Since we have been posting material about the contention that existed between the two great hadith scholars of the past century, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah and Shaykh Nasir al-Din al-Albani, and the rebuttal of Shaykh Abu Ghuddah was just posted recently, I thought it only fair to upload Shaykh Albani’s response as well.

Admittedly, Shaykh Albani’s response is harshly worded and speaks ill of his ability to separate emotional sentiment from academic writing. At the same time, it at least tells parts of the story of their rift from his perspective.

Personally, I feel that such matters should be left alone and should be understood under the context of the common rule of Jarh wa Ta’dil that the criticism of contemporaries should not be given much weight. At the same time, it is also a stern warning for us to avoid unnecessary polemics, as it inevitably leads to name-calling and unacademic, tangential argumentation.

Kashf al-Niqab ‘amma fi Kalimat Abi Ghudda min al-Abatil wa ‘l-Iftira’at