Why do some people find it strange that Al-Albani retracted his ruling on some of the Prophetic hadiths.

The Shaykh : In light of the observations I have presented, namely that one of the virtues of the present age is the widespread availability of many books that were once confined to the world of manuscripts and are now in the world of print. Personally, although I have examined a large portion of the manuscripts preserved in the Zahiriyyah Library in Damascus, there is no doubt that there are other libraries in the world containing precious manuscripts that are not found in the Zahiriyyah. Therefore, based on the principle of the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: , the researcher and writer is not required to delve into every library in the world; that is impossible. Consequently, some people, and a few of them disapprove, when they find that I have retracted what I previously said about a specific hadith being authentic or weak. They do not realize that the scope of printed materials is now very, very broad, to the extent that it assists every researcher in scientific verification more than was possible twenty or thirty years ago. It is certain that some of my works, takhrij, and comments are more than half my current age, meaning more than forty years old. At that time, sources like the ones you just mentioned were not available. Now that we have come across them, we revise many of the verifications and takhrij that we had previously produced. Instead of some people noting this difference in the quantity of books that are now being printed, which were previously locked away in libraries around the world, and instead of them understanding this, they say, "Al-Albani's contradictions." If they knew the truth, they would excuse Al-Albani, because no human being can encompass all knowledge. I wanted to draw attention to this scientific reality that we are now living in, which we did not know about until about thirty or forty years ago. Therefore, the old proverb applies here: "How much the first generation left for the last." So, may Allah reward you with good... May Allah preserve you.

The questioner : ... The Shaykh, what we have written... We truly learned the knowledge, Shaykh.

The Shaykh: May Allah reward you with good.

The questioner : Except from your book. We ask Allah to benefit the Muslims through you.

The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you, my brother, and benefit through you as well.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.