The Shaykh was asked about the validity of the claim that your father passed away while not pleased with you? And a discussion of what the Shaykh endured at the beginning of the call.

The questioner : Shaykh, during the conversation, your father (may Allah have mercy on him) was mentioned. In the case of the one who always raises this issue, and the like, which is that your father (may Allah have mercy on him) had differences with you, and so on, and he passed away while not pleased, or something like that. In reality, I once askedThe Shaykh : Shu'ayb, and he said to me: This talk, of course, has no basis. And I am fine between me andThe Shaykh : Nasser, there are differences, but I must bear witness to the truth. He mentioned that this has no basis, so I liked to hear a word on this occasion regarding your father (may Allah have mercy on him).

The Shaykh : As a brief answer before the details, praise be to Allah, my father did not die except while he was completely pleased with me. In the last part of his life, I bear witness that I benefited from you, and I know this from my companionship with him, or in other words, from the difference between the starting point of my companionship with him when I was young, imitating him as every son does with his father, especially if he is a scholar, and the starting point in the last part of his life. So I accompanied him, among all my brothers, in his going to the mosques for prayers, especially on Friday. I was his companion. So he would take me, for example, to a mosque called the Mosque ofThe Shaykh : Muhyi al-Din ibn al-Arabi al-Nakirah. He always prayed there. The Mosque ofThe Shaykh : al-Nabulsi, which is on the madhhab, as you know,
Al-Halabi : of 'Abd al-Ghani

The Shaykh : ... meaning he intended to pray in the mosques built for those who claim to be awliya (close friends of Allah). And we, as they say about us in Syria: "O heedless one, you have no one but Allah. We did not know if they existed or not." But with his father, it was like this for every son. And he used to go to the Umayyad Mosque because the station of Yahya (peace be upon him) is there. And I had read in the marginal notes of Ibn 'Abidin, in his book, that prayer in the Umayyad Mosque is equal to seventy thousand prayers. In short... I do not know how these people wrote these writings: prayer in the Prophet's Mosque is a thousand, the Umayyad Mosque is seventy thousand. I wish it were a fabricated hadith, for example, saying the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said it. No, Sufyan al-Thawri said it. What is the value of Sufyan al-Thawri saying: Prayer in the Umayyad Mosque is seventy thousand prayers? If he had said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said it, it would be a defective hadith, how much more so when it is a broken report stopping at him.

The questioner : So how is it, Shaykh, that it is less than the Mosque of the Ka'bah?

The Shaykh : The point is, later, when I grew up a bit and knew something of the science of men, I was inclined to Ibn 'Asakir. I gradually reached the history of Ibn 'Asakir. I obtained the chain of the report from Sufyan, and it was full of darkness, which, praise be to Allah, made me realize that Sufyan al-Thawri did not say this hadith. Yes, so I was opening up with my father slowly, until my smell came out before people that I had strayed from the madhhab, that I had left the madhhab, because I raise my hands in ruku'. This was the first prominent difference from the house of al-Hajj Nuh in particular, and from the house of al-Alban in general. Not one of them means to raise their hands in prayer, because they are all Hanafis and fanatics. The least one says: This requires forty lashes.

The questioner : Where did they get the number from?

The Shaykh : Desires, following their desires. One came, and the second was that the second congregation in the mosque does not exist, and my father was always in the mosque, so the problem started. My father used to be delegated byThe Shaykh : Burhan, this is Sa'id al-Barhani, who was there in his age or in Hajj, he would delegate my father. Sa'id al-Barhani was a Hanafi, and this mosque is one of the great mosques in Damascus, the Mosque of Repentance. It had two mihrabs and two imams, a Shafi'i and a Hanafi. The Umayyad Mosque had four mihrabs in the time of the Turks. The Hanafi imam used to pray first. The state of the Turks went, and Syria was colonized by the French, and they installed a president, Taj al-Din al-Husayni, the son ofThe Shaykh : Badr al-Din, who was a Shafi'i. So he ordered that the Shafi'i be advanced over the Hanafi, pre-Islamic age of ignorance fanaticisms. So Sa'id al-Barhani used to pray after the Shafi'i imam prayed. What am I doing? I used to pray behind the Shafi'i imam, because even in Hanafi jurisprudence, the second congregation is disliked. But from the fanaticism for their desires and madhhabs, they say: For example, the Shafi'is, the imam may have touched a woman and not have wudu', and our prayer behind him would be invalid, and so on. He prays upon the Prophet in the first tashahhud, and for us this is forbiddenly disliked, and if he forgets and prays upon the Prophet, he must perform sujud al-sahw (the prostration for forgetfulness). From these madhhab philosophies, we pray behind our imam.
I, and praise be to Allah, understood from that day that these things are foreign to Islam, and I used to pray with the Shafi'i imam. My father saw these things but did not get annoyed or upset. Why would he be upset? When Sa'id al-Barhani delegated him to pray on his behalf, by chance he had a trip, he could not pray Zuhr or 'Asr, so he tasked me to pray on his behalf. I refused him. He said to him: I think this is not permissible and it divides the Muslims, and this talk. So Yusuf kept it in his heart, and they gathered one by one. The biggest thing was that I switched from praying in the Umayyad Mosque because it has the station of Yahya (peace be upon him). And of course, these anomalies spread among the Arnauts, and they took these sowers of discord and corrupters on earth to poison my father's chest against me. It seems, I think, I have no transmitted knowledge, it seems in one of the gatherings, one of the late-night gatherings, because he, may Allah have mercy on him, also had activity in late-night gatherings, he would preach and speak within the limits of what he knew. It seems in one of the late-night gatherings, they provoked his anger against me, "Your son is like this, your son is like this." By Allah, one day we were sitting at the dinner table, opening the topic of differences, yes, but the nice, good thing, and I learned the trade of watchmaking from him. All day there was discussion with him. On that night, he said to me: Your anomaly and your difference from the madhhab, I can no longer bear it. And he said to me in clear Arabic: Either agreement or separation. I said to him: Since you are giving me a choice, let me think. Of course, at that time, your mother was, as you say: she passed away to the mercy of Allah. He had married one, so, subhan Allah, her nature was gentle, soft, she had no personality, she had no will. So she was obedient to my father, one hundred percent, she did not intervene in the matter. And I thought about the matter, and by Allah, since my father gave me a choice, I see, I took it as an opportunity, better than I stray from him without permission, no, I will exploit this choice and say to him: If you gave me a choice, if you allow, I choose to remain with my opinions and live alone. And so it was.
I, until that day, was working in his shop. And the shop was under my management because my father was an old shaykh, if he came down to work for an hour or two, he would leave. When I left him, he gave me only fifteen Syrian pounds and some pieces of tools for work, from this day I am independent of them. And I was, of course, in this whole time, establishing a group for the call. And I would stay up in good late-night gatherings. A person named Wa'id al-Dahni was provided for me, a man who traded in grains, so he lent me two hundred Syrian pounds, so I rented a shop at that time by the grace of this Wa'id al-Dahni, and I made a facade for it and bought some pieces of equipment to work with. And Allah the Exalted, as they say in Syria, "the generous one took," meaning the customers started to increase for me and my work was going perfectly. I married after I opened the shop, I married. My father did not attend and did not intervene at all.

The questioner : How old were you, Shaykh, at this time?

The Shaykh : I was, sir, about twenty years old, yes. So I went on in my work and in my call, and the people started to increase, meaning those who carry the call, until I started to hold regular lessons, but in the upper floor and moving from house to house. And the shaykhs started, what? To revolt. The first to revolt against us was our shaykh Sa'id al-Barhani. He gave a khutbah (sermon), and I did not feel except that the mosque was attacked against us.

The questioner : And you were in the mosque itself.

The Shaykh : In the mosque itself. The reason goes back to a classmate of mine from elementary school, a boy named Mahmoud al-Maydani, who graduated with me. After we graduated, I pursued my path in the profession and knowledge, while he pursued his path in the trade of tailoring, specifically Western-style tailoring. However, the friendly relations between us remained intact. One day, he came to my shop and said to me: I heard a hadith fromThe Shaykh : Sa'id about the virtue of the world in Ramadan, just before the festival. This is a common phrase among preachers in your country, and perhaps here as well, where they cite a hadith that Allah frees people from the Fire every night, and they give a huge number. So, if it is the last night of Ramadan, Allah frees how many? As many as have passed. Our friend al-Maydani asked me about the hadith, and I told him: This is a fabricated, invalid hadith. As a young man, he was just starting out and had no scientific knowledge to guide him in the right direction to discuss with the scholars. He was enthusiastic, so heThe Shaykh : Sa'id came out of the prayer—I don't know which prayer it was—and said to him: O Shaykh Sa'id, you brought this and that hadith to the pulpit, and this hadith is invalid. The pressure got to him, and he said to him: You are here to teach us? Before you come to teach us, go first and grow your beard and act like a Muslim, and so on. He was a young man. This was also an outburst of anger from the youth. He said to him: Before you get on the pulpit and lie about the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), go and shave your beard and learn anew.
Al-Halabi : He turned it back on him.

The Shaykh : When he told us the hadith, I naturally said: This isThe Shaykh : Sa'id was going to say: This is the opinion of al-Albani. It was my habit, and the truth must be told, that I prayed most of the congregational prayers with him. Why? Because his sermon had something of what they call spiritual elements. I closed the shop, and usually some of the brothers would go with me. A man named Nasr al-‘Uda was with us, and we were walking near the mosque. I said to him: O Nasr, by Allah, my heart is telling me that today Sa'id will preachThe Shaykh : Sa'id against us. He said: Why? I told him the story. No one would have imagined that if someone had tipped off this al-Maydani, it would be al-Albani and so on.
He said: Praise be to Allah, then praise be to Allah. The opening that has no basis in the Sunnah—I don't know why he cut it off. He went straight into the topic of the Wahhabis. He said: These people declare others disbelievers.The Shaykh : Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Arabi. These people misguide the imams. These people do this. They deny the miracles of the awliya (close friends of Allah) and the righteous. These people do this and that. Look where they gather? That is, in my shop. Forbid your children from associating with them, or they will corrupt them and misguide them, and so on. I was a young man at the time, meaning small. Oh my God, what should I do? I should answer him? By Allah, if he had cooled down, I would have gone and shouted. I did not answer him. It is permissible, we had learned that phrase: "The one who is silent about the truth is a mute Satan." And so on. My soul was agitated. In the end, reason triumphed over the soul. I did what? I remained silent and swallowed it in my stomach, as they say in our region of Sham.

The questioner : Reluctantly.

The Shaykh : And as we were leaving, my brother Abu Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) was with me. He was two years older than me and was the most enthusiastic of my brothers for the da'wah (calling others to Islam). And, by the will of Allah, he had a good memory, meaning he memorized.

The questioner : And he was sincere and truthful.

The Shaykh : Without a doubt, may Allah have mercy on him. I was walking in front of him, and he was walking behind me, afraid that this group was whispering about me. Is that him? Yes, that is him. So we got out of the mosque safely. In the second week, what happened? There was a debate between reason and the soul: should I pray in the mosque, or should I hide my face? Now something will happen, and so on. You don't know what will happen. The whispers of the soul prevailed in me that I must pray in the mosque, or people will say: He stood firm against him, or he used to attend.

The questioner : He used to attend with us on the day of this man.

The Shaykh : The point is that we went and prayed there. The news naturally spread in Damascus from all its corners. Among them were those who hated and those who loved, and the latter were not few. Among these lovers was a man named al-Nu'man ibn Thabit. There are two Arna'ut (Albanians) who pray in the Tawfi Mosque. There is nothing called... This is his father, named al-Nu'man ibn Thabit. Al-Nu'man ibn Thabit. Thabit, I naturally knew him as an old sheikh, but, glory be to Allah, he was sensible. Even though his education was superficial, meaning he could not be called a learned sheikh like my father; he was far below him. But he was better than my father in that he listened and understood the reasonable, and so on. So we could say that this wasThe Shaykh : the only one who listened to me and used to visit me in the shop.

The questioner : He is also an Arna'ut.

The Shaykh : He is al-Nu'man; his father's name is Thabit, al-Nu'man ibn Thabit. Al-Nu'man ibn Thabit. When I was growing up, he was old. I used to hear contradictions from him. I used to hear about him what we now call Salafiyyah. Today, I was a young man, and there was nothing called the Salafi da'wah or the Salafi methodology or anything of that sort.

The questioner : Does al-Qasimi have no followers?

The Shaykh : He has no followers, unfortunately. Do you haveThe Shaykh : Bahjat? What is his famous impact? He has no impact.

The questioner : Even though there are many Salafis.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is correct.The Shaykh : Sa'd ibn Yasin. I met him in Lebanon in Beirut. The point is that this al-Nu'man denied many of the weak and fabricated hadiths and cultures. One book helped him in that, and it is the tafsir (exegesis) Ruh al-Bayan by al-Alusi. Ruh al-Ma'ani, but al-Bayan is different. Ruh al-Ma'ani by al-Alusi, yes. It has valuable Salafi elements in it.

The questioner : Before his statement on symbolic interpretation.

The Shaykh : You are right. So he takes these points from the book and directs them to al-Albani to incite them against him. Then this is a man distinguished by a strange courage. We do not say he was committed, but he had a bright mind, and from its brightness, he was able to benefit from al-Alusi's book. When I started to grow up and establish myself in knowledge... things I keep to myself. In some shops, contact began between me and him. What I did not like about him was that he was joking; he never sat in a gathering without making the people laugh. And among his strange and odd actions was something that is not permissible in the Shari'ah, but he would come to a cemetery by the road, hide among the grave visits, wear a white garment, make himself up, put a cap on the wooden board, hold two or three marines until he reaches the grave, and so on. This was a hobby of his, a hobby. On the other hand, he would engage in summoning jinn. But when I grew up, he was completely pleased with me, as if he had found what? A strengthening element for him. They told him the story of the sermonThe Shaykh : Sa'id, and he is like what I told you, a brave man who fears nothing. And when I came for the second Friday, I was hesitating whether to pray in the mosque or not, he came armed with a pistol. My brother, may Allah have mercy on him, was coming out behind me, and the taunting began, as we mentioned. It appears he heard a harsh taunt from one of them, I don't know, a Wahhabi who doesn't love the Messenger, from this speech. He said to him, "You will cause a fitnah and a commotion, and you will enter the university shop." The shopkeeper was the head of the neighborhood, his name was Fahd al-Karim or Abu, I don't know, Allah, I forgot, maybe Fahd al-Karim. He got involved in the matter, and praise be to Allah, the fitnah dispersed. The second Friday came, and I was in the same psychological debate, whether to pray or not. I closed the shop and set off walking, and I had not yet reached the intersection, which we call a crossroads, you call it a triangle. Either I walk straight to another mosque, or I turn right into the mosque. And lo and behold, one of the shopkeepers was following me to see where I would go to pray, from the house of the Khatib there. When he saw me about to turn right, he stopped me and said to me: "Where are you going?" I said to him: "I am going to pray Friday." He said to me: "Pray in this mosque." I said to him: "No, I want to pray in this mosque." He said: "Is the fitnah you caused not enough?" I said to him: "I did not cause it, by Allah, the one who gave the sermon in front of the people and lied to us and fabricated, and so on." He said to me: "I am ordered to arrest you," a threat, of course. And so let us take the best course, there are many mosques, pray in a mosque other than this one. And indeed, from that day I left that mosque and started praying in another mosque. But the news was spreading and increasing every day. One day I was staying late in my shop, which was the gathering place of the Salafis. The shop had a glass front, displaying large and small clocks, and I was behind the table. On my right, on the street, one of the official, regular professors, the police, they call them there, meaning the shaven ones, the son of a Shaykh namedThe Shaykh : Salih al-Hamawi, thisThe Shaykh : Salih al-Hamawi was one of the few Syrian shaykhs who would lean on me and visit me and discuss with me, meaning they liked the methodology. It appears the boys were influenced by their father, so one of them stayed late with me after the 'Isha' prayer. And if a hand reached to the window, to the front, at the top of the window, he would make a gesture with his head and signal to the professor inside to make a gesture like that. He came out, and I saw from him, his name isThe Shaykh : Salih Furkur, this is one of the shaykhs of Shu'ayb.

The questioner : Yes, he always mentions him.

The Shaykh : And he is the one who instilled in him opposition to the Salafi da'wah, yes. So the professor apologized to him and sat for a long time talking to him, of course warning him, meaning that this is wrong. When he entered, he naturally told me that he had shown him that all of this was a lie and falsehood, but he charges all his students, including Shu'ayb and 'Abd al-Qadir, and so on, against the Salafi da'wah. And so, meaning the da'wah progressed, and whatever it had was expanding, praise be to Allah, until we took a rented meeting place in al-Shuhada', there is a place called al-Shuhada' there. Then we moved to al-Muhajireen, and praise be to Allah, the da'wah was proceeding regularly. Then we established the musalla, yes, for the first time in Damascus, Allah knows from when.

The questioner : From the days of the Shaykh al-Islam.

The Shaykh : Allah knows. The first time we prayed in the open, meaning outside Damascus on the road coming from Amman. Some of the Muslim brothers prayed with us, among them Zuhayr al-Shawish. And when we were returning, we passed by the Muslim Brotherhood center, and there was some acquaintance and some discussion. And from that day, Zuhayr al-Shawish became attached to the da'wah. Later, the place was no longer suitable for prayer because it became a wide road and so on. So we moved the musalla to al-Muhajireen, and it was in the mountain, up in a square.

The questioner : He is having lunch and when...

The Shaykh : Yes, al-Muhajireen, subhan Allah, it was in a place, as they say, strategic. Why? On one side it overlooks Damascus, a mountain, and on the other side, the ones they call, look, the brother of al-Hafiz, what do they call them? The Defense Brigades, their weapons are around us. And we hold the 'Id prayer there, in the sight of these who are, "O you sinners, O you disbelievers," and praise be to Allah, the musalla increased in number every day or every year.

The questioner : In the end, do you face, in the end, with you, with the father, or did you not speak at all about the father and that he was, according to the rumors, angry with you and so on? In the end, we are ending the issue of the disagreement with the father at the end of his life, and that he...

The Shaykh : This is us mentioning the reasons that made, yes, my father take that position. But because of his intensity and fanaticism, you know, fathers rejoice in the joy of their sons. So, unfortunately, he did not attend the marriage contract, nor the building for a wife, nor the birth of a child, despite the many children I was blessed with, and so on. So my father, may Allah have mercy on him, when he saw the youth's enthusiasm for the da'wah, and without doubt he felt that the da'wah contained great good, on one hand, and evil in his opinion, meaning disagreement with the madhhab in some issues. But he knew that the good predominated over the evil. So he started visiting me in the shop.

The questioner : After all this.

The Shaykh : Yes, but he also did not dare enter the shop, meaning one of the things for history, in reality. But it was different from before. He naturally, I used to visit him in his house, and I witnessed his illness and his death, and this was also from the favor of Allah upon me, because I was traveling, as was my custom, a monthly trip to Aleppo. So I came and found him ill for two or three days, and by Allah, he took his trust. From the year, and this is of course contrary to their madhhab, the Jama'ah. There is a mosque there, they claim it is the mosque of 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr al-Siddiq, on a big street, Baghdad Street. They want to prevent people generally from praying the funeral prayer in the mosque. The Hanafi madhhab dislikes that, and we see the Sunnah is to pray outside the mosque, but it is permissible in the mosque. Accordingly, we prayed for him outside the mosque. The Arna'ut all took off their sandals and stepped on them. I did not take off my shoes, I prayed in my shoes, and we showed them on many occasions, "O people."