Sheikh Muhammad Nasir al-Din Al-Albani was a respected muslim Scholar from Albania who is regardest as one of the highest authority within the Salafi Najdi Da’wa movement and is often quoted (by them) in matters of Hadith.
Unlike Sheikh Bin Baz or Sheikh Uthaymeen, Sheikh Albani was not an officially appointed Mufti thus there is no official Fatwa of him with regards to Tablighi Jamaat. He has however given his stance in some of his talks.
Where did Sheikh Albani live?
Unlike popular belief, Sheikh Albani did not spent his life in Saudi Arabia. He lived most of his adult life in Syria and retired in Jordan.
- 1914: Born in Shkodër, Albania.
- 1923: Moved to Damascus, Syria with his family (Age 9)
- 1950s-1960s: Lived primarily in Damascus, Syria (Ages ~36-46) – He began studying Hadith here spending hours daily at the Zahiriyya Library in Syria.
- 1961: Began teaching at Islamic University of Medina (Age 47)
- 1963: Returned to Syria (Age 49)
- 1980: Moved to Amman, Jordan (Age 66)
- 1999: Passed away in Amman, Jordan (Age 85)
Sheikh Albani Audio Discussion with a Tablighi Brother
As Sheikh Albani did not issue official Fatawas, the following Audio was a discussion he had with regards to Tablighi Jamaat demonstrating his stance with regards to Tablighi Jamaat. We do not know when this discussion occurred but we believe it may have happened when he was in living the last of his life in Jordan.
Arabic Audio here:
Translation
[Tablighi Brother] OK Sheikh, I mean the question is directed to you, I just want to add partially to the answer. First, regarding going out in the Path of Allah (Jamaat) from my experience – going out in the Path of Allah depends on the person’s situation. If this person is a scholar, they go out to teach, and if they’re not a scholar, they go out to learn. And learning while going out in the Path of Allah is not about learning issues, hadith and fiqh, but rather learning virtues until the heart and chest are opened, so that the person develops the desire and inclination towards obeying Allah Almighty and preserving Allah’s commands and preserving the Sunnah of the Prophet peace be upon him, and going out in the cause of Allah is done until these qualities come.
[Sheikh Albani] Yes
[Tablighi Brother] Going out in the Path of Allah – both the scholar and the ignorant go out. The scholar teaches, and the ignorant and illiterate and student of knowledge learn. And the knowledge is knowledge of Fadhail until it opens the heart and chest to implement what one hears, because what’s important is not just collecting information without implementing it as that will be evidence against you on the Day of Judgment. And until the greatness of the Sunnah comes and its appreciation and veneration. For example, I saw someone in Pakistan who had performed ablution, he was a man around seventy or eighty years old and they said he was one of the shepherds, but when he had performed ablution he started searching in his pockets with a confused look as prayer time was approaching. He was searching as if he had lost something. They said “No, what are you looking for, did you lose money or papers?” He said “No, the miswak (tooth stick), where is the miswak?” He was searching for the miswak. They said these are simple things, the miswak – prayer is accepted without the miswak. He said “True, but the virtue of the miswak – how can I pray without the miswak?” He was very concerned about implementing the Sunnah and mentioned some hadiths about the virtue of the miswak especially with ablution and prayer. This is what we don’t find with many scholars who memorize books and have certificates and doctorates – you find one who goes weeks and months without carrying a miswak. Similarly with caring about praying in congregation, caring about enjoining good and forbidding evil – you find many scholars sitting in gatherings full of evil without moving a finger, neither in a good way nor otherwise. The greatness of religion and importance of religion comes into the heart through going out for ten days implementing the Sunnah at home with family.
[Sheikh Albani] Do you think these Sunnahs you mentioned are only found among the group who go out?
[Tablighi Brother] They are found among many people.
[Sheikh Albani] If this thing exists outside of Tabligh Jamaat for example, how did they achieve it without going out (in Jamaat)?
[Tablighi Brother] Yes, through going out they achieved this – what do you mean?
[Speaker 1] My question, may Allah bless you, was: Aren’t there other groups who have the characteristics you mentioned and perhaps others and better ones, and they’re not from Tabligh Jamaat? Are good characteristics limited to Tabligh Jamaat? This was my first question. The second question: Did those who are not from Tabligh Jamaat achieve these good characteristics through the same method as Tabligh Jamaat or through another method? If you say through Tabligh Jamaat’s method, I don’t think you’d say this because you know they’re not from Tabligh Jamaat nor are they on Tabligh Jamaat’s methodology. I think you’d say this, or do you have another opinion? I’ll say they achieved what they achieved through another method besides going out (in Jamaat).
[Tablighi Brother] I want to say, with respect, that the actions that a person practices while going out in da’wah can be practiced while not going out in da’wah.
[Sheikh Albani] Good
[Tablighi Brother] What are the movements of knowledge?
[Sheikh Albani] This is what we want. It doesn’t need explanation because I laid out two methods – the method of going out as you say to achieve these good traits, and the method without going out. Both methods achieve the characteristics as evidenced by their existence. Therefore, we must not delude people, even unintentionally, that the path to completing these faithful characteristics is what’s called going out in the Path of Allah, because then how would people understand as Allah said “And this is My straight path, so follow it and do not follow other paths.”
[Tablighi Brother] God forbid!
[Sheikh Albani] We’re not saying this. Let’s answer what you agree with, what you want to answer.
[Speaker 2] No no.
[Sheikh Albani] No, but why did you now, after an hour of discussion, understand yourself so you wouldn’t say this kind of going out didn’t exist? Why when I was talking to you, didn’t you say “No by Allah, it didn’t exist with Ibn Abbas”? Why do you still try to bring one hadith, two, three and more just like they say in Syria – excuse me – two, three and more? Consider how, due to its precision, the majority scholars of Sunnah made qiyas (analogical reasoning) in the fourth rank. Ibn Hazm rejected it completely, but I like his expression when he discusses those who make qiyas. In truth, he discusses qiyas that, in Syrian terms again, neither fits the scale nor shows direction – qiyas far from correctness. For example, now I lived with the Hanafi school. The Hanafi school, with your permission, if the worshipper completes his prayer forgetfully, his prayer is invalidated. What’s the evidence? They say by analogy with the one who does it intentionally.
[Tablighi Brother] Allahu Akbar!
[Sheikh Albani] This is comparing the opposite to its opposite – comparing the forgetful to the intentional. When Ibn Hazm examines these sayings, these analogies, what does he say? I mean, he always repeats saying “First, all qiyas is invalid” but the point is – brother, qiyas is not at all easy. Now one thing leads to another. The scholars of Najd, respected scholars, they are the best existing today on the face of the Islamic earth of course because there are no others, but despite that they have things we don’t agree with. The reason is lack of precision in consideration. For example, you know they place their hands after rising from bowing – what’s their evidence? Of course they have evidence they never speak without, but we want to study this evidence, contemplate whether it’s right or wrong. They say the Prophet peace be upon him when he stood in prayer placed his right hand on his left. He stood in prayer – this standing, correct words. What do I say then? I say this is evidence that doesn’t work, even though I say with them this is an authentic hadith – when he stood in prayer he placed his right on his left. Correct, authentic hadith, but this second standing – what’s the evidence it’s included in this text which primarily refers to the first standing? Is my speech clear here?
[Tablighi Brother] This is general speech, this is general speech.
[Sheikh Albani] Good, it’s not enough for one of them to say “Brother, these are general texts that include both the first standing and second standing.” Because we say many texts came about the Prophet placing his right on his left in the first standing, but do you have a single text showing the Prophet did so in the second standing? No such text exists. Therefore, using this general evidence for this specific act is not valid.
Let me give you a closer example of something that hasn’t happened yet but I fear it might: If a group enters at the time of Dhuhr prayer for example, and one wants to pray the Sunnah prayer east of the mosque, another west, etc., and someone calls “Let’s pray in congregation,” saying the Prophet said “Allah’s hand is with the congregation.” This is a hadith. “Let’s pray the pre-prayer Sunnah in congregation.” And perhaps they’ll support this with another hadith: “Prayer in congregation is twenty-five or twenty-seven times better than praying alone.” And maybe they’ll add a third hadith: “A man’s prayer with another man is more beloved than his prayer alone, and prayer of three is more beloved than prayer of two” and so on – authentic hadith, but invalid inference. Do you know how we would respond, professor, to those who use these apparently supporting evidences for praying Sunnah prayers in congregation? We don’t have a hadith saying the Prophet said “Don’t pray the pre-prayer Sunnah in congregation” – we don’t have this hadith. But what do we have? Did the Companions do this? The answer is no. Did they understand these hadiths as you understand them? The answer is no. Because if the answer was yes, also – did they leave implementing what they understood and you came to rectify where they shared your understanding but differed in implementation because they didn’t apply it? The answer is no.
This example, may Allah bless you, clarifies that any gathering or group that has no precedent in the pure early periods – we will find support for it like this man who cited three supports, three hadiths, but using these hadiths as evidence is wrong because the predecessors didn’t do this. Comparing situation to situation is very difficult, firstly, especially when it conflicts here with the cornerstone of Islamic societies, let alone worldly societies. Because some things changed and transformed after the first three generations, but there are things that, praise Allah, we still maintain with no difference between predecessors and successors. For example, maintaining prayers in mosques – this Muslims inherited successor from predecessor. But there are things successors do that predecessors didn’t do. Therefore I want you to pay attention to this observation – using texts as evidence – I say texts that the predecessors didn’t act upon – this error opens many innovations that we agree should be rejected. Then their proponents argue against us using the same evidences we want to use to justify our current situation.
This regarding going out in the Path of Allah – this going out known today. But professor, don’t you agree we should return to the agreed matter – that you mentioned and we don’t deny this – that many people’s conditions improved through this going out? I drew your attention that there are people from the scholars and others whose conditions also improved without this going out (in Jamaat). So don’t you agree with me that instead of individuals from these common people going out, and in Syrian terms instead of them wandering far from their land and family etc., isn’t it better for them to stay in their land as a group gathering in circles in the mosques studying Quran, studying Sunnah, studying trust? Isn’t this better than this going out (in Jamaat)?
May Allah bless you. Therefore we advise these people, and I know well that many who go out do so for sake of Allah not wanting reward or thanks, but “Sa’d brought them and Sa’d is confused” – this is not how, O Sa’d, you should bring the camels to water. This is not how you bring camels to water. (*This is a Arab proverb about a person who wants to do an important thing is unfortately distracted with other things)
Our Analysis – Sheikh Albani was very respectful and praises Tabligh for having Ikhlas
From this discussion, we can see that Sheikh Albani’s opinion is that there is no basis in Sunnah for the method of going out in Jamaat. However, he does praise the Jamaat saying that they are doing it with for the sake of Allah (with Ikhlas).
The Tablighi brother was very respectful and demonstrated a lot of patience in the duscession. However, he is not an A’lim, thus the argument he presented (i.e. Tabligh has changed so many people’s lives) is not a good argument from a scholarly sense. A muslim scholar would’ve given a stronger argument Tabligh.
The language that Sheikh Albani used was also very polite and respectful, demonstrating him to be a praiseworthy person.
We hope that those who claim to follow Sheikh Albani should also do the same.
