The Shaykh Al-Albani’s endorsement of Bakr Abu Zayd.
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Al-Halabi: A student of knowledge asks, saying: We read your response to the honorable Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd regarding the hadith of haste in the book *Tammam al-Mannah*. It is a solid scholarly response, and praise be to Allah. However, it contained some expressions necessitated by the nature of the response. Some of the people of innovation have exploited some of these expressions to attack the people of the Sunnah, claiming that they respond to one another and speak ill of one another. To ward off these false suspicions from these innovators, we ask you to clarify your clear and distinct opinion regarding Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd, his strong stances, and his numerous responses to the people of desires, such as Zahid al-Kawthari and his student al-Hafiz who claims affiliation with him, as well as al-Ghamari, al-Sabuni, and others. May Allah reward you with good?
The Shaykh : We say that we claim to belong to the righteous Salaf, and we hope that this claim of belonging is a reality and not a name without a referent. We know that the righteous Salaf (may Allah be pleased with them) did not flatter one another, nor did they dispute with one another in the path of the truth. For that reason, the Imam of the City of Migration, Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him), said his well-known and recorded statement: “None of us is there who has not been refuted and who has not refuted, except the occupant of this grave”. So when we respond to the aforementioned honorable Shaykh, Shaykh Bakr, may Allah reward him with good, we only seek to defend the Sunnah, not to defend a person. He is a man among our brothers who, to our knowledge, defends the Sunnah, defends the methodology of the righteous Salaf, and tracks the errors of the people of innovation and misguidance. We do not testify to his perfection over Allah, for we do not praise anyone beyond what is due to Allah. However, this acknowledgment is not mere flattery, but an expression of what is in the heart. Nevertheless, in my belief, this does not prevent me from clarifying the truth in my response to someone like him, as long as I see that he was mistaken in what he undertook regarding that hadith. The exploitation of the truth by those who exploit it is something from which one cannot escape, because they are always and forever fishing in murky water. But we must know, before anyone else, that the people of the Sunnah, even if they differ on some branch issues, have a precedent in that from the righteous Salaf, who were the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and those who came after them from the people of the three blessed centuries. It is sufficient for us to be in agreement on the principles of the Shari'ah, its rules, and its creed. There is no harm to us if we differ on some branch issues.
The Shaykh : We say that we claim to belong to the righteous Salaf, and we hope that this claim of belonging is a reality and not a name without a referent. We know that the righteous Salaf (may Allah be pleased with them) did not flatter one another, nor did they dispute with one another in the path of the truth. For that reason, the Imam of the City of Migration, Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him), said his well-known and recorded statement: “None of us is there who has not been refuted and who has not refuted, except the occupant of this grave”. So when we respond to the aforementioned honorable Shaykh, Shaykh Bakr, may Allah reward him with good, we only seek to defend the Sunnah, not to defend a person. He is a man among our brothers who, to our knowledge, defends the Sunnah, defends the methodology of the righteous Salaf, and tracks the errors of the people of innovation and misguidance. We do not testify to his perfection over Allah, for we do not praise anyone beyond what is due to Allah. However, this acknowledgment is not mere flattery, but an expression of what is in the heart. Nevertheless, in my belief, this does not prevent me from clarifying the truth in my response to someone like him, as long as I see that he was mistaken in what he undertook regarding that hadith. The exploitation of the truth by those who exploit it is something from which one cannot escape, because they are always and forever fishing in murky water. But we must know, before anyone else, that the people of the Sunnah, even if they differ on some branch issues, have a precedent in that from the righteous Salaf, who were the Companions of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and those who came after them from the people of the three blessed centuries. It is sufficient for us to be in agreement on the principles of the Shari'ah, its rules, and its creed. There is no harm to us if we differ on some branch issues.