Sheikh was a renowned scholar and Muhadith who exerted his efforts to rid the religion from innovations and for the propagation of it’s hidden and forgotten elements.
He was born in the year 1914CE in the town of Ashkodera which was the capital of Albania at that times. His full name was Ash Sheikh Al Muhaddith Muhammad Nasiruddin bin Nooh Najaati bin Aadam, kunyah Abu Abdir Rahman and was called Arnaootiyy after his people, the people of Arnaoot who were given this name because they were immigrants of Syria then.
He belonged to a poor family, his father was a scholar and jurist of Hanafi Madhhab who migrated from Albani to Ash Sham to save his family’s religious values.
The sheikh was fair in complexion with no physical blemish and broad shoulders and a pace with which it was difficult for others to keep up. Sameer bin Ameen Az-Zuhairi writes about his intellectual insight,” As for his intellect he was brilliant such that one would be amazed of his brilliance and memory. Ash-Shiekh would be teaching a class and then break for prayer or food and when he finished, and returned to his seat, he would start off with the exact word he had paused on as if he never stood up.”
He learnt carpentry as a young boy but earned his income by learning the art of horology by working twice a week for three hours he was able to provide his family the bare necessities.
Afer comleting elementary studies, he studied under his father till the completion of Quran learning and recitation of Hafs an Asim. His other teacher during that time was Ash sheikh Muhammad Saeed Al Burhani. His passion for hadith started with the book of Imam Ghazali, Ihyaa al Uloomud Deen.He critically studied all of the ahadith in it.
His first criticisim came from his own father when he was expelled from home after writing a treatise against the innovatory practices of the time, but on realizing the deep knowledge the sheikh had, his father called him back home and used to ask him questions regarding the authenticity of saying etc.
At the age of 17 he did his first work in the field of hadith which was transcribing the book Al Mugi ‘ an haml il Asfaari fil Asfaari fii takhreeji maa fil Ihyaa minal Akhbaar by Hafidh Zayyainuddeen Al Iraaqee, adding notes to it from Gareeb il hadith of Ibn Atheer and other dictionaries. This work contained 2000 pages and three volumes.
He also verified and arranged the Ahadith in Mu’jamu as Sagheer in the book Ar Raodun Nadeer fii Tarteeb wat Takhreej Mu’jamu Tabraani by Imam sulaiman bin Ahmad At Tabarani around the same time. People started to come to him with religious questions as he became known as a student pf knowledge.
He used to attend discussion circles with scholars like Ash Sheikh Muhammad raagib At Atbaakh who also gave him a certificate to narrate knowledge from him but the sheikh did not content himself with that.
He was given a special room in the library by the library authorities considering the amount of time spent by him in the library. He wrote the catalogue index of the whole library and was able to identify some books with missing labels through there refrence in other books which opened the doors to research and further publication.
He developed the department of faculty of Hadith in Madinah university and through his efforts the university became the first institution where the science Ilmul Isnad was taught.
The shikh authored about 200books according to the compilations of Sameer bin AMeen and Ibrahim bin Muhammad al aliyy,some of his works consisted of 40 volumes while most were more the three volumes. One of his students had over 6000 lecture cassesttes of the sheikh.
When he was unable to write he dictated his work to his children who wrote it for him. In the last decade of his life he used to teach in Amman for 6 hours and go on dawah as well.He visited any countries during dawah journey like Kuwait, Egypt, morocco, UAE, England, France, Germany.
His variety of activities and activeness in life shows us how wisely he used time and how good he was at time management, a quality most of us struggle with now a days.
He was steadfast and extremely patient during his research. Once he went through 10,000 works just to find 4 missing pages of a book. He went through all the volumes in the Zaahiryyah library thrice, deepening his study with each time which ended with the documentation of 40 volume hadith work with 400 pages in each which became the source of information for the rest of his work.
As mentioned before the sheikh did a lot of work in hadith sciences but four of his publications were more dear to him than others, he said, “Four out of all my books are dearest to me, ost beneficial (in terms of how elaborate and all encompassing the discussions in them are)and most attractive to the mind and they are: The two silsilah, Irwa ul Galeel and Saheeh Sunan Abi Dawud that I regularly refer to.”
Silsilatus Saheehah wa Da’eefah is a compilation of two silsilas, one mentions all the saheeh ahadith along with their rulings and source while other mentions all the daeef ahadith for the purpose of purification of religion while his Irwa ul galeek is a work on the verification of ahadith in the hanbali fiqh book MAnaraarus Sabeel. It also contains notes on the jurisprudential deductions in the book.
Some of hisother prominent works include Sifatus Salaatun Nabiyy, Tahreem Aalaatut tarb, Adhdhahabbul Ahmad, Saheeh Sunan Al Arba’a wa da’eefuhaa in which the sheikh verified the ahadith of the four books Sunan Abu Dawud, Tiemidhi, Nasaai, Ibn Majah and seperates the authentic ahadith from the weak ones, Gaayatul Maraam fuu takhreeji Ahadith il Halaal wal Haraam is a book which discusses the verification and categorization of ahadith in the book Al Halaal wal haraam, Ahkamu janaaiz, tahdheerus Saajid min Ittikhaadhi Quboori Masajid.
Adhdhahabbul Ahmad ‘an Musnad imam Ahmad which was written on the request of Abdul Azeez Bin Baaz in response to the objections of Abdul Quddus Al Haashimiyy.
His knowledge was coupled with action, he was a devout worshipper along with being a scholar. He fasted on Monday and Thursday regularly except for when he was travelling or sick, He performed Hajj and umrah every year when ever he was able, he always performed tahhiyatul masjid.
The sheikh never turned down any request of donation made to him and he always helped the poor and the needy, his fatwas were free from influence of the affluent ones as he avoided there company, he considered himself a student of knowledge and not a scholar. He used to visit his students specially for educational purposes. He would say I don’t know to any question or I will discuss and get back to you if he didn’t know the answer.
He was a frequent weeper specially on the recitation of Quran or Hadith with athreat or a promise. Sameer bin Al Ameen wrote,” Severally would Ash Sheikh Al Albani wept whenever he quoted the hadith of the Prophet s.a.w where he said…..’the first of those to be used as fuel for the fire……’
The sheikh had very good relations with other scholars and students of knowledge, scholars said good words about him, As sheikh Abdullah bin Baaz said about him ,”Amongst our well known , noble, trustworthy and dependable brothers is our companion his eminence Ash sheikh Muhammad nasiruddin Al Albani. He defiantly is one of thereformes of the century”. Ash Sheikh Muhammad bin salih Al Uthaimeen said about him,” And with regard to critical scholastic analysis then he is sufficient for you.”
But where there are friends there are bound to be enemies, he was questioned by the Director in Charge of security matters of ash Shaam on the complain of some soofi Shieks, he was imprisoned in 1969 and in lebnon an attempt on his life was made by shooting bullets at his car which left him and his family no harm.
According to the Sheikh whenever a weak hadith is quoted it should be mentioned that it is weak, moreover it should not be acted upon. He also said that there is no harm in calling one self salafi. He held the same opinion as the great four imams that if you abandon the saying of the imam to follow an authentic hadith you will be on the straight path.
Thus Sheikh Albani was a noble muhadith and faqeeh whose life was filled with hard work and dedication for his religion. He had thirteen children and he passed away on 2nd October 1999 in Jordan after Asr prayer before sunset. He was 88 years old at that time.
I have learned a great deal from his life, what has inspired me most is his detail research habits and the simplicity of his profession: Watch repair. Thus anyone can do anything and what profession they have should not become a hindrance in religious achievements.
