Al-Albani

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Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani
)
Al-Albani
Title
Salafi
Main interest(s)
Occupation
  • bibliographer
  • watchmaker/fixer
Muslim leader
Influenced by
    • Shaykh al-Hajj Nuh Bin Najati Bin al-Ishqudri al-Hanafi al-Albani al-Arnauti
    • Ibn Baz
Influenced
Awards
King Faisal International Prize
(in 1999)

Muhammad Nasir al-Din (1914 – 2 October 1999), known by his

Salafi methodology of Islam, he established his reputation in Syria
, where his family had moved and where he was educated as a child.

Al-Albani did not advocate violence, preferring obedience to established governments. A

hadith and its sciences. He also lectured widely in the Middle East
, Spain and the United Kingdom on the Salafist movement.

Early life and education

Muhammad Nasir al-Din was born in 1914 in

Ahmed Muhtar Zogu, Nuh detached his son from school in Albania.[3] At the age of nine in 1923, al-Albani and his family moved to Damascus, then under French occupied-Syria.[1]

In Damascus, he was taught the

Arabic language from al-Is'af, a non-profit civil school where he was known as the Arna'ut.[4][a] He became known by the nisba al-Albani ("the Albanian") only after he dropped out of school and began to write.[4] Afterward, he studied the renowned Hanafi book Maraqi al-Falah of al-Shurunbulali (d. 1659) with his teacher, Sa'id al-Burhani.[7]

He studied numerous books such as Mukhtasar al-Quduri, also helped by native Syrian scholars.

carpenter before joining his father as a watchmaker.[citation needed][9]

Study

Despite his father's discouragement against hadith studies, al-Albani became interested in the Hadith, therefore he learned the Hadith at about twenty years of age, influenced by the

AH, and then he returned to Damascus to complete his studies, and to his work in the library, where he left his place for one of his brothers.[citation needed
]

His teachers

The most important teacher of al-Albani was his father. Moreover, he studied under Muhammad Saeed Al Burhani; where he studied a book named 'Maraqi Al Falah' on Hanafi Jurisprudence, and 'Shadoor Al Dhahab', a book on Arabic Grammar, and some other contemporary books on rhetoric. He also used to attend the lessons of Muhammad Bahjat Al Atar, scholar of levant. His other teachers were 'Izz al Din al Tanoukhi and Ibn al Baghi.

Later life and death

Starting in 1954, al-Albani began delivering informal weekly lessons. By 1960, his popularity began to worry the government, and he was placed under surveillance. He was imprisoned twice in 1969.

Wahhabi da'wa, which distorted Islam and confused Muslims."[13][additional citation(s) needed
]

At the foundation of the

niqab, or full face-veil, was not a binding obligation upon Muslim women. [8]
: 66 

In 1963, al-Albani left Saudi Arabia and returned to his studies and work in the

Az-Zahiriyah library
in Syria. He left his watch shop in the hands of one of his brothers.

Al-Albani visited various countries for preaching and lectures – amongst them

Islamic law in Mecca.[8]
: 67  This did not last due to controversy among the Saudi establishment regarding al-Albani's views.

Al-Albani returned to Syria, where he was briefly jailed again in 1979. He moved to Jordan, living there for the remainder of his time. He died in 1999 at the age of 85.[9] Al-Albani's wife was Umm al-Fadl.[15]

Views

Al-Albani was a proponent of Salafism, and is considered one of the movement's primary figureheads in the 20th century. Al-Albani criticized the four mainstream schools of

Islamic law and rejected the traditional Sunni view that Muslims should automatically turn to a madhhab for fiqh (jurisprudence).[16][17] Instead, he spent much of his life critically re-evaluating hadith literature and felt that numerous previously accepted hadiths were unsound.[17] This led him to produce rulings that were at odds with the Islamic majority.[17] Although Salafism has frequently been associated with Wahhabism, al-Albani distinguished between the two movements, and he criticized the latter while supporting the former. He had a complex relationship to each movement.[8]: 68 [10]
: 220 

Al-Albani was amongst some leading Salafi scholars who were preaching for decades against what they considered the warped literalism of extremists. They believed that Muslims should focus on purifying their beliefs and practice and that, in time, "God would bring victory over the forces of falsehood and unbelief."[18]

Al-Albani's own views on jurisprudence and dogma have been a matter of debate and discussion. During a 1989 visit to Saudi Arabia, Al-Albani was asked if he adhered to the lesser-known

Zahiri school of Islamic law; he responded affirmatively.[19] Al-Albani's opponents among the mainstream have affirmed this as a point of criticism. A number of al-Albani's students have denied his association with any formal school of jurisprudence.[citation needed
]

Al-Albani openly criticized Sayyid Qutb after the leader was executed. He claimed that Qutb had deviated in creed and held the belief of Oneness of Being. Further, al-Albani accused Hassan al-Banna, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, of not being a religious scholar and holding "positions contrary to the Sunna".[10]: 86 

Formula for Salah (Prayer)

Al-Albani wrote a book in which he redefined the proper gestures and formula that constitute the Muslim prayer ritual "According to the Prophet's sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallams practice." These were contrary to the prescriptions of all established schools of jurisprudence.[20]

As he argued that several details of the concrete prayer that have been taught from generation to generation were based on dubious hadith, his book caused considerable controversy.

Taraweeh prayers deviated considerably from established practice.[11]

Controversies

Al-Albani held a number of controversial views that ran counter to the wider Islamic consensus, and more specifically to

Hanbali jurisprudence.[20]
These include:

  • his view that mihrabs – the niche found in mosques indicating the direction of Mecca – were bid'ah (innovation).[20]
  • his view that it was permissible to pray in a mosque with one's shoes.[20]
  • his call for Palestinians to leave the occupied territories since, according to him, they were unable to practice their faith there as they should.[10]: 87 [20] This view was also controversial within the Salafi movement.[21]
  • his view that it is prohibited for women to wear gold bracelets.[22]
  • his view that it was not necessary for women to cover their faces.[22] It was controversial specifically within the Salafi community. "However, wearing the Niqab is better". Sheikh Al-Albani said: "Whoever adheres to the obligation, it is good enough; and whoever does the recommendation, it is better." (Jilbab Ul-Mar’at Il-Muslimah, p. 28, which is a Preface to the 2nd Edition)[23]
  • his view that the
    Muslim ruler must be from the tribe of Quraysh.[24]

Assessment and legacy

Al-Albani has been regarded as one of the leading Islamic scholars of the 20th-century.[25][26][27][28][29][30] Al-Albani's revaluation of the kutub al-sitta gained him criticism amongst a number of Sunni Muslim scholars. Al-Albani's critics amongst the clerical and intellectual classes consisted of various theological and political opponents. These included:

  • In the early 1970s, Syrian hadith scholar Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda (d. 1997) published a tract against al-Albani's revaluation of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.[31]
  • The Egyptian hadith scholar Mahmud Sa'id Mamduh, who studied with 'Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda and 'Abdallah b. al-Siddiq al-Ghumari. Mamduh has written at least four rebuttals of al-Albani's work on different subjects. In 1987, published a work entitled Alerting the Muslim to al-Albani's Transgression upon Sahih Muslim.[31] He stated that:[32]

Indeed, I have concluded that his methods disagree with those of the jurists and hadith scholars, and that his methods are creating great disarray and evident disruption in the proofs of jurisprudence both generally and specifically. He lacks trust in the Imams of law and hadith, as well as in the rich hadith and law tradition handed down to us, in which the umma has taken great pride.[32]

Works

Emad Hamdeh has described al-Albani as a "prolific scholar". He was the author of 217 books on various topics; such as hadith, fiqh, and creed.[39]

Al-Albani's works in Fields of
its sciences
Title Volumes Description
At-Targhib wa't-Tarhib Volumes 1–4
At-Tasfiyah wa't-Tarbiyah
At-Tawassulu: Anwa'uhu wa Ahkamuhu Tawassul: Its Types & Its Rulings) (link to english translation)
Irwa al-Ghalil Volumes 1–9
Talkhis Ahkam al-Jana'iz
Sahih wa Da'if
Sunan Abu Dawood
 		Volumes 1–4
Sahih wa Da'if Sunan at-Tirmidhi Volumes 1–4
Sahih wa Da'if
Sunan Ibn Majah
 		Volumes 1–4
Al-Aqidah at-Tahawiyyah Sharh wa Ta'liq
Sifatu Salati An-Nabiyy (link to English translation)
Silsalat al-Hadith ad-
Da'ifah
 		Volumes 1–14
Silsalat al-Hadith as-
Sahihah
 		Volumes 1–11
Salat ut-Tarawih Later an abridgment of this book was published by al-Albani – Qiyamu Ramadhan

Notes

  1. ^ The Arabic word Arna'ut usually refers to an Albanian, though the usage is sometimes extended to a Bosnian, Serbian, Yugoslavian,[5] and sometimes to Albanian communities that settled in the Levant during the Ottoman era onward, especially for those residing in Syria.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wagemakers 2016, p. 100.
  2. ^ a b Thurston 2016, p. 59.
  3. ^ a b Lav 2012, p. 108.
  4. ^ a b Hamdeh 2016, pp. 9–10.
  5. ^ Hamdeh 2016, p. 10.
  6. ^ Norris 1993, pp. 209–210.
  7. ^ Hamdeh 2016, pp. 10–11.
  8. ^
    ISBN 9781850659792
    . In this way he became a self-taught expert on Islam, learning from the books rather than the ulema. One of his biographers even states that al-Albani was distinguished in religious circles by how few ijazats (certificates) he possessed.
  9. ^
    King Faisal International Prize
    official website. Accessed November 26, 2014.
  10. ^
    ISBN 978-0-6740-6107-1
    .
  11. ^
    ISBN 978-1-1369-3286-1
    .
  12. ^ a b Jacob Olidort (February 2015), The Politics of "Quietist" Salafism, Brookings Institution, p. 14
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-0-6740-4964-2
    . Dec 2010
  14. ^ Hegghammer & Lacroix 2007.
  15. ^ https://shaikhalbaani.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/a-conversation-with-umm-al-fadl2.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. ISSN 1568-5195
    .
  17. ^
    ISBN 9780-1-9061-1675
    .
  18. ISBN 978-1780744209
    .
  19. ^ Al-Albani (1989), Shareet al-Khobar, Khobar, Saudi Arabia{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  20. ^ a b c d e Stephane Lacroix (Spring 2008), Al-Albani's Revolutionary Approach to Hadith (PDF), Leiden University's ISIM Review, p. 6, archived from the original (PDF) on October 10, 2017, retrieved February 13, 2013
  21. ^ Batrawi, Samar (October 28, 2015). "What ISIS Talks About When It Talks About Palestine". Foreign Affairs. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  22. ^
    ISBN 978-9004158399
    .
  23. ^ "Niqab Sunnah or Wajib – Face Cover Mandatory or Prescribed – Can I Take My Niqab off – PDF". July 2020.
  24. ISBN 978-0-2315-4127-5
    .
  25. ISBN 9780195305135
    .
  26. ^ Adis Duderija (January 2010). "Constructing the religious Self and the Other: neo-traditional Salafi manhaj". Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations. Vol. 21, no. 1. pp. 75–93. Retrieved May 23, 2019. In addition, Salafism is a term that has a broader base in Islamic tradition and is more encompassing than Ahl-Hadith, which has more sectarian implications. Among the most influential exponents of NTS are some contemporary Middle Eastern Muslim scholars such as Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani (d. 1999), 'Abd al-'Aziz bin Baz (d. 1999), Muhammad Salih al-'Uthaymin (d. 2001), and Yahya al-Hajuri, to name but a few, who held senior positions on religious councils responsible for issuing fatwas (legal opinions) and/or were lecturers in Islamic sciences at traditional Islamic institutions such as the Universities of Medina and Riyadh.
  27. JSTOR 10.7312/lauz17550 – via De Gruyter
    .
  28. ISBN 9780710313560
    .
  29. ^ Mustafa, Abdul-Rahman, and Mustafa Abdul Rahman. On Taqlid: Ibn Al Qayyim's Critique of Authority in Islamic Law. Oxford University Press, 2013. p.10
  30. ^ Ayd al-Hilali Abu Usamah, Selim Ibn (2012). Al-Imam al-Albani Shaykh al-Islam wa Imam Ahl al-Sunnah wal Jama'ah Fee 'Ayoon A'alaam al-'Ulamaa' wa Fahool al-Adabaa' [Imam Al-Albani, Sheikh al-Islam and Imam of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah, in the eyes of notable scholars and virtuous writers]. Dar Al-Imaam Ahmad. Archived from the original on October 16, 2021.
  31. ^
    ISBN 978-9004158399
    .
  32. ^
    ISBN 978-9004158399
    .
  33. ISBN 978-0-5209-6249-1
    .
  34. ^
    ISBN 978-1-1070-2641-4
    .
  35. ISBN 978-9004158399
    .
  36. ISBN 9780313336263
    .
  37. ^ Lav 2012, p. 117.
  38. ISBN 978-1-1340-5541-8
    .
  39. ISBN 978-1-108-61836-6
    . A prolific scholar, he authored 217 books on various topics such as ḥadīth, fiqh, and creed.

Sources

External links

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