The Shaykh Al-Albani’s response to Hassan Abd al-Mannan.

The Shaykh : I directed a word in some of the introductions to some books that are about to be published on the occasion of this man, whose news you may have heard, named Hassan Abd al-Mannan, who has greatly corrupted *Riyad al-Salihin* and weakened hadiths that no one had previously weakened. He is the companion of this man from whom you are quoting this misguided rule. He is his companion in opposing the path of the believers by weakening many hadiths that, first, no one had previously weakened, but rather had explicitly authenticated, and second, the rules established by the scholars of hadith, whether early or late, do not support his weakening. I directed a written piece of advice to him after we discussed the matter in the presence of our professor Abu Malik at my home, in a calm discussion, and we showed him that he is not qualified to take on the position of authenticator and weakener to the extent that the rule known to all scholars, with no exception among jurists or hadith scholars, which is that the affirming is preferred over the negating, is a proof from knowledge against one who did not know it. Did he not know this rule and give it no weight? Perhaps you remember this bitter reality, unfortunately. So I directed to him now, after he had the opportunity, and I responded to him in some of my comments on some books I am currently re-publishing, I directed to him advice in the manner previously mentioned, namely that he should strive and apply, but not produce, print, or publish now, because he has not matured in his knowledge. I conveyed to him a very good phrase from Abu Ishaq al-Imam al-Shatibi in his book *Al-I’tisam*, where he mentioned that one of the signs that a student of knowledge is one of the people of desires is that he takes on the role of knowledge, issues fatwas, and presides over gatherings without the scholars testifying that he has become qualified for knowledge and issuing fatwas, because in this case he has followed his desire and not the opinion of the people of knowledge. I supported this issue, or this very strong opinion, with the saying of Allah the Exalted: And I often quote from this verse as a cure for this disease that has spread in the present age, whether it relates to authenticating and weakening hadith, or to rushing in issuing fatwas that this is lawful and this is forbidden, and this is permissible and this is not permissible. I said that this verse divided the Muslim community into two groups: the larger group are those who do not know, and there are many texts regarding them, and the other group are the scholars. It obligated a duty on each of the two groups. It obligated the first, larger group to ask the second, smaller group, who are the people of knowledge: So everyone who has knowledge and knows from the depths of his soul that the people of knowledge have not yet testified that he is qualified for authenticating and weakening, and for permitting and prohibiting through his own independent legal reasoning, this person must restrain himself and not rush to issue his opinions and publish them to the people until he is permitted to do so. From here it appeared to me that the true ijazah that existed in the past had its effect and its reality before it became a form and appearance like these ijazahs now issued by some universities or some shaykhs, where they say I have granted ijazah to so-and-so, and he barely understands anything. This example of al-Saqaf is sufficient for you; he is granted ijazah by the shaykhs of the Maghreb, as I read in some of his writings, perhaps he is granted ijazah, and therefore he boasts to us that I have not granted ijazah to anyone but the cook, whereas he has been granted ijazah by many, many shaykhs. This ijazah in the past truly had its good effect. Yes, they say in the biography of some of the distinguished ones, perhaps you or Professor Abu Ubaydah or Professor Abu Malik remember that he did not sit in a circle of knowledge until he was permitted to do so, wearing a turban.
Abu Malik: Yes.

The Shaykh : Do you remember, Abu Ubaydah?
Abu Malik: Seventy turbans.

The Shaykh : A turban, yes. This means that this is proof that the group did not rush to preside over circles of knowledge and issue fatwas to people until they were permitted by the people of knowledge. But now, unfortunately, the matter has become chaos. My advice to students of knowledge is that they study the science of terminology theoretically by one of the two methods we mentioned earlier, and then that they do not rush to practical production, applying practice to theory, until a considerable amount of time has passed for them, and that they begin slowly, presenting the results of their knowledge to those they trust in their knowledge from among the people of knowledge and virtue. In this way, students of knowledge can follow the straight path to acquire this knowledge, which, unfortunately, in the previous centuries nearly perished, and that was, as it appears to me now, only because they knew the difficulty of the matter. On the contrary, now that they have made it easy, every student is a scholar, a scholar in hadith. This is my advice.