A lecture by Shaykh Al-Albani on beneficial knowledge and righteous action.

The questioner : The praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and the prayers and peace be upon the noblest of the prophets and the master of the messengers, and upon those who followed him with excellence until the Day of Judgment. It was not fitting for one like me to speak in the presence of my Shaykh, the learned scholar, the muhaddith of the era, the suppressor of innovation, the reviver of the Sunnah, and the inheritor of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), Abu Abd al-Rahman Muhammad al-Nasir al-Din al-Albani (may Allah preserve him and grant him piety). However, Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) decreed that I be the host for this noble gathering, so we seek help from Allah. As you know, my brothers, Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) has promised to preserve this religion, and Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) sends forth from this Ummah those who preserve its religion for it, such as our Shaykh Abu Abd al-Rahman (may Allah preserve him and grant him piety). Indeed, it is a happy evening and a blessed hour. Our Shaykh Abu Abd al-Rahman has accepted this invitation and this meeting with his sons, and he is now going to tell us what Allah has opened up to him. When he finishes, if Allah wills, the time for questions will be open, on the condition that the question is written on a piece of paper. No oral question will be answered. I ask the brothers to adhere to this instruction. May Allah reward you all with good. In the name of my father Abu Riyadh and my brothers in the neighborhood, we welcome our Shaykh. Please, proceed, and may you be rewarded.

The Shaykh : Indeed, the praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and the badness of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, there is no one who can misguide him, and whom He misguides, there is no one who can guide him. 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. Before the words I am about to deliver to your ears, I ask the Lord (Glorified and Exalted is He) to make them beneficial for me and for you. I must offer an apology, and the Salafi apology is like the answer to that introduction in which Abu Abd al-Rahman framed the one who will speak before you regarding what Allah has opened up to him. So I apologize with that Salafi phrase which I see it is obligatory for Salafi callers to revive, among the Salafi traditions they revive, let alone the Muhammadan Sunnah. I mean by that phrase: "O Allah, do not hold me accountable for what they say, and make me better than what they think, and forgive me what they do not know." As for the word I see must be presented before those questions that may come to me regarding this word, even though it has been repeated more than once, I believe that this repetition, no matter how much it is repeated, is very, very little compared to what has befallen the Muslim scholar regarding deviation from the path that Muslims must follow in order to return to their former glory and majesty. Without that, they will not reach their desire. Every Muslim, whether his understanding of Islam is correct, incorrect, or a mixture of correct and incorrect, knows that Muslims today, in terms of their number, reach a fictional or imaginary figure. And yet, as you see, unfortunately, they are all shared in being like sheep with no shepherd. Rather, they are as their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) described them in the well-known authentic hadith, and I only mention the relevant part. He said: Why are Muslims today as their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed them, like the foam of a flood? In my understanding and knowledge, which has been decreed for me, this returns to two matters: one relates to knowledge and the other relates to action. Muslims have deviated from both of the aforementioned matters: from beneficial knowledge and from righteous action. We must know with certainty the reality of beneficial knowledge and the reality of righteous action, because this knowledge is what will make Muslims different from the description mentioned in the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him) just now. And this knowledge will make them embody the other authentic hadith in which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: You know that this example, unfortunately once again, is farthest from the reality of Muslims today. You see that humiliation has settled upon some of the lands of the Muslims, and the other lands do not move for them, and you do not find any pain in any of those organs that represent the Muslim body. So knowing beneficial knowledge and righteous action is the cure for this deadly disease that has befallen the Muslims in this humiliation and division. What is beneficial knowledge and what is righteous action? I have spoken a lot about beneficial knowledge, and it may coincide with some of what the Islamic groups speak of, but they may not coincide with us, either in understanding or in action, in some of the attributes of beneficial knowledge. It is agreed upon by all Muslims that knowledge is, of course, and this is from the category of obtaining the obvious, we now mean by knowledge, Islamic knowledge. It is known to all Muslims that the source of beneficial knowledge is the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Around these two sources, clear and distinct speech is necessary in each of them: from the Book of Allah and from the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), regarding how to understand these two sources, the Book and the Sunnah.