Salaams:

I know you like celebrities and cool stuff – let me tell you, Prophet Muhammad, praise and peace be upon him, is the best celebrity you have and he is the coolest man who ever placed his feet on the ground AND he has a lake full of cool water if you care to take advantage of it!

My intention to come to the UK must be entirely pure in case death overtakes me, if it were to be otherwise then I would be among the losers.

IN ISLAM THERE IS NO VENDETA BETWEEN THOSE WHO BEAR WITNESS TO ALLAH AND HIS PROPHET, PRAISE AND PEACE BE UPON HIM, ONLY THOSE WHO ARE MISLED PRACTICE SUCH A VENDETA IN PRIVATE.

On July 3rd I received an email saying, "we would like you to speak on the subject of Ninowy. A lot of people will come to listen to you and ask you about him and what you said about him was the truth, so you should speak about it in public once you are here, inshaAllah."

I begin by quoting the saying of Brutus in Shakespeare's play, Julius Cesar, "I come to bury Cesar not to praise him." You should understand that this is not my aim, I neither came here to bury Mr. Ninowy nor to praise him, for we all praise Allah, and He is the only One worthy of all humanly possible praise. We are reminded by the words of the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, who said of Allah, "I cannot count Your praise as You praised Yourself."

Having said that, it is neither my intention nor desire to speak in public about the relationship between Mr. Ninowy and myself. Rather, I discourage anyone to ask a question, but if you feel compelled to do so, then it should be in writing and you will receive a written reply with very fine detailed facts, on the understanding that it will not be released to a third party - but remember it was you who asked. This is because I decline to be drawn into a negative/gossipy situation.

You may ask why I have taken this stance. It is because the purpose of my visit and lectures is only to open for the seekers of truth and guidance, the fortress of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the Imam of the Universe, the man who through his blessed, enormous collection of Hadith is capable of uniting us all in pure faith and fellowship of the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, in which all differences can be solved and removes us from the deep ignorance of the sunnah and its practice.

The following statement is all I intend to make and is a brief synopsisof what happened between Mr. Ninowy, and his former secretary who were Omar's opponents, and then later myself when I was dragged into it:

At the time of the disturbance, I was on good terms with Mr. Ninowy, in fact I was trying to arrange for him an consultancy engagement with two hospitals in Egypt. My Hadith Data Warehouse CD had just been finalized and I was in the process of sending it to him via Canada. Such was relationship with him that when I printed the ijaza of Hadith transmission I had included his name on it, together with his address next to that of Omar.

I was completely unaware of the existence of a "dog fight" going on between Mr. Ninowy, his secretary and a few of his supporters with Omar. When my attention was drawn to the matter, in the spirit of Islam I intervened in order to arbitrate and heal the matter by writing privately to Mr. Ninowy.

Mr. Ninowy's secretary involved himself and turned calling me Kafir coupled with other degrading remarks, the strange thing was I had neither met nor spoken to him or his supporters! I requested Mr. Ninowy to call his secretary to order, but I received a bewildering, unimaginable reply that I will never forget.

Mr. Ninowy declined to take action as one might expect, saying, his secretary was free to say what he wanted, it was a free country! This is by all standards is completely unIslamic and not the attitude of a brother in Islam. Had I not been called a Kafir, but just the other degrading names, it would have been like water of a duck's back and I would not have cared.

I am still puzzled why Mr. Ninowy refused to forgive Omar and move on as I recommended, rather than cursing him in writing. It was at this time that Mr. Ninowy put me in the "enmity column" with Omar, although I was neutral.

Meanwhile, on the Arab internet forums where I had been defending the integrity of Hafez, Shaykh Abdullah ben Siddique Al Ghumari against false accusations that claimed he cursed Mawiyah and also insulted Mawiyah – which Mr. Ninowy had a mixed profile on this matter -  the Arab supporters of Mr. Ninowy started their attack. To rectify the matter relating to Shaykh Abdullah, these false accusations were brought to the attention of Shaykh Abdullah's brother, Shaykh Hasan, who, when I visited Morocco put an outright end to these falsehoods in an unedited video, recorded by Omar, who I has just met for the first time.

The onslaught continued. After examining my history with Mr. Ninowy, and in reply I drew attention to some questionable claims of Mr. Ninowy, such as his claimed profile with Hafiz Shaykh Abdullah – the dates just simply did not match. Having revealed this status, Mr. Ninowy sought a phone initiation from Sayed Hasan in the presence of his son – which I honor and recommend all Ghumari lovers to go to Brussels to become spiritually connected to him as is customary by the practitioners throughout the centuries.

In the final analyze, I view the whole matter as satan's interference between people to bring them down through their own shortcomings coupled to his whisperings. Therefore each person should evaluate his status on his path to Allah.

If someone were to ask me if Mr. Ninowy was good or bad, I would reply good. If someone were to ask Mr. Ninowy is Darwish good or bad, and he replied bad, I will recommend that you believe him. And if you want to know how bad I am I will tell you, because I know myself better than anyone else. Allah tells us that every soul knows its own shortcoming regardless of the excuses it presents.

Of course, I am open for reconciliation, which, incidentally, I already offered to him with conditions and gave it to Dr. Muhammad Ali, the son of Shaykh Hasan. The outcome was that Mr. Ninowy agreed to do it in private but not in public. I declined, but now I do not mind. Why? because it is old stuff and I have moved on to the den of the largest polar bear of hadith Ahmad ibn Hanbal to whom I am devoting the rest of my life in the translation and spread of his work. I have taken everything out of my hair, and keep reminding myself that the Companions used to say, that for them gold and stones are equal.

Having got this out of the way, I would like you to focus on the positive hadith endeavor I am here to launch The hadith have been abandoned so long in the west to the extent that every person and group has replaced it with their own sayings and promoted it as Islam today in the west.

Sometimes, you will find me very persistent when it comes to the purity of hadith in order that you gain a better understanding of the purity of the Koran – and this is the BIG story. I would welcome you to come one day to talk about it without having made other engagements for your time that day. I assure you, you will not regret it, just as your fathers never regretted listening to Ahmad Deedat's launching of his puritanical comparative study of Christianity.

If you will not behave I will start translating for you live Shaykh Sharawy's 20 volumes of the explanation of the Koran, – smile – which is my second aim after having served Ahmad ibn Hanbal!

Finally, it is time to go for the big wins in the Islamic heritage in order that you arrived in good shape to Allah - this moment, not tomorrow when it will be too late. For tomorrow will never come except according to the device of satan, for Allah said, "They were deluded by wishful thinking of tomorrow." And satan will assure you that he is not guilty in terms of physically pulling your hand or putting a gun to your head, rather he just called you and you followed him, so why do you blame him, and he in turn will say "blame yourself."

NOTE: If after having read this you have not lost your appetite to drop the Ninowy/Darwish issue and focus on the Hadith of the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, or at least go between for reconciliation, I will take it as a rule of thumb that establishing a Dar Al Hadith here is the wrong location.

Ahmad ibn Hanbal's clock should not be run on anyone else's clock.

I know you like celebrities and cool stuff – let me tell you, Prophet Muhammad, praise and peace be upon him, is the best celebrity you have and he is the coolest man who ever placed his feet on the ground AND he has a lake full of cool water if you care to take advantage of it!

Salaams