Salafi Dawah and its Awakening in the 21^st Century

By Ash-Shaykh Abu Abdur Rahman Yahya Silmy As-Saylani (حفظه الله) (Dawrah Conducted in Tamil language)

Session-02: Contribution of Imam us sunnah, Al-Muhaddith, Shaykh Muhammed Naasiruddin Al Albani (رحمه الله)

Rabi al-Awwal 10, 1446

Sept 14, 2024

Listen to the Dawrah Session by Clicking this Link

Beneficial references and notes:

Shaykh As Saylani (حفظه الله) begins the lecture with Khutathul Hajah.

إنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ، وَنَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلاَ مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلاَ هَادِىَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لاَ شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا

يَاأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلاً سَدِيدًا يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمً. أَمَّا بَعْدُ

فَإِنَّ خَيْرَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللهِ، وَخَيْرَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم، وَشَرَّ الأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا، وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلاَلَةٌ، وَكُلَّ ضَلاَلَةٍ فِى النَّارِ

English meaning of the Khutbathul Hajah:

All praise is due to Allah. We praise him, we seek His help, we seek His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil within ourselves and our evil deeds. Whoever Allah guides, there is none to misguide him. Whoever Allah leads astray, there is none to guide him. I testify there is none worthy to be worshipped but Allah alone, without any partners, and that Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is His servant and His messenger.

Allah Almighty said, “O you who have faith, fear Allah as it is His right to be feared and do not die unless you are Muslims,” (3:102)

And Allah Almighty said, “Fear Allah, from whom you ask each other, and in your family ties, for Allah is ever watchful over you,” (4:1)

And Allah Almighty said, “Fear Allah and speak words as befitting. He will amend your deeds for you and forgive your sins. Whoever obeys Allah and His messenger has achieved a great triumph.” (33:70-71)

The truest word is the Book of Allah and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. The most evil matters are those that are newly invented, for every newly invented matter is an innovation. Every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Hellfire.

From the major contributions to the salafi dawah and its awakening in the 21^st century, in every part of the globe, with the consensus of the Ahlul Ilm (people of knowledge) is that of the contributions of Al-Imam, Ash-Shaykh, Al-Muhaddith Muhammad Naasiruddin Al Albani (رحمه الله).

Allah blessed him to establish the sunnah, to give victory to sunnah, to bring the knowledge of sunnah and its treasures that were left by the ummah.

Earlier to that, in the 20^th century, Shaykh Ul Islam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab (رحمه الله) strived and revived the pure teachings of Tauheed, Aqidah and many other Ulemas have also contributed. May Allah have mercy on them all. None can deny their efforts. Shaykh’s clarification to people on shirk, his book Kitab At Tauhid and many other tremendous works opened the eyes of many people and guided all of us.

In our era, Ash-Shaykh Albani’s contribution to the knowledge of hadees and its sciences, hidden treasures from the books of sunnah which the world had not seen for more than 700 years were brought out to light. Shaykh directly read those books, manuscripts from the library of Zaahiriyyah, understood the evidences, verified its isnad(chain of narration) and introduced the light of knowledge of the Sunnah to the Ummah.

1. Hyderabad library, India (many of its Islamic resources are lost or damaged due to political and many other reasons)

2. Makthabathu Iskanderia, Cairo

3. Zaahiriyyah, Damascus (Syria)

These are the three most major libraries of Islamic books in the world.

Allah blessed our Shaykh with a life to revive the sunnah. He spent large portion of his life with books, manuscripts in the library. One of the important work of his, is Silsilathu Ahadees As Saheeha, Silsilathu Ahadees Adh Dhaeefah.

A book recording the authentic hadees with its sanad, its verification, its narrators, its fiqh is known as Silsilathu ahadees as saheehah by the noble shaykh. One of its kind in the history of this ummah.

Similarly, Silsilathu ahadees adh dhaeefah wa mawdu’ah is a great work clarifying the weak, fabricated narrations with all its sanad, narrators which guided many scholars and students.

In this era, We cannot find hadees books on the face of the earth better to these books of our noble Shaykh Albani (رحمه الله)

Sunnah is our guidance, way in all the chapters of deen, creed, manners, etc. Therefore, all the scholars of this ummah gave outmost importance to the Ilmul hadees. Preservation of sunnah(islam) is by holding onto Ilmul hadees. Studying it, is the way to progress as it is evident from our history.

Wherever, whenever this knowledge of hadees were given its rights, were studied keenly, pure teachings of the religion of Allah rose in the society. And we have witnessed Whenever people went away from the Ilmul hadees, ummah went far away from the guidance of islam.

All our scholars showed great importance to this department of hadees in order the preserve the sunnah, follow it and call people to the pure teachings of our prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

Meaning of the statements of the Salaf about the Ashaabul Hadees:

Imam Ad Daraqutni (رحمه الله) said: People who gave most salawaat on rasoolullah were those people of the ilmul hadees.

Na’eem al asbahanee said, as Khateeb al baghdadee said, this is a great virtue. We do not know anyone who gave more salawaat on our rasool than this people of hadees who preserve, narrate the guidance, the sunnah.

Statements of Imam Abu yaman ibn Asakir, Imam ibn Mubarak, imam ibn Sirin, Imam Dawood bin Ali, Imam Ahmed bin hanbal, Imam Sufyan Ath thawree, Saeed bin yahya al qataan, haakim an naishapoori, Umar bin abdul aziz about ashaabul hadees were read in the lecture.

Imam Abdullah ibn Mubarak said: Isnad is from deen.

(Muqaddimah of sahih muslim)

From the sayings of the scholars(Salaf): Those who do not know the sahih and dha’eef are not from the scholars.

From the sayings of the scholars(Salaf): Every religion has its men, brave men of this religion of Islam is the people of hadees.

Hadees:

عَنْ أَبِي أُمَامَةَ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ لَا تَزَالُ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْ أُمَّتِي عَلَى الدِّينِ ظَاهِرِينَ لَعَدُوِّهِمْ قَاهِرِينَ لَا يَضُرُّهُمْ مَنْ خَالَفَهُمْ إِلَّا مَا أَصَابَهُمْ مِنْ لَأْوَاءَ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَهُمْ أَمْرُ اللهِ وَهُمْ كَذَلِكَ

22320 مسند أحمد

Abu Umamah (رضي الله عنه) reported: The Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم), said:

“A group of my nation will continue to be victorious upon the religion, overpowering their enemies. None who oppose them will harm them, except what afflicts them of difficult circumstances, until Allah brings his command while they are like so.”

(Musnad Aḥmad 22320)

Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal (d.241H) said about the Victorious Group:

“If the Victorious Group are not the” Ashaabul Hadeeth” then I don’t know who are they”

(Ma’rifatu Uloom Ul Hadeeth Lil Haakim pg 2, Fath ul Baari 13/250).

For us, to taste the guidance of sunnah, knowledge of hadees, ulemas contributed greatly, giving their life. When the ummah, majority of them were immersed in the madhabs, our noble imam bravely came up with the treasures of Ilmul hadees, Muhammad Naseeruddin al albani (رحمه الله).

In this session, Shaykh yahya as saylani (حفظه الله) wished to highlight about the awakening of sunnah by the noble imam that the ummah has to understand. He said: Biography of the Imam and other details are available for people to know, that is not what I wanted to discuss here.

People should open their hearts and ask to themselves! Who is the reason behind the authentic hadees that they read today?

It is none other than Imam as sunnah, ash-shaykh Muhammed Naseeruddin al albani, his contributions such as silsilathu ahadees as saheehah, silsilath ahadees ad daeefah wa mawdu’ah, Irwa ul ghaleel fii takhreej il Ahadeethi Manaarus Sabeel, etc. By this, he guided us from the misguidance of madhab fiqh to the light & guidance of fiqh of “ala ma kana alaihi wa ashabi”(upon what rasoolullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and his companions were on). In his time period, when ulemas argued with their knowledge & understanding, giving victory to madhab, Ash-Shaykh al albani, despite attacks, punishments, strived to establish sunnah. He responded in all matters with the hadees an nabawiyyah and fahm us sahabah(understanding of sahabah).

From most important works in this regard is, Sifat us salatun nabi, purely based on authentic narrations describing the prayer of our prophet, book on marriage Adaab As Sifaaf, Sharh Aqidathu Tahawiyyah(tahqeeq) with great benefits guiding to creed of Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah, Jaami As Sagheer Wa Siyadathuhum, Irwa Ul Galeel Sharh (Manarus Sabeel of Ibn Duwayaan) clarifying the blindness of Hanbali madhab views. Sunan books into Sahih Sunnans, Mukhthasar Sahih Buhari are some of important works of our shaykh.

His students, who strived upon the path of sunnah,

Shaykh Hamdi Abdul Majeed as salafi – a muhaqiq, worked on Mujaam al Kabeer at tabarani(worked in bringing this book from manuscripts to print), Badr al muneer’s khulasa(tahqeeq of ibn mulaqih), tahqeeq on book of zarqashi’s hadees compilation, exposing the sufi views in tahqiq of fathul Wahab-muhadith ahmed ibn siddiq al ghumari, tahqiq of bayanul wahb of saeed al qahtaan, tahreej of ahadees book of abdul kadhir al baghdadee, ibn mulakkih. He brought out 27 books of hadees from its manuscript form to print for the benefit of this ummah.

Shaykh Abdur Rahman Abdul Khaliq was also a student of shaykh Al Albani but later deviated from Salafi path, joined with ikhwanis, ihya ath turath al Islami, Kuwait.

Dar at Tauheed, Sri Lanka is also upon the deviated path of ihya ath turath spreading ikhwanism. None can deny this fact.

Similarly Umar Sulaiman also deviated from the Salafi path.

Ustadh Shaykh Khairuddin al waanili, a poet, contributed to the salafi dawah in dimasq.

Shaykh Muhammed Eid Abbasi was from the senior students of shaykh albani, strived upon salafiyyah despite attacks.

Shaykh Abdur Rahman Abdus samad was also from his students.

From his many students, one of significant students was Ash-Shaykh Muqbil bin hadee (رحمه الله). Shaykh Muqbil contributed in spreading salafi manhaj, ilmul hadees in the land of yemen. Allah blessed him with great success.

Shaykh Yahya Silmy As Saylani directly heard from Shaykh Abu Layl al atharee (رحمه الله) that shaykh albani’s lessons were attended by more than 700 students. And there used to be all sorts of people, ahlus sunnah, ahlul bidah, hizbis, etc. But shaykh’s majlis was unavoidable in order to understand hadees, isnad, pure salafi fiqh and related knowledge.

Arabs and non-arabs, all benefitted from the contribution of Shaykh albani in being reminded of the sunnah in all matters of deen.

In every part of this globe, when you find people seeking truth, they will have shaykh albani’s books and references.

As much as his works influenced people in realising the truth, slanders, attacks and plots on him were also at the same level. It never decreased even till this day.

The most important enemy of the grave worshippers, madhabis, hizbis was Imam Albani. His works and contributions put an end to their deviated views.

Imam us sunnah, Al Albani guided us to the understanding of pure sunnah as it was clear at the time of sahabah through the Ilmul hadees.

Influence of the Dawah of Imam Albani

Islamic universities in KSA instructed students to submit thesis on the works of the salaf scholars in order to verify it and bring out to the ummah. This approach is to be well appreciated. Through it, manuscripts and other works will come out. Important work that came out because of these efforts is the book Sharh Usul I’thiq’aad ahlus sunnah of Imam lalika’e. Imam Albani played an important role in directing people of knowledge towards this matter as he established evidences from manuscripts, students and scholars had to go to those books to attain the knowledge.

He acted upon what he preached and explained it as FIQH UL ISLAM AS SALAFI. Pure fiqh according to the understanding of salaf not based intellect and logic. For example, taleeq rowdathun Nadiya(siddiq hasan khan) and others.

People were studying the views of four major madhabs in the subject of fiqh. After studying the works of albani, people started discussing about various hadees, its meaning, its sanad instead of madhab views.

Discussions of fuqaha based on madhabs changed into discussion of whether a particular matter was part of the religion during the sahabah and tabieen. This change in direction of dawah was due to the influence of dawah of Shaykh Albani. He spread the light of guidance, knowledge of sunnah. He did not plan for us. His approach was to study the Ilmus sunnah, follow the sunnah, cultivate himself upon it, obligated himself to the preservation of sunnah in words and deeds.

“Sunnah will only save us from the darkness of misguidance, fitnah and show us the path of success, path of knowledge, path of Jannah. Knowledge of islam, knowledge of sunnah, the straight path is an Amanah, we must stick to it, we must ask for it, we must preserve it following the likes of this noble imam. Stubborn has no good, taqlid had no good, all good is in sunnah”

Mu’awiyah (رضي الله عنه) reported: The Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم), said,

“To whomever Allah wills goodness, He grants him understanding of the religion.”

Sahih Al-Bukhari 71, Ṣahih Muslim 1037;

Muttafaqun Alayhi (authenticity agreed upon) according to Al-Bukhari and Muslim

Foremost reason for the progress of salafiyyah in this century, is our noble imam Muhammad Naseeruddin al albani(by the permission and blessings of Allah). At the same time, other Ahlul Ilmi wal fadl(people of knowledge and virtues) also have given their contributions as well. May Allah reward them all.

We must be thankful to Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) for this blessed knowledge of sunnah and in knowing the people of knowledge. We must preserve the blessings, we must doubt ourselves on our sincerity and duties towards sunnah, its scholars and strive in the straight path.

Know your enemy, shaytaan.

Let us strive to be sincere muslims, muhliseen.

Comment from a brother upon hearing this lecture: “I have realised from this lecture that we are far away from realising the efforts of scholars, understanding their books and depth of their knowledge. May Allah bless our Ash-Shaykh Yahya Silmy As Saylani (حفظه الله). He is a blessing to the Tamil world. All his statements in this lecture are golden words guiding us to sunnah, knowledge of Hadees and path of scholars. Barakallahu feekum."

Salafi Dawah and its Awakening in the 21st Century - Notes 2