The Shaykh’s Response to the Fabrications and Slander of Isma'il al-Ansari.

The Shaykh : One is amazed by something like this.The Shaykh : He lived in those lands, the lands of tawhid (the oneness of Allah), and he harbored a very strange hatred toward me. He used to slander me previously during the tarawih prayers, and later regarding the issue of the gold ring. He authored two treatises, one on this and one on that. Naturally, I did not hold back in my response to him. It is as if this man was waiting for an opportunity to vent the anger of his soul, which is inclined to evil, by exposing Al-Albani and making him infamous in those lands. The opportunity, in his claim, came when the Muslim Brotherhood and a group of others held a conference in Qatar. In their claim, they held this conference so that the Islamic groups could understand one another, so that each one knows what the other has. Naturally, none of the Salafis were present, so their arch-enemy stood in for them.The Shaykh : Al-Buti. In any case, they published a large volume in which they mentioned the sessions that took place there to deceive the Islamic world. They found an old tape where I was in Damascus, giving some of our brothers a break to speak so that they could get accustomed to guiding and teaching people, and so on. People like Ali Khushan, Kheir al-Din, and Anli, and others likeEid Abbasi : sometimes we taskedEid Abbasi : him to deliver a speech, so he delivered it. He mentionedThe Shaykh : Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, naturally in terms of his goodness and virtue in the da'wah (calling others to Islam) of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) which he spread in the lands of Najd, and he described him in a way that I saw as exaggerated relative to my understanding of him. He made him one of the scholars of hadith who distinguish between authentic and weak narrations. So I commented with a word...
Abu Layla : During his speech?

The Shaykh : Yes, this was fifteen or twenty years ago. The summary of the speech was that Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab is a learned, noble man who renewed the da'wah (calling others to Islam) of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) in those lands, and the Islamic world benefited from him afterward, and so on. But he is not one of the scholars of hadith, and his works indicate that. Among them is a treatise on the etiquettes of walking to the mosque, in which he cites a hadith that among the etiquettes, when one goes out, he should say, "O Allah, I ask You by Your rightThe questioner : over me and by the right of this walk of mine... and so on. I mentioned to him that this hadith is weak. So these people of the conference, and Allah knows best who was responsible for collecting the researches that took place there and publishing them in a book, are the Muslim Brotherhood and others; we do not know. So, in order to fill the void that existed because no one from the Salafis delivered a speech, they deceived the readers into thinking that this speech was delivered there, while they had taken it from a tape.
Abu Layla : Yes, the speech of our brotherEid Abbasi : and your comment on it...

The Shaykh : My comment on it was that they took it from a tape. This caused a commotion in Saudi Arabia; because Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab is, for them, perhaps above Ibn Taymiyyah. So, in one of the 'Umrah (lesser pilgrimage) trips I went on, naturally, as is usual, people asked me openly, so I answered them. This becameThe Shaykh : Isma'il al-Ansari, may Allah guide him, seized the opportunity and said that he read a comment by Shaykh Al-Albani on the speechEid Abbasi : that Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab is not one of the scholars of hadith, and the evidence is that he brought a hadith such and such, and this hadith is weak and has two defects. He summarized my words and then continued to respond. The lesson in his response is that he exaggerates in presenting me to people. As for me, I did not just say that Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab is not one of the scholars of hadith based on such and such; he says he vilified Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. This is, of course, a lie and slander. Then, the poor man says, "And the hadith was graded good by so-and-so and so-and-so," and he does not mention who weakened it. Then he mentions that Ibn Taymiyyah weakened it due to 'Atiyyah, andThe Shaykh : Al-Albani weakened it due to two defects, because 'Atiyyah is the name of a narrator, and there is a second defect. Ibn Taymiyyah did not cite a defect except for one. Why did he not mention that I said why he did not mention that Ibn Taymiyyah cited the hadith with one defect? This is very strange. Look, he did not mention the weakness of the hadith. Well, I agree with Ibn Taymiyyah in weakening the hadith and citing a defect for it. I added a second defect to it. Why did I not mention that Ibn Taymiyyah did not mention this defect? And even stranger, the entire treatise is about demolishing it, and then he says thatThe Shaykh : Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, in his summary of Ibn Taymiyyah's treatise on Istighathah (calling for aid), says, "And in the chain of the hadith is 'Atiyyah al-'Awfi, and he is weak."
Abu Layla : They have exposed themselves, my Shaykh, by their own state.

The Shaykh : Allahu Akbar. What did he gain from this treatise? From the scientific perspective, he gained nothing. He gained that he revealed his bad character, took revenge on this man, and made him infamous among people by saying he attacked Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and vilified him.
Abu Layla : My Shaykh, this does not pass over everyone, it is clear, my Shaykh.

The Shaykh : How?
Abu Layla : This does not pass over everyone.

The Shaykh : Ah, it does not pass; but bring it, bring it, it does not pass. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. I am now writing an introduction here for the first volume, a new edition of al-Silsilah al-Da'ifah (The Chain of Weak Hadiths).
Abu Layla : Is it the fifth, my Shaykh?

The Shaykh : No, the first. The fifth is printed, but it needs indexes.
Abu Layla : So you are reviewing the first?

The Shaykh : Ah, I say, but I advise everyone who wants to respond to me or to anyone else that their goal in doing so should be advice and guidance, acting in accordance with the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): and that they should not be driven to it by hatred and envy; because that uproots the religion, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: and hatred is the shaver, not the shaver of hair, but the shaver of the religion, as the people of desires and religious innovation always do with the people of hadith and the Sunnah, and as many of them did with me specifically, likeThe Shaykh : Al-Azami and Al-Ghamari, thenThe Shaykh : Al-Ansari, in what he said about me regarding the tarawih prayers, and then in his treatise on the gold ring. And I responded to him in my treatise on the Night Prayer and in the introduction to Fiqh al-Sunnah. And now he wants to respond to me regarding the speech we mentioned earlier, and Allah is the One to be sought for help.
Abu Layla : May Allah help you, my Shaykh. May our Lord strengthen you with the truth, if Allah wills.

The Shaykh : O Allah, amen.