Requesting the Shaykh to advise students who debate and discuss the people of innovation, though they are not qualified for it.

The questioner : In the first question, some of these people invite some of our brothers to sit and debate, and some of the brothers, as is evident, may not be at the required level. So what advice do you offer to these brothers initially?

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner: May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : This is a good question. In truth, I do not advise any of our brothers to meet with these people unless he is filled with correct knowledge from the Book and the Sunnah, because they are people of desires and people of doubts. If the one who wants to debate them and establish the argument against them has not combined knowledge and intellect together, it is feared that he will be afflicted in his self and his creed with some of their desires. Therefore, the righteous Salaf exaggerated in forbidding the Muslims from sitting with the people of desires. I am often asked by phone by individuals who seem to be afflicted by sitting with these people. The last thing that happened was that one of them said to me, "You authenticated the hadith in the book *Sifat al-Salah*, but you weakened it in *Al-Irwaa'*, he said to me like that." I said, "How?" He said, "You said such and such," and then he quoted my response to al-Busayri, who had authenticated this hadith in *Sunan Ibn Majah*. The chain of the hadith in *Sunan Ibn Majah* is weak and not authentic. So, as is obligatory for every fair and unbiased researcher who is free from following desires, I criticized al-Busayri and clarified that he was mistaken in authenticating the chain of this hadith of Ibn Majah, stating that this chain is weak. I asked him, "Did you read the entire research in *Al-Irwaa'?" He did not answer, he did not answer. I searched with him, and when we reached the topic, to use the Syrian expression, he "zabq" (slipped away) to the end. So he spent two or three days asking me this question. I researched this hadith in *Al-Irwaa'* in about twelve pages, twelve pages, twelve pages only, to reach the ruling that this hadith is either *hasan li-ghayrihi* (good due to other supporting chains) or *sahih li-ghayrihi* (authentic due to other supporting chains). All twelve pages were dedicated to this. I later learned that this was a trick by this ignorant person to make people think that Al-Albani is contradictory: "He authenticated the hadith in *Sifat al-Salah* and weakened it in *Al-Irwaa'." Whereas I authenticated it in *Al-Irwaa'* as well, but through very great effort, twelve pages, to say at the end of the research: "From what has preceded, it becomes clear that this hadith, by the sum of its paths that are free from severe weakness, because some of them are in severe weakness, the hadith rises to being *sahih li-ghayrihi* (authentic due to other supporting chains)." All of this was ignored and turned away from to show people that this Al-Albani is contradictory. This is a charlatan, O Shaykh.

The questioner : And he is indeed a charlatan and a liar...

The Shaykh : Yes, so please proceed.