Some memories of old Damascus and the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood there.
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh: Seeking aid from other than Allah and seeking nearness to Allah through other than Allah is, as far as I can see, a type of Salafiyyah among them. When I understood the views of the masses of scholars and Shaykhs... it was a great shock to them. There was among the officials with us Abdul Aziz, the one from Dara... .
The student : ... .
The Shaykh: ... The point is, this was present. He was a Shaykh with a beautiful name, a white beard, short in stature, calm in nature, and so on. They had a room they called a "long room" where all the prisoners would gather, with many beds. So I said to him, let us try, after I found out that he was there, so we went to him, sat down, and began talking. We raised the example of seeking nearness to Allah through a means (tawassul). And unfortunately, my suspicion was correct, and my companion was stunned that indeed there are people who say that tawassul is not a thing. And now... the Shaykh, may Allah guide us and him, said, he said, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: I said to him: O Shaykh, this is a hadith with no basis. And we held a lecture, you know, at least the summary of it. The point is, every opportunity we met, we would discuss with him. He was affected to some extent by Salafi ideas, but I was greatly astonished when they released us and they went to their hometown of Hama, and I returned to Damascus. They told me that he was accusing me of being a person who ascribes a body to Allah (mujassim).
The student: Adnan or Abdul Aziz?
The Shaykh: No, Adnan. He accused me of being a person who ascribes a body to Allah because I say:[Taha 20:5] As you know, and by Allah, I resolved, along with Shukri Jahha and a third person, and by Allah I do not know who he is, perhaps Abu Hamza, or someone else besides Shukri Jahha, certainly. We went to his house in Hama. We said to him, it was reported to us such and such. He said yes. I said to him, O Shaykh.
The student: Professor Adnan, or Marwan Haddad...?
The Shaykh: Marwan Haddad. You mentioned Adnan.
The student : ... .
The Shaykh: Marwan Haddad.
The student: Adnan is originally from the Golan.
The Shaykh: So, Marwan Haddad. Marwan Haddad. The bottom line is, from that day on, although we met with him, and we went specifically to reconcile with him, he remained insistent on accusing us of ascribing a body to Allah, until his problem occurred and he was arrested and died, meaning, a death...
The student: Under torture.
The Shaykh: I am saying he died a death, meaning, a very terrible one.
The student: He was the cause in the group of the revolution.
The Shaykh : ... .
The student: We must get to know you. We need to do an interview with you in Al-Asalah.
Another student: ...
The Shaykh: From the first generation. If your wind blows, seize it. .
The student: This was with my friend who studied with me in the Akka Secondary School, Ahmad Saleh al-Masri. I was studying in Deir al-Zor.
The Shaykh: Record it, record it, heh heh.
The student: He said, here is a strange man. We said to him, how is he strange? He said, sometimes... .
Another student : Is this talk about Akka?
The student: In Damascus. We said, take us. We entered a shop in the 'Amara district, and there was the Shaykh holding this telescope. We sat, we questioned and asked, and he answered... Where did you get this from? We said.
The Shaykh: ... Heh heh.
The student: We studied the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence... .
The Shaykh: He introduced you toThe Shaykh .
The student: Ah, we went to him... Sometimes he would speak and his eye would look at the clock... .
The Shaykh : Yes.
The student: So most of them would frequent the Shaykh, may Allah reward him with good. And of course, we corrected information we had. Yes.
Another student : He considers them, meaning, from his students of that day.
The student: I was withThe Shaykh : Zuhayr and Isam al-Attar. Ah.
Another student: ...
The student: Ahmad Saleh al-Masri. We also met him at Shaykh Saleh's.
Another student: ...
The student: No, he lives in Riyadh. Since we left in '54... a year before, he visited Riyadh and was a teacher at the Institute of Islamic Sciences, which was run by Shaykh Abdul Latif al-Shaykh. Ah, then he had a style; he called Ibn Baz and he would frequently visit many Shaykhs, until he reached the point where Shaykh Ibn Baz took him to King Khalid and said to him, this is one of the best of the Shaykhs or scholars who came to this country. He wants from you the nationality, it is called nationality...
The Shaykh: Citizenship.
The questioner: The nationality. Then they gave him the nationality, and he lives now in Riyadh, he and his children. Ah, Shaykh Ahmad Saleh al-Masri did not come back, I forgot, so he remained frequenting every occasion.
Another student: ...
The student: He is originally the owner of... and his father came with the campaign of Ibrahim Pasha, or his grandfather.
Another student: ...
The student: Ah, when they came with the campaign of Ibrahim Pasha, he remained in Akka.
Another student : What is his name?
The student: Ahmad Saleh al-Masri, named after this weak hadith narrator, perhaps.
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner: Is there a hadith narrator Ahmad Saleh al-Masri who is weak?
The Shaykh: No, there are two, one is weak and one is a memorizer.
The questioner: The companion of Imam Malik.
The Shaykh: One gets mixed up with the other. Ahmad Saleh al-Masri is among the great memorizers.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: One whose name matches, his name and his father's name also... . .
The questioner: Meaning, your age is the age of the Shaykh?
The student: A little less. Meaning, I am seventy-four, the Shaykh is eighty. May Allah prolong your life.
The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you.
The student: We ask Allah to prolong your life.
The Shaykh: O Allah, amen... May Allah call for you, if Allah wills.
The student: Amen, amen... .
The Shaykh: Yes, it was... and he asked me to respond to him, but I refused... I said, these are a partisan group, these are... because if one differs... in a matter... it is still there, meaning, I do not say... .
The student: In reality, the Shaykh was pious and brilliant. I know him well. In Haifa, he was the head of the scribes in the Sharia court in Haifa.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The student: And there he worked with Shaykh Nimr al-Khatib. I think you hear ofThe Shaykh : Nimr al-Khatib. He said, we want to establish a religious association, so they established an association called the Association of Adherence (Al-I'tisam). We had a previous master, this was a preacher in Haifa... from Al-Azhar, Sayyid Sabiq, the author of the book "Fiqh al-Sunnah." Then they sent a second man who was his classmate in the Faculty of Islamic Studies, named Shaykh Abdul Mone'im Abdul Satar, to open a headquarters or to open a branch for the Muslim Brotherhood in Haifa. .
The Shaykh : ... .
The student: ... Many from Damascus, then he went to Iraq with Nur al-Sa'id. Nur al-Sa'id sent him to... to get a doctorate. Then... with Nur al-Sa'id, he dropped out of the studies and returned. And one of our sincere brothers, Muhammad Abdul Karim, do you know him?
The Shaykh: Yes. .
The student: Do you know Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Karim? He said to him, O Professor, O Shaykh Muhammad, I see the Sufi paths are prevalent here. What do you think about us forming a group? He said, fear Allah, we are deceiving people. May Allah forgive him. Then he went to Beirut and established the Association of Guidance. What is Guidance.
Another student: ...
The student: No, that is Nimr al-Khatib. Shaykh Taqi... was an employee of the British government. He promised Shaykh Taqi that he would be the head of Al-I'tisam... So here they came to establish the Muslim Brotherhood in Haifa, and they insisted... that it be converted to the Muslim Brotherhood. They imposed conditions, our Shaykh, conditions that the majority of the members of the association be from Al-I'tisam, in order to guarantee the presidency in the elections. When they saw the youth from him, they refused and chose Shaykh Abdul Rahman Murad, who was the former Mufti of Haifa and a Sharia judge. So they chose him as the head of the Muslim Brotherhood. So there was... about Shaykh Abdul Rahman Murad... there is a Sharia judge in Damascus, and soon he was a Sharia judge in Damascus. So the strange thing is that the Brotherhood... he opened work... in the college, delivering lectures and speeches with enthusiasm in the college. He and al-Ghazali were in the same class, meaning, a great orator, Abdul Mone'im andThe Shaykh : Muhammad al-Ghazali, in all occasions, especially the occasions of Palestine, they would deliver speeches inciting the students to go out for a demonstration.
The Shaykh: Against the British.
The student: Against the British. So a message came. Sayyid Sabiq and this preacher wrote it. A message came to him from Abdul Mone'im Abdul Satar after he had opened and delivered a lecture, and the masses attended. And immediately after the end of the lecture, he said, the pledge of allegiance. Ah, we became pledging allegiance. All the masses repeated the pledge around him. I said, Glory be to Allah the Great. The lecture was over, and they were exchanging pledges. Abdul Mone'im Abdul Satar, Abdul Mone'im Abdul Satar... ... to Shaykh Sayyid Sabiq... Shaykh Abdul Rahman said... the center of the Brotherhood... is still existing. So a letter came, and they turned it over, and if it says in it, Abdul Mone'im says, Shaykh Sayyid Sabiq says that the true leader of Haifa is Nimr al-Khatib, and that Shaykh Abdul Rahman Murad is the head of the Brotherhood, so in the time of... the young one leads... the head of the Brotherhood glorifies who.
The Shaykh: Seeking aid from other than Allah and seeking nearness to Allah through other than Allah is, as far as I can see, a type of Salafiyyah among them. When I understood the views of the masses of scholars and Shaykhs... it was a great shock to them. There was among the officials with us Abdul Aziz, the one from Dara... .
The student : ... .
The Shaykh: ... The point is, this was present. He was a Shaykh with a beautiful name, a white beard, short in stature, calm in nature, and so on. They had a room they called a "long room" where all the prisoners would gather, with many beds. So I said to him, let us try, after I found out that he was there, so we went to him, sat down, and began talking. We raised the example of seeking nearness to Allah through a means (tawassul). And unfortunately, my suspicion was correct, and my companion was stunned that indeed there are people who say that tawassul is not a thing. And now... the Shaykh, may Allah guide us and him, said, he said, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Seek nearness to Allah through my status; for my status with Allah is great.
توسَّلوا بجاهي ؛ فإنَّ جاهي عند الله عظيمThe student: Adnan or Abdul Aziz?
The Shaykh: No, Adnan. He accused me of being a person who ascribes a body to Allah because I say:
The Most Merciful [who is] above the Throne established.
الرَّحْمَنُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ اسْتَوَىThe student: Professor Adnan, or Marwan Haddad...?
The Shaykh: Marwan Haddad. You mentioned Adnan.
The student : ... .
The Shaykh: Marwan Haddad.
The student: Adnan is originally from the Golan.
The Shaykh: So, Marwan Haddad. Marwan Haddad. The bottom line is, from that day on, although we met with him, and we went specifically to reconcile with him, he remained insistent on accusing us of ascribing a body to Allah, until his problem occurred and he was arrested and died, meaning, a death...
The student: Under torture.
The Shaykh: I am saying he died a death, meaning, a very terrible one.
The student: He was the cause in the group of the revolution.
The Shaykh : ... .
The student: We must get to know you. We need to do an interview with you in Al-Asalah.
Another student: ...
The Shaykh: From the first generation. If your wind blows, seize it. .
The student: This was with my friend who studied with me in the Akka Secondary School, Ahmad Saleh al-Masri. I was studying in Deir al-Zor.
The Shaykh: Record it, record it, heh heh.
The student: He said, here is a strange man. We said to him, how is he strange? He said, sometimes... .
Another student : Is this talk about Akka?
The student: In Damascus. We said, take us. We entered a shop in the 'Amara district, and there was the Shaykh holding this telescope. We sat, we questioned and asked, and he answered... Where did you get this from? We said.
The Shaykh: ... Heh heh.
The student: We studied the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence... .
The Shaykh: He introduced you toThe Shaykh .
The student: Ah, we went to him... Sometimes he would speak and his eye would look at the clock... .
The Shaykh : Yes.
The student: So most of them would frequent the Shaykh, may Allah reward him with good. And of course, we corrected information we had. Yes.
Another student : He considers them, meaning, from his students of that day.
The student: I was withThe Shaykh : Zuhayr and Isam al-Attar. Ah.
Another student: ...
The student: Ahmad Saleh al-Masri. We also met him at Shaykh Saleh's.
Another student: ...
The student: No, he lives in Riyadh. Since we left in '54... a year before, he visited Riyadh and was a teacher at the Institute of Islamic Sciences, which was run by Shaykh Abdul Latif al-Shaykh. Ah, then he had a style; he called Ibn Baz and he would frequently visit many Shaykhs, until he reached the point where Shaykh Ibn Baz took him to King Khalid and said to him, this is one of the best of the Shaykhs or scholars who came to this country. He wants from you the nationality, it is called nationality...
The Shaykh: Citizenship.
The questioner: The nationality. Then they gave him the nationality, and he lives now in Riyadh, he and his children. Ah, Shaykh Ahmad Saleh al-Masri did not come back, I forgot, so he remained frequenting every occasion.
Another student: ...
The student: He is originally the owner of... and his father came with the campaign of Ibrahim Pasha, or his grandfather.
Another student: ...
The student: Ah, when they came with the campaign of Ibrahim Pasha, he remained in Akka.
Another student : What is his name?
The student: Ahmad Saleh al-Masri, named after this weak hadith narrator, perhaps.
The Shaykh : How?
The questioner: Is there a hadith narrator Ahmad Saleh al-Masri who is weak?
The Shaykh: No, there are two, one is weak and one is a memorizer.
The questioner: The companion of Imam Malik.
The Shaykh: One gets mixed up with the other. Ahmad Saleh al-Masri is among the great memorizers.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: One whose name matches, his name and his father's name also... . .
The questioner: Meaning, your age is the age of the Shaykh?
The student: A little less. Meaning, I am seventy-four, the Shaykh is eighty. May Allah prolong your life.
The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you.
The student: We ask Allah to prolong your life.
The Shaykh: O Allah, amen... May Allah call for you, if Allah wills.
The student: Amen, amen... .
The Shaykh: Yes, it was... and he asked me to respond to him, but I refused... I said, these are a partisan group, these are... because if one differs... in a matter... it is still there, meaning, I do not say... .
The student: In reality, the Shaykh was pious and brilliant. I know him well. In Haifa, he was the head of the scribes in the Sharia court in Haifa.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The student: And there he worked with Shaykh Nimr al-Khatib. I think you hear ofThe Shaykh : Nimr al-Khatib. He said, we want to establish a religious association, so they established an association called the Association of Adherence (Al-I'tisam). We had a previous master, this was a preacher in Haifa... from Al-Azhar, Sayyid Sabiq, the author of the book "Fiqh al-Sunnah." Then they sent a second man who was his classmate in the Faculty of Islamic Studies, named Shaykh Abdul Mone'im Abdul Satar, to open a headquarters or to open a branch for the Muslim Brotherhood in Haifa. .
The Shaykh : ... .
The student: ... Many from Damascus, then he went to Iraq with Nur al-Sa'id. Nur al-Sa'id sent him to... to get a doctorate. Then... with Nur al-Sa'id, he dropped out of the studies and returned. And one of our sincere brothers, Muhammad Abdul Karim, do you know him?
The Shaykh: Yes. .
The student: Do you know Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Karim? He said to him, O Professor, O Shaykh Muhammad, I see the Sufi paths are prevalent here. What do you think about us forming a group? He said, fear Allah, we are deceiving people. May Allah forgive him. Then he went to Beirut and established the Association of Guidance. What is Guidance.
Another student: ...
The student: No, that is Nimr al-Khatib. Shaykh Taqi... was an employee of the British government. He promised Shaykh Taqi that he would be the head of Al-I'tisam... So here they came to establish the Muslim Brotherhood in Haifa, and they insisted... that it be converted to the Muslim Brotherhood. They imposed conditions, our Shaykh, conditions that the majority of the members of the association be from Al-I'tisam, in order to guarantee the presidency in the elections. When they saw the youth from him, they refused and chose Shaykh Abdul Rahman Murad, who was the former Mufti of Haifa and a Sharia judge. So they chose him as the head of the Muslim Brotherhood. So there was... about Shaykh Abdul Rahman Murad... there is a Sharia judge in Damascus, and soon he was a Sharia judge in Damascus. So the strange thing is that the Brotherhood... he opened work... in the college, delivering lectures and speeches with enthusiasm in the college. He and al-Ghazali were in the same class, meaning, a great orator, Abdul Mone'im andThe Shaykh : Muhammad al-Ghazali, in all occasions, especially the occasions of Palestine, they would deliver speeches inciting the students to go out for a demonstration.
The Shaykh: Against the British.
The student: Against the British. So a message came. Sayyid Sabiq and this preacher wrote it. A message came to him from Abdul Mone'im Abdul Satar after he had opened and delivered a lecture, and the masses attended. And immediately after the end of the lecture, he said, the pledge of allegiance. Ah, we became pledging allegiance. All the masses repeated the pledge around him. I said, Glory be to Allah the Great. The lecture was over, and they were exchanging pledges. Abdul Mone'im Abdul Satar, Abdul Mone'im Abdul Satar... ... to Shaykh Sayyid Sabiq... Shaykh Abdul Rahman said... the center of the Brotherhood... is still existing. So a letter came, and they turned it over, and if it says in it, Abdul Mone'im says, Shaykh Sayyid Sabiq says that the true leader of Haifa is Nimr al-Khatib, and that Shaykh Abdul Rahman Murad is the head of the Brotherhood, so in the time of... the young one leads... the head of the Brotherhood glorifies who.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.