Evaluating Al-Albani's Methodology in Authenticating and Weakening Hadiths

Question:
What is your opinion of the hadith scholar Nasir Al-Albani? Is he a jurist? And do we accept everything he says regarding the weakening and authenticating of hadiths?

Answer:
Shaykh Nasir al-Din Al-Albani is among the best of scholars and among the most distinguished of scholars. He is a renowned scholar known to us for his goodness and uprightness, and he is a man of sound creed. However, it is not permissible to accept everything he says. No, that is an error. Who says that one accepts everything said by any person? Even Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, who is among the greatest of scholars, is not accepted in everything he said. Rather, one accepts what agrees with the evidence, is preferred by the evidence, and for which the proof is established. As for what is clearly an error or a mistake, that is not accepted.
But he is a scholar, his writings are good, and most of what he speaks about is correct and good. However, he may err in some matters and make mistakes in some matters, like other people. There is no scholar who is free from errors, even the four Imams: Malik, Abu Hanifah, and al-Shafi'i, were not free from error, nor were Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Awza'i, and others. Each of them has known errors... It is not permissible to accept them. So every scholar has errors and mistakes. But the student of knowledge reflects on what he and others have said; what agrees with the evidence, he accepts, and what contradicts the truth, he leaves. And the layperson asks the scholars about what is difficult for him.