Cheikh Albani

[Rebecca Donnelly]

Iwant to know more about Shaykh Nasiruddeen al-Albani(r.t.). Some scholars are saying that Al-albani has some weakness in hadeeth verification. Is it true? I want to know the books he authored/checked. The books (English) are not availble here nor on darussalam.net/ islamicbookstore.com. So please give me some addresses from where I can get the books authored/checked by al-Albani.

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

Sheikh al-Albani is an eminent scholar of Hadith who devoted his life to serve and revive Sunnah of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam). He was among the known and exemplar scholars of Hadith who were masters in all kinds of the sciences of Hadith such as studying, examining and evaluating the chains, narrators, and then grading the Hadith as sound, weak, etc. In fact, this is an exceedingly honorable profession which one can devote his life.

However, he is like other human beings who in their best efforts still make mistakes. So, we should highly regard his efforts and dedication to this noble purpose.

Therefore, one should not blame him for his some mistakes as ignorant people do. Know that everyone's saying may be accepted or rejected except the sayings of the Prophet Muhammed (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam). In Sharia if an Alim (scholar) makes Ijitihad and is correct in his Ijtihad his reward is double and if he mistakes in his Ijitihad he gets a single reward as reported in a sound Hadith.

Sheikh al-Albani wrote and reviewed many books such as Sifat al-Sala al-Nabi (Description of the Prayer of the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam).

Sifat Hajj al-Nabi (a discription of how the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) performed Hajj) is another of his works.

Some of his other books include al-Silsila al-Sahihah and al-Silsila al-Zaeefah, Irwa al-Ghaleel, and many other works.

Among the books he revived are the four known books of Sunan, Mishkat al-Masabeeh, Sahih al-Jamia al-sagheer, and al-Sunnah for Amar bin Abi Asim al-Shaibani.

All the Arabic version of the books of Sheikh al-Albani are available in markets.

Some of his books are even translated in English.

Allah knows best.

Nasir al-Albani is the arch-innovator of the Wahhabis and "Salafis" in our time. A watch repairman by trade, al-Albani is a self-taught claimant to hadith scholarship who has no known teacher in any of the Islamic sciences and has admitted not to have memorized the Book of Allah nor any book of hadith, fiqh, `aqda, usl, or grammar. He achieved fame by attacking the great scholars of Ahl al-Sunna and reviling the science of fiqh with especial malice towards the school of his father who was a Hanafi jurist. A rabid reviler of the Friends of Allah and the Sufis, he was expelled from Syria then Saudi Arabia and lived in Amman, Jordan under house arrest until his death in 1999. He remains the qibla of the people of Innovation, self-styled re-formers of Islam, and other "Salafi" and Wahhabi sympathizers, and the preferred author of book merchants and many uneducated Muslims.Most of the contemporary Sunni scholars warned of his heresy and many of them wrote articles or full-length works against him such as:

- The Syrian scholar Muhammad Sa`id Ramadan al-Buti who wrote the two classics al-Lamadhhabiyya Akhtaru Bid`atin Tuhaddidu al-Shari`a al-Islamiyya ("Not Following A School of Jurisprudence is the Most Dangerous Innovation Threatening Islamic Sacred Law") and al-Salafiyya Marhalatun Zamaniyyatun Mubaraka La Madhhabun Islami ("The `Way of the Early Muslims' Was A Blessed Historical Epoch, Not An Islamic School of Thought")

- The Syrian hadith scholar `Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda who wrote Radd `ala Abatil wa Iftira'at Nasir al-Albani wa Sahibihi Sabiqan Zuhayr al-Shawish wa Mu'azirihima ("Refutation of the Falsehoods and Fabrications of Nasir al-Albani and his Former Friend Zuhayr al-Shawish and their Supporters").

- The Minister of Islamic Affairs and Religious Endowments in the United Arab Emirates Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khazraji who wrote the article al-Albani: Tatarrufatuh ("Al-Albani's Extremist Positions").

18- He suggests that al-Bukhari is a disbeliever for interpreting the Divine Face as dominion or sovereignty (mulk) in the verse (Everything will perish save His countenance( (28:88) in the book of Tafsir in his Sahih: "Except His wajh means except His mulk, and it is also said: Except whatever was for the sake of His countenance." Albani blurts out: "No true believer would say such a thing" and "We should consider al-Bukhari innocent of that statement."3

19- In imitation of the Mu`tazila, tawassul (seeking means), istightha (asking for help), and tashaffu` (seeking intercession) through the Prophet or one of the Awliy' he declared prohibited acts in Islam (harm) tantamount to idolatry (shirk) in his booklet al-Tawassul as did his friends Bin Baz and those who obey them such as al-Qahtani in al-Wala' wa al-Bara' and others, in flat rejection of the numerous sound and explicit narrations to that effect, such as al-Bukhari's narration of the Prophet from Ibn `Umar - Allah be well-pleased with him -: "Truly the sun shall draw so near on the Day of Resurrection that sweat shall reach to the mid-ear, whereupon they shall ask (istaghth) help from Adam - upon him peace -, then from Musa - upon him peace - , then from Muhammad who will intercede (fa yashfa`u)... and that day Allah shall raise him to an Exalted Station, so that all those who are standing [including the unbelievers] shall glorify him (yahmaduhu ahlu al-jam`i kulluhum)."

21- Like the rest of Wahhabi and "Salafi" innovators he declares Ash`aris, Maturidis, and Sufis to be outside the fold of Ahl al-Sunna and even outside the fold of Islam, although Allah Most High and His Prophet praised them! Upon revelation of the verse (Allah shall bring a people whom He loves and who love Him( (5:54), the Prophet pointed to Abu Musa al-Ash`ari - Allah be well-pleased with him - and said: "They are that man's People."4 Al-Qushayri, Ibn `Asakir, al-Bayhaqi, Ibn al-Subki, and others said that the followers of Abu al-Hasan al-Ash`ari - i.e. Ash`aris who were mostly Sufis - are included among Abu Musa's People for in every place that a people are affiliated to a Prophet, what is meant is the followers of that Prophet. As for Maturidis, they are referred to in the narration of the Prophet from Bishr al-Khath`ami or al-Ghanawi with a sound (sahh) chain according to al-Hakim, al-Dhahabi, al-Suyuti, and al-Haythami: "Truly you shall conquer Constantinople and truly what a wonderful leader will her leader be [Mehmet Fatih Sultan - Allah be well-pleased with him -], and truly what a wonderful army will that army be!" Both the leader and his army were classic Hanafi Maturidis and it is known that Mehmet Fatih loved and respected Sufis, practiced tawassul, and followed a Shaykh. Moreover, enmity against Ash`aris, Maturidis, and Sufis, is nifq and enmity against the Umma of Islam as most of the Ulema of Islam are thus described.

23- He states: "I have found no evidence for the Prophet's hearing of the salaam of those who greet him at his grave" and "I do not know from where Ibn Taymiyya took his claim6 that he hears the salaam from someone near." This and the previous item are among his greater enormities and bear the unmistakable signature of innovation and deviation.7

26- He advocates in his Salat al-Nabi , the formula "Peace and blessings upon the Prophet" instead of "upon you, O Prophet" in the tashahhud in contradiction of the Four Sunni Schools, on the basis of a hadith of Ibn Mas`ud whereby the Companions used the indirect-speech formula after the passing of the Prophet . But the Prophet himself instructed them to pray exactly as he prayed saying: "Peace and blessings upon you, O Prophet" without telling them to change it after his death, nor did the major Companions (whose Sunna we were ordered to imitate together with that of the Prophet ), such as Abu Bakr and `Umar, teach the Companions and Successors otherwise!

27- He prohibits praying more than 11 rak`as in Tarawih prayers on the grounds that the Prophet never did and in blatant rejection of his explicit command to follow the Sunna of the well-guided Caliphs after him.

28- He declares that adding more to 11 supererogatory rak`as in the late night prayer (tahajjud) is an innovation rather than an act of obedience on the grounds that the Prophet "never ever prayed one hundred rak`as in his whole lifetime"10 although the Ulema agree that there is no prescribed limit to something which the Prophet commanded without specifically quantifying it, and he said in three authentic narrations: "Know that the best of your good deeds is prayer,"11 "Prayer is a light,"12 and "The night prayer is in cycles of two [rak`as] and when one of you fears the rising of the dawn, let him pray a single one."13 It is also established in many authentic narrations collected by Imam `Abd al-Hayy al-Lacknawi in the second part of his Iqamat al-Hujja `ala anna al-Ikthar min al-Ta`abbudi Laysa bi Bid`a that the Companions and Salaf prayed hundreds if not thousands of rak`as in every twenty-four hours!

30- He declares it prohibited (harm) and an innovation to lengthen the beard over a fistful's length although there is no proof for such a claim in the whole Law and none of the Ulema ever said it before him.15

31- He gives free rein to his propensity to insult and vilify the Ulema of the past as well as his contemporaries. As a result it is difficult to wade through his writings without being affected by the nefarious spirit that permeates them. For example, he considers previous editors and commentators of al-Bukhari's al-Adab al-Mufrad ("Book of Manners"!) "sinful," "unbearably ignorant," and even "liars" and "thieves." Of one he says: "There are so many weak hadiths [in his choice]... that it is an unislamic practice"; of another: "It is ignorance which must not be tolerated"; of another: "Forgery and open lie... His edition is stolen [from a previous one]."16 Such examples actually fill a book compiled by Shaykh Hasan `Ali al-Saqqaf and titled Qamus Shata'im al-Albani wa Alfazihi al-Munkara al-Lati Yatluquha `ala `Ulama' al-Umma ("Dictionary of al-Albani's Insults and the Heinous Words He Uses Against the Scholars of the Muslim Community").

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