The Shaykh mentioned a discussion that took place between him and the Mufti of Albania.

The Shaykh : That is, the Hanafi school has become alien to them. As they say, if I forget anything, I will not forget that when communism took over Albania, its Mufti fled to Egypt during the time of the one called Abd al-Nasir. He visited Damascus, and I met him. The truth is, it is rare to see a non-Arab who is so proficient in the Arabic language. Whenever an occasion arose and he spoke in eloquent Arabic, he would always turn to poetry, though the accent made his background evident. My purpose in describing him this way, despite his knowledge of the Arabic language, is that a discussion took place between him and me regarding independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) and following a scholar without knowing his evidence (taqlid), regarding following the Book and the Sunnah and not adhering strictly to a school of jurisprudence. He naturally advocated for the necessity of adhering to the school, because he had heard there that I was deviating from the Hanafi school, and perhaps he had heard other things, that I was an independent legal reasoning (mujtahid) or something similar. So a discussion took place between him and me, and in my opinion, you will not find its like in this culture in these days in which you visited Albania. So listen now to what took place between him and me after delving into the details of independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) and following a scholar without knowing his evidence (taqlid) and following, between independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) and following a scholar without knowing his evidence (taqlid), and so on. I argued against him in my reply with what is in the marginalia of Ibn 'Abidin, and this is from the books of one of their later scholars and one of the books relied upon by them. In this book, it states that the door of independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) was closed from the fourth century. So he argued with this phrase. I said to him, "But I find among the Hanafi scholars those who exercised independent legal reasoning (ijtihad)." He was astonished when he heard this claim. He said, "Like whom?" I said, "Like Ibn al-Humam." He said, "How?" I said to him, "You know that the Hanafis say it is obligatory (wajib) either to perform the witr prayer or to perform the qunut in the witr. And Ibn al-Humam contradicted that and said there is no evidence for the obligation; it is only a recommended practice (sunnah)." I said, "This is independent legal reasoning (ijtihad)." He said, "Where is this?" I said, "In the famous book, Fath al-Qadir." After a long discussion, and he had a scientific spirit in the discussion, not like some of the shaykhs you know who get angry and shout, and so on. No, he was a man of calm temperament. I said to him, in answer to a doubt he raised, he said to me, "What is independent legal reasoning (ijtihad)? Our scholars, may Allah have mercy on them, did not leave an issue without presenting an answer for it, and therefore there is no need for independent legal reasoning (ijtihad). What issue do you want? Its answer is documented in the books of the Hanafis." I said to him, "Does this mean that if Islam or the Muslims were to lose the Noble Qur'an entirely?" He interrupted me and said, "And that does not happen." I said to him, "It is a hypothetical, and we learned hypotheticals from our Hanafi school, because they posit purely imaginary matters. I remember, for example, in the Hanafi school, in some inheritance cases, they mentioned: if a man died and left behind seventy grandfathers, how much does each of them inherit? Seventy grandfathers! An imagination beyond them is like them. They expanded in positing imaginary matters to the point of obscenity in the examples, like al-Bajuri, for example, from the later scholars, who posits the following image: if a man had intercourse with his wife and half of his member entered her, is the full ritual bath (ghusl) obligatory on him or not? Another image: he entered her completely, the person having intercourse entered completely. I say to him, now we are positing a hypothetical, and one of the signs of the Hour is that the Qur'an will be lifted. So I said to him, "Does it mean that if the Hanafi school is this broad in terms of positing hypotheticals in all rulings, it means that if the Qur'an were lost, there would be no harm in that?" He said, "Yes." Here I took him by the collar, as they say in Arabic. I said to him, "What is the value of the saying of Allah the Exalted: If the Qur'an were not preserved, nothing would be lost because it exists in Hanafi jurisprudence? I remember well that he rambled to me in the Albanian language and said to me, the translation of which is: 'What is this devil that whispered to you to descend until you threw me onto my mother's head? This is a very great scholar, and this is his jurisprudence. What do you want to equate with these people? These people, if there were a prophet after the Messenger, I would say perhaps if a prophet came to them in place of one of the prophets whom the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned in the authentic hadith, and he presented to me the prophets, and in summary, he presented to him a great multitude, and he asked about them. He said, 'This is the people of Moses.' Then he presented to him another multitude and said, 'This is you and your community, a greater multitude.' He said, peace be upon him: So I am saying, if there were a prophet after the Messenger and he went to these non-Arabs, my people, I mean, perhaps no one would follow him. Therefore, the caller (da'i) there must first of all be a scholar, a scholar of the Book and the Sunnah. This is the first condition. Second, that he be a scholar of the Albanian language, so that the meaning of the saying of Allah the Exalted: is true of him. Third and finally, that he be patient and live there among them. Then barely will some of the youth believe with him, not the elders. The elders, absolutely not, they cannot return from what they found their fathers upon. And therefore, you, may Allah bless you, do not grieve over what has befallen you, because we receive rejection and repulsion in the Arab lands, as they say today, and accusations in all shapes and colors. So it is no surprise that you find such veils there, because here the veils are still working their effect. And we sometimes, when we shake out what is in them of writings, we find that they contain symbols, they contain broken letters, and they are seeking aid from the devils in the books of the Hanafis. You will find this, and I am relating this between me and you, I am relating it from myself to you. And it happened between me and my father, may Allah have mercy on him. My father, may Allah have mercy on him, had some books written on them with a pen, and some of them are still with me, written on them with a pencil: 'Yakbish, Yakbish, what is this, O Yakbish?' It is not an Arabic word, nor is it Albanian. What is this, O my father? He said, 'This is for the preservation of the book from the worm.' I said, 'This is not permissible in the Hanafi school, it is not permissible.' He said, 'How?' I said, 'They stated in the Hanafi school that it is not permissible to read incantations in a language other than Arabic, for fear that there is seeking aid from the devils in them. Now these veils, my strong opinion is that they are an expression of seeking aid from the devils. Yes.'

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Ah, this is it. Yes, this is from Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra.

The questioner : O Shaykh Nasser, some of the Islamic associations, I mean the Arabs there, in Albania, there are approximately twenty associations. All these associations, except for three associations: the Islamic Waqf Association, the Al-Haramayn Charitable Association, and the Association for Reviving the Heritage. The remaining associations are those that help the Islamic Sheikhdom with money. They help it by printing books, they help it with everything the Islamic Sheikhdom wants. This made the Islamic Sheikhdom have control over all the brothers, making them think that everything issued by the Sheikhdom is the truth, due to the support of the Arab brothers for them. So likewise, the Arab brothers should be addressed with a word to adhere to the Book and the Sunnah.

The Shaykh : We are living here with the Arabs.

The questioner : Allah is the Helper.

The Shaykh : It is more dangerous than you imagine. From what I saw in Albania, the Arabs themselves, just as they are politically divided, they are even more divided religiously. And just as this political division weakens them before the weakest and most humiliated of peoples, and they are the Jews, so this religious division also weakens them and does not give them weight and does not achieve for them strength against their enemies. And this is the realization of the saying of Allah the Exalted: These associations are charitable associations, divided to the utmost. Every association wants to show that it has an impact in doing good, for example, to this people or that. And in some other Qur'anic texts, that division is the cause of the loss of strength and weakness. This is all observed today among the religious, religious Muslims. Leave aside the other parties that do not care about religion. And therefore, I say that the funds distributed by some governments to such peoples that are afflicted, this does not have a great effect, even though it is obligatory. But the important thing is to carry out the spreading of the true call to Allah the Exalted.