and how numerous are the expiatory acts mentioned in authentic hadiths, praise be to Allah. In this regard, al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar authored his well-known book on expiatory acts.

This subject is extremely broad in the Islamic law. Whoever is acquainted with it would not fall into the kind of ignorance displayed by this self-conceited man. Examples include Allah’s saying, “and the recitation at dawn,” meaning the dawn prayer; and His saying, “So recite what is easy of the Quran,” meaning: perform as much of the night prayer as is easy. There are many similar examples.

Of the same kind is the hadith cited above (764—“The family of So-and-so are not my close allies...”), for it is not to be understood without qualification. Al-Dawudi said:

“What is meant by this negation is those among them who did not embrace Islam.”

Al-Hafiz said afterward in al-Fath (10/420):

“That is, it is an instance of using the whole while intending a part. On this basis, the negation applies to the group as a whole, not to every individual among them.”

Some readers may object to my describing this author as “self-conceited.” I say: if he and those like him are not self-conceited, then no one in the world deserves this description. Listen to what he says after documenting the sources of this hadith (p. 36):

“Al-Hakim declared its chain of transmission authentic, and al-Dhahabi concurred with him. Ibn Hajar judged its chain good, and Shaykh Nasir al-Din al-Albani declared it authentic in al-Sahihah (959) on account of its multiple routes of transmission! Yet this hadith—even though most of its chains are unsound (1)—has a rejected text, because it contradicts the authentic hadiths ...” and so forth, as previously quoted from him.

Let us suppose, readers, that Shaykh al-Albani has no knowledge, in this self-conceited man’s view,