GF Haddad on Nasir Al-Bani the Great Sheikh to the Salafis

 

By Sami Zaatari

 

 

 

 

Jalal abualrub recently published a statement by GF Haddad on Osama on his website. The statement issued by GF Haddad had him saying Osama is a kaffir etc, apparently that was the aim of Jalal’s article, to show there are others like him who the hold the same view as him, that Osama is a kaffir.

 

The aim of this article is not to respond to Haddad’s comments, since I am sure Jalal most likely gave the man some false information concerning Osama, Jalal most likely told Haddad about Osama’s old beliefs, which Osama himself admitted were wrong! If Haddad knew this he would obviously have not called Osama a kaffir.

 

The aim of this article is to simply expose Jalal’s methodology, because you see folks, Jalal is a Salafi, and no Salafi would ever post any comments by GF Haddad! GF Haddad is known for his disagreements with the Salafis, he has written many works against the Salafis! Most Salafis dislike GF Haddad seeing him as a heretic; some Salafis would go as far as calling GF Haddad a kaffir!

 

Now if Jalal agrees with GF Haddad’s statements on Osama, then Jalal must also agree with Haddad’s statements against Nasir al-Bani, one of the Salafis greatest sheikhs! You see, you cant have your cake and eat it, you cant quote someone and pick and chose what you agree with simply because it helps your cause, Jalal cant just agree with GF Haddad when he makes negative comments on Osama, and then dis-regard Haddad’s comments on al-Bani.

 

So Jalal has probably committed the biggest mistake by quoting GF Haddad, most of his own supporters would not agree with it, in fact here is what one person said on Jalal’s very own forum:

 

Abu Hafs Member Posts: 6 Joined: 15.05.06

Posted on 17-06-2006 10:01

salamualaikum GF haddad is a quburi(the articles that appears in his name are) and his site promotes quburi asha'ri tassawwuf and all kinds of bida'h..he has even written a book on the "omnipresence" of the prophet..therefore hes NOT someone we should promote ....I think Osama is better than GF Haddad ..because Osama is ignorant ,doesnt know arabic as someone whos writing what hes writing should know,but GF Haddad is an arab ,known for absurd articles in promoting grave worship,building over graves and the rest of it ...I again humbly request you to remove him ..he has also the author of the slanderous book "Albani and his friends" Again Please remove GF Haddad's article

 

This is from Jalal’s very own forum! So it is without a doubt that Jalal has done a big mistake by quoting the anti-Salafi GF Haddad!

 

But now, let me quote what GF Haddad has to say on al-Bani, the sheikh whom all Salafis love and quote, since Jalal quoted Haddad on Osama using him as a reliable source, then Jalal will also have to accept these statements made by Haddad on al-Bani.

 

Before quoting, let me make my position clear, I am simply exposing Jalal’s deceptive methodology, I do not necessarily agree with Haddad, he has his issues with al-Bani, I am not quoting him here to use against al-Bani, I am quoting him for Jalal, to show Jalal that Haddad has a lot of negative comments against al-Bani whom Jalal loves.

 

So here is what GF Haddad says on al-Bani, the sheikh whom Salafis love:

 

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

 

Among Albani's innovations in the Religion:

1- In his book Adab al-Zafaf he prohibits women from wearing gold jewelry - rings, bracelets, and chains - despite the Consensus of the Ulema permitting it.

2- He claims that 2.5% zakât is not due on money obtained from commerce, i.e. the main activity whereby money circulates among Muslims.

3- He absolutely prohibits fasting on Saturdays.

4- He prohibits retreat (i`tikaf) in any but the Three Mosques.

5- He claims that it is lawful to eat in Ramadan before Maghrib as defined by the Law, and similarly after the true dawn.

6- He compares Hanafi fiqh to the Gospel.1

7- He calls people to imitate him rather than the Imams of the Salaf such as the founders of the Four Schools, and his followers invalidate the hadiths that contradict his views.

8- He prohibits the make-up performance of prayers missed intentionally.

9- He claims that it is permissible for menstruating women and those in a state of major defilement (junub) to recite, touch, and carry the Qur'an.

10- He claims over and over that among the innovations in religion existent in Madina is the persistence of the Prophet's grave in the mosque.

11- He claims that whoever travels intending to visit the Prophet or to ask him for his intercession is a misguided innovator.

12- He claims that whoever carries dhikr-beads in his hand to remember Allah Most High is misguided and innovating.

13- He invented a location to Allah Most High above the Throne which he named al-makân al-`adamî - "the non-existent place."

14- He claims in Tamam al-Minna that masturbation does not annul one's fast.

15- He published "corrected" editions of the two Sahihs of al-Bukhari and Muslim, which he deceitfully called "Abridgments" (mukhtasar) in violation of the integrity of these motherbooks.

16- He published newly-styled editions of the Four Sunan, al-Bukhari's al-Adab al-Mufrad, al-Mundhiri's al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib, and al-Suyuti's al-Jami` al-Saghir, each of which he split into two works, respectively prefixed Sahih and Da`if in violation of the integrity of these motherbooks.

17- He said: "Many of those who interpret figuratively [the Divine Attributes] are not heretics (zanâdiqa), but they say what heretics say," and "figurative interpretation is the very same as nullification (al-ta'wîl `ayn al-ta`tîl)."2

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

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

20- He denies that the name of the Angel of death is `Azrâ'îl and claims such a name has no basis other than Israelite reports, although `Iyad reports the Consensus on the Umma on it in al-Shifa'.

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

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

32- He revived Ibn Hazm's anti-madhhabî claim that differences can never be a mercy in any case but are always a curse on the basis of the verse (If it had been from other than Allah they would have found therein much discrepancy( (4:82).17 Imam al-Nawawi long since refuted this view in his commentary on Sahih Muslim where he said: "If something is a mercy, it is not necessary for its opposite to be the opposite of mercy. No-one makes this binding and no-one even says this, except an ignoramus or one who affects ignorance." Similarly, al-Munawi said in Fayd al-Qadir: "This is a contrivance that showed up on the part of some of those who have sickness in their heart."

33- He expresses hatred for those who read Imam al-Busiri's masterpiece, Qasidat al-Burda, and calls them cretins (mahâbîl),18 i.e. millions of Muslims past and present including the likes of Imams Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani, al-Sakhawi, and al-Suyuti who all included it as required reading in the Islamic curriculum.19

34- He perpetuates lies if they detract from Ash`aris, such as his remark that Imam Sayf al-Din al-Amidi did not pray,20 although Dr. Hasan al-Shafi`i in his massive biography entitled al-Amidi wa Ara'uhu al-Kalamiyya showed that the story that al-Amidi did not pray was a forgery put into circulation during the campaign waged by Imam Ibn al-Salah against him for teaching logic and philosophy in Damascus.

35- He perpetuates the false claim first made by Munir Agha the founder of the Egyptian Salafiyya Press, that Imam Abu Muhammad al-Juwayni - the father of Imam al-Haramayn - "repented" from Ash`ari doctrine and supposedly authored a tract titled Risala fi Ithbat al-Istiwâ' wa al-Fawqiyya ("Epistle on the Assertion of Establishment and Aboveness").21 This spurious attribution continues to be promoted without verification - for obvious reasons - by modern-day "Salafis" who adduce it to forward the claim that al-Juwayni embraced anthropomorphist concepts. The Risala in question is not mentioned in any of the bibliographical and biographical sources nor does al-Dhahabi cite it in his encyclopedia of anthropomorphist views entitled al-`Uluw. More conclusively, it is written in modern argumentative style and reflects typically contemporary anthropomorphist obsessions.

36- He derides the fuqahâ' of the Umma for accepting - in their massive majority - the hadith of Mu`adh ibn Jabal on ijtihâd as authentic then rejects the definition of knowledge (`ilm) in Islam as pertaining to fiqh but claims that it pertains only to hadith,22 although the Ulema of the Salaf explicitly said that a hadith master without fiqh is a misguided innovator! And he defines the `âlim as "meaning, of course, the `Salafi' `âlim, not the `Khalafi [late Egyptian Shaykh] Ghazali'!"23 Al-Qurtubi said: "One of the knowers of Allah said: A certain group that has not yet come up in our time but shall show up at the end of time, will curse the scholars and insult the jurists."24

So tell me Jalal, do you agree with all these statements made by GF Haddad on al-Bani?! Jalal has just proven how pathetic he is, and why he is indeed a fake scholar, in fact Jalal is a traitor to his own Salafi brothers for quoting GF Haddad on his site. How can Jalal’s own fans take him seriously now? This man Jalal is not only a fake scholar, but a fake Salafi, does it make any sense to quote an anti-Salafi scholar?!!!

 

So some advice to Jalal, do not throw stones if you live in a glass house, you just shot yourself in the foot, you just discredited yourself among your own readers for quoting Haddad as if to show he is a reliable source, yet if he is a reliable source, then he is also a reliable source to expose al-Bani, something you obviously don’t agree with, hence I rest my case.