What is the advice that Shaykh Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani directs to the Salafis in Yemen?

The questioner : What is the advice that Shaykh Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani directs to the Salafis in Yemen? Knowing that Salafism in Yemen, before the Shaykh answers, differs from it in any other place. That is, our Salafi brothers in Yemen are engaged in calling people to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) with great activity. There is no day that passes without students of knowledge going out to the villages, cities, and deserts to hold lectures, answer questions and inquiries and issue fatwas, correct people's beliefs, and rebuke their innovations. People are transformed by their hands from Shi'ism to the Sunnah. And of course, when we say they answer people's questions and their fatwas, that means they have come to do something that was not in Yemen, because a fatwa must be paid for there, and the judiciary must be paid for there. So our brothers go out and perform fatwa and judgment among people, and other than that, seeking the Face of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), in addition to their schools that teach the Book and the Sunnah, and particularly the science of hadith, in various parts of Yemen from its north to its south. The efforts of Shaykh Maqbul (may Allah preserve him) and his students after him in various cities are clear and evident in spreading the Sunnah among the Shi'is and among the people of innovation and innovators. Our brothers in Yemen want advice from the Shaykh for themselves? Even though some advice has reached them, but it seems they want to increase. Please, our Shaykh?

The Shaykh : Since the matter is as you mentioned, and this is what gladdens the heart of every Muslim, and praise be to Allah, I do not find in myself anything to advise my brothers referred to in Yemen with, as they are on the line with us on the Book and the Sunnah and on the methodology of the righteous predecessors, if Allah wills. But I remind and do not teach except one who is ignorant or heedless. And the reminder, as our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) said: . I hope that our noble brother Shaykh Maqbul, when he permits some of the students to go out in the path of da'wah, that he chooses from among them those who are as strong as possible in knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah and the Salafi narrations that help them to answer what may be directed to them of questions that may not have passed their ears before. They hear them from their Shaykh or from other scholars who read their books and fatwas. That is because the one who goes out for da'wah is exposed to being asked about every big and small matter, and consequently he will be forced to answer unless he has been raised on the correct knowledge. From which is the saying of some scholars: "Half of knowledge is 'I do not know.'" It is not befitting for a student of knowledge to be bold in issuing fatwas and shy about refraining from answering some questions. It is not befitting for him to be so. Rather, he should emulate... those to whom questions came from the farthest lands by the dozens, or perhaps by the hundreds, and then he would not answer except a little of them, as happened to the Imam of the City of Migration, Malik ibn Anas (may Allah have mercy on him): "That a man from Khurasan came to him with dozens or hundreds of questions—I do not recall exactly—from those distant lands from the Holy Mosque, and he answered only three questions!! So this messenger sent from Khurasan to Imam Malik was amazed. This Imam, the Imam of the people of Madinah, does not answer all the questions, and as we said, at least by the dozens, except for three issues only! He said to him: 'Do you not answer except like this?! What will the people who sent me to you say?!' He said: 'Go back to them and say: Malik does not have knowledge of those questions except by what you heard of the answers to the three questions.'" Thus, the student of knowledge should be scrupulous, he should be stingy in answering a question unless he is proficient in answering it by supporting that answer with the Book or the Sunnah or with an opinion from the opinions of the righteous predecessors. And what we know by experience here and in Syria is that many of our brothers, students of knowledge, may not know the evidence for the issue they were asked about and answered, but they knew the opinion of a man they trust in his knowledge, whether he is among the living or the dead, and they answer with that answer, but they do not know its source and origin: is it from the Book, or from the Sunnah, or is it transmitted from the predecessors, or is it the opinion and ijtihad of that scholar?! From whom or about whom they received the answer?! In this case, I advise students of knowledge in all Islamic lands that if they transmit an opinion or an answer to an issue, that this answer not be issued from him in such a way that the questioner understands that this is his opinion and his knowledge. Rather, he should say, "I heard so-and-so the scholar say such and such," or "I read in such-and-such book such and such." And this is for two reasons: The first reason: It goes back to a very important text from the texts of authentic hadiths, among which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): , ; meaning: The one who displays something of knowledge while he does not have it, is like one who wears two garments of falsehood, not one garment. This is first. And secondly: And perhaps it is an effect of that hadith, said by the scholars, and it became a custom followed among them, which is their saying: "One of the blessings of knowledge is attributing every statement to its speaker." I give you a practical example in the science of hadith. One of our brother students may be asked about a hadith: is this hadith authentic or weak? So whether the answer is authentic or weak, the one asked, if he is proficient in the science of hadith, meaning he is able to study the chain of a hadith and trace the paths of this hadith such that he obtains a strong suspicion that this hadith is authentic, or that this hadith is not authentic, and he answered with one of the two answers referred to, it is permissible for him to say "authentic" or "weak." But if he received this conclusion from other scholars, whether living or dead: it is not permissible for him to say "authentic" and "weak" only. Rather, he must say "authentic as so-and-so said," "weak as so-and-so said," so that first he is saved from the falsehood mentioned by the Messenger (peace be upon him) in the previous hadith, and so that he acts on the wisdom of the scholars mentioned earlier, that the blessing of knowledge is to attribute every statement to its speaker. This is what comes to my mind of speech or advice for students of knowledge, wherever they are and wherever they are. And I add to that: that they be scrupulous and far from what relates to worldly matters, whether it is money or status, or to lead the gatherings, and to appear to people in the manner of hand-kissing, or standing for them, or the like of that.
The student: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : -And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings- So they should be the farthest people from that, because all of this is from the Sunnah of our righteous predecessors (may Allah be pleased with them), and that is what they emulated in or with their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), where he would sit wherever the gathering ended for him. Where the stranger would enter, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was not distinguished by dress, emblem, or clothing from the rest of his Companions. And when he entered (peace and blessings be upon him): they did not stand for him. So there was no difference between him (peace be upon him) and the noble Companions. Thus, the student of knowledge should be among all Muslims, not distinguished over them by anything, except by what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) chose for him of beneficial knowledge or righteous deed. This is what is present to me.

The questioner : May Allah bless you, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you.