The Story of Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattah with Shaykh al-Albani.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. As for what follows, this is one of the tapes from the Hidayah wa al-Nur series of scholarly lessons and legal rulings by our Shaykh, Muhammad Nasir al-DinThe Shaykh-May Allah preserve him- We ask Allah to benefit everyone with him, and now we are with the sixty-seventh tape after the hundred, on one.

The Shaykh: We discuss the important thing that happened... by visiting him, I saw a person... in our Damascus, this is the motto of students of knowledge, he was displaying a book by al-Qasimi, either "The Shaykhs of al-Azhar" or "The Response to the Azharis" or "Innovation," I had acquired some of his books, and my eyes fell on this book, immediately I exchanged... he is that Arab... I said to him: If it is your portion, I will buy it from you, the important thing is, pay attention, a handsome young man, short in stature, white-skinned, with a black beard, wearing a white turban in the Turkish style and a red fez with a wide black band, took me like this to the edge of the place, he said: I advise you not to buy the book, I said to him: Why? He said: Because its author is a Wahhabi, I wish he had told me this, then it would have become an atheist or something, perhaps he had not written his book "Al-Aghlal" at that time, and we entered into the topic of innovation and what is not innovation, and the man found in me more than my appearance indicated, because I was young at the time with a beard growing and rounded, not complete, and we entered into a discussion with him.

The questioner: It happened to him...

The Shaykh: Yes, we entered into a discussion... the man, then we separated, then I met him in front of my brother Abu Ja'far's bookstore, in front of the Umayyad Mosque, and the image of the addition to the adhan came up, I took him into a discussion and we showed that this addition is not prescribed, to the end of it, after a week or two, I do not know what... , a short-statured shaykh with a gray beard entered on me, I used to see him sometimes on the road walking like this, they say in our Damascus "a man of his own stature," I did not know him naturally, so he said: Peace be upon you, and upon you be peace, he took out of his pocket a watch, this watch we showed to many watchmakers, so they failed and did not fix it, look at it for me, I put on the watchmaker's loupe and took the screwdriver and started to open it and did this... rules, he said: Put the watch down, I came for the watch, he started searching with me in the topic of mawlid, look, what is my opinion? I listened to him with complete objectivity, after he was reassured about my thinking, he said to me: I was told about youThe Shaykh : Zuhri al-Najjar, that first person, was told about you.

The questioner: Is that shaykh of yours Syrian or not?

The Shaykh: A Syrian Circassian.

The questioner: I think he is Egyptian.

The Shaykh: Now he is an Egyptian resident... if there is an obstacle... Egypt... , the important thing is that Zuhri al-Najjar told me that you, meaning, have knowledge of hadith, and I have a book called "The Voice of Nature Calls to the Greatness of Allah" in it are hadiths, I want you to trace them for me, from here began a relationship between me and him, and we agreed that every day after the Friday prayer I would go to him, he was living with a group of students, including Zuhri al-Najjar, in one of the old schools, the old schools in our Damascus consist of two floors in a wide open courtyard with a lake, with an open courtyard around it, with rooms for the students, in the front there is a qiblah of a mosque, and above it the same rooms, and there is a railing that goes around the railing from all sides, soThe Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah took a room in the eastern upper part, andThe Shaykh : Zuhri took a room at the other end... they are discussing with each other but not agreeing, each one is on his own path,The Shaykh : Zuhri is a student of knowledge in the Hanafi madhhab, strong, and what they call "the sciences of the tool" in grammar and morphology, good, in addition to that, he is a murid of Shaykh Muhammad al-Hashimi al-Shadhili, a Moroccan, so I started to visit every Friday, setting up a modest table ofThe Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah, reading in this book "The Voice of Nature," the hadith that I would bring, I would trace its source and its authenticity or weakness, or I would record it with me and return to the shop and review it in the second week, the meeting would be like that, and so on.
What happenedThe Shaykh : Zuhri would go up to his room, he would go up like this, he would look at these two people as if he is blaming himself, what did I do, we were one, we became two, I would call to him, come, O Shaykh Zuhri, he would not respond,The Shaykh : 'Abd al-Fattah is narrow-chested, leave him, there is no use from him, it has been six months I am working on him, there is no benefit, he goesThe Shaykh : Zuhri on his way, he does not return to it at all, I say to Shaykh 'Abd al-Fattah, my brother, I... people have patience for us, and we have the Damascene proverb: When the time comes, the beginner is pleased, for every term there is a book, and by Allah, only two or three weeks passed untilThe Shaykh : Zuhri sat with us, of course, he sat with us, some discussions started in the book, some in the discussions, and so on, Zuhri started to waver from the madhhab side, from the tawhid side, from the Sufi side and the paths and the dancing in dhikr, until he reached with us the denial of dancing in dhikr, especially when I showed him the rehvas and the waqas, the one who permits dancing.The Shaykh : Zuhri was unsettled on the doctrinal level, in terms of tawhid (the oneness of Allah), regarding the Sufis, the orders, and the dancing in dhikr (the remembrance of Allah), until he reached the point with us of denying the dancing in dhikr, especially when I presented to him the evidence for the dancing and swaying of those who consider the dancing permissible.

The questioner: Yes, may Allah have mercy on him, the point is, he started attending the dhikr at his Shaykh Muhammad al-Hashimi, these are their way of dhikr while standing, they take each other by the hand and lean to the right and left,

The Shaykh : Yes, may Allah have mercy on him. The point is that he used to attend the dhikr with his Shaykh, Muhammad al-Hashimi. These people’s method of dhikr is while standing; they take each other by the hand and sway to the right and to the left.The Shaykh : Zuhri, after he was convinced that this is not permissible and is haram, even in the Hanafi fiqh, stood like a record, the one trying to move to the right, they started to move, he became to the side, this is not... who?The Shaykh : and the group, this appears to be what? It spread, in one of the Fridays we used to meet, he said: Once, this is your son.The Shaykh : and the congregation. This appears to be what? It spread. In one of the Fridays of the gatherings we used to meet in, he would say: Once, this is your son.

The questioner: What Allah willed, I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from every Shaytan and wasp and evil eye, may Allah bless you, there is no god but Allah, Glory be to Allah, the point is, the first time he comes to us

The Shaykh : What Allah willed. I seek refuge for you in the perfect words of Allah from every Shaytan, female jinn, and envious eye. May Allah reward you. There is no god but Allah, Glory be to Allah. The point is that the first time he came to us.The Shaykh : in his modest clothing, the first time this story lasted with him for a period, then he came outThe Shaykh : around us, he speaks with a pleasant smile, he called a salfi, did not adviseThe Shaykh : , and indeed he advised himThe Shaykh: Glory be to Allah, their time is old, O our Shaykh.

The questioner: The point is, the man, there was no day but the one after it was better than the one before it, meaning he increased in faith in the Salafi call, he was the imam of a mosque in a neighborhood called al-Ma'mashah, a bit far from us, near the Mosque of Repentance, which was my father's shop opposite the mosque, and I used to pray there the Zuhr and 'Asr mostly, he used to call the adhan and pray like people, I think the addition to the adhan is not permissible, he stopped adding to the adhan, the men rose against him, this became a Wahhabi, his news spread to the shaykhs, the imam of the Grand Mosque of Repentance, who was my shaykh for a period, Sa'id Barhani, because I read to him some of the Hanafi fiqh in "Maraqi al-Falah" and some of grammar and rhetoric, so this carried the banner of what? Opposition

The Shaykh : to Zuhri, and the truth is, he found difficulty, they started to send children to throw banana and orange peels at him, and so on, the man found the earth narrow to him with its vastness, suddenly we were informed that he traveled to Aleppo, and from there he traveled to Egypt, and one day, to this day, later, the man started to correspond with me and told me his story, and that he entered al-Azhar, and in a few days he obtained the degree they call "worldwide," and I saw some of his works and comments, and so on, so this Zuhri al-Najjar is the reason I knew 'Abd al-Fattah the Imam, and from that day the relationships went, and it continued between us and 'Abd al-Fattah the Imam, but he, of course, started that year studying the Shafi'i madhhab, but from the tawhid side, his creed was completely pure, but he had a deviation in interpreting the verses in the modern way, therefore he named his tafsir "The Modern Tafsir," in his mind, ta'wil of some verses so that they meet with what? The cosmic verses discovered now and how they matched the Qur'an, this is the storyThe Shaykh : Zuhri, and the truth is he found, I mean, difficulty. They started sending children to throw banana and orange peels at him, and so on. The earth suddenly became narrow for him in all its vastness, and then we were informed that he had traveled to Aleppo, and from there he traveled to Egypt. On that day, or rather later on, the man began to correspond with me and told me, I mean, his story, and that he entered al-Azhar and in a few days obtained the degree they call the global one. I saw some of his works and comments, and so on. So this Zuhri al-Najjar is the reason I came to know 'Abd al-Fattah al-Imam, and from that day, I mean, the relationships went well and continued between us and 'Abd al-Fattah al-Imam. But he, of course, began his studies in that year on the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, but in terms of tawhid (the oneness of Allah), his creed was completely pure. However, he had a deviation in interpreting the verses in the modern way, so he named his interpretation the Modern Interpretation. In his mind, he would ta'wil (figurative interpretation) some verses so that they would meet, I mean, what? The cosmic verses discovered now and how they matched the Qur'an. This is the story.The Shaykh: May Allah have mercy on him, well, O our Shaykh, regarding the book "The Voice of Nature" that he wrote and you used to trace its hadiths for him or something, meaning, before this, did you have works or was this one of the first works, or perhaps the first thing?

The questioner: I do not remember the rest, and I cannot tell you: it was or it was not.

The Shaykh : I mean, I do not remember the rest, and I cannot tell you: whether it was or it was not.

The questioner : But right now, there is nothing specific in mind, although it is certainly among the first things.

The Shaykh : Without a doubt, and it is not far off; it could be his first work.

The questioner : Oh my, our Shaykh, similarly, there is a treatise by Shaykh Ahmad 'Ubayd al-Shihab, *Al-Thaqib fi Dhimm al-Khalil wa al-Sahib* by al-Suyuti. In its introduction, he also wrote that some hadiths I sent to Shaykh Nasir al-Din al-Albani, and so on, were a bit few, perhaps during that period?

The Shaykh : It is like this, but may Allah guide al-Shihab; what did he do? May Allah turn us to Him in repentance. It was a bad year. I extracted the hadiths for him and distinguished the authentic from the weak. When I knew the tracing of a hadith he liked was weak, I would say, for example: "Al-Tabarani narrated it with a weak chain, or it contains so-and-so." He would object to the tracing and ask, "What? Al-Tabarani narrated it, and that is all." He left the reason for the criticism. It was a bad year, along withThe Shaykh : ... Mahmud al-Istanbuli. Muhammad al-Istanbuli had a book, I think its name was *Socialism in Islam*. He was, of course, before he deviated from the Salafi call, one of the young men or teachers who had deviated. And in his house, besides... what Allah wills, the 'ud (a musical instrument), so he asked me to extract the hadiths for this book. And I, at that time, as I sometimes say, was a man who did not find praise; I wanted someone to keep me busy. The situation is not like now, or before now, because I am occupied with distracting works. — May Allah bless this son of Abu Ahmad, in the name of Allah, may Allah bless him, may He cause him to grow up well and make him a source of joy for his parents, if Allah wills — I extracted the hadiths for him. What did he do with the composed text? He deleted all the tracing of the weak hadiths and deleted the phrase "The Messenger of Allah said," and placed it between crescent marks. He placed it between crescent marks to make the reader think that this is the hadith you know, but he ignored the tracing that weakened it. Most people follow the base rule: the end justifies the means. This is a beautiful hadith and this supports the topic, and so on. Why do you weaken it?