Chapter Three: The Shaykh’s Articles
[An Introduction to the Shaykh’s Articles]

Periodicals in the Arab world began on a promising footing and soon attracted the finest writers and men of letters of the day, especially in Egypt and the Levant. Among the first of those writers were:
• Ahmad Hasan al-Zayyat, founder of al-Risalah;
• Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib, founder of al-Fath;
• Muhammad Rashid Rida, founder of al-Manar—may Allah have mercy on them all.
That was in Egypt.

As for Damascus, it produced the distinguished scholar Ahmad Mazhar al-Azmah—may Allah have mercy on him—who founded the journal al-Tamaddun al-Islami (1). From Damascus also came the journals al-Muslimun (2) and al-Shihab.

In Jordan the magazine al-Ra’y al-Dini likewise rose to prominence.

Sensing the importance of writing for such Islamic periodicals, the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—made his mark in them. He began contributing to these journals, and the very first article he wrote was “The Obligation of Acquiring Juristic Insight into Hadith,” which will appear in its proper place.

He then continued writing in various modes. Any article he produced would be either:
• an initial exposition reviving a neglected Sunnah;
• a clarification of the ruling on a hadith commonly quoted by the people;
• a discussion of an important issue;
• a rebuttal of a previous article; or
• a defense of a position he considered stronger, replying to those who criticized it.

Not one of the Shaykh’s articles is devoid of scholarly benefit, especially in matters related to hadith science.

Yet the years passed, those journals vanished, and the Shaykh’s articles became a dream hard to realize, for the issues of those magazines were now far from the hands of readers.

Later I came across a book entitled Maqālāt al-Albani, compiled by our brother Nūr al-Din Ṭālib, on the cover of which he wrote: “A collection published here for the first time.”