Al-Albani

Muhammad Nasir al-Din (1914 – 2 October 1999), known by his al-Albani (the Albanian), was an Albanian Islamic scholar known for being a famous muhaddith. A major figure of the 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 watchmaker by trade, Al-Albani was active as a writer, publishing chiefly on 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 Shkodër, Albania. His father, Nuh Najai, was a scholar of the Hanafi (school of thought) of Sunni Islam who learned Islamic studies in Istanbul. Fearing the rise of secularism during the rule of Ahmed Muhtar Zogu, Nuh detached his son from school in Albania. At the age of nine in 1923, al-Albani and his family moved to Damascus, then under French occupied-Syria.

In Damascus, he was taught the Qur'an, the Hanafi, 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 known as the. He became known by the  ("the Albanian") only after he dropped out of school and began to write. Afterward, he studied the renowned Hanafi book of al-Shurunbulali  with his teacher, Sa'id al-Burhani.

He studied numerous books such as, also helped by native Syrian scholars. In the meantime, he earned a modest living as a carpenter before joining his father as a watchmaker.

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 al-Manar magazine founded by Muhammad Rashid Rida. Though he was taught by Muhammad Bahjat al-Baytar, 'Izz al din al tanoukhi,Shaykh Sa'id al-Burhani,Ibn al Baghi etc. he transcribed and commented 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. He followed this writing a series of lectures and books, as well as publishing articles in the al-Manar magazine. That work was the beginning of al-Albani's scholarly career, and for this book he became known in the scholarly circles of Damascus, and library allocated him a special room to carry out his research, and gave him a duplicate key of the library. After a while, he began teaching two lessons per week about doctrine, Fiqh and Hadith. His lessons were attended by students and university professors. He also 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, 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.

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. He was placed under house arrest more than once in the 1970s by the Ba'ath regime of Hafiz al-Asad. The Syrian government prisoned al-Albani of "promoting the  Salafi da'wa, which distorted Islam and confused Muslims."

At the foundation of the Islamic University of Madinah in 1961, al-Albani received an invitation to teach hadith either by Ibn Baz, the university's vice president, or by Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia. Shortly upon his arrival, al-Albani angered the Hanbali Scholars in Saudi Arabia, who did not like his anti-traditionalist stances in Muslim jurisprudence. They were alarmed by al-Albani's intellectual challenges to the ruling Hanbali school of law but were unable to challenge him openly due to his popularity. Al-Albani wrote a book supporting his view that the niqab, or full face-veil, was not a binding obligation upon Muslim women.

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 Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, and the United Kingdom. He moved a number of times between Syria and a couple of cities in Jordan. He also lived in the UAE. 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. 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. 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 schools of Islamic law 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. 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.

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'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. 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.

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".

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.

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. Al-Albani's descriptions for the performance of the Tahajjud and Taraweeh prayers deviated considerably from established practice.

Controversies
Al-Albani held a number of controversial views that ran counter to the wider Islamic consensus, and more specifically to Hanbali jurisprudence. These include:
 * his view that mihrabs – the niche found in mosques indicating the direction of Mecca – were bid'ah (innovation).
 * his view that it was permissible to pray in a mosque with one's shoes.
 * 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 view was also controversial within the Salafi movement.
 * his view that it is prohibited for women to wear gold bracelets.
 * his view that it was not necessary for women to cover their faces. 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)
 * his view that the Muslim ruler must be from the tribe of Quraysh.

Assessment and legacy
Al-Albani has been regarded as one of the leading Islamic scholars of the 20th-century. Al-Albani's revaluation of the 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.
 * 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:

"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."
 * 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").
 * Some American critics of al-Albani include the Sufi figures Nuh Keller and Hisham Kabbani.
 * Safar Al-Hawali criticized al-Albani for his "categorical condemnation of Taqlid" and his "radical hadith based revisionism".
 * The jihadist Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif considered al-Albani to be "wrapped in evil" and "not suitable to be a sheikh" for his alleged claim that Jihad is defined as forgiveness, education and prayer.

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.