A brother's remarks on the Albanian people and the extent of their love for Islam.
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The Shaykh: Yes.
The student : Yes, the efforts of Islamic organizations—praise be to Allah—are clear, evident, and tangible.
The Shaykh : Yes, we want to see the impact of the da'wah on the Muslims. How is that?
The student : Generally, when we speak of the Albanian people, what distinguishes them is that their fitrah (innate natural disposition) is sound. First, they do not have any compounded ignorance. There is no religion there; a person simply says, "There is no god but Allah," or "I am a Muslim," without knowing what "There is no god but Allah" means. That is the first point. The other point is that people's emotions are directed toward Islam. That is, a person may know nothing about Islam, but he loves Islam. How? One manifestation, for example, is that if you come to a village to call them to Islam, and then after a period of time, the people of the village come out into the street weeping to bid farewell to the da'i (caller to Islam). This happened with two of my colleagues who went to one of the areas, removed the pigs from the mosques, and stayed there for a full month. After that full month, they called the people to prayer and led them in prayer. So, after a month, glory be to Allah, the village came out weeping to bid farewell to these people. One of the colleagues with me took them to an orphanage in Shkodra. This orphanage has one hundred orphans. There was a dispute between us and the Christians over it, as the American organization "Amal" had a facility there. We took the building because we signed an agreement with the Albanian government. Amal had signed with the municipality, which is Christian, but the Minister of Higher Education is Muslim, and we signed with the Minister of Higher Education. They signed for the handover of the building, and a dispute arose. The dispute was resolved in favor of the Relief Commission, and they took the building. I took one of the good young men from Jordan here and brought him with me to the building, and he stayed there for three days. One of the results of the visit was that the orphans attached themselves to him and began to cry.
The Shaykh : What Allah willed.
The student : A Christian woman promised him that she would accept Islam on the condition that he stay in the building. The people's emotions, glory be to Allah, are such that one cannot help but weep when bidding them farewell. More than that... The other thing is that the people there, glory be to Allah, have kindness. I mean, I worked in Afghanistan, and the Afghans are few in number and have cunning in them. But the Albanian people, one does not find cunning in them; they have kindness and simplicity.
The Shaykh : Kindness, I mean, kindness.
The student : Kindness, yes, kindness, simply. That is, you can enter into a relationship with them without any preliminaries. Of course, the other problem is that now Albania is loved by them.
The student : Yes, the efforts of Islamic organizations—praise be to Allah—are clear, evident, and tangible.
The Shaykh : Yes, we want to see the impact of the da'wah on the Muslims. How is that?
The student : Generally, when we speak of the Albanian people, what distinguishes them is that their fitrah (innate natural disposition) is sound. First, they do not have any compounded ignorance. There is no religion there; a person simply says, "There is no god but Allah," or "I am a Muslim," without knowing what "There is no god but Allah" means. That is the first point. The other point is that people's emotions are directed toward Islam. That is, a person may know nothing about Islam, but he loves Islam. How? One manifestation, for example, is that if you come to a village to call them to Islam, and then after a period of time, the people of the village come out into the street weeping to bid farewell to the da'i (caller to Islam). This happened with two of my colleagues who went to one of the areas, removed the pigs from the mosques, and stayed there for a full month. After that full month, they called the people to prayer and led them in prayer. So, after a month, glory be to Allah, the village came out weeping to bid farewell to these people. One of the colleagues with me took them to an orphanage in Shkodra. This orphanage has one hundred orphans. There was a dispute between us and the Christians over it, as the American organization "Amal" had a facility there. We took the building because we signed an agreement with the Albanian government. Amal had signed with the municipality, which is Christian, but the Minister of Higher Education is Muslim, and we signed with the Minister of Higher Education. They signed for the handover of the building, and a dispute arose. The dispute was resolved in favor of the Relief Commission, and they took the building. I took one of the good young men from Jordan here and brought him with me to the building, and he stayed there for three days. One of the results of the visit was that the orphans attached themselves to him and began to cry.
The Shaykh : What Allah willed.
The student : A Christian woman promised him that she would accept Islam on the condition that he stay in the building. The people's emotions, glory be to Allah, are such that one cannot help but weep when bidding them farewell. More than that... The other thing is that the people there, glory be to Allah, have kindness. I mean, I worked in Afghanistan, and the Afghans are few in number and have cunning in them. But the Albanian people, one does not find cunning in them; they have kindness and simplicity.
The Shaykh : Kindness, I mean, kindness.
The student : Kindness, yes, kindness, simply. That is, you can enter into a relationship with them without any preliminaries. Of course, the other problem is that now Albania is loved by them.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.