The Shaykh's response to the book: Alerting the Muslim to Al-Albani's transgression against Sahih Muslim and the book on the Sunnah of the Misbaha.

The questioner : When you came across two letters recently issued by the so-called Mahmoud Sa'id Mamdouh, namely "Alerting the Muslim to Al-Albani's transgression against Sahih Muslim" and the second, "Conveying Greetings in Proving the Sunnah of the Misbaha and Responding to Al-Albani," then in the spirit of "if you are asked for advice, give it," what is your opinion of this man from the perspective of his knowledge, his creed, his methodology, and in his two aforementioned letters?

The Shaykh : I have looked into the two letters. As for the first letter, "Alerting the Muslim," it was recently made easy for me to respond to some of its aspects in the new edition we issued of my book "Etiquettes of the Wedding in the Pure Sunnah." I dedicated many pages of the introduction of this book to responding to this man. I also looked into the other letter and wrote comments on it, but I have not yet been able to respond to it fully, because I naturally do not have the time to respond to every hateful, ignorant, and envious person. However, I wait for opportunities. The first opportunity presented itself, as I mentioned earlier, in responding to him regarding some of the deviations he leaned toward from what knowledge requires in the terminology of hadith. He is a man who is not a scholar; rather, he is, if the expression is correct, a compiler of marginal notes. He is a piece of cloth, meaning he gathers from here and there, but he cannot reconcile what he has gathered because he is ignorant of the principles and rules of knowledge, whether these rules are from the sciences of hadith or from the principles of jurisprudence. A man took offense at me because I criticized some hadiths in Sahih Muslim. It became clear to me that his criticism was not, as is said in the language of the present day, for the sake of knowledge. That is, his criticism was not for the sake of knowledge, and in our Islamic expression, not for the face of Allah the Exalted and Mighty. The proof is that many of the things in which he criticized me, many contemporary scholars whom he holds in high regard and for whom he wrote biographies in a book of his titled... he considers them among his sheikhs by license, have fallen into denying hadiths from the two Sahihs. I, praise be to Allah, have not reached that depth of error into which those sheikhs fell. Nevertheless, he remained silent about them and directed the arrows of his criticism at me because I relied on the scientific rules of hadith in correcting some of the hadiths that Imam Muslim narrated in his Sahih. The most famous of these is what he narrates through Abu al-Zubayr from Jabir. The scholars of hadith say that Abu al-Zubayr was a tadlis practitioner, and that his narration from Jabir comes in two forms: sometimes with the "an" (from) formula, in which case its authenticity is suspended, and sometimes with explicit narration, such as saying "Jabir narrated to us," in which case this narration is authentic because the man is trustworthy. This distinction is what he rejects and he strains himself in his rejection as much as he pleases, then he does not care about the statements of the scholars who described Abu al-Zubayr as a tadlis practitioner, and those who came after them who adopted this description and built upon it the suspension of accepting Abu al-Zubayr's narrations with the "an" formula where he did not explicitly state the narration. This is regarding the first book. As for the second book, we have some writings as a draft, and the summary of the response is that some of the reports he clings to, even if their authenticity is conceded to him, do not establish his long and far-reaching claim, which he expressed in the title of the letter: "Proving the Sunnah of the Misbaha." Glory be to Allah, why did he not be moderate in the title? It would have been sufficient for him to title it "The Permissibility of the Misbaha" instead of "Proving the Sunnah of the Misbaha." Where is the Sunnah of counting with the fingers? If that were the case, this would indicate to the researcher, even if he is not specialized in the science of hadith and the principles of jurisprudence, that the man does not want to reach the truth, but rather wants to attack the supporters of the truth and the followers of the Sunnah, by supporting innovation and opposing the Sunnah, even in the title. As they say, the title of the written work is sufficient for you. This is what comes to my mind now in answer to this question.

The questioner : We ask about his creed and his methodology?

The Shaykh : As for the creed, in reality, I have not come across anything that leads me to understand that he is, for example, a follower of the later generations or a Salafi. I find it unlikely that a man who opposes the followers of the Salaf with such intense hostility would be a Salafi in creed...

The questioner : I met him... he is a firm follower of the later generations.

The Shaykh : Did you hear something from him like that?

The questioner : It was a direct discussion about the issues of seeking nearness to Allah through a means, let alone matters of innovation, and so on...

The Shaykh : That is, he is on the school of his sheikh al-Ghamari.

The questioner : Yes, exactly.