Al-Albani’s Challenge to a Sufi and His Burning with Fire: A Fact, and His Saying to Him: These Are the Miracles of the Salafis.

Perhaps it would be useful for me to tell you a simple story, a very simple story that happened to me, I who am a poor servant. I had traveled from Damascus to Aleppo in the cause of da'wah. We gave the lesson and the people dispersed, and usually four or five of our brothers, meaning friends, remained. A person who I had never seen before that hour stayed behind with them. He was sitting there far from me, and his belly was like this, and he was not fat, he was thin, yet his belly was like this. I said to him, "What is this, O man?" He said, "This is al-Rahmaniyyah." I was hearing the word al-Rahmaniyyah for the first time there in Aleppo. I said, "What does al-Rahmaniyyah mean?" He said, "It means shish." I said, "So why did you bring it? I know." He said, "We will show you our karamahs (miracles)." I said to him, "The matter is easy." I was carrying a double-edged knife at that time, each blade was this length, small, so that it would not be like a pen. I said to him, "If I hit you with this knife with my hand," and he said, "With my hand," meaning he would hit himself with the knife that I give him with his hand. I said, "No, with my hand." He said, "With my hand." So the people began to watch this word that was repeated by both sides; I was saying "with my hand" and he was saying "with my hand," "with my hand, with my hand, with my hand." And naturally, I was more patient than him, first because I was right, and second because, may Allah will it, years have passed since I have been calling people in various forms to the true religion of Allah. So I got tired and bored, and he finally said, "What is the difference?" I was saying to him "with my hand" and he was saying "with my hand, with my hand, with my hand." After this, he got tired and bored and said, "What is the difference?" I said to him, "Since there is no difference, then with my hand." So the one who remained was stunned, and he turned the topic upside down, and this is part of their ignorance. He called the owner of the house, and his name was Abu Ahmad. Yes, and he said, "O Abu Ahmad, bring the mangal." You call it the charcoal mangal. I understood what he wanted. I said, "I, O Abu Ahmad, do not bring the mangal, bring the match." ... Subhan Allah, he was from the Sufis and used to put a white cap without a turban. He came with the match, I lit the match and stood up to him. I said to him, "Do you retract your false claim or not?" He was poor and silent, meaning mute, not a word, he did not speak, not a word. And I was advancing toward him step by step until I really got close to him. I put the match in the qadad, the cap of his, and it started to burn, then it took this shape, so I moved it for fear that the sparks would increase. I did it like this, it became a hole like this. I said, "Go, may Allah protect you, to your sheikhs, tell them these are the karamahs (miracles) of the Salafis."

The questioner : We pray, O Shaykh, the 'Isha' prayer.

The Shaykh : Ah, okay, let us pray now.