaykh : May Allah bless you.
The questioner : And Allah knows best, and this is not just my word, but the word of many of the brothers in America and in other countries. And praise be to Allah, my personal feeling and my personal experience is that the Salafi call is spreading, despite the noses of people, in a way that may be slow but continuous and steady. And if Allah wills, the day that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) promised of the triumph of this religion and the return of the Prophetic methodology, a caliphate on the Prophetic methodology, that day is coming, without doubt. And as I clarified to some of the brothers, in recent years we find that the other groups, the Liberationists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and others, find that in their publications and conferences they always declare, saying, "Our creed is the creed of the Salaf, and our methodology is the methodology of the Salaf." They can no longer deny this, even if they contradict this slogan with their actions and words, but they truly know that no methodology other than this is acceptable to people anymore.
The Shaykh : And praise be to Allah.
The questioner : Praise be to Allah. I have various questions, and after this disorganized introduction, if Allah wills.
The Shaykh : In any case, may Allah reward you with good for this introduction, which we do not deserve. Although it is from one side that it makes me happy, but from another side it may make me sadder than it makes me happy, because it is supposed that there should be imams in the Muslim world in the call to the Book and the Sunnah, not by the tens, but by the hundreds. If they exist, as is obligatory and supposed, then the sadness comes from the fact that they do not have that expected impact, such that their impact is not seen in someone like you. And if they do not exist, the sadness is greater. So this is what I can say on the occasion of this word. It makes me happy that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) favored me with this sound, correct methodology, in which many of our brothers here and there and in all lands share with us. But it saddens me that the callers are very few in this vast Muslim world, vast in its individuals, but these individuals are lost in the midst of the differences we have inherited from ancient times and the disputes that have arisen recently. So I have the right to say, from one side, praise be to Allah, by whose grace good deeds are completed, and from another side, I have the right to say, praise be to Allah in any case. Please proceed with what you have of questions, and let them be, as some of our brothers hinted in a previous session, questions that are not usually repeated. And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The questioner : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can mislead, and whom He leaves to mislead, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. As for what follows, the best of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). The worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. As for what follows.
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The questioner : We have, meaning, some questions, if Allah wills, that we will put to our honorable Shaykh, but before that, I would like to begin with a few words. I say that our love for Shaykh Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, Abu 'Abd al-Rahman, exceeds our love for anyone we have met in our time.
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.
The questioner : And you, if Allah wills, and this is despite the fact that we have not metThe Shaykh : closely before, but we met him through his books and tapes and benefited from them in a way I do not think we benefited similarly from our parents or from anyone we knew or who was our contemporary. And we, O our Shaykh, pray for you along with the fish that pray for the teacher of people in goodness in the water, and along with the birds in their nests. And with that, we do not claim for you infallibility, nor do we follow you blindly, but we learned from you to follow the saying of Allah (Mighty and Majestic)
This is my way; I invite to Allah with insight, I and those who follow me
قل هذه سبيلي أدعو إلى الله على بصيرة أنا ومن اتبعنيThe Shaykh : Amen.
The questioner : And you have a favor upon us, and Allah knows, that cannot be described, and I ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to reward you with the best reward for us. We have responded in following your true methodology, and I do not say, I repeat, that this is blind imitation of you, but rather following the methodology we learned from you. We encountered hostility from many people in this, and praise be to Allah, this only increased our holding fast to the truth. This caused us harassment and accusations, and often we heard people saying, "You call people to sectarianism, but you are Albanis," and so on. And we affirm and clarify that we follow the truth wherever it is, and this is what we learned from our Shaykh, may Allah reward him with good. These are a few words that I do not think express the many feelings in our hearts that we hold for you. And I do not think that our brothers here, who know you and sit in your gatherings continuously, can claim that they surpass us in love for you. Rather, we affirm that our love for you exceeds their love for you.
The Shaykh : May Allah bless you.
The questioner : And Allah knows best, and this is not just my word, but the word of many of the brothers in America and in other countries. And praise be to Allah, my personal feeling and my personal experience is that the Salafi call is spreading, despite the noses of people, in a way that may be slow but continuous and steady. And if Allah wills, the day that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) promised of the triumph of this religion and the return of the Prophetic methodology, a caliphate on the Prophetic methodology, that day is coming, without doubt. And as I clarified to some of the brothers, in recent years we find that the other groups, the Liberationists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and others, find that in their publications and conferences they always declare, saying, "Our creed is the creed of the Salaf, and our methodology is the methodology of the Salaf." They can no longer deny this, even if they contradict this slogan with their actions and words, but they truly know that no methodology other than this is acceptable to people anymore.
The Shaykh : And praise be to Allah.
The questioner : Praise be to Allah. I have various questions, and after this disorganized introduction, if Allah wills.
The Shaykh : In any case, may Allah reward you with good for this introduction, which we do not deserve. Although it is from one side that it makes me happy, but from another side it may make me sadder than it makes me happy, because it is supposed that there should be imams in the Muslim world in the call to the Book and the Sunnah, not by the tens, but by the hundreds. If they exist, as is obligatory and supposed, then the sadness comes from the fact that they do not have that expected impact, such that their impact is not seen in someone like you. And if they do not exist, the sadness is greater. So this is what I can say on the occasion of this word. It makes me happy that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) favored me with this sound, correct methodology, in which many of our brothers here and there and in all lands share with us. But it saddens me that the callers are very few in this vast Muslim world, vast in its individuals, but these individuals are lost in the midst of the differences we have inherited from ancient times and the disputes that have arisen recently. So I have the right to say, from one side, praise be to Allah, by whose grace good deeds are completed, and from another side, I have the right to say, praise be to Allah in any case. Please proceed with what you have of questions, and let them be, as some of our brothers hinted in a previous session, questions that are not usually repeated. And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.