The story of an incident that occurred with Al-Albani and Muhammad al-Abda regarding an article in the Bayan magazine.

The Shaykh : He said, "I and Muhammad al-Abda had read the Bayan magazine, and then we disagreed. I said to him, 'Yes,' and he said, 'This report has no basis.' I told him, 'That is what we want.' Then he went on a bit in his speech, saying that you also say that the pot is lost, and he fell silent. I asked him, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'Surrur is not known; is he a Salafi or a member of the Muslim Brotherhood?' I told him, 'Yes, that is what is in my mind.' He said, 'Yes, I am not one of the Muslim Brotherhood. I was one of them twenty years ago, and then when it became clear to me, he told a beautiful story, meaning, he separated from them.' I said to him, 'Well, what I know about you is that you are from the Muslim Brotherhood, and we did not know otherwise. So the default is that we remain on this default until new news reaches us. So you have now, may Allah reward you with good, brought us the new news, and this is a good omen.' During his speech, he indicated that the news you receive about me should not be accepted. I told him, 'It is not my custom to accept news; rather, I warn people against such things and tell them on many occasions: "And the defect of news is only in its narrators". As for the first issue, that was reported to me, and in reality, it is supported by the fact that you participated with Muhammad al-Abda in publishing the magazine, and then you became independent with the Sunnah magazine. So you are now saying that you did not disagree, and that is what we hope for. As for me, I say the pot is lost, and I do not know if Surrur is from the Muslim Brotherhood or a Salafi, so this... is very clear. It was up to you, and perhaps you did it, but it did not reach us, and we did not know, that you would mention and clarify that you were and became [a Salafi], and this is what we did not know. Yes, and then we continued in the topic. We told him, 'The magazine is the "Sunnah".' He said, 'Does it not come to you?' I told him, 'It comes to me intermittently, and recently, meaning, since it was published, it has not come to me.'"

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : In summary, he began to tell me something of the history of his life, and it appears from his speech that something good is evident. So I took advantage of the opportunity because he said, "I hear news about the Surruris." What are the Surruris? This is the common talk today. I said, "I hear it, but I do not believe it, because I do not proceed except on clear evidence. But I take something from you, and this thing makes me hesitate about whether your methodology is Salafi. Do you remember the Salafis in your magazine?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Well, I do not mention this, but this contradicts your frequent mention of the people of the Sunnah and the community. So I see that your use of this word is not good, because you know that the people of the Sunnah and the community are not intended to be the Salafis; rather, it is intended to be the Maturidiyyah and the Asha'irah." There was a bit of discussion between me and him. I had 'Asim yesterday, and I brought him, he and his wife, because I have a guest now. So I told his wife, "Give him a sign to let him come and listen to this discussion." So he listened to the discussion, and he regretted that it was not recorded.

The questioner : ... because the meaning... moved that he

The Shaykh : This is it, the intended meaning. So I asked him a question: "Do you not know since centuries that this word is used and applied, and it is intended to mean the Maturidiyyah and the Asha'irah?" He evaded the answer, and this annoyed me and changed some of my opinion about him. He said, "I mean, it does not mean by this word the Maturidiyyah and the Asha'irah, but rather it means the Salafis." I said, "Oh Professor, this is an evasion. I am not asking you what you mean, but rather I am asking you what people mean and what they understand from this word."