The Shaykh’s advice to observe the etiquette of closeness and gathering in scholarly assemblies. (And a discussion regarding Shaykh Badr al-Din al-Husayni)

The Shaykh : We were in Damascus when we attended some of the mosques, and especially the Great Mosque there, the Umayyad Mosque. Various types of lessons were held there, including a lesson on hadith. It was taught in the early days of my life by someone you must have heard of.The Shaykh : Badr al-Din al-Husayni, who is the father ofThe Shaykh : Taj, who was the president of the Syrian republic during certain periods of its governments.The Shaykh : Taj is the son ofThe Shaykh : Badr al-Din,The Shaykh : Badr al-Din al-Husayni.
He would deliver his hadith lesson in the middle of the mosque, and he was known there in Damascus under the Dome of the Eagle. This dome is the largest dome in the center of the mosque, at the highest point of the mosque. The circle would be held there, andThe Shaykh : he would narrate hadith. His method of narration followed the practice of the hadith scholars of old, which is to narrate the hadith with its chain of narration. Either the hadith was one he had received from one of his teachers with a chain, in which case the chain would be much, much longer than the text, and none of the attendees would benefit from it at all. Or sometimes he would transmit the hadith with its chain from one of the mother books, the six books and others.
The point is: the circle was very wide; its diameter could be more than six meters by six meters. Can these people be blamed when they disperse in this way? And the hadith teacher does not narrate to them a hadith like this one, which is in Sahih Muslim: And the hadith in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad from Abu Thalhah al-Khushni (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “When we traveled with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and we stopped at a place, we would disperse into the valleys and gorges. So he said to us (peace and blessings be upon him) one day: Where do they disperse in the mosque? No, in the desert, in the wilderness. Every group or party would take a direction and shelter under their trees, their sidr trees, and the like. Despite this, he disapproved of it and said: Abu Thalhah said: “So after that, when we stopped at a place, we would gather until, if we sat on a carpet, it would have been enough for us.” And where was this? In the desert. So what about your scholarly assemblies?!
Therefore, expanding the circle is contrary to the Sunnah, and it should be made as small as possible. Therefore, your sitting like this, in only two rows, with space remaining here that could be filled, is contrary to the Sunnah. And we always and forever mention on this occasion that this guidance from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and this concern for gathering the Muslims in their bodies and their persons, was not merely a concern for the outward appearance without rectifying the inward. That is because it is established in the Shari'ah that rectifying the outward helps to rectify the inward. This is explicit in his (peace and blessings be upon him) well-known saying: