Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani

Muhammad Nasir al-Din (19142 October 1999), commonly known as al-Albani, was an Albanian Islamic scholar. A leading figure of Salafism, he is commemorated for his works on revaluation of hadith studies.

Born in Shkodër, Albania, to a family adhering to the Hanafi school, al-Albani began his religious journey in Damascus, Syria, where he studied under his father Nuh Najati and other local shaykhs. Influenced by the Lebanese-born Islamic scholar Rashid Rida, al-Albani developed an interest in hadith studies and became skeptical of Sufism, as well as the Hanafi school he grew up in. He eventually left the school and became a staunch critic of following a (school of thought) for Islamic jurisprudence, which made him a controversial figure amongst traditionalist Sunni Muslims. Al-Albani was arrested twice by the Ba'athist Syrian authorities in the 1960s for promoting Wahhabism. Later, he taught for three years at the Islamic University of Madinah at the request of Saudi grand mufti Ibn Baz. Afterward, al-Albani retired at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus, Syria, and later shifted to Amman, Jordan where he died in 1999.

Al-Albani's works include over 300 treatises, including and . He spent much of his life critically re-evaluating hadiths and believed many previously accepted hadiths were unsound. His reassessment of and , the two most-revered Sunni hadith compilations, was challenged by a number of Sunni hadith scholars, including Abu Ghudda and Mahmud Sa'id Mamduh. On the contrary, al-Albani was highly praised by mainstream Wahhabi scholars and was considered one of the "four shaykhs", along with Ibn Baz, Ibn Jibrin and al-Uthaymin. Al-Albani's contributions to hadith studies also led him to be known as the " al-Bukhari of the contemporary age" by Salafis.

Early life and education

Muhammad Nasir al-Din was born in 1914 in Shkodër, Albania. His father, Nuh Najati, was a jurist of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence of Sunni Islam who had been trained in Istanbul. Fearing the rise of secularism during the rule of Zog I, Najati separated his son from school in Albania. At the age of nine in 1923, al-Albani and his family moved to Damascus, then found himself under French-occupied Syria.

In Damascus, he was taught the Qur'an and other topics by his father and several local shaykhs. He learned the Arabic language from al-Is'af, a non-profit civil school where he was to be known as al-Albani ("the Albanian") just after he dropped out of school and began to write. Afterwards, he studied the renowned Hanafi book, of al-Shurunbulali () with his teacher, Sa'id al-Burhani.

He studied the book , which his native Syrian teachers helped to accomplish . In the meantime, he earned a modest living as a carpenter before joining his father as a watchmaker.Sheikh Mohammad Nasir Ad-Din Al-Albani
King Faisal International Prize official website. Accessed November 26, 2014.

Study

Despite his father's discouragement against hadith studies, al-Albani became interested in the Hadith, learning it at about twenty years of age, influenced by Muhammad Rashid Rida. Al-Albani's other teachers were Muhammad Bahjat al-Baytar, 'Izz al din al tanoukhi,Shaykh Sa'id al-Burhani,Ibn al Baghi etc. who collectively led him to comment on Abd al-Rahim ibn al-Husain al-'Iraqi's ''Al-Mughnee 'an-hamlil-Asfar fil-Asfar fee takhrej maa fil-lhyaa min al-Akhbar''. Following this, he wrote a series of lectures and books, and published as well articles in the ''al-Manar'' magazine. This work was the beginning of his career as a scholar, and for this book, he became known among the scholarly circles of Damascus. After a while, he began teaching two lessons per week about doctrine, Fiqh and Hadith, which were attended by students and university professors. Additionally, he began organizing advocacy trips to various cities of Syria and Jordan. Then, he obtained a leave from Muhammad Rabegh Al Tabakh, to profess Hadith in Islamic University of Madinah from 1381 until 1383 AH, subsequently returning to Damascus.

Later life and death

In 1963, al-Albani left Saudi Arabia due to the hostility he felt 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 Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Spain, and the United Kingdom. He moved a number of times between Syria and a couple of cities in Jordan. After Bin Baz's intervention with Saudi educational management, al-Albani was invited to Saudi Arabia a second time in order to serve as the head of higher education in Islamic law in Mecca.

Al-Albani returned to Syria, and sometime later moved to Jordan, living there for the remainder of his time. He died in 1999 at the age of 85. Al-Albani's wife was Umm al-Fadl.

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 legal schools, Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi'i, and rejected the traditional Sunni view that Muslims should automatically turn to a madhhab for fiqh (jurisprudence). Instead, he spent much of his life critically re-evaluating hadith literature and felt that numerous previously accepted hadiths were unsound. This led him to produce rulings that were at odds with the Islamic majority. al-Albani praised Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, though criticized him for imitating the Hanbali school.

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."

Al-Albani openly criticized Sayyid Qutb. 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".

Formula for ''Salah'' (Prayer)

Al-Albani wrote a book in which he redefined the proper gestures and formula that constitute the Muslim prayer ritual abiding by the prophet Muhammad's teachings. These were contrary to the prescriptions of all established schools of jurisprudence.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.

Controversies

Al-Albani held a number of controversial views that ran counter to the wider Islamic consensus.
These include his view that ''mihrabs'' were bid'ah (innovation), that it is prohibited for women to wear gold bracelets, that it is permissible to pray in a mosque with shoes, and most prominently, his call for Palestinians to leave the occupied territories since, according to him, they were unable to practice their faith there as they should. This latter view was also controversial within the Salafi movement.

Criticism

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.
* 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.'' He stated that:The Syrian Ash'ari scholar Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti, took issue with al-Albani's well-known call for all Palestinians to leave Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. He wrote two rebuttals of al-Albani entitled ''Anti-Madhabism: the dangers of an innovation that threaten the Sharia'' and ''Salafiyya: a blessed historical period, not a school of fiqh.''
* Syrian hadith scholar Nur al-Din 'Itr rebutted some of al-Albani's views.
* Lebanese Sufi scholar Gibril Fouad Haddad dubbed al-Albani "the chief innovator of our time" and accused him of bid'ah.
* The Jordanian theologian, Hasan b. Ali al-Saqqaf, composed a book entitled ("Dictionary of al-Albani's Slanderings").

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.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

The Albaani Site – Translations from His Works – Updated Regularly

Official Website of Sheikh Al-Albani

Pages 6-7: Al-Albani's Revolutionary Approach to Hadith - 2-page article on Al-Albani's hadith methodology in a backdrop to nepotism among Salafi scholars in Saudi Arabia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albani, Muhammad Nasiruddin Al-
1914 births
1999 deaths
20th-century imams
Albanian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
20th-century Albanian writers
20th-century Syrian writers
Albanian Arabic-language writers
Carpenters
Hadith scholars
Non-conformists
Albanian Islamic religious leaders
20th-century Muslim scholars of Islam
People from Shkodër
Albanian Salafis
Wahhabism
Sunni imams
Critics of Shia Islam
Watchmakers (people)
Albanian emigrants to Syria
Atharis
Zahiris
Salafi Quietists
Biographical evaluation scholars