Questioner: During tawaaf for Umrah [as part of Hajj] someone tried to prevent an incorrect act, which was that someone else was touching and kissing the standing place of Ibraahim [Maqaam]–but the way he stopped this act was with harshness and he raised his voice and also hit [the other person]. Can the Hajj of this person be regarded as a correct and valid one [mabroor]? Bearing in mind that the person asking the question has repented to Allaah, and is ardently waiting for an answer? He hit the other person … it reached such an extent that he hit the other person …
Al-Albaani: Wasthe one who was performing Hajj the one who struck [the other person] or the one who was hit?
Questioner: Both of them … it was during tawaaf.
Al-Albaani: Namely,they were both performing Hajj?
Questioner: Yes. It was during the tawaaf of the Umrah [which is part of Hajj at-Tamattu], one of them disapproved of what the other was doing but he didn’t respond so he hit him.
Al-Albaani: Naturally, this is not compatible whatsoever with the Prophet’s عليه السلام saying … in fact, [it is not compatible whatsoever with] the verse, “So whoever has made Hajj obligatory upon himself therein there is [to be for him] no sexual relations and no disobedience and no disputing during Hajj,”[Baqarah 2:197] since firstly, enjoining the good and preventing the evil shouldn’t be done with cruelty or harshness, especially when most people do not know [the truth].
We should regard the people as being ill and that they are in need of being treated with kindness, sympathy and mercy and not with cruelty or harshness. This is as a general rule. So what is the situation when we are, firstly, talking about [such harshness occurring during] Hajj, and, secondly, [that it occurred] in the Masjid al-Haraam?
There is no doubt that this action of his has nothing at all to do with a correct Hajj [mabroor].
Questioner: Did the Messengers fall into minor sins?
Al-Albaani: Before answering this question right away, [I’d like to say that] I believe it is a non-issue as they say today, because it is not connected to methodology or to the rectification of our aqidah or actions. It is only something connected to those Messengers or Prophets who preceded the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, so I do not hold that questions like this should be given much notice, but [having said that] we have to answer it to disclose the knowledge we have regarding this issue.
We believe that the unequivocal infallibility of the Prophets and Messenger is, firstly, regarding conveying the da’wah, and, secondly, from knowingly falling into major sins.
As for falling into minor sins which do not result in anything except [to show] an absence of absolute perfection then there is no harm in some of that occurring by the Prophets and Messengers–and this is so that it remains established in the hearts of the believers that absolute perfection is for Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds, Alone, Who has no partner.
And there are many parts and proofs in the Quraan establishing this reality concerning more than one Prophet or Messenger. [For example] the story of Aadam عليه السلام when the Lord of the Worlds prohibited him from eating from the tree, and His Saying, “And Adam disobeyed his Lord and erred.”[Taa Haa 20:121], and the Noble Quraan saying concerning our Prophet عليه السلام, “He frowned and turned away,” [Abasa 80:1]“May Allaah pardon you, [O Muhammad]. Why did you give them permission [to remain behind]?”[Tawbah 9:43]. All of this proves that it is possible that a Prophet may be susceptible to minor sins which do not befit the rank of Prophethood–but are they blemished by that? The answer is no, because these are human traits.
[For example]: is a Prophet or Messenger criticised for being susceptible to that which people in general are susceptible to, like making an unintentional mistake or forgetting? We say no, there is nothing preventing the fact that a Messenger or Prophet may be susceptible to such things, because such things do not affect the station of da’wah which the Messengers were sent to all mankind with.
So his saying عليه السلام reported by the two Shaikhs from Abdullaah ibn Mas’ood, may Allaah be pleased with them both, [in which he stated that] the Prophet prayed five rak’ahs for the midday prayer, so when he gave salaam they said, ‘You prayed five,’ so he performed two prostrations of forgetfulness and then said عليه السلام, ‘I am only a man like you, I forget as you do, so when I forget, remind me.’ [Bukhari and Muslim]
So it does not harm the status of Prophethood or that of being a Messenger that something should transpire from them which had it not would have been more perfect–but absolute perfection is for Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic.
It would be more perfect if the Messenger عليه السلام did not forget, but Allaah’s Wisdom necessitated that he did, but this forgetting does not affect the da’wah because he does not forget that which is connected to conveying the message [da’wah], and our Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, points to this reality by His Saying, the Most High, “We will make you recite and you will not forget, except what Allaah should will,”[A’laa 87:6-7] like [for example] an aayah which he had conveyed to the people which he might forget, i.e., he has conveyed the Message and fulfilled the trust [that was upon him] … it is possible that after performing this obligatory conveyance [of the Message] the Messenger عليه السلام may forget something which he had [previously] conveyed to them, as occurs in Sahih Bukhari where he entered the mosque one day and heard a person reciting the Quraan and so said, ‘May Allaah have mercy on so and so, he reminded me of an aayah I had been made to forget.’
So the Prophet’s forgetting عليه السلام an aayah like this does not harm that which is connected to conveying it–because he already has–and that is why that person was able to recite it, and when he did, the Messenger عليه السلام remembered it.
So such forgetfulness does not harm him.
Likewise, some of the Prophets and Messengers falling into some minor sins does not harm them, because it does not turn those who are being called away from their call in opposition to falling into major sins, and for this reason, they are too exalted from falling into major sins to the exclusion of minor sins.
Al-Albaani: In the form Allaah created them in, no. In forms which they may imitate, then of course.
And Ai’ishah, may Allaah be pleased with her, and others saw Jibreel in the form of Dihyah al-Kalbi. As for seeing Jibreel in his original form, then that was not granted to anyone except the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
Questioner: Our Shaikh, are there people from the Companions who will be called to account and then punished and who will then enter Paradise? Are any of them of such levels?
Al-Albaani: Why are you concerned about that? [Lit: what concerns you about that question?]
Questioner: Wallaahi, it’s a question that came to mind.
Al-Albaani: I don’t think it crossed your mind … [starts laughing]
Questioner: [laughs]
Al-Albaani: From some angles these are whisperings [of the Devil, waswasah] … why are you concerned about that … why are you concerned about that … does it have a connection to your aqidah? [Is it] something which you will correct [your aqidah] with?
Ask about what is relevant to you, Yaa akhi, because this is a door Shaitaan enters through.
“There used to be a fig tree in his house in Amman [Jordan], from which he would take figs while seated on his balcony. He would do so by using a long stick that he had devised where he had split and overlapped it so that he controlled how long or short he wanted it. At its end he placed a sharp, pointed cup, so that when he touched them with the tip of the stick, the figs would fall into the cup.”
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 111.
Questioner: If I have turned to [wanting to practise] the religion and have no knowledge and an Islamic group asks me to go out with them for da’wah and some brothers at the mosque warn me stating that this jamaa’ah is called the Tableeghi Jamaa’ah and it is not right for me to go out with them because they have corrupt beliefs, what should I do?
Al-Albaani: Seek knowledge, what’s the problem, seek knowledge.
Questioner: Ya’ni, is it permissible for me to go out with them now?
Al-Albaani: Their going out is not from the Sunnah. Their sitting in the mosques and seeking knowledge and studying the Book of Allaah as occurs in the authentic hadith, that is what is legislated. As for their going out like this in groups, and most of them only know very little about Islaam, this is something which they have opposed the Muslims from the time of the Prophet to this day in.
Before this time, thirty or forty years ago, there was no Jamaa’ah that would go out like this with tens or hundreds of people without even a single scholar found amongst them.
The people of knowledge are widespread in Jordan and Syria and we advise these people to sit in the gatherings of knowledge and to learn, and this is what we advise you with too. We say to you: attend the gatherings of knowledge, the sittings of knowledge and learn.
As for this going out [khuruj]–it has no basis in the Sunnah.
He said, “I bought a bicycle to ride and it was the first time the Damascenes saw such a spectacle: a turbaned Shaikh riding a bicycle!
They were astonished at such a sight.
There used to be a magazine called Al-Mudhik al-Mubki1 which a Christian man would publish, he mentioned this incident among the witty jokes [therein, but] I wouldn’t care about these petty issues–all that concerned me was time.”
1A comedic magazine published in Damascus by a journalist called Habeeb Kahaalah. In each edition he would print a picture which would be the talk of the town for the whole week.
Al-Imaam al-Albaani, Duroos, wa Mawaaqif, wa Ibar, of Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad Abdullaah as-Sadhaan, p. 111.
Questioner: A questioner says, ‘When some scholars give a religious verdict [fatwaa] in a certain issue and another group of scholars give a verdict which is the opposite of the first, which one should the common Muslim follow?’
Al-Albaani: The common Muslims must have a general education … the common masses must have a general, Islamic education; by ‘general education’ I mean the one which it is obligatory on every Muslim to know even if he is from the common masses, that he know the truth is not pluralistic.
So when, as occurs in the question, there are two contradictory statements, this common Muslim must call to mind that one of them is correct and the other is a mistake, due to His Saying, the Mighty and Majestic, “So after the truth, what else can there be, save error?” [Yunus 10:32]
So when he brings this principle to mind it will motivate him to ask the people of knowledge, ‘You say it’s permissible … and you say it’s not … what’s your proof? And what’s your proof?’ This will open up a path to understanding and awareness and then he can choose what he feels at ease with and what his heart opens up to, and he will be rewarded.
As for him going against this legislated principle and saying as many of the people today do that, ‘Whoever blindly follows a scholar will meet Allaah safe and sound,’ [then] where has this sentence come from? It is not in the Book of Allaah and nor in a hadith from Allaah’s Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم, it’s only a sentence [prevalent] on the tongues of the common folk, ‘Whoever blindly follows a scholar will meet Allaah safe and sound …’ no.
Rather whoever follows Allaah’s Guidance is the one who is rightly guided, and whoever goes astray then it goes against himself, I just said to you now that Allaah said, “So ask the people of the message if you do not know,” [Nahl 16:43] He said, “… the people of the message [dhikr] …” hereby the word ‘message’ [dhikr] what is not intended is the dhikr which some of the ignorant Sufis are familiar with, dancing while doing dhikr and going crazy in it, and they call it, as he عليه السلام said regarding something else [but which still applies here], “… they will name it with other than its [real] name …” they call dancing and ecstasy [tawaajud] the remembrance of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic, but on the contrary it is play and amusement, in addition to another sin, which is to call things by names other than their legislated ones.
So the dhikr mentioned in the verse is the Quraan, as He the Mighty and Majestic said, “And We revealed to you the message [i.e., the Quraan] that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them …” [Nahl 16:44] so the dhikr here is the Quraan, “So ask the people of the message if you do not know.”
And there is another caveat for this questioner [to bear in mind] here: this person says [the thing being discussed is] permissible and that one says it’s not permissible, Yaa akhi, are these people really scholars? Are they scholars of the Book of Allaah and the hadith of His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم? Or do they differ most greatly? This one giving a fatwa according to the Book of Allaah and the hadith of His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم and that [other] one maybe walking on all fours, i.e., not walking according to the Book or the Sunnah but only according to the four madhhabs, taking whatever he fancies from them.
What a difference there is between these two.
For this reason, it is fitting that the common Muslim–and [when] I say, ‘The common Muslim,’ [it] doesn’t mean that he doesn’t understand … no, if he couldn’t understand it would mean he is mad, and if he was mad then he would not be accountable–but [on the contrary] he can understand, it’s only that he is not a scholar–thus, he must use his intellect, so when two statements come to him, one of them will have come from someone who is not a scholar, and so such a statement has no weight, and thus the first opinion stands.
And it may happen and we do not deny it: that both of them may be scholars of the Book and the Sunnah but the issue may be a disputed or controversial one, and this happens as it did in the past, and it can happen today, here the common Muslim must use his brain and strip away his desires and not follow them which would be something that would lead him away from Allaah’s Path, and he عليه السلام, “The mujaahid is the one who strives against his desires for the Sake of Allaah.”
But most regretfully, when the elite, the elite of the people today seek out the fatwa which suits them … he will say to you–Yaa akhi, and all of them say that they go back to the sayings of Allaah’s Messenger–[but then] he takes whatever suits him from these madhhabs, [if this is the case with the elite] what are we to say about the common folk then? And as was said:
If the man of the house is beating the daff, those living in it will dance along.
So if this is the case with the elite, except for those whom Allaah has had mercy on, and how few they are, then what will the state of the general folk be?
I remind the elite and the general masses that the religion is not desires but rather knowledge, and it is upon the general folk to learn how to ask questions.
And maybe in some of these blessed, inshaa Allaah, gatherings I have on more than one occasion mentioned that hadith narrated by Abu Dawud in his Sunan that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم sent a detachment to fight in the Way of Allaah, whereupon one of them received wounds to his body, when he awoke in the morning, he found that he needed to take a ghusl, and so he asked those around him whether they knew of an excuse for him not to have to bathe, they said no, that he must take a ghusl, so he did and died because when the water got on his wounds they festered … and so on and his temperature rose and he died.
When news about what happened to him reached the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم he became extremely angry عليه الصلاة والسلام and said, “They killed him, may Allaah kill them,” i.e., the ones who gave the fatwa that he had to take a ghusl were the reason for his death, “They killed him, may Allaah kill them,should they not have asked if they didn’t know?! Verily the cure for ignorance is to question! It would have been enough for him had he performed tayammum.”
So, those [Companions] gave him a fatwa without knowledge, so we take a lesson from this hadith, that it is not fitting for the common folk to ask [just] anyone who claims knowledge, or who it is claimed has knowledge, but rather, O Muslim, the person who you know does not give fatwas except based upon, ‘Allaah said … Allaah’s Messenger said,’ such a person is the one you should direct your question to, as for those people who say what they do not do, and who give fatwas that aren’t based upon the Book and the Sunnah, then such people are not scholars.
And these are the people the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم foretold [us] about when he said, as occurs in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim from the hadith of Abdullaah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas, may Allaah the Most High be pleased with them both, that, ‘Allaah’s Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “Verily, Allaah does not take away knowledge by snatching it from the breasts of the scholars, but He takes it away by taking away the scholars such that when no scholar remains the people take the ignorant ones as leaders and so they are asked and give religious verdicts without knowledge and [thus] are misguided and lead others astray [too].”
This is the state of affairs of many of those in places of responsibility today who it is thought are from the people of knowledge [but who really aren’t], and so the commoner who asks [them] a question becomes confused: ‘This one says haraam and that one says halaal, or this one says obligatory and that one says sunnah,’ or other such things from the issues which are disputed.
A process of purification must be carried out in the minds of all the common folk: the scholar of the Book and the Sunnah must be filtered from the one who, as some of the witty people in our country Syria say, ‘The scholars are of two types. One is a scholar-doer, the other is the doer-scholar!’ The ‘scholar-doer’ i.e., is a scholar who acts upon his knowledge, and the ‘doer-scholar’ is the one who does things and whose status is that of a scholar but who has nothing whatsoever to do with knowledge.
And unfortunately this is present, and whoever doesn’t know, let him go and try [and he’ll see how true what I am saying is].
Ask whoever you want from those who you think are from the people of knowledge well-known amongst the people, and I will not name them even if only by title, ask whoever you want, even though it [i.e., a certain situation] may be a fiqh issue in which there is difference of opinion, he will answer you according to the madhhab he grew up on, was nurtured on, and became old on, he will give you a fatwa according to it, and then you will say, ‘What’s the proof?’ And he will say [rhetorically], ‘We are people of proof? How can we understand the proof?’ This is if he is forthright [admitting that he doesn’t know the proof], but if he is someone who hides things, he will say, ‘How are you going to perceive the proof?’ So he covers his own ignorance by declaring others to be ignorant.
This, unfortunately, is the reality of many people today, and the One whose Aid is sought is Allaah.
Questioner: What is the correct view regarding al-Hajjaaj ibn Yusuf ath-Thaqafi? Was he a kaafir?
Al-Albaani: Even though we attest to the fact that al-Hajjaaj was a profligate oppressor, we do not know that he denied anything known to necessarily be from the religion. So it is not allowed to declare him to be a disbeliever based only on the fact that he was wicked, oppressed and killed innocent Muslims.
Questioner: A man that Allaah has put to trial through his aged father who does not abstain from sinning, like listening to singing, looking at women dancers and disparaging some of the Companions, and when he advises him he doesn’t listen, so is he sinful if he angers him when he does that which contradicts the legislation?
Al-Albaani: It is not allowed for the son to anger his parents. Rather it is only for him to advise them both, acting in accordance with the obligation of advising from one angle and due to His Saying, “And your Lord has decreed that you not worship except Him, and to parents, good treatment,” [Israa 17:23] from another.
