(1) Whoever claims that Shaykh al-Albani had no teachers is a liar, by the Lord of the Kaaba. (2) Some people criticize Shaykh al-Albani for possessing only a few ijazahs (scholarly licences), yet this is no fault, for in recent centuries ijazahs have become non-essential owing to the scarcity—indeed the near absence—of direct audition (samaʿ) with teachers, which is the very basis of such licences. The leading scholars of our age have not attached to ijazahs the same importance shown by earlier scholars who engaged in public recitation and listening. Among them are the two great imams ʿAbd al-Aziz ibn ʿAbd Allah Ibn Baz and Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin—may Allah have mercy on them—and the distinguished scholar Dr. ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Jibreen—may Allah preserve him. Most other contemporary shaykhs take the same view, and praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. I personally know people whose ijazahs far exceed one hundred, yet they deny for Allah what He has affirmed for Himself in His Book and what His Prophet affirmed for Him, and they espouse doctrines for which the Sharia provides no proof. Indeed, I know others who hold dozens of ijazahs with lofty chains of transmission but who say, “Allah is in every place.” Exalted is He, far above what they say (Quran 17:43). Thus, in our time the abundance of ijazahs proves nothing beyond the fact that they are merely a means of connection and a vestige of the practice of the early generations. Grantors of ijazahs today have grown lax: some endorse men who shave their beards or trail their garments below the ankles, and some even grant licences by telephone or correspondence without knowing the recipient or his circumstances. At the beginning of my pursuit of knowledge I was enamoured of collecting ijazahs; I amassed many of them from various lands with high chains. Yet, after lengthy travels spent obtaining those licences and listening to weak or fabricated musalsal narrations, I realized how little benefit they actually bring.