One of the eldest and wisest of the ʿUlamāʾ, al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Banná begins by delivering a short and concise admonition on manhaj and the science of jarḥ wa-al-taʿdīl (Counterbalancing good and bad points in critique). The noble Shaykh explains how religion has not only been carried upon this great science but furthermore how the callers to innovation have been clarified and exposed, and the true methodology has been made manifestly clear. Shaykh Muḥammad Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb speaks about the mouthpiece of innovation in this past century, Sayyid Qutb, before fielding questions regarding the ḥizbī, Muḥammad al-Jibālī.

The Questions:

[Q1] Muḥammad al-Jibālī in America wrote an email recently on the 14th of April, in which he said, “the likes of Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ibn Bāz, Shaykh Ibn al-‘Uthaymīn and Shaykh al-Albānī were not known as Kibār (major scholars) until after their deaths.” What do you say about this?

[Q2] Muḥammad al-Jibālī continues to say (in his email), “the likes of al-ʿAllāmah Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān, al-muftī, Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ālush-Shaykh, Shaykh Rabīʿ Ibn Hādī, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Abbaad and Shaykh ʿʿUbayd al-Jābirī, none of them hold great status, especially the last one”?

[Q3] [Cut off] …Only one area of Islām, jarḥ wa-al-taʿdīl, nothing else?

[Q4] It is stated that Muḥammad al-Jibālī has said “it is not from the way of the salaf to label people with one-word labels (i.e. liar, weak etc.)?”

[Q5] Muḥammad al-Jibālī, after he has spoken about the ‘Ulamāʾ in this (derogatory) way, has spoken about Adnan Arʿūr (in a praiseworthy manner) and he states that Imām ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ibn Bāz has praised him (Arʿūr)?

[Q6] We know the famous ḥadīth, one of the signs of the hour that knowledge will be taken from the ignorant ones, some people say we must follow the kibār al-ʿulamāʾ and some people say we can follow the students of the ʿUlamāʾ, what is the reality in this regard?