Al-Albaani on Vain, Conceited, Proud and Arrogant ‘Callers.’ Self-Appointed Grand-Muftis. Fatwā Issuers Based Upon Hollow Understanding they Conjure up Themselves. Harsh and Cruel in Their Methods, Driving People Away from Allaah’s Dīn, Misguided and Misguiding—and How a Caller is Supposed to Be

Questioner: We want the Shaikh, may Allaah reward him with good and bless his life, to advise us maybe Allaah ﷻ will …

Al-Albaani: Wallāhī, I don’t know what to advise you with, I need someone to advise me. But if I have no choice but to give you some advice then I advise [both] you and myself to fear Allaah, and then also to bear in mind things that branch off from the fear of Allaah ﷻ.

Like, firstly, that you seek knowledge sincerely for Allaah Alone, not wanting any reward or thanks or any job or position because of it, nor so that you can take the lead in gatherings [with people]—but only so that one can reach the rank that Allaah ﷻ singled out the scholars with when He said, ‘Allaah will elevate those of you who are faithful, and ˹raise˺ those gifted with knowledge in rank.’ [58:11]

And secondly that you avoid the pitfalls that some students of knowledge fall into, like how fast vanity and conceit/pride overpowers them such that they will go ahead and put themselves forward to give fatwās for themselves, nay, indeed to give fatwās for other people based upon what they think and without seeking the help of the people of knowledge, especially the Salaf aṣ-Ṣāliḥ who have passed on and who left this luminous inheritance for us to use to put an end to the darkness that has piled up throughout the ages, a pitch-black darkness I lived through.

So getting help from the statements and opinions of the Salaf helps us remove this darkness by going back to the understanding of the Book and the Sunnah, and the authentic Sunnah [at that].

I have lived during a time where I saw two contradictory things.

The first was where all the Muslims, the Shaikhs and the students, the layman and the elite were living in the cesspool of blind-following and not just blind-following their madhhabs but their fathers and forefathers. I lived through that time while calling [on people] to go back to the Book of Allaah and the ḥadīths of the Prophet ﷺ.

Here and there [scattered] in different Muslims countries, you will always find individuals who are the Strangers that the Prophet ﷺ described in some well-known ḥadīths, like, ‘Islaam started as something strange and will go back to being strange—so glad-tidings for the Strangers.’ In some narrations it is reported that he ﷺ was asked, ‘Who are the Strangers?’ He ﷺ said, ‘A few righteous people living among a people where the ones who disobey them outnumber those who listen to them.’ And in another narration, ‘They are the ones who fix what the people corrupted in my Sunnah after me.’

I lived during this time and then started to see the good effect of the daʿwah of these Strangers on the rank and file of the believing youth, such that we saw them take to the straight path in earnestness in many Muslim countries and [we saw them] eager to cling to the Book and the Sunnah whenever they did come across authentic ḥadīths.

But our happiness at this revival that we saw during these past years never lasted because we were suddenly confronted with an about-turn that happened to some of these young men in some countries which almost wiped out the effects of this good revival, and what was the reason for that?—And herein lies the lesson and the advice [I am giving you]—the reason for that was nothing but the fact that they were struck with vanity and arrogance because of the fact that they saw that they had gained some correct knowledge not only among the crowd of lost, Muslim youth but even among many of the Shaikhs of knowledge such that they felt as though through this revival they had outdone people of the ranks of Shaikhs and the people of knowledge spread out in the Islamic world.

So they never thanked Allaah ﷻ for granting them guidance to this authentic knowledge, nay, they were misled and became harsh and thought that they had knowledge to stand on so they started issuing immature fatwās that weren’t based on understanding the Book and the Sunnah. In fact, they were just unripe opinions which appeared to them to be knowledge that was taken from the Book and the Sunnah [but it wasn’t]—so they went astray and led many others astray.

And you won’t be unaware of the result that had in bringing about groups in some Islamic countries where they started philosophising and making takfīr of all other Muslim groups, now is not the time to delve into that [in detail], I’m just making a statement here to give advice and a reminder.

That is why I advise my brothers from Ahlus-Sunah and the Ahlul-Ḥadīth in all Muslim lands to have patience in seeking knowledge and not to be fooled by knowledge they might have picked up, rather they should follow the path and not rely just on their understanding or what they call their ‘ijtihād.’

I have heard from a lot of our brothers—brother what is this—one of them will have no qualms or concern in saying to you, ‘Brother, I did ijtihād [strove to come to an Islamic ruling/fatwā]!’ Okay! When you did this ‘ijtihād’ [of yours], what were the ḥadīths that you referred back to? What is the understanding that you came to? Who are the scholars that you relied on to come to this understanding that you’re [now] openly proclaiming?

[It’s all based on] nothing except that he [happened] to understand it in this [particular] way and thus became the Grand Muftī [al-Muftī al-Aʿdham].

And in my opinion the reason for all this is conceit and pride.

This is why in some books in the Islamic world today I find a very strange phenomenon—whereby you will see someone who used to be an enemy of ḥadīth now write a book on the science of ḥadīth, why? So that it will be said that he has written works on the science of ḥadīth. But if you were to [actually] go to this book which he wrote about the science of ḥadīth you will find that it is merely a collection of statements which he has gathered and collected from here and there and then made a book out of them.

What leads them to do this? It is the love of fame, and how true is that saying, ‘The love of fame will break ones back.’

For these reasons I advise my brothers to firstly, as I said, fear Allaah ﷻ and secondly to seek knowledge gradually. And thirdly to keep away from all moral values that are not Islamic, like not becoming fooled by the knowledge that they have been granted and not becoming vain. And that lastly they advise people with [and in a manner] that is best and that they distance themselves from cold/harsh and severe methods.

Because we all believe that when Allaah said, ‘Invite ˹all˺ to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and kind advice, and only debate with them in the best manner.’ [Naḥl:125], it is because the truth in and of itself is heavy on the people, heavy on mankind, that is why they become too haughty to accept it, except those whom Allaah wills.

So when you add another element or another load to the [already present] weightiness of the truth on the human soul, and [by that I mean] harshness in giving daʿwah, then that will repel people from the daʿwah instead of calling them to it.

And you all know the Prophet’s ﷺ statement [where he said], ‘Verily some of you drive others away [from Allaah’s Dīn]. Verily some of you drive others away [from Allaah’s Dīn]. Verily some of you drive others away [from Allaah’s Dīn],’ [see here for narrations mentioning this phrase].

In conclusion, I ask Allaah ﷻ not to make us people who drive others away [from His Dīn] but that He instead make us wise [callers] who act upon the Book and the Sunnah.

And we all ask for Allaah’s Forgiveness.

Was-Salāmu ʿalaikum wa raḥmatullāhi wa barakātuh.
Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, 100.

The Shaikh’s Modesty

Questioner: We want the Shaikh, may Allaah reward him with good and bless his life, to advise us maybe Allaah ﷻ will …

Al-Albaani: Wallāhī, I don’t know what to advise you with, I need someone to advise me …
Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, 100.

The Ruling on Cursing Women who Display Themselves and Don’t Cover Properly [Mutabarrijāt]

Questioner: Shaikh, a brother is asking about the ḥadīth about cursing … is it referring to specific people or is it general, yaʿnī, ‘… curse them …’, does it mean a specific woman or is it general, directly [to their face] or indirectly?

Al-Albaani: Firstly, the prohibition of cursing is not general, it is allowed to curse specific individuals, whether they be women or men.

So when answering questions like this I always mention [the ḥadīth] where the Prophet ﷺ cursed the tribes of Riʿl and Dhakwān who had killed seventy of the Companions wrongfully, unjustly and sinfully. The Prophet ﷺ was extremely sad over it and he performed the duʿā al-Qunūt against them in the five prayers, supplicating and cursing them until Allaah ﷻ sent down the verse that said:

‘You ˹O Prophet˺ have no say in the matter. It is up to Allaah to turn to them in mercy or punish them, for indeed they are wrongdoers.’ [3:128]

When this āyah came down he ﷺ stopped supplicating against them.

Later what Allaah already knew became clear [to everyone else]: that these murderers who the Prophet ﷺ had cursed in the prayer would turn back and repent to Allaah and enter Islaam, that is why the āyah mentions, ‘… it is up to Allah to turn to them in mercy or punish them,’ and they did indeed repent so Allaah turned in mercy to them.

Thus the Prophet ﷺ supplicated against them by cursing them and in that is a proof for the permissibility of cursing people by name and this does not contradict the fact that in the end the Prophet ﷺ stopped cursing them, because the reason for stopping was that Allaah sent that āyah down and they turned back to Allaah ﷻ, repentant.

This has been reported in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and other texts confirm it, one of the clearest [narrations] apart from this ḥadīth, ‘Curse them for they are cursed,’—the answer to which is coming—[but] one of the [other] clearest proofs showing the permissibility of cursing a specific person, with the condition that said person is deserving of being cursed, is what has been reported in Al-Adab al-Mufrad of Imām al-Bukhārī and other books of the Sunnah from Abū Hurairah ﵁: that one of the Companions came to the Prophet ﷺ complaining about a neighbour who had oppressed him, so he ﷺ said, ‘Put your belongings in the middle of the street,’ and so he did. So then people would pass by and ask, ‘What happened, O so and so?’ He would reply, ‘My neighbour, so and so, has oppressed me.’ So they would walk by saying, ‘May Allaah kill him! May Allaah curse him!’ So the oppressor’s ˹guilt distressed him˺ until the earth, despite its vastness, seemed to close in on him and so he went to the Prophet ﷺ to say to him, ‘O Messenger of Allaah! Tell my neighbour to take his belongings back inside because the people are cursing me.’ So he ﷺ said, ‘The ones in the Heavens have cursed you before those on earth …’

The point taken from this ḥadīth is that these people who were passing by the house were Companions. And in today’s terminology they learnt and graduated from Muḥammad’s school ﷺ, and they would not send forth their curses on this man who oppressed his neighbour if they hadn’t learnt the permissibility of making such a curse against such an oppressor from their Prophet ﷺ. This is the first point.

The second point is that when this oppressor mentioned to the Prophet ﷺ how the people were cursing him hoping that he ﷺ would tell the wronged neighbour to take his belongings back inside, the Prophet ﷺ told him, ‘The ones in the heavens have cursed you before those on earth …,’ this means that, firstly, the inhabitants of the heavens curse specific people and secondly that the Prophet ﷺ agreed with those who were cursing this oppressor, and his ﷺ [tacit] approval is a ruling and is legislation [in and of itself].

And [this story is enough to establish this point on its own] even if we didn’t have the [additional] story of the Prophet’s ﷺ supplication against Riʿl and Dhakwān [which I mentioned in the opening].

When we understand this and then go back to his statement ﷺ about the women who display themselves [mutabarrijāt, where he said], ‘Curse them for they are cursed,’—is this then cursing them in public or secretly? [Actually] the issue is not whether it is allowed to curse publicly or not, but rather is it allowed unrestrictedly or not? Is it allowed for me to call on Allaah to curse someone secretly without anyone hearing me? After which comes the [next] question: is it also allowed for me to publicly/openly curse this person who I was cursing secretly?—this is another issue.

So his ﷺ saying, ‘Curse them for they are cursed,’ is an open proof for the permissibility of cursing mutabarrijāt women, as for whether it is allowed to do that publicly, then the answer is as you have just heard, it is allowed—because the Companions cursed that man openly.

But if we wanted to curse mutabarrijāt women, copying those noble Companions who cursed that oppressor and who the Prophet ﷺ agreed with, then we need to consider that they wanted to nurture that oppressor and deter him from oppressing [his neighbour]—so if we want to raise our voices so that the rebellious transgressors [fāsiqāt] and the mutabarrijāt hear our curses in order for it to help rectify them and we feel that this method will indeed help cultivate them: then such an action is legislated.

But if there is no benefit that will come about from such open cursing—which I think is [actually] the case in this day and age, and in fact there might be [more] harm that comes about [instead], because the general climate is not in Islaam’s favour or in favour of Islamic legislation—… so for example day and night you will hear lots of open sinners and dissolute wicked people and those who have no share in Islaam abusing Allaah ﷻ and abusing the Messenger ﷺ and the dīn, and the law pays no attention. But if one of them were to abuse ‘His Majesty,’ then how quickly he would be taken into custody, prosecuted and imprisoned and so on. So it’s as if they placed the king above the [One having] True Majesty, above the Lord of Honour.

So the [current] climate in ordering good and forbidding evil does not aid us in implementing [the action of] cursing mutabarrijāt women out loud, because the one who does so will be taken, criticised, abused and maybe imprisoned. And then what will happen to him is the same thing that happened to some of the people of weak īmān when Iraq was conquered and the disbelievers won, what did your mate, who is not [actually] your mate, say?

Questioner: [laughing] he said, ‘Now I believe that Christianity is the truth, because it beat Islam.’

Al-Albaani: Allaahu Akbar! Does a Muslim say this?!

So the point here in cursing mutabarrijāt women publicly is that it comes under Islamic legal politics: so where it is thought that doing it openly will have some benefit it is legislated and if not, then it is not done.
Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, 531.

On Watching Islamic Films like The Message or the Series on ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ﵁ etc.

Questioner: What is your opinion on watching Islamic films, especially those that awaken a religious passion in some Muslims, and especially like the one called, ‘The Message,’ which contains events that happened at the start of the spread of Islaam and the call, and even if your answer is that it is impermissible I would like a clarification as to the reasons why?

Al-Albaani: The questioner hit the nail on the head when he said, ‘… and even if your answer is that it is impermissible …’ yes, I do say it is not allowed. Plays are not legislated in Islaam for many reasons.

Firstly because they are from the way of the disbelievers, and the way of the disbelievers suits them, not the Muslims. Because the disbelievers feel as though they need some kind of stimulus or incentive to push them to good, they don’t have a legislation [sharīʾah] which has the good that we have, alḥamdulillah, just like you heard the Prophet’s saying ﷺ, ‘I have not left out anything which will bring you closer to Allaah …’

One āyah let alone a whole sūrah, if it became widespread amongst the Muslims and explained to them, is enough to take the place of many, many numerous plays/films.

The Muslims are not in need of these new methods especially when they sprout from the lands of disbelief about which Allaah ﷻ said, ‘Fight those who do not believe in Allaah and the Last Day, nor comply with what Allaah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth from among those who were given the Scripture, until they pay the tax, willingly submitting, fully humbled.’ [9:29]

So how can we take the methodology, customs and ways of a nation that does not regard things as ḥalāl and ḥarām and then come and apply them to ourselves?!

I liked when that one time I was listening to someone give a lecture and he said, ‘The example of Muslims in their blind-following of westerners is like a fat person who took a thawb that was sewn for someone else who was slim. So he wants to wear it but the end result is that he won’t be able to and the thawb will rip, because it wasn’t made for his size and vice-versa.’

So those means suit them not us, because we have something better than that as is mentioned in the ḥadīth of Jābir ibn ʿAbdullah ﵁ who said, ‘One day the Prophet ﷺ saw a page in ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb’s ﵁ hand and so said to him, ‘What is this?’ He said, ‘A page from the tawrāh, one of the Jews wrote it for me.’ So he ﷺ said, ‘Are you in a state of confusion as the Jews and the Christians were? By the One in whose Hands Muḥammad’s soul is! If Moses were alive he would have no choice but to follow me.’ If Moses ﷺ were alive, and he is the one Allaah spoke to directly [i.e., Kalīmullāh], he would have no choice but to follow the Prophet ﷺ.

So what about us today then, we follow, rather we are the tails [that wag] to every shiny thing that comes to us from those people who do not prohibit what Allaah or His Messenger ﷺ have.

This is the reason why I say these plays are not allowed.

The second thing is that there will for sure be lies in these films which have no truth to them in Islamic history or the sīrah. And so that is another reason to stop us from blindly-imitating the Europeans in their plays/films because they live according to that famous principle, ‘The ends justify the means.’ So for example, the end is to make money, but the means are not important, ḥalāl ḥarām [it’s not important], [but] this goes against Islaam which made the ḥalāl and ḥarām way clear for us, where he said, ‘Take the ḥalāl and leave the ḥarām.’

So those people add things into their plays which have no truth to them at all, and so we, too, follow behind them in their footsteps, confirming the saying of the Prophet ﷺ, ‘You will follow the ways of those before, handspan by handspan …’

Thirdly and lastly, there will be other infractions in these plays, i.e., men imitating women or women imitating men, or men and women mixing, two choices the sweeter of which, [as they say], is still bitter. So how can we respond favourably to such films?

For example, [here is] a totally clear cut example, there will be a man, subḥānallāh, a man with a beard as Allaah made him, but in following the customs of the disbelievers he shaves it but then when he gets a role where, for example, he has to play a Companion he puts a fake one on, so he is deceiving the people. He was created with a beard but then disobeys Allaah and shaves it but when he gets a role to play he comes in front of the people acting as though he has one, isn’t that a lie? The same when you have a young guy who doesn’t yet have a beard but they put [a fake] one on him etc.

So for this reason if you study these plays/films, yaʿnī, we come to the conclusion that they are not permitted in the Religion of Islam—especially when they are connected to the message of the Prophet ﷺ, for there will be lies, with this person acting as though he is ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ﵁ and that other one acting as though she is his sister and so on.

Lies upon lies. And whatever’s foundation is corrupt is corrupt.

This is enough, and all praise is due to Allaah, Lord of all Worlds.
Asʾilah wa Fatāwal-Imārāt, 12.

Should You Reply to the Salaam of Someone who Doesn’t Pray?

Questioner: A person who doesn’t pray passes by you and gives salām, should you give salām back?
Al-Albaani: Yes, you return the salām but when you are with him you admonish him [to pray], like we said earlier.
Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, no. 97.

Al-Albaani Decades Ago on Muslim Women Uncovering Inappropriately at Home in front of Family Members and Revealing their Body Shape Before Them · What about the Tiktok Selfie Loving Sisters of Today? Posting Full Make up Routines and then Striking 100 Poses in a ‘Hijab’ and ‘Abaayah’ with Music Playing in the Background and then Trying to Teach ‘Deen.’ You Have Millions of Men Looking at You and Your Videos will be on Repeat as Long as the Internet is Around but when You Might be in Your Grave. You Have Time to Change.

The Imām said, “And how do Muslims live in their houses these days? They live undressed like women who don’t know Allaah’s dīn ﷻ would.

I don’t know what level this unclothing has reached in the houses [here] since I am new to this country. But with us in Syria and Egypt you wouldn’t be at fault in saying what you want about how far people have gone in being undressed in their houses, with women uncovering lots of their bodies, above and beyond what Allaah has allowed them to—the parts that Allaah has allowed them to uncover being only, “the areas of permitted adornment that normally appear.” [cf. Qurān 24:31]

For example we have been afflicted by short, sleeveless clothes, inner garments, which in old Arabic they used to call the, ‘Tubbān,’ and which today are known as pants, shorts. Shorts which show the thighs.

So women today—you will see a mom and daughter wear such short clothes. The daughter will sit in front of her mother, in fact, in front of her brother who is full of youth and desire. So she lifts her leg and puts it on her thigh and thus her thigh is exposed, based on what [so they say]? Based on the fact that ‘there are no strangers around’—but her brother is there!

This goes against the aforementioned āyah because as Allaah told us it is only allowed to uncover, ‘the places of adornment [zīnah] that normally appear.’ The thighs have never been ‘one of the places of adornment [zīnah] that normally appear,’ and they never will.

And you will have a woman come out in front of her brother, her father even, with her forearms uncovered—this goes against the āyah mentioned before [which states that they should], ‘ … not reveal their ˹hidden˺ adornments (i.e., hair, body shape, underclothes) except to their husbands.’

So the upper arms and armpits are not part of the places of adornment [zīnah] that normally appear, it is forbidden to show these based on his clear statement ﷺ, ‘The woman is ʿawrah.’

Even more than that goes on: a woman, a mother, will enter the bathroom at home and tell her daughter to massage her back, exposing her back and breasts, and this is all the upper part of the body, and they have no problem with this—where has this come from? [Where has this come from] even though the āyah is clear that our Lord ﷻ only allowed a woman to uncover the, ‘the places of adornment [zīnah] that normally appear,’ and the chest is not a part of that. Nor is the back.

That is why our Salaf aṣ-Ṣāliḥ, may Allaah be pleased with them, used to live in their homes under the boundaries of uncovering what Allaah ﷻ permitted for women [to uncover]. They never had this nudity that has become widespread in Muslim countries today.

So I wanted to remind you of this explicit meaning of the Qurʾān, and that we cultivate ourselves and our women and daughters upon the manners mentioned in the Ourʾān. And that we don’t become affected by the atmosphere around us; since most of the time it only relays disbelieving European customs [to us]. Thus, we must stop at this āyah: ‘… and not reveal their ˹hidden˺ adornments (i.e., hair, body shape, underclothes) except to their husbands.’”

Trees in Paradise

The Prophet ﷺ, “There is no tree in Paradise whose trunk isn’t [made of] gold.”

Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan at-Tirmidhī, no. 2039.

Flying with Angels

قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: إنَّ الله قد جعل لجعفرٍ جَناحَينِ مُضرَّجَينِ بالدمِ، يطيرُ بهما مع الملائكةِ

The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily Allah has given Jaʿfar two wings, stained red with blood, he flies with them with the Angels.”
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ, no. 1792.

Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib lost both his arms during the Battle of Muʾtah and even then he didn’t let the flag fall to the ground and he was martyred soon after and so the Prophet ﷺ saw him flying in Paradise with the Angels.
Source.

Establishing an Islamic State when the Rulers Have You by Your Throats · On People’s Intellect in Times of Trials and Tribulations and the Need for Purification and Cultivation

Questioner: Some brothers who ascribe to the Book and the Sunnah think that after the most recent events [i.e., the Gulf war] there is an opportunity to establish an Islamic country, not as a way of helping the ruler of Kuwait, but rather to establish an Islamic state in Kuwait, and these are brothers who have a good reputation [lit.: ‘are thought well of’] who are saying this.

So is it allowed then to fight the Iraqis to expel them from Kuwait to establish an Islamic country on the methodology of the Salaf aṣ-Ṣāliḥ? Is this allowed? Is such a thing allowed for them to do?

Al-Albaani: We’re still living in a dream world. Are they prepared?

Questioner: I don’t know.

Al-Albaani: You don’t know? Allaahul-Mustaʾān.

Yā akhī, have they thought of this just now or before, that’s one question. Secondly, did they have the ability to do this before but didn’t and now they are able to and want to?

Questioner: They are even less able now, Allaah knows best.

Al-Albaani: So how are these people thinking like this? Allāhul-Mustaʿān yā akhī!

Yā akhī, such strange times. I mentioned to some of our brothers that in some ḥadīths it says that during the times of trials and tribulations [fitan] there will be people with no intellect or whose intellect is like dust who think or most of whom think that they have something to stand on but they don’t.

And who am I referring to by this? I’m referring to people like us, practicing people, as for non-practicing ones then what can you say, like that Syrian proverb says, “The rod repels them and gathers them together too.” [i.e., it’s easy
to get them to come together or to divide them.]

[I’m saying that it refers to] people like us practicing according to the Sharīʿah, firstly, because we are not able to deal with issues in light of the Book and the Sunnah due to our ignorance of them and, secondly, due to how unaware we are of current affairs, [due to all this] emotions overtake us and make us lean towards these lot one time and those lot another time.

So these people you pointed out, yā akhī, where were they before? They were living in a country which has them by their throats, they can’t go left or right, what’s changed now for them to think that they can set up an Islamic country?

The Amīr of Kuwait is paying billions as we read on the news and in the papers in order to get his throne or kingdom back, what do you think will happen when he hears that there is a group of emerging youth keen on Islaam who want to establish an Islamic country in place of the country of these princes—they will be the first to fight against them, not just the Americans and the Brits and the Iraqis, all the Arab nations will be against them.

Wallaahi, I find it strange how people think! This band of people, this small clique, when they openly announce it, all of the Muslim and non-Muslim countries will be against them. How do they think they will establish an Islamic state?

This is all because they don’t know the guidance of the Prophet in establishing a state, guidance which we can summarise in two words: purification and cultivation, purification and cultivation [at-Taṣfiyah wat-Tarbiyah, a topic the Shaikh has covered extensively in his works].

And lastly, “O believers! You are accountable only for yourselves. It will not harm you if someone chooses to deviate—as long as you are ˹rightly˺ guided.” [Māʾidah:105]

So we ask Allaah the Majestic and Most High to protect us from evil trials, both open and hidden.
Al-Hudā was-Nūr, 452.

Magic, Jinn and Ruqyah Series: Advice on Someone Affected with Jinn

A PDF of an English translation of the duʿa book but without Shaikh al-Albaani’s checking of the hadīth here.
A PDF of the Arabic version checked by Shaikh al-Albaani here.

Al-Albaani: Yes.
Questioner: As-Salāmu ʿalaikum.
Al-Albaani: Wa ʿalaikum salaam.
Questioner: How are you, my Shaikh?
Al-Albaani: Alḥamdulillah, well.
Questioner: May Allaah bless you and give you a long life dedicated to His obedience.
Al-Albaani: May Allaah protect you and give you the same.
Questioner: O Shaikh, I’m undergoing a great test from Allaah the Mighty and Majestic. I’ve been sick for the past two and a half years, and Allaah knows best but my sickness is due to the Jinn’s touch [مَس].
Al-Albaani: May Allaah remove any harm from mankind and the jinn from you.
Questioner: Āmīn, O Lord of all Worlds. O Shaikh, I’ve been tormented a great deal. All praise is due to Allaah, all praise is due to Allaah, Lord of all worlds. I haven’t left a place where there are Salafī Shaikhs except that I’ve been there, may Allaah bless them, so I have had lots of ruqyah done. But it didn’t help.

I’ve been tormented severely to such an extent that I can’t attend any Islamic lessons. I haven’t been able to pray in the mosque for a number of months. I can’t sleep. I can’t have physical relations with my family. I can’t drive my car. And many, many such disasters. I had to leave my job.

And this has tormented me severely, yaʿnī, to such an extent that … I’m patient, and all praise is for Allaah, but, yaʿnī, I ask the people and most of them say, ‘Brother, go and get yourself cured through any means necessary.’

I’m someone who, yaʿnī, alḥamdulillah—I don’t mean to praise myself—I’m practising, upon obedience to Allaah with His Permission, the Mighty and Majestic.

To be frank I’m being severely tormented to such an extent that when I read the Qurʾān blood comes out of my stomach. I can’t read the Qurʾān. I can’t perform my ṣalāh with khushūʿ. I am really sick. Even now when I am sat speaking to you I feel the fatigue/pain.

So I need a fatwā, O Shaikh. Yaʿnī, do I [try to] stay patient and hope for the reward from Allaah the Mighty and Majestic or do I meet Allaah the Mighty and Majestic with Him angry at me … [for trying to find a cure through something that goes against the Sunnah] or should I seek a cure …, yaʿnī, I’ve done lots and lots of checkups with doctors, laparoscopies and x-rays but they found nothing.

But in my intestines, in my stomach there is something that bloats and really hurts me …

Al-Albaani: How old are you?
Questioner: I’m twenty-seven, Shaikh.
Al-Albaani: Okay, so you said that you are practising?
Questioner: Inshā Allaah.
Al-Albaani: Okay, the first thing I advise you is not to go to Shaikhs who summon the Jinn.

Secondly, that you face all of your issues with the Prophetic adhkār, and they can be found in a small book by me printed under the name, ‘Ṣaḥīḥ al-Kalim aṭ-Ṭayib.’

So regard this small book as your [personal] medical prophetic prescription. Follow every supplication in it. Implement every dhikr that is in this book to the letter.

How? When you stand to pray you have to read al-Fātiḥah and when you bow or prostrate etc., [there are certain things you have to say] in the same way [learn and] use the words of remembrance that are mentioned in this book. For example, when you enter your house say: Bismillah [‘In the Name of Allaah’], when you leave it you say:

بِسْمِ اللهِ ، تَوَكَّلْـتُ عَلى الله
Bismillāh, tawakkaltu ʿalallāh.
In the name of Allaah. I place my trust in Allaah.

اللّهُـمَّ إِنِّـي أَعـوذُ بِكَ أَنْ أَضِـلَّ أَوْ أُضَـلّ، أَوْ أَزِلَّ أَوْ أُزَلّ،أَوْ أَظْلِـمَ أَوْ أَُظْلَـم، أَوْ أَجْهَلَ أَوْ يُـجْهَلَ عَلَـيّ
“Allāhumma ʾinnī ʾaʿūthu bika ʾan ʾaḍilla ʾaw ʾuḍall, ʾaw ʾazilla ʾaw ʾuzall, aw ʾaẓlima ʾaw ʾuẓlama, ʾaw ʾajhala ʾaw yujhal ʿalayya.

O Allaah! I take refuge with You lest I should stray or be led astray, or slip or be tripped, or oppress or be oppressed, or behave foolishly or be treated foolishly. [slip: i.e. to commit a sin unintentionally.]”

So when you enter the house it’s with Bismillah, when you enter the toilet you seek refuge with Allaah with the relevant dhikr mentioned in the book and so on. This is what I advise you with firstly and I hope that by using these Prophetic words of remembrance your cure will follow.

Secondly, I say to you that you need to be patient—and this is something you have to do—until the cure comes to you.

And I will remind you of a ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ. There was a woman who used to have fits/seizures. Do you know what that means?
Questioner: Yes, O Shaikh.
Al-Albaani: What does it mean?
Questioner: That she would lose consciousness.
Al-Albaani: Well done. And when she would fall unconscious she would become uncovered, you know what that [word tankashif] means?
Questioner: Yes, O Shaikh, [parts of her would] become bare …
Al-Albaani: May Allaah bless you. So she came to the Prophet ﷺ asking him to make duʿā for her. And this is the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ whose supplications are guaranteed answered. So he said if you wish I will supplicate for you and if you wish you can be patient and Paradise is yours. Do you understand?
Questioner: Understood, O Shaikh, may Allaah bless you.
Al-Albaani: And you too. [Her being] a religious, smart lady, she says if that is the case O Messenger of Allaah I will be patient. But supplicate that I do not become uncovered. So Allaah’s Messenger ﷺ made duʿā for her and thereafter she used to have seizures—why was she satisfied with having them? Because the Prophet ﷺ gave her the good news that if she was patient then Paradise is hers.

So [again] because she was intelligent and because of her dīn she wanted to guard her dignity so she said then supplicate to Allaah for me O Messenger of Allaah ﷺ that I do not become uncovered. So he ﷺ supplicated for her and thereafter whenever she would have a seizure none of her would become exposed.

So I advise you to be patient and not to become discontented and you must keep Allaah’s Saying in mind:

“We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. Give good news to those who patiently endure—who, when faced with a disaster, say, ‘Surely to Allaah we belong and to Him we will ˹all˺ return.’ They are the ones who will receive Allaah’s Blessings and Mercy. And it is they who are ˹rightly˺ guided.” [2:155-157.]

This is the answer I have for you. So in summary, I will repeat and say to you again, seek your treatment and cure with the Prophetic medicine. Then be patient. Clear?
Questioner: May Allaah reward you with good, O Shaikh.
Al-Albaani: And you too, inshā Allaah.
Questioner: All praise is due to Allaah, Lord of all Worlds.
Al-Albaani: Alḥamdulillāh always. And I hope that you are cured quickly.

Was-salāmu ʿalaikum.

On a Woman Leaving the House Wearing Perfume

Questioner: As-Salāmu ʿalaikum wa raḥmatullāhi wa barakātuh.
Al-Albaani: Wa ʿalaikum as-salām wa raḥmatullāhi wa barakātuhu wa maghfiratuh.
Questioner: How is our Shaikh?
Al-Albaani: Alḥamdulillāh, well.
Questioner: May Allaah bless you.
Al-Albaani: May Allaah protect you.
Questioner: Shaikh, brother Abū Māhir is here [with a question]: A lady or young woman put some perfume on at home then was compelled to leave the house without having removed said perfume, and she knows the legislated ruling, but she was lazy whilst [at the same time] being afraid that men might smell it, does she fall under the penalty mentioned in the prophetic ḥadīth and is thus a fornicator?
Al-Albaani: I hope that if she is truthful in what you are reporting about her that she is not someone who falls into that category.
Questioner: We hope for that from Allaah.
Al-Albaani: Yes.
Questioner: May Allaah bless you and keep you under His Care.
Al-Albaani: May Allaah protect you, O Abū Māhir.
Questioner: May Allaah honour you, my Shaikh, my teacher.
Al-Albaani: [Keep me in] your prayers.
Questioner: May Allaah make us and you steadfast.
Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, 132.

On Tiktok

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Shaikh al-Albaani and Shaikh ʿUzair and Manuscripts

Shaikh ʿUzair would undertake the huge task of indexing manuscripts. He did so at the library of the Islamic University in Medinah over three years, and he said, “During work on the indexing there I met Shaikh al-Albaani, raḥimahullāh. He would come to the library to copy from the manuscripts and people would crowd around him wanting to speak to him while he was busy copying, so they would give him salām and he would reply and then go back to copying. I was amazed at his dedication to copying out from the manuscripts.”

Source.

Shaikh Muhammad ʿUzair Shams Has Passed Away

Shaikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah’s handwriting in his manuscripts is notoriously difficult to read, he used to write very quickly, the world’s greatest expert in his handwriting and manuscripts in the present day has passed away, Shaikh Muhammad ʿUzair Shams. A few weeks ago I sent out a link to all of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim’s books in PDF format, he was one of the Shaikhs whose name can be seen on many of the covers. He was 65 years old and from India. Here is a dars he did.

Surely to Allah we belong and to Him we will all return. May Allaah have mercy on him and grant him al-Firdaws.

Allaahul-Mustaʿān, this is truly a sad day.

On Tawbah for Those Afflicted with the Act of the People of Lūṭ

 

Al-Albaani: If someone commits such a shameful sin as this [i.e., homosexuality] then he should keep it hidden and not expose himself. Then he needs to add repentance to Allaah to that by feeling remorse at what he has done and resolving never to do it again, and he also needs to perform lots of righteous deeds …

Fatwās from the Car and on the Phone, no. 222.

On Hunger Strikes and Holding a Vigil and Having an Independent Islamic Personality and the Fact that Muslims are Ignorant of the Dīn’s Rulings and Someone who Doesn’t have Something Can’t Give It

Questioner: May Allaah bless you! Is it allowed for people or some people to go on a hunger strike in front of the rulers’ palaces so that they will respond to some of their requests?

Al-Albaani: Refrain from eating?

Questioner: Fast and condemn them, yaʿnī, stand in front of the palaces and in front of … so that they can ask for …

Al-Albaani: No this is a foreign, kāfir practice which the Muslims are not allowed to employ as a means to express their dissatisfaction with something that the state stipulates.

We must call to mind the Prophet’s ﷺ well-known ḥadīth related to this, “And whoever imitates a people is from them,” numerous, untold ḥadīths have been reported as more detailed clarification of this general, “and whoever imitates a people is from them,” one. One of those ḥadīths which can be regarded as a more detailed clarification of it is his saying ﷺ, “Pray in your sandals and your shoes and act differently from the Jews.”

Even more surprising is that once the Prophet ﷺ was coming back from a battle and they passed by a sidr tree which the polytheists used to hang their weapons on. So some of the Companions said, “O Messenger of Allaah! Make a Dhāt Anwāṭ [the name of that tree which the polytheists used to hang their weapons on and seek blessings from] for us just like they have a Dhāt Anwāṭ,” a statement they made, “Make a Dhāt Anwāṭ for us just like they have a Dhāt Anwāṭ.”

So the Prophet ﷺ disapprovingly said, “Allāhu Akbar! These are the ways [of those who came before you]! You have said the same thing that Mūsā’s people said to him, “Make a god for us like their gods.” [7:138]

Look at the difference between the two statements! They said, “Make another god for us instead of Allaah that we can worship,” as for the Prophet’s Companions [they said], “Make a tree for us, a Dhāt Anwāṭ, just like they have a Dhāt Anwāṭ,”—how different they both are, that one being connected to ʿaqīdah, indeed to worship, to tawḥīd and to major shirk which negates tawḥīd, “Make a god for us like their gods,”—and the statement of some of the Companions, “Make a tree for us, a Dhāt Anwāṭ just like they have a Dhāt Anwāṭ,” which was not [apparently] connected to ʿaqīdah or fiqh but which we could possibly say was related to some social norms. But the Prophet ﷺ was not happy with this imitation—the two situations are completely separate, and so he ﷺ disapproved that they said, “… just like they have a Dhāt Anwāṭ.”

This ḥadīth confirms that the Muslims must have a personality totally independent of the disbelievers, not only inwardly but outwardly too, [they must have] their own specific personalities that are distinct from the disbelieving nations and peoples.

So a Muslim going on hunger strike is totally like [that] shaving of the head [that I will now refer to] … in some Sūfī paths when a Muslim affiliates himself to a Shaikh who has his own [Sūfī] path he has to show his total submission to him as is represented in their, i.e., the Sūfīs saying, “The murīd [the Sūfī Shaikh’s follower] should be like a corpse before an undertaker.” So as part of this blind surrender which opposes the Most High’s Saying, “Say, ˹O Prophet, “This is my way. I invite to Allah with insight—I and those who follow me,” [12:108] they make a proclamation of this principle which goes against [true] insight by ordering those who affiliate themselves to this [Sūfī] path to shave their heads.

We know that shaving one’s head is a form of worship and obedience to Allaah ﷿ in certain places and is something permitted at other times too as he ﷺ said, “Shave it all or leave it all,” and in Ḥajj, “… ˹some with˺ heads shaved and ˹others with˺ hair shortened,” [48:27]. And in the two Ṣaḥīḥs the Prophet ﷺ said, “O Allaah! Forgive those who get their heads shaved.” The people asked, “Also those who get their hair cut short?” The Prophet ﷺ said, “O Allaah! Forgive those who have their heads shaved.” The people said, “Also those who get their hair cut short?” The Prophet ﷺ (invoked Allaah for those who have their heads shaved and) at the third time said, “… also (forgive) those who get their hair cut short.” So since shaving one’s head is a form of worship and one of the rites of Ḥajj it is not then allowed according to the Sharīʿah to transfer it to another occasion as the Sūfīs or some of the Sūfī Shaikhs have done, taking it as a path and manhaj for themselves as I have explained just now.

The same goes with fasting, fasting is an act of obedience to Allaah ﷿ which has its [own] regulations, conditions and pillars. If a Muslim wanted to fast al-Wiṣāl (i.e, fasting continuously without breaking one’s fast in the evening or eating before the following dawn) he would have disobeyed Allaah, because the Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not practice al-Wiṣāl. And if you must, then continue from suḥūr to suḥūr.”

So fasting perpetually—and [remember fasting] is an act of obedience to Allaah—is not allowed, then how can it be permitted in Allaah’s sharīʿah for one to withhold eating day and night in accordance with the way of the disbelievers?

There are two violations in doing so: the first is what we were speaking about earlier which is the imitation of the disbelievers. The second is that we would have made perpetual fasting a sunnah for ourselves whereas it is not allowed [as a normal act of worship] in Islaam let alone not being allowed in acts that are not worship.

Questioner: Shaikh, this question reminds me of something I read yesterday or the day before in a newspaper where some Islamic jamāʿahs were asking people living in some city in this country to fast on a certain day and for them to carry torches and climb up on to the rooftops with the intention of this inspiring them to victory or something of the sort, yes …

Al-Albaani: Strange!

Questioner: Yes, carrying torches to the …

Al-Albaani: I have heard of this so called fasting [that we just spoke about] but torches what?

Questioner: A newspaper yesterday, Shaikh, said take some torches and stand on the rooftops and ask Allaah for help, that kind of thing …

Interjection: Sorry was it an Islamic group asking them to do that?

Questioner: Yes an Islamic group.

Interjection: That’s an imitation of the Christians.

Al-Albaani: Yes it is.

Questioner: Holding torches …

Al-Albaani: Wallāhī strange. I had heard about the fasting and had seen it [being done] in some mosques but [now] in this form too, Allāhu Akbar!

My brothers, this is a proof of what I said and what I always say: that the Muslims today do things based on ignorance not on the religion’s rulings, because they are ignorant of the rulings of the religion—and someone who doesn’t have something can’t give it.

That is why I say there has to be purification and nurturing on this correct knowledge otherwise the Muslims will have nothing to stand on.
Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, 465.

Shaikh al-Abaani Advises a Young Guy from America who Wanted Advice on Being Gay

Questioner: Another problem, one of the brothers, O Shaikh, I got a message of his yesterday, wallaahi, makes you cry.

Al-Albaani: Allaahul-Mustaʿaan.

Questioner: Can I read it to you? It’s short, yaʿnī …

Al-Albaani: Tafaḍḍal.

Questioner: “I have a problem and I don’t know if there is a solution to it, especially since I’ve tried and failed. Before I mention it I want to let you know that I don’t want to identify myself I’ll just go by the name ‘ʿAbdullah.’

I have a big problem which is ruining my life. I’m in the prime of my youth and unfortunately I suffer from the sickness of homosexuality. I have no sexual desire for the opposite sex, my sexual inclination is for those of my own sex, other guys. It started in puberty and, truth be told, I ignored it because I thought that it would pass with time and I didn’t appreciate how dangerous this issue was until after I was twenty years old when I started to try and find out if there was a medical cure for it but they said that this sickness will stay with you for as long as you live.”

Al-Albaani: Auʾūthubillah.

Questioner: “And things have gotten worse especially since now I’m at the age to get married and my family are insisting on getting me married and I just try to divert the topic every time they bring it up because I don’t want to oppress [any future spouse]. I can’t tell my family about it, I haven’t told a soul about this. I have opened my heart up to you hoping that you can help me, with Allaah’s Permission.”

So by Allaah, yaʿnī, mushkilah, O Shaikh, I started to write a letter to him and I haven’t finished it yet, I wanted to say in it that the person who told you that it is a life long disease is a devil.

Al-Albaani: Of course, you are correct in saying that.

Questioner: Naturally I wanted to remind him of some aayahs, like, “Say, ˹O Prophet, that Allah says,˺ “O My servants who have exceeded the limits against their souls! Do not lose hope in Allah’s mercy, for Allah certainly forgives all sins. He is indeed the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful,” [39:53] and, “Indeed, when Satan whispers to those mindful ˹of Allah˺, they remember ˹their Lord˺ then they start to see ˹things˺ clearly.” [7:201] Then I will mention the ḥadīth about that Companion who said that, “A bad thought will come to me where it is easier on me to fall out of the sky and have birds snatch me away …”

Al-Abaani: Okay.

Questioner: I’m [summarising all this here but] will mention it in full, insha Allaah.

Al-Albaani: Good, good.

Questioner: It’s from the devil, unless you have another suggestion, O Shaikh.

Al-Albaani: You must remind him of the ḥadīths which curse the person who does that, if he is a believer.

Questioner: Yes I have included that.

Al-Albaani: Ok good. If he doesn’t care and doesn’t establish his prayers, then in such a case there really is no cure.

Questioner: It doesn’t seem to me that he is wanton because his question alone doesn’t show that he is, O Shaikh.

Al-Albaani: That is how it seems and as such you should give him the narrations which strike fear [into the soul] and which warn [against such actions].

Questioner: Yes.

Al-Albaani: Because in addition to what you mentioned earlier these narrations will, inshaa Allaah, be a cure for him. And tell him to also make sure to say the adhkār and the supplications that have been reported for all occasions, like when leaving the house, when coming into it—all of these are legislated means and are regarded as spiritual cures for all diseases of the soul. And if you could give him a copy of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Kalim aṭ-Ṭayyib if you have one.

Questioner: Yes I have a copy, inshaa Allaah.

Al-Albaani: He needs to take care in memorising these adhkār and that he makes sure to say them in every situation and in that way, inshaa Allaah, the cure will happen.

Questioner: How authentic is the ḥadīth that the Throne of ar-Raḥmān shakes at …

Al-Albaani: It’s not authentic.

Questioner: It’s not authentic?

Al-Albaani: No.

Questioner: [Any other] ḥadīth which strike fear into one?

Al-Albaani: Maybe you can refer to my book [about marriage], Ādāb az-Zafāf [available in English under the title ‘The Etiquettes of Marriage and Weddings’].

Questioner: The one who does it and the one it is done to …

Al-Albaani: Yes my book Ādāb az-Zafāf has a good amount of ḥadīths about that.

Questioner: [Never heard the Shaikh properly:] Where can I find them?

Al-Albaani: I said Ādāb az-Zafāf.

Questioner: Ādāb az-Zafāf.

Al-Albaani: My book Ādāb az-Zafāf you must have a copy?

Questioner: Yes I do, yes.

Al-Albaani: Do you have the al-Maktabah al-Islāmiyyah one, not the al-Maktab al-Islāmī one?

Questioner: I got a copy from Kuwait two years ago and you said that we shouldn’t rely on the other copy.

Al-Albaani: Yes.

Questioner: I have the al-Maktabah al-Islāmiyyah print.

Al-Albaani: That’s the one.

Questioner: This is the latest one?

Al-Albaani: Yes it is. Inshaa Allaah go back to that and take some of the ḥadīth from there on this topic …

Fatwās from the Car and on the Phone, no. 268.

Al-Albaani vs. Irjāʾ

Shaikh al-Albaani’s statements in accordance with the belief of the Salaf regarding īmān as compared to the misguided beliefs of the Murjiʾah on īmān.

1. Al-Albaani: “Īmān consists of statements [of the tongue], actions and belief. Righteous actions are part of the reality of īmān.” Adh-Dhabb al-Aḥmad, pp. 32-33, and At-Taʿlīq ʿalā aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, pp. 66-69.
The Murjiʾah: “Īmān only consists of statements of the tongue and belief. Righteous actions are not part of the reality of īmān.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 7/194, 13/38.

2. Al-Albaani: “Righteous actions are a fundamental pillar of īmān.” Muqaddimah Sharḥ al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, p. 58.
The Murjiʾah: “Righteous actions are the fruit of īmān not a part of it.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 7/204. 

3. Al-Albaani: “Īmān increases and decreases, it increases by doing acts of obedience and decreases through acts of disobedience.” Aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥah 4/369, al-Hudā wan-Nūr, no. 218.
The Murjiʾah: “Īmān does not increase or decrease because it is a singular entity which cannot be broken into parts or sections, so if some of it goes all of it is gone.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 12/474.

4. Al-Albaani: “The obligation of the connection between the outer and the inner: the actions of the heart and those of the limbs.” Muqaddimah Sharḥ al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, p. ل، ن.
The Murjiʾah: “There is no connection between the outer and the inner, for major disbelief may actually emanate from someone whose heart is firm in faith.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 7/583.

5. Al-Albaani: “It is permitted to say, ‘I am a believer, inshā Allaah,’ [استثناء].’” Aḍ-Ḍaʿīfah, 6/152.
The Murjiʾah: “The impermissibility of saying, ‘I am a believer, inshā Allaah,’ [استثناء] because that is to have doubt in faith.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 7/429.

6. Al-Albaani: “The evildoer [fāsiq] who abandons obligatory duties is weak in faith and we fear disbelief for him.” Aḍ-Ḍaʿīfah, 1/212.
The Murjiʾah: “The īmān of the most evil sinners is like that of the most obedient people.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 7/679.

7. Al-Albaani: “Disbelief can occur in the heart, on one’s tongue, and through one’s limbs by denying [the Truth], rejecting it, obstinately persisting [against it], hypocrisy, turning away from it, and doubting it.” Aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥah 7/134, al-Hudā wan-Nūr, no. 855.
The Murjiʾah: “Disbelief is only in the heart, because faith is only found in the heart.”Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 7/547.

8. Al-Albaani: “Abusing Allaah or His Messenger or His religion is major disbelief which contradicts īmān from every angle, and the one who does it is a disbeliever if he did it intentionally.” Aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥah 7/134, al-Hudā wan-Nūr, nos. 634 and 743.
The Murjiʾah: “Abusing Allaah or His Messenger or His religion is not disbelief, but it is a sign of disbelief, in fact, it can be present at the same time as the reality of īmān is present.” Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 7/557-583.
Al-Kunāsha al-Bairūtī.

We Want an Islamic Country when we Can’t Even Get a Mosque Right

When explaining how the adhān was being given incorrectly in the mosque he was in and how it should be given, al-Albaani said:

“The Muslims want to build an Islamic country—I’m going to explode at this predicament—they can’t even establish a mosque practising according to the Sunnah, a mosque!”
Al-Hudā wan-Nūr al-Jadīd, 1068.

On Military Coups and Revolts Against the Rulers

Al-Albaani: “And this shows how to attain salvation from the oppression of the rulers, those who are, ‘… from our own people, and speak our language,’—and it is by the Muslims repenting to their Lord and correcting their ʿaqīdah, and raising themselves and their families on the correct Islaam, implementing the Most High’s statement, ‘Indeed, Allaah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves,’ [13:11] and one of the present day callers alluded to that, saying, ‘Establish the state of Islaam in your hearts, it will be established for you in your lands.’

And the way to achieve this salvation [from them] is not through what some people imagine [to be the solution]—i.e., through uprisings against the rulers with weapons, using military coups to do so, for along with the fact that they are a present day innovation, they also go against the narrations in the Legislation which order one to change oneself. Thus the foundation must be corrected in order for it to be built upon, ‘Allaah will certainly help those who stand up for Him. Allaah is truly All-Powerful, Almighty.’ [22:40]
Qāmūs al-Bidʿah, p. 767.

Women Fighting Alongside Men

“As for training them [i.e., women] in combat and sending them to the battlefield to fight alongside men like some Islamic countries do these days, then it is a present day innovation, a false, communist innovated misinterpretation, and clear opposition to what our Salaf aṣ-Ṣāliḥ were upon, and is to ask women to do something they were not created for, and to expose them to things that do not befit them if they were to fall captive to the enemy, and we ask Allaah for His Help.”

Aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥah, 2740.

Does a Wife Have to Serve Her Husband? Yes? No? Obligatory [Wājib]? Recommended [Mustaḥab]?

Questioner: Concerning a woman serving her husband at home, is it obligatory [wājib] or recommended [mustaḥab]?

Al-Albaani: [Allaah said,] “Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, as they have been provisioned by Allaah over women and tasked with supporting them financially …” [4:34, and He said,] “… and men have a degree [of responsibility] over them,” [2:228] so a woman must serve her husband in exchange for him doing what is obligatory on him, [obligations] that Allaah imposed on him, like spending on her, housing etc.

So it is not allowed for someone to say that the right of a man is only that he can enjoy relations with her, since this is something that both sides share in, just as he enjoys that with her she does with him too, so in this issue they are both the same and equal.

So in exchange for the financial aid that the man undertakes the woman must serve him, and there is no doubt that this is limited to what she is capable of doing since Allah does not burden a soul with more than it can bear.

As for the situation getting to a stage where it is said, and unfortunately it has been said, that it is not obligatory for her to even give him a cup of water, or to make the bed and I don’t know [what else] … who will make the bed, subḥānallāh! The verse is very clear—because the man has a right over the woman apart from physical relations.

For this reason we find that in the biographies of the Companions with their women and the biographies of the women with their men, [we find] that they used to serve their husbands to such an extent that they would carry ground date-stones on their heads [date-stones would be ground and served as fodder for camels], and not only that [either].

For in Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī it has been reported that Fāṭimah the Daughter of the Prophet ﷺ came to her father ﷺ complaining about the marks on her hands from the hand-mill because she would grind flour in the house, so she asked him ﷺ for a maid so he ﷺ said to her, “Shall I not inform you of something better than a maid? That you say subḥānallah when you sleep … ” to the end of the ḥadīth, if it were not an obligation on her—and she is the Daughter of the Chief of Mankind ﷺ—if it were not obligatory on her to serve her husband, he ﷺ would have gone to her husband to say to him, “That is enough, don’t burden your wife with having to serve you.”

She had marks on her hands, but he ﷺ bore it [i.e., bore seeing his daughter’s hands like that ﷺ], because he ﷺ was the one to whom that verse was revealed, “… and men have a degree [of responsibility] over them,” [2:228], so this verse along with the practical Sunnah which the Companions were on with their wives and which they were on with their husbands—all of it shows that it is obligatory for a woman to serve her husband, within the confines of ability as we mentioned earlier.

Questioner: But O Shaikh some people say the silence the Prophet ﷺ showed, was it enough for it to be taken to mean it is obligatory?

Al-Albaani: We didn’t only mention the proof alone, we say that the practical life [example that they lived] is the tafsīr of the verse, what they did practically is not a proof on its own to say that it is obligatory, but when it comes as a tafsīr of a Qurʾanic verse or of something in the Sunnah, then it shows the obligation.

Questioner: Okay, some people say that if a woman used to have a maid when she was living in her father’s house then it is obligatory for the husband to get her a maid too, even if he is poor, is this right?

Al-Albaani: We say, “Show ˹us˺ your proof, if what you say is true.” [27:64].

Obviously that is not right.

Since every claim that is made which doesn’t have a proof from Allaah’s Book or the ḥadīths of Allaah’s Prophet ﷺ in this issue falls to the side and is not paid any mind. What has been said earlier is enough to show that it is not obligatory for the man to get his wife a maid.

Additionally I say that bringing a maid/helper to the wife’s home, whether a male or female, exposes one of the two to fitnah, if the person who comes to help is a woman then the man can fall into fitnah and if it is a man then the woman can fall into it …
Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, 33.

On Reviving the Sunnah of Giving Salaam to People You Don’t Know

The Prophet ﷺ said, “From the signs of the Hour is that a person only gives salām to the people he knows.”
Ṣaḥīḥah, no. 648.

On Women Dancing Among Themselves

Questioner: What is the ruling on women dancing in front of other women?
Al-Albaani: The same as men dancing in front of men.
Riḥlatun-Nūr, 29b.

Questioner: What is the legislated ruling on women dancing among themselves?
Al-Albaani: The ruling on what?
Questioner: Women dancing among themselves?
Al-Albaani: There is no dancing, not among men or women. No men dancing among men and no women dancing among women because this dancing is accompanied with lots of frivolity which a Muslim is above doing …
Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, 132.

The Poor Believers and Paradise

Abu Hurairah ﵁ said, “The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘The poor believers will enter Paradise before the rich by half a day—[which is] five hundred years.’”

Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Mājah 3343.

On The Prayer for Forgiveness [Ṣalātut-Tasbīḥ] · How Do You Pray It? · End

See here for part seven.

Questioner: How do you pray Ṣalātut-Tasbīḥ?

Al-Albaani: As has been reported in the paths of the ḥadīth about it, Ṣalātut-Tasbīḥ is like the other prayers, it differs only in that in each rakʿah there are seventy-five tasbīḥs to be said, so the total would be three hundred.

So in the first rakʿah, before the bowing [rukūʿ], he says the tasbīḥ fifteen times, [so he says]:

سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ،  وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، وَلاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ،  وَاللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ
Subḥānallāh, walḥamdulillāh, wa lā ilāha illallāh, wallāhu-Akbar

And then he bows, when he has finished [saying what he says in] the regular bowing he [then] says this tasbīḥ ten times [while in rukūʿ], so that makes it twenty-five.

Then he raises his head from the rukūʿ [i.e., stands up] and says: Samiʿallāhu liman-ḥamidah, Rabbanā walakal-ḥamd, and then says it ten times.

And likewise with every pillar, ten tasbīḥs—when he prostrates, after he has said the [normal] tasbīḥs for the sajdah he then says ten of the Ṣalātut-Tasbīḥ ones … when he rests between the two sajdahs, ten tasbīḥs, when he raises his head from the second sajdah [ten tasbīḥs], when he sits to rest after the second sajdah [before standing up for the next rakʿah], ten tasbīḥs, in total these come to seventy-five.

So he does that in every rakʿah which makes the total three hundred tasbīḥs.

This is how it is performed and he doesn’t add anything else to the sunnah prayers except these tasbīḥs and in the order I just mentioned now.

Riḥlatun-Nūr, 48b.

[So you stand to pray:

—after having read Fātiḥah and some of the Qurʾān you say the tasbīḥ fifteen times.
—then when in rukūʿ after having said the normal praise said in it, you say this tasbīḥ ten times.
—then after rising from rukūʿ ten times.
—in sajdah, after having said the normal praise said in it, ten times.
—between the two sajdahs ten times.
—in the second sajdah ten times.
—after the second sajdah while sitting before getting up for the next rakʿah, ten times.

And then you stand up for the next rakʿah. That makes seventy-five, repeated over four rakʿahs, three-hundred tasbīḥs. Also see here.]

End of the series on Ṣalātut-Tasbīḥ.

On The Prayer for Forgiveness [Ṣalātut-Tasbīḥ] · Is it Prayed in Congregation? · Part Seven

See here for part six.

Questioner: In relation to Ṣalātut-Tasbīḥ … we know that the Prophet ﷺ taught [his uncle] ʿAbbās this prayer but that he ﷺ didn’t pray it [himself], and it has been said that it has not been reported that the Companions prayed it in congregation … how do we pray it in congregation and call the people to that?

Al-Albaani: I didn’t know that you pray it in jamāʿah—you pray it in jamāʿah?

Questioner: Yes, we have prayed it in congregation on more than one occasion Shaikh.

Al-Albaani: That’s on you … Ṣalātut-Tasbīḥ is legislated to be prayed like the Sunnahs, on its own.

Questioner: Everyone [praying it] individually?

Al-Albaani: … or at home.

Questioner: You mean you didn’t pray it with us?

Al-Albaani: Astaghfirullah.

Questioner: A personal question, have you ever prayed it?

Al-Albaani: Yes.

Questioner: You did. So praying it in congregation is an innovation?

Al-Albaani: Yes.

Questioner: Wallaahi, we reported from you that you prayed it with us, O Shaikh.

Al-Albaani: May Allaah forgive you.

Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, 252.

On The Prayer for Forgiveness [Ṣalātut-Tasbīḥ] · Did Shaikh al-Albaani Pray It? · Part Six

See here for part five.

Questioner: There is another issue, some of the youth were saying that Shaikh al-Albaani sometimes will declare ḥadīths to be authentic but not act on them [himself], like the ḥadīth about Ṣalātut-Tasbīḥ … that even though al-Albaani said the ḥadīth was authentic he didn’t do it, [or that] maybe he didn’t do it, and that is only because it is possible that he feels something about it. What do you think about that?

Al-Albaani: How do they know that he doesn’t act on it?

Questioner: Their brains told them.

Al-Albaani: No. If you had said their desires and not their brains you would have been correct—because the one who has a brain does not guess blindly.

The ḥadīth says that the Prophet ﷺ said to his uncle ʿAbbās about praying it even if only once in his lifetime, so how do they know that I haven’t prayed it in my lifetime when I am now sixty-seven years old? This is from the misguidance of the youth of today and their guessing at the unknown.

Al-Hudā wan-Nūr, 307.