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Imam al-Albani الْأَلْبَانِي

In review — pending scholar verification

The 20th-century master of hadith authentication — Muhammad Nāṣir ad-Dīn al-Albānī (1914–1999) — who re-graded the entire Sunan and many other hadith works using classical isnad-criticism methodology.

Overview

Muḥammad Nāṣir ad-Dīn al-Albānī (Arabic: مُحَمَّد نَاصِر الدِّين الْأَلْبَانِي; 1332–1420 AH / 1914–1999 CE) was the 20th century's foremost master of hadith authentication. He was born in Albania (hence the nisba al-Albānī), raised in Damascus, and spent his life in the Levant and Saudi Arabia. He re-graded the entire Sunan corpus and many other hadith works, applying classical isnad-criticism methodology to produce comprehensive grading volumes that are now standard reference for modern hadith study.

Major works

  • Silsilat al-Aḥādīth aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥah — eight volumes of authentic hadith.
  • Silsilat al-Aḥādīth aḍ-Ḍaʿīfah wa-l-Mawḍūʿah — fourteen volumes of weak and fabricated hadith.
  • Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Ḍaʿīf Sunan Abī Dāwūd, and parallel volumes for at-Tirmidhī, an-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah — the entire Sunan material re-graded.
  • Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl fī Takhrīj Aḥādīth Manār as-Sabīl — verifying every hadith in a Hanbali fiqh primer.
  • Ṣifat Ṣalāt an-Nabī ﷺ — "The Prophet's Prayer Described" — a foundational manual on prayer reconstructed entirely from authentic hadith.

Methodology

al-Albānī applied the classical sciences of jarḥ wa-taʿdīl (narrator criticism), ʿilal (concealed defects), and chain-comparison rigorously. He neither accepted nor rejected classical gradings without re-examination; he revisited every isnad. Where classical scholars had said ḥasan, he sometimes upgraded to ṣaḥīḥ or downgraded to ḍaʿīf based on additional witnesses or newly-examined defects.

Reception

al-Albānī's gradings are now cited universally — including by scholars who differ from him on juristic matters. Modern editions of the Sunan almost always include his gradings inline. His students include many of the foremost contemporary Salafī hadith scholars; his influence on global hadith literacy is enormous.

See also

References

  1. al-Albānī, Silsilat al-Aḥādīth aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥah (Maktabat al-Maʿārif).
  2. al-Albānī, Silsilat al-Aḥādīth aḍ-Ḍaʿīfah wa-l-Mawḍūʿah.
  3. al-Albānī, Ṣifat Ṣalāt an-Nabī ﷺ (Maktabat al-Maʿārif).
  4. Ibrāhīm al-ʿAlī, Muḥammad Nāṣir ad-Dīn al-Albānī: Muḥaddith al-ʿAṣr.