Da'eef is YOU! - Shaykh Abdullah al-Ghudayan rahimahullah

Da'eef is YOU! - Shaykh Abdullah al-Ghudayan rahimahullah

by أبو يوسف آل أحمد البنغالى on Monday, June 7, 2010 at 12:46am

This is a small incident with a big lesson, involving Shaykh 'Abdullah al-Ghudyan that our Shaykh Muhammad al-Maliki hafidhahullah mentioned in one of his Friday lessons only few weeks back. I don't have the audio reference but it is probably available in Shaykh al-Maliki's official site: www.ilmforall.net and so this note is more from my memory, I seek Allah's forgiveness if there is any error in transmission.

 

'Abdullaah al-Ghudyaan was the Shaykh, the 'Allamah, the Faqeeh, a Mujtahid 'Aalim from the 'Ulamaa of Ahlus Sunnah. May Allaah have mercy on his soul and make things easy for him in his grave. A brief biography of him can be read from: http://www.fatwa-online.com/scholarsbiographies/15thcentury/ibnghudayyaan.htm

 

Narrated 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As, that the Prophet of our Lord, peace and blessings be on him, said: "Allah does not take away knowledge (of religion) by taking it away from (the hearts of the) slaves, but He takes it (knowledge of deen) through the death of the Scholars ('Ulama) till no Scholar remains; then people will take as their leaders ignorant people who, when consulted, will give verdicts (and opinions) without knowledge. So, they (the ignorant people asked) will go astray and will lead the people (asking) astray." (Saheeh al-Bukhari and Saheeh Muslim)

 

How is it that the Ummah of Rasool Allaah sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam makes comments such as "I like listening to Imam Anwar al-Awlaki", "I increase my knowledge of deen by listening to the lectures of Imam Anwar al-Awlaki", etc while they do not even know or value the status and virtue and knowledge of the Scholars, the Imams of the Ummah, and Shaykh Abdullah al-Ghudyan rahimahullah was from the most senior and respected Scholars of our times. To Allah is our complaint.

 

This is not to show any extremism towards the Shaykh, rahimahullah, despite his virtue and knowledge. Nor to say he was free from making errors in his speeches and actions. Laa.

 

Shaykh al-Maliki narrated:

Shaykh 'Abdullah al-Ghudayan came for a conference in Jeddah, KSA in recent times. In his dars, the Shaykh quoted a hadeeth and at that particular time a young person from the audience interrupted the Shaykh abruptly and said "the hadeeth is da'eef" meaning the hadeeth is weak. So the Shaykh rahimahullah replied, "Da'eef is YOU!"

 

Shaykh al-Maliki went on to explain that it is not from the etiquette of a Student of Knowledge to behave and speak in such a manner, while being insensitive about the time, place and people. Perhaps the person read it from Imam al-Albanee rahimahullah that the hadeeth has defect, but Imam al-Albanee also changed his positions and views on hadeeths whenever stronger evidence contrary to his earlier postion was clarified infront of him. And there are hadeeths on which there is ikhtilaaf (difference of opinion) within the Scholars of Hadeeth, which a Taalibul 'Ilm is unlikely to be aware of.

 

So the Shaykh Abdullah al-Ghudayan rahimahullah put the person in his proper place by saying that the weak one is the person himself. We could all learn some lesson from this, as many brothers and even sisters, continue to behave insensitively and arrogantly to the verdicts and opinions of the 'Ulamaa, while clinging onto a specific position in the pretense of having knowledge. That was for a Talibul 'Ilm, so how about the general masses, the laymen?