Continuation of the Shaykh's answer to those who accuse him of harshness and severity in his responses to his opponents, such as al-Sabuni.

The Shaykh : I am never of a hard temperament. I often hear words, and this man attends our sessions and our discussions with people in all sorts of forms and colors. How am I speaking to you, you who are our beloved and friend, and how am I speaking to our bitter enemy who is shouting and raging, and so on? And I, as you see me now, am not hard. But what do they say? There is a verse of poetry, perhaps you know it, that says: "Place the sword where severity is needed, and place softness where the sword is needed..."

Another questioner : Do not be so soft that you are squeezed...

The Shaykh : No, no,
'Aqil: In a verse of poetry, in any case, I am forgetting it.

The Shaykh : Yes, the important thing, as we discussed at that time, is that softness does not always work. The important thing is that when a person speaks a word, he places it after applying thought, not in response to severity, not in response to rage. No, I, and praise be to Allah, this is a favor from Allah, I do not have that trait. But do I have severity? Do I have severity? I do not deny that I have severity. But I believe that I place severity in its proper place, in its appropriate location. And your saying to me, may Allah bless you, that I should soften this severity: if I see severity in myself, I will say to you, may Allah reward you with good, I hope to soften it. But as for something I have studied and did not place except after thought, you might say this is a mistake, it is possible, because a person But it is never issued from severity. This and its like, perhaps you have seen it, where? Perhaps in the etiquettes of the wedding, in the etiquettes of the wedding, an Egyptian named Muhammad Sa'id, I do not know what?
'Aqil: Yes, yes, I read his book, in it how Al-Albani transgressed against Sahih Muslim...

The Shaykh : Do you see, do you see this title, Professor?
Abu Layla : His name is Mahmud Sa'id.

The Shaykh : Ah, Mamdouh perhaps, "Alerting the Muslim," what is it?
'Aqil: To Al-Albani's transgression against Sahih Muslim.

The Shaykh : Al-Albani transgressed against Sahih Muslim. This name alone, the title of the book, is enough for you to know that Al-Albani rages and roars, and so on. But no, I heard and studied his book and responded to him in some sentences, and among them was that you, O man, wrote this book, and at the time of its writing, a letter was sent to me.
'Aqil: By himself?

The Shaykh : By himself, by Allah. I forgot this letter and I do not know who the sender was, but Blessed is Allah, the best of creators, meaning that when a believing person sees some of the decrees of the Divine, he is compelled to prostrate to Him in magnification of Him. I am preparing myself to respond to "Alerting the Muslim." I have writings in which I have some letters, I am collecting them, and I have neglected most of them. And I am going through the correspondence I have, and I see a letter under this name, is this it? By Allah, it is the name itself. I look to see what this letter is. And after the introduction and reverence and respect, and so on, it says: "I attended several meetings you held in Cairo in the supporters of the Muhammadan Sunnah, and so on." I traveled, of course, to Egypt twice or more, and I benefited from your books and was influenced by them, so I adopted the methodology of the Sunnah and its study, and so on, until I was accused of being a Wahhabi, and it was said to me that you are a Wahhabi. He says this kind of thing. And then this man turns his back on us, and sends the book and prints it: "Al-Albani's transgression against Sahih Muslim." And I came and responded to him, what should I call him? The unjust, I do not know.
'Aqil: The hater, the hateful.

The Shaykh : The unjust, the oppressor, and so on.
'Aqil: Hater, hateful, and newly envious.

The Shaykh : Yes; why? It is clear that a man is admitting in his old letter that you were the cause of his receiving knowledge and studying the Sunnah, it was Al-Albani. How is he now rushing to come and put it that he transgressed against Sahih Muslim? I know that this man bewitched the minds of some of the hateful scholars, like al-Ghamari Abdullah, this and others, and Glory be to Allah! I have been taken to task for some things. Indeed, I criticized some hadiths in Sahih Muslim, and I am not the first one. But his Ghamari sheikhs denied authentic hadiths that no one had ever preceded them in criticizing, absolutely. They were silent about those, he was silent about them, for example, many hadiths, among them the saying of the Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): They said this is a hadith, and if al-Bukhari and Muslim had narrated it, it would be an anomalous hadith, not authentic. I mentioned examples...
'Aqil: Did the Ghamariyyah say this?

The Shaykh : Yes, I mentioned several examples, and I said to him: if you were sincere in responding to me, why did you not respond to these people? Did you mention them and describe them with me, and they are more deserving of a response from you than I am? Because, for example, you take me to task, I have hadiths narrated by Abu al-Zubayr from Jabir, so I say, following al-Dhahabi and al-'Asqalani, and so on, that Abu al-Zubayr is a tadlis narrator. So the hadiths he narrates from Jabir, if he says "Jabir told me," they are sound, and if he says "from Jabir," then as al-Dhahabi says, there is something in them. But where are your sheikhs, these ones who denied hadiths that no one denied, neither by text nor by explicit expression? And peace be upon you. It is a very strange transgression in the world today, as if there is a plan set to attack Al-Albani. And what is this? I am honored by it, because it expiates my sins and disobediences, as we said earlier. And in conclusion, I hope that Allah the Exalted will guide our steps.
'Aqil: Amen.

The Shaykh : And that our aim, first and last, is the service of the Sunnah, and in the manner that pleases Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He.
'Aqil: If Allah wills, may Allah reward you with good and bless you.

The Shaykh : Do you have anything else?
'Aqil: Ah, regarding the book "Alerting the Muslim," I read it completely and said I want to take it as a benefit, to see what hadiths he weakened.The Shaykh : Since I quote them, I have the original copies, and I found eight hadiths, and of course I checked them in your books with their takhrij, and I recorded them for myself.

Another questioner : Peace be upon you

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
'Aqil: And in memory, how many anomalous narrations are there like this? Only, as for me, some of his words about the men are not convincing to me with that complete conviction. Only we took from him the hadiths and placed them as good.

The Shaykh : May Allah grant you health.
'Aqil: May Allah keep you safe.
Abu Layla : Our Shaykh, regarding al-Sabuni and the word of the honorable brother, meaning if you had corresponded and not shown this thing in books before people, it would have been mentioned to us personally.The Shaykh : Muhammad Zayn, before he responded to him in the book "Al-Tanbihat," that I met withThe Shaykh : al-Sabuni in the Makkah Haram in front of the Ka'bah, and I had told him before I handed it to him for printing, or something like that, that I had some observations on the tafsir and on such and such. He said to him: there is no need to discuss this topic. He said: I want to print it now. He said: print it. In this way, this is the speech ofThe Shaykh : Muhammad Zayn.

The Shaykh : Yes, my lord, these are a group we have known for a long time. What does the poet say: "A lion to me, and an ostrich in wars," "And every rooster crows in its own manure heap." We knew them in Sham and outside Sham. We invited them to a meeting and gathering, and I was at that time a young man of your age or younger, he saysThe Shaykh : I concede, I will meet with a chick, I concede. Among those I requested to meet with was this man specifically, al-Sabuni, and not in Syria but in Makkah. Because al-Sabuni's uncle is the uncle of a young man, meaning the father of his wife, a young man named Abd al-Rahman al-Masri. Abd al-Rahman al-Masri's father is Amin al-Masri, Dr. Amin al-Masri. You may have heard of him. Amin al-Masri was my equal, meaning we were taking two sisters. This Qadiri wife, the divorced one, is the sister of Amin's wife.

The questioner : Meaning he is Syrian, but his name is Egyptian?

The Shaykh : It appears his father or grandfather was Egyptian. This is a noble man.

The questioner : Who is the young Egyptian?

The Shaykh : Amin al-Masri; I do not mean his father, but Amin al-Masri. We were doing one thing and then we became another, as they say, the story has many threads. This was a lesson at al-Azhar, and he came to Damascus. It was a lesson in, I don't know, the science of education. Yes, he graduated. He said he wanted to go to Britain to study psychology, and he actually traveled to Britain. He lived there for months, and his approach to study changed completely. He went to study psychology, and lo and behold, he was studying hadith. Why? He said it was because he found there Orientalists who were attacking Islam by attacking the science of hadith. So he studied there, or entered a university to study what? Hadith, under whom? The Orientalists. Of course, he had a decent al-Azhar background, meaning he was listening to lectures from his professors there. He was hearing objections and doubts about the Sunnah, about the hadiths, the chains of narration, and the narrators, and so on. So he wrote a letter to me and to another friend of his who is originally from Algeria. In the letter, he says in summary—the summary I gave you is the letter itself—that he went to study psychology and is now studying hadith, and he found that the professors are constantly attacking the science of hadith, so he has questions. He wants to send questions from time to time so that I can answer them. He says, may Allah reward him with good and have mercy on him, he passed away. He says, "We know your time is tight, because my time was between my profession of repairing watches and my hobby of studying the Sunnah in the Zahiriyyah Library, among the manuscripts." He says, "I know your time is tight, so I have tasked so-and-so the Algerian to come to you. I will not burden you by sending the questions to you; I will send them to him, and he will present them to you while you are at work, and you will answer him, and he will write them down." And that is how it was.
Abu Layla : Abu Hamid, our Shaykh?

The Shaykh : No, that is Hamdi the Algerian whom you mean; he is not from this country. The point is, I remember once he sent me twenty-three or twenty-four questions in one batch. The important thing is, I sent him the answers, I sent him the answers, and he finished and got his degree in what? In hadith. From where? From Britain. He came to Damascus and they appointed him a teacher of the hadith subject in what? The Faculty of Sharia at the University of Damascus. By the grace of this man who opposed those envious, jealous people, he used to say to his students, "Among the misfortunes of this world is that I am a professor of the hadith subject in the Faculty of Sharia and a professor of professors in hadith, yet I work repairing watches in the shop." The important thing is, after that, Allah wrote for me to marry his wife's sister, so we became what? In-laws. And our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, placed between us affection and intimacy, a very close friendship. Later, he went to Makkah as a professor there at the University of Makkah, which they call what? Umm al-Qura. Umm al-Qura. So I used to go for Hajj and 'Umrah and I would stop by to visit him. His son, Amin al-Masri, 'Abd al-Rahman, I would take al-Sabuni's daughter. Al-Sabuni knows my opinion on the issue of a woman's face; I say that it is not 'awrah, but it is better to cover it. They are stubborn about traditions, not based on knowledge, that a woman's face is not 'awrah and it is forbidden to uncover it. His brother-in-law, 'Abd al-Rahman, understood his uncle's opinion on this issue and his strong criticism of me better than he did. I said to him, "Gather me with him, because I saw him in Damascus, in Syria, in Aleppo, I didn't know him. I got to know him there in Makkah." I said to him, "O 'Abd al-Rahman, gather me with my uncle more than once, and he says, 'By Allah, Professor, I am not satisfied, I am not satisfied.'"

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : We asked for a meeting, but they do not agree to meet. The brother of this meeting, once I went to this Amin al-Masri's place, and he was in Makkah, and there was a group of Syrian shaykhs gathered, among them Abu Ghuddah, whom you saw I responded to severely in the introduction. I don't know if al-Sabuni was present or not, but Abu Ghuddah was there. When I entered, he said to me, "The group is present at my place. What do you say, will you meet them?" I said, "We hope for that, by Allah." He went out to them, and they were against him, and he came back to me saying, "By Allah, they did not agree. None of these people invited me, and I am not in my old age, but in the prime of my youth, where they think this young man knows nothing. And ignorant people say, 'This is Al-Albani, what does he know of the Arabic language, for example?' How so? Yet not one of them said, 'I am present, yes.' There is no God but Allah! This is Amin al-Masri, may Allah have mercy on him. What did Allah decree? Strange decrees. He went to Switzerland to get treated, he had an illness they call what? Prostate. He went to Switzerland and entered the hospital there because our cousin was a doctor there, and he was training in some hospitals. He went to him, and Allah wrote that I also went, along with my cousin's sister, who is my wife's sister from the al-Qadiri family. We went to Switzerland and then to Germany, and we gathered and prayed in the Aachen mosque, and you may have heard of it, where the Muslim Brotherhood is there. And I was there, of course, for days and nights, and I was delivering lectures there. We received news that Amin al-Masri was under treatment and passed away to the mercy of Allah there. So I and this doctor cousin hurried to return, and we washed him, shrouded him, and prayed the Muslim funeral prayer over him in the same hospital. And we tried afterwards, we contacted our brother 'Isa al-Attar, to use his knowledge in the field of burying him there in one of the Muslim cemeteries, because I do not see transferring a dead body from one country to another by plane. Unfortunately, it did not work out despite very strong efforts.

The questioner : Is there a cemetery for Muslims?

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner : Is there a cemetery for Muslims?

The Shaykh : No, there was an effort at that time to establish a cemetery, yes.
'Aqil: Which year?

The Shaykh : About twenty years ago, approximately.
'Aqil: But now it exists.

The Shaykh : It may exist, because I know there were efforts.
'Aqil: My sister's husband is there, my relative, and he returned to Amman four days ago.

The Shaykh : Good.
'Aqil: So there is a cemetery for Muslims.

The Shaykh : And he told you there is a good cemetery? Subhan Allah, after all this, they transferred him and buried him in Makkah.
'Aqil: May it be a blessing for him.

The Shaykh : And so is this world; in short, O Professor, what a person imagines does not practically come to pass.
'Aqil: True. Let us return to the story you mentioned a moment ago, where you said that there are disputes between you and them, meaning you ask them for a meeting and they are the ones who refuse. May Allah reward you with good. We ask Allah, Mighty and Majestic, that you are always a pioneer in good.

The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you; Oh Allah, I am ready, on foot or by car, if you have someone who wants to sit with us and discuss with us and debate with us and be friendly with us and not be hostile to us, then I am present. (laughs)The Shaykh : May Allah have mercy on him.
'Aqil: Ready?

The Shaykh : And I say what?
'Aqil: May Allah reward you with good.