AN ASSOCIATE of Maḥmūd al-Ḥaddād, known as ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Bāshmīl, claimed that the Shaykhs of Madīnah, such as Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hādī (رحمه الله) were calling to a deviant political methodology in complete secrecy built upon the errors of Shaykh al-Albānī (رحمه الله). He accused them of being infiltrators, working on the inside for political objectives. He also claimed that they were following the ways of the Ikhwānīs by not making tabdīʿ of certain callers in Saudi Arabia. These Ḥaddādis had exaggeration in matters of tabdīʿ and tajrīḥ, aiming to incite discord and chaos within the ranks of Ahl al-Sunnah. To support their claims, they attached themselves to well-known scholars in Saudi because they opposed Shaykh al-Albānī in various issues, and they leveraged this attachment to attack Shaykh Rabīʿ and others. Bashmīl is from the first wave Ḥaddādīs of the 1990s, and even though Maḥmūd al-Ḥaddād is the origin, and he disappeared into obscurity after being expelled from Saudi, Bāshmīl became the main promulgator, spokesman and caller to the ideology. After them, came the second wave Ḥaddādīs in the 2000s such as Fāliḥ al-Ḥarbī, then Fawzī al-Baḥraynī and they carried on the methodology with their own infusions.

In his refutation of the Ḥaddādī, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Bāshmīl, Shaykh Rabīʿ bin Hadī (رحمه الله) said:^[1]

After this, Shaykh Rabīʿ provides just one notable example of many of the treachery of Bāshmīl in fabricating lies upon Imām al-Albānī. Shaykh Rabīʿ cites from a cassette recording from the Silsilah al-Hudā wal-Nūr series (no. 291), titled Iqtirān al-ʿIlm bil-Sayf (Pairing Knowledge with the Sword) in which Shaykh al-Albānī is asked about the “Wahhābīs” who do not send ṣalāt upon the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), do not visit his graves and about whom the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) made a prophecy, that Najd is the horn of the devil.

Shaykh Rabīʿ cites verbatim from the cassette over the next three and a half pages in which Shaykh al-Albānī describes the daʿwah of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (رحمه الله), calling to Tawḥīd and rectifying the people, how the Turks were intent on destroying this daʿwah, and how he was aided by Muḥammad bin Suʿūd. He went on to praise the daʿwah, and how it led to people being able to do Ḥajj in security, when the affair was not like that before when people had to fear for their lives.

After citing all of this Shaykh Rabīʿ says:

Shaykh Rabīʿ then asks, “Why all of this” and he provides the answer which is that this Ḥaddādī Bashmīl uses the attacks against Shaykh al-Albānī:

Notes

01  From the most notable and despicable traits of the Ḥaddādīs is academic dishonesty, treachery and clipping of speech, then committing oppression on the basis of this deception, as a means of inciting hatred, enmity and division among the people of the Sunnah. And Shaykh Rabīʿ saw it an obligation to aid the oppressed against these wicked actions of liars like ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Bāshmīl.

He stated that he would do this, even for a disbeliever, let alone a Salafī scholar.

In this instance, Bāshmīl deliberately concealed clear explicit speech from Shaykh al-Albānī in praise of Shaykh al-Islām Muḥammad bin ʿAbd al-Wahhāb and his daʿwah, while portraying him as the opposite. It’s a very obvious example of deliberate fabrication.

02  But why do Ḥaddādīs like Bāshmīl do things like this? Its because they have affectations with the aḥzāb, had political agendas, and were grieved that they would be undermined by the daʿwah of Shaykh al-Albānī, Shaykh Rabī and others, which is based on gathering people around the Book, the Sunnah and the way of the Salaf, and shunning all forms of partisanship and bigotry, whether to creeds, ideas, methodologies, shaykhs or figureheads.

03  So what Bashmīl intended was not the person of al-Albānī himself, but rather the Salafī daʿwah that Shaykh al-Albānī and Shaykh Rabīʿ were united upon, despite internal differences and the errors that Shaykh Rabīʿ considered al-Albānī to have fallen into in his views regarding seeking the aid of non-Muslims in war, issues of jurisprudence, and the issue of the one who reviles the religion or the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

04  Ḥaddādīs like Bāshmīl were driven by jealousy and revenge and also because they are averse to the clarity and purity of the Salafī methodology which hinders their activities of creating chaos and division in the daʿwah among others as a means of facilitating and hastening their own goals, that serve certain interests.

05  To this end, they bring the most outrageous of slanders and fabrications, in this case, accusing Shaykh al-Albānī of being a bitter enemy of the daʿwah of Tawḥīd of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, and likewise, claiming Shaykh Rabīʿ is an agent for a secretive political call centred around the opinions of Shaykh al-Albānī. These claims are not believed except by the dumbest of the dumb, may Allāh protect Ahl al-Sunnah from their likes.

06  Thus far in our series, we can summarise some of the traits of the Ḥaddādīs:

• Hate clarity (wuḍūḥ) because they operate in ambiguity and evasion
• Averse to evidence-based discussions
• Use diversionary tactics to divert from the foundational issues
• Exaggerate errors and slips of Ahl al-Sunnah and weaponise them
• Make rulings of unjust, unwarranted tabdīʿ
• Boycotting of those who do not accept these rulings
• Are lenient towards actual innovators, yet harsh and unforgiving towards Ahl al-Sunnah
• Have ties to political aḥzāb and sympathy, defence and praise of innovators
• Conspire against scholars through lying and treachery
• Call to taḥazzub and takattul with ghuluww around personalities
• Accuse others of what they are actually engaged in (Taḥazzub, Ḥaddādiyyah)
• Academic dishonesty, clipping and concealing speech
• Accuse their opponents of being plants and agents without a shred of evidence

May Allāh protect us and the daʿwah from their evils.

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Footnotes