"Sheikh" Muhammed Nasir ad-Din al-Albani, considered by most "Salafis" to be the biggest scholars of their sect (after the death of their Mufti), has issued a Fatwa few years ago saying that ALL Muslims in Palestine, Southern Lebanon, and the Golan Heights should leave their land in mass and go somewhere else. His proof was (and he is still clinging to it) that any Muslim land occupied by non-Muslims becomes a non-Muslim land. Thus, it is prohibited for any Muslims to keep living there.

When some people asked him, in mockery, that no country in the world would admit the whole Palestinian nation, even "Saudi Arabia," he said, "They might try to go to Sudan; it might admit them!!!"

For the record, Al-Albani is a self-declared scholar. Many have challenged him to produce a single ijaza given to him by any of his teachers (if he had any). He failed to do so up to this day. Al-Albani does not even just confine his heresies to the science of Hadith, in which his followers consider him "Muhaddith al-Asr." He issues many fatwas in almost all the Islamic sciences. Albani has a "commentary" on the Al-Aqidah at-Tahawiyya book of doctrine!!

The following is a translation of one of Shiekh Buti’s responses to al-Albani. Sheikh Buti is one of the top scholars in Syria:

[Taken from the book "Strife in Islam" (Al-Jihad fil Islam: Kayfa Nafhamuhu wa Kayfa Numarisuhu), by Dr. Muhammad Sa’id Ramadan al-Buti, 2^nd edition, Dar Al-Fikr, Damascus, Syria, 1997.]

"Sheikh" Nasir ad-Din al-Albani shocked the people, before several months, with a bizarre fatwa, at an extreme distance from the dictates of the Islamic Shari’ah, and in the most extreme contradiction  with the principles and rules of religion.

He decided publicly, and in front of all witnesses, that the all Muslims in the Occupied Land and the remaining Palestinians in it are obligated to leave wholly from the Land and leave it to the Jews, who transformed it, after their colonization of it, to a Dar-ul-Kufr (as he alleged)!

If it were not for the mass reporting of the news, and without the audio cassettes that mentioned this topic, in the voice of the "Sheikh," I would have found no way to believe it!

This is because the simplest student of Islamic knowledge knows what is established in all sources of Islamic Shari’a, that the Dar-ul-Islam stays, legally, a Dar-ul-Islam until the Day of Resurrection no matter to what extent the kafir, or enemy, went to, in order to spread corruption in it. And it is an obligation on the Muslims to bear the responsibility to cleanse it from the defilement and aggression. And regarding Abu Hanifah who opined the possibility of the return of Dar-ul-Islam into a Dur-ul-Kufr, conditioned for it that the Islamic sha’air […] be removed from it, and be replaced with the rules of Kufr, that no Muslim or thimmi [non-Muslim citizen] to remain in it secure with the original Islamic security, and that it be bordering a Dar-ul-Kufr or Dar-ul-Harb. It is well known that non of these three conditions exists in the Occupied Land, since the sha’air of Islam are still publicly existent in it, the Muslims in it enjoy the original Islamic security, and there is no Dar-ul-Kufr or Dar-ul-Harb on the confines of this Occupied Land, today.

But the Sheikh, who considers himself the "Muhaddith of this Age," broke this legal Ijma’, of which he has no knowledge. Then he announced before the people that Palestine was converted, with the favour of Israel, into a Dar-ul-Kufr and Dar-ul-Harb. Therefore, it is an obligation on all of its Muslim owners and citizens to abandon it!

And what is mysterious is that this suspected "Sheikh" (al-Shaikh al-Mashbuh), stayed silent about issuing this fatwa throughout all these long years. Not even any thing in the series of these bitter events that were inflicted upon this Land and its people reminded him of it. Until the light of the faithful Intifadha rose in the heart of this Occupied Land, and (Hamas) movement was established and a phenomenon of terror was spread out for it to the hearts and souls of the occupiers, [then] the Sheikh remembered this verdict, which he never was satisfied with except at this time. And he realized that the time came for him to publicize it with an explicit fatwa he publishes it in all media outlets. And [he finds] that the time has come, with the launching of this Intifadha and with it crossing many unexpected levels of success, for the poles of this Intifadha to be called, alongside the owners of the Land and the right (haqq), to depart from it, because it should be time for them to relieve Israel from the string of their annoyances and from the losses that had a toll on many of their resources!

Is it time for the, truly, suspected (Mashbooh) "Sheikh" to inform us about the secret behind his keeping of this fatwa behind his chest up to this day. And about his silence towards the sin of the remaining of Muslims in (Dar-ul-Kufr) until this day?!

And we thank Allah truly that there was not for the Sheikh nor for his null (Batila) fatwa an existence in the days in which the Syrians, Algerians, Egyptians, and Libyans were waging Jihad in their home countries, for the sake of cleansing them from the colonization and the aggression of the tyrants.

Then, it would have been an obligation on all these Muslims to depart from their counties – since they are characterized as Dar-ul-Kufr – a possession of their enemies. And we would have looked at it today and seen it a legal obtained right of these tyrants and occupiers. And who knows? This might be what the "Sheikh" prefers and likes.

[The ubove was what Dr. Buti wrote in the 1^st edition and reproduces in the 2^nd edition of his book. What follows is what he added in the 2^nd edition. Highlighting was done by the editor of this web site.]

And I say now, adding these lines to this [the above] commentary, in the new edition: we were waiting from this Sheikh to take back his false (batila) fatwa, considering that returning to the truth is a virtue. But he never recanted despite the rise of the whole world of Muslims against him because of it!

Also, few of the readers considered it inappropriate (kabira) that the "Sheikh" was described with the word, "Suspected" (mashbooh). But the meaning of this word is that the suspicions of indictment roamaround the one who issues such a fatwa with the collaboration with a foreign group, and [look] how big their number is in this time. So, there is no doubt that the suspicion of a charge is different from the charging itself and is different from the confirmation of treason too. Therefore there is no extremism in the word, and it is an accurate description of an exact reality.

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Copyright © 1996 Al Adaab: Living Islam According to the Minhaj of the True Salaf as Salihoon
Last modified: 08/29/06