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Life of Shaykh Abd Al-Azeez ibn Baaz

[May Allaah have Mercy on him]

By Shaykh Fahad ibn Sulaymaan al-Fuhayd

[May Allaah preserve him]

Talk given at Masjid al-Furqaan, Leicester

5 Shabaan 1432 – 6^th July 2011

Whilst studying we would often wait for the Shaykh to talk but there would be a pause or a gap and we would find the Shaykh often crying and this would make us question ourselves. We used to think why are our hearts so hard? Why is it that our hearts aren’t effected the way his is?

 All praises are due to Allaah and may the Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon His Messenger

The Shaykh’s life has been beneficial from time of his youth until he died. His actions were full of Ikhlaas and truthfulness, and Allaah Knows him better than us, but he would do so much good for people and not ask for thanks or reward from anyone. Also, anyone who came into contact with the Shaykh would find him to be very humble, even though he was a great alim and that the sciences of the Shariah were made easy for him by Allaah to understand. The shaykh was extremely generous and was very careful as to not harm anyone’s feelings or physically harm them. The Shaykh was hygienic and would apply perfume to smell nice, trim his moustache and be careful to make sure he is well presented in his appearance. In his house and gatherings Oud would be burnt as incense at least once a day.

His clothes were in line with the Sunnah even though he held a very high position, never failing to make sure his clothes were above the ankle, as he held the opinion that it was haram for it to fall below his ankles. With this, it is well known that some scholars held the opinion that the outer jacket worn in Arabic culture above the Thobe known as the Bisht [the long coloured jacket with the gold trimmings] was not under the command to be kept above the ankles and this is customarily known in Saudi Arabia, but the Shaykh held it to be part of the command and was careful to make sure it didn’t fall below his ankles.

Once he was given a Bisht as a gift which was long and the blind Shaykh wasn’t aware of it so he wore it without knowing, at this he commanded it to be shortened even though it wasn’t seen as something wrong in the culture.

From the great manners and morals of the Shaykh, he was very hospitable and generous to people and was always careful that there was no harm being spread in his life or in his house. He was especially kind to the poor and once a poor person in his house was insulted by a servant in his house, so the Shaykh at this became very upset and removed the servant from this position. There was a not a single day that the Shaykh didn’t have guests, they would come daily to eat as the Shaykh hated to eat alone [Shaykh Fahad described the sitting area in the Shaykh’s house as being very big showing that the number of guests were huge on a daily basis].

I also saw the Shaykh was very staunch in following the Sunnah. The Shaykh had great desire in following the Sunnah and would encourage this.

The Shaykh was also very good to those who did good to him. Furthermore he would fulfil his responsibilities that were placed on him such as commands from the rulers and especially the scholars he learned from. For example, he studied under the then Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim aal ash-Shaykh for ten years and whenever the Shaykh was mentioned in front of Ibn Baaz he would always praise him and ask Allah to have mercy on him and at times he would cry and remember the amount of good that he did for him. Shaykh Abd Al-Azeez ibn Baaz would often say, “If it wasn’t for Allaah and then Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim then Ibn Baaz would come and go”, meaning he would be insignificant. This is imitating the statement of Imaam adh-Dhahabi narrated from Imaam Muslim when praising Imaam Bukhaari. This shows that the Shaykh was dutiful and greatful for all the favours he received from the scholars and all those who did good for him. He would often talk about them and praise in front of others and pray for them.

This noble Shaykh was very stern in remembering Allah and he would do this a lot. He would never leave the morning and evening adhkaar that are prescribed, to the extent in the morning after Fajr he would make his students wait for around 20 minutes so that he could finish off his morning adhkaar with humility. He would make them wait habitually and would encourage his students to do these adhkaar as well. If there was a pause during the lessons we would have with him, we would always hear him do some sort of adhkaar, such as saying Subhaanallah, Al-Humdulilallah, laa illaaha ila Allah. This also extended to other places where he may have been such as his house or in the car etc. when he would hear the muatdhin doing the Adhaan he would stop everything and repeat after him and then finish off with the Dua’a. Once it happened that people had phoned him for some questions and the Shaykh heard the Adhaan and he told them to stop, he said that he couldn’t continue as the Adhaan was going on and he wanted to use this time to repeat after the muatdhin. He would repeat after the muatdhin even if it meant that he didn’t go to the bathroom, if he needed it go he would wait and do the Ahdkaar and then go in once the Adhaan has finished.

Once the Shaykh was very sick towards in the end of his life and he was in the hospital. Whilst in hospital he was at times unconscious. Once when he was conscious he wanted to pray the obligatory prayer in the masjid despite being very ill. So he went to the masjid of the hospital and prayed there. The Shaykh, despite being very ill, insisted that he speak to the people and advise them after the Salah and during this admonished he advised the people to say laa illaha illa Allah Wahdahu la Shareeka Lahu wa lahu hamd wa huwa ala kulli shayin qadeer, whoever says this hundred times a day then a hundred good deeds will be written and hundred sins removed and it will be a protection against Shaytan and no one will be better than him except one who did more than him, this was narrated by Bukhaari under the authority of Abu Hurayrah.

When the Shaykh used to eat he would implement the Sunnah, starting with Bismillah, drinking three times and not breathe into the cup. Also if had to pass something on he would do it with the right to the right and would lick his fingers after eating. And when he would travel he would pray two Rakah prayer in his local masjid on return, following the Sunnah, an act of Sunnah that seems to be forgotten today.

The Shaykh, Abd Al-Azeez Ibn Baaz, when he was younger was a qaadi in a village called Dulum near Riyadh. He was an imam and would give duroos, answer questions and give khutbah. He would seek to create unity in the community there and reconcile conflicts that would arise. He would seek ways to help the poor there and the students of knowledge, feeding them and giving them a place to stay. He would help the people in every way he could and the people welcomed him and grew attached to him even though he wasn’t there for very long. He had great concern for the welfare of the people there, especially the students of knowledge, and with his relationship with the rulers he was able to bring about great change there for the better. He was also able to change the mind set of the people there and created an educational environment by bring many hufaadh of the Quran there to teach the Quran. He did all this whilst himself being very needy, he had a lot of debts yet he was always thinking about others.

The Shaykh was very strict as well on praying Salaah in the masjid in congregation. Once it happened that a brother had a meeting with the Shaykh after Fajr. So the brother went and prayed and waited and didn’t see the Shaykh so he went to the Shaykh’s house and woke him up. It was a habit of the Shaykh to pray Tahajjud for a full hour every night so it happened that he Shaykh had a long day and despite this prayed the night prayer and may have been a cause for him missing the prayer the Shaykh was very upset that he missed the prayer in congregation and told the brother that it was the first time he had ever missed the prayer in congregation in his life. After telling him this he told the brother the hadith of the prophet when he missed the prayer, the prophet told the group to move to a different place as they had missed the prayer as they were inflicted by the Shaytan during the battle of Khaybar, so he went to another place and prayed the prayer. This shows how important it was for him to pray in congregation. In fact he once wrote a letter to advise people because he had a group of people in a place weren’t praying in congregation habitually. So he wrote them a detailed letter with evidences advising them they should pray in congregation and that it was obligatory on them. From the evidences he stated the ayah

“And Bow with those who Bow”

Here this Ayah shows that Allaah is commanding the believer to be united and congregated when bowing, so it shows that the command to prayer in congregation is obligatory.

This is also known by the acts and statements of the prophets, companions and the Salaf. The Shaykh in this letter also brought many benefits as to why we pray in congregation as it helps protect the religion and to make it stronger, it creates unity and knowing each other and incites people to cooperate in doing good, it teaches the ignorant, it dispels the label of hypocrisy, advising one another in doing good and having Subr, to mix and benefit to others and to clearly displaying the signs of Islam and illustrating the oneness of Allah etc.

So I advise you all to attend the masjid in congregation prayer as much as possible because of the above and it will make you stronger and protected.

All the statements of the Shaykh were filled with advice for the people. He would always advise people to do what was best and to do good and this would include times when he was addressing the king and other rulers and conferences. He would always start by remaining the people of the importance of tawheed and Ikhlas and warn against shirk.

He authored small treatise on advising people to have Tawheed and have ikhlas in Him and warned people against seeking help in other than Allah in where he explained that it was shirk to do so. Every time he would see a treatise or an article or a book that had mistakes such as innovations he would write to him and advise and explain his mistakes whilst supplicating to Allah for him.

Once in Riyadh the Jews were fighting an onslaught against the Muslim’s in Palestine and at that time the Shaykh was giving a talk at a conference. Some of the people were advising each other to go and fight despite having any Fiqh or ruler to fight under, in fact some were expecting the Shaykh to talk about these issues and encourage people to go to jihad. But the Shyakh remained calm and decided to talk about the importance of Tawheed and explained to the audience that trough Tawheed would we get success and warned against the dangers of shirk. Some of the youth at the time didn’t like the Shaykh and began to talk against the shyakh. Bearing in mind, this was around fifty years  ago, now if we look back these people are no where to be seen, they didn’t benefit anyone and they are not remembered rather this man with great goodness who spread great good became like a mountain of knowledge.

As for the Shyakh relationship with the Quran then he had a great relationship with it because his heart was really soft. He would recite it a lot and would often cry when listening to it, even if the person reciting didn’t have a great voice or had mistakes when reciting. He would often cry whilst in Salah during its recitation. The Shaykh would even cry during our lessons as the Shaykh would also be affected by the Hadeeth as well. Once we were studying Saheeh al-Bukhaari and the story of Ibrahim came where he left his family alone in Makkah and the Shaykh was quiet. We were waiting for the explanation of the hadeeth and when we looked up we saw the Shaykh crying, trying to contain and hide it but when he spoke this confirmed to us by his voice being broken that the Shaykh had been crying. This would occur often, for example it even happened when we studying the story of the great lie against A’ishah. Even when he would hear the biographies of the great Ulema and from those from the Salaf, he would often be reduced to tears and at times we would find him weeping. The Shaykh would generally cry very easily as his heart was very soft.

I ask Allaah to make myself and all of you to be of those who have understanding and I encourage all of you, may Allah Bless you, learn the Quran and don’t recite the Quran in order to quickly finish the Surah or memorise without having the knowledge of the Quran.

The mannerism and behaviour of this great Shaykh was a living example for us to follow and his attitude and behaviour would often make us think about our own selves and it would encourage us to improve and hasten us to implement what we knew.

When the Shaykh would hear about the death of any of the scholars or came across their biographies he would often weep and would be filled with sadness. The Shaykh would also be affected by the plight and trials of the poor people who would complain about their miseries to him, he would cry at hearing their news and would supplicate for them. This also included those who had been wronged or oppressed, if he heard of some kind of oppression he would be sad and would often make him cry at the state of those being oppressed. When he would hear the news of the Muslims from around the world, especially in cases where they were being oppressed, the Shaykh would find this very upsetting as well and would make him cry as well.

During the lessons on Bidaayah wa Nihayah, a history book by Ibn Katheer, if the Shaykh heard anything that was sad or some kind of harm befalling the Muslims he would often be affected by them too and would cry upon hearing it.

And this would happen a lot. Whilst studying we would often wait for the Shaykh to talk but there would be a pause or a gap and we would find the Shaykh often crying and this would make us question ourselves. We used to think why are our hearts so hard? Why is it that our hearts aren’t effected the way his is? So the important point here is that the knowledge we gain, we must implement in order for us to be effected and by the knowledge and so that our hearts can become soft.

The Shaykh was also never afraid to say ‘I don’t know’ in matters that he didn’t know or wasn’t sure of. Many times he was asked questions and he would say I don’t know and would often say to the questioner, let me double check or research this issue and I will get back to you. For example, there is a radio program called ‘Noor ala Darb’ which a Fatwa program that comes on the radio, and there were many instances where he was asked questions during this radio program and he said ‘I don’t know’. Had he not been truthful he would have told the broadcasters to erase that question from the recorded session but he wasn’t ashamed of saying it. There was also an instance that was asked to me which the questioner asked, ‘Do I need to do anything if I bleed through my back passage due to an illness?’ I thought this issue to be a simple issue and I was about to answer him but I thought I would check with the Shaykh first. So I rang the Shaykh and I asked him the question and after asking there was a pause for a long time, I thought he hadn’t heard me or was busy. So I asked him, “Did you hear the question Shaykh?” The Shaykh affirmed that he heard but was thinking for the whole time and then finally told me, “Let me double check and research this issue and I will get back to you.” There was another time in the Haram of Makkah in front a lot of people where he was asked a question; ‘Does the hair of the new born girl need to be shaved and its weight given in charity?’ To this he replied, “I have no knowledge on this”, “I have no knowledge on this… let me ask some of the students of knowledge and I will let you know the answer.”

SubhaanAllaah! We can see that the Shaykh was very careful to make sure he didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, that he was careful in matters of halal and haram, and this is after 40 years of being a Mufti and having experience of giving Fatwa! This is a great lesson to us, by saying we don’t know doesn’t decrease your status, rather it enhances it. To talk about Allaah without knowledge is indeed the cause of being decreased in status and the Shaykh was far from this.

The Shaykh was also very harsh and very upset against those who would praise him. He would hate being praised and elevated. People would often praise him in his presence and he would order them to seek forgiveness in Allah and would command them to leave this kind of speech and get to the point. At times he would receive letters and they would start by praise to which he would order the reader to leave these types of paragraphs and skip to the point. Shaykh Taqi ud-Deen al-Hilaali [May Allaah have mercy on him] who was the teacher of the Shaykh and they loved and respected each other very much. Once Shaykh Taqi ud-Deen once wrote a poetic treatise praising Shaykh Ibn Baaz and this was published at The Salafi University, Banaares in India. When Shaykh Ibn Baaz heard of this he became very upset and said it made me very sad that this type of praise came from someone as honourable as Shaykh Taqi ud-Deen because he went into extremes into praising me. Shaykh Taqi ud-Deen described Ibn Baaz as being compared to Ibrahim ibn Adham [a scholar from the Salaf], Haatim [A person known for generosity], Shurayh [A famous Qaadi known for good judegment]. Ibn Baaz described this as degrading these beacons of knowledge and it was an elevation of me above a status I deserved, and the Prophet forbade us from this and told us to through dust in the face of those who praise you. Ibn Baaz also added that wanted people to know that he was free from this praise and didn’t accept it, he also added a piece of advice to the Shaykh as to not to repeat this and to seek forgiveness in Allaah in this and he made Dua’a that Allaah preserve their tongues from mistakes.  

The Shayksh relationship connected to wealth and wordly possessions wasn’t very strong and he would favour the hereafter of the wordly life. He would reject wealth that was given to him and he would give out large loans. When it came time for the Shaykh to be repaid he would forgive them. Once it happened that he was expecting a huge loan to be repaid but he forgave the person and waived the debt. One of his admin people advised the Shaykh to keep the money as he needs the money, to which the Shaykh replied, “My son, don’t worry about this wordly life, I am 87 years old, what need do I have for this money? I have lived a long life and I have found my Lord in no way in this world except good. This world comes and comes but the difference is between the rich and the poor. The rich will be questioned by Allaah until all his money has been covered but the poor person will not be questioned about anything, so it is better to give then to keep.” 

The Shaykh was also very strict in preserving his time, the Shaykh was very unique in this. I have seen with my own eyes a timetable that the Shaykh would keep, down to minute precision. Every hours of the week was orderly and he didn’t have one minute to himself to spare. He was a Mufti, a Principle of a university, a teacher etc so the Shaykh was very busy and by being orderly he would find adequate time for all these things. The Shaykh would often advise the students to arrange and organise their time and not to waste it, he advised to set aside time for Quran and then for hadeeth and then for revising and for your family etc, this way you will be able to benefit from your time and you would be able to greater good throughout your day.

The Shaykh wouldn’t allow in his sitting for people to speak bad about others, especially backbiting. He only allowed for good to be spoken about people or things that are beneficial. This was often the case unless someone was clearly misguided and speaking out against him was needed in order to refute this person. Such as people who are were doing innovators. He would call them and advise them secretly and if they didn’t listen then he would warn against them publically. For instance Shaykh Ibn Baaz called Abu Fattah Abu Ghudah to him and advised him about the mistakes of his Shaykh, Al-Kawthari [A Sufi deviant who called to various different aspects of Shirk and innovations] secretly but when he realised that he wasn’t going to listen then he wrote the introduction to the book refuting him by Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd. He also warned against various other deviants like Muhammad al-Mas’aree, Sa’d al-Faqeeh and Usaamah ibn Laden for a very long time, even before they became famous. He would begin by writing to them and speak with them privately but he didn’t listen to him and he began to refute them publically in 1415/1995.

The Shaykh was very careful in following and obeying the rulers and to protect the unity of the Muslims. He was even asked once is it permissible to keep asking for Allaah to guide the rulers every Jumuah during the Khutbah, to which the Shaykh replied, “Yes, Yes, this is good. It may be that Allaah will accept this Dua’a from one of them”. This shows how careful and sincere he was for the rulers to be guided and upright. He would also often make Dua’a himself for the rulers and would praise Aal-Saud for the good that they uphold and the Shariah law that they implement, the spreading of Tawheed and generally establishment of the religion and its laws. He would also dictate letters that were sent to the rulers of the Muslims advising them to fear Allaah and to uphold the laws of the Shariah. As for the people who call to fitnah and rebelling against the rulers, the Shaykh would warn against them publically and encouraged people not to support them, he started this in 1415/1995 as previously mentioned. I heard him say with my own ears calling them the ‘callers to fitnah’.

The Shaykh was a serious person but he would joke within the bounds of Shariah. For instance, a man once came to him and asked about an issue regarding divorce and the Shaykh asked the man his name, to which he replied ‘Theeb’ or wolf. The Shaykh then asked the name of his wife and the man said her name is ‘Theebah’ or female wolf. So the Shaykh said in astonishment, “Subhaanallah! You are a male wolf and she is a female wolf, so how are your children? How do you live?”

The Shaykh would have a very busy schedule and he would spend much time going to teach and work and then with the family. At the end of the day he would eat, after the Isha prayer, and the students would often encourage the Shaykh to sleep and get some rest. But the Shaykh would reply jokingly, “Throughout the day I was busy so the tank became empty but now the tank is full and ready to go again…” and he would then spend time at night in his library. If the Shaykh wanted to make Wudoo he would take off his Shemagh or Arab scarf that he used to wear and would tell one of his students to hold on to it whilst he gets himself ready, but before parting he would jokingly tell the student, “Don’t run away, I am not giving it to you to keep, its mine.”

The Shaykh was very careful in giving Fatwa an wouldn’t talk unless he had evidence. This mean that the Shaykh wa very strict in following the Sunnah and disliked people to blindly follow others.

Once the Shaykh was asked a question to which he replied but then was told that Imaam Ahmad held an opposite view to you. Upon hearing this, the Shaykh was disappointed and told the man to follow the Sunnah and not to follow blindly other than him, and this was the recommendation of all the Imaams.

Another time the Shaykh was asked if it was permissible to repeat the same ayah during the prayer, he replied that it was not permissible and he stated that the hadeeth of the Prophet repeating a particular Ayah from Surah Maaidah was weak. To this a student asked the Shaykh, “But Shaykh, previously you stated that the hadeeth was acceptable and good.” The Shaykh was at first in doubt but then stated that the correct view is that the hadeeth is not acceptable or authentic and we should reject and this is the correct view and we shouldn’t blindly follow, even myself.

To finish off this talk, this aalim of the Ummah was a man who was very stern in following the methodology and attitude of the Salaf. Let us remember that his lifestyle was similar to theirs but he was living in our generation, so it is not impossible for us to be like this. So the live of the Shaykh and knowing the above should be a lesson to us and an encouragement like a whip that whips the horse to help us to be steadfast on the path that is correct and to move along it faster. For us to be like this requires us to be close to Allah, serious about this religion, be ambition and be patient on learning and acting on our religion. 

May the Peace and Blessings of Allaah be upon our Messenger and all those who follow him until the Last Day.