Shaikh al-Albaani in an overturned car

By Ahmed Abu Turaab

“Shaikh Ali Khashhaan, may Allaah protect him, in a piece he wrote entitled,‘The Aider of the Hadith and the Reviver of the Sunnah, Naasirud-Deen al-Albaani’, said, “So by Allaah!  My eyes have never seen–as far as I know-anyone who cared more about the Sunnah and aided it with greater vigour or followed it more than al-Albaani.  One time between Jeddah and Medinah an-Nabawiyyah [he had an accident] and his car overturned and the people present rushed to him saying, “O Sattaar!  O Sattaar! يا ستار!  ياستار [i.e., O Concealer, meaning Allaah].”  So the Aider of the Hadith, Shaikh al-Albaani says to them while he is under the overturned car, “Say, ‘O Sitteer [يا ستير]’ and don’t say, ‘O Sattaar [يا ستار], because al-Sattaar is not one of His Names, the Most High!”

And in the hadith there occurs, “إن الله ستير يحب الستر – Allaah is characterised by modesty and concealment [sitteer] and loves that people conceal themselves.”[1]

Have you seen anyone who aids the Sunnah and the Hadith in a situation such as this in this time of ours?!  Never!  Except for what has been related from the likes of Umar ibn al-Khattaab, may Allaah be pleased with him, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others from the Pious Predecessors of this nation.””

Taken from Juhoodul-Imaamil-Albaani, of Ahmad Saalih Hussain al-Jabboori, pp. 7-8

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[1] An authentic hadith reported by Abu Dawud (4012), an-Nisaaee (1/70), al-Baihaqi (1/198), by way of Zuhair from Abdul-Malik from Abu Sulaymaan al-Azrami from Ataa from Ya’laa, who said,“The Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, saw a man taking a shower in the bazaar without his lower garment on.  So the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, mounted the pulpit, praised Allaah and extolled him and then said, “Indeed Allaah is characterised by modesty and concealment, and He loves modesty and concealment.  So when one of you takes a shower let him conceal himself.” See Irwaaul-Ghaleel, no. 2335.