[{"id": "--OJasWltLU/s/1", "short_id": "2015-05-05-S01", "recording": "--OJasWltLU", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 952, "date": "20150505", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are uneven haircuts such as short back and sides haram? The hadith of qaza'", "question_plain": "Is a short back and sides or faded haircut haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth raises a question he says he is often asked, including about his own hair: whether a haircut with shorter hair at the back and sides is haram, as many people in mosques and madrasas tell the young. He explains that the understanding comes from the hadith in Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari, from Ibn Umar, that the Prophet forbade qaza', and that qaza' linguistically means patches, from the word for patchy clouds. He cites the version in al-Nasa'i and Abu Dawud in which a child passes with a patch of hair on top and the rest shaved, and the Prophet says to shave all of it or leave all of it, and the explanation of Nafi' and Ubaydullah [?] that qaza' is shaving in patches, not simply cutting or shaving the back. He adds the report that Anas ibn Malik had a braid his mother would not cut because the Prophet used to hold him by it, and that Zayd ibn Thabit is described with two braids, and argues that braided or long hair, including the Prophet's own hair as described in the reports, is necessarily of unequal length. He says many of the ulama held that qaza' was prohibited because it resembled the religious practice of certain monks, that short back and sides does not fall under qaza' at all, and that even a step cut that does fall under it is, in the understanding he presents from the Maliki school, Imam Malik, the tabi'in of Madinah such as al-Qasim [?] and the clarification of al-Nawawi, at most lightly makruh rather than haram, and still within permissibility. He closes with the objective of the shari'ah he identifies here: avoiding disfigurement and deliberately making someone look distorted.", "summary_short": "A short back and sides, or hair of unequal lengths, is permissible and does not fall under the hadith forbidding qaza'. Shaving patches and leaving others (qaza') is at most disliked, not haram, in the view he presents, unless done to disfigure or to imitate a religious practice.", "answer_start": 80, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:qaza", "label": "qaza'"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e180f02c", "label": "report: the prophet forbade qaza (unresolved; Ibn Umar, Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0058fc99", "label": "report: shave all of it or leave all of it (unresolved; the child with a patch of hair, al-Nasa'i and Abu Dawud)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:185e7f9a", "label": "report: i will not cut it for i saw the prophet hold you by it (unresolved; the braid of Anas ibn Malik, Abu Dawud)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-nasai", "label": "Sunan al-Nasa'i"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nafi", "label": "Nafi'"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ubaydullah", "label": "Ubaydullah [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zayd-ibn-thabit", "label": "Zayd ibn Thabit"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qasim", "label": "al-Qasim [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ibaha", "label": "ibaha (permissibility)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:resemblance-to-non-muslim-religious-practice", "label": "prohibition explained by resemblance to a non-Muslim religious practice"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "A haircut with hair of unequal lengths, such as a short back and sides, is permissible and is not the qaza' the hadith forbids; shaving patches and leaving others is at most makruh rather than haram unless it is done to disfigure or to imitate a religious practice.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "having a haircut like 'short back and sides' or something like this which is very common this is in no way forbidden it is", "start": 783}}, "url": "/r/--OJasWltLU/s/1/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/1", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S01", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 1, "start": 24, "end": 296, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: sound check, greetings and quick replies to the chat", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream, checks that viewers on YouTube and Facebook can hear him and greets them. He jokes with the chat that the life of this world is but an illusion. Answering quick chat lines, he says he streams with Streamlabs OBS, and reads out a remark that Valentine's chocolates are haram.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping before the questions: a sound check, greetings and quick replies to the chat, including the streaming software he uses.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/1/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/2", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S02", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 2, "start": 296, "end": 450, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Could he give talks in Mirpuri? No; his audience is the younger generation", "question_plain": "Will you give talks in Mirpuri?", "summary": "Replying to the chat, Mufti Abu Layth says he has no lingering Covid symptoms. Taking up the idea of giving talks in Mirpuri, he says he could not, joking that his mind would malfunction and that the elder generation would then hear his controversies. He notes that another shaykh has recently been giving talks in Mirpuri and Pothwari, which he says helps the elderly community, while his own audience is the younger community. He adds, to another chat line, that he has tried a couple of perfumes and was not impressed.", "summary_short": "No, he says he could not give talks in Mirpuri; his audience is the younger community, and others already serve the elderly in that language.", "answer_start": 296, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/2/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/3", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S03", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 3, "start": 450, "end": 666, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Tonight's clips under the microscope, and a project coming soon", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the moderators for dealing with spam. He lists what he will put 'under the microscope' tonight: clips of Assim al-Hakeem, Abdul Rahman Hassan and Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf, and a preacher's whole session on drugs, cannabis and DMT, whose spoiler, he says, is that everything is haram. He invites super chats and says a project he calls 'the mindscape' [?], shown at a meetup, is coming soon, though it was not ready to launch tonight.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth previews the clips he will respond to tonight, on ear piercing, non-Muslim friends, the Khawarij and drugs, and says a new project is coming soon.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:assim-al-hakeem", "label": "Assim al-Hakeem"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdur-rahman-ibn-yusuf-mangera", "label": "Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dmt", "label": "DMT"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/3/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/4", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S04", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 4, "start": 666, "end": 851, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "An Urdu poem: if anyone asks who I am, say nobody special", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After joking that his lateness is just destiny, Mufti Abu Layth reads a poem he has read once before, praising its natural, seamless flow. Only his English glosses are captured: if somebody asks who I am, say it is nobody that important; a relationship that is not truly known; and a companion in life whose absence leaves one with nothing to do. The poem's own lines are not in the transcript.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads and briefly explains an Urdu poem about being nobody special and about a companion whose absence empties life.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["arts/urdu-poetry"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/4/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/5", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S05", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 5, "start": 851, "end": 1298, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Valentine's Day is not haram, but do not let relationships define you", "question_plain": "Is celebrating Valentine's Day haram?", "summary": "Now that Valentine's Day has passed, Mufti Abu Layth offers a few words for the 'wounded souls', opening with a verse of Mir [?] about the alluring walk of a woman being more fatal than a sword. He says such things are not haram as far as the Sharia is concerned, but advises people, especially those newly in a relationship, not to fall into the modern phenomenon of measuring their worth and identity by relationships: they should keep their own sense of self, goals and purpose, since love is an emotion and emotions subside. He says events like Valentine's depress many people because, as social creatures (al-insan madani), we measure ourselves against others, comparing it to feeling left behind when others buy a new phone. He calls it largely a commercial package aimed at women and consumer spending, and repeats that it is not forbidden or even necessarily bad, just not worth obsessing over.", "summary_short": "Valentine's Day is not haram and need not be bad, he says, but do not let relationships become your identity or worth; keep your own goals and purpose.", "answer_start": 851, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/love-and-romance", "fiqh/festivals-and-greetings"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mir-taqi-mir", "label": "Mir [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-insan-madani", "label": "al-insan madani (man is a social being)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Valentine's Day is not in itself forbidden or haram, and need not even be a bad thing.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "i'm not saying that the thing in and of itself is forbidden or haram it's not and i'm not even saying it's a bad thing it doesn't have to be", "start": 1260}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/5/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/6", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S06", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 6, "start": 1298, "end": 1414, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are most of his viewers in the UK or North America?", "question_plain": "Where are most of the Mufti's viewers from?", "summary": "A chat message suggests that most of Mufti Abu Layth's fans are in the USA. He says he often feels that way, since much of the love and support he gets, even at meetups, is from Canada and the US, but his YouTube analytics show that the majority of those watching, around sixty percent when he last checked, are British, which surprised him. He suggests the live audience leans Canadian and American because of his late timings, joking that he is a vampire, and responds to viewers saying where they are watching from.", "summary_short": "His analytics show most of his viewers are in the UK, he says, though the live audience seems to be mostly Canadian and American because of the late hour.", "answer_start": 1298, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/6/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/7", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S07", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 7, "start": 1414, "end": 1480, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia: natural, though with a recent rise of hardliners", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia?", "summary": "Asked for his thoughts on Islam in Malaysia, Mufti Abu Layth says his impression is that Malaysia and Indonesia have a very natural perception of Islam. They seem, he says, to have absorbed the deen in a way that does not hinder their day-to-day lives. He adds that he feels in the last decade and a half or so there has been a rise in extremism there, with Salafi-inspired hardliners, several terrorist attacks and attacks on Christians, which he calls very sad.", "summary_short": "His impression is that Malaysians and Indonesians have absorbed Islam naturally into daily life, though he feels extremism has risen there in the last fifteen years.", "answer_start": 1414, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says his impression is that Malaysia and Indonesia have absorbed the deen in a natural way that does not hinder their day-to-day lives.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "they seem to have ingratiated themselves kind of immersed themselves absorbed the deen in a way that it doesn't hinder the day-to-day lives it seems to be a natural that's my impression of them", "start": 1414}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/7/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/8", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S08", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 8, "start": 1480, "end": 1672, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why did the Prophet not write a verse-by-verse tafsir? Openness gives the Quran timelessness", "question_plain": "Why didn't the Prophet explain every verse of the Quran himself?", "summary": "After some exchanges with the chat, Mufti Abu Layth reads a super chat asking why the Prophet did not compose his own tafsir, with a companion going through each ayah with him, and calls it a very good question. He says people should see a blessing in this rather than a misfortune: had everything been defined it would have restricted everything, and leaving the Quran to human understanding, read in light of each age, is what gives it its timelessness. He compares it to poetry, from which people take unique meanings, and says the Quran often answers something while leaving a lot of room to manoeuvre, which makes it meaningful for more people.", "summary_short": "Leaving the Quran undefined was a blessing, he says: a fixed tafsir would have restricted it, while leaving it to each age's understanding gives it timelessness.", "answer_start": 1517, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:tafsir", "label": "tafsir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahabah", "label": "sahabah (companions)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that leaving the Quran to human understanding, read in light of each age, rather than defining everything, is what gives it its timelessness.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it would have restricted everything and the fact that it was left to human understanding to be able to read it in light of their own day and age is what gives the quran it's kind of timelessness", "start": 1556}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/8/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/9", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S09", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 9, "start": 1672, "end": 2010, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The supernatural and Quran 3:59: Jesus like Adam, and the virgin birth", "question_plain": "Does the Quran really say Jesus had no father?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes a partly received message about his saying that he does not believe in the supernatural. He says some people need folklore and can take it from the Quran, but a person can also see that the text does not say what is read into it: it is elliptical and leaves gaps that readers fill themselves, which he calls an amazing aspect of it. His example is Jesus having no father: the Quran could have stated it plainly but did not, and he says he does not believe in the virgin birth, as many of the mufassirun do not. He reads 3:59, that the likeness of Jesus is as that of Adam, created from dust and then told 'be', and says it allows many permutations: if Jesus had a father, so may Adam have had, which could be extrapolated towards evolution, and he asks why 'be' is said of one already created. He calls this the majestic, artistic aspect of Quranic scripture, while noting the Quran is not poetry.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's elliptical text leaves readers to fill gaps, and that 3:59 on Jesus and Adam allows many readings; he does not believe in the virgin birth.", "answer_start": 1672, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/hermeneutics", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:59", "label": "Quran 3:59"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:virgin-birth", "label": "the virgin birth"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mufassirun", "label": "mufassirun (exegetes)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe in the virgin birth, as many of the mufassirun do not.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "but first of all i mean i don't obviously believe in the virgin birth as many of the mufasirin don't", "start": 1750}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/9/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/10", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S10", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 10, "start": 2010, "end": 2230, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Liberal Islam: political labels that do not fit Islam", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of liberal Islam?", "summary": "After some banter with the chat, Mufti Abu Layth returns to the question of what he thinks about liberal Islam. He says terms like liberal and conservative defined political spectrums of where one stands in relation to authority and state control, and that in Europe liberation from the state also meant liberation from the church. He says it is very difficult to apply these parameters to Islam, which never had a papacy and whose scholars were usually independent, though there were power politics. He asks whether a liberal is someone who goes with the easy rulings, in which case some companions or Imam Abu Hanifa would be liberals, and says Muslims use the words to mean strict and not-so-strict Islam although those rulings come from scholars of the past who would not be called liberal.", "summary_short": "Liberal and conservative are political labels about authority, he says, and they do not truly fit Islam, which never had a church-like hierarchy.", "answer_start": 2010, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Imam Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahabah", "label": "sahabah (companions)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says labels such as liberal and conservative are very difficult to apply to Islam, which never really worked in that way.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's very difficult applying these parameters to islam because islam never really worked in that way there was never really a papacy or a pope system in islam", "start": 2123}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/10/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/11", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S11", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 11, "start": 2230, "end": 2394, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Chat remarks: an unclear music question and a jibe about his earring", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a chat question on the history of the ruling that music is haram, says several times that he does not understand what is being asked, and moves on. He then reads a jibe asking why he looks like a woman, with an earring and a necklace, and answers with jokes about the questioner's eyesight. He mocks those who wear a frock, sandals and eyeliner yet say a necklace makes a man a woman, and remarks on 'the joys of being a Wahhabi'.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth skips a music question he cannot make sense of and laughs off a jibe that his earring and necklace make him look like a woman.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/11/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/12", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S12", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 12, "start": 2394, "end": 2540, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did the companions see Jibril? The narrator's interpretation, not the Prophet's words", "question_plain": "Did the companions actually see the angel Jibril?", "summary": "Saying he had already answered the liberal Islam question, Mufti Abu Layth takes a chat objection: last week he said the companions did not see Jibril, but the hadith says it was Jibril and the Prophet confirmed it. He answers yes and no: it depends how one reads the report, since its 'he said' may be the companion's interpretation that it was Jibril rather than something the Prophet taught. He explains that Arabic narration often repeats 'he said' without restating the pronoun, so it can be unclear to whom it goes back, and a narrator may assume the Prophet said a part that was in fact the companion's explanation of the event.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report that it was Jibril may be the companion's interpretation, not the Prophet's words; repeated 'he said' in Arabic narration makes the speaker unclear.", "answer_start": 2434, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "belief/unseen-beings"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6b3b4416", "label": "report: jibril asks the prophet about iman and the signs of the hour [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, depending on how the report is read, its statement that the figure was Jibril is the companion's interpretation rather than something the Prophet taught them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "so this hadith is really the interpretation that he says that that was jibril and the he here was the companion now they assumed that it's not that the prophet taught them", "start": 2434}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/12/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/13", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S13", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 13, "start": 2540, "end": 2698, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Shaytan and the supernatural: a literal creature or a personification?", "question_plain": "Is the devil a real creature or a symbol of bad impulses?", "summary": "After finishing the point about the narrator's explanation, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question about Shaytan and the supernatural and refers to his detailed video on how to understand the devil in Islam. He describes two takes: one camp holds that the devil is a literal creature that zooms around the globe whispering to people, adding that the picture of a body with a tail and horns is obviously silly though people believe it; the other holds that the devil is the personification of the negative insinuations and impulses people receive. He frames the question as whether the Quran addresses such a creature or a personification, and closes with a joke about talking to himself.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth presents two readings of Shaytan, a literal creature or a personification of negative impulses, and refers viewers to his detailed video.", "answer_start": 2540, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/13/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/14", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S14", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 14, "start": 2698, "end": 3106, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why is he not a Mu'tazili? What defines the Shia, and mut'ah as propaganda", "question_plain": "Why isn't the Mufti a Mu'tazili?", "summary": "Asked why he is not a Mu'tazili [?] (the captions render the word as 'Quran first'), Mufti Abu Layth says he is Sunni, and compares the question to asking someone who is not a Roman Catholic why he is not one. He says history is made to look neat in hindsight, that calling the Mu'tazila 'super rationalists' is later Sunni propaganda, and that like the Shia they were a clearly defined sect. He explains that the Shia split is about the right to rule remaining in the Prophet's sacred bloodline, which Sunnis do not believe in, with later disagreements over which line, the imams' powers and practices. He says mut'ah and wiping over the feet have nothing to do with being Shia but were used by Sunnis in a propaganda campaign, a theological turf war in which the public are casualties, noting that Ibn Abbas was a clear proponent of mut'ah.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is simply Sunni; sects are defined by core doctrines, the Shia by the sacred bloodline's right to rule, and mut'ah was pinned on them as propaganda.", "answer_start": 2698, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ismaili", "label": "Ismaili"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hasan-ibn-ali", "label": "Hasan ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:fatimids", "label": "the Fatimids [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mash-ala-al-khuffayn", "label": "wiping over the socks (mash ala al-khuffayn)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says mut'ah had nothing to do with being a Shia, and that tying it to them was a propaganda campaign.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this was just a propaganda compe campaign muta had nothing to do with being a shia shia was about who gets to rule", "start": 3032}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/14/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/15", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S15", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 15, "start": 3106, "end": 3528, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What defined the Mu'tazila, the Sunni turn against reason, and Ibn Taymiyya's labelling", "question_plain": "Were the Mu'tazila really defined by their use of reason?", "summary": "Continuing, Mufti Abu Layth says what defined the Mu'tazila was holding that one who commits a sin is no longer a Muslim, that God does not dictate the evil in the world, and that God is duty-bound to do what is good and reward good deeds, whereas mainstream Sunnis held that God is omnipotent and not duty-bound. He says this had nothing to do with reason: because many Mu'tazila were grammarians and philosophers they won debates, and in the fourth and fifth centuries Sunnis reacted by mocking the use of 'aql and claiming the deen is not built on intellect, a narrative later generations inherited. He says the earliest Sunnis owned reason, that al-Kindi, al-Farabi and the Maliki Ibn Rushd, who inspires him, were not Mu'tazila, and that Ibn Taymiyya labelled reason-users Mu'tazila long after they had died out, as people today call anyone who supports the NHS a communist. He calls this a dirty tactic for disowning opponents, says the Quran instructs us to use reason, and says Ibn Taymiyya was not God or the Prophet and suffered from mental health issues.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Mu'tazila were defined by doctrines like a sinner leaving Islam and God being duty-bound, not by reason; the Sunni rejection of reason came later as a reaction.", "answer_start": 3106, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "'aql (reason)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-kindi", "label": "al-Kindi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-farabi", "label": "al-Farabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says what split the Mu'tazila off was nothing to do with reason, but doctrines such as a sinner no longer being a Muslim and God being duty-bound to reward good.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "therefore there has to be that god is duty bound to recompense and so these issues are what split them off it was nothing to do with reason nothing to do with oh they were rationalists", "start": 3181}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/15/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/16", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S16", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 16, "start": 3528, "end": 3597, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Fethullah Gulen: he knows little beyond his schools", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of Fethullah Gulen?", "summary": "After adding that Ibn Taymiyya nonetheless performed greatly on many rulings and asking why he should be taken as so supreme, Mufti Abu Layth reads a super chat asking his thoughts on Gulen, whom the Turkish president has designated a terrorist while his jamaa promotes peace and dialogue. He says he does not know much about him: only that he set up many schools, not madrasas but regular schools with an Islamic ethos, and was very influential. He says he will read up on him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he knows little about Gulen beyond his influential network of schools with an Islamic ethos, and will read up on him.", "answer_start": 3567, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fethullah-gulen", "label": "Fethullah Gulen"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/16/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/17", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S17", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 17, "start": 3597, "end": 3751, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Ash'ari books call the Arabic Quran created, under another word", "question_plain": "Do Ash'aris believe the Quran is created?", "summary": "Responding to a remark that he talks about reason and the Quran being created so much, Mufti Abu Layth says Sunnis, the Ash'aris, believe the Quran was created but are embarrassed by it and hide the wording. He says their texts divide God's speech into kalam nafsi and kalam lafzi, are clear that kalam nafsi is not the Arabic Quran, and that a scholar he names, apparently al-Baqillani [?], says the Arabic Quran is created while replacing makhluq with muhdath, 'generated', because of the stigma. He says many Ash'aris today do not know this, and that Salafi da'wa has been so widespread and manipulative that people bought into it unawares, as with the elevation of Bukhari even among Hanafis, who historically did not rate Sahih al-Bukhari and whose imam Bukhari disparaged.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Ash'ari texts do teach that the Arabic Quran is created, but use the word muhdath instead of makhluq because of the stigma; many Ash'aris today do not know this.", "answer_start": 3597, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-allah", "label": "kalam Allah (God's speech)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-nafsi", "label": "kalam nafsi (inner speech)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-lafzi", "label": "kalam lafzi (worded speech)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makhluq", "label": "makhluq (created)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muhdath", "label": "muhdath (generated)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baqillani", "label": "al-Baqillani [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafis"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Imam Abu Hanifa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Ash'aris believe the Quran was created but, embarrassed by it, hide the wording behind terms the public would not understand.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "ashadis believe that now but i've mentioned this before you see what they do is they're embarrassed of it so they hide the wording and replace it with words that the common public wouldn't understand", "start": 3597}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/17/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/18", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S18", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 18, "start": 3751, "end": 4243, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imam Ahmad, the Hanbalis and the Mihna; the created Quran in Ash'ari texts", "question_plain": "Did Imam Ahmad really refuse to say the Quran is created?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafis' whole discourse goes back to Imam Ahmad, and that the anthropomorphists of the ummah, who believed God had body parts, were the Hanbalis, who claimed this was Imam Ahmad's belief; he says it is not impossible to him that Ahmad believed it, though he may not have. He asks what made Ahmad 'the father of the Sunnah' rather than Imam Malik, and says in the Mihna under al-Ma'mun Ahmad was a poor man, not the powerful figure he later became, who got off lightly compared with others who were killed, and then stopped teaching publicly. He reports the Mu'tazili account, found in al-Jahiz [?] and others, that Ahmad said the Quran was created to please the caliph and was released, says this is not hard to believe since saying so to save one's life would not be haram, and that later Hanbalis turned him into a glorified hero. Returning to the Ash'aris, he recounts that a scholar who contacted him last year insisted they never say the Quran is created until shown the passage that the worded speech of God is muhdath, and he explains that in their books the original message with God was unworded and became created words on entering this realm.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says later Hanbalis made Imam Ahmad a hero of the Mihna, though he likely said the Quran was created to save himself; Ash'ari books also call the worded Quran created.", "answer_start": 3751, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbalis"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tajsim", "label": "tajsim (anthropomorphism)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Imam Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:mihna", "label": "the Mihna"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-mamun", "label": "al-Ma'mun"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-jahiz", "label": "al-Jahiz [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muhdath", "label": "muhdath (generated)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, to be honest, the account that Imam Ahmad said the Quran was created to please the caliph and was let off is not hard to believe, since saying so to save one's life would not be haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he said yes the quran is created to please the caliph and then got let off and to be honest with you this is not hard to believe because it wouldn't be haram to do that", "start": 4060}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/18/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/19", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S19", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 19, "start": 4243, "end": 4319, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How was Jesus raised up? The Quran does not say how he died", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say Jesus was raised up alive?", "summary": "Turning to the super chats, Mufti Abu Layth takes a request to explain the story of Jesus in the Quran, how he was raised up, and Yajuj and Majuj in detail. He refers to four or five detailed videos, some of them debates, including his refutation of a shaykh [?] whom he accuses of misquotation. He says there are things the Quran does not highlight: it does not say how Jesus died, which does not mean he did not die, just as it does not say how Moses died or where he was buried.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth refers viewers to his detailed videos and says the Quran does not say how Jesus died, which does not mean he did not die, just as it is silent on Moses' death.", "answer_start": 4243, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-and-majuj", "label": "Yajuj and Majuj"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shadee-elmasry", "label": "Shaykh Shadee Elmasry [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not say how Jesus died, which does not mean he did not die, just as it does not say how Moses died.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there are some things the quran does not highlight how did jesus die it doesn't highlight that okay it doesn't mean he didn't die but then the quran doesn't mention how moses died", "start": 4280}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/19/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/20", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S20", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 20, "start": 4319, "end": 4472, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The scribe who fled to Makkah: treason, not apostasy", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet order a scribe killed for leaving Islam?", "summary": "A super chat asks whether the Prophet ordered one of his scribes executed for becoming an apostate, a hadith Islamophobes use. Mufti Abu Layth says not really: the man, Abdullah [?], was not executed, and the issue was not apostasy but the harm he caused at a time of lawlessness, tribal law and treaties between Madinah and Makkah. He says that on going to Makkah the man rallied the Quraysh, mocked Islam and exposed Madinah's weak points and how it could be attacked, around the time of the Battle of the Trench, when the Muslims prepared with trenches. He says such acts were grave, unforgivable crimes, treason of the highest degree, and that the apostasy laws of that time were in essence treason laws.", "summary_short": "Not for apostasy, he says: the scribe was not executed, and the issue was treason, since he exposed Madinah's weak points to its enemies; apostasy laws were treason laws.", "answer_start": 4319, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-sad-ibn-abi-sarh", "label": "Abdullah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarh [?]"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-the-trench", "label": "the Battle of the Trench (al-Ahzab)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riddah", "label": "riddah (apostasy)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the apostasy laws of that time were in essence treason laws.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "so yes they did have laws of treason and i've explained this in the past that that is what our apostasy laws were in essence they were treason laws", "start": 4435}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/20/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/21", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S21", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 21, "start": 4472, "end": 4500, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does the story of Dhul Qarnayn refer to a flat earth? No", "question_plain": "Does the story of Dhul Qarnayn mean the earth is flat?", "summary": "Asked how the story of Dhul Qarnayn can not refer to a flat earth, Mufti Abu Layth exclaims at the question and says it simply does not. He tells viewers to stop buying into what he calls the young-earth Christian narrative of a flat earth. He says it is embarrassing and makes them look foolish.", "summary_short": "No, he says the story of Dhul Qarnayn does not refer to a flat earth, and Muslims should stop buying into the flat-earth narrative.", "answer_start": 4472, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/quran-and-science"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dhul-qarnayn", "label": "Dhul Qarnayn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the story of Dhul Qarnayn does not refer to a flat earth.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "well it doesn't refer to a flat earth for the love of god stop buying into this dumb young earth christian narrative of a flat earth", "start": 4472}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/21/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/22", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S22", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 22, "start": 4500, "end": 4577, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Quran 33:40, 'not the father of any of your men', is no proof against his descendants ruling", "question_plain": "Does Quran 33:40 mean the Prophet's descendants cannot rule?", "summary": "A super chat asks how to understand the verse that Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, which some Sunnis use to justify the Prophet's descendants not being caliph. Mufti Abu Layth says he does not know that it is evidence for that: it states a fact, that he is not the father of any of them but is the seal of the prophets, and can be understood as one reads it. It is not a proof that his descendants are not to rule, he says, though as a matter of fact they generally did not. He then reads another super chat about producing a chapter as a miracle and says he does not understand it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says 33:40 simply states that the Prophet is not the father of their men but the seal of the prophets; it is not a proof that his descendants may not rule.", "answer_start": 4500, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:40", "label": "Quran 33:40"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khatam-al-nabiyyin", "label": "khatam al-nabiyyin (seal of the prophets)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says verse 33:40 is not a proof that the Prophet's descendants are not to rule.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "you read it it's not a proof that his descendants are not to rule but generally speaking his descendants did not rule", "start": 4539}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/22/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/23", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S23", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 23, "start": 4577, "end": 4645, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is following the Sunnah like the Trinity? Of course not", "question_plain": "Is following the Sunnah like believing in the Trinity?", "summary": "A super chat says the Quran is strictly against the Christian Trinity but encourages following the Sunnah, and asks whether that could be interpreted as similar to the Trinity. Mufti Abu Layth says he cannot understand the question, wonders whether he is short of sleep, and jokes about what the questioner is smoking. His quick answer is that of course it is not.", "summary_short": "No: following the Sunnah is of course not akin to the Trinity.", "answer_start": 4577, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "belief/tawhid-and-shirk"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:trinity", "label": "the Trinity"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "Sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the quick answer is that following the Sunnah is of course not akin to the Trinity.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "right the quick answer is of course it's not", "start": 4614}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/23/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/24", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S24", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 24, "start": 4645, "end": 4892, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Surah al-Kafirun: why 'ma' (that which) and not 'man' (who)?", "question_plain": "Why does Surah al-Kafirun say 'ma' (what) instead of 'man' (who) for God?", "summary": "A super chat asks why 109:2-5 uses ma rather than man. After working out which surah is meant, Mufti Abu Layth says it is an interesting point whose balagha [?] aspect would need looking into, but that ma is absolutely accurate: 'you do not worship that which I worship'. He assumes the reason is that 'that which' specifies how the entity is understood: the Meccans did worship Allah, but through other deities, so here one qualifies not only God but how God is to be perceived. He says that is how he understands it, God knows best, and it may be his subjective understanding. He then answers a heckle asking whether anyone holds him accountable for always citing his videos with a joke.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth thinks ma is used because it qualifies how God is perceived, since the Meccans also worshipped Allah through others, though he says this is his own understanding.", "answer_start": 4717, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir/short-surahs", "quran/arabic-language"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:109:2-5", "label": "Quran 109:2-5"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:balagha", "label": "balagha (rhetoric) [?]"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, as he assumes and understands it, God knowing best, ma in 109:2-5 qualifies not just God but how God is to be perceived.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "but i'm assuming that here you're kind of qualifying not just god but how god is to be perceived", "start": 4795}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/24/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/25", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S25", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 25, "start": 4892, "end": 4998, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why the Quran singles out the Israelites", "question_plain": "Why does the Quran focus so much on the Israelites?", "summary": "A super chat asks why Bani Isra'il were raised as an ummah with their own laws if Allah knew he would raise a final messenger who would not be from them. Mufti Abu Layth says it is not that Bani Isra'il alone had prophets: most peoples had prophets, and Allah says there are some he did not tell us about. The Israelites are mentioned specifically, he says, because around the Prophet's time in northern, southern and central Arabia they were seen as the academics of the people of scripture; had the Prophet been in China, he assumes the prophets of China would have been brought as examples instead.", "summary_short": "Most peoples had prophets, he says; the Israelites are highlighted because in the Prophet's Arabia they were seen as the scholars of the people of scripture.", "answer_start": 4892, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:bani-israil", "label": "Bani Isra'il (the Israelites)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Israelites are highlighted in the Quran because around the Prophet's time in Arabia they were seen as the academics of the people of scripture.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "which is where the prophet would have been the israelites was seen as the kind of um you know like the academics of the people of scripture therefore they are highlighted quite a lot", "start": 4932}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/25/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/26", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S26", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 26, "start": 4998, "end": 5103, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "His favourite Western philosophers: Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Diogenes", "question_plain": "Who is the Mufti's favourite Western philosopher?", "summary": "Asked for his favourite Western philosopher, Mufti Abu Layth says he likes things in each that he does not find in the others: Wittgenstein's uniqueness, and Nietzsche's challenge and the discourse analysis he brought in the Genealogy of Morals. He says it is a tough choice, and that he feels Muslims have in some ways been left out of philosophy in recent centuries, which he calls a shame. Responding to the chat, he adds that Diogenes was 'epic' for his attitude.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth names no single favourite but likes Wittgenstein, Nietzsche and Diogenes, and feels Muslims have been left out of philosophy in recent centuries.", "answer_start": 4998, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ludwig-wittgenstein", "label": "Ludwig Wittgenstein"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:friedrich-nietzsche", "label": "Friedrich Nietzsche"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:on-the-genealogy-of-morals", "label": "On the Genealogy of Morals"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:diogenes", "label": "Diogenes"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that in some ways Muslims have been left out of philosophy in recent centuries, which is a shame.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "i feel in some ways that muslims have been kind of left out of philosophy recently in recent centuries which is a shame", "start": 5034}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/26/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/27", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S27", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 27, "start": 5103, "end": 5180, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "A prospective MindTrap guest who has gone quiet", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Responding to the chat, Mufti Abu Layth says a speaker reached out to him indirectly, through an intermediary, saying he was happy to come on MindTrap. He says he agreed. The recording was meant to happen the previous week but was postponed because the speaker was unwell, and he says he has heard nothing since and does not know whether the speaker has changed his mind.", "summary_short": "A planned MindTrap conversation with a speaker who offered to come on was postponed, and Mufti Abu Layth has not heard back since.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/27/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/28", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S28", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 28, "start": 5180, "end": 5570, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mohammed Hijab's camel-urine clip: the report is unreliable and may be a rebuke", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet tell people to drink camel urine as medicine?", "summary": "Reading a chat remark that Mohammed Hijab is 'trapped as a Salafi but knows it's not right', Mufti Abu Layth says he will cover a recent clip of Hijab on camel urine in detail next week, but shows it now: Hijab says one need not drink it but warns against criticising the hadith, which may hold a hidden wisdom. Mufti says camel urine is not medicine and that the Prophet never really instructed people to drink it; the report is transmitted from Anas in Bukhari, whose other narration of it from the same narrator mentions milk but not urine, and its chain is problematic. He suggests that those who took it may have understood it as a rebuke, almost a curse, to a malicious group who had come to Madinah, and recounts the Arab custom of three days' hospitality and how that group abused it, torturing an old couple who hosted them, killing their livestock, and were punished in kind under tribal law. He notes that Hijab has moved a step away by saying one need not drink it and that it was a one-off medication.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says camel urine is not medicine and the Prophet never really told anyone to drink it; the report is weak in its chain and, if taken at all, reads as a rebuke.", "answer_start": 5180, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "fiqh/medical-ethics", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:37195d28", "label": "report: the prophet told the sick to drink camel urine"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9797b022", "label": "report: the people of uraynah had their hands and feet cut off and their eyes branded"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/28/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/29", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S29", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 29, "start": 5570, "end": 5917, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why Mohammed Hijab is stuck, and the risk of proving absurdities with science", "question_plain": "Why is quoting science to defend hadith like camel urine risky?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Mohammed Hijab is stuck: he does not think Hijab feels confident enough to turn his back on the Salafis, a huge and lucrative audience from whose background he comes, while his turn to philosophy and science sits badly with a movement that hates philosophy. He says that quoting scientific findings to prove absurdities will more often than not come back to sting you, and that Hijab's claim that camel urine contains an ingredient used in medicine rests on Saudi-funded theses rather than accepted medical research, which a person versed in medical journals could demolish, damaging the image of the Prophet being presented. He says Hamza Tzortzis [?] used to do the same and was often shown to have made mistakes, calling his debate with Lawrence Krauss a poor attempt and saying such polemicists do not understand quantum research. He ends by agreeing to a chat request to invite Dr Jeffrey Lang on MindTrap if he is interested.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Hijab cannot yet leave his Salafi audience, and that using science to prove absurd claims usually backfires, as with camel-urine research and earlier polemics.", "answer_start": 5570, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "quran/quran-and-science", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hamza-tzortzis", "label": "Hamza Tzortzis [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:lawrence-krauss", "label": "Lawrence Krauss"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jeffrey-lang", "label": "Dr Jeffrey Lang"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when you quote scientific material to prove absurdities, it will more often than not come back and sting you.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you see when you quote scientific stuff to prove absurdities it will more often than not come back and sting you and bite you in the rear end", "start": 5647}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/29/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/30", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S30", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 30, "start": 5917, "end": 6143, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was Islam spread by the sword? No, by zeal", "question_plain": "Was Islam spread by the sword?", "summary": "Asked to talk about Islam being spread through violence, Mufti Abu Layth says this is simply not true, though Islam is not a faith of pacifism: it has a military aspect, has had empire, and met force with a powerful, zealous response. He says it spread not by force but by zeal, and asks how a faith could be maintained by the sword, pointing out that three hundred years of British colonial rule could not make India Christian and that conversion by force can only be imposed at best in the moment, not policed in later generations. He cites the Spanish Inquisition, in a small region of southern Spain and in South America, as a rare case of forced conversion that stuck, and says a shaykh who conceded in a moment of supposed transparency that Islam spread this way was wrong.", "summary_short": "No: Islam spread by zeal, not the sword, he says; forced conversion rarely lasts, as British rule in India showed, though Islam is not pacifist.", "answer_start": 5917, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:spanish-inquisition", "label": "the Spanish Inquisition"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:british-empire", "label": "the British Empire"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam spread not by force but by zeal, and that the idea it was spread by the sword is absurd.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "when i say it spread not by force but by zeal because you know this thing that islam was spread by the sword it's absurd because how would you maintain islam by the sword", "start": 5993}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/30/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/31", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S31", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 31, "start": 6143, "end": 6411, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Atheism collapses at consciousness and the quantum world", "question_plain": "Can atheism explain consciousness?", "summary": "Asked to analyse an atheist YouTuber's video 'The Real God: An Epiphany', said to make a strong argument, Mufti Abu Layth says he has not watched it. He says atheists have strong arguments on many things but their case collapses when it faces consciousness, leaving them with blind faith, since they cannot explain the mind or where ideas exist. He says atheism, like much institutionalised religion, works at a Newtonian level and is lost in the quantum world, citing his MindTrap guest Professor Mir Faizal [?], a quantum-gravity physicist who challenged Lawrence Krauss to a debate on God which, he says, Krauss declined. In the twenty-first century, bringing in consciousness, he says atheism does not stand a chance and ends up answerless.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says atheists have strong points, but their case collapses at consciousness and quantum physics; atheism only works against Newtonian, institutional religion.", "answer_start": 6143, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mir-faizal", "label": "Professor Mir Faizal [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:lawrence-krauss", "label": "Lawrence Krauss"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that while atheists have strong arguments on many things, overall their case collapses when it comes face to face with consciousness.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i believe they have strong arguments on many things but overall it all collapses when it comes face to face with consciousness all of their arguments collapse", "start": 6143}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/31/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/32", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S32", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 32, "start": 6411, "end": 6523, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Were prophets only from Abraham's line? The Quran does not say so", "question_plain": "Did all prophets after Abraham come from his family?", "summary": "A questioner says the Quran calls the Israelites chosen and thought that after Abraham prophets would come only from his line. Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran nowhere says prophets came only from Abraham's line: Allah says he favoured Bani Isra'il, but they may have been favoured in some things and others in other things. Addressed with Arabia in mind, he says, they were favoured with Moses and many prophets and with withstanding the vicissitudes of fate, which does not mean no one else was favoured; these things are relative. He then agrees with a chat comment that whole countries would not have thrown away their cultures for a foreign religion.", "summary_short": "No: the Quran nowhere limits prophets to Abraham's line, he says; the Israelites' favour is relative, and other peoples were favoured differently.", "answer_start": 6411, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bani-israil", "label": "Bani Isra'il (the Israelites)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran nowhere says that prophets came only from Abraham's line.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "you see it doesn't say in the quran that prophets were only from abraham's line doesn't say that anyway in the quran", "start": 6411}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/32/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/33", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S33", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 33, "start": 6523, "end": 6600, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The lote tree is symbolic: there is no tree", "question_plain": "Is Sidrat al-Muntaha a real tree?", "summary": "Asked whether there is a reason outside hadith why the figure at the lote tree was taken to be Jibril and not a theophany, Mufti Abu Layth says the language of Sidrat al-Muntaha is all symbolic and there is no tree. He recalls that when Mohammed Hijab came for a dialogue a couple of years ago he asked him what this tree at the end of creation does there, and got no answer. He says that sometimes we have not been asking the right questions, and the truth is often hidden in plain sight.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the lote tree, Sidrat al-Muntaha, is symbolic language and there is no literal tree.", "answer_start": 6523, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/isra-and-miraj", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sidrat-al-muntaha", "label": "Sidrat al-Muntaha (the lote tree)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the language of the lote tree, Sidrat al-Muntaha, is all symbolic and there is no tree.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "sidratul muntaha this kind of language is all really symbolic there's nothing um it's just symbolism there is no tree people", "start": 6523}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/33/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/34", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S34", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 34, "start": 6600, "end": 6709, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How the Maliki school spread beyond Arabia, to al-Andalus and Basra", "question_plain": "How did the Maliki school spread to North Africa and Spain?", "summary": "Asked how the Maliki madhhab moved from the fiqh of central Arabia to that of North Africa, Mufti Abu Layth says it had spread in Imam Malik's own lifetime all the way to the Iberian peninsula, through North Africa. It also spread, he says, into the Middle East and Iraq. He says Basra had a strong Maliki representation, Baghdad too, and less so Kufa, and names Maliki scholars associated with Basra, among them al-Abhari [?] and Ibn al-Jallab [?], some of whom moved between Baghdad and Basra.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki school had already spread in Imam Malik's lifetime through North Africa to al-Andalus, and into Iraq, especially Basra.", "answer_start": 6600, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school", "history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-andalus", "label": "al-Andalus (the Iberian peninsula)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-abhari", "label": "al-Abhari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jallab", "label": "Ibn al-Jallab [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki school had spread in Imam Malik's lifetime all the way to the Iberian peninsula, through North Africa.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the maliki method had spread in imam malik's lifetime all the way to the iberian peninsula which was spain it went through via north africa", "start": 6600}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/34/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/35", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S35", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 35, "start": 6709, "end": 6785, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is chess haram in Imam Malik's view? No; he disliked time-wasting", "question_plain": "Is playing chess haram?", "summary": "Asked whether Imam Malik held chess haram, given that chess came to the Muslims after the conquest of Persia, Mufti Abu Layth says playing chess is not haram. He says chess was not played in the Prophet's society but was introduced in the time of the companions, who discussed it, some in favour and some against. He says al-Shatibi in al-Muwafaqat goes through Imam Malik's fatwas on chess: Malik discouraged it because he saw people wasting their lives on it, but never called it haram, which he compares to someone today rebuking time spent on TV series or computer games that are not haram.", "summary_short": "No, chess is not haram, he says; Imam Malik discouraged it as a waste of life but never called it haram.", "answer_start": 6709, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shatibi", "label": "al-Shatibi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-muwafaqat", "label": "al-Muwafaqat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahabah", "label": "sahabah (companions)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says playing chess is not haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "no playing chess is not haram um yeah chess wasn't there in the time of the prophet not amongst the immediate arabs", "start": 6709}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/35/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/36", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S36", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 36, "start": 6785, "end": 7250, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A mufti's clip on ear piercing: 'decency', 'manipulation' and muthla", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip of Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera answering what the limits of ear piercing are. In it the mufti says piercing any part of the body considered acceptable among decent people is permissible: one or two piercings at the bottom of the ear are normal, piercing higher up becomes abnormal, the nose is fine because many Muslim cultures allow it, and piercing every part is impermissible because it manipulates the body and because Islam forbids muthla. Mufti interjects with mockery, asking who is defining normality, whether indecency is not usually about nudity, and what 'manipulating' means. He explains that muthla means disfiguring someone, especially the dead after killing, as ancient Arabs did, and asks why, if piercing the lower ear is not muthla, the upper ear would be, saying this is why the ummah is where it is.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth mocks a mufti's argument that piercing beyond the earlobe is abnormal and amounts to muthla, saying muthla means disfiguring a body, not piercing it.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdur-rahman-ibn-yusuf-mangera", "label": "Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muthla", "label": "muthla (mutilation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/36/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/37", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S37", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 37, "start": 7250, "end": 7580, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Assim al-Hakeem on non-Muslim friends and their salam", "question_plain": "Can a Muslim have a close non-Muslim friend?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip in which Assim al-Hakeem answers a questioner who has a close non-Muslim friend, now seriously ill and interested in Islam, and asks whether he may return his salam and make dua for his cure. In the clip the shaykh says a Muslim may have a non-Muslim acquaintance or colleague but not a dear friend and confidant, and that a non-Muslim's salam is answered only with a smile, calling this the most authentic opinion. Mufti mocks the clip, punning that his parents named him Hakim but Allah gave him no hikmah, and imitating his 'how can you have a non-Muslim friend'. He then says this is the type of ignorance, hatred and venom that is being spread, that it is why the deen suffers, as people come to think Islam forbids such friendships, and calls it nonsense and a tragedy.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls the teaching that Muslims cannot have close non-Muslim friends ignorance and venom that makes the deen suffer.", "answer_start": 7431, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["relationships/friendship-and-social-life", "fiqh/festivals-and-greetings", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:assim-al-hakeem", "label": "Assim al-Hakeem"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salam", "label": "salam (the greeting of peace)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hikmah", "label": "hikmah (wisdom)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/37/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/38", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S38", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 38, "start": 7580, "end": 8217, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abdul Rahman Hassan on the first Khariji and criticising rulers", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet say he would kill the first Khariji's descendants?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip of Abdul Rahman Hassan arguing that the first Khariji was the man who told the Prophet to be just, the first to bring the mentality of protesting against the leader and voicing one's opinion, and saying the Prophet said 'I will kill his lineage'. Mufti mocks the clip as teaching never to criticise the Saudi king and calling public criticism of rulers kufr, with repeated jibes about Muhammad bin Salman. He says that in his zeal the speaker 'threw the Prophet under the bus': nobody in Islam knows of the Prophet saying 'I will kill his lineage', and in the same hadith in Bukhari the Prophet stopped Umar from drawing his sword on the man and said that from his progeny would come extremists whose outward worship exceeds others' though the deen does not enter their hearts. He asks why the Prophet would forbid killing the man but order his children killed, and says respect for the Prophet comes first and kings can wait.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet never said 'I will kill his lineage'; in the Bukhari report he stopped Umar from killing the man, so the clip misrepresents the Prophet to defend rulers.", "answer_start": 8031, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3431543c", "label": "report: umar asked to kill the man who told the prophet to be just and the prophet forbade it saying from his progeny will come extremists"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-bin-salman", "label": "Muhammad bin Salman"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/38/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/39", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S39", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 39, "start": 8217, "end": 8401, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "An open challenge: defend Salafi aqidah from the Quran alone", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shows a tweet in which he invited Abdul Rahman Hassan onto MindTrap for a discussion on aqidah, saying he may defend Salafi aqidah but only from the Quran, and challenging that he will not be able to. He says he also offered a discussion on Bukhari, while acknowledging that is a difficult topic for which some would say they lack the research. He extends the challenge to any Salafi imam to prove their aqidah from the Quran or Sunnah, naming critics by nicknames, and says he will return another week to another critic's latest episode.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth repeats his open challenge to Abdul Rahman Hassan and any Salafi imam to defend Salafi aqidah from the Quran alone, on MindTrap.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/39/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/40", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S40", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 40, "start": 8401, "end": 8588, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Chat banter: jinn-obsessed people, a 'space gun' and Harun Yahya's sentence", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will take a few quick questions before the drugs clip and the close. He agrees with a chat remark that people obsessed with jinn should be stopped, joking that a shaykh from an earlier clip with a 'space gun' should be on hand as backup, and teases the chat about philosophising on 'the meaning of meaning'. Asked to get Harun Yahya on MindTrap, he says he would have loved to before Harun Yahya was handed a sentence of about a thousand years, and jokes about the Turkish judge who settled on 935 years.", "summary_short": "Light banter with the chat, including a joke about people obsessed with jinn and the remark that he would have liked Harun Yahya on MindTrap before his long prison sentence.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:harun-yahya", "label": "Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/40/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/41", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S41", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 41, "start": 8588, "end": 8665, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The Naqshbandi and other Sufi orders: institutionalised, the monster they set out to defy", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of the Naqshbandi Sufi order?", "summary": "A super chat asks his views on the Naqshbandi Sufi jamaat, which the questioner finds out of touch, arrogant and a bit militant like the Salafis. Mufti Abu Layth says many Sufi orders today are unfortunately very institutionalised, though they were meant to defy institutionalisation and dogma and to practise outside the box, as mysticism was. He says they have become the very monster they set out to defy, quoting Nietzsche on staring into the abyss and on fighting monsters lest one become one.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says many Sufi orders have become institutionalised and dogmatic, the very thing mysticism set out to defy.", "answer_start": 8588, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sufism"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:naqshbandi", "label": "the Naqshbandi order"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tariqah", "label": "tariqah (Sufi order)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:friedrich-nietzsche", "label": "Friedrich Nietzsche"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says many Sufi orders have become very institutionalised, the very monster they originally set out to defy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "being able to practice out of the box because mysticism was very out of the box but what they've just become is the very monster that they originally had set out to defy", "start": 8626}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/41/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/42", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S42", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 42, "start": 8665, "end": 8810, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did Imam Ahmad dislike Abu Hanifa? And thoughts on Shaykh Dedew", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of Shaykh Dedew, and did Imam Ahmad dislike Abu Hanifa?", "summary": "Asked why Imam Ahmad and Imam Ja'far hated Imam Abu Hanifa, Mufti Abu Layth says he is not sure they did, but Imam Ahmad said quite a few harsh things about Abu Hanifa, which he will go through another day. Asked his thoughts on Shaykh Dedew [?], he says he had a soft spot for him and was once in touch with him, but has seen little of him on social media for two or three years. He says the shaykh has some very interesting fatwas, is critical in some things and still dogmatic in others, and that it is good to take the critical things from him while staying open-minded on the dogmatic ones.", "summary_short": "Imam Ahmad did say harsh things about Abu Hanifa, he says; of Shaykh Dedew, take his critical views and stay open-minded on his dogmatic ones.", "answer_start": 8665, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jafar-al-sadiq", "label": "Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Imam Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-hasan-al-dedew", "label": "Shaykh Dedew [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/42/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/43", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S43", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 43, "start": 8810, "end": 8926, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Compassion in Islam, and a question about Raja Dahir he cannot follow", "question_plain": "Does Islam teach us to show affection?", "summary": "A super chat asks him to speak about love and proof of affection, and about the protection given by Raja Dahir [?] to the persecuted descendants of the Prophet. Mufti Abu Layth says he cannot understand what is being asked and wonders whether he is just tired. Taking 'proof of affection' as where Islam says to show affection, he says there are countless hadith about shafaqa, compassion and affection. He says he cannot make sense of the Raja Dahir part.", "summary_short": "There are countless hadith on showing compassion and affection, he says, but he cannot follow the question about Raja Dahir.", "answer_start": 8810, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "history/subcontinent"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:shafaqa", "label": "shafaqa (compassion)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:raja-dahir", "label": "Raja Dahir [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there are countless hadith about showing shafaqa, compassion and affection.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "where does it say in islam you should show affection that's an easy one i mean you know this comes in a son there's so many hadith about shafaka about being showing shafakar which is compassion affection", "start": 8848}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/43/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/44", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S44", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 44, "start": 8926, "end": 9031, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A missed Jeffrey Lang question, Melchert's book, and a joke about 'protection'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Told he missed a super chat about Jeffrey Lang, Mufti Abu Layth says he read it out and would be happy to have Lang on if he is interested. Asked his thoughts on Christopher Melchert's book on the formation of the Sunni schools of law, he says he will have to look into it. He then returns to the previous super chat's word 'protection' with jokes, and remarks on the unusual questions coming through tonight.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will look into Christopher Melchert's book on the formation of the Sunni schools of law, and jokes about an earlier question.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:jeffrey-lang", "label": "Dr Jeffrey Lang"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:christopher-melchert", "label": "Christopher Melchert"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-formation-of-the-sunni-schools-of-law", "label": "The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/44/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/45", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S45", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 45, "start": 9031, "end": 9070, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was Adam's garden on earth? Obviously, he says", "question_plain": "Was Adam's garden on earth or in heaven?", "summary": "A questioner notes that the Quran does not say 'go down to earth', that this is inferred, and that scholars such as Ibn al-Qayyim [?] said the story took place entirely on earth. Taking it to be about the story of Adam, Mufti Abu Layth says many ulama felt it was on earth, which he says it obviously was: Adam and his wife were not beamed down. He adds that some felt they may have been in a different universe, not in paradise since paradise is the afterlife, but that really they were just on earth.", "summary_short": "Yes: the story of Adam took place on earth, he says; he was not beamed down from paradise.", "answer_start": 9031, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qayyim", "label": "Ibn al-Qayyim [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the story of Adam obviously took place on earth, and that Adam and his wife were not beamed down.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "yes many ulama felt this is on earth which obviously it was you know it was obviously on earth they weren't kind of beamed down", "start": 9031}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/45/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/46", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S46", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 46, "start": 9070, "end": 9452, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The Ibadis: early origins, Oman, and a third tradition for triangulation", "question_plain": "Who are the Ibadis and what does the Mufti think of them?", "summary": "Asked his thoughts on Ibadism, Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibadis help form a kind of triangulation method in Islam alongside mainstream Sunnis and the Shia, because they are very early. He says they were a splinter of the Khawarij, a spectrum of factions, but the less extreme type, tracing themselves to the time of the Umayyads and to Jabir ibn Zayd, a student of the companions; they developed their own fiqh and fatwas and a small hadith collection, al-Jami al-Sahih [?], compiled some three hundred years later, and pray with the arms at the sides as the Malikis do. He says that in the early Umayyad period Khawarij in North Africa sought to kill Umayyads, which is why Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya avoided the region, and that over time, as an extreme minority, the Ibadis became a coexisting, peaceful people now found in Oman, an Ibadi state whose late Sultan Qaboos was widely praised. He says he would love to have an Ibadi shaykh on MindTrap, and that because Sunnis, Shia and Ibadis were all anti-Umayyad, they could never all have agreed to replace Makkah with another city, as the Petra thesis would require.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibadis, an early and now peaceful offshoot of the Khawarij based in Oman, give a third tradition by which to cross-check claims, such as the Petra thesis.", "answer_start": 9070, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ibadi", "label": "Ibadi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "the Umayyads"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jabir-ibn-zayd", "label": "Jabir ibn Zayd"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-jami-al-sahih-ibadi", "label": "al-Jami al-Sahih (Ibadi hadith collection) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abd-al-rahman-al-dakhil", "label": "Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya (al-Dakhil)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:qaboos-bin-said", "label": "Sultan Qaboos"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:petra-thesis", "label": "the Petra thesis"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibadis help form a kind of triangulation method in Islam because they are very early.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you see ibadis do help form a kind of triangulation method if we want in islam because they are very early", "start": 9070}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/46/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/47", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S47", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 47, "start": 9452, "end": 9490, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can I pray in the car? In the worst case, yes", "question_plain": "Can I pray in my car if I don't feel safe praying outside?", "summary": "A super chat asks whether praying in a car is allowed, either because of a particular job or because one does not feel safe praying in a parking lot. Mufti Abu Layth says that in the worst case, if one needs to pray in a car, one can, God willing. He names not feeling safe, or things like that, as such a case.", "summary_short": "Yes: in the worst case, if you need to or do not feel safe praying outside, you can pray in your car.", "answer_start": 9452, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/work-and-study-life"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in the worst case, if one needs to pray in a car or does not feel safe, one can.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "you know worst case if you need to pray in a car you know if you're not feeling safe or things like that you can inshallah", "start": 9452}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/47/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/48", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S48", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 48, "start": 9490, "end": 9599, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are children not accountable for harming other children? They are, in their own way", "question_plain": "Are children held accountable in Islam for bullying or hurting others?", "summary": "A super chat asks how it is fair that children are not held accountable when they cause lifelong harm to other children, as in bullying. Mufti Abu Layth says it is cruel, but that children are accountable: saying they are not accountable does not mean they have free rein, and a child who stabbed another would be held to account. He cites Imam Malik's fatwas on the testimony of children (shahadat al-sibyan), which Imam Malik accepted when one child wounded another, and says the accountability is commensurate with being a child, taking into account what happened and what they understood, with laws less stringent than for adults. He agrees that the worst bullying is from children to children and prays that Allah make things easy.", "summary_short": "Children are accountable, he says, in a way suited to their age: the laws for them are lighter, but a child who harms another does not get a free pass.", "answer_start": 9490, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "relationships/parents-and-children/raising-children"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shahadat-al-sibyan", "label": "shahadat al-sibyan (testimony of children)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says children are still accountable in their own way, commensurate with being a child, so the laws for them are more relaxed and less stringent than for adults.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "they would still be accountable in their own way you understand so naturally the laws pertaining to children would be more relaxed and more less stringent than they would to adults", "start": 9528}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/48/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/49", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S49", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 49, "start": 9599, "end": 9717, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Would a qadi give the maximum punishment for theft? Circumstances count, as in courts today", "question_plain": "Does an Islamic judge always give the maximum punishment for theft?", "summary": "After a request to pray for the ummah and humanity, Mufti Abu Layth reads a super chat asking whether a qadi in a criminal matter such as theft hands down the maximum punishment or less. He refers to his videos on the hudud changing and on trajectory hermeneutics, and says the hudud would be different and the judge would take the circumstances into consideration. He says it would be not unlike how the courts work in England today, which is more or less how the Sharia would work, since the Sharia uses the systems human societies have to regulate them: social workers and probation officers giving reports, testimonials, circumstantial evidence and the background to the offence, after which the judges rule, and that is Islamic.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says a qadi would weigh the circumstances, much as courts in England do today, and that this is how the Sharia would work; the hudud would be different now.", "answer_start": 9599, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:qadi", "label": "qadi (judge)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hudud-change-with-the-age", "label": "the hudud change with the age"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a qadi's judgement would be not unlike how the courts work in England today, and that is how the Sharia would work, more or less.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "yes he would take into consideration the circumstances it would be very it would be not different from how the courts work let's say in england today that would be how the sharia would work i mean more or less", "start": 9637}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/49/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/50", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S50", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 50, "start": 9717, "end": 10462, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A preacher's lecture on drugs: Abu Hanifa and nabidh were not about medicine", "question_plain": "Did Abu Hanifa allow nabidh only as medicine?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to a lecture by a preacher he calls 'our beloved', apparently Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?], on cannabis, marijuana and DMT, saying it naturally declares them haram. He plays the part where the preacher answers those who cite Abu Hanifa permitting nabidh in small amounts, saying the fatwa of the school is not given on that statement and that Abu Hanifa meant medicinal use. Mufti, who amuses himself with the pause button, reads in reply from Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, much of the Arabic being missing from the transcript: Ibrahim al-Nakha'i's account of Ibn Mas'ud serving nabidh with food, the report that a strong nabidh is what digests camel meat, Umar tasting a drunk Bedouin's strong nabidh and diluting it with water, and reports on making nabidh from different fruits. He says this has nothing to do with medicine and that it is Imam Muhammad, a Hanafi, transmitting it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the reports Abu Hanifa's school transmitted, of Umar and Ibn Mas'ud drinking and diluting nabidh, are about drinking with food, not medicine.", "answer_start": 10052, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asrar-rashid", "label": "Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Imam Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-al-hasan-al-shaybani", "label": "Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibrahim-al-nakhai", "label": "Ibrahim al-Nakha'i"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Abdullah ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/50/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/51", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S51", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 51, "start": 10462, "end": 10788, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Is cannabis an intoxicant like alcohol? Not by the definitions of those who study it", "question_plain": "Is cannabis an intoxicant like alcohol in Islam?", "summary": "Continuing the preacher's lecture, Mufti Abu Layth plays the part where the preacher cites a definition that hashish is haram if established as an intoxicant, and asks why he keeps defining marijuana as an intoxicant. Mufti says the preacher does not understand the difference between psychoactive substances, intoxicants and depressants: marijuana is by no means an intoxicant in the sense alcohol is, and those who study the brain and the impact of substances do not define it so. He plays the preacher saying THC is haram but CBD may be used medicinally, and ridicules a questioner for asking the preacher whether cannabis cures cancer rather than asking oncologists and researchers. He then plays the preacher on the pro-cannabis lobby, its funders and not praying the janazah of drug dealers, saying the condemnation of drug dealers makes sense, before the preacher justifies having once attended such a funeral.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says marijuana is not an intoxicant in the way alcohol is, and accuses the preacher of not understanding the difference between psychoactive substances and intoxicants.", "answer_start": 10500, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asrar-rashid", "label": "Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:cannabis", "label": "cannabis (marijuana, hashish)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:george-soros", "label": "George Soros"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hugh-hefner", "label": "Hugh Hefner"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:janazah", "label": "janazah (funeral prayer)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/51/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/52", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S52", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 52, "start": 10788, "end": 11148, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The preacher on DMT: 'no proof of the unseen', and tahajjud instead", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays the preacher's section on DMT, which says it is produced in the mind, is called the spirit molecule, relates to the pineal gland, and that there is no scientific or religious proof that those who take it enter the world of the ghayb (the captions render the word as 'rape'). Mufti mocks the wording and asks what scientific proof about the unseen could even be expected, since the ghayb is by definition what God has kept veiled. He plays the preacher's conclusion that spirituality is attained through qiyam al-layl and tahajjud rather than DMT or psilocybin, and responds with praise he signals is ironic before saying he will speak seriously.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth ridicules the preacher's claim that there is no scientific proof DMT users reach the unseen, asking what such proof could even look like.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asrar-rashid", "label": "Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dmt", "label": "DMT"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:dmt-the-spirit-molecule", "label": "DMT: The Spirit Molecule"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ghayb", "label": "ghayb (the unseen)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tahajjud", "label": "tahajjud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:psilocybin", "label": "psilocybin"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/52/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/53", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S53", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 53, "start": 11148, "end": 11303, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "His own view on marijuana: harmful for the young, not haram for a developed adult", "question_plain": "Is smoking marijuana haram?", "summary": "On a serious note, Mufti Abu Layth refers to his lengthy video arguing that psychedelics are not haram but should be used sensibly, and his detailed video on marijuana. He says that because of the harm it causes to the underage and to those whose brains are still developing it would be haram for them, but once the brain's neuroplasticity has settled, usually around 25, it would not be haram for a person to take marijuana, though Islam does not encourage it at all and it is the person's own responsibility. He says he never called it a good thing and has advised people not to do these things, but that something not being good does not make it haram, comparing it to junk food, which can kill more easily, and the documentary of a man who ate fast food three times a day for a month. He adds that these are also issues of legality.", "summary_short": "Marijuana is haram for the young because of the harm, he says, but not for an adult whose brain has developed, though Islam does not encourage it.", "answer_start": 11148, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:cannabis", "label": "cannabis (marijuana)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that once a person's brain has developed, usually around 25, it would not be haram for them to take marijuana, though Islam does not encourage it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "after that i've said that it's not something islam encourages in fact you know it doesn't encourage it at all how but it would not be haram if a person was to be to take marijuana", "start": 11224}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/53/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/54", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S54", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 54, "start": 11303, "end": 11459, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "DMT and psilocybin are not haram, and the evidence from brain studies", "question_plain": "Are DMT and magic mushrooms haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says DMT is definitely not haram, nor are psilocybin mushrooms, though they are issues of legality, and that in his understanding they are portals for connecting seriously with consciousness. Against the preacher's claim of no scientific proof, he says there is an abundance of it: studies of the brain on psychedelics, among them LSD, psilocybin and DMT, show regions activated that normally are not and brain waves at high, gamma-level frequencies at which breakthroughs happen. He says years of meditation might mimic this, though he doubts it would be the same, while what is attained through meditation has a longer-lasting effect than a shortcut. He says many religious people downplay these experiences because admitting them would seem to make their own practice amount to nothing, so they have a vested interest.", "summary_short": "DMT and psilocybin are not haram, he says, though they raise legal issues; brain studies give abundant evidence of their effect on consciousness.", "answer_start": 11303, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dmt", "label": "DMT"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:psilocybin", "label": "psilocybin"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:lsd", "label": "LSD"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says DMT is definitely not haram, nor is psilocybin, though these are issues of legality.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so that is the understanding as to dmt that is definitely not haram um neither is psilocybin and stuff like that mushrooms but these things are issues of legality", "start": 11303}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/54/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/55", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S55", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 55, "start": 11459, "end": 11674, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Drinking poison is categorically haram: the preacher's inconsistency", "question_plain": "Is drinking poison haram in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is hypocrisy for the preacher to declare these substances haram when he publicly, in a live video, drank poison and, when asked afterwards, said it is not haram if you know you will be okay. He says drinking poison is categorically haram in Islam, with no ifs or buts, that doing it live irresponsibly encourages young people, and that poison is far more harmful than weed, mushrooms or DMT, since its very essence is designed to kill and it has no other function. Thanking super chatters as he begins to wrap up, he says the preacher only speaks on DMT because Mufti has made videos saying it is not haram, while knowing little about it, and repeats his objection to justifying the public drinking of rat poison.", "summary_short": "Drinking poison is categorically haram, he says, so it is inconsistent to call DMT haram while justifying publicly drinking poison.", "answer_start": 11459, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asrar-rashid", "label": "Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dmt", "label": "DMT"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says drinking poison is categorically haram in Islam, with no ifs or buts.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "drinking poison is categorically haram in islam it is there's no ifs no but", "start": 11459}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/55/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/56", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S56", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 56, "start": 11674, "end": 11860, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does the Quran use metaphors like the two angels of al-Baqarah? Yes, many", "question_plain": "Does the Quran use metaphors, like calling people angels?", "summary": "A super chat notes that he said the two angels in Surah al-Baqarah refer to saint-like kings and asks whether Allah uses similar metaphors elsewhere in the Quran. Mufti Abu Layth says yes, of course: there are many metaphors in the Quran, from Allah saying he is light, which is not meant in a literal sense, to the wall that 'wanted' to collapse, since a wall does not want anything. He cites the women in Surah Yusuf saying 'this is no human, this is but a noble angel', and says people call humans angels just as they call humans devils, so these terms are used interchangeably.", "summary_short": "Yes, he says the Quran is full of metaphors, from God as light to the wall that 'wanted' to fall, and humans are called angels just as they are called devils.", "answer_start": 11711, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:102", "label": "Quran 2:102"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:35", "label": "Quran 24:35"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:77", "label": "Quran 18:77"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:31", "label": "Quran 12:31"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there are many metaphors in the Quran, such as Allah saying he is light, which is not meant in a literal sense.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "allah himself saying he is light he's the light that we see in the heavens um obviously we don't you know it's not a literal sense that's it's spoken as a metaphor", "start": 11743}}, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/56/"}, {"id": "--PntsaR8ck/s/57", "short_id": "2021-02-16-S57", "recording": "--PntsaR8ck", "n": 57, "start": 11860, "end": 11906, "date": "20210216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Sign-off: subscribe, the Discord coming soon, take the chance", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that is enough for the night and asks viewers to like, subscribe and turn on notifications. He asks them to look out for the Discord he showed earlier, about which he will meet his 'executive task force'. He signs off telling viewers that sometimes you just have to take the chance.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth closes the stream with reminders to subscribe and a note that the Discord is on its way.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/--PntsaR8ck/s/57/"}, {"id": "-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/1", "short_id": "2019-12-17-S01", "recording": "-JYtKJ9z1cw", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 156, "date": "20191217", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Revisionist historians on Makkah: Patricia Crone, Michael Cook and whether Makkah was a significant city", "question_plain": "Was pre-Islamic Makkah really a significant city?", "summary": "The clip opens mid-sentence, after a remark about the ancestors of the Prophet. Mufti Abu Layth says he follows Dan Gibson quite closely and looks into what he says rather than dismissing it because it goes against his own view. He summarises the revisionist position: most of them accept that the Prophet existed, but Patricia Crone and others hold that Makkah could not have been as significant as later Muslims claimed. He says that, to be fair, he thinks they have a point: he does not think Makkah was a significant city or even a popular town, and he sees its later image as something later Muslims recreated innocently, assuming it to be the reality, not as propaganda. He adds that Crone, Michael Cook [?] and others argued Makkah may not have been where it is but further north, in the kingdoms of Sham, and that some then suggested Petra; from what he has read, Crone did not conclude that, but was unconvinced that Makkah was where it is now and open to suggestions. He says he is still going through her works.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth thinks the revisionists have a point: Makkah was not a significant city or even a popular town, and its later image was an innocent reconstruction by Muslims rather than propaganda. He notes that Crone and Cook placed Makkah further north without settling on Petra.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/pre-islamic-arabia", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dan-gibson", "label": "Dan Gibson"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:patricia-crone", "label": "Patricia Crone"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:michael-cook", "label": "Michael Cook [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the revisionist historians have a point that pre-Islamic Makkah was not a significant city or even a popular town, and that its later image was an innocent reconstruction by later Muslims rather than propaganda.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "to be fair I think they've got a point that I don't think Mecca was a significant City at all or even a popular town I think this is something that is recreated", "start": 38}}, "url": "/r/-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/1/"}, {"id": "-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/2", "short_id": "2019-12-17-S02", "recording": "-JYtKJ9z1cw", "n": 2, "start": 156, "end": 315, "date": "20191217", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Dan Gibson's Early Islamic Qiblas: mosque foundations that point to Petra, and what he makes of the method", "question_plain": "What is Dan Gibson's Petra theory and are his measurements trustworthy?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is in some ways grateful to Dan Gibson, since people must be honoured for research even when its results are unwelcome, and that what the Islamic tradition lacks is critical review. He describes Gibson's book, which he calls Early Islamic Qiblas [?]: Gibson measured the foundations of around a hundred and sixty mosques, visiting several and using satellite imagery for the rest, and explains his methods transparently. Mufti says he does not believe Gibson is as innocent as some think and that he is being somewhat mischievous, but within bounds, and that he is not falsifying evidence, since he would be caught. He reports Gibson's finding that the earliest first-century foundations point towards Petra rather than Makkah, with diagrams of the degrees of deviation from each, a majority aligning more closely with Petra, some with Makkah, and some, such as the North African and Andalusi mosques, pointing south. He calls Gibson's explanation of the latter, that they copied the direction from Damascus, ridiculous, and then asks what he himself makes of it all.", "summary_short": "Gibson measured around 160 early mosque foundations and found the earliest pointing to Petra rather than Makkah. Mufti Abu Layth says the data are transparent and not falsified, though Gibson is somewhat mischievous, and that his explanation of the south-pointing North African mosques is ridiculous.", "answer_start": 156, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists", "history/pre-islamic-arabia"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dan-gibson", "label": "Dan Gibson"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:early-islamic-qiblas", "label": "Early Islamic Qiblas [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiblah", "label": "qiblah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:critical-review-of-tradition", "label": "the tradition lacks, and needs, critical review"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/2/"}, {"id": "-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/3", "short_id": "2019-12-17-S03", "recording": "-JYtKJ9z1cw", "n": 3, "start": 315, "end": 631, "date": "20191217", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "His theory: Petra as an agent in Islam's formation, and Qusayy's upbringing in Wadi al-Qura", "question_plain": "Who was Qusayy ibn Kilab and where was he raised?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Gibson may be right that the early foundations pointed closer to Petra than to Makkah, and asks why. His theory is that Petra, not through any scheme, was an active agent in the formation of certain Islamic phenomena, beginning with and concretised by the Prophet's great-grandfather Qusayy, whose real name he gives as Zayd [?]. He recounts that Qusayy's father Kilab died when he was an infant; his mother remarried a man from her tribe, Rabi'a [?], who lived in Sham; the elder brother Zuhra [?] stayed behind while the infant and his mother were taken to a place called Wadi al-Qura, the valley of settlements. Mufti says he believes Wadi al-Qura was Petra, since the sources say tribes such as Banu Udhra [?] settled there, Banu Udhra lived around northern Arabia and Petra, and Petra was also called Umm al-Qura, the mother of settlements; Muslim historians, he says, are unsure where Wadi al-Qura was, because Petra was forgotten within a century or two and rediscovered only in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He explains that Qusayy means 'little stranger', a disparaging diminutive given by the people of that region who saw him as a foreigner, and that he complained to his mother, who told him he was the son of Kilab of the noble tribe of Quraysh; this longing for identity and belonging led him, as a grown man, to leave Sham for Makkah.", "summary_short": "Mufti proposes that Petra shaped early Islam through the Prophet's great-grandfather Qusayy, who was raised as a foreigner in Wadi al-Qura, which Mufti Abu Layth identifies with Petra. Qusayy's name means 'little stranger', and his longing for belonging drew him back to Makkah.", "answer_start": 315, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/pre-islamic-arabia", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:qusayy-ibn-kilab", "label": "Qusayy ibn Kilab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:kilab-ibn-murra", "label": "Kilab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:rabia-ibn-haram", "label": "Rabi'a, Qusayy's stepfather [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zuhra-ibn-kilab", "label": "Zuhra, Qusayy's brother [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:banu-udhra", "label": "Banu Udhra [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:umm-al-qura", "label": "Umm al-Qura (mother of settlements)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dan-gibson", "label": "Dan Gibson"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth proposes that Petra shaped early Islamic phenomena through Qusayy ibn Kilab, the Prophet's great-grandfather, whom he believes was raised in Wadi al-Qura, a place he identifies with Petra.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "Petra has I feel being an actor if you like an active agent in the formation of certain Islamic phenomena", "start": 339}}, "url": "/r/-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/3/"}, {"id": "-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/4", "short_id": "2019-12-17-S04", "recording": "-JYtKJ9z1cw", "n": 4, "start": 631, "end": 866, "date": "20191217", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qusayy takes Makkah: the keys of the Ka'bah, Quraysh settled around it, and the 'Shami Ka'bah'", "question_plain": "Why do early Islamic books call the Ka'bah 'the Shami Ka'bah'?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that on his return Qusayy, described as handsome, charming and a warrior, married the daughter of the high priest of Khuza'a [?], the tribe that held the keys of the Ka'bah; when the priest died the daughter inherited the keys and Qusayy, as her husband, took them. He then expelled Khuza'a from Makkah, leading to a small civil war in which he called on all Quraysh, scattered as they were, and on his Shami step-siblings and cousins, whom Mufti believes were in Petra; after an arbitration he gained the upper hand and control of Makkah. He describes how Qusayy fashioned Makkah: he called all Quraysh to migrate there and offered them allotments, in the centre or the outlying valleys, rebuilt the Ka'bah with changes to its design, built houses in rings around it for the notables, dug wells, fought battles in defence of Quraysh, and became the most powerful leader Quraysh had before Islam. Mufti suggests these changes, such as the settlement encircling the Ka'bah, may have been influenced by his upbringing in Petra, and that this is why early books, perhaps including Bukhari [?], call the Ka'bah 'the Shami Ka'bah': not because the Ka'bah was in Sham, as some concluded, but because it was fashioned in a Shami way, Sham being the region of Damascus, Petra and Jordan.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth suggests Qusayy, raised in Petra, rebuilt the Ka'bah and settled Quraysh around it in a Shami style, which is why early books call it the Shami Ka'bah. It does not mean the Ka'bah was in Sham.", "answer_start": 631, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/pre-islamic-arabia", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:qusayy-ibn-kilab", "label": "Qusayy ibn Kilab"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:khuzaa", "label": "Khuza'a [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Ka'bah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qusayy's reorganisation of Makkah and the Ka'bah's surroundings may reflect his upbringing in Petra, which is why early books call the Ka'bah 'the Shami Ka'bah', rather than because the Ka'bah was in Sham.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "maybe the way he fashioned the houses around the Kaaba the settlements the encirclement this may have been influenced by his upbringing in petra", "start": 799}}, "url": "/r/-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/4/"}, {"id": "-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/5", "short_id": "2019-12-17-S05", "recording": "-JYtKJ9z1cw", "n": 5, "start": 866, "end": 1101, "date": "20191217", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Lost ancient knowledge: the Younger Dryas, Göbekli Tepe, old maps and sites aligned to constellations", "question_plain": "Did ancient civilisations have knowledge that was later lost?", "summary": "Returning to Gibson, Mufti Abu Layth says ancient civilisations thousands of years ago knew more about the globe than people a few centuries ago, and that he buys into the view of writers such as Graham Hancock that advanced civilisations were destroyed in the Younger Dryas event. He finds this convincing because of sites such as Göbekli Tepe [?], archaeologically dated to eleven and a half thousand years ago, which hunter-gatherers could not suddenly have built. He cites maps by Ptolemy and others, and the fifteenth-century map of the Ottoman cartographer Piri Reis [?], drawn from over a hundred older sources, which he says shows Antarctica, not discovered until the 1800s, with rivers that have been under ice since the Younger Dryas, along with landmasses submerged since then. He says people knew how to navigate, lost the knowledge, and rediscovered it. He observes that the pyramids, Petra, Aztec and Maya sites and the Peruvian megaliths seem aligned to constellations, and believes neither the Nabataeans nor the pharaohs built Petra or the pyramids from scratch but inherited and built on earlier sites. Since the Nabataeans were a mercantile people trading as far as China and India, he suggests they set up devotion sites and temples aligned to the constellation Petra is aligned to.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth finds convincing the view that advanced ancient civilisations were destroyed around the Younger Dryas and left knowledge seen in old maps and constellation-aligned sites. He believes the Nabataeans built on earlier sites at Petra and set up devotion sites aligned to its constellation.", "answer_start": 866, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:graham-hancock", "label": "Graham Hancock"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:younger-dryas", "label": "the Younger Dryas event"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ptolemy", "label": "Ptolemy"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:piri-reis", "label": "Piri Reis [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:nabataeans", "label": "the Nabataeans"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dan-gibson", "label": "Dan Gibson"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he finds convincing the view that advanced ancient civilisations with knowledge of the globe were destroyed around the Younger Dryas, and that neither the Nabataeans nor the pharaohs built Petra or the pyramids from scratch but built on earlier structures.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't believe the Nabataeans built Petra neither do I believe the pharaohs built the pyramids from scratch I feel that they built upon previous structures", "start": 1031}}, "url": "/r/-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/5/"}, {"id": "-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/6", "short_id": "2019-12-17-S06", "recording": "-JYtKJ9z1cw", "n": 6, "start": 1101, "end": 1312, "date": "20191217", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Right for the wrong reasons: Muslims inherited Nabataean sites aligned to Petra; Makkah as Umm al-Qura", "question_plain": "Why did the earliest mosques face Petra instead of Makkah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out his current understanding, which he says he may revise: Nabataean devotion sites already aligned to Petra's constellation would point towards Petra; the Nabataeans were pre-Islamic Shami Arabs whose empire had long dissolved when Muslims arrived, so Muslims most likely inherited and took over their sites; and since Sham lies just above the Hijaz, the Companions and their successors may have thought the direction good enough. This, he says, answers how Muslims as far away as China knew the qiblah without a compass: they inherited the sites. So Gibson may be right that the early foundations pointed to Petra, but for the wrong reasons: not because Petra was Makkah, but because these sites had been set up centuries earlier on constellation knowledge. He says he has not come across any meaningful answer to Gibson and feels this account makes everything fall into place, including why a small town like Makkah was called Umm al-Qura: Qusayy, coming from Petra, which bore that name, gave it to his new seat. He concludes that Gibson and Crone are right about the evidence but wrong in their conclusions, while admitting he does not know a great deal and is still looking into it.", "summary_short": "Most likely, he says, because Muslims inherited Nabataean devotion sites already aligned to Petra's constellation, so Gibson is right about the measurements but wrong that Petra was Makkah. Makkah was called Umm al-Qura, he suggests, after Petra's name, brought by Qusayy.", "answer_start": 1101, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists", "history/pre-islamic-arabia"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dan-gibson", "label": "Dan Gibson"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:patricia-crone", "label": "Patricia Crone"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:nabataeans", "label": "the Nabataeans"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:qusayy-ibn-kilab", "label": "Qusayy ibn Kilab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiblah", "label": "qiblah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:umm-al-qura", "label": "Umm al-Qura (mother of settlements)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the early mosque foundations that point to Petra were most likely Nabataean devotion sites aligned to Petra's constellation that Muslims inherited, so that Dan Gibson may be right about the foundations but for the wrong reasons, not because Petra was Makkah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel that they inherited the sites from the Nabataeans and so what's happened is the early foundations were maybe pointing towards Petra", "start": 1184}}, "url": "/r/-JYtKJ9z1cw/s/6/"}, {"id": "-lbZ11113SU/s/1", "short_id": "2014-01-18-S01", "recording": "-lbZ11113SU", "n": 1, "start": 4, "end": 159, "date": "20140118", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why memorise the Quran, and what the advice will cover", "question_plain": "How do I start memorising the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he wants to share with students of knowledge some advice on how to memorise the Quran, which he calls one of the greatest things a Muslim could endeavour to do. He says it is hard even to grasp that people commit an entire book to memory word for word, letter for letter and vowel for vowel, yet millions have done so with unbroken chains of transmission going back to the Messenger of Allah, and he prays that Allah grants everyone the ability. He then turns to advice: having studied Arabic helps immensely, so anyone who has studied it has an even better opportunity, and what matters most in memorising is routine. He says he will briefly cover some routine tips, a dua and a method of applying that dua, and begins to introduce the hadith in which Ali approached the Prophet about his difficulty retaining verses.", "summary_short": "Memorising the Quran is among the greatest things a Muslim can do, and knowing Arabic helps immensely. What matters most is routine, and the lesson will cover tips, a dua and how to apply it.", "answer_start": 81, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/memorisation-and-recitation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that memorising the Quran is among the greatest endeavours a Muslim can undertake, that having studied Arabic helps immensely, and that routine is what matters most in memorising it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I would say what is important in memorizing the Quran is routine okay and there's a few things I'll mention today very briefly", "start": 114}}, "url": "/r/-lbZ11113SU/s/1/"}, {"id": "-lbZ11113SU/s/2", "short_id": "2014-01-18-S02", "recording": "-lbZ11113SU", "n": 2, "start": 159, "end": 480, "date": "20140118", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The hadith of Ali and the dua for memorising the Quran: the Friday night prayer and its words", "question_plain": "What is the dua for memorising the Quran and how do I perform it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth relates the hadith in which Ali told the Prophet he was finding it difficult to retain verses of the Quran, and the Prophet offered to teach him words that would make it easy. He explains that the Prophet told Ali to wait for Friday night, which in the Arabic reckoning means what is now called Thursday night, running up to the early hours before Subh, and in the last part of the night to stand and pray four units, each pairing al-Fatiha [?] with another surah; the names of the surahs are garbled in the transcript. For those who do not know those surahs, he says it is permitted according to the majority, with some difference of opinion, to hold the Quran and read from it during salah, leaving markers in the right places. He says the dua that follows may be said at the end of the salah before the salam or after it, and gives its meaning: asking Allah for mercy by being allowed to abandon sins, to be empowered for a task not befitting someone like oneself, that the memorisation of the book should stick to the heart, that one recite it in a way that pleases Allah, that it enlighten one's sight, flow on one's tongue, relieve the heart, expand the chest and be implemented with the limbs, since none can help towards the truth but Allah and there is no strength or might except through Him. He adds that the Prophet said to do this for three, five or seven Fridays.", "summary_short": "On Thursday night, in the last part of the night, pray four units with al-Fatiha and a set surah in each, then say the dua the Prophet taught Ali asking that the Quran stick to the heart, for three, five or seven Fridays. The Quran may be held and read from during the prayer according to the majority.", "answer_start": 159, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/memorisation-and-recitation", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "fiqh/prayer"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:16ab3584", "label": "report: ali said he found it difficult to retain the quran and the prophet taught him to pray four rakahs on the night of friday and a dua so it would stick"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, according to the majority of scholars though with some difference of opinion, it is permitted to hold the Quran and read from it during salah, so the surahs of the memorisation prayer may be read from the book.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "it is permissible for you according to the majority of the now there is some difference to hold the Quran during Salah it is permitted to kind of read from it", "start": 230}}, "url": "/r/-lbZ11113SU/s/2/"}, {"id": "-lbZ11113SU/s/3", "short_id": "2014-01-18-S03", "recording": "-lbZ11113SU", "n": 3, "start": 480, "end": 818, "date": "20140118", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Practical tips: understanding the words, a fixed place and time, familiarisation and accumulating verses", "question_plain": "What practical techniques help me memorise the Quran?", "summary": "The segment opens with the end of the hadith: the Prophet swore by the One who sent him that no believer has done this without it serving him, and Ali returned five or seven weeks later, as Ibn Abbas relates, saying that where he used to struggle to keep four verses he could now recall forty at once; Mufti Abu Layth encourages anyone wishing to memorise the Quran to practise it. He then gives further tips. Knowing Arabic is a great help, and before memorising one should go through the difficult words from a separate book and read the translation of the passage. One should keep the same place for memorising, so that being there signals that it is time to memorise, and choose a time that works, noting from his own experience that people struggle in the afternoon and find the early morning or the evening easier, though this may be personal. He describes his method: well before the memorisation session, read each verse of the day's portion enough times to recite it without looking, moving on even if the previous verse is forgotten, since this is only familiarisation; then take a break, and when the session comes recite the first verse until it can be recited from memory, add the second, repeat the first and second together, then the third, accumulating until the allotted portion is complete. He advises practising the portion in salah, trying to recall it at the end of the night to make it fluid, and reading it to one's teacher the next day before taking the next portion. He closes by hoping the advice helps, asking viewers to share it and their own experiences so that each contributes what they have learnt on their journey, and asking to be remembered in their duas.", "summary_short": "Understand the words and translation first, keep a fixed place and a time that suits you, familiarise yourself with each verse before a break, then memorise the verses cumulatively, practise them in salah and recall them at night before reading to your teacher. In the hadith, Ali went from struggling with four verses to recalling forty.", "answer_start": 480, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/memorisation-and-recitation", "wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose/goals-and-habits"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:16ab3584", "label": "report: ali said he found it difficult to retain the quran and the prophet taught him to pray four rakahs on the night of friday and a dua so it would stick"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth recommends understanding the words and translation first, memorising in a fixed place at a time that suits one, familiarising oneself with each verse before a break, then memorising the verses cumulatively, practising them in salah, recalling them at night and reading them to a teacher the next day.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "repeat the first one and the second one and then do the third one so you're doing it like that so you're kind of adding them along it's an accumulative effect", "start": 691}}, "url": "/r/-lbZ11113SU/s/3/"}, {"id": "-oPJEZ12NQ8/s/1", "short_id": "2019-07-08-S01", "recording": "-oPJEZ12NQ8", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 938, "date": "20190708", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How could the Qaramita steal the Black Stone? Its likely pagan origin and no sanctity", "question_plain": "Why did God stop Abraha's army but let the Qaramita steal the Black Stone?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a question asking how a breakaway Shia sect could steal the Black Stone and take control of the Haram when Allah had earlier destroyed the army of the people of the elephant, and recites the opening of Surah al-Fil about Abraha. He says it is a fact that the Qaramita, a sub-sect of the Shia, attacked Makkah, took the Black Stone and kept it for over two decades, and that it came back broken, so what is seen today are small pieces set in a larger black setting. He says the Black Stone has no true sanctity: it happened to be in the Kaaba, the qiblah attributed to Ibrahim, and was most likely a remnant of pre-Islamic pagan worship, since the Nabataeans of Petra worshipped a great black stone as their main god (he names Dushara [?], Hubal [?] and Baalshamin [?] as candidates), other Arabs copied them, about twenty ka'bas existed, and the cube at Ta'if was dedicated to al-Lat. He compares Safa and Marwa, which he says were associated with Isaf and Na'ila [?], two lovers turned to stone, so that many of the Ansar refused to perform the running until the verse 2:158 declared Safa and Marwa symbols of remembering Allah, and he likens objections to Halloween and Christmas on grounds of their origins. He says the stone may be a meteorite or volcanic remnant and wishes the Saudi authorities allowed tests, cites Umar's words that it is only a stone that can neither harm nor benefit and that he kissed it because he saw the Prophet do so, and says the Prophet kept the ritual as an act of submission, not because the stone is holy. He describes people fighting each other to reach the stone, says stories such as a heavenly Kaaba directly above fall apart when the evidence is examined, and urges people to seek the truth.", "summary_short": "The Black Stone has no sanctity of its own: it was most likely a remnant of pre-Islamic stone worship that Islam kept as a ritual of submission to God, so its theft by the Qaramita, though wrong, was no great matter. Umar himself said it was only a stone that can neither harm nor benefit.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/pre-islamic-arabia", "fiqh/hajj-and-umrah"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:105:1", "label": "Quran 105:1 (have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the people of the elephant)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abraha", "label": "Abraha"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:qaramita", "label": "the Qaramita (Carmathians)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hajar-al-aswad", "label": "al-Hajar al-Aswad (the Black Stone)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Ka'bah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiblah", "label": "qiblah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:nabataeans", "label": "the Nabataeans"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dushara", "label": "Dushara [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hubal", "label": "Hubal [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:baalshamin", "label": "Baalshamin [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-lat", "label": "al-Lat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isaf-and-naila", "label": "Isaf and Na'ila [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ansar", "label": "the Ansar"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:158", "label": "Quran 2:158 (Safa and Marwa are among the symbols of Allah)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e142e95b", "label": "report: i know that you are a stone you cannot cause me any harm or benefit but i saw the prophet kiss you (unresolved; Umar and the Black Stone)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawaf", "label": "tawaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Black Stone has no sanctity in itself and was most likely a remnant of pre-Islamic pagan worship, kept by Muslims and kissed by the Prophet only as a ritual of submission to God, so its theft by the Qaramita, though not a good thing, was no great matter.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there is no true sanctity to the black stone the only thing was that the black stone happened to be in the Kaaba", "start": 156}}, "url": "/r/-oPJEZ12NQ8/s/1/"}, {"id": "-oPJEZ12NQ8/s/2", "short_id": "2019-07-08-S02", "recording": "-oPJEZ12NQ8", "n": 2, "start": 938, "end": 1486, "date": "20190708", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did Hajar run seven times between Safa and Marwa? He thinks the story was added", "question_plain": "Is the story of Hajar running seven times between Safa and Marwa true?", "summary": "Asked about the story of Hajar and Ismail and the running seven times between Safa and Marwa, Mufti Abu Layth says that in all honesty he thinks it was made up. He suggests that when Islam spread to the Arab kingdoms of the Levant and Iraq, the Christian Ghassanids and the Lakhmids of al-Hira, Muslims overemphasised the link with Abraham, from whom all Arabs claimed descent, much as one might speak Urdu or Hindi to build a bond with an Indian audience, and so the ritual was given an Abrahamic link. He asks how anyone could know she ran precisely seven times when nobody was there, and says that God making everyone run until eternity because He liked a despairing mother's running makes no sense and sounds absurd. He says he believes the Zamzam story is most likely true, noting that a spring near Ishmael is also mentioned in the Bible, but that it need not be connected with the running, and that Zamzam is not on Safa and Marwa. He says many Sahaba from Madinah rejected the ritual as an invention of the disbelievers of Quraysh, and that the Quran speaks of Safa and Marwa without linking them to Hajar or Abraham, only as a remembrance of God. Responding to a comment, he adds that people are sensitive on the subject, that he is still researching whether Arafah has any link with Ibrahim, and closes with an Urdu couplet about untangling such things another day.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth thinks the story of Hajar running seven times between Safa and Marwa was most likely added later to give the ritual an Abrahamic link, though he believes the Zamzam story is true. The Quran mentions Safa and Marwa only as a remembrance of God, without linking them to Hajar or Abraham.", "answer_start": 938, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/hajj-and-umrah", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "history/pre-islamic-arabia"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:hajar", "label": "Hajar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ismail", "label": "Ismail"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ghassanids", "label": "the Ghassanids"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:lakhmids", "label": "the Lakhmids"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zamzam", "label": "Zamzam"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahabah", "label": "Sahabah"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:158", "label": "Quran 2:158 (Safa and Marwa are among the symbols of Allah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:umrah", "label": "'umrah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hajj", "label": "hajj"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:arafah", "label": "Arafah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the story that Hajar ran seven times between Safa and Marwa was most likely invented later to give the ritual an Abrahamic link, while he believes the story of the Zamzam spring is most likely true.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "what I'm trying to say is that story seems to be manufactured", "start": 1291}}, "url": "/r/-oPJEZ12NQ8/s/2/"}, {"id": "-oPJEZ12NQ8/s/3", "short_id": "2019-07-08-S03", "recording": "-oPJEZ12NQ8", "n": 3, "start": 1486, "end": 1602, "date": "20190708", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Could the Prophet have restored the original Abrahamic rituals of the Kaaba?", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet restore the original rituals of Ibrahim at the Kaaba?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a question asking whether the Black Stone and the Kaaba were special and the Prophet chose to bring back the real rituals of the Kaaba, Safa and Marwa and the Black Stone. He answers that this is not possible, because when Ibrahim came to Makkah it was an empty valley with nothing already there. He accepts the understanding that Ibrahim and Ismail built a house for remembrance, which Muslims believe is the Kaaba, but says Safa and Marwa are not mentioned in connection with Ibrahim. He says some companions from Madinah refused the ritual as a pagan practice and Allah revealed the verse calling Safa and Marwa symbols for remembering God, without saying they date from Abraham, so there is no point guessing.", "summary_short": "No: nothing was in Makkah when Ibrahim arrived, and although he and Ismail built the house of remembrance, Safa and Marwa are never linked to him. The Quran presents them only as symbols for remembering God, so there is no point guessing at older origins.", "answer_start": 1486, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/hajj-and-umrah", "quran/tafsir", "history/pre-islamic-arabia"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ismail", "label": "Ismail"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:127", "label": "Quran 2:127 (Ibrahim and Ismail raising the foundations of the House)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:158", "label": "Quran 2:158 (Safa and Marwa are among the symbols of Allah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Ka'bah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hajar-al-aswad", "label": "al-Hajar al-Aswad (the Black Stone)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahabah", "label": "Sahabah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet could not have restored original Abrahamic rituals of Safa and Marwa, since nothing was in Makkah when Ibrahim arrived and the Quran presents Safa and Marwa only as symbols for remembering God, without linking them to Ibrahim.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "is that possible no because it's not possible because you have to remember when Ibrahim aleihsalaam goes to Makkah there's nobody there", "start": 1486}}, "url": "/r/-oPJEZ12NQ8/s/3/"}, {"id": "0Ln_viR6LnI/s/1", "short_id": "2019-12-17b-S01", "recording": "0Ln_viR6LnI", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 470, "date": "20191217", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The beard: an ancient Arab custom, and the wording of 'differ from the Jews and Christians'", "question_plain": "Is growing a beard compulsory in Islam?", "summary": "Asked to speak about the beard, Mufti Abu Layth refers viewers to his detailed videos and sums up: everyone agrees that ancient Arab men grew beards as part of their custom, like their dress, and the Prophet, raised among his people, lived as they did, while his opponents such as Abu Jahl also had long beards, so the beard was not distinctive of Muslims. He asks why, if riding a camel is not called a sunnah simply because the Prophet did it, growing a beard should be, and recommends a book by Shaykh Abdullah al-Judai [?] that gathers all the chains of the beard hadith. He cites the report in Bukhari that the Prophet trimmed his beard below his grip and asks whether the act was obligatory, religious, customary or merely permissible, like his own choice of a grey t-shirt. He then compares the command to grow the beard and differ from the Jews and Christians with commands in the same wording to dye the hair and to pray in shoes, which nobody treats as obligatory, and challenges anyone to bring a single sahih hadith that tells a person how to grow the beard, saying the rest is scholars' interpretation. He adds that the beard went out of fashion for centuries, and attributes the insistence on it in the subcontinent partly to the Deobandi movement, which he calls a modernist movement set up under the British Raj to be distinct from the British, declaring trousers, shirts and ties haram; he says such identity politics made sense then but is absurd in 2019, and mocks the idea that the shalwar kameez is Islamic dress.", "summary_short": "Growing a beard was an ancient Arab custom shared by Muslims and their opponents, not an Islamic requirement in itself. The command to grow it is worded like commands to dye the hair and pray in shoes that nobody treats as obligatory, and no sahih hadith says how to grow it.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "history/subcontinent"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:lihyah", "label": "lihyah (beard)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-jahl", "label": "Abu Jahl"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-al-judai", "label": "Abdullah al-Judai [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:77e47ac0", "label": "report: i saw the prophet trim his beard (unresolved)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3e31381a", "label": "report: be different to the mushrikin trim the moustaches and let the beards grow"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:42fd73b8", "label": "report: be different to the jews and the christians and dye your hair"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1fd6f410", "label": "report: be different to the jews and the christians and pray in your shoes"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:british-raj", "label": "the British Raj"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the beard was an ancient Arab custom shared by the Prophet's opponents, that the command to grow it and differ from the Jews and Christians is worded like commands to dye the hair and pray in shoes that nobody treats as obligatory, and that no sahih hadith says how to grow it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "do we consider coloring or dyeing the hair to be obligatory or Sunnah or necessary or strongly recommended no let me give you another one", "start": 264}}, "url": "/r/0Ln_viR6LnI/s/1/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/1", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S01", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 78, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: a response to a question on the age of Aisha", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The recording opens with short excerpts from later in the lecture: on the oral culture of the early Arabs, on hadith absolutism versus hadith relativism, and on the claim that Aisha was in her late teens. Mufti Abu Layth then says the lecture is a response to a question raised by an individual who asked for scholars within the Muslim community to engage him.", "summary_short": "A lecture answering a question about Aisha's age at her marriage, opening with excerpts of its main points.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/1/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/2", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S02", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 2, "start": 78, "end": 470, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's credentials and course of study", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he was asked to set out his credentials and that there is no harm in doing so, citing the story of Ibn Rushd al-Jadd putting on the robe of the judges of al-Andalus so that people would take his ruling seriously. He describes beginning formal study in 1997 in Damascus, then in Pakistan, where he memorised the Quran and completed a full course in the Islamic sciences covering Quran and its principles, hadith and its criticism, legal theory, the schools of law and their evolution, Arabic grammar and morphology, rhetoric, literature, history and theology, followed by a final year reading the six books and the Muwatta from cover to cover with an authorisation (ijazah) to teach carrying a chain back to the authors. He says he scored in the top three of his class, then completed a two-year course in issuing fatwa, gained an ijazah in Quran, and later received authorisations in the books of fiqh of the school of Madinah. He adds teaching qualifications, a bachelor's degree in psychology, teaching religion and philosophy at college level, and a master's in education.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth studied in Damascus and Pakistan, completed the full Islamic sciences course with hadith and ifta authorisations, and holds degrees in psychology and education.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd-al-jadd", "label": "Ibn Rushd al-Jadd (the grandfather)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "Muwatta of Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijazah", "label": "ijazah (authorisation to teach)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/2/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/3", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S03", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 3, "start": 470, "end": 1018, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The question, Mufti Abu Layth's thesis and premise one: dating in an oral culture", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth states the question, what Aisha's age was when the Prophet married her, which he says has led to attacks on Islam and confusion among Muslims. He says the report in Sahih al-Bukhari that she was married at six and moved in at nine is in his view inaccurate and that she married in her late teens, which he undertakes to demonstrate. He sets out two premises, the first being historicity: the Arabs of the Prophet's time were an oral culture, not a people of writing, with no annual calendar, anchoring events to major happenings such as the year the Kaaba was attacked. He lists disputes this produced: the Prophet's date of birth, how long he spent in Makkah (thirteen or ten years), his age at prophethood (forty or forty-three), Khadijah's age at marriage (forty in one transmission, twenty-eight through Ibn Abbas and others), the Sahih Muslim report on the Prophet's marriage to Maymunah whose circumstance he says many scholars held to be misreported, and the year of the siege of Madinah (fourth or fifth). He cites the hadith 'we are an unlettered nation, we do not write or calculate' as describing this culture.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Aisha married in her late teens, not at six or nine. His first premise is that the early Arabs kept no precise dates, so ages and years in reports often conflict.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah", "history/pre-islamic-arabia"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8ba24dc2", "label": "report: aisha married at six and the marriage consummated at nine"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b98a5cc4", "label": "report: we are an unlettered nation we do not write and we do not calculate"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:siege-of-madinah", "label": "the siege of Madinah (battle of the trench)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the report that Aisha was married at six and moved in at nine is inaccurate and that she married the Prophet in her late teens.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "it states that she got married contractually at the age of six and moved in with the messenger of Allah Sall alaihi wasallam at the age of nine I do believe that to be absolutely inaccurate and incorrect", "start": 500}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/3/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/4", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S04", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 4, "start": 1018, "end": 1800, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Premise two: hadith absolutism versus hadith relativism", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The segment opens with the end of the first premise, the disputed year of the siege of Madinah, and then turns to the second: how a report in Sahih al-Bukhari, regarded as the most authentic book after the Quran, could be inaccurate. Mufti Abu Layth says Muslim scholars were divided from the outset between hadith absolutism, which takes any authenticated report as binding, and hadith relativism, which reads a report against the wider principles of Islam, the approach he attributes to the school of Madinah under Imam Malik and to the school of Kufa. He gives examples: Aisha rebuking the report that a dog, a donkey or a woman passing invalidates the prayer; Ibn Abbas reasoning against Abu Hurayrah's report requiring wudu from anything touched by fire, and Abu Hurayrah's angry reply; Imam Malik declining to take as sunnah the reports on washing a bowl seven times after a dog licks it, on wiping leather socks for three days, on the buyer's right to cancel a sale, on performing hajj on behalf of an aged father, and on Allah creating Adam in His image, which he says Imam Malik rejected as anthropomorphic, citing Ibn Abd al-Barr [?]. He adds that Imam Malik said he did not transmit many reports he learned from Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri because there was no practice on them, and cites a companion's saying that teaching people a report their intellects cannot grasp becomes a trial for some of them. He concludes that these scholars distinguished hadith from sunnah and would leave a report with a sound chain when they did not hold it to be the sunnah.", "summary_short": "Scholars were divided from the start between treating every authenticated hadith as binding and reading it against Islam's wider principles. Imam Malik and the school of Madinah left many sound-chained reports they did not hold to be the sunnah.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/authentication"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-shihab-al-zuhri", "label": "Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "Muwatta of Imam Malik"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-absolutism", "label": "hadith absolutism"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-relativism", "label": "hadith relativism"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4aee676f", "label": "report: a dog a donkey or a woman passing in front invalidates the prayer"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1dc479f7", "label": "report: wudu from whatever fire has touched"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:91d7502c", "label": "report: if a dog licks the bowl wash it seven times"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8a8fcaa3", "label": "report: wiping over leather socks for three days when travelling"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ea6d7eac", "label": "report: buyer and seller may cancel the sale while they have not parted"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:dbe8e4ae", "label": "report: a woman performs hajj on behalf of her aged father who cannot ride"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b0a8648b", "label": "report: allah created adam in his image"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:bf23b2da", "label": "report: do not tell a people a hadith their intellects cannot grasp or it becomes a trial for some of them"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that from the earliest period many scholars, Imam Malik and the school of Madinah among them, treated hadith as relative to the wider principles of Islam and left reports with sound chains that they did not hold to be the sunnah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "that was opposed heavily by countless Scholars who believe that the Hadith was always relative to the greater context to the greater picture and principles of Islam and that included the school of Medina namely Imam Malik", "start": 1121}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/4/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/5", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S05", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 5, "start": 1800, "end": 2038, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Unacceptable reports in the Sahihayn and judging a hadith by its content", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is undeniable that Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim contain reports that scholars do not accept. He gives the Bukhari report from Anas placing the night journey three years before prophethood, which he says is unanimously held to be wrong, and the Sahih Muslim report in which Abu Sufyan, after accepting Islam, asks the Prophet to marry his daughter Umm Habibah, which he says all scholars call false because the Prophet had married her about two years earlier. He says these collections contain well-preserved reports but that their sanctification came centuries later and was never the attitude of the school of Madinah or the school of Kufa, which analysed a report by its chain and by its content, setting aside what contradicted reason and the wider narrative of Islam. He cites al-Tahawi reasoning against the report that a black dog is a devil, since colour has no such effect in other animals and dogs share the same rulings. He then restates that Aisha was not six or nine but in her late teens.", "summary_short": "Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim contain some reports scholars reject as wrong, so a report is judged by its content as well as its chain. Their sanctification came centuries later.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tahawi", "label": "al-Tahawi"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:isra-and-miraj", "label": "the night journey (al-Isra)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:matn-criticism", "label": "judging a report by its content (matn)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e7000a50", "label": "report: anas the night journey took place three years before prophethood"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3c5e20fc", "label": "report: abu sufyan asked the prophet to marry his daughter umm habibah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:14945522", "label": "report: the black dog is a devil"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim contain some reports that are not acceptable, and that a report should be judged by its content as well as its chain.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "it is undeniable that the books like sahkari and sah Muslim it is undeniable that they have unacceptable Hadith in them", "start": 1800}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/5/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/6", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S06", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 6, "start": 2038, "end": 2826, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The reality: the year of sorrow and the proposal to Aisha", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that rejecting the six-and-nine report does not take anyone out of Islam, then proposes to examine the marriage in three layers: the reality, the reports and the ramifications. For the reality he describes the tenth year after revelation, the year of sorrow, in which the Prophet lost his uncle Abu Talib, his protector in Makkah, and his wife Khadijah, whom he had married at twenty-five and who was the mother of his children and his source of reassurance after the first revelation. He recounts the journey to Ta'if, where the Prophet was stoned and driven out bleeding. He says that at this point a distant paternal aunt proposed marriage to him as support and companionship and suggested two women, a divorcee, Sawdah, and an unmarried girl, Aisha, the daughter of Abu Bakr; Aisha's mother said she had already been asked for by Mut'im [?] for his son, whose family then withdrew for fear she would convert their son, after which Abu Bakr returned to the Prophet and the marriage took place. Mufti argues that marriage was meant to offer companionship, intimacy, emotional support, help at home and help with the mission, none of which a six-year-old could offer, so that proposing a six-year-old would have been counterproductive, and that a prior engagement and a fear of conversion make no sense for a small child.", "summary_short": "Marriage was proposed to the Prophet in the year of sorrow as support and companionship, which Mufti Abu Layth says makes no sense if Aisha was six. A prior engagement and a fear she would convert her fiance also point to an older girl.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:year-of-sorrow", "label": "the year of sorrow"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:taif-journey", "label": "the Prophet's journey to Ta'if"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the circumstances of the year of sorrow, in which marriage was proposed to the Prophet as support and companionship, make no sense if Aisha was six at the time.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "now I want us to consider this reality does this make any sense that she was six years old at that time the prophet is going through all this struggle", "start": 2661}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/6/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/7", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S07", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 7, "start": 2826, "end": 3457, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The reports: Bukhari's six and nine against three other Bukhari reports", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After noting that Aisha had already been asked for before the proposal, Mufti Abu Layth turns to the reports. He says the famous six-and-nine report in Sahih al-Bukhari comes through Hisham ibn Urwa, that the Sahih Muslim version says seven, and that the surrounding details conflict: how long after the hijrah the marriage took place, whether the mahr was fifty or several hundred dirhams, and in whose house the marriage happened. He then says the report clashes with at least three others in Sahih al-Bukhari. First, Aisha says she was a jariyah, a girl approaching adolescence, when a verse [?] was revealed that Ibn Abbas places seven to eight years before Badr, which would make her three or four on the six-and-nine dating. Second, she says that as far back as she could reason her parents practised Islam and that Abu Bakr set out to migrate to Abyssinia when the persecution began, which Mufti dates to the fifth year of revelation, when she would have been at most one. Third, companions describe Aisha carrying water to the wounded at Uhud, while Ibn Umar was turned away from Uhud at fourteen and accepted at fifteen; Mufti asks why a fourteen-year-old boy would be refused any role when a nine- or ten-year-old girl was helping on the battlefield.", "summary_short": "The six-and-nine report conflicts with three other Bukhari reports: Aisha as a jariyah at an early revelation, her memory of her parents' Islam and Abu Bakr's migration, and her presence at Uhud when a fourteen-year-old boy was refused.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah", "hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hisham-ibn-urwa", "label": "Hisham ibn Urwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jariyah", "label": "jariyah (girl approaching adolescence)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahr", "label": "mahr"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hijrah", "label": "the hijrah to Madinah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-badr", "label": "the battle of Badr"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-uhud", "label": "the battle of Uhud"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:migration-to-abyssinia", "label": "the migration to Abyssinia"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8ba24dc2", "label": "report: aisha married at six and the marriage consummated at nine"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:69859410", "label": "report: aisha married at seven"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cd7aae33", "label": "report: aisha was a jariyah playing when the verse was revealed"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:55c8a02f", "label": "report: as far back as i can remember my parents practised islam abu bakr set out to migrate to abyssinia"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:49364277", "label": "report: aisha and umm sulaym carrying water skins to the wounded at uhud"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6ff2ecf8", "label": "report: ibn umar presented at uhud at fourteen and refused presented at fifteen and accepted"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the six-and-nine report conflicts with at least three other reports in Sahih al-Bukhari about Aisha's age.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "first of all that clashes with at least three other Hadith inkari so when you've got that already straight away you've it it clashes with three other Hadith inkari", "start": 3001}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/7/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/8", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S08", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 8, "start": 3457, "end": 3769, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The reports: Hisham's Iraqi transmission, Madinan silence and Asma's age", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Completing the Uhud argument, Mufti Abu Layth says the six-and-nine report is transmitted by Hisham ibn Urwa, the son of Aisha's nephew, whose transmissions in Iraq were criticised by Imam Malik and, he says, by hadith scholars including Ibn Hajar [?] because his memory was affected later in life, and that this report comes mainly through Iraqi transmitters. He says that although al-Zuhri appears in some chains, no compiler of hadith from Madinah, the Prophet's own city, transmits the report, and that Imam Malik, a key student of al-Zuhri, does not. He notes that another Madinan in a chain, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Zinad [?], also transmits that Aisha was ten years younger than her sister Asma, who is reported born twenty-seven years before the hijrah and to have died in 73 AH aged one hundred, which would put Aisha at about eighteen at her marriage. He adds reports that Aisha accepted Islam before Umar and that Mut'im [?] referred to her as a jariyah, and says that scholars already reject other dated reports in the Sahihayn, such as the Maymunah and Abu Sufyan reports, when they clash with the wider narrative.", "summary_short": "The six-and-nine report rests on Hisham ibn Urwa's later Iraqi transmission and no Madinan compiler carries it. Asma's reported age makes Aisha about eighteen at her marriage.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah", "hadith/authentication", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hisham-ibn-urwa", "label": "Hisham ibn Urwa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-shihab-al-zuhri", "label": "Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-rahman-ibn-abi-al-zinad", "label": "Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Zinad [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jariyah", "label": "jariyah (girl approaching adolescence)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hijrah", "label": "the hijrah to Madinah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8ba24dc2", "label": "report: aisha married at six and the marriage consummated at nine"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c61312ab", "label": "report: aisha was ten years younger than asma"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the six-and-nine report rests on Hisham ibn Urwa's later Iraqi transmission, is not transmitted by any Madinan compiler, and is contradicted by Asma's reported age, which puts Aisha at about eighteen.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you backtrack and you take away 10 years and it makes Aisha you're talking in her late teens at the time of her marriage whether she was approximately around 18", "start": 3691}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/8/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/9", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S09", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 9, "start": 3769, "end": 4478, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The ramifications: jurists on marrying a minor, and the conclusion", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks what would follow from the report if it were accepted, namely whether young girls may be married, and says scholars answered this early: jurists of the school of Kufa declared marrying an underage girl haram, and Imam Malik and al-Shafi'i [?] held that a marriage relationship is impermissible with a girl who is not capable of marriage and of a sexual relationship, a condition he says is not the same as the onset of menstruation. He says this continued through the ages to recent scholars, including al-Albani, who refused to say that marrying an underage girl is acceptable, and that the Ottomans legislated a minimum age of fifteen for girls over two centuries ago. He says the matter is serious both because Muslims would not accept such a marriage for their own daughters and because it concerns the Prophet as a role model. He says some scholars, rather than criticising the report, pointed to the Bukhari report that a girl is not married until she is consulted, and to the Quranic rule that an orphan's wealth is handed over only when they reach marriageable age and maturity, which some put at eighteen or older. He attributes the claim that girls then developed faster to al-Dawudi [?] and others, calls it a myth like the fiqh books' four- to five-year pregnancies, and notes that nutrition was scarcer then. He concludes that Aisha was most certainly not six or nine but in her late teens, most likely around eighteen or nineteen, because the report conflicts with other reports in Sahih al-Bukhari and with the reality of the Prophet's circumstances.", "summary_short": "Aisha was in her late teens, most likely eighteen or nineteen, Mufti Abu Layth concludes. Jurists from early on held marriage impermissible with a girl incapable of it, and the Ottomans set a minimum age of fifteen.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah", "fiqh/marriage-contracts", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dawudi", "label": "al-Dawudi [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:6", "label": "Quran 4:6"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:25dd70c6", "label": "report: a girl is not married until she is consulted"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth concludes that Aisha was not six or nine at her marriage but in her late teens, most likely around eighteen or nineteen.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "Aisha was most certainly not six or nine at the time of her marriage she was in her late teens most likely uh around 18 to 19", "start": 4387}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/9/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/10", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S10", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 10, "start": 4478, "end": 4636, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Books arguing that Aisha married in her late teens", "question_plain": "Which books argue that Aisha was in her late teens when she married the Prophet?", "summary": "Answering a follow-up question that is not audible in the recording, Mufti Abu Layth says quite a few works have been written on the topic, more so recently, and that he has read the exchanges between them. He names an early discussion by two authors whose names are unclear in the recording, a work by Maulana Habib al-Rahman Kandhlawi [?], a Deobandi graduate, another by a Maulana whose name is unclear, a critique of the Bukhari report by Shaykh Salah al-Din al-Idlibi [?], a hadith specialist and student of Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda [?], a piece by Maulana Faruq Khan [?], and a work by Shaykh Khalid al-Jundi [?], an Azhari scholar, taking a similar approach to the hadith as his own. He says he is aware of the refutations of al-Jundi and of a refutation of Dr Adnan Ibrahim [?] on this point.", "summary_short": "Several works argue Aisha was in her late teens, including ones by Habib al-Rahman Kandhlawi, Salah al-Din al-Idlibi and Khalid al-Jundi. Mufti Abu Layth has read them and the refutations written against them.", "answer_start": 4478, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:habib-al-rahman-kandhlawi", "label": "Habib al-Rahman Kandhlawi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:salah-al-din-al-idlibi", "label": "Salah al-Din al-Idlibi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-fattah-abu-ghudda", "label": "Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:faruq-khan", "label": "Maulana Faruq Khan [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalid-al-jundi", "label": "Khalid al-Jundi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:adnan-ibrahim", "label": "Adnan Ibrahim [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/10/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/11", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S11", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 11, "start": 4636, "end": 5261, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why the age of Aisha is an issue now, and whether this appeases the West", "question_plain": "Why is Aisha's age only being questioned now, and is it just to appease the West?", "summary": "The segment opens with Mufti Abu Layth's assessment of the works defending the Bukhari report, which he says rest on hadith absolutism and which he does not find compelling. He then takes a question on why the age is an issue now and whether questioning it appeases the West. He says he does not accept that it was never an issue, since dissent is often drowned out of the books, and that scholars did treat it as an issue by ruling against marrying a girl incapable of marriage. He calls the suggestion of appeasement preposterous, saying he personally rejects the report with certainty and sees it as a problem for Muslims first. He compares non-Muslim scrutiny to a car buyer looking for faults, says Islam's exposure to non-Muslims over the last one or two centuries made this an issue, and says al-Dawudi's [?] answer that girls then developed faster is ruled out by modern knowledge. He calls the reflex of accepting whatever is in Bukhari an insecure reaction and engaging the criticism a secure and consistent one, notes that Muslims dismiss even human-rights discourse that matches the maqasid of the shari'ah despite the hadith that wisdom is the believer's lost property, and says the view that the marriage did not happen as reported keeps the Prophet a role model and is in line with the Quran.", "summary_short": "The age was treated as an issue historically through rulings against marrying girls incapable of marriage, and it is prominent now because Islam faces more scrutiny. Mufti Abu Layth rejects the report with certainty and calls the appeasement charge preposterous.", "answer_start": 4713, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah", "society/islam-and-modernity", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dawudi", "label": "al-Dawudi [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-absolutism", "label": "hadith absolutism"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid al-shari'ah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b3e70d55", "label": "report: wisdom is the lost property of the believer wherever he finds it"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he rejects the six-and-nine report with personal certainty and that doing so is a matter of consistency, not appeasement of the West.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "so I don't think this is a matter of sucking up I I believe this is a matter of consistency", "start": 5044}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/11/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/12", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S12", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 12, "start": 5261, "end": 5734, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why the six-and-nine report became so well known", "question_plain": "Why is the report that Aisha was six and nine so much better known than the others?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth partly disputes the premise, saying that before the recent media attention ordinary Muslims knew only that Aisha was young, while specialists knew the report. He says its present prominence comes with the reactionary affirmation of the Bukhari report and the sanctification of Bukhari, which he traces to hadith absolutism: a view that took hold a few hundred years after the Prophet among hadith scholars who did not distinguish hadith from sunnah as Imam Malik did, reaffirmed against sects questioning hadith, with the sanctification of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim by Ibn al-Salah [?] and others as a by-product. He draws parallels: the rise of tasawwuf after the sixth and seventh centuries made the division of bid'ah into good and bad the standard view though it had been a minority one, and the kalam movement, arising to safeguard Islam, produced fixed dogma where the companions and Imam Malik had listed no creed. He concludes that the report's prominence is a by-product of these phenomena and was not always the mainstream view.", "summary_short": "The six-and-nine report became prominent as a by-product of hadith absolutism and the later sanctification of Bukhari and Muslim. Ordinary Muslims historically knew only that Aisha was young.", "answer_start": 5261, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-salah", "label": "Ibn al-Salah [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-absolutism", "label": "hadith absolutism"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam", "label": "kalam"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tasawwuf", "label": "tasawwuf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the prominence of the six-and-nine report is a by-product of hadith absolutism and the later sanctification of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, not the view of the earliest Muslims.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this view of popularizing these two books was a byproduct to that phenomenon of Hadith absolutism", "start": 5504}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/12/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/13", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S13", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 13, "start": 5734, "end": 5893, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Ethics change with time, so how can today's ethics be the yardstick", "question_plain": "If ethics change over time, how can today's ethics judge the Prophet's marriage?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees that ethics develop and that twenty-first-century ethics differ from those of earlier centuries, but says he does not believe people will ever come to accept this marriage, because humans work towards benefit and the prevention of harm and universally accept that harm is bad, differing only on the details. He says the issue rests on consent: a minor cannot reason and so cannot consent, which makes the act harm and assault. He says today's society, in this part of the world, gives men, women, the elderly, the disabled, children, animals and the environment more rights than at any time in history, and that if humanity ever moved towards eliminating consent he would not advocate it and would hold them wrong.", "summary_short": "Base ethics such as the wrongness of harm do not change, and the issue is consent, which a minor cannot give. Mufti Abu Layth does not believe people will ever come to accept otherwise.", "answer_start": 5734, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:consent", "label": "consent as the basis of a valid marriage"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:prevention-of-harm", "label": "prevention of harm"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the question turns on consent, which a minor cannot give, and says he does not believe people will ever come to accept such a marriage, since the prevention of harm is a universal ethical base.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this issue rests upon the concept of consent and how can there be consent from a girl who is a minor and since she can't reason", "start": 5810}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/13/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/14", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S14", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 14, "start": 5893, "end": 6128, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does the report of Aisha playing with dolls show she was a child", "question_plain": "Doesn't the hadith about Aisha playing with dolls show she was a child?", "summary": "The segment opens with the end of the previous answer. Mufti Abu Layth then says the dolls report in Sahih al-Bukhari and other narrations comes down to language and interpretation: 'play' is used of adults playing video games or mucking about as well as of children. He says the objects could equally be read as detailed figurines, since in the Bukhari report the Prophet recognises a structure with a wall, a tree and a horse with wings, asks whether horses have wings and laughs, which shows the figures were well defined. He compares grown men who collect and lay out toy soldiers as a hobby, and says that in his understanding these were figurines and that the word 'play' does not require infantilising the person.", "summary_short": "The word 'play' is also used of adults, and the detailed figures described in the report read as figurines rather than a child's toys. The report does not show Aisha was a child.", "answer_start": 5893, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:afa4bcd9", "label": "report: aisha playing with dolls the horse with two wings"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the dolls report does not show Aisha was a child, since 'play' applies to adults and the objects described read as figurines.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the Hadith does not mean she was a child yes it does use the word play but play could be interpreted for adults as well", "start": 6073}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/14/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/15", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S15", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 15, "start": 6128, "end": 6598, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can an ordinary Muslim reject a hadith that seems irrational", "question_plain": "Can an ordinary Muslim reject a hadith that seems irrational?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says a report is rejected in light of the wider narrative of Islam, which ordinary people may not know, and that many puzzling reports are already explained by other reports as abrogated, specified or tied to one incident, so people should refer to scholars. He says that, unlike the Quranists who throw out hadith altogether, the sunnah has reached us largely through hadith and it is not an ordinary Muslim's duty to take a sledgehammer to the hadith books. Where a report clashes with a universal teaching, however, he says a person may decline to act on it. He gives the example of the report in Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari rewarding the killing of lizards, explained in some narrations by the lizard blowing on Ibrahim's fire, which he calls nonsensical because animals are not held to account and because it clashes with the report that there is a reward in caring for every living creature and with the Prophet's concern to minimise animal suffering; killing lizards as pests he finds intelligible, the reason given he does not. He adds that reports may be metaphorical, abrogated or addressed to one person, and repeats that going through the hadith books one by one is not the duty of unskilled Muslims.", "summary_short": "An ordinary Muslim should refer puzzling hadith to scholars rather than reject them, but may decline to act on a report that clearly clashes with Islam's universal teachings. Going through the hadith books one by one is not the duty of the unskilled.", "answer_start": 6128, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "hadith/authentication", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:27af0dd7", "label": "report: whoever kills a lizard with the first strike has a hundred rewards it blew on the fire of ibrahim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:21c47c81", "label": "report: in every living creature there is a reward"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:naskh", "label": "naskh (abrogation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that ordinary Muslims should refer puzzling reports to scholars but may decline to act on a report that plainly clashes with Islam's universal teachings.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "where something is so obvious and as broad as daylight and it clashes with our our general Universal kind of Islamic teaching then that they do not need to act according to", "start": 6536}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/15/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/16", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S16", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 16, "start": 6598, "end": 6911, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is judging hadith by content a late approach of jurists rather than hadith scholars", "question_plain": "Is judging hadith by their content a modern invention of jurists rather than hadith scholars?", "summary": "The segment opens with the close of the previous answer. Mufti Abu Layth then says that if the objection means content criticism is a late or modern approach, it is not: it goes back to the companions, citing Ibn Abbas, called the interpreter of the Quran and the scholar of this ummah, reasoning against Abu Hurayrah's report on wudu from what fire has touched by reason alone, and Imam Malik, whom most scholars took to be the 'scholar of Madinah' of the Prophet's prophecy, declining the reports on the dog licking the bowl, hajj on another's behalf and the buyer's right to cancel a sale, saying they were authentic but not acted upon. He says hadith absolutists may have displaced this approach at times, perhaps because it served to safeguard Islam in a certain era, but that it has been part of the tradition from the beginning and lies at the core of the religion.", "summary_short": "Judging a report by its content is not modern; it goes back to Ibn Abbas and Imam Malik, who left authentic reports they did not hold to be the sunnah. Hadith absolutism displaced it only at times.", "answer_start": 6598, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "hadith/authentication", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-relativism", "label": "hadith relativism"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:matn-criticism", "label": "judging a report by its content (matn)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1dc479f7", "label": "report: wudu from whatever fire has touched"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:91d7502c", "label": "report: if a dog licks the bowl wash it seven times"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:dbe8e4ae", "label": "report: a woman performs hajj on behalf of her aged father who cannot ride"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ea6d7eac", "label": "report: buyer and seller may cancel the sale while they have not parted"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e4357cc0", "label": "report: people will not find anyone more knowledgeable than the scholar of madinah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that reasoning with the content of hadith is not a modern approach but one practised by the companions and Imam Malik from the beginning.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "well I would like to say well this is not modern this is part of this", "start": 6652}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/16/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/17", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S17", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 17, "start": 6911, "end": 7223, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "If Aisha's age is a problem, are polygamy and the Prophet's wars problems too", "question_plain": "If Aisha's age is a problem, aren't polygamy and the Prophet's wars problems too?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes the Prophet is a perfect role model for all times, including today, and that this does not clash, first because he does not accept that Aisha was that age. On multiple marriages he says that although Western societies reject polygamy legally, owing to a Christian background that saw monogamy as the only way, on the ground open and multiple relationships exist and some research presents them as healthy, and that the male instinct is polygamous by nature, so the concept is not irrational. He distinguishes this from an underage girl, where a child cannot conceptualise what is happening or consent, which is identified as abuse; adults entering a plural relationship by their own understanding is not irrational, while imposing something on someone without the capacity to reason is. On the wars he says that almost all of those the Prophet fought were begun by the opposing party and construed as defensive, that offensive strategy existed in Islam but is not irrational, as states today accept pre-emptive strategies. He calls 'where does it stop' a false question designed to set someone up for failure, since the Prophet's life was in line with reason and welfare.", "summary_short": "Polygamy and the Prophet's wars are not irrational and differ from marrying a child, where consent is impossible. Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet remains a perfect role model and that he does not accept Aisha was that age.", "answer_start": 6911, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah", "fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:consent", "label": "consent as the basis of a valid marriage"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet is a perfect role model for all times and that polygamy and his wars, unlike a marriage to a child who cannot consent, are not irrational.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I do believe that the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam is a a a great role model a perfect role model for all times", "start": 6911}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/17/"}, {"id": "0oVIsExS4cA/s/18", "short_id": "2017-01-11-S18", "recording": "0oVIsExS4cA", "n": 18, "start": 7223, "end": 7770, "date": "20170111", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why jurists allowed a father to marry off his underage daughter", "question_plain": "Why did jurists like Imam Malik let a father marry off his young daughter without her consent?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth calls this a very good question and says first that such a marriage is absolutely impermissible in our understanding and our age. He says Imam Malik, al-Shafi'i [?] and others did not base this on a clear verse or report but on their own understanding: no one may force a girl, with a small exception for the father where there was an overwhelming welfare, because Imam Malik believed a father's compassion would only seek the child's welfare, a presumption Mufti parallels with Imam Malik's fatwa that a father who killed his child could not have intended murder, which he says was tied to Imam Malik's time. He says the exception covered a contract only, not any intimate relationship, which Imam Malik allowed only with a girl capable of it, and suggests the welfare was securing a poor girl's future or protecting her from abduction in an age without police, some twelve hundred years ago. He says this was not the norm but not unheard of, like underage pregnancy today, and that the fatwa was restricted to its circumstances and would change with time, just as the imams' fatwas on slavery sat on a trajectory, in line with trajectory hermeneutics, towards prohibition. He closes by saying that quote-mining such fatwas misses that they are impermissible and impractical in our age and were tied to saving lives in theirs.", "summary_short": "Marrying off an underage girl is impermissible today. Imam Malik's exception was a contract only, without intimacy, tied to welfare in his own circumstances and not based on a clear verse or report.", "answer_start": 7223, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "fiqh/legal-theory", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that a father marrying off an underage daughter is impermissible in our age, and that Imam Malik's contractual exception was tied to welfare in his own circumstances.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "make it very clear that this is impermissible in our understanding in light of our age absolutely impermissible to do that right in in our context", "start": 7272}}, "url": "/r/0oVIsExS4cA/s/18/"}, {"id": "143df7icoYU/s/1", "short_id": "2019-09-14-S01", "recording": "143df7icoYU", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 497, "date": "20190914", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is the Quran corrupted too? What earlier revelation was: recitation, Torah and Injil", "question_plain": "How do I answer Christians who say the Quran could be corrupted like the Bible?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a question on how to answer Christians who say the Quran can be corrupted if Muslims claim the Bible was, mentions meeting an underappreciated scholar the week before, and defers a question on LGBTQ education. He says it is a great misunderstanding, and a failing of Muslims in conveying it, to assume that earlier revelation was like the Quran: the Quran is by nature a recitation, sent down to be recited and memorised, with its own structure and style, unlike a newspaper that only conveys information, while the Torah was a message and laws, and at most the Zabur of Dawud might be argued to be like hymns. He says he is inclined to think the Torah was more comprehensive than what was revealed to Moses, including revelation to later prophets of Israel such as Daniel and Ezekiel, noting that the Quran says Moses was given revelation and the Israelites the Torah. He says the Israelites took on the law of an eye for an eye from the Code of Hammurabi during their time in Babylon, which the Quran then records as written in the Torah (5:45). He says the Injil was the good news Jesus gave his people, about God and about not needing to be so rigid, citing his words in the Quran that he came to confirm what went before and to make lawful some of what was forbidden (3:50), and not a lost book like the Quran.", "summary_short": "Earlier revelation was not like the Quran: the Quran is a recitation meant to be preserved word for word, while the Torah was a message and laws and the Injil was the good news Jesus preached.", "answer_start": 39, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:wahy", "label": "wahy (revelation)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:quran", "label": "Quran (recitation)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:2", "label": "Quran 12:2 [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:torah", "label": "Torah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:zabur", "label": "Zabur (Psalms of Dawud)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:injil", "label": "Injil (Gospel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawud", "label": "Dawud (David)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel", "label": "Daniel (prophet)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ezekiel", "label": "Ezekiel (prophet)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:code-of-hammurabi", "label": "Code of Hammurabi"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:babylonian-exile", "label": "the Israelites in Babylon"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:45", "label": "Quran 5:45"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:50", "label": "Quran 3:50"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims wrongly assume that earlier revelation was like the revelation they have, the Quran.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "you see we as Muslims assume that revelation in the past reflected revelation that we have which is Quran that's not true not true at all", "start": 39}}, "url": "/r/143df7icoYU/s/1/"}, {"id": "143df7icoYU/s/2", "short_id": "2019-09-14-S02", "recording": "143df7icoYU", "n": 2, "start": 497, "end": 681, "date": "20190914", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "In what sense the earlier scriptures are corrupted: not preserved verbatim", "question_plain": "Is the Bible corrupted?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that whether the other books are corrupted depends on what is meant, because they were never meant to be preserved as a recitation like the Quran; what was meant to be preserved was the overall message. If corrupted means not preserved verbatim, he says, then yes: the words as Jesus spoke them were not kept, and it is not even certain whether he spoke Aramaic or Hebrew, so things may have been lost and wrongly added. He says he is pretty sure that the overall, generic message, such as Jesus speaking of the kingdom of God and parables like the Good Samaritan, would have been kept. Responding to a viewer's comment about translation, he adds that Jesus taught in parables with an overall message, that the Gospel writers came much later and disagree among themselves, and that in that sense the term corrupted can be used.", "summary_short": "Yes, if corrupted means not preserved word for word, since they were never meant to be a recitation; but the general message of Jesus was most likely kept.", "answer_start": 497, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:injil", "label": "Injil (Gospel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the earlier scriptures can be called corrupted if that means they were not preserved verbatim.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so when we keep saying that the the other messages are corrupted it depends what you mean by that that from yes they weren't preserved verbatim so if that's what we mean by corrupted then yes that is true", "start": 537}}, "url": "/r/143df7icoYU/s/2/"}, {"id": "143df7icoYU/s/3", "short_id": "2019-09-14-S03", "recording": "143df7icoYU", "n": 3, "start": 681, "end": 796, "date": "20190914", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why was the Quran not sent from the beginning? Prophets to Israel, and books not meant to be kept verbatim", "question_plain": "If God knew earlier scriptures would change, why not send the Quran first?", "summary": "A viewer asks why, if God knew the earlier books would be corrupted or changed, the Quran was not sent down and preserved from the beginning. Mufti Abu Layth says this comes back to a misunderstanding of what God wanted from people: Jesus came only for the Israelites, as he himself says, and commissions his twelve disciples to judge the twelve tribes of Israel, not mankind, and Moses likewise was sent only to the Israelites, so their purpose differed. Secondly, he says, the earlier books were never meant to be preserved in that way, since they were a message and an understanding rather than a book of recitation. He thinks much of the Jewish tradition has generally been preserved because its books were mostly laws carried in a living tradition, but asks what difference preservation would make to whether one follows it.", "summary_short": "The earlier prophets were sent only to the Israelites and their books were never meant to be preserved word for word, so the question rests on a misunderstanding.", "answer_start": 681, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bani-israil", "label": "Bani Isra'il (the Israelites)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, as far as Muslims are concerned, Jesus came only for the Israelites and not for mankind.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "you have to remember Jesus came just for the Israelites he didn't come for mankind like as far as Muslims are concerned", "start": 681}}, "url": "/r/143df7icoYU/s/3/"}, {"id": "143df7icoYU/s/4", "short_id": "2019-09-14-S04", "recording": "143df7icoYU", "n": 4, "start": 796, "end": 932, "date": "20190914", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Quoting the Bible, and is today's Bible the one of the Prophet's time?", "question_plain": "Is today's Bible the same one Christians and Jews read in the Prophet's time?", "summary": "Asked why Muslims quote these books if they do not believe them correct, Mufti Abu Layth says there is nothing wrong with quoting them where it makes sense. A second question asks whether the Quran implies that the Torah and Bible of today are the ones Jews and Christians read in the Prophet's time. He says the Quran refers to their having scripture but does not address this, and that in all honesty he does not know whether it was identical, though it most likely may have been, since many formative structures of Christianity, the Council of Nicaea and the decision which Gospels were reliable and which apocryphal, came before Islam, with some editing and the later Protestant Reformation along the way. He adds that some Christians in the Middle East followed other Gospels, such as the Gospel of Thomas and the infancy Gospels, and that he does not know which the Christians who met the Prophet followed.", "summary_short": "Quoting the Bible where it makes sense is fine. Whether today's Bible matches the one of the Prophet's time he does not know, though it most likely may, and the Quran does not address it.", "answer_start": 796, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:torah", "label": "Torah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:council-of-nicaea-325", "label": "the Council of Nicaea (325)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:protestant-reformation", "label": "the Protestant Reformation"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-thomas", "label": "Gospel of Thomas"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:infancy-gospel-of-thomas", "label": "Infancy Gospel of Thomas"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in all honesty he does not know whether the scripture Jews and Christians had in the Prophet's time was identical to today's, though it most likely may have been.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "in all honesty I don't know whether it was identical or not I know that there are several it most likely may have been", "start": 832}}, "url": "/r/143df7icoYU/s/4/"}, {"id": "1ybpO86BP8Y/s/1", "short_id": "2022-02-19-S01", "recording": "1ybpO86BP8Y", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 419, "date": "20220219", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on the Marvelous Quran channel: fresh eyes, but some readings he doubts", "question_plain": "What do you think of the rational readings of the Quran on the Marvelous Quran channel?", "summary": "A chat questioner asks Mufti Abu Layth to say something about the shaykh of the Marvelous Quran channel, whose name the captions garble. Mufti says he has watched one or two of the long lectures and welcomes the attempt to bring fresh eyes and reasoning to the Quran, though he says he may have misunderstood. Mufti describes a clip in which he understood the shaykh to say that Moses had a missing or disabled hand and that God grew him a new one as his miracle, which Mufti says is not really in line with a rational approach. Mufti notes other points he found fine, such as on the pharaohs, and that the shaykh does not incline towards a virgin birth, a view of certain scholars. Mufti says he understood him to hold that Zakariya married Mary and fathered Jesus, with John (Yahya) as Jesus's brother, and says he personally does not agree with that if it is the view, apologising if he has misunderstood. Mufti ends by saying he admires anyone bringing fresh eyes to scripture and would be glad to discuss these points with him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth welcomes his fresh, reason-based approach to the Quran but does not agree with some readings he understood from him, such as Zakariya being the father of Jesus.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zakariya", "label": "Zakariya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yahya", "label": "Yahya (John)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he personally does not agree with the view, if he has understood it correctly, that Zakariya married Mary and was the father of Jesus.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i mean i don't agree with that in personally if that is the view", "start": 305}}, "url": "/r/1ybpO86BP8Y/s/1/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S01", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 1, "start": 25, "end": 476, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: sound check, how he is feeling, and tonight's plan", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth does his usual sound check on YouTube and Facebook and remarks that the world is in some disorientation. Asked in chat how he is feeling, he says he is back to normal, though still in lockdown and doing push-ups at home instead of the gym. A super chat asks about the saddest part of his life and how it changed him; he says he needs to think about it and will come back to it. He lists tonight's plan: a catch-up on world events, a hadith in al-Bukhari describing God and why taking beliefs from a single hadith is a fallacy, hadiths portraying the Prophet, and the latest 'discoveries' of a preacher he calls 'our beloved', who he says has found Noah's ark.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: greetings, a sound check, and the list of tonight's topics, from world events to a hadith describing God.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/1/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/2", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S02", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 2, "start": 476, "end": 809, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "The storming of the US Capitol and Trump's 'go home, we love you' video", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays clips about the storming of the US Capitol, including a protester describing being pushed out, and remarks that Americans never do anything by halves. He compares it to the House of Commons being stormed by the public and calls it an international crisis. He then plays Donald Trump's video telling the rioters that the election was stolen but that they must go home in peace, and that 'we love you'. He mocks the response, saying this is how Trump deals with what some would interpret as almost treason, and says that had Black Lives Matter protesters attempted the same, it would probably have ended within seconds with protesters gunned down.", "summary_short": "Clips of the Capitol riot and Trump's 'go home, we love you' video, with Mufti Abu Layth's mocking commentary.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:us-capitol-attack-2021", "label": "the storming of the US Capitol (6 January 2021)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:black-lives-matter-protests-2020", "label": "the Black Lives Matter movement"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/2/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/3", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S03", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 3, "start": 809, "end": 1297, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Not just Trump: why he sees the Capitol riot as reflective of the United States", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think this is just Trump, and that it is naive to blame a megalomaniac and his supporters alone, since the riot is in many ways reflective of the United States. He points to school shootings being treated as routine, to the victims of Hurricane Katrina still awaiting restoration, and to billionaires' wealth rising by around 80 percent over the Obama and Trump terms and by hundreds of billions during the pandemic while millions lost their jobs. He says the country was built on eradicating a people and that race relations are a nightmare, adding that Biden is better than Trump but will not save the world. He then offers what he calls speculation and food for thought: that the European settlers were high risk-takers and that this may have shaped a culture prone to chaotic events.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth sees the Capitol riot as a symptom of the United States as a whole, not just of Trump, pointing to school shootings, inequality and race relations.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events", "society/race-and-identity"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:joe-biden", "label": "Joe Biden"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:barack-obama", "label": "Barack Obama"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hurricane-katrina-2005", "label": "Hurricane Katrina"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the COVID-19 pandemic"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think the Capitol riot is just Trump, but that it is in many ways reflective of the United States.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "this is not in my understanding just a trumpian issue i think that's like that's naive thinking that this is just trump", "start": 1105}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/3/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/4", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S04", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 4, "start": 1297, "end": 1546, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is America really that wild? Replying to a viewer's pushback", "question_plain": "Is America really as wild as you say?", "summary": "After a short aside about opening messages in public and a poem he decides to read, Mufti Abu Layth reads a chat comment arguing that the United States is not as wild as the sensational news suggests, that it is a beacon of innovation, that the wealth gap is global, and that his views are naive. He says the viewer makes a good point and that he was not dissing the United States. He says the perception of the United States is sometimes quite deceptive: it is not quite like Europe on values such as human rights, yet some Americans champion them. He describes it as paradoxical, with the greatest innovation and incredible wealth alongside very poor states and no free health care, and calls it in many ways an experiment, repeating his dismay that school shootings have become casualised.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he was not dissing the US, but that it is a paradox: great wealth and innovation alongside poverty, no free health care and routine school shootings.", "answer_start": 1396, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the perception of the United States is sometimes quite deceptive.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "not dissing it i was saying that you see the united states is sometimes the perception of the united states is quite deceptive", "start": 1435}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/4/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/5", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S05", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 5, "start": 1546, "end": 1807, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Chat round: Trump's Twitter ban, Surah Ya Sin in the morning, and banter", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth jokes that his show has become a place for people to make general statements. He says the banning of Trump from Twitter is interesting: he supposes it was done because Trump could cause a revolution, but says he does not know how he feels about it given freedom of speech. Turning to Facebook questions, he says he has not switched from WhatsApp to Signal, and answers briefly that reciting Surah Ya Sin in the morning for blessings is not a sunnah. He jokes about confessions and a question on eating meat at Jewish dinner parties.", "summary_short": "Light chat: he is unsure how he feels about Trump's Twitter ban and says reciting Ya Sin each morning is not a sunnah.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "quran/memorisation-and-recitation"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:twitter", "label": "Twitter"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:36:1-83", "label": "Surah Ya Sin"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/5/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/6", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S06", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 6, "start": 1807, "end": 1960, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "His opinion of a Salafi preacher: level-headed, from what he has heard", "question_plain": "What do you think of a particular Salafi preacher?", "summary": "A chat question asks his opinion of a preacher whose name is garbled in the captions [?]. Mufti Abu Layth says he has not come across much of his material recently and jokes that he needs to produce more content. He says that, from what he has heard, the preacher is quite balanced within the Salafi dawah and generally level-headed, not one to rant about Salafism although he comes from that background. The last thing he remembers is the preacher posting, out of the blue, that giving zakat to a particular foundation he had advocated was haram, which made him wonder what politics lay behind it. He says he wishes him well and will have to follow up.", "summary_short": "From what he has heard, he says the preacher is generally level-headed and balanced within the Salafi dawah, though he has not followed him closely.", "answer_start": 1807, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zakat", "label": "zakat"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/6/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/7", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S07", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 7, "start": 1960, "end": 2108, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Salafi dawah: some opportunities, but overall great damage", "question_plain": "Has the Salafi movement done more good or harm?", "summary": "Picking up a chat comment about a level-headed Salafi, Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafi or Wahhabi dawah is a huge problem, though, like most things, it also brought some opportunity, joking that nothing is wholly bad except colon cancer. He says it gave a chance to review stale fiqh that was out of sync, and he accepts that it forced Muslims to re-evaluate things and revived interest in hadith studies. But he says its biggest problem was that it dislodged the entire tradition that was the general understanding of Islam, and that overall the damage was great. He adds that some Salafis keep their Salafism low-key, which he says was his impression of the preacher just discussed, though he could be wrong; he then jokes about a question on wearing an earring.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafi dawah revived interest in hadith and forced a re-evaluation, but its dislodging of the tradition did far more damage overall.", "answer_start": 1960, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the biggest problem of the Salafi dawah was that it dislodged the entire tradition that was the general understanding of Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the biggest problem of the salafi dawa was to dislodge the entire tradition of which was our general understanding of islam", "start": 2033}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/7/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/8", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S08", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 8, "start": 2108, "end": 2358, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is Islam today polarised between puritans and liberals?", "question_plain": "Has Islam become more polarised between puritans and liberals?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether Islam in the post-modern era has become more polarised between puritans and liberals. Mufti Abu Layth says definitely: he feels Islam has become massively polarised in the modern age, much more than historically, because old problems are being faced in a modern way. He gives the example of fatwas: once fatwas are treated like hadith, changing a fatwa of a scholar such as Abu Yusuf for a new age is portrayed as pitting a person against the Prophet. He says more and more people are fed up with literal, dogmatist and folklore Islam, some drifting away and some re-evaluating, while a vocal minority have become extra puritan. He says he is still very optimistic, comparing the situation to a fever in which the body tries to heal itself, and sees an opportunity to reconnect with a purer, natural understanding of Islam as a deen of ease.", "summary_short": "Yes, he says Islam is far more polarised today than historically, but he is optimistic it is a fever through which a more natural Islam can return.", "answer_start": 2137, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yusuf", "label": "Abu Yusuf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels Islam has become massively polarized in the modern age, in many ways much more than historically.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "islam has become massively polarized in this modern age in many ways much more than it has historically", "start": 2136}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/8/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/9", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S09", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 9, "start": 2358, "end": 2672, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ritual purity, menstruation and revelation in Aisha's bed: a natural deen", "question_plain": "Do I have to be in a state of purity to say verses of the Quran?", "summary": "Speaking of puritanism, Mufti Abu Layth criticises the idea that one must be in a particular ritual state even to say a dua that happens to be in the Quran. He cites a report that the Prophet did not return a greeting until he had wiped on a wall, saying he disliked mentioning God except in a state of purity, and says the second part is not a valid hadith, though the mentality it carries circulates. He asks who said the menstrual state is impure, noting nothing in the Quran or valid sunnah says so, and explains that women in the past may have stayed away from the mosque for lack of sanitary products, not impurity. He then cites the hadith that revelation came to the Prophet while he was under Aisha's blanket, an intimate yet natural state, and says such hadiths show him that the deen ought to be natural to our lives, not an artificial impediment.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says religion should be natural, not ritualistic: the menstrual state is not impure, and revelation came to the Prophet while in bed with Aisha.", "answer_start": 2358, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/purification", "hadith/false-and-fabricated", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:386fa7b1", "label": "report: the prophet did not return the greeting until he wiped on the wall i disliked to mention allah except in a state of purity"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hayd", "label": "hayd (menstruation)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:19b27380", "label": "report: revelation came to me while i was under the blanket of aisha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says these kinds of hadiths are to him an encouragement showing that the deen ought to be very natural to our lives.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "these kind of hadiths are to me and an encouragement to show that the deen ought to be very natural to our lives", "start": 2632}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/9/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/10", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S10", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 10, "start": 2672, "end": 2968, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are king prawns halal? Everything from the sea, in the school of Medina", "question_plain": "Are king prawns halal?", "summary": "A super chat says the questioner has been told king prawns are not halal and asks what Islam says. Mufti Abu Layth says Islam says quite obviously that they are permissible: in the school of Medina everything in the sea is halal, based on the hadith about the sea. He says the Hanafi school ran into a conundrum over sea creatures that are not technically fish, such as squid and prawns, calling them makruh and some makruh tahrimi, which he jokingly glosses as haram in all but name. He invites the questioner to learn about the school of Medina, in which every animal is halal by its nature except the pig, with things such as animals sacrificed to other gods being situational, citing the verse 'I do not find in what was revealed to me anything forbidden' which names only the pig among creatures.", "summary_short": "Yes, prawns are halal: in the school of Medina everything from the sea is halal, and only the pig is haram by its nature.", "answer_start": 2672, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/food", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1a24a8a4", "label": "report: the sea its water is pure and its dead are lawful"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki (the school of Medina)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh / makruh tahrimi"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:145", "label": "Quran 6:145 (I do not find in what was revealed to me anything forbidden ...)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in Islam everything in the sea is halal, according to the school of Medina.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so in islam everything in the sea is halal okay that's according to the school of medina", "start": 2758}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/10/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/11", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S11", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 11, "start": 2968, "end": 3044, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Who does Surah al-Munafiqun refer to?", "question_plain": "Who is Surah al-Munafiqun about?", "summary": "Answering a question about whether men may wear earrings, Mufti Abu Layth refers viewers to his detailed video on the subject. A question then asks who Surah al-Munafiqun is actually referring to. He offers to go through the verses in detail the following week, but says in general that, although the verses are general, at the time they would have referred to the hypocrites within Medina.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, though the verses are general, Surah al-Munafiqun referred at the time to the hypocrites of Medina.", "answer_start": 3006, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:63:1-11", "label": "Surah al-Munafiqun"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:munafiqun", "label": "munafiqun (hypocrites)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jordan-peterson", "label": "Jordan Peterson"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, although the verses are general, Surah al-Munafiqun would at the time have referred to the hypocrites within Medina.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "in general the munafer even though the verses are general but it would be referring at the time to the monafine within medina", "start": 3005}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/11/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/12", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S12", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 12, "start": 3044, "end": 3090, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "His thoughts on Shaykh al-Sha'rawi", "question_plain": "What do you think of Shaykh al-Sha'rawi?", "summary": "Asked, just before, for his generally positive thoughts on Shaykh al-Sha'rawi, Mufti Abu Layth says he cannot say he has been influenced by him. He says he has heard some of his material and read some of his lectures, including his tafsir of certain verses with a Sufi angle, and that his thoughts are positive.", "summary_short": "His thoughts on al-Sha'rawi are positive, though he says he has not been influenced by him.", "answer_start": 3044, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-sharawi", "label": "Muhammad Mutawalli al-Sha'rawi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/12/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/13", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S13", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 13, "start": 3090, "end": 3576, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Harun Yahya: the scientific-miracles dawah and Adnan Oktar's 1,000-year sentence", "question_plain": "What do you think of Harun Yahya and his books?", "summary": "Prompted by a chat mention of Adnan Oktar, Mufti Abu Layth says Harun Yahya came at a time when Muslims in the West, generationally young, suffered from an inferiority complex, and his glossy, well-produced books on the scientific miracles of the Quran took people by storm. He recalls working at about seventeen in an Islamic bookshop in Birmingham affiliated with Ahmed Deedat's IPCI, where these books outclassed everything else. He says the du'at and even Salafis jumped on it, and that the dawah of people like Mohammed Hijab is in a sense an extension of it though not affiliated, but science moved on, the community matured, and a lot of wrong information was spread. He describes Oktar as a Turkish tycoon who he thinks believed he was the Mahdi, surrounded by women he calls his 'kitties', and mocks the judge who sentenced him to a thousand years.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Harun Yahya's scientific-miracles books spread a lot of wrong information, and mocks the 1,000-year sentence given to Adnan Oktar.", "answer_start": 3090, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["quran/quran-and-science", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:harun-yahya", "label": "Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ipci", "label": "IPCI (Islamic Propagation Centre International)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmed-deedat", "label": "Ahmed Deedat"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/13/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/14", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S14", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 14, "start": 3576, "end": 3786, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Super chats read out: bitcoin, an escort question, prophethood and the story of Lut", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he did buy some bitcoin, as he said the previous week. He mocks a super chat asking whether visiting escorts is allowed, sent under a pious-sounding name, and does not answer it. He reads two questions he will come back to: whether, if the Prophet saw prophethood in his son Ibrahim, future prophets should be possible and why God would stop revelation, and whether the Quran clearly prohibits homosexual acts or the story of Lut can be read otherwise. He jokes about the mix of questions and remembers he has not yet read a poem.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: super chats are read out, with the questions on prophethood and on the story of Lut kept for later.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim-ibn-muhammad", "label": "Ibrahim, the son of the Prophet"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:lut", "label": "Lut"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/14/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/15", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S15", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 15, "start": 3786, "end": 4012, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Poetry: a ghazal on love, beauty and patience", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a poem in Urdu with Persian words and explains its lines in English: the poet says the craze is no longer in his head nor the desire in his heart, yet he cannot trust his resolve to have left love alone. He explains a line saying it is true he has not fallen in love, but also that the beloved's beauty is not all that, and another on the nature of beauty, to which the only cure is patience. He explains a Persian word and a line about not speaking ill of someone with one's own mouth. Much of the recited poetry is missing from the captions.", "summary_short": "A poetry interlude: he reads and explains a poem about love, beauty and patience.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["arts/urdu-poetry"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/15/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/16", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S16", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 16, "start": 4012, "end": 4381, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why prophethood ended with Muhammad: Ibrahim, the axial age and world faiths", "question_plain": "Why can't there be any prophets after Muhammad?", "summary": "Returning to the super chat, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think the Prophet's son Ibrahim was going to be a prophet, and that the statement that he would have been had he lived is, if true, hyperbole meaning he would have been a beacon of guidance. On why prophecy stops, he speaks of epochs of collective consciousness: what he attributes to Karl Popper as the axial age, with the Buddha, Confucius, Socrates and Plato, followed by an epoch from Jesus to the Prophet in which religion was concretised. He says it is a fact of history that no world faith has risen since, that Sikhism is not a world faith, and that even Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens, says none will. He concludes that the Prophet was the final seal on global religions, and, to a chat suggestion, says humanism is a philosophy, like a tint, not a religion, adding that he agrees with humanism.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says no new prophet or world religion will come after Muhammad; the statement about his son Ibrahim, if true, was hyperbole.", "answer_start": 4012, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim-ibn-muhammad", "label": "Ibrahim, the son of the Prophet"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:871f66b9", "label": "report: if ibrahim had lived he would have been a prophet"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:karl-popper", "label": "Karl Popper (as named on air)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:buddha", "label": "the Buddha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:confucius", "label": "Confucius"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:socrates", "label": "Socrates"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yuval-noah-harari", "label": "Yuval Noah Harari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sapiens", "label": "Sapiens"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khatam-al-nabiyyin", "label": "khatam al-nabiyyin (seal of the prophets)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the statement that the Prophet's son Ibrahim would have been a prophet had he lived is, if true, hyperbole.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "would have been a prophet if true is simply an a kind of hype it's hyperbole it's a hyperbolic statement", "start": 4052}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/16/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/17", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S17", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 17, "start": 4381, "end": 4499, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why BukhariGate, and not a 'MuslimGate'?", "question_plain": "Will you critique Sahih Muslim like you did al-Bukhari?", "summary": "A chat question asks when 'MuslimGate' is coming out and whether he has criticisms of Sahih Muslim. Mufti Abu Layth says there is a reason he went for al-Bukhari: it has become the symbol of the legacy of Islam as promoted by the Salafis and Wahhabis, which is why he took it apart. He says one could go for Abu Dawud or others, but they are not the icon, and, likening it to storming the Capitol, says one has to take the bull by the horns and go for the 'impenetrable fortress', joking with a line from Game of Thrones.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth chose al-Bukhari, not Muslim or others, because it is the symbol of the Salafi-Wahhabi legacy; that is the fortress he wanted to take on.", "answer_start": 4421, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/collections-and-compilation"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he went for al-Bukhari because it has become the symbol of the legacy of Islam as promoted by the Salafis and Wahhabis.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "because it's become the symbol of denouncing the the legacy of islam as promoted by the salafia the wahabia this is why i took it apart", "start": 4421}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/17/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/18", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S18", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 18, "start": 4499, "end": 4617, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why would God stop revelation? It continues in dreams", "question_plain": "Why would God stop sending revelation?", "summary": "Returning to the other half of the super chat, Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet did not say that revelation per se ends, but that revelation in its formal manner as a religion ends. He says the Prophet said it continues through dreams or visions, which he links to the unconscious: people may still receive revelatory intuitions that can help them personally, but these are not a religion and not for preaching. He calls this a fascinating hadith.", "summary_short": "Revelation as a religion has ended, he says, but the Prophet said it continues in dreams, which can guide a person but are not for preaching.", "answer_start": 4499, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/dreams-and-visions", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:35db4e1f", "label": "report: nothing remains of prophethood except good dreams"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahy", "label": "wahy (revelation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet did not say revelation per se ends, but that revelation in its formal manner as a religion ends.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the prophet didn't say that revelation per se ends but revelation in its um formal manner as a religion ends", "start": 4499}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/18/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/19", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S19", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 19, "start": 4617, "end": 4842, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why the Quran was not compiled as a book in the Prophet's lifetime", "question_plain": "Why wasn't the Quran compiled as a book in the Prophet's time?", "summary": "A question asks whether there was an emphasis in the Prophet's time on preserving the Quran in writing, whether the Quran declares itself a revelation for all times, and whether its language lends itself to universal or contextual use. Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does refer to itself many times, and that in the Prophet's time it was written on hide, bone and stone but not collected as a book. He says the Quran has stood the test of time, and that he would feel it was not collected as a book because it was dynamic, allowing substitutable variations in words or vowels that did not change the revelatory meaning. He says kitab in the Quran means scripture rather than a book, and that when something is locked in, part of its spirit evaporates, referring viewers to a Mind Trap discussion on this.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran was written but not bound as a book in the Prophet's lifetime because it was dynamic, allowing variations that did not change its meaning.", "answer_start": 4654, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:2", "label": "Quran 12:2 (we sent it down as an Arabic Quran) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:82", "label": "Quran 4:82 (do they not ponder the Quran) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-kitab", "label": "kitab (scripture)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he would feel the Quran was not collected as a book because it was dynamic in nature, allowing substitutable variations that did not change the meaning.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i would say that the fact that the quran wasn't all collected as a book was because the quran was dynamic in its nature that it allowed certain", "start": 4731}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/19/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/20", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S20", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 20, "start": 4842, "end": 5072, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does the Quran explicitly prohibit homosexuality?", "question_plain": "Does the Quran clearly forbid homosexuality?", "summary": "Answering the earlier super chat on whether a verse [?] on the story of Lut clearly prohibits homosexual acts, Mufti Abu Layth refers to his detailed video on the ruling. He says there is nothing in the Quran that explicitly prohibits homosexuality in the way it addresses the thief; it may be targeted implicitly under lewd or promiscuous acts, or indirectly through the story of Lut. He says most Muslims did and do understand it to be haram, while a minority disagreed, and that the homosexuality of the past was more a sexual fluidity alongside family life than today's identity. He says that in his understanding it was prohibited to push people into marriage and procreation, as part of prohibiting sexual liaisons generally, while noting many scholars cited sodomy.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran has no explicit prohibition of homosexuality, though most Muslims have held it haram; he thinks the aim was to push people into marriage.", "answer_start": 4842, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "fiqh/sexual-ethics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lut", "label": "Lut"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:38", "label": "Quran 5:38 (the thief's hand)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is nothing in the Quran that explicitly prohibits homosexuality, though it may target it implicitly.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it is true there is nothing in the quran that um explicitly prohibits just targets homosexuality explicitly so it it may implicitly", "start": 4842}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/20/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/21", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S21", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 21, "start": 5072, "end": 5293, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Studying at Dar al-Mustafa in Yemen or al-Azhar?", "question_plain": "Should I study at Dar al-Mustafa in Yemen or at al-Azhar?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether he would recommend studying at Dar al-Mustafa in Yemen or al-Azhar. Mufti Abu Layth says he has not heard much about these institutes in years, so he does not really know what to advise, but that Yemen is not a stable location right now and he does not think going there would be wise. He says al-Azhar is still an option, as Egypt remains active. He suggests studying locally for two or three years and then going abroad, or studying abroad for three months at a time in different places, which also broadens one's experience. He warns that some institutions turn out graduates who are 'just one of them', with a joke about a Tablighi translator.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth would not go to Yemen now because it is unstable; al-Azhar is still an option, and short stints abroad after local study may be best.", "answer_start": 5072, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "answer_to_specific_questioner", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:dar-al-mustafa", "label": "Dar al-Mustafa (Tarim, Yemen)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-azhar", "label": "al-Azhar"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:tablighi-jamaat", "label": "Tablighi Jamaat"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Yemen is not a very stable location right now and he does not think it would be very wise to go there.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "is not a very stable location so um i don't i don't think it'd be very wise going there and you'd probably just be stuck", "start": 5111}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/21/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/22", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S22", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 22, "start": 5293, "end": 5441, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Staying positive: the 'Super Mario effect' and Pogba's advice", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth jokes about a meme of the Trump video, then describes a talk on the 'Super Mario effect' of learning: research suggesting people learn better when something is framed as a game with no negativity attached than when they stand to lose something. He then plays a clip someone sent him of the footballer Paul Pogba giving advice: remember where you come from and where you are going, keep three main goals, remember that you are healthy and that others are not, and that there are always people worse off. He says he loves it.", "summary_short": "An interlude on positivity: learning as a game and a footballer's advice on gratitude and goals.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose/goals-and-habits"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:paul-pogba", "label": "Paul Pogba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/22/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/23", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S23", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 23, "start": 5441, "end": 5684, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Announcement: a Mind Trap discussion with Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid on BukhariGate", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth announces that he reached out to Dr Abdul Majid [?] after his reply to BukhariGate and that he has accepted a Mind Trap discussion the following Thursday. He describes the doctor's second reply video, which he says takes a more scholarly approach, discussing why al-Bukhari would not fabricate, one example of the hadiths Mufti chose, and the virtues of al-Bukhari, though he found it sarcastic. He says the doctor called his followers his worshippers and him a liar, and complained that Mufti's followers were giving him a hard time; Mufti says he has not seen this, that it is not his style, and asks viewers not to be disrespectful.", "summary_short": "Announcement: a Mind Trap discussion on BukhariGate with Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid is set for next Thursday, and he asks viewers to be respectful.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-abdul-majid", "label": "Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/23/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/24", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S24", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 24, "start": 5684, "end": 5869, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can women lead the prayer, give the adhan or the khutbah?", "question_plain": "Can a woman lead the prayer or give the khutbah?", "summary": "After thanking super chats, Mufti Abu Layth reads a question asking whether women can lead prayer, make the adhan and give the khutbah. He says they can, but that it generally does not happen, for reasons he calls obvious: men are very visual creatures. He jokes about countering his own argument, since attraction is subjective. He says he does not believe it is haram or invalid for a woman to lead the prayer, give the khutbah or be the imam, but that it is not done so as not to make a thing of it, and repeats that in his understanding it is definitely not invalid.", "summary_short": "Yes, he says a woman may lead the prayer, give the adhan or the khutbah; it is not invalid, it is just generally not done.", "answer_start": 5721, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques", "fiqh/prayer/congregation-and-jumuah"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:adhan", "label": "adhan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khutbah", "label": "khutbah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:imam", "label": "imam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe it is haram or invalid for a woman to lead the prayer, give the khutbah or be the imam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "i don't believe it's haram i don't believe it's invalid for a woman to lead the prayer um or for her to give a khutbah or to be the imam", "start": 5791}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/24/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/25", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S25", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 25, "start": 5869, "end": 6010, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "'My ummah will not agree on error': am I doomed if I follow a minority view?", "question_plain": "Am I doing wrong if I follow a minority opinion?", "summary": "After referring a viewer to his talk on tattoos, Mufti Abu Layth reads a Facebook question asking whether a hadith says the majority of the ummah does not agree on error, and whether following minority opinions means one is doomed. He says the hadith is unfortunately weak, though its meaning is kind of valid: it means the entire ummah will not agree upon misguidance, with not a single person disagreeing, which never happens on controversial matters. He says that although the hadith is not sahih, he can accept it as a principle, and argues it is also objectively true from a Muslim viewpoint that Muslims have never all agreed on something that clashes with Islam.", "summary_short": "No: the hadith is weak, and even its valid meaning is about the whole ummah agreeing, not about majorities, so following a minority view is not doom.", "answer_start": 5909, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/authentication", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:34e916d2", "label": "report: my ummah will not agree upon misguidance"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith that the ummah will not agree upon misguidance is unfortunately weak, although its meaning is kind of valid.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this hadith is unfortunately a weak hadith although its meaning is kind of valid that the entire ummah will not agree", "start": 5908}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/25/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/26", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S26", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 26, "start": 6010, "end": 6087, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Working as a recruiter when some of the jobs are in banking", "question_plain": "Can I work as a recruiter if some of the jobs are in banking?", "summary": "A question asks about working as a recruiter where some of the jobs one could recruit for are in banking, and whether one should rather steer clear of such a company. Mufti Abu Layth says one may work for such a company, and that these things are not haram in his understanding. He then asks moderators to block anyone being rude in the comments.", "summary_short": "Yes, he says one may work as a recruiter for such a company; it is not haram in his understanding.", "answer_start": 6051, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/work-and-study-life", "fiqh/finance"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says one may work for such a company and that these things are not haram in his understanding.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "one may work for such a company indeed indeed these things are not haram in my understanding", "start": 6050}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/26/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/27", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S27", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 27, "start": 6087, "end": 6392, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why he calls himself Maliki: the lens of the school of Medina", "question_plain": "Why do you call yourself a Maliki?", "summary": "Asked why he calls himself Maliki, Mufti Abu Layth says it is because he is Maliki: schools are inherited understandings of how to practise Islam, a lens through which the view changes with place and time while the lens stays the same. He says the lens of the school of Medina places the Quran centrally, gives precedence to the inherited practice of Medina and treats reason as vital, giving Imam Malik's questioning of the hadith on the dog and the vessel as an example. He traces the tradition from the Prophet through the companions and their children to Malik's teachers, and says the maqasid of the shari'ah are really a Maliki thing, citing al-Shatibi [?] and the nawazil literature, and al-Burzuli's fatwa some 700 years ago changing capital punishments into financial penalties. He says Imam Malik never gave such rulings, but that the way of thinking goes back to the city of the Prophet, which Malikis pride themselves on.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls himself Maliki because he follows the lens of the school of Medina: the Quran at the centre, Medinan practice, reason and the aims of the shari'ah.", "answer_start": 6087, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki (the school of Medina)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a72ed1ed", "label": "report: if a dog licks the vessel of one of you wash it seven times"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid al-shari'ah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shatibi", "label": "al-Shatibi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-burzuli", "label": "Abu al-Qasim al-Burzuli"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nawazil", "label": "nawazil"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the school of Medina placed the Quran centrally, gave precedence to the inherited practice of Medina and held reason to be vital.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "in the school of medina it was about placing the quran centrally and then the inherited practice of medina took precedence and reason was always vital in determining that", "start": 6126}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/27/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/28", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S28", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 28, "start": 6392, "end": 6622, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Denying the evil eye while citing scholars who believed in it", "question_plain": "If you deny the evil eye, why do you cite scholars who believed in it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth describes a message, partly polite and partly challenging, asking why he denies the evil eye yet still cites scholars such as Ibn Ashur or Imam Malik who may have accepted it. He says the evil eye was the science of the day: people believed in extramission, that the eye shoots out rays, so for them it was a matter of how biology works, not religion, and the evil eye is not mentioned anywhere in the Quran. He compares it to the common belief that the heart was the seat of thinking, saying that a quote from Imam Malik to that effect would not make it an Islamic viewpoint. He concludes that one does not take one's science from Imam al-Bukhari or Imam Malik.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says scholars who believed in the evil eye were following the science of their day, and one does not take science from them.", "answer_start": 6430, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:al-ayn", "label": "al-'ayn (the evil eye)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the evil eye was the science of the day, based on the belief that the eye shoots out rays, rather than a matter of religion for them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the evil eye was something that was the science of the day and age", "start": 6430}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/28/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/29", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S29", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 29, "start": 6622, "end": 6698, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Could Socrates, the Buddha or Confucius have been prophets?", "question_plain": "Could Socrates or the Buddha have been prophets?", "summary": "A question asks his views on influential people in history who could have been prophets, such as Socrates, Plato and the Buddha. Mufti Abu Layth says he believes some of them could have been prophets: the Buddha could have been, Socrates could have been and his whole thing is quite prophetic, and Confucius and Zarathustra could have been, as could many Hindu figures. He stresses that we just don't know, since Islam simply does not mention them.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth believes figures such as the Buddha, Socrates and Zarathustra could have been prophets, though we cannot know since Islam does not mention them.", "answer_start": 6622, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:socrates", "label": "Socrates"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:buddha", "label": "the Buddha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:confucius", "label": "Confucius"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zarathustra", "label": "Zarathustra"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes figures such as the Buddha and Socrates could have been prophets, though we just don't know.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i believe socrates could have been a prophet in fact his whole thing is quite prophetic uh confucius could have been um i don't what i'm saying is that we just don't know", "start": 6622}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/29/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/30", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S30", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 30, "start": 6698, "end": 7113, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Clever but dogmatic: lower-order thinking, Abdul Rahman Hassan and Zakir Naik", "question_plain": "Why do clever preachers stay stuck in dogmatism?", "summary": "A chat question asks his opinion of Abdul Rahman Hassan, who seems very intelligent, and why he is stuck in dogmatism. Mufti Abu Layth distinguishes being clever from being a person of reason, using the educational distinction between lower-order thinking skills, knowledge and understanding, and higher-order skills such as analysis, application, synthesis and creation. He says he has not studied Abdul Rahman Hassan personally beyond a clip or two, but that much of the Salafi or dogmatist scene are, in general, people of lower-order thinking who may know a lot without being able to analyse or create. He gives Zakir Naik as an example of a walking database, and says many doctors are trained in rote learning rather than analytical thought. He says Zakir Naik has done great damage to the scientific confrontation with Islam under the pretence of being a medical doctor.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says knowing a lot is not the same as reasoning well; much of the dogmatist scene relies on rote learning, and Zakir Naik has done Islam real damage.", "answer_start": 6698, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zakir-naik", "label": "Zakir Naik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/30/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/31", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S31", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 31, "start": 7113, "end": 7868, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The night-journey hadith in which God 'dangles': Bukhari 7517 and the Salafi creed", "question_plain": "Does Sahih al-Bukhari really say God dangled in front of the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth presents a passage of a night-journey hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, number 7517, which he says he partly problematised in BukhariGate: at the end of creation the Lord, al-Jabbar, draws near and then 'dangles' (tadalla) before the Prophet. He shows the dictionary meaning, hanging like grapes or a bucket in a well, and says he is not the first to object: he cites al-Khattabi saying the book contains no more shocking sentence, and also Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili [?] and Ibn Hazm, while a commentator tried hard to explain it away. He says the greater problem is the Salafi-Wahhabi creed of taking any hadith describing God as belief, listing attributes such as hands, fingers, teeth and a foot, which he says presents a deformed God. He says the verse in Surah al-Najm can refer to the angel Jibril, but God has no form and does not dangle, and that a hadith clashing with reason, the Quran or established principles is inadmissible, which he says is the teaching of the school of Medina.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report of God 'dangling' before the Prophet is unacceptable, and any hadith that clashes with reason or the Quran must be rejected.", "answer_start": 7113, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "belief/god-and-attributes", "history/sirah/isra-and-miraj"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:7517", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 7517 (the night journey; al-Jabbar drew near and came down)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:isra-and-miraj", "label": "the Isra and Mi'raj"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khattabi", "label": "al-Khattabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-haqq-al-ishbili", "label": "Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:53:8", "label": "Quran 53:8 (then he drew near and came down)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tajsim", "label": "tajsim (anthropomorphism)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith that clashes with reason, the Quran or established principles is not accepted"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that describing God as dangling in front of the Prophet, as in this hadith, is utterly unacceptable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is utterly uh unacceptable and it is indicative and reflective of the greater problem with the the salafi creed", "start": 7630}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/31/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/32", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S32", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 32, "start": 7868, "end": 8353, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Inviting Javed Ahmad Ghamidi to Mind Trap, and the gatekeepers around scholars", "question_plain": "Will you invite Javed Ahmad Ghamidi onto Mind Trap?", "summary": "To a chat suggestion that he host Javed Ahmad Ghamidi on Mind Trap, Mufti Abu Layth says he would love to but doubts it will be accepted. Calling it his personal opinion, he says the scholar himself is very reasonable, down to earth and humble, but that the team around him shows a protective, insecure and cultish mentality, perhaps fearing he would draw away the scholar's audience since he speaks in English. He says this is common around many maulanas and pirs, recounting how a meeting with a shaykh in Rabat [?] came with more protocol than meeting a king and his friend was refused 'clearance', and that when the scholar visited the UK he was blocked from meeting him and told to buy a ticket. He praises Dr Shehzad Saleem, whom he describes as close to the scholar but not part of his managing team, for answering his questions about the scholar's views promptly, unlike the team.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says, as his personal view, that Ghamidi himself is down to earth, but the team around him is protective and hard to reach; Dr Shehzad Saleem is the exception.", "answer_start": 7868, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/32/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/33", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S33", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 33, "start": 8353, "end": 8545, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "His view of an online activist, Hizb ut-Tahrir and 'taking over the world'", "question_plain": "What do you think of a particular online activist?", "summary": "A chat question asks his thoughts on a figure whose name is garbled in the captions [?]. Mufti Abu Layth says that, from what he knows and from the man's own past posts during an online clash a couple of years earlier, he considers him an extremist and a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which he calls a cancer for the ummah for advocating military coups in Muslim countries, and sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. He says such extremists have softened their tone because the younger generation does not accept it. He warns that alarm bells should ring whenever anybody says we need to take over the world.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth warns that anyone who says Muslims need to take over the world should set alarm bells ringing.", "answer_start": 8391, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:hizb-ut-tahrir", "label": "Hizb ut-Tahrir"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:osama-bin-laden", "label": "Osama bin Laden"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that anybody who tells you that we need to take over the world should set alarm bells ringing.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "anybody who's just after political you know global domination anybody who tells you that we need to take over the world", "start": 8468}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/33/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/34", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S34", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 34, "start": 8545, "end": 8974, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Mind Trap guest suggestions and the 'blacklisting' mentality", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Viewers suggest guests for Mind Trap. Mufti Abu Layth says he likes one suggested preacher, whose name is censored in the captions, despite theological disagreements, but that he might take a lot of heat for appearing. He says his criteria for guests are that they be interesting and interested, and criticises a schoolyard 'blacklisting' mentality among imams who fear being shunned for talking to someone, mentioning his Salafi aqidah challenge. He says another shaykh might one day agree, since he acts on his convictions regardless of the people around him. He then jokes about chat comments, says a former guest has gone quiet for over a year, and warns that trolls will be blocked.", "summary_short": "Guest suggestions for Mind Trap; he says his only criteria are that guests be interesting and interested, and he criticises the blacklisting culture.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/34/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/35", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S35", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 35, "start": 8974, "end": 9510, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The saddest time of his life: the arrest that turned his life upside down", "question_plain": "What was the hardest time of your life?", "summary": "Reminded by chat of the earlier question about the saddest part of his life, Mufti Abu Layth says there have been many challenging moments, that childhood is something he will not go into, and that he does not share very personal things. He says the clearest marker is his arrest, which came out of nowhere when his life was busy with teaching and travel: the police came to his door the morning after he returned from abroad. He says the alleged offence was corrupting a police officer, that he still maintains his innocence, and that they seized all his electronic devices to make an example of him. He describes weeks of shell shock and nearly three years of uncertainty, people retreating from him, and says it left an imprint on his psyche but that many greater opportunities came out of it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth names his arrest as the most overwhelming time of his life: it left an imprint, but he says he came back stronger and many opportunities followed.", "answer_start": 9013, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "answer_to_specific_questioner", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/personal-stories", "wellbeing/resilience-and-hardship"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/35/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/36", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S36", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 36, "start": 9510, "end": 10131, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Two to three months in prison: learning, poetry and the humanity of inmates", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the prison time itself worked out for him. He explains that the case arose from his trying to help a friend arrange mediation in a family matter by asking an officer for help, that the officer was later investigated for unrelated matters, and that he and his friend were made examples of when he declined to act as a witness. He says he and his co-defendant were unusually kept together throughout the two to three months, that he kept to himself, read hadith commentary and learned the Hindi script, and that not smoking kept him out of trouble. He describes befriending a feared inmate through a shared love of poetry and another notorious inmate who treated him with respect, and reflects that many people caught up in crime have a very humane side.", "summary_short": "A personal story: prison was bearable, even fruitful, and he found a humane side in feared inmates.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/personal-stories"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/36/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/37", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S37", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 37, "start": 10131, "end": 10282, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is process-relational theology compatible with the Quran?", "question_plain": "Is process theology compatible with the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth brings up the Patreon questions. The first asks whether process-relational theology, as theorised by John Cobb and David Ray Griffin, is compatible with the Quranic worldview. He says that, from what he understands, some of its core ideas, such as the ongoingness of time and reality being made of moments, experiences and events, are not necessarily problematic. But he says it holds that God is co-dependent with creation, apparently to explain free will, and that this is not the Quranic worldview, so he is not sure what the benefit of advocating it would be.", "summary_short": "No: he says its idea that God depends on creation as creation depends on God is not the Quranic worldview.", "answer_start": 10163, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/god-and-attributes", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:john-cobb", "label": "John Cobb"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-ray-griffin", "label": "David Ray Griffin"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the process-relational idea that God is dependent on creation as creation is dependent on God is not the Quranic worldview.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so god is kind of dependent on creation as creation is dependent on god that isn't the quranic worldview", "start": 10242}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/37/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/38", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S38", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 38, "start": 10282, "end": 10359, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Social media's harms: fiqh is out of sync and needs to catch up", "question_plain": "What does Islamic law say about the harms of social media?", "summary": "A Patreon question, prompted by the documentary The Social Dilemma, asks whether fiqh has anything to say about the damaging impact of social media and how it might be classified, given that secular society is only beginning to discuss it. Mufti Abu Layth says fiqh is definitely out of sync and needs to catch up and be updated, and that one of the opportunities that came out of Salafism was a wake-up call to fiqh. He then reads the next questioner's two questions.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees fiqh is out of sync with problems like social media's harms and needs updating.", "answer_start": 10282, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media/social-media", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says fiqh is definitely out of sync and needs to catch up and be updated.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "yeah ferc is definitely out of sync it needs to catch up it needs to be updated", "start": 10282}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/38/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/39", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S39", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 39, "start": 10359, "end": 10477, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "God's throne on the water, and is it unfair that some are born Muslim?", "question_plain": "Is it unfair that some are born Muslim, and is God's throne literal?", "summary": "The questioner asks whether it is unfair that some people are born Muslim while others are not, given that God guides whom He wills, and whether God sitting on His throne on water is non-literal. Mufti Abu Layth jokes about a remark that some people may enjoy murder. He says the throne is non-literal: such phrases are literary and symbolic, the Quran does not say God sits on His throne on water, and God establishing Himself over the throne means the kingdom is His. On fairness, he says he does not believe salvation in the hereafter is the exclusive property of Muslims and refers to his videos. Further questions are then read, on the hadith about Umar and on night prayer.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the throne is a literary expression meaning the kingdom is God's, and that salvation in the hereafter is not the exclusive property of Muslims.", "answer_start": 10359, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/god-and-attributes", "belief/salvation-and-non-muslims"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:11:7", "label": "Quran 11:7 (His throne was upon the water)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:20:5", "label": "Quran 20:5 (the Most Merciful established Himself over the throne) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's description of God establishing Himself over the throne is not literal but a literary expression meaning that the kingdom is His.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it just speaks about that the throne is the that the lord established himself over the throne meaning that the kingdom is his", "start": 10359}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/39/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/40", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S40", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 40, "start": 10477, "end": 10594, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is night prayer the best way to get close to God?", "question_plain": "Is tahajjud the best way to get close to God?", "summary": "Answering a question on whether waking to pray at night is the best way to gain God's favour and closeness, and whether that is the best time for dua, Mufti Abu Layth says it is mentioned in hadith and is a time of solitude and reflection. But he says God is not restricted to certain times or places and is always with you; it is about getting into that state of mind. He describes brain-wave states from beta to alpha, theta, delta and a contested gamma state, and says that in solitude the state of mind is altered. He says the night prayer was encouraged within that Arab lifestyle, and that someone who must wake at six for work need not feel it is a problem if another practice works for them.", "summary_short": "Night prayer is one good way, he says, but God is always with you; if your lifestyle does not suit it, another practice that works for you is fine.", "answer_start": 10477, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "wellbeing/mindfulness-and-presence"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:tahajjud", "label": "tahajjud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says God is not restricted to certain times or places but is always with you.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "god is not restricted to certain temporal spatial uh availability he is always with you", "start": 10477}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/40/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/41", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S41", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 41, "start": 10594, "end": 10920, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "'If there were a prophet after me it would be Umar': a fabricated hadith", "question_plain": "Is the hadith 'if there were a prophet after me it would be Umar' authentic?", "summary": "Turning to the question about the hadith 'if there were a prophet after me it would be Umar', Mufti Abu Layth shows the report in al-Tirmidhi and its variants, and says all the narrations go back to Mishrah ibn Ha'an [?]. He says the hadith is not sahih and, though popular, is nonsensical, and that he thinks it was made up retrospectively to glorify Umar ibn al-Khattab. He says Imam Ahmad, though he transmits it, was asked about it, that a supporting report cited by al-Tabarani has a problematic chain, and that a version attributed to Bilal [?] is the same hadith with its chain glossed over, while Ibn al-Jawzi [?] calls it fabricated. He says over-glorifying someone is not itself the problem; the problem is coercing people to follow only Umar's opinions, since the deen is from the Prophet and the companions themselves disagreed with Umar.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith is a fabrication, made up to glorify Umar; one may revere Umar and still disagree with his opinions.", "answer_start": 10594, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0508e283", "label": "report: if there were a prophet after me it would be umar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-tirmidhi", "label": "Sunan al-Tirmidhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mishrah-ibn-haan", "label": "Mishrah ibn Ha'an [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabarani", "label": "al-Tabarani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jawzi", "label": "Ibn al-Jawzi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith 'if there were a prophet after me it would be Umar' is not an established hadith from the Prophet but a fabrication.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "so just to explain that this hadith is not an established hadith from the prophet sallam is a fabrication", "start": 10890}}, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/41/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/42", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S42", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 42, "start": 10920, "end": 11481, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A preacher's 'discoveries': Gog and Magog in Kyrgyzstan and Noah's ark at al-Judi", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth returns to a preacher he calls 'our beloved', whom he mocks for having drunk poison and survived. He replays his own earlier video on the preacher's claim, shown with a map and satellite images, that Gog and Magog are trapped behind mountains in Kyrgyzstan, joking about a donkey seen in the mountains. He then plays a clip in which the preacher describes the search for Noah's ark: a Turkish pilot in the 1960s photographing a boat-shaped impression on a mountain in a Kurdish area of Turkey, archaeologists finding remnants, and locals calling the mountain al-Judi. Mufti mocks how convenient this is and calls the preacher an Indiana Jones.", "summary_short": "Mockery of a preacher's claims to have located Gog and Magog in Kyrgyzstan and Noah's ark in Turkey.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:11:44", "label": "Quran 11:44 (the ark came to rest on al-Judi)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:old-testament", "label": "the Old Testament"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/42/"}, {"id": "1zgHntbMPis/s/43", "short_id": "2021-01-12-S43", "recording": "1zgHntbMPis", "n": 43, "start": 11481, "end": 11567, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Sign-off: subscribe, Patreon sessions, and Instagram for contact", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says they have gone on too long and wraps up. He thanks those who have liked and subscribed, says the remaining Patreon sessions are back on track, and says Instagram is the best place to reach him. He signs off until next week.", "summary_short": "Sign-off: thanks to viewers and patrons, and Instagram as the way to reach him.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/1zgHntbMPis/s/43/"}, {"id": "2AxJjFrnD20/s/1", "short_id": "2019-02-23-S01", "recording": "2AxJjFrnD20", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 837, "date": "20190223", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did Jesus speak in the cradle? The Maryam passage as Jesus at twelve in the Temple", "question_plain": "Did Jesus really speak as a baby in the cradle?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a question about the Al Imran verse that Jesus would speak in the cradle and in maturity, asking how speaking as an adult is a miracle, and after a side note on Jesus's influence on the world says the Quran does not actually say Jesus spoke as a baby. Mufti describes the common Muslim story of Mary returning with a baby, being accused of adultery and saved from stoning when the infant spoke, and says it is not true in his understanding, though the Quran's wording can bend that way. Mufti says the Quran is often vague when speaking of Jesus, calling him the word of God and linking him with the holy spirit, which he suggests may have served to build bridges with Christians. Mufti argues that if the Jews had believed Mary guilty they would have killed her, since they never accepted Jesus, and that no early Christian source accuses Mary of adultery. Mufti says the passage most likely refers to the incident in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus, aged twelve, stayed behind in the Temple debating the high priests, who rebuked Mary as 'sister of Aaron' for her insolent son; Jesus answered that he was a servant of God made dutiful to his mother. Mufti reads 'how can we speak to one who was in the cradle' as an idiom like 'you were only born yesterday', belittling a boy of twelve.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not say Jesus spoke as a baby; the Maryam passage most likely refers to Jesus at twelve debating the priests in the Temple, as in Luke.", "answer_start": 75, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:46", "label": "Quran 3:46 (he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:19:27-33", "label": "Quran 19:27-33 (Mary brings Jesus to her people; he speaks from the cradle)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:paul", "label": "St Paul"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalimat-allah", "label": "kalimat Allah (Jesus as the word of God)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh-al-qudus", "label": "ruh al-qudus (the holy spirit)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-luke", "label": "Gospel of Luke"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:harun", "label": "Harun (Aaron)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the popular story of the baby Jesus speaking to save Mary from being stoned is, in his understanding, not true at all.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is what a lot of Muslims do believe this unfortunately it's not actually true in my understanding at all", "start": 152}}, "url": "/r/2AxJjFrnD20/s/1/"}, {"id": "2AxJjFrnD20/s/2", "short_id": "2019-02-23-S02", "recording": "2AxJjFrnD20", "n": 2, "start": 837, "end": 1054, "date": "20190223", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Speaking to people in the cradle and in old age, and the infancy gospels", "question_plain": "What does it mean that Jesus spoke to people in the cradle and in old age?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the other verse, that Jesus will speak to people in the cradle and in old age, and says it is misread because of the misunderstood Maryam story. Mufti says it means Jesus would preach with such wisdom that he could relate to everyone around him, the very young and the very old, and does not categorically say Jesus himself spoke as a baby. Mufti accepts that the popular story follows from that interpretation but says it rests on apocryphal Christian transmissions such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which even Christians did not accept, and suggests early Muslims may have read the verses to match them. Mufti concludes that the story is fine as a nice story when zoomed out but falls apart when zoomed in: Mary was never accused of adultery, the accusers would have killed her, and a speaking infant would have been accepted as the Messiah.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the verse means Jesus would relate to people of every age when he preached, not that he spoke as a baby; that story likely came from apocryphal infancy gospels.", "answer_start": 837, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:46", "label": "Quran 3:46 (he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:infancy-gospel-of-thomas", "label": "Infancy Gospel of Thomas"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-thomas", "label": "Gospel of Thomas"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the verse means that Jesus, when he preached, would have such wisdom that he could relate to people of every age, from the very young to the old.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "what that means is that Jesus when he will preach that he will have such wisdom", "start": 871}}, "url": "/r/2AxJjFrnD20/s/2/"}, {"id": "2HeZQyp_S4M/s/1", "short_id": "2019-05-25-S01", "recording": "2HeZQyp_S4M", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 269, "date": "20190525", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Do a nicotine patch or vaping break the fast?", "question_plain": "Does a nicotine patch or vaping break my fast?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says for the record that he does not smoke and cannot tolerate smoke, since some think his rulings follow his own desires, and then takes up the question of a nicotine patch while fasting. He says a nicotine patch is fine and does not violate the fast, citing the Grand Maliki Mufti of Tunis, Muhammad al-Aziz Ju'ayt [?], who in the 1960s argued against a Hanafi mufti that injections, even of nutrients, do not break the fast because the fast is not about becoming weak. Mufti says many scholars today have given similar fatwas on nicotine patches, and that he feels vaping is the same, since its vapour is not food. He stresses that saying something is not haram is not encouraging it, that he advises against harming one's health, and that he refuses to lie on behalf of God by calling something haram to push an agenda.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says a nicotine patch does not break the fast, and he feels vaping is the same, though neither is being encouraged.", "answer_start": 78, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting/what-breaks-the-fast", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-aziz-juayt", "label": "Muhammad al-Aziz Ju'ayt [?], Grand Maliki Mufti of Tunis"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sawm", "label": "sawm (fasting)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says wearing a nicotine patch does not violate the fast.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "patch is fine people it does not violate the fast right so this has been discussed by the grande Maliki mufti of his era", "start": 77}}, "url": "/r/2HeZQyp_S4M/s/1/"}, {"id": "2HeZQyp_S4M/s/2", "short_id": "2019-05-25-S02", "recording": "2HeZQyp_S4M", "n": 2, "start": 269, "end": 516, "date": "20190525", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Does smoking break the fast? The fatwa that it does not", "question_plain": "Does smoking break my fast?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says smoking while fasting is much more controversial than vaping, and that some modern scholars, such as Jamal al-Banna of Egypt and some from al-Azhar, have given the fatwa that smoking does not break the fast. He says he generally tells people to abstain from smoking, though he does not believe smoking is haram, and would advise a fasting smoker to resort to nicotine patches and use the opportunity to stop. Mufti explains that the fatwa rests on the classical view of many scholars that inhaling smoke from a fire does not break the fast, and that smoke is not a nutrient even if some elements reach the bloodstream. He says those who follow such fatwas are not blameworthy and people should not blame each other in fiqh, while his own advice is the patches. Answering a follow-up in the chat about cigarettes and consciousness, Mufti says smoking does not affect consciousness in that sense but is addictive, before announcing the next question.", "summary_short": "Some scholars hold that smoking does not break the fast and those who follow them are not to blame, but Mufti Abu Layth's own advice is to use nicotine patches instead.", "answer_start": 269, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting/what-breaks-the-fast", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jamal-al-banna", "label": "Jamal al-Banna"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-azhar", "label": "al-Azhar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sawm", "label": "sawm (fasting)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says his own advice and ruling is for a fasting smoker to resort to nicotine patches rather than smoke.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "I would advise people my own advice my own ruling is to resort to patches but these fatwas do exist and people have given them", "start": 426}}, "url": "/r/2HeZQyp_S4M/s/2/"}, {"id": "2cei2vnTjes/s/1", "short_id": "2019-11-09-S01", "recording": "2cei2vnTjes", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 331, "date": "20191109", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Imran Hosein: apocalypse culture versus an Islam of optimism", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Shaykh Imran Hosein?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a question asking what he thinks of Imran Hosein and confirms from the spelling whom is meant. He says he has not closely watched much of his material and that his take may be inaccurate, but his impression is that Imran Hosein is preoccupied with apocalypse and doomsday culture, in which everything is about the end of times, the Dajjal, the return of Isa and an ascetic call to give up the world. He says he is very opposed to that mindset: Islam has never been about doom and gloom but about optimism, seizing the day and fulfilling one's potential. He does not deny that what has a beginning has an end and that the cosmos may one day collapse, but argues against becoming obsessed with it, citing the hadith that if the Hour comes while someone is planting, he should carry on planting, which he reads as being about mindset rather than the plant. He adds the saying that the days are three, a yesterday that cannot be recaptured, a tomorrow one may not reach, and a today in which to act, which he says is probably not authentic as a hadith but whose message Islam resonates with. He closes by saying doom and gloom culture also fuels death cults, while stressing that not everyone who subscribes to it is part of one.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth has not watched much of Imran Hosein but finds him preoccupied with doomsday culture, which he opposes. Islam, he says, is about optimism and seizing the day, as the hadith about carrying on planting when the Hour comes shows, and doom and gloom can fuel death cults.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/eschatology", "wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imran-hosein", "label": "Shaykh Imran Hosein"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4d734d1d", "label": "report: if the hour comes while one of you is planting let him carry on planting"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6ed8eaaf", "label": "report: the days are three yesterday which has gone tomorrow which you do not know whether you will reach and today in which you are so act (he says probably not authentic as a hadith)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/2cei2vnTjes/s/1/"}, {"id": "2kQbnCU09YM/s/1", "short_id": "2022-03-19-S01", "recording": "2kQbnCU09YM", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 542, "date": "20220319", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is mut'ah haram in Sunni Islam? A minority view and Ibn Ashur", "question_plain": "Is mut'ah (temporary marriage) haram for Sunni Muslims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth answers a chat question on the validity of mut'ah from the Sunni point of view, pointing to his earlier videos and to a detailed book and lectures in Arabic by a contemporary Maliki scholar from Morocco, whose name the captions do not catch, arguing from Sunni sources that it is not categorically haram. Mufti says this was also the view of Ibn Ashur, that it is based on need, of Ibn Taymiyya's grandfather [?], and of early authorities beginning with companions such as Ibn Abbas and Imran ibn Husayn, and wonders why Hanafi books down to al-Hidayah attributed the view to Imam Malik. Mufti says the majority of Sunni Muslims today consider it haram and a minority do not; whoever follows those who call it haram should treat it as haram, and it is nothing to fight over. Mufti rejects the emotional argument 'would you let your mother do it', and stresses Ibn Ashur's standing as a scholar respected across denominations, comparing him to Shah Wali Allah. Mufti contrasts this with marrying while secretly intending divorce, which he says most Sunni schools and Ibn Abd al-Barr treat as not haram but which to him is haram because it deceives the woman, and closes by saying Sunni Islam is made of many schools and its diversity is a strength.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says most Sunnis hold mut'ah haram but a minority, including Ibn Ashur, held it is not categorically haram; follow the view you hold and do not fight over it.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-tahrir-wa-al-tanwir", "label": "al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir (Ibn Ashur's tafsir, \"in 30 volumes\")"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:majd-al-din-ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Majd al-Din Ibn Taymiyya [?] (Ibn Taymiyya's grandfather; name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:imran-ibn-husayn", "label": "Imran ibn Husayn"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-hidayah", "label": "al-Hidayah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shah-wali-allah", "label": "Shah Wali Allah al-Dihlawi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah-bi-niyyat-al-talaq", "label": "nikah bi-niyyat al-talaq (marriage with a hidden intention to divorce)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says mut'ah is one of those matters where, if you follow those who say it is haram, it is haram for you, and that it is not something to fight over.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "it's one of those things that if you follow those that say it's haram then it's haram if you don't you don't", "start": 199}}, "url": "/r/2kQbnCU09YM/s/1/"}, {"id": "31RnFwtYbwU/s/1", "short_id": "2019-08-02-S01", "recording": "31RnFwtYbwU", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 324, "date": "20190802", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Rumours of a Sunni-Shia debate, and building bridges with the Shia", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After declining to discuss a question the captions garble, Mufti Abu Layth says that weeks earlier Facebook posts claimed he was about to debate a Shia imam, which he says is untrue. He says he is not into Sunni-Shia debates, though he may have thought that way years ago, that he personally believes the split is there for good because the differences are political and historical, and that his approach is building bridges. He says he disagrees with the Shia on some things and sees their point on others, and that neither the Sunni nor the Shia voice is monolithic. He recounts being asked by a group of American Shia why he would not become Shia, and says he finds the Shia very rational from one angle but emotionally attached to folklore about the Imams from another, adding that many Sunnis have similar inconsistencies. He says that with a Shia friend he would simply not discuss contested matters such as whether Abu Bakr or Ali was better, which makes little difference to him, and that he disagrees with fanaticism on the issue.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is not interested in Sunni-Shia debates: he believes the split is permanent and prefers building bridges, avoiding contested questions such as who was the better caliph.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he personally believes the Sunni-Shia split is there for good and will not go away.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I personally believe that the Shia Sunni split is there for good and it's not something that's never gonna go away", "start": 39}}, "url": "/r/31RnFwtYbwU/s/1/"}, {"id": "3Ux_bLoLSf8/s/1", "short_id": "2019-07-19-S01", "recording": "3Ux_bLoLSf8", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 405, "date": "20190719", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Dan Gibson's Petra qibla thesis: impressive research, unconvincing conclusion", "question_plain": "Was the first qibla really Petra, as Dan Gibson claims?", "summary": "The recording opens with Mufti Abu Layth answering whether he has emailed Dan Gibson; the transcript is unclear on his answer. He says Gibson is at the forefront of the claim that Muslims have Makkah wrong and that the first qibla was Petra, and that although he is not convinced, he is impressed by the commitment of non-Muslim researchers who spend decades on Islam, which Muslims secure in their beliefs should welcome. He says he has been reading Gibson's Early Islamic Qiblas [?], has not yet read Quranic Geography [?], and has watched much of his archaeology series, and describes the argument that the foundations of some sixty early mosques point more towards Petra than Makkah; he replies that this does not hold everywhere, since North Africa and al-Andalus point south, that early Muslims were never trying to hit the Ka'bah exactly, and that Gibson discloses but does not weigh the mosques that are closer to Makkah. He calls the statistician's probability argument a fallacy, because it is built on ten possible directions when the question is only ever two places, and adds the argument that Sunnis, Shia and Khawarij all agreed on the Ka'bah, when the Shia or Khawarij would surely have used a change of qibla against the mainstream. He closes by saying that revisionist and orientalist scholars such as Patricia Crone are not talking nonsense, that on some other matters they make compelling arguments that have made him re-evaluate details of his own narrative, and that Muslims should look into their work rather than dismiss it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is not convinced that the first qibla was Petra: the statistical argument is a fallacy and Sunnis, Shia and Khawarij would never all have agreed on the Ka'bah. He still finds revisionist research compelling on some other matters and says Muslims should engage with it.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists", "history/pre-islamic-arabia", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dan-gibson", "label": "Dan Gibson"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:early-islamic-qiblas", "label": "Early Islamic Qiblas [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:quranic-geography", "label": "Quranic Geography [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiblah", "label": "qiblah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Ka'bah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:patricia-crone", "label": "Patricia Crone"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is not convinced by Dan Gibson's thesis that the early qibla was Petra, since its statistical argument is a fallacy and Sunnis, Shia and Khawarij would never all have agreed on the Ka'bah, though he finds revisionist research compelling on some other matters and says Muslims should engage with it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I'm not convinced by his research although I give it to him I feel that he has done some amazing research", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/3Ux_bLoLSf8/s/1/"}, {"id": "3rPUgpmWEp0/s/1", "short_id": "2021-03-05-S01", "recording": "3rPUgpmWEp0", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 239, "date": "20210305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "What counts as khamr: Abu Hanifa's ruling on weak drinks and the embarrassment of later Hanafis", "question_plain": "What counts as khamr, and is a drink with very little alcohol haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth repeats a question about what an intoxicant is and how far it must cloud the intellect to be khamr. He says that in the Quran khamr is wine, and that one may call other things khamr metaphorically, but in Quranic terminology the word meant wine, just as wine has its own name alongside whiskies and beers. Other drinks made from honey or fruit were also haram if they were clearly of a similar intoxicating nature, but drinks with so weak an alcohol content, one or two percent, that an average consumption would not intoxicate were not haram. He says this was the Hanafi method that Abu Hanifa defended, that scholars for two or three centuries afterwards attacked the Hanafi madhhab over it, and that the Hanafis eventually became so embarrassed that they distanced themselves from the ruling and discussed it less. He adds that scholars often become embarrassed by rulings the imams stood up for, but that the imams were not standing up for alcohol or deviant practices; they were standing for the principle of truth even when it was bitter and blurred the line between black and white, and Abu Hanifa put his neck on the line for that.", "summary_short": "In the Quran khamr is wine; other drinks are haram if they intoxicate similarly, but a drink so weak that normal consumption does not intoxicate is not haram. This was Abu Hanifa's ruling, for which the Hanafi school was attacked for centuries until later Hanafis grew embarrassed by it.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:khamr", "label": "khamr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in Quranic usage khamr is wine, that other drinks are haram when they intoxicate in a similar way, and that drinks with alcohol so weak that an average consumption does not intoxicate are not haram, which is the ruling Abu Hanifa defended.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "of that drink would not intoxicate you then in that case they were not haram so if it was a small percentage um you know one two percent", "start": 76}}, "url": "/r/3rPUgpmWEp0/s/1/"}, {"id": "3rPUgpmWEp0/s/2", "short_id": "2021-03-05-S02", "recording": "3rPUgpmWEp0", "n": 2, "start": 239, "end": 543, "date": "20210305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imam Malik on sexual matters and food: no one may declare haram what Allah has not", "question_plain": "Why did Imam Malik say nothing between spouses is haram and only pork is forbidden to eat?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth draws a parallel with Imam Malik's fatwa that nothing sexual between a couple is haram, including the question of anal sex, over which later Malikis became embarrassed and either turned away from the ruling or discussed it less. He says Malik was defending a principle, not a practice: do not declare haram what Allah has not declared haram, and do not for a moment think you are God with the right to forbid something because you find it disgusting, sick or a social problem. He gives Malik's food ruling as the same case: according to the Maliki school nothing is haram to eat except the pig, which the Quran names, apart from what was offered to other gods or found already dead, and no meat from sea, land or sky is haram in itself. Malik was not telling people to eat tigers, elephants or dogs; he said dogs are not haram to eat, not that one should eat them, just as soil is not haram to eat though it is not good to eat. He says the mullahs' problem is a God complex, declaring haram on Allah's behalf, and that whether the subject is Abu Hanifa on alcohol or Malik on sexual practices and diet, the imams were not advocating these things and would likely have found them disgusting, but held that nobody has the right to pretend to be God.", "summary_short": "Imam Malik held that nothing sexual between spouses is haram and that no meat is haram in itself except pig, and Mufti Abu Layth says such rulings defend the principle that only Allah declares things haram. Saying something is not haram is not the same as recommending it.", "answer_start": 239, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/food", "fiqh/sexual-ethics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:only-allah-declares-haram", "label": "no one may declare haram what Allah has not declared haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that imams such as Malik, in ruling that nothing sexual between spouses is haram and that no meat but pig is haram in itself, were not advocating those practices but defending the principle that no one may declare haram what Allah has not, since a scholar is not God.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "what imam malik was doing was he was defending the principle it's not about whether people do these things or not", "start": 261}}, "url": "/r/3rPUgpmWEp0/s/2/"}, {"id": "3tQUslWseTo/s/1", "short_id": "2017-05-17-S01", "recording": "3tQUslWseTo", "n": 1, "start": 5, "end": 794, "date": "20170517", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Moon sighting in the UK: should we follow Saudi Arabia?", "question_plain": "Should Muslims in the UK follow Saudi Arabia for moon sighting?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says there are two valid traditional positions, a global sighting and a regional one, with the Shafi'is strict on the local region and the Maliki and Hanafi schools grouping areas that share horizons. He says that in his personal understanding each region would ideally follow its own sighting, but since the UK cannot, it makes sense to follow countries on the same horizon such as Morocco, and that using observatory calculations confirmed by an actual sighting in that region is valid. He says it is highly problematic when calculations say the moon cannot be seen and only two people claim to have seen it, citing Abu Hanifa and many Malikis, and criticises what he calls a Saudi-centric third position, saying Saudi Arabia does not vet such claims as countries like Pakistan and Morocco do. He calls the reply of some Saudi scholars, that Allah can show the moon to two people despite science, preposterous. On the sub-question he says a person can follow what they believe, but those who follow Saudi Arabia should not be condemned, and love and unity should be kept.", "summary_short": "Not necessarily: he would follow countries on the same horizon such as Morocco, distrusting Saudi sightings that contradict calculations, while not condemning those who follow Saudi.", "answer_start": 45, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting/times-and-moon-sighting", "fiqh/festivals-and-greetings"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, since the UK cannot follow its own sighting, it would make sense to follow countries sharing its horizon such as Morocco.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "given the fact that we're in the UK and we can't really go with our own region in that sense then looking at our Horizon countries like Morocco", "start": 199}}, "url": "/r/3tQUslWseTo/s/1/"}, {"id": "47ghxXHtlN8/s/1", "short_id": "2018-03-08-S01", "recording": "47ghxXHtlN8", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 467, "date": "20180308", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why he dresses and behaves the same on screen as off", "question_plain": "Why do you dress in a t-shirt and joke around while teaching Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth raises the criticism that he sits in a t-shirt and jokes while speaking about Islam, and that he would not go to a business interview looking that way. He replies that he is at home in his own study, that he dresses and behaves exactly the same off screen, and that acting differently on screen would be a double standard that would make viewers see him as a hypocrite when they met him. He says he has never claimed to be pious, that he declines invitations to speak on piety, and that he does the bare minimum of practice while loving and teaching the legacy of Islam. He tells a story of meeting a mufti from al-Azhar [?] in Egypt who always wore the scholarly gown, then turned up to an outing in jeans and a tracksuit, so that Mufti walked past him without recognising him; he says this is the cognitive dissonance he wants to spare his own viewers. He adds that he does wear a suit at conferences, and that if people are going to judge him, what they see is what they get.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth dresses and acts the same on and off screen so that nobody meets a different person in real life. Putting on a pious appearance for the camera would be a double standard and would create cognitive dissonance in viewers.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jubbah", "label": "jubbah [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/47ghxXHtlN8/s/1/"}, {"id": "49_S1uD7UTk/s/1", "short_id": "2021-05-09-S01", "recording": "49_S1uD7UTk", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 424, "date": "20210509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why a slave woman's awrah is like a man's: how the scholars legitimised slave girls", "question_plain": "Why did scholars say a slave woman's awrah is the same as a man's?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a question asking why the awrah of a slave woman (amah) was set the same as a man's, when free women are told to cover and slave girls could walk about with no shirt on, and he jokes about it. He says that most scholars, not all, simply legitimised everything about slave girls and gave it a religious veneer, and that if one is honest the crux of the matter was pragmatism, realism and, he supposes, sex; he says he is not justifying or judging it, only observing what happened. He contrasts this with the ascetic picture of religion that looks down on desire and with music, which he says the scholars were less motivated to legitimise, though some such as Ibn Hazm said it is not haram. He also contrasts it with polygamy, which most Muslim cultures accept as valid but few can carry off in practice, mocking the habit of calling one's wife 'sister', whereas in the past slave girls were carried off confidently and presented as a religious act, which he calls the power of religion.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says most scholars of the past legitimised the practice of slave girls out of pragmatism, realism and sex, and even presented it as a religious act. He contrasts this with music, which they were less keen to permit, and polygamy, which few manage today.", "answer_start": 38, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/hijab-and-niqab"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amah", "label": "amah (slave woman)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:polygamy", "label": "polygamy"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, if one is honest, the way most scholars of the past dealt with slave girls was simply an issue of pragmatism, realism and, he supposes, sex.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the crux is when it comes to the crux of the mata it was simply really if we're going to be honest it was just it was an issue of pragmatism realism and just i suppose sex", "start": 150}}, "url": "/r/49_S1uD7UTk/s/1/"}, {"id": "49_S1uD7UTk/s/2", "short_id": "2021-05-09-S02", "recording": "49_S1uD7UTk", "n": 2, "start": 424, "end": 722, "date": "20210509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Modesty out of the window: slave women's dress and the navel-to-knee awrah", "question_plain": "Did scholars let slave women uncover more than free women?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that with slave girls the scholars' discussion of modesty goes out of the window: the same scholars who demanded that a free woman be fully covered, some Hanbali fatwas even saying one eye is enough to see with, showed no concern to cover slave women. He calls the claim in the books that nobody would desire a slave girl the biggest nonsense, since men are hardwired to desire them. He thinks it an exaggeration that slave women walked about topless, and suggests they probably wore working attire with the arms and lower legs uncovered and some cleavage showing, rather than headscarves and veils, which the scholars accepted. He mocks the ruling that the navel to the knee was the absolute limit, asking why the kneecap should be forbidden when the breasts were not, notes that there is a difference of opinion, and says the topic of the amah is one many people today are stuck trying to explain.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the scholars dropped their concern for modesty when it came to slave women, and calls the claim that nobody would desire them nonsense. He thinks slave women probably wore working clothes, with arms and lower legs uncovered, rather than walking about topless.", "answer_start": 424, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amah", "label": "amah (slave woman)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ikhtilaf", "label": "ikhtilaf (difference of opinion)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the claim in the books that nobody would desire a slave girl is the biggest nonsense, since men would of course desire them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "and the most the biggest bs is people say in the books oh yeah but it's okay she's a slave girl who who would desire her", "start": 501}}, "url": "/r/49_S1uD7UTk/s/2/"}, {"id": "4PESNMaHO20/s/1", "short_id": "2018-10-08-S01", "recording": "4PESNMaHO20", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 289, "date": "20181008", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The '72 virgins' of Paradise: a number with no basis, and what the sources do say", "question_plain": "Do Muslims really get 72 virgins in Paradise?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the question of the virgins of Paradise, which he says has many people worked up. He says there is no mention of the number 72 or 73 anywhere: he thinks it comes from some fabricated or extremely weak hadith and has circulated until it became an old wives' tale that everybody repeats, and he calls the number fake news. He then gives what he calls the other news: the Quran does mention women, and among what is mentioned are virgins, intimated in certain verses with an understanding of modesty. He adds that there are reports, again not sahih but quoted in much literature, that speak of sexual relations in Paradise, including one in which the Prophet is asked whether people will have intercourse in Paradise and answers with an expression meaning with great passion and force [?]. He closes with banter about his spilled tea and about men's imaginations running away with them.", "summary_short": "The number 72 or 73 has no basis and comes from a fabricated or very weak report that became an old wives' tale. The Quran does mention women and virgins in Paradise in modest terms, and some non-sahih reports speak of sexual relations there.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/afterlife/paradise-and-hell", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:40f60e96", "label": "report: seventy two virgins in paradise (number called fabricated or extremely weak)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3ff18220", "label": "report: will we have intercourse in paradise dahman dahman [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jannah", "label": "jannah (Paradise)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is no mention anywhere of a number of 72 or 73 virgins, which he thinks may come from a fabricated or extremely weak report, while the Quran does mention women and virgins in Paradise in modest terms and some non-sahih reports speak of sexual relations there.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this number I don't know I think it comes in some fabricated or extremely weak hadith maybe and for some reason people have just circulated it", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/4PESNMaHO20/s/1/"}, {"id": "4URwiwu3X7o/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-21-S01", "recording": "4URwiwu3X7o", "n": 1, "start": 3, "end": 83, "date": "20201021", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why the Bukhari debate does not apply to Imam Malik's Muwatta", "question_plain": "Why criticise Sahih al-Bukhari but not Imam Malik's Muwatta?", "summary": "A questioner asks how Imam Malik's books met the challenge of transmission that al-Bukhari struggled with. Mufti Abu Layth first says that many people, not just one, transmitted the Muwatta, unlike the situation with other collections. He then says that is not the real point: the debate does not apply to the Muwatta because Imam Malik himself teaches in it to set hadith aside, presenting a report with an excellent chain and saying it is not acted upon. He concludes that there is no dogmatism around the Muwatta, whereas there is around the other books.", "summary_short": "The Muwatta is not caught up in the same debate: many people transmitted it, and Imam Malik himself shows in it that some well-chained hadith are not acted upon, so there is no dogmatism around it.", "answer_start": 3, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school/muwatta-and-mudawwana", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the debate over al-Bukhari does not apply to Imam Malik's book because Imam Malik himself teaches in it that a hadith with a good chain may not be acted upon.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the reason this debate does not apply to the motto of imam malik is because imam malik himself in the mother is teaching you to reject hadith", "start": 32}}, "url": "/r/4URwiwu3X7o/s/1/"}, {"id": "4WUwTJQAmx0/s/1", "short_id": "2018-09-03-S01", "recording": "4WUwTJQAmx0", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 571, "date": "20180903", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Reply to Abdullah al-Andalusi: the 'white saviour' and the caliphate", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Abdullah al-Andalusi, a convert who takes his name from his European, Portuguese heritage, has tried to refute him over the caliphate and Imam al-Ghazali. He mocks what he calls a white saviour complex, comparing him to Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese empire in India, and asks whether such converts know Arabic, the Quran, hadith or the basics of prayer, fasting and zakah before wanting to bring the caliphate to Muslims who have had Islam for generations. He says this is not aimed at converts in general, praising Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh Nuh Keller and Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad, who studied and inspire people. He cites Abu Sufyan's answer to Heraclius about whether the Prophet's ancestors were kings, and says such people have not lived a day in the Muslim world and are put forward by Muslims with a white saviour inferiority complex.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth mocks Abdullah al-Andalusi's call to establish the caliphate as a 'white saviour complex', while praising converts who devoted themselves to study.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "society/converts-and-newcomers"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-al-andalusi", "label": "Abdullah al-Andalusi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:vasco-da-gama", "label": "Vasco da Gama"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nuh-keller", "label": "Nuh Ha Mim Keller"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdal-hakim-murad", "label": "Abdal Hakim Murad"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-sufyan", "label": "Abu Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:heraclius", "label": "Heraclius (referred to, not named)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khalifah (caliphate)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/4WUwTJQAmx0/s/1/"}, {"id": "4WUwTJQAmx0/s/2", "short_id": "2018-09-03-S02", "recording": "4WUwTJQAmx0", "n": 2, "start": 571, "end": 724, "date": "20180903", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hizb ut-Tahrir's teaching that the whole world is dar al-harb", "question_plain": "Is the world today dar al-harb, the land of war?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says this is why he is against such da'wah: it draws attention-craving people to groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir [?]. He says these groups teach that all non-Muslims are impure and were created to be subdued and ruled by Muslims, and that the whole world today, Muslims included, lives in kufr and is dar al-harb. He says that if we are living in the land of war we are only a step away from declaring the people around us enemy combatants, and that their idea of Islam is about power and forcing jizya on others, which he promises to address in a later session. He calls it a virus breeding hatred, and says they deny hating non-Muslims while claiming God wants them to rule.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects the teaching that the whole world is dar al-harb, saying it puts people one step from treating their neighbours as enemy combatants.", "answer_start": 571, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:hizb-ut-tahrir", "label": "Hizb ut-Tahrir [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dar-al-harb", "label": "Dar al-Harb"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dar-al-islam", "label": "Dar al-Islam"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jizya", "label": "jizya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-al-andalusi", "label": "Abdullah al-Andalusi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that believing the world is the land of war puts people only a step away from declaring the people around them enemy combatants.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if we are living in that all harm then we are only a step away from declaring the people here as enemy combatants", "start": 608}}, "url": "/r/4WUwTJQAmx0/s/2/"}, {"id": "4WUwTJQAmx0/s/3", "short_id": "2018-09-03-S03", "recording": "4WUwTJQAmx0", "n": 3, "start": 724, "end": 882, "date": "20180903", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Every hadith about the khilafah is fabricated", "question_plain": "Are the hadith about the khilafah authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks what the would-be rulers actually want, power, money or women, and says they place it all on God and His Messenger. He says every hadith about the khilafah is fabricated, because the notion did not exist in the Prophet's time and he could not have spoken of it any more than of democracy, and the Companions only called Abu Bakr the khalifah of the Messenger because he came after him. He calls the report of twelve caliphs a fabrication for the rulers, and says the report that if two are given allegiance the latter should be killed is too convenient for rulers. He argues the Companions, who discussed a ruler from the Ansar and one from the Muhajirun at the succession, clearly did not know any such hadith.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says every hadith about the khilafah is fabricated, since the notion did not exist in the Prophet's lifetime and the Companions did not know them.", "answer_start": 724, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khalifah (caliphate)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d6df088f", "label": "report: there will be twelve caliphs all from quraysh (unresolved; called fabricated by the host)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a1bd50ab", "label": "report: if allegiance is given to two caliphs kill the latter of them (unresolved; called fabricated by the host)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ansar", "label": "Ansar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muhajirun", "label": "Muhajirun"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says every hadith about the khilafah is fabricated.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "every single hadith about the Shelia I'm telling you is fabricated the Prophet in the times of the Arabs they never even used to use this word", "start": 724}}, "url": "/r/4WUwTJQAmx0/s/3/"}, {"id": "4WUwTJQAmx0/s/4", "short_id": "2018-09-03-S04", "recording": "4WUwTJQAmx0", "n": 4, "start": 882, "end": 1111, "date": "20180903", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What al-Ghazali meant by a caliph: order as opposed to anarchy", "question_plain": "Did al-Ghazali say Muslims must establish a caliphate?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why caliphate activists cite Imam al-Ghazali when they follow him in nothing else, neither fiqh, usul nor tasawwuf. He says al-Ghazali wrote to the ruler of his time, as scholars commonly wrote to the kings of their day, while there were several caliphates. He says that when such scholars wrote of a caliph they meant kingship as opposed to anarchy and barbarism, not as opposed to democracy, which they had no concept of, and that al-Ghazali argued for a king because with a king there is law and rights can be restored. He adds that when the Crusaders took Jerusalem late in al-Ghazali's life, he neither fought nor called people to reconquer it, but returned to Baghdad to teach and write. He returns to mocking unlearned converts who want to teach Muslims.", "summary_short": "When al-Ghazali argued for a caliph he meant a king who keeps law and order, as opposed to anarchy, not a system to be set against democracy.", "answer_start": 882, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:crusader-conquest-of-jerusalem-1099", "label": "the Crusader capture of Jerusalem (1099)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khalifah (caliphate)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tasawwuf", "label": "tasawwuf"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-al-andalusi", "label": "Abdullah al-Andalusi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when al-Ghazali and scholars of his time wrote of the caliph they meant kingship as opposed to anarchy, not as opposed to democracy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "when those people in the past wrote about rule when what they meant was as opposed to what as opposed to anarchy Khilafah simply meant Kings", "start": 957}}, "url": "/r/4WUwTJQAmx0/s/4/"}, {"id": "4WUwTJQAmx0/s/5", "short_id": "2018-09-03-S05", "recording": "4WUwTJQAmx0", "n": 5, "start": 1111, "end": 1373, "date": "20180903", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Learn Islam before trying to save Muslims; Hamza Yusuf on the caliphate myth", "question_plain": "Who should I listen to about political ideas in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Abdullah al-Andalusi should at least become a scholar of Islam and learn the Book of God before trying to save the world's Muslims, and tells him to go and establish his caliphate, mocking him and saying his sympathisers include Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He says such people mislead vulnerable young Muslims and advises parents to steer youngsters away from groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir [?], which he calls a cancer. He recommends instead converts who are scholars, such as Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, whose lecture he says calls the caliphate these days a Muslim myth and a fantasy with no obligation. He closes by saying that anyone who speaks about ideas within Islam should at least be a scholar, who can still be wrong but whose views have some substance.", "summary_short": "Anyone speaking about ideas in Islam should at least be a scholar; he warns young people away from caliphate groups and points to Hamza Yusuf's lecture calling the caliphate a myth.", "answer_start": 1111, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-al-andalusi", "label": "Abdullah al-Andalusi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr-al-baghdadi", "label": "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:hizb-ut-tahrir", "label": "Hizb ut-Tahrir [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says anyone who wants to speak about ideas within Islam should at least be a scholar, though they can still be wrong.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "anybody at least if they want to speak about ideas within Islam then the least is let them be a scholar then they can be wrong still", "start": 1339}}, "url": "/r/4WUwTJQAmx0/s/5/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/1", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S01", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 273, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A visit to the Al-Mahdi Institute symposium on Fadak", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has been asked to revisit the issue of Fadak, has since studied the hadith and history in detail, and recently attended a symposium on it at the Al-Mahdi Institute, a Shia institute in Birmingham that looked at the case from Shia and Sunni perspectives. He says he was mesmerised by the modern building and organisation, describes its principal as a balanced Shia scholar who is controversial in Shia circles, and says he was moved by the hospitality of traditional Sunni scholars from Birmingham who also presented. He says Sunnis and Shia need to collaborate much more, and deals briefly with requests in the chat.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth describes attending a Sunni-Shia symposium on Fadak at the Al-Mahdi Institute in Birmingham and calls for more collaboration.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:al-mahdi-institute", "label": "Al-Mahdi Institute"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fadak", "label": "Fadak"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/1/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/2", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S02", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 2, "start": 273, "end": 615, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What Fadak was: fay' land and Surat al-Hashr 59:6-7", "question_plain": "What was Fadak and why did it matter?", "summary": "Showing a map, Mufti Abu Layth locates Fadak near Khaybar, north of Madinah, and explains that it came to the Prophet as fay', land obtained through a truce rather than war, as when people under siege offered land in exchange for peace. He reads Surat al-Hashr 59:6-7, which says that what God gave His Messenger without the Muslims spurring horses belongs to God, the Messenger, near kin, orphans, the needy and travellers. He says the land was very fertile and the Prophet used its produce for travellers, his household and reserves for crises and armies. He frames the dispute as whether it could be inherited by his offspring after his death.", "summary_short": "Fadak was fertile land near Khaybar that came to the Prophet as fay', without war, and he used its produce for travellers, his household and public needs.", "answer_start": 273, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fadak", "label": "Fadak"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fay", "label": "fay' (property gained without fighting)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:59:6-7", "label": "Quran 59:6-7 (what God gave His Messenger without war; the categories of fay')"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-khaybar", "label": "the campaign of Khaybar"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Fadak came to the Prophet as fay', land obtained through a truce rather than through war.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "it's that that land which the Prophet receives through without war fee so it's a kind of truce", "start": 344}}, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/2/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/3", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S03", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 3, "start": 615, "end": 999, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Fatima's claim, Abu Bakr's reply, and the Sunni and Shia sources", "question_plain": "Why did Abu Bakr refuse to give Fadak to Fatima?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is agreed that Fatima asked Abu Bakr for her inheritance, including the Prophet's lands in Madinah, Khaybar and Fadak, and that he refused, citing the hadith that prophets leave no inheritance and what they leave is charity, and saying he would manage it as the Prophet had. He relates that Umar later gave the management of some of it to Ali and al-Abbas and kept Fadak and Khaybar under the state, and that Uthman later gave it to Marwan. He says the crux is whether fay' is personal property or a public endowment managed by the ruler, on which scholars differ. Shia sources, he says, claim the Prophet gifted Fadak to Fatima in his lifetime so that some call Abu Bakr a usurper, while Sunni sources such as Abu Dawud relate that the Prophet declined to give it to her, and he cites the hadith in which the Prophet gave her a du'a instead of a servant.", "summary_short": "Abu Bakr cited the hadith that prophets leave no inheritance; Shia sources say Fadak had been gifted to Fatima, while Sunni sources say the Prophet did not give it to her.", "answer_start": 615, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fadak", "label": "Fadak"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fatima", "label": "Fatima"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8c289e7a", "label": "report: la nurathu ma taraknahu sadaqah (we prophets do not leave inheritance; what we leave is charity; Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abbas-ibn-abd-al-muttalib", "label": "al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:marwan-ibn-al-hakam", "label": "Marwan ibn al-Hakam"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d056a27c", "label": "report: fatima asked the prophet for a servant and he taught her a dhikr instead (unresolved; Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/3/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/4", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S04", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 4, "start": 999, "end": 1192, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Fatima right on inheritance, Abu Bakr right on fay'", "question_plain": "Who was right about Fadak, Fatima or Abu Bakr?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he now feels both were right in their own way. On inheritance he sides with Fatima, citing the Quran's statements that Sulayman inherited from Dawud, including a wealthy kingdom, and Zakariya's prayer for an heir, and calling it a weak argument that the inheritance verses addressed to the Prophet did not include him. But having looked into it in detail, he says the debate makes more sense as one about fay': such great wealth was needed by the state for travellers and crises and cannot become the ruler's personal property, so he sees Abu Bakr's angle as more correct, though the hadith frames it as inheritance.", "summary_short": "Both, in his view: Fatima was right that prophets can be inherited from, but Fadak was fay' belonging to the public, so Abu Bakr was right to keep it under the state.", "answer_start": 999, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "fiqh/inheritance", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fadak", "label": "Fadak"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fatima", "label": "Fatima"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fay", "label": "fay' (property gained without fighting)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mirath", "label": "mirath (inheritance)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:16", "label": "Quran 27:16 (Sulayman inherited from Dawud)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:19:5-6", "label": "Quran 19:5-6 (Zakariya: grant me an heir who will inherit from me)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:11", "label": "Quran 4:11 (God instructs you concerning your children)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawud", "label": "David (Dawud)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zakariya", "label": "Zakariya"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels Fatima was right from the perspective of inheritance, since the Quran suggests prophets do inherit.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I do think from an inheritance perspective for tomorrow deal on her was right I feel because looking at it and looking at these arguments from the Quran", "start": 999}}, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/4/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/5", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S05", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 5, "start": 1192, "end": 1505, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What became of Fadak, and why did Ali not take it back?", "question_plain": "Why didn't Ali take back Fadak when he became caliph?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth relates from Sahih al-Bukhari that Umar gave its guardianship to Ali and al-Abbas, who quarrelled over it, and that Umar told them it was theirs to manage, not to own; Ali then kept control. He says that Uthman gave it to Marwan, most likely to manage, that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz restored it to the Prophet's family, and that under the Abbasids it was taken and returned repeatedly, including by al-Ma'mun. He says he raised at the symposium that Ali never took Fadak back when he became caliph, though he had demanded it from Umar and needed resources for his wars. He found the answers he was given weak: that one does not demand what is not given, that Ali kept silent for unity though he fought other Companions, and that Fadak was a metaphor for the caliphate.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth finds it a huge open question that Ali never reclaimed Fadak as caliph, and says the Shia answers he heard did not make sense to him.", "answer_start": 1192, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fadak", "label": "Fadak"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abbas-ibn-abd-al-muttalib", "label": "al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:marwan-ibn-al-hakam", "label": "Marwan ibn al-Hakam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abd-al-malik-ibn-marwan", "label": "Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-abd-al-aziz", "label": "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "the Abbasids"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-mamun", "label": "al-Ma'mun"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is a huge question mark that Ali never took Fadak back during his caliphate.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel that this is a huge kind of it's a huge question mark that why did I leave this is such a big deal", "start": 1426}}, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/5/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/6", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S06", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 6, "start": 1505, "end": 1699, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Summing up Fadak, and a speculation on why Abu Bakr refused", "question_plain": "Why might Abu Bakr have refused Fatima's claim so quickly?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sums up that on the argument of inheritance he feels Fatima was right, while on the argument of fay' land gained without combat belongs to the public welfare, and he falls in line with that. He shares what he stresses is pure speculation: that because Fatima claimed so much, the sadaqat of Madinah, Khaybar and Fadak, at a time of distress when tribes were withholding zakah and Usama's army was being dispatched, the quantity may have led Abu Bakr to deny it instantly. He says this is said with love for all the Companions, whom he regards as human beings who disagreed and made mistakes, and that such issues cannot be resolved but can be clarified.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth speculates, stressing it is only speculation, that the size of the claim at a time of crisis may have led Abu Bakr to refuse it at once.", "answer_start": 1505, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fadak", "label": "Fadak"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fatima", "label": "Fatima"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:ridda-wars", "label": "the ridda wars (refusal of zakah after the Prophet)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:usama-ibn-zayd", "label": "Usama ibn Zayd"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth speculates, stressing it is pure speculation, that the sheer quantity of Fatima's claim may have led Abu Bakr to deny it instantly.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I did feel that maybe because for tomorrow deal on her in her claim asks for so much the quantity is so much maybe that was overwhelming which led to an instant denial", "start": 1543}}, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/6/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/7", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S07", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 7, "start": 1699, "end": 1852, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "So was Abu Bakr wrong? Both right from different angles", "question_plain": "Was Abu Bakr wrong to refuse Fatima Fadak?", "summary": "Following up, a questioner asks whether what Abu Bakr did was wrong. Mufti Abu Layth says he is in line with Abu Bakr on fay': most if not all of the land belonged to the state, not to a person, though the hadith speaks of inheritance, not fay', so the matter is muddled. He says Fatima was entitled to inheritance and both were right from different perspectives, and that his speculation was just his own thought. He stresses that it is not an insult to Abu Bakr, who he says was among the closest people to the Prophet, citing the hadith in which the Prophet told a woman who might not find him on her return to come to Abu Bakr.", "summary_short": "Not in his view: Abu Bakr was right that Fadak was public fay', while Fatima was right that prophets can be inherited from, so both were right from different angles.", "answer_start": 1699, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fatima", "label": "Fatima"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fadak", "label": "Fadak"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0adfcf34", "label": "report: if you do not find me come to abu bakr (the woman told to return; Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels Abu Bakr and Fatima were both right, from different perspectives.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "so I feel they're kind of both right but from different perspectives", "start": 1736}}, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/7/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/8", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S08", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 8, "start": 1852, "end": 1890, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Buying non-performing loans and foreclosing on borrowers", "question_plain": "Is it halal to buy bad loans and foreclose on people's homes?", "summary": "A question is read on whether it is permissible to purchase non-performing loans, turn them into performing ones, and foreclose on properties. Mufti Abu Layth says he holds that mortgages are not haram, referring to his detailed video, but says he is not sure he fully understands the question. If it means exploiting people who lack money and throwing them out of their homes, he is against that oppression; if it means buying property as a business, he feels it is permissible.", "summary_short": "Buying property as a business is permissible in his view, but exploiting people who cannot pay and evicting them is oppression he is against.", "answer_start": 1852, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is against exploiting people who lack money by throwing them out of their homes.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't think it's fair to just kind of exploit people because they don't have money and to kind of chuck them out of their homes", "start": 1852}}, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/8/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/9", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S09", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 9, "start": 1890, "end": 2007, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does he believe in reincarnation?", "question_plain": "Do Muslims believe in reincarnation?", "summary": "Asked about reincarnation, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe in it as generally understood, a soul coming back to this world as another. He says he feels that souls are connected, and ultimately connected to God, and that through this connection or a social consciousness people may feel they have lived before. He likens the religions' accounts to the blind men describing the elephant, each grasping a part, and says he believes our life in this world is limited to one, after which we move on to something more related to consciousness.", "summary_short": "No: he does not believe in past lives in this world, though he feels souls are connected to each other and to God, which may explain the feeling of having lived before.", "answer_start": 1890, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "belief/afterlife"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh", "label": "ruh (soul)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe in reincarnation as it is generally understood, the soul returning to this world as another.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't believe that they have had a past life in this dunya I believe that in this world our lives are just limited", "start": 1968}}, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/9/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/10", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S10", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 10, "start": 2007, "end": 2086, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Should elections be publicly funded to prevent bribery?", "question_plain": "Should election campaigns only be publicly funded?", "summary": "A questioner asks whether, as a principle, elections should only be publicly funded, given the bribery of politicians today. Mufti Abu Layth calls it an interesting and tough question: there should be some regulation, and people with more money do tip elections, but controlling it entirely restricts people's liberties. He agrees that multimillionaire and billionaire corporations fund those who support the elite, referring to a Netflix documentary he found scary.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth thinks there should be some regulation of election funding, though banning private funding outright would restrict liberties, so it is a tough question.", "answer_start": 2007, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "society/current-events"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there should be some regulation of election funding, while calling it a really tough question.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "the issue will be I think there should be some regulation I think it's fair to say that people can kind of invest", "start": 2007}}, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/10/"}, {"id": "51Qevhjqnt4/s/11", "short_id": "2020-02-28-S11", "recording": "51Qevhjqnt4", "n": 11, "start": 2086, "end": 2178, "date": "20200228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "His view of Mu'awiya: a great figure and an astute statesman", "question_plain": "What did Mufti Abu Layth think of Mu'awiya?", "summary": "Asked his thoughts on Mu'awiya, Mufti Abu Layth says he sees him as a great figure in Islam whom he highly respects, while acknowledging the Companions had disagreements. He says he likes Mu'awiya's statesmanship: he was cut out to rule and in forty years in al-Sham faced no uprising. He relates a story of a woman, once a partisan of Ali, who complained of her crops; Mu'awiya gave her provision from the state fund and said Ali would not have, to which she replied that this was because Ali was more just, and Mu'awiya laughed and told his man to give her the crops.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth highly respects Mu'awiya as a great figure and an astute statesman, while acknowledging the Companions' disagreements.", "answer_start": 2086, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["history/companions", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he highly respects Mu'awiya and likes his statesmanship, calling him cut out to rule.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "some people are cut out to rule and I would feel that Mario was one of those people that was cut out", "start": 2086}}, "url": "/r/51Qevhjqnt4/s/11/"}, {"id": "5is8qPu5lLU/s/1", "short_id": "2020-04-28-S01", "recording": "5is8qPu5lLU", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 157, "date": "20200428", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Concubines were female slaves; slavery is categorically haram and Maliki fatwas preceded the UN", "question_plain": "Is slavery haram in Islam, and did Muslim scholars ban it before the UN?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that what everyone calls concubines were female slaves, which modern media call sex slaves, and that the Quran refers to them as what the right hand possesses. He stresses that these things no longer exist, so the discussion is theoretical, and that slavery today would be categorically haram, as he has explained before. He notes that many Muslim scholars, among them many Malikis including a shaykh he has mentioned before [?] and others in Mali, issued fatwas forbidding slavery and the slave trade in Africa a century, a century and a half or even two or three centuries before the UN resolution banning it. He recalls his explanation of trajectory hermeneutics: because slavery was so embedded, Islam set its rulings on an arc so that when human ethics developed to that level the ruling would become active and slavery would be made haram. He then turns to the question of how female slaves differed from wives, saying they were not wives but slaves.", "summary_short": "Slavery is categorically haram today, and Maliki scholars issued fatwas forbidding it long before the UN; Mufti Abu Layth explains this through trajectory hermeneutics. Concubines were female slaves, not wives.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "society/islam-and-modernity", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ma-malakat-aymanukum", "label": "ma malakat aymanukum (what the right hand possesses)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:united-nations", "label": "United Nations"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that slavery is categorically haram today, that Maliki and other scholars forbade it by fatwa long before the UN resolution, and that the Quran's rulings on slavery set a trajectory towards its prohibition once human ethics developed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "obviously these things don't really exist today so it's this is just a theoretical kind of discussion on it these things would all slavery would be categorically Haram I have explained that", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/5is8qPu5lLU/s/1/"}, {"id": "5is8qPu5lLU/s/2", "short_id": "2020-04-28-S02", "recording": "5is8qPu5lLU", "n": 2, "start": 157, "end": 708, "date": "20200428", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How were men allowed to have sex with female slaves? Mindset, servitude and attitudes to sex", "question_plain": "How could men in early Islam have sex with their female slaves?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth poses the question that is asked in many places: how were men allowed to have sex with female slaves, pausing for jokes about men wishing the practice still existed. He calls it a very complicated question, hard to grasp from a twenty-first-century perspective after the world has been transformed. In his understanding slavery then was different: the picture that comes to mind is African transatlantic slavery, whereas slavery at the time resembled the servants of the East, with slaves put in charge of money, trade and travelling to buy stock, and hardly ever escaping, which shows a very different mindset. The second difference, he says, was the attitude to sex, which was not a taboo but so natural that it would make Muslims today uncomfortable and was far ahead of modern liberal standards, the only modern parallel he can find being the Viking lifestyle. He offers an analogy: a line manager asking an employee for coffee or a sandwich seems normal today, yet people fifty or five hundred years from now, with a different concept of free will and work ethic, might see it as forced labour against one's will. In the same way that culture drew no line between a slave's labour and sexual utility, and since whole mindsets could not be changed, this is one reason he thinks the practice was condoned.", "summary_short": "Sexual relations with female slaves were condoned because the society Islam was revealed in had a very different mindset: its slavery resembled servitude rather than transatlantic slavery, and it drew no line between a slave's labour and sexual utility, so the practice could not be changed at once.", "answer_start": 235, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/legal-theory", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ma-malakat-aymanukum", "label": "ma malakat aymanukum (what the right hand possesses)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in his understanding, one reason sexual relations with female slaves were condoned is that the society in which Islam was revealed had a very different mindset: its slavery resembled servitude rather than transatlantic slavery, and it drew no line between a slave's labour and sexual utility, a mindset that could not be changed at once.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "you couldn't change entire mindsets so this is one of the reasons I think that that that was condoned because they saw that they didn't have a delineating kind of factor to sex", "start": 678}}, "url": "/r/5is8qPu5lLU/s/2/"}, {"id": "5is8qPu5lLU/s/3", "short_id": "2020-04-28-S03", "recording": "5is8qPu5lLU", "n": 3, "start": 708, "end": 1271, "date": "20200428", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why Islam did not abolish slavery outright: collective consciousness and the ambiguous picture effect", "question_plain": "Why did Islam not abolish slavery outright?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth adds that pragmatism played a part, since most men left in control of several women would mix business with pleasure. Referring to his earlier video on slavery, he says Islam did not take slavery by the horns because doing so would have compromised its actual mission and could not have been achieved in that age, since the collective consciousness of people would not embrace it; he compares this to people in the future who abolish governments and look back on taxation as tyranny. He notes a claim that the Indus Valley civilisation had no slavery and commends it if true, but says all societies generally had slavery in their collective consciousness, and that, as Jonathan Brown highlighted, Islam unquestionably encouraged emancipation as a route until social perception changed. He introduces what he calls the ambiguous picture effect: in a reversible image such as the young woman and the old lady, or the World Cup trophy that also shows a facepalm, once one sees the second picture one cannot unsee it; collective consciousness, as Durkheim and others described, works the same way. Once a society sees a certain concept of freedom it cannot unsee it, but it cannot hold the whole of humanity to account for a perception it could not see. On this basis he says the three axioms on which Jonathan Brown built his talk were a false flag or a shallow analysis: slavery is always wrong, ownership is a social construct and owning a human being is a problem, yet people in the past did not see it as we do, which does not make them dumb, and it is not a claim to be morally superior to Aristotle.", "summary_short": "Islam did not abolish slavery outright because the collective consciousness of the age could not yet see it as wrong, but it encouraged emancipation as a route to that change. Slavery was always wrong, and Mufti Abu Layth says Jonathan Brown's three axioms rest on a shallow analysis.", "answer_start": 708, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "society/islam-and-modernity", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:emile-durkheim", "label": "Emile Durkheim"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aristotle", "label": "Aristotle"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:collective-consciousness", "label": "collective consciousness"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ambiguous-picture-effect", "label": "the ambiguous picture effect (the host's term)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Islam did not abolish slavery outright because the collective consciousness of the age could not yet perceive it as wrong, and that, now that it can be seen, owning another human being is a problem and slavery has always been wrong, though past societies cannot be held to account for a perception they lacked.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "now that we see it yes this is definitely wrong and it has been wrong but because Society and the collective consciousness wasn't perceiving it in that way we can't hold them to task", "start": 1098}}, "url": "/r/5is8qPu5lLU/s/3/"}, {"id": "5phyGJpJMMw/s/1", "short_id": "2019-05-24-S01", "recording": "5phyGJpJMMw", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 657, "date": "20190524", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is prayer or fasting rejected for forty days after drinking alcohol?", "question_plain": "If I drank alcohol, are my prayers and fasts rejected for 40 days?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up the hadith that whoever drinks alcohol has his salah unaccepted for forty days, which some extend to fasting and to drugs; he calls drug use a cancer in Muslim communities but says the person's fast is fine and they should fast. He recounts the report's content, including going to Hell if he dies and being given the drink of the people of Hell after a third relapse, calls it nonsense made up against the Prophet, and says beliefs cannot be based on isolated reports. He says all versions come through a single companion and mostly through one transmitter, whose name the captions give as al-Daylami [?] and whom he says a critic called unknown, and he criticises other narrators in the chains found in Ibn Majah, Ahmad, al-Nasa'i and al-Darimi. He concludes that the reports are isolated and clash with the Quran, with the Muslim belief that a drinker who dies is not destined for Hell, and with reason, so prayer and fasting remain valid, while alcohol is haram and drugs, a spectrum, remain bad.", "summary_short": "No: the fast and prayer are valid. He calls the forty-days hadith an isolated, weak report that clashes with the Quran and reason, though alcohol stays haram.", "answer_start": 38, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "fiqh/fasting"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:13ca57c0", "label": "report: man shariba al-khamr lam tuqbal lahu salat arbain sabahan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khamr", "label": "alcohol (khamr)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad (isolated reports)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-ibn-majah", "label": "Sunan Ibn Majah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-nasai", "label": "Sunan al-Nasa'i"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-darimi", "label": "Sunan al-Darimi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the salah and fast of someone who has drunk alcohol or taken drugs remain valid.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so the fasts the Salah is valid still and if once again things like alcohol and drugs are bad they are wrong", "start": 616}}, "url": "/r/5phyGJpJMMw/s/1/"}, {"id": "626JfCE_j_8/s/1", "short_id": "2021-11-29-S01", "recording": "626JfCE_j_8", "n": 1, "start": 14, "end": 331, "date": "20211129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Covid as Russian roulette: a neighbour's death and a plea not to mock the sick", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to joke about people who are seriously ill with covid?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth prays for the recovery of a shaykh who had been hospitalised, saying he had sent him a sincere message offering help although it went unanswered. He likens covid to Russian roulette: it may pass you by, feel like a cold or flu, bring pneumonia, or kill. He recounts the death of a father from his neighbourhood: after weeks on a ventilator the doctors woke him to say the machine would be switched off, he texted his young daughter a farewell asking her to look after her mother, and he died soon after. Mufti says the story shook him to his core, prays for the family and for everyone who is ill, advises people not to make fun of those who are hospitalised or ill, and closes on gratitude.", "summary_short": "Do not make fun of people who are ill with covid: it is a roll of the dice, as a neighbour's sudden death showed, and it should make us grateful.", "answer_start": 14, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/covid-19", "wellbeing/death-and-mortality", "wellbeing/gratitude-giving-and-contentment"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the coronavirus pandemic"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shifa", "label": "shifa (cure)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he advises people not to make fun of those who are hospitalised or ill with covid.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is why i i advise not to kind of make fun or this a lot of people who are hospitalized and or ill with this", "start": 281}}, "url": "/r/626JfCE_j_8/s/1/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/1", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S01", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 159, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Opening: the campaigns against Nouman Ali Khan and Mahira Khan", "question_plain": "What happened with Nouman Ali Khan and Mahira Khan online?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the first thing to discuss is the elephant in the room, an event that almost broke the internet, and that two incidents of a similar nature but worlds apart happened at the same time and both concern how Muslims respond. The main one involves Nouman Ali Khan, whom he describes as an inspirational figure and the leading authority on the Quran in the English-speaking world today, and the propaganda and attempts to take him down in the past few days. The parallel case he has been asked about is the Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, who faced a huge campaign after being seen smoking a cigarette with a Bollywood actor in a partially revealing dress. He says the reaction and attitude of Muslims in the two cases is very similar, which is why he wants to comment, and asks viewers to share the stream and post questions.", "summary_short": "Two online campaigns in the same week, against Nouman Ali Khan over allegations and against the actress Mahira Khan over a photograph, show the same Muslim attitude to responding, which Mufti Abu Layth sets out to examine.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mahira-khan", "label": "Mahira Khan"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:nouman-ali-khan-allegations-2017", "label": "the allegations against Nouman Ali Khan (2017)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/1/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/2", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S02", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 2, "start": 159, "end": 396, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's verdict: despicable handling, ambiguous allegations and clear-cut haram", "question_plain": "Was it wrong to publish the allegations against Nouman Ali Khan?", "summary": "After greeting the chat, Mufti Abu Layth says the way the incident regarding Nouman Ali Khan has been handled is utterly despicable and antithetical to the entire message of the Prophet, and that the disaster is built on three fallacies he will set out. As a backdrop he says very ambiguous allegations were released a few days earlier against a true scholar of the Quran, enough to destroy his personality, hard work and legacy: it was said only that he had been involved in abuse, and he refuses to believe the naivety of those responsible in claiming they did not know people would assume the worst. He says this was later followed by the claim that the actual incident was a flirtatious interaction with colleagues by text message, dressed in a dramatic veneer and unleashed on social media. He says he seldom uses the word haram unless a matter is categorical, and that what was done here is clear-cut haram and nothing but an attempt at character assassination under broad claims of protecting vulnerable people.", "summary_short": "Releasing ambiguous allegations of abuse against Nouman Ali Khan, later said to concern flirtatious messages, was clear-cut haram and character assassination in Mufti Abu Layth's view. He calls the handling despicable and contrary to the Prophet's message.", "answer_start": 159, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:nouman-ali-khan-allegations-2017", "label": "the allegations against Nouman Ali Khan (2017)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/2/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/3", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S03", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 3, "start": 396, "end": 630, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The three-part equation used to justify the campaign", "question_plain": "What arguments were used to justify exposing Nouman Ali Khan?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out the equation he says the campaigners, including some in leadership positions, used to justify themselves, noting that the same reasoning was applied to the actress. The first element is al-amr bil-ma'ruf wa al-nahy an al-munkar, a God-given duty to forbid haram wherever it is seen. The second is that people in leadership or responsible positions deserve greater scrutiny and accountability than ordinary people. The third is that any person of status who engages in a self-interested act with another person, even with that person's consent, must be deemed to have committed abuse because of the position of power, and abuse is obviously wrong. He restates the three and says he will take them in turn.", "summary_short": "The campaign rested on three claims: a duty to forbid evil, greater accountability for leaders, and the idea that any relationship involving a person of status is abuse. Mufti Abu Layth presents these as the views he is about to answer.", "answer_start": 396, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "society/technology-and-media/social-media", "fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:commanding-good-and-forbidding-evil", "label": "al-amr bil-ma'ruf wa al-nahy an al-munkar (commanding good and forbidding evil)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mahira-khan", "label": "Mahira Khan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/3/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/4", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S04", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 4, "start": 630, "end": 784, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Has a crime been committed? Report it; vigilante justice is haram", "question_plain": "If a religious figure does something wrong, should people expose him online?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the matter is very simple: since the word abuse names a criminal offence, one begins by asking whether a crime has been perpetrated. If it has, it must be reported to the authorities, which he calls mandatory, and he says vigilante justice is haram in Islam for a valid reason, so people may not get together to deliver it themselves. If no crime has been committed and the act is merely haram, then it is for Allah alone to judge. He then observes that the same preachers who normally condemn the self-appointed haram police, and in his view rightly, felt it acceptable to act the same way on this occasion, and begins his reply to the first element by saying that nobody has the right to command the good and forbid the evil in this manner and that anyone who says otherwise is misusing the shari'ah and the words of the Messenger of Allah.", "summary_short": "If a crime was committed it must be reported to the authorities, and vigilante justice is haram. If the act is only haram and not a crime, it is for Allah alone to judge, not for people online.", "answer_start": 630, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:commanding-good-and-forbidding-evil", "label": "al-amr bil-ma'ruf wa al-nahy an al-munkar (commanding good and forbidding evil)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that if a crime has been committed it must be reported to the authorities, that vigilante justice is haram, and that a haram act that is not a crime is for Allah alone to judge.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "vigilante justice is haram for a valid reason in Islam it is not okay for people to get together and say we will do vigilante justice", "start": 643}}, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/4/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/5", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S05", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 5, "start": 784, "end": 941, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Who may forbid evil: hisbah belongs to legitimate authority and qualified scholars", "question_plain": "Who has the right to tell other Muslims off for doing something haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that using the Prophet's words to justify the campaign is itself an abuse of religion, and that commanding good and forbidding evil falls under what the shari'ah calls the rulings of accountability, ahkam al-hisbah, which are for people in legitimate authority and not for anyone to take upon themselves. Secondly, he says scholars from the earliest generations held that hisbah may only be exercised by a scholar who knows what is haram and halal and the disagreements that go with it, since what one person condemns may be permitted according to many scholars, and only in matters that are clearly agreed upon, such as murder or the Rohingya genocide, not in disputed questions. He cites Imam Malik, who when asked whether one may tell someone off for something replied that one may advise him, that one may not argue to prove the point, and that one should state the ruling and move on without disputing. He concludes that most of those involved are not detailed scholars and are not versed in the disagreements or in usul.", "summary_short": "Hisbah, commanding good and forbidding evil, is for legitimate authority and for qualified scholars, and only in matters that are clearly agreed upon. Imam Malik said one may advise but not argue or dispute.", "answer_start": 784, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hisbah", "label": "hisbah (ahkam al-hisbah, the rulings of accountability)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:commanding-good-and-forbidding-evil", "label": "al-amr bil-ma'ruf wa al-nahy an al-munkar (commanding good and forbidding evil)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:rohingya-genocide-2017", "label": "the Rohingya genocide"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ikhtilaf", "label": "ikhtilaf (scholarly disagreement)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that commanding good and forbidding evil (hisbah) belongs to legitimate authority and to qualified scholars, only in matters that are clearly agreed upon, and not to individuals acting on their own.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "they are only four people in legit authority to take to task they are not for you and me to just go around and command the good and forbid the evil", "start": 798}}, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/5/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/6", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S06", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 6, "start": 941, "end": 1177, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The haram police: an online objection, the unqualified, and a Prophet who never named and shamed", "question_plain": "Is it Islamic to name and shame someone for a sin?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts a commenter who told him online that even without much learning she knew the act was haram and had the right to tell the man off. He replied that the very scholars such people rely on unanimously hold that a woman not covering her head is haram and that being on social media without hijab is haram by their standards, yet she has no problem with that, and that he himself thinks it is her business and nobody's place to tell her off, so she cannot claim the right to tell someone else off for a haram act. He says most of those involved have never read the whole Quran with understanding, have not memorised a juz, could not relate a single hadith with its chain and explain it, and know nothing of basic legal theory, the scholars' disagreements, the maqasid of the shari'ah, the message of the sirah or the legal maxims, and asks who authorised them to become the haram police and since when bullying became acceptable. He says that when the Prophet saw something haram he would go to the mosque and say what is it with people that they do such and such, never naming or shaming anyone, and calls naming and shaming a twenty-first-century Western tabloid culture with nothing to do with Islam. He closes the first element with the hadith that all the children of Adam sin, saying nobody is as pure as the driven snow.", "summary_short": "Naming and shaming a person for a sin is a modern tabloid practice with no basis in the Prophet's example, who addressed wrongdoing without naming anyone. Those acting as haram police are mostly unqualified, and Mufti Abu Layth notes they ignore rulings that apply to themselves.", "answer_start": 941, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct", "society/technology-and-media/social-media", "history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:24eaf1ba", "label": "report: ma bal aqwam what is the matter with people who do such and such"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7b9f7f05", "label": "report: all the children of adam are sinners"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid al-shari'ah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hisbah", "label": "hisbah (ahkam al-hisbah, the rulings of accountability)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that publicly naming and shaming a person for a sin is a modern tabloid practice with no basis in the Prophet's example, since the Prophet addressed wrongdoing without naming anyone.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is a 21st century Western tabloid tabloid ISM culture that you are exploiting that you are building your faith upon this is nothing nothing from the teachings of Islam", "start": 1101}}, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/6/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/7", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S07", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 7, "start": 1177, "end": 1413, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Should leaders face greater scrutiny? Selective modern ethics and the slips of people of standing", "question_plain": "Should religious leaders be held to a higher standard than everyone else?", "summary": "Turning to the second element, that people in leadership must be held to greater accountability, Mufti Abu Layth asks who says so and calls it a principle of modern twenty-first-century Western ethics. He says that although he himself speaks about trajectory hermeneutics and ethics changing with time, the same people reject modern ethics in most other matters: he has not seen them decry the ruling that blood money for a woman's accidental death is half a man's, which he has called wrong, nor defend the Prophet's honour against reports that he married a six- or seven-year-old, and they endorse stoning in some circumstances yet refuse to debate any of it. He says the rules against relationships with colleagues are corporate ethics built on capitalism and productivity, not religion. Against them he cites the hadith that the Prophet said to overlook the slips of people of standing, transmitted in collections whose names are unclear in the recording [?], and asks why only this one principle of modern ethics is adopted while the bigger issues go unaddressed. He then announces the third and most important element, that a relationship involving a person of status must be deemed abuse.", "summary_short": "The claim that leaders deserve greater scrutiny is a modern Western ethic that its proponents apply selectively, in Mufti Abu Layth's view, while a hadith tells Muslims to overlook the slips of people of standing. Workplace rules on relationships are corporate productivity ethics, not religion.", "answer_start": 1177, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "society/islam-and-modernity", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:bd89c283", "label": "report: aqilu dhawi al-hayat atharatihim forgive people of standing their slips"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:diya", "label": "diya (blood money)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the principle that leaders deserve greater scrutiny is a modern Western ethic applied selectively by those who reject modern ethics elsewhere, and that the Prophet instructed overlooking the slips of people of standing.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "people of leadership must be held to greater accountability says who says who where did you I know yes this is a principle of modern 21st century Western ethics", "start": 1177}}, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/7/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/8", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S08", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 8, "start": 1413, "end": 1570, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Status does not make a relationship abuse; what real abuse of power is", "question_plain": "Is a relationship between a leader and a follower automatically abuse?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says a relationship involving a person of status is not abuse, and that he finds it insulting to women to suggest they become mentally incapable around people of status, since people know very well what they are doing. He draws a clear distinction with abuse of power, which he says is unfortunately common in parts of the third world, giving the example of a boss who calls in a worker and makes her perform sexual acts to keep her job; that, he says, is abuse that must be condemned, and he prays for ease and justice for its victims. Working with someone and flirting or showing mutual interest is a different matter that varies between corporations and countries and is only corporate ethics. Returning to Islam, he begins with the example of Khadijah, for whom the Prophet worked and who proposed to him and married him, a blessed union with nothing wrong in it.", "summary_short": "A consensual relationship between adults is not abuse just because one has status, and Mufti Abu Layth calls the contrary claim insulting to women. Abuse of power is coercion, such as a boss demanding sexual acts to keep a job; Khadijah's marriage to the Prophet who worked for her is his first counter-example.", "answer_start": 1413, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/marriage", "society/women-and-gender", "fiqh/gender-interaction"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:khadijah", "label": "Khadijah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that a consensual relationship between adults is not abuse merely because one party has status, and that abuse of power means coercion such as a boss demanding sexual acts from a worker to keep her job.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this must be deemed abuse no it is not abuse it is not abuse women I'm sorry but I find it insulting", "start": 1413}}, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/8/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/9", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S09", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 9, "start": 1570, "end": 1807, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Attraction to status is natural: propinquity, Hasan ibn Ali, al-Mughira and Ibn Hazm", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to be attracted to someone because of their status or position?", "summary": "Continuing from the example of Khadijah, Mufti Abu Layth says that people who work closely together commonly end up in relationships, which psychology calls the propinquity effect, and that people are naturally drawn to power and status just as men are drawn to beauty, so this is not an abuse of power but the way nature works; a company may have rules about it for productivity. He cites Hasan ibn Ali, the Prophet's grandson, who he says married and divorced a very large number of women, with his father Ali warning people that he would keep divorcing, and says people were happy with it; he adds that in cultures such as Mauritania a woman who stays with one husband for years is viewed as odd. He says Islam leaves people to their own relationships and does not tell them how to conduct them, names al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba as a companion reported to have had between three hundred and a thousand wives, and asks who said one cannot take from such people when everything was with consent. He adds that Ibn Hazm, a great scholar of hadith and fiqh, wrote of his own sexual interest in women in Tawq al-Hamama, and asks whether people would stop taking from him.", "summary_short": "Attraction to status and relationships between people who work closely together are natural, not abuse, and Islam leaves consensual relationships to the people involved. Mufti Abu Layth cites Hasan ibn Ali, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba and Ibn Hazm as figures whose private lives did not disqualify them.", "answer_start": 1570, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/marriage", "history/companions", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:khadijah", "label": "Khadijah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hasan-ibn-ali", "label": "Hasan ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-mughira-ibn-shuba", "label": "al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tawq-al-hamama", "label": "Tawq al-Hamama (The Ring of the Dove)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:propinquity-effect", "label": "propinquity effect"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Islam leaves people to their own consensual relationships and does not judge them, and that attraction to status is natural and not in itself an abuse of power.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Islam just leaves people to their own relationships it doesn't judge me doesn't tell people how to have a relationship", "start": 1712}}, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/9/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/10", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S10", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 10, "start": 1807, "end": 1963, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The story of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and his second wife", "question_plain": "Did great scholars like Ibn Hajar have private lives that would be condemned today?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth tells a story about Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, whose commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, Fath al-Bari, he calls a debt owed by the whole ummah on which everyone after him depends. He says Ibn Hajar developed a strong attraction to a slave girl of his wife, had his wife sell her, then sent someone to acquire her, set her up in a house on the other side of town and married her as a second wife, and she bore him a son when his first marriage had produced only daughters. About a year later his first wife was congratulated in the marketplace on the birth of a son, learned of the other wife, and on arriving recognised the woman who had worked for her. Mufti asks whether Ibn Hajar was abusing power, whether people would stop taking from him or warn the ummah against him, and calls the attitude shocking, adding that there are countless such examples. He concludes that words like abuse are dangerous because they imply real abuse, not the breaking of some corporate rule.", "summary_short": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani married a woman who had been his wife's slave girl without anyone warning the ummah against him, Mufti Abu Layth says, so such private conduct cannot be called abuse. Words like abuse imply real abuse and are dangerous.", "answer_start": 1807, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "relationships/marriage", "fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:fath-al-bari", "label": "Fath al-Bari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that conduct such as Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's marriage to his wife's former slave girl was never treated as abuse of power or as grounds to warn the ummah against him, and that the word abuse should be kept for real abuse, not the breaking of corporate rules.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "when people use words like abuse they are dangerous words because they imply the real abuse not just oh you know you may have broken some rules of corporation", "start": 1942}}, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/10/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/11", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S11", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 11, "start": 1963, "end": 2197, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Abuse' implies rape; the campaign destroyed a man who made the Quran relevant", "question_plain": "Why does it matter that the word 'abuse' was used about Nouman Ali Khan?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth illustrates how words carry connotations: saying someone uses drugs and then explaining that he means taking too much paracetamol and ibuprofen is technically true but not what people understand. In the same way, he says, when people hear abuse they understand molestation and rape, and this word was thrown at someone who dedicated twenty years to producing an unparalleled explanation of the Quran in English and reignited love of the Quran in hundreds of thousands if not millions, making it relevant again in an English-speaking world whose scholars had reduced the Quran to background music and confirmation bias. He says he was taken down within seconds in a coordinated effort, and that although he can be detached from emotions he was hurt watching it. He says ulterior motives were at play, power, hate, envy and money, with certain people funded and pushed to come out, and calls it an act of Judas. He describes memes, swearing and the superimposing of the man's photograph on pornographic sites, and says those who began it are responsible even if they did not do these things themselves, just as Judas could say he never crucified Jesus.", "summary_short": "Calling flirtatious messages abuse misuses a word people understand to mean molestation or rape, in Mufti Abu Layth's view, and it was used to destroy a man who made the Quran relevant in English. He calls the campaign coordinated, driven by ulterior motives, and an act of Judas.", "answer_start": 1963, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:nouman-ali-khan-allegations-2017", "label": "the allegations against Nouman Ali Khan (2017)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/11/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/12", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S12", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 12, "start": 2197, "end": 2431, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Not a court: no jurisdiction, the right to a private life, and who will answer the next generation", "question_plain": "Do Muslims online have the right to demand evidence about a scholar's private life?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says those who did this justified it as social justice and protecting vulnerable women, and suggests some did so to gain favour. He says the episode shows the dangerous times of a modern tabloid culture of taking people down, and to those who say bring your evidence he replies that there is no evidence to bring because the public is not a court and none of them have jurisdiction, while allowing that one party to a failed relationship is often upset. He says that under the banner of doing God's work people have lashed out, maligned, sworn at and tried to destroy the legacy of a man who gave the Quran meaning in English, and that he, like everyone, has a right to a personal life; Mufti says his own sense of humour alone would destroy him if his life were examined, and that he has been a victim of such attacks several times. He says future generations will seek answers about the Quran from people like him and not from those taking him down, who cannot fill his shoes, and recalls from his own experience that people who had maligned him later came back to him for answers when their faith clashed with reason, because the hardline people they had supported had no answers.", "summary_short": "The public is not a court and has no jurisdiction to demand or weigh evidence about someone's private life, which everyone has a right to. Mufti Abu Layth says those attacking Nouman Ali Khan cannot fill his place when the next generation needs answers about the Quran.", "answer_start": 2197, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media/social-media", "fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the public is not a court and has no jurisdiction to demand or weigh evidence about a person's private life, and that everyone has a right to a personal life.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there's no evidence to bring we are not a court this is not court right none of you are have jurisdiction there is no evidence to bring", "start": 2247}}, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/12/"}, {"id": "6_dmOJl-_bI/s/13", "short_id": "2017-09-29-S13", "recording": "6_dmOJl-_bI", "n": 13, "start": 2431, "end": 2807, "date": "20170929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Conclusion: a Muslim's honour outweighs the Kaaba, and bullying is haram", "question_plain": "Is cyberbullying and attacking someone's honour haram in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he wants to conclude with one hadith, adding that he knows Nouman Ali Khan in some personal capacity and considers him genuinely one of the good guys, and that the matter raised is not blameworthy, is certainly not abuse, cannot be verified by people who have no authority to verify it, and is none of their business. Against those who point to flirting, he relates the report in Sahih Muslim in which al-Fadl ibn Abbas, riding with the Prophet, kept staring at a woman who came to the Prophet, who simply turned his face away and, when asked, said he did it out of care for him; this, he says, is the Prophet's etiquette, whereas these people take people's honour lightly. He asks how listeners would feel if the Kaaba were blown to smithereens with nobody hurt, says their blood would boil because the Quran counts glorifying Allah's symbols as taqwa of the heart, citing a verse he identifies as being about honouring the symbols of Allah [?], and relates the Prophet's saying that destroying and rebuilding the Kaaba repeatedly is not as grave as harming the honour of a Muslim. Quoting an Urdu couplet, he says what hurts is the impunity with which this is done in God's name, which makes people hate religion, as the Prophet warned. He closes by saying that bullying, cyberbullying, maligning character and destroying the honour of Muslims are haram, that people will regret taking part in this life or the next, that the same applies to the actress, and that the rule is simple: a crime goes to the authorities and a haram act is for God alone to judge.", "summary_short": "Harming the honour of a Muslim is graver than destroying the Kaaba, Mufti Abu Layth says citing a hadith, and bullying, cyberbullying and maligning people are haram. A crime goes to the authorities; a haram act is for God alone to judge.", "answer_start": 2431, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-fadl-ibn-abbas", "label": "al-Fadl ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9c7f9d0b", "label": "report: al-fadl ibn abbas kept looking at a woman and the prophet turned his face away"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:aabca51a", "label": "report: if you destroyed the kaaba and rebuilt it and destroyed it that is not as great as harming the honour of a muslim"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:32", "label": "Quran 22:32 [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqwa", "label": "taqwa"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mahira-khan", "label": "Mahira Khan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that harming the honour of a Muslim is graver than destroying the Kaaba, as the hadith he cites says, and that bullying, cyberbullying and maligning people's character are haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "recognize that bullying is haram cyberbullying is haram maligning people's character is haram destroying the honor of other muslims is haram stay away from all of this", "start": 2743}}, "url": "/r/6_dmOJl-_bI/s/13/"}, {"id": "6aPj1fuMN24/s/1", "short_id": "2020-11-21-S01", "recording": "6aPj1fuMN24", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 161, "date": "20201121", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why reply to Omar Suleiman's clip on jinn possession: preachers and the market they serve", "question_plain": "Why do popular preachers promote belief in jinn possession?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he was sent a clip of Omar Suleiman speaking about jinn possession and will use it as the archetypal example, since many others say the same but Suleiman has significant reach, to show that even someone level-headed on many things will push and promote superstitions as part of the faith. He asks why they do this and answers that such people sell a commodity to a market that buys it, so they must to some extent appease that market; he does not know whether Suleiman himself believes it, but says he will appease the market where his material floats and sells. He announces that he will play the clip, a couple of minutes long with explanations and one or two anecdotes, and then respond.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth will answer Omar Suleiman's clip as a prime example of preachers promoting superstition; he says they appease the market that buys their commodity.", "answer_start": 2, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/6aPj1fuMN24/s/1/"}, {"id": "6aPj1fuMN24/s/2", "short_id": "2020-11-21-S02", "recording": "6aPj1fuMN24", "n": 2, "start": 161, "end": 394, "date": "20201121", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "The clip: Omar Suleiman on jinn possession, the riba verse and disobedience", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays the clip. In it Omar Suleiman says that when things go wrong people blame something external, but that possession by a jinn does exist and Allah affirms it in the Quran, describing those who consume riba as standing on the Day of Judgement as one beaten by the shayatin; he adds that everyone deals with the qarin that whispers constantly and is in a way possessed to an extent, citing the hadith that Satan flows through the son of Adam like blood, which one keeps under control by trusting Allah. He calls for a middle ground between denying everything one has not seen and exaggerating: any imam of a masjid has seen things from people that are definitely supernatural, there is also a lot of shady business, and someone who felt sleepy reading the Quran was not possessed since a truly possessed person feels pain when the Quran is read; he says jinn can sometimes speak through people. The easiest way to become possessed, he says, is to disobey Allah, especially by leaving the prayer or by major sins such as riba, which removes Allah's protection, offends the angels so that they leave, and brings the shayatin around. Mufti closes the clip saying this was Suleiman's explanation.", "summary_short": "In the clip Omar Suleiman says jinn possession is real and affirmed by the riba verse, that most imams have seen supernatural cases, and that disobedience, especially leaving prayer and riba, removes Allah's protection and invites possession.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:275", "label": "Quran 2:275 (those who consume riba stand as one struck by Satan)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:94283449", "label": "report: satan flows through the son of adam like blood"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qarin", "label": "qarin"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "shaytan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/6aPj1fuMN24/s/2/"}, {"id": "6aPj1fuMN24/s/3", "short_id": "2020-11-21-S03", "recording": "6aPj1fuMN24", "n": 3, "start": 394, "end": 709, "date": "20201121", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "There is no balanced version of the supernatural; possession by disobedience would cover the globe", "question_plain": "Can there be a balanced view on whether jinn possess people?", "summary": "Before the actual response, Mufti Abu Layth examines Suleiman's framing. He says Suleiman based his case on being balanced, but that possession is either on or off: the whole point of a supernatural claim is that it does not make sense, so asking for a balanced version of the nonsensical is like asking for balanced irrationality. On the claim that most imams have experienced supernatural phenomena, he says he does not know what they have experienced but suspects it was something naughty rather than supernatural. He notes that Suleiman holds possession proven from the Quran, which he will come to, and that he explains possession by disobedience, above all not praying, which would cover ninety-five percent of the globe, and by riba, on which the whole global economy is based; Mufti adds in passing that he himself does not consider it haram and has a detailed video on that, so on Suleiman's account the entire globe is susceptible. As a tangent he remarks that imams who act too pious, forbidding any reply to a girl's message or calling riba the most disgusting sin, tend to be caught out later in the very thing they overdid.", "summary_short": "A supernatural claim cannot be balanced; possession is either real or not. If disobedience, missing prayer and riba invited possession, most of the globe would be possessed.", "answer_start": 394, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there can be no balanced version of a supernatural claim, since jinn possession is either real or not, and that if disobedience, missing prayer or riba invited possession then most of the globe would be possessed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "because there is no balance to nonsensical it's either sensical or it's nonsensical", "start": 466}}, "url": "/r/6aPj1fuMN24/s/3/"}, {"id": "6aPj1fuMN24/s/4", "short_id": "2020-11-21-S04", "recording": "6aPj1fuMN24", "n": 4, "start": 709, "end": 1025, "date": "20201121", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What would be the objective of possession? Ibn Taymiyya, jinn in any form, and a redundant religion", "question_plain": "What would jinn gain by possessing people, and what follows if they could?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that before dealing with any issue one must ask for evidence from the Quran and Sunnah and ask what the objective would be. If jinn can possess people, he asks, for what purpose; people answer to cause mischief and harm. He notes that Suleiman comes from a Salafi background heavily influenced by Ibn Taymiyya, whom he calls a super-spreader of this idea: Ibn Taymiyya, he says, claimed to be a specialist in identifying letters written by jinn, which Salafis have published and boast about, and he and others held that jinn can take the form of anything, a microphone, a dog, a snake, a person, a screen or a book; Mufti adds that he likes some things of Ibn Taymiyya and his student [?] but suspects Ibn Taymiyya had mental health issues. He then argues that if the objective were mischief, billions of jinn could simply become false pages in the Quran; that terrorists such as ISIS could be excused as possessed; and that if possession is accepted everything in Islam becomes redundant, since one's shaykh, one's Quran teacher or the verses themselves could be demons in camouflage. He adds that if not praying invited possession the whole non-Muslim world would be attacked, yet jinn seem to attack only Muslims who believe in possession, never those who do not.", "summary_short": "If jinn could possess people or take any form, nothing in Islam could be trusted and no one would be responsible for their crimes; Mufti Abu Layth notes that only Muslims who believe in possession seem to be afflicted.", "answer_start": 709, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if jinn could possess people or take any form, as Ibn Taymiyya held, nothing in Islam could be trusted and no one would be responsible for their crimes, and he notes that only Muslims who believe in possession seem to be afflicted by it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if you accept jin possession everything in islam becomes redundant this screen that you're watching now", "start": 928}}, "url": "/r/6aPj1fuMN24/s/4/"}, {"id": "6aPj1fuMN24/s/5", "short_id": "2020-11-21-S05", "recording": "6aPj1fuMN24", "n": 5, "start": 1025, "end": 1258, "date": "20201121", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The riba verse and the heads of devils: Quranic imagery, not proof of possession", "question_plain": "Does the riba verse prove that jinn can possess people?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the verses Suleiman cited. He shows the verse in Surat al-Baqarah on riba and says everyone agrees it has nothing to do with possession: it says that those who consume riba will, in the afterlife, be as though touched by the devil, using a word that means to be thrown about or to keep falling chaotically. To the objection that Allah would not use the image unless it were meaningful, he answers that Allah uses imagery for which the Arabs had an imaginative frame of reference, and gives a parallel in Surat al-Saffat, verse 65, where the tree in the pit of hell emerges as though it were the heads of devils, though no human has ever seen the heads of devils; the frame of reference is there for the imagination, not because anyone has seen them. He then begins the positive case from the Quran, turning to the verse in Surat Ibrahim in which Satan speaks when the affair is settled.", "summary_short": "The riba verse 2:275 uses the image of being struck by the devil as a frame of reference the Arabs knew, like the heads of devils in 37:65; it does not establish possession.", "answer_start": 1025, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "quran/tafsir", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:275", "label": "Quran 2:275 (those who consume riba stand as one struck by Satan)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:37:65", "label": "Quran 37:65 (its shoots are like the heads of devils)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:14:22", "label": "Quran 14:22 (Satan: I had no power over you)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "shaytan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the riba verse 2:275 uses the image of being struck by the devil as a frame of reference the Arabs knew, just as 37:65 likens the tree of hell to the heads of devils, and that it does not establish jinn possession.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the actual verse has nothing to do with jin possession everybody is in agreement the actual verse is speaking about people who consume riba on the day of judgment", "start": 1042}}, "url": "/r/6aPj1fuMN24/s/5/"}, {"id": "6aPj1fuMN24/s/6", "short_id": "2020-11-21-S06", "recording": "6aPj1fuMN24", "n": 6, "start": 1258, "end": 1574, "date": "20201121", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Satan had no power over you: free will, blame and the excuse of physical harm", "question_plain": "If a jinn could possess me, how could I be blamed for anything?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads Satan's words in 14:22, that he had no power over people and only invited them, so they should blame themselves and not him. He says this matters because those who believe in possession hold that the devil can make a person sick, cause death, cancer, schizophrenia or, as Suleiman said, physical pain when the Quran is read; if the devil could physically stop righteous actions, the Quran's address to people as beings with willpower would be unfair, like inviting someone to eat while setting a trap on the way. He explains that in Islam a person threatened with a beating for praying has a valid dispensation not to pray at that moment and may make it up later, since one need not take physical abuse to pray; so if a jinn beat a person for praying, the person could not be blamed for not praying, and if a jinn impaired reason or made someone kill, the laws could not apply. He then addresses the verse in Surat Sad about Ayyub, saying that several commentators note that his illness had natural causes and that what Satan did was waswasa, whispering doubts that God had forsaken him, which naturally caused suffering.", "summary_short": "Satan's own words in 14:22, that he had no power over people and only invited them, rule out possession: if the devil could physically prevent prayer or cause harm, people could not be blamed and responsibility would collapse.", "answer_start": 1258, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/free-will-and-destiny", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:14:22", "label": "Quran 14:22 (Satan: I had no power over you, I only invited you)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:38:41", "label": "Quran 38:41 (Ayyub: Satan has touched me with hardship)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ayyub", "label": "Ayyub (Job)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:waswasa", "label": "waswasa (whispering)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rukhsah", "label": "rukhsah (dispensation)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "shaytan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that 14:22, in which Satan says he had no power over people and only invited them, rules out jinn possession, because if the devil could physically prevent prayer or cause illness people could not be blamed and moral responsibility would be meaningless.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if a jinn is beating me up when i'm praying why do i have to pray that's stupid and why is it my fault for not praying then", "start": 1455}}, "url": "/r/6aPj1fuMN24/s/6/"}, {"id": "6aPj1fuMN24/s/7", "short_id": "2020-11-21-S07", "recording": "6aPj1fuMN24", "n": 7, "start": 1574, "end": 2040, "date": "20201121", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Al-Shafi'i, Ibn Hazm and al-Tahawi on the devil's limits; possession would void taklif", "question_plain": "What did classical scholars say about whether jinn can harm or possess people?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran states that Satan has no power to make people ill, cause death or affect life or health, otherwise he would simply have killed the prophets; people give him far more than he has. Against the claim that imams have witnessed jinn, he cites al-Bayhaqi's report with a clear chain that Imam al-Shafi'i said the testimony of anyone who claims to have seen the jinn would be refused. He cites Ibn Hazm in al-Fisal: Allah mentioned certain things about the jinn, whoever adds to them follows what he has no knowledge of and that is haram for him, and only sound narration counts; he notes that some scholars thought epilepsy involved the devil because, on the science of the day, the four humours reaching the brain were thought to trigger it, whereas today neural activity can be seen and measured. He adds Fakhr al-Din al-Razi to the list and cites Imam al-Tahawi that people seek refuge from Satan in what he has capacity for, namely insinuations and making things appealing, and that causing actual harm or ruining property or animals is out of the question. He argues that accepting possession would empty every crime of value, that Tourette's or catatonic schizophrenia would be called a jinn when ruining one person does nothing to harm mankind or Islam, and that these are mental health issues. Since Satan says blame yourselves, there would otherwise be no will and no taklif; the Prophet's seeking refuge concerned whispers, which are invitations one is free to accept or refuse, so pushing this, he says, is irresponsible and reflects a poor understanding of Islam.", "summary_short": "Imam al-Shafi'i rejected the testimony of anyone claiming to see jinn, Ibn Hazm forbade adding to what Allah said about them, and al-Tahawi held that Satan can only insinuate, not harm; what is called possession is mental illness, and accepting it would void responsibility.", "answer_start": 1574, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings", "wellbeing/depression-and-anxiety"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "Imam al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bayhaqi", "label": "al-Bayhaqi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-fisal-fi-al-milal", "label": "al-Fisal fi al-Milal (Ibn Hazm)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tahawi", "label": "Imam al-Tahawi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taklif", "label": "taklif"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iradah", "label": "iradah (will)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:waswasa", "label": "waswasa (whispering)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "shaytan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth cites al-Shafi'i's refusal of the testimony of anyone who claims to have seen the jinn, Ibn Hazm's ban on adding to what is soundly narrated about them and al-Tahawi's denial that Satan can cause actual harm, and says that what is called possession is mental illness and that accepting possession would leave no will and no taklif.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this completely ruins the message of islam there is zero will irrada there is zero taklif because you don't know who's possessed who isn't", "start": 1970}}, "url": "/r/6aPj1fuMN24/s/7/"}, {"id": "6aPj1fuMN24/s/8", "short_id": "2020-11-21-S08", "recording": "6aPj1fuMN24", "n": 8, "start": 2040, "end": 2592, "date": "20201121", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The hadith cited for possession: Satan in the veins, the epileptic woman, and the weak reports", "question_plain": "Do any authentic hadith prove jinn possession?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the hadith the proponents cite. The Bukhari report that Satan runs in the veins of the son of Adam, he says, must be read in full: the Prophet, walking with his wife Safiyya, passed companions and came back to explain who she was, and when they protested that they would never doubt him he said that Satan runs in the veins of the son of Adam; the hadith means that negative, suspicious thoughts are human and should not be acted on, not that people are possessed. He then cites a Bukhari report they ignore: Ibn Abbas pointed out a woman of Paradise who had come to the Prophet saying she suffered epileptic fits in which she became uncovered, and the Prophet told her she could be patient and receive an immense reward or he could pray for her; she chose patience and asked only that she not be uncovered, which shows the Prophet treating epilepsy as an illness, since he would not tell her to be patient with a devil. He says the remaining reports are weak: a report in Ibn Majah and elsewhere in which the Prophet strikes a man's chest and blows on him has Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Ansari [?] in its chain, whose memory a critic said failed badly and who appears in Ibn Adi's al-Kamil, and al-Nawawi noted that the authentic version in Sahih Muslim has the man complaining of difficulty remembering in prayer, being taught a supplication and patted on the back, with no demons; and a report by Ya'la [?] of a child cured of a demon on a journey, which its narrator says no one else witnessed, has problematic narrators including Abd al-Rahman ibn Abdullah [?], and Ibn Hazm judged all of these weak. He concludes that nothing authentic supports this and that the Quran and Sunnah teach willpower, before describing the exorcism business as a billion-dollar industry drenched in physical and sexual abuse.", "summary_short": "The hadith cited for possession prove nothing: the Bukhari report that Satan runs in the veins concerns suspicion, the Bukhari report of the epileptic woman treats epilepsy as an illness to be borne patiently, and the remaining reports are weak.", "answer_start": 2040, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "hadith/authentication", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:94283449", "label": "report: satan flows through the son of adam like blood"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:64f7a13d", "label": "report: the woman with epilepsy who asked the prophet to pray for her and chose patience so long as she would not be uncovered"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:be4605d1", "label": "report: the prophet struck the chest of a man and blew on him to drive out the devil"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1153b02b", "label": "report: yala ibn murra and the child from whom the prophet drove out a demon on a journey"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-ibn-majah", "label": "Sunan Ibn Majah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-kamil-fi-duafa-al-rijal", "label": "al-Kamil fi Du'afa al-Rijal (Ibn Adi)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-adi", "label": "Ibn Adi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya bint Huyayy"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yala-ibn-murra", "label": "Ya'la ibn Murra [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-abdullah-al-ansari", "label": "Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Ansari [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "shaytan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:daif", "label": "da'if (weak)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith cited for possession prove nothing: the Bukhari report that Satan runs in the veins concerns suspicion, the Bukhari report of the epileptic woman treats epilepsy as an illness to be borne patiently, and the remaining reports in Ibn Majah and elsewhere are weak.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "my point of saying these people is that there is nothing authentic to prove this hocus pocus", "start": 2542}}, "url": "/r/6aPj1fuMN24/s/8/"}, {"id": "6aPj1fuMN24/s/9", "short_id": "2020-11-21-S09", "recording": "6aPj1fuMN24", "n": 9, "start": 2592, "end": 2989, "date": "20201121", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A fraudulent industry, the Mu'tazila who were never possessed, and al-Jahiz's story", "question_plain": "Is the jinn exorcism and ruqya industry a fraud?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the exorcism industry is probably worth a billion dollars and is submerged in physical and sexual abuse, supported by imams irresponsible enough to certify that demons possess people; he asks why jinn never possess non-Muslims and why the first world is as it is if Muslims alone can unlock the jinn world, and calls the whole thing a fraud to beware of. He says the Sunni scholars he has quoted, al-Shafi'i, al-Tahawi and Ibn Hazm, did not accept it, and that the Mu'tazila never accepted it either; al-Jahiz and others observed that no Mu'tazili was ever afflicted by a jinn because they did not believe in it. He says most practitioners of ruqya are fraudulent and the rest sincere but deluded, and that people who believe demons spend years making someone catatonic can only blame their own credulity. He recounts al-Jahiz's story of an unmarried woman who was no longer a virgin and received a proposal in an age that demanded virginity: a jinn-practitioner took her money, told her family she was possessed, and said the jinn would damage whichever opening it left by, the teeth, the eye or the hymen, so the family chose the last, the practitioner performed his ritual, and the lost virginity was explained. He says he was disappointed to see Omar Suleiman promote this kind of nonsense, but that it is what the market supports.", "summary_short": "The ruqya industry is largely a fraud drenched in abuse; the Mu'tazila, who rejected possession, were never afflicted, and al-Jahiz already recorded a practitioner using a possession claim to explain away a lost virginity.", "answer_start": 2592, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-jahiz", "label": "al-Jahiz"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "Imam al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tahawi", "label": "Imam al-Tahawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the exorcism and ruqya industry is largely fraudulent and drenched in abuse, and he cites al-Jahiz's observation that no Mu'tazili, who rejected possession, was ever afflicted by a jinn.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the bulk of them are utterly fraudulent right maybe some of them are sincere and just delusional", "start": 2732}}, "url": "/r/6aPj1fuMN24/s/9/"}, {"id": "6aPj1fuMN24/s/10", "short_id": "2020-11-21-S10", "recording": "6aPj1fuMN24", "n": 10, "start": 2989, "end": 3256, "date": "20201121", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A challenge to debate, and whether Omar Suleiman is trained as a scholar", "question_plain": "Is Omar Suleiman trained as a scholar, and will anyone debate Mufti Abu Layth on jinn possession?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will accept a dialogue or debate on jinn possession from any shaykh on his MindTrap show, as a standing challenge, since the belief cannot be proven and is against the Quran and the Sunnah, and recalls debating people on it years ago. He says he likes Omar Suleiman and is not being a hater but honest: people like him are not trained as scholars in Islam but hold something like a khatib or preacher status after a couple of years of study; he commends Suleiman's work on human rights, civil rights and social justice in America as amazing, but says that in Islam he is significantly under-trained, not trained to give fatwas and probably unfamiliar even with the names of the books of fatawa, as is the case with many imams who hold a status without training. He adds that people who judge him by his dress, necklace and earring should know that when he pulls rank he is among those actually trained, and a mufti. He sums up Suleiman's arguments with a dismissive gesture, says he wanted to put this out there, and turns to the questions, remarking that he does not understand one about the CIA.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth challenges any shaykh to debate jinn possession on his show and says Omar Suleiman, though commendable for his civil rights work, is not trained as a scholar or qualified to give rulings.", "answer_start": 2989, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khutbah", "label": "khutbah (khatib)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mufti", "label": "mufti"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/6aPj1fuMN24/s/10/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/1", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S01", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 233, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Introduction: Yasir Qadhi's khutbah on orthodoxy and why he is replying", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth moves on to Yasir Qadhi, who gave a half-hour khutbah two or three weeks earlier titled 'The Importance of Orthodoxy in Islam', which Mufti shared on his page and which several people sent him because much of it seemed aimed at him and people like him. He says he will go through its three key points and some details. Someone had messaged him about possible repercussions; he answers with a couplet by the Urdu poet Abdul Hameed Adam that one who has tolerated life itself is not worried about punishments. He accepts that his reply may upset people, says such is life, and states repeatedly that he respects Yasir Qadhi, addressing him directly in case he is listening. He closes the introduction with a couplet from Jaun Elia about having learnt one skill, to leave heartbroken whomever one meets.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces Yasir Qadhi's khutbah 'The Importance of Orthodoxy in Islam', which he believes was aimed at him, and says he will reply to its three points despite warnings of repercussions, while affirming his respect for Qadhi.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdul-hameed-adam", "label": "Abdul Hameed Adam"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jaun-elia", "label": "Jaun Elia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khutbah", "label": "khutbah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/1/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/2", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S02", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 2, "start": 233, "end": 626, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's three points summarised: reason and science, hadith rejection, radical reinterpretation", "question_plain": "What are the three points of Yasir Qadhi's khutbah on orthodoxy, and is hadith certain knowledge?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out the three points of the khutbah, saying he will steel-man them before dismantling them. The first, as he reports it, is that it is unacceptable to reconcile the modern world with the Quran by reinterpreting verses through reason or science, which Qadhi calls scientism and labels unorthodox, heretical and misguidance, with examples Mufti believes allude to his own discussions: the birds of Ibrahim, Ibrahim and the fire, the birth of Jesus and evolution. The second is that those who reject hadith altogether are misguided, for which Qadhi quoted the hadith of al-Irbad ibn Sariya from Abu Dawud; Mufti says he agrees that rejecting hadith wholesale is wrong, but was surprised that the hadith quoted to prove it is a known weak report. Qadhi's stronger charge, that creating doubt in the sources such as Bukhari is heresy, Mufti takes as a reference to his BukhariGate series; to Qadhi's claim that as an expert anyone who studies hadith knows there can be no doubt in it, Mufti replies that the first thing hadith students learn is that hadith is khabar ahad, not certain knowledge but good enough, and notes that Qadhi has not accepted his invitation to a dialogue on BukhariGate. The third point is that any new radical interpretation is heresy and that its author is in essence, even if not verbally, claiming to be a new prophet, which Mufti calls quite a leap.", "summary_short": "The khutbah's three points are that reinterpreting the Quran through reason or science is heresy, that doubting the hadith sources is heresy, and that a radical new interpretation amounts to claiming prophethood. Mufti Abu Layth agrees that rejecting hadith wholesale is wrong but says the hadith quoted for it is weak and that hadith is khabar ahad, not certain knowledge.", "answer_start": 233, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "quran/hermeneutics", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:72540d63", "label": "report: the hadith of al-irbad ibn sariya in abu dawud (unresolved; content not stated, called weak)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:islamic-university-of-madinah", "label": "Islamic University of Madinah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees that rejecting hadith altogether is misguided, but that the hadith quoted to prove it is weak and that hadith are khabar ahad, which is not certain knowledge but good enough to act on.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "he quotes a hadith which are surprised actually because the hadith he quoted was weak it's in Abu Dawood", "start": 376}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/2/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/3", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S03", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 3, "start": 626, "end": 862, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Contradictions in the khutbah: new meanings, literal reading and the hand of God", "question_plain": "Is Yasir Qadhi's case for reading the Quran literally consistent?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth points to what he sees as contradictions in the same talk. Qadhi accepts that the Quran will continue to unlock new meanings for people throughout time; Mufti says a new meaning can only be a new interpretation, so by Qadhi's own third point anyone who finds one would be a new prophet, and he does not know how the two are reconciled. He sums up the whole khutbah as a sustained argument for a literal reading of the Quran and a condemnation of any non-literal reading: anyone who says the stories of the Quran can be metaphors or symbols is called a deviant, and Qadhi repeats that if Allah wanted to tell a story he would tell a story and that Islam is not about stories. Mufti notes the irony that when Qadhi argues for orthodoxy with the words 'the hand of Allah is with the congregation' he translates the hand of God as the mercy of God, itself a non-literal reading, and that Qadhi stresses that in beliefs especially one must be literal and keep to the interpretations of earlier people. He says this is what he wants to examine, and that first he will say a few words about Yasir Qadhi himself.", "summary_short": "The khutbah is internally inconsistent: it allows the Quran to unlock new meanings while condemning new interpretations, and it demands literal reading while itself reading 'the hand of God' non-literally as God's mercy.", "answer_start": 626, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2f256513", "label": "report: yad allah maa al-jamaah the hand of god is with the congregation (unresolved)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/3/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/4", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S04", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 4, "start": 862, "end": 1491, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Backdrop: Qadhi's Salafi formation, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and the roots of the Salafi movement", "question_plain": "What is Yasir Qadhi's background, and where does the Salafi movement come from?", "summary": "To understand the arguments, Mufti Abu Layth says, one must understand the person making them. He says his respect for Yasir Qadhi was rising a few years ago as Qadhi became critical and enlightened, but that in the last year or two he has made a U-turn. He describes Qadhi as having risen as a hard-line Salafi of Wahhabi background, which he says is a fact rather than an insult, noting that Wahhabis form a spectrum from ISIS at one extreme to a small minority inclined to reason, such as the subcontinent scholar Abdul Karim Athari [?], and that Qadhi wrote a book on the four principles of shirk of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and relied on Salafi scholars of the age. He argues that Wahhabism is in essence a doctrine of literalism and dogmatism built on Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's hostility to reason, and describes Ibn Abd al-Wahhab as a Hanbali literalist, a scholar but not an exceptional one, whom he categorically calls a deviant because he permitted killing Muslims he deemed disbelievers, enslaving their wives and taking their wealth, including pilgrims on Hajj; he says ISIS gives out Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's Kitab al-Tawhid as a core text and that Qadhi still has a book in print praising him. He calls the Salafi scholars of Saudi Arabia Bedouin scholars given prestige by oil wealth, and recounts that in the early 1970s figures such as Ibn Baz, al-Albani, Bakr Abu Zayd and Muqbil [?] were part of al-Jama'a al-Salafiyya al-Muhtasiba, which he calls a prototype Taliban that beat people for not praying, was investigated and shut down by the Saudi authorities, and whose lower ranks under Juhayman seized the sanctuary in Mecca in 1979, declaring a Mahdi; he accepts that the senior figures had left the movement but says they founded it. He concludes that Qadhi studied at the Islamic University of Madinah, drew inspiration from these people, built his fame on that movement and later departed from it.", "summary_short": "Qadhi's arguments stem from a hard-line Salafi formation, and Wahhabism in Mufti Abu Layth's account is a doctrine of literalism hostile to reason founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, whom he calls a deviant for permitting the killing and enslavement of Muslims. He traces the Salafi scholars of the 1970s to the movement behind the 1979 seizure of Mecca.", "answer_start": 862, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-abd-al-wahhab", "label": "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-qawaid-al-arbaa", "label": "al-Qawa'id al-Arba'a (the four principles of shirk) [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:kitab-al-tawhid", "label": "Kitab al-Tawhid"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-baz", "label": "Ibn Baz"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:bakr-abu-zayd", "label": "Bakr Abu Zayd"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muqbil-al-wadii", "label": "Muqbil al-Wadi'i [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-jamaa-al-salafiyya-al-muhtasiba", "label": "al-Jama'a al-Salafiyya al-Muhtasiba"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:juhayman-al-utaybi", "label": "Juhayman al-Utaybi"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:seizure-of-the-grand-mosque-1979", "label": "the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca (1979)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:islamic-university-of-madinah", "label": "Islamic University of Madinah"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:taliban", "label": "Taliban"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab was a deviant because he held it permissible to kill Muslims he deemed disbelievers, enslave their wives and take their wealth, including pilgrims on Hajj, and that Wahhabism is in essence a doctrine of literalism and dogmatism hostile to reason.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he was definitely I mean I would categorically say he was a deviant", "start": 1107}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/4/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/5", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S05", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 5, "start": 1491, "end": 1730, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's own earlier words: the leaked emails on rethinking theology from scratch", "question_plain": "What did Yasir Qadhi write in the leaked emails about the Quran's preservation and the theological schools?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, to be fair, Qadhi later found his own path, criticises the Salafis, refuses the label, and is now considered a deviant by most of them, which Mufti commends. He recalls the episode a few years earlier in which Dawah Man released emails by Qadhi, during which Mufti supported Qadhi. He reads from those emails: that the preservation of the Quran cannot be the letter-for-letter narrative taught at Sunday-school level and must be interpreted in another manner; that faced with the problem there are two main paths, either to adopt one of the standard theological schools and force it by imaginative hermeneutics, or, Qadhi's own suggestion, to discard all the theological schools, Athari, Ash'ari and Maturidi, recognise that none is divine, start from scratch and rethink the entire notion of kalam, imagining oneself in the era of the tabi'un, unconcerned about being labelled Ash'ari or Mu'tazili since those man-made structures have been jettisoned. Mufti notes that the emails begin with Qadhi saying he is hesitant to verbalise his beliefs because they are still developing.", "summary_short": "In emails leaked by Dawah Man, Qadhi wrote that the letter-for-letter account of the Quran's preservation cannot stand and proposed discarding the theological schools to rethink kalam from scratch. Mufti Abu Layth reads this as a radical reinterpretation from the man now condemning them.", "answer_start": 1491, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawah-man", "label": "Dawah Man"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam", "label": "kalam"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:athari", "label": "Athari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/5/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/6", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S06", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 6, "start": 1730, "end": 1887, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Point one, reason and orthodoxy: the Salafis are themselves unorthodox", "question_plain": "Are the Salafis themselves orthodox by their own standard?", "summary": "The segment opens with the end of the quotation from Qadhi's emails, that his beliefs had been developing for six or seven years, which Mufti Abu Layth contrasts with the dogmatic U-turn of the last year or two. He turns to the first point, that people today reinterpret verses so that they make sense to them and that this is impermissible especially in beliefs, and observes that Qadhi himself said his beliefs were still developing. He defines orthodoxy as the prevalent belief of Muslim society, which has been Ash'ari, and says Qadhi is not an Ash'ari; the Salafis, he argues, are themselves unorthodox, since they reject the four schools of law, which he does not say is wrong but which goes against the orthodoxy of Islam, and when asked about the congregation of the Muslims they quote the report that one man can be the jama'ah as long as he is upon the truth. He finds it inconsistent to forbid others to depart from what the majority said about certain verses while departing from the majority oneself.", "summary_short": "The Salafis are themselves unorthodox: the orthodoxy of the ummah has been Ash'ari and the four schools of law, both of which they reject, so their appeal to orthodoxy against new interpretations is inconsistent.", "answer_start": 1730, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:59b6539e", "label": "report: one man can be the jamaah as long as he is upon the truth (unresolved; quoted as a Salafi argument)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafis are themselves unorthodox, since the orthodoxy of the ummah has been Ash'ari in belief and the four schools in law, both of which they reject, so their appeal to orthodoxy against new interpretations of verses is inconsistent.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the seller fees themselves are unorthodox by going against the orthodoxy of this Ummah the seller fees reject methods they do not follow any of the four traditional schools of thought", "start": 1804}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/6/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/7", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S07", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 7, "start": 1887, "end": 2591, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The birds of Ibrahim, Ibrahim and the fire, and the table of al-Ma'idah: reading the text as it stands", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say Ibrahim was thrown into the fire, or that the table was sent down to Jesus's disciples?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the verses Qadhi cited. On the birds in 2:260 he says the word fa-surhunna ilayka means to incline them towards you, which he says is the literal wording and the reading Abu Muslim [?] gave centuries ago, while 'cut them' is an interpretation that does not fit the word ilayka and 'then kill them' is not in the Quran; he asks why following the actual reading is called deviation. On Ibrahim and the fire he reads 21:68 onward, where the people say burn him and Allah says we saved him and Lut, and then the verses on Nuh being saved, and argues that no verse says Ibrahim was thrown into the fire; the command 'O fire be cool and peaceful' does not say what means were used, just as the Quran says Allah saved Nuh from the flood without his being thrown into it, tells the sky to hold back its water in 11:44 though everyone knows rain comes from clouds, and speaks of fruit coming from the earth without mentioning seeds. He adds that had Ibrahim survived being thrown into a fire his people would have believed, whereas he left his town and migrated. On the table asked for by the disciples in al-Ma'idah he reads 5:114-115, where Allah says he will send it down but will punish any who then disbelieve, and says no verse states that the table came down; the commentators disagreed, and Hasan al-Basri and Mujahid, students of Ibn Abbas, said the disciples were frightened by the threat and withdrew the request. He concludes that people may believe either way, but that forcing one's interpretation onto the text and calling others deviants is unacceptable.", "summary_short": "No verse of the Quran says that Ibrahim was thrown into the fire or that the table came down to the disciples, and 'incline them towards you' is the literal wording of 2:260. These are readings of the text as it stands, and calling those who hold them deviants is unacceptable.", "answer_start": 1887, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:260", "label": "Quran 2:260 (the four birds)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-muslim-al-isfahani", "label": "Abu Muslim al-Isfahani [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:68-71", "label": "Quran 21:68-71 (burn him; O fire be cool; we saved him and Lut)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:76-77", "label": "Quran 21:76-77 (Nuh called and we saved him) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:11:44", "label": "Quran 11:44 (O sky, hold back your water)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:112-115", "label": "Quran 5:112-115 (the table asked for by the disciples)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hasan-al-basri", "label": "Hasan al-Basri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mujahid", "label": "Mujahid ibn Jabr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that no verse of the Quran states that Ibrahim was thrown into the fire or that the table was sent down to the disciples, and that reading 2:260 as 'incline them towards you' is the literal wording, so these are readings of the text as it stands rather than reinterpretations, and calling those who hold them deviants is unacceptable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "on a lot of these occasions people that are saying we are reinterpreting verses were actually just reading the verses as they are", "start": 2303}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/7/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/8", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S08", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 8, "start": 2591, "end": 2987, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The rhetoric about Jesus in the Quran: the Word of God and the Holy Spirit", "question_plain": "Why does the Quran call Jesus the Word of God and speak of the Holy Spirit?", "summary": "Turning to the birth of Jesus, Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's language about Jesus is styled in ways no Muslim believes literally. Jesus is called the Word of God, in the glad tidings to Mary in Al Imran and in al-Nisa where the Messiah is called the messenger of Allah and his word cast to Mary and a spirit from him, language he compares to the opening of the Gospel of John; he says that if the word of God is uncreated this would make Jesus uncreated, and that the reply that Jesus is so called because he had no father fails because Adam had no father and is not called the word of God. He lists the three places where Jesus is helped with the Holy Spirit, in 2:87, 2:253 and in al-Ma'idah, and says the term is used of no other prophet except once of revelation. He suggests this Christian rhetoric may have been used to build bridges with the Christian community and bring them closer to Islam. Checking a reference suggested to him, 58:22, he says it speaks of a spirit from Him, not the Holy Spirit, which people identify with Jibril. He concludes that the rhetoric around Jesus is different from that around other prophets and begins to turn to the virgin birth.", "summary_short": "The Quran applies to Jesus terms it uses of no other prophet, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, which Muslims do not read literally. Mufti Abu Layth suggests this Christian rhetoric may have been meant to build bridges with Christians.", "answer_start": 2591, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:45", "label": "Quran 3:45 (a word from Him, the Messiah Jesus son of Mary; he cites it as 3:43) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:171", "label": "Quran 4:171 (the Messiah, messenger of Allah and His word; he cites it as 4:170) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:87", "label": "Quran 2:87 (we helped him with the Holy Spirit)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:253", "label": "Quran 2:253 (we gave him clear signs and helped him with the Holy Spirit)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:110", "label": "Quran 5:110 (O Jesus, remember my blessings; I helped you with the Holy Spirit; he cites it as 5:115) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:58:22", "label": "Quran 58:22 (strengthened them with a spirit from Him)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-john", "label": "Gospel of John"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalimat-allah", "label": "kalimat Allah (the Word of God)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh-al-qudus", "label": "ruh al-qudus (the Holy Spirit)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran applies to Jesus terms such as the Word of God and the Holy Spirit that it uses for no other prophet and that Muslims do not take literally, and suggests this Christian rhetoric may have been meant to build bridges with the Christian community.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Christian rhetoric that is used in the Quran perhaps in a sense of building bridges between the Muslim and Christian communities", "start": 2800}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/8/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/9", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S09", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 9, "start": 2987, "end": 3298, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The virgin birth: early Christianity, Mary's marriage, and the Muslim difference of opinion", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say Jesus was born of a virgin?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that apart from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew the Bible does not refer to a virgin birth, that the early Christians most likely did not believe in one, that the Old Testament prophecy they cite uses the word almah, a young woman who need not be a virgin, and that the letters of Paul never mention a miraculous birth, which became doctrine by the second or third century. He says Mary is never called the Virgin Mary in Islam, that she was married, and that she most likely did not remain a virgin throughout her life as the Catholic Church holds, since the Gospels of Mark and Matthew name James, Joses, Jude, Simon and unnamed sisters as her children. He stresses that he has not said people cannot believe in the virgin birth, only that Muslims have differed on it: it is the general belief, but no verse of the Quran states it, a verse implies it just as the table verse implies the table came down, and he asks Qadhi to show a verse that says it directly. He names scholars who held that the birth was natural, Abdul Karim Athari [?] and Tamanna Imadi [?], who read the miracle as Joseph abstaining from intimacy after marriage until the angel's announcement, after which Mary conceived naturally, as the wives of Ibrahim and Zakariya conceived after the angel's announcement without a non-sexual conception being meant.", "summary_short": "No verse of the Quran states that Jesus's birth was a virgin birth, only implies it, and Muslim scholars have differed on it. Mary is never called the Virgin Mary in Islam; she was married, and some scholars held that she conceived naturally.", "answer_start": 2987, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-luke", "label": "Gospel of Luke"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-matthew", "label": "Gospel of Matthew"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-mark", "label": "Gospel of Mark"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:catholic-church", "label": "Catholic Church"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tamanna-imadi", "label": "Tamanna Imadi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that no verse of the Quran states that Jesus's birth was a virgin birth, only implies it, that Muslim scholars have differed on the question, and that Mary, who was married, is never called the Virgin Mary in Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "no verse in the Quran says that she had virgin birth a verse implies it does not say just as the table verse implies that the table may come down", "start": 3137}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/9/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/10", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S10", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 10, "start": 3298, "end": 3769, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Surah al-Tahrim, Surah Maryam, and the verses used to argue that Jesus had a father", "question_plain": "Which verses are used to argue that Jesus had a father, and does the Quran rule it out?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads 66:12, that Mary guarded her private parts and 'we breathed into it of our spirit', noting that the verb ahsanat is used of chastity through marriage as in 4:24, and says no Muslim he knows reads this verse literally, so Qadhi cannot demand that every other verse be read literally. He then reads the account in Surah Maryam, 19:16 onward: Allah sends his spirit, generally understood as Jibril though the verse does not say so, who appears as a well-formed man and says he will give her a pure boy, which Muslims do not take literally either; she says no man has touched her, he answers that it is easy for her Lord, and she conceives. He says the passage implies a virgin conception, which he accepts, but does not state it, just as the table verse implies without stating; Allah could have said plainly that Jesus had no father and did not. He presents the arguments of the scholars who held a natural birth: 6:85-87 lists Zakariya, Yahya, Isa and other prophets and then 'their fathers', which weighs on the side of Jesus having a father; and 6:101, where Allah argues that he cannot have a child since he has no companion, reasoning that in their view only makes sense if all births follow the natural order. He says it is up to people what to believe, but that declaring such readers deviants and no longer mainstream Muslims when the Quran does not say otherwise is a huge stretch.", "summary_short": "The Quranic account of Mary implies a virgin conception but does not state it, and 66:12 is not read literally by anyone, so demanding literal reading everywhere is inconsistent. The scholars who held Jesus had a father argue from 6:85-87 and 6:101, and calling them deviants is a huge stretch.", "answer_start": 3298, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:66:12", "label": "Quran 66:12 (Mary who guarded her chastity; we breathed into it of our spirit)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:24", "label": "Quran 4:24 (al-muhsanat, the married women)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:19:16-22", "label": "Quran 19:16-22 (the annunciation to Mary)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:85-87", "label": "Quran 6:85-87 (Zakariya, Yahya, Isa ... and their fathers)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:101", "label": "Quran 6:101 (how can He have a child when He has no companion)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:112-115", "label": "Quran 5:112-115 (the table asked for by the disciples)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quranic account of Mary implies but does not state a virgin conception, that 66:12 is read literally by no Muslim so literal reading cannot be demanded everywhere, and that declaring deviant those scholars who hold Jesus had a natural birth is a huge stretch; he presents 6:85-87 and 6:101 as those scholars' arguments.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "no Muslim that I'm aware of generally believes that to be literal so yet yet you're saying that any other verse must always take every literal implication", "start": 3369}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/10/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/11", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S11", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 11, "start": 3769, "end": 4398, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Evolution and the Quran: creation in stages, the single self, and the couple of Surah al-A'raf", "question_plain": "Is evolution compatible with the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to evolution, saying the Quran states that Allah created humans in stages (71:14), grew them from the earth like plants (71:17), and made all life from water after the heavens and earth were one and were split (21:30), verses he says clearly argue for it, though he leaves people free to believe what they want. He examines 3:59, that the likeness of Jesus is that of Adam, and argues that it does not fit a literal reading either way: Jesus had a mother and was not created from dust, and the verse says Adam was created and then told 'be', not created by the sudden command. He reads 23:12-13, that insan was created from an extract of clay, which many today take as DNA, and then placed as a drop in a stable place, noting that commentators were confused because the first man could not have been in a womb, some positing an artificial womb, to which those who argue for evolution such as Abd al-Sabur Shahin [?] reply that wombs already existed. He says Hawwa is not mentioned anywhere in the Quran, only in hadith, and that the verses on humanity's origin always speak of a single self, grammatically feminine, never naming Adam. He reads 7:189-190, where the single self and its partner conceive and, given a sound child, commit shirk, and says the commentators' claim that this is Adam committing shirk only in name is stupid, so the verse must speak of someone before Adam. He reads khalifa in 2:30 as one who comes at the end and succeeds the other hominins. He says evolution is pretty much a scientific fact established through genetics, and asks that those who accept what Allah told people to explore not be told they devalue the Quran.", "summary_short": "The Quran's verses on creation in stages, growth from the earth, the single self and the couple of 7:189 are reconcilable with evolution, which Mufti Abu Layth calls a scientific fact established through genetics. Hawwa is not named in the Quran, and those who accept evolution should not be called deviants.", "answer_start": 3769, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/quran-and-science/evolution", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:71:14", "label": "Quran 71:14 (He created you in stages)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:71:17", "label": "Quran 71:17 (Allah grew you from the earth like plants)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:30", "label": "Quran 21:30 (the heavens and earth were one; every living thing from water)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:59", "label": "Quran 3:59 (the likeness of Jesus is that of Adam)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:23:12-13", "label": "Quran 23:12-13 (insan from an extract of clay, then a drop in a stable place)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:1", "label": "Quran 4:1 (created you from a single self) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:7:189-190", "label": "Quran 7:189-190 (the single self and its partner; they committed shirk)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:30", "label": "Quran 2:30 (I will place a khalifa on the earth)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabari", "label": "al-Tabari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-sabur-shahin", "label": "Abd al-Sabur Shahin [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:insan", "label": "insan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khalifah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nafs", "label": "nafs (self)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's verses on creation in stages, growth from the earth and the single self are reconcilable with evolution, which he calls a scientific fact established through genetics, that Hawwa is not named in the Quran, and that those who accept evolution should not be called deviants.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if you don't want to accept evolution you don't have to although it is pretty much a scientific fact now through genetics that we are connected all of life on Earth is connected", "start": 4354}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/11/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/12", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S12", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 12, "start": 4398, "end": 4793, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Point two, hadith: sunnah versus hadith, khabar ahad, and the question of qualifications", "question_plain": "Is hadith the same as the sunnah, and is hadith certain knowledge?", "summary": "On the second point Mufti Abu Layth says he largely agrees with Qadhi about not rejecting hadith, but objects that Qadhi used hadith and sunnah interchangeably, whereas the school of Madinah, Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa distinguish them: the sunnah is not the hadith. He says Qadhi missed that Muslims do not know how to pray from hadith books but from the living tradition carried by fiqh, transmitted from parent to child, the very tradition of following a school that the Salafis reject. He repeats that the hadith Qadhi quoted, from al-Irbad ibn Sariya, is graded weak, an irony when proving hadith. To Qadhi's claim that anyone who has mastered hadith knows there is no doubt in it, he answers that the orthodoxy of hadith studies holds hadith to be khabar ahad, not certain, which is why the Ash'aris and Maturidis, the majority, hold that beliefs cannot be built on hadith but only on the Quran, and that the Hanafis and Malikis reject solitary reports that contradict their principles or reason. He renews his invitation to a dialogue on BukhariGate, which Qadhi has refused. On Qadhi's remark about unqualified people, he says it cannot have been aimed at him, since as a mufti he would technically outrank Qadhi and his teachers, quoting a Jaun Elia couplet with his own name inserted; he says he studied the whole curriculum and read Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi and the other collections cover to cover, whereas as far as he knows Qadhi studied at the Islamic University of Madinah and did not go through traditional seminary training, though he may be wrong.", "summary_short": "The sunnah is distinct from hadith and reaches Muslims through the living tradition of fiqh, not from hadith books. Hadith are khabar ahad, not certain knowledge, so the Ash'ari and Maturidi orthodoxy does not build beliefs on them, and the Hanafis and Malikis reject solitary reports that contradict reason or their principles.", "answer_start": 4398, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:72540d63", "label": "report: the hadith of al-irbad ibn sariya in abu dawud (unresolved; content not stated, called weak)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:khabar-wahid-not-creed", "label": "single-transmitter reports do not establish creed"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jaun-elia", "label": "Jaun Elia"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:islamic-university-of-madinah", "label": "Islamic University of Madinah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the sunnah is distinct from hadith and reaches Muslims through the living tradition of fiqh, that hadith are khabar ahad and so cannot found beliefs according to the Ash'ari and Maturidi orthodoxy, and that the Hanafi and Maliki schools reject solitary reports that contradict reason or their principles.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "we don't know how to pray because of Hadees we know how to pray because of the living tradition of Islam", "start": 4433}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/12/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/13", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S13", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 13, "start": 4793, "end": 5022, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Point three: a new interpretation is not a claim to prophethood; the Salafis' own anthropomorphism", "question_plain": "Is a new interpretation of the Quran the same as claiming to be a new prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi's third point, that any radical new interpretation amounts to declaring oneself a new prophet, is out of order and too big a label: the Salafi movement is itself a radical reinterpretation, and Qadhi's own email proposing to shun the previous schools and start afresh would make him a prophet by that standard. He says one may tell people one disagrees or prefers the majority, but notes the irony that the Salafis, when ordinary Muslims ask why they do not follow a madhhab, answer the same report Qadhi used, that the hand of Allah is with the congregation, by saying the congregation can be one person. He adds, trying not to be rude, that Salafis believe God has one leg and one foot without knowing what they look like, a belief the majority of Muslims have never held, and asks why that is not a radical departure from the majority. He says the Quran is full of non-literal usage, that the majority of Muslims have always accepted metaphor in it, and that verses about the hand, foot and eyes of Allah are not taken literally by most Muslims.", "summary_short": "Equating a new interpretation with a claim to prophethood is out of order, since the Salafi movement itself is a radical reinterpretation that rejects the majority and holds that God has a leg and a foot. The majority of Muslims have always accepted metaphor in the Quran.", "answer_start": 4793, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "belief/god-and-attributes", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2f256513", "label": "report: yad allah maa al-jamaah the hand of god is with the congregation (unresolved)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tajsim", "label": "tajsim (anthropomorphism)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that equating a new interpretation with a claim to prophethood is out of order, that the Salafi movement is itself a radical reinterpretation which rejects the majority and attributes a leg and a foot to God, and that the majority of Muslims have always accepted non-literal usage in the Quran.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "what do you mean declare yourself a new prophet how is not the Salafi movement a radical reinterpretation", "start": 4818}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/13/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/14", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S14", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 14, "start": 5022, "end": 5181, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Closing: idiomatic verses, a dangerous khutbah, and Malik's criteria for accepting hadith", "question_plain": "When is a hadith set aside, and is rejecting hadith acceptable?", "summary": "Finishing the previous point, Mufti Abu Layth says that the verses mentioning Allah's hands, leg and eyes are accepted by most Muslims as idiomatic language expressing power and majesty. With his battery running out he says the serious message is that he found the khutbah dangerous, and that it disheartens him that Qadhi seems to have turned 180 degrees from a stance that was opening to reason; he recalls Qadhi saying a few years ago that music may not be haram, which Mufti had shared as an interesting new reinterpretation. In summary he says there is a difference of interpretation, that dialogue should be welcomed, and that he agrees with Qadhi in not favouring the rejection of hadith in general: following Imam Malik, he accepts hadith and rejects a report only where it goes against the established tradition, reason, the principles of Islam or the Quran, and nobody has said to throw hadith away.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is not in favour of rejecting hadith in general, but follows Imam Malik in setting aside a report where it goes against the established tradition, reason, the principles of Islam or the Quran. He calls the khutbah dangerous and regrets what he sees as Qadhi's turn away from reason.", "answer_start": 5022, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a report is rejected where it contradicts reason, the Quran, established practice or the principles of Islam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is not in favour of rejecting hadith in general, but follows Imam Malik in rejecting a report where it goes against the established tradition, reason, the principles of Islam or the Quran.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I do agree with you I am not in favor of rejecting hadith in general", "start": 5089}}, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/14/"}, {"id": "7CYLT19GX5k/s/15", "short_id": "2018-10-20-S15", "recording": "7CYLT19GX5k", "n": 15, "start": 5181, "end": 5210, "date": "20181020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Sign-off", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth closes the lengthy session, wishes the audience a good evening and rest, sends his love to Yasir Qadhi asking him not to take the words to heart, and signs off with salam until the next time.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth signs off, wishing the audience a good night and telling Yasir Qadhi not to take his words to heart.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7CYLT19GX5k/s/15/"}, {"id": "7EER9UKa1eA/s/1", "short_id": "2020-03-31-S01", "recording": "7EER9UKa1eA", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 81, "date": "20200331", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Introduction: a map of Qadian and another Qadiani video", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The recording opens mid-sentence as Mufti Abu Layth shows a map of Qadian in Punjab, near Amritsar on the modern Indian side, and says that for many viewers it is thousands of miles east. He then announces the 'Masala segment' and says the Qadianis have made another video against him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth opens by locating Qadian on a map and announces that he will respond to another Qadiani video made against him.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["boundary_unverified", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7EER9UKa1eA/s/1/"}, {"id": "7EER9UKa1eA/s/2", "short_id": "2020-03-31-S02", "recording": "7EER9UKa1eA", "n": 2, "start": 81, "end": 241, "date": "20200331", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The video's charges: Abul Kalam Azad's praise of Mirza, tattoos and earrings", "question_plain": "Does Abul Kalam Azad praising Mirza Ghulam Ahmad prove anything?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth describes the video: it plays a clip from one of his Monday night sessions in which he was asked what Abul Kalam Azad said about Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and whether he said nice things about him. He restates his answer that Azad may well have said this, that Mirza may have been a nice, decent human being, and that people who knew and liked him would be expected to say nice things about him. He says the maker is the same man as before and mocks his blocked nose. He reports that the video calls him a deviant for saying tattoos and earrings are halal, and replies that he does not get the logic of people prepared to believe a prophet who never achieved anything while finding it absurd that he says tattoos are not haram. He then recounts that after the video he began receiving repeated phone calls from Canada, which he first took for a shipping query, until he answered and found a man greeting him with salam.", "summary_short": "Abul Kalam Azad may well have spoken kindly of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, as people who knew and liked a decent man would. Mufti Abu Layth finds it illogical that the critics accept a prophet who achieved nothing yet call his view that tattoos are not haram absurd.", "answer_start": 81, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abul-kalam-azad", "label": "Abul Kalam Azad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Abul Kalam Azad may well have spoken kindly of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, since Mirza may have been a decent person and people who knew and liked him would be expected to say nice things about him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he may have been a nice guy he may have been a very decent human being so people may have said nice things I expect them to", "start": 115}}, "url": "/r/7EER9UKa1eA/s/2/"}, {"id": "7EER9UKa1eA/s/3", "short_id": "2020-03-31-S03", "recording": "7EER9UKa1eA", "n": 3, "start": 241, "end": 556, "date": "20200331", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "The caller from Canada: trolling, the word Qadiani, and pictures of Mirza", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After a sound check with viewers on YouTube and Facebook, Mufti Abu Layth recounts his conversation with the caller. He says he told him nicely that he was fed up with people sending him the same video and that this bullying and trolling did not suit him. He asked the caller whether he believed the man from Qadian to be a prophet; the caller objected that the word Qadiani is derogatory, and Mufti asked why, since that is where his prophet is from. He then brings up pictures of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad on screen and, amid laughter and music, repeatedly asks whether his eyes are open or closed, saying he is bothered by it. He returns to the caller, who said he genuinely believed, and says he told him he was being picked on and mixed up with someone else.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts telling a caller that the trolling did not suit him and asking whether he believed Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet, then mocks pictures of Mirza on screen.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7EER9UKa1eA/s/3/"}, {"id": "7EER9UKa1eA/s/4", "short_id": "2020-03-31-S04", "recording": "7EER9UKa1eA", "n": 4, "start": 556, "end": 954, "date": "20200331", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Had the caller studied, and what was the purpose of sending Mirza as a prophet?", "question_plain": "What was the purpose of God sending Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as a prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he asked the caller whether he really believed in Mirza as the prophet of God, and the caller said 150 percent. He asked whether he had studied Islam, the Quran or the sunnah, or Arabic; the caller said he had studied and researched independently but had not studied Arabic. Mufti shows another picture and jokes about it, then puts his question: if God sent another prophet there must have been a reason, so what was it? He reports the caller's answer, that God wanted to make a team, pointing to how many Ahmadis there are today, and replies that God could have sent a football team if he only wanted fans, and asks whether there was a message. He says Mirza was born and died under British colonial rule, one of the darkest eras for Muslim civilisation, and did not bring it to an end or liberate even Qadian, so what did God achieve by sending him. He contrasts this with the objectives Christians give for Jesus, Jews for Moses and David, and Muslims for the Prophet Muhammad, who was sent to rid mankind of superstition and shirk and bridge the personal and impersonal encounter with God. The caller asked whether he could call a friend, which Mufti mocks as a chat show; he says he offered to have one of them as a guest on his show Mind Trap in a few weeks. He adds that another person then came on WhatsApp saying he could not insult their prophet and get away with it.", "summary_short": "A prophet is sent with a purpose, as with Jesus, Moses, David and Muhammad, but Mufti Abu Layth sees none in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who lived and died under British rule without liberating even Qadian. The caller could not name a message and asked to call a friend.", "answer_start": 715, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Jesus (Isa)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Moses (Musa)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawud", "label": "David (Dawud)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shirk", "label": "shirk"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yaqin", "label": "yaqin (certainty)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "God sends a prophet with a purpose, as with Jesus, Moses, David and Muhammad, and no such purpose or achievement can be shown for Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who lived and died under British colonial rule without liberating even Qadian.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "he never brought that to an end and you can't say he liberated the world you can't even say he liberated a part of kadian", "start": 759}}, "url": "/r/7EER9UKa1eA/s/4/"}, {"id": "7EER9UKa1eA/s/5", "short_id": "2020-03-31-S05", "recording": "7EER9UKa1eA", "n": 5, "start": 954, "end": 1270, "date": "20200331", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mocking Mirza: the Muhammadi Begum prophecy and the 'I love you' revelation", "question_plain": "What was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's prophecy about Muhammadi Begum and did it come true?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he asked the second person nicely to tell his followers to stop flooding his inbox, and that when told he could not insult their prophet and get away with it he replied that he had not even begun, joking about surgically removing a piece of colon. He brings up pictures of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad again, calls him a 'serial kisser' and a loving soul and body, and tells the story of Muhammadi Begum: Mirza wanted to marry his cousin and told her father or guardian that it had come to him in revelation that if she were married to anyone else her husband would die within a year or two and she would suffer a miserable fate. He says the father did not take heed, married her to another man, and the husband did not die but lived a normal life with her and had children, so the angel got it wrong. He explains that he calls Mirza 'Hari Ram' because in his final years Mirza also said he had a vision that he was an incarnation of Ram and Vishnu, and recounts another claimed experience in which an angel delivered the message from God 'I love you', which he acts out in Punjabi amid laughter.", "summary_short": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's claimed revelation that Muhammadi Begum's husband would die if she married another was not fulfilled, since the husband lived on and the couple had children. Mufti Abu Layth also mocks his claim to be an incarnation of Ram and Vishnu.", "answer_start": 1032, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammadi-begum", "label": "Muhammadi Begum"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's claimed revelation that Muhammadi Begum's husband would die within a year or two if she were married to anyone but him was not fulfilled, since the husband lived on and the couple had children.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "she husband didn't die lived on they had children lived a normal happy life", "start": 1159}}, "url": "/r/7EER9UKa1eA/s/5/"}, {"id": "7EER9UKa1eA/s/6", "short_id": "2020-03-31-S06", "recording": "7EER9UKa1eA", "n": 6, "start": 1270, "end": 1448, "date": "20200331", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Mirza's death from cholera, closing jokes and sign-off", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if it is God's message it is God's message, then turns to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's death, saying he died of cholera on the toilet, which he calls a sad fate and compares to the phrase kicking the bucket. He calls the segment his heartfelt tribute to the man and jokes about his looks, saying if looks could kill and comparing him to Covid as a person. He says that is enough, repeats that his question about the eyes was genuine, and after a stretch of music calls it a wrap.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth closes with Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's death from cholera, more jokes about his appearance, and a sign-off.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7EER9UKa1eA/s/6/"}, {"id": "7IMg-l3vbcY/s/1", "short_id": "2018-08-03-S01", "recording": "7IMg-l3vbcY", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 230, "date": "20180803", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why he called Sunni Defence blasphemous: the impotence remark and the naked Musa report", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth call the Sunni Defence channel blasphemous?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says some viewers asked him to respond to Sunni Defence, which he also calls Wahhabi Defence, before returning to the session's questions, and notes that one of its key figures, Farid [?], whom he refers to by a mocking nickname, is back. He says viewers had objected that the group never said anything disrespectful about the Prophet, and sets out to justify his description. He reads their first refutation of him, which asked what was wrong with the Prophet getting sick and becoming sexually impotent and whether sexual potency is a criterion of prophethood, and calls this a ridiculous and blasphemous attitude. He adds that the same critic defends the Bukhari report that the Prophet Musa ran naked so that people could see his testicles, and accuses Mufti of criticising such reports while they themselves hold that black magic incapacitated the Prophet.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the group's own words, asking what is wrong with the Prophet being sexually impotent and defending the report of Musa running naked, are blasphemous. That, he says, is why he described them as he did.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e92689a3", "label": "report: magic was done on the prophet and he became impotent"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e592ec95", "label": "report: musa ran naked so that people could see he had no hernia"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7IMg-l3vbcY/s/1/"}, {"id": "7IMg-l3vbcY/s/2", "short_id": "2018-08-03-S02", "recording": "7IMg-l3vbcY", "n": 2, "start": 230, "end": 545, "date": "20180803", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The first challenge: bring one uncriticisable hadith that a wife may not refuse her husband", "question_plain": "Is there an authentic hadith that a wife may never refuse her husband sex?", "summary": "Addressing the critic directly, Mufti Abu Layth says the accusations that he is ignorant rest on cut-and-paste clips and slips of the tongue, and tells him to stop running away from the topic he set out to defend: the claim that the Prophet said a woman has no right to refuse sex to her husband. He says the chains he quoted for this report come down predominantly through al-A'mash and through Qatada, and challenges the critic to bring a single sahih hadith attributing this to the Prophet that cannot be criticised, promising to show where any such report carries weakness and hidden defects ('ilal); the critic may gather the ulama of Najd to help him. He says such blasphemy is not attributed to the Prophet. In passing he dismisses a clip played to suggest he did not know a narrator's name [?], saying his point had been that even when a narrator in a chain is accepted, the one transmitting from him may be the problem, and he quotes an Urdu couplet asking how the leader of a caravan allowed it to be robbed. He repeats that the challenge is to bring one hadith, and only then will they talk.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says no version of the report that a wife cannot refuse her husband is free of criticism, since its chains run through al-A'mash and Qatada and carry hidden defects. He challenges his critics to produce one that cannot be faulted.", "answer_start": 230, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/abuse-and-marital-rape", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:11824c16", "label": "report: a wife may not refuse her husband when he calls her to his bed"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-amash", "label": "al-A'mash"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qatada", "label": "Qatada"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ilal", "label": "'ilal (hidden defects in a chain)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahih", "label": "sahih"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the report that a woman may not refuse her husband cannot be attributed to the Prophet without blasphemy, and challenges his critics to bring one version of it whose chain he cannot show to carry weakness or hidden defects.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this kind of blasphemy is not attributed to our prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam you bring me one hadith one hadith that I can that cannot be criticized", "start": 381}}, "url": "/r/7IMg-l3vbcY/s/2/"}, {"id": "7IMg-l3vbcY/s/3", "short_id": "2018-08-03-S03", "recording": "7IMg-l3vbcY", "n": 3, "start": 545, "end": 935, "date": "20180803", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The second challenge: prove Sahih al-Bukhari goes back to its author", "question_plain": "Can Sahih al-Bukhari be proven to go back to Imam al-Bukhari?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth issues a second challenge, which he says is above his critics' pay grade and open to the whole of Wahhabism: prove beyond reasonable doubt that Sahih al-Bukhari goes back to Imam al-Bukhari. He asks from which manuscripts this could be proven: the Sultaniyya edition rests on the Yuniniyya of al-Yunini, a Hanbali of the seventh to eighth Hijri century [?], of which no manuscript survives, only a copy from someone who copied it from him, and it disagrees with the other recensions, such as al-Mustamli's. He asks why nobody considered Farabri reliable in hadith until hundreds of years after him, and why al-Mustamli reported that Farabri's copy of Bukhari was incomplete with parts moved around, as recorded by Abu al-Walid al-Baji [?] and al-Qastallani [?], and that everyone copied from the one copy yet the copies all differed. He adds the case of al-Saghani [?], a Hanafi scholar born in Lahore who, hundreds of years later, claimed to have found Farabri's actual copy, which nobody else has seen and which contains reports no other copy has. He says the transmitters of Bukhari's other copies disappear and the book rests on one man unknown to his contemporaries, vouched for only two hundred years later by al-Sam'ani [?], while the copies around the world disagree, with hadith missing and patched together. These challenges, he says, are addressed to the Wahhabi Defence team and to anyone who makes Allah and His Messenger revolve around Sahih al-Bukhari.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says it cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt: the printed Sultaniyya rests on the lost Yuniniyya, the copies disagree, al-Saghani's claimed copy of Farabri's text is unseen, and Farabri himself was vouched for only centuries later. He challenges his critics to prove otherwise.", "answer_start": 545, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yunini", "label": "Sharaf al-Din al-Yunini"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-sultaniyya", "label": "the Sultaniyya edition of Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-yuniniyya", "label": "the Yuniniyya recension of Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-mustamli", "label": "al-Mustamli"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baji", "label": "Abu al-Walid al-Baji [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qastallani", "label": "al-Qastallani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-saghani", "label": "al-Saghani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-sad-al-samani", "label": "Abu Sa'd al-Sam'ani [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt to go back to Imam al-Bukhari, since the Sultaniyya edition rests on the lost Yuniniyya, the recensions disagree, and the book's transmission depends on Farabri, whom no contemporary vouched for.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the copies that go throughout the world all disagree with themselves hadith missing hadith les patched together we've got cut and paste job going on", "start": 884}}, "url": "/r/7IMg-l3vbcY/s/3/"}, {"id": "7IMg-l3vbcY/s/4", "short_id": "2018-08-03-S04", "recording": "7IMg-l3vbcY", "n": 4, "start": 935, "end": 1141, "date": "20180803", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Back to Imam Malik's method: accept some hadith and reject some, by reason, Quran and practice", "question_plain": "How should Muslims decide which hadith to accept and which to reject?", "summary": "Finishing the Bukhari point, Mufti Abu Layth says al-Mustamli reported that the students placed chapter headings themselves, which he says undermines claims about Bukhari's fiqh in his headings, and that Sahih Muslim has its own problems since it rests on an Istanbul manuscript. He explains why he opens this can of worms: to show the need to return to the methodology Imam Malik taught in the Muwatta and through fiqh, the practice of Madinah, namely that one is never sound in the deen until one learns to accept some hadith and reject others; Malik places a hadith in the Muwatta and says it is not accepted, and is reported to have said that following every isolated narration would snatch the whole deen away. He says the deen was already preserved through how Islam is practised, so hadith are not to be discarded: they add colour and detail, and corroboration through independent sources and agreement with the Quran and the principles of Islam show that not all are false. Citing Ibn al-Jawzi [?] and other early hadith scholars, he gives the test: a report on rules or practice is unproblematic if it does not clash with reason, the Quran, the clear transmitted sources or the corroborated Sunnah such as the practice of Madinah, and does not uproot a principle of Islam; otherwise it is taken with a pinch of salt, since some reports insult Islam and cannot be authentic.", "summary_short": "Follow Imam Malik: accept some hadith and reject others. A report is accepted if it does not clash with reason, the Quran, the transmitted and corroborated Sunnah such as the practice of Madinah, or a principle of Islam; otherwise it is treated with caution.", "answer_start": 935, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "fiqh/maliki-school", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "'amal ahl al-Madinah (practice of Madinah)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-mustamli", "label": "al-Mustamli"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jawzi", "label": "Ibn al-Jawzi [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the ummah must return to Imam Malik's method of accepting some hadith and rejecting others, accepting a report only if it does not clash with reason, the Quran, the corroborated Sunnah such as the practice of Madinah, or a principle of Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the reason I'm doing this is to show we need to return to the methodology that was taught to us by Imam Malik", "start": 960}}, "url": "/r/7IMg-l3vbcY/s/4/"}, {"id": "7NAjZrtcNZ0/s/1", "short_id": "2019-10-11-S01", "recording": "7NAjZrtcNZ0", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 250, "date": "20191011", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why do some Muslims burn a prayer mark into their forehead?", "question_plain": "Is a prayer mark on the forehead a sign of piety in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads the question of why some Muslims rub or burn their forehead in prayer, and jokes about the marks some people carry. He explains that the marks come from rubbing the forehead across the ground in sujud, and says this has nothing to do with Islam: it is a misconception. He says al-Qurtubi discusses it in his tafsir under the verse that the believers' mark is on their faces, which he says meant a radiance, a glow and a visible sense of commitment, not a burnt forehead, though some people understood it as the latter and began doing it in the time of the salaf. He recounts a report, which he attributes tentatively to a figure whose name is unclear in the recording [?], in which a man who had met the companions saw someone with a mark he compared to a camel's knee and told him that he had reached eighty years of age and met many great people, none of whom had this on their forehead, asking whether foreheads had become heavier or the earth harsher. Mufti concludes that people should avoid burning their foreheads and that it is not a sign of piety.", "summary_short": "A burn mark on the forehead from prostration has nothing to do with Islam and is not a sign of piety. The verse about the believers' mark on their faces refers to a glow of commitment, and an early report rebukes a man who bore such a mark.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:48:29", "label": "Quran 48:29 (their mark is on their faces from the trace of prostration) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qurtubi", "label": "al-Qurtubi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d4e2def8", "label": "report: i have reached eighty years and met the companions none of them had this mark on the forehead have the foreheads become heavier or has the earth become harsher"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud", "label": "sujud"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a burn mark on the forehead from prostration has nothing to do with Islam and is not a sign of piety, and that the verse about the believers' mark on their faces refers to a radiance and visible commitment rather than a burnt forehead.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "now this is this is nothing to do with Islam okay this is ridiculous it's a misunderstanding it's a misconception", "start": 37}}, "url": "/r/7NAjZrtcNZ0/s/1/"}, {"id": "7SkyPhQZdY8/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-17-S01", "recording": "7SkyPhQZdY8", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 268, "date": "20201017", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Psychedelics are not haram: entheogens, not intoxicants, and the politics of the word drugs", "question_plain": "Are psychedelics haram in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people have asked him for the Islamic understanding of psychedelics and states that they are not haram. He explains that they are not intoxicants and do not intoxicate the brain the way alcohol does; those who know them call them entheogens, things that connect a person with God, a window into another realm, rather than hallucinogens. He shows an image of the brain on psychoactive substances to illustrate a neural connectivity he says cannot otherwise be reached. The problem, he says, is that politicians have branched all of this under drugs, a term with connotations of abuse and crime that makes people switch off, whereas these are worlds apart. He calls it insane that in 2020 grown adults risk jail for consuming particular plants or mushrooms active with psilocybin, when a legacy of human civilisation has spoken for thousands of years about the wonder of how they connect humanity and expand consciousness.", "summary_short": "Psychedelics are not haram because they are not intoxicants like alcohol but entheogens that connect a person with God. Mufti Abu Layth says the political label of drugs wrongly lumps them with substances of abuse.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:entheogen", "label": "entheogen"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:psilocybin", "label": "psilocybin"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that psychedelics are not haram because they are not intoxicants in the way alcohol is but entheogens that connect a person with God and expand consciousness.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "that they're not haram. They are not an intoxicant. Okay? They do not intoxicate the brain in the way alcohol does or anything like that.", "start": 39}}, "url": "/r/7SkyPhQZdY8/s/1/"}, {"id": "7SkyPhQZdY8/s/2", "short_id": "2020-10-17-S02", "recording": "7SkyPhQZdY8", "n": 2, "start": 268, "end": 446, "date": "20201017", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Consciousness as a spectrum: the electromagnetic analogy", "question_plain": "How does Mufti Abu Layth explain what psychedelics do to consciousness?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth compares ordinary consciousness to dial-up internet and psychedelics to fibre-optic broadband, then offers what he calls a suitable example, the electromagnetic spectrum: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays all exist, yet only the tiny rainbow portion in the middle is open to the human visual field. After some trouble with his screen he puts it in money: if the whole spectrum were ten thousand pounds, visible light would be thirty-five pounds, and the rest is still there but inaccessible. He says consciousness works the same way: the layers are there, but we do not normally have access to them.", "summary_short": "Ordinary perception reaches only a sliver of what exists, as the eye sees only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum; Mufti Abu Layth says consciousness has layers we normally cannot access.", "answer_start": 268, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:electromagnetic-spectrum", "label": "electromagnetic spectrum"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says ordinary human consciousness has access to only a small part of what exists, as the eye sees only a sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum, and that the other layers of consciousness are there but we do not normally have access to them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Now, in a similar way, consciousness works the same. That the consciousness is there, but we just don't have access to that layer of consciousness.", "start": 415}}, "url": "/r/7SkyPhQZdY8/s/2/"}, {"id": "7SkyPhQZdY8/s/3", "short_id": "2020-10-17-S03", "recording": "7SkyPhQZdY8", "n": 3, "start": 446, "end": 701, "date": "20201017", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Were the Muslim mystics tripping? Eleusis, ergot and the Salem witch trials", "question_plain": "Did the Sufi saints have psychedelic experiences without knowing it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says certain cheats in nature have been set out as windows, and repeats his view that many of the great mystics of Islam were, in effect, tripping without knowing it. He recommends a Joe Rogan podcast with Graham Hancock and an author whose surname he finds hard to pronounce [?] about the Eleusinian mysteries, a pilgrimage in Greece going back two thousand years before Christianity that Plato, Aristotle and other philosophers attended, where initiates were not allowed to say what happened and may have had psychedelic experiences from what they drank. He says early and later saints of Islam such as Junayd, Mansur al-Hallaj [?] and Ibn Arabi most likely had some kind of psychedelic experience. From the same podcast he explains ergot, a fungus that grows naturally on grains such as wheat, barley, rye and corn and produces a psychoactive, ergotised product, and notes that researchers now think ergotised rye may explain what the community at the Salem witch trials believed it saw. He then shows pre-Islamic seals thousands of years old whose imagery he says clearly comes from people on a psychoactive trip.", "summary_short": "Many of Islam's great mystics, such as Junayd, al-Hallaj and Ibn Arabi, most likely had psychedelic experiences without knowing it, as initiates at Eleusis and communities eating ergotised grain did.", "answer_start": 446, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "belief/sufism", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:junayd-al-baghdadi", "label": "Junayd al-Baghdadi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-hallaj", "label": "Mansur al-Hallaj [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-arabi", "label": "Ibn Arabi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:joe-rogan", "label": "Joe Rogan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:graham-hancock", "label": "Graham Hancock"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aristotle", "label": "Aristotle"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:eleusinian-mysteries", "label": "the Eleusinian mysteries"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:salem-witch-trials", "label": "the Salem witch trials"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ergot", "label": "ergot"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says many of the great Muslim mystics, including Junayd, al-Hallaj and Ibn Arabi, most likely had psychedelic experiences without knowing it, in the way that initiates at Eleusis and people eating ergotised grain did.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I actually feel that many of the great mystics of Islam were upon like they many of them were, if you want to use the term, tripping. many of them were. They probably just did not know it.", "start": 446}}, "url": "/r/7SkyPhQZdY8/s/3/"}, {"id": "7SkyPhQZdY8/s/4", "short_id": "2020-10-17-S04", "recording": "7SkyPhQZdY8", "n": 4, "start": 701, "end": 1104, "date": "20201017", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Harmala seed, DMT and Rumi's ney: an entheogenic reading of the Mathnawi", "question_plain": "Did Rumi use harmala seed and a DMT-containing reed flute?", "summary": "Amid trouble with his screen, Mufti Abu Layth presents Peganum harmala, the harmala or Syrian rue seed widespread in the Middle East, and explains that it is an MAO inhibitor: the body's monoamine oxidase enzymes would otherwise kill off ingested DMT, the spirit molecule, for which humans naturally have receptors and which studies have found in animals and possibly in the pineal gland. He then introduces Arundo donax, the giant reed from which the ney flute is made, and shows that it contains DMT and was traditionally used to make flutes. He notes that Rumi constantly addresses his ney, and reads a translation of a Mathnawi passage in which the harmala seed covers the darkness and the truth is seen, and another in which a shaykh says his cup is so full that not a single harmala seed could fit in it. He says it is very likely that Rumi had psychedelic experiences, and adds that historians such as Ibn al-Awwam [?] record harmala being used in bread in Spain as one of its classical uses.", "summary_short": "Rumi drank preparations of harmala seed, an MAO inhibitor, and was devoted to his ney flute, made from a reed that contains DMT; Mufti Abu Layth says it is very likely Rumi had psychedelic experiences.", "answer_start": 701, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "arts/persian-and-sufi-poetry", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:harmala", "label": "harmala (Peganum harmala, Syrian rue)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dmt", "label": "DMT (dimethyltryptamine)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mao-inhibitor", "label": "MAO inhibitor"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ney", "label": "ney (reed flute)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rumi", "label": "Rumi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:mathnawi", "label": "Mathnawi of Rumi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-al-awwam", "label": "Ibn al-Awwam [?]"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is very likely that Rumi had psychedelic experiences, pointing to Mathnawi passages that mention the harmala seed, an MAO inhibitor, and to Rumi's constant addressing of his ney, a flute made from a reed that contains DMT.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "So I actually do feel that you see this is something that it's very likely that he would have had this psychedelic experience uh just like many other people", "start": 1030}}, "url": "/r/7SkyPhQZdY8/s/4/"}, {"id": "7SkyPhQZdY8/s/5", "short_id": "2020-10-17-S05", "recording": "7SkyPhQZdY8", "n": 5, "start": 1104, "end": 1327, "date": "20201017", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "No culture of drugs: soma, haoma and Amanita muscaria in ancient traditions", "question_plain": "What were soma and haoma in the Hindu and Persian traditions?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people in the past had no culture of drugs and often did not know what caused a particular reaction, such as ergotised grain, and sums up Rumi as a clear example: drinks of harmala seed, an MAO inhibitor, together with obsession with a flute made from a reed highly active with DMT. He says many ancient traditions had such things without a culture to explain them: the Rig Veda speaks of the drink soma, the fruit of the gods, which appears as haoma in the Avesta of the Persians, and whoever understood the plant could use it to empower themselves. He notes that researchers such as Wasson argue soma was the mushroom Amanita muscaria, which becomes most active after passing through urine, and suggests this explains the Hindu practice of drinking cow urine: ancient users waited for deer or other animals to eat the mushroom and urinate, and people drinking it had an opening of consciousness and inadvertently deified the animals.", "summary_short": "Ancient traditions such as the Vedic soma and the Avestan haoma point to the same entheogenic experiences, which those cultures had no vocabulary to explain; soma is argued to be Amanita muscaria, which may explain the deification of cows and the drinking of their urine.", "answer_start": 1104, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:rig-veda", "label": "Rig Veda"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:avesta", "label": "Avesta"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:soma", "label": "soma (haoma)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amanita-muscaria", "label": "Amanita muscaria"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:gordon-wasson", "label": "R. Gordon Wasson"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says ancient traditions such as the Vedic soma and the Avestan haoma record the same entheogenic experiences without a vocabulary for them, and that if soma was Amanita muscaria this explains the Hindu drinking of cow urine and the deification of the animals.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "many ancient traditions had these kind of things and you can see how because they didn't have a culture to explain it", "start": 1144}}, "url": "/r/7SkyPhQZdY8/s/5/"}, {"id": "7SkyPhQZdY8/s/6", "short_id": "2020-10-17-S06", "recording": "7SkyPhQZdY8", "n": 6, "start": 1327, "end": 1788, "date": "20201017", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The harmala report and the night of the jinn: visions in the hadith literature", "question_plain": "What is the hadith of the night of the jinn, and was it a psychoactive experience?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth presents a report, brought by Ibn Bashkuwal [?] and others and not authentic in his view, in which the Prophet is made to swear that nothing of the harmala seed emerges, root, shoot, flower or leaf, without an angel tied to it, that there is a power in its root and shoot and a cure for seventy-two ailments in its seed; he says the chain is problematic but the narrative shows that people in that society had experienced this. He then reads at length a hadith from al-Tirmidhi often called the night of the jinn, numbered 2861 in the copy he uses of the Aridat al-Ahwadhi, Ibn al-Arabi al-Maliki's commentary [?]: the Prophet takes Abdullah ibn Mas'ud to the outskirts of Makkah, asks what drink he has and is told nabidh, a drink that the Hanafis always held was not an intoxicant and that can be made from dates, barley or wheat, and calls it a pure drink; he draws a line, tells him not to cross it and that he may see figures speaking to him; Ibn Mas'ud sees strange, incomprehensible figures he calls Zutt [?], who approach but do not cross the line, and later, as the Prophet sleeps with his head in his lap, beautiful figures in white who surround and praise the Prophet. Mufti says that if true the experience, later described as the jinn, would most likely have been a psychoactive one connected with the drink he carried.", "summary_short": "The Tirmidhi report of Ibn Mas'ud's night of the jinn, in which he carried nabidh and saw strange figures, would most likely describe a psychoactive experience if true, and the report praising harmala shows such a narrative existed in early Muslim society.", "answer_start": 1327, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "belief/unseen-beings"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:623f97e7", "label": "report: nothing of the harmala seed emerges without an angel tied to it and in its seed is a cure for seventy two ailments"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9780ca35", "label": "report: the night of the jinn ibn masud carried nabidh and saw figures that did not cross the line while the prophet slept with his head in his lap"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-tirmidhi", "label": "Sunan al-Tirmidhi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:aridat-al-ahwadhi", "label": "Aridat al-Ahwadhi (Ibn al-Arabi's commentary on al-Tirmidhi) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-bashkuwal", "label": "Ibn Bashkuwal [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Abdullah ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:harmala", "label": "harmala (Peganum harmala, Syrian rue)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the Tirmidhi report of Ibn Mas'ud's night of the jinn, if true, most likely describes a psychoactive experience connected with the nabidh he carried, and that the report praising the harmala seed, though not authentic, shows that such a narrative existed in early Muslim society.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "This if anything would have been a kind of most likely would have been a psychoactive experience uh that would have had and he explains that I had with me this particular drink.", "start": 1769}}, "url": "/r/7SkyPhQZdY8/s/6/"}, {"id": "7SkyPhQZdY8/s/7", "short_id": "2020-10-17-S07", "recording": "7SkyPhQZdY8", "n": 7, "start": 1788, "end": 2161, "date": "20201017", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Objections, the verse of light, and a tradition that had no name", "question_plain": "Does the verse of light describe an expanded state of consciousness?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth anticipates the objection that Ibn Mas'ud was simply communicating with the jinn and asks why such experiences never happened on other occasions if he drank nabidh regularly; he answers that, as with ergotised grain, such effects happened unplanned when grain became afflicted with a fungus, and that this was within the tradition but went unnoticed, so people assumed it was normal. He then suggests that a verse of the Quran, 24:35, approximates an experience for people whose consciousness has expanded: reading Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation, Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth, the parable of his light a niche with a lamp in a glass like a star lit from a blessed olive tree whose oil would shine though fire scarcely touched it, light upon light. He argues that this understanding is an approximation that would resonate with people who have had certain experiences. Summing up, he says that whether one reads the verse that way, or Ibn Mas'ud's visions with the drink the Prophet called pure, or the harmala report, or Ibn al-Awwam's note that harmala was used in bread, or Rumi's poetry and his flute, he is trying to show that this has been part and parcel of the tradition but had no name, so that people today who delineate it by name reject what the past induced without realising it.", "summary_short": "The verse of light, 24:35, is an approximation that resonates with those whose consciousness has expanded, and entheogenic experience was part and parcel of the tradition without having a name.", "answer_start": 1788, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:35", "label": "Quran 24:35 (the verse of light)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-yusuf-ali", "label": "Abdullah Yusuf Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Abdullah ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rumi", "label": "Rumi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the parable of light in 24:35 is an approximation that resonates with people whose consciousness has expanded, and that entheogenic experience was part and parcel of the Islamic tradition without having a name.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "What I'm trying to show is that I feel that this has been part and parcel of the tradition but it's just it didn't have a name.", "start": 2101}}, "url": "/r/7SkyPhQZdY8/s/7/"}, {"id": "7SkyPhQZdY8/s/8", "short_id": "2020-10-17-S08", "recording": "7SkyPhQZdY8", "n": 8, "start": 2161, "end": 2384, "date": "20201017", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Nothing in the Quran or Sunnah forbids them: non-addictive, therapeutic, and unlike alcohol", "question_plain": "Does the Quran or Sunnah say anything against psychedelics?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that there is nothing in the Quran or Sunnah to say psychedelics are not permitted: these plants, mushrooms with psilocybin and DMT have existed for millions of years and been consumed by humans and animals, so had Allah wanted to make them haram he could have, and to say he did not know of them or chose not to mention them makes no sense; they open and expand rather than dumb down. He calls it absurd that politicians have a say on consciousness, and says that these entheogens are not addictive, create no physiological dependency, have never been directly linked to deaths, have cured depression and addiction, made people more loving and helped palliative patients come to terms with death, losing the fear of it not in a daredevil way but by embracing nature. Against the objection that someone might harm others under their influence, he says this does not happen and laws exist anyway, whereas alcohol causes deaths, fights and road accidents without being banned; he says this should be put to Boris Johnson and whoever follows him. He closes by saying this is not about fun, though some use it that way, but about connecting human beings to God through a greater consciousness, and that not enough people have said it.", "summary_short": "Nothing in the Quran or Sunnah forbids psychedelics, which existed for Allah to prohibit had he wished; Mufti Abu Layth says they are non-addictive and therapeutic, unlike alcohol, and are about connecting to God.", "answer_start": 2161, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "fiqh/medical-ethics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:psilocybin", "label": "psilocybin"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dmt", "label": "DMT (dimethyltryptamine)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:boris-johnson", "label": "Boris Johnson"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:entheogen", "label": "entheogen"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that nothing in the Quran or Sunnah forbids psychedelics, that Allah could have forbidden these natural substances had he wished, and that they are non-addictive and therapeutic, unlike alcohol, which causes deaths yet is not banned.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "if Allah wanted to make them haram he could have made them haram they they are part of nature", "start": 2161}}, "url": "/r/7SkyPhQZdY8/s/8/"}, {"id": "7UXKLQH8-ig/s/1", "short_id": "2014-07-02-S01", "recording": "7UXKLQH8-ig", "n": 1, "start": 11, "end": 387, "date": "20140702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How he came to study Islam and become a mufti", "question_plain": "How did Mufti Abu Layth become a mufti?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says his path into religious study was not planned but something he believes Allah inspired, beginning with wanting to understand Arabic and the Quran, which became, as he puts it, addictive. He says he was not raised in a very religious family, was not interested in education at school, and would have found the idea of becoming a mufti humorous. He describes learning basic Arabic alone from a book until a teacher suggested he study in Syria when he was about seventeen, and how a feeling that it might be possible led him there; he encourages people to follow such intuitions. Unable to memorise the Quran full-time in Syria, he went to Pakistan, where one step led to another until he trained as a mufti, which he calls the most incredible achievement of his life.", "summary_short": "It was not planned: an interest in Arabic and the Quran grew step by step, taking him from self-study to Syria and then Pakistan, where he trained as a mufti.", "answer_start": 11, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "wellbeing/personal-stories", "society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hifz", "label": "hifz (memorisation of the Quran)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/7UXKLQH8-ig/s/1/"}, {"id": "7UXKLQH8-ig/s/2", "short_id": "2014-07-02-S02", "recording": "7UXKLQH8-ig", "n": 2, "start": 387, "end": 620, "date": "20140702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why he chose the Maliki madhhab: a school that keeps things natural", "question_plain": "Why did Mufti Abu Layth choose the Maliki madhhab?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he came from a Hanafi background and first studied Hanafi fiqh, but believes madhhabs have personalities that align with people's own. An initial spark came from hearing of the practice of the people of Madinah and of Imam Malik, and two of his teachers were Maliki; as he studied more, the school's personality proved congruent with his own. He gives the example that the Maliki school emphasises keeping things natural: standing naturally in salah, holding the hands or letting them hang however comes naturally, and being able to make any du'a, in any language, in salah, as opposed to fixed prescriptions.", "summary_short": "Its personality matched his own: the Maliki school keeps things natural, for example in how one stands, holds the hands and makes du'a in salah.", "answer_start": 387, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "amal ahl al-Madinah (the practice of Madinah)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki madhhab emphasises keeping things natural, as a theme running throughout the school.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the Maliki m is really big on keeping things natural and you'll see this as a as almost like an U an underpinning theme that goes right throughout the", "start": 501}}, "url": "/r/7UXKLQH8-ig/s/2/"}, {"id": "7UXKLQH8-ig/s/3", "short_id": "2014-07-02-S03", "recording": "7UXKLQH8-ig", "n": 3, "start": 620, "end": 773, "date": "20140702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "His favourite Islamic science: fiqh, and an interest in grammar", "question_plain": "What is Mufti Abu Layth's favourite Islamic science?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, if he had to choose, his favourite Islamic science is fiqh, because he has always been fascinated by debates and by the arguments with which the schools contend. He mentions interests in hadith and in Arabic grammar, including the Kufan and Basran schools of grammar, how they originated and where they disagree. He says the difficulty with sciences like grammar is finding a way to keep them alive, whereas more people can relate to fiqh.", "summary_short": "Fiqh, because he loves debate and argument between the schools, though he also has a strong interest in hadith and Arabic grammar.", "answer_start": 620, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "quran/arabic-language"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/7UXKLQH8-ig/s/3/"}, {"id": "7UXKLQH8-ig/s/4", "short_id": "2014-07-02-S04", "recording": "7UXKLQH8-ig", "n": 4, "start": 773, "end": 1112, "date": "20140702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why al-Andalus matters", "question_plain": "Why is al-Andalus so important to Muslims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is attached to al-Andalus because of its closeness to Britain and because it was the bastion of Islam on European soil for almost eight centuries, its Muslims natives rather than immigrants, leading the way for Europe. He says he feels the Maliki school, through its elasticity and its principles, was instrumental in its survival, while noting that people may argue with him on that. He urges anyone interested in history to study al-Andalus, which he says encapsulates the whole history of Islam: rapid rise, heroism, betrayal and bitter politics, its own caliphate under Abd al-Rahman III, decay and an unfortunate demise, with the lesson that what rises also falls.", "summary_short": "Al-Andalus was eight centuries of native Muslim civilisation in Europe, shaped by the Maliki school, and its rise and fall hold lessons for Muslims today.", "answer_start": 773, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:al-andalus", "label": "al-Andalus"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abd-al-rahman-iii", "label": "Abd al-Rahman III"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels the Maliki madhhab was instrumental in the survival of al-Andalus.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I do believe that having the Maliki maab as almost its you know as one of its kind of driving forces in shaping the society was instrumental in its survival", "start": 850}}, "url": "/r/7UXKLQH8-ig/s/4/"}, {"id": "7UXKLQH8-ig/s/5", "short_id": "2014-07-02-S05", "recording": "7UXKLQH8-ig", "n": 5, "start": 1112, "end": 1148, "date": "20140702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Social media for da'wah, and difference of opinion as a mercy", "question_plain": "Is difference of opinion in Islam a mercy?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says social media is instrumental to teaching and to da'wah, and has helped him and many others reach people who would otherwise have been almost impossible to connect with. He then says difference in Islam is definitely a mercy and a message of tolerance and acceptance, and that he cannot understand anyone who would contradict that.", "summary_short": "Yes, definitely: difference of opinion is a mercy and a message of tolerance. He also calls social media vital for da'wah.", "answer_start": 1112, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ikhtilaf", "label": "ikhtilaf (difference of opinion)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says difference in Islam is definitely a mercy and a message of tolerance and acceptance.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "difference in Islam is is definitely a mercy and anybody I cannot understand anybody that would wish to contradict that message", "start": 1112}}, "url": "/r/7UXKLQH8-ig/s/5/"}, {"id": "7UXKLQH8-ig/s/6", "short_id": "2014-07-02-S06", "recording": "7UXKLQH8-ig", "n": 6, "start": 1148, "end": 1327, "date": "20140702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Attacks on his appearance as a mufti", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth not dress like a traditional mufti?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is attacked a lot for his appearance but it does not bother him much, because he believes he has done nothing wrong Islamically and has shown his evidence academically. Some accept it is permissible but think a mufti should know better; he replies that there are already many muftis and imams with an Eastern appearance, and that many Muslims who want to connect with the din feel they cannot become that, so he wants to offer an alternative role model, Islam being for all places, times and cultures. He says people see the hate online but not the private support from those who have chosen to study the din, which makes the criticism worth it.", "summary_short": "The attacks do not bother him much: he holds his appearance permissible and wants to be a role model for Muslims who cannot relate to the traditional look.", "answer_start": 1148, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/7UXKLQH8-ig/s/6/"}, {"id": "7UXKLQH8-ig/s/7", "short_id": "2014-07-02-S07", "recording": "7UXKLQH8-ig", "n": 7, "start": 1333, "end": 1489, "date": "20140702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "A message to those who attack him: respect the difference", "question_plain": "Does Islam require a particular dress or beard style for scholars?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks critics to accept that his dress and appearance are based on reason and on aspects of the din, which he believes permissible, and to respect a difference of opinion, reminding them that Muslims agree on much more. He points to esteemed non-Hanafi scholars of the last century, especially Maliki scholars of North Africa and of the Zaytuna in Tunis, many of whom were clean-shaven or wore small or trimmed beards and suits, including a grand mufti whose name the captions garble. He says people who have only seen the dress of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf or Pakistan assume it is mandatory, but the din does not mandate a particular uniform.", "summary_short": "No: respect the difference of opinion. Many esteemed Maliki scholars were clean-shaven or wore suits, and the din mandates no uniform.", "answer_start": 1333, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:al-zaytuna", "label": "al-Zaytuna"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:lihyah", "label": "lihyah (beard)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki scholars"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the din does not mandate a particular type of uniform.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there's many people who have you know exercised that the dean has not actually um you know it does not mandate a particular type of", "start": 1449}}, "url": "/r/7UXKLQH8-ig/s/7/"}, {"id": "7UXKLQH8-ig/s/8", "short_id": "2014-07-02-S08", "recording": "7UXKLQH8-ig", "n": 8, "start": 1493, "end": 1663, "date": "20140702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "What the future holds: inclusivity and the school of Madinah", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth hope to achieve?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he never planned what Allah allowed him to achieve and believes great things will unfold by Allah's mercy. He would like his role to be spreading inclusivity, compassion, love and respect in an age of hate, sectarianism and intolerance. He also wants to spread understanding of the school of Madinah, which in his personal understanding has an unbroken chain to Madinah and the Prophet and uses the objectives of the Sharia while staying entrenched in the Sunnah, an outlook he says the West needs. He says some people abandon Islam over rulings that are only one fiqh perspective, and he wants to give them an opportunity to embrace the din wholeheartedly.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth hopes to spread inclusivity and compassion and a wider understanding of the Maliki school, which he feels the West needs.", "answer_start": 1493, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school (the school of Madinah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid al-shari'ah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels the outlook of the school of Madinah, the Maliki madhhab, is greatly needed in the West.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel that this is a perspective or an outlook on the dean which is so needed in the west", "start": 1570}}, "url": "/r/7UXKLQH8-ig/s/8/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/1", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S01", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 1, "start": 4, "end": 473, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What the jinn are, Shaytan's enmity, and his only power: whispering", "question_plain": "What are the jinn and what can Shaytan actually do to people?", "summary": "The guest opens with the story of the jinn: every believer accepts from the Quran that jinn exist. Allah created angels, who always obey and can do no evil, and after a long time created the jinn, hidden from human sight and made from fire, who can do good or bad; then he created the human being, better than them and placed as khalifa on the earth. Shaytan, the leader of the jinn, became jealous, and the Quran makes clear that he and all his followers are a clear enemy who will do everything to misguide us. But, the guest says, Allah has stated that Shaytan has no power other than whispering, a power shared by human beings: newspapers, writers, speakers and even Muslims mislead people by whispering and teaching, and the Quran speaks of devils of both jinn and men; the only difference is that the jinn are unseen. Against this Allah gave people the fitra, their faculties and above all reason, the most noble thing a human has, so that nobody who thinks properly can be misguided. He draws a rule from the Quran: whenever anyone teaches you anything, ask for the proof and consider the consequences, illustrating with moon-sighting disputes that divide the believers. Applied to the jinn, the proof is the Quran and the Sunnah, and experience is not enough: that doctors cannot explain a condition does not make it a jinn, and the claim that a shaykh 'took out a jinn' has no proof that what came out was a jinn.", "summary_short": "Jinn exist and Shaytan is a clear enemy, but his only power is to whisper, as human misleaders do, and Allah gave people the fitra and reason to resist. Any claim about the jinn must be met by asking for its proof in the Quran and Sunnah and weighing its consequences; an unexplained illness is not proof of a jinn.", "answer_start": 4, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitra", "label": "fitra"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (intellect)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:30", "label": "Quran 2:30 (I will place a khalifa on the earth)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:proof-and-consequences", "label": "ask for the proof of any claim and consider its consequences"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/1/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/2", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S02", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 2, "start": 473, "end": 786, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Jinn according to the Quran: 'do not follow his footsteps' presupposes a will Shaytan cannot take away", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say that Shaytan or the jinn can possess or control a person?", "summary": "The guest says the Quran never claims that Shaytan can possess or control anyone; its only command is 'O believers, do not follow the footsteps of Shaytan'. Following, he argues, requires a will: one cannot follow without irada, and a possessed person would have no will, yet the Quran never says anywhere that people lose their will. Every command of Allah, to obey him, to establish the prayer, presupposes that people have the will and power to do it; if Shaytan could possess us, these commands would make no sense, and the command not to follow him means we have the power not to listen when he tells us to abandon the prayer or seek the haram. He reads on that Shaytan 'commands shameful and evil things', which is the only authentic account of his work, and turns to the scene on the Day of Judgement in which people blame Shaytan and he defends himself: Allah made a true promise and I made a false one, I had no authority over you except that I called you and you responded, so do not blame me, blame yourselves. The guest compares this to human beings such as Pharaoh who likewise call people to evil, and asks his listeners whether Shaytan has ever actually stopped them from going to prayer or forced them to the haram: he only teaches and whispers, and never pushes anybody.", "summary_short": "The Quran never says people lose their will; it commands believers not to follow Shaytan's footsteps, which presupposes the will and power to refuse. On the Day of Judgement Shaytan himself says he had no authority except to call people, so he teaches and whispers but never forces.", "answer_start": 473, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:21", "label": "Quran 24:21 (do not follow the footsteps of Shaytan; he commands shameful and evil things)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:14:22", "label": "Quran 14:22 (Shaytan on the Day of Judgement: I had no authority over you except that I called you)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:irada", "label": "irada (will)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:shaytan-only-whispers", "label": "Shaytan's only power is to whisper and call; he cannot force or possess"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firawn", "label": "Pharaoh (Fir'awn)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/2/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/3", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S03", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 3, "start": 786, "end": 1180, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Jinn according to hadith: no sound report of possession, the night with the jinn, and the tricks the guest has seen", "question_plain": "Is there any sound hadith that a jinn possessed someone?", "summary": "The guest says there is no sound hadith anywhere that Shaytan possessed or forced anybody. He relates the report in Sahih Muslim from Ibn Mas'ud: the companions missed the Prophet one night and feared he had been killed; in the morning he came from the direction of Hira and said a caller of the jinn had taken him to recite the Quran to them, showed the companions their traces and fires, and said bones over which Allah's name was mentioned are the jinn's food, which is why bones and dung are not to be used for cleaning. From this he draws that the jinn are a lowly creation living in dirty places, while human beings are honoured as masters of land and sea, so attributing whatever befalls us to them is a big mistake that has become a big business all over the world. He gives his own experiences: asking why possession stories cluster in East London; a couple in Oxford who fled their house for a hostel because of jinn, which he walked through room by room finding nothing; a woman in his village whose 'jinn' answered the questions she could answer and fell silent at those only a jinn would know, after which it never returned while he was there; and stories from Lucknow and the villages that proved tricks. He adds that the hadith allow only that Shaytan can misguide and whisper, which may lead to harm, but not possession, and mocks the idea that a jinn would bring a possessed man to the mosque. He tells of a man from India charging a thousand pounds a session to cure women of jinn, who claimed thirty thousand jinn under his command and could therefore conquer the world rather than beg in England.", "summary_short": "There is no sound hadith of Shaytan possessing anyone; the Ibn Mas'ud report shows the jinn as a lowly creation fed on bones, not masters over humans. The guest's own investigations of 'haunted' houses and 'possessed' women found tricks and nothing else, and exorcism has become a big business.", "answer_start": 786, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:32f4910e", "label": "report: ibn masud said we missed the prophet one night and he said the caller of the jinn came to me and i read the quran to them and bones are the food of your brothers"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Abdullah ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:raqi", "label": "raqi (one who performs ruqya; exorcist)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/3/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/4", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S04", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 4, "start": 1180, "end": 1386, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Unexplained illness is not a jinn; harm 'from Shaytan' comes from following his advice, as with Ayyub", "question_plain": "If doctors cannot explain an illness, could it be a jinn?", "summary": "The guest says that some people's conditions are so bad that doctors cannot explain them, which he does not deny, but that not being able to explain something does not make it a jinn; that is a story the mind makes up without proof. The hadith in al-Bukhari and Muslim in which the Prophet advised what to recite, he summarises, teach that people can be whispered to by Shaytan and that whispering can harm when it is followed, like a man persuaded by another to try drugs until he is convinced and harmed: the harm comes from listening, not from the one who whispered. He reads this into the prayer of Ayyub, 'Shaytan has touched me with hardship and pain', and his other prayer that harm has come to him: harm is attributed to Shaytan because one followed his advice, but Shaytan himself never creates any harm for anybody. He closes with the verse that one must not pursue what one has no knowledge of, since hearing, sight and heart will be questioned: those who claim someone is possessed must be asked how they know, and since nobody can see the jinn, they interpret a disturbance as a jinn without proof, while Allah has created many illnesses people do not understand.", "summary_short": "An illness doctors cannot explain is not thereby a jinn; that is a story made up without proof. The Quran attributes harm to Shaytan only in the sense that people follow his whispering, as in Ayyub's prayer, and forbids claiming what one has no knowledge of.", "answer_start": 1180, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:38:41", "label": "Quran 38:41 (Ayyub: Shaytan has touched me with hardship and pain)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ayyub", "label": "Ayyub (Job)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:17:36", "label": "Quran 17:36 (do not pursue what you have no knowledge of)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:waswasa", "label": "waswasa (the whispering of Shaytan)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:shaytan-only-whispers", "label": "Shaytan's only power is to whisper and call; he cannot force or possess"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:claims-require-proof-from-quran-and-sunnah", "label": "a claim about the unseen needs proof from the Quran and Sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/4/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/5", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S05", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 5, "start": 1386, "end": 1859, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imams who denied possession: Ibn Hazm, al-Tahawi, al-Zamakhshari, al-Razi and al-Shafi'i on seeing jinn", "question_plain": "Which classical scholars denied that jinn can possess people?", "summary": "The guest says the question was discussed in detail by Ibn Hazm in al-Fisal fi al-Milal wal-Nihal: Ibn Hazm accepts that Shaytan whispers and that whispering can affect one's face, mood and behaviour, but holds that whoever claims Shaytan can possess people and remove their will makes a claim without knowledge, which is haram, since such a thing could only be known from a sound report of the Prophet, who spoke only of whispering; had possession been real, the Quran, which names Shaytan a clear enemy, would have taught protection from it, whereas it teaches seeking refuge only from his whispering. He cites al-Tahawi the Hanafi in Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar, that the Prophet was commanded only to seek Allah's protection from the whisperings, so that every du'a in the Quran and Sunnah is against whispering and none against possession, and that claims of Shaytan harming property or animals have no proof. Among the commentators he names the author of al-Kashshaf [?] and al-Razi in his tafsir, who said Shaytan has no power at all to cause illness or pain, and he reports al-Shafi'i, through al-Rabi', saying that he would reject the testimony of anyone who claimed to have seen the jinn, since only a prophet can see them, a view Ibn Hazm also records in al-Fisal: the Quran says they see you and you do not see them, so those who claim to see them are liars unless they are prophets, as the Prophet saw a devil in Madinah and Sulayman dealt with the jinn.", "summary_short": "Ibn Hazm held that claiming possession is a claim without knowledge and haram, since the Prophet spoke only of whispering; al-Tahawi noted that every taught du'a is against whispering, al-Razi said Shaytan cannot cause illness, and al-Shafi'i rejected the testimony of anyone claiming to see jinn, which only prophets can.", "answer_start": 1386, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "history/scholars-and-imams", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-fisal", "label": "al-Fisal fi al-Milal wal-Ahwa' wal-Nihal (Ibn Hazm)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tahawi", "label": "al-Tahawi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sharh-maani-al-athar", "label": "Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar (al-Tahawi)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zamakhshari", "label": "al-Zamakhshari [?] (named as the author of al-Kashshaf)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-kashshaf", "label": "al-Kashshaf [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:114:4", "label": "Quran 114:4 (from the evil of the whisperer)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muawwidhatayn", "label": "the mu'awwidhat (the surahs of seeking refuge)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:shaytan-only-whispers", "label": "Shaytan's only power is to whisper and call; he cannot force or possess"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:claims-require-proof-from-quran-and-sunnah", "label": "a claim about the unseen needs proof from the Quran and Sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/5/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/6", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S06", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 6, "start": 1859, "end": 2095, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Taymiyya's belief in possession tested by his own rule, and what really 'comes out' in an exorcism", "question_plain": "Did Ibn Taymiyya believe in jinn possession, and does his view have proof?", "summary": "The guest says the jinn are more powerful than humans in some ways but that nobody except prophets, who saw and met them, has any proof of mixing with them, and recalls a Deobandi scholar [?] who used to tell him that believing in these things is against iman. Belief in possession in the earlier generations is found, he says, only in Ibn Taymiyya, from the seventh century, whereas Ibn Hazm in the fifth century, al-Razi and others denied it; Ibn Taymiyya held that jinn possess people and take away their will, treated people for it, and even claimed, when a dead shaykh's students showed him letters they said he still wrote them, that these were letters from a jinn whose handwriting he knew. The guest says he respects Ibn Taymiyya and has learnt much from him, but that Ibn Taymiyya taught us to accept nothing without proof from the Quran and Sunnah, and by that test his claims about jinn have no proof: when he says he saw his teacher take a jinn out of someone, he may have seen something come out, but nothing proves it was a jinn rather than the effect of an illness. He describes the raqis' tricks: a patient who rises above the bed when the Quran is read, which he calls a trick, since a cure needs no levitation; being beaten with sticks until, when asked whether the jinn is leaving, the victim says yes, so that the onlookers see a jinn where there is only an ill person being beaten.", "summary_short": "Ibn Taymiyya believed jinn possess people and treated them, but by his own rule of accepting nothing without proof from the Quran and Sunnah his claims fail: seeing something leave a patient does not prove it was a jinn. Levitating patients and beating the 'possessed' are tricks played on onlookers.", "answer_start": 1859, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "history/scholars-and-imams", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:raqi", "label": "raqi (one who performs ruqya; exorcist)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:claims-require-proof-from-quran-and-sunnah", "label": "a claim about the unseen needs proof from the Quran and Sunnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/6/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/7", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S07", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 7, "start": 2095, "end": 2331, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abuse of women by exorcists, and the duty to seek a real cure for every illness", "question_plain": "Why does the guest warn women never to go to exorcists?", "summary": "The guest says that what happens to women at the hands of exorcists disturbs him most and he advises women never to go to them, calling them people without character who should not exist. He cites a story recorded in an early book [?]: a girl who had lost her virginity before marriage went to such a man, who told her to pretend a jinn had possessed her; when her alarmed family brought her to him he announced that the jinn would leave but must damage something on the way out, and the family chose that it leave through her private parts, so that the loss of virginity was accepted as the jinn's doing. He says many women in India have become pregnant because of these men, who gain the family's trust, are left alone with the women, use perfumes and scents to put them in a different state, and that the same happens on a large scale in this country. He says he tells these stories so that people stop believing such men, who deserve a severe punishment, and gives the right position: people have many illnesses, physical, mental or psychological, and for every illness Allah has made a cure, so one must make the proper effort to find it; if one follows the right procedure and still does not succeed, Allah forgives, but the basic rule is that every illness has a cure that is to be sought.", "summary_short": "Exorcists exploit women: the guest recounts a girl coached to feign possession to hide her lost virginity, and says many women have been made pregnant by such men in India and on a large scale in Britain. Every illness has a cure that must be sought by proper effort.", "answer_start": 2095, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:raqi", "label": "raqi (one who performs ruqya; exorcist)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zina", "label": "zina"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/7/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/8", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S08", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 8, "start": 2331, "end": 2649, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What the Prophet did when ill: Arab doctors, not Fatiha as a cure-all; the misuse of the Quran as medicine", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet use ruqya or doctors when he was ill?", "summary": "The guest asks what the Prophet did when he fell ill, and answers with the report that Aisha, asked how she knew so much medicine when her other knowledge came from the Prophet and her father Abu Bakr, said the Arab doctors who came to treat the Prophet prescribed remedies which she prepared, and so she learnt. If reciting certain words cured illness, he argues, who knew those words better than the Prophet, and why would he and the companions need doctors, and why did Muslims develop medical science? He rejects the reading of the hadith that al-Fatiha is a cure for every illness in that sense, and criticises books of 'treatment by the Quran' prescribing verses for headaches and stomach pains, noting that their authors go to doctors when ill; the Quran was sent to guide people, who are then meant to develop medicine themselves, and this misuse disrespects the book. He cites the Prophet's words that whoever introduces into our religion what is not from it is rejected, allows that the companion who recited al-Fatiha over an afflicted tribesman was cured by Allah's will, and asks why, if al-Fatiha cures, anyone needs a raqi rather than reciting it themselves. Those who invent such practices imply the religion was incomplete when Allah said he had completed it, a great lie against Allah and his Messenger. He concludes that the Quran's verses do help against the whispering of Shaytan, but that one reads them for oneself, understanding their meaning, and needs nobody called a raqi to read for one.", "summary_short": "When the Prophet fell ill Arab doctors treated him, which is how Aisha learnt medicine, so recited verses were never meant as a cure-all and the 'treatment by Quran' books misuse the book. The Quran's verses help against whispering, and one reads them for oneself without any raqi.", "answer_start": 2331, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "fiqh/medical-ethics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:043a7b88", "label": "report: aisha learned medicine from the arab doctors who treated the prophet when he fell ill"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:1:1-7", "label": "Surah al-Fatiha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:66cb0223", "label": "report: a companion recited al-fatiha over an afflicted tribesman and he was cured"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cbddd128", "label": "report: whoever introduces into this matter of ours what is not from it it is rejected"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:3", "label": "Quran 5:3 (today I have completed for you your religion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:raqi", "label": "raqi (one who performs ruqya; exorcist)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/8/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/9", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S09", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 9, "start": 2649, "end": 2963, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Stories of raqis, amulets and shrines: a business of lies that only afflicts those who believe in it", "question_plain": "Why do jinn seem to afflict only people who believe in them?", "summary": "The guest says that in all his life, asking many scholars, he has never found a true story of possession, and gives examples of the tricks. A man who wrote amulets for people wanting a son wrote an ambiguous word that he could read as 'not a girl' if a boy was born and 'not a boy' if a girl was. A relative of his, childless for years, was pressed by the women of the family to visit a raqi; his shaykh told him to wait nine months, within which a child was born, and the shaykh explained that he had sensed the child was coming and that Shaytan wanted the man to go to the raqi so that he would credit him with the son. At a big shrine in India such as Ajmer Sharif [?], he says, visitors are met from the station by people telling them they got a son by coming there; those who then have a son tell everyone and those who do not blame themselves, so the business of lies runs on. He tells of an old woman who did not believe in jinn and beat to death a thief who came disguised as one, and asks why the jinn never trouble him, atheists or non-Muslims but only those of weak belief, especially the ignorant in the villages. He calls it a big lie against Allah and his Messenger, spread to take people's money and the honour of women, for which the punishment will be severe. The segment ends as Mufti Abu Layth begins his session.", "summary_short": "Amulet writers, raqis and shrine touts run a business of lies, as the guest's stories of ambiguous amulets and promised sons show. Jinn never trouble him, atheists or non-Muslims, only those of weak belief, which he calls a lie against Allah and his Messenger that robs people of money and women of honour.", "answer_start": 2649, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:raqi", "label": "raqi (one who performs ruqya; exorcist)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawiz", "label": "ta'wiz (amulet)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ajmer-sharif-dargah", "label": "the shrine of Ajmer Sharif [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawakkul", "label": "tawakkul"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/9/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/10", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S10", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 10, "start": 2963, "end": 3201, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The guest's closing words, and what people mean by 'jinn possession'", "question_plain": "What do people mean when they say someone is possessed by a jinn?", "summary": "The guest finishes his session by asking why the jinn never stop him going to prayer, never afflict atheists or non-Muslims, and only trouble those of weak belief, mostly the ignorant in the villages, and calls the belief a great lie against Allah and his Messenger spread to take people's money and women's honour. Mufti Abu Layth then opens his session by setting out the public perception he intends to deconstruct, stressing that he is not saying it is correct: demons, the shayatin or jinn, are thought to enter the mind or take over the body, after which the person falls ill, develops perceptible mental health problems, obsessive behaviour, breakdowns in relationships, bouts of insanity, screaming, anxiety or catatonic freezing and strange gestures. He asks why the jinn would do this and reports the usual answer: to create mischief (fitna and fasad), destroy relationships and harm the children of Adam. This, he says, is the problem to be deconstructed by going back to the Quran, the authentic Sunnah and the sound voice of reason.", "summary_short": "The popular picture is that a jinn or demon takes over a person's mind or body, causing illness, obsessive or insane behaviour and broken relationships, supposedly to create mischief. Mufti Abu Layth presents this as the urban myth he will test against the Quran, the authentic Sunnah and reason, after the guest's closing call to disbelieve the whole business.", "answer_start": 2963, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest", "host"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitna and fasad (mischief and corruption)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/10/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/11", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S11", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 11, "start": 3201, "end": 3515, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why people traditionally accepted possession: the ulama as the explainers of everything", "question_plain": "Why did Muslim scholars of the past accept the idea of jinn possession?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that possession as people picture it does not exist, and announces that he will show where the confusion comes from in the Quran and Sunnah and then look at psychological perspectives, agreeing with the guest's point that not knowing the cause of a condition does not make it the jinn. The backdrop, he says, is human beings trying to explain their world: historically the most learned people in any society were its religious scholars, monks, Brahmins or ulama, while most people were farmers, and the ulama alone studied mathematics, philosophy, history, poetry and other religions. So the ulama were asked every question, religious or worldly: al-Baqillani [?] debated with Ash'ari and other theologians whether the atom is further divisible, and scholars argued where the aql resides, many saying the heart, citing the Quran's language of hearts that understand, while Abu Hanifa said the brain, against those who followed Greek ideas of humours governing temperament. People brought their problems to these scholars, who did their best to answer with the resources they had, and this, he says, must be kept in mind when asking why the ulama came to accept possession.", "summary_short": "Scholars of the past were the only learned people and were asked to explain everything, from the divisibility of atoms to where the intellect sits, so they explained strange behaviour with the best knowledge they had. That is the backdrop to the confusion over possession, not a proof of it.", "answer_start": 3201, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ulama", "label": "ulama"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (intellect)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baqillani", "label": "Abu Bakr al-Baqillani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam", "label": "the mutakallimun (theologians)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the belief in possession took root because the ulama, as the most learned people in pre-modern societies, were asked to explain every worldly phenomenon and answered as best they could with the knowledge of their time.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "people were coming with normal whatever problems asking these people to explain them and they had took they were trying to come up with some answer to help these people", "start": 3489}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/11/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/12", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S12", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 12, "start": 3515, "end": 3751, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The riba verse and the tree of Jahannam: Quranic imagery misread as proof of possession", "question_plain": "Does the Quran's verse about the touch of Shaytan prove that jinn possess people?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the verse historically debated in this connection, that those who take riba will not stand except as one made unstable by the touch of Shaytan, which supporters of possession cite as proof. He answers that those who took riba were not acting like lunatics but were ordinary people looking after their interests, and that many commentators read the verse as describing how they will rise from their graves on the Day of Judgement, while others read it as a picture of greed so consuming that it is as though they had lost their faculties. To the question why Allah would use the touch of Shaytan as an image if it had no reality, he answers with Ibn Atiyya [?] and others that this is imagery drawing on the imagination of mankind, and compares the verse describing the tree of Jahannam whose fruit emerges as though it were the heads of devils: nobody has seen a devil, so the comparison works only because Allah knows his creation has imagination. He adds that the most frightening thing a person ever encounters is their own imagination, and concludes that this is one of the key verses misused by those who build the narrative of demonic possession.", "summary_short": "No: the riba verse describes how usurers will rise on the Day of Judgement or pictures their greed, and the image of Shaytan's touch is drawn from human imagination, like the tree of Jahannam whose fruit is 'like the heads of devils'. It is a misused verse, not a proof.", "answer_start": 3515, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "quran/tafsir", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:275", "label": "Quran 2:275 (like one whom Shaytan has driven to madness by his touch)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:37:65", "label": "Quran 37:65 (the tree of Jahannam, its fruit like the heads of devils)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-atiyya", "label": "Ibn Atiyya [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-addresses-the-imagination", "label": "Quranic imagery draws on the imagination of its listeners and is not a report of fact"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the riba verse 2:275 describes how such people will rise on the Day of Judgement or pictures their greed, and that like the zaqqum fruit resembling the heads of devils it is imagery drawing on human imagination, not evidence that possession is real.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "imagery that Allah grows upon the imagination of mankind when he's addressing them let's take another example", "start": 3642}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/12/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/13", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S13", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 13, "start": 3751, "end": 4142, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The hadith cited for possession: none free of criticism, and the sound version mentions no jinn", "question_plain": "Are there authentic hadith of the Prophet casting a jinn out of someone?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says not a single hadith cited for possession is free of criticism: many are simply weak, a few rise above that but none is unquestionably sahih, and he asks his listeners to consider that the Prophet, sent as a mercy to mankind, never clearly taught about something that would affect everybody every day. The first report, from Ya'la ibn Murra of Thaqif, who accompanied the Prophet on a journey and said he saw three things nobody else saw, including the Prophet telling a woman's crying child 'come out, enemy of Allah, I am the Messenger of Allah'; its narrators have been criticised, and he finds it absurd that the Prophet would show one man a phenomenon affecting everyone and teach no one else how to protect themselves. The second is Uthman ibn Abi al-As of Thaqif, who came in the delegation of year nine: the sound version in Sahih Muslim has him say only that he struggles with the Quran, and the Prophet taps his chest and sends him to lead his people, who are of mixed abilities, after which the Quran stayed with him; the versions in which he says he has a shaytan and the Prophet spits lightly and commands the enemy of Allah to come out are weak, and al-Nawawi, commenting in Sahih Muslim, says all the versions concern one incident, that nothing in them proves possession, and that his struggle was probably ill health or a touch of pride at leading his people. The third, from a woman who said her grandfather brought an ill child and the Prophet said 'come out, enemy of Allah', is heavily criticised, some calling it weak and some very weak. Nothing sound, he repeats, for so ubiquitous an event.", "summary_short": "None of the hadith cited for possession is free of criticism; the only sound version, Uthman ibn Abi al-As in Sahih Muslim, mentions no jinn, as al-Nawawi notes, and the 'come out, enemy of Allah' reports are weak. The Prophet, a mercy to mankind, would not have left such a thing untaught.", "answer_start": 3751, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "hadith/authentication", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3b47a683", "label": "report: yala ibn murra said i saw three things from the prophet including that he said to a boy come out enemy of allah i am the messenger of allah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yala-ibn-murra", "label": "Ya'la ibn Murra"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:615032d4", "label": "report: uthman ibn abi al-as said i struggle with the quran and the prophet struck his chest and said go and lead your people"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-abi-al-as", "label": "Uthman ibn Abi al-As al-Thaqafi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-ibn-majah", "label": "Sunan Ibn Majah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabarani", "label": "al-Tabarani"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0daa52d4", "label": "report: a woman related that her grandfather brought an afflicted child and the prophet said come out enemy of allah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:daif", "label": "da'if (weak)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahih", "label": "sahih"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says not a single hadith cited for possession is free of criticism, that the sound version of Uthman ibn Abi al-As's report in Sahih Muslim mentions no jinn, as al-Nawawi notes, and that a Prophet sent as a mercy would not have left a phenomenon affecting everyone untaught.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "he never transmits this he doesn't teach people about this and think think about it this is going to impact us all every day and he forgets to tell us", "start": 3869}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/13/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/14", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S14", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 14, "start": 4142, "end": 4534, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reason as the arbiter the Quran itself invokes, and 'Shaytan flows in the blood' read in its context", "question_plain": "Does the hadith that Shaytan flows in a person's blood prove possession?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the most important point is one made earlier and by scholars such as al-Razi [?]: we only know whether something is accurate through reason. People's logic today is to accept a claim because 'it says so in the Quran', but the Quran did not invite people by saying 'believe me because I said so'; it tells them to look at the camel and the sky, asks whether they do not reflect, demands proof, and condemns those who answer a call to reason by saying this is what our forefathers did. So reason is how he accepts the Quran, and such issues must be bounced back on the voice of reason through the Quran; if a person approached the Quran in a vacuum, without cultural baggage, they would not find possession in it, and people in the past used the best explanation they had for strange behaviour. He notes that our understanding comes from textual, rational, experiential and cultural sources. He then takes the hadith much used by exorcists, that Shaytan flows in the son of Adam like blood, and shows its context: the Prophet, walking with his wife Safiyya, passed two men and turned back to tell them it was his wife; when they protested that he need not explain, he said this. Nobody there was possessed or behaving strangely; the Prophet was speaking of human suspicion and insinuation. He adds that exorcism is a multi-million pound industry, though not everyone in it is devious: many raqis may be sincere and have simply bought into the idea.", "summary_short": "No: the Prophet said it to two men who saw him with his wife Safiyya, about human suspicion, and nobody present was possessed. The Quran itself appeals to reason and proof, so possession must be tested by reason, which someone reading the Quran without cultural baggage would never find in it.", "answer_start": 4142, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "al-Razi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (intellect)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:88:17-18", "label": "Quran 88:17-18 (do they not look at the camel, how it was created, and at the sky)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:94440e0b", "label": "report: the shaytan flows in the son of adam like blood said when two men saw the prophet with safiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya bint Huyayy"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sources-of-knowledge", "label": "knowledge comes from textual, rational, experiential and cultural sources"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:raqi", "label": "raqi (one who performs ruqya; exorcist)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Quran itself calls people to reason rather than to belief on its own say-so, so a claim like possession must be tested against reason, and that the hadith of Shaytan flowing in the blood concerns human suspicion, as its Safiyya context shows, not possession.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the Quran itself comes with this understanding that look you have to resort to reason", "start": 4255}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/14/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/15", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S15", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 15, "start": 4534, "end": 4768, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'But my uncle experienced it': why only our experiences count, and reason switched off for one's own faith", "question_plain": "People I know have seen jinn possession; does that not prove it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when told possession does not exist, most people do not cite a hadith but an anecdote, an uncle, an aunt or a friend who witnessed it, and asks why only our experiences count. We dismiss other faiths' experiences out of hand: he cites Satya Sai Baba, who claimed miracles before millions of attesting followers, whom no Muslim would entertain for a second; we reason against the Trinity by saying three cannot equal one, and call Hindu mythology absurd, not because Allah says so but because it makes no sense, yet when the same kind of claim comes Islamicised, reason shuts down and 'I experienced it' ends the matter. He notes, as the guest had said, that possession seems to afflict only those who believe in it, never atheists or non-Muslims. He reports a study in which people's brain activity was measured during their own religious ceremonies and sermons: researchers expected to find positive neurotransmitters released but instead found activity in the prefrontal cortex, the seat of rational thought, shutting down, so that people block their own reasoning when it comes to their own faith.", "summary_short": "Anecdotal experience is no proof: Muslims dismiss other faiths' miracle claims by reason while refusing to reason about their own, and possession afflicts only those who believe in it. A brain study found the prefrontal cortex shutting down during people's own religious experiences.", "answer_start": 4534, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:satya-sai-baba", "label": "Satya Sai Baba"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:one-standard-for-all-religions", "label": "one set of standards: judge Islam's claims by the same test applied to other religions"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (intellect)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims accept anecdotal experiences of possession while dismissing other faiths' miracle claims by reason, that possession seems to afflict only those who believe in it, and that people switch off their reasoning for their own faith.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the question is why only our experiences why not everybody's experiences why not other faiths", "start": 4566}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/15/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/16", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S16", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 16, "start": 4768, "end": 5086, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The 'jinn' as a one-size-fits-all paradigm: the cyborg story and Basil Mitchell's partisan", "question_plain": "How do we know mental illnesses are not really jinn possessions?", "summary": "To the objection that mental illnesses might really be possessions, Mufti Abu Layth offers an allegory: a child asks its mother why things happen and she, lacking answers, invents a conspiracy of cyborgs behind everything; the child trusts her and can now explain earthquakes, politicians and anything else by the cyborgs. One paradigm that explains everything is not thereby true, and the jinn are the Muslim version: a person rejects the message because the jinn influenced him, a mental illness was the jinn, magic was the jinn, a paradigm so plastic it stretches to fit anything. From the philosophy of religion he recounts Basil Mitchell's parable of the partisan and the stranger: a stranger wins a resistance fighter's trust by claiming to be the movement's leader and warns him that he will be seen acting against the cause, which is all part of the plan; once the partisan has bought in, nothing the stranger says or does, even confessing that it was all a lie for money, can shake him. This is non-propositional faith: evidence and reason no longer matter because everything contrary is 'part of the test' or 'Shaytan tricking me', so there is no way to win against it. He says this is why the topic matters, beginning with the mockery it makes of Islam and its Messenger.", "summary_short": "A theory that explains everything, like a child's cyborg conspiracy, is not thereby true, and 'the jinn' is such a theory for Muslims. Like Basil Mitchell's partisan who rationalises everything the stranger does, this is non-propositional faith that no evidence can reach.", "answer_start": 4768, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:basil-mitchell", "label": "Basil Mitchell"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:non-propositional-faith", "label": "non-propositional faith (Basil Mitchell)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that explaining anything unexplained by the jinn is a one-size-fits-all paradigm like a child's conspiracy theory or Basil Mitchell's partisan, a non-propositional faith that no evidence or reason can touch.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "if you've just got one version to answer everything then yes you can do that but it doesn't make it true", "start": 4839}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/16/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/17", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S17", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 17, "start": 5086, "end": 5245, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The tyranny of abuse in the name of possession, and Islam left to carry the blame", "question_plain": "What harm does belief in jinn possession do?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the second reason the topic must be tackled is the tyranny of abuse conducted under this belief: beyond the stories the guest told, countless cases of beatings, violence, sexual violence, power structures destroying lives and families, exploitation and embezzlement, people charged a thousand pounds a session, and a case he was told of in which a person was advised to cure the 'evil' on their house by giving the house away in the name of Allah, preferably to the shaykh, and did so. Because the abuse has been Islamicised, he says, Islam will take the brunt: if not this generation then our children will dismiss Islam as mythology like the Greek or Hindu gods, since it defies reason. Turning to what we cannot explain, he introduces the psychiatric distinction between neurosis, the odd beliefs and behaviours everyone has to some degree while still behaving normally in public, and psychosis, where a person cannot snap out of it, as the frame for the case studies that follow.", "summary_short": "Belief in possession sustains beatings, sexual violence, exploitation and the extraction of money and even houses, and because it is dressed as Islam, Islam will be dismissed as mythology by the coming generation. Neurosis and psychosis are introduced as the frame for the psychological cases.", "answer_start": 5086, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:raqi", "label": "raqi (one who performs ruqya; exorcist)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the belief in possession must be tackled because it mocks Islam and its Prophet and sustains a tyranny of abuse, from beatings and sexual violence to the extraction of money and property, and that Islam will be left to carry the blame as mythology.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "what's going to take the brunt of in the end is Islam so people will just say you know what Islam is just a load of nonsense", "start": 5144}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/17/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/18", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S18", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 18, "start": 5245, "end": 5480, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Palinopsia and Charles Bonnet syndrome: seeing people and teeth that are not there", "question_plain": "Could seeing figures or faces that are not there be a brain condition rather than a jinn?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says psychology does not have all the answers but has some that shed light on things people in the past could only explain as demons. He describes palinopsia, in which after-images persist abnormally so that a person who looks at a phone and then away still sees the phone, and asks how a villager a few hundred years ago would have explained seeing someone in several places. He then describes Charles Bonnet syndrome, in which the fusiform gyrus, the part of the brain that processes faces, teeth, geometric shapes and buildings, becomes overactive, often in people losing sight or hearing, so that they see strange buildings and people with stretched faces and long teeth. He recounts the neurologist Oliver Sacks talking to a woman who saw men in Eastern dress with long teeth: asked whether they tried to harm her, she said no, she knew they were not real though she could see them like a film, which distinguishes her from psychosis, where the sufferer believes they are being attacked. Scans show the teeth-processing area activating, and drugs can suppress it; in the past, he says, someone reporting teeth, people and buildings would have had no explanation but a demon.", "summary_short": "Yes: palinopsia makes after-images persist and Charles Bonnet syndrome makes an overactive fusiform gyrus produce faces, teeth and buildings, as Oliver Sacks's patient saw men with long teeth while knowing they were not real. In the past such visions could only be explained as demons.", "answer_start": 5245, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:oliver-sacks", "label": "Oliver Sacks"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says conditions such as palinopsia and Charles Bonnet syndrome show how abnormalities in the brain produce visions of people and shapes that someone in the past could only have explained as demons.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "how would I explain that in the past what an abnormality in the brain no maybe you're a demon I see you in many places", "start": 5337}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/18/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/19", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S19", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 19, "start": 5480, "end": 5716, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why exorcisms seem to work: placebo, nocebo and Ted Kaptchuk's sham acupuncture", "question_plain": "If someone got better after ruqya or an exorcism, does that prove it worked?", "summary": "To the claim that people get better after ruqya, Mufti Abu Layth answers with the placebo effect and its opposite, the nocebo effect, which causes real harm from the belief that something harmful is happening, both tested in trials. He describes a study by Ted Kaptchuk, a medical professor at Harvard, on about two hundred and seventy people with wrist, elbow and shoulder pain: half received a pill, actually cornstarch, with a warning about side effects, and half received acupuncture; about a third of the pill group reported the warned side effects, some severely, from sluggishness to excruciating pain, nausea and dizziness, while many more of the acupuncture group reported great relief. Both were shams, since the needles were retractable and never entered the skin, yet the pain, insomnia and vomiting were real, which is psychosomatic illness and recovery. So when people go through exorcisms or ruqya and improve, it can work in this sense, or, as the guest said, they would have got better anyway; like a scam run on enough people, some will always recover and be counted as cures.", "summary_short": "Not necessarily: the placebo and nocebo effects produce real relief and real symptoms, as Kaptchuk's trial with cornstarch pills and retractable needles showed. Some patients would also have recovered anyway and are counted as cures.", "answer_start": 5480, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ted-kaptchuk", "label": "Ted Kaptchuk"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:harvard-university", "label": "Harvard University"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that apparent cures through ruqya or exorcism can be explained by the placebo and nocebo effects, which Ted Kaptchuk's sham acupuncture trial showed produce real symptoms and real relief, or by people who would have recovered anyway.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's called psychosomatic behavior when you actually can get ill it's called the nocebo effect and the placebo effect where you can actually get better", "start": 5645}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/19/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/20", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S20", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 20, "start": 5716, "end": 5872, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What ruqya is for: a cure for what is in the hearts, and a scaffolding for a people prone to superstition", "question_plain": "If jinn do not possess people, what is ruqya for?", "summary": "Asked what the purpose of ruqya is, Mufti Abu Layth says the verse calling the Quran a shifa must be read in full: it is a cure for what is in the hearts, meaning not heart disease but disbelief, superstition and myths, the very things Islam came to eradicate. As for why the Prophet taught ruqya and du'as at all, he says Allah knows his creation and how he helps it is not always understood by us, but that these things work as a scaffolding to support people until their iman is stable, because humans fall into superstitious behaviour very easily. He cites a finding from Kaptchuk's work that rituals and drugs use the same biochemical pathways in the brain, so that the mind clings to ritual, and gives the example of the companions asking the Prophet about omens: rather than simply telling them to relax, he taught them a du'a with an almost ritual rhythm, 'O Allah, there is no omen but your omen, no good but your good and no god but you', because people need such a Zimmer frame to walk until they can walk on their own towards pure iman.", "summary_short": "The Quran is a cure for what is in the hearts, meaning disbelief and superstition, and ruqya and the taught du'as are a scaffolding to steady people's iman because humans cling to ritual and fall easily into superstition. The du'a against omens shows the Prophet using this method.", "answer_start": 5716, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:10:57", "label": "Quran 10:57 (a cure for what is in the hearts)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d938d7f6", "label": "report: o allah there is no omen but your omen and no good but your good and no god but you"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tiyara", "label": "tiyara (belief in omens)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ted-kaptchuk", "label": "Ted Kaptchuk"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Quran's healing is for what is in the hearts, meaning disbelief and superstition, and that ruqya and the taught du'as are a scaffolding Allah gave to steady people's iman because humans fall easily into superstition.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so it is a scaffolding it's like a Zimmer frame to help you walk until you can walk", "start": 5836}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/20/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/21", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S21", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 21, "start": 5872, "end": 6348, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "From face blindness to foreign accent syndrome: the 'jinn of the gaps'", "question_plain": "Could strange symptoms blamed on jinn have medical explanations?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth lists neurological conditions and asks how people in the past would have explained each: prosopagnosia, or face blindness, in which the facial area of the fusiform gyrus fails so that a person recognises a voice but not the face, found in some two percent of people from birth and in stroke patients; mirror-touch synaesthesia, in which one feels the touch or pain one sees another receive; phantom limbs that still hurt after amputation; alien hand syndrome, in which a limb seems to act of its own will, which 'the jinn controlling it' would conveniently explain; the Capgras delusion, in which a loved one is believed to have been replaced by an identical impostor; hemispatial neglect after a stroke, in which half the world is not processed, so that patients eat half a plate or draw half a clock; aphantasia, as in a man who lost the ability to visualise anything after surgery; exploding head syndrome, hearing a loud bang that is not real; and foreign accent syndrome, in which people wake from an incident speaking in an accent they never had, which neurologists still cannot explain. Not knowing the cause, he says, does not mean the cause cannot be known: atheists accuse believers of a 'God of the gaps', and this is a 'jinn of the gaps'. He closes with the hadith that Allah sent no disease without a cure, known to those who know it and unknown to those who do not, which he reads as a command to go and find it.", "summary_short": "Yes: face blindness, mirror-touch synaesthesia, phantom limbs, alien hand syndrome, the Capgras delusion, hemispatial neglect, aphantasia and foreign accent syndrome are all documented conditions that the past could only call demons. Blaming the unexplained on jinn is a 'jinn of the gaps'; the Prophet's hadith on cures says go and find the knowledge.", "answer_start": 5872, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4d5b5008", "label": "report: allah did not send down a disease without sending down its cure those who know it know it and those who do not do not"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:god-of-the-gaps-fallacy", "label": "the 'god of the gaps' fallacy, here the 'jinn of the gaps'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the many neurological conditions science now describes, from prosopagnosia to foreign accent syndrome, show that attributing the unexplained to jinn is a 'jinn of the gaps' fallacy, and that the Prophet's hadith on cures tells people to seek the knowledge.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "in this phenomenon this is like the Djinn of the gaps like the moment we don't know anything it's the Djinn", "start": 6294}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/21/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/22", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S22", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 22, "start": 6348, "end": 6505, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Dissociative disorders, trauma and control: why 'possession' clusters among women in the community", "question_plain": "Why are so many 'possessed' people in the community women?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that cases such as multiple personality disorder, now called dissociative identity disorder, which would have looked like possession in the past, occur in our communities more often among women, and that these women usually have backgrounds of trauma, abuse and tragedy. He describes the pressures: not only segregation but excessive control, girls forbidden what boys are allowed, constant suspicion about whom they talk to, arranged and sometimes forced marriages or the emotional blackmail that amounts to force, marriage to cousins they grew up with and may not be attracted to, and, in many families when his generation grew up, severe beatings of children, though he hopes this has reduced in Britain. Under such torment, he says, the psyche copes by breaking down into these disorders and reacting strangely, just as the body reacts when something is done to it, and he asks why anyone would expect the brain not to react.", "summary_short": "Dissociative disorders that look like possession occur mostly among women with histories of trauma, excessive control, pressured or forced marriages and childhood beatings. The psyche breaks down under such treatment just as the body reacts to injury.", "answer_start": 6348, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "wellbeing/trauma-and-healing", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that dissociative disorders in the community occur more often among women with backgrounds of trauma, excessive control, forced or pressured marriages and beatings, and that the psyche breaks down under such treatment as the body would, which is what gets called possession.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "a lot of these cases happen usually more so than more often in our communities amongst women and they these people have a background of trauma abuse", "start": 6373}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/22/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/23", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S23", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 23, "start": 6505, "end": 6662, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The stigma against mental illness, and why a jinn is not a rival in love: a different domain of life", "question_plain": "Could a jinn fall in love with my spouse and break up my marriage?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims take such offence at the suggestion of a mental health problem, 'my mum is not mental', that they prefer to say it is the jinn or magic, and that broken relationships are blamed on jinn sent to interfere. Even if one considers what the jinn are, he says, they would belong to a different domain of life: biologists divide life into Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya, the last including all animals and plants, and Archaea, perhaps the most ancient life, are microscopic single cells without nuclei that survive extreme heat, freezing and space and need no oxygen or photosynthesis. He is not saying jinn are Archaea, but if the Quran says the jinn were created from fire, the parallel would be with such extremophiles, utterly unlike the plant and animal life humans belong to. So the idea that a jinn fell in love with one's wife and ruined the marriage is like saying a bacterium is jealous of one's relationship; jinn are not even the same domain, let alone species, and do not work like humans.", "summary_short": "No: a jinn, created from fire, would belong to a domain of life as alien to us as extremophile bacteria, which do not fall in love or envy marriages. Blaming jinn or magic for a failed relationship comes from the stigma Muslims attach to mental illness.", "answer_start": 6505, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "wellbeing/depression-and-anxiety", "relationships/marriage"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:15:27", "label": "Quran 15:27 (the jinn created before from the fire of scorching wind)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sihr", "label": "sihr (magic)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims' stigma against mental illness pushes them to blame jinn or magic, and that jinn, if considered at all, belong to a different domain of life from humans, like extremophile Archaea, so they do not fall in love or wreck marriages.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so offended if you say this could be a mental health issue so what do you mean like my mom my mom ain't mental", "start": 6505}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/23/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/24", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S24", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 24, "start": 6662, "end": 6974, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Taking responsibility for relationships, and the exorcist whose 'jinn' confessed to loving him", "question_plain": "How does Mufti Abu Layth explain an exorcist who speaks as his own jinn?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people must take responsibility when a relationship fails rather than blame the jinn, correcting himself that 'messing up' is the wrong word: people fall in and out of relationships, that is human, and we look for something to blame because we measure success by an image of what a relationship ought to be. He recounts a case he has described before: years ago he interviewed a very religious exorcist, with an extraordinarily long beard and the dress and reputation of a raqi, whose own 'jinn' came into character during the conversation and spoke with him for over an hour, giving a name, an origin in Kashmir and an age of five hundred years, and explaining that it was far from home because it loved the exorcist, in a sexual sense, and was homosexual. Mufti reads this as displacement of guilt, as psychoanalysts explain: a man of God who finds himself with homosexual tendencies cannot own them, so he projects them onto a jinn and chastises it, so that when he thinks this way it is the jinn and when he is in control it is himself. He stresses that the man was not lying but genuinely believed the story he had constructed, which does not make it true, and concludes that the 'jinn of the gaps' is nonsensical, makes religion a joke and leaves the real abuse untouched. He begins to answer why one cannot simply sit on the fence, naming scholars quoted by the guest who denied possession.", "summary_short": "The exorcist's 'jinn', which declared its love for him, is read as displacement of guilt: a religious man projecting feelings he could not own onto a jinn, believing it sincerely without it being true. People must own their failed relationships instead of blaming jinn.", "answer_start": 6662, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "wellbeing/islamic-psychology"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:raqi", "label": "raqi (one who performs ruqya; exorcist)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:god-of-the-gaps-fallacy", "label": "the 'god of the gaps' fallacy, here the 'jinn of the gaps'"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the exorcist whose 'jinn' professed love for him was displacing his own guilt by projecting feelings he could not own onto a jinn, sincerely but not truly, and that the 'jinn of the gaps' is nonsensical, makes religion a joke and leaves real abuse untouched.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "to say it's the Djinn of the gaps is is nonsensical it's absurd and it makes religion into a joke and beyond that it doesn't tackle the greater issues of abuse", "start": 6915}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/24/"}, {"id": "7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/25", "short_id": "2017-09-20-S25", "recording": "7z8yu8Kr83Y", "n": 25, "start": 6974, "end": 7089, "date": "20170920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why he refuses a diplomatic 'two opinions' stance on jinn possession", "question_plain": "Why not treat jinn possession as just a difference of opinion among scholars?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth names scholars who rejected possession, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Abu Ya'la [?] of the Hanbalis, the Mu'tazila, and within the Sunni mainstream in recent times Mustafa al-Maraghi, the great Shaykh of al-Azhar, Ibn Ashur the famous commentator and al-Shawkani in his tafsir, and takes the objection that since Ibn Taymiyya and others affirmed it, the matter should be left as two opinions. He answers that this is not like raising or not raising the hands in prayer, a harmless difference where each may follow his view; this opinion results in mass exploitation and unleashes a tyranny of abuse, a multi-million pound industry rides on it, religion is ridiculed for believing in demons in the twenty-first century, and the Prophet Muhammad is ridiculed as a consequence. For these reasons he refuses to take a diplomatic stance: the abuse is unacceptable and must be brought to an end, and the understanding presented must be popularised, which he hopes those present and those who watch later will help to do. He closes the session.", "summary_short": "Because it is not a harmless difference like raising the hands in prayer: belief in possession underwrites mass exploitation, a multi-million pound industry and ridicule of Islam and its Prophet. Al-Razi, al-Maraghi, Ibn Ashur and al-Shawkani are among those who denied it, and the abuse must end.", "answer_start": 6974, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yala-al-farra", "label": "Abu Ya'la al-Farra [?] (Hanbali)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mustafa-al-maraghi", "label": "Mustafa al-Maraghi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:raf-al-yadayn", "label": "raf' al-yadayn (raising the hands in prayer)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth refuses a diplomatic stance that treats possession as one of two valid opinions, because unlike a difference over raising the hands in prayer this belief underwrites mass exploitation and abuse and brings ridicule on Islam and its Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is why i refuse to have a diplomatic stance on this that this abuse is unacceptable it needs to be brought to an end", "start": 7029}}, "url": "/r/7z8yu8Kr83Y/s/25/"}, {"id": "8JX1u0qQYAE/s/1", "short_id": "2020-01-14-S01", "recording": "8JX1u0qQYAE", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 176, "date": "20200114", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is DMT haram? DMT as an entheogen", "question_plain": "Is DMT haram?", "summary": "Asked for his thoughts on DMT, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think DMT is haram and personally thinks it is awesome, possibly a gateway into the realm of consciousness, which is how he understands the spiritual, since he sees the ruh as consciousness. He finds it disappointing that many countries make it illegal, citing lectures by experts who showed no recorded deaths from it and noting that the body has natural receptors for DMT. Mufti says the British government should review its drug policy, comparing DMT with alcohol, which causes many deaths, and calls DMT an entheogen meant to connect people with God rather than a recreational drug. He says it is not for everybody and he does not advocate that everyone take it, as it can be overwhelming, and he holds the same for psilocybin in mushrooms: such psychoactive substances are not haram, though they may be matters of legality and health.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says DMT is not haram and calls it an entheogen, though it is not for everyone; legality and health are separate questions. He holds the same for psilocybin.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dmt", "label": "DMT"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:entheogen", "label": "entheogen"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:psilocybin", "label": "psilocybin"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh", "label": "ruh (soul) as consciousness"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think DMT is haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "things like DMT may be the hidden cheats in this world a gateway into the realm of consciousness I'm very intrigued by these things I don't think they're Haram", "start": 38}}, "url": "/r/8JX1u0qQYAE/s/1/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/1", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S01", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 234, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Introduction: the Sunni Defence live session and its charge of an 'attack on the Sunnah'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says a link was sent to him to a YouTube live session, by three men he could make out, dedicated to refuting him, and that since it was dedicated to him he watched it. He says it focused on one of his Q&A videos in which he discussed certain miracles he believes to be unestablished, in particular the report of the tree crying, where he quoted versions from Jabir and other Companions and showed problems in their chains. He describes the tone: respectful at first, then cursing and mockery about him begging for money, which he says he is used to. He reports that they titled the session 'Mufti Abu Layth's attack on the Sunnah' and raised objections he now wants to go through, and that people have asked him to respond. Before doing so he says he must give a backdrop, noting that the critics ignored entirely what he said about blasphemy. The segment includes calls to the moderators and to viewers to like and share.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces a live-streamed refutation of his video on the crying-tree report, titled an 'attack on the Sunnah', and says he will respond after giving the backdrop.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ee4de6d9", "label": "report: the tree crying for the prophet"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jabir-ibn-abdullah", "label": "Jabir ibn Abdullah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/1/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/2", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S02", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 2, "start": 234, "end": 470, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The two points of the original video: one set of standards for every religion", "question_plain": "Why does he reject the hadith of the tree crying for the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls the two key points of the video under attack. The first was why the crying-tree narration is problematic. The second was a challenge to those who called him disrespectful: since they claim to love the Prophet, he urged them to reject the teachings circulated by Muslims that the Prophet became clumsy under a magic spell, that he was sexually impotent, that he married and had relations with a child, that he ordered the execution of people he disliked, and that Moses ran around naked. He says the critics attacked his first point and affirmed all of these teachings, which he will come to. He then explains why he calls the teaching problematic even before the chains: the religion is built on reason, and one cannot call a god with an elephant's head or the Trinity absurd while accepting that a tree reasoned, understood and cried. He says one must apply a single set of standards and put Islam to the same test, otherwise one is creating a fairy-tale religion, and that only after this did he problematise the chains.", "summary_short": "The religion is built on reason, so one standard must apply to all religions: a tree that reasons and cries cannot be accepted while other faiths' claims are called absurd. He also urged his critics to reject the demeaning reports about the Prophet, which they instead affirmed.", "answer_start": 312, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ee4de6d9", "label": "report: the tree crying for the prophet"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:one-standard-for-all-religions", "label": "one set of standards: judge Islam's claims by the same test applied to other religions"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "the religion is built on reason; reports contrary to reason are problematic"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the religion is built on reason, so a Muslim must apply one set of standards: a report that a tree reasoned and cried cannot be accepted while the claims of other religions are rejected as absurd.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you must have one set of standards and you must put Islam to that test as well then you are true in your faith", "start": 384}}, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/2/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/3", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S03", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 3, "start": 470, "end": 629, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Who Sunni Defence are, and miracles as a spectrum that never defies God's laws", "question_plain": "Does he believe in miracles?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth identifies the critics as the Sunni Defence channel, which is dedicated to refuting the Shia and, he says, suspended that work to focus on him. He reports a comment under their post asking why a channel set up to refute the Shia is obsessing over him for holding different opinions when, the commenter said, people are accusing Aisha of grave things and whether a tree cried is irrelevant. He then restates the key point he has made several times: miracles exist, on a spectrum, but he does not believe there was ever a miracle that defied God's own laws, since it would be absurd for Allah to defy His own laws; very rare events can happen, but they always have an explanation and a means through nature and the laws of physics, whether known or not, because this world is a world of causes. He closes by saying he assumes the three men, whom he mocks as the three stooges, are Salafis, and turns to the Salafi movement.", "summary_short": "Yes, miracles exist on a spectrum, but none ever defies God's own laws. Rare events can occur, but they always have a cause and a natural explanation, whether or not it is known.", "answer_start": 550, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:miracles-do-not-defy-natural-law", "label": "miracles never defy God's laws; they have causes within nature"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:asbab", "label": "asbab (causes)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that miracles exist on a spectrum but that no miracle ever defied God's own laws: rare events can happen, but they always have a cause and a means through nature and the laws of physics, whether or not it is known.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I believe that yes miracles is there like a spectrum okay so miracles did exist but what do miracles mean I don't believe there was ever a miracle that defies God's laws", "start": 539}}, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/3/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/4", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S04", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 4, "start": 629, "end": 863, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Salafi movement from iconoclasm to dogmatism; narrator criticism is a human science", "question_plain": "How does he view the Salafi movement, and is hadith narrator criticism a divine science?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafi movement rose on a sympathetic appeal: do not follow tradition or numbers, look at the evidence, be objective. He says he personally respected the courage of this iconoclastic beginning. He describes how, in his account, the movement rejected the four Sunni schools and made up its own positions, then went against the almost universal Ash'ari and Maturidi creed of the Ummah in favour of a literalist Hanbali creed, dismissing figures such as Ibn Hajar, Ibn al-Salah [?] and al-Nawawi [?] with 'it doesn't matter, we go with evidence'. Once established, he says, they resorted to the same dogmatic numbers game and became the oppressor they rose against, as revolutionary movements through history have done; the Salafis, he says, have become the Frankenstein they warned against. He then makes a short further point: the science of narrator criticism (ilm al-rijal) is not divine but man-made, since everyone knows the critique of chains comes through men, so it is always open to improvement, disagreement and different later opinions.", "summary_short": "The Salafi movement began as a courageous rejection of tradition but, once established, became as dogmatic as what it opposed. Narrator criticism is a human science, so it is always open to revision and disagreement.", "answer_start": 629, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi movement"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali creed"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Ash'ari and Maturidi creed"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-salah", "label": "Ibn al-Salah [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jarh-wa-tadil", "label": "ilm al-rijal (narrator criticism, jarh wa ta'dil)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:narrator-criticism-is-a-human-science", "label": "narrator criticism is man-made, not divine, and so open to revision"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafi movement, having begun as a courageous iconoclastic rejection of tradition, became as dogmatic as what it opposed once established, and that narrator criticism (ilm al-rijal) is a human science open to revision and disagreement rather than a divine one.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "it is not a divine science it is something that men have come up with", "start": 846}}, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/4/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/5", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S05", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 5, "start": 863, "end": 1023, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Al-Albani also criticised reports in Bukhari; how the salaf understood the Quran's miracles", "question_plain": "Is it acceptable to criticise a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari?", "summary": "Answering the complaint that he critiqued reports in Sahih al-Bukhari, Mufti Abu Layth says al-Albani criticised close to a dozen hadith in Bukhari, classed them as weak and rejected them, among them the Ibn Abbas report in the two Sahihs that Maymuna married the Prophet while he was in the state of ihram, which al-Albani held unacceptable because false. He says that when al-Albani does this it is fine, but when someone else criticises a report in Bukhari he must be a deviant. He announces that he will go through the critics' points and also wants to address the marriage of Safiyya [?] to the Prophet and how it is misconstrued by non-Muslims and some Muslims. After calls to share the stream, he responds to incoming questions about miracles: the way people understand the miracles in the Quran today is a view standardised over time, and the salaf differed greatly in how they understood them; other views that belong to the salaf exist even if they never reached the questioner. He repeats that miracles, when they happened, had causes and did not go against God's law of nature.", "summary_short": "Al-Albani himself rejected around a dozen reports in Bukhari, so criticising a Bukhari report does not make someone a deviant. The salaf understood the Quran's miracles in several ways, and miracles had causes within God's natural law.", "answer_start": 863, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f204a3cd", "label": "report: maymuna married the prophet while he was in ihram"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ihram", "label": "ihram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that criticising reports in Sahih al-Bukhari cannot make a person a deviant when al-Albani rejected around a dozen of them, and that the salaf understood the Quran's miracles in several ways, miracles always having causes within God's law of nature.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "criticized several hadith in Bukhari probably just close to a dozen or so and clasp them as weak and rejected them", "start": 863}}, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/5/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/6", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S06", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 6, "start": 1023, "end": 1181, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Attack on the Sunnah': hadith versus Sunnah in the school of Madinah, and Malik rejecting hadith", "question_plain": "Does the Maliki school distinguish between hadith and Sunnah, and did Imam Malik ever reject a hadith?", "summary": "Turning to the critics' title, Mufti Abu Layth says that in his lecture he stated that the school of Madinah of Imam Malik differentiates between hadith and Sunnah: the school wholeheartedly embraces the Sunnah and is critical when it comes to hadith, a distinction he says the Salafis do not make but the Hanafi school and Malik's school did. He calls the title a misleading way to attack someone. To the claim that he misquoted Imam Malik and that Malik never rejected a hadith, he replies that Malik rejected several reports presented to him, saying on many occasions that the practice in Madinah did not reflect them, and gives the example of the report about the dog licking the vessel, of which Malik said he did not know its reality [?]. He then addresses the critics' first point, that he showed weakness in the reports while making out that all the hadith scholars agreed with him: he says he very clearly stated that there was a difference of opinion and that he was going with the view of the critic he quoted, and asks why he must follow whom they follow when, on fiqh, they tell people not to blind-follow and, on creed, not to go with the majority.", "summary_short": "Yes: the school of Madinah embraces the Sunnah while remaining critical of individual hadith, and Imam Malik rejected several reports when the practice of Madinah did not reflect them. He says he stated clearly that scholars differed on the report's grading.", "answer_start": 1023, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "fiqh/maliki-school", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "amal ahl al-Madinah (the practice of Madinah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:07d42a1a", "label": "report: the dog licking the vessel and malik said we do not know its reality"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-distinguished-from-hadith", "label": "the Sunnah is distinguished from hadith: embrace the Sunnah, be critical of hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the school of Madinah distinguishes hadith from Sunnah, embracing the Sunnah while remaining critical of individual hadith, and that Imam Malik did reject several hadith when the practice of Madinah did not reflect them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I said that the school of Medina in mal Malik differentiates between hadith and Sunnah we wholeheartedly embraced the Sunnah we are critical when it comes to hadith", "start": 1023}}, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/6/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/7", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S07", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 7, "start": 1181, "end": 1482, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Not a democracy: a narrator's grading, 'Bukhari said sahih, who are you', and the claim of tawatur", "question_plain": "Can a hadith narrated by Jabir alone be mutawatir?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth finishes his first reply: the critics say not to follow the majority on fiqh or creed but demand the majority on hadith, and he asks why hadith grading should be a democracy. He then takes up a clip in which he quoted a critic's weakening of a narrator in one chain [?]; the critics, he says, googled the name, found that other critics such as Abu Zur'a [?] called him reliable, and accused him of hiding this. He replies that he actually said in the clip that even if others graded the narrator reliable, the critic he cited said otherwise, so they should pay attention before making things up. He mocks their method of asking each other whether a report is sahih, and answers the objection 'Imam Bukhari said it was sahih, who are you' by saying he is showing the hidden defects according to other hadith scholars and asking why their opinion should be worth more than his. To the claim that the hadith from Jabir is mutawatir, he says mutawatir means so many transmissions that a lie is impossible, which cannot be through Jabir alone, and that the report is not even sahih. The segment ends with a jibe at critics who overdo Arabic pronunciation to lend themselves authenticity, before he turns to the chains they quoted.", "summary_short": "No: mutawatir requires so many transmissions that a lie is impossible, which a report from Jabir alone cannot be, and he says the report is not even sahih. He defends following the critics who weakened the narrator rather than those who graded him reliable.", "answer_start": 1181, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jabir-ibn-abdullah", "label": "Jabir ibn Abdullah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-zura", "label": "Abu Zur'a [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ilal", "label": "'ilal (hidden defects in a chain)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:truth-not-decided-by-numbers", "label": "hadith grading is not a democracy; the majority does not decide"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says hadith grading is not settled by a majority, so that he is entitled to follow the hadith critic who weakened a narrator rather than those who graded him reliable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "why should I go with majority why I mean why is this a democracy all of a sudden", "start": 1181}}, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/7/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/8", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S08", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 8, "start": 1482, "end": 1875, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Anas chain: Hammad ibn Salama from Thabit from Anas, and who was most reliable from Anas", "question_plain": "Is the chain Hammad ibn Salama from Thabit from Anas for the crying-tree hadith sound?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the first chain the critics said he left out, which they called the most authentic from Anas: Hammad ibn Salama from Thabit from Anas, Thabit being, in their words, the most reliable transmitter from Anas. He notes they did not quote the full chain but lets that pass. He says critics record that Hammad ibn Salama's memory deteriorated at the end of his life, and that Ali ibn al-Madini transmits from Yahya ibn Sa'id that Hammad taught before and after his memory failed and people could not distinguish the two, which he calls the first problem. On Thabit, he says Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani would not take his hadith, as Ibn Adi transmits; that Abu Dawud [?], asked who was most reliable from Anas, named Qatada, not Thabit; that Abu Hatim al-Razi ranked al-Zuhri, then Qatada, then Thabit; and that al-Khatib al-Baghdadi [?] records Ibn al-Madini or Imam Ahmad [?] being asked whether Thabit or Humayd al-Tawil was firmer from Anas, with Yahya ibn Sa'id saying Thabit's memory was confused and Humayd was firmer. He adds that Imam Muslim accepted Hammad only as supporting evidence and that Bukhari did not transmit from him at all. He concludes that this chain is problematic and not the unanimously agreed-upon chain the critics claimed.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues it is not: critics report that Hammad ibn Salama's memory failed late in life, that Bukhari did not transmit from him, and that Thabit was not the most reliable transmitter from Anas, Qatada and Humayd al-Tawil being ranked above him.", "answer_start": 1561, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/authentication", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hammad-ibn-salama", "label": "Hammad ibn Salama"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:thabit-al-bunani", "label": "Thabit al-Bunani"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ali-ibn-al-madini", "label": "Ali ibn al-Madini"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yahya-ibn-said-al-qattan", "label": "Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ayyub-al-sakhtiyani", "label": "Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-adi", "label": "Ibn Adi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qatada", "label": "Qatada"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hatim-al-razi", "label": "Abu Hatim al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khatib-al-baghdadi", "label": "al-Khatib al-Baghdadi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:humayd-al-tawil", "label": "Humayd al-Tawil"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-muslim", "label": "Imam Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ee4de6d9", "label": "report: the tree crying for the prophet"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/8/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/9", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S09", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 9, "start": 1875, "end": 2188, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Jabir chains: Isra'il and an unknown narrator; Abd al-Razzaq, Ibn Jurayj and 'akhbarani'", "question_plain": "Are the Jabir chains for the crying-tree hadith through Isra'il, Abd al-Razzaq and Ibn Jurayj sound?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the chains from Jabir that the critics said he left out. The first, through Yahya ibn Adam [?] from Isra'il from Abu Ishaq [?], he says fails because Ibn Ma'in transmits from Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan that he would not accept Isra'il and considered him weak, as did Ali ibn al-Madini, and because a narrator in the chain is described as unknown, transmitted only by Abu Ishaq, whom Imam Muslim lists in his book of narrators with a single transmitter [?]. The second, which the critics called one of the most solid, runs Abd al-Razzaq from Ibn Jurayj from Abu al-Zubayr from Jabir. On Abd al-Razzaq al-San'ani he quotes Ibn Hibban [?] that he made mistakes when relying on memory, Abu Hatim that his hadith are written but not used as evidence alone, al-Nasa'i listing him among the weak [?], al-Dhahabi in the Mizan that he has rejected reports, and Imam Ahmad in the 'Ilal that he transmitted fabricated things including a well-known sahifa [?]. On Ibn Jurayj he says al-Daraqutni called him a serious mudallis who must say 'haddathani' to be accepted, and that although this chain has 'akhbarani Abu al-Zubayr', Ali ibn al-Madini transmits from Yahya ibn Sa'id that when Ibn Jurayj says 'akhbarani' it is nothing, since he means only that he had the books, Shu'ba having watched him come to al-Zuhri and others with books and ask to transmit them. He says he is only relaying the words of the critics about these great men.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues they are not: one chain rests on Isra'il, whom Yahya ibn Sa'id and Ibn al-Madini weakened, and an unknown narrator; the other on Abd al-Razzaq, criticised for errors from memory, and Ibn Jurayj, a mudallis whose 'akhbarani' referred to books rather than hearing.", "answer_start": 1875, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/authentication", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jabir-ibn-abdullah", "label": "Jabir ibn Abdullah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yahya-ibn-adam", "label": "Yahya ibn Adam [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:israil-ibn-yunus", "label": "Isra'il [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ishaq-al-sabii", "label": "Abu Ishaq [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-main", "label": "Yahya ibn Ma'in"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yahya-ibn-said-al-qattan", "label": "Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ali-ibn-al-madini", "label": "Ali ibn al-Madini"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-muslim", "label": "Imam Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-munfaridat-wal-wuhdan", "label": "al-Munfaridat wa'l-Wuhdan [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-razzaq-al-sanani", "label": "Abd al-Razzaq al-San'ani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-jurayj", "label": "Ibn Jurayj"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-zubayr", "label": "Abu al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hibban", "label": "Ibn Hibban [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hatim-al-razi", "label": "Abu Hatim al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nasai", "label": "al-Nasa'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:mizan-al-itidal", "label": "Mizan al-I'tidal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-ilal-ahmad", "label": "al-'Ilal of Imam Ahmad [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-daraqutni", "label": "al-Daraqutni"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shuba", "label": "Shu'ba"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis (mudallis)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:majhul", "label": "majhul (unknown narrator)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:munkar", "label": "munkar (rejected report)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ee4de6d9", "label": "report: the tree crying for the prophet"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/9/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/10", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S10", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 10, "start": 2188, "end": 2419, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abu al-Zubayr's grading, and the defence of his criticism of a Bukhari chain through Ibn Abi Uways", "question_plain": "Did Ibn Ma'in consider Isma'il ibn Abi Uways and his family reliable?", "summary": "Completing the second Jabir chain, Mufti Abu Layth says Shu'ba reported that Abu al-Zubayr used to make things up about people he disliked, that Ibn Ma'in and Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani considered him weak, and that Abu Zur'a, al-Shafi'i, Abu Hatim and al-Bukhari said he is not to be relied on as evidence [?]; he asks where the conclusive chains the critics claimed are. He then answers their attack on his criticism of a chain in Sahih al-Bukhari through Isma'il ibn Abi Uways from his brother Abd al-Hamid ibn Abi Uways [?], where he had said Ibn Ma'in considered him weak: the critics said Ibn Ma'in in fact held him reliable. He replies that the critics only cite one transmitted opinion of Ibn Ma'in, while in the commentary on al-Tirmidhi's 'Ilal, which he attributes to Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali [?], Ibn Ma'in is transmitted as saying that the household of Abu Uways and his son, and Ali ibn Asim [?] and his son, are among the worst of people and all weak. He mocks the critics' Arabic over the plural of 'weak', and calls their refutation pathetic for bringing unsound reports and then having the audacity to mock him, before turning to how low, in his words, they then fell.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says that although one transmitted opinion of Ibn Ma'in accepts him, Ibn Ma'in is also transmitted as counting the household of Abu Uways among the weak. He adds that Abu al-Zubayr was weakened by several critics, so none of the chains the critics brought is conclusive.", "answer_start": 2188, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-zubayr", "label": "Abu al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shuba", "label": "Shu'ba"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-main", "label": "Yahya ibn Ma'in"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ayyub-al-sakhtiyani", "label": "Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-zura", "label": "Abu Zur'a"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hatim-al-razi", "label": "Abu Hatim al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ismail-ibn-abi-uways", "label": "Isma'il ibn Abi Uways"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-hamid-ibn-abi-uways", "label": "Abd al-Hamid ibn Abi Uways [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rajab-al-hanbali", "label": "Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sharh-ilal-al-tirmidhi", "label": "Sharh 'Ilal al-Tirmidhi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ali-ibn-asim", "label": "Ali ibn Asim [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:daif", "label": "da'if (weak); du'afa'"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/10/"}, {"id": "8U9-ASlyrzE/s/11", "short_id": "2018-02-21-S11", "recording": "8U9-ASlyrzE", "n": 11, "start": 2419, "end": 2793, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The critics affirm the claims about the Prophet: impotence, marriage at nine, clumsiness under magic", "question_plain": "What does he say to critics who accept that the Prophet was impotent, married a nine-year-old or was bewitched into clumsiness?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip from the critics' session, which is not audible in the transcript, and reacts to it. He says that around forty-eight minutes in, one of them asked what is wrong with the Prophet being sexually impotent, since the Prophet did not have to be sexually active; he calls this disgusting and says they stoop to insulting the Messenger of God to prove a point, when they would be offended if it were said of their own fathers. He reports that they quoted Qadi Iyad and the Maliki school to say Mufti does not support capital punishment and that the Maliki school would consider such speech worthy of it; he confirms that he does not support it and says they themselves have been incredibly blasphemous. He says the claim is wrong because it is untrue and an attack on the Prophet's honour, and attributes their blindness to an ahl al-hadith [?] mentality, while saying he is not attacking all of them. He reports them saying 'so what if the Prophet married a nine-year-old', and asks whether they would accept that of their own father with a ten-year-old who 'consented'; he says he has shown that those reports have problems in their chains and asks why they feed this material to the far right. He reports them saying the Prophet could become clumsy under magic because he was human, and says they throw the Prophet under the bus to prove themselves right. He closes by saying he is not judging their sincerity, but their attitude towards the Prophet is very disturbing, and leaves the matter there.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says these claims are untrue attacks on the Prophet's honour, resting on reports whose chains he has shown to be defective, and that critics who affirm them to win an argument are themselves being blasphemous. He adds that he does not support capital punishment for such speech.", "answer_start": 2534, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/defending-the-prophet", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-hadith", "label": "ahl al-hadith mentality [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:consent", "label": "consent"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the claims that the Prophet was sexually impotent, married a nine-year-old or became clumsy under a spell are untrue and an attack on the Prophet's honour, that he has shown the reports on the marriage to have problems in their chains, and that those who affirm such claims are themselves being blasphemous.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "of course is wrong because it's not true it's an attack on the honor of the Prophet what is wrong with you", "start": 2610}}, "url": "/r/8U9-ASlyrzE/s/11/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/1", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S01", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 1, "start": 29, "end": 656, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: unwell and late, the last Monday Night before Ramadan, plans for a get-together", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth checks the sound, greets viewers and says he had been unwell for a day or two and had overslept after a nap, nearly missing the last Monday Night before Ramadan. He notes a chat question on whether dalk, rubbing the limbs while washing, is still necessary with running water as a good question without answering it, and jokes about how fast his beard and nails grow. He says some viewers will begin Ramadan on Tuesday and some on Wednesday, that this is nothing to become entangled in, and that he will begin on Wednesday with his local mosques and family. Asked about an iftar for viewers, he says Covid restrictions on gatherings in England still apply, and floats a residential weekend once they end, recalling one held in 2015 and saying it would need organisers.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the last Monday Night before Ramadan, says either start date for Ramadan is fine, and suggests a viewers' get-together once Covid restrictions lift.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dalk", "label": "dalk (rubbing the limbs while washing)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/1/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/2", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S02", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 2, "start": 656, "end": 734, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Would a viewers' retreat be gender segregated?", "question_plain": "Does a community gathering have to be gender segregated?", "summary": "After answering a light question about what he eats for sahur, Mufti Abu Layth reads chat comments about free mixing at the proposed get-together. He says people are adults and do not need to be micromanaged, and that the gathering would not be gender segregated: people would simply be people. He says some imagine that if there is no wall between men and women the result must be an orgy, and calls this a strange way of thinking.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says adults do not need micromanaging and a gathering of men and women need not be segregated.", "answer_start": 656, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction"], "entities": [], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says adults do not need to be micromanaged and that the proposed get-together would not be gender segregated.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "look people are adults they don't need to be micromanaged do they of course it would be it wouldn't be gender segregated", "start": 674}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/2/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/3", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S03", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 3, "start": 734, "end": 893, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Questions noted for later: fasting at work, a hadith on Quran 4:159", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads several chat questions without answering them yet: whether one can stop fasting because of work, including a teacher who gets thirsty from talking, which he says he will take with the other fasting questions; and a request to publish a paper on why a hadith of Abu Hurayra connected to Quran 4:159 is weak, where he says he does not recall the verse by number and will check it. He acknowledges another question on a verse for later discussion and thanks a viewer whose super chat says they would not be Muslim today without him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth notes questions on fasting at work and on a hadith linked to Quran 4:159 to come back to, and thanks a supporter.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:159", "label": "Quran 4:159 (as cited in a chat question)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/3/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/4", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S04", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 4, "start": 893, "end": 1287, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Responding to viewers' love: a grown-up child, and haters as a measure of impact", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Responding to the super chat, Mufti Abu Layth says he has no words and that, although some may think he is pretending, he genuinely does not feel he deserves it: he recognises he is intelligent but does not see himself as able to touch so many hearts. He says he still sees himself as a grown-up child, while the professors he meets on his MindTrap show seem to him like proper adults, and he is surprised by the respect they show him. He adds that he sees the waves his thought makes mostly through his haters: that sects, groups and organisations spend time and money being preoccupied with one individual suggests to him that they feel their worldview is threatened. He recalls a Jewish scientist of the world-war era who said he boosted his self-esteem by reading propaganda claiming Jews controlled the world, and says viewers' love drowns him in a positive way.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not feel he deserves viewers' praise and reads his critics' obsession as a sign that they feel threatened by his ideas.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/4/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/5", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S05", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 5, "start": 1287, "end": 1448, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Setting up the supporters' messages; technical trouble", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains that some supporters compiled a collection of messages about him, which he will read from, and asks viewers to send questions since he wants to focus on them before Ramadan. He struggles to bring the screenshots up on screen, apologising that he would have prepared had he not been unwell, and a video left open on his system plays briefly in the background before he closes it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth prepares to read a compilation of supporters' messages and deals with technical trouble.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/5/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/6", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S06", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 6, "start": 1448, "end": 1769, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Reading supporters' messages: ease of deen, the Bukhari series, apostasy", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shows and reads from the compiled messages. The opening note says the supporters want him to remember the many people he has affected positively rather than the few negative words. One message credits him with the ease of the deen, a better understanding of hadith literature through his Bukhari series, the age of Aisha and the question of apostasy, which mattered to the writer as a former agnostic; another calls him a heavyweight of contemporary Islamic intellectualism; another thanks him for BukhariGate amid the negativity, and he asks wryly whether people ever live to see the impact of their work. Another says he answered many questions and problems the writer had with modern-day mullahs.", "summary_short": "Supporters' messages thank Mufti Abu Layth for making the deen easy and for his work on Bukhari, the age of Aisha and apostasy.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/6/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/7", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S07", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 7, "start": 1769, "end": 1927, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Faith ought to make you happy: Islam is meant to complement your life", "question_plain": "Should my faith make me happy?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a message saying he allowed the writer to think freely without conforming to the values of the traditionalists, that the writer is happier and more in touch with Islam, and that his reason-based approach is the future of Islam. He says this sums up his message: if you say you have faith in your life, it ought to make you happy, not horrible, hateful or bitter, and Islam is meant to complement day-to-day life. He reads another message listing lessons taken from him: that this is not 'your dad's deen', that Salafism has a hard grasp on the internet so that it is nearly impossible to find anything that is not dogmatic, which he says is unfortunately true, that being sceptical about hadith is not crazy, an introduction to the Maliki school, and that the deen is natural and should complement life.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says faith should make you happy, not hateful or bitter, because Islam is meant to complement daily life.", "answer_start": 1769, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says faith ought to make a person happy rather than hateful or bitter, and that Islam is meant to complement day-to-day life.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if you say you have faith in your life you ought it ought to make you happy", "start": 1827}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/7/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/8", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S08", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 8, "start": 1927, "end": 2006, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Humour as a natural gift", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Reading a message that calls him very funny, Mufti Abu Layth says humour is a gift that comes naturally to people in different degrees and cannot be faked without becoming cringeworthy. He says humour is something he loves about life and that he gets carried away with it, so that in serious one-to-one conversations with people of standing he first asks them to excuse his humour.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says humour comes naturally and cannot be faked, and that he asks serious interlocutors to excuse his.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/8/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/9", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S09", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 9, "start": 2006, "end": 2164, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hold your own faith to the standard you apply to others", "question_plain": "Should Muslims judge their own sources by the standards they apply to other religions?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a message saying that his emphasis on reason and critical thought made the writer rethink whether their beliefs met the criteria they applied to other faiths. He says reason and critical thought are two sides of one coin, and that Muslims are very critical of other religions, asking how a scripture can be known to be unaltered or pointing out that the earliest gospel documents date from eighty years after Jesus, but put blinkers on for Islam. As an example he says that the one man who alone carries the transmission of Sahih al-Bukhari was not vouched for by anyone for around 150 years, and that people read horrendous reports and say it does not matter. He gives as a criterion always asking how one would hold someone of another faith to account, and checking whether one is being a hypocrite.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims should hold their own sources to the standard they use for others, giving the example of Bukhari resting on one unvouched-for transmitter.", "answer_start": 2006, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:one-standard-for-all-religions", "label": "one standard for all religions"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-firabri", "label": "al-Firabri (referred to, not named: the sole transmitter of Sahih al-Bukhari)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims should apply to their own tradition the critical standards they apply to other faiths, noting that Sahih al-Bukhari rests on one transmitter whom no one vouched for for about 150 years.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "but then when it comes to islam we completely just put blinkers on our eyes", "start": 2096}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/9/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/10", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S10", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 10, "start": 2164, "end": 2401, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Technology saved his voice: no institution would have given him a platform", "question_plain": "How has the internet changed who gets to speak about Islam?", "summary": "Reading a message that technology has saved his work for future Muslims who value reason, Mufti Abu Layth says technology has saved him and his message, not only by archiving it: without it a voice like his could hardly have reached anyone, since people like him never fit in institutions, and mosques, organisations and denominations would never give them a platform. He wonders how many similar, perhaps more enlightened, voices died unheard in the past. He recalls replying to calls from what he calls religious cancel culture to boycott and shut him down by saying that he only sits at home with his broadband and livestreams, at no cost and without petrodollars or institutions, and that this is enough to loosen the hold such people have on the Muslim public.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the internet let him reach people without the backing of mosques or organisations, which would never have given him a platform.", "answer_start": 2164, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/10/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/11", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S11", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 11, "start": 2401, "end": 2870, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The list of hard questions: much of the work has been done, and the boy killed in Moses' story", "question_plain": "Are there answers to the hardest ethical questions about stories in the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says, as he once told trainee imams, that much of the hard work has already been done for them. Around 2016, while preparing his video on the age of Aisha and reading atheist material such as Hitchens and Islamophobic criticism, he drew up a list of about twenty questions he felt were problematic for Islam, deliberately adding the most challenging, some of which he then had no answer to. He says an answer must come from scripture and research true to the text, not be made up; that he consulted reason-based scholars, some of whom support him privately but avoid public heat; and that he would not tell friends the questions before he had answers. He says that in recent years he answered every one, through moments of sudden insight rather than intelligence; most concerned the Quran and one Bukhari, which became BukhariGate. His example is how God could instruct the killing of a child in the story of Moses, which weighed on him until, checking the context, he found an answer he explains in a video, and he says others can now build on such work.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has answered every hard question on his 2016 list, such as the killing of the boy in Moses' story, by research true to the text, and others can build on it.", "answer_start": 2401, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khidr", "label": "al-Khidr (referred to, not named: the one who kills the boy)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:christopher-hitchens", "label": "Christopher Hitchens"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/11/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/12", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S12", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 12, "start": 2870, "end": 3026, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Quran stories as true but not historical? Adam, the tree and the cognitive revolution", "question_plain": "Are the stories in the Quran true but not historical, like the story of Adam?", "summary": "A viewer asks what he thinks of Quranic stories being true but not historical, such as the nature of evil being demonstrated through Adam and the contrast between one who does wrong and rationalises and one who repents. Mufti Abu Layth says he has videos on this and that evolution and the story of Adam were on his list of hard questions. He says his view on the fruit developed over the years: he first thought it might be metaphorical, and now holds, in line with what he calls the stoned ape theory [?], that modern human consciousness was edging forward and that Adam was the father of humans with today's cognition. He says what triggered it may have been a psychedelic plant, and that the Quran speaks only of a tree or bush, not a fruit or an apple as in the Bible, and that this triggered the whole cognitive revolution.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Adam was the father of humans with modern cognition, and that the tree, which the Quran never calls a fruit or apple, may have been a psychedelic plant that sparked the cognitive revolution.", "answer_start": 2870, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:stoned-ape-theory", "label": "stoned ape theory [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he holds that Adam was the father of humans with modern cognition and that the forbidden tree may have been a psychedelic plant that triggered the cognitive revolution, the Quran mentioning a tree rather than a fruit.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "adam alaihi salam i believe would have been the father of you know of of humans today with this modern cognitive explosion and having consciousness the way we do", "start": 2951}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/12/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/13", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S13", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 13, "start": 3026, "end": 3264, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why clerics see their own demise in him", "question_plain": "Why are some clerics so hostile to Mufti Abu Layth?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a message saying his views are rational compared with the mainstream and that his service to the religion is more faithful than that of holier-than-thou clerics. He agrees and says such clerics hate him because, although he is only one person doing free livestreams whom anyone can simply not watch, they see in him not an individual but a denominational entity that represents the demise of their own; he calls their reaction the final pangs of death. He then mentions a tweet sent to him while he was unwell by a long-standing critic, whom he refers to by a nickname, and speaks of what he calls a Napoleon complex of over-compensation and obsession with control and power.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says clerics who oppose him see in his approach the end of their institutional religion, and calls their reaction its final pangs.", "answer_start": 3104, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": true, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/13/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/14", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S14", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 14, "start": 3264, "end": 3660, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "No obligation to establish a caliphate: the Maliki scholars, Hamza Yusuf and Akram Nadwi", "question_plain": "Is it obligatory for Muslims to establish a caliphate?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says this critic has been fixated on him for six or seven years, since he began deconstructing the caliphate idea, to the dismay of Hizb ut-Tahrir and others; when he began, around 2016, to say openly that there is no obligation in Islam for a caliphate system, hardly anyone in English was saying so. When he shared Hamza Yusuf calling it a myth, people dismissed Hamza Yusuf and claimed ijma, so he cited great Maliki scholars of eleven hundred years ago who held there is no such obligation, which he says broke the claim of consensus. Accused of lying when he said Akram Nadwi held the same, he arranged a seminar with Nadwi on jinn possession, black magic and the claim that the Prophet was bewitched, asking him beforehand whether he would answer the caliphate question publicly; Nadwi agreed and said there is no obligation. He recalls predicting some five years earlier that once younger Muslims dominated social media, talk of global dominion would become embarrassing, and says this has happened.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says there is no obligation to establish a caliphate, citing classical Maliki scholars and Akram Nadwi against the claim of consensus.", "answer_start": 3264, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:hizb-ut-tahrir", "label": "Hizb ut-Tahrir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Akram Nadwi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khilafah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sihr", "label": "sihr (magic)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is no obligation in Islam to establish a caliphate system, that classical Maliki scholars held this, so the claimed consensus fails, and that Akram Nadwi takes the same view.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "there's no such thing in islam as an obligation for a caliphate system", "start": 3326}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/14/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/15", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S15", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 15, "start": 3660, "end": 3819, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Denominations that refuse to adapt will fossilise: Deobandi and Barelvi institutions", "question_plain": "Will traditional religious institutions survive if they do not adapt?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says younger Muslims no longer accept such ideas and predicts that within five years some denominations will have to adapt or become fossils. He says this is a problem for many Deobandi institutions, which were the first to build large madrasas in the UK and the West but refused to adapt, whereas in the last decade many Barelvis have become more contemporary in their own way, connecting with Arab scholars and adopting a Moroccan and Syrian Sufi style that keeps Islam approachable to young people, though he says many still have work to do. He describes the unadapted style in mocking terms.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth predicts that institutions refusing to adapt, such as many Deobandi madrasas, will fossilise, while Barelvis who modernised their style stay approachable.", "answer_start": 3660, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madrasa", "label": "madrasa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth predicts that denominations which refuse to adapt, including many Deobandi institutions in the UK, will become fossilised, while those that adapted, as many Barelvis have, remain approachable to young people.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "five years from today some of these very kind of neanderthal kind of like uh denominations will just be absolutely fossilized they'll either have to adapt or they'll just become fossils", "start": 3674}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/15/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/16", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S16", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 16, "start": 3819, "end": 3976, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Things are halal by default, and saying 'in my understanding'", "question_plain": "Is everything halal unless proven haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a message thanking him for making the writer more rational and taking away the belief that everything is haram, and says this hurts people. He says he does not make things halal: things are halal by default and making something haram is a difficult task, but people are trigger-happy in declaring things haram. He mentions a clip by a critic who mocked him for always saying 'I think', 'in my opinion' and 'in my understanding', and says that is how it ought to be: a teacher should humble himself and say that this is how he understands God would want something, not that it is God's understanding. He calls the refusal to admit 'I could be wrong' a key stumbling block of many institutionalised religions.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says things are halal by default and prohibiting is a heavy task, and teachers should say 'in my understanding' because they could be wrong.", "answer_start": 3819, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:default-permissibility", "label": "everything is permissible by default until proven otherwise (al-asl al-ibaha)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:halal", "label": "halal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says things are halal by default and declaring something haram is a heavy task, and that a teacher should present rulings as his own understanding of what God wants, acknowledging that he could be wrong.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "i don't make things halal things are halal by default i say that making something haram is so such a difficult task", "start": 3827}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/16/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/17", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S17", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 17, "start": 3976, "end": 4055, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Owning your faith: Islam has no papacy", "question_plain": "Do I need a religious authority to own my faith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a message thanking him for the freedom to think with one's own reason rather than believing something because someone with a beard said so. He says that in this age people can once again take ownership of their faith: Islam is not a papacy, information is online and cannot be stopped, the deen belongs to each person as much as to the next, and nobody can throw anyone out of it or scare them away. He warns against people obsessed with expelling others from God's faith.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says Islam has no papacy, the deen belongs to everyone equally, and no one can throw you out of it.", "answer_start": 3976, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims can take ownership of their own faith, since Islam has no papacy and no one can expel a person from the deen.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "we can once again take ownership of our own faith i we don't need this is not a you know a papacy we don't need to go through the pope", "start": 3976}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/17/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/18", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S18", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 18, "start": 4055, "end": 4213, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "God is not a tyrant or a Victorian father: Allah is al-Rahman al-Rahim", "question_plain": "Is God someone I should mainly be afraid of?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a message saying he made the writer fear God less and turned the religion into one of love, and welcomes it despite what critics will say. He says that while studying in his early years the preponderant view he was taught was of a God to be feared, and that the change in his concept of God changed his whole outlook. He says God is not a benevolent tyrant or dictator, nor a strict Victorian father figure who loves his child but would not flinch at beating him, nor an infant who throws tantrums and angers easily; he calls this a distortion of Allah and says he could not worship such a god. To him Allah is al-Rahman al-Rahim, who invites people to ponder the cosmos.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says seeing God as an angry disciplinarian is a distortion, and that Allah is the Most Merciful who invites people to reflect.", "answer_start": 4055, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:al-rahman-al-rahim", "label": "al-Rahman al-Rahim"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the picture of God as an angry, strict disciplinarian or tyrant is a distortion, and that Allah is al-Rahman al-Rahim, who invites people to ponder the cosmos.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "they also infantilize him so they almost at times turn him into like an infant who throws a tantrum gets angry easily he that is wallahi is a distortion of allah", "start": 4164}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/18/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/19", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S19", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 19, "start": 4213, "end": 4451, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why institutional religion dislikes laughter", "question_plain": "Why do some religious people dislike laughter?", "summary": "Responding to a message about people who say he laughs too much, Mufti Abu Layth gives reasons why people dislike laughter. For some who are sad or empty, it reminds them of what they lack. For institutionalised religion, humour allows satire, satire lets ordinary people see absurdity and question authority, while an always-serious discourse lets figures of authority keep control; he says this is why institutionalised religion has always disliked humour and why reports were fabricated such as that laughing much makes the heart sad. His stream then drops out for over a minute of technical trouble before he returns.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says humour lets ordinary people see absurdity and question authority, which is why institutional religion dislikes it and why reports against laughter were fabricated.", "answer_start": 4213, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:65d7a81e", "label": "report: la tukthir al-dahik fa inna kathrat al-dahik tumit al-qalb (paraphrased by the host: laugh much and your heart becomes saddened)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says institutionalised religion has always disliked humour because satire lets ordinary people see absurdity and question authority, and that reports against laughing much were fabricated for this reason.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i feel that institutionalized religion has always hated uh humor because it's felt that humor hmm you know it's just this is something that if you allow it to enter the realm of religion authority will disappear", "start": 4321}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/19/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/20", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S20", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 20, "start": 4451, "end": 4689, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "More messages: a middle path between Salafism and Quranism, and 'God is not dumb'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he hopes these reflections are helpful and reads more messages. One writer was drawn into Salafism, burnt out by hadith that are blasphemous towards the Prophet, looked at Quranism as the opposite extreme of hadith dogmatism, and was shown how to take hadith in accordance with the Quran. Another says believers should use their intellect because God is not dumb; Mufti agrees that if one thinks something makes sense to oneself but supposedly not to God, one's perception of God needs examining. He thanks a convert who says he helped after conversion and invites them to visit once Covid is over, and responds to a message quoting Kant on being woken from a dogmatic slumber, welcoming that Muslims work in fields such as physics.", "summary_short": "Supporters' messages describe finding a middle path between Salafism and Quranism and using the intellect in faith, and Mufti Abu Layth responds.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:quranist", "label": "Quranist (Quran-only)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:immanuel-kant", "label": "Immanuel Kant"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/20/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/21", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S21", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 21, "start": 4689, "end": 4943, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The problem is cult-like dogmatism, not being Salafi", "question_plain": "Is Mufti Abu Layth against Salafis?", "summary": "Reading a message that thanks him for standing up to the growing Salafi movement and says that hatred means he is influencing people, Mufti Abu Layth agrees with the second point. He says his criticism is not about a denomination as such: if a person wants to be a Salafi he has no problem with that and will not criticise them for it. The problem, he says, is dogmatic cultism in whatever group a person belongs to, which suffocates religion, already in a coma state. He then has further trouble with his equipment and the stream pauses.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says he has no problem with anyone being Salafi; his objection is to cult-like dogmatism in any group.", "answer_start": 4689, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says his objection is not to Salafis as a denomination but to dogmatic, cult-like mentality in any group, which he says suffocates religion.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not about by the way it's not about speaking against a denomination per se it's more about the cult-like mentality", "start": 4739}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/21/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/22", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S22", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 22, "start": 4943, "end": 5021, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Apologies for the equipment, and no Monday Nights during Ramadan", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth apologises for the technical problems, saying he would normally have everything prepared but was unwell. He thanks viewers for their messages, says he has not yet replied to many, especially on Discord, and hopes to catch up during Ramadan. He says there will be no Monday Nights during Ramadan, but MindTrap and other content will continue.", "summary_short": "There will be no Monday Nights during Ramadan, though MindTrap and other content continue.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/22/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/23", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S23", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 23, "start": 5021, "end": 5335, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why Ramadan moves through the seasons: nasi and the lunisolar calendar", "question_plain": "Why does Ramadan fall in different seasons each year?", "summary": "Asked why Ramadan falls in different seasons, Mufti Abu Layth says he has a video on this and that in essence the Islamic calendar was static: a lunar calendar superimposed on a solar one, kept aligned, he says, by scribes who were mainly Jewish through an intercalary month called nasi, added in a set pattern so that the calendar realigned itself, he believes, every seventeen years. He says this continued in early Islam, but as the state expanded the administration of nasi lapsed, since it was not a religious priority, and later generations, seeing a verse of the Quran that speaks of the month being used to cause mischief [?], assumed it was wrong and let the calendar run free. He says that is why the months now rotate around the year, and that he does not think Ramadan rotated like this in the Prophet's time.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the early Islamic calendar was kept in line with the seasons by an extra month, nasi, and Ramadan only began moving through the year after that practice lapsed.", "answer_start": 5021, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/pre-islamic-arabia", "fiqh/fasting/times-and-moon-sighting"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:nasi", "label": "nasi (the intercalary month)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:9:37", "label": "Quran 9:37 (the nasi verse) [?]"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his view the calendar in the Prophet's time was lunisolar, kept aligned with the seasons by an intercalary month, nasi, and that Ramadan probably began to rotate through the year only after the practice lapsed during the expansion of the state.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the islamic calendar in essence was a uh it was a kind of luna solar calendar", "start": 5056}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/23/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/24", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S24", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 24, "start": 5335, "end": 5573, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The limits of the Najdi dawah: a small movement that dominates online", "question_plain": "Why is Salafi content so dominant online?", "summary": "Asked about the limitations of the Najdi dawah, Mufti Abu Layth calls it a cultish puritanism reinvigorated by petrodollars, which he says would probably have died out had Saudi Arabia not discovered oil. He estimates that Salafis are perhaps three percent of Muslims, and says even that is generous. Their influence, he says, comes from the internet: perhaps 85 to 90 percent of Islamic material in Arabic online and around half in English comes from Salafi sources, because they invested in question-and-answer websites from the 2000s while others did not, so that people who are not Salafi cut and paste their answers. He describes the result as a gradual, surreptitious influence out of proportion to their small presence in real mosques.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Najdi dawah is a small puritan movement kept alive by oil money, which dominates Islamic content online only because it invested early in Q&A websites.", "answer_start": 5335, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "society/technology-and-media"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Najdi or Salafi dawah is a cultish puritanism sustained by oil money, followed by perhaps three percent of Muslims, but dominating Islamic content online because others did not invest in it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "the najdi dawa is just a cultish you know it's just a it's a cultish puritanism that's all it is but it has recently um you know being reinvigorated by petrol dollars", "start": 5335}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/24/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/25", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S25", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 25, "start": 5573, "end": 5968, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mock and block: critics who need him for views", "question_plain": "How should I deal with online hate preachers?", "summary": "Responding to a chat question about one of his online critics, Mufti Abu Layth says that people who talk about him only to gain views, especially if they are also hate preachers, should simply be mocked and blocked, since nobody would watch them otherwise. He compares what follows to an 'ex syndrome': once mocked and blocked they crave attention and monitor his every move. He says people either love or hate him, that his haters become hooked on him and boost his viewership, likens himself to heroin for them, and says the hatred will consume them for years. He adds that jealousy plays a part in some cases, since they too want a following, and says that if they were not so hateful he would invite them onto his shows.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says critics who use him for views, especially hate preachers, should be mocked and blocked, and that their obsession harms them more than him.", "answer_start": 5573, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media/social-media", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/25/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/26", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S26", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 26, "start": 5968, "end": 6125, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The Jesus debate questions, and a shaykh torn between his views and his following", "question_plain": "Where are the answers to the questions on the Jesus debate?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth first reads a comment that early Muslims had less empirical knowledge and that Islam must therefore be reinterpreted by empiricism, and begins to say he would not put it that way. He then reads a comment from a viewer who is a fan but disappointed over the Jesus debate, and says most of those questions are answered in his reply to the shaykh, Yasir Qadhi [?], some five hours of material, with a few points still to come in a series. He says people like that shaykh have at times done disappointing work but have substance and are not hate preachers who go around calling people kafir, unlike those he mocks and blocks. He says the shaykh seems to be struggling to reconcile what he truly holds with keeping his following, and that in his place he would come out as he is, since people would come to him for his honesty.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says most of the Jesus debate questions are answered in his long reply, and that the shaykh he answered has substance but is torn between his views and his following.", "answer_start": 5968, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/26/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/27", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S27", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 27, "start": 6125, "end": 6361, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Cancel culture as a delusion: speaking to the silent majority", "question_plain": "Can critics cancel an independent preacher?", "summary": "Reading a comment that one critic made a whole trailer about him and fills Twitter with complaints about him, Mufti Abu Layth says such people are obsessed with him and will burn for years. He calls attempts to cancel him delusions of grandeur: he is independent, and his audience is not theirs, since he does not preach to the dogmatists who follow them but to the common Muslim, the silent eighty percent who do not follow what he calls Wahhabis and cannot relate to them. He says some critics are more tolerable than others, but some would embarrass anyone as representatives of their faith, and that his message is spreading even more.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says efforts to cancel him cannot work, because he is independent and speaks to the silent majority of ordinary Muslims, not his critics' followers.", "answer_start": 6125, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media/social-media", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:twitter", "label": "Twitter"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/27/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/28", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S28", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 28, "start": 6361, "end": 6520, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Live without being hurtful or hateful", "question_plain": "What is the most important thing to get right in life?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives what he calls the one thing to do in life: to live so that at the end one has tried, as far as one can, never to be hurtful and never to be hateful. He says that if a person has managed this, their Islam is validated as far as being a human being is concerned. He distinguishes disliking from hating: he dislikes many of his critics for what they do, but says he does not hate them, which he thinks baffles them, since hating taxes the soul and eats away at it. He says that if a person claims to have God and Islam in their life, they should not be a hateful person.", "summary_short": "Try never to be hurtful or hateful; Mufti Abu Layth says that validates your Islam as a human being, and that disliking what people do is not the same as hating them.", "answer_start": 6361, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "wellbeing/anger-and-forgiveness"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that living one's life trying never to be hurtful or hateful is what validates one's Islam as a human being, and that disliking what people do is different from hating them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "as far as being a human being is concerned that is your islam validated as long you know you have lived to the best of your capacity to not be hurtful and not be hateful", "start": 6382}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/28/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/29", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S29", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 29, "start": 6520, "end": 6679, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Invitations to critics on MindTrap, but not to hate preachers", "question_plain": "Will Mufti Abu Layth invite his critics onto MindTrap?", "summary": "Asked whether he would invite his critics onto MindTrap, Mufti Abu Layth says he has: he names a shaykh he has answered [?], another critic he has offered a BukhariGate discussion, and Daniel Haqiqatjou [?], and says he invites almost anyone who puts something out about him, promising to be respectful. He says he is not interested in hosting extremist hate preachers who only call people kafir, giving an ISIS extremist as an example, but in people who still have intellect; he calls several critics intelligent but consumed by what he calls the Wahhabi mindset, joining a cult that puts blinkers on them. He says he has also invited someone to defend Salafi creed, and that critics who used to say he runs away now say they do not talk to deviants.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says he has invited many of his critics onto MindTrap for respectful dialogue, but not hate preachers or extremists.", "answer_start": 6520, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/29/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/30", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S30", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 30, "start": 6679, "end": 6758, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Will dogmatism die? Keeping the voice of reason alive", "question_plain": "Will religious dogmatism ever disappear?", "summary": "Asked what he would do with his life once the Salafis are gone, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think dogmatism will go, because institutionalised religion has dogmatism in its very bones and has survived very well. He says the problem has been that the voice of reason was almost entirely absent or drowned out and is now coming back to life. His fight, he says, is not to end dogmatism, which may never happen, but to ensure the voice of reason is also alive so that people can choose.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says dogmatism is built into institutional religion and will survive, so his aim is to keep the voice of reason alive as a choice.", "answer_start": 6679, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says dogmatism will not disappear because it is built into institutionalised religion, and that his aim is not to end it but to keep the voice of reason alive so that people can choose.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i don't feel dogmatism will go i don't feel it will unfortunately because religion with a capital r an institutionalized religion has dogmatism in its very bones", "start": 6679}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/30/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/31", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S31", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 31, "start": 6758, "end": 7155, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did Dr Abdul Majid refute BukhariGate? Qat'i or zanni, and one transmitter", "question_plain": "Did Dr Abdul Majid refute Mufti Abu Layth's BukhariGate arguments?", "summary": "After saying he looks drained because he has been unwell, Mufti Abu Layth reads a comment that Dr Abdul Majid did a good job of refuting his points. He says he has love and respect for him and enjoyed their conversation, but does not think he tackled the BukhariGate points, and sums up his answers as accepting Sahih al-Bukhari because other scholars have. He says he opened by asking whether Bukhari is qat'i or zanni: if it is as conclusive as the Quran the debate is lost, and if it is ahad there is admittedly a margin of doubt. He says his account of how Bukhari was transmitted was not addressed, including that so large a thing rests on one unvouched-for man, which Sunni dogmatists would seize on in any other religion, and he mentions discussing content he calls blasphemous and factual errors, such as a mistake in a hadith [?] that scholars themselves acknowledge. He thanks Dr Abdul Majid as the first imam to accept such a dialogue and says they parted with more respect for each other.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says Dr Abdul Majid accepted Bukhari because other scholars had and did not answer the points on its transmission, though he respects him for having the dialogue.", "answer_start": 6837, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-abdul-majid", "label": "Dr Abdul Majid"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-firabri", "label": "al-Firabri (referred to, not named: the sole transmitter of Sahih al-Bukhari)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qati", "label": "qat'i (conclusive)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zanni", "label": "zanni (probable)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/31/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/32", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S32", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 32, "start": 7155, "end": 7313, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Dr Adnan Ibrahim", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Adnan Ibrahim?", "summary": "Asked what he thinks of Dr Adnan Ibrahim, Mufti Abu Layth calls him amazing and a proponent of the voice of reason in the Arabic-speaking world, based in Europe, and prays that God bless and preserve him. He says he does not watch him regularly, but the clips he sees are usually very similar to what he himself says, so Adnan Ibrahim is perhaps a more serious Arabic-speaking version of him. He describes him as serious, presentable and knowledgeable, always in the mosque reminding people of taqwa and iman, and says this is what a real imam ought to be like.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth admires Adnan Ibrahim as a voice of reason in the Arabic-speaking world whose message is close to his own and who is what a real imam should be.", "answer_start": 7155, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:adnan-ibrahim", "label": "Adnan Ibrahim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqwa", "label": "taqwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/32/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/33", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S33", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 33, "start": 7313, "end": 7550, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is child marriage legal in the West? Ages of consent and the Romeo and Juliet principle", "question_plain": "Is child marriage legal in Western countries?", "summary": "A viewer says child marriage is still legal in many Western countries, including secular France, based on puberty and parental permission. Mufti Abu Layth says this twists or misunderstands the facts: ages of consent vary within a fairly stable margin, usually around sixteen, sometimes a year lower or higher. He explains what he calls the Romeo and Juliet clause in the UK, under which it is not considered in the public interest to prosecute teenagers of similar age in a relationship, and says this is not the same as permitting a grown man with a child. He says it is a shame that imams are shaky on this, that there needs to be a strong unified voice condemning child marriage, and that talk of nine-year-olds is sick. He then dismisses a comment that slavery was not wrong by nature, saying he pities such people.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says Western ages of consent cluster around sixteen and do not allow an adult with a child, and imams should condemn child marriage with one voice.", "answer_start": 7313, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "relationships/marriage"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Western age-of-consent laws do not permit adults to marry or have relations with children, and that imams should speak with one voice in condemning child marriage.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there needs to be a strong unified voice in condemning it and nobody says these ridiculous things like nine-year-olds and stuff like that that is just sick", "start": 7428}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/33/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/34", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S34", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 34, "start": 7550, "end": 7788, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Calling for Facebook questions; shout-outs and a guest suggestion", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth apologises again for not being fully himself, asks Facebook viewers to post their questions and fixes a cable. He gives shout-outs to regular supporters and, when a viewer suggests a guest for MindTrap whom he does not know, says the guest can be asked and can get in touch, since he invites people who are interesting and interested.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth asks for Facebook questions and responds to a suggestion for a MindTrap guest.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/34/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/35", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S35", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 35, "start": 7788, "end": 8335, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "When does reason take precedence over text? Interpretation, and how hadith dogmatism took hold", "question_plain": "When should reason take priority over religious texts?", "summary": "Asked when one's reason takes precedence over textual proof in light of paradigm shifts in knowledge, Mufti Abu Layth says faith is built on reason and must always be based on it; he accepts that reason needs a starting point it cannot itself justify, but says we accept it because it is the only thing we have. He calls the wish to put scripture first a nice sentiment but nonsensical, since scripture must be read and understood through vocabulary, context and applied linguistics, citing the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, so every reader is already interpreting with their aql; he adds that people understand the same verse differently and that 'going by the books' ignores discourse analysis, power dynamics and interpretative repertoires, likening the debate to a layman arguing with a doctor. He says hadith dogmatism took shape in the era of Ibn Taymiyya, with Ibn al-Salah before him and Ibn Hajar and al-Dhahabi, faded, and revived under colonialism, because when religion is attacked amid instability and fear people turn fundamentalist rather than rational, citing studies linking instability with conservatism and the rise of fanaticism across religions in the early twentieth century.", "summary_short": "Reason always comes first, Mufti Abu Layth says, because every reading of scripture is already an interpretation; hadith dogmatism grew from Ibn Taymiyya's era and revived under colonialism.", "answer_start": 7788, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "quran/hermeneutics", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (reason)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sapir-whorf-hypothesis", "label": "Sapir-Whorf hypothesis"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-salah", "label": "Ibn al-Salah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-absolutism", "label": "hadith absolutism"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says reason necessarily comes first because scripture can only be understood through human interpretation, and that hadith dogmatism took shape in the era of Ibn Taymiyya and revived under colonialism, when attacks on religion amid instability pushed people towards fundamentalism.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "all perception and sensation is based on the human interpreting it it's based on interpretation so whether you like it or not you are already interpreting something", "start": 7992}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/35/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/36", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S36", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 36, "start": 8335, "end": 8650, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "DMX's death, praying for non-Muslims, and music", "question_plain": "Can I pray for a non-Muslim who has died?", "summary": "Responding to a chat comment that DMX has died, Mufti Abu Layth says the death of anyone who has affected many lives is a solemn reminder, and recalls the Prophet standing for the funeral of a Jewish woman and saying that she was a soul. He plays a few seconds of a DMX clip and reads its lines about each person having a star that they need only find, which he says echoes the message of Islam that a person must strive for what is written for them. He urges people not to be reluctant to pray for someone who was not a Muslim but touched many lives positively, saying that everyone is God's creature, Muslims have no monopoly on God, the afterlife or salvation, and narrow-mindedness cannot echo the voice of God. He adds that music is not haram and that he has a video on it.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims may pray for a non-Muslim like DMX who touched many lives, since no one has a monopoly on salvation, and that music is not haram.", "answer_start": 8335, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/salvation-and-non-muslims", "fiqh/entertainment/music"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dmx", "label": "DMX"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:61e009d9", "label": "report: the prophet stood for the funeral of a jewish woman and said is it not a soul (as told by the host; unresolved)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/36/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/37", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S37", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 37, "start": 8650, "end": 9200, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Spiritual centres in the body, the soul and non-local consciousness", "question_plain": "Can the soul travel into the spiritual world through meditation or dhikr?", "summary": "Asked about the spiritual centres in the body that some use to make their souls travel into the spiritual world through dhikr [?], Mufti Abu Layth says some Sufis speak of these, similar to chakras in Hindu meditative practice, developed by trial and error, and that they may work for those dedicated to them. He says consciousness, which to him is the ruh, is a level we have not begun to understand; breathing and meditation can affect brain activity, and the brain connects us to consciousness without being it. He says the soul is not a ghost inside the body: he believes in a non-local consciousness that the brain picks up as a handset picks up a signal, a kind of social network of consciousness that ultimately came from God into Adam, and he reads the hadith that souls were grouped together, so that those who knew each other are in harmony, in this light. He suggests such bonds allow low-level communication, such as sensing danger for a loved one, wonders whether something happens in REM sleep, and says the spirit of an age, such as accepting that slavery and racism are wrong, reflects a change in collective consciousness, not only education.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says such practices may work for the dedicated, and that the soul is not inside the body but a non-local consciousness the brain connects to, like a phone picking up a signal.", "answer_start": 8650, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "belief/sufism", "wellbeing/mindfulness-and-presence"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:lataif", "label": "lata'if (spiritual centres) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhikr", "label": "dhikr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh", "label": "ruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:collective-consciousness", "label": "collective consciousness"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3c0ad21e", "label": "report: al-arwah junud mujannada fa ma taarafa minha italafa (paraphrased by the host; unresolved)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he understands the soul not as a ghost inside the body but as a non-local consciousness that the brain connects to, like a handset picking up a signal, and that collective consciousness shifts over time.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i feel the soul is never in the body anyway in that sense that people think like people think the soul is a ghost kind of figure inside you", "start": 8841}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/37/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/38", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S38", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 38, "start": 9200, "end": 9357, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did a teacher of al-Bukhari declare Imam Malik a kafir? Ibn Abi Dhi'b", "question_plain": "Did one of al-Bukhari's teachers call Imam Malik a disbeliever?", "summary": "After noting a question on how to perform ghusl properly without answering it, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question on whether the grand teacher of Imam al-Bukhari made takfir of Imam Malik. He says he has never come across this, that a teacher of al-Bukhari would have lived well after Malik, and that even if someone did, it would be no great matter, since people call others kafir today too. He says that in Malik's own time some dogmatists disagreed with him, such as Ibn Abi Dhi'b [?] of Madinah, a contemporary he thinks was older than Malik, who objected to Malik saying a hadith was sahih yet not acting on it, and who made harsh statements, in the way extremists today say someone should repent or be killed. He says Malik would collect hadith from anyone and then sift them.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth knows of no such takfir by a teacher of al-Bukhari; harsh words against Malik came from a contemporary who objected to his not acting on some sahih hadith.", "answer_start": 9200, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abi-dhib", "label": "Ibn Abi Dhi'b [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he knows of no teacher of al-Bukhari who declared Imam Malik a disbeliever, and that harsh statements against Malik came from a contemporary, Ibn Abi Dhi'b [?], over Malik not acting on some sahih hadith.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "there are some harsh statements that he said about imam malik but he was a contemporary", "start": 9305}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/38/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/39", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S39", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 39, "start": 9357, "end": 9748, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Ibn Rushd's 'double truth': the sharia is built for the common person", "question_plain": "What did Ibn Rushd mean by the 'double truth' of religion and philosophy?", "summary": "Asked for his thoughts on Ibn Rushd's double truth theory, Mufti Abu Layth says it is not double truth but that he agrees with it entirely, and that the message has dimensions; he adds that the sharia is not the divine message itself but an interpretation of what we think it says. He explains Ibn Rushd as saying that most people are not philosophers or deep critical thinkers, and compares this with lessons he once taught to mixed-ability classes: a task set for the average, starting from the lower-ability pupils, with the gifted and talented expected to do more with it. In the same way, he says, the sharia is aimed from the bottom up at the common person preoccupied with making a living, who needs structured and visible religion such as five daily prayers and hajj, while those gifted with deeper philosophical understanding can find its deeper codings. He says he agrees one hundred percent.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is not 'double truth', but he agrees fully with Ibn Rushd that the sharia is built for ordinary people while the gifted can find its deeper meanings.", "answer_start": 9357, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shariah", "label": "Sharia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees fully with Ibn Rushd that the sharia is designed for ordinary people, who need structured and visible religion, while those gifted with deeper understanding can discover its deeper meanings.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so what ibn arush had said is that and i totally agree with that he said that in this world not everybody is a philosopher", "start": 9382}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/39/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/40", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S40", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 40, "start": 9748, "end": 9827, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The real crime of the people of Lut", "question_plain": "What was the real crime of the people of Lut?", "summary": "Asked about the actual crime of the people of Lut, Mufti Abu Layth says it was that they rejected God, which he says is the crime in all the stories of the prophets in the Quran. He says the other behaviour mentioned about such peoples, giving cheating in trade as an example, is always secondary and goes on everywhere; it was not the reason they met their doom but is added to show their arrogance.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the people of Lut were destroyed for rejecting God, as in every prophet's story, with their other behaviour secondary.", "answer_start": 9748, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "relationships/sexuality-and-orientation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lut", "label": "Lut"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the crime for which the people of Lut, like the other peoples in the stories of the prophets, were destroyed was their rejection of God, other behaviours mentioned being secondary signs of arrogance.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not the reason that they met their doom it was because they denied god that's the same with every single prophet", "start": 9748}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/40/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/41", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S41", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 41, "start": 9827, "end": 10378, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Unmet sexual needs, Freud, and how institutional religion views sex", "question_plain": "Are many people's frustrations really about unmet sexual needs?", "summary": "Prompted by a chat remark, Mufti Abu Layth says much of people's frustration and resentment boils down to primordial needs, especially sexual ones, which he says Freud got right, and that people whose sexual needs are happily met tend to be consistently more positive, stable and peaceable. He says institutionalised religion, drawing on Judaism, Christianity and institutionalised Islam, sees sex as something dirty or merely for procreation, although Islam itself does not see sex negatively. He describes guilt, first relationships that are often awkward, intimacy that dies, and sublimation into work or art, saying therapy would reveal these roots, and that clergy are affected too, as with priests in Christianity and also in Islam. To a comment that Freud and Darwin were perverts, he says the question is whether what they found is true, not their character: Freud brought the unconscious to the world and stressed the impact of the sexual instinct on the psyche.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says much bitterness comes from unmet sexual needs, that Islam itself does not see sex negatively, and that Freud should be judged on his ideas, not his character.", "answer_start": 9827, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/intimacy", "wellbeing/islamic-psychology", "fiqh/sexual-ethics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:sigmund-freud", "label": "Sigmund Freud"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:charles-darwin", "label": "Charles Darwin"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says unmet sexual needs underlie much unhappiness and bitterness, that Islam does not view sex negatively though institutionalised religion does, and that Freud's insights should be judged on their merits rather than on his character.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i'm not saying islam sees it like this islam does not see sex negatively but institutionalized islam does", "start": 9994}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/41/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/42", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S42", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 42, "start": 10378, "end": 10691, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Al-Ghazali's doubt in Deliverance from Error: how can I trust my reason?", "question_plain": "How can I be sure my reason is not wrong?", "summary": "Asked for a response to al-Ghazali's formulation of Cartesian doubt in Deliverance from Error, that reason shows the senses can be wrong, so how can one be certain reason is not wrong, Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali arrived at this before Descartes and, nine hundred years ago, resolved it by surrendering and relying on God and finding his salvation as a hermit. He says we have come a long way since, helped by science and technology: the ancients had only the night sky and philosophy, while we have discovered galaxies and entered quantum physics, which broke our logic before we made sense of it. He accepts that all this could be a dream or a brain in a jar, but says the fact that the mind can conceive this speaks volumes. For him, consciousness is the sign of God, much as for Descartes it was that we think, and a consciousness that wanders and ponders reflects the necessity of the divine.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali answered his doubt by relying on God; today, he says, the very existence of a consciousness that can doubt is itself the sign of God.", "answer_start": 10378, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-munqidh-min-al-dalal", "label": "al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance from Error)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:rene-descartes", "label": "Rene Descartes"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali resolved his doubt by reliance on God, that science has since taken us far beyond his time, and that for him the existence of consciousness is the sign of God.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "to me the fact that god is out there is through consciousness the fact that we are conscious to me is that sign", "start": 10603}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/42/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/43", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S43", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 43, "start": 10691, "end": 10771, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does hell freeze over in Ramadan? The devils chained", "question_plain": "Are the devils really chained up during Ramadan?", "summary": "Asked whether any verses of the Quran lead people to infer that hellfire freezes over during Ramadan, Mufti Abu Layth says there are no such verses about hellfire and Ramadan. He says the hadith that the devils are locked up means that it becomes easier to do good deeds: whether through collective consciousness or otherwise, there is a social spirit in which people are more charitable and do more good. Asked about a flat earth, he declines to dignify it.", "summary_short": "No verse says so; Mufti Abu Layth reads the hadith on chained devils as meaning that good deeds become easier in Ramadan's shared spirit.", "answer_start": 10691, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting", "belief/unseen-beings"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:116de08d", "label": "report: idha dakhala ramadan sulsilat al-shayatin (paraphrased by the host; unresolved)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "shaytan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says no verse speaks of hell during Ramadan, and that the hadith on the devils being chained means that doing good becomes easier in the shared spirit of the month.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "no there's no verses like that about hellfire and ramadan etc but this hadith saying that the shayateen will be locked up and stuff and basically that just means it'll be easier to do good deeds", "start": 10691}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/43/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/44", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S44", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 44, "start": 10771, "end": 10928, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is the pursuit of knowledge above sex? Conscious curiosity and the intelligibility of being", "question_plain": "Is the pursuit of knowledge a deeper drive than sex?", "summary": "A viewer says increasing in knowledge is above sex, and Mufti Abu Layth agrees, explaining that the mind must be compartmentalised: the conscious mind, linked to the prefrontal cortex, has an instinctual need for wonder and curiosity, while the unconscious is linked to survival and instinct. He says this curiosity is also an argument for God, since the intelligibility of being, the fact that it can be understood, demonstrates that someone created it that way, as 'the bit precedes the it'; he gives DNA as coding that dictates the intelligibility of however life arose. He says repressed instincts are pushed into the unconscious and may surface in choices people do not understand.", "summary_short": "Yes for the conscious mind, Mufti Abu Layth says, which is driven by curiosity; and the fact that being is intelligible, as DNA shows, points to a creator.", "answer_start": 10771, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god", "wellbeing/islamic-psychology"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the conscious mind is driven by curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge, and that the intelligibility of being, as seen in the coding of DNA, points to an intelligent creator.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the intelligibility of being is a necessary proof to me for intelligent creation", "start": 10788}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/44/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/45", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S45", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 45, "start": 10928, "end": 11164, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Al-Shaybani's book against the people of Madinah", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of al-Shaybani's critique of the Madinan school?", "summary": "Asked whether he has read al-Shaybani's book against the people of Madinah, Mufti Abu Layth says he read it years ago and saw it as an arrogant attempt to respond to Imam Malik. He says neutral scholars judged that its author failed from the title itself, since it is an argument against the people of Madinah while Islam was lived, explained and taught in Madinah, where the Prophet rests, and was captured by Imam Malik; an argument against Malik alone would have been different. He says this is why the book never gained prominence, quotes Imam Malik that the Quran was revealed and the Prophet lived and taught in Madinah, and says the school of Madinah tries to capture the practice of Madinah, without claiming it captured every practice. He then thanks a super chat aimed at a critic who blocked him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls al-Shaybani's book an arrogant reply to Malik that failed from its title, since Islam was lived in Madinah and preserved in Malik's school.", "answer_start": 10928, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-al-hasan-al-shaybani", "label": "Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:kitab-al-hujja-ala-ahl-al-madina", "label": "Kitab al-Hujja ala Ahl al-Madina"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "the practice of the people of Madinah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Shaybani's book against the people of Madinah failed from its title, since Islam was lived and taught in Madinah and captured by Imam Malik, whose school tries to preserve the practice of Madinah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "his what i saw as was just an arrogant attempt to respond to imam malik", "start": 10931}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/45/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/46", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S46", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 46, "start": 11164, "end": 11322, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was Adam a literal person? And critics who cannot enjoy life", "question_plain": "Was Adam a real person?", "summary": "As he begins to wrap up, Mufti Abu Layth is asked whether Adam is literal and says he does believe Adam was a literal person, the father of the cognitive revolution, while accepting that some see him as a metaphor and referring to his video on the subject. Responding to chat jokes about a critic, he says such people have boxed themselves into a cult-like mentality, cannot enjoy life and resent that others can, since their consolation was that they would have it in the hereafter, so someone who enjoys life makes their sacrifice look like an arbitrary choice of misery. He mentions returning to the gym that day.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth believes Adam was a literal person, the father of the cognitive revolution, though he accepts some read him as a metaphor.", "answer_start": 11164, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes Adam was a literal person, the father of the cognitive revolution, while accepting that some see him as a metaphor.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "adam in my understanding is literal yes i do believe that i believe he was the father of the cognitive uh revolution", "start": 11164}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/46/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/47", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S47", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 47, "start": 11322, "end": 12110, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is it wrong to want money? Love what it brings, and the art of giving", "question_plain": "Is it wrong for a Muslim to want to make money?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes a message asking for advice on entrepreneurship and whether it is wrong to want money or whether people should stick to necessities. He advises everyone who is so inclined to think entrepreneurially and make money, but cautions against loving money for its own sake: love instead what it brings, such as holidays, clothes, gifts, helping someone or seeing one's children enjoy things, quoting Shah Rukh Khan's advice to get rich first and then become a philosopher. Loving money as a number, he says, makes people anxious when they spend, stingy and miserable. He cites the hadith that God loves to see his servant enjoying the bounties he has given, the saying of Imam Malik that such things are as halal as chilled water, and the dua to place the world in our hands and not in our hearts, and says Islam is not an ascetic religion. As a footnote he says that, counterintuitively, God has hidden rizq in the art of giving, beginning with family and those around one, which requires tawakkul, before he begins to wrap up.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says make money and enjoy what it brings, but do not love money for itself, and remember that giving opens the way to provision.", "answer_start": 11322, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["wellbeing/gratitude-giving-and-contentment", "fiqh/finance"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:58780d20", "label": "report: inna allaha yuhibbu an yura athara nimatihi ala abdihi (paraphrased by the host; unresolved)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:shah-rukh-khan", "label": "Shah Rukh Khan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rizq", "label": "rizq (provision)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawakkul", "label": "tawakkul (reliance on God)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dunya", "label": "dunya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is good to be enterprising and make money, provided one loves what money brings rather than money itself, and that provision is counterintuitively increased through giving.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "allah has put you in this world to enjoy this world but i would say don't love money for and of itself love it for these things", "start": 11498}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/47/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/48", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S48", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 48, "start": 12110, "end": 12501, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "When to start and end the fast: any calendar, and the 12-hour fatwa", "question_plain": "Can I fast for a fixed 12 hours when the days are very long?", "summary": "Noting that the session covered few Ramadan topics, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question on the start and finish of the fast. He says either start date for Ramadan is fine, and that for daily timings one may follow any calendar, whether the local mosque's, one's city's or one's country's, including the one that gives more ease. He says he has endorsed, in detailed videos, a fatwa going back to an Egyptian al-Azhar ruling and re-endorsed by many, that since day and night in Arabia near the equator were roughly twelve hours each, any fast of twelve hours or more is valid for those who need it, and that nobody can judge another's need. He describes how people apply it, either starting with everyone and counting the hours or setting fixed times such as closing the fast at 4 am and opening it at 5 or 6 pm, and says he is not telling anyone to do this, but those who do have a valid fast in his understanding and should not be condemned.", "summary_short": "Follow any timetable you like; Mufti Abu Layth endorses the al-Azhar-derived fatwa that a fast of twelve hours or more is valid for anyone who needs it.", "answer_start": 12110, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting/times-and-moon-sighting", "fiqh/fasting/exemptions"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:al-azhar", "label": "al-Azhar"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says one may follow any reasonable fasting timetable, and that he endorses the fatwa that a fast of twelve hours or more is valid for those who need it, whose need others may not judge.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "i feel that fatwa is valid for people who need it how do you know you need it well i'm not nobody can judge that", "start": 12343}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/48/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/49", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S49", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 49, "start": 12501, "end": 12899, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "If I cannot fast: my own call, making up, fidya and the reading of 2:184", "question_plain": "Can I skip fasting because of work, exams or health, and what do I do instead?", "summary": "On whether people may leave the fast because of difficulties such as exams, health or work, Mufti Abu Layth says it is ultimately their own call, as al-Shatibi says, and that they should make the fast up later if they can. If the condition will not change, such as needing water every few hours for the kidneys or a job that will not change, he says they give fidya for each day, based on the apparent reading of the Quran that those who are capable of fasting give fidya (2:184); he says the majority read an implied negation into the verse and calls this a poor attempt at reconciliation, holding that God left the wording as a mercy for those who need it. To the objection that he is giving people an excuse not to fast, he says he is explaining the deen as it is and that another's fasting should not bother anyone, since resentment reflects treating worship as a punishment. To the objection that a twelve-hour fast is nothing, he says fasting is about personal commitment, not starving.", "summary_short": "It is your call: make the fast up later if you can, or give fidya if your situation will not change, which Mufti Abu Layth bases on the plain wording of Quran 2:184.", "answer_start": 12501, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting/exemptions", "fiqh/fasting/making-up-fidya-kaffarah", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:184", "label": "Quran 2:184 (those who are able to fast may give fidya)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shatibi", "label": "al-Shatibi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fidya", "label": "fidya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qada", "label": "qada (making up a missed fast)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says whether one can fast is one's own decision, that those who cannot should make the fast up later or, if their situation will not change, give fidya on the apparent reading of 2:184, and that fasting is a personal commitment, not a punishment.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "in that case i would say that you give fidya for each day that you miss okay and this is based on the apparent reading of the quran", "start": 12537}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/49/"}, {"id": "8XuHMCz2N3U/s/50", "short_id": "2021-04-13-S50", "recording": "8XuHMCz2N3U", "n": 50, "start": 12899, "end": 13057, "date": "20210413", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Not feeling the spirit of Ramadan; sign-off", "question_plain": "I don't feel spiritual in Ramadan; am I a bad Muslim?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes a question from someone who does not find Ramadan as spiritual as others seem to and asks whether that makes them a bad person. He says no: people differ, introverts and extroverts enjoy different atmospheres, and not feeling the communal vibe is not a reflection of faith, so there is no need for guilt; the feeling is a bonus, not a requirement. He gives the example of someone who hates crowds and finds hajj a rough experience while others call it spiritual, and says that does not mean their hajj is not accepted, since worship is not measured by a feel-good effect. He signs off, asking viewers to subscribe, saying he replies more on Instagram, inviting suggestions for MindTrap guests and reminding them to enjoy the gifts God has given.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says not feeling Ramadan's atmosphere is no reflection of your faith, since worship is not measured by how good it feels.", "answer_start": 12899, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting", "wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hajj", "label": "hajj"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says not feeling the spiritual atmosphere of Ramadan or hajj is no reflection of a person's faith and no cause for guilt, since worship is not measured by how it feels.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not a reflection of your faith okay it's not it's just you know some people may not vibe with certain kind of things", "start": 12918}}, "url": "/r/8XuHMCz2N3U/s/50/"}, {"id": "8zY0NDQvL2U/s/1", "short_id": "2021-04-19-S01", "recording": "8zY0NDQvL2U", "n": 1, "start": 4, "end": 485, "date": "20210419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Where is your love for the Prophet? The Bukhari reports Mufti Abu Layth's critics defend", "question_plain": "Why do Mufti Abu Layth's critics defend Bukhari reports that demean the Prophet?", "summary": "The clip opens mid-sentence with Mufti Abu Layth addressing his critics, naming Farid [?] and Asim Qureshi [?], and asking where their love for the Prophet is when what he calls Najdi Wahhabi people say the Prophet married and bedded a child, forcibly took Safiyya after her husband was killed, and refuse to this day to recognise Mariya al-Qibtiyya, the mother of his son Ibrahim, as a wife, calling her a concubine or a sex slave, although the Quran calls the Prophet's wives the mothers of the believers. He lists further reports from Sahih al-Bukhari that he calls nonsense and rubbish: that the Prophet tried to touch a woman and told her to give herself to him, that he forgot the Quran, and that Moses ran naked so that people could see whether he had a hernia; he adds that the apostasy report rests on Ikrima, a Khariji whom Imam Malik said not to take from, yet is accepted because Bukhari included it. He says these critics never speak out against such reports, in order to appease the Wahhabi leaders in Saudi Arabia who fund them, and that their love for the Prophet surfaces only when calling to kill apostates, Shia or Qadianis. He recounts a YouTube discussion in which members of that group said it did not matter if the Prophet was clumsy or had been made sexually impotent by magic, adds a crude jibe about their fathers, and says that rather than challenge their seniors they excuse such reports as belonging to a different time. He concludes that honour does not lie in a fantasy caliphate that neither Allah nor the Prophet asked for, that for these people the Prophet is only a licence for power, sex slaves and dominion, and that a faith built on such a cobweb crumbles as they age.", "summary_short": "Critics who defend Bukhari reports Mufti Abu Layth regards as insulting to the Prophet, such as marrying a child, forcing Safiyya, forgetting the Quran or being made impotent by magic, cannot claim to love the Prophet. Mariya al-Qibtiyya was a wife, not a concubine, and the critics' real concern is a fantasy caliphate and power.", "answer_start": 4, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:asim-qureshi", "label": "Asim Qureshi [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mariya-al-qibtiyya", "label": "Mariya al-Qibtiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim-ibn-muhammad", "label": "Ibrahim, the son of the Prophet"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:6", "label": "Quran 33:6 (his wives are their mothers)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7b34dd38", "label": "report: married her when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:46d4d9c4", "label": "report: the prophet tried to touch a woman and told her to give herself to him"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5d1281b0", "label": "report: the prophet forgot verses of the quran"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e592ec95", "label": "report: musa ran naked so that people could see he had no hernia"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0a236306", "label": "report: whoever changes his religion kill him"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e92689a3", "label": "report: magic was done on the prophet and he became impotent"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ikrima", "label": "Ikrima"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Wahhabi (Najdi)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Moses (Musa)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khilafah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Mariya al-Qibtiyya was a wife of the Prophet and not a concubine, and calls nonsense the teachings, some of them in Sahih al-Bukhari, that the Prophet married a child, forcibly took Safiyya, tried to force himself on a woman, forgot the Quran or was made impotent by magic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "she was the only wife of the prophet alaihi wasallam that brought him a child that lived in this world after prophethood", "start": 71}}, "url": "/r/8zY0NDQvL2U/s/1/"}, {"id": "8zY0NDQvL2U/s/2", "short_id": "2021-04-19-S02", "recording": "8zY0NDQvL2U", "n": 2, "start": 485, "end": 507, "date": "20210419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Sign-off: wrapping up a late, extended stream", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth wraps up, saying it has got very late and the stream has gone on for a while and was a bit extended, that it has been awesome as always, and that he is losing his voice.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth closes a late, extended stream, saying he is losing his voice.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/8zY0NDQvL2U/s/2/"}, {"id": "9kK28jhdcA8/s/1", "short_id": "2020-12-11-S01", "recording": "9kK28jhdcA8", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 337, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Zakir Naik now says masturbation is not haram: a call for those who preached otherwise to apologise", "question_plain": "Did Zakir Naik say masturbation is not haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reports that Zakir Naik, asked in a recent stream whether masturbation is haram, answered that it is not haram but discouraged, and he plays on the audience's excitement at the news. He says it is remarkable that people who for decades preached it as haram, burdening people with unnecessary guilt and threats of hellfire, now turn around and say it is not actually haram, and he would like them to admit they were preaching wrong and apologise to the millions who suffered for it. He names Yasir Qadhi [?] among those he expects to say the same within half a year. He says he finds it both hilarious and saddening, since so many people carried this guilt while mocking him, and recalls an article on a news site [?] that mocked him for saying masturbation outside marriage is permitted. He ends with the argument he made then: those who allow a spouse to do it but forbid doing it oneself must hold that it becomes haram the instant one's own hand makes contact, which he calls the stupidity of what such people brand and sell as Islam.", "summary_short": "Zakir Naik has said masturbation is not haram but only discouraged. Mufti Abu Layth says those who preached it as haram for decades owe people an admission and an apology, and ridicules the view that only one's own hand makes it haram.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zakir-naik", "label": "Zakir Naik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:5pillars", "label": "5Pillars (news site) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/9kK28jhdcA8/s/1/"}, {"id": "9tHI3gcIiCk/s/1", "short_id": "2014-03-12-S01", "recording": "9tHI3gcIiCk", "n": 1, "start": 4, "end": 313, "date": "20140312", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Do I need to follow a madhhab? A practical necessity, not a legislated obligation", "question_plain": "Do I have to follow a madhhab?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up the age-old question whether it is necessary to follow a madhhab. He says the question needs a more dynamic answer than yes or no, but reduced to one the answer is yes: anyone who wants to take their deen seriously and develop a sound, constructive understanding of it must take a particular medium. This does not mean that someone without a madhhab is sinful or has done something haram, and he says that demanding evidence from the Quran and Sunnah for following a school reduces the discourse to absurdity. He compares it to language: nobody can learn the deen, or anything, without going through a particular language, and no one asks for scriptural evidence that a language is required; likewise a sound understanding of how to worship and practise cannot be had without taking a school of law as one's basis. This, he says, is how the Muslim generations have taken their deen from their forefathers back to the salaf and the Prophet, so it is not a matter of haram or wajib but of what is conceivable. He closes by raising the follow-up question whether one is obliged to stick to one school, which the next segment answers.", "summary_short": "Yes in practice: a sound understanding of the deen cannot be acquired without a school of law as the medium, just as knowledge cannot be acquired without a language. It is not a matter of sin or haram, but of what is conceivable.", "answer_start": 4, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deen", "label": "deen"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wajib", "label": "wajib"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "Sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that following a madhhab is a practical necessity for anyone who wants a sound understanding of the deen, as a language is for learning anything, and not a legislated obligation whose neglect is sinful.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it literally is inconceivable for for anybody to have a sound understanding of the de that has not taken a medium that has not taken a particular School of Law", "start": 233}}, "url": "/r/9tHI3gcIiCk/s/1/"}, {"id": "9tHI3gcIiCk/s/2", "short_id": "2014-03-12-S02", "recording": "9tHI3gcIiCk", "n": 2, "start": 313, "end": 467, "date": "20140312", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Must I stick to one school? The door analogy, evaluating positions later, and resisting authority", "question_plain": "Do I have to stick to one madhhab, or can I question its positions?", "summary": "Continuing the question whether one must stick to a particular school, Mufti Abu Layth says schools of law rest on their own principles, philosophies, objectives and interpretations, so while developing one's understanding it makes sense to remain within one. He compares it to a building with several doors: one need not use a particular door, but one must choose a door and go through it rather than all of them; so a person adopts a basis for understanding the deen and, as they acquire knowledge, may at a later stage analyse and evaluate some of the stances within that school. He adds that those who question these things are often genuine, but some seem to struggle to submit to authority, and he mentions the psychological condition called oppositional defiant disorder, a pattern of angry disobedience and defiance towards authority, saying some people display similar symptoms on such matters. He reminds listeners that the Messenger taught the companions, who taught the next generations, in an unbroken chain to this day. At the end he begins another misconception: saying 'Abu Hanifa says this or Malik says this but the hadith says that' is the wrong way of framing the matter, which the next segment develops.", "summary_short": "Develop within one school, since each rests on its own principles, like choosing one door into a building; once knowledgeable you may evaluate its positions. Mufti Abu Layth adds that some who resist this seem to struggle with submitting to authority.", "answer_start": 313, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:oppositional-defiant-disorder", "label": "oppositional defiant disorder"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hadith", "label": "hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahabah", "label": "sahabah (companions)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a student should adopt one school of law as the basis for developing their understanding and may, at a later stage as their knowledge grows, analyse and evaluate some of its positions.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "a person must adopt a particular basis through which they will develop their understanding of this them and as they continue to acquire knowledge and develop themselves then at a later stage they may choose to analyze and evaluate", "start": 313}}, "url": "/r/9tHI3gcIiCk/s/2/"}, {"id": "9tHI3gcIiCk/s/3", "short_id": "2014-03-12-S03", "recording": "9tHI3gcIiCk", "n": 3, "start": 467, "end": 706, "date": "20140312", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hadith against hadith, not imam against hadith; why the schools differ yet are all valid", "question_plain": "If the madhhabs differ so much, how can they all be valid?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth finishes the point that one should not set an imam's fatwa against a hadith, which comes across as almost blasphemous, as if challenging the Prophet's words with an imam's; the correct way is to say that the hadith Malik relied on says this, the hadith Abu Hanifa relied on says that, and the hadith you quote says this, so hadith is placed on a par with hadith and the interpretations are then assessed. He then takes the question how all the schools can be valid, as in essence they are, when there are so many disparities between them. He says a full explanation of why differences emerge would be lengthy, but offers the analogy of modern law in the United States, where each state has its own law under the same constitution: in Islam the constitution rests on the Quran and Sunnah while the application varies. Returning to the main question, he repeats that not following a school is not haram, since everyone resorts to some scholar for matters of faith, but that developing an understanding of reasonable depth without any particular school is inconceivable: going through every single mas'ala and its evidences first would be completely impractical, since the prayer is upon us five times a day. He closes with an Arabic poet's lines about calling out to someone with no life in them and blowing on cold ashes, for matters that have become self-explanatory.", "summary_short": "Compare the hadith an imam relied on with the hadith you quote, not the imam's fatwa with the hadith. The schools differ in application under one constitution of Quran and Sunnah, like US states, and learning every ruling from its evidence without a school is impractical.", "answer_start": 467, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hadith", "label": "hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:masala", "label": "mas'ala (legal question)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:compare-hadith-with-hadith-not-imam-with-hadith", "label": "compare the hadith an imam relied on with the hadith quoted, not the imam's fatwa with the hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the schools of law are all valid in essence, differing in application under the one constitution of the Quran and Sunnah, and that a difference between an imam and a hadith must be framed as hadith against hadith, never as the imam's fatwa against the Prophet's words.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "it is the Hadith that these imams and these Scholars have relied upon which may be matched against the Hadith that you are quoting and then the interpretations may be assessed", "start": 467}}, "url": "/r/9tHI3gcIiCk/s/3/"}, {"id": "9tHI3gcIiCk/s/4", "short_id": "2014-03-12-S04", "recording": "9tHI3gcIiCk", "n": 4, "start": 706, "end": 854, "date": "20140312", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How to choose a madhhab, and Mufti Abu Layth's preference for the school of Madinah", "question_plain": "How should I choose which madhhab to follow?", "summary": "After the poet's second line about blowing into cold ashes, Mufti Abu Layth asks how a person who must adopt a school should choose one. Citing a scholar whose name is garbled in the transcript [?], he says a person may choose by whatever criteria suit them: liking a particular imam or a particular madhhab for a particular reason is fine, and nobody is obliged to prefer one over another. Some say one must follow the school of one's locality, but the scholar he cites disagrees clearly and says one may choose whichever one takes a fancy to. Asked for his personal opinion, he says all madhhabs are, as has been clearly documented, in essence upon the truth, but asks what could be greater than the perspective on the deen transmitted in Madinah itself, known as the madhhab of Madinah and later as the school of Imam Malik. He closes with a prayer that Allah guide us, increase our understanding of the deen and let us reconnect with this legacy.", "summary_short": "Choose by whatever criteria suit you; you are not bound to the school of your locality. All madhhabs are in essence upon the truth, but Mufti Abu Layth personally prefers the school transmitted in Madinah, that of Imam Malik.", "answer_start": 706, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that to him personally all madhhabs are in essence upon the truth, but asks what could be greater than the school transmitted in Madinah, later known as the school of Imam Malik.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "to me personally all mhbs are as has been clearly documented in essence upon the H however what could be greater than the school or the perspective upon the de which was transmitted in Madina itself", "start": 764}}, "url": "/r/9tHI3gcIiCk/s/4/"}, {"id": "ATcN8aUo8oc/s/1", "short_id": "2020-06-17-S01", "recording": "ATcN8aUo8oc", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 156, "date": "20200617", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Yasir Qadhi's interview with Mohammed Hijab on the preservation of the Quran", "question_plain": "What did Yasir Qadhi say to Mohammed Hijab about the preservation of the Quran?", "summary": "The clip opens mid-sentence, with Mufti Abu Layth closing a previous discussion by saying that, as every advanced student and specialist knows, the 'standard narrative' has holes and does not answer some very pressing questions. He then turns to the controversy: Yasir Qadhi appeared in an interview with Mohammed Hijab, who, Mufti says in fairness to Qadhi, sprang on him the question of the Quran's preservation and the different manuscripts and variants. According to Mufti, Qadhi chose to be very open, saying there are huge problems, while repeatedly saying this should not be discussed in front of people and then discussing only the problem and not the solution; when it came to the answer, Mufti says, Qadhi called it complicated and invited people to join his paid course. Mufti recalls Hijab asking whether, given a blank mushaf and any mushaf to copy from, Qadhi would rewrite the Quran as we have it today.", "summary_short": "In Mufti Abu Layth's account, Yasir Qadhi said there were 'huge problems' with the preservation of the Quran, discussed only the problem and not the answer, and pointed people to his paid course. Mufti himself says the standard narrative has holes and leaves pressing questions unanswered.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["possible_quoted_view"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "mushaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ATcN8aUo8oc/s/1/"}, {"id": "ATcN8aUo8oc/s/2", "short_id": "2020-06-17-S02", "recording": "ATcN8aUo8oc", "n": 2, "start": 156, "end": 387, "date": "20200617", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The backlash: the mob turns, and Mohammed Hijab posts that Qadhi 'will be refuted'", "question_plain": "How did Mohammed Hijab react after his interview with Yasir Qadhi backfired?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that after Hijab pressed him and Qadhi had what Mufti calls his moment of epiphany and transparency, the episode backfired badly: people flipped, the mob turned, and Hijab realised it had backfired on him too. Mufti reads out, from a Facebook post by Hijab, that Qadhi 'will be refuted', and mocks the turn: Qadhi came on for a heart-to-heart and his host turned on him, saying that if he is a deviant they will refute him. Mufti says Qadhi would never agree to a dialogue with him, though he had asked, and contrasts his own conduct: he says he would never backstab a guest, he may ask questions, but he would not press a guest and then call for him to be refuted. He attributes Hijab's statement to a wish for popularity. Laughter and music effects are played during the segment.", "summary_short": "According to Mufti Abu Layth, Hijab posted that Yasir Qadhi 'will be refuted' once the mob turned, which Mufti attributes to a wish for popularity. Mufti says he would never backstab a guest in that way.", "answer_start": 156, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ATcN8aUo8oc/s/2/"}, {"id": "ATcN8aUo8oc/s/3", "short_id": "2020-06-17-S03", "recording": "ATcN8aUo8oc", "n": 3, "start": 387, "end": 624, "date": "20200617", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Chickens coming home to roost: the refutation culture, and a shaykh who finds everything too controversial", "question_plain": "Why does he say the backlash against Yasir Qadhi is his own doing?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that for Qadhi and Hijab this is, in many ways, the chickens coming home to roost: they are part and parcel of the mob culture of refutation. He recalls that not long ago Qadhi made a video about him without naming him, saying that this so-called mufti should claim to belong to another, non-Sunni sect rather than call himself a Sunni Maliki, so that they would not have to refute him. He then says, half-joking, that American preachers cannot handle fame or controversy, calls himself the king of controversy, and offers tips. He lists matters Qadhi has, in his account, declined to address as too controversial: whether Halloween is permissible, saying Merry Christmas, whether music is clearly not haram, men's jewellery, the beard, and BukhariGate. The first controversy he chooses to open with, Mufti says, is that the Quran is not preserved, the backbone of Islam, with no preparation.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi and Hijab built the refutation culture that has now turned on them, and that a shaykh who calls Halloween, Christmas greetings, music and the beard too controversial should not open with the preservation of the Quran.", "answer_start": 387, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ATcN8aUo8oc/s/3/"}, {"id": "ATcN8aUo8oc/s/4", "short_id": "2020-06-17-S04", "recording": "ATcN8aUo8oc", "n": 4, "start": 624, "end": 1008, "date": "20200617", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Am I being harsh? Raising the problem without an answer, his uncle's lesson, and what Qadhi should have said", "question_plain": "What should Yasir Qadhi have said about the preservation of the Quran?", "summary": "Anticipating the charge that he is being harsh, Mufti Abu Layth says this is what you get for promoting and taking part in the culture of calling people like him a deviant sect, and for thinking Hijab a friend while refusing to appear with people like Mufti; he warns against so-called companions whose words come back to bite. He says Qadhi kept saying the matter should not be discussed in public, yet the problem was discussing the question, not the answer: when he reached the answer he told people to enrol on his paid course, and Mufti says he should have given them some answer. He says the public will now either force Qadhi to pretend he sees no problems or make him own his view and be further disowned. He tells a story of his late uncle in Karachi, who, when Mufti said a man could not be faulted for being poor, agreed but said being an idiot was his own fault; likewise, Mufti says, coming on live and making such statements without qualifying them is Qadhi's own fault. To Hijab's blank-mushaf question, he says Qadhi should simply have said that of course the Quran would come out the same as it is today, and given some clarity, instead of calling it complex. He notes ex-Muslims and Islamophobes having a field day, Jay Smith having made a whole video, and describes Qadhi as now heartbroken.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the mistake was raising the problem in public without any answer: Qadhi should have given some answer, such as saying plainly that the Quran would come out the same as it is today. The fallout, he says, is Qadhi's own fault.", "answer_start": 624, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jay-smith", "label": "Jay Smith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "mushaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ATcN8aUo8oc/s/4/"}, {"id": "ATcN8aUo8oc/s/5", "short_id": "2020-06-17-S05", "recording": "ATcN8aUo8oc", "n": 5, "start": 1008, "end": 1149, "date": "20200617", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Closing: Qadhi's crisis, a prediction about Hijab, and doing things his own way", "question_plain": "What does he think will happen to Yasir Qadhi and Mohammed Hijab after this controversy?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he covered the dynamic nature of the Quran earlier in the session, before this part, so that viewers already had the background. He declines a viewer's suggestion to apply a label to Qadhi, saying only that his behaviour was poor. He predicts that Qadhi has only gone further into his crisis, since he must now choose between owning his view and losing much of the following he panders to, and pretending otherwise. He says he believes Mohammed Hijab, being younger, will crumble under a similar crisis within a decade, because these people began from a plateau of claimed certainties that is not sustainable and that maturity erodes. Wrapping up, he says he is glad he did things his own way: if his opinions change they change, people know who he is, and he is not pandering to a 'Frankenstein crowd' that would then turn on him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth predicts Qadhi must choose between owning his view and losing followers, and that Hijab will face a similar crisis within a decade because their claimed certainties are unsustainable. He says he is glad he never pandered to a crowd that would turn on him.", "answer_start": 1008, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ATcN8aUo8oc/s/5/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/1", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S01", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 1, "start": 4, "end": 161, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reply to a critic: the 'singing breeds hypocrisy' hadith and its weak chains", "question_plain": "Is the hadith that singing breeds hypocrisy in the heart authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up a critic's video which played a clip of him saying that nothing categorically proves music to be haram and that lyrics do not make something haram, even when they speak of sex or fighting, though one may not want to listen or let one's children listen. He reports the critic's reaction: that this shows the danger of following people with no knowledge, that today's muftis follow whims and desires, and that the Prophet said music is haram, citing the hadith that singing breeds hypocrisy in the heart as water makes vegetation grow. Mufti pauses the video and quotes the hadith in Arabic. He says it is transmitted from Ibn Mas'ud to the Prophet through five chains and stops at Ibn Mas'ud in three others, in the books of Ibn Abi al-Dunya, al-Daylami [?], al-Bayhaqi, Abu Dawud and al-Hakim, and that every single chain has been criticised as weak, so that there is not a single sahih hadith here.", "summary_short": "The hadith that singing breeds hypocrisy in the heart is weak in every one of its chains, which run from Ibn Mas'ud to the Prophet in some versions and stop at Ibn Mas'ud in others. Mufti Abu Layth restates that nothing categorically proves music haram and that lyrics do not make it so.", "answer_start": 4, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "hadith/authentication", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c485a5bc", "label": "report: singing brings hypocrisy in the heart as water gives rise to vegetation"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abi-al-dunya", "label": "Ibn Abi al-Dunya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-daylami", "label": "al-Daylami [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bayhaqi", "label": "al-Bayhaqi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-hakim-al-naysaburi", "label": "al-Hakim al-Naysaburi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:daif", "label": "da'if"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says nothing categorically proves music to be haram and that lyrics do not make something haram even when they speak of sex or fighting, though one may not want to listen to them or let one's children do so.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "lyrics do not make something Haram so even if the words are talking or sexual or they're talking about things like fighting or things like that that does not make something Haram", "start": 4}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/1/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/2", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S02", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 2, "start": 161, "end": 631, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "No sahih hadith prohibits music: al-Shawkani, Ibn Hazm, Ibn al-Arabi, al-Fakihani and the early Madinans", "question_plain": "Which scholars held that music is permissible, and what did Imam Malik's school say?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth challenges the critic, a Salafi, to bring a single sahih hadith, and answers the charge that he quotes random opinions. He reads from al-Shawkani's Nayl al-Awtar, which after gathering all the hadith on music lists those who said it is permissible, among them the people of Madinah, the Zahiris and a group of Sufis [?], and reports that many great scholars declared all these hadith weak, quoting Ibn Hazm and Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, the Maliki judge of Muslim Spain, who said in his Ahkam al-Quran that not a single hadith on the prohibition of music is sahih, and the muhaddith Ibn Tahir [?], who said not a letter of them is sahih. He says nobody is an authority in religion except God and His Messenger, so what is needed is a conclusive, unbroken chain to the Prophet; Ibn Hazm said that whatever is brought can only be traced to someone other than the Prophet. He quotes the Maliki al-Fakihani [?], whose commentary he has, that he knows of no clear text in the Book of Allah or the words of His Messenger that prohibits music. He then lists those who defended it or practised it: Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni in his Nihaya [?] relates that the companion Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr owned singing girls; Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani relates a companion's descendant [?] listening to music; al-Shawkani relates that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, whom the critic himself quotes, listened to music before becoming caliph; Tawus, the student of Ibn Abbas, and Sa'd ibn Ibrahim, the qadi of Madinah before Imam Malik, held it permissible; al-Ruyani [?] from al-Qaffal [?] relates that the madhhab of Imam Malik is the permissibility of music and instruments, as did Abu Mansur [?]; Abu Talib al-Makki in Qut al-Qulub relates that Shu'ba heard instruments in the house of al-Minhal ibn Amr [?]; and Ibn Tahir's book on the subject shows there was no dispute among the people of Madinah that flutes and instruments were permissible. He concludes that anyone wishing to refute him should bring a sahih hadith, since the one brought, in Abu Dawud, al-Hakim [?] and al-Bayhaqi, has incredibly weak chains, and he finds it dire to have to correct a Salafi on hadith.", "summary_short": "Al-Shawkani, Ibn Hazm, Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi and al-Fakihani all found no sahih hadith prohibiting music, and the people of Madinah, including the qadi Sa'd ibn Ibrahim, held it permissible, with some transmitting this as Imam Malik's own position. Only Allah and His Messenger are authorities, so a refutation needs a sahih hadith.", "answer_start": 161, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "fiqh/maliki-school", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nayl-al-awtar", "label": "Nayl al-Awtar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "the practice of the people of Madinah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zahiri", "label": "Zahiri school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:ahkam-al-quran", "label": "Ahkam al-Quran"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-tahir", "label": "Ibn Tahir [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:only-allah-and-his-messenger-are-authorities", "label": "only Allah and His Messenger are authorities in matters of religion"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-fakihani", "label": "al-Fakihani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-juwayni", "label": "Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:aebb3191", "label": "report: abdullah ibn al-zubayr owned singing girls"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-faraj-al-isfahani", "label": "Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-ibn-abd-al-aziz", "label": "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:29cf1793", "label": "report: umar ibn abd al-aziz used to listen to music before he became khalifah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tawus", "label": "Tawus"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sad-ibn-ibrahim", "label": "Sa'd ibn Ibrahim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ruyani", "label": "al-Ruyani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qaffal", "label": "al-Qaffal [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-talib-al-makki", "label": "Abu Talib al-Makki"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:qut-al-qulub", "label": "Qut al-Qulub"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shuba", "label": "Shu'ba"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-minhal-ibn-amr", "label": "al-Minhal ibn Amr [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maazif", "label": "ma'azif (musical instruments; read as 'entertainment')"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ghina", "label": "ghina (singing, music)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that there is no sahih hadith prohibiting music, citing al-Shawkani, Ibn Hazm, Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi and al-Fakihani, and that since only Allah and His Messenger are authorities in religion, anyone refuting him must bring a sahih hadith.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "there isn't a single sahi hadith that you can bring in this pub Allah at least bring me a sahi hadith", "start": 161}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/2/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/3", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S03", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 3, "start": 631, "end": 947, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is music haram? No conclusive text, the 'entertainment' hadith, and the ontology of religion", "question_plain": "Is listening to music haram?", "summary": "An audience member asks whether music is haram, and Mufti Abu Layth senses that the room already thinks it clearly is. He says he has answered this before at length and that there is a difference of opinion, but that in his understanding music is not forbidden: nothing in Islam is both conclusive, sahih and explicit in declaring it haram; the many hadith are either not sahih or not conclusive in wording, such as the one in Bukhari that towards the end of time people will consider certain things permissible, which is translated as music though the word means entertainment, a leap of interpretation, while the texts that actually say music are not authentic. The difficulty, he says, is that before approaching religion people already carry an understanding of what religion with a capital R will demand: worship, suffering, sacrifice, asceticism, hostility to desires and to entertainment. With that backdrop no text is needed to make music haram, and being shown that religion is not like that produces cognitive dissonance, which is why people so easily say music is haram even when given evidence. He adds that several scholars from the Prophet's time on allowed it: a hadith in al-Tirmidhi [?] has the Prophet hearing a flute, covering his ears and asking Ibn Umar to tell him when it stopped, which shows personal dislike rather than prohibition, since he would not have told someone to do something forbidden; companions like Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr are known for it; and al-Shawkani in Nayl al-Awtar gathered all the narrations and concluded, though he did not himself advise music, that honesty with the literature requires saying there is no clear text prohibiting it.", "summary_short": "In Mufti Abu Layth's understanding music is not forbidden, because no text is at once conclusive, sahih and explicit: the Bukhari hadith speaks of entertainment, not music, and the texts naming music are not authentic. People find this hard to accept because they come to religion expecting it to oppose entertainment and desire.", "answer_start": 631, "questioner": "audience", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8ca2f04b", "label": "report: at the end of time people will consider maazif permissible (Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maazif", "label": "ma'azif (musical instruments; read as 'entertainment')"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahih", "label": "sahih"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sarih", "label": "sarih (explicit)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:ontology-of-religion", "label": "the 'ontology of religion': preconceptions of what religion must be shape how Islam is read"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tirmidhi", "label": "al-Tirmidhi [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0e6517d3", "label": "report: the prophet heard a flute blocked his ears and asked ibn umar to tell him when it stopped"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nayl-al-awtar", "label": "Nayl al-Awtar"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding music is not forbidden, since nothing in Islam is at once conclusive, sahih and explicit in prohibiting it, the Bukhari hadith speaks of entertainment rather than music, and the texts that name music are not authentic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "the word doesn't actually say music it actually says entertainment but you seen that this the leave of interpretation going on and all the texts actually say music are not authentic", "start": 729}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/3/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/4", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S04", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 4, "start": 947, "end": 1341, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "But some music is about sex and swearing: Arabic poetry in the Prophet's mosque and Ka'b ibn Zuhayr", "question_plain": "Is music with explicit or violent lyrics haram?", "summary": "An audience member objects that some music swears and is all about sex. Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think that changes anything and does not approve of policing people. Arabic poetry in the Prophet's time was mainly about women, sex and alcohol, yet the same poetry was recited in the Prophet's mosque; a report in Bukhari has the companions spending the night with the Prophet reciting poetry before he said to read some Quran. Imru' al-Qais, deemed the legendary poet, wrote of countless sexual escapades, and the Mu'allaqat, the odes of the pre-Islamic masters, must be studied by anyone who wants to become a scholar of Islam; poetry reigned supreme and stayed so after Islam. He tells of Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma, whose own verse was about wisdom, and his son Ka'b ibn Zuhayr, who had insulted the Prophet, came to the mosque in fear for his life, was accepted, and recited his poem from the minbar the Prophet gave him; it opens with lines about his beloved who has left him and the chains of his heart before turning to praise of the Prophet. Urdu poetry, by contrast, is modest and about a pure love, whereas classical Arabic poetry is explicit through the Muslim ages. He says lyrics are a separate topic from music: he does not promote a culture of gangs, killing and drug-dealing, but people are intelligent enough to make their own choices and know right from wrong, and it would make no sense to say music is fine but all hip-hop is haram, since music is about the music and not the words. If someone insists it is haram, he adds, he did think of giving that ruling but remembered that he was not God.", "summary_short": "Lyrics do not make music haram: Arabic poetry about sex and alcohol was recited in the Prophet's mosque and is still studied by every scholar, and Ka'b ibn Zuhayr recited his love-opening ode from the Prophet's minbar. Mufti Abu Layth does not promote a culture of violence and drugs but says people can judge content for themselves.", "answer_start": 947, "questioner": "audience", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9ac3373f", "label": "report: they recited poetry with the prophet through the night and then he said now read quran (Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:imru-al-qais", "label": "Imru' al-Qais"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muallaqat", "label": "the Mu'allaqat"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zuhayr-ibn-abi-sulma", "label": "Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:kab-ibn-zuhayr", "label": "Ka'b ibn Zuhayr"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:banat-suad", "label": "Banat Su'ad (the ode of Ka'b ibn Zuhayr)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:minbar", "label": "minbar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that lyrics do not make music haram, since Arabic poetry about sex and alcohol was recited in the Prophet's mosque, and that while he does not promote a culture of violence and drugs, people are intelligent enough to judge content for themselves.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "music is to do with the music it's not to do with the words that's a separate matter", "start": 1300}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/4/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/5", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S05", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 5, "start": 1341, "end": 1569, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Who can declare music haram? 'I remembered I wasn't God', the verse on attributing falsehood, and the strip-club objection", "question_plain": "Who has the authority to declare music haram if God has not?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he did think of ruling music with bad lyrics haram but then remembered he was not God: it is audacity to think one can change God's law because one thinks something is bad, as if God did not know His people, and he cites the verse forbidding people to say 'this is halal and this is haram' and so attribute falsehood to Allah. He repeats that there is no single conclusive and clear hadith prohibiting music; there are plenty of hadith, but they are not authentic, and the authentic ones use words like entertainment, not music. An audience member asks about strip clubs and nightclubs; Mufti replies that entertainment can take many forms, so why must the word mean music, and that he never said it did. Pressed, he asks the questioner the same question back: has God made music haram? When the answer is no, he says the case is closed. Scholars, he accepts, said it is haram through their judgment, either because of their ontology of religion or because they felt it leads to mischief, but that is interpretation. He says he does not see the big deal: if you do not like it, do not do it, but it is allowed, and jokes that unless God sends him an update by text message he will stand by that.", "summary_short": "God has not made music haram and neither Mufti Abu Layth nor the scholars have the authority to do so: the authentic hadith speak of entertainment, which could mean many things, and the scholars' prohibition is their own interpretation. Those who dislike music need not listen to it, but it is allowed.", "answer_start": 1341, "questioner": "audience", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:16:116", "label": "Quran 16:116 (do not say this is halal and this is haram, attributing falsehood to Allah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:halal", "label": "halal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maazif", "label": "ma'azif (musical instruments; read as 'entertainment')"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:ontology-of-religion", "label": "the 'ontology of religion': preconceptions of what religion must be shape how Islam is read"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says God has not made music haram, so no one may make it haram, since the authentic hadith speak of entertainment rather than music and the scholars who prohibited it did so by their own interpretation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so if God didn't make it Haram who are we to make it Haram", "start": 1341}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/5/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/6", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S06", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 6, "start": 1569, "end": 1808, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are lyrics about alcohol haram? Enjoining good is not policing, blind following, and whether God gets sarcasm", "question_plain": "Is it haram to write or sing lyrics about alcohol?", "summary": "An audience member asks whether writing lyrics about alcohol is haram. Mufti Abu Layth says it is not, because such poetry was recited in the Prophet's mosque in front of the Prophet, as recorded in Bukhari. To a question about free will he suggests that it is our understanding of enjoining good and forbidding evil that needs questioning: it is not about going around with a stick, policing people or forcing them. Saying that something leads to bad behaviour and therefore God made it haram is, he says, lying on God's behalf, which he will not do. The classical scholars gave their reasons, such as accepting a hadith he considers weak, but nobody follows all the scholars blindly, so there is no reason to follow them blindly here; not all scholars said music is haram, and many challenged it from the Prophet's time on. He cites al-Shawkani, a hadith master who disliked music himself, as concluding impartially that none of the chains is authentic while still not encouraging people to listen. Mufti says he is not a big fan of music himself and makes a joke about alcohol. When the Day of Judgement is invoked, he says this card is thrown too often: if humans can understand a joke, sarcasm, irony and metaphor, God certainly can, and to suppose otherwise is to infantilise and denigrate Him.", "summary_short": "Lyrics about alcohol are not haram, since such poetry was recited in the Prophet's mosque, and declaring something haram because it might lead to bad behaviour is lying on God's behalf. Enjoining good is not policing, scholars need not be followed blindly, and God understands sarcasm as well as we do.", "answer_start": 1569, "questioner": "audience", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "fiqh/legal-theory", "belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9ac3373f", "label": "report: they recited poetry with the prophet through the night and then he said now read quran (Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:commanding-good-and-forbidding-evil", "label": "al-amr bil-ma'ruf wa al-nahy an al-munkar (commanding good and forbidding evil)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqlid", "label": "taqlid"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the scholars who called music haram gave their reasons but need not be followed blindly, since not all scholars said so and many challenged it from the Prophet's time on.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "we don't have to blindly follow them do you blindly follow all the scholars so then why are you blindly following these", "start": 1622}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/6/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/7", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S07", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 7, "start": 1808, "end": 2203, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Clarification: everything is permissible by default, and certainty is removed only by certainty", "question_plain": "Why is everything permissible by default in Islamic law unless proven haram?", "summary": "The segment opens with the end of the previous point, that our concept of God can be updated and that intimidation was not the way of the Prophet. Mufti Abu Layth then clarifies remarks from an earlier Q&A, where he was told music leads to haram because it amplifies vices such as shootings, sex and drugs, and had answered that he lacked the authority to prohibit it, joking that he had remembered he was not God. Some asked whether he had not already passed judgment by calling it permissible, as if he were God then. He answers that he passed no judgment, and explains the principle he follows, held by many Maliki scholars of the school of Madinah and attributed to Imam Malik among others: by default everything is conclusively permissible, since Allah says He created everything in the earth for you, and a hadith in Abu Dawud [?] says that what Allah was silent about is pardoned, Allah not being forgetful. This default is qat'i, conclusive, like the mutawatir, with no margin for error, as one is certain China exists without having been there, whereas a hadith even in Bukhari or Muslim is zanni, strong but with a small margin of doubt. So when he says things are halal he is not making them so; Allah already has. One may instead hold that everything is haram until proven otherwise, but he calls that absurd and says life would become unbearable, needing evidence to sit down or to use Facebook; he greets a former classmate [?] in passing. Under his principle, strong evidence is needed to overturn permissibility, since the Sharia maxim says certainty is removed only by certainty, which is why he considers many things permissible: not because he lacks evidence that they are haram, but because the evidence does not reach the level of certainty needed to remove the default, as transmitted by al-Baji [?] from the Baghdadi Malikis such as Ibn Khuwayz Mindad [?] and adopted by other schools. He then says he will tackle the issue of lyrics.", "summary_short": "By default everything is conclusively permissible, since Allah created everything on earth for us and what He was silent about is pardoned, and that certainty can only be removed by certainty, not by a hadith that remains probable. So Mufti Abu Layth does not declare music halal; Allah has, and the evidence against it falls short of overturning that.", "answer_start": 1808, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/entertainment/music", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:default-permissibility", "label": "everything is permissible by default until proven otherwise (al-asl al-ibaha)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ibaha", "label": "ibaha (permissibility)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:29", "label": "Quran 2:29 (He created for you everything in the earth)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6ef44327", "label": "report: what allah was silent about is pardoned and allah was not forgetful (cited as in Abu Dawud [?])"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qati", "label": "qat'i (conclusive)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zanni", "label": "zanni (probable)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shatibi", "label": "al-Shatibi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:build-on-certainty", "label": "certainty is removed only by certainty (al-yaqin la yazulu illa bi-yaqin)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baji", "label": "Abu al-Walid al-Baji [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-khuwayz-mindad", "label": "Ibn Khuwayz Mindad [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds, as he says many Malikis of the school of Madinah did, that everything is conclusively permissible by default, because Allah created everything for us and pardoned what He was silent about, and that this certainty can be removed only by certainty, so when he calls something halal he is not making it so.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "that by default everything is conclusively permissible Allah has ordained everything to be permissible he says in the Quran", "start": 1958}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/7/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/8", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S08", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 8, "start": 2203, "end": 2895, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Obscene lyrics and classical Arabic poetry: Abu Nuwas, the Hamasa, Imru' al-Qais and the madrasa curriculum", "question_plain": "If obscene lyrics make music haram, what about the classical Arabic poetry taught in madrasas?", "summary": "The segment opens with the close of the certainty principle and Mufti Abu Layth's announcement that he will address lyrics, interrupted briefly by his young child. He says it is true that obscene content was transmitted within Islam: Muslim poetry from the pre-Islamic era through the Umayyad and Abbasid poets is full of violence, alcohol, sex, women, warfare and tribalism, and in essence is not very different from rap lyrics; poems boasting of butchering a tribe and cutting through crowds with swords differ little from boasts of gunning people down. Abu Nuwas, undisputed king of Arabic poetry in his era and rated among the best poets the early Muslims produced, devoted sixty to seventy percent of his verse to alcohol, another twenty-odd percent to homosexuality and the rest largely to women. The Hamasa of Abu Tammam, an anthology from pre-Islamic times onward, includes poems of warfare and killing and a poem praising a man as brave because, in the pre-Islamic belief, he was conceived when his mother was taken by force, and it is taught in most madrasas, including the one in Pakistan where Mufti studied. The Mu'allaqa of Imru' al-Qais, taught in every major institute, recounts his sexual escapades, including a line about visiting pregnant and nursing women at night and distracting them from their children, a line nobody omits. He asks how this is not obscene and calls it a double standard; he understands parents not wanting their children to hear about guns, drugs and sex, but says one need not religionise everything or rubber-stamp house rules with God's name: your children, your rules, without inventing a religious reason. To the comment that the poetry was recited as poetry rather than rapped, he answers that in essence the content is the same; he does not necessarily like it or want it taught to his children, but he does not have to lie or fabricate on behalf of Allah, nor pretend children will never encounter such things in this world.", "summary_short": "Classical Arabic poetry taught in every major madrasa, from Abu Nuwas to the Hamasa and Imru' al-Qais, is as full of violence, alcohol and sex as rap lyrics, so condemning rap on religious grounds is a double standard. Parents may set their own rules for their children without attributing them to God.", "answer_start": 2203, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters", "society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-nuwas", "label": "Abu Nuwas"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-hamasa", "label": "al-Hamasa of Abu Tammam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-tammam", "label": "Abu Tammam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:imru-al-qais", "label": "Imru' al-Qais"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muallaqat", "label": "the Mu'allaqat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madrasa", "label": "madrasa"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "the Abbasids"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "the Umayyads"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says classical Arabic poetry, such as that of Abu Nuwas, the Hamasa and the Mu'allaqa of Imru' al-Qais, is full of violence, alcohol and sex much like rap lyrics and is taught in major madrasas, so treating rap differently is a double standard, and parents may set their own rules without attributing them to God.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so my question is today this it's it's a kind of form of double standards look I get it look I get the fact that you don't like something", "start": 2767}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/8/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/9", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S09", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 9, "start": 2895, "end": 3128, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The universe is silent: sound as the brain's interpretation of vibration", "question_plain": "Does sound exist if nobody hears it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shares a thought from an audiobook that struck him: our brains interpret sensory data rather than perceiving things as they are. We feel vibrations and the brain interprets them as sounds; we receive electromagnetic waves and see colours; the brain tells us a taste is sweet or sour and a smell woody or spicy. In reality, he says, the universe is colourless, soundless, odourless and tasteless; there is no colour, only light reflecting in different ways, and the universe is entirely silent. This, he says, answers the old question whether a tree falling in a forest with nobody to hear it makes a sound: it does not, since it only sends out vibrations, which become sound only when a brain picks them up and interprets them. He begins to apply this to music and says he must at some point make a detailed video on the subject.", "summary_short": "Sound, colour, taste and smell are the brain's interpretations of vibrations and waves, so the universe itself is silent and colourless. A tree falling with nobody to hear it makes no sound, only vibrations.", "answer_start": 2895, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/science-and-the-universe", "fiqh/entertainment/music"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in reality the universe is colourless, soundless and odourless, since sound and colour exist only as a brain's interpretation of vibrations and waves.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "in reality the universe is actually colorless soundless odorless it is insipid it has no taste and it is silent that is a fact", "start": 3040}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/9/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/10", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S10", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 10, "start": 3128, "end": 3602, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The ontology of religion: how preconceptions about religion decide the music question before any text", "question_plain": "Why do people assume music must be haram before looking at any evidence?", "summary": "Speaking to a student audience, Mufti Abu Layth says that to approach the music question one must first understand how religion is understood by people, what he calls the ontology of religion, religion with a capital R, before going into the details of Islam, Christianity or any faith. He asks what ideas come to mind at the word religion and suggests that people place on the stage sacrifice, rituals, suffering, commitment and seriousness, and take off it desires, luxury and worldliness, the attitude called asceticism; humour is borderline, and entertainment is removed because it is tied to worldliness, indulgence and not taking things seriously. These associations exist before a person has learnt anything about religion, and he calls it naive to think this backdrop does not shape one's perception of Islam. So when music is raised, people need know nothing of hadith, Quran, Sunnah or the sciences of usul al-fiqh to react that it must be forbidden, because it is entertainment and of this world. He says the backdrop, not the religion itself, drives most people through religion, with the rest supplied by confirmation bias, and that even if there were not a single hadith against music it could be made haram in a split second on this basis. Asked whether this comes through reason, he says these associations may come from cultural indoctrination or from what people absorb from society, but that people anywhere would list the same things, rituals, sacrifice, suffering, celibacy and hostility to desire, and that once this is in place no text is needed to forbid things, since they already clash with one's picture of religion.", "summary_short": "People come to Islam with a prior picture of what religion must be, which includes sacrifice, suffering and asceticism and excludes entertainment, and this backdrop rather than the texts drives their judgement that music is haram. Even with no hadith against it, music would be forbidden on that basis.", "answer_start": 3128, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "wellbeing/negative-thoughts-and-mindset"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:ontology-of-religion", "label": "the 'ontology of religion': preconceptions of what religion must be shape how Islam is read"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:usul-al-fiqh", "label": "usul al-fiqh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zuhd", "label": "zuhd (asceticism)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says most people's judgement that music is haram comes from a preconceived ontology of religion, which treats entertainment and desire as opposed to religion, rather than from the texts, which serve only as confirmation bias.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "your backdrop is what actually guides you through religion believe it or not it's not actually the religion itself", "start": 3418}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/10/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/11", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S11", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 11, "start": 3602, "end": 3992, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The celibacy test: a sahih hadith condemns it yet it is praised, while music has none against it", "question_plain": "Why is celibacy praised despite a hadith against it while music is condemned without one?", "summary": "To show the backdrop at work, Mufti Abu Layth takes celibacy as an example, noting that unlike music it even has a sahih text against it: the hadith in which three men vow to pray all night, fast every day and never marry, and the Prophet condemns all three from the minbar, asking what is wrong with people who think this piety, and saying he himself sleeps, breaks his fast and marries. Yet, he says, if someone announced that out of commitment to God he would have nothing to do with marriage, people would hardly condemn him, and this still happens in parts of the world. He cites the book by the hadith scholar Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda on the unmarried scholars who preferred knowledge over marriage, listing figures such as al-Nawawi and Ibn Taymiyya, and notes that Qadi Iyad in his biographies also records who chose not to marry; Mufti remarks that refraining from marriage did not always mean refraining from sex, a point few pick up. This choice was hailed and praised and scholars wrote endorsements of the book, with little resistance, despite a clear hadith against it, because it fits the backdrop of suffering, denial of desire and tedium. Music, by contrast, has not a single sahih hadith clearly and unequivocally condemning it: the Bukhari hadith says entertainment, which could mean clubs or many other things, and is only interpreted as music, while the hadith that name music are weak or problematic. So, he says, in his understanding the default law is that everything is permissible unless proven otherwise.", "summary_short": "A sahih hadith condemns the vow never to marry, yet unmarried scholars are praised in books like Abu Ghudda's, because celibacy fits the picture of religion as self-denial; music, which fits the opposite picture, is condemned although no clear sahih hadith names it. The default law remains that everything is permissible unless proven otherwise.", "answer_start": 3602, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "relationships/marriage", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:620896d2", "label": "report: three men vowed to pray all night fast every day and never marry and the prophet condemned them"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-fattah-abu-ghudda", "label": "Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-ulama-al-uzzab", "label": "al-Ulama al-Uzzab alladhina atharu al-ilm ala al-zawaj (the unmarried scholars) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tartib-al-madarik", "label": "Tartib al-Madarik [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8ca2f04b", "label": "report: at the end of time people will consider maazif permissible (Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maazif", "label": "ma'azif (musical instruments; read as 'entertainment')"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:ontology-of-religion", "label": "the 'ontology of religion': preconceptions of what religion must be shape how Islam is read"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:default-permissibility", "label": "everything is permissible by default until proven otherwise (al-asl al-ibaha)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says celibacy was praised in the tradition despite a sahih hadith condemning it, because it fits people's picture of religion as suffering and self-denial, whereas music, which has no sahih hadith against it, is condemned.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it ties in with that backdrop of suffering and indulgence anti desires and tedious and its anti Islamic but it doesn't matter because it ties in with this backdrop", "start": 3949}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/11/"}, {"id": "AXXuB9lxFoc/s/12", "short_id": "2019-09-18-S12", "recording": "AXXuB9lxFoc", "n": 12, "start": 3992, "end": 4274, "date": "20190918", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Conclusion: music is not haram, the nourishment of the soul, vibration, and music therapy in Muslim hospitals", "question_plain": "What is Mufti Abu Layth's final verdict on whether music is haram?", "summary": "The segment opens with Mufti Abu Layth finishing his caveat that the Bukhari hadith speaks of entertainment, not music, and that the default law is that everything is permissible unless proven otherwise, which he jokes God concurs with. Learning that a student is reading psychology, he mentions that he did his own psychology degree with the Open University. He says people struggle to say music is not haram because of their backdrop, not because of the evidence, which only supplements their view as confirmation bias; in his understanding music is not haram because the evidence does not support the prohibition and the law of defaults makes everything permissible unless proven otherwise, and he is all about consistency. He calls music arguably the nourishment of the soul, remarks on what certain sound waves can do, and says that if string theory were true the essence of everything would be vibration. Sound, he repeats, has no physical reality of its own; it is the interaction between waves in the air and an organism that receives and interprets them, so a tree falling unobserved makes no sound. Music can heal, he adds: Muslims in the medieval period had music therapy in their hospitals, the bimaristans, and music helps people with neurodegenerative illnesses. He asks how this could be haram and says it makes no sense whatsoever.", "summary_short": "Music is not haram: no clear sahih hadith prohibits it and the default law makes everything permissible unless proven otherwise. Mufti Abu Layth calls it the nourishment of the soul, notes that sound is only vibration interpreted by a listener, and cites music therapy in medieval Muslim hospitals.", "answer_start": 3992, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "fiqh/legal-theory", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8ca2f04b", "label": "report: at the end of time people will consider maazif permissible (Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maazif", "label": "ma'azif (musical instruments; read as 'entertainment')"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:default-permissibility", "label": "everything is permissible by default until proven otherwise (al-asl al-ibaha)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:open-university", "label": "The Open University"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bimaristan", "label": "bimaristan (medieval hospital)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that music is not haram, since the evidence does not support a prohibition and the default law makes everything permissible unless proven otherwise, and he calls music arguably the nourishment of the soul, citing its healing use in medieval Muslim hospitals.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "in my understanding music is not there's not harm because the evidence doesn't support it and the default law of defaults states that everything is permissible unless proven otherwise", "start": 4063}}, "url": "/r/AXXuB9lxFoc/s/12/"}, {"id": "AZJBapbSjDo/s/1", "short_id": "2019-10-18-S01", "recording": "AZJBapbSjDo", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 557, "date": "20191018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Mufti Menk: folkloric stories, a real demand, and the stern persona", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Mufti Menk?", "summary": "Asked from the chat what he thinks of Mufti Menk and whether he knows him, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not know him personally and that his thoughts are ambivalent. His impression is that Menk tells innocent, folkloric stories in short clips, has a grandfatherly persona, and gives people a boost, and that there is a real need for this. He says he himself could not tell such stories because many of them are not authentic: a made-up story about a saint carries a moral and does no harm, but stories about prophets are taken as creed, and most of the stories told about prophets are, he says, probably made up. He says preachers like Menk fill a void, since the masses want folklore and an ascetic-looking figure in a Saudi scarf with a long beard, which sells, and he tells an anecdote from one of his teachers about a Pakistani holy man reading a face-cream advertisement as the Quran. He adds that Menk does not act like a simpleton, is funny and relaxed, and that he likes that about him. His problem with all preachers of that genre is that in filling the void they cement false beliefs and spread them: he recalls hearing a Menk lecture insist that the Quran says the whole world was flooded in the time of Nuh, which he says is untrue, as it was a regional flood and the Quran does not say that, and because such clips go viral the preacher bears responsibility. He also disagrees with Menk's sometimes stern, strict interpretation of Islam; his personal thinking, which he says could be wrong, is that Menk is nowhere near as strict as he portrays himself and probably does not believe about half of what he preaches, such as that birthdays are haram, but must echo his crowd, which he says is true of most scholars. He closes by saying he is sure Menk is a great person whom he would love to meet and chat with.", "summary_short": "Mixed: Menk fills a real demand for simple, uplifting stories and is likeable and funny, but Mufti Abu Layth says such preachers spread inauthentic stories and cement false beliefs, and he suspects Menk is less strict than he portrays himself.", "answer_start": 2, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mufti-menk", "label": "Mufti Menk"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:great-flood", "label": "the flood of Nuh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/AZJBapbSjDo/s/1/"}, {"id": "AhTy-xxH79g/s/1", "short_id": "2019-09-19-S01", "recording": "AhTy-xxH79g", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 808, "date": "20190919", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Criticising the companions: two doorways, veneration or scrutiny of everyone", "question_plain": "Is it okay to criticise the companions of the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that after an earlier video on the early political divide he was asked by someone who appreciated his perspective but felt he had tried to justify some of Mu'awiya's actions, and might unintentionally have put Ali in a negative light by quoting Imam Malik's statement that the best of people were Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Uthman, after which people are equal, and that those who sought rulership are not regarded like those who did not, without mentioning Ali's virtues. He answers that all the companions are amazing people and that Ali is undeniably among the greatest figures of Islam, and recalls an off-camera dialogue with Shia interlocutors about the probity ('adala) of the companions, mentioning in passing a Sunni-Shia debate that Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?] had agreed to. He describes two doorways, likened to the two pills of The Matrix: one of veneration, in which every companion is presented as almost angelic, the version told to children, and one of objective, academic study, in which the companions are seen as 'human, all too human', quarrelling, fighting and swearing. He says that whoever takes the critical doorway must scrutinise everyone, so one cannot single out Ali as protected while criticising Mu'awiya or Abu Hurayra; he told his Shia interlocutors that reports of a ruler having people killed or a village razed are not beyond belief to him, though he has not checked them. He personally advises people to take the venerating doorway, says academic study is a personal choice and not haram as long as it does not become abuse, and compares the polished picture to a film or the wrestling he watched as a child, enjoyed although known to be polished.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth advises most people to view the companions with veneration, but says anyone who chooses critical, academic study must apply it to every companion, Ali included, rather than selectively.", "answer_start": 79, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/companions", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asrar-rashid", "label": "Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahaba", "label": "sahaba (companions)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adalat-al-sahaba", "label": "'adala of the sahaba (probity of the companions)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says one may either venerate the companions or study them critically as fully human, that critical study must then apply equally to every companion including Ali, and that he personally advises people to take the venerating approach.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the truth is that if you take this doorway everybody is gonna get scrutinized there's gonna be no exception", "start": 572}}, "url": "/r/AhTy-xxH79g/s/1/"}, {"id": "AwhVA-P9rTo/s/1", "short_id": "2019-11-04-S01", "recording": "AwhVA-P9rTo", "n": 1, "start": 3, "end": 530, "date": "20191104", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Banning mut'ah: why he holds temporary marriage is not haram", "question_plain": "Is mut'ah (temporary marriage) haram?", "summary": "Asked about the banning of mut'ah, Mufti Abu Layth says he will discuss it in detail another time but that in his understanding mut'ah, a temporary, low-commitment marriage between two adults, is not haram, in line with a twentieth-century Maliki scholar and a contemporary Moroccan Maliki scholar whose book offers a revised Sunni reading of mut'ah (both names are garbled in the transcript [?]). He says the reports that allegedly prohibit it are contradictory and do not stand, that he understands the moral argument, but that if two adults agree between themselves it is nobody else's business. He argues that much of the emotion against mut'ah comes from anti-Shia sentiment, and points out that most Sunni scholars, with a thorough discussion attributed to Ibn Abd al-Barr [?], permit marriage with a hidden intention to divorce, which he finds problematic for its deception. He says he does not urge anyone to do it, suggests it might offer part of a solution to the modern question of a couple's compatibility, jokes about opening a mut'ah bureau, and says that from the Sunni perspective there is much evidence that it is not haram and it is very hard to prove it haram. He closes by recounting a YouTube debate in which a Moroccan Salafi shaykh [?] taunted the Maliki scholar about his daughter, a line of argument he calls absurd, since believing something permissible does not oblige anyone to do it.", "summary_short": "Mut'ah is not haram in his understanding: the reports prohibiting it are contradictory and it is very hard to prove haram. Nobody is obliged to do it, and much of the hostility to it is anti-Shia sentiment.", "answer_start": 3, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "fiqh/marriage-contracts", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah-bi-niyyat-al-talaq", "label": "nikah bi-niyyat al-talaq (marriage with the intention of divorce)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mohamed-fizazi", "label": "Mohamed al-Fizazi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/AwhVA-P9rTo/s/1/"}, {"id": "AwxuMQnPbw0/s/1", "short_id": "2023-06-02-S01", "recording": "AwxuMQnPbw0", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 269, "date": "20230602", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reflections on death and grief at his mother's khatm", "question_plain": "What can the death of a parent teach us?", "summary": "Speaking before the dua at a gathering for his late mother, Mufti Abu Layth cites the hadith that of everyone alive on earth that day, none would remain after a hundred years, and says death itself is enough as an admonition. He describes how hard it was to witness his mother's last nine months of illness, and says he came to see lessons that only death can deliver, and gratitude for what Allah has given. Mufti cites the verse that whoever is granted long life is reversed in creation, and says tragedy and grief bring people together in a way happiness cannot, since the whole family was around his mother to the end. He asks what of people who do not have that gift, says one of the great lessons may be to give forward by helping and serving others, and prays for his mother and for everyone present.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says death is the greatest admonition and grief brings families together; one lesson may be to serve those who have no one around them.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["wellbeing/grief", "wellbeing/death-and-mortality", "wellbeing/gratitude-giving-and-contentment"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5f1d2c6c", "label": "report: no one alive on earth tonight will be alive a hundred years from now"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:36:68", "label": "Quran 36:68 (whoever We grant long life, We reverse in creation)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that maybe one of the great lessons of death is to try to give forward, helping and serving other people.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "people who don't have that gift and maybe this one of the great lessons is to try to give forward to people maybe to ponder and help and serve other people", "start": 228}}, "url": "/r/AwxuMQnPbw0/s/1/"}, {"id": "BC8qsIOFAwE/s/1", "short_id": "2018-02-28-S01", "recording": "BC8qsIOFAwE", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 148, "date": "20180228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Reactions to his Safiyya narrative, and the parable of the wife who is never pleased", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has received a fresh refutation, prompted by his narrative that Safiyya, the wife of the Prophet, was not held as a slave and was not raped. He says many Muslims received it well, while some who dislike him had to accept it but still took a dig, one saying that he might be right on this but is still a government spy. He tells the story of a wife who is never happy with her husband and praises another man who can fly; the next day the husband flies over the house, and when he tells her it was him she says one of his legs was bent. He uses it to say that some people cannot be pleased.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth notes that his account of Safiyya was mostly well received, but some critics still found fault, which he illustrates with the story of a wife who cannot be pleased.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/BC8qsIOFAwE/s/1/"}, {"id": "BC8qsIOFAwE/s/2", "short_id": "2018-02-28-S02", "recording": "BC8qsIOFAwE", "n": 2, "start": 148, "end": 306, "date": "20180228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Safiyya and the waiting period: why a same-night marriage cannot stand", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet marry Safiyya on the same night she was captured?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says some Muslims still object to his narrative: they reply to his point that the Prophet could not have married Safiyya there and then because she had to observe a waiting period under a verse of the Quran [?] by saying that the verse refers to Muslims and she was not a Muslim. He says it surprises him that his account troubles them while the claim that the Prophet seized her and slept with her that night does not. He answers that everyone says she was a Muslim when the Prophet married her, so the rulings of Islam applied to her. To those who say a captive need only wait one menstrual cycle, he says this goes against the Quran, and that even if it is accepted, her husband and people being killed, her embracing Islam, a menstrual cycle and a marriage cannot all have happened in one or two nights. He asks why people work so hard to defend what he calls a lowly opinion against the Prophet.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says Safiyya was a Muslim when the Prophet married her and so had to observe a waiting period, which rules out a marriage on the night of her capture.", "answer_start": 148, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "iddah (waiting period)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the claim that the Prophet took Safiyya and married her on the same night cannot stand, since as a Muslim she was bound by the waiting period, and even a single menstrual cycle could not have passed in one or two nights.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "she embraces Islam becomes goes through an it has a menstrual cycle then marries the Prophet all this in one night why are you trying so hard to prove this narrative", "start": 263}}, "url": "/r/BC8qsIOFAwE/s/2/"}, {"id": "BC8qsIOFAwE/s/3", "short_id": "2018-02-28-S03", "recording": "BC8qsIOFAwE", "n": 3, "start": 306, "end": 540, "date": "20180228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Witnesses in a Maliki nikah, and Hamza Maqbool's 'Lawrence of Arabia' tweet", "question_plain": "Are witnesses required for a nikah in the Maliki school?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says some people were upset because he mentioned that many of the Prophet's marriages were not witnessed and that the school of Madinah, the whole Maliki school, does not require witnesses for a marriage, only witnesses or an announcement before the marriage is consummated. He says such people hold a standard above that of the Prophet, the companions and Ali. He introduces Hamza Maqbool, not to be confused with Hamza Yusuf, as an Indo-Pakistani Maliki scholar strongly influenced by the Deobandis, whom he respects, has hosted at his home and credits with a good sense of humour. On Twitter someone asked Maqbool whether the Malikis hold that a public announcement is mandatory and witnesses are not; told that a student of Mufti had said so, Maqbool replied, in Mufti's reading, that Mufti is as Maliki as Lawrence of Arabia is of Arabia, that he enjoys his company as a person, but that as a student of knowledge he can safely say Mufti does not represent the Maliki school in any form he is familiar with.", "summary_short": "In the Maliki school witnesses are not needed for the nikah to be valid; witnesses or an announcement are needed before consummation. Hamza Maqbool's tweet said Mufti Abu Layth does not represent the school.", "answer_start": 306, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "fiqh/maliki-school", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-maqbool", "label": "Hamza Maqbool"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:t-e-lawrence", "label": "Lawrence of Arabia"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:twitter", "label": "Twitter"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki school does not require witnesses for a valid nikah, only witnesses or a public announcement before the marriage is consummated, and that many of the Prophet's marriages were not witnessed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "many of the prophets marriages were not witnessed and people like the school of Medina the the whole Maliki method says you don't need witnesses for a marriage", "start": 306}}, "url": "/r/BC8qsIOFAwE/s/3/"}, {"id": "BC8qsIOFAwE/s/4", "short_id": "2018-02-28-S04", "recording": "BC8qsIOFAwE", "n": 4, "start": 540, "end": 1091, "date": "20180228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reading the Maliki texts: al-Kafi, the Mudawwana, Ibn Yunus and Qadi Iyad on witnesses", "question_plain": "What do the classical Maliki books say about witnesses in a marriage?", "summary": "Saying it is his turn to speak, Mufti Abu Layth reads from al-Kafi of Ibn Abd al-Barr, a book written for giving fatwa in the Maliki school, that the nikah is valid according to Malik without witnesses, as buying and selling are, and that it is made known before consummation. He reads from the Jami of Abu Bakr ibn Yunus al-Siqilli, which he says was called the mushaf of the Malikis and which Hamza Maqbool had not heard of when he visited, quoting the Mudawwana that a marriage without witnesses is valid as long as it was not meant to be kept secret, with witnesses and announcement before consummation, and Qadi Abd al-Wahhab [?] that the Malikis, unlike Abu Hanifa and al-Shafi'i, hold the contract valid without witnesses, reading the report on witnesses as a condition of completeness [?]. He cites reports from the Mudawwana via Ibn Wahb: a marriage contracted with no one else present, the Prophet saying 'I have married her to you' with no witnesses, and Umar doing likewise for his daughter [?]. He reads that witnessing is a condition of consummation, not of validity, and cites Khalil with a commentary, Qadi Iyad [?], al-Lakhmi, Ibn Yunus and Ibn Rushd [?] to the same effect, then says people may criticise him for being modern but he welcomes any discussion on the Maliki school. The Arabic readings are badly garbled in the transcript.", "summary_short": "The Maliki authorities he reads hold that a marriage without witnesses is valid unless it is meant to be secret; witnesses or an announcement are required before consummation.", "answer_start": 540, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "fiqh/maliki-school/muwatta-and-mudawwana", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:al-kafi-fi-fiqh-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "al-Kafi fi Fiqh Ahl al-Madina"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-jami-li-masail-al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Jami of Ibn Yunus [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-yunus-al-siqilli", "label": "Abu Bakr ibn Yunus al-Siqilli"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-abd-al-wahhab", "label": "Qadi Abd al-Wahhab [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-wahb", "label": "Ibn Wahb"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a58d8940", "label": "report: the prophet said shall i marry you to her he said yes he said i have married her to you and there were no witnesses"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-ibn-ishaq", "label": "Khalil ibn Ishaq"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-lakhmi", "label": "al-Lakhmi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd-al-jadd", "label": "Ibn Rushd [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the standard Maliki texts, including al-Kafi, the Mudawwana as quoted by Ibn Yunus, and later authorities, state that a nikah without witnesses is valid provided it is not meant to be secret, witnessing being a condition of consummation rather than of validity.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "that this is the measure of our method that it is not a condition in the Maliki method for the validity of getting married", "start": 1010}}, "url": "/r/BC8qsIOFAwE/s/4/"}, {"id": "BC8qsIOFAwE/s/5", "short_id": "2018-02-28-S05", "recording": "BC8qsIOFAwE", "n": 5, "start": 1091, "end": 1515, "date": "20180228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A challenge on Maliki knowledge, and what a critic may fairly say", "question_plain": "Is it fair to say Mufti Abu Layth has no knowledge of the Maliki school?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has dedicated a large part of his life to the school of Madinah and challenges anyone to discuss the Maliki school with him, quoting the Urdu poet Dagh. He says that Hamza Maqbool's knowledge of the Maliki school does not go beyond a few books, that he did not know some of the texts Mufti has, and advises him to keep to Indo-Pakistani audiences and their Deobandi and Barelvi debates, adding that he went lightly. He says a critic could fairly say that he disagrees with Mufti's interpretation or that it is not the interpretation he is used to, but not that Mufti has no knowledge, which he says misleads people, and he invites those who doubt his knowledge to come to him directly. After saying 'next question' he returns to the matter: he calls Maqbool a relatively young scholar he has nothing against, says he did not believe the report until he saw screenshots of the tweet, and that although he regards Maqbool's own knowledge of the school of Madinah as weak he would not attack people over it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth challenges his critic to a discussion on the Maliki school and says disagreement with his interpretation is fair, but calling him ignorant of the school is misleading.", "answer_start": 1091, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-maqbool", "label": "Hamza Maqbool"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dagh-dehlvi", "label": "Dagh Dehlvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/BC8qsIOFAwE/s/5/"}, {"id": "BPBiF_hAKgQ/s/1", "short_id": "2020-11-05-S01", "recording": "BPBiF_hAKgQ", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 354, "date": "20201105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Shaykh Hamza Yusuf: an icon and inspiration, with reservations about his manner and views", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf?", "summary": "A viewer in the chat asks Mufti Abu Layth's opinion of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf. He answers that he loves him and is an absolute fan: Hamza Yusuf is an icon, a pioneer and monumental for Western Muslims, and a hero to him in that sense. He then distinguishes the icon from the person, saying that on a personality level he suspects they would not get on if they spent time together, since he himself is a loud extrovert given to jokes and banter whereas Hamza Yusuf seems very introverted and quiet, with what he calls, not wishing to be rude, a nerd-like personality. He says that from what he has heard Hamza Yusuf's interactions with people are sometimes not welcoming and can come across as rude, giving the example of an acquaintance who was refused a selfie, and, after a viewer's remark to the contrary, a second-hand account of a retreat costing a few thousand pounds at which Hamza Yusuf delivered his lectures but did not mingle or eat with students as the other teachers did, offering each a single four-minute slot; he allows that this may have changed in recent years. He adds that he disagrees with Hamza Yusuf's views, which he finds at times neo-traditionalist, and does not think Hamza Yusuf would agree with many of his. He closes by saying that he will always love him and have a soft spot for him because he was one of the key inspirations for his own decision to study the Islamic sciences.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth loves Hamza Yusuf as an icon for Western Muslims and a key inspiration for his own studies, while disagreeing with his neo-traditionalist views. He adds second-hand reports that his personal manner can seem unwelcoming, and says their personalities would probably not match.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:neo-traditionalism", "label": "neo-traditionalism"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/BPBiF_hAKgQ/s/1/"}, {"id": "Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/1", "short_id": "2020-07-16-S01", "recording": "Bgsfy-UmSA4", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 163, "date": "20200716", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Hagia Sophia ruling, the reactions online, and the building's history as Justinian's cathedral", "question_plain": "What is the Hagia Sophia and what did Turkey decide about it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to a topic many had asked about: Erdogan and the Turkish courts have ruled that the Hagia Sophia, or Aya Sofya as he prefers to call it, is to be converted back into a mosque, the adhan has already been given there, and reactions are circulating on social media. He reads out a post from a commentator he refers to by a nickname [?], mocking those who object while Hindu temples and churches are built in Muslim countries, and mentions other posts. As a backdrop, he says the building existed before Islam, was built, he believes, by Justinian I as a cathedral, and was at one point claimed to be the largest cathedral in Christendom, or at least in the eastern, Byzantine part of the Christian world.", "summary_short": "Turkey's courts under Erdogan ruled that the Hagia Sophia be converted back into a mosque, prompting celebration and mockery of objectors online. The building was built by Justinian I as a cathedral, once the largest in the eastern Christian world.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:recep-tayyip-erdogan", "label": "Recep Tayyip Erdogan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:justinian-i", "label": "Justinian I"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adhan", "label": "adhan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/1/"}, {"id": "Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/2", "short_id": "2020-07-16-S02", "recording": "Bgsfy-UmSA4", "n": 2, "start": 163, "end": 478, "date": "20200716", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Should places of worship be converted into mosques? Umar in Jerusalem and Surah al-Hajj 22:40-41", "question_plain": "Does Islam allow converting churches and other places of worship into mosques?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth frames two questions: whether places of worship should be converted into mosques at all, and whether something should now be reconverted into a mosque. He says that in the time of the salaf and the Companions rulers did not do this: when Umar conquered Jerusalem, with no resistance to his entry, he did not convert the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the other holy sites, and that was never the objective of Islam. He says the Hagia Sophia was converted in the time of Sultan Mehmed al-Fatih, some claiming he paid Christians for it; whether or not they did, it happened. He does not think Islam encourages converting holy sites into mosques, and cites Surah al-Hajj: verse 41 describes those given power in the land as people who establish prayer, pay zakat, command good and forbid harm, and verse 40 says that had Allah not set up one people to resist another, monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques would have been destroyed, places in which Allah's name is glorified often. He stresses that Allah says His name is glorified in monasteries and synagogues, that this is a Madinan passage describing how Muslims given dominion should behave, and concludes that Islam does not set out to convert holy sites into mosques.", "summary_short": "Islam never set out to convert other religions' holy sites: Umar left Jerusalem's churches alone, and Quran 22:40 counts monasteries, churches and synagogues among places where Allah's name is glorified and which He protects. The Hagia Sophia's conversion happened, but it was not what Islam encourages.", "answer_start": 163, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "quran/tafsir", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:40-41", "label": "Quran 22:40-41 (Surah al-Hajj)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mehmed-ii", "label": "Sultan Mehmed al-Fatih"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:conquest-of-constantinople", "label": "the conquest of Constantinople"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam never set out to convert other religions' holy sites into mosques: Umar did not convert Jerusalem's churches, and Quran 22:40 counts monasteries, churches and synagogues among the places where Allah's name is glorified and which He protects.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i don't think islam encourages you to convert holy sites into masjids so for example if we look at the the quran", "start": 264}}, "url": "/r/Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/2/"}, {"id": "Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/3", "short_id": "2020-07-16-S03", "recording": "Bgsfy-UmSA4", "n": 3, "start": 478, "end": 635, "date": "20200716", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Medieval conversions both ways: the politics of men, not haram but not good; the museum and the argument for reconversion", "question_plain": "Was it haram for Muslims to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque after the conquest?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that although converting holy sites was never Islam's goal, Muslims did it, as did many others. One explanation, he says, is that places of worship were the main buildings of their time, so a new community saw them as the natural choice for a prayer facility. He notes that in Muslim Spain Christians turned mosques into cathedrals just as Muslims had turned churches into mosques, a back-and-forth law of the jungle in medieval politics that Islam neither encouraged nor prohibited. So he does not say the original conversion was haram; it was conquest and the politics of men, and like the taking of slaves, which he calls detestable, it was what everyone did at the time, but he does not think it was a good thing. He then explains that the Hagia Sophia remained a mosque for centuries until the Turkish nation-state turned it into a museum, and that the crux of the present argument for reconversion is simply that it was once a mosque.", "summary_short": "No, he says: it was the politics of conquest in medieval times, done by Muslims and Christians alike and neither encouraged nor prohibited by Islam, but it was not a good thing. The building later became a museum, and the argument now is only that it was once a mosque.", "answer_start": 478, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the medieval conversion of churches into mosques and of mosques into cathedrals was the politics of men, neither encouraged nor prohibited by Islam, so the original conversion of the Hagia Sophia was not haram but was not a good thing.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "i'm not saying it was haram it wasn't i suppose they've kind of conquered and this is what they did i don't think it was a good thing", "start": 522}}, "url": "/r/Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/3/"}, {"id": "Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/4", "short_id": "2020-07-16-S04", "recording": "Bgsfy-UmSA4", "n": 4, "start": 635, "end": 793, "date": "20200716", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Not halal or haram but right or wrong: a great mistake made for brownie points", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the question is not one of halal and haram: the Hagia Sophia is in a Muslim country and the property of the Turkish state, which from an Islamic and a legal standpoint may do with it what it wants, from opening hours to a car park. The question, he says, is whether the action is rightful, noting that a hadith teaches that you will know wrong things when you see them [?]. He then says converting it into a mosque is absolutely wrong and a great mistake, celebrated by people who, he feels, lack insight into world affairs. He says Turkey's regime is doing it to gain brownie points with other states and to become the new leader of the Islamic world, Erdogan having for some time tried to shape his identity as a new amir al-mu'minin rivalling Saudi Arabia, whose traditional standing he attributes only to the two holy sanctuaries. He points to the promotion of the Ertugrul television drama as part of this, and notes that other churches in Turkey have been turned into mosques as well.", "summary_short": "Yes, he says: not as a matter of halal and haram, since Turkey may do what it wants with its property, but it is absolutely wrong and a great mistake, driven by the regime's bid to lead the Islamic world.", "answer_start": 635, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:recep-tayyip-erdogan", "label": "Recep Tayyip Erdogan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amir-al-muminin", "label": "amir al-mu'minin"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:90dfbb22", "label": "report: you will know them when they are wrong (as paraphrased) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says converting the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque is not a matter of halal and haram, since Turkey may legally do what it wants with its property, but is absolutely wrong and a great mistake, driven in his view by the regime's wish to lead the Islamic world.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "converting it into a masjid is absolutely wrong it is uh it is a great mistake that is being celebrated by people", "start": 713}}, "url": "/r/Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/4/"}, {"id": "Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/5", "short_id": "2020-07-16-S05", "recording": "Bgsfy-UmSA4", "n": 5, "start": 793, "end": 948, "date": "20200716", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Ottomans were a dynasty, not a symbol of Islam: fratricide, 'Caesar of Rome' and romanticisation", "question_plain": "Were the Ottomans the representatives of Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has not watched an episode of the Ertugrul drama and finds such things preposterous, though he has nothing against drama as such. He says the Ottoman Empire was nothing more than a dynasty that happened to be Muslim and is not symbolic of Islam: its unwritten law was that a new sultan must kill all his brothers, a mandatory fratricide for which, he says, some Hanbali [?] scholars even gave a permitting fatwa. The Ottomans never claimed to represent Islam; the title they gave themselves, including Mehmed al-Fatih, was Caesar of Rome. He says they were simply people with good and bad sides, that for much of their history they were based in eastern Europe rather than the Middle East, and that today's romanticised image of them as symbols of Islam is a later dream; they respected Islam in their own way, as Muslims today do, but were not its symbols.", "summary_short": "No, he says: the Ottoman Empire was a dynasty that happened to be Muslim, practised mandatory fratricide and styled its sultans 'Caesar of Rome', and never claimed to be a symbol of Islam. The romantic image is a later invention.", "answer_start": 793, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:ottoman-empire", "label": "the Ottoman Empire"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mehmed-ii", "label": "Sultan Mehmed al-Fatih"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali scholars [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Ottoman Empire was a dynasty that happened to be Muslim and never claimed to be a symbol of Islam, styling its sultans 'Caesar of Rome' and practising mandatory fratricide, so Muslims who romanticise it as representing Islam are mistaken.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the ottoman empire was never it was nothing more than a dynasty that just happened to be muslim it is not symbolic of islam", "start": 793}}, "url": "/r/Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/5/"}, {"id": "Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/6", "short_id": "2020-07-16-S06", "recording": "Bgsfy-UmSA4", "n": 6, "start": 948, "end": 1106, "date": "20200716", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "No need for a new mosque: the Blue Mosque four minutes away, and the drama over hearing the adhan", "question_plain": "Does Istanbul need the Hagia Sophia as a mosque?", "summary": "Showing a map, Mufti Abu Layth says the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Blue Mosque, is a four-minute walk from the Hagia Sophia and holds at least ten thousand people, so there is no need for a new mosque; he wants to eliminate the argument of need first. He then takes the argument that, since it used to be a mosque and Turkey is democratically a country of Muslims, Turks have the right to convert it back. He mocks those who were moved to tears at hearing the adhan from the Hagia Sophia, saying every mosque in Istanbul, including the large one opposite, announces the adhan five times a day, and tells them to stop acting as if they had never heard it.", "summary_short": "No: the Blue Mosque, with room for at least ten thousand, is a four-minute walk away and hundreds of Istanbul mosques already call the adhan, so the emotional reaction to hearing the adhan there is misplaced.", "answer_start": 948, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adhan", "label": "adhan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is no need for the Hagia Sophia as a mosque, since the Blue Mosque, with room for at least ten thousand, is a four-minute walk away and hundreds of Istanbul mosques already call the adhan.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "there is no need for a new masjid we don't have a need first of all i'm just trying to eliminate that aspect there is no need", "start": 987}}, "url": "/r/Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/6/"}, {"id": "Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/7", "short_id": "2020-07-16-S07", "recording": "Bgsfy-UmSA4", "n": 7, "start": 1106, "end": 1342, "date": "20200716", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Might is right: the law of Thrasymachus, al-Aqsa, the Babri Masjid and Israel", "question_plain": "If Muslims can reconvert the Hagia Sophia, can Israel or India reconvert mosques too?", "summary": "To those celebrating because the Muslim majority gives Turkey the legal right, Mufti Abu Layth says this is the principle of Thrasymachus, a contemporary of Socrates, that might is right. If they abide by that law, he says, they should not cry tomorrow when al-Aqsa, under Israeli control, is converted back into the Temple of Solomon, which stood there before any mosque, or when India's Hindu majority converts the Babri Masjid and other mosques said to stand on temples back into Hindu temples by the same democratic logic. He calls this a lack of insight: wrong when done against Muslims, fine when done by them. He accepts it was a mosque for many years, but before that it was a cathedral and for decades it has been a museum; nobody is short of a place to pray, so leave things be. To the argument that hearing the adhan shows the power of Islam, he says power swings both ways, and by the same argument Israel, with its courts and its power, would have every right to act at al-Aqsa. He adds in passing that the adhan over loudspeakers is itself a bid'ah, the adhan never having been meant to be shouted through speakers, but lets that aside.", "summary_short": "By the 'might is right' logic used to justify the reconversion, he says, Israel could turn al-Aqsa into the Temple of Solomon and India's Hindu majority could turn mosques into temples, so Muslims who celebrate cannot then complain. Leave the building be.", "answer_start": 1106, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "society/current-events/palestine", "society/current-events/india-and-hindutva"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:thrasymachus", "label": "Thrasymachus"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:might-is-right", "label": "might is right (the law of Thrasymachus), rejected"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:babri-masjid-dispute", "label": "the Babri Masjid"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah (the adhan over loudspeakers, in passing)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adhan", "label": "adhan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says justifying the reconversion by the Muslim majority's legal power is the principle of Thrasymachus that might is right, and that by the same logic Israel could convert al-Aqsa into the Temple of Solomon and India's Hindu majority could convert mosques into temples, so Muslims cannot then complain.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if you want to abide by this fair enough but don't come crying tomorrow when masjid al-aqsa because it's under israeli control is then converted back to the temple of solomon", "start": 1141}}, "url": "/r/Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/7/"}, {"id": "Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/8", "short_id": "2020-07-16-S08", "recording": "Bgsfy-UmSA4", "n": 8, "start": 1342, "end": 1580, "date": "20200716", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Right-wing fascism among Muslims too; the waqf argument and Abu Hanifa on endowments", "question_plain": "Can a waqf never be overturned, as the argument for the Hagia Sophia claims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the reconversion is part of the right-wing fascism rising in the world, not only among Hindu nationalists, Trump supporters and far-right Zionists but among Muslims, who then cry wolf when the same is done to them, and urges people to think these things through. He reports the reply that it will remain a museum as well as a mosque, and the argument he heard that, having been a waqf when it was a mosque, it can never be overturned. He points out that those making it are Hanafis, yet Abu Hanifa himself held that there is no perpetual waqf: one may donate the benefit of something, but an endowment can be overturned. The Hanafis, he says, walk away from Abu Hanifa on this because it does not serve the polity, those in power or the clergy, who drew much of their income from endowments; he adds that endowments were a helpful financial system, but that this is why the scholars backed them. He says the Hanafis almost worship Abu Hanifa yet throw him under the bus when his view does not serve their interests. He repeats that the building has now become a mosque but that it is a great mistake, because Zionism and Hindu nationalists will go up a notch in turn, as with the Ram temple [?]. He returns to the verse that Allah's name is glorified in all these places of worship.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the waqf argument fails because Abu Hanifa himself held that an endowment can be overturned, a view Hanafis abandon when it does not serve the powerful or the clergy. He calls the reconversion part of a rising right-wing fascism that includes Muslims.", "answer_start": 1342, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:waqf", "label": "waqf (endowment)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:40-41", "label": "Quran 22:40-41 (Surah al-Hajj)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the reconversion is part of a rising right-wing fascism that includes Muslims, and that the waqf argument fails because Abu Hanifa himself held that an endowment can be overturned, a view Hanafis abandon when it does not serve the powerful or the clergy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he says that yes you can donate the benefits of something but it will always remain uh you know you can always overturn it", "start": 1411}}, "url": "/r/Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/8/"}, {"id": "Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/9", "short_id": "2020-07-16-S09", "recording": "Bgsfy-UmSA4", "n": 9, "start": 1580, "end": 1828, "date": "20200716", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Allah's name is glorified in those places; the Islamabad temple and Muslim bigotry; Pakistan is a nation-state", "question_plain": "Should Pakistan allow a Hindu temple to be built in Islamabad?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if the verse about Allah's name being glorified in monasteries and synagogues were not in the Quran and he had said it himself, people would have called him a disbeliever; he recalls someone he spoke to who called Christians the greatest polytheists deserving no respect, and says Allah Himself says His name is often glorified in their places of worship. He says the ignorance and insecurity he sees disturb him, and turns to videos about the Hindu temple being built in Islamabad, where people say that if Imran Khan wants a temple he should build it in his own backyard. He asks what the problem is, and says Muslims have become bigots who demand tolerance, second chances and accommodation for themselves while refusing them to others: Pakistanis criticise India for not letting Muslims build mosques, run madrasas or keep their own divorce system, yet object to a temple on 'the land of tawhid'. He says Muslims know only victimhood and are never compassionate towards others. He supports building places of worship for other communities in Pakistan, which, he says, is not a khilafah but a sovereign nation-state with citizenship in which all subjects are equal and Muslims are not above non-Muslims, just as Muslims in Britain, though a small minority, have the right to their mosques. He closes hoping his words give some meaning to those who asked him to speak.", "summary_short": "Yes, he says: Pakistan is a nation-state of equal citizens, not a khilafah, and Muslims who demand tolerance abroad while opposing a temple at home have become bigots. The Quran itself says Allah's name is glorified in other faiths' places of worship.", "answer_start": 1580, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/pakistan", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:40-41", "label": "Quran 22:40-41 (Surah al-Hajj)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:imran-khan", "label": "Imran Khan"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:islamabad-hindu-temple-controversy", "label": "the Hindu temple (mandir) in Islamabad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khilafah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shirk", "label": "mushrik (polytheist), as used by the person he quotes"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawhid", "label": "tawhid ('the land of tawhid')"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims have become bigoted and intolerant, demanding tolerance for themselves while opposing a Hindu temple in Islamabad, and that he supports building places of worship for other communities in Pakistan, which is a nation-state of equal citizens and not a khilafah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i do support them building for other cultures in pakistan pakistan is not a khilafah for god's sake it's a nation-state", "start": 1754}}, "url": "/r/Bgsfy-UmSA4/s/9/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/1", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S01", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 1, "start": 16, "end": 171, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Introduction: why learn the Maliki salah, rak'ah counts and naturalness", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces an instructional video on performing salah according to the school of Madinah, made because many people interested in the Maliki school first ask how to pray. He lists the obligatory rak'ahs of the five prayers, noting that the Malikis call the morning prayer Subh, and asks viewers to keep in mind one key theme of the school of Madinah throughout: a naturalness in the prayer. He then introduces the person who will perform the prayer for the demonstration.", "summary_short": "The video teaches the Maliki way of praying; the key theme to keep in mind is naturalness throughout the prayer.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:rakah", "label": "rak'ah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/1/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/2", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S02", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 2, "start": 171, "end": 936, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Demonstration of the Maliki salah from takbir to salam", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth walks through a prayer performed by a demonstrator. He says the intention is simply awareness, with nothing to verbalise; the opening takbir with hands raised to the shoulders is followed by letting the arms hang (sadl), which he says is from the Sunnah and the position of many imams, with folding the arms [?] also practised by many Malikis. One looks ahead or at the place of sujud. There is no opening dua and no basmala: one begins straight with al-Fatiha, read silently, then a short surah or some verses, again without the basmala, then ruku' with takbir, generally without raising the hands though that is an option. He describes the tasbih in ruku' and sujud with no set number, rising with the words of praise, and sujud as a place of dua in any language, citing reports that a person is closest to Allah in sujud and that dua there is more deserving of acceptance. He shows the sitting between the two sujud, the hands being the last to leave the ground when rising, the second rak'ah repeated in the same way, the two sitting positions in tashahhud, the moving index finger, the tashahhud and salutation that Imam Malik chose from several valid transmissions, a dua with no set wording, and a single salam to the right, with two salams an option. He says every posture must be done with tranquility, which the Malikis count as an obligation. Finally he says that behind an imam one does not recite in an audible prayer, as the Quran says to listen when it is recited [?], and one rises from ruku' with the words of praise rather than repeating the imam's words.", "summary_short": "The Maliki prayer is performed with the arms hanging, no opening dua or basmala, silent al-Fatiha, tasbih and personal dua without a set number, and a single salam. Tranquility in every posture is an obligation.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["boundary_unverified", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sadl", "label": "sadl (arms hanging)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qabd", "label": "qabd (folding the arms) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud", "label": "sujud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tashahhud", "label": "tashahhud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a5cdcded", "label": "report: the closest a person is to allah is when he is in sujud"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c54df7f0", "label": "report: make dua in sujud for it is more deserving to be accepted"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/2/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/3", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S03", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 3, "start": 936, "end": 1050, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Introduction to sujud al-sahw, the prostration of forgetfulness", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces the prostration of forgetfulness, saying forgetfulness touches the heart of being human and that in Arabic the name insan is said to come from forgetting. He describes what viewers may have seen an imam do in the mosque: a quick salam at the end, prostrations, then sitting back up to finish. He says the Maliki school has two types: one done before, or without, the salam, and one done after, or with, the salam, both to be explained shortly.", "summary_short": "The Maliki school has two kinds of sujud al-sahw: one performed before the final salam and one performed after it.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["boundary_unverified"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud-al-sahw", "label": "sujud al-sahw (prostration of forgetfulness)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/3/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/4", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S04", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 4, "start": 1050, "end": 1368, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Five common types of mistakes in salah and how each is treated", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out five types of mistake. First, adding something verbal out of place, such as reciting a surah in the sitting or reading something other than al-Fatiha: nothing is required and the prayer is unaffected. Second, omitting a lesser sunnah, such as one tasbih or one of the takbirs within the prayer: again nothing to do. Third, omitting a major sunnah, such as the surah after al-Fatiha: this is repaired by the sujud al-sahw done before the salam. Fourth, accidentally adding an action, such as a fifth rak'ah or a third sujud, which includes the case of doubt, where one builds on what is certain and treats the possible addition as this fourth type: this is repaired by the sujud al-sahw done after the salam. Fifth, forgetting an obligatory act, for which he says the school of Madinah offers a solution called cancellation [?], to be explained.", "summary_short": "Verbal additions and lesser omissions need nothing; a missed major sunnah is repaired by sujud al-sahw before the salam, an added action or doubt by sujud al-sahw after it, and a missed obligation by cancellation.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud-al-sahw", "label": "sujud al-sahw (prostration of forgetfulness)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:build-on-certainty", "label": "build on certainty when in doubt"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ilgha", "label": "cancellation (ilgha') of a defective rak'ah [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/4/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/5", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S05", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 5, "start": 1368, "end": 2074, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Demonstration of sujud al-sahw before and after the salam, and cancellation", "question_plain": null, "summary": "With the demonstrator, Mufti Abu Layth lists the emphasised sunnahs whose omission requires the sujud al-sahw before the salam: the surah after al-Fatiha, the tashahhud, the words of praise on rising from ruku', audible recitation at night and silent by day, and two or more lesser sunnahs together. He shows the prostration done before the salam: after the tashahhud and before the salutation, two prostrations, then the tashahhud, salutation, dua and salam again. For an added action, or doubt about the number of rak'ahs where one builds on the lesser number, he shows the prostration after the salam: a salam to the right, two prostrations, then tashahhud, salutation, dua and the closing salam; he notes an addition that almost outweighs the prayer, such as four extra rak'ahs, would mean starting again. If one has both omitted and added, the prostration before the salam is done, which he likens to a minus times a plus being a minus. For a forgotten obligatory act, such as missing ruku' and realising it in the next rak'ah, he says Imam Malik addresses this in al-Mudawwana [?]: the defective rak'ah is cancelled mentally and the current one treated as the first, the prayer is completed, and since something has been added the prostration after the salam follows. He adds that behind an imam one simply follows the imam's practice, citing the report that the imam is placed to be followed, and that minor movements such as shifting a row or hand gestures neither invalidate the prayer nor require any prostration.", "summary_short": "A missed major sunnah is repaired by two prostrations before the salam, an addition or doubt by two prostrations after it, and a forgotten obligation by cancelling the defective rak'ah and continuing. Behind an imam, follow the imam.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud-al-sahw", "label": "sujud al-sahw (prostration of forgetfulness)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ilgha", "label": "cancellation (ilgha') of a defective rak'ah [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:build-on-certainty", "label": "build on certainty when in doubt"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b517bd19", "label": "report: the imam has been placed that you may follow him"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/5/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/6", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S06", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 6, "start": 2074, "end": 2190, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is there a difference between men's and women's salah in the Maliki school?", "question_plain": "Do women pray differently from men in the Maliki school?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a follow-up question on whether the Maliki school distinguishes between the salah of men and women. He says some schools draw an absolute distinction in how a woman places her hands, sits and prostrates, while the school of Madinah draws no distinction in principle. He adds that many Maliki scholars give advisory guidelines that a woman may pay attention to modesty in ruku' and sujud where her situation requires it, without going into detail, and concludes that in essence there is no distinction.", "summary_short": "No: the Maliki school makes no distinction in principle between men's and women's salah. Some scholars only advise that a woman be mindful of modesty in ruku' and sujud.", "answer_start": 2074, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["boundary_unverified"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/maliki-school", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki school draws no distinction in principle between the salah of men and women, with only advisory guidelines that a woman may be more mindful of modesty in ruku' and sujud.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "the school of Medina the Maliki maab from a principal perspective it does not highlight any differences between men and women in Salah", "start": 2105}}, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/6/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/7", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S07", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 7, "start": 2190, "end": 2260, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "What the forbidden times of prayer in the hadith mean", "question_plain": "Can I pray Fajr at sunrise if I woke up late?", "summary": "Asked what the hadith means by forbidden times of prayer, Mufti Abu Layth says it does not mean there are times when one cannot pray: an obligatory prayer may be prayed at any time, including sunrise and sunset. The hadith concerns voluntary (nafl) prayers, which should not be performed while the sun is actually rising. If one wakes late and sunrise is taking place, one can and should still pray Subh, citing the report that one who sleeps or forgets should pray when he awakens or remembers.", "summary_short": "Yes: the forbidden times apply only to voluntary prayers. An obligatory prayer can be prayed at any time, including sunrise and sunset.", "answer_start": 2190, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["boundary_unverified"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:nafl", "label": "nafl (voluntary prayer)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a8af5be2", "label": "report: whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it let him pray it when he awakens or remembers"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the forbidden times in the hadith apply only to voluntary (nafl) prayers, so an obligatory prayer such as a late Subh may and should be prayed even at sunrise.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so that is not a Prohibition to pray any obligatory prayer it's only referring to the na the voluntary kind of prayers", "start": 2219}}, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/7/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/8", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S08", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 8, "start": 2260, "end": 2363, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How to stand in congregation and how far apart the feet should be", "question_plain": "How should I stand in congregational prayer, and should my feet touch my neighbour's?", "summary": "Asked how to stand when praying in congregation, Mufti Abu Layth says one stands next to the people on either side in a natural manner, shoulder to shoulder in a nice straight line, neither squeezing nor leaving gaps. Joining the heels or touching feet is not required and not advised in the school of Madinah. He says the same applies when praying alone: the school pays no attention to how far apart the feet should be, unlike some schools, and he warns against an obsession with tiny details that makes the prayer mechanical, since the point is a spiritual and natural connection.", "summary_short": "Stand naturally, shoulder to shoulder in a straight line, without squeezing or leaving gaps. Touching feet or joining heels is not required or advised, and the school of Madinah sets no rule on how far apart the feet should be.", "answer_start": 2260, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["boundary_unverified"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in congregation one stands naturally shoulder to shoulder in a straight line without joining heels or touching feet, and that the Maliki school pays no attention to how far apart the feet should be.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "how far apart should your feet be the school of Medina does not pay any attention to these kind of things", "start": 2297}}, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/8/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/9", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S09", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 9, "start": 2363, "end": 2487, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "What if one forgets to perform sujud al-sahw?", "question_plain": "What do I do if I forgot to perform sujud al-sahw after my prayer?", "summary": "Asked what happens if one forgets something in salah and then also forgets the sujud al-sahw, Mufti Abu Layth recalls the two types and says the scholars generally hold that a missed prostration should be done when remembered, more or less straight after the prayer, followed by a salam, even if some time has passed, for instance while still in the mosque half an hour later. If a considerable time has lapsed, one lets it be and it is not an issue. He notes that some scholars allow the prostration done after the salam to be made up even after a long time, since it was after the salam anyway, and encourages viewers to study further with local imams or on courses.", "summary_short": "Perform the missed sujud al-sahw as soon as you remember, even a short while after the prayer, followed by a salam. If a long time has passed, leave it; some scholars allow the after-salam type to be made up even later.", "answer_start": 2363, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["boundary_unverified"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud-al-sahw", "label": "sujud al-sahw (prostration of forgetfulness)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a forgotten sujud al-sahw should be performed as soon as it is remembered, even after some time has passed while one is still in the mosque, and is simply left if a considerable time has lapsed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "just do it there and then followed by Salam even if a certain amount of time has lapsed but not an immense amount of time", "start": 2412}}, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/9/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/10", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S10", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 10, "start": 2487, "end": 2633, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "What to wear for salah: pictures on clothes, t-shirts, vests and pictures in the room", "question_plain": "Can I pray in a t-shirt or vest, or in clothes with a picture on them?", "summary": "Asked what to wear for salah, Mufti Abu Layth says no particular dress is required; the requirement for men and women is that the 'awrah is covered, which for men is between the navel and the knee and for women everything except the hands and face, with some disagreement about the feet. A picture on a t-shirt does not violate the prayer. A man already in a t-shirt or vest need not put on a shirt or jacket, though the scholars say one should not deliberately dress down for salah, such as removing a shirt before praying. Pictures in the room also do not affect the prayer; he refers to his separate answers on whether pictures are allowed.", "summary_short": "Yes, as long as the 'awrah is covered: no special dress is needed, and pictures on clothes or in the room do not invalidate the prayer. One should not deliberately dress down for salah.", "answer_start": 2487, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["boundary_unverified"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says no particular dress is required for salah beyond covering the 'awrah, so a picture on one's clothes, a t-shirt or vest one is already wearing, or pictures in the room do not invalidate the prayer, though one should not dress down for salah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "if you were already in a t-shirt or you happen to be in a vest as it was and you were now praying that is fine the Salah is accepted", "start": 2565}}, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/10/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/11", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S11", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 11, "start": 2633, "end": 2756, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Trousers below the ankle and tight trousers during salah", "question_plain": "Can I pray with my trousers below my ankles, or in tight jeans?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes two related questions. On trousers below the ankle, he says this does not affect the salah at all and that he does not believe it to be forbidden, as he has said before, nor do many scholars of the school of Madinah [?], who held that it was a custom of the past involving arrogance, and that when the arrogance no longer attaches the ruling does not continue; he adds there is no difference between inside and outside salah on this. On tight jeans, he says they do not affect a man's salah, though one may be mindful to dress more appropriately, and cites a sahih hadith in which the Prophet told the women to delay rising from sujud because the men's tightly wrapped izars defined their contours, yet he did not forbid it or say it invalidated the prayer.", "summary_short": "Yes: trousers below the ankle or tight trousers do not affect the salah. Mufti Abu Layth does not consider trousers below the ankle forbidden, since the old ruling rested on arrogance.", "answer_start": 2633, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["boundary_unverified", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:isbal", "label": "isbal (garments below the ankle)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:izar", "label": "izar"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:ruling-lapses-with-its-cause", "label": "a ruling does not continue when its cause has ceased"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:80b1af85", "label": "report: the prophet told the women not to raise their heads from sujud until the men had sat because their izars were tight"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says trousers below the ankle or tight trousers do not affect a man's salah, and he does not consider trousers below the ankle forbidden because the past ruling rested on an arrogance that no longer attaches to the practice.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "with men it does not impact the Salah although they can be mindful to dress perhaps more appropriately but that does not impact the Salah in any way", "start": 2682}}, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/11/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/12", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S12", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 12, "start": 2756, "end": 2855, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Do men have to cover their head in salah? And praying in long shorts", "question_plain": "Do men need to cover their head to pray, and can I pray in shorts?", "summary": "Asked whether men should cover their head in salah, Mufti Abu Layth says the school of Madinah does not recognise covering the head as a sunnah of salah and it is not virtuous in itself. He reports a Maliki imam from Granada [?] who, some 700 years ago, placed the matter under custom and convention, observing that men in the East covered their heads and saw it as noble while Muslim men in the West generally did not. So the prayer is fine and not makruh without a head covering. He adds a quick clarification that someone in long sports shorts can pray as long as the 'awrah between navel and knee is covered.", "summary_short": "No: covering the head is custom and convention, not a sunnah of salah, so praying bareheaded is fine and not makruh. Long shorts are fine if they cover the 'awrah.", "answer_start": 2756, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["boundary_unverified", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:custom-and-convention", "label": "custom and convention ('urf)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki school does not regard covering the head as a sunnah of salah but as a matter of custom and convention, so praying bareheaded is neither makruh nor a defect, and long sports shorts that cover the 'awrah are fine to pray in.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "this is seen as really in essence especially within the school of Medina as part of convention and Custom it is not seen as a Sunnah which people have to have to be doing", "start": 2798}}, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/12/"}, {"id": "BiN9UQPOpMA/s/13", "short_id": "2017-04-02-S13", "recording": "BiN9UQPOpMA", "n": 13, "start": 2855, "end": 3016, "date": "20170402", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Trousers slipping in sujud: momentary exposure of the 'awrah", "question_plain": "Is my prayer valid if my trousers slip and part of my backside shows for a moment in sujud?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth raises the case of loose or low-hanging trousers that reveal part of a man's backside for a few seconds in sujud. He says such people should dress more appropriately, with a jacket or a longer shirt, since exposing oneself in a mosque does not befit the place. But he says this partial, momentary exposure does not violate the salah. He explains that the school of Madinah divides the 'awrah into a core part, the genitals and rectum for men, which may never be exposed, and an extended part, such as the thigh or upper buttocks, whose momentary exposure during a movement or in sujud does not compromise the prayer, though the whole must be covered.", "summary_short": "Yes, the prayer is still valid: a momentary exposure of the extended 'awrah in sujud does not invalidate it, though one should dress more modestly. The core 'awrah may never be exposed.", "answer_start": 2855, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a momentary exposure of the extended 'awrah, such as the upper buttocks or thigh slipping into view during sujud, does not invalidate the salah, though one should dress more modestly in the mosque, while the core 'awrah may never be exposed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "that kind of partial revealing um for that short dur duration within Salah within sujud let's say because mostly it would occur in sujud does not violate the Salah", "start": 2917}}, "url": "/r/BiN9UQPOpMA/s/13/"}, {"id": "C-9MCspQqwE/s/1", "short_id": "2024-03-05-S01", "recording": "C-9MCspQqwE", "n": 1, "start": 3, "end": 62, "date": "20240305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Quran 14:7: gratitude unlocks abundance", "question_plain": "Which verse of the Quran promises more blessings for being grateful?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth calls Surah Ibrahim verse 7 one of the most powerful verses of the Quran for unlocking its abundance. Mufti says that in it Allah announces that if people express gratitude, Allah promises abundance. He calls this counterintuitive and says the secret was within us all along: by giving, you get.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth points to Quran 14:7: Allah promises abundance to the grateful, so by giving you receive.", "answer_start": 3, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/gratitude-giving-and-contentment", "quran/quranic-guidance-for-living"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:14:7", "label": "Quran 14:7 (if you are grateful, I will increase you)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shukr", "label": "shukr (gratitude)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in Quran 14:7 Allah promises abundance to those who express gratitude.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "one of the most powerful verses of the Quran that will unlock its abundance Surah ibraim verse 7 and Allah announces it if you Express gratitude Allah promises", "start": 3}}, "url": "/r/C-9MCspQqwE/s/1/"}, {"id": "CnwAjt1i9Bo/s/1", "short_id": "2021-03-10-S01", "recording": "CnwAjt1i9Bo", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 321, "date": "20210310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Reply to Assim al-Hakeem: a close non-Muslim friend and returning his salam", "question_plain": "Can I have a close non-Muslim friend and answer his salam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip in which a caller asks Assim al-Hakeem whether he may answer the salam of a very close non-Muslim friend who is seriously ill and who greets him with salam, and whether the salam of a non-Muslim may be answered in general. In the clip Assim al-Hakeem replies that a Muslim may have a non-Muslim acquaintance or work colleague but not a dear friend used as a confidant and counsellor, and that a non-Muslim's salam is not to be returned but met with a smile, which he presents as the way of the Prophet and the most authentic opinion. Mufti ridicules the answer, playing on the name Hakeem and the word hikmah, and says this is the problem with such preachers. He then asks how anyone could claim a Muslim cannot have a non-Muslim friend, and says this is ignorance, hatred and venom that spreads toxicity, that the deen suffers because people are taught this and come to think it is what Islam is about, and that it is nonsense and a tragedy.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects as ignorance and nonsense the view that a Muslim cannot have a close non-Muslim friend or return his greeting. Assim al-Hakeem's answer in the clip, that only acquaintances are allowed and a non-Muslim's salam gets a smile at most, is the view being replied to.", "answer_start": 157, "questioner": "caller", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest", "questioner"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["relationships/friendship-and-social-life", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:assim-al-hakeem", "label": "Assim al-Hakeem"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salam", "label": "salam (the greeting of peace)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hikmah", "label": "hikmah (wisdom)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/CnwAjt1i9Bo/s/1/"}, {"id": "Cz26by1mMns/s/1", "short_id": "2018-07-08-S01", "recording": "Cz26by1mMns", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 192, "date": "20180708", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Reply to Sunni Defence: what the marital rape video said", "question_plain": "Is it rape if a husband uses religion to pressure his wife into sex?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth responds to another video by the Sunni Defence channel, which says that in his video declaring marital rape haram some of the quotes he used came from an online forum and were misrepresented. Mufti summarises his earlier video: rape is categorically haram, including when religion is used to justify it. He says that if a husband who beats his wife for refusing sex is committing rape, a husband who instead threatens her with Allah's punishment after death is no less committing rape, since that is a threat with a deferred punishment. He asks the critics to watch the full half-hour video, where he showed that this is coercion.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says using religious threats to pressure a wife into sex is still rape and categorically haram.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/abuse-and-marital-rape", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that pressuring a wife into sex by threatening her with Allah's punishment is no less rape than threatening to beat her.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "that is no less rape that's just like saying in other words a deferred beating so that's just threatening her still because it's still a threat but it's a threat with a deferred punishment", "start": 153}}, "url": "/r/Cz26by1mMns/s/1/"}, {"id": "Cz26by1mMns/s/2", "short_id": "2018-07-08-S02", "recording": "Cz26by1mMns", "n": 2, "start": 192, "end": 420, "date": "20180708", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The hadith of angels cursing a wife who refuses her husband's bed", "question_plain": "Do the angels curse a wife who refuses her husband in bed?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith that the angels curse a woman who stays away from her husband's bed until morning, and in another version that the Lord is angry with her, is not true, and mocks the idea that God is angry about a husband not getting sex. Mufti recaps his earlier analysis: the hadith is in al-Bukhari, Muslim, Ahmad and other collections, and its chains rely mainly on two narrators, al-A'mash [?] and Qatada [?], who practised tadlis, narrating with the vague 'from' rather than 'I heard'. He adds that it clashes with the Quran's command to live with wives in kindness and to retain or release them gracefully, with the Prophet's kindness, and with there being no coercion in Islam.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth holds the hadith is weak, resting on narrators who practised tadlis, and clashes with the Quran's command to treat wives with kindness.", "answer_start": 192, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/abuse-and-marital-rape", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f942d247", "label": "report: if a woman refuses her husband's bed the angels curse her"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-amash", "label": "al-A'mash [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qatada", "label": "Qatada [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis (mudallis)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:19", "label": "Quran 4:19 (live with them in kindness)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:229", "label": "Quran 2:229 (retain in kindness or release with grace)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes the hadith about a wife who stays away from her husband's bed is weak and unacceptable, clashing with the Quran.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there's this hadith which is weak I believe it's unacceptable utterly clashes with the Quranic clashes with the authentic sana clashes with the principles of Islam", "start": 230}}, "url": "/r/Cz26by1mMns/s/2/"}, {"id": "Cz26by1mMns/s/3", "short_id": "2018-07-08-S03", "recording": "Cz26by1mMns", "n": 3, "start": 420, "end": 754, "date": "20180708", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Thanks for the correction, but the chain is still flawed", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks Sunni Defence for pointing out that three quotes about a narrator, which he had taken from a forum, were misrepresented, saying one should be grateful when people point things out and citing the hadith that whoever does not thank people does not thank Allah. Mufti says that in his video, which they cut short, he did not adopt those quotes calling the narrator a liar or problematic in his religion, but said the narrator was a problem because he was a mudallis and the chain uses 'from'. He asks whether he was wrong about where the hadith is found, in reading its chains, in noting that it rests mainly on two narrators, or in citing critics such as Ibn al-Mubarak [?], Ali ibn al-Madini [?] and al-Tirmidhi on that narrator's tadlis, and says they cannot show that he was. He says their response is instead to call him a dajjal or an ignorant man.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth accepts that three forum quotes were misrepresented but says he never relied on them: his case rests on the narrator's tadlis, which his critics have not refuted.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:bb5fdb57", "label": "report: whoever does not thank people does not thank allah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-amash", "label": "al-A'mash [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis (mudallis)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-ibn-al-mubarak", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ali-ibn-al-madini", "label": "Ali ibn al-Madini [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tirmidhi", "label": "al-Tirmidhi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f942d247", "label": "report: if a woman refuses her husband's bed the angels curse her"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that one should be grateful when people point things out.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I first of all know we should be grateful when people point things out hamdu lillah man lam yasha Kareem a slim ish couldn't love whoever does not is not grateful to people is not grateful to Allah", "start": 456}}, "url": "/r/Cz26by1mMns/s/3/"}, {"id": "Cz26by1mMns/s/4", "short_id": "2018-07-08-S04", "recording": "Cz26by1mMns", "n": 4, "start": 754, "end": 1152, "date": "20180708", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Critics silent on marital rape, and a story about research and conclusions", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the real problem is that his critics do not seem to object to marital rape, to such things being attributed to the Prophet, or to the hadith going against the Quran on coercion, and instead attack a side point about the forum quotes. Mufti challenges them to produce an unquestionably sound chain for the hadith. He tells a story he heard from a scholar of the subcontinent about a researcher who pulled the wings off a fly and concluded that a fly without wings becomes deaf, to show how a conclusion can be drawn that the investigation does not support, likening it to the leap from a misrepresented forum quote to calling him an antichrist. He closes jokingly that one should be grateful to haters and have sympathy for them, and moves on to questions.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says his critics avoid the real issue of marital rape, and challenges them to produce a sound chain for the hadith.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "relationships/marriage/abuse-and-marital-rape"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f942d247", "label": "report: if a woman refuses her husband's bed the angels curse her"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Cz26by1mMns/s/4/"}, {"id": "DAVFpkd1ECo/s/1", "short_id": "2018-09-20-S01", "recording": "DAVFpkd1ECo", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 474, "date": "20180920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The war-wager paradox: 'I have been commanded to fight the people' and the mutawatir claim", "question_plain": "What is the war-wager hadith paradox?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces what he calls the war-wager hadith paradox, meant to show that hadith dogmatism, a loyalty to the isnad above everything, is unacceptable and departs from the teaching of Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa never to let go of reason and the holistic understanding of Islam. He reads, in the wording of Sahih Muslim from Abu Hurayra, the report that the Prophet said he was commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and believe in him and in what he brought, after which their blood and wealth are protected except by right, noting that it is also in Sahih al-Bukhari, Abu Dawud, al-Nasa'i and Musnad Ahmad. He then sets out, as a steel-man, the dogmatists' argument, naming the Egyptian Salafi scholar Abu Ishaq al-Huwayni [?]: the report is mutawatir, transmitted by up to seventeen companions with many chains in Bukhari, Muslim, al-Nasa'i and Musnad Ahmad, and so as established as the Quran. He says these same scholars agree that a non-Muslim may not be fought simply for being a non-Muslim and read 2:256 as meaning there is no compulsion in bringing people into Islam, while he and many scholars hold that there is no compulsion at all in matters of religion, citing further verses whose wording is unclear in the transcript [?]. This, he says, is where the paradox begins.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth presents the report that the Prophet was commanded to fight people until they believe, which hadith dogmatists call mutawatir, and notes that the same scholars agree no one may be fought merely for disbelief or compelled into Islam.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9ae25c07", "label": "report: i have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no god but allah (unresolved; Abu Hurayra, wording of Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-nasai", "label": "Sunan al-Nasa'i"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ishaq-al-huwayni", "label": "Abu Ishaq al-Huwayni [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:256", "label": "Quran 2:256 (there is no compulsion in religion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isnad", "label": "isnad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kafir", "label": "kafir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says hadith dogmatists, loyal above all to the chain of transmission, have departed from the teaching of Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa not to abandon reason, and he holds that there is no compulsion at all in matters of religion.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "they disagree with people like me and many of the scholars that say that there's no compulsion at all in Islam", "start": 383}}, "url": "/r/DAVFpkd1ECo/s/1/"}, {"id": "DAVFpkd1ECo/s/2", "short_id": "2018-09-20-S02", "recording": "DAVFpkd1ECo", "n": 2, "start": 474, "end": 943, "date": "20180920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reading 'the people' as the idolaters, and why that undoes the airtight system", "question_plain": "If a mutawatir hadith has to be reinterpreted, what does that say about hadith transmission?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth steel-mans how al-Huwayni [?] and others resolve the problem: 'the people' in the report does not mean all mankind but the mushrikin, and the report is read alongside the separate hadith of Burayda [?], in which the Prophet told those he sent out to offer three options: to embrace Islam and join them, to remain where they are as Muslims, or to pay the jizya. He rejects this by rereading the wording in Sahih Muslim, which says to fight people until they believe, and says that amounts to coercion into the religion, which everyone agrees is not allowed. The paradox, he says, is that if a report claimed to be mutawatir, with seventeen companions and dozens of chains, yields a meaning its own defenders call incomplete or misleading, then the transmission system that was supposed to be airtight is shown to be lacking, like someone who builds an airtight container from the inside and suffocates. He says ISIS took the report as it stands, that most Muslims, Salafis included, do not, and that the system therefore cannot be conclusive. He likens the dogmatists to a monkey whose hand is trapped in a pot because it will not let go of the sweet it has grabbed.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says that because its defenders must reinterpret a report they call mutawatir, the transmission system itself is shown to be fallible rather than airtight.", "answer_start": 474, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9ae25c07", "label": "report: i have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no god but allah (unresolved; Abu Hurayra, wording of Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:65670e76", "label": "report: present them three options embrace islam stay where you are as muslims or pay the jizya (unresolved; the hadith of Burayda, collection not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:burayda", "label": "Burayda [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ishaq-al-huwayni", "label": "Abu Ishaq al-Huwayni [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushrikin", "label": "mushrikin"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jizya", "label": "jizya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when a report claimed to be mutawatir produces a meaning its own defenders must reinterpret as incomplete, this shows that the hadith transmission system is not airtight and cannot be treated as conclusive.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "if the result is problematic the system is problematic if the system is sound the result must be sound which it isn't", "start": 914}}, "url": "/r/DAVFpkd1ECo/s/2/"}, {"id": "DAVFpkd1ECo/s/3", "short_id": "2018-09-20-S03", "recording": "DAVFpkd1ECo", "n": 3, "start": 943, "end": 1169, "date": "20180920", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The crocodile paradox, the return to Imam Malik's method, and sign-off", "question_plain": "Why does hadith dogmatism fail, according to the war-wager paradox?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth compares the situation to the crocodile paradox, in which a crocodile that has taken a child promises to return it if the mother correctly says what it will do, and she answers that it will not return the child, leaving the crocodile unable to act without contradicting itself. In the same way, he says, if the dogmatists' system is airtight its result should be sound, and since the result is not sound, neither is the system. He says the paradox shows that hadith dogmatism, in which hadith cancel out the Quran, does not work, and that Muslims should return to the method taught by Imam Malik, the scholar of Madinah, who warned that isolated reports can snatch the religion away [?]. He then closes the session, saying it is very late, and signs off with prayers for his viewers.", "summary_short": "Using the crocodile paradox, he argues that a sound system cannot produce an unsound result, so hadith dogmatism fails and Imam Malik's method should be followed instead.", "answer_start": 943, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-takes-precedence-over-hadith", "label": "The Quran takes precedence over an isolated hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says hadith dogmatism, which lets reports override the Quran, does not work and that Muslims should return to the method taught by Imam Malik.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this hadith dogmatism this hadith cancelling out or on perspective does not work and we need to really resort to the method taught to us by the likes of imam malik", "start": 1067}}, "url": "/r/DAVFpkd1ECo/s/3/"}, {"id": "DYnuJS-DTMU/s/1", "short_id": "2021-02-13-S01", "recording": "DYnuJS-DTMU", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 116, "date": "20210213", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "His view of Mu'awiya: a great figure and an astute statesman", "question_plain": "What do you think of Mu'awiya?", "summary": "Asked for his thoughts on Mu'awiya, Mufti Abu Layth says he sees him as a great figure in Islam whom he highly respects, while acknowledging that the companions had disagreements. He says he likes Mu'awiya's statesmanship, that some people are cut out to rule and Mu'awiya was one of them, and that in his forty years of rule there was no uprising against him in Sham. He relates a story of a woman, formerly pro-Ali, who complained about her crops: Mu'awiya offered her help from the state fund and remarked that Ali would not have given it, she answered that this was because Ali was more just, and Mu'awiya laughed and ordered that she be given the crops. He says he loves that narration.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth highly respects Mu'awiya as a great figure and admires his statesmanship, citing a story of his generosity to a woman who favoured Ali.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/companions", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he sees Mu'awiya as a great figure in Islam whom he highly respects.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "i uh see said iran as a great figure in islam i do highly respect him", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/DYnuJS-DTMU/s/1/"}, {"id": "DnueaKQQZXY/s/1", "short_id": "2023-02-06-S01", "recording": "DnueaKQQZXY", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 509, "date": "20230206", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza's hadith criticism does not go far enough", "question_plain": "Is Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza consistent in how he criticises hadith?", "summary": "Responding to a comment that Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza exposes hypocritical views and literature, Mufti Abu Layth calls him an unquestionable and profound scholar and a much-needed, less dogmatic voice in Pakistan, as he says another Pakistani scholar also is, but says he is not a hundred percent true to his own principle. Mufti argues that if one criticises others' hadith by an objective criterion, the same scrutiny should go further, to how sahih hadith are made sahih: narrators are often vouched for, by scholars like Imam Ahmad, two or more generations after they lived, without the sources being disclosed. He says this does not make everything collapse, because the scholars of Madinah and Kufa distinguished hadith, as historical documentation, from the Sunnah, the living tradition inherited from parent to child; there are hadith dogmatists and hadith relativists, and the problem is saying the other has no right to exist in Islam. Wrapping up, Mufti stresses that he does not mean to belittle Engineer Mirza, whom he calls a legend he loves and respects, that he will not tolerate rudeness towards him, and that the mystics, philosophers, jurists and hadith scholars each have their tradition within the colourful legacy of Islam.", "summary_short": "Not fully, says Mufti Abu Layth: Engineer Mirza's rational critique of others' hadith stops short of scrutinising how sahih hadith were authenticated. Mufti still calls him a legend and a much-needed voice.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ali-mirza", "label": "Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "the living tradition as a source"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-relativism", "label": "hadith relativism"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-absolutism", "label": "hadith absolutism (hadith dogmatism)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/DnueaKQQZXY/s/1/"}, {"id": "ETWstnCMgZA/s/1", "short_id": "2020-05-29-S01", "recording": "ETWstnCMgZA", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 187, "date": "20200529", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Disappointment at Pakistan's arrest of Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza", "question_plain": "Was the arrest of Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza justified?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is utterly disappointed to hear that the Pakistani authorities have arrested Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza, whom he calls a great person and an independent, free-thinking scholar, far less rigid than the sectarian groups, though shaped by his Pakistani background. Mufti calls the arrest unacceptable and nothing but jealousy and sectarianism, and prays that Allah makes things easy for him. He mentions a social media post by a Pakistani public figure likening the country's rigid religious groups to the Pharisees of Jesus' time. Mufti says Engineer Mirza has a huge following, questions group mentality and is open-minded, and that he rates anyone prepared to think outside the box and challenge the narrative of the age, whether or not he agrees with their conclusions.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth calls the arrest unacceptable and the product of jealousy and sectarianism, praising Engineer Mirza as an open-minded scholar.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/pakistan", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ali-mirza", "label": "Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:arrest-of-muhammad-ali-mirza-2020", "label": "the arrest of Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza (2020)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:pharisees", "label": "the Pharisees"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/ETWstnCMgZA/s/1/"}, {"id": "EWmBN7JV9Dk/s/1", "short_id": "2019-08-21-S01", "recording": "EWmBN7JV9Dk", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 158, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "5Pillars' coverage of Mufti Abu Layth and its article claiming he denies the afterlife", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Taking the controversies one by one, Mufti Abu Layth turns to 5Pillars, which he describes as a Muslim news site that claims to cover global events affecting the ummah yet keeps covering him. He says he is enjoying it, since no press is bad press: of whoever they reach, a margin will watch him and find he makes sense, so he feels indebted to their persistent attention. He says they publish anything they can find on him, and that today's article says he does not believe in the afterlife and calls it symbolic, based on an extract from his discussion with Abdullah Kunde [?] in which he said that the imagery of the afterlife in the Quran is, in his understanding, symbolic. He notes that he already has many videos on YouTube addressing the issue.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reacts to a 5Pillars article claiming he does not believe in the afterlife, which drew on a clip of him calling the Quran's afterlife imagery symbolic. He says no press is bad press and that he has addressed the issue in many videos.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "society/technology-and-media"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:5pillars", "label": "5Pillars"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-kunde", "label": "Abdullah Kunde [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/EWmBN7JV9Dk/s/1/"}, {"id": "EWmBN7JV9Dk/s/2", "short_id": "2019-08-21-S02", "recording": "EWmBN7JV9Dk", "n": 2, "start": 158, "end": 550, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Quran's imagery of the afterlife as symbolic: his reading, and the freedom to disagree", "question_plain": "Is the Quran's description of paradise and hell literal or symbolic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says nobody needs to agree with his reading, since asking for agreement would be dogma. He explains symbolism with the examples of a white horse running free or a white dove standing for freedom: to him there is a continuity beyond this life that is complex to explain, and the imagery exists to help those who need it, since the Prophet said that no human can conceptualise the afterlife [?], and what cannot be conceptualised cannot be expressed literally in words. He adds that Allah describes himself with symbolic imagery, 'Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth', so if God can speak symbolically of himself, the same can apply to heaven and hell. He cites Ibn Rushd, whom he calls a Maliki legend, and the Sufi Ibn Arabi as having said similar things, Ibn Arabi holding that even God's punishment is a lower form of mercy and deriving 'adhab from 'udhuba, sweetness. He accepts that concepts such as being burnt for a crime clash for many people with compassion and mercy, and says this is why he reads the imagery as addressed to the people it was revealed to: shade and rivers of milk and honey appealed to them but would not appeal to someone in Alaska or the Arctic. He concludes that some take the imagery literally, others metaphorically and others symbolically, that people may disagree with him, and that his detailed videos are on YouTube.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads the Quran's imagery of the afterlife as symbolic, chosen to resonate with the people it was revealed to, while holding that life continues after this world. Allah also describes himself in imagery, and people are free to disagree.", "answer_start": 158, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/afterlife/paradise-and-hell", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:35", "label": "Quran 24:35 (Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c731c3f4", "label": "report: not a single human could ever conceptualise the afterlife"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-arabi", "label": "Ibn Arabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adhab", "label": "'adhab (punishment)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the imagery of the afterlife in the Quran is symbolic, chosen to appeal to the people it was revealed to, while there is a real continuity beyond this life that no human can conceptualise, and he says people are free to disagree with this reading.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if you can't even conceptualize something how can you express it in words so to me the afterlife the imagery in the Quran is symbolic", "start": 231}}, "url": "/r/EWmBN7JV9Dk/s/2/"}, {"id": "EWmBN7JV9Dk/s/3", "short_id": "2019-08-21-S03", "recording": "EWmBN7JV9Dk", "n": 3, "start": 550, "end": 941, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Bullying people into beliefs, leaving the religious bubble, and Usama Canon's regret", "question_plain": "How should I deal with religious circles that pressure me into beliefs?", "summary": "Continuing the point raised at the end of the previous part, that these people bully one another into beliefs, Mufti Abu Layth says bullies in institutions, schools and workplaces are miserable, and that bullying people so that they cannot even be free in their beliefs is a miserable way to live. He says he is grateful that Allah gave him the circumstances to leave the 'religious people bubble', so that although his words affect it, his day-to-day life has nothing to do with it. His advice to religious viewers is to gradually expand that bubble and then burst it: to be true to their faith but to live their lives genuinely, since such bubbles are among the most judgmental places to be trapped in. He gives the example of a shaykh [?] who received a great deal of flak for saying that Islamic thought is institutionalised in a Newtonian way and needs upgrading for Einstein's world, and who will now have to perform gymnastics to justify it because he worries about the crowd; Mufti says to forget such people and be true to oneself, which he says is how Allah has granted him the love of many who find solace in his words. He then speaks of Usama Canon [?], an American teacher he calls an amazing inspiration who is suffering from ALS, which has impaired his speech; still active on social media, he has been exploring music and how it gives him solace, and has said that one of his greatest regrets is that for so long he deprived himself of this because of what shaykhs and mawlanas said.", "summary_short": "Leave the judgmental bubble of religious circles and be true to your faith and yourself rather than letting people bully you into beliefs. He cites a shaykh attacked for calling for updated thinking and Usama Canon's regret at having deprived himself for fear of what others said.", "answer_start": 550, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "wellbeing/personal-stories"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:usama-canon", "label": "Usama Canon [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth advises religious people to expand and burst the 'religious people bubble', which he calls among the most judgmental places to be trapped in, and to be true to their faith and to themselves rather than be bullied into beliefs.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if I could give you guys advice those of you that are religious gradually build you you know expand this bubble and then burst it and then just live your life", "start": 617}}, "url": "/r/EWmBN7JV9Dk/s/3/"}, {"id": "EWmBN7JV9Dk/s/4", "short_id": "2019-08-21-S04", "recording": "EWmBN7JV9Dk", "n": 4, "start": 941, "end": 1097, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Policing ideas is the antithesis of Islam: the Prophet taught faith, not creed", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet teach a formal creed of what Muslims must believe?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people may call him crazy and eccentric, but that nobody has left the deen because of anything he has said, while many have come back to it and found solace in the faith through his words, so there must be something in this way of thinking. He describes the culture of forcing faith and policing people's ideas as 'Taliban-ised' and caveman-like, the antithesis of what Islam came with: the deen was born free and today it has been locked in chains. He says the Prophet never taught people a creed, and that no hadith goes beyond a handful of things to believe in: God, that things do not end in this life, that there was revelation, and that God is all-powerful. For over a hundred and fifty years, he says, the salaf of this ummah, from the Sahaba and the tabi'un to Imam Malik and the people of Madinah, never taught dogma or wrote down what one must believe; it was wisdom. He calls for a return to the way of the salaf, says the age of the mullahs is over, and asks people to think for themselves, which is what the deen came for, warning that this policing will destroy the face of Islam if it is allowed to permeate the Muslim scene.", "summary_short": "The Prophet taught faith, not a creed: beyond a handful of beliefs no hadith prescribes what to believe, and for 150 years the salaf up to Imam Malik wrote down no dogma. Policing people's ideas is the antithesis of Islam, so think for yourself.", "answer_start": 941, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deen", "label": "deen"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:faith-not-creed", "label": "the Prophet taught faith (iman), not a formal creed (aqidah)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet never taught a creed beyond a handful of beliefs, that the salaf up to Imam Malik never taught or wrote down dogma for over a hundred and fifty years, and that forcing faith and policing people's ideas is the antithesis of what Islam came with.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this kind of policing people's ideas this is the antithesis of what Islam came with this this theme was born free people yet today they've locked it in Chains", "start": 955}}, "url": "/r/EWmBN7JV9Dk/s/4/"}, {"id": "EWmBN7JV9Dk/s/5", "short_id": "2019-08-21-S05", "recording": "EWmBN7JV9Dk", "n": 5, "start": 1097, "end": 1157, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Closing: build bridges, talk to everyone, and an invitation to Daniel Haqiqatjou", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Following on from the article, Mufti Abu Layth greets viewers who have joined and says that people should build bridges and talk to Muslims, non-Muslims, ex-Muslims and apostates alike, and that when people hold opposite ideas there should be dialogue. He says that because Daniel Haqiqatjou has spoken in the past about apostasy, he has asked him for a dialogue on apostasy, that it would be amazing if he accepts, and that such things need to be discussed. He then moves on to the next item.", "summary_short": "Talk to everyone, including ex-Muslims, and hold dialogue where ideas differ. Mufti Abu Layth has invited Daniel Haqiqatjou to a dialogue on apostasy.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/EWmBN7JV9Dk/s/5/"}, {"id": "EcabHd3Hf6U/s/1", "short_id": "2020-02-16-S01", "recording": "EcabHd3Hf6U", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 295, "date": "20200216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Should you drink camel urine? The report is problematic even though it is in al-Bukhari", "question_plain": "Is it Sunnah to drink camel urine as medicine?", "summary": "Returning to a point from earlier in the session, Mufti Abu Layth asks whether one can or should drink camel urine and answers that one should not, calling it nonsense and saying the report is problematic even if it is in al-Bukhari. He criticises people in Saudi Arabia who sell camel urine and feed it to children in the name of Islam. Replying to a remark that his objection rests only on criticism of the text (matn), he says it does not: he points to problems in the chain, which the captions garble, to a clash with another narration, and then to the problems in the text as well. He then relays what a viewer told him about a widespread phenomenon in Bangladesh, where Salafis promote drinking camel urine and by extension cow urine, and urges people there to stop obsessing over it and not to listen to those telling them to drink it. He adds that another version of the report in al-Bukhari does not mention it, and that the urine is not medicine.", "summary_short": "No, you should not drink camel urine: he calls it nonsense and says the report is problematic in its chain and its text, even though it is in al-Bukhari.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/bukhari", "fiqh/medical-ethics"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:eb4693f0", "label": "report: drink the urine and milk of the camels"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:matn", "label": "matn (text of a report)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that one should not drink camel urine and calls the idea nonsense.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "can you drink camel's urine or should you drink it no you should not okay that is nonsense", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/EcabHd3Hf6U/s/1/"}, {"id": "EoQ_mXafx5o/s/1", "short_id": "2018-05-29-S01", "recording": "EoQ_mXafx5o", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 235, "date": "20180529", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Accused of misquoting Ibn Ashur on the beast of the earth", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up a question on the beast at the end of times, saying the books are not clear on what it means and that scholars today are unsure of the details. Mufti says that after he read in an earlier video that Ibn Ashur placed it on the Day of Judgment, an article accused him of misquoting Ibn Ashur, and a scholar he respects and loves as a friend also wrote an article supporting the charge. He says that after a day-long civil discussion by voice notes that scholar told him he had rushed and, while still preferring another understanding, accepted that it was wrong to say he was misquoting; another Mawlana reached the same conclusion after they read the tafsir together. Mufti regrets that the article was published before contacting him, says he does not need them to agree with him, and wishes for more such civil respect.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says a scholar who accused him of misquoting Ibn Ashur accepted, after a civil discussion, that he had not, even while still disagreeing.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/EoQ_mXafx5o/s/1/"}, {"id": "EoQ_mXafx5o/s/2", "short_id": "2018-05-29-S02", "recording": "EoQ_mXafx5o", "n": 2, "start": 235, "end": 425, "date": "20180529", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Surah al-Naml 27:80-84: the grave, guidance, the beast and the judgment", "question_plain": "What does the Quran say about the beast of the earth?", "summary": "Before reading Ibn Ashur, Mufti Abu Layth sets out the context of the verses on the beast. Mufti says verse 80, 'you cannot make the dead hear', speaks about those in the grave, and verse 81 says that only Allah guides those blinded by misguidance. Verse 82 says that when the word has come to pass Allah will bring out a creature from the earth that will speak to them because they did not believe in His signs. He says verses 83 and 84, on the day each group of deniers is gathered and asked whether they denied Allah's signs, clearly speak of the Day of Judgment, so the passage runs from the grave to the judgment and its outcome.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads 27:80-84 as moving from the grave to the Day of Judgment, with the creature of verse 82 set within that sequence.", "answer_start": 235, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:80-84", "label": "Quran 27:80-84"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:82", "label": "Quran 27:82 (we will bring out for them a creature from the earth)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says verses 83 and 84 of Surah al-Naml are clearly speaking about the Day of Judgment.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "did you deny my verses and what was it that you you know we're doing so 83 and 84 are clearly speaking about the day of judgment", "start": 385}}, "url": "/r/EoQ_mXafx5o/s/2/"}, {"id": "EoQ_mXafx5o/s/3", "short_id": "2018-05-29-S03", "recording": "EoQ_mXafx5o", "n": 3, "start": 425, "end": 581, "date": "20180529", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What would a literal beast at the end of times mean?", "question_plain": "Will a beast really appear at the end of times?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth relates the questions he puts to people who want Muslims to believe in a beast at the end of times: whether the end of times means after time has ended or while life still goes on, and what the beast is for. Mufti says they answer that once the beast appears faith is no longer accepted, and he asks whether there is one beast or many, whether someone in China could still become Muslim while the beast speaks to someone in Birmingham, and whether bad deeds would still count while good deeds do not. He notes they also say faith is no longer accepted once the sun rises from the west, and asks how that fits with the beast. He concludes that everything to do with the end of times is Islamic information to be taken with a pinch of salt, like stories that give some understanding, not literal events.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says a literal beast raises questions nobody can answer, and that end-times reports are information to take with a pinch of salt, not literal events.", "answer_start": 425, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ashrat-al-saah", "label": "ashrat al-sa'ah (signs of the Hour)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:82", "label": "Quran 27:82 (we will bring out for them a creature from the earth)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says everything to do with the end of times is Islamic information to be taken with a pinch of salt, not as literal events.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is just Islamic information is to be taken with a pinch of salt it's like stories they give you some understanding but they're not to be taken as like literal events", "start": 542}}, "url": "/r/EoQ_mXafx5o/s/3/"}, {"id": "EoQ_mXafx5o/s/4", "short_id": "2018-05-29-S04", "recording": "EoQ_mXafx5o", "n": 4, "start": 581, "end": 659, "date": "20180529", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Can the signs of the Hour occur with the Hour itself?", "question_plain": "Do the signs of the Hour have to come before the Hour?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth raises another confusion: whether something called a sign of the Hour must happen before the Hour or can happen with it. Mufti cites al-Tibi [?], quoted by Ibn Hajar [?], that the signs can occur before the Hour or together with it, as the world ends and a new realm is born. He says that since time ceases at that point, the end of time is also the birth of a timeless realm, and he accepts as a valid difference of opinion the view that the signs can happen with the Hour.", "summary_short": "Not necessarily: Mufti Abu Layth accepts the view that the signs can occur with the Hour itself, as the world ends and a timeless realm begins.", "answer_start": 581, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ashrat-al-saah", "label": "ashrat al-sa'ah (signs of the Hour)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tibi", "label": "al-Tibi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth accepts as a valid difference of opinion the view that the signs of the Hour can occur together with the Hour itself.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so in that sense I accept this esta laughs in saying the signs of the hour they because they can happen with the hour", "start": 619}}, "url": "/r/EoQ_mXafx5o/s/4/"}, {"id": "EoQ_mXafx5o/s/5", "short_id": "2018-05-29-S05", "recording": "EoQ_mXafx5o", "n": 5, "start": 659, "end": 930, "date": "20180529", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reading Ibn Ashur on 'when the word comes to pass'", "question_plain": "Does Ibn Ashur say the beast comes before the Day of Judgment?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he would place the Hour in the next world, though it is no big deal if others say this one, and begins reading Ibn Ashur's tafsir of verse 82. Mufti reads Ibn Ashur linking 'when the word comes to pass' to the deniers who mocked the promised Hour, saying the past tense is used for the certainty of its occurrence and that the time from the world's destruction until the resurrection is one timeless realm. He reads that the verse points to a supernatural sign of the great threat, the resurrection, and says this could refer to the beast or to the resurrection itself. On Ibn Ashur's remark that the past tense reflects nearness, he says critics take it to mean the beast comes before the Day of Judgment, which they may hold, but that in his understanding Ibn Ashur is not saying that. He reads that Ibn Ashur calls the many narrations about when the creature will emerge weak, found in al-Qurtubi's [?] collection, and not worth criticising.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads Ibn Ashur as treating the time from the world's end to the resurrection as one realm, not as placing the beast before the Day of Judgment.", "answer_start": 659, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-tahrir-wa-al-tanwir", "label": "al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir (Ibn Ashur's tafsir)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:82", "label": "Quran 27:82 (we will bring out for them a creature from the earth)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qurtubi", "label": "al-Qurtubi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in his understanding, Ibn Ashur's remark about nearness does not mean the creature emerges close to the Day of Judgment rather than on it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "he means that it has it won't happen on the day of judgment it'll happen close to they could take that but he's not I know you know he's not saying that in my understanding", "start": 853}}, "url": "/r/EoQ_mXafx5o/s/5/"}, {"id": "EoQ_mXafx5o/s/6", "short_id": "2018-05-29-S06", "recording": "EoQ_mXafx5o", "n": 6, "start": 930, "end": 1165, "date": "20180529", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Ashur: the creature speaks to the deniers at the gathering", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth continues reading Ibn Ashur, who says that bringing the creature out of the earth shows the deniers how Allah brings back the dead, and that there is no doubt the creature's speech is a sign that the gathering of the Day of Judgment has occurred. Mufti reads that Allah made a creature address them because they had rejected the best of creation, the Messenger, when he addressed them. He says some were confused by Ibn Ashur's phrase about an embarrassment for them at the end of time, and reads on to show it refers to the gathering, since those addressed are the Quraysh who denied the Messenger, not people of Ibn Ashur's twentieth century. He reads Ibn Ashur's answer to those who say a supernatural event must happen in this world, and his comment on the verse in Surah al-An'am about faith no longer benefiting.", "summary_short": "In Ibn Ashur's reading, as Mufti Abu Layth presents it, the creature speaks at the gathering on the Day of Judgment to shame the Quraysh who denied the Prophet.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-tahrir-wa-al-tanwir", "label": "al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir (Ibn Ashur's tafsir)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:82", "label": "Quran 27:82 (we will bring out for them a creature from the earth)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:158", "label": "Quran 6:158 (faith will not benefit a soul that did not believe before)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/EoQ_mXafx5o/s/6/"}, {"id": "EoQ_mXafx5o/s/7", "short_id": "2018-05-29-S07", "recording": "EoQ_mXafx5o", "n": 7, "start": 1165, "end": 1298, "date": "20180529", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Calling it a misquotation is poor scholarship", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people can judge for themselves that there was no cut and paste, and that while someone may remain unconvinced, saying he misquoted Ibn Ashur is poor scholarship that shows either weak Arabic or a mindset that cannot judge objectively. Mufti says those who insisted Ibn Ashur could not have said it did so because a hadith in Sahih Muslim says otherwise, which he calls reading with a fixed mindset. He says he sent the pages to a Moroccan shaykh whose late father compiled one of the most comprehensive collections on the signs of the Hour, and whom he had once visited, and that this shaykh and other scholars confirmed that Ibn Ashur says the creature will appear at the gathering on the Day of Judgment to show those who denied the resurrection.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the misquotation charge reflects weak Arabic or a fixed mindset, and that scholars he consulted confirmed his reading of Ibn Ashur.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/EoQ_mXafx5o/s/7/"}, {"id": "FNtMxwadPAc/s/1", "short_id": "2018-08-31-S01", "recording": "FNtMxwadPAc", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 798, "date": "20180831", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "An imam faking his tarawih recitation: a memory from Mufti Abu Layth's hifz days", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shares a memory from his late teens, when he was memorising the Quran in Islamabad and went home to his village in Azad Kashmir for a break late in Ramadan. He reflects that at the time he went through an ascetic, hermit-like phase, cutting his long hair and giving things up because people told him it was Islam, and says this is why he understands people going through that stage. The local imam, learning Mufti had memorised about fifteen juz', claimed the tarawih had already reached the seventeenth, but at night Mufti realised the imam was reciting nonsense strung together with popular verses from Surat al-Nisa, Ya Sin and al-Baqarah. When Mufti let him know, the imam begged not to be exposed, claiming an illness that made him forget on the prayer mat; Mufti told him that misleading people was wrong and that if he could not recite he should let someone else lead or read short surahs. He adds that the imam then pre-emptively told Mufti's grandfather that his grandson had become a Wahhabi, which he calls village politics, before turning to viewers' questions.", "summary_short": "A personal story: as a teenager memorising the Quran, Mufti Abu Layth caught a village imam faking his tarawih recitation and told him privately that misleading people with the Quran was wrong.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/personal-stories", "quran/memorisation-and-recitation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hifz", "label": "hifz"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tarawih", "label": "tarawih"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:juz", "label": "juz'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/FNtMxwadPAc/s/1/"}, {"id": "F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/1", "short_id": "2023-02-13-S01", "recording": "F_4jnUA3ARQ", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 346, "date": "20230213", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The birth of orthodoxy: a nameless main body and the hadith project", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After a note about one-to-one sessions on Patreon, Mufti Abu Layth says a Patreon meetup led him to revisit orthodoxy, which he defines not simply as correct belief but as the belief that has been deemed correct, so that institutions and power come into play. He says that for almost two hundred years the main body of Muslims had no name, the term Ahl al-Sunnah not yet existing, while the Shia, the Khawarij and other sects had emerged. One way to identify with the main body was involvement in the hadith project, which represented the Prophet even though hadith is not synonymous with Sunnah in the Maliki and Hanafi schools. He says this is why Abu Hanifa, one of the greatest scholars, who used reason and compassion, was targeted and called deviant by some, while Imam Malik, with similar or bolder views but a master of the hadith sciences, was untouchable.", "summary_short": "Orthodoxy means belief deemed correct by those with power. For two centuries the main body of Muslims had no name and was marked out by involvement in hadith.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-sunnah", "label": "Ahl al-Sunnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "Sunnah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the name Ahl al-Sunnah did not exist until over two hundred years after the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this name Allah Sunnah didn't exist for until over you know decades over 200 years after the prophet", "start": 117}}, "url": "/r/F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/1/"}, {"id": "F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/2", "short_id": "2023-02-13-S02", "recording": "F_4jnUA3ARQ", "n": 2, "start": 346, "end": 649, "date": "20230213", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Apophatic definition: the early main body defined by what it was not", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the early main body also defined itself apophatically, by what it was not: the centre was defined by the periphery, as in not holding the Shia doctrine of the imamate and not declaring Muslims non-Muslim for a major sin. He notes that Imam Malik's Mudawwana answers tens of thousands of questions and mentions the Shia and the Mu'tazila but never gives a checklist of what to believe. He says this reflected the Sunnah of the Prophet, which did not inquire into people's beliefs beyond belief in Allah, revelation, the messengers, the afterlife and Allah's power, so faith remained in its natural state in the time of the salaf.", "summary_short": "Early Muslims had no creed checklist: you belonged to the main body as long as you did not hold the positions of the known sects.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in the time of the salaf the main body of Muslims was identified by contrast with outgroups, with no checklist of what to believe.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "there is no checklist to believe there is only the in-group is identified in contrast to the elk group", "start": 494}}, "url": "/r/F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/2/"}, {"id": "F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/3", "short_id": "2023-02-13-S03", "recording": "F_4jnUA3ARQ", "n": 3, "start": 649, "end": 1150, "date": "20230213", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The created Quran controversy and the birth of a creedal checklist", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his research orthodoxy was born with the question of the creation of the Quran, a new issue without precedent, and that reports of earlier imams such as Imam Malik discussing it are fabricated, like claiming Newton discussed quantum physics. Pressed on whether an uncreated Quran is God, scholars called it an attribute of God, which he says was the birth of the sifat discourse and of theology, turning the negative definition into an affirmative checklist. He says the first person he has found using the term Ahl al-Sunnah [?] came well into the third century and was originally from the Mu'tazila, and that before the century ended al-Tahawi's [?] creed had over a hundred points, failing any one of which put you out. He contrasts this with Imam Malik's tens of thousands of legal questions on everyday matters with no creed, says there is wisdom with the salaf, and describes the shift from an amorphous to a crystalline structure.", "summary_short": "In his research, orthodoxy began with the created-Quran controversy, which gave rise to the language of divine attributes and to growing creedal checklists.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:mihna", "label": "the dispute over the created Quran (mihna)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-allah", "label": "kalam Allah (the speech of God)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sifat", "label": "sifat (the divine attributes)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tahawi", "label": "al-Tahawi [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:aqidah-tahawiyya", "label": "al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyya [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his research he feels orthodoxy originates with the question of the creation of the Quran.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "in my research I feel this originates the birth of this is with the Hulk the creation of the Quran Masala", "start": 649}}, "url": "/r/F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/3/"}, {"id": "F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/4", "short_id": "2023-02-13-S04", "recording": "F_4jnUA3ARQ", "n": 4, "start": 1150, "end": 1577, "date": "20230213", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Orthodoxy and power: adding to the checklist, ijma and cancel culture", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that once a checklist exists, people in a position of power can keep adding items to exclude others, perhaps genuinely, but always bound up with power structures. He gives ijma as an example: a tool scholars arrived at by induction rather than something the Prophet taught, questioned by Ibn Hazm and others, which then becomes a checklist item so that questioning it puts one outside the main body. He compares this to cancel culture, recounting a clip of a US senator accused of transphobia for saying men cannot get pregnant and citing Dave Chappelle's remark that the trans community itself is usually understanding. He says this is an academic rather than a confessional or devotional discussion, and that everybody acts from power, which does not make them disingenuous.", "summary_short": "Once creed became a checklist, those in power could keep adding to it, as with ijma; everyone acts from power, even when sincere.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dave-chappelle", "label": "Dave Chappelle"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says everybody acts from power and that doing so does not mean one is disingenuous.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "it's naive to assume that only people that are disingenuous Act from Power that that's incredibly that that that's totally not true everybody acts from Power and and doesn't mean you're disingenuous", "start": 1538}}, "url": "/r/F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/4/"}, {"id": "F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/5", "short_id": "2023-02-13-S05", "recording": "F_4jnUA3ARQ", "n": 5, "start": 1577, "end": 1809, "date": "20230213", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Language embeds power: 'inconvenience' versus 'hardship' in tayammum", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives the example of dispensations such as tayammum in place of wudu for someone who is ill. He says that if the Hanafis, whom he describes as strict here, write that wudu cannot be replaced by tayammum for a simple inconvenience such as a cold, while the Malikis, more relaxed, write that it can be for a hardship such as a cold, the choice of word has already decided the outcome. He says that the moment we deploy words we are agents of power and embed power structures, perhaps subconsciously, even when sincere.", "summary_short": "The words scholars choose, such as 'inconvenience' or 'hardship', already decide the ruling, embedding power even when used sincerely.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/purification"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:rukhsah", "label": "rukhsah (dispensation)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tayammum", "label": "tayammum"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the moment we deploy words we embed power structures, maybe subconsciously.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the moment we deploy words we are agents of power we select words maybe subconsciously but we embed power structures by the use of words", "start": 1730}}, "url": "/r/F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/5/"}, {"id": "F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/6", "short_id": "2023-02-13-S06", "recording": "F_4jnUA3ARQ", "n": 6, "start": 1809, "end": 2048, "date": "20230213", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why orthodoxy took hold, and who wrote the checklist", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the appeal of a defined orthodoxy was clarity: rather than not knowing exactly what the Tabi'un believed, people could tell their children exactly what to believe. The problem, he says, is that the list was taught not by Allah and his Messenger but by righteous men writing from their own perspective, Ash'ari or Hanbali, or as clergy not wanting to be questioned, so that power became embedded and those who did not meet the list faced inquisition. He says that in his research much of this originates around the inquisition over the creation of the Quran, though he thinks earlier scholars must have thought of writing a creed, and that why they did not is a question worth a PhD, the reason perhaps ironically being a lack of power.", "summary_short": "Orthodoxy offered clarity, but its checklist was written by men from their own school and position, not by Allah and his Messenger.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:tabiun", "label": "Tabi'un"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:mihna", "label": "the inquisition over the created Quran (mihna)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the creedal list was taught not by Allah and his Messenger but by men, who wrote from their own perspective.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "hasn't been taught to you by Allah and his messenger it's been taught by men righteous men you know inshallah but the thing is they're still men", "start": 1887}}, "url": "/r/F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/6/"}, {"id": "Fz6mtRfzUDI/s/1", "short_id": "2019-11-05-S01", "recording": "Fz6mtRfzUDI", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 393, "date": "20191105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The doctrinal difference between the Ash'ari and Athari schools: body parts or not", "question_plain": "What is the difference between the Ash'ari and Athari (Hanbali) creeds?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes a question from a questioner who, he jokes, is kept awake by the doctrinal differences between the two theological schools. He says the primary difference is that 'Athari' is today a euphemism for the Hanbali school of creed, which is anthropomorphic: in his dumbed-down summary, one school holds that God has body parts and the other that He does not. He characterises the Hanbali Athari position dismissively, comparing it to the bottom set in a school, and ranks the others: the Ash'aris are not, in his view, completely right but make ninety to ninety-five percent sense; a middle group whose name is garbled in the transcript (heard as 'the Saudis') [?] sits between; and the philosophers, who were not constrained by what he calls fake parameters, were in a class of their own above all the theologians. He says that if he had to join a group he would broadly align himself with the Ash'aris while disagreeing with them on certain things. He describes the Athari view as attributing deformed body parts to God, such as two right hands, two fingers and one leg, and says Ibn Taymiyya belonged to this school without inventing it, that the Saudi Salafis are all Atharis, and that their creed could not stand ridicule in the twenty-first century if taught openly, which he thinks is why they are shying away from it. He closes by saying a contemporary shaykh, whose name is garbled in the transcript (possibly Yasir Qadhi) [?], comes from this group of thinking, and that people who stem from it will always struggle with the intellectual.", "summary_short": "The core difference is that the Athari (Hanbali) creed attributes body parts to God and the Ash'ari creed does not. Mufti Abu Layth would broadly align himself with the Ash'aris, with reservations, and ranks the philosophers above all the theologians.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/god-and-attributes", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:athari", "label": "Athari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali creed"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tajsim", "label": "tajsim (anthropomorphism)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth dismisses the Athari (Hanbali) creed, which he says attributes body parts to God, says he would broadly align himself with the Ash'ari school while disagreeing with it on certain points, and ranks the philosophers above all the theologians.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "broadly speaking I would align myself with a shoddy even though I would disagree on certain things that they say", "start": 227}}, "url": "/r/Fz6mtRfzUDI/s/1/"}, {"id": "G0iGieTCklk/s/1", "short_id": "2018-02-13-S01", "recording": "G0iGieTCklk", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 414, "date": "20180213", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Missed prayers: make them up and stop obsessing over punishments", "question_plain": "What happens if I miss a prayer?", "summary": "Asked what the punishment for missing a prayer is, Mufti Abu Layth answers that one makes it up, and says people need to stop obsessing over punishments: one can mine the Quran and Sunnah for that angle, but he does not believe it is the heart of Islam's message, which is rather to ask why one would not pray, since the obligatory prayers take little time and are one's connection with the Creator, so a person should pray them even late, even all together before sleeping. He supports this with the report of a companion, whom he believes was Safwan [?], whose wife complained to the Prophet about him and added that he did not wake for Fajr; the companion answered that his people did not wake until after sunrise, a habit Mufti explains as the agricultural culture of warm climates, and the Prophet simply told him to pray when he woke up. He says scholars today are too scared to give such a fatwa and bend over backwards to explain the report by a medical condition or a battle injury, whereas the man said it was his people's way and the Messenger himself gave the ruling. He concludes that for ordinary people who do not pray much, praying the obligatory prayers even combined is better than not praying, that he advises against the punishment-and-hellfire approach although such rulings exist, and that the Prophet's way was encouragement and optimism; punishment makes one fear Allah, but Allah constantly reminds us of his mercy in the bismillah.", "summary_short": "A missed prayer is made up; Mufti Abu Layth says to stop obsessing over punishments and just pray the obligatory prayers, even late or together. He cites the Prophet telling a companion whose people slept past sunrise simply to pray when he woke up.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer/missed-prayers", "wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity", "fiqh/prayer"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fajr", "label": "Fajr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fard", "label": "fard (the obligatory prayers)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f9eac639", "label": "report: when you wake up pray said to a companion whose wife complained he did not pray fajr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:safwan-ibn-al-muattal", "label": "Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bismillah", "label": "bismillah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the heart of Islam's message on prayer is encouragement rather than punishment: a missed prayer is made up, and praying the obligatory prayers even late or combined is better than not praying, as the Prophet told the companion whose people slept past sunrise to pray when he woke.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't believe that that is the true the kind of message that the heart of the message of Islam the message of Islam is look why don't you want to pray", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/G0iGieTCklk/s/1/"}, {"id": "GAm6NYtozDg/s/1", "short_id": "2020-04-28b-S01", "recording": "GAm6NYtozDg", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 359, "date": "20200428", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The backlash to Maulana Tariq Jamil's dua on media, modesty and the pandemic, and the clip", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives the backdrop to the backlash against Maulana Tariq Jamil: at what he believes was a charity event to raise money, Tariq Jamil was asked to make dua at the end, and in an emotional dua he criticised the media for spreading falsehood and lies and spoke about modesty, which led many, especially women, to call him misogynistic. He reads reactions posted online: one, from a commentator whose name the transcript garbles, calls it absurd to suspect that the Covid pandemic results from women wearing short sleeves or from schools and universities misleading the youth, and calls it a misogynist mindset; another says the comments sum up the thinking of most clergy in Pakistan and of the Prime Minister himself; others defend him, saying he never blamed women for the pandemic and people have misunderstood. He then plays several minutes of the speech in Urdu, which the transcript does not render, so that viewers can make up their own minds.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out the controversy over Maulana Tariq Jamil's dua, in which he criticised media lies and spoke of modesty, reads critics who called it misogynistic, and plays the clip.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/current-events/pakistan", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tariq-jamil", "label": "Maulana Tariq Jamil"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the Covid-19 pandemic"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:imran-khan", "label": "Imran Khan (the Prime Minister)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haya", "label": "haya (modesty)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/GAm6NYtozDg/s/1/"}, {"id": "GAm6NYtozDg/s/2", "short_id": "2020-04-28b-S02", "recording": "GAm6NYtozDg", "n": 2, "start": 359, "end": 592, "date": "20200428", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth was not blaming women: morals in a calamity, and a voice for unity", "question_plain": "Did Maulana Tariq Jamil blame women for the coronavirus?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, though he does not necessarily share Maulana Tariq Jamil's outlook, in all honesty he did not feel he was blaming women for the coronavirus; rather he was saying that in times of calamity people should return to God and inspect their own morals, their lies and dishonesty, halal earnings and the taking of bribes. He says the remarks on women, about who makes the daughters of the country dance and wear such clothes, took two or three minutes of a sixteen- or seventeen-minute talk, that he spoke of modesty in general, and that he said these things cannot be imposed but must come from the heart. He says he would personally support Tariq Jamil, whom he feels is one of the only scholars to have worked for unity among the sects, and recounts the speech's story of advising a media channel owner to stop telling lies. Even where he disagrees with him, for example if Tariq Jamil holds music to be haram, which Mufti does not, he feels such a caring voice calling people to reflect is important and necessary in society, and he did not feel he was being misogynistic.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth did not feel Tariq Jamil was blaming women for the pandemic; he heard a call to self-examination in a calamity. Despite disagreements, he supports him as a caring voice for unity and reflection.", "answer_start": 359, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/women-and-gender", "society/current-events/pakistan"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tariq-jamil", "label": "Maulana Tariq Jamil"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the Covid-19 pandemic"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rizq", "label": "rizq halal (lawful earnings)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haya", "label": "haya (modesty)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/GAm6NYtozDg/s/2/"}, {"id": "GAm6NYtozDg/s/3", "short_id": "2020-04-28b-S03", "recording": "GAm6NYtozDg", "n": 3, "start": 592, "end": 732, "date": "20200428", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Tariq Jamil's apology, and why a message on modesty still has a place", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to preach modesty to society?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Maulana Tariq Jamil has since apologised on television, saying he made a mistake and should not have said it, which Mufti calls big and telling of so well-known a figure, although he himself did not think it was that bad or that he named women as the cause. He says there is nothing wrong in having a message about modesty. He compares it to profanity: he does not personally believe swearing in general is haram, yet he would not do it in front of his children or want them to, since each setting has its etiquette and propriety and it is good for society to have such guidelines even when one disagrees on particulars. He says, allowing that people may disagree with him, that such voices remain important, that Tariq Jamil is not a Taliban-like voice, and that he himself said nobody should impose these things, giving the example of someone being forced to pray without wudu.", "summary_short": "There is nothing wrong with a message about modesty: like avoiding profanity in front of children, social propriety has a place even when one disagrees on details. Tariq Jamil's apology, he says, was big of him.", "answer_start": 592, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tariq-jamil", "label": "Maulana Tariq Jamil"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haya", "label": "haya (modesty)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:taliban", "label": "Taliban"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is nothing wrong in having a message about modesty.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "wear as modesty gone and so on but there's nothing wrong in having a message about modesty", "start": 630}}, "url": "/r/GAm6NYtozDg/s/3/"}, {"id": "Grh2ZU4awQI/s/1", "short_id": "2019-10-18b-S01", "recording": "Grh2ZU4awQI", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 137, "date": "20191018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did the moon really split? The hadith and Quran 54:1", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet really split the moon in half?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a friendly message asking about the hadith of the Prophet splitting the moon, remarking how pleasant it is to receive a kind message among the abusive ones. Mufti says he has covered the topic in depth before, that the moon was not split, and that the verse about the moon splitting (54:1) has nothing to do with that alleged event but concerns the end of the world. He says the companions who reported seeing the moon split were describing their perception of events. He mentions a narration from Ibn Abbas [?] that there was a lunar eclipse, which he says is most likely what happened, and points to Ibn Ashur's [?] detailed explanation in his tafsir.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the moon was not split; the companions described what they perceived, most likely a lunar eclipse, and Quran 54:1 is about the end of the world.", "answer_start": 40, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:54:1", "label": "Quran 54:1 (the Hour has drawn near and the moon has split)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:splitting-of-the-moon", "label": "the splitting of the moon"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:16737f93", "label": "report: the moon was split in two in the time of the prophet"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the moon was not split and that the verse of the Quran on the moon splitting has nothing to do with that alleged event.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I have explained that there is no the moon was not split okay this and then the verse of the Quran earth and has nothing to do with that alleged phenomenon", "start": 39}}, "url": "/r/Grh2ZU4awQI/s/1/"}, {"id": "H4IXL17jyEU/s/1", "short_id": "2020-03-30-S01", "recording": "H4IXL17jyEU", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 660, "date": "20200330", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Coronavirus amulets, and reciting Sahih al-Bukhari against calamity", "question_plain": "Should we recite Sahih al-Bukhari to protect ourselves from the coronavirus?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth mocks responses to the coronavirus by some religious figures: a man selling a coronavirus amulet for 244 pounds and 19 pence, where he blames the people who buy it, and a played clip in which a speaker says no virus can touch whoever loves the Prophet. He then mentions a preacher from the United States as promoting a solution and plays a clip of a speaker saying that, as in old times, people should sit and recite Sahih al-Bukhari in times of calamity. He says he could understand a call to recite the Quran, which is spiritual though not a medical cure, and recounts that Muslims once recited Sahih al-Bukhari against the advancing Mongol armies, acting out the scene, and says those cities were massacred. He concludes that reciting Sahih al-Bukhari is not the way to tackle the coronavirus, that one can simply make du'a to God, and that Sahih al-Bukhari is not the Quran.", "summary_short": "No: reciting Sahih al-Bukhari is not the way to tackle the coronavirus, and the Quran itself is not a medical cure; people can simply make du'a.", "answer_start": 223, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/current-events/covid-19", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the coronavirus pandemic (2020)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawiz", "label": "ta'wiz (amulet)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:mongol-invasions", "label": "the Mongol invasions"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "du'a"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri (named in the chain he reads out)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/H4IXL17jyEU/s/1/"}, {"id": "H8SXk-2-W-4/s/1", "short_id": "2018-05-04-S01", "recording": "H8SXk-2-W-4", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 156, "date": "20180504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Is shaking hands with the opposite sex haram? The conventional view and the iron-rod hadith", "question_plain": "Is it haram for men and women to shake hands?", "summary": "Returning to the ruling on shaking hands, prompted by the case of a woman whose refusal to shake hands set off a controversy, Mufti Abu Layth distinguishes the conventional understanding, which he declines to call traditional since he does not believe it necessarily comes from the Prophet, from an analytical view. The conventional, popular view of most scholars and Muslims is that shaking hands between the genders is haram; the analytical view asks where Islam says so and finds that nothing in the Quran or Sunnah explicitly and clearly proves it. He then takes the hadith people cite, that one would rather have an iron rod placed in one's head than touch (massa) a woman, with its varying narrations. He says these narrations are not authentic the way people would like them to be, and that even if accepted, many ulama understood 'touch' as a euphemism for sex.", "summary_short": "Nothing in the Quran or Sunnah explicitly says shaking hands with the opposite sex is haram; that is a popular convention, not an established ruling. The iron-rod hadith is not authentic as claimed, and many scholars read its 'touch' as a euphemism for sex.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "hadith/authentication"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:da792624", "label": "report: it is better for an iron rod to be driven into your head than to touch a woman not permitted to you"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:france-handshake-citizenship-case-2018", "label": "the case of a woman refused French citizenship over her refusal to shake hands (2018)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that nothing in the Quran or Sunnah explicitly and clearly proves that shaking hands with the opposite gender is haram, and that the report preferring an iron rod in the head to touching a woman is not authentic as people would like and was understood by many ulama as a euphemism for sex.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "first of all these narrations are not authentic the way people would like them to be they're not", "start": 117}}, "url": "/r/H8SXk-2-W-4/s/1/"}, {"id": "H8SXk-2-W-4/s/2", "short_id": "2018-05-04-S02", "recording": "H8SXk-2-W-4", "n": 2, "start": 156, "end": 393, "date": "20180504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Touching women' in the schools, 'I do not shake hands with women', and the scholars who permit it", "question_plain": "Which scholars say men and women may shake hands, and what about 'I do not shake hands with women'?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's phrase about touching women (lamastum al-nisa) in the verse on wudu was read by the Hanafis as meaning sex, by the Shafi'is as physical touch and by the Malikis as touch with desire. He then turns to the hadith that the Prophet said 'I do not shake hands with women', and sets against it several narrations from Umm Atiyya, transmitted in Ibn Hibban, al-Bazzar and other books and brought by al-Tabari, about the women's pledge: in some the Prophet stretched out his hand and the women stretched theirs, in others he sent Umar as deputy, and in others a cloth barrier was placed between them, so that some understood the Prophet himself to have shaken hands and others not. He lists contemporary scholars who have given the fatwa that shaking hands, not as a sexual act, is permitted: the Shaykh of al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib [?], a Maliki; Shaykh Bin Bayyah, a Maliki and a teacher of Hamza Yusuf; the European fatwa council; and al-Qaradawi [?]. He recounts the Shaykh of al-Azhar shaking hands while presenting graduation awards until a female student declined, and later saying that was fine but that the matter was cultural, and the story told by Mahmud Ashur [?], a former deputy of al-Azhar, who when a Muslim woman in America refused his hand as haram asked why, if she took such reports literally, she lived in a land which other hadith would equally forbid.", "summary_short": "The hadith 'I do not shake hands with women' is set against Umm Atiyya's narrations of the women's pledge, which some read as the Prophet shaking hands. Contemporary scholars including the Shaykh of al-Azhar, Bin Bayyah and the European fatwa council have ruled that shaking hands is permitted.", "answer_start": 156, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:43", "label": "Quran 4:43 (aw lamastum al-nisa; the phrase also in 5:6)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:20a83804", "label": "report: i do not shake hands with women"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:773e83d8", "label": "report: umm atiyya said the prophet stretched out his hand and we stretched out our hands at the pledge"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umm-atiyya", "label": "Umm Atiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hibban", "label": "Ibn Hibban"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-al-bazzar", "label": "Musnad al-Bazzar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabari", "label": "al-Tabari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-al-tayyib", "label": "Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:european-council-for-fatwa-and-research", "label": "the European fatwa council [?] (as he names it, the Islamic fatwa council of Europe)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yusuf-al-qaradawi", "label": "Yusuf al-Qaradawi [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mahmud-ashur", "label": "Mahmud Ashur [?] (former deputy of al-Azhar)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-azhar", "label": "al-Azhar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/H8SXk-2-W-4/s/2/"}, {"id": "H8SXk-2-W-4/s/3", "short_id": "2018-05-04-S03", "recording": "H8SXk-2-W-4", "n": 3, "start": 393, "end": 550, "date": "20180504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Further evidences: 'do not frighten people away', returning a greeting, Abu Musa's hair and Umm Haram", "question_plain": "What evidence do scholars use to allow men and women to shake hands?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth lists further evidences used by the scholars who permit shaking hands: the hadith 'give glad tidings and do not frighten people away', the role of custom, and the verse that when greeted one should return a better greeting or at least return it. He reports that al-Qaradawi [?] also reasons from the Bukhari report that Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, during Hajj, had a woman of his tribe comb through his hair, explaining that men then wore their hair long and in braids, as did the Prophet and many companions, so going through the hair for lice (tafliya) was a common practice. He then points to the hadith in the two Sahihs that Umm Haram bint Milhan, an aunt of Anas, did the same for the Prophet: he would rest at her house when travelling, nap there, eat food she prepared, and in one narration fell asleep with his head in her lap. He says Qadi Iyad brings many of these narrations in al-Shifa, and that the scholars really struggled with this report.", "summary_short": "Scholars who permit it cite 'do not frighten people away', the verse on returning greetings, Abu Musa having a woman comb his hair on Hajj, and the Sahih report that Umm Haram combed the Prophet's hair and let him nap at her house. The Umm Haram report is one scholars struggled with.", "answer_start": 393, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d8ee1bfe", "label": "report: give glad tidings and do not frighten people away"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:86", "label": "Quran 4:86 (when you are greeted, return a better greeting or return it)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yusuf-al-qaradawi", "label": "Yusuf al-Qaradawi [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:566be7a1", "label": "report: abu musa al-ashari had a woman of his tribe comb through his hair while on hajj"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-musa-al-ashari", "label": "Abu Musa al-Ash'ari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tafliya", "label": "tafliya (going through the hair for lice)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:74b1d15f", "label": "report: umm haram bint milhan would comb the prophets hair and prepare his food and he would nap at her house"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umm-haram-bint-milhan", "label": "Umm Haram bint Milhan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-shifa", "label": "al-Shifa (Qadi Iyad)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/H8SXk-2-W-4/s/3/"}, {"id": "H8SXk-2-W-4/s/4", "short_id": "2018-05-04-S04", "recording": "H8SXk-2-W-4", "n": 4, "start": 550, "end": 746, "date": "20180504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How scholars answered the Umm Haram report, and Mufti Abu Layth's view: follow your convention and choose your battles", "question_plain": "Should I refuse to shake hands with the opposite sex where it is the custom?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reports how scholars tried to answer the Umm Haram report: Ibn Abd al-Barr suggested she was a foster sister of the Prophet, which later scholars such as al-Hafiz al-Dimyati [?] tore apart by going through the lineages, showing a relation too distant to make her a mahram; Qadi Iyad suggested it was specific to the Prophet (khususiyya), which others problematised, and Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari writes that the report shows the permissibility of a guest napping at people's homes and of a woman who is not his mahram serving him, inclining to the view that she was unrelated. Some scholars therefore said there was nothing wrong in it since it was not sexual, while most tried to make it specific to the Prophet; these evidences are used by the shaykhs of al-Azhar, al-Qaradawi [?], Ahmad al-Tayyib [?], the European fatwa council and Bin Bayyah. Mufti's own understanding is that one goes with one's convention: where people do not shake hands one does not, and he would go with the general ulama, but he highlights that this fatwa exists and that where it is the convention one may act on it. He asks whether it was wise for the woman to make a battle of this to the point of losing her citizenship, not that the French were right, when so many ulama say there is no clear verse or hadith making it haram and there is ikhtilaf; Muslims, he says, need to choose their battles wisely.", "summary_short": "Follow the convention you are in: where people do not shake hands, do not; where they do, you may act on the fatwa of the scholars who permit it, since no clear verse or hadith forbids it. Losing citizenship over a handshake was not a battle worth choosing.", "answer_start": 550, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:74b1d15f", "label": "report: umm haram bint milhan would comb the prophets hair and prepare his food and he would nap at her house"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umm-haram-bint-milhan", "label": "Umm Haram bint Milhan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dimyati", "label": "al-Hafiz al-Dimyati [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khususiyya", "label": "khususiyya (a ruling specific to the Prophet)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:fath-al-bari", "label": "Fath al-Bari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahram", "label": "mahram"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-azhar", "label": "al-Azhar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yusuf-al-qaradawi", "label": "Yusuf al-Qaradawi [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-al-tayyib", "label": "Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:european-council-for-fatwa-and-research", "label": "the European fatwa council [?] (as he names it, the Islamic fatwa council of Europe)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ikhtilaf", "label": "ikhtilaf (difference of opinion)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:france-handshake-citizenship-case-2018", "label": "the case of a woman refused French citizenship over her refusal to shake hands (2018)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "His own understanding is that one follows the convention of one's society: where people do not shake hands one does not, following the general ulama, but where it is the convention one may act on the fatwa of the scholars who permit it, since, as many ulama say, no clear verse or hadith makes it haram, and Muslims should choose their battles wisely.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "my own understanding is look you go with your conventions okay so if you're in a convention where people don't do this you you don't do this", "start": 662}}, "url": "/r/H8SXk-2-W-4/s/4/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S01", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 1, "start": 7, "end": 236, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Where does he get his beliefs from, against the majority of scholars?", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth hold views that most scholars disagree with?", "summary": "A caller says he has listened to Mufti Abu Layth's talks on the return of Jesus and to his critics, and asks on what source he bases interpretations that the majority of scholars, Malikis included, disagree with. Mufti says someone recently asked him something similar about Jesus having a biological father, and whether he was just trying to be different. He says he takes his beliefs from the Quran in the light of reason, since God calls people to faith on the basis of reason and would not then ask them to believe what goes against it. He adds that he asks whether a belief makes sense holistically and coherently, giving the example of a man living alone in the cosmos for millennia, which reason would not generally accept.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth takes his beliefs from the Quran in the light of reason, since God calls people to faith through reason, and tests whether a belief is coherent as a whole.", "answer_start": 45, "questioner": "caller", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he takes his beliefs from the Quran in the light of reason, since God calls people to faith based on reason.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "i'm getting my beliefs from the quran but in light of the voice of reason so i do i believe that look allah calls us to faith based on reason", "start": 123}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/1/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/2", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S02", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 2, "start": 236, "end": 428, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Was Iblis condemned for using reason? Angels and the imagination", "question_plain": "Was Iblis condemned for using his reason?", "summary": "The caller objects that if reason is used everything can be questioned, even Jibril's encounter with the Prophet, and that Iblis is said to have been the first to use reason when he refused to prostrate to Adam. Mufti Abu Layth says Iblis was never problematised for reason; he was condemned for arrogance and stubbornness, and justifying oneself is a normal thing, while reason is never bad. He says he has no problem with people questioning such stories, and that on angels the Quran lays out some dots while human imagination fills in the rest, wings and floating figures of light, which is fine until that figment is concretised and every other view called wrong.", "summary_short": "No: Iblis was condemned for arrogance and stubbornness, not reason, and much of what people picture about angels is imagination filling in the Quran's outline.", "answer_start": 274, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/unseen-beings"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Iblis (Shaytan)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:malaika", "label": "mala'ika (angels)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Iblis was never condemned for using reason; the problem was his arrogance and stubbornness.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "never problematized for reason this is a misrepresentation it was arrogance and it was stubbornness but it was it was not reason was not the problem", "start": 274}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/2/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/3", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S03", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 3, "start": 428, "end": 700, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Coherence: why belief in Jesus's return collapses, and the caller's objection", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth not believe Jesus will return?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that beyond reason he looks at coherence: unseen matters such as the afterlife are not absurd, just unprovable, and need little explanation, but when a belief concerns this world, such as a prophet coming back, one has the right to ask its purpose. He says what really collapsed the belief in Jesus's return for him was its incoherence, the answers raising hundreds of other questions. The caller asks whether by that reasoning one should question the virgin birth, or Yunus surviving inside a whale, saying God is not limited by nature, our minds are limited, and some things are simply part of faith.", "summary_short": "What collapsed the belief for him was its incoherence: a this-worldly event so spectacular must have a purpose, and the answers given raise hundreds more questions.", "answer_start": 428, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:virgin-birth", "label": "the virgin birth"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yunus", "label": "Yunus (Jonah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:akhirah", "label": "akhirah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says what really collapsed for him the belief that Jesus will come back was its incoherence.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "but what really collapsed that belief that let's say jesus will come back is the fact the incoherence of the matter", "start": 546}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/3/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/4", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S04", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 4, "start": 700, "end": 818, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Not asking viewers to think like him: for him faith has stood the test", "question_plain": "Does questioning religion with reason destroy faith?", "summary": "Before answering, Mufti Abu Layth says he is not telling viewers they must think like him, question things or reject these beliefs. He says some people feel their faith would come crashing down if they questioned it, but for others faith does stand the test of reason. He says, with an honest heart, that he has put his reason to every conceivable matter of the deen and it stood the test; his interpretations may differ, and he does not believe in what he calls the hocus-pocus, but nothing collapsed, neither the stories of the Quran, the afterlife, God, the messengers nor revelation.", "summary_short": "Not for him: he says he has put every matter of the deen to his reason and his faith stood the test, though he does not ask others to do the same.", "answer_start": 700, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/4/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/5", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S05", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 5, "start": 818, "end": 1189, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mary married to Joseph, and 'how can He have a child without a consort?'", "question_plain": "Was Jesus born without a father according to the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is widely held, even by Christians, that Mary was betrothed to Joseph, and that the question is whether the birth was supernatural. He says the attitude that God can do anything goes against the Quran, which says God has set things that do not change and points to the signs in nature, which only works if nature is constant. He cites the verse that God cannot have a child when He has no female companion, saying it affirms that human children come from two and that a virgin birth would make it an argument against God's own argument. He says he would be in line with the scholars who hold Jesus was of natural birth. The caller suggests the verse shows only that God, unlike humans, needs no partner, and Mufti replies that the verse refutes the Christian claim only if all human babies are born of two.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth leans to the scholars who hold Jesus had a natural birth, arguing that the verse refuting God having a child only works if every human is born of two parents.", "answer_start": 818, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:joseph-husband-of-mary", "label": "Joseph, husband of Mary"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:101", "label": "Quran 6:101 (how can He have a child when He has no companion; he calls it Medinan)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:virgin-birth", "label": "the virgin birth"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he would be in line with the scholars who say Jesus was of natural birth.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "to make it coherent to me that makes sense that hmm you know i i'd be in line with those scholars that say well no you know that jesus was of natural birth", "start": 1004}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/5/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/6", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S06", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 6, "start": 1189, "end": 1299, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why the virgin birth became the majority belief", "question_plain": "Why do most Muslims believe in the virgin birth?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many ulama held his view, though the majority believe in a virgin birth. He attributes that belief to the mass proliferation of the Christian narrative, since Christian powers surrounded Arabia, the Byzantines to the north and the South Arabian and Aksumite kingdoms to the south, with only the Hijaz in the middle. He raises the question of why the Quran did not clearly condemn the belief, and the caller answers that some things are left to faith, asking how Adam was created if not from nothing.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the belief spread through the dominance of the Christian narrative across the empires surrounding Arabia.", "answer_start": 1189, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "history/pre-islamic-arabia"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:virgin-birth", "label": "the virgin birth"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:byzantine-empire", "label": "the Byzantine Empire"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:kingdom-of-aksum", "label": "the Aksumite kingdom"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says belief in the virgin birth spread among Muslims through the mass proliferation of the Christian narrative around Arabia.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "now what simply led to it is the mass proliferation of the christian myth that this had happened because the christians had this myth that was everywhere", "start": 1189}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/6/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/7", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S07", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 7, "start": 1299, "end": 1876, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Adam and evolution: reading Surat al-Mu'minun 23:12-14", "question_plain": "Does evolution contradict the Quran's account of Adam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says things on earth do not come into existence from nothing, and that evolution does not clash with Islam at all. He reads Surat al-Mu'minun 23:12-14: the insan created from an extract of clay, which some take as DNA, then placed as a drop in a firm lodging, the womb, then the stages of the embryo. He says the mufassirun agree the insan of the first verse is Adam but split over the pronoun, some saying the topic changes to humans generally, departing from the literal reading, others proposing an artificial womb, and asks why one would be needed when Homo sapiens existed. He says Adam would be the father of the human cognitive revolution, the first with consciousness, and cites the verse that every living thing was made from water as pointing to a common source of life. The caller objects that this would limit God to the rules of His creation.", "summary_short": "No: he says evolution does not clash with Islam, reading 23:12-14 as Adam passing through a womb and Adam as the first human with full consciousness.", "answer_start": 1299, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/quran-and-science/evolution", "history/human-origins", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:23:12-14", "label": "Quran 23:12-14 (insan from an extract of clay, then a drop in a firm lodging, then the stages of the embryo)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:30", "label": "Quran 21:30 (every living thing from water)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:insan", "label": "insan (human being)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:evolution", "label": "evolution"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says evolution does not clash with Islam at all.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i've said that look there's nothing evolution does not clash with islam at all", "start": 1299}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/7/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/8", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S08", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 8, "start": 1876, "end": 2240, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is God bound by the laws of nature, or did He set them by choice?", "question_plain": "If God made the laws of nature, can He break them?", "summary": "The caller asks whether Mufti Abu Layth is saying God must abide by the rules of this universe. Mufti says God has set rules that He does things by: from the beginning of existence the laws of physics were set in motion and God created them, so He is not stuck with them but chose them. The caller cites a speaker's example that chance is only human ignorance of all the forces on a coin. Mufti asks whether, if God keeping His own rules limits Him, the rule that belief and righteous deeds lead to paradise would also limit Him; the caller distinguishes grace from rules and says God does not have to create humans through a man, a woman and a womb.", "summary_short": "God is not stuck with the laws of nature; He created them by choice and keeps to them, just as He keeps His promises about salvation.", "answer_start": 1876, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/god-and-attributes", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnat-allah", "label": "sunnat Allah (God's unchanging way)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says God is not stuck with the laws of nature but created them by choice.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not that god is stuck with them he has rather created them uh so he's created them obviously by choice", "start": 1956}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/8/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/9", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S09", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 9, "start": 2240, "end": 2586, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "If Adam had parents, does Islam fall apart? Chimpanzees and genetics", "question_plain": "If humans evolved, why are there still chimpanzees?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites the verse that God created people from male and female, and asks what problem it poses for Islam if Adam was born of parents who lacked his level of consciousness, since no one knows the parents of Moses or Noah either. The caller asks why chimpanzees still exist if humans evolved. Mufti says nobody claims humans came from chimpanzees; hominins, chimpanzees and gorillas descend from a common ancestor, sharing around 97 per cent of DNA. He says evolution today is shown through genetics, the genotype rather than the phenotype, as in the human genome project and experiments relying on genetic structure, not merely on Darwin's observations, and that the Quran also affirms that life is related.", "summary_short": "Nobody claims humans came from chimpanzees; both share a common ancestor, and evolution is now shown through genetics, which he says poses no problem for Islam.", "answer_start": 2240, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/quran-and-science/evolution", "history/human-origins"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:49:13", "label": "Quran 49:13 (We created you from male and female)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:charles-darwin", "label": "Charles Darwin"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says nobody claims human beings came from chimpanzees; they descend from a common ancestor.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "nobody has said homo the hominins are from chimpanzees so chimpanzees are panning you've got guerillin you've got homonym these all descend from a common ancestor", "start": 2356}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/9/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/10", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S10", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 10, "start": 2586, "end": 3036, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why struggle to accept it? God keeping His rules is no restriction", "question_plain": "Why do some Muslims struggle to accept that Adam might have had parents?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says no one has ever known a person born without a mother and father, and that reality, mathematics, genetics, science and the Quran confirm it, so the caller should introspect on why he struggles, since he has agreed Islam does not fall apart if Adam had parents. The caller says God does not have to abide by His rules, and Mufti asks why then He must keep His rules about the akhirah. The caller distinguishes the laws of nature from what God has said; Mufti replies that God's speech being true is itself an observation within reality, that the caller has never seen the barzakh yet accepts its rules while feeling the laws of nature daily, and rejects a comparison with the rock too heavy for God to lift.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says nothing in Islam falls apart if Adam had parents, so the resistance must come from something other than Islam, and God keeping His own rules is no limitation.", "answer_start": 2586, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution", "belief/afterlife"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:akhirah", "label": "akhirah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barzakh", "label": "barzakh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnat-allah", "label": "sunnat Allah (God's unchanging way)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says God sticking to the rules He created is not a restriction on Him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "first of all he's the one who created them it's not that he's being forced to stick by them he says this is my son now you're never going to see it change", "start": 2704}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/10/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/11", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S11", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 11, "start": 3036, "end": 3300, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Surat al-Mu'minun again: clay, a drop of sperm, and DNA", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say Adam was made from clay or from a drop of sperm?", "summary": "The caller says 23:12-14 speaks of humans in general, not Adam. Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the caller knows any human made of clay, and says the pronoun of the next verse, made into a drop of sperm, goes back to the same insan, so God has not lost His train of thought. He says he did suggest the clay may refer to DNA, made of elements found around us, and that many who understand DNA would read it so, but that a fully literal reading leaves one stuck, since the one made of mud then becomes a drop of sperm, and most people do not take it absolutely literally. The caller asks why God would make Adam from clay if He could simply say 'be', and Mufti says the verse concerns the physical body.", "summary_short": "Taking 23:12-14 entirely literally leaves one stuck, since the same insan made from clay is then a drop of sperm; the clay may refer to something like DNA.", "answer_start": 3036, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/quran-and-science/evolution", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:23:12-14", "label": "Quran 23:12-14 (insan from an extract of clay, then a drop in a firm lodging, then the stages of the embryo)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:insan", "label": "insan (human being)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kun-fayakun", "label": "kun fa-yakun (be, and it is)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says taking the whole of Surat al-Mu'minun 23:12-14 literally leaves one stuck.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so to take that entire verse literally you're stuck you know it's a very difficult thing most people don't take it absolutely literally", "start": 3186}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/11/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/12", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S12", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 12, "start": 3300, "end": 3451, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why the Quran did not openly refute the virgin birth: building bridges", "question_plain": "Why doesn't the Quran clearly deny the virgin birth?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth returns to why the Quran did not openly reject the virgin birth. He says it was not because the Christians held the truth but so that Muslims and Christians could build a bridge, which is why the Quran uses Christian terms for Jesus, such as the Holy Spirit and the word of God, and compares Jesus to Adam. He says the Christians were make or break for Islam's spread, through the Byzantines, the Aksumites and the Christian Arabs of the north, and that the Quran invited the People of the Book to a middle ground: it did not compromise on the Trinity, and it did not affirm the virgin birth but gave them space to infer it.", "summary_short": "To build bridges with the Christians: the Quran used their terms and left room for their belief without affirming it, compromising only not on the Trinity.", "answer_start": 3300, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:59", "label": "Quran 3:59 (the likeness of Jesus is that of Adam)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:171", "label": "Quran 4:171 (the Messiah, His word)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:64", "label": "Quran 3:64 (People of the Book, come to a common word)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh-al-qudus", "label": "ruh al-qudus (the Holy Spirit)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:trinity", "label": "the Trinity"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:byzantine-empire", "label": "the Byzantine Empire"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:kingdom-of-aksum", "label": "the Aksumite kingdom"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:virgin-birth", "label": "the virgin birth"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran did not affirm the virgin birth but gave Christians the space to infer it, as a middle ground.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the quran did not affirm it but it gave them the space to infer it because it allowed that middle ground", "start": 3412}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/12/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/13", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S13", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 13, "start": 3451, "end": 3873, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Introspection, the limits of reason, and a God who calls to faith through reason", "question_plain": "If human reason is limited, why rely on it in religion?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people who critique the voice of reason should introspect on what stops them accepting it, often culture, sectarianism or inherited dogma. He says he invites people to reflect and would like them to believe what he believes, but is not instructing them, since replacing dogma with dogma would be counterproductive. Asked whether reason is limited, he says everyone recognises reason has limits but it is the best human beings have for any intersubjective dialogue, giving the example of proving that a tree or a can is not God. He says unseen matters like the afterlife are not counter to reason, only unproven, but a God who calls people to Him through reason would not then tell them to believe irrational things, likening it to a human rights group that asks new members to murder.", "summary_short": "Reason has limits, but it is the best tool humans have for any shared dialogue, and a God who calls people through reason would not then demand belief in the irrational.", "answer_start": 3451, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ghayb", "label": "ghayb (the unseen)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says reason has its limitations but is the best that human beings have for any intersubjective dialogue.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "everybody with any reason recognizes that reason two has its limitations but it is the best that we as human beings have for in any uh inter-subjective dialogue", "start": 3566}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/13/"}, {"id": "HIU1GJSzg1E/s/14", "short_id": "2020-10-13-S14", "recording": "HIU1GJSzg1E", "n": 14, "start": 3873, "end": 4058, "date": "20201013", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Free will and destiny: the video game analogy, and civil disagreement", "question_plain": "If I commit a crime, was it my free will or my destiny?", "summary": "The caller's last question asks whether, if he takes a gun and kills someone, that is his free will or qadar. Mufti Abu Layth says human beings do have free will, likening it to a video game whose designer created every possible outcome while where the player gets and what he does along the way is up to him. He adds a professor of quantum physics' comparison with the Heisenberg principle, that one can speak of free will or of destiny but our thinking cannot hold both at once, and says he accepts that to a degree. He thanks the caller, saying the discussion shows people can disagree and still be civil.", "summary_short": "Humans have real free will: as in a video game, every outcome was designed, but where you go and what you do is your own doing.", "answer_start": 3873, "questioner": "caller", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/free-will-and-destiny"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:qadar", "label": "qadar (destiny)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:heisenberg-uncertainty-principle", "label": "the Heisenberg uncertainty principle"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says human beings do have free will, likening it to a video game whose outcomes were all designed but whose course is up to the player.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "free will is human beings do have free will and i kind of in uh have given an analogy or made it analogous to somewhat of a computer game", "start": 3873}}, "url": "/r/HIU1GJSzg1E/s/14/"}, {"id": "HLHgB2tyt-c/s/1", "short_id": "2021-02-15-S01", "recording": "HLHgB2tyt-c", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 213, "date": "20210215", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Bukhari's narrator who praised Ali's killer, and the double standard on Shia reports", "question_plain": "Why does Bukhari accept a narrator who praised Ali's killer while Shia narrators are rejected?", "summary": "Responding to someone who asks how a particular narration can be accepted, Mufti Abu Layth says nobody is obliged to believe it, then makes a point about a narrator he names as Imran ibn [?], a leading figure of the tabi'un whom al-Bukhari uses as a trustworthy narrator on at least two occasions. He says that, as Siyar A'lam al-Nubala and Ibn Hajar's Fath al-Bari record, this man openly praised Ibn Muljam for killing Ali, wrote a well-known poem calling the fatal blow a strike full of taqwa, and according to Ibn Hajar never repented, yet he is accepted because he was counted among the worshippers of the community. Mufti says he is not Shia and disagrees with the Shia, and that he regards Ali, Umar and the others as great companions of the Prophet. He asks whether a narrator who wrote poems praising the Magian who killed Umar would be accepted, and calls it prejudice and hypocrisy that such a narrator is accepted while reports from Imam Jafar and the other Shia imams, such as Shia reports that Husayn wore earrings, are rejected because of where they come from. He says he can understand why this angers Shia Muslims.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls it a double standard that al-Bukhari accepts as trustworthy a narrator who praised Ibn Muljam for killing Ali, while reports from Imam Jafar and other Shia imams are rejected because of their source.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imran-ibn-hittan", "label": "Imran ibn Hittan [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:siyar-alam-al-nubala", "label": "Siyar A'lam al-Nubala"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:fath-al-bari", "label": "Fath al-Bari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-muljam", "label": "Ibn Muljam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jafar-al-sadiq", "label": "Imam Jafar al-Sadiq"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tabiun", "label": "tabi'un"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqwa", "label": "taqwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is prejudice and a double standard that al-Bukhari accepts as trustworthy a narrator who openly praised Ibn Muljam for killing Ali, while reports from Imam Jafar and the other Shia imams are rejected because they come from Shia sources.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "so why do we accept the the one who's praising the person who murdered the ali like this is just this is just ridiculous like we are just so drowned in prejudice and bias", "start": 114}}, "url": "/r/HLHgB2tyt-c/s/1/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S01", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 477, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: a near-sabotaged stream, a birthday treat and tonight's plan", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream after repeated Streamlabs errors nearly stopped it, saying failure is not an option. He mentions a recent Mufti meet-up and his birthday, and promises as a 'treat' a look at several of his 'beloveds'. He lists tonight's plan: a preacher he calls Shaykh Shadi and his 'monkey business' of misquoting, messages from the Telegram group of the commentator he calls 'Danny Boy', and, at viewers' request, a talk on Ibn Rushd, the great Maliki legend. He thanks his patrons, explains that Facebook comments no longer appear beside the YouTube chat, and promises a classical Arabic poem.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth overcomes technical trouble, thanks his patrons and sets out the night's plan, from a preacher's misquotations to Ibn Rushd.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/1/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/2", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S02", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 2, "start": 477, "end": 703, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A classical Arabic love poem on how the prophets' attributes are shared out", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recites and explains a classical Arabic love poem in which the poet says the prophetic attributes have been divided between him and his beloved. She has the beauty of Yusuf, the serene voice of Dawud and the chastity of Maryam, while he gets the sorrow of Yaqub, the dark trials of Yunus, the suffering of Ayyub and the remorse of Adam. Mufti calls it an epic poem and explains its famous line, 'if only I had cried before she cried', saying the first place always goes to the first. He then looks for an Urdu poem, finds that his video capture has gone missing since he reinstalled the software, and turns to the chat.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth recites a classical Arabic love poem in which the beloved gets the prophets' beauty and the poet their sorrows.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:yusuf", "label": "Yusuf (Joseph)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawud", "label": "Dawud (David)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yaqub", "label": "Ya'qub (Jacob)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yunus", "label": "Yunus (Jonah)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ayyub", "label": "Ayyub (Job)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/2/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/3", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S03", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 3, "start": 703, "end": 909, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Reincarnation on Mind Trap, a Shia debate response, and stream checks", "question_plain": "Will you discuss reincarnation with a guest on Mind Trap?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a super chat recalling his promise to bring someone onto Mind Trap to discuss reincarnation. He says he still has to find the right person prepared to discuss such a topic with him, which is difficult, especially for Muslims, and asks viewers to send anyone interested his way. Asked whether he has seen a Shia response, he says he only skimmed a discussion about whether others should debate Farid [?] and is not sure it is the one meant. He then checks with viewers on YouTube and Facebook that the stream is not lagging.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is still looking for the right guest to discuss reincarnation on Mind Trap, and has only skimmed the Shia response a viewer mentions.", "answer_start": 741, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/3/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/4", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S04", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 4, "start": 909, "end": 1099, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Clip: Matt Hancock pressed on voting against free school meals", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a television interview in which the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, says he is glad free meals can reach children who receive free school meals, while the interviewer repeatedly asks why he voted against it and whether he regrets it, saying the government was shamed into it by the footballer Marcus Rashford. Remarks such as that he did vote against it and that it sounds as if he is on trial seem to be Mufti's interjections, though the captions do not separate the voices. Afterwards Mufti condemns what he calls the unconscionable neglect of this government, says one does not know whether to laugh or cry, and jokes about the name Hancock.", "summary_short": "A clip of Matt Hancock pressed on voting against free school meals, which Mufti Abu Layth calls the unconscionable neglect of this government.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/current-events/britain", "society/current-events/covid-19"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:matt-hancock", "label": "Matt Hancock"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:marcus-rashford", "label": "Marcus Rashford"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/4/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/5", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S05", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 5, "start": 1099, "end": 1249, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are the English bad at interviews? Boris Johnson's clumsiness and who profited from the pandemic", "question_plain": "Why are British politicians so bad at interviews?", "summary": "Asked why the English are so bad at handling interviews, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think they are, and that some politicians and spokespeople can be very good. He says Hancock is probably massively incompetent, but that Boris Johnson, though he may have a clumsy element to his personality, is actually very intelligent and plays into that clumsiness so that people forgive him, given his elite family and private education. He says nobody knew the best way to deal with COVID-19, but doubts the government's apologies and suspects things may have been allowed to happen. He wonders how many of the elite, the one percent, have benefited from what he calls the 'plandemic', saying their wealth grew significantly during the pandemic.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the English are not bad at interviews: Boris Johnson is very intelligent and plays up his clumsiness, and the elite grew richer in the pandemic.", "answer_start": 1099, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/britain", "society/current-events/covid-19"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:boris-johnson", "label": "Boris Johnson"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:matt-hancock", "label": "Matt Hancock"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the COVID-19 pandemic"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/5/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/6", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S06", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 6, "start": 1249, "end": 1470, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Would Mohammed Hijab come on Mind Trap? And an invitation to Imran Hosein", "question_plain": "Will you ever do a Mind Trap with Mohammed Hijab?", "summary": "After thanking a super chat, Mufti Abu Layth reads a request to do a Mind Trap with Mohammed Hijab. He says he would love to, but does not know if Hijab would be keen: given his backing and his image as an intellectual of the dawah scene, his circle would accuse him of giving a deviant a platform, as another preacher once tried to bully him over whom he hosted on his own show. Mufti adds that a conversation would be a gamble for Hijab, since coming off short-changed would at least damage his reputation, so it is probably not a risk worth taking for him. Asked about Shaykh Imran Hosein, he says that would be interesting and he would be glad to have him on.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth would welcome Mohammed Hijab on Mind Trap but doubts he would risk it, and would be glad to host Shaykh Imran Hosein.", "answer_start": 1287, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imran-hosein", "label": "Shaykh Imran Hosein"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/6/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/7", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S07", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 7, "start": 1470, "end": 1537, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Do bald women have to wear hijab?", "question_plain": "Does a bald woman have to wear hijab?", "summary": "Reading a question on whether bald women have to wear hijab, Mufti Abu Layth jokes that fortune favours the bold, then says women are not bald unless through illness or certain conditions. He wonders whether hair loss is a substantial issue for women, notes that it is a huge one for men, and remarks that worrying about hair loss itself contributes to losing more hair, so the game is rigged.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth gives no ruling: he jokes about the wording and muses on hair loss in women and men.", "answer_start": 1470, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/7/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/8", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S08", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 8, "start": 1537, "end": 1793, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Muslims in Birmingham, and why the youth do not listen to scholars", "question_plain": "What do you think of the Muslim community in Birmingham?", "summary": "Asked what he thinks of the Sunni and Shia Muslim community in Birmingham, Mufti Abu Layth says it is good, but separates religion from sociocultural factors and says the Muslim scene almost everywhere is suffering, a car crash in slow motion. He mentions a clip of a preacher asking why the youth do not listen to the scholars, and answers that it is because they are irrelevant and outdated, doing little beyond making people feel guilty and boosting their own sense of being holier than thou. Drawing on discourse analysis, he says one should never underestimate the pull of a power position, even the power to tell someone off. He says the disconnect between the mullahs and ordinary people is polarised because what is taught has no connection to people's lives, so only those already interested come to them.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Muslim scene everywhere is suffering, and the youth do not listen to scholars because the scholars are irrelevant and outdated.", "answer_start": 1537, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the youth are not listening to the scholars because the scholars are irrelevant and outdated.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "but the truth is because you guys are irrelevant okay you are outdated", "start": 1651}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/8/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/9", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S09", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 9, "start": 1793, "end": 2082, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abdul Rahman Hassan's clip: does joking and laughing show low aspiration?", "question_plain": "Does joking and laughing a lot mean I lack high aspiration?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip, replaying its end, in which Abdul Rahman Hassan says that laughing and joking too much shows a person lacks high aspiration, since the important things in life, such as losing weight or memorising the Quran, take sweat and blood, and that people who joke excessively tend to have lives that are not in order, down to their children and partners. Mufti remarks that this is what one gets for attending such gatherings. He says laughter is the very definition of happiness and joy, and that this is selling misery in the name of happiness by calling joy and laughter misery, citing a poet's line [?] about renaming insanity as sanity. He adds that the preacher's family and children would surely appreciate him laughing more with them.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects a preacher's claim that joking and laughing show low aspiration, calling laughter the very definition of happiness and joy.", "answer_start": 1793, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/9/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/10", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S10", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 10, "start": 2082, "end": 2232, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Under the microscope: a text on the fast breaking through a 'direct channel'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says this is why people are disconnected, and shows a text someone sent him on what breaks the fast: the fast is not invalidated unless a substance reaches the stomach or brain through a direct, normal channel such as the mouth, nose, ears or rear passage. He mocks the idea of something reaching the brain through the ears, and imagines a student of such classes in a senior government meeting reacting to the phrase 'direct channel', which becomes a running joke for the rest of the stream.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth mocks a fiqh text saying the fast breaks when a substance reaches the stomach or brain through a 'direct channel'.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting/what-breaks-the-fast"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sawm", "label": "sawm (fasting)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/10/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/11", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S11", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 11, "start": 2232, "end": 2310, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are video games haram?", "question_plain": "Are video games haram?", "summary": "Reading a super chat joking that he plays Call of Duty and that some imams call video games haram, Mufti Abu Layth says video games are not haram. He says he has bought a new computer system and, once the accessories arrive and the setup is revamped in the coming weeks, he will try playing some games on a few streams.", "summary_short": "Video games are not haram, Mufti Abu Layth says, and he plans to play some on future streams.", "answer_start": 2232, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says video games are not haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "some imams are saying video games are Haram no video games ain't Haram", "start": 2232}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/11/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/12", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S12", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 12, "start": 2310, "end": 2427, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does smoking break wudu? And what does", "question_plain": "Does smoking break my wudu?", "summary": "Asked whether smoking cigars breaks wudu, Mufti Abu Layth jokes about whether a cigar opens a 'direct channel', then says smoking does not break wudu. He says the only things that break it are relieving oneself and engaging meaningfully in sexual activity, explaining that he says 'meaningfully' because some scholars debate whether any sexual contact, such as kissing, breaks it. A peck on the cheek does not, he says; if the contact is meaningful a person renews their wudu, but eating anything does not break it.", "summary_short": "Smoking does not break wudu, Mufti Abu Layth says; only relieving oneself and meaningful sexual activity do, not a peck on the cheek or eating.", "answer_start": 2310, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/purification"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says smoking does not break wudu.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so smoking does not break the woodoo it is only the only thing that breaks the woodoo is is relieving yourself", "start": 2310}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/12/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/13", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S13", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 13, "start": 2427, "end": 2878, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is haram money intrinsically bad? Stolen money and the meat given as sadaqah", "question_plain": "If money was earned in a haram way, is it haram for whoever receives it?", "summary": "Asked to explain the concept of haram money, Mufti Abu Layth says money in itself has no intrinsic moral value; it is how it is earned that makes it halal or haram. If stolen money is paid to someone who does not know, such as a shopkeeper, the shopkeeper has not taken haram money, while the thief bears the sin. As evidence he cites a hadith in which the Prophet eats meat that had been given as sadaqah, which was forbidden to him and his family, and replies that it was sadaqah to them and a gift to us, so the ruling does not cross over with the property. He adds that the Prophet forbidding sadaqah to himself and his family testifies to his character, since he could otherwise have become the main channel for charity, and tells shopkeepers who suspect customers of crime that they need not feel guilty.", "summary_short": "Money is not haram in itself, Mufti Abu Layth says: the sin lies with whoever earned it unlawfully, not with someone who later receives it unknowingly.", "answer_start": 2427, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5334d346", "label": "report: it is sadaqah for them and a gift for us (unresolved; the meat given as sadaqah, collection not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sadaqah", "label": "sadaqah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says money in and of itself carries no intrinsic moral value; it is how it is earned that makes it haram or halal.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "it is how you earn that money that is then that gives it a particular moral value", "start": 2465}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/13/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/14", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S14", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 14, "start": 2878, "end": 3417, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Who is Dr Abdul Majid? The coming Mind Trap on BukhariGate and their history", "question_plain": "Who is Dr Abdul Majid, your Mind Trap guest?", "summary": "Asked who Abdul Majid is, Mufti Abu Layth announces a Mind Trap discussion with him on Thursday about the questions he raised in BukhariGate, saying he wants people to engage, since silence does not show an argument's worth. He describes Dr Abdul Majid as a Salafi-oriented scholar based in Luton, ethnically Indian, who lived in Dubai and has a doctorate whose subject he means to ask about. He recounts that around early 2018 the doctor asked for a dialogue on the second coming of Jesus and was invited down but did not come, and that when an imam released old WhatsApp audio of Mufti telling jokes with swear words, framed as abuse of his critics, the doctor made a video slating him. Mufti says he has openly said swearing is not haram, and that the clip backfired. He says the doctor's recent BukhariGate replies were first smug and then rude, though without swearing, but he still hopes the discussion will be positive.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth will discuss BukhariGate with Dr Abdul Majid on Mind Trap, despite past hostile videos, and hopes it will be positive.", "answer_start": 2878, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-abdul-majid", "label": "Dr Abdul Majid"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says swearing is not haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not like I say I don't swear I've said openly swearing is not Haram I mean I'm not swearing at someone", "start": 3147}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/14/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/15", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S15", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 15, "start": 3417, "end": 3758, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A debater, Saqib Shaami's crew and a conference on the finality of prophethood", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Responding to a chat remark about his jolliness, Mufti Abu Layth tells a story from the mid-2000s about a well-known debater of Deobandi background [?] who spoke at the annual conference on the finality of prophethood at Birmingham Central Mosque, held in reply to the Qadianis [?]. Mufti says he himself does not see them as a threat. He recounts that Saqib Shaami, then still rising to fame by challenging people to debates, came in with a small entourage and disrupted the conference with slogans, and that the debater slammed the table, told him to send his father to debate, and the group left. He adds that another preacher, once Saqib Shaami's right-hand man, later rose through the same culture of debate challenges, and that Saqib Shaami is now seen as a dignified shaykh. He ends with the debater's punchline asking why the conference troubled them if it was aimed at the Qadianis.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls a debater facing down Saqib Shaami's entourage when it disrupted a finality-of-prophethood conference in Birmingham.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:saqib-shaami", "label": "Shaykh Saqib Shaami"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ahmadiyya", "label": "the Ahmadiyya (Qadianis) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/15/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/16", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S16", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 16, "start": 3758, "end": 3972, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Will I go to hell for not shaving my pubic hair?", "question_plain": "Will I go to hell for not shaving my pubic hair?", "summary": "After finishing the story, Mufti Abu Layth reads a question on whether someone who does not shave their private parts will be in the deepest pits of hell, joking first about the word 'they', which he says South Asian elders use respectfully for their shaykhs and which now also marks gender-fluid people. He says nobody is going to hell for a moustache or for not shaving pubic hair. It is a hygiene matter, he says: Islam ties hygiene to purity, and cleanliness heightens a person's sense of spirituality. He adds that before germs and bacteria were known, religions upheld hygiene by associating it with reward and closeness to God, which he calls a brilliant way of doing things.", "summary_short": "Nobody goes to hell for not shaving pubic hair, Mufti Abu Layth says; it is a matter of hygiene, which religion tied to reward and closeness to God.", "answer_start": 3824, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/purification", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says nobody is going to hell for not shaving pubic hair; it is a hygiene matter.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "nobody's going to hell for a mustache and nobody's going to hell for not shaving the uh pubic hair", "start": 3824}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/16/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/17", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S17", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 17, "start": 3972, "end": 4242, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The Ark of the Covenant in Islam: the tabut, the sakinah and the cherubim", "question_plain": "What is the Ark of the Covenant in Islam?", "summary": "Asked about the Ark of the Covenant in Islam, Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran briefly mentions the tabut, a carried chest holding what the family of Moses left and the sakinah, without saying what these were. Many commentators translated sakinah as tranquillity or a source of it, perhaps the law or the tablets, which he calls guesswork. He finds it interesting that Ibn Faris [?], the fourth-century Maliki linguist, describes the sakinah as something winged with perhaps the face of a cat, which he says resembles the cherubim on the Ark described in the Bible. He points out that this fits an age of statues alongside monotheism [?] and the Pharaohs' mobile temples, which is what the Ark becomes in Judaism, even if Muslims find it hard to relate to because of their understanding of tawhid.", "summary_short": "The Quran mentions the Ark (tabut) without saying what was in it, Mufti Abu Layth says; one early Maliki linguist described the sakinah in a way that resembles the cherubim.", "answer_start": 3972, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:248", "label": "Quran 2:248"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tabut", "label": "tabut (the Ark)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sakinah", "label": "sakinah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-faris", "label": "Ibn Faris [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran briefly mentions the Ark of the Covenant but it is not clear what the things in it were.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there's a brief in mention of uh this kind of Arc of the Covenant in the Quran but it's not clear what these things are", "start": 3972}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/17/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/18", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S18", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 18, "start": 4242, "end": 4626, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is it halal to perform music or dance at concerts for a living?", "question_plain": "Is it halal to perform music or dance at concerts for a living?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a question on whether performing music or dancing at a concert, and making a living from it, is halal, and whether it differs for men and women. He says dance in itself is not haram, but sociocultural perspectives shape its value: celebrity culture now lends singers and stars prestige, while Muslim cultures especially, even where they do not deem it haram, see it as a lowly profession, so a career in it is an uphill struggle. For women, he says, much dance today involves sensuality and will be looked down on even more, and for centuries in the Muslim world professional dancers were often also prostitutes, a mindset he says lingers even though it is not the case today. He advises keeping propriety in mind and says the rest is the questioner's own choice, then notes a chat question asking why Paradise is so sensual.", "summary_short": "Dance is not haram in itself, Mufti Abu Layth says, but Muslim cultures look down on it as a profession, especially for women, so propriety should be kept in mind.", "answer_start": 4282, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "fiqh/entertainment", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says dance in and of itself is not haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "look dance in and of itself is not Haram but obviously there are sociocultural perspectives", "start": 4281}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/18/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/19", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S19", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 19, "start": 4626, "end": 5077, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "No means to marry: how can people avoid zina, and why religion is failing them", "question_plain": "What can I do if I can't afford to marry but want to avoid zina?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth calls a question on what people without the means to marry should do to avoid zina a very serious one, and says religion is failing people here, not for lack of inbuilt mechanisms but because scholars, the gatekeepers of God, are not ready to have that conversation, and cultures are not ready either. He tentatively suggests that maybe things like mut'ah [?], or recognising certain exclusive relationships in a way similar to nikah, could be answers, but notes that Muslim cultures do not allow dating. He argues that medieval people probably had more access to sex, through slave girls, servants and the affairs described in the books of adab, and that religion then, whatever one thinks of its morality, worked pragmatically with people's lives. Today, he says, religion only offers formal marriage while society demands 'the one' and an extravagant, costly wedding, so a nineteen- or twenty-year-old cannot marry, which he calls a difficult challenge facing religion.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth has no easy answer: religion is failing people here because scholars and cultures will not discuss options, and marriage has become too costly for the young.", "answer_start": 4655, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/marriage", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:zina", "label": "zina"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says religion is failing people on this, not because it lacks the inbuilt mechanisms, but because scholars are not ready to have that conversation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is why religion is failing people and I'm not saying religion doesn't have the inbuilt mechanisms to deal with it but Scholars ain't ready", "start": 4655}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/19/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/20", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S20", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 20, "start": 5077, "end": 5529, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why is it so hard to find honest people? Masks, Instagram and how some men treat women", "question_plain": "Why is it so hard to find real, honest people?", "summary": "A super chat says it is hard to know people's true lives and to find real, honest people. Mufti Abu Layth agrees and asks whether anyone truly knows anyone, since we all show different facets of ourselves to parents, bosses, children, friends and spouses. He says the lure of the Instagram world is too strong: instant gratification releases dopamine at a level that, where sexuality is involved, he likens to a shot of cocaine, and there is always someone better, which he thinks is more so a male problem. He says that in Britain some Muslim minority ethnic men, especially of Pakistani background, treat women appallingly, which unfortunately pushes many women into hardline feminism, though he still calls hardline feminists cancerous; he wonders whether a rural Mirpuri background is a contributing factor, noting his own roots are there. He describes men who cannot stand their wives yet refuse to let them divorce, and cites the Quranic counsel to hold on with civility or separate gracefully.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says nobody fully knows anyone, social media feeds an endless search for someone better, and the appalling conduct of some Muslim men pushes women into hardline feminism.", "answer_start": 5108, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/masculinity-and-gender-roles", "society/technology-and-media/social-media", "fiqh/divorce"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the appalling attitude of some Muslim minority ethnic men in Britain unfortunately pushes many women into hardline feminism.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "you can see why it unfortunately pushes so many women into this kind of Hardline feminism you can see it sometimes why because the attitude of some of these men it's appalling", "start": 5294}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/20/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/21", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S21", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 21, "start": 5529, "end": 5607, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why is Paradise described in such sensual terms?", "question_plain": "Why does Islam describe Paradise in such sensual terms?", "summary": "Asked why Paradise in Islam is described in such sensuous terms, Mufti Abu Layth says it is because it sells: the moment it is mentioned, people want to learn more about Islam. He says he does not mean this in a bad way but in a functional one, since people want it and are given that imagery.", "summary_short": "Paradise is described sensually because that imagery works for people, Mufti Abu Layth says, meaning it functionally rather than cynically.", "answer_start": 5529, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/afterlife/paradise-and-hell"], "entities": [], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Paradise is described sensuously because it sells, in a functional rather than a bad sense.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't mean that in a bad way although I suppose it can be understood about but it's in a functional way that this works", "start": 5568}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/21/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/22", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S22", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 22, "start": 5607, "end": 5676, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How do I find the true Sunnah in the hadith books?", "question_plain": "How do I find the true Sunnah in the hadith books?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth first finishes his point that the afterlife is not about such things, but that the imagery is there for those with whom it resonates. Asked how to find the true Sunnah in the hadith books, he says the simple principle is what the hadith scholars themselves give: it does not clash with reason, does not go against the Quran and does not uproot an Islamic principle. He says the safer bet is to learn fiqh and take one's Sunnah from fiqh, with some amendments here and there, rather than the other way round.", "summary_short": "The true Sunnah does not clash with reason, the Quran or Islamic principles, Mufti Abu Layth says, and the safer way is to take it from fiqh.", "answer_start": 5607, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the true Sunnah does not clash with reason, does not go against the Quran and does not uproot an Islamic principle.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "it doesn't clash with [Music] reason doesn't go against the Quran it doesn't upro an Islamic principle", "start": 5638}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/22/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/23", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S23", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 23, "start": 5676, "end": 5864, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why Mufti Abu Layth will not open an academy", "question_plain": "Why don't you open an Islamic academy?", "summary": "After a viewer greets him from the United States, Mufti Abu Layth is asked whether he has thought of building an academy with more knowledgeable, reason-minded muftis. He says he has never gone that way because he feels institutions and academies suck the soul and life out of an individual: they consume you, become bigger than you, and leave you worrying about failure instead of enjoying life, in Abdul Rahman Hassan's words 'sweat and blood'. He says religion is a flop market, so running a madrasa or academy, unlike a restaurant or business, is an upstream project of constantly selling something, and he begins to take Hamza Yusuf as an example.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth will not open an academy because he feels institutions consume their founders and religion is a hard market to sustain one in.", "answer_start": 5718, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels institutions and academies suck the soul and life out of an individual.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "you see institutions acmy they I feel kind of suck the soul and life out of an individual", "start": 5718}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/23/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/24", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S24", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 24, "start": 5864, "end": 6244, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hamza Yusuf and Zaytuna: how an institution makes its founder its servant", "question_plain": "Has Zaytuna College limited what Hamza Yusuf can say?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Hamza Yusuf will always have a place in the hearts of many, especially those who saw his electrifying rise in the 1990s, and that his fame was made before 2001; after 9/11 he took on roles, including advising Bush, and faced backlash. He calls Zaytuna an incredible success with university affiliations that produces talented, presentable graduates, though he doubts they reach the level of an 'alim. He says that since Zaytuna, Hamza Yusuf is really a life-support machine for it, and that even his UAE links, for which people have slammed him as a sell-out scholar, are ultimately for Zaytuna's funding. He asks what Hamza Yusuf has produced as a thinker beyond an academy, saying he offers no breakthrough fatwas or challenging narratives because the hate would cost his institute its funding, so he has become a slave to the institution. Mufti says he does not want that: life is short, as COVID showed, and he enjoys giving challenging narratives and the freedom to say whatever he wants, unaffiliated to any institute.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Hamza Yusuf's rise was remarkable but that Zaytuna now constrains him, so he avoids anything controversial; Mufti prefers his own freedom.", "answer_start": 5864, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:zaytuna-college", "label": "Zaytuna College"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:george-w-bush", "label": "George W. Bush"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:september-11-attacks", "label": "the September 11 attacks"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/24/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/25", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S25", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 25, "start": 6244, "end": 6549, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "People are cruel: complaints used to try to stop a retreat he spoke at", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people are cruel: he has seen one hating imam get followers to spam a person's employer with complaints until the institution sacks them, which is one reason he keeps his independence through businesses. He recounts that in 2016, after his time in prison, he was invited to a weekend retreat with nasheed performers and activities, and that a week before, the organiser told him someone claiming to be a journalist, a Muslim, had contacted the venue claiming he had a criminal record, and then the local police calling him a threat to the public. The police looked into it, found no threat, and the event went ahead. He says this is why he loves his freedom, and, when a chat asks whether he is a hitman, jokes that it is one of his part-time jobs, alongside being a movie critic.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts how a self-styled journalist tried to get a 2016 retreat he spoke at cancelled by complaining to the venue and the police.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "wellbeing/personal-stories"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/25/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/26", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S26", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 26, "start": 6549, "end": 6973, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "'Danny Boy's' Telegram post calling female academics 'snarling witches'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a message sent to the Telegram group of the commentator he calls 'Danny Boy', which he says has about 3,000 subscribers: a weekly reminder that Muslim academics in Islamic Studies are overwhelmingly trash, that the few who are not apostates are heretics, that they live sad lives because of underpaid PhD years and hatred of the traditional family, and that most are alone and unmarriageable, especially the females, who are mostly 'snarling witches'. Mufti mocks the post, refers to his earlier video about the commentator's wife praying in a wardrobe, and stresses that this is a public announcement, not a leak. He says he does not know why the commentator hates on women and speculates that such hatred usually comes from rejection projected onto all women. Responding to a chat remark that some Pakistani men do not allow women education either, he says anyone who denies education to someone who wants it is insecure and is the problem himself. Asked whether he will ever grow his beard, he points to a little stubble.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth mocks a commentator's post calling female Islamic Studies academics 'snarling witches', and says men who block women's education are insecure.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "society/women-and-gender", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/26/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/27", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S27", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 27, "start": 6973, "end": 7739, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes), part 1: family, works, the Almohad court and exile", "question_plain": "Who was Ibn Rushd (Averroes)?", "summary": "At viewers' request Mufti Abu Layth introduces Ibn Rushd, known in the West as Averroes, showing his statue in Cordoba: born in 520 AH into a great scholarly family, in the year his grandfather, Ibn Rushd al-Jadd, chief judge of Cordoba and a Maliki authority, died. Mufti notes that in Maliki books 'Ibn Rushd' almost always means the grandfather, and the grandson is seldom cited in fiqh. He describes the grandson as a physician with works on medicine, physics, mathematics and philosophy, the author of a comparative fiqh work [?] he calls one of the best books for teaching the subject, and as 'the Commentator' on Aristotle. He recounts that a fellow philosopher, Ibn Tufayl [?], introduced him to the Almohad caliph, who wanted to be a new al-Ma'mun, so that he became a judge in Seville and Cordoba, until the next caliph, al-Mansur [?], turned against him, exiled him to the largely Jewish town of Lucena, and pardoned him shortly before his death. Mufti says Ibn Rushd contributed significantly to the European Renaissance and influenced Jews such as Maimonides, while Muslims called him a heretic and burnt his books, so that works like his commentary on Plato's Republic survived only in Hebrew.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth presents Ibn Rushd as a Maliki judge, physician and the great commentator on Aristotle, honoured in Europe but exiled and neglected by Muslims.", "answer_start": 6973, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib", "history/scholars-and-imams", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd-al-jadd", "label": "Ibn Rushd al-Jadd"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aristotle", "label": "Aristotle"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-tufayl", "label": "Ibn Tufayl [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yaqub-al-mansur", "label": "Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:maimonides", "label": "Maimonides"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bidayat-al-mujtahid", "label": "Bidayat al-Mujtahid [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is a shame that Muslims ignored Ibn Rushd, since he was such a legend in philosophy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "you see it's a shame that Muslims because he was such a legend in philosophy Muslims kind of turned a uh they they kind of ignored him", "start": 7624}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/27/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/28", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S28", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 28, "start": 7739, "end": 8197, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Rushd, part 2: why he fell from grace, a storm and 'the king of the Berbers'", "question_plain": "Why did Ibn Rushd fall from favour with the caliph?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the reasons given for Ibn Rushd's fall. In one account, when a great storm threatened Cordoba, an imam told people to repent because it was the second wind of its kind, like the one that struck a people in the Quran ['Ad?], and Ibn Rushd, a philosopher opposed to superstition, allegedly retorted that if that people were not even real, how could the wind that struck them be. Mufti says some take this to mean Ibn Rushd held some Quranic stories to be allegorical; he is not sure it is true but finds it believable, while saying Ibn Rushd did believe in the Quran. The other account is that his book on animals called the caliph 'king of the Berbers', a grave insult which Mufti explains through the second-class image Berbers had, comparing it to stereotypes of Pathans in South Asia, and through the vast extent of Almohad rule, to which even Salah al-Din appealed for help. Ibn Rushd reportedly pleaded a copyist's slip, saying he had written 'king of the two continents' [?].", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth relates two accounts of Ibn Rushd's fall, a remark on a storm and an insult to the caliph, and finds the first believable though unproven.", "answer_start": 7739, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib", "society/race-and-identity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yaqub-al-mansur", "label": "Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:salah-al-din-al-ayyubi", "label": "Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is not sure the report that Ibn Rushd doubted the reality of a Quranic story is true, but that it is believable he said such things because his views were very philosophical.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I'm not sure whether that's true but it's believable that he could have said things because his views were kind of very philosophical", "start": 7851}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/28/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/29", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S29", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 29, "start": 8197, "end": 8429, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Rushd, part 3: al-Ghazali, the two Incoherences and neoplatonism", "question_plain": "How did Ibn Rushd answer al-Ghazali's attack on the philosophers?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali attacked the philosophers in The Incoherence of the Philosophers, declaring them disbelievers on three crucial points, and suggests this may reflect a period after his breakdown and withdrawal to the desert when he went 'a bit strange'. A century later Ibn Rushd answered with The Incoherence of the Incoherence, arguing that al-Ghazali had based his reading of the philosophers on Ibn Sina, al-Farabi and others who were ill-informed, which Mufti says was true, since early translations mixed up the views of Aristotle and Plato. He explains that what al-Ghazali refutes is largely neoplatonism, associated with Plotinus, with its emanation from God and a paradise attainable on earth without resurrection, and that Ibn Rushd agreed these points were wrong but said they should be aimed elsewhere [?] rather than at the philosophers. Mufti says he does not think Ibn Rushd hated al-Ghazali, noting that he wrote a summary of one of his books.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth explains that Ibn Rushd answered al-Ghazali by showing that what he refuted was mostly neoplatonism, not Aristotle.", "answer_start": 8197, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tahafut-al-falasifa", "label": "Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tahafut-al-tahafut", "label": "Tahafut al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-sina", "label": "Ibn Sina"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-farabi", "label": "al-Farabi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aristotle", "label": "Aristotle"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plotinus", "label": "Plotinus"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:neoplatonism", "label": "neoplatonism"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it was true that al-Ghazali's sources on the philosophers had been ill-informed, because early translations mixed up Aristotle's and Plato's views.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "they've been ill informed and that was actually true because what happened in the early days when things were being translated", "start": 8273}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/29/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/30", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S30", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 30, "start": 8429, "end": 8844, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Rushd, part 4: women's wasted talents, from his commentary on Plato's Republic", "question_plain": "What did Ibn Rushd say about women's abilities?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shares passages from Ibn Rushd's commentary on Plato's Republic, where, he says, Ibn Rushd steps out of the commentary and gives a window into his own age. Ibn Rushd says men and women are equal in all things, acknowledging the household role his society gave men, that women can be warriors, philosophers and rulers, as the fighting women of the Sahara show, and cites the saying that music is best when the instruments are crafted by men and performed by women. Ibn Rushd complains that in his cities women serve only to bear and nurse children and serve their husbands, which keeps them from showing their talents, and that because women, whom he puts at about two-thirds of the population, depend on men for their livelihood, the cities are impoverished. Mufti marvels that this was written about 900 years ago, calls Ibn Rushd a legend who generally inspires him, and recommends a dramatised Arabic account of his life [?].", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth highlights Ibn Rushd's argument, 900 years ago, that women equal men in ability and that confining them to the home impoverished his cities.", "answer_start": 8429, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:plato-republic", "label": "Plato's Republic"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/30/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/31", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S31", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 31, "start": 8844, "end": 9037, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How does Ibn Rushd compare to other critical-minded scholars?", "question_plain": "How does Ibn Rushd compare to other critical-minded scholars?", "summary": "Asked how Ibn Rushd compares to other scholars whose names the captions do not catch [?], Mufti Abu Layth says all of them are critical-minded, but Ibn Rushd is much more philosophical and more inclined towards reason than the others; the order he then gives is also lost in the captions. He turns to one of the scholars named, whose name the captions render only as initials [?], and says he was not philosophical: although he did a lot of good, spoke about welfare and challenged many things, he had a strong side of hate, as if he had two personalities, and was trigger-happy in declaring people disbelievers. By contrast, Mufti says, Ibn Rushd's personality was steady: traditional, inclined to philosophy, ruling for welfare wherever he could, and never snapping.", "summary_short": "Ibn Rushd is the most philosophical and most inclined to reason of the critical-minded scholars, Mufti Abu Layth says, and steadier in temperament than one he calls quick to takfir.", "answer_start": 8844, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Rushd is more inclined towards reason than the other critical-minded scholars he was asked about, though all of them are critical-minded.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I Rush is more inclined towards reason than the others the others are all of these are inclined to some reason", "start": 8883}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/31/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/32", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S32", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 32, "start": 9037, "end": 9187, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Patreon questions: zakat again on savings that have not grown?", "question_plain": "Do I pay zakat again on savings that haven't grown?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth welcomes a first-time viewer, answers a chat remark, and opens the questions his patrons posted on Patreon. The first asks whether savings on which zakat was paid, and which stayed the same a year later, owe zakat again or only on the increase. Mufti answers that technically, they would say, zakat is paid again, since each year counts afresh. He then passes over a message he cannot make sense of.", "summary_short": "Zakat is due again each year on the same savings, Mufti Abu Layth says, giving it as what is technically said.", "answer_start": 9150, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["possible_quoted_view"], "topics": ["fiqh/zakat-and-charity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:zakat", "label": "zakat"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/32/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/33", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S33", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 33, "start": 9187, "end": 9268, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why does it matter whether I believe in God? Consciousness as the way back", "question_plain": "How do I explain to someone why believing in God matters?", "summary": "A patron asks how to approach someone who asked why it matters whether one believes in God, having answered with the purpose of life. Mufti Abu Layth says that to him the modern gateway back to God is consciousness, which he honestly believes will revive interest in God and already has in many circles. He says people are also afraid of this, because God brings so much baggage and they do not want the church or the mosque back in the discourse, but that following consciousness will only lead to God.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth believes consciousness is the modern gateway back to God, and that following it will lead there.", "answer_start": 9187, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he honestly believes the modern gateway to God is through consciousness.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the modern portal and Gateway to God is through Consciousness I honestly do", "start": 9187}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/33/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/34", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S34", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 34, "start": 9268, "end": 9410, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was Prophet Yusuf more handsome than the Prophet? It is not a competition", "question_plain": "Can I say Prophet Yusuf was more handsome than Prophet Muhammad?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a patron's rambling message about falling in love with the story of Yusuf, which he jokes about misreading, and then about hadiths in which the Prophet said he had a better story than Yusuf. He says each prophet has a unique story; Muslims hold the Prophet Muhammad to be the central figure and the greatest prophet because his mission was to all humanity, but that does not mean nothing good can be said of others, citing the Prophet's saying not to call him better than Jonah. It is not a competition, he says: if a prophet was especially strong, or Yusuf especially handsome, one need not insist that the Prophet was more so, and doing so is just insecurity, though Muslims believe the Prophet was incredibly handsome.", "summary_short": "Praising Yusuf's beauty takes nothing from the Prophet Muhammad, Mufti Abu Layth says; the prophets are not in a competition.", "answer_start": 9333, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:yusuf", "label": "Yusuf (Joseph)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yunus", "label": "Yunus (Jonah)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:206b1939", "label": "report: do not say i am better than yunus (unresolved; collection not stated)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the prophets are not in a competition, so saying Yusuf was especially handsome does not require insisting the Prophet Muhammad was more handsome.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "does it have to mean the prophet was also stronger you know doesn't it's not a competition so if you say yfam was incredibly you know the most uh you know so handsome", "start": 9370}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/34/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/35", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S35", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 35, "start": 9410, "end": 9800, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Eating with the left hand: the hadith of Umar ibn Abi Salama", "question_plain": "Is it haram to eat with my left hand?", "summary": "A left-handed patron, tired of being told to switch, asks about the hadith in which the Prophet told someone to eat with his right hand. Mufti Abu Layth says this is a matter of adab, eating etiquette, not of halal and haram. He explains that the main hadith, in al-Bukhari and Muslim, concerns Umar ibn Abi Salama [?], the young stepson raised in the Prophet's house through his mother Umm Salama [?], whom the Prophet told, 'Boy, say bismillah, eat with your right hand and eat from what is in front of you', teaching a child the table manners of a time when people ate from one tray. He says eating with the right hand is still Muslim etiquette and he supports it, with hygiene behind it in a hot climate with little water, but if it is difficult or inconvenient one can eat with the left hand, as it is not haram. He adds that he is left-handed himself, was taught to eat with his right, and later became ambidextrous.", "summary_short": "Eating with the left hand is not haram, Mufti Abu Layth says; the right hand is good etiquette taught to a child, so do it if you can.", "answer_start": 9449, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "fiqh/food"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a66e3532", "label": "report: say bismillah eat with your right hand and eat from what is in front of you (unresolved; Umar ibn Abi Salama, Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-abi-salama", "label": "Umar ibn Abi Salama [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umm-salama", "label": "Umm Salama [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adab", "label": "adab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says eating with the left hand is not haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "but I'm just saying if you can't fine eat with the left hand it's not Haram", "start": 9760}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/35/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/36", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S36", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 36, "start": 9800, "end": 9911, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Brain chips, and why Moses struck the sea with his staff", "question_plain": "Why did Moses have to strike the sea with his staff for it to part?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth first says that talk of neural links and brain chips will require religion to start having those conversations. Asked why Moses was told to strike the sea with his staff for it to part, he says the sea did not simply part but took a long while, and that the strike was in some ways a ritual showing the Children of Israel, who complained of being trapped between the sea and Pharaoh's chariots, that the way would be through the sea. He cites research by Colin Humphreys and others documenting seas parting at the Gulf of Aqaba as a gradual process that may take a few hours, which he says matches the narrations that it took a whole night and the sea had parted by morning.", "summary_short": "The sea did not part instantly but over a long while, Mufti Abu Layth says; striking it showed the Israelites the way would be through it.", "answer_start": 9800, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "quran/quran-and-science"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firawn", "label": "Pharaoh"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:colin-humphreys", "label": "Colin Humphreys"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:exodus", "label": "the Exodus"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the sea did not just part; it took a long while.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the general description is that the sea didn't just part it took a long while", "start": 9800}}, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/36/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/37", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S37", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 37, "start": 9911, "end": 10684, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A preacher's post on Ibn Ashur and the second coming: what the tafsir says", "question_plain": "Did Ibn Ashur say Jesus was raised alive and will return?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the preacher he calls Shaykh Shadi, punning that 'shadi' can mean monkey, says he has a video on the man's incompetence and questions his PhD, and shows the preacher's Instagram post on a Maliki scholar, Ibn Ashur [?], and the second coming of Jesus. He says the post portrays the scholar as holding that Jesus was raised miraculously alive with everything else doubtful, and that a group of Companions narrate hadith of the second coming with nothing in the Quran against it. Reading the tafsir on screen, Mufti says it states only that what must be believed from the Quran is that Jesus was not killed or crucified and that God raised and saved him, and that how this happened is subject to interpretation. He shows that on the verse 'I am giving you death' (3:55) the tafsir takes the apparent meaning of a real death, rejects reading it as sleep, points to Jesus speaking in Surah al-Ma'idah as one who had already died, and cites Imam Malik's view that Jesus died while the early authorities stayed silent on how. The tafsir adds, he says, that texts saying Jesus is alive are better read as an honorific life, as with martyrs.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says a preacher's post misquotes the tafsir it cites, which takes the verse to mean Jesus really died and leaves how he was raised open to interpretation.", "answer_start": 9911, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-tahrir-wa-al-tanwir", "label": "al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir (Ibn Ashur's tafsir) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:55", "label": "Quran 3:55"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:157-158", "label": "Quran 4:157-158"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:117", "label": "Quran 5:117"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/37/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/38", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S38", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 38, "start": 10684, "end": 11266, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Did not oppose' or 'did not address'? The misread line on the second coming", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say nothing against Jesus' second coming?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the most important point is the post's claim that a group of Companions narrate the hadith of the second coming and that nothing in the Quran goes against it. Reading the tafsir on screen, he says the scholar is discussing a problem with one hadith, that Jesus would live forty years after returning, which is not transmitted by other Companions, and notes that the hadith on the matter disagree with each other and are unclear. The key sentence, he says, is that when the Quran enumerates God's favours upon Jesus in Surah al-Ma'idah, it did not address or deal with the second coming among them. He shows Google Translate and a dictionary for the verb, and says the preacher confused it with a similar verb meaning 'to oppose' [?], turning a point against the second coming into one for it. Mufti concludes that either the preacher's Arabic is incompetent or he is intentionally misleading people, and mocks it as 'monkey business'.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the post mistranslates the tafsir: it says the Quran does not address the second coming, not that nothing in the Quran opposes it.", "answer_start": 10684, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/arabic-language", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:110", "label": "Quran 5:110"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/38/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/39", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S39", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 39, "start": 11266, "end": 11390, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Reaction to a niqabi's clip using driving as a metaphor for sex", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth begins to wrap up, then plays a clip someone sent him of a woman in niqab speaking on sex [?], who begins with a metaphor about driving a car, though it soon becomes clear what she means. The clip's speech is not in the captions. Afterwards Mufti says there is nothing wrong in what the lady is saying.", "summary_short": "A clip of a woman in niqab using a driving metaphor for intimacy, in which Mufti Abu Layth sees nothing wrong.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/intimacy"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/39/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/40", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S40", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 40, "start": 11390, "end": 11541, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A risque proverb from al-Andalus: 'the nerves are connected'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth jokes again about a 'direct channel', then shares a proverb he read some time ago in a book of the proverbs of the people of al-Andalus [?]. In it, someone says the way to the beloved's heart is through the rear, and when asked how that could sway the heart, replies that the nerves are connected, which became the proverb. Mufti ties it back to the clip's driving metaphor.", "summary_short": "A bawdy Andalusian proverb, 'the nerves are connected', shared by Mufti Abu Layth as a joke.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib", "arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/40/"}, {"id": "Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/41", "short_id": "2021-01-19-S41", "recording": "Hv-BlBVTr4M", "n": 41, "start": 11541, "end": 11670, "date": "20210119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: subscribe, thanks to patrons, and this week's Mind Trap", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth repeats the proverb's punchline for a 'beloved' he does not name, then wraps up, thanking viewers for their love and support. He points to his Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, jokes that he has lost his modesty in asking people to subscribe and turn on notifications, thanks his patrons, and says a Mind Trap discussion should come this week. He ends with a final jibe at 'Danny Boy'.", "summary_short": "Sign-off: Mufti Abu Layth thanks viewers, shares his social media links and says a Mind Trap discussion is due this week.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/41/"}, {"id": "IXSyLbrg6A0/s/1", "short_id": "2020-05-25-S01", "recording": "IXSyLbrg6A0", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 686, "date": "20200525", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "'I don't want to pray salah': prayer from gratitude, not fear, and the Companion who slept past dawn", "question_plain": "I stopped praying because it feels mechanical and forced; will I go to hell?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a question from someone who no longer prays five times because it feels mechanical and forced, dislikes feeling pressured and asks whether they will be sent to hell. After a joke about the pressure of hell, he says the deen is a path each person walks individually and that prayer, devotion and commitment mean different things at different stages; for some, reflection and learning are worship, for others dhikr, prayer and fasting. He says the questioner's journey is their own and they should take their time, that ritual is important for human beings and is like a lifeline thrown from a ship, and that even if they do not pray now they may some day; above all they should not develop hatred for the prayer, since even great imams of the past, among them Sayf al-Din al-Amidi [?] and another [?], abandoned it for a while and came back. He says those who can only pray their obligatory prayers before sleeping, or combine them at points of the day, are fine, and that it is not for others to condemn them. He says that for himself prayer is not out of fear of punishment or bad luck but a pulse of gratitude and connection, and that praying like that is the best way. He then tells the story of a Companion, identified in the chat as Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal, whose wife complained to the Prophet about his control of her charity, his objection to her voluntary fasts and his not praying Subh on time; the Prophet told them to be moderate with worship, and when the man said his people do not wake until after sunrise, the Prophet simply said 'when you wake up, pray', without threats of hellfire. He says the hadith is in Abu Dawud and other collections.", "summary_short": "Pray out of gratitude and connection, not fear of hell, and do not develop hatred for the prayer even if you slack or combine prayers; each person's journey is their own. The Prophet told a Companion who slept past dawn simply to pray when he wakes.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a8f03a5c", "label": "report: idha istayqazta fa-salli (when you wake up, pray)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:safwan-ibn-al-muattal", "label": "Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sayf-al-din-al-amidi", "label": "Sayf al-Din al-Amidi [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jam", "label": "jam' (combining prayers)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he personally prays out of gratitude and connection rather than fear of hell and that this is the best way to pray, that each person's journey is their own and others should not condemn them, and that someone struggling with prayer should not develop hatred for it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't personally pray out of this kind of fear of burning in hell and things like this I just pray out of a kind of sense of gratitude", "start": 331}}, "url": "/r/IXSyLbrg6A0/s/1/"}, {"id": "IijbMTxUEOw/s/1", "short_id": "2018-09-01-S01", "recording": "IijbMTxUEOw", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 310, "date": "20180901", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "What BukhariGate is: doctored transmission, Malik's standards and al-Farabri", "question_plain": "What is BukhariGate and why does Mufti Abu Layth say Sahih al-Bukhari is not reliable?", "summary": "Asked what he says about BukhariGate, Mufti Abu Layth explains that it is part of his expose showing that Sahih al-Bukhari is not so sahih and cannot reliably be traced back to Imam al-Bukhari: it most likely passed through many hands that doctored, added to and manipulated it, like a game of Chinese whispers, and he cites Bartlett's psychology of memory as an active, reconstructive process rather than passive recall. Much in it may be spot on, he says, but there is a huge question mark over how we know. He sets out his principle: Islam has already been conveyed through the living tradition, and this is not a denial of the Sunnah, since Imam Malik said hadith is not Sunnah, that one-from-one transmission would snatch the deen away, and that the living tradition is a thousand from a thousand; Malik brings hadith in the Muwatta and says it is not acted upon. He says he accepts hadith by the standards the muhaddithin themselves set: a report must not go against reason, against the Quran and transmitted sources, or against an Islamic principle; it is not certain to be from the Prophet but is workable. He then says Sahih al-Bukhari is transmitted with a connected chain of hearing through one man only, Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri, whom nobody vouched for as reliable in his lifetime, those who vouched for him coming two to four hundred years later, and says he has challenged those calling him out to come and discuss it, though most do not understand the topic.", "summary_short": "Sahih al-Bukhari cannot reliably be traced to its author because it reaches us through one transmitter, al-Farabri, whom nobody vouched for in his lifetime, and because transmission and memory reconstruct what they pass on. Mufti Abu Layth accepts hadith by the scholars' own standards, that a report not contradict reason, the Quran or an Islamic principle, while relying on the living tradition that Imam Malik called the Sunnah.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/collections-and-compilation"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:frederic-bartlett", "label": "Frederic Bartlett (psychologist)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and transmitted sources, or an Islamic principle"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Sahih al-Bukhari cannot reliably be traced to al-Bukhari because it reaches us through al-Farabri alone, whom nobody vouched for in his lifetime, that the deen is conveyed by the living tradition which Imam Malik distinguished from hadith, and that he accepts hadith only by the muhaddithin's own standards: a report must not contradict reason, the Quran and transmitted sources, or an Islamic principle.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "nobody that knew thoroughly in his lifetime ever vouched for him as a reliable person in hadith so we are taking all of this from one guy who nobody vouched for", "start": 231}}, "url": "/r/IijbMTxUEOw/s/1/"}, {"id": "IijbMTxUEOw/s/2", "short_id": "2018-09-01-S02", "recording": "IijbMTxUEOw", "n": 2, "start": 310, "end": 623, "date": "20180901", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Two Bukhari reports on the Quran: the Prophet forgetting a verse and Umar's verse of stoning", "question_plain": "Does Sahih al-Bukhari say the Prophet forgot verses of the Quran and that there was a verse of stoning?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth presents his first example from Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith 2655 in the book of testimonies, in which the Prophet hears a man reciting in the mosque and says may Allah have mercy on him, he has reminded me of such-and-such a verse that I had forgotten and dropped from such-and-such a surah. He stresses that the report has the Prophet forgetting the Quran. In the same vein he turns to hadith 6830 in the book of rebels, a long report about stoning. As a side point he notes a grammatical slip in its wording, which the footnotes themselves correct, and says it is a small matter. In the report Umar gives a speech saying that Allah sent Muhammad with the truth and revealed the book to him, and that among what was revealed was the verse of stoning, which they used to read, understand and comprehend, so that the Prophet stoned and they stoned after him; in another report Umar says that but for what people would say he would have written it into the Quran. Mufti says there is no verse of stoning in the Quran, that attributing this to Umar is disrespectful to Umar, and that it is disrespectful to the Quran because it is trying to say that the Quran has changed.", "summary_short": "Two Bukhari reports have the Prophet forgetting a verse of the Quran and Umar speaking of a verse of stoning that they used to recite. Mufti Abu Layth says there is no such verse, that this disrespects Umar and the Prophet, and that it implies the Quran has changed.", "answer_start": 310, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:2655", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 2655 (he reminded me of a verse I had forgotten)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:6830", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 6830 (Umar's speech on the verse of stoning)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report in which Umar speaks of a verse of stoning that was revealed and recited is disrespectful to Umar and to the Quran, since there is no verse of stoning in the Quran and the report amounts to saying the Quran has changed, and he highlights another Bukhari report in which the Prophet forgets a verse.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "so this is disrespectful to - Omar is disrespectful to the Quran is trying to say that what is saying the Quran has changed", "start": 575}}, "url": "/r/IijbMTxUEOw/s/2/"}, {"id": "IijbMTxUEOw/s/3", "short_id": "2018-09-01-S03", "recording": "IijbMTxUEOw", "n": 3, "start": 623, "end": 782, "date": "20180901", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hadith 364: the Prophet uncovered while carrying stones for the Kaaba", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth say about the Bukhari report of the Prophet falling unconscious when he uncovered himself?", "summary": "As an example of disrespect to the Prophet, Mufti Abu Layth reads hadith 364 of Sahih al-Bukhari, placed under the chapter discouraging being naked in prayer and set before prophethood, when the stones were being moved to rebuild the Kaaba. The Prophet is carrying a stone and his uncle Abbas tells him to take off his izar, the wrap the Arabs wore like a sarong, and put it on his shoulders to carry the stones; he does so, falls unconscious, and after that day is never seen naked again. Mufti says this is how the Prophet is repaid, calls the report nonsense, and says the scholars perform gymnastics to claim only part of his thigh was seen, although the report says he was never seen naked after that day and the chapter heading itself concerns nakedness. He says he will show another case of disrespect and looks for which report to go through next.", "summary_short": "The Bukhari report that the Prophet removed his izar while carrying stones for the Kaaba, fell unconscious and was never seen naked again is, in Mufti Abu Layth's words, nonsense that disrespects the Prophet, and he dismisses the scholars' attempts to soften it.", "answer_start": 623, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:364", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 364 (carrying stones for the Kaaba with the izar on his shoulders)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abbas-ibn-abd-al-muttalib", "label": "al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:izar", "label": "izar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Ka'bah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report that the Prophet fell unconscious after removing his izar to carry stones for the Kaaba and was never seen naked again is nonsense that disrespects the Prophet, and that the scholars' efforts to soften it contradict its own wording.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this is how we are repaying the our profits with respect that is nonsense", "start": 689}}, "url": "/r/IijbMTxUEOw/s/3/"}, {"id": "IijbMTxUEOw/s/4", "short_id": "2018-09-01-S04", "recording": "IijbMTxUEOw", "n": 4, "start": 782, "end": 938, "date": "20180901", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hadith 3242: the woman beside Umar's palace in paradise", "question_plain": "What is the Bukhari report about the Prophet seeing a woman beside Umar's palace in paradise?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a report from the book of the beginning of creation, which he numbers 3242 [?], in which Abu Hurayra relates that the Prophet said that while asleep he saw himself in paradise, walking around, and saw a woman performing wudu beside a palace; told that the palace belonged to Umar, he remembered Umar's ghayra, his protective jealousy over his womenfolk, and turned away, and Umar wept and asked how he could ever be jealous of the Messenger of Allah. Mufti says that this is how the report describes the Prophet, seeing a woman and turning away because of Umar's jealousy over his women and palaces, and asks what light this casts on the Prophet. He then announces another very famous report, that of the Prophet on his deathbed, from the book of military expeditions, hadith 4431 narrated from Ibn Abbas.", "summary_short": "The Bukhari report in which the Prophet sees a woman beside Umar's palace in paradise and turns away because of Umar's jealousy casts the Prophet in a poor light, Mufti Abu Layth says.", "answer_start": 782, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "belief/afterlife/paradise-and-hell"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:3242", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 3242 (the woman beside Umar's palace in paradise) [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report in which the Prophet turns away from a woman beside Umar's palace in paradise because of Umar's jealousy casts the Prophet in a poor light.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "look what light its casting upon our beloved prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam", "start": 879}}, "url": "/r/IijbMTxUEOw/s/4/"}, {"id": "IijbMTxUEOw/s/5", "short_id": "2018-09-01-S05", "recording": "IijbMTxUEOw", "n": 5, "start": 938, "end": 1095, "date": "20180901", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hadith 4431: the deathbed request for writing materials and the companions' dispute", "question_plain": "What is the Bukhari deathbed report in which the companions ask whether the Prophet is delirious?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads hadith 4431, the report of the Prophet's final days: on a Thursday, in great pain, the Prophet asks for something to write on so that he can write a document after which they would never go astray, and those present begin to argue and dispute among themselves, which Mufti says is unbefitting in the presence of a prophet, and ask what is the matter with him, whether he is speaking deliriously, a word Mufti explains as talking nonsense. He says this is how the report portrays the companions of the Prophet, calls it untrue, and observes that the Shia always use this report to attack the companions, which Sunnis allow by accepting it, doing themselves no justice. He then introduces a report he has mentioned before, from the book of jihad, hadith 2819, in which Sulayman the son of Dawud says that tonight he will go to a hundred, or in one version ninety-nine, women, each of whom will bear a warrior son, and does not say insha'Allah when his companion tells him to.", "summary_short": "The Bukhari deathbed report in which the companions dispute and ask whether the Prophet is speaking deliriously portrays the companions badly and is not true, Mufti Abu Layth says, and Sunnis hand the Shia a weapon by accepting it.", "answer_start": 938, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "history/companions", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:4431", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 4431 (bring me something to write on; is he speaking deliriously?)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari deathbed report in which the companions dispute before the Prophet and ask whether he is speaking deliriously portrays the companions badly and is not true, and that Sunnis allow the Shia to use it against the companions by accepting it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I mean look at the nonsense attributing that this this is not true", "start": 994}}, "url": "/r/IijbMTxUEOw/s/5/"}, {"id": "IijbMTxUEOw/s/6", "short_id": "2018-09-01-S06", "recording": "IijbMTxUEOw", "n": 6, "start": 1095, "end": 1330, "date": "20180901", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hadith 2819: Sulayman and the hundred women, and the criteria for rejecting a report", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth reject the Bukhari report of Sulayman and the hundred women?", "summary": "Continuing the report of Sulayman, Mufti Abu Layth says that according to it none of the women conceived except one, who bore a half-formed child, and the Prophet said that had Sulayman said insha'Allah they would all have borne warriors. He calls the report absurd on its face, calculates that even at a few minutes each the night would run to fifteen or more hours, and says that apart from putting a prophet of God in such a bad light, it leaves only two reasons for not saying insha'Allah, that Sulayman forgot or that he was too arrogant or could not be bothered, and that God then punished a prophet for forgetting by giving him a disabled child, so that disabled children become a punishment from God. He asks what picture of God and of the prophets this paints. He says people need to be transparent: if a report fits with reason, does not clash with the Quran and the general understanding of Islam, and does not uproot Islamic principles, it is accepted, and if it does not it goes out of the window; Sahih al-Bukhari is not so sahih and al-Farabri, its only transmitter, is not reliable. He then introduces hadith 3663 from the virtues of the companions, transmitted from Abu al-Yaman, who says he was informed by Shu'ayb rather than that Shu'ayb narrated to him.", "summary_short": "The report of Sulayman going to a hundred women in one night is absurd and disrespects a prophet, and its moral that God punished him with a disabled child paints a troubling picture of God. A report that clashes with reason, the Quran or Islamic principles goes out of the window.", "answer_start": 1095, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:2819", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 2819 (Sulayman: tonight I will go to a hundred women)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and transmitted sources, or an Islamic principle"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report of Sulayman and the hundred women is absurd, puts a prophet in a bad light and portrays God as punishing a prophet with a disabled child, and that any report which clashes with reason, the Quran and the general understanding of Islam, or uproots an Islamic principle, is to be rejected.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "if a hadith fits in with with the conditions with reason if it fits in with it doesn't clash with the Quran and the general understanding of Islam and it doesn't approve Islamic principles we will accept it", "start": 1264}}, "url": "/r/IijbMTxUEOw/s/6/"}, {"id": "IijbMTxUEOw/s/7", "short_id": "2018-09-01-S07", "recording": "IijbMTxUEOw", "n": 7, "start": 1330, "end": 1565, "date": "20180901", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hadith 3663: the talking wolf and cow, and an anachronism in the Prophet's words", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth say about the Bukhari report of the wolf and the cow that spoke?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth first notes as a side point that Abu al-Yaman, who is senior to al-Bukhari, is said to have heard only one hadith directly from Shu'ayb and to have transmitted the rest from a book. In the report, Abu Hurayra relates that the Prophet said a wolf took a shepherd's sheep, and when the shepherd tried to retrieve it the wolf spoke eloquent Arabic, asking who would guard the sheep on the day of the wild beasts when it alone was shepherd; the report then jumps to a man riding a cow, which turned to him and said it was not created for riding but for ploughing, upon which the people said subhanAllah and the Prophet said that he, Abu Bakr and Umar believed in it. Mufti points out that the words radi Allahu anhuma, which the Prophet is made to use of Abu Bakr and Umar, came into use long afterwards, and although a narrator might have inserted them, the whole story has a wolf and a cow speaking Arabic and grasping concepts such as purpose and future events that animals do not have. He calls the description absurd and the chain poor.", "summary_short": "The Bukhari report in which a wolf and a cow speak eloquent Arabic about purpose and the future is absurd, Mufti Abu Layth says, and the phrase radi Allahu anhuma placed in the Prophet's mouth is an anachronism from a later age.", "answer_start": 1330, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:3663", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 3663 (the wolf and the cow that spoke)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-yaman", "label": "Abu al-Yaman"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shuayb-ibn-abi-hamza", "label": "Shu'ayb ibn Abi Hamza"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report of the talking wolf and cow is absurd, since animals do not grasp concepts such as purpose and future events, that its chain is poor, and that the phrase radi Allahu anhuma attributed to the Prophet is an anachronism from a later age.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "these words came much after like weave like muslims we use these words when we're gonna speak about the Companions", "start": 1492}}, "url": "/r/IijbMTxUEOw/s/7/"}, {"id": "IijbMTxUEOw/s/8", "short_id": "2018-09-01-S08", "recording": "IijbMTxUEOw", "n": 8, "start": 1565, "end": 1723, "date": "20180901", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hadith 3431: Shaytan touches every newborn except Mary and Jesus", "question_plain": "What does the Bukhari report that Shaytan touches every newborn except Mary and Jesus mean?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads hadith 3431, again transmitted through Abu al-Yaman, that no child of Adam is born without Shaytan touching or pinching him at birth, so that the child screams, and that this is why newborns cry, with the exception of Mary and her son. He says that on this report every prophet, including the Prophet Muhammad, was afflicted by the touch of the devil, while the conception of Mary and the blessed conception of Jesus are exempt, which he presents as an echo of the Christian doctrine of the immaculate conception and of Jesus as saviour. He then turns to the Shia and Aisha: Sunnis take issue with the Shia for criticising Aisha, which he says is rightly so, since she was the Prophet's wife and beloved to him and to criticise her is in a way to criticise the Prophet, and he says he will show what Bukhari itself contains about her.", "summary_short": "The Bukhari report that Shaytan touches every newborn except Mary and Jesus makes even the Prophet Muhammad subject to the devil's touch while exempting the two figures of Christian doctrine, which Mufti Abu Layth presents as a Christian idea in the collection.", "answer_start": 1565, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:3431", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 3431 (no child is born without Shaytan touching him, except Mary and her son)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-yaman", "label": "Abu al-Yaman"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/IijbMTxUEOw/s/8/"}, {"id": "IijbMTxUEOw/s/9", "short_id": "2018-09-01-S09", "recording": "IijbMTxUEOw", "n": 9, "start": 1723, "end": 1803, "date": "20180901", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hadith 3104: the Prophet pointing to Aisha's house as the place of fitna", "question_plain": "Does Sahih al-Bukhari say the Prophet pointed to Aisha's house as the source of fitna?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads hadith 3104 from the book of the fifth of the spoils, narrated by Nafi' from Abdullah, in which the Messenger of Allah stands to give a speech, points towards the house of Aisha and says three times that the fitna is here, where the horn of Shaytan will rise. He asks what is wrong with the people transmitting this, says it is deeply disrespectful to the Prophet and to Aisha, who is beloved to Muslims generally, and says Muslims seriously need to question what they are pushing as authentic. He adds that there are many other smaller things of the same kind.", "summary_short": "The Bukhari report in which the Prophet points to Aisha's house and says the fitna and the horn of Shaytan will rise there is, Mufti Abu Layth says, disrespectful to the Prophet and to Aisha, and Muslims should question what they pass off as authentic.", "answer_start": 1723, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:3104", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 3104 (the fitna is here, pointing to Aisha's house)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nafi", "label": "Nafi'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report in which the Prophet points to Aisha's house as the place where the fitna and the horn of Shaytan will rise is disrespectful to the Prophet and to Aisha, and that Muslims need to question what they present as authentic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "what the hell is wrong with these people well this is so disrespectful to our prophet", "start": 1749}}, "url": "/r/IijbMTxUEOw/s/9/"}, {"id": "IijbMTxUEOw/s/10", "short_id": "2018-09-01-S10", "recording": "IijbMTxUEOw", "n": 10, "start": 1803, "end": 1961, "date": "20180901", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Closing verdict: one transmitter, and reports that repay the Prophet with disrespect", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth say BukhariGate matters?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth mentions briefly a report, which he numbers 137 [?], that the Prophet slept until something like snoring could be heard and then rose and prayed without renewing wudu, which he finds odd. His point, he says, is that this is why BukhariGate was so important: the whole book is transmitted on the back of one man, al-Farabri, and the public will not forgive those transmitting what he calls nonsense and hatred against the Prophet. He lists the reports he has discussed and others: that a prophet would go to a hundred women and be punished with a disabled child, that the Prophet fell unconscious when uncovered, that he married a little girl, that he forgot the Quran and had to be reminded, that revelation came down and omitted the disabled until it was corrected, that Umar spoke of extra verses that used to be in the Quran, and that the devil is at Aisha's house. He says this is how the Wahhabis, whom he calls filthy haters of the Prophet, and their sympathisers and semi-Wahhabis today repay the Prophet, Umar and Aisha with such reports.", "summary_short": "BukhariGate matters because the whole of Sahih al-Bukhari rests on one transmitter, al-Farabri, and because the reports in it repay the Prophet and his companions with disrespect. Mufti Abu Layth attributes their circulation to Wahhabis and their sympathisers, whom he condemns in strong terms.", "answer_start": 1803, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:137", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 137 as cited (the Prophet slept until he could be heard breathing deeply and prayed without wudu) [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that BukhariGate matters because the whole of Sahih al-Bukhari rests on al-Farabri alone and because its reports repay the Prophet, Umar and Aisha with disrespect, and he attributes the circulation of these reports to Wahhabis and their sympathisers, whom he calls haters of the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this is why Buhari gate was so important and we have to remember this whole book transmitted on the back of one man robbery robbery", "start": 1822}}, "url": "/r/IijbMTxUEOw/s/10/"}, {"id": "J9NB1eLQ56Y/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-12b-S01", "recording": "J9NB1eLQ56Y", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 497, "date": "20210112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why was Ibn Taymiyya jailed? Enemies, takfir and the fatwa on visiting the Prophet", "question_plain": "Why was Ibn Taymiyya put in prison?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a super chat asking why Ibn Taymiyya was in jail. He says Ibn Taymiyya had annoyed many people, some of them powerful, by declaring Muslims kafir and deviants, and adds that he does not agree with persecuting people over religious differences; he also says he feels Ibn Taymiyya may have suffered from mental health issues, turning bitter towards Muslims at times. He explains that Ibn Taymiyya shielded himself as a Hanbali, a small minority never more than about five percent, while most people and therefore the judges, who were as powerful as a council mayor, were Ash'ari or Sufi; he compares the charge used against him to the blasphemy card played by Khadim Hussain Rizvi [?]. He relates that his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya [?], giving a passionate khutbah in Jerusalem, said one may travel only to the three mosques and refused to visit the sanctuary dedicated to Ibrahim, saying it was equally impermissible to travel to Madinah to visit the Prophet rather than the mosque; people were outraged, the student fled, and Maliki judges imprisoned Ibn Taymiyya for that fatwa, guilty by association. Mufti calls the opinion foolish but says it should not be punished, and adds that Ibn Taymiyya also had good opinions and should not be disregarded entirely.", "summary_short": "Ibn Taymiyya made powerful enemies by declaring Muslims kafir, and Maliki judges finally jailed him over his fatwa, voiced by his student in Jerusalem, that one may not travel to visit the Prophet's grave. Mufti Abu Layth calls the view foolish but says no one should be punished for an opinion.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qayyim", "label": "Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khadim-hussain-rizvi", "label": "Khadim Hussain Rizvi [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5eee3c4d", "label": "report: do not travel except to three mosques"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kufr", "label": "kufr (declaring people kafir)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki judges"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:masjid-al-aqsa", "label": "al-Masjid al-Aqsa (or the Dome of the Rock)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khutbah", "label": "khutbah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Taymiyya was imprisoned over his fatwa that one may not travel to visit the Prophet, an opinion he calls foolish but says should not be punished, since people should not be persecuted over religious differences.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "although i disagree with locking people up and stuff like that and i i do feel his opinion is dumb but i don't feel you can punish them over it", "start": 452}}, "url": "/r/J9NB1eLQ56Y/s/1/"}, {"id": "JP-vZ7g-UW0/s/1", "short_id": "2021-03-10b-S01", "recording": "JP-vZ7g-UW0", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 220, "date": "20210310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Reply to Mufti Mangera on ear piercing: who defines normal and decent?", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip in which Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera answers a question on the limits of ear piercing, pausing it repeatedly to comment. In the clip the mufti says it is permissible to pierce any part of the body considered acceptable among decent people, that one or two piercings at the bottom of the ear are normal, that piercing higher up becomes abnormal, and that piercing the nose is fine because many Muslim cultures accept it. Mufti mocks the reasoning, asking who is defining normality and whether indecency is not usually about nudity. The clip then gives manipulation of the body as the reason other piercings are impermissible, which Mufti also questions.", "summary_short": "A played clip of Mufti Mangera allowing one or two ear piercings as 'normal' among decent people but not higher ones, which Mufti Abu Layth mocks for leaving undefined who decides what is normal.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdur-rahman-ibn-yusuf-mangera", "label": "Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/JP-vZ7g-UW0/s/1/"}, {"id": "JP-vZ7g-UW0/s/2", "short_id": "2021-03-10b-S02", "recording": "JP-vZ7g-UW0", "n": 2, "start": 220, "end": 457, "date": "20210310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Reply to Mufti Mangera: does the ban on muthla forbid piercing?", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The clip continues with Mufti Mangera saying that there is no muthla in Islam, meaning no mutilation of any part of the body by making a hole through it, as another reason against piercing. Mufti Abu Layth sarcastically summarises the clip's reasoning that one or two piercings are normal because decent people say so and that piercing the top of the ear is manipulating the body, and says he does not know what manipulating means here. He explains that muthla refers to disfiguring someone, especially the dead, as the ancient Arabs did to slain enemies by cutting off body parts, comparing it to cartel killings. He then mocks the inference that because muthla is haram piercing is not allowed, asking why it is then allowed in some places, and calls this an example of why the ummah is where it is.", "summary_short": "The clip cites the ban on muthla (mutilation) against piercing; Mufti Abu Layth explains that muthla means disfiguring bodies, especially of the dead, and mocks applying it to ear piercing.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdur-rahman-ibn-yusuf-mangera", "label": "Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muthla", "label": "muthla (mutilation)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/JP-vZ7g-UW0/s/2/"}, {"id": "JQMaIJJJVoI/s/1", "short_id": "2018-03-08b-S01", "recording": "JQMaIJJJVoI", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 632, "date": "20180308", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Should women wear the niqab? A cultural measure, and the rules specific to the Prophet's wives", "question_plain": "Do Muslim women have to wear the niqab?", "summary": "The clip opens with Mufti Abu Layth citing the Maliki commentator al-Dasuqi [?], who in his chapter on salah calls a woman's praying in niqab a form of extremism (ghuluw) in religion. Asked for his own view, he says it depends: he sees the niqab as a cultural measure, which a woman should wear where uncovering her face would endanger her, as in places where she could be abducted or seriously harassed, comparing it to a helmet on a motorbike, something to do with safety and not religion. Where there is no such danger it becomes a religious statement, and he says he does not consider the niqab part of the religion at all, citing a senior Maliki authority whom he has visited, whose name is garbled in the transcript [?], as saying it is neither fard nor sunnah but cultural; in the West, he says, he does not think people should wear it, since it creates a barrier. To a follow-up about the Prophet's wives covering their faces, he says that in his understanding they covered as Arab men and women generally did when travelling, while the screen behind which they addressed and taught people, and the ban on marrying them after the Prophet, were rules specific to them, honouring their status as mothers of the believers and safeguarding them, the Prophet and Islam from plots and from those who boasted they would marry his wives after his death. He ends with the choice the Quran gave the wives between this world and the Messenger, and Aisha's report that they chose him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth does not consider the niqab part of the religion: it is a cultural measure, sensible only where a woman's safety requires it, and in the West he thinks it should not be worn. The screen rules for the Prophet's wives were specific to them.", "answer_start": 37, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:niqab", "label": "niqab (face veil)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dasuqi", "label": "al-Dasuqi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ghuluw", "label": "ghuluw (extremism in religion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:53", "label": "Quran 33:53 (addressing the Prophet's wives from behind a screen; not marrying them after him)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:6", "label": "Quran 33:6 (his wives are their mothers)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:28-29", "label": "Quran 33:28-29 (the choice given to the Prophet's wives)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:336fe573", "label": "report: the messenger of allah gave us the choice and we chose him"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, as far as religion is concerned, he does not consider the niqab to be part of the religion at all.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "in this part it becomes then a religious statement and as far as religion is concerned I do not consider the niqab to be at all part of the religion", "start": 231}}, "url": "/r/JQMaIJJJVoI/s/1/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/1", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S01", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 156, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Backdrop: how the Sana'a manuscripts were found in a mosque loft in the 1970s", "question_plain": "What are the Sana'a manuscripts and how were they discovered?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives the backdrop to the manuscript controversy. He says it begins in Yemen in the 1970s, when workers reconstructing the dome of a mosque in Sana'a, the capital, found a bundle of old manuscripts stuck in a loft section. He explains that this is nothing shocking: in the past, people wishing to dispose of sacred texts would often collect them, put them away somewhere high such as in a dome, and perhaps burn them later once enough had accumulated; here they were simply left and forgotten. He says the find, which he dates to about 1972, contained quite a few pages, that in some of them the Quran was recognised, not a complete Quran but, by some accounts, much of Surat al-Tawba, with perhaps around eighty pages' worth. He adds that these are not pages in the modern sense but parchments made from animal hide, one of the materials people wrote on.", "summary_short": "The Sana'a manuscripts are parchment pages of the Quran, including much of Surat al-Tawba, found in the 1970s in the loft of a mosque dome in Sana'a, where old sacred texts had been stored and forgotten. Storing texts this way was a common practice.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:discovery-of-the-sanaa-manuscripts", "label": "the discovery of the Sana'a manuscripts (1970s)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/1/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/2", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S02", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 2, "start": 156, "end": 310, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Experts, microfilm and the hidden lower text: a reused parchment", "question_plain": "Why does the Sana'a manuscript have two layers of text?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says experts were called in, found the manuscripts interesting and put them on microfilm, after which a long legal battle with the Yemeni government followed until, he thinks in the 1990s, the German experts were allowed to release the microfilms and research began. The manuscripts carried verses of the Quran, which was not surprising, but researchers noticed a shadow effect under the writing: something had been written on the parchment before, wiped clean and written over, so the visible text is not the earliest writing on it. He explains that this too was common practice in ancient Arabia, where paper did not exist and people wrote on animal skin, washing or wiping it clean when they needed to rewrite. Using the latest equipment, computer visualisation and lighting techniques such as ultraviolet, the researchers extracted the lower text, which also appears to be the Quran. He says it becomes more interesting at this point, because the lower text seems to differ in some ways from the Quran as currently understood.", "summary_short": "The Sana'a parchment is a reused sheet: an earlier Quranic text was wiped and written over, as was common before paper, and modern imaging has recovered the lower text. That lower text differs in some ways from the Quran as read today.", "answer_start": 156, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:discovery-of-the-sanaa-manuscripts", "label": "the discovery of the Sana'a manuscripts (1970s)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:palimpsest", "label": "palimpsest (the Sana'a palimpsest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/2/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/3", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S03", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 3, "start": 310, "end": 467, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The term palimpsest, the researchers, and the claim that the Quran was wrong", "question_plain": "Who has studied the Sana'a palimpsest and what is the controversy about?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the document has become known as the Sana'a manuscript and also as a palimpsest, a parchment wiped clean and reused, and explains the term so that viewers know what is being discussed. He names the main researchers: a German couple, Dr and Mrs Puin [?], who have had ample opportunity to study the manuscript and written their thesis on it; Dr Asma Hilali, who has released a book called The Sana'a Palimpsest [?]; and two further specialists, Sadeghi [?] and Goudarzi [?]. He says their work is available online but is academic rather than everyday reading. Turning to the controversy, he says many people have picked this up to say that the Quran was wrong because here is one of the earliest versions and it differs from the Quran Muslims have today. He breaks off briefly to ask viewers not to troll and to say the admin team will block anyone who does.", "summary_short": "The Sana'a manuscript is a palimpsest studied by the Puins, Asma Hilali, Sadeghi and Goudarzi, and people online have used it to claim that the Quran Muslims have is not the original. Mufti Abu Layth sets out to answer that claim.", "answer_start": 310, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:palimpsest", "label": "palimpsest (the Sana'a palimpsest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:gerd-puin", "label": "Gerd Puin [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:elisabeth-puin", "label": "Elisabeth Puin [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asma-hilali", "label": "Asma Hilali"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-sanaa-palimpsest", "label": "The Sana'a Palimpsest (Asma Hilali) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:behnam-sadeghi", "label": "Behnam Sadeghi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mohsen-goudarzi", "label": "Mohsen Goudarzi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/3/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/4", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S04", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 4, "start": 467, "end": 782, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The claims and the facts: first-century dating, the living tradition, and why hadith was easier to corrupt", "question_plain": "Does the Sana'a manuscript show that the Quran was changed?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth states the concern raised by certain ex-Muslims and Christians: that an early version of the Quran has been found from which Muslims deviated, showing that the Quran was changed and that today's Quran is not the real one. He reports that Elisabeth Puin [?] concludes, in academic terms, that the Quran was almost a work in progress, modified with each generation in an evolving process, and says this is not the conclusion of the other researchers, Sadeghi [?], Goudarzi [?] or Asma Hilali. He then sets out the facts: the Quran has been part of the Muslim living tradition; many very old manuscripts exist, including the Birmingham manuscript, dating to the first century of Islam; the Sana'a manuscript also dates to the first century, placed by dating the skin somewhere between thirty and sixty years after the Prophet; and it is not the only manuscript found. He says that in the first hundred years the Quran was the only thing Muslims documented and taught from parent to child, while hadith was not documented until at least a century after the Prophet. Repeating what he has explained elsewhere, he says the Quran was difficult to corrupt because it was so widespread, because its nature is not to go into detail so there is little to insert, because any insertion would have to match its style and flow, and because everybody was reading it in their prayers and completing it in Ramadan, so the return on investment for a corrupter was too little; it was easier to corrupt hadith, which is why many fabricated hadith emerged, though he is not saying all hadith are corrupt. He ends by saying the finding does not show an evolving Quran, because Muslims already accept that the Quran was revealed with a kind of fluidity.", "summary_short": "The Sana'a manuscript and others such as the Birmingham manuscript date to the first century of Islam, when the Quran was the one text Muslims documented and taught everywhere. The Quran was too widespread and too distinctive in style to corrupt profitably, which is why fabrication targeted hadith instead.", "answer_start": 467, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:elisabeth-puin", "label": "Elisabeth Puin [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:behnam-sadeghi", "label": "Behnam Sadeghi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mohsen-goudarzi", "label": "Mohsen Goudarzi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asma-hilali", "label": "Asma Hilali"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:birmingham-quran-manuscript", "label": "the Birmingham Quran manuscript"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Sana'a find does not show an evolving Quran: the manuscript dates to the first century like others, the Quran was the one text documented and taught everywhere from the start, and it was too widespread and too distinctive in style to corrupt, so fabrication targeted hadith instead.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this finding does not show that this was an evolution in Pro in progress or the Quran was for example a working model that people were working on it and changing it", "start": 722}}, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/4/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/5", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S05", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 5, "start": 782, "end": 1016, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Fluidity in revelation: companions who read differently, and Ibn Mas'ud's view of the qunut and the mu'awwidhatayn", "question_plain": "Did the companions ever read or understand the Quran differently from each other?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains the fluidity Muslims already accept in how the Quran was revealed, which he says is not fully understood today except through hadith showing there were different ways to read it. He recounts the report in which a companion hears another reciting differently, takes him to the Prophet, and the Prophet has each recite and says both are correct and the Quran is read in multiple ways; he stresses that these multiple recitations are not the seven readings known today, though those may be part of it. He says the hadith books, Bukhari, Muslim and others, also record that one or two companions sometimes held what they thought was the correct reading of a verse and may have been mistaken, which he calls common sense. He gives the example of Ibn Mas'ud [?], who assumed the qunut supplication was part of the Quran because of its rhythm and the reverence with which the Prophet taught it, until others told him it was a du'a, and who conversely assumed the two surahs of seeking refuge were only supplications and not part of the Quran, until the companions corrected him. He says all this is well documented in Muslim books with transparency, and mentions an imam's introduction [?], which he has explained on YouTube or SoundCloud, that describes how some companions, Ibn Mas'ud among them, pronounced letters differently because of their tribes, swapping the hamza for a similar sound; he compares this to the glottal stop in British English and to how Egyptians and Gulf Arabs pronounce the jim and the qaf.", "summary_short": "Muslims already accept that the Quran was revealed with fluidity: the Prophet approved different recitations, and the tradition openly records companions such as Ibn Mas'ud holding mistaken views about what was part of the Quran and pronouncing letters by their tribal dialect. None of this is a shock to Muslims.", "answer_start": 782, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:48d2fb97", "label": "report: two companions recited differently and the prophet said both are correct the quran is read in several ways"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qunut", "label": "qunut (the supplication Ibn Mas'ud took for Quran)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muawwidhatayn", "label": "al-mu'awwidhatayn (the two surahs of seeking refuge)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the seven or ten readings)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the tradition itself records that the Prophet approved different recitations and that companions such as Ibn Mas'ud sometimes held mistaken views about what belonged to the Quran, so variant readings in an early manuscript are nothing new to Muslims.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this is already part of our tradition we already know this this is not a shock this is like something actually well written and documented in our books", "start": 914}}, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/5/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/6", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S06", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 6, "start": 1016, "end": 1174, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Tribal pronunciation and why native speakers of classical Arabic could swap words", "question_plain": "Why might an early Arab have written a Quranic word differently?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth continues with the examples of dialect: in the Prophet's time some tribes swapped the hamza for an 'ayn or one guttural letter for another because that was how they spoke Arabic, just as Gulf Arabs today pronounce the qaf as a g; these things are already known and are not presented as a shock. He says the real question is the general transmission of the Quran, not what one person may have written or omitted. He then makes a further point of background: for Muslims today, eloquent classical Arabic is something met only in the Quran and classical poetry, since even Arabs do not speak or read it and Modern Standard Arabic is not eloquent in that style, whereas the ancient Arabs spoke that very language. For someone whose everyday speech and poetry were in that language it was much more feasible to replace or mix up a word when writing from memory, while for later Muslims, who keep Quranic Arabic in a separate mental compartment and simply memorise it, substitution is less easy. He says he mentions this only as backdrop before looking at the manuscript itself.", "summary_short": "The companions spoke classical Arabic as their everyday language, so substituting a word from memory was far easier for them than for later Muslims who memorise Quranic Arabic as a separate language. Tribal pronunciation differences were known and are not the issue; the general transmission is.", "answer_start": 1016, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/arabic-language"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/6/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/7", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S07", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 7, "start": 1174, "end": 1327, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Asma Hilali's analysis: personal notes, and 'do not say bismillah' before Surat al-Tawba", "question_plain": "Was the Sana'a palimpsest an official copy of the Quran or someone's personal notes?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth presents Asma Hilali's analysis of the manuscript, which concludes that it was most likely the personal notes of someone in a study circle, for two reasons. First, the writer sometimes wrote a letter in the middle of a word in its final form with a tail [?], which does not make sense in the usual script and suggests he wrote words down and later added to them. Second, and more fascinating to Mufti, before Surat al-Tawba, which does not begin with the basmala, the writer had written 'do not say bismillah here', which is plainly a personal note and not the Quran. Mufti says he is not sure it was a student in a study circle as Hilali suggests, but that it is definitely somebody's personal script, with notes such as 'do not say bismillah here', and that Dr Puin's [?] view that it was some kind of standard manuscript being sent out has no evidence at all behind it.", "summary_short": "The lower text contains notes such as 'do not say bismillah here' before Surat al-Tawba, which shows it was someone's personal script, as Asma Hilali argues, and not a standard copy sent out to communities. Mufti Abu Layth finds no evidence for the Puins' view that it was official.", "answer_start": 1174, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asma-hilali", "label": "Asma Hilali"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:gerd-puin", "label": "Gerd Puin [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:palimpsest", "label": "palimpsest (the Sana'a palimpsest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the lower text of the Sana'a palimpsest is somebody's personal script with his own notes, not a standard manuscript, and that there is no evidence for the view that it was an official copy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I'm not so sure whether it was a student documenting it in a study circle like Dr Asma hilali has said but what I think is this is definitely somebody's personal script", "start": 1301}}, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/7/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/8", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S08", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 8, "start": 1327, "end": 1483, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The twenty to thirty discrepancies, and why they are most likely one person's mistaken reading", "question_plain": "What are the differences between the Sana'a lower text and today's Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the researchers have listed some twenty to thirty discrepancies between the lower text and the Quran as read today, which he will not go through in full. Sometimes a word is missing: where today's reading says Allah will punish them with a severe punishment, the manuscript says only that Allah will punish them; in a verse about those who struggle in the path of God, today's text lacks the words 'with their wealth and lives' that the manuscript has, though those words occur in a different verse. Many of the differences are very small, such as 'they' for 'you', but words are also missing. His understanding, which he presents as the most plausible assessment rather than certain knowledge, is that this is most likely somebody's personal notes, possibly a companion's, in which the writer set down certain verses for himself in what he thought was the Quran, and that the writer was most likely mistaken in his reading, or that it was simply his own way of reading.", "summary_short": "The lower text differs from today's Quran in twenty to thirty mostly small ways, such as a missing word or a changed pronoun. Mufti Abu Layth's assessment is that it is one person's, possibly a companion's, personal notes written from a mistaken or personal reading.", "answer_start": 1327, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:palimpsest", "label": "palimpsest (the Sana'a palimpsest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the lower text of the Sana'a palimpsest is most likely someone's personal notes, possibly a companion's, written from his own and probably mistaken reading, rather than an alternative Quran.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this is most likely somebody he may have been a companion he may have been I'm not denying that um but somebody's personal notes", "start": 1418}}, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/8/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/9", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S09", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 9, "start": 1483, "end": 1719, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Uthman's standardisation, the flexibility of the undotted script, and the two possible explanations", "question_plain": "How did Uthman standardise the Quran, and does that explain the Sana'a text?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a few decades later Uthman, seeing that people had begun to misread the Quran, standardised and brought together the readings and wrote a particular script. That script was still flexible, because it lacked diacritical marks and most dots, so some words could be read in more than one way, for instance 'what they do' or 'what you do'; these variants are all part of the one Uthmanic reading, and the seven or ten ways of reading are within that one way, which a scholar [?] highlights in his book. He says it is no hidden knowledge that there were other readings from the Prophet's time that were not locked in, and that Uthman took the endeavour to lock in one reading so that people would not be confused. He therefore offers two explanations of the lower text: most likely it was someone's personal note of a reading he mistakenly thought correct, or possibly it was a way of reading those verses learned from the Prophet that was not the one locked in. He prefers the first, since a missing word looks like human error from people who had memorised, were on military campaigns and travelling, and did not sit with a library behind them; he adds that hadith record companions misreading verses, as everyone does, and that he himself would make many mistakes reciting from memory without revision.", "summary_short": "Uthman locked in one reading in an undotted script that still allowed the known variant readings, so the lower text is either a person's mistaken note or, less likely, a reading not locked in at that time. Mufti Abu Layth prefers the first, as simple human error from memory.", "answer_start": 1483, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the seven or ten readings)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "the Uthmanic mushaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Uthman standardised a single reading whose undotted script still allowed the variant readings, and that the Sana'a lower text is either a mistaken personal reading, which he thinks more likely, or a reading from the Prophet's time that was not locked in.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this under text of the manuscript was most likely somebody's personal note who thought that that reading was how it was and most likely I feel that he was mistaken", "start": 1570}}, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/9/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/10", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S10", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 10, "start": 1719, "end": 1955, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why the 'evolving Quran' claim fails: the discrepancies change nothing and would not be worth the risk", "question_plain": "Does the Sana'a manuscript prove the Quran evolved over time?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the claim, made by Dr Puin [?] and by some ex-Muslims and Christian preachers, that the manuscript shows an evolution of the Quran, with companions deliberately changing it, and says why he finds it absolutely wrong, acknowledging his bias as a Muslim. Looking at the discrepancies, he says they bring no fundamental change: whether a verse says Allah is aware of what you do or what they do, or whether 'a severe punishment' is dropped when other verses still say it, no purpose is served. Someone trying to corrupt the Quran would insert a powerful message, not change little pronouns, and since altering the Quran would have been a life-threatening risk, nobody would take that risk for petty and meaningless differences. He summarises: the manuscripts show that these texts are from first-century Islam, that there is an under-text and an over-text, that there are discrepancies, that the discrepancies are not substantial and do not derail the message, that they were most likely the mistaken notes of whoever wrote them, given personal notes such as 'do not say that', and that there is some potential that they preserve a reading that was not locked in, though he does not believe that is the stronger interpretation.", "summary_short": "The discrepancies in the Sana'a text are petty changes of pronouns and dropped words that serve no purpose, so they cannot be a deliberate evolution of the Quran, which nobody would have risked his life for. They are most likely a writer's mistaken notes.", "answer_start": 1719, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:elisabeth-puin", "label": "Elisabeth Puin [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:palimpsest", "label": "palimpsest (the Sana'a palimpsest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Sana'a discrepancies cannot be a deliberate evolution of the Quran, because they change nothing of substance and no one would have risked his life for such petty alterations.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "to change it with these like petty little differences is meaningless so to me that doesn't hold up at all", "start": 1876}}, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/10/"}, {"id": "K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/11", "short_id": "2019-03-01-S11", "recording": "K6fAZ7xW53Y", "n": 11, "start": 1955, "end": 2203, "date": "20190301", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The positive spin: the manuscript confirms the tradition's own account, and closing remarks", "question_plain": "Does the Sana'a manuscript support or undermine the Muslim account of the Quran's history?", "summary": "In conclusion Mufti Abu Layth offers a positive reading that he says others have not highlighted: the find reaffirms that the message passed down the generations has been accurate. It disproves those who say the Quran was invented after the second century of Islam; it disproves those who say all hadith were fabricated, since the hadith reporting that certain companions made mistakes about verses and wrote things down are shown to be true; and it confirms the living tradition's account that Uthman, to end people's arguments, locked in one recitation. It also shows, against those who say Muhammad and his companions never existed, that there was a Quran in the first century, that Muslims were honest in recording that some companions erred while the majority reading was followed, and that although some hadith have been misrepresented, much of the living tradition has held through the ages and conveyed significant truths now being affirmed by modern technology. He says Muslims have been transparent and that, had they covered these things up, the find could have come as a shock. Closing, he says he may go through some details later but there is nothing substantial: the biggest discrepancy he saw was a dropped word such as 'a severe punishment' or 'with their wealth and their lives', wording that exists in other surahs, so the writer may have put it in from the way the other verse is read; he then moves on to other matters.", "summary_short": "The Sana'a find confirms the traditional account: a first-century Quran, companions who sometimes erred as the hadith say, and Uthman's standardisation of one reading. The largest discrepancy is a dropped word that exists elsewhere in the Quran.", "answer_start": 1955, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:palimpsest", "label": "palimpsest (the Sana'a palimpsest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Sana'a find confirms the traditional account of the Quran's history, a first-century text, companions who sometimes misread, and Uthman's standardisation of one reading, and so vindicates the transparency of the Muslim tradition.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this actually reaffirms for us that the message that we've been passing generally down the generations has been accurate", "start": 1955}}, "url": "/r/K6fAZ7xW53Y/s/11/"}, {"id": "K8VL17CEZW0/s/1", "short_id": "2020-03-22-S01", "recording": "K8VL17CEZW0", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 613, "date": "20200322", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Abdul Raheem Limbada and the dream of the coronavirus as a man", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces a preacher he names as Maulana Abdul Raheem Limbada, who he says once often spoke about him, and plays on his surname. He retells, ahead of playing the clip, a dream the preacher relates from a Bangladeshi man: the coronavirus came to him in the form of a man and said God had sent it as a punishment after a Uyghur Muslim woman was assaulted in China, killing her attackers first, then going to Iran because the people there are Shia, and attacking Muslims who do not pray or who mix with non-Muslims, while any decent Muslim it kills is a martyr. He then plays the clip in Urdu, largely garbled in the captions, laughing and reacting. He says this is the kind of nonsense being preached and shared, that it is embarrassing, and that at the end of the day it is a dream.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth mocks a preacher's account of a dream in which the coronavirus appeared as a man sent to punish, calling it nonsense that people are preaching and sharing.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/dreams-and-visions", "society/current-events/covid-19", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-raheem-limbada", "label": "Maulana Abdul Raheem Limbada"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the coronavirus pandemic (2020)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruya", "label": "ru'ya (dream vision)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/K8VL17CEZW0/s/1/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/1", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S01", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 1, "start": 24, "end": 428, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: a Sunday-night stream past midnight and tonight's plan", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream late on Sunday night, explaining that he could not do it the following night, so he waited until past midnight to keep it a Monday. He checks why two live streams seem to be running, and lists what he will cover: David Wood and the Mohammed Hijab flare-up in which the Quran was torn, the UAE's new relations with Israel, the man he nicknames Gangu Teli, and some charities, alongside viewers' questions. He plays his opening video to check that the sound works after last week's problem, and mentions a video he recently uploaded whose aftermath he will discuss later.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream and lists tonight's topics, including David Wood tearing the Quran, the UAE-Israel deal and a quarrel with a critic.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:uae-israel-normalisation-2020", "label": "the UAE-Israel normalisation deal (2020)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/1/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/2", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S02", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 2, "start": 428, "end": 654, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is music permissible? Yes, and do not make haram what God did not", "question_plain": "Is music allowed in Islam?", "summary": "After more housekeeping a chat question asks whether music is permissible. Mufti Abu Layth says that of course music is permissible, and reflects that our time in this world is short and that God placed us in it to enjoy it, within certain rules. He says God has made nowhere near as many things haram as people have made haram upon themselves, as the Quran says of the Children of Israel [?], and that people follow sectarian talk and get stuck. He calls music the nourishment of the soul and warns against depriving oneself of it for a lifetime only to realise at sixty or seventy that one lived a lie, urging people not to accept the bizarre limitations placed by sects and certain clergymen.", "summary_short": "Music is permissible; he says people have made far more things haram for themselves than God has.", "answer_start": 465, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:93", "label": "Quran 3:93 [?] (what Israel made unlawful for itself)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bani-israil", "label": "Bani Isra'il"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that of course music is permissible.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "of course first of all of course music is permissible but you see look how", "start": 464}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/2/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/3", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S03", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 3, "start": 654, "end": 880, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Yasir Qadhi saying he never held a position of his own", "question_plain": "Is it a virtue for a scholar never to hold an original position?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth comments on a clip he watched of Yasir Qadhi, in which, he says, Yasir Qadhi tried to justify himself by saying that in his whole teaching life he had only ever followed positions of the ulama and never come up with one himself. Mufti calls over-justifying oneself a sign of insecurity and says one should have some backbone and dignity. He argues that a teacher of Islam saying this is in effect saying he has never had an original thought within the faith and has no leadership qualities, and that however humble it sounds it is a disservice to his own training and profession. He adds that everybody has to bluff a little.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that a teacher of Islam who claims never to have held a position of his own is admitting he has never had an original thought in the faith.", "answer_start": 654, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/3/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/4", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S04", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 4, "start": 880, "end": 1277, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why bank interest is not riba: what is riba anyway?", "question_plain": "Why isn't bank interest riba?", "summary": "A chat question asks why Mufti Abu Layth does not think bank interest is riba. He refers the questioner to his detailed video of about 45 minutes and gives a summary: the Quran does not address today's interest as riba, and the real question is why anyone thinks it is. Riba means something extra, yet trading one phone for two identical phones, one house for two or one car for three is not riba in Islam, and neighbours returning a slightly different amount of borrowed sugar or flour is not either. He cites the hadith of the estimator of dates on the tree [?], under which a margin of error of up to a third is allowed, and says the hadith actually stresses products rather than money, then appoints a chat moderator.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that today's bank interest is not the riba the Quran addresses, arguing that the usual definition of riba as 'something extra' does not hold together.", "answer_start": 918, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khars", "label": "khars (estimating dates on the tree) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not address interest today as riba.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "the quran does not address interest today to be ripper the question isn't why don't i think this interest is very bad", "start": 956}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/4/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/5", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S05", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 5, "start": 1277, "end": 1428, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "A wife whose husband cannot be contacted: divorce processes cost money", "question_plain": "Is my divorce automatic if my husband has been unreachable for over a year?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees to a viewer's suggestion to bring Ahmadis onto MindTrap and notes a superchat on psychedelics to return to. He then reads a question about women seeking divorce from cheating husbands who cannot be contacted for over a year, asking whether the divorce is automatic, since khul' costs money. He says there are processes through which a woman is granted a divorce, and that unfortunately they cost, because we live in an age of documentation: most mosques ask anyone previously married for proof of talaq before conducting a new nikah, like proof of ID. He compares it to paying for a nikah certificate and says it is something one does once or twice in a lifetime.", "summary_short": "It is not automatic: there are processes for a woman to obtain a divorce, and though they cost money, mosques will usually ask for proof of talaq before a new nikah.", "answer_start": 1352, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/divorce"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:khul", "label": "khul'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "talaq"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ahmadiyya", "label": "Ahmadiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that most mosques will ask for proof of talaq before conducting a new nikah for someone previously married.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "usually masjids at the time of future nikkas will ask you if you've been married before and if you state yes they will ask you for proof of your talaq", "start": 1351}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/5/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/6", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S06", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 6, "start": 1428, "end": 1506, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is a civil decree absolute an Islamic divorce?", "question_plain": "Does a civil divorce count as an Islamic divorce?", "summary": "A related superchat asks whether a decree absolute is enough. Mufti Abu Layth says usually not: a civil divorce is not an Islamic divorce and a civil marriage is not an Islamic marriage by default, though they can overlap. If the husband had the intention of talaq when he did the civil divorce, that would trigger it, which then depends on his declaration. He adds that a husband's talaqs can be revocable and cancelled without telling the other party, which is why it is better to get the irrevocable divorces that Sharia councils give.", "summary_short": "Usually not: a civil divorce is not an Islamic divorce by default, unless the husband intended talaq, and an irrevocable divorce from a Sharia council is better.", "answer_start": 1428, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/divorce"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "talaq"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a civil divorce is not an Islamic divorce by default.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "a civil divorce is not an islamic divorce and a civil marriage is not an islamic marriage per se", "start": 1428}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/6/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/7", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S07", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 7, "start": 1506, "end": 1616, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Were the black-flag hadith anti-Abbasid? More likely Abbasid propaganda", "question_plain": "Were the hadith about the black flags against the Abbasids?", "summary": "A superchat, partly lost in the captions, asks whether the hadith [of the black flags] are in general against the Abbasids. Mufti Abu Layth says he is not so sure they are, since the hadith say the Mahdi's army will come with black flags, and if anything they were part and parcel of Abbasid propaganda, because Khurasan is where Abu Muslim and the great Abbasid revolution began. He adds that such men were often later betrayed and killed by their own leaders for being too talented, and jokes that being too talented is dangerous.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth doubts the black-flag hadith were anti-Abbasid; if anything, he says, they were part of Abbasid propaganda.", "answer_start": 1542, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d760391a", "label": "report: the mahdi army will come with the black flags"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "the Abbasids"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-muslim-al-khurasani", "label": "Abu Muslim al-Khurasani"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith that the Mahdi's army will come with black flags were, if anything, part and parcel of Abbasid propaganda rather than directed against the Abbasids.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the mahdi's army will be coming with the black flags so i don't think they would have served auntie uh if anything they were part and parcel of the abbasid propaganda", "start": 1541}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/7/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/8", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S08", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 8, "start": 1616, "end": 1719, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Soul mates and twin flames: a question laughed off", "question_plain": null, "summary": "A superchat asks Mufti Abu Layth to speak about soul mates and what twin flames are. He laughs that the terms are common now and that he is perhaps too old and a relic, joking that a critic says he has ended his career, which he will come to later. He is distracted by an on-screen sticker and does not answer the question.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth jokes that he is too old to know about twin flames and does not answer the question.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/love-and-romance"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/8/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/9", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S09", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 9, "start": 1719, "end": 1797, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does Medina's living tradition prohibit music? Not necessarily", "question_plain": "Doesn't the practice of Medina show that music is haram?", "summary": "A question asks: if music is halal because no sahih hadith makes it haram, would the living tradition not indicate prohibition? Mufti Abu Layth says not necessarily. He accepts that Imam Malik did not like music, but says not liking something is a matter of temperament. He says Medina after the Prophet's lifetime was known for its interest in musical instruments, to the point that a proverb arose among those who disagreed: do not ask the people of Medina about music or about nabidh, because they will just say it is halal.", "summary_short": "Not necessarily: Malik disliked music by temperament, but Medina after the Prophet was known for its musical instruments.", "answer_start": 1719, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "fiqh/maliki-school", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "amal ahl al-Madinah (the practice of Medina)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the living tradition does not necessarily indicate that music is prohibited.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "no not necessarily in fact what's interesting you see what's interesting is even though imam malik i accept he didn't like music", "start": 1719}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/9/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/10", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S10", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 10, "start": 1797, "end": 2391, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Psychedelics as entheogens, the allegory of the cave, and prayer", "question_plain": "Are psychedelics like DMT haram in Islam?", "summary": "A superchat says the questioner tried DMT and found it amazing, and asks the Islamic view on psychedelics and whether Mufti Abu Layth is open to trying it; he joins it with an earlier question on intoxication as loss of consciousness. Setting his personal experience aside and noting that legality varies by place, he says that from a religious perspective he is a keen advocate of psychedelics as entheogens, portals to dimensions he feels are more real than this world. To explain how that sounds crazy, he retells Plato's allegory of the cave in detail, of the man who breaks free, sees the fire and the sun, and is mocked on his return. He says he is not interested in them as recreation, does not feel they are haram, and sees them as expanding reality rather than altering the mind. To the objection that one could not pray during a lengthy ayahuasca experience he replies that one prays before and after, as with sleep or work, and that this does not make a thing haram; he says psychedelics are not intoxication and that alcohol is a depressant, not a psychoactive.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth does not consider psychedelics such as DMT haram or intoxicants, and advocates them as entheogens for spiritual discovery rather than recreation.", "answer_start": 1858, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dmt", "label": "DMT"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:entheogen", "label": "entheogen"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ayahuasca", "label": "ayahuasca"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:socrates", "label": "Socrates"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not feel psychedelics are haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "reality so i'm a huge advocate of that i don't feel it's haram and yes it does alter certain your states of mind", "start": 2204}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/10/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/11", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S11", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 11, "start": 2391, "end": 2500, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "'You can't change what is haram': show me where DMT is forbidden", "question_plain": "If alcohol is haram, aren't drugs like DMT haram too?", "summary": "A chat user who often debates Mufti Abu Layth says alcohol is a drug and he cannot change what is haram. Mufti agrees that one cannot change what is haram, but asks to be shown where the Quran or the Sunnah says that mushrooms or DMT are haram. To the reply that this is by analogy, he asks why he should follow the other person's reasoning if the book of God is complete, citing the verse that it is a clarification of all things, and says he will be asked about his own understanding, not anyone else's. He then brushes off a question about the current position of Hasan Farhan al-Maliki, saying he does not know what it means.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees that what is haram cannot be changed, but says neither the Quran nor the Sunnah forbids substances like mushrooms or DMT.", "answer_start": 2391, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:16:89", "label": "Quran 16:89 (a clarification of all things)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiyas", "label": "qiyas (analogy)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dmt", "label": "DMT"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hasan-farhan-al-maliki", "label": "Hasan Farhan al-Maliki"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran and the Sunnah do not say that things like mushrooms or DMT are haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "things like mushrooms or things like um dmt's haram you show me where it says that it doesn't say that in the quran doesn't say that in the sunnah", "start": 2429}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/11/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/12", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S12", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 12, "start": 2500, "end": 2808, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Maulvis who beat students: categorically haram", "question_plain": "Is it OK for Quran teachers to beat students?", "summary": "A superchat asks why maulvis say that where they beat a student, the fire of hell will not touch that spot. Mufti Abu Layth calls the claim absolutely stupid and says such people speak as if Islam were their family legacy. He says it is not permitted to beat people like that, and that even some 1,100 years ago, when discipline was harsher, Muhammad ibn Sahnun [?] in his book on the etiquette of teachers declared anything forceful done to a child haram. He recalls the hifz school where he studied, where teachers broke sticks on the students, and says he was spared, perhaps because he came from the UK, had studied in Damascus and spoke Arabic with the teachers. He says these beatings are categorically haram.", "summary_short": "Beating students is categorically haram; he says even a classical manual for teachers forbade forceful discipline of children.", "answer_start": 2540, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas", "relationships/parents-and-children/raising-children", "wellbeing/personal-stories"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-sahnun", "label": "Muhammad ibn Sahnun [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:adab-al-muallimin", "label": "Adab al-Mu'allimin [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hifz", "label": "hifz"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jahannam", "label": "Jahannam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that beating students in the way he saw teachers do it is categorically haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "the stick would break give me another stick bang bang bang whoa it was crazy man and it's categorically haram these things", "start": 2770}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/12/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/13", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S13", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 13, "start": 2808, "end": 2927, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Hitting children who do not pray misunderstands the Prophet", "question_plain": "Can I hit my children if they don't pray?", "summary": "A question asks whether it is forbidden to hit your children if they do not pray. Mufti Abu Layth says that anyone who takes that hadith literally has misunderstood the Prophet, and that attacking one's own child because of one's faith is absurd and the antithesis of faith. He says the teaching was meant to inculcate passion and love for prayer, that children emulate parents who pray, and that they want to please their parents, so prayer should be shown as something dear; scaring them into it is, ironically, childish.", "summary_short": "Yes: he says hitting children over prayer misreads the hadith, and that children should be drawn to prayer by example and love, not fear.", "answer_start": 2808, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/parents-and-children/raising-children", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "fiqh/prayer"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:69a65512", "label": "report: command your children to pray at seven discipline them at ten and separate them in their beds"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if you take the hadith on hitting children who do not pray literally, you have misunderstood the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i would say that this hadith if you're taking if you try to take that hadith literally you have misunderstood the prophet", "start": 2808}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/13/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/14", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S14", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 14, "start": 2927, "end": 2996, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Chat asides: an edited comedy appearance and a podcast invitation", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Responding to a chat comment, Mufti Abu Layth says some of his jokes on another person's show were rather adult and that he had told Mufti of that show to edit them, which he did. A viewer asks whether he will invite a woman known from a television show to his podcast; he says he is not sure what she does now but would be open to it.", "summary_short": "Chat asides about an edited guest appearance and a suggested podcast guest.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/14/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/15", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S15", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 15, "start": 2996, "end": 3491, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Should the zakat threshold differ by country? The nisab and early zakat", "question_plain": "Should the zakat threshold be different in each country?", "summary": "A superchat suggests that the threshold for zakat should be a different amount in every country. Mufti Abu Layth says he had not thought of it that way and explains that the monetary laws of zakat were not laid out clearly, because the Arabs traded mostly in livestock, hence the many reports on camels, sheep and cows. He says the nisab of 20 dinars or 200 dirhams, the dinar from the Roman denarius and the dirham from the Sasanian drachma, rests on no real sahih hadith; all the reports are weak, but the scholars accepted them because a system was needed. He says the pure Quranic reading makes it hard to distinguish zakat from charity, while insisting he is not denying zakat, and that the Prophet received zakat for less than a year, from perhaps 40 or 50 percent of Arabia. Fully developed systems came about 150 years later and were largely man-made, so he says regional adjustment makes sense to him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says regional thresholds make sense to him, since the nisab rests on weak hadith and the detailed zakat system was largely built by later scholars.", "answer_start": 3033, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/zakat-and-charity", "hadith/authentication"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:zakat", "label": "zakat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nisab", "label": "nisab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dinar", "label": "dinar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dirham", "label": "dirham"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sadaqah", "label": "sadaqah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is no real sahih hadith on the nisab of zakat, all the reports being weak.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you'll be surprised that there is no real sahih hadith to do with any of this stuff um it in fact all the hadith are weak but the scholars just accepted it", "start": 3142}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/15/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/16", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S16", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 16, "start": 3491, "end": 3609, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can paying taxes cover the obligation of zakat?", "question_plain": "Does paying taxes count as paying zakat?", "summary": "A superchat asks whether paying taxes could cover the obligation of zakat. Mufti Abu Layth says he believes it could today, if the person who pays taxes also makes a personal practice of giving charity on different occasions through the year. If a person gives no charity at all, he says there is an obligation to be involved in charity at some points in the year, not necessarily monthly or in large amounts, but as an art of giving. He then answers a chat remark that his sore throat is not coronavirus.", "summary_short": "Yes, he believes paying taxes suffices for zakat today, provided the person also gives charity at various points in the year.", "answer_start": 3531, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/zakat-and-charity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:zakat", "label": "zakat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sadaqah", "label": "sadaqah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in his understanding, if a person pays taxes and makes a personal practice of giving charity through the year, it suffices for zakat.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "they do have an art of giving to them that is in my understanding and if you pay taxes it would suffice for zakat", "start": 3570}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/16/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/17", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S17", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 17, "start": 3609, "end": 3801, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is giving sadaqah a protection against harm?", "question_plain": "Does giving charity protect me from bad things happening?", "summary": "A question asks Mufti Abu Layth's view on giving sadaqah as protection against something bad. He agrees, saying that the better you are as a person the more good comes to you, and that whoever has mercy on those on earth receives mercy from above. He says the Arabic word sadaqah, unlike 'charity' in English, is positive, linked to truthfulness and friendship, and that it begins at home with family in need. He recalls giving at times when he feared he could not afford to, and says that, though he cannot demonstrate cause and effect, what came back unexpectedly was many times more.", "summary_short": "Yes: he says giving brings good back, beginning with family, and recalls receiving much more after giving when money was tight.", "answer_start": 3609, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/zakat-and-charity", "wellbeing/gratitude-giving-and-contentment"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sadaqah", "label": "sadaqah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/17/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/18", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S18", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 18, "start": 3801, "end": 4244, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Scholars without secular education, and a commentator's obsession with LGBT", "question_plain": "Is it a problem that Muslim scholars today have no secular education?", "summary": "Asked for his thoughts on Muslim scholars today completely lacking secular education, Mufti Abu Layth agrees but says even those who have it can be a problem, and plays a clip of Daniel Haqiqatjou describing a strategy by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen to make people accept homosexuality. Mufti says that despite a Harvard education Haqiqatjou is a prime example of some Americans' obsession with LGBTQ issues and Islam as the last bastion against them, and claims that homosexuality is widespread in Muslim countries, which he says is not his main point. He says people who are going to be gay are going to be gay, asks who we are to interfere, cites an Arabic verse that people have their ways in what they love, and says ten gay people around you do not make you gay. Answering chat, he turns to the idea of projection in psychology, referring to Jungian analysis and psychoanalysis.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees secular education matters but says it is no cure for obsession, and holds that other people being gay does not make anyone gay.", "answer_start": 3801, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:marshall-kirk", "label": "Marshall Kirk"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hunter-madsen", "label": "Hunter Madsen"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bacha-bazi", "label": "bacha bazi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/18/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/19", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S19", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 19, "start": 4244, "end": 4632, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Defending Aisha's marriage by comparing the Prophet to medieval kings", "question_plain": "Doesn't Aisha's marriage age justify child marriage?", "summary": "Asked in chat whether paedophilia will be normalised too, Mufti Abu Layth says it is absolutely unacceptable, and plays a clip in which a speaker defends the Prophet's marriage to Aisha at six by citing St Augustine, Richard II and Henry VIII marrying young girls. Mufti calls this a dumb attempt to save face and says he personally finds comparing the Prophet to these kings blasphemous and an insult to the Prophet's honour, since nobody claims Henry VIII was a prophet or infallible. He says an Islamophobe does not care what an English king did, and that Muslims are stuck in an in-house debating game of quoting an opponent's own imam, such as a Maliki scholar against him or Ibn Taymiyya against Salafis, which does not work in the real world. He ends by saying that the Prophet did not marry Aisha at such a young age.", "summary_short": "Paedophilia is unacceptable; he says defending the Prophet by comparing him to kings who married children is no defence and, in his view, blasphemous.", "answer_start": 4244, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3635d5d3", "label": "report: the prophet married aisha at six and consummated the marriage at nine"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:augustine-of-hippo", "label": "St Augustine"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:richard-ii", "label": "Richard II"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:henry-viii", "label": "Henry VIII"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/19/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/20", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S20", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 20, "start": 4632, "end": 4976, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Aisha age hadith is fabricated: why every transmitter is Iraqi", "question_plain": "Is the hadith that Aisha was married at six authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth tells viewers to think for themselves and says the hadith on Aisha's age is fabricated, coming from Hisham, with every transmitter at the lower level Iraqi, although Aisha never lived in Iraq. He asks how, some 200 years after the Prophet, the only people who knew the story could all live in Iraq, comparing it to an incident in Berlin that only people in Birmingham report. He says the Salafis, Wahhabis and neo-Wahhabis will not accept this because it would mean admitting that the hadith literature is corrupted, while Barelvis do not criticise it because they feel hadith criticism is above their competence. He says such followers would rather throw the Prophet under the bus than say their teachers were wrong, calls it blind following, and tells people to ignore scholars who defend the report.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds the hadith on Aisha's young age to be fabricated, since every transmitter is Iraqi, and says sectarian scholars defend it out of loyalty to their teachers.", "answer_start": 4632, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3635d5d3", "label": "report: the prophet married aisha at six and consummated the marriage at nine"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hisham-ibn-urwa", "label": "Hisham ibn Urwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith on Aisha's age at marriage is fabricated, attributing it to Hisham and noting that all its transmitters at the lower level are Iraqi.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you need to think for yourself see the evidence and realize that look it's true this hadith is fabricated it's been fabricated by hisham all the people that transmit it are iraqi", "start": 4632}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/20/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/21", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S21", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 21, "start": 4976, "end": 5241, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Music interlude and a remark on poets", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reacts to a chat remark he does not understand, asks viewers not to post insults, and plays a long musical piece. Afterwards he remarks that poets are the last bastion in the Muslim world for human compassion, ethics and free thought.", "summary_short": "A music interlude, followed by a remark that poets keep compassion and free thought alive in the Muslim world.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/poetry-and-the-mind"], "entities": [], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/21/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/22", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S22", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 22, "start": 5241, "end": 5734, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "David Wood tearing the Quran: respect symbols, never be enraged", "question_plain": "How should Muslims react when someone tears or burns the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shows a clip of David Wood tearing up a Quran and calls it disgusting and despicable, noting that he had said only the week before that Wood had been respectful to him. He says it does not offend or enrage him and does not harm an atom of Islam, since the Quran does not rely on print and is memorised by millions; Muslims should never become enraged, since anger is the most predictable emotion, but at most disappointed, because such acts kill dialogue. Clarifying his advice to respect religious symbols, he distinguishes satirising a belief, which he accepts since humour has no bounds, from desecrating a symbol, like mocking a country versus burning its flag. He expresses disappointment at Wood and at Apostate Prophet for laughing, and says he has heard that Abdullah Sameer did not know it would happen and did not approve.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says tearing the Quran harms nothing in Islam and Muslims should never be enraged by it, while he condemns it and urges everyone to respect religious symbols.", "answer_start": 5241, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:apostate-prophet", "label": "Apostate Prophet [?] (YouTuber)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-sameer", "label": "Abdullah Sameer"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "mushaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/22/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/23", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S23", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 23, "start": 5734, "end": 6070, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mohammed Hijab's provocations share the blame for the escalation", "question_plain": "Is it right to attack critics of Islam personally?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says part of the Quran-tearing was a triggered reaction to what Mohammed Hijab has been doing: tit-for-tat taunting, bringing opponents' families and wives into it, until they look for what Muslims hold sacred. He replays a speech of Hijab's in which Hijab berates Muslims who have doubts and challenges Christians and orientalists on the preservation of the Quran, telling them to be quiet. Mufti notes a comment that Hijab may have apologised and welcomes it if so. He says Muslims should attack arguments and make them look silly, but not get personal, since that provokes acts that over a billion people find sacrilegious and could lead someone enraged to do something terrible, while saying those who desecrate are still responsible for their own actions.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Mohammed Hijab bears some responsibility for provoking the Quran-tearing, and urges Muslims to attack arguments, not people and their families.", "answer_start": 5734, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/23/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/24", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S24", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 24, "start": 6070, "end": 6340, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Gaza bombing and the UAE-Israel deal: don't blame bin Bayyah or Hamza Yusuf", "question_plain": "Are Abdullah bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf to blame for the UAE-Israel deal?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to Israel's bombing of Gaza over almost two weeks, which he says few people are speaking about, and to the deal in which the UAE recognised Israel, noting reports that Trump expects Saudi Arabia to follow. He offers his thoughts to those who have suffered loss and injury. He says it is unfair that people are attacking Abdullah bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf over the deal, since he does not think the ruler of the UAE cares what scholars say; he has heard from sources close to bin Bayyah that he was not pleased with the treaty but held that the ruler's decision is to be honoured, and he does not think Hamza Yusuf had anything to do with it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is unfair to blame Abdullah bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf for the UAE-Israel deal, since the UAE's ruler does not care what scholars think.", "answer_start": 6070, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:uae-israel-normalisation-2020", "label": "the UAE-Israel normalisation deal (2020)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/24/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/25", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S25", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 25, "start": 6340, "end": 6556, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Israel's conduct at state level, and a deal that brought no peace", "question_plain": "Will the UAE-Israel deal bring peace to Palestine?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that at a state level Israel acts as a terrorist and has committed war crimes, stressing that this is not antisemitism and that he is not against Jewish people, and cites the UN, Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein on its treatment of Palestinians. He says the UAE claims the deal will broker peace, yet since it was signed there have been almost two weeks of bombardment. He describes Israel's new policy of treating any incendiary device, such as the helium balloons Hamas is said to send, as a rocket to be answered with a missile, and calls it absurd. He says he cannot imagine how Palestinians still function and that the UAE deal is not a solution.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the UAE deal is not a solution, since it has brought no peace while Israel, acting as a terrorist state, keeps bombing Gaza.", "answer_start": 6340, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:uae-israel-normalisation-2020", "label": "the UAE-Israel normalisation deal (2020)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:noam-chomsky", "label": "Noam Chomsky"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:norman-finkelstein", "label": "Norman Finkelstein"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:hamas", "label": "Hamas"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:united-nations", "label": "the United Nations"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think the UAE deal is a solution, because it clearly has not brought any peace.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "but yeah i don't think the uae thing is a solution i don't think so because it clearly hasn't broken any peace", "start": 6517}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/25/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/26", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S26", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 26, "start": 6556, "end": 6869, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Israel is here to stay: a proposal to relocate Gaza's Palestinians", "question_plain": "What is the solution for the Palestinians in Gaza?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says a hard truth is that Israel is here to stay and Muslims have to accept it. He says the ideal would be a two-state solution, but thinks Israel would never accept it, so he would argue for the Palestinians of Gaza and the blockaded areas to leave, facilitated with compensation, accommodation and education, spread across the Arab world rather than in ghettos. To the objection that Arab countries would not take them, he says they would not take refugees but would accept people arriving with money under a brokered deal, which Israel might even pay for. He says Muslims guilt-trip Palestinians into staying to defend the holy land, and that Arab states like Jordan prefer Palestine as a buffer zone.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth accepts Israel is here to stay and, seeing no two-state solution, argues for Gaza's Palestinians to be relocated with compensation across the Arab world.", "answer_start": 6556, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:two-state-solution", "label": "two-state solution"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he would argue for the Palestinians of Gaza and the blockaded areas to be relocated comfortably, with compensation, to different parts of the Arab world.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "now i feel that they should be relocated and comfortably with compensation and accommodation and education paid for in different parts of the arab world", "start": 6672}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/26/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/27", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S27", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 27, "start": 6869, "end": 7026, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Jerusalem was never that sacred, and al-Aqsa was in the heavens", "question_plain": "Is al-Aqsa really in Jerusalem?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he knows people will not agree, but to him Jerusalem was never that sacred from an Islamic viewpoint: it was associated with earlier prophets, and its glorification began with the caliph Abd al-Malik, who built the Dome of the Rock as a rival pilgrimage site to Mecca. He says he never believed al-Masjid al-Aqsa was in Jerusalem; in his understanding the farthest place was in the heavens. Even granting that Jerusalem is holy, he says it is arguably more sacred to Jewish people, who would take care of it, and that it is only bricks and mortar.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Jerusalem was not originally so sacred in Islam and that, in his understanding, al-Aqsa refers to a place in the heavens.", "answer_start": 6869, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "history/sirah/isra-and-miraj", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:masjid-al-aqsa", "label": "al-Masjid al-Aqsa"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abd-al-malik-ibn-marwan", "label": "Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dome-of-the-rock", "label": "Dome of the Rock"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding al-Masjid al-Aqsa, the farthest point, would have been in the heavens, not Jerusalem.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i've never believed that was muslim al-aqsa anyway muscle axot in my understanding would have been the farthest point would have been in the heavens", "start": 6949}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/27/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/28", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S28", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 28, "start": 7026, "end": 7413, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Life before place: accepting a lost fight, and the UAE deal again", "question_plain": "Is defending the holy land worth Palestinian lives?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says God did not send us to preserve bricks, that preservation of life trumps all, and that Muslims must accept the war against Israel is lost. He says Muslims rightly grieve the deaths but gloss over their guilt-tripping of Palestinians, and cites a hadith that a Muslim's honour is more important than the Kaaba being destroyed and rebuilt, and that the whole earth is a place of prostration, so Jerusalem is not needed. He predicts that people would stop caring about Palestinians once they were relocated. Recalling a stick-and-knife fighting class whose teacher said the first rule against a knife is to run, he says these people will not back down. He closes by saying the UAE ruler probably made the deal for his own gain and that it is unfair to put it on bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf, who he hears are unhappy with it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says human life comes before any holy place and that Muslims must accept the fight against Israel is lost.", "answer_start": 7026, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d00cf9c1", "label": "report: the honour of a muslim is greater than the kaaba"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:08774c1f", "label": "report: the whole earth has been made a masjid for me"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Kaaba"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:uae-israel-normalisation-2020", "label": "the UAE-Israel normalisation deal (2020)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in his understanding, Muslims need to know when a fight is lost and accept that the one against Israel is lost.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is my understanding that we need to know when a fight is lost that this against israel is lost", "start": 7142}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/28/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/29", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S29", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 29, "start": 7413, "end": 7609, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Kashmir: ideally independent from both India and Pakistan", "question_plain": "What is the solution to the Kashmir conflict?", "summary": "A question asks about the Kashmir issue. Mufti Abu Layth says relocation would be fine if it were an option, but that Kashmir differs from Gaza: it is a heavily militarised zone where an overwhelming military presence torments residents, rather than a cut-off prison under bombardment, and he does not think the Indian government would ever pay to relocate people comfortably. Ideally, he says, Kashmir could become independent, part of neither Pakistan nor India; since Pakistan would never give up all of it for fear of India coming close to Islamabad, a region such as the valley could be made independent and those who wished could move there. He says these things will never happen, but he wishes they would.", "summary_short": "Ideally, he says, Kashmir, or at least part of it such as the valley, should become independent of both India and Pakistan.", "answer_start": 7413, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/pakistan", "society/current-events/india-and-hindutva"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:kashmir", "label": "Kashmir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that ideally Kashmir could just become independent, part of neither Pakistan nor India.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "this is what i ideally opt for is that kashmir could just become independent um so as in not part of pakistan not part of india", "start": 7491}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/29/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/30", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S30", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 30, "start": 7609, "end": 8254, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "'Expel the Jews and Christians from Arabia': a hadith he finds suspect", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet really order Jews and Christians expelled from Arabia?", "summary": "After a quick reaffirmation that music is not haram, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question asking him to explain the hadith in which the Prophet said to expel the Christians and the Jews from the Arabian Peninsula. He says he struggles to see it as true, citing the report in Sahih Muslim that among the Prophet's final transactions he pawned his shield to a Jewish man in Medina for wheat: one cannot order a people stripped of homes and farms across the whole peninsula while trading with one of them from a weaker position days before one's death. He feels it is a later fabrication projected back onto the Prophet, perhaps from the wars against the Byzantines under Umar, though he stresses this is a thought he does not hold firmly. Asked about a motive, he says anti-Jewish and anti-Christian sentiment appears within a few centuries, notes that Umayyad and Abbasid rulers employed Christian and Jewish ministers while clerics wrote books against it, and says such reports would come from the clergy, sometimes through false memories rather than malice.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth finds the hadith ordering the expulsion of Jews and Christians from Arabia suspect, since the Prophet traded with a Jewish man days before he died, and sees it as a later fabrication.", "answer_start": 7648, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/false-and-fabricated", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:309a93b6", "label": "report: akhriju al-yahud wa al-nasara min jazirat al-arab"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6546db09", "label": "report: the prophet died with his shield pledged to a jewish man for bags of wheat (unresolved; cited as in Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:byzantine-empire", "label": "the Byzantine Empire"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "the Umayyads"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "the Abbasids"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-kitab", "label": "Ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he finds the hadith ordering the expulsion of the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula incredibly suspect and does not believe it is true.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "leave that this doesn't add up you see so i find this hadith incredibly suspect", "start": 7910}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/30/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/31", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S31", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 31, "start": 8254, "end": 8436, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Too much focus on the beard: al-Mutanabbi on trimmed moustaches", "question_plain": "If Muslims focus too much on the beard, what deserves more focus?", "summary": "After chat banter about his moderators, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question: since he once said the beard has had too much focus, which part of Islam has not had enough? He calls it an interesting question and answers through the beard itself, describing the look of a fully shaved moustache with a grown beard as horrible and citing Imam Malik's [?] remark that even the devil could not have made them look more ridiculous. He quotes al-Mutanabbi's line asking whether the height of their religion is to trim their moustaches, an ummah that other nations laugh at, and says that is what Muslims have become.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth answers by mocking the focus on beards and shaved moustaches, quoting al-Mutanabbi that such an ummah has become a laughing stock.", "answer_start": 8324, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair", "arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:al-mutanabbi", "label": "al-Mutanabbi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/31/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/32", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S32", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 32, "start": 8436, "end": 8554, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A misspelt comment read as a question about the saxophone", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls a comment he could not find again, in which a viewer's spelling made a question about intimacy before marriage read as a question about playing the saxophone. He jokes at length about the saxophone and a class where everyone is told to play it.", "summary_short": "A joke about a viewer's misspelt comment.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/32/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/33", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S33", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 33, "start": 8554, "end": 8785, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Secret nikah versus low-commitment marriage", "question_plain": "Is a secret nikah allowed?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes a question on secret nikah. He says he does not advocate secret nikah if it means a marriage where only one or two people know and the woman is told to keep quiet in the belief it will become a normal relationship, which seldom materialises; he calls that highly deceptive and exploitative and condemns it. If it means a low-commitment marriage that both adults understand and agree to, he would not call it secret and says it is nobody's business and permissible. He adds that he does not think temporary marriage is haram, that he finds it highly politicised, and that he will go into it once he finishes a book by Ibn Azraq [?].", "summary_short": "A secret nikah that deceives the woman is exploitation he condemns, but a low-commitment marriage both adults openly agree to is, he says, permissible.", "answer_start": 8591, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "relationships/marriage"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-azraq", "label": "Ibn Azraq [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a low-commitment marriage that both adults understand and are comfortable with is, he would feel, permissible.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so i i don't see that like the first one which is more ice i see as exploitation so that i'm against but this i would feel is permissible", "start": 8708}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/33/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/34", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S34", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 34, "start": 8785, "end": 9154, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The ifk verses refer to Mariya, not Aisha: a research preview", "question_plain": "Was the ifk in Surat al-Nur really about Aisha?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth previews his reading on the incident of the ifk, saying he is definitely inclined to the view that the ifk in the Quran refers to an incident involving Mariya. He dates Aisha's incident to the campaign against Banu al-Mustaliq, around year five or six, while Surat al-Nur's verses come in year eight, after Mariya arrived in year seven and bore a child; he notes some Shia say this too. He thinks both incidents happened: rumours about Aisha resolved at the time, and later rumours that the Prophet, out of love for a child, claimed another man's child, citing a report in al-Hakim in which Aisha herself uses the word ifk of Mariya. He suggests Aisha in later life could have identified with the verses, that the narrative he calls Zubayrid [?] made Mariya insignificant, and that a report in Sahih Muslim mentions the accusation against a slave woman of the Prophet without naming her; he says the Muslim legacy has betrayed Mariya.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Quran's ifk verses were revealed about rumours concerning Mariya, though he believes an earlier incident with Aisha also happened.", "answer_start": 8785, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:incident-of-the-ifk", "label": "the incident of the ifk (the slander of Aisha)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mariya-al-qibtiyya", "label": "Mariya al-Qibtiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:11-20", "label": "Quran 24:11-20 (the ifk verses of Surat al-Nur)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-banu-al-mustaliq", "label": "the campaign against Banu al-Mustaliq"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:da54f8d2", "label": "report: aisha said of mariya people spoke of the ifk that out of his love for a child he claimed another man child"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mustadrak", "label": "al-Mustadrak (al-Hakim)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he definitely feels that the ifk mentioned in the Quran refers to an incident with Mariya, not the incident to do with Aisha.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "so what i definitely do feel is that the if mentioned in the quran is referring to an incident with maria radiola not the incident to do with aisha", "start": 8812}}, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/34/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/35", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S35", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 35, "start": 9154, "end": 9313, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why Mariya conceived: Yasmin Amin's dietary theory", "question_plain": "Why did only Mariya bear the Prophet a child in Medina?", "summary": "After joking about Wahhabi visitors in the chat, Mufti Abu Layth picks up a comment that Mariya was a Coptic Egyptian and shares a theory he is still researching from Yasmin Amin, granddaughter of the historian Ahmad Amin. Her suggestion, he says, is that the ascetic diet of the Prophet's wives would not result in pregnancies, while Mariya, a foreigner whom the other wives disliked, lived about three kilometres from Medina in the Awali and did not follow that diet, which aided her pregnancy. He says her book is due next month and that the perspective is intriguing but needs more research.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth shares Yasmin Amin's theory that Mariya conceived because, living outside Medina, she did not follow the other wives' ascetic diet, and says he is still researching it.", "answer_start": 9154, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mariya-al-qibtiyya", "label": "Mariya al-Qibtiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasmin-amin", "label": "Yasmin Amin"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-amin", "label": "Ahmad Amin"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zuhd", "label": "zuhd"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/35/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/36", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S36", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 36, "start": 9313, "end": 9580, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "The critic he nicknames Gangu Teli and his Twitter meltdown", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives his account of the Twitter storm in which the man he nicknames Gangu Teli posted attacks on him, saying he rarely uses Twitter and finds it toxic. He describes who the critic is as he sees it, including the critic's past involvement with the Sunni Defence channel, and says the critic called him ignorant, a kafir and a zindiq.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth's account of a critic's Twitter attacks on him and of who the critic is.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:twitter", "label": "Twitter"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zindiq", "label": "zindiq"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/36/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/37", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S37", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 37, "start": 9580, "end": 10039, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "An offer to discuss Sahih al-Bukhari live, and a demand for a moderated debate", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he offered his critic a discussion on Sahih al-Bukhari, and that the critic replied that he only debates people he does not respect, in order to humiliate them, and would fly to the UK only for a moderated debate. Mufti says he repeatedly invited him to come live within hours, since it should be easy to expose someone he considers ignorant, and that even the critic's own followers urged him to accept. He jokes about the proposed moderator, contrasts this with a challenger who came on his meetup to debate Jesus and lost, and says he told him to stop the drama and just come live.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts inviting the critic to a live discussion on Sahih al-Bukhari, which the critic declined in favour of a moderated debate.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/37/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/38", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S38", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 38, "start": 10039, "end": 10497, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "'How I destroyed his career': mocking the critic's response video", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the critic hyped a response video that would destroy his career and plays parts of it with music, reading out its title, its thumbnail of him with teeth edited out, and hostile YouTube comments calling him a kafir and a hypocrite. He mocks the claim, saying it must be the first destruction in history that nobody noticed, and compares the critic to a little bird holding up a leaf with its feet in the belief that it is holding up the heavens.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth mocks a critic's video claiming to have destroyed his career.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/38/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/39", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S39", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 39, "start": 10497, "end": 10632, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A closing clip of advice against riding three on a motorbike", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is time to wrap up and plays a short humorous clip, which he calls advice, of a man speaking in Urdu against 'double savari' and 'triple savari', riding two or three passengers on a motorbike, and jokes that people should not be doing the triple.", "summary_short": "A humorous closing clip about riding three to a motorbike.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/39/"}, {"id": "KWmtt2TQAO0/s/40", "short_id": "2020-08-24-S40", "recording": "KWmtt2TQAO0", "n": 40, "start": 10632, "end": 10867, "date": "20200824", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Sign-off: Ali not named in the Quran, Patreon, and farewell", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Reading final comments, Mufti Abu Layth answers that Ali is not mentioned in the Quran. He thanks superchatters, asks viewers to subscribe and turn on notifications, and mentions his Patreon, its Telegram group and a new resources page, and Instagram as the place to reach him. He replays a moment from his critic's video and signs off, reminding viewers to smile, have a daily dose of laughter and do an act of charity.", "summary_short": "Sign-off with a quick answer that Ali is not named in the Quran, channel notices and farewell.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KWmtt2TQAO0/s/40/"}, {"id": "KrIGi3OmJD4/s/1", "short_id": "2021-02-22-S01", "recording": "KrIGi3OmJD4", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 330, "date": "20210222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abdul Rahman Hassan's clip: the first Khariji, protest, and never criticising rulers", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip of Ustadh Abdul Rahman Hassan saying that the first Khariji was the man who came out against the Prophet, that he was the first to bring the mentality of protesting, rising against the leader and voicing one's opinion, and that he was the one of whom the Prophet said 'I will kill his lineage'. Mufti replays the clip several times and answers with sarcasm, saying he melts before such sincerity. He sums up the lesson he hears in it as never to criticise the Saudi king or rulers, and to treat publicly voicing an opinion against them as kufr. He mocks it as teaching people how to cement the throne of Muhammad bin Salman.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays and mocks a clip in which Abdul Rahman Hassan presents protest against rulers as the mentality of the first Khariji, reading it as a defence of the Saudi rulers.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-bin-salman", "label": "Muhammad bin Salman (MBS)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kufr", "label": "kufr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KrIGi3OmJD4/s/1/"}, {"id": "KrIGi3OmJD4/s/2", "short_id": "2021-02-22-S02", "recording": "KrIGi3OmJD4", "n": 2, "start": 330, "end": 601, "date": "20210222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'I will kill his lineage'? The hadith of the man who told the Prophet to be just", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet say he would kill the lineage of the first Khariji?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his zeal to defend the Saudi royals the speaker got so carried away that he accidentally threw the Prophet under the bus. He recounts the hadith the speaker refers to: a man told the Prophet to be just, the Prophet answered who would be just if he were not, Umar asked to strike the man and the Prophet said no, and said that from the man's descendants would come extremists in whose hearts the religion does not enter though they outwardly worship more than an ordinary Muslim; he says it is in Bukhari. Replaying the clip, he asks where the Prophet ever said 'I will kill his lineage', saying nobody in Islam seems to know of it, and why the Prophet would stop Umar from killing the man yet say his children should be killed. He calls on people to calm down and respect the Prophet first and foremost, saying kings can wait and that Muhammad bin Salman, with his lavish lifestyle, needs nobody to speak in his defence.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the speaker, carried away defending the Saudi rulers, attributed to the Prophet words he did not say: in the hadith the Prophet stopped Umar from killing the man. Respect for the Prophet comes before kings.", "answer_start": 370, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "dialogue/responses-to-critics", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f5bb2d0d", "label": "report: be just who will be just if i am not just (unresolved)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-bin-salman", "label": "Muhammad bin Salman (MBS)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KrIGi3OmJD4/s/2/"}, {"id": "KrIGi3OmJD4/s/3", "short_id": "2021-02-22-S03", "recording": "KrIGi3OmJD4", "n": 3, "start": 601, "end": 803, "date": "20210222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "An invitation to MindTrap on aqidah and Bukhari, and an open challenge to Salafi imams", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shows a tweet in which he invited Abdul Rahman Hassan onto MindTrap for a discussion on aqidah, saying the Salafi aqidah may be defended but only from the Quran and Sunnah, and that his challenge is that it cannot be. He says he also offered a discussion on Bukhari, while acknowledging that this is a difficult topic and that he does not want to be seen picking on people who lack the research. He says he has made the same challenge to any Salafi imam: they must prove their aqidah from the Quran or Sunnah alone, and he holds that they will not be able to. He says the offer is open to anyone, including critics he refers to by mocking nicknames, and says he will return to one of them on another Monday night.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth invites Abdul Rahman Hassan, and any Salafi imam, to discuss aqidah or Bukhari on MindTrap, challenging them to prove the Salafi creed from the Quran and Sunnah alone.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:twitter", "label": "Twitter"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says his challenge is that Salafi imams will not be able to prove their aqidah from the Quran or Sunnah alone.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "any salafi Imam on the rakida that we can have a discussion they have to be able to prove there are either just from the Quran or Sunnah and Mike challenge is that they won't be able to", "start": 723}}, "url": "/r/KrIGi3OmJD4/s/3/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/1", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S01", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 1, "start": 22, "end": 144, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: welcoming back the guest and sharing the stream", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream, says that by public demand he has brought back an esteemed guest, Shaykh Dr Shabir Ally, and brings up his profile picture. The guest greets the audience and says he is delighted to be back. Mufti recalls that the previous discussion was cut short and much anticipated, shares the stream to his other pages and asks viewers to say if there are sound issues like last time, promising a long-awaited discussion full of insights.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping before the conversation: the guest, Dr Shabir Ally, is welcomed back after the previous session was cut short, and the stream is shared out.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/1/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/2", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S02", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 2, "start": 144, "end": 380, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Recap of the guest's journey and whether Muslims have moved towards the primacy of the Quran", "question_plain": "Have Muslims moved towards giving the Quran primacy over hadith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recaps the previous week's discussion of the guest's journey: reconnecting with the faith, university and further studies, and arriving at the view that the Quran must have a central place in Muslim discourse in practice and not only in theory. He asks whether, from where the guest began to today, the general Muslim sentiment has moved along with him. After clarifying the question, the guest says it has moved to some extent, but that there is a great dichotomy, even a splintering, in the ummah. One strand, scholars and lay people alike, remains traditional, will not listen to anything new, and in practice lets the Sunnah, meaning the hadith, trump the Quran when a ruling is sought, though nobody would admit it in those words. On the other hand many lay Muslims, including those on internet forums, are thinking people who have the textbooks open before them, find problematic narratives in Bukhari and Muslim, realise a rethinking is needed, and are waiting for someone to confirm what they already know: that the Quran is primary and everything else is secondary explanation. He adds that some scholars have reached a similar understanding but are trapped in traditional spheres of discourse, and that some live in dangerous circumstances where voicing a contrary opinion could bring harm to them and their families, so they do not speak as clearly as one would expect.", "summary_short": "The guest says the ummah has split: a traditional strand that in practice lets hadith override the Quran, and a growing body of thinking lay Muslims who already see the Quran as primary. Some scholars agree but are trapped in traditional discourse or silenced by dangerous circumstances.", "answer_start": 224, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "society/islam-and-modernity", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-takes-precedence-over-hadith", "label": "The Quran takes precedence over an isolated hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/2/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/3", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S03", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 3, "start": 380, "end": 694, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Primacy of the Quran in practice: the stoning penalty as a hadith law of biblical origin", "question_plain": "Does the Quran prescribe stoning for adultery?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is in a hundred percent agreement on the primacy of the Quran and asks the guest for examples where the dichotomy between the Quran and other narratives comes to the forefront. The guest says the examples hover around matters important in current discourse, which is why he could not leave them behind: speaking to Muslims and non-Muslims in universities and on television, he has to make sense to everyone, and the Quran points in a reasonable direction while other narratives point the opposite way. His example is the stoning of a girl in Nigeria found pregnant outside wedlock, reported with horror in British and Canadian newspapers. To reassure the public that Islam is a reasonable religion and Muslims decent citizens, he says, one must explain the origin of the law: the Quran's penalty for adultery is flogging, not stoning, and he is not calling for flogging but drawing the distinction. Stoning comes from the hadith, which Muslims have implemented to the detriment of the Quran; from his study of comparative religion he says stoning is a biblical law, so Muslims practising it are closer to the Bible than to the Quran without knowing it, and it is possible that what early Muslims observed of Jewish law came to be reported as from the Prophet through some mistake in oral transmission. He concludes that to show the public Islam is benign one must start with the Quran and show that it does not contain that law.", "summary_short": "The Quran's penalty for adultery is flogging, not stoning, which the guest says entered Muslim law from hadith and is biblical in origin, so explaining Islam to the public must start from the Quran. Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees completely that the Quran must have primacy.", "answer_start": 458, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zina", "label": "zina"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-takes-precedence-over-hadith", "label": "The Quran takes precedence over an isolated hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/3/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/4", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S04", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 4, "start": 694, "end": 851, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Pleasing the kuffar? And the Quran's position on apostasy: no worldly penalty, no compulsion", "question_plain": "Does the Quran prescribe a punishment for apostasy?", "summary": "The guest answers the objection that this approach tries to please the kuffar: even if that were the intention, ultimately the aim is to please Allah, and Allah cannot be pleased by misrepresenting his book and his Prophet; the best explanation of why the hadith differ from the Quran is that somebody foisted this law on the Prophet, whose law is in the Quran. Mufti Abu Layth raises the penalty for apostasy as another example often brought up in the media, on which the guest has also spoken. The guest says the Quran's only 'law' on apostasy is that those who turn away after the message is made clear face grievous punishment in the hereafter unless God forgives them; no penalty in this life is prescribed for any governing body or state, and the Quran tells the Prophet he is not a supervisor over them. He cites 'there is no compulsion in religion' in al-Baqara 256, says killing apostates would force people to stay in the religion and contradict this verse, and notes that the phrase has the same emphatic grammatical form as 'there is no god but Allah'. Mufti agrees.", "summary_short": "The Quran prescribes no worldly penalty for apostasy, only punishment in the hereafter, and 'there is no compulsion in religion' is stated as emphatically as the testimony of faith. Rightly representing the Quran is about pleasing Allah, not the kuffar.", "answer_start": 694, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:256", "label": "Quran 2:256 (there is no compulsion in religion)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:88:22", "label": "Quran 88:22 (you are not a supervisor over them)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/4/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/5", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S05", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 5, "start": 851, "end": 1088, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why is this clear to you and not to the ulama of the past? The smoke-filled room and the balcony", "question_plain": "Why did earlier scholars not see what reform-minded scholars see today?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth adds that the whole so-called apostasy rule rests on a single narration from Ikrima in Bukhari, which is itself problematic, and then puts the question people ask them both: if 'no compulsion in religion' is so apparent, why did the ulama of the past not see it, and why is it only being said in the twenty-first century? The guest answers with an image: in a smoke-filled room people stop smelling the smoke, while a newcomer notices it at once. He says the scholars of the past were great and we depend on them for hadith, grammar, tafsir and the religion as a whole, but they were not gods; they were fallible, subject to their time, place, teachers and social situation, so they could not see what an independent perspective now can. He offers a second image: scholars of the past were part of a procession filling the street, seeing only those just ahead and behind, whereas we can stand on a balcony and see the whole procession from start to finish, by taking books from different junctures of Islamic history as milestones showing how ideas flowed, solidified and came to be classed as unchangeable religion. It is no fault of theirs that they lacked this vantage point, and we are not infallible either, but we are responsible for the vantage point Allah has given us and will be questioned about what we were in a position to know.", "summary_short": "Past scholars were great but fallible and bound by their time, like people in a smoke-filled room or marchers in a procession, while today we can see the whole history of ideas from the balcony. Mufti Abu Layth adds that the apostasy rule rests on one problematic narration from Ikrima in Bukhari.", "answer_start": 930, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ikrima", "label": "Ikrima"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0a236306", "label": "report: whoever changes his religion kill him"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ulama", "label": "ulama"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/5/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/6", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S06", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 6, "start": 1088, "end": 1481, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is the stoning hadith fabricated? Hudud changing with the age, and the spirit versus the letter of the law", "question_plain": "Can hudud punishments such as stoning or hand-cutting change with the times?", "summary": "The segment opens with the end of the guest's balcony analogy. Mufti Abu Layth then takes up viewers' questions about whether the stoning report is fabricated: his view is that stoning was in the previous scriptures and a practice known among the Arabs, that the report in Sahih Muslim of Jews coming to the Prophet to be judged by their book shows it being condoned as a prior practice, and that when the Quran came it abrogated it. He adds that around the seventh century Maliki scholars in north-west Africa, such as al-Burzuli [?], ruled that because the era had changed the hudud such as hand-cutting had changed to financial penalties, long before European influence, and that in the east the Ottoman sultan Suleiman al-Qanuni changed many hudud punishments; his understanding is that the Sharia is meant to reflect the day and age in punishments, rulings and transactions, and he asks whether this resonates with the guest. The guest puts it in his own words: we follow how things have been done until we hit a snag and realise rethinking is needed; there is a letter and a spirit of the law, the letter exists to maintain the spirit, and applying the letter in a new situation can thwart the spirit, so one must sometimes depart from the letter, an ancient and well-known principle. He gives examples: scholars read the command to write down loan agreements as a recommendation, and nobody takes the command to hunt after leaving ihram as an obligation. So the hudud are not non-negotiable and inflexible, and he cites Umar suspending the cutting of the hand during a famine because those stealing to eat were not the evildoers the measure targeted; the time and circumstance must be seen and the law applied accordingly.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that stoning was a pre-Quranic practice abrogated by the Quran and that the Sharia's punishments reflect their age, as Maliki scholars and the Ottomans applied. The guest agrees that the spirit of the law can require departing from its letter, as Umar did when he suspended hand-cutting in a famine.", "answer_start": 1088, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "fiqh/legal-theory", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:af6cfd42", "label": "report: some jews came to the prophet and asked to be judged by the book"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:naskh", "label": "naskh (abrogation)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-burzuli", "label": "al-Burzuli [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hudud-change-with-the-age", "label": "punishments change to reflect their age (attributed to al-Burzuli) [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:suleiman-the-magnificent", "label": "Sultan Suleiman al-Qanuni (the Magnificent)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:spirit-of-the-law-over-letter", "label": "the spirit of the law may require departing from its letter"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:282", "label": "Quran 2:282 (write down your loan agreements)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:2", "label": "Quran 5:2 (when you leave ihram, hunt)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:38022e88", "label": "report: umar suspended the cutting of the hand during the famine"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/6/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/7", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S07", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 7, "start": 1481, "end": 1638, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Are you not giving your own intellect preference over the Quran and hadith?", "question_plain": "Is using reason to interpret Islam just preferring my own intellect over revelation?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth puts the question both of them are often asked: are you not just giving your own aql primacy over the Quran and the deen, preferring the intellect? The guest answers in parts. First, the aql by itself is not a good guide to what is true and just; it can be tainted, and very intelligent people go off the path. But a person guided by and imbued with the Quran and the inspiration given to the Prophet has an aql that is tamed and becomes a reasonable guide to understanding and applying the Quran and the Sunnah. He notes that the word aql is related to the rope that tethers a camel and keeps it from straying, so the Arabic term for the intellect reflects the ancient view that it keeps a person from going astray. The Quran, he says, does not oppose this but praises the aql, asking 'do you not reflect?' and, of the disbelievers, whether they have not travelled the earth so as to have hearts with which to understand, using the heart as the organ of intellect in its own idiom.", "summary_short": "The intellect alone is not a reliable guide, but an intellect guided by the Quran is tamed and becomes the right tool for understanding revelation. The word aql itself means the tether that keeps a camel from straying, and the Quran praises its use.", "answer_start": 1559, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (intellect)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:46", "label": "Quran 22:46 (have they not travelled the earth so as to have hearts with which to understand)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/7/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/8", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S08", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 8, "start": 1638, "end": 1954, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Has the intellect been demonised? Ahl al-Hadith against Ahl al-Ra'y, and why the question is wrongly framed", "question_plain": "Why do Muslims treat reason as the enemy of tradition?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the aql has been demonised over time, since Muslims seem to be among the few communities to use the word pejoratively. The guest returns to the balcony: Islamic history shows a great struggle between those who called themselves Ahl al-Hadith and the people of opinion, Ahl al-Ra'y, who used their aql; the champions of hadith as the antithesis of reason were victorious, and from them the traditional religion was inherited. He says this was in a way a good thing, since everyone's aql differs and Islam might otherwise have splintered into hundreds of strands, so sticking closely to the traditions preserved the tradition for us. But at the present juncture new situations require original thinking, and the aql must be applied, not against the tradition but together with it: the aql interprets the naql and the naql guides the aql, in a symbiotic relationship. Mufti says the question itself is wrongly placed and puts whoever answers it on the back foot. He compares it to asking whether one prefers Imam Malik or Abu Hanifa to the Prophet, when the imam is stating what he understands the Prophet's teaching to be, as is the hadith compiler, so like must be compared with like; likewise 'do you give your aql preference over divine guidance' is a false statement, and the real question is whether one gives one's own understanding of the Quran preference over somebody else's understanding of it.", "summary_short": "Historically the Ahl al-Hadith defeated the Ahl al-Ra'y, which preserved the tradition but left reason demonised; today reason and tradition must work together. Mufti Abu Layth says asking whether one prefers reason to revelation is a false framing, since the real choice is between one understanding of the Quran and another.", "answer_start": 1716, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (intellect)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:naql", "label": "naql (transmitted tradition)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-hadith", "label": "Ahl al-Hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-ray", "label": "Ahl al-Ra'y"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/8/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/9", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S09", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 9, "start": 1954, "end": 2489, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Aisha's age at marriage: the writers who place her in her teens, misstated numbers and Khadija's age", "question_plain": "How old was Aisha when she married the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth raises the Prophet's marriage to Aisha, saying more ulama need to rise to this challenge as the guest has, and asks for his findings. The guest confesses he has not studied the matter in detail himself but relies on others: a brief treatise by Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood published in Birmingham, a recent book on Aisha's life by a Turkish author, Amjad [?] in Pakistan writing on an Islamic website, and a one-hour lecture by Jamal Badawi in Australia analysing the famous hadith; all conclude that Aisha was in her teens when she married, not the six and nine of the traditional narrative. Setting that one hadith aside, he cites the report that her elder sister Asma lived to a hundred and died in the year 73, being ten years older than Aisha, which makes Aisha about seventeen at the hijra and eighteen when she moved in with the Prophet. He says the age in the popular hadith was misstated, which is not surprising, since other hadith show narrators mixing up numbers, and since people then had no birth certificates or calendars and knew the year of a death far better than a birth, as happens in remote areas today. He suggests people knew Aisha was young, and in retelling exaggerated her youth downwards, while Khadija's age was exaggerated upwards: she bore the Prophet several daughters and at least two sons, which is hard to square with marrying at forty, and Lawrence Conrad has argued, and a report from Ibn Abbas says, that she was twenty-eight. He calls this a better overall explanation.", "summary_short": "Writers such as Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood and Jamal Badawi conclude that Aisha was in her teens, and the report that her sister Asma died at a hundred in the year 73 puts her at about eighteen when she moved in with the Prophet. The guest explains the hadith's six and nine as numbers exaggerated downwards, as Khadija's forty was exaggerated upwards.", "answer_start": 2032, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7b34dd38", "label": "report: married her when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ruqaiyyah-waris-maqsood", "label": "Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:amjad", "label": "Amjad [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jamal-badawi", "label": "Jamal Badawi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:asma-bint-abi-bakr", "label": "Asma bint Abi Bakr"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8b236ce8", "label": "report: asma bint abi bakr died in the year 73 aged one hundred and was ten years older than aisha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khadijah", "label": "Khadijah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:lawrence-conrad", "label": "Lawrence Conrad"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5aca9483", "label": "report: khadijah was twenty eight when she married the prophet"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/9/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/10", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S10", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 10, "start": 2489, "end": 2883, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's reasons: the ifk rumours, the year of sorrow, and Aisha's earlier engagement", "question_plain": "Why do the circumstances of the Prophet's marriage rule out a six-year-old Aisha?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth offers his own contributing explanation for the young age: after the slander of the ifk, which the Quran ended, people hostile to Aisha kept spreading rumours about her and other men for decades, and the transmitter of her young age was her own nephew; he suggests the age may have been pushed down in a hyperbolic defence of her purity and virginity, since a girl of nine could not have known other men. What settled the matter for him, he says, was the backdrop to the marriage: the year of sorrow, in which the Prophet had lost Khadija and Abu Talib, had young children at home, worked for a living, saw the message stalling, was attacked at Ta'if and had lost his protection from Quraysh. When Khawla [?] found him saddened and suggested he remarry, proposing Sawda and Aisha, a wife could have helped him with companionship, the household and children, the da'wah and intimacy, as Khadija had; a six-year-old could meet none of these and would only have been another child to look after, which he calls absurd. The guest adds that it would not make sense for the Prophet to marry a girl younger than his own daughters, who needed the motherly care Sawda could give, so a marriage to a child would have served no reasonable purpose. Mufti notes that the sirah books record Abu Bakr hesitating because Aisha was already engaged, and that the Prophet married Sawda first; the engagement to Jubayr ibn Mut'im [?] was broken off when his mother refused, fearing Aisha would convert her son. He asks how a child could have been engaged for several years, or feared as a converter at six.", "summary_short": "The marriage after the year of sorrow was meant to give the Prophet a companion, a carer for his children and a support in the da'wah, which a six-year-old could not provide, and Aisha had been engaged for years to a man whose mother feared she would convert him. Mufti Abu Layth suggests her age was exaggerated downwards after the ifk slander to defend her purity.", "answer_start": 2489, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:incident-of-the-ifk", "label": "the incident of the ifk (the slander of Aisha)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:year-of-sorrow", "label": "The year of sorrow"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khadijah", "label": "Khadijah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sawda-bint-zama", "label": "Sawda bint Zam'a"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jubayr-ibn-mutim", "label": "Jubayr ibn Mut'im [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:taif-journey", "label": "the Prophet's journey to Ta'if"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/10/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/11", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S11", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 11, "start": 2883, "end": 3273, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is revising Aisha's age just a cry to appease non-Muslims? Bukhari is not the final word", "question_plain": "Is questioning Aisha's age just an attempt to please non-Muslims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth puts the charge that this is a cry to appease Western claims, saying he knows it is not, since for him it is about the Prophet's honour. The guest admits that in his youth he would have made the same charge, suspecting the faith of those who denied such reports and throwing at them verses such as 'they do not believe until they make you judge' and 'it is not for a believer to have a choice once Allah and his Messenger have decided'. He thought it normal that a girl could be married at that age because of the Prophet's example; only later did he realise that a girl that young is not suitable for marriage, and that he had to convince himself and fellow Muslims, not non-Muslims. Some Muslim societies still marry girls at perhaps twelve, but nine, the crucial age of consummation, is not something Muslims generally do, so the collective judgment of Muslims already treats it as too young; he allows that ancient societies married boys and girls young for defence and numbers, and that one's own great-grandmother may have married at twelve or sixteen, but says the evidence gathered makes it better to say Aisha was older than the report states. Those who think the report cannot be departed from misunderstand how hadith were narrated, collected and graded, a misunderstanding perpetuated by scholars who should know better: that once a hadith is in Bukhari or Muslim it cannot be questioned, whereas scholars differ with Bukhari all the time, preferring what they find more authentic, and al-Tirmidhi would call a hadith authentic while noting that the practice of the Muslims was contrary to it, because the earliest generations knew something more authentic. Mufti adds that Imam Malik held it impermissible in general to marry girls until they were nubile.", "summary_short": "The guest says he once made the same accusation, but came to see that a girl of nine is not fit for marriage and that Muslims themselves do not marry girls at that age. A report being in Bukhari does not make it the final word, since scholars have always differed with Bukhari where something more authentic exists.", "answer_start": 2959, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:65", "label": "Quran 4:65 (they do not believe until they make you judge in their disputes)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:36", "label": "Quran 33:36 (it is not for a believer to have a choice once Allah and his Messenger have decided)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tirmidhi", "label": "al-Tirmidhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/11/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/12", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S12", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 12, "start": 3273, "end": 3666, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Are you challenging Sahih al-Bukhari? What sahih means, insertions, and the rarity of mutawatir", "question_plain": "Can a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari be questioned?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he personally believes all the hadith on Aisha's age are weak and will go through every chain with another guest in a separate episode. He then puts the allegation that in questioning reports such as these and the apostasy hadith they are challenging Bukhari, the gold standard of Sunni Islam. The guest says the masses have been given a simple picture of a complex matter: among the six books, Ibn Majah has been questioned and Bukhari and Muslim rank first as collections of sahih hadith, but sahih means that the compilers verified the chains, Bukhari requiring an established relationship between each narrator and his source and Muslim accepting that they could have met, and this says little about the content. Good people make mistakes in what they narrate, as comparing versions shows, so a chain of reliable narrators does not guarantee that what comes out is what was first said; sometimes an explanatory insertion, idraj, becomes part of the text, which only comparison of narratives reveals. The highest test is tawatur: a hadith narrated through so many chains that collusion is inconceivable. Most Muslims do not know this and are told simply to take what is in Bukhari and Muslim, but those are mostly single-narrator reports, khabar al-ahad; only a few hadith are mutawatir, most of those in practice rather than in words, such as the four units of Dhuhr and three of Maghrib, since Muslims narrated by meaning in their own words until the science tightened, by which time much water had flowed under the bridge.", "summary_short": "Sahih means Bukhari and Muslim verified the chains, which says little about the content, since reliable narrators still err and insert explanations; only the few mutawatir reports, mostly practices like the number of units in prayer, are beyond doubt. Mufti Abu Layth says he believes all the hadith on Aisha's age are weak.", "answer_start": 3351, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7b34dd38", "label": "report: married her when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-ibn-majah", "label": "Sunan Ibn Majah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kutub-al-sittah", "label": "the six books"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-muslim", "label": "Imam Muslim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahih", "label": "sahih"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:idraj", "label": "idraj (insertion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riwaya-bil-mana", "label": "riwaya bil-ma'na (transmission by meaning)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:matn-criticism", "label": "judging a report by its content (matn)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/12/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/13", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S13", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 13, "start": 3666, "end": 3905, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mutawatir as the living tradition, and the BukhariGate case: Farabri and three tests for a report", "question_plain": "Can Sahih al-Bukhari be proven to be the book Imam al-Bukhari wrote?", "summary": "The segment opens with the guest finishing his point that few hadith are mutawatir in their exact words. Mufti Abu Layth says what the guest describes as mutawatir is what he calls the living tradition of Islam, the mass transmission of things like the number of prayers, and that he is in line with scholars such as Ibn Hibban [?] who said there is no such thing as a mutawatir hadith, while acknowledging that many scholars go the other way. On Bukhari he says he has made a detailed video, BukhariGate, questioning the authenticity of the book through its transmission: not to throw Bukhari away, but because the Sahih cannot be proven to be the exact copy of Imam al-Bukhari, since the earliest manuscripts are centuries later and the whole book rests on one man, Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri, who was vouched for by no muhaddith in his lifetime despite living in the era of the greatest wave of hadith scholars, and was only vouched for a hundred or more years after his death. He therefore says Bukhari should be treated like any other hadith book and each report weighed, as the Malikis [?] put it, by whether it clashes with reason, goes against the Quran or uproots an Islamic principle. He admits his stance is radical and asks whether the guest has taken such a stance, and the guest begins by saying he has not studied hadith transmission or the manuscripts of Bukhari as Mufti has.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that what is really mutawatir is the living tradition, not any hadith, and that Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be proven to be Bukhari's exact book since it rests on one unvouched transmitter, Farabri. Each report should therefore be weighed against reason, the Quran and the principles of Islam like any other hadith.", "answer_start": 3666, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hibban", "label": "Ibn Hibban [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/13/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/14", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S14", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 14, "start": 3905, "end": 4296, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A balanced approach to hadith, and how Aisha corrected the companions' narrations", "question_plain": "How should hadith be evaluated, and did the companions ever misreport the Prophet?", "summary": "The guest says his own approach to hadith is balanced: neither accepting them all nor throwing them out wholesale, but evaluating them one by one by the principles Mufti Abu Layth delineated, that a report should not contradict the major principles of the religion, which are known from many narrations and the Quran, nor empirical observation, nor reason. He says the earliest Muslims did this rational evaluation of content, but it was abandoned when the champions of tradition saw reason as antithetical to it, so that when a report was unreasonable even to them they looked for a fault in the chain instead, as Jonathan Brown has shown in an article. As a result later scholars accepted narratives that Aisha herself had rejected: when male companions related that a dog, a woman and a donkey break the prayer, she objected that they were putting women in the same breath as dogs and donkeys; when Ibn Umar related that the dead are punished because of their relatives' weeping, she said he had erred or forgotten, that the Prophet had said the dead is punished while the family weeps, and cited the Quran that no soul bears another's burden. Mufti adds that a scholar wrote a whole book on Aisha's corrections of the companions [?], and gives the report of a bad omen in three things, a house, a horse and a woman, which Aisha condemned, saying the Prophet had been quoting what the people of the jahiliyya used to say; he says this gives context to how hadith are sometimes misrelayed, and the guest agrees that narrators who heard part of a discourse passed on a misunderstanding.", "summary_short": "Hadith should be judged one by one against the principles of the religion, observation and reason, as the earliest Muslims did before reason was sidelined. Aisha herself rejected several companions' reports, such as the dog, woman and donkey breaking the prayer, the dead punished by weeping, and the bad omen in a woman, showing how reports were misrelayed.", "answer_start": 3905, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ef9b706d", "label": "report: three things break the prayer the dog the woman and the donkey"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4fb7ddf7", "label": "report: the dead are punished because of the weeping of their living relatives"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1b5fcec6", "label": "report: bad omen is in three things the house the horse and the woman"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-ijaba", "label": "al-Ijaba, on Aisha's corrections of the companions [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:matn-criticism", "label": "judging a report by its content (matn)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/14/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/15", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S15", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 15, "start": 4296, "end": 4532, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Not against Bukhari: a human masterpiece, shorter narratives, and the myth BukhariGate critiques", "question_plain": "Is criticising Sahih al-Bukhari an attack on Imam al-Bukhari?", "summary": "The guest answers the worry that these positions make them opponents of Bukhari or deniers of something essential to the faith: on the contrary, they give great credit to Imam al-Bukhari for sifting hadith. Comparing a Bukhari narrative with its version in Ibn Majah shows the later text grown longer with insertions, so the shorter version is usually the more authentic, since people tended to add explanations rather than take away; Bukhari's work checks that tendency. But that does not make Bukhari an angel or his book comparable to the Quran, which would be a travesty he would not have accepted himself: the introduction to the English translation records that he prayed two units before including each hadith, which the guest reads as his way of asking Allah's forgiveness for any mistake. Mufti Abu Layth clarifies that his lengthy two-part BukhariGate video begins by distinguishing three phenomena: the man Imam al-Bukhari, whom he regards as great despite his sufferings at the end of his life, the book, and the myth of Bukhari as the untouchable gold standard; it is the myth he critiques, not the man. He then raises the next subject: exorcisms and demonic possession.", "summary_short": "Imam al-Bukhari deserves credit for sifting hadith and his shorter narratives are usually the more authentic, but he was a human being and his book is not the Quran. Mufti Abu Layth says BukhariGate critiques the myth of an untouchable gold standard, not the man.", "answer_start": 4296, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-ibn-majah", "label": "Sunan Ibn Majah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:idraj", "label": "idraj (insertion)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:dd340207", "label": "report: al-bukhari prayed two rakahs before including each hadith in his book"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/15/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/16", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S16", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 16, "start": 4532, "end": 4845, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Jinn possession: the case of a young man at the da'wah centre read as psychological", "question_plain": "Does Islam teach that jinn can possess people?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has not believed in exorcisms and demonic possession, since the Quran and Sunnah do not show them to be true and if anything show the opposite, though the belief is widely held, and asks the guest's thoughts. The guest says he was plunged into the question when a young man who frequented his da'wah centre was found lying on the floor with brothers reading Quran over him; they explained he was possessed by a female jinn, known to be female because she spoke in a female voice, who had been affronted when he urinated against her tree as a child. The young man's problems continued until his brothers called for help because he was throwing things around the house. The guest describes the routine: the young man would call for water, which the brothers placed in his right hand, and he would transfer it to his left, drink with a satanic laugh and frighten them; with the guest present he simply fell back on the couch, which the guest took to mean he respected him as his imam, and nothing seemed abnormal. In hospital, in front of doctors and nurses, his conversation and behaviour were normal, and the possessed behaviour returned only when he was alone with his brothers. The guest interprets this not as deliberate pretence but as the young man feeding off the expectations of those who believed in possession and behaving normally with those who would not take it seriously.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth does not believe in jinn possession, saying the Quran and Sunnah do not support it. The guest recounts a young man at his da'wah centre whose 'possession' appeared only around believers in it and vanished in front of doctors, which he reads as a psychological phenomenon rather than a jinn.", "answer_start": 4532, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/16/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/17", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S17", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 17, "start": 4845, "end": 5140, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The texts cited for possession, Shaytan who only whispers, personal responsibility and the absurdity of shape-shifting jinn", "question_plain": "Does the Quran support the idea that Shaytan or jinn can control a person?", "summary": "The guest says that when he read the books written by Muslim scholars to prove possession is an Islamic belief, they lacked the proof he expected. They cite the verse comparing those who devour riba to one whom Shaytan has driven to madness by his touch, but in context the verse concerns how such people will rise on the Day of Judgment, not the behaviour of a possessed person. Taken as a whole, he says, the Quran shows Shaytan has no such command: he whispers into people's hearts and it is for them to follow or turn away, and Allah says he has no authority over his servants, so a young man who prayed regularly could not be possessed. He links this to personal responsibility, which he stresses against Christian friends who say Jesus died for our sins: if jinn possess people and make them act, the person is no longer responsible, so a possessed man who killed his brothers would have to be excused, and every punishment in the Sharia could be evaded by claiming possession at the time, since no psychiatrist could measure whether a jinn was present, creating a doubt that lifts the punishment. Mufti Abu Layth adds that those who support possession also say a jinn can take any form, a human, a dog, a snake, an object, even the screen or a page of the Quran, so that nothing could be trusted, not even the Quran one memorised from a teacher who might himself be a jinn, which he says reduces the argument to absurdity. The guest agrees and says comparative religion helped him further: in medieval Christianity, when nuns in convents became pregnant, it was blamed on evil spirits, the incubus or succubus.", "summary_short": "The verse cited for possession is about rising on the Day of Judgment, and the Quran as a whole gives Shaytan only the power to whisper and no authority over Allah's servants. Possession would also destroy personal responsibility and let any criminal evade punishment, and Mufti Abu Layth says the claim that jinn can take any form makes the whole idea absurd.", "answer_start": 4845, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:275", "label": "Quran 2:275 (like one whom Shaytan has driven to madness by his touch)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:114:5", "label": "Quran 114:5 (who whispers into the hearts of people)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:17:65", "label": "Quran 17:65 (over my servants you have no authority (also 15:42))"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shubha", "label": "shubha (doubt that lifts a punishment)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/17/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/18", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S18", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 18, "start": 5140, "end": 5376, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Pregnant nuns and the Y chromosome: a side note on the natural birth of Jesus", "question_plain": "Was Jesus born of a virgin, and how could a jinn father a child?", "summary": "The guest continues that the medieval explanation of pregnant nuns by evil spirits is itself mind-boggling, since it is unclear how a spirit could impregnate a woman. He recalls putting to Christian friends in debates that if Jesus was born of his mother alone the child should have been female, since the Y chromosome does not come from the mother, and that a physician who debated him in Britain admitted the Y chromosome must have been created by God, which would make Jesus a creation of God, though he would not draw that conclusion. On a side note Mufti Abu Layth says he has recently become inclined to the view, held by scholars of the subcontinent such as Abdul Karim Athari and Tamanna Imadi, that Jesus was born of a natural birth, since the Quran never explicitly says it was a virgin birth, these scholars naming Joseph the carpenter as the father, and he cites the verse in which Allah argues against the Christians that he could not have a child since he has no companion, reasoning that would be flawed if Jesus had been born without one; he asks whether the guest shares this view. The guest declines to take on every controversy at once and returns to possession: jinn do not have human chromosomes, being a different species, so it makes no sense that they could intermarry with humans or make a woman pregnant.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has recently become inclined to the view of Abdul Karim Athari and Tamanna Imadi that Jesus was born naturally, since the Quran never explicitly states a virgin birth and 6:101 argues from the absence of a companion. The guest sets that controversy aside and says a jinn, being a different species, could not impregnate a woman.", "answer_start": 5140, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Jesus (Isa)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Abdul Karim Athari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tamanna-imadi", "label": "Tamanna Imadi"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:101", "label": "Quran 6:101 (how can He have a child when He has no companion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/18/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/19", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S19", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 19, "start": 5376, "end": 5611, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Exorcisms in the Gospels but not the Quran, no sahih hadith on possession, and psychiatric treatment first", "question_plain": "If possession were real, why is there no sahih hadith of the Prophet casting out a jinn?", "summary": "The guest says the Bible repeatedly shows Jesus driving out demons, once sending them into a herd of pigs that rushed off a cliff, so that exorcism is one of his chief miracles in the Gospels; yet the Quran, which mentions many miracles of Jesus including some not in the Bible, says nothing about him driving out demons, which would be strange if possession were real. Likewise, since jinn are said to operate in warm climates and the Prophet lived in one, the authentic collections should be full of reports of him driving out jinn, but those who argue for possession cite reports from works such as Abu Dawud compiled without the scrutiny of Bukhari and Muslim, and there is not a single sahih hadith in the whole category. He concludes the matter is overstated, and cites Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips's book The Exorcist Tradition in Islam, a University of Wales study whose case studies of supposed possession and recurring treatments suggested a psychological phenomenon; Philips concluded that the symptoms match those of psychological problems and that psychiatric treatment should be tried first, with possession concluded only if it fails, though the guest thinks it reasonable to keep searching for a cure, by which he confirms he means medical intervention. He adds that believing in possession forecloses a cure, that some people even say a car is possessed when it should go to a mechanic, and that in some societies jinn are believed to be under every rock.", "summary_short": "The Gospels make exorcism a chief miracle of Jesus, but the Quran never mentions it and there is no sahih hadith of the Prophet casting out a jinn, so the guest calls the belief overstated. Following Bilal Philips's study, he says the symptoms match psychological illness and medical treatment should come first.", "answer_start": 5376, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Jesus (Isa)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ameenah-bilal-philips", "label": "Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-exorcist-tradition-in-islam", "label": "The Exorcist Tradition in Islam (Bilal Philips)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/19/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/20", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S20", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 20, "start": 5611, "end": 6004, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Magic spells, mental health and why possession is not a religious teaching", "question_plain": "Is belief in magic spells and jinn possession part of Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth raises the other side of the coin that harms the Muslim community's mental health: if it is not a demon, people say someone has cast a magic spell on them, even from thousands of miles away. The guest says belief in these phenomena keeps Muslims from advancing scientifically with the modern world, which has largely moved beyond beliefs once shared by all; he notes, and Mufti confirms from Britain, that young men experiencing what they take to be possession sometimes gravitate to the Muslim community and convert because they feel Muslims will understand them, which Mufti says just brings more mental health cases. The guest says Muslims must not advance an ancient belief as part of the religion, since that misrepresents it. To someone who says they saw an exorcism cure a person with their own eyes, he would say he trusts their narrative and it tells him there is something he does not know, but he denies that it is a religious teaching, because a teaching requires verses of the Quran or authentic hadith, and there are none; such beliefs come from superstition or from experiences people interpret this way. He repeats that treating possession as real would undermine the Sharia, since no one could be punished for adultery if jinn could make women pregnant, and that denying it brings people back to responsibility for their actions. Mufti recounts a man who insisted a jinn had slapped him in the eye in a dark bathroom and rejected the suggestion of a problem with the optic nerve as far-fetched, observing that to such people the obvious explanations seem far-fetched and demons and spells do not. He then proposes a few rapid questions from viewers before closing.", "summary_short": "Belief in possession and magic spells holds Muslims back and harms mental health, and the guest says it is not a religious teaching because no verse or authentic hadith establishes it, whatever people believe they have seen. Mufti Abu Layth notes that to believers in jinn the ordinary explanation seems the far-fetched one.", "answer_start": 5690, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sihr", "label": "sihr (magic)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/20/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/21", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S21", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 21, "start": 6004, "end": 6162, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Rapid round: is Islam feudal, and does Surat al-Falaq refer to black magic?", "question_plain": "Does Surat al-Falaq confirm that black magic is real?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads rapid-round questions from viewers. To the first, whether Islam is feudal or anti-feudal, which neither fully understands, the guest says it concerns economics and he does not know the answer without research. To the second, what the verse about those who blow on knots in Surat al-Falaq means if it is not about black magic, the guest says Allah knows best what his verses mean; the classical commentators generally said it refers to women performing acts of magic, but in his humble view it need not mean that such magic is a reality: some women may have done such things, creating fear and doubt in people's minds, and the supplication asks Allah's protection so that one feels assured of being in his hands, without implying that what they do is effective. Mufti adds what he has said before when asked: the surah begins with things that are not harmful in themselves, such as nightfall, but with what is associated with them, and the verse concerns the superstitions associated with such practices.", "summary_short": "The verse about those who blow on knots does not establish that magic is effective: the guest says it asks protection from the fear such practices create, and Mufti Abu Layth says the surah names things not harmful in themselves but the superstitions attached to them. The question whether Islam is feudal went unanswered.", "answer_start": 6004, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "quran/tafsir/short-surahs", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:113:4", "label": "Quran 113:4 (from the evil of those who blow on knots)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sihr", "label": "sihr (magic)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/21/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/22", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S22", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 22, "start": 6162, "end": 6595, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Rapid round: 'what your right hands possess', concubines, and whether Mariya was a wife", "question_plain": "What does the Quran mean by 'what your right hands possess', and did the Prophet have a concubine?", "summary": "Viewers ask about 'what your right hands possess' and about concubines, which the guest says is one lengthy question on which he has brief answers on his website. In brief, he says one must accept that people owned slaves in the past, including biblical prophets, Ibrahim having the concubine Hajar who bore Ismail; slavery then differed from American slavery, and since women were especially vulnerable, societies developed the concubine as a kind of wife who belonged to one man and had no relations with others, with the distinction that she was not free. The classical commentators describe something similar in early Islam and say the Prophet had such a concubine, Mariya al-Qibtiyya. Reading the Quran to make sense for today, he has come to a slightly different understanding: 4:25 speaks of marrying slave girls when free women cannot be found, so the relationship the Quran envisages is marriage, the right-hand possessions being named separately because they were a different category of person, a sort of wife who was not free. He explains that there were no prisons until Umar's caliphate, so prisoners of war taken when the nascent community defended itself were allotted to families and the men could take the women as concubines. Whether the Prophet himself had a concubine is not clear to him, since marriage then was informal: with Safiyya people waited to see whether he put his cloak over her the next morning to know if she was a wife, so it is possible Mariya was a wife and some misunderstood. Mufti Abu Layth says this has been his teaching too, and that an early biographer of the Prophet's wives from Madinah, a student of Imam Malik [?], places Mariya among the wives in his book Azwaj al-Nabi [?]. He adds his broader view, explained at length elsewhere, that collective consciousness changes with eras, as the recent idea of a right to self-determination shows, and that under trajectory hermeneutics slavery would have become haram as that consciousness changed, just as later generations may wonder how we tolerated governments or paying taxes.", "summary_short": "The guest reads the Quran's 'right-hand possessions' as a category of wife who was not free, since 4:25 speaks of marrying slave girls, and thinks Mariya al-Qibtiyya may have been a wife misunderstood as a concubine. Mufti Abu Layth says Mariya was a wife, as he has taught, and that under trajectory hermeneutics slavery would have become haram.", "answer_start": 6162, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ma-malakat-aymanukum", "label": "ma malakat aymanukum (what your right hands possess)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hajar", "label": "Hajar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mariya-al-qibtiyya", "label": "Mariya al-Qibtiyya"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:25", "label": "Quran 4:25 (marrying believing slave girls)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:94531d95", "label": "report: if the prophet veiled safiyya she was a wife and if not she was what his right hand possessed"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:azwaj-al-nabi", "label": "Azwaj al-Nabi (the wives of the Prophet) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/22/"}, {"id": "KsQKsrXndNw/s/23", "short_id": "2020-04-22-S23", "recording": "KsQKsrXndNw", "n": 23, "start": 6595, "end": 6797, "date": "20200422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: thanks, the guest's apology for a short Q&A, and his Facebook live the next day", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The segment opens with the end of Mufti Abu Layth's point that later generations may look back at things we tolerate as earlier ones tolerated slavery. Mufti thanks the guest and asks for final words. The guest apologises to viewers that there was little time for questions after an extremely busy day, says he had thought of asking to postpone but did not want a second disappointment after the previous week's technical problems, and plugs his own Facebook live the next day, Wednesday at 1.30 pm Toronto time, on the seven ahruf and the recitations of the Quran, a topic Mufti had hoped he would address. Mufti says the guest's name needs no introduction, thanks him for his time, apologises for running over, and signs off.", "summary_short": "The guest apologises for the short Q&A and announces a Facebook live the next day on the seven ahruf and recitations of the Quran; Mufti Abu Layth thanks him and signs off.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahruf", "label": "the seven ahruf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KsQKsrXndNw/s/23/"}, {"id": "KuSevqg0low/s/1", "short_id": "2019-05-04-S01", "recording": "KuSevqg0low", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 333, "date": "20190504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Daniel Haqiqatjou's post that praying in a closet is a Sunnah for women", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces a post by Daniel Haqiqatjou showing a prayer mat inside a clothes closet, which he calls despicable. In the post, which Mufti reads out, the author says he found his wife had been praying in the closet, reviving a Sunnah, and quotes reports that a woman's prayer in her room is better than in her courtyard and her prayer in her closet better than in her room, and the report that Umm Humayd [?] was told her prayer at home was better than in the Prophet's mosque, after which she prayed in the darkest part of her house until she died. Mufti restates the claim as being that it is a Sunnah for women to pray in closets and that this is better for them than the Prophet's mosque, mocking it as a 'wonderful wardrobe of Narnia'.", "summary_short": "Daniel Haqiqatjou's post claimed that a woman praying in a closet revives a Sunnah and that this is better for her than praying in the Prophet's mosque.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:aca4730d", "label": "report: a woman's prayer in her makhda' is better than her prayer in her room"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5aa3d58c", "label": "report: i know that you love to pray with me but your prayer in your room is better for you than your prayer in my mosque (Umm Humayd)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umm-humayd", "label": "Umm Humayd [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KuSevqg0low/s/1/"}, {"id": "KuSevqg0low/s/2", "short_id": "2019-05-04-S02", "recording": "KuSevqg0low", "n": 2, "start": 333, "end": 566, "date": "20190504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Makhda' means an inner chamber, not a closet", "question_plain": "Does a hadith tell women to pray in a closet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, apart from being ridiculously weak or fabricated and clashing with the sahih hadith and the practice of the Prophet and his wives, the reports are mistranslated: the Arabic word is makhda', not 'closet'. He explains that a house (bayt or dar) had a front sitting area, an inner part, and a sleeping quarter called the makhda', described as a small inner room within a larger residence, which could be called a chamber but not a cupboard. Such rooms were dark, he says, because, as Aisha says in a hadith, houses had no lamps in those days, not because people sought darkness. He concludes that the critic has no idea what a makhda' is.", "summary_short": "No: the word makhda' means an inner sleeping chamber, not a closet, and such rooms were dark only because houses had no lamps.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques", "quran/arabic-language", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makhda", "label": "makhda' (inner chamber)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:91a4639f", "label": "report: the houses in those days had no lamps (Aisha)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the makhda' in these reports was the sleeping chamber within the inner part of a house, not a closet or cupboard.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this was called a Mazda okay now it is not a closet that people had you could even if he said the term chambers he could have said chambers but not a closet it's not a cupboard", "start": 488}}, "url": "/r/KuSevqg0low/s/2/"}, {"id": "KuSevqg0low/s/3", "short_id": "2019-05-04-S03", "recording": "KuSevqg0low", "n": 3, "start": 566, "end": 911, "date": "20190504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Musaylima, Sajah and the poem that shows what makhda' means", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth digresses to the story of Sajah, a woman from the Yamamah region who claimed prophethood after the Prophet, in the time of Abu Bakr, and met the false prophet Musaylima. He remarks that problems always came from Najd, citing a hadith about it. He says Musaylima recited to her lines about God making women pregnant and then proposed marriage in an explicit poem offering to take her in the bayt or in the makhda', a poem linguists cite in explaining words, which Mufti says he came across about nineteen years earlier while memorising the Quran. He uses it to show that makhda' meant a chamber, not a cupboard, before returning to the topic.", "summary_short": "Musaylima's poem to the false prophetess Sajah uses makhda' for a bedchamber, showing the word never meant a cupboard.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/arabic-language", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musaylima", "label": "Musaylima"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sajah", "label": "Sajah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makhda", "label": "makhda' (inner chamber)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1903b957", "label": "report: najd will always cause problems"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KuSevqg0low/s/3/"}, {"id": "KuSevqg0low/s/4", "short_id": "2019-05-04-S04", "recording": "KuSevqg0low", "n": 4, "start": 911, "end": 1400, "date": "20190504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Women in the Prophet's mosque: the sahih evidence against the closet reports", "question_plain": "Is it better for women to pray at home than in the mosque?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many sahih hadith show women attending the prayers, and that the hadith that prayer in the Prophet's mosque is more virtuous than elsewhere except Makkah contradicts the claim. He cites the reports in al-Bukhari of women leaving the Fajr prayer unrecognised in the dark, and the command not to prevent women from the mosques. Aisha's remark that the Prophet would have prevented women had he seen what they did, he says, was a statement, and she forcibly prevented no one; he cites Ibn Hazm in al-Muhalla asking whether zina, harassment and hypocrites did not exist in the Prophet's time. He adds that Umar and Ali appointed imams for women, that the mosque had a women's door, and that the Maliki madhhab holds the Prophet's mosque more virtuous than the Kaaba, calling the claim that any local mosque is better for women than the Prophet's mosque an affront typical of Wahhabis, though not all Salafis would say it. He ends with Ibn Umar's anger at his son, in Sahih Muslim, for saying he would stop his wife going to the mosque.", "summary_short": "No: sahih hadith show women regularly praying in the Prophet's mosque, the Prophet forbade stopping them, and Umar and Ali provided imams for them.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b6104c86", "label": "report: prayer in this mosque of mine is better than a thousand prayers elsewhere except al-masjid al-haram"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:613960b2", "label": "report: the women would leave the fajr prayer and could not be recognised because of the darkness (cited as in al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:80ebd445", "label": "report: do not prevent the female servants of allah from the mosques of allah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:90dd1daf", "label": "report: if the prophet had seen what the women do now he would have prevented them from the mosque (Aisha)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-muhalla", "label": "al-Muhalla (Ibn Hazm)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:masjid-al-nabawi", "label": "al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet's mosque)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7a70bdbe", "label": "report: ibn umar rebuked his son who said he would prevent his wife from going to the mosque (cited as in Sahih Muslim)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the reports placing a woman's prayer at home above the Prophet's mosque go against the sahih hadith of women attending the mosque.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it goes against that which is Asahi ad it goes against the hadith that many women would come inside Buhari they would leave fajr salah", "start": 947}}, "url": "/r/KuSevqg0low/s/4/"}, {"id": "KuSevqg0low/s/5", "short_id": "2019-05-04-S05", "recording": "KuSevqg0low", "n": 5, "start": 1402, "end": 1904, "date": "20190504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The chains of the 'darkest part of her house' reports", "question_plain": "Is the hadith about women praying in the darkest part of the house authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth goes through the reports one by one. The report through Umm Humayd's family, he says, has narrators nobody can identify, including the grandmother it is transmitted from, and he calls it fabricated; another chain, in Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Ibn Khuzayma and al-Hakim, also runs through unknown narrators, and he questions whether one narrator ever heard from his source, noting that Ibn Hibban lists such unknowns in his book of trustworthy narrators. He says Ibn Khuzayma himself headed the chapter on Abu Hurayra's report that a woman's best prayer is in the darkest part of her house with a doubt about its authenticity, and goes through further versions with unknown, abandoned or weak narrators, including Qatada's habit of transmitting from people he never heard, and reports in al-Tabarani. He concludes the reports are either fabricated or very weak and clash with the sahih hadith and the sirah, in which women attended the Prophet's mosque, and says calling a cupboard better than the Prophet's mosque is absurd, the result of taking the deen without study and of using religion to justify control.", "summary_short": "No: the chains run through unknown, abandoned or weak narrators, so the reports are fabricated or very weak and clash with the sahih hadith.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5aa3d58c", "label": "report: i know that you love to pray with me but your prayer in your room is better for you than your prayer in my mosque (Umm Humayd)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cf232df3", "label": "report: the best prayer of a woman is in the darkest part of her house (Abu Hurayra, Ibn Khuzayma)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-khuzayma", "label": "Ibn Khuzayma"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-hakim-al-naysaburi", "label": "al-Hakim al-Naysaburi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hibban", "label": "Ibn Hibban"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qatada", "label": "Qatada"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabarani", "label": "al-Tabarani"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the narrations about a woman praying in the darkest part of her house are either fabricated or very weak.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "we can go on and on with these narrations these narrations are either fabricated or very weak they clash with the sahih hadith", "start": 1788}}, "url": "/r/KuSevqg0low/s/5/"}, {"id": "KuSevqg0low/s/6", "short_id": "2019-05-04-S06", "recording": "KuSevqg0low", "n": 6, "start": 1904, "end": 2286, "date": "20190504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Answering Daniel Haqiqatjou's '1,400 years' argument against feminism", "question_plain": "Have Muslims really kept women out of mosques for 1,400 years?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to another post by Daniel Haqiqatjou objecting to Muslims who say the Prophet was a feminist, on the grounds that billions of Muslims had no issue for 1,400 years. Mufti asks which 1,400 years he means, since women came to the mosque in the time of the Prophet, Umar and Ali, Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa never taught such things, and mosques of every madhhab have had women praying in them. He cites a Maliki scholar of north-west Africa some 600 years ago whose fatwa substituted financial penalties for the hudud, a scholar who held that wives inherit half of the husband's earnings, and an Andalusian scholar who saw nothing wrong with women travelling in caravans, asking whether they are part of that legacy, and mocks 'glossy petrodollar' books. He says that, from what he has looked into, he does not believe Daniel Haqiqatjou has studied the Islamic sciences to a scholarly level, and calls it ironic that someone who relies on Western credentials such as Harvard presents a version of Islam close to the Taliban's.", "summary_short": "No: women prayed in mosques from the Prophet's time on and classical scholars held many such views, so the '1,400 years' claim fails; Mufti Abu Layth doubts Haqiqatjou's scholarly training.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender", "dialogue/responses-to-critics", "society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:darussalam", "label": "Darussalam (publisher)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:harvard-university", "label": "Harvard University"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:taliban", "label": "Taliban"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/KuSevqg0low/s/6/"}, {"id": "KuSevqg0low/s/7", "short_id": "2019-05-04-S07", "recording": "KuSevqg0low", "n": 7, "start": 2286, "end": 2469, "date": "20190504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A final message: Islam came with flexibility for all peoples", "question_plain": "Is Islam meant to be applied the same rigid way everywhere?", "summary": "In a final message Mufti Abu Layth says Islam came for all times and that things evolve with people. He notes that the whole human population in the Prophet's time was under about 210 million, roughly today's Pakistan, and the Arabian Peninsula perhaps 100,000 to 200,000 people, fewer than a small British city such as Wolverhampton or Derby. Islam therefore came with the flexibility to incorporate people's backgrounds, perspectives and needs, not as a Procrustean bed into which everyone must be cut to fit. He cites the hadith in which the Prophet told someone who narrowed things that he had restricted the vast mercy of Allah, and signs off.", "summary_short": "No: Islam was revealed to a tiny population but came for all mankind, so it is flexible enough to take in every people's backgrounds and needs.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:bc9a2ac5", "label": "report: you have restricted something vast, the mercy of allah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam came with the flexibility to incorporate people's backgrounds, perspectives and needs.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "with people Aslam came with the flexibility to not only incorporate these people but their backgrounds their perspectives their needs", "start": 2363}}, "url": "/r/KuSevqg0low/s/7/"}, {"id": "LJpCQXiII98/s/1", "short_id": "2019-07-24-S01", "recording": "LJpCQXiII98", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 202, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does the Quran say there are three or five prayers? The proto-Sunnah hypothesis", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say there are three or five daily prayers?", "summary": "A viewer asks whether the Quran says there are three or five daily prayers. Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not break the matter down into detail and that he personally feels it was not addressing that question at all. He then presents what he calls the primordial or proto-Sunnah source hypothesis, put forward by a mufti who is on the stream that day [?], as something Muslims should work on: the main body of Sunnis, the Shia and the Khawarij, who survive today as the Ibadis, began at each other's throats, so the things they all agree on must come from a source that precedes the hadith books, a very early living tradition. Since the Shia, the Ibadis and the Sunnis all hold that there are five prayers, whether combined or not, he says this demonstrates in his understanding, irrefutably, that a clear proto-source in the early living tradition established five separate prayers. He adds that the Shia do not say there are only three prayers but combine the five, and that Sunni scholars also allow combining prayers, so combination is unique to neither.", "summary_short": "The Quran does not spell out the number of prayers, but Sunnis, Shia and Ibadis all hold there are five, which Mufti Abu Layth takes as proof of an early living tradition that preceded the hadith books. The Shia combine the five rather than reducing them to three.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "proto-Sunnah (the early living tradition)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ibadi", "label": "Ibadi"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he personally feels the Quran does not address how many daily prayers there are, and that the agreement of Sunnis, Shia and Ibadis on five prayers shows, in his understanding irrefutably, a proto-Sunnah living tradition that preceded the hadith books.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "demonstrate in my understanding irrefutably that they must have been some very clear proto source that was part of the early living tradition in early Islam", "start": 151}}, "url": "/r/LJpCQXiII98/s/1/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/1", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S01", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 232, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The popular picture of jinn possession, and the question of what the jinn would gain by it", "question_plain": "Does jinn possession exist in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth describes the public perception of possession: demons, shayatin or jinn enter the mind or take over the body, the person falls ill, develops perceptible mental-health problems, obsessive behaviour, bouts of insanity, screaming and anxiety, or catatonic states with frozen limbs and strange gestures, and their relationships fall apart. He stresses that he is describing the urban myth, not endorsing it. The first question he raises is why the jinn would do this: the cultural answer is to create mischief, fitna and corruption on earth and to harm the children of Adam. He states his thesis that, measured against the Quran, the authentic Sunnah and the voice of reason, possession as so pictured does not exist, and outlines what follows: where the confusion stems from within the Quran and Sunnah, then psychological perspectives, including the valid point Shaykh Akram made earlier that some medical conditions are simply not yet understood, which does not make them the jinn. He says the backdrop to all of it is human beings trying to explain what is going on around them.", "summary_short": "Not as popularly pictured, Mufti Abu Layth holds: the idea of demons taking over a body and causing illness and insanity does not survive the Quran, the authentic Sunnah and reason. He asks what the jinn would even gain by it and sets out to trace where the belief comes from.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that jinn or demonic possession, as popularly pictured, does not exist when examined against the Quran, the authentic Sunnah and reason, and that the first question to ask is what objective the jinn would have in possessing anyone.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "gene possession demonic possessions the way people pictured this understanding that we've defined does not actually exist", "start": 150}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/1/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/2", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S02", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 2, "start": 232, "end": 467, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why the ulama answered everything: the learned class explaining atoms, the seat of the intellect and the world", "question_plain": "Why did religious scholars end up explaining things like illness and the mind?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that historically the most learned people in any society were its religious scholars: monks in Christianity, Brahmins in Hinduism, the ulama in Islam, where every Muslim was at least to read the Quran. Most people were farmers with simple lives, and only the ulama studied mathematics, philosophy, history, poetry and other religions before teaching or becoming judges; one did not meet a shopkeeper who was also a researcher. So the ulama were asked worldly questions and answered with the resources they had. He gives examples: debates between al-Baqillani [?], the Ash'aris and other mutakallimun on whether an atom, the indivisible part, can be further divided, and long discussions about where the aql resides, in the heart or the brain. Many of the salaf placed it in the heart, citing the Quran's language of hearts that understand, while Abu Hanifa held it was in the brain and was disagreed with, others following Greek ideas of humours and fluids. He says these were not religious questions but human ones brought to the only learned people available, and that this must be kept in mind when asking where the confusion about possession came from.", "summary_short": "Because for most of history the ulama were the only educated class, so people brought them every unexplained question, from the divisibility of atoms to whether the intellect sits in the heart or the brain. They answered with the knowledge of their day, which is the background to the possession belief.", "answer_start": 232, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ulama", "label": "ulama"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baqillani", "label": "al-Baqillani [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutakallimun", "label": "mutakallimun (the theologians)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (reason)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the ulama were historically the only learned class and so were asked to explain worldly phenomena with the knowledge of their time, which is the backdrop against which the belief in possession took shape.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the ulema are using the resources to come up with answers these are not necessarily religious questions these are just worldly human questions", "start": 377}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/2/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/3", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S03", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 3, "start": 467, "end": 783, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The riba verse and the heads of devils: Quranic imagery misread as proof of possession", "question_plain": "Does the Quran's riba verse prove that Satan can possess people?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the verses historically debated. The popular one says that those who devour riba will stand or go about only like one whom Satan has driven unstable by his touch. Supporters of possession cite it, but he says the riba-takers were not behaving like lunatics; they were calculating lenders. Many mufassirun read the verse as describing the hereafter, how they will rise from their graves, while others read it as an image of greed so consuming that it is as though they had lost their faculties. To the question why Allah would use the image if it were not real, he answers with Ibn Atiyya [?] and others that this is imagery drawing on the imagination of mankind, and compares the description of the tree of zaqqum in Jahannam whose shoots are like the heads of devils: nobody has seen a devil, yet the image works because Allah knows his creation has imagination. As an aside he says the most frightening thing anyone encounters in life is their own imagination. This verse, he says, is the key one misused for the possession narrative, and he moves on to the hadith.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the verse is imagery, read by the commentators as describing how riba-takers rise on the Day of Judgement or as a picture of consuming greed, and the Quran uses such images, like the zaqqum tree's heads of devils, because humans have imagination.", "answer_start": 467, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "quran/tafsir", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:275", "label": "Quran 2:275 (like one whom Shaytan has driven to madness by his touch)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:37:65", "label": "Quran 37:65 (its shoots are like the heads of devils)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-atiyya", "label": "Ibn Atiyya al-Andalusi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zaqqum", "label": "zaqqum (the tree of Jahannam)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the riba verse's image of one driven unstable by Satan's touch is Quranic imagery drawing on human imagination, read by commentators as describing the resurrection or greed, and is not evidence for possession, just as the zaqqum tree's 'heads of devils' is not.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this verse is one of the key verses that is misused or misinterpreted by people", "start": 725}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/3/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/4", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S04", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 4, "start": 783, "end": 1174, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The three hadith cited for possession: none free of criticism, and al-Nawawi on Uthman ibn Abi al-As", "question_plain": "Are there authentic hadith showing the Prophet casting out jinn?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is not a single hadith on possession free of criticism: many are outright weak, a few rise above weakness, but none is unquestionably sahih, and he asks how the Prophet, sent as a mercy to all mankind, could have failed to teach clearly about something that would affect everyone daily. The first report is from Ya'la ibn Murra of Thaqif, who said he saw three things on a journey that nobody else saw, one being the Prophet driving a demon from a woman's crying child; it has been criticised in its chain and he finds it absurd that the Prophet would show one man and teach no one how to protect themselves. The second concerns Uthman ibn Abi al-As al-Thaqafi, who came in the delegation of 9 AH: the sound version in Sahih Muslim has him say he struggles with the Quran, the Prophet tapping his chest and telling him to lead his people, who have strong and weak among them, after which the Quran stayed with him. Weaker versions add 'I have a shaytan' and the Prophet blowing on him with the words 'come out, enemy of Allah', which Mufti says is not established; al-Nawawi, commenting on Sahih Muslim, says all the reports describe one incident, nothing in them indicates possession, and the struggle was probably ill health or a touch of arrogance at leading his people. The third, from Umm Aban [?] about her grandfather bringing a sick child from whom something came out, is heavily criticised, some calling it weak or very weak. For so ubiquitous an event, nothing comes in sound transmission. He notes that both sides of the scholarly debate will be heard, and ends by introducing the point that, as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi [?] and others held, we know whether something is true through reason.", "summary_short": "No report of the Prophet expelling a jinn is free of criticism: the Ya'la ibn Murra and Umm Aban reports are weak, and the sound version of Uthman ibn Abi al-As's story in Sahih Muslim mentions no jinn at all, as al-Nawawi points out. Mufti Abu Layth asks why a Prophet sent as a mercy would never have taught about so common a danger.", "answer_start": 783, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "hadith/authentication", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:yala-ibn-murra", "label": "Ya'la ibn Murra [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1153b02b", "label": "report: yala ibn murra and the child from whom the prophet drove out a demon on a journey"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-abi-al-as", "label": "Uthman ibn Abi al-As al-Thaqafi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:eaaebf3c", "label": "report: uthman ibn abi al-as said i struggle with the quran and the prophet struck his chest and told him to lead his people"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:be4605d1", "label": "report: the prophet struck the chest of a man and blew on him to drive out the devil"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabarani", "label": "al-Tabarani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umm-aban", "label": "Umm Aban [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cf08cbd1", "label": "report: umm aban's grandfather brought a child to the prophet who said come out enemy of allah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:daif", "label": "da'if"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kibr", "label": "kibr (arrogance)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that no hadith cited for jinn possession is free of criticism, that the sound version of Uthman ibn Abi al-As's complaint in Sahih Muslim mentions no jinn, as al-Nawawi notes, and that the Prophet, sent as a mercy to mankind, never taught about so ubiquitous a danger in any sound transmission.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "not a single hadith that is free of criticism there are a few hadith I mean there are many hadees which are just completely week or week", "start": 783}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/4/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/5", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S05", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 5, "start": 1174, "end": 1329, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Quran calls to reason, not to belief because it says so: testing possession against reason", "question_plain": "Should I believe something just because people say the Quran or hadith say so?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people's logic today is circular: asked how they know the Quran is true, they answer that the Quran says so. That is not how the Quran invited people; Allah did not say believe in me because I said so in the book I revealed, but asked whether they do not look at the sky, do they not reflect, do they not ponder the Quran and find no contradiction in it, and he condemned those who answered a call to reason by saying this is what our forefathers did. The Quran comes with the understanding that one must resort to reason, and by reason he accepts the Quran; so when issues such as demonic possession arise they must be bounced back on the voice of reason through the Quran. He asks where all these ideas come from: an alien with no cultural history who read the Quran would not conclude that these things happen. People had to explain phenomena in their environment with the best understanding they had, saw others acting strangely and said perhaps it is the jinn, and as understanding grows the explanation changes.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran itself appeals to reason, asking people to look, reflect and ponder, and condemns following forefathers blindly, so claims like possession must be tested against reason through the Quran. Someone reading the Quran without a cultural inheritance would never derive possession from it.", "answer_start": 1174, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (reason)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Quran calls people to reason rather than to belief because it says so, and that a claim such as possession, which no one would derive from the Quran without a cultural inheritance, must be tested against reason through the Quran.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the Quran itself comes with this understanding that look you have to resort to reason", "start": 1224}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/5/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/6", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S06", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 6, "start": 1329, "end": 1488, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Sources of knowledge, the hadith 'Satan flows like blood' in its context with Safiyya, and the ruqya industry", "question_plain": "What does the hadith 'Satan flows through the son of Adam like blood' mean?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says our understanding comes from textual, rational, experiential or cultural sources, and that a hadith much used by believers in possession carries its own answer when read in full. The report that Shaytan flows through the son of Adam like blood, which Shaykh Akram had just read, has a context: the Prophet was walking with his wife Safiyya, passed a group of men, then came back to tell them that this was his wife; when they protested that he owed them no explanation, he said that Satan flows through the son of Adam like blood. The men were not possessed or acting unstably; the Prophet was speaking about suspicion, saying that insinuations and negative thoughts about others are human. He then turns to experience, noting first that the examples heard earlier show how easily people are conned into a culture that is now a multi-million-pound industry, though he does not claim everyone in it is devious; many of these practitioners sincerely believe in what they do.", "summary_short": "In context it is about suspicion: the Prophet said it after explaining to some men that the woman with him was his wife Safiyya, so it refers to the insinuations that pass through human minds, not to possession. Mufti Abu Layth adds that the exorcism trade is a large industry whose practitioners may nonetheless be sincere.", "answer_start": 1329, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "belief/unseen-beings"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:94283449", "label": "report: satan flows through the son of adam like blood"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:waswasa", "label": "waswasa (whispering)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the hadith that Satan flows through the son of Adam like blood, read in its context with Safiyya, concerns human suspicion and insinuation, since the men addressed were not possessed, and that it does not support possession.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "they were just the facts suspicion that's what the Prophet was speaking about that look I'm not saying you were being suspicious but it is human to sometimes have insinuations", "start": 1418}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/6/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/7", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S07", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 7, "start": 1488, "end": 1726, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why only our experiences count? Possession afflicts only believers, Hindu miracles, and reason switched off", "question_plain": "Why do only believers in jinn possession seem to experience it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth examines the argument from experience. Jinn troubles seem to afflict only those who believe in them, never atheists or non-Muslims, and when told these things do not exist most people do not cite a hadith but an uncle, nephew or aunt who witnessed it. He asks why only our experiences count and not everyone's: Muslims immediately discount reincarnation and the miracles of Hindu holy men such as Sathya Sai Baba, who had millions attesting to his miracles, and they do so by reasoning against them, saying that three equals one is absurd or that Hindu mythology makes no sense, not because the Quran says so. Yet when the same kind of claim has been Islamised, reason shuts down and the appeal is to 'I have experienced it'. He cites a psychological study that measured brain activity in people during their own religious experiences and services and found, contrary to the researchers' expectations, that activity in the prefrontal cortex involved in rational thinking shuts down, which he takes to show that people block themselves from reasoning when it comes to their own faith.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says personal and family anecdotes are used to defend possession while the same Muslims dismiss Hindu miracles or Christian doctrine by reasoning against them, applying reason to everyone's claims but their own. He cites a study finding the brain's rational centre quietens during one's own religious experience.", "answer_start": 1488, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:sathya-sai-baba", "label": "Sathya Sai Baba"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:one-standard-for-all-religions", "label": "one set of standards: judge Islam's claims by the same test applied to other religions"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Muslims apply reason to dismiss other religions' miracles and doctrines but switch it off for possession once a belief has been Islamised, relying instead on anecdotal experiences that only ever afflict believers.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you'll never resort to reason but to discount and discredit other religions immediately the voice of reason is called up", "start": 1614}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/7/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/8", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S08", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 8, "start": 1726, "end": 2040, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The jinn as an explanation for everything: the cyborg paradigm and Basil Mitchell's partisan and stranger", "question_plain": "How do we know mental illness is not really jinn possession?", "summary": "To those who ask how he knows mental illnesses are not possession, Mufti Abu Layth offers an allegory: a child asks its mother why things happen and, lacking answers, she tells it that cyborgs, human-like artificial intelligences, are responsible for everything. Trusting her, the child can now explain anything it does not understand, from earthquakes to politics, with the cyborg conspiracy. One explanation that fits everything is not thereby true, and he says the jinn are the Muslim version: someone rejects the message because the jinn influenced him, mental illness is the jinn, magic is the jinn, a belief so plastic it stretches over anything. He then recounts Basil Mitchell's parable of the partisan and the stranger from the philosophy of religion: a stranger convinces a resistance fighter that he is the movement's secret leader and warns that he will be seen acting for the other side as part of a greater plan. Once the partisan has bought in, nothing the stranger says or does can shake him, even a confession that it was all a lie. This, Mufti says, is non-propositional faith, where evidence and reason no longer matter because everything, including science, is read as Shaytan's trick or part of the test, so there is no way to win and it is game over for anyone who tries to reason.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth answers that an explanation which fits everything, like a child told that cyborgs cause all events, is not thereby true; the jinn have become the Muslim catch-all. Such belief is what Basil Mitchell's parable of the partisan describes, a faith no evidence can shake.", "answer_start": 1726, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:basil-mitchell", "label": "Basil Mitchell (philosopher of religion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:non-propositional-faith", "label": "non-propositional faith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that using the jinn to explain anything unexplained is like a child's all-purpose conspiracy, an unfalsifiable non-propositional faith such as Basil Mitchell's partisan holds, which no evidence or reasoning can touch.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if you've just got one version to answer everything then yes you can do that but it doesn't make it true", "start": 1809}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/8/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/9", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S09", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 9, "start": 2040, "end": 2199, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why it matters: mockery of Islam, and an industry of abuse, violence and extortion in the name of the jinn", "question_plain": "Why does it matter whether people believe in jinn possession?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives two reasons the subject must be tackled. First, the mockery made of Islam, Allah and his Messenger in the name of these myths. Second, the tyranny of abuse conducted on the strength of the belief: alongside the stories Shaykh Akram told, he knows countless cases of beatings, violence, sexual violence, power structures destroying lives and families, exploitation and embezzlement, practitioners charging a thousand pounds a visit, and one case where a person was told the cure for the evil in his house was to give the house away in Allah's name, preferably to the shaykh, which he did. He jokes that hearing such stories tells him he is in the wrong business. Because the abuse is Islamised and given an Islamic veneer, Islam will take the brunt of it, and the coming generations will dismiss the religion as mythology like the Greek or Hindu gods. He then turns to what happens when we cannot explain things, noting how diverse the domains of life are and how science has moved.", "summary_short": "Because the belief brings mockery on Islam and sustains an industry of abuse, with beatings, sexual violence and extortion, including a house gifted to a practitioner as a 'cure'. Mufti Abu Layth says Islam will bear the blame and future generations will treat it as mythology.", "answer_start": 2040, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the belief in possession must be confronted because it exposes Islam to mockery and underwrites an industry of beatings, sexual violence and financial exploitation, for which Islam itself will be blamed by coming generations.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "why is this so important to tackle this topic it's important because one the mockery that is being made out of Islam", "start": 2040}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/9/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/10", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S10", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 10, "start": 2199, "end": 2437, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Neurosis, psychosis and conditions once inexplicable: palinopsia and Charles Bonnet syndrome", "question_plain": "What medical conditions could have been mistaken for possession in the past?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth distinguishes neurosis, the oddities we all have and can hide in public, from psychosis, where a person cannot snap out of them, and says that while we do not have all the answers we now have some that explain what people in the past could not. He describes palinopsia, in which after-images persist abnormally long and clearly, so that a person sees someone in several places, and asks how a villager a few hundred years ago would have explained it other than as a demon. He describes Charles Bonnet syndrome, where an abnormality in the fusiform gyrus, often as sight or hearing fails, makes people see strange buildings, stretched faces and long teeth. He recounts the neurologist Oliver Sacks talking to a woman who saw men in Eastern dress with long teeth, who knew they were not real and were not trying to harm her, which he contrasts with the persecutory beliefs of schizophrenia. The part of the brain that activates for teeth was found to be firing, and the activity can be suppressed with drugs; in the past, someone reporting teeth, people and buildings would have had no explanation.", "summary_short": "Conditions such as palinopsia, where after-images persist, and Charles Bonnet syndrome, where people see faces, teeth and buildings that are not there, have known brain causes today but would once have looked like demons. Oliver Sacks's patient knew her visions were unreal, unlike the persecutory beliefs of psychosis.", "answer_start": 2199, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "wellbeing/depression-and-anxiety", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:palinopsia", "label": "palinopsia (persistent after-images)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:charles-bonnet-syndrome", "label": "Charles Bonnet syndrome"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:oliver-sacks", "label": "Oliver Sacks (neurologist)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that conditions now explained neurologically, such as palinopsia and Charles Bonnet syndrome, would in the past have been read as demons or possession for want of any other explanation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "how would I explain that in the past what an abnormality in the brain no maybe you're a demon", "start": 2276}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/10/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/11", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S11", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 11, "start": 2437, "end": 2673, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Placebo and nocebo: Ted Kaptchuk's sham pills and sham needles, and why exorcisms can seem to work", "question_plain": "If exorcisms and ruqya sometimes work, does that prove possession is real?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains the placebo effect, where believing something is happening makes it happen, and its opposite, the nocebo effect, which causes real harm, both established in trials. He describes a study by Ted Kaptchuk of Harvard with about 270 subjects suffering arm, wrist and shoulder pain: half were given a pill of cornstarch and warned of side effects, half were given acupuncture. About a third of the pill group reported the side effects they had been warned of, some severely, from sluggishness and dizziness to excruciating pain, while far more of the acupuncture group reported relief. One might conclude acupuncture works better than medicine, but both were shams: the pills were fake and the needles retractable and never entered the skin. The pain, insomnia and vomiting were real, which is called psychosomatic. He says this is why, when people undergo jinn exorcisms or ruqya, things can genuinely work, and that, as the shaykh said, some people would have got better anyway, like a scam that runs enough people through to produce a hard core who always improve.", "summary_short": "No: real symptoms can be produced or relieved by belief alone, as Ted Kaptchuk's study with fake pills and retractable needles showed, so an exorcism or ruqya can 'work' through the placebo effect. Some people would also have recovered regardless.", "answer_start": 2437, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ted-kaptchuk", "label": "Ted Kaptchuk (placebo researcher)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:placebo-effect", "label": "placebo effect"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nocebo-effect", "label": "nocebo effect"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the placebo and nocebo effects, demonstrated in Ted Kaptchuk's sham-treatment study, explain why people genuinely feel better or worse after exorcisms and ruqya, and that some would have recovered anyway.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so when people are going through gin exorcisms or rupiah or things like this things can actually work", "start": 2661}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/11/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/12", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S12", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 12, "start": 2673, "end": 2908, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What is ruqya for? The Quran as a cure for what is in the hearts, and ritual as a scaffolding for iman", "question_plain": "If jinn do not possess people, what is ruqya for?", "summary": "Asked what the purpose of ruqya would then be, Mufti Abu Layth says the verse calling the Quran a shifa must be read in full: it is a cure for what is in the hearts [?], meaning disbelief, superstition and myths, the very things Islam came to eradicate, not heart disease. As to why ruqya exists at all, he says Allah knows his creation and how he helps it is not always understood, and that these practices work as a scaffolding to hold people until their iman is stable, since humans slip too easily into superstition. He cites Kaptchuk's further finding that rituals and drugs use the same biochemical pathways in the brain. Ruqya and such things are therefore a Zimmer frame to help one walk until one can; when people asked the Prophet about omens he did not simply tell them there was nothing to worry about but taught them a du'a with an almost ritual rhythm, because the mind clings to rituals and people need that to grow strong in faith. He then begins a list of psychological disorders, starting with prosopagnosia or face blindness, which affects some two to two and a half percent of people from birth and others after a stroke, and locates it in the facial fusiform area of the brain.", "summary_short": "The Quran is a cure for what is in the hearts, meaning disbelief and superstition, not a medical treatment. Ruqya and the du'as taught against omens are a scaffolding that steadies a person's faith until it can stand on its own, because the mind clings to ritual.", "answer_start": 2673, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shifa", "label": "shifa (cure)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:10:57", "label": "Quran 10:57 (a cure for what is in the hearts) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ted-kaptchuk", "label": "Ted Kaptchuk (placebo researcher)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tiyara", "label": "tiyara (belief in omens) [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9b193bf2", "label": "report: the prophet taught a dua to be said against tiyara omens"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:prosopagnosia", "label": "prosopagnosia (face blindness)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Quran's healing is for what is in the hearts, meaning disbelief and superstition, and that ruqya and the du'as taught against omens are a scaffolding, like a walking frame, that steadies people's iman because the human mind clings to ritual.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "rukia and these things have been set as a scaffolding with a large name to guide people to a pure Iman so it is a scaffolding it's like a Zimmer frame to help you walk until you can walk", "start": 2776}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/12/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/13", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S13", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 13, "start": 2908, "end": 3302, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A catalogue of disorders once unexplained, and the 'jinn of the gaps'", "question_plain": "What is the 'jinn of the gaps'?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth runs through conditions that would have baffled people in the past. Prosopagnosia, where a person recognises a voice but cannot recognise a face, which after a stroke might once have been blamed on magic or possession. Mirror-touch synaesthesia, where one feels the touch or pain one sees another receive. Phantom limbs, where an amputated arm still hurts. Alien hand syndrome, where a limb seems possessed and acts involuntarily, which he says a one-size-fits-all view would simply credit to the jinn. The Capgras delusion, found in paranoid schizophrenia or after brain injury, where a loved one is believed with total certainty to have been replaced by an impostor. Hemispatial neglect after a stroke, where half the world is not processed, so patients eat half the plate or draw a clock with only the numbers twelve to six. Aphantasia, as in a sixty-five-year-old who after angioplasty lost all ability to picture things in his mind. Exploding head syndrome, a loud bang heard inside the head with no harm. Foreign accent syndrome, where after an incident a person wakes speaking with a Chinese, French or southern accent, which neurologists still cannot explain. He says not knowing an answer does not mean it cannot be known: atheists accuse believers of a god of the gaps, and this is the jinn of the gaps, where whatever we cannot explain must be the jinn.", "summary_short": "It is Mufti Abu Layth's name for blaming the jinn for anything not yet understood, as atheists accuse believers of a god of the gaps. He lists conditions such as Capgras delusion, hemispatial neglect, aphantasia and foreign accent syndrome that have or will have natural explanations but would once have been called possession.", "answer_start": 2908, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "arts/science-and-the-universe", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:prosopagnosia", "label": "prosopagnosia (face blindness)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:capgras-delusion", "label": "Capgras delusion"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hemispatial-neglect", "label": "hemispatial neglect"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aphantasia", "label": "aphantasia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:foreign-accent-syndrome", "label": "foreign accent syndrome"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:god-of-the-gaps", "label": "god of the gaps (and the 'jinn of the gaps')"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that attributing whatever cannot yet be explained to the jinn is a 'jinn of the gaps' argument, as weak as the god of the gaps that atheists criticise, and that not knowing an answer does not mean it cannot be known.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is like the Djinn of the gaps like the moment we don't know anything it's the Djinn", "start": 3281}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/13/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/14", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S14", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 14, "start": 3302, "end": 3537, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Every disease has a cure to be found; dissociative identity disorder, trauma in our communities and the stigma of mental health", "question_plain": "Why do cases of 'possession' in Muslim communities so often involve women with trauma?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls the hadith heard earlier that Allah has not sent a disease without a cure, known to those who know it and unknown to those who do not, which he reads as an instruction to go and find it. He asks how someone in the past would have explained a person suddenly becoming somebody else, what was called multiple personality and is now dissociative identity disorder. In our communities such cases occur more often among women, usually with a background of trauma, abuse and tragedy: not only segregation but excessive control, constant suspicion about who they talk to, arranged and sometimes forced marriages or the emotional blackmail version of force, marriage to cousins they grew up with and are not attracted to, and, more in earlier generations, beatings as children. He asks how the psyche copes with such torment and says one way is to break down into these disorders, since the brain reacts to what is done to it as the body does. Muslims are so stigmatised about mental health that suggesting it offends them, and the family insists it is the jinn or magic, or that someone sent jinn to break up a relationship. He begins to consider what the jinn would be if they existed, pointing to the domains of life: archaea, bacteria and eukarya, from which animals and plants come.", "summary_short": "Because, Mufti Abu Layth says, such cases are usually breakdowns of a psyche tormented by control, suspicion, forced or cousin marriages and abuse, which the stigma around mental health stops families from acknowledging, so they call it jinn or magic. The hadith that every disease has a cure means go and find it.", "answer_start": 3302, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "wellbeing/trauma-and-healing", "relationships/parents-and-children/difficult-parents"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:de76def6", "label": "report: allah has not sent down a disease without sending its cure known to those who know it"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dissociative-identity-disorder", "label": "dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the hadith that every disease has a cure known to those who know it is a call to seek explanations, and that many cases called possession in Muslim communities, especially among women, are breakdowns under control, forced marriage and abuse that the stigma around mental health prevents families from naming.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "we have such a stigma towards mental health Muslims get so offended if you say this could be a mental health issue", "start": 3468}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/14/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/15", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S15", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 15, "start": 3537, "end": 3695, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "If jinn exist they are another domain of life: a bacterium does not fall in love with your wife", "question_plain": "Can a jinn fall in love with someone or break up a marriage?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth describes archaea, perhaps the most ancient form of life: microscopic, single-celled, without nuclei, extremophiles that thrive at 150 degrees or in freezing cold, survive in space and need neither oxygen nor photosynthesis. He says that if one wished to draw parallels for beings created from fire [?], it would be with such life forms, which are nothing like the eukaryotic domain of plants, animals and humans. Then one would hardly say that a bacterium is jealous of one's relationship or that a virus fell in love with one's wife and ruined the marriage; so why assume jinn behave like humans when they are not even of the same domain? People must take responsibility for their own relationships: people fall in and out of relationships, which is human behaviour, not a failure, and the urge to find something to blame comes from a fixed picture of what a relationship ought to be. He then introduces a case study of a very religious exorcist he once interviewed.", "summary_short": "No, in Mufti Abu Layth's view: jinn, if they exist, would be as different from humans as extremophile bacteria, and nobody thinks a bacterium is jealous of their marriage. Relationships end through human behaviour, and people should own that rather than blame the jinn.", "answer_start": 3537, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings", "belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "relationships/marriage"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:15:27", "label": "Quran 15:27 (the jinn We created before from scorching fire) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that even if the jinn exist they would belong to a domain of life as remote from humans as archaea, so the idea of a jinn falling in love with someone or wrecking a marriage is absurd, and people must take responsibility for their own relationships.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "they're not the same species or genus they're not even the same domain as us", "start": 3623}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/15/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/16", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S16", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 16, "start": 3695, "end": 3931, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The exorcist's jinn who loved him: displacement of guilt and projection", "question_plain": "How does Mufti Abu Layth explain an exorcist who says he is possessed by a jinn?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts interviewing a very religious exorcist years ago whose jinn 'came into character' during their conversation, so that he spoke with the jinn for over an hour. The jinn gave a name [?], said he was from Kashmir and five hundred years old, all neat numbers, and when asked what he was doing so far from home said he loved the exorcist, making clear with a gesture that he meant sexual love; the jinn described himself as homosexual, speaking in an ominous voice meant to frighten. Mufti says that here was a man with an extraordinarily long beard, religious attire and a reputation as an exorcist who must have been thinking that he, a man of God, was having homosexual tendencies; psychoanalysts describe the displacement of guilt, projecting one's demons onto something else and chastising them, so that it is the cursed jinn who thinks these thoughts and not he, and when he is in control it is himself. He says this is how the man made sense of his world, that he is not accusing him of lying and he may genuinely believe it, but believing in a monster does not make it true. He concludes that calling everything unexplained the jinn of the gaps is absurd, makes religion a joke, and fails to tackle the greater problem of abuse.", "summary_short": "As displacement of guilt: the exorcist's 'jinn' professed sexual love for him, which Mufti Abu Layth reads as the man projecting desires he could not reconcile with his religious identity onto a jinn. He says the man may sincerely believe it, but belief does not make it true.", "answer_start": 3695, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "wellbeing/islamic-psychology", "relationships/sexuality-and-orientation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya (reading Quran over the afflicted)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth reads the exorcist's 'jinn', who professed sexual love for him, as a displacement of guilt, the projection of desires the man could not own as a religious figure, sincerely believed but not true.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so displacement of guilt it's easy look at psychoanalysts explain it all the time you just project your demons onto", "start": 3815}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/16/"}, {"id": "LeXzvtf9YGA/s/17", "short_id": "2018-04-15-S17", "recording": "LeXzvtf9YGA", "n": 17, "start": 3931, "end": 4058, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why not sit on the fence? Scholars who rejected possession, and why this is not a harmless difference of opinion", "question_plain": "Is jinn possession just a difference of opinion among scholars?", "summary": "To those who ask why he does not treat the matter as two opinions, Mufti Abu Layth notes that many ulama rejected possession, as Shaykh Akram had quoted: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Abu Ya'la [?] of the Hanbalis, the Mu'tazila, and within Ahl al-Sunna in recent times Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut [?] and the great shaykhs of al-Azhar, Ibn Ashur and al-Shawkani in his tafsir, though others such as Ibn Taymiyya affirmed it. He says this is not like the difference over raising the hands in prayer, where it does not matter which opinion one follows within the salah; this opinion results in mass exploitation and unleashes a tyranny of abuse, a multi-million-dollar industry rests on it, religion is ridiculed for belief in demons in the twenty-first century, and the Prophet is ridiculed as a consequence. All of this makes it unacceptable to say diplomatically that there are two opinions, which is why he refuses a diplomatic stance: the abuse must be brought to an end and this understanding popularised, and he hopes those watching will learn from it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth refuses to treat it that way: although scholars from Fakhr al-Din al-Razi to Shaltut, Ibn Ashur and al-Shawkani rejected possession while Ibn Taymiyya affirmed it, this is not a harmless fiqh difference like raising the hands in prayer, because the belief drives abuse and exploitation and brings ridicule on Islam.", "answer_start": 3931, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yala", "label": "Abu Ya'la al-Hanbali [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mahmud-shaltut", "label": "Mahmud Shaltut [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:raf-al-yadayn", "label": "raf' al-yadayn (raising the hands in prayer)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ikhtilaf", "label": "ikhtilaf (difference of opinion)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth refuses to treat possession as one of two acceptable opinions, since unlike a difference such as raising the hands in prayer it unleashes mass exploitation and abuse and brings ridicule on Islam and the Prophet, and he notes that a number of scholars, among them al-Razi and al-Shawkani, rejected it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is why I refuse to have a diplomatic stance on this that this abuse is unacceptable it needs to be brought to an end", "start": 4007}}, "url": "/r/LeXzvtf9YGA/s/17/"}, {"id": "LnOAQLLkvNo/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-08-S01", "recording": "LnOAQLLkvNo", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 182, "date": "20210108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Rumours that Mufti Abu Layth is behind a social media preacher", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a social media preacher he calls 'Bro', whom he likes and gets on with, has been accused of not producing his own knowledge, with people asking who is behind him. Mufti shows a post asking whether the preacher is a puppet and naming Yasir Qadhi, Mohammed Hijab and Mufti Abu Layth himself as the people who might be behind him. He says he was surprised, given how different their views are, and calls the conspiracy theories in the Muslim scene crazy. He jokes that the three would make an interesting trio before moving on to the next question.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth dismisses as a crazy conspiracy theory the claim that he, Yasir Qadhi or Mohammed Hijab is behind a social media preacher he likes.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media/social-media", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/LnOAQLLkvNo/s/1/"}, {"id": "LyZCk5dygJk/s/1", "short_id": "2017-09-14-S01", "recording": "LyZCk5dygJk", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 303, "date": "20170914", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can the hudud change with time? Substituting fixed punishments today", "question_plain": "Can Islamic punishments like stoning and cutting off hands change with time?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam has come to be characterised by a view of the Sharia as cutting off hands and stoning, which makes many people hate it. He says Islam is for all times and places and that the Sharia itself demands to reflect its era, linking this to trajectory hermeneutics and to hadith in which the Prophet refrains from a change because people were new to Islam. He cites al-Burzuli [?] of the Maliki school, whose view that the hudud reflect the age was adopted in parts of the Maghrib with financial penalties, a debate on it before a Tunisian ruler, and Sultan Suleiman al-Qanuni substituting financial penalties as well. He says that in his understanding the hudud today would, by demand of the Sharia, be substituted with penalties relevant to the age such as custodial sentences, certainly not stoning or cutting off the hand, and that this is not an attempt to appease the West. He adds Ibn Hajar's comment in his commentary on al-Bukhari on the man forgiven after praying, the view that the hudud drop with tawbah attributed to the Hanbali school and the old view of al-Shafi'i, and Abdullah bin Bayyah saying the same, ending that the Prophet, a mercy to the worlds, is today wrongly seen as a barbarian.", "summary_short": "Yes, in his understanding: the Sharia itself asks for punishments fitting the age, so today they would be replaced by penalties such as prison, following Maliki and other precedents.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hudud-change-with-the-age", "label": "the hudud change with the age"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid al-shari'ah [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-burzuli", "label": "al-Burzuli [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:suleiman-the-magnificent", "label": "Sultan Suleiman al-Qanuni (the Magnificent)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:fath-al-bari", "label": "Fath al-Bari (Ibn Hajar's commentary on al-Bukhari)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawbah", "label": "tawbah (repentance)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:107", "label": "Quran 21:107 (a mercy to the worlds)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding the hudud would today be substituted, by demand of the Sharia, with penalties relevant to the age such as custodial sentences.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "in my understanding in this day and age the ha dude would be substituted by demand of the sharia so they would not be things like in my understanding definitely not things like stoning", "start": 156}}, "url": "/r/LyZCk5dygJk/s/1/"}, {"id": "M6R6PNmTG0w/s/1", "short_id": "2021-05-17-S01", "recording": "M6R6PNmTG0w", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 240, "date": "20210517", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Gaza bombardment, the UAE-Israel deal, and why blaming Bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf is unfair", "question_plain": "Are Bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf to blame for the UAE's deal with Israel?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to a darker subject: Israel has been bombing Gaza for the better part of two weeks with little comment, while much attention has gone to the UAE's deal recognising Israel, with Trump expecting Saudi Arabia to sign up too. He offers his condolences to those who have lost life, loved ones or suffered injury. Many have messaged him for his thoughts on the UAE deal. He first says that going after Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf over it is unfair: the ruler of the UAE does not care what Bin Bayyah or any scholar says, and councils are convened for show. He has heard from sources close to Bin Bayyah, and does not know whether it is true, that the shaykh was not pleased with the treaty but held that once the ruler has decided, his ruling is to be honoured, not that he was happy with its details. He does not think Hamza Yusuf had anything to do with it and says dragging his name in is unfair, adding that this is only his opinion.", "summary_short": "No, in Mufti Abu Layth's view: the UAE's ruler does not take direction from scholars, Bin Bayyah is said to have disliked the treaty while deferring to the ruler's decision, and Hamza Yusuf had nothing to do with it. He opens with condolences for the losses in Gaza.", "answer_start": 82, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:uae-israel-normalisation-2020", "label": "the UAE-Israel normalisation deal (2020)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/M6R6PNmTG0w/s/1/"}, {"id": "M6R6PNmTG0w/s/2", "short_id": "2021-05-17-S02", "recording": "M6R6PNmTG0w", "n": 2, "start": 240, "end": 477, "date": "20210517", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Israel as a terrorist state at state level, and a deal that has brought no peace", "question_plain": "Has the UAE's recognition of Israel brought any peace?", "summary": "Asked what he thinks of the deal itself, Mufti Abu Layth says first that Israel at a state level is a terrorist state; this is not antisemitism, since he is not against Jewish people or any ethnicity, but at the state level it has committed war crimes, which the UN is aware of and which Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and many other academics have documented against mostly very vulnerable Palestinians. He understands the UAE's case that recognition could broker peace, but asks what peace there has been since the deal was signed: almost two weeks of bombardment. He describes Israel's stated policy that incendiary helium balloons sent from Gaza are to be treated as rockets and answered with real missiles, and says the absurdity of calling a balloon a missile makes one laugh in confusion. He says the loss of life is a shame, that he cannot imagine how Palestinians still function, that the UAE deal is not a solution because it has brokered no peace, and that there nonetheless needs to be a solution.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says two weeks of bombardment followed the deal, so it is not a solution. He calls Israel a terrorist state at the state level, with war crimes documented by the UN and academics such as Chomsky and Finkelstein, and stresses this is not antisemitism.", "answer_start": 240, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:uae-israel-normalisation-2020", "label": "the UAE-Israel normalisation deal (2020)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:united-nations", "label": "United Nations"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:noam-chomsky", "label": "Noam Chomsky"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:norman-finkelstein", "label": "Norman Finkelstein"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:hamas", "label": "Hamas"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that at a state level Israel is a terrorist state that has committed documented war crimes against Palestinians, that saying so is not antisemitism, and that the UAE's recognition deal has brought no peace and is not a solution.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "israel is a at a state level it is a terrorist at a state level okay this is not anti-semitism i'm not against jewish people", "start": 240}}, "url": "/r/M6R6PNmTG0w/s/2/"}, {"id": "M6R6PNmTG0w/s/3", "short_id": "2021-05-17-S03", "recording": "M6R6PNmTG0w", "n": 3, "start": 477, "end": 794, "date": "20210517", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Israel is here to stay: a two-state solution that will not happen, and a proposal to relocate Palestinians", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think should happen to the Palestinians in Gaza?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says a hard truth is that Israel is here to stay, which Muslims must accept and bite the bullet on, so the question is how to move forward. Ideally there would be a two-state solution, but he believes Israel will never accept it, assuming that a Palestinian state would arm itself and attack. He then argues for a complete exit of the Palestinians from Gaza and the areas blocked in by Israel, relocated comfortably with compensation, accommodation and education paid for, spread across the Arabic-speaking world rather than in ghettos, and says Israel might even be happy to pay given what its bombing costs. He sees two obstacles. First, Muslims coward-shame and guilt-trip Palestinians into staying and suffering because it is the holy land; he says people object that Arab countries would not take them, but countries refuse refugees because they are a burden, whereas people arriving with a paid-for apartment and money in the bank under a brokered deal would be accepted. Second, there is politics: Arab countries such as Jordan are glad Palestine sits between them and Israel as a buffer zone, preferring that the next man be beaten up while they watch from a safe distance.", "summary_short": "Since Israel is here to stay and a two-state solution will not happen, Mufti Abu Layth proposes relocating the Palestinians of Gaza and the blockaded areas across the Arab world with compensation, housing and education, spread out rather than in ghettos. He says Muslims guilt-trip Palestinians into staying and Arab states value them as a buffer zone.", "answer_start": 477, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Israel is here to stay, that a two-state solution would be ideal but will never happen, and that the Palestinians of Gaza and the blockaded areas should instead be relocated with compensation, housing and education across the Arab world rather than guilt-tripped into staying.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "i then would argue for a complete exile of all palestinians i would say that all palestinians should leave palestine and it should be facilitated for them", "start": 579}}, "url": "/r/M6R6PNmTG0w/s/3/"}, {"id": "M6R6PNmTG0w/s/4", "short_id": "2021-05-17-S04", "recording": "M6R6PNmTG0w", "n": 4, "start": 794, "end": 951, "date": "20210517", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Jerusalem was never that sacred: Abd al-Malik's rival city, and al-Aqsa as the farthest point in the heavens", "question_plain": "Is Jerusalem really a holy city in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people will not agree with him, but from an Islamic viewpoint Jerusalem was never as sacred as it is now treated. It was associated with earlier prophets, but its glorification began with the caliph Abd al-Malik, who created a rival to Makkah to distract people from Ibn al-Zubayr [?] and draw them to a pilgrimage at the Dome of the Rock, after which more and more was added until it became a mega holy site. He says he has never believed al-Masjid al-Aqsa was in Jerusalem, since 'the farthest point' is not a point on earth, and in his understanding al-Aqsa was in the heavens. Even granting that Jerusalem is holy, there is no pilgrimage to it, and it is arguably more sacred to the Jewish people, who would look after it rather than desecrate it. It is bricks and mortar, and Allah did not send people to preserve bricks: the preservation of life trumps all, and the temple they wish to build would be dedicated to the Israelite prophets, who are all in the Quran.", "summary_short": "In Mufti Abu Layth's view Jerusalem was never that sacred in Islam: its glorification began with Abd al-Malik's Dome of the Rock as a rival to Makkah, and he holds that al-Aqsa, 'the farthest' mosque, was in the heavens. Even if holy, it is bricks and mortar, and life comes before buildings.", "answer_start": 794, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abd-al-malik-ibn-marwan", "label": "Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:masjid-al-aqsa", "label": "al-Masjid al-Aqsa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that from an Islamic viewpoint Jerusalem was never as sacred as it is now held to be, that its glorification began when the caliph Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock as a rival to Makkah, and that in his understanding al-Masjid al-Aqsa, 'the farthest', was in the heavens rather than in Jerusalem.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "al-aqsa the farthest point is not jerusalem why is that the farthest point on earth so the al-aqsa would have been in the heavens in my understanding", "start": 855}}, "url": "/r/M6R6PNmTG0w/s/4/"}, {"id": "M6R6PNmTG0w/s/5", "short_id": "2021-05-17-S05", "recording": "M6R6PNmTG0w", "n": 5, "start": 951, "end": 1110, "date": "20210517", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A lost war: life before place, a Muslim's honour above the Kaaba, and the whole earth a place of prayer", "question_plain": "Should Palestinians stay and defend the holy land at the cost of their lives?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims must accept that this war is lost and there is no point fighting a lost war; the tragedy is the number of people dying. While Muslims rightly make much of the deaths, they gloss over the fact that they are guilt-tripping Palestinians into enduring it. Life comes before place: he cites the hadith that a Muslim's honour, let alone his life, outweighs the Kaaba destroyed and rebuilt seven times, and asks what 'the holy land' is worth against hundreds and thousands of lives. The tyrants will not back off, and the Prophet said the whole earth is a place of prostration, so Jerusalem is not needed. He repeats that one must know when a fight is lost, that Israel is a tyrant terrorist state that will go on butchering children and is not going to stop, and that this is his suggestion for making it stop. He notes the irony that people would stop caring about Palestinians the moment they were relocated to a comfortable city elsewhere, since they care about them only so long as they stay in Palestine and die.", "summary_short": "No, in Mufti Abu Layth's view: life comes before place, a Muslim's honour outweighs the Kaaba rebuilt seven times, and the whole earth is a place of prayer. He says the war is lost and that those who insist Palestinians stay would stop caring about them once they were safe elsewhere.", "answer_start": 951, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:aabca51a", "label": "report: if you destroyed the kaaba and rebuilt it and destroyed it that is not as great as harming the honour of a muslim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Ka'bah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f9b6111f", "label": "report: the earth has been made a place of prostration for me"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the war against Israel is lost, that the preservation of life comes before holy places since a Muslim's honour outweighs the Kaaba destroyed and rebuilt seven times, and that Muslims guilt-trip Palestinians into staying and dying.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "life comes before place like if you had if you had the choice to save a life or the kaaba", "start": 969}}, "url": "/r/M6R6PNmTG0w/s/5/"}, {"id": "M6R6PNmTG0w/s/6", "short_id": "2021-05-17-S06", "recording": "M6R6PNmTG0w", "n": 6, "start": 1110, "end": 1347, "date": "20210517", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The knife rule from escrima: run from a fight you cannot win; the UAE deal did nothing", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth compare the Palestinian situation to facing a knife?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth restates clearly that Israel is behaving as a terrorist state, then draws an analogy from the escrima stick-and-knife fighting he once trained in: his teacher's first rule when confronted with a knife is to run, and only if that is impossible to use the skill to defend and deflect, though Mufti would charge someone with a gun. The point is that these people will not back down and will butcher relentlessly, so he hopes his suggestion does not upset people. Returning to the UAE deal, he says it has achieved nothing and brokered no peace; the UAE's ruler has done it for his own deal, perhaps paid by Israel or promised something by America, with many backhanders. He repeats that it is unfair to place the price on the shoulders of Bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf, who in his view had nothing to do with it even though he signs off for the ruler and is stuck in that position, and says his sources tell him Hamza Yusuf is not happy with the decision either. A question about Kashmir is then put to him.", "summary_short": "His escrima teacher's rule was to run from a knife and fight only when running is impossible, and he applies it to an enemy that will not back down. He repeats that the UAE deal has brought nothing and that Bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf should not be blamed for it.", "answer_start": 1110, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:uae-israel-normalisation-2020", "label": "the UAE-Israel normalisation deal (2020)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/M6R6PNmTG0w/s/6/"}, {"id": "M6R6PNmTG0w/s/7", "short_id": "2021-05-17-S07", "recording": "M6R6PNmTG0w", "n": 7, "start": 1347, "end": 1508, "date": "20210517", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The Kashmir issue: a militarised zone unlike Gaza, and independence for part of Kashmir", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think the solution for Kashmir is?", "summary": "Asked about Kashmir, Mufti Abu Layth says relocation would be fine there too if it were an option, but Kashmir differs: Gaza is a cut-off prison that is bombarded, whereas Kashmir has an overkill military presence that torments residents by its very existence because it sees them as different. He does not think India would ever relocate people comfortably, calling its government cheap, though it would happily tell them to get lost, which is not what he proposed for the Palestinians, where he believes a paid deal could be brokered. Ideally he would opt for Kashmir to become independent of both Pakistan and India, perhaps only a certain part such as the valley, to which whoever wished could move, since Pakistan would never give up all of it without becoming too vulnerable near Islamabad, so buffers would have to be kept. He says these things will never happen but wishes they would.", "summary_short": "Independence for at least part of Kashmir, such as the valley, from both India and Pakistan, with buffers so Pakistan is not exposed, though he does not expect it to happen. Kashmir differs from Gaza in being a militarised zone rather than a bombarded prison, and India would not pay to relocate anyone.", "answer_start": 1347, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/pakistan", "society/current-events/india-and-hindutva", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Kashmir, unlike Gaza, is a heavily militarised zone, that India would not pay to relocate its people, and that the ideal solution would be independence for part of Kashmir, such as the valley, with buffers kept so that Pakistan is not left vulnerable, though he expects none of it to happen.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "ideally for the kashmir issue i would see this is what i ideally opt for is that kashmir could just become independent", "start": 1392}}, "url": "/r/M6R6PNmTG0w/s/7/"}, {"id": "NGz8JO6O0f4/s/1", "short_id": "2018-07-08b-S01", "recording": "NGz8JO6O0f4", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 265, "date": "20180708", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Reply to Sunni Defence: the hadith of the angels cursing a refusing wife", "question_plain": "Is it haram to pressure a wife into sex by saying God will be angry?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces a video by a presenter from the Sunni Defence channel, which he says would be better called a Wahhabi defence, attacking him over his criticism of a hadith, and mocks the presenter at length. He says the presenter frames the issue as the hadith not sitting well with his views on equality in marriage, whereas the hadith in question, that if a woman refuses to have sex with her husband the angels curse her and God is angry, is in his reading about marital rape. He recalls that in an earlier session he said marital rape is categorically haram and that this includes religious blackmail, using God to obtain sexual favours by telling someone God will be angry with them.", "summary_short": "Yes: marital rape is categorically haram, and so is religious blackmail, using God's anger to get sex. He reads the hadith of the angels cursing a refusing wife as justifying that.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "relationships/marriage/abuse-and-marital-rape", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f942d247", "label": "report: if a woman refuses her husband's bed the angels curse her"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says, repeating what he said in an earlier session, that marital rape is categorically haram and that this includes religious blackmail.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "I've said that marital rape is categorically Haram and that includes religious blackmail", "start": 224}}, "url": "/r/NGz8JO6O0f4/s/1/"}, {"id": "NGz8JO6O0f4/s/2", "short_id": "2018-07-08b-S02", "recording": "NGz8JO6O0f4", "n": 2, "start": 265, "end": 833, "date": "20180708", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Al-A'mash as a narrator: tadlis from weak narrators", "question_plain": "Was al-A'mash a reliable hadith narrator?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he previously showed that the narrations of this hadith in Muslim, al-Bukhari and Ahmad centrally go through al-A'mash from Abu Salih [?] from Abu Hurayra, and that he set out the criticism of al-A'mash. He relates the presenter's objection that al-A'mash is a reliable narrator with over 500 hadith in the Sahihayn. He then explains tadlis, a narrator omitting a name in the chain so that it appears connected, and its three categories, the worst being dropping a weak narrator, which he calls misleading. He cites, through a heavily garbled transcript, statements attributed to Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, al-Dhahabi, Ibn Abd al-Barr, Shu'ba and Ali ibn al-Madini that al-A'mash committed tadlis, including from weak narrators, and made many mistakes, and mocks the channel as a 'tadlis defence'. He says that the number of al-A'mash's narrations in the Sahihayn does not mean he claimed every one of them is weak.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth cites classical critics who say al-A'mash committed tadlis, sometimes hiding weak narrators, and made many mistakes. This does not mean every narration of his in Bukhari and Muslim is weak.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-amash", "label": "al-A'mash"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-salih", "label": "Abu Salih [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis (mudallis)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-ibn-al-mubarak", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shuba", "label": "Shu'ba"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ali-ibn-al-madini", "label": "Ali ibn al-Madini [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NGz8JO6O0f4/s/2/"}, {"id": "NGz8JO6O0f4/s/3", "short_id": "2018-07-08b-S03", "recording": "NGz8JO6O0f4", "n": 3, "start": 833, "end": 988, "date": "20180708", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Chain criticism serves the content; Bukhari is not infallible", "question_plain": "What is the point of checking a hadith's chain of narrators?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people forget that chain criticism was only invented to know whether the content of a hadith was sound and was never a goal in itself. After the chain, he says, one looks at the content: whether it goes against reason, against the Quran and the corroborated authentic Sunnah, or against the principles of Islam; if it complements them there is no problem. A hadith that tells you that you can blackmail someone into sex, he says, is a big problem. He says the same critics once said 'so what' if the Prophet was sexually impotent, and that they will do anything to salvage al-Bukhari. He says he has nothing against al-Bukhari, who may have been a great person and whose book was his private project, but that treating it as infallible and the hadith of the Sahihayn as yielding certainty is utter nonsense.", "summary_short": "Chain criticism exists only to judge whether a hadith's content is sound; content against reason, the Quran or Islam's principles is a problem. Treating Bukhari as infallible is nonsense.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:matn-criticism", "label": "judging a report by its content (matn)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:matn", "label": "matn (text of a report)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says chain criticism was not a goal in itself but was only invented to know whether the content of a hadith was sound.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "chain criticism was not a goal in itself chain criticism was only this so we know the teaching of the Prophet was correct", "start": 833}}, "url": "/r/NGz8JO6O0f4/s/3/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/1", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S01", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 1, "start": 3, "end": 234, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: unwell but live, Facebook sharing and greetings", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream while setting up: he says he is not feeling well but the show must go on, announces that he is back on Facebook and shares the stream to his page, fumbling with the wrong phone. He greets viewers in several languages and jokes about the vitamins he takes. He notes that someone has asked about riba and points to an expansive discussion of it he has already published on YouTube.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping and greetings before the talk; a question about riba is referred to an earlier YouTube clip.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/1/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/2", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S02", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 2, "start": 234, "end": 624, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why the second-coming debate blew up and what tonight's prelude covers", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has stirred a transatlantic controversy over whether Jesus will return and that everyone is now involved. Quoting Akbar Allahabadi's verse 'hungama hai kyun barpa', he asks what is wrong with people and why Muslims cannot have a civil dialogue about Islam among themselves without rushing to declare each other kafir, joking that there seems to be a shortage of kuffar and that paradise is running short on space. He explains that tonight he will give a prelude, a backdrop to the reasoning that leads him to find the second coming of Jesus problematic from an Islamic perspective, and will address pertinent points made by critics without doing refutations of them. He hopes Shaykh Asrar [?] and others preparing refutations will take this backdrop into consideration, and jokes that his tactic has united the Ummah against him.", "summary_short": "The talk is a prelude to Mufti Abu Layth's case against a second coming of Jesus, prompted by the controversy and the takfir his earlier statements provoked.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asrar-rashid", "label": "Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/2/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/3", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S03", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 3, "start": 624, "end": 856, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reply to Abu Ibrahim's post and Hizb ut-Tahrir's double standard", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After repeating that there is no truth to the claim that Jesus is coming back, Mufti Abu Layth says he will present his thought process as seriously as he can and asks viewers to bear with his humour. He turns to a post by Abu Ibrahim [?] claiming that everyone, Barelvis, Deobandis and Salafis alike, agrees against him, dismisses it with a jibe, and says it is interesting that people who hate him have suddenly jumped on this bandwagon. He notes that Hizb ut-Tahrir, whom he had previously criticised as extremist in mentality, has joined in calling him a deviant even though their own websites problematise the coming of the Mahdi and of Jesus and class them as khabar al-ahad. He concludes that anyone who ever had an issue with him is having a field day sharing clips, which shows what partisan and sectarian politics does to people.", "summary_short": "Critics who have long opposed Mufti Abu Layth, including Hizb ut-Tahrir whose own literature treats the return of Jesus as a solitary report, have united against him; he puts this down to sectarian politics.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ibrahim", "label": "Abu Ibrahim [?] (online critic)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/3/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/4", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S04", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 4, "start": 856, "end": 1061, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Critics sharing clips of al-Dedew and al-Awni: double standards in scholarship", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth observes that Deobandis and others are suddenly sharing clips of the Mauritanian scholar Muhammad al-Hasan al-Dedew saying that whoever denies the return of Jesus is a kafir, although most Muslims do not hold that such a denial makes someone a kafir, and the same people never share his clips declaring blind taqlid haram or permitting women's make-up. He calls this a failure of justice and poor scholarship, and says people may mock his appearance but he refuses double standards. He points out that the Arabic clips circulating are years old and were aimed at Dr Adnan Ibrahim, an Arab scholar who has long taught the same view in Europe, not at him. Likewise Shaykh al-Awni's [?] article is shared while his fatwas on following easier opinions and on saying Merry Christmas were not. He says those accusing him of picking and choosing are cherry-picking clips from scholars they otherwise disagree with ninety percent of the time, and that the claim that nobody in Islam has said this is wrong.", "summary_short": "Critics are circulating old clips and articles by scholars they otherwise reject; Mufti Abu Layth says this is cherry-picking and poor scholarship, and that others have held his view before him.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-hasan-al-dedew", "label": "Muhammad al-Hasan Ould al-Dedew"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:adnan-ibrahim", "label": "Adnan Ibrahim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-awni", "label": "Shaykh al-Awni [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqlid", "label": "taqlid"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/4/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/5", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S05", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 5, "start": 1061, "end": 1220, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why make this a big deal, and who the message is addressed to", "question_plain": "Why make a big deal of whether Jesus returns, and who is the message for?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth frames the session as a prelude and backdrop to a fully detailed video response he will make after Shaykh Asrar [?] releases his, in a week or two. Addressing the question of why he is making this a big deal, he says he is not: he has been answering it for almost a year on his Monday night streams, and it became an international debate only when people jumped on the bandwagon of refuting him. He welcomes the debate, saying his case is reason against a dogmatic stance, and that now that it has become a big deal he stands by his position. He then asks who he is addressing and introduces the idea that religion can be understood in two broad camps of people.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says his critics, not he, made this a big deal; he has taught it for a year and stands by his position. He is addressing only one of two broad camps of religious people.", "answer_start": 1140, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asrar-rashid", "label": "Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/5/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/6", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S06", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 6, "start": 1220, "end": 1532, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Two camps of religion: tribal mythology versus religion that must make sense", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth divides religious people of all faiths into two broad camps. In the first, religion is a form of tribalism: people are born into it, it offers solace and rites of passage, and it needs a mythology of superheroes, demons and great battles, so it was never about making sense; he gives the example of a Hindu untroubled by how Hanuman could be a monkey god. He says end-time stories of a great battle between good and evil, a super villain and a super hero, are found in Hinduism with Vishnu's return, in Christianity with Jesus's return and in Muslim stories of the Mahdi and Jesus, because storytelling is one of humanity's great inventions and such epics are receptive to human beings. The second camp holds that religion must make sense and be based on reason, since God placed the laws of this world and would not contradict them. He says the second camp is his audience, and that those in the first camp may not want to hear the rest and are not being addressed.", "summary_short": "Religion is approached either as tribal custom with a mythology of superheroes, or as something that must make sense; Mufti Abu Layth says he is speaking only to the second group.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/eschatology"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he addresses only those for whom religion must make sense and be based on reason, since God would not contradict the laws he placed in the world.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so to these people religion must make sense these are the people that I'm addressing so I need to clarify that with people I need to that is my audience", "start": 1478}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/6/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/7", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S07", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 7, "start": 1532, "end": 1763, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Calling to the Quran and Sunnah, not hadith; the winged horse on national television", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that to him religion must make sense because the Quran calls to reason, and that he therefore calls people to the Quran and the Sunnah, not to the Quran and hadith as such. He says Imam Malik and Imam Abu Hanifa called people to the Sunnah rather than to hadith, that Malik rejected countless hadith, and that hadith is a documentation which encapsulates the Sunnah but contains contradictions that must be sifted against the overall meaning of the Quran and the established principles of Islam. To show why reason matters he recalls the Oxford debate in which Richard Dawkins asked Mehdi Hasan whether he really believed the Prophet flew to heaven on a winged horse. He says most Muslims' hearts sank at the answer because, outside their bubble, they know it sounds weird to boast of scientific miracles in the Quran and then affirm a winged horse before an intelligent non-Muslim audience. He adds that he has a clip explaining that the Quran describes the night journey as a vision.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls people to the Quran and Sunnah rather than to hadith as such, since hadith must be sifted; the Dawkins and Mehdi Hasan exchange shows why religion must withstand reason.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "Sunnah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:mehdi-hasan-richard-dawkins-debate", "label": "Mehdi Hasan and Richard Dawkins debate (Oxford)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that religion must make sense because the Quran calls to reason, and he calls people to the Quran and the Sunnah rather than to hadith as such, since hadith contain contradictions that must be sifted.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "to me religion must make sense because allowing the Quran calls us to reason I then call people in my understanding to the Quran and the Sunnah", "start": 1532}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/7/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/8", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S08", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 8, "start": 1763, "end": 1920, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "We are all seeking the truth: disagree without takfir", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that we are all seeking the truth and treading the same path, and that he seeks it as much as anyone. Noting that someone has just mocked his beard, he says he respects that others disagree with his interpretation and would wholeheartedly disagree back, but asks not to be judged as following the devil or his desires. He cites the hadith that one should not oppress or wrong one's brother, and urges gentleness towards fellow travellers who are also trying to arrive at what they believe to be true. His request is that Muslims be able to talk about Islam among themselves without insults, labels or declaring one another kafir.", "summary_short": "Muslims should be able to disagree about Islam without insults or takfir, since everyone is seeking the truth.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:bd2ddd7d", "label": "report: do not oppress or wrong your brother"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims who disagree on interpretation should treat each other gently as fellow seekers of the truth, without labels or takfir.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "disagree all you like but we as Muslims can at least talk about Islam amongst ourselves don't kind of insult throw labels try to declare each of the kaffir", "start": 1866}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/8/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/9", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S09", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 9, "start": 1920, "end": 2078, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why does he see this when other scholars do not? Belonging to no sect", "question_plain": "Why do other scholars not see what Mufti Abu Layth sees about the return of Jesus?", "summary": "Asked why he sees this when others do not, Mufti Abu Layth first says that other people do see it too. He then says the key is that he does not belong to any sect, and he cannot overstress the value this brings: with no allegiance to a group he needs only for something to make sense and does not fear a backlash from his own community. He says he knows many scholars who hold opinions different from their group but never express them for fear of being excommunicated, and that whether one follows a Sufi tariqa, Salafi shaykhs such as Ibn Baz and al-Albani, the Deobandi ulama or the Barelvi ulama, the problem is the inability to go against one's own group. He thanks God for letting him learn from all groups without becoming affiliated to any, so that his criterion is what makes sense in light of the Quran and Sunnah as understood through reason, as the school of Madinah did.", "summary_short": "Others do see it but fear their own group; Mufti Abu Layth says belonging to no sect lets him follow what makes sense in light of the Quran and Sunnah.", "answer_start": 1920, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-baz", "label": "Ibn Baz"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that belonging to no sect frees him to follow whatever makes sense in light of the Quran and Sunnah, while scholars bound to a group fear expressing views their group rejects.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "then you have no allegiance to a group think tality all you then need is for something to make sense to you like I don't fear a group backlash against me", "start": 1943}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/9/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/10", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S10", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 10, "start": 2078, "end": 2235, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Stop obsessing about the end times: the hadith of Jibril and the planting hadith", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many Muslims hold a morbid outlook that the world is getting worse, and he praises a post by Imam Zaid Shakir [?] saying Muslims need to stop obsessing about the end of times. He recalls three hadith: the hadith of Jibril, in which the Prophet says he does not know when the hour is and, asked for its signs and for the meaning of faith, mentions neither the Dajjal nor Jesus's return; the hadith in which someone asking about the hour is told to ask instead what he has prepared for it; and the hadith that if the hour came while one of you was planting or eating, he should carry on, which Mufti reads as a lesson in optimism. At the end he begins to state his own understanding that the return of Jesus is a Christian belief that crept into Islam in the early decades, especially as Muslims expanded into the Roman Empire and many Christian converts entered Islam.", "summary_short": "Muslims should stop obsessing about the end times; the hadith of Jibril defines faith and the signs of the hour without mentioning Jesus's return or the Dajjal.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zaid-shakir", "label": "Imam Zaid Shakir [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6b3b4416", "label": "report: jibril asks the prophet about iman and the signs of the hour"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a15c3e92", "label": "report: asked about the hour the prophet said what have you prepared for it"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4d734d1d", "label": "report: if the hour comes while one of you is planting let him carry on planting"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith of Jibril defines faith and the signs of the hour without mentioning the return of Jesus or the Dajjal, and he agrees that Muslims should stop obsessing about the end times.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the Prophet said I don't know and then when gibreel said what are the signs he didn't say that there's gonna be at the jail and Jesus and stuff like this he didn't say that", "start": 2098}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/10/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/11", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S11", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 11, "start": 2235, "end": 2392, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A Christian belief that crept into Islam; creed cannot be blind-followed", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his belief the return of Jesus is not an Islamic teaching: it entered through Christian converts, was later Islamicised, and through power struggles and sectarianism was made part of creed. He holds that it contradicts the main teachings of the Quran, the principles of Islam and the generic hadith of the Prophet, and in parts the whole life and message of the Prophet. Turning to what counts as belief, he says the theologians, especially the Ash'aris and Maturidis who make up the bulk of the Ummah, held that creed cannot be blind-followed and that doing so is haram, some even claiming consensus on this; he cites the hadith in which a person questioned in the grave says he heard people saying something and so said it, and is told he neither knew nor followed. He asks why, if Islam forbids intimidating people into belief, he is expected to blind-follow this issue, and calls the reply that only belief in Allah is exempt absurd.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Jesus's return is a Christian belief that entered Islam and contradicts the Quran and its principles. Creed cannot be blind-followed, so he will not be intimidated into it.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqlid", "label": "taqlid"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:no-taqlid-in-creed", "label": "creed cannot be blind-followed"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b192ec8e", "label": "report: i heard people saying something so i said it"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the belief in Jesus's return is not Islamic because it contradicts the main teachings of the Quran, the principles of Islam and the Prophet's life and message.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "that is my my belief on this matter that this is not an Islamic thing why because it contradicts against I believe the main teachings of the Quran and it contradicts the main principles of Islam", "start": 2235}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/11/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/12", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S12", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 12, "start": 2392, "end": 2538, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The second coming as a central Christian doctrine: Jesus returns as judge", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the second coming is perhaps the second most important belief in Christianity and that Christianity rose on the back of it, whereas the virgin birth was not central: he says the Gospel of Matthew does not accept it, Paul did not, and the Church made it part of belief only two or three hundred years after Jesus. He says the New Testament speaks of the return so often that almost one verse in twenty-five concerns it, and that it repeatedly says the Son of God will come back as a judge over Jew and Gentile, which he says is exactly what the hadith say when they call Jesus a just judge, hakaman adlan. He explains that for Christians Jesus must return because he had yet to fulfil his mission of making people believe in him and to rule the world.", "summary_short": "The second coming is central to Christianity, and the New Testament's picture of Jesus returning as a judge matches what the hadith say.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7ef9c7d8", "label": "report: yanzilu fikum ibn maryam hakaman adlan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the second coming is perhaps the second most important Christian belief, on which Christianity rose, and that the hadith's picture of Jesus returning as a judge matches the New Testament.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this belief guys about the second coming of Jesus is so important in Christianity it is perhaps the second most important belief in Christianity it is on the back of this belief that Christianity rose", "start": 2392}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/12/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/13", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S13", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 13, "start": 2538, "end": 2853, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why would Muslims need Jesus back? Reply to Shaykh Salek bin Siddina", "question_plain": "Why would Jesus need to return if the Prophet Muhammad completed the religion?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says John's gospel expects Jesus back within John's lifetime, Jews await a messiah to restore David's kingdom, and Christians need Jesus back to finish his mission; he asks why Muslims, who believe the Prophet Muhammad completed the message, would need him back, and finds the answers shocking. He says only a few hadith mention Jesus killing the Dajjal while most describe him as a judge, exactly as the gospels do, and that scholars such as Ibn Hajar say he comes to kill the Jews, which Mufti finds senseless two thousand years after the events. He then addresses the Mauritanian scholar Shaykh Salek bin Siddina, who refuted him in a video: Siddina said Ibn Ashur is not an authority because al-Bunnani [?] had said centuries earlier that no one after him would be, which Mufti counters with the verse that above every possessor of knowledge is one more knowing. Siddina also argued that yanzilu means to come down, not to be resurrected; Mufti replies that he understands the Arabic perfectly well and rejects these hadith because they clash with the Quran and with other hadith, and he rejects the charge that calling the return a Christian concept makes the Prophet a Christian.", "summary_short": "Muslims have no reason of their own for Jesus to return; Mufti Abu Layth rejects the descent hadith because they clash with the Quran and other hadith, not from any misunderstanding of yanzilu.", "answer_start": 2538, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:salek-bin-siddina", "label": "Shaykh Salek bin Siddina"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:76", "label": "Quran 12:76"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not accept the hadith of Jesus's descent because they clash with the Quran and with other hadith, not because of any misunderstanding of the Arabic yanzilu.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "no it's not that I don't understand the word yinz Luffy come it's that I don't accept these are these because they clash with the Quran and with other hadith", "start": 2790}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/13/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/14", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S14", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 14, "start": 2853, "end": 3012, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "If Jesus descends from the sky, what is the purpose of faith? Siddina's answer", "question_plain": "If Jesus comes down from the sky, what is the point of faith after that?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts that at the end of Shaykh Salek bin Siddina's video someone asked him what the purpose of faith would be once Jesus visibly descends from the sky, an image Mufti notes comes from the Bible, where the Son of God comes down on the wings of angels. He adds that a descending Jesus could even be verified by DNA analysis showing he predates the admixture of the Middle East. He reports Siddina's answer: once Jesus comes down, taklif ends and no one's faith is accepted any more, so becoming Muslim makes no difference. He describes the translator's confusion over whether this happens before or after the Dajjal is killed and Siddina's stuttering reply that when the signs happen it is well known that no faith is accepted, which he said is known from the Quran.", "summary_short": "Siddina's answer was that once Jesus descends, taklif ends and faith is no longer accepted; Mufti Abu Layth presents this answer for examination and finds it confused.", "answer_start": 2933, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:salek-bin-siddina", "label": "Shaykh Salek bin Siddina"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taklif", "label": "taklif"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/14/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/15", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S15", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 15, "start": 3012, "end": 3169, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "If faith is no longer valid, why a judge? Psychology of testimony and detail", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why Jesus would come as a judge, and why everyone would embrace Islam, if faith is no longer valid after his descent. He then brings in what he studied in forensic psychology: a bare testimony cannot be judged for accuracy, so one elicits as much detail as possible, and it is in the details that people make mistakes, since the devil is in the detail. He adds a second finding, that an unwarranted excess of detail about an incident raises alarm bells for psychologists because studies show people add incredible detail when lying or forging a story. He asks the audience to bear these two facts in mind before looking at the detail of the hadith on Jesus.", "summary_short": "Testimony is tested through its details, and excessive detail is a warning sign; Mufti Abu Layth sets up this frame for examining the hadith of Jesus's return.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/15/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/16", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S16", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 16, "start": 3169, "end": 3483, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The details of the Jesus hadith against the Quran: sword, judge, Jews, world peace", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith on Jesus's return carry an incredible amount of detail and invites listeners to weigh it. Most say Jesus comes as a judge over mankind, as the Bible does; many say evil and ill feeling will be lifted from the earth, whereas the Quran says people will remain in disagreement until the Day of Judgement and reserves the removal of ill feeling for Paradise. He says the sahih reports have Jesus offering the kuffar only Islam or the sword, which he says goes against the entire Quran and the Prophet's life, since the Prophet never accepted anyone's Islam by force, and is doubly odd if faith is no longer accepted. The reports say everyone on earth becomes Muslim and the Jews are wiped out, while the Quran, in Surat al-Ma'idah and elsewhere, says Christians and Jews will remain and be tested until the Day of Judgement; he adds that Jesus, himself a Jew who taught turning the other cheek, massacring Jews makes no sense. He says the promised world peace, which all the prophets together never established, is what the gospel says the Son of God will bring when he rules over Jew and Gentile.", "summary_short": "The details of the return hadith, conversion by the sword, universal Islam, the killing of the Jews and world peace, contradict the Quran and the Prophet's life and mirror the gospels.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c3087e67", "label": "report: when jesus descends ill feeling is lifted from the earth and the people are offered islam or the sword"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the details in the hadith of Jesus's return, such as conversion by the sword, everyone becoming Muslim, the killing of the Jews and universal peace, contradict the Quran and the Prophet's life and mirror the gospels.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "face the sword that goes against the entire Quran that it goes against the entire life of the Prophet the Prophet never said that in his lifetime he never accepted people's Islam by force", "start": 3323}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/16/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/17", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S17", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 17, "start": 3483, "end": 3951, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What Imam Malik transmitted: no return of Jesus, Zuhri's reports, the pig passed in peace", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth continues the list of details: lions grazing with camels, children playing with snakes, all animals turning vegetarian while Jesus kills the pigs, which he says contradicts the Quran's teaching that everything has its nature. He then turns to Imam Malik, whom he calls a saviour for the Ummah in these times, saying Malik taught not to accept hadith blindly, that one-from-one transmission would snatch the religion away, and that the Muwatta, one of the oldest compilations, has chapters on the end times, faith and Paradise but nothing on Jesus returning. He says almost half of the Jesus reports come through Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, that Malik, Zuhri's most reliable student, transmitted only about three hundred of his hadith and left a container of some twelve thousand he refused to transmit because they did not make sense. He says Malik held that Jesus died a natural death, and that the Muwatta's kitab al-jami' has Jesus telling a pig to pass by in peace, the character of a prophet of love, against reports of him killing pigs; he reads this, together with Malik's report of the Prophet's dream description of Jesus and a report of Jesus performing Hajj that was excluded from the final version, as Malik pointing out that Ibn Shihab's details were not right. He notes that in these reports Jesus's geography is Damascus, Jerusalem and Mount Sinai, never Makkah or Madinah, and says the detail clashes so much with Islam that the whole must be weighed, promising to come to tawatur and ijma later.", "summary_short": "Imam Malik's Muwatta contains no hadith of Jesus's return and has Jesus greeting a pig in peace; Mufti Abu Layth reads this as Malik rejecting Zuhri's reports, half of which carry the return narrative.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b6561480", "label": "report: when jesus descends lions graze with camels children play with snakes and jesus kills the pig"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:24232b79", "label": "report: jesus passed a pig and said pass by in peace"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Imam Malik deliberately left the hadith of Jesus's return out of the Muwatta, transmitting only a fraction of al-Zuhri's reports, and that Malik's refusal to accept isolated hadith blindly is the approach to follow.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "is this a coincidence that Imam Malik doesn't bring any hadith to do with Jesus coming back but then he brings this hadith to show that Jesus said to the pig that go with peace", "start": 3745}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/17/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/18", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S18", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 18, "start": 3951, "end": 4345, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "What about the Dajjal? Ibn Sayyad, the Quran's silence, melting like salt", "question_plain": "What about the Dajjal? Doesn't Jesus have to return to kill him?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people selectively read details as metaphor or exaggeration while insisting other details are literal. Turning to the Dajjal, with which people seem obsessed, he says most of the Jesus hadith do not mention him killing the Dajjal and that the Dajjal narrations conflict: some have the Prophet suspecting a Jewish man of Madinah, Ibn Sayyad, of being the Dajjal, spying on him and testing him with a hidden word, which Mufti finds disrespectful to the Prophet, and refusing Umar permission to kill him without saying Jesus would deal with him. He says the Dajjal is not mentioned in the Quran, nor is Jesus's return, and that it would not have been difficult for God to say so instead of leaving it to twisted interpretations. He notes some scholars took the Dajjal linguistically as the deceiver or the devil, and that Abd al-Razzaq [?] and Ibn Taymiyya considered whether he is a man or a system; his own understanding is that the Dajjal is definitely not a man and that the reports are fabricated in meaning or defective, or refer to the devil or at best to a future illusion. He adds that the greatest fitna every prophet warned of melts like salt in water the moment he sees Jesus, who kills him anyway, and that sahih reports tie his coming to the conquest of Constantinople, which happened almost six hundred years ago.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Dajjal is not a man: the reports are defective or refer to the devil, he is absent from the Quran, and the narrations conflict and are tied to a conquest of Constantinople that happened centuries ago.", "answer_start": 4031, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:246187ac", "label": "report: the prophet tested ibn sayyad with a hidden word and he answered dukh"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9a6d7eff", "label": "report: the dajjal melts like salt in water when he sees jesus"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b97a2c7f", "label": "report: when the muslims conquer constantinople the dajjal appears and jesus descends in damascus"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:conquest-of-constantinople", "label": "conquest of Constantinople"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Dajjal is definitely not a man: the reports are fabricated in meaning or defective, refer to the devil or at best to a future illusion, and the Dajjal is not mentioned in the Quran.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "in my understanding that the gel is definitely not a man 100% not a man he's in the hadith the hadith are either wrong and fabricated or Mis related", "start": 4170}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/18/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/19", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S19", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 19, "start": 4345, "end": 4661, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The white minaret of Damascus: places that did not exist in the Prophet's time", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth offers a thought experiment: a hadith foretelling a great event at Minar-e-Pakistan would be either a stunning prophecy or, as any reasonable person would say, a fabrication by passionate nationalists, since the tower did not exist in the Prophet's time. He says the hadith of Jesus descending on the white minaret east of Damascus is the same case: scholars identify it either with the minaret the Umayyads built decades after the Prophet when they turned a Damascus church into the Umayyad mosque, or with a white tower in Douma [?] built by Nur al-Din Zangi hundreds of years later. He notes in passing that Christ simply means Messiah, so Jesus Christ is a faithful rendering of al-Masih. He says Arabia had little contact with Damascus, which was under Roman and Christian rule in the Prophet's lifetime, yet after the capital moved there under the Umayyads hadith about Damascus suddenly abound and Jesus is to descend on a formerly Christian city, which he finds suspect.", "summary_short": "Hadith placing Jesus's descent on a white minaret in Damascus describe a structure that did not exist in the Prophet's time; Mufti Abu Layth says such reports appeared once Damascus became the Umayyad capital.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b9d6a17d", "label": "report: jesus descends at the white minaret east of damascus"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says hadith placing Jesus's descent at a white minaret in Damascus are suspect because no such minaret existed in the Prophet's time and Damascus became central only after it became the Umayyad capital.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the Muslims move the capital to Damascus the Muslim capital ends up as Damascus all of a sudden subhanAllah there's so many hadith about Damascus now", "start": 4555}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/19/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/20", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S20", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 20, "start": 4661, "end": 4819, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Israiliyyat in hadith: man in God's image and creation on the Sabbath", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the key places in the return narrative, Jerusalem, Damascus and Mount Sinai, with Jesus taking believers to Sinai rather than Makkah or Madinah, show unmistakably that Israiliyyat crept into Islam. He gives examples: the hadith that God created man in his own image, which he says Imam Malik rejected despite its being in Bukhari because it is a verse of Genesis, and the Sahih Muslim report that God created the soil on Saturday and the rest over six days, which he says is likewise from Genesis and which Ibn Taymiyya rejected as Israiliyyat even though its chain is connected. He notes that nobody calls Ibn Taymiyya a kafir for that. He says he is not erasing people's trust in hadith but calling to the Sunnah and giving a more realistic picture: hadith are important but must always measure up to three things.", "summary_short": "Reports such as man created in God's image and creation on the Sabbath are Biblical material that Malik and Ibn Taymiyya rejected; Mufti Abu Layth says the Jesus narrative shows the same Israiliyyat influence.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:israiliyyat", "label": "Israiliyyat"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b0a8648b", "label": "report: allah created adam in his image"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f45113be", "label": "report: allah created the soil on saturday and the creation over six days"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says reports such as God creating man in his image and creating the soil on the Sabbath are Israiliyyat taken from Genesis, as Imam Malik and Ibn Taymiyya held, even when their chains are sound.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "it's just a verse out of the Bible I don't care if you say the Prophet said it it's the Prophet did not so this is this is these makes no sense this is just Christian doctrine", "start": 4711}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/20/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/21", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S21", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 21, "start": 4819, "end": 4977, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Three conditions for accepting a hadith; Ibn Uthaymin and the Jassasa report", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out what he says Ibn Hazm, Imam Malik, Abu Hanifa, Ibn al-Jawzi and others taught in their works on hadith: a report of the Prophet is accepted so long as it does not go against reason, does not contradict the established sources, the Quran and established Sunnah, and does not uproot a principle of Islam. He says hadith in which Jesus forces people to become Muslim, in which there is no more faith on earth, or in which Jesus rules over Jew and Gentile, a Biblical phrase, fail these tests, and that this realism with hadith was the way of Malik and Abu Hanifa though not of al-Shafi'i or the Salafis; he calls people to the Quran and Sunnah, not to any one methodology. He adds that Ibn Uthaymin, the leading Salafi, rejected the Sahih Muslim hadith of the Dajjal living on an island with the Jassasa, saying he had a problem accepting it regardless of its chain and that it was from the Israiliyyat, as Rashid Rida had said before him. He then asks how all these hadith could have crept into Islam and warns listeners to strap in, since some will be scared.", "summary_short": "A hadith is accepted only if it does not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam; the Jesus reports fail this test, and even Ibn Uthaymin rejected a sahih Dajjal report on such grounds.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/authentication", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jawzi", "label": "Ibn al-Jawzi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-uthaymin", "label": "Ibn Uthaymin"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rashid-rida", "label": "Rashid Rida"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:706285e0", "label": "report: tamim al-dari the island and the jassasa"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that a hadith is accepted only if it does not go against reason, does not contradict the Quran and established Sunnah, and does not uproot a principle of Islam, and that the hadith of Jesus's return fail these tests.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "when you start getting hadith that say Jesus will force people to become Muslim that's not acceptable that goes up roots it goes against the Quran the Sunna and the principles of Islam", "start": 4824}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/21/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/22", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S22", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 22, "start": 4977, "end": 5212, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How could fabricated hadith have crept into Islam? The turmoil of the first decades", "question_plain": "How could fabricated hadith have crept into mainstream Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people are reacting to the Jesus question not from attachment to the second coming but from fear that if something they heard since childhood is wrong, other things may be too; he says believers who hold their faith on reason need not feel insecure, and that declaring people kafir is an insecure reaction he likens to a Napoleon syndrome. Answering how such hadith could creep in, he says far more than this happened: within decades of the Prophet, those who hated Islam locked down its capital, the caliph Uthman was murdered in his home and his body left in the street for days while the great companions were present, the Prophet's wives were harassed, his grandson Husayn was martyred, Madinah was sacked and the Kaaba was catapulted. He stresses that he is not raising a sectarian debate but showing that all this took place about six decades after the Prophet, and that Islam then had to live a double lifetime before hadith were documented.", "summary_short": "Fear of questioning drives the backlash; Mufti Abu Layth says the murder of Uthman, Karbala, the sack of Madinah and the catapulting of the Kaaba all happened within decades, long before hadith were documented, so corruption of reports was possible.", "answer_start": 5053, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/collections-and-compilation", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:assassination-of-uthman", "label": "assassination of Uthman"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:karbala", "label": "Karbala"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:sack-of-madinah", "label": "sack of Madinah (al-Harra)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/22/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/23", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S23", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 23, "start": 5212, "end": 5606, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why hadith, not the Quran or fiqh, was corrupted: Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, Zuhri and forged chains", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks listeners to think as someone who wanted to harm Islam in its first century: military attack was risky against an empire spanning three continents, so the attack would be ideological propaganda, and he says this is what happened when converts brought in their Christian baggage, the return of Jesus being a win-win belief for them. He argues the Quran was too hard to corrupt because it was taught everywhere, avoids detail and has a rhythm and eloquence that forgeries could not match, and fiqh was being documented with too many students around, so the target was hadith, where one could simply say the Prophet said something. He recounts that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz commissioned al-Zuhri and Abu Bakr ibn Hazm [?] to collect hadith around the year 101 because, he says, so many had been made up for and against the Umayyads and Damascus, and that only a decade or two later did Ibn Sirin and Ibn al-Mubarak demand chains because too many people were lying about the Prophet. He says that once chains existed a forger needed only to copy one, which is why Malik warned that one-from-one transmission would snatch the religion away and pointed to the collected inherited practice, treating such reports as Islamic information rather than creed. He cites Sufyan ibn Uyayna that hadith is misguidance except for the fuqaha and Ibn Wahb that one is not an imam until one knows what to take and leave from hadith, and repeats that he calls to the Quran and Sunnah.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that early opponents corrupted hadith, not the Quran or fiqh, in the century before chains were demanded; this is why Malik relied on inherited practice and treated isolated reports as information, not creed.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/collections-and-compilation", "hadith/false-and-fabricated", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-ibn-abd-al-aziz", "label": "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-hazm", "label": "Abu Bakr ibn Hazm [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-sirin", "label": "Ibn Sirin"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-ibn-al-mubarak", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-ibn-uyayna", "label": "Sufyan ibn Uyayna"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-wahb", "label": "Ibn Wahb"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that people hostile to Islam brought the belief in Jesus's return in as Christian propaganda through hadith, which went undocumented for about a century and whose chains could be copied, and that this is why Imam Malik told people to rely on inherited practice over isolated reports.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "would you not attack Islam ideologically would you not put propaganda you would and that's what these people have done they did that they brought in their Christian baggage", "start": 5252}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/23/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/24", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S24", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 24, "start": 5606, "end": 5840, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Isn't this ijma and mutawatir? Consensus on consensus and selective tawatur", "question_plain": "Isn't the return of Jesus established by ijma and mutawatir hadith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth notes that hadith contradict each other and the Quran at times and says this backdrop was needed to show where he comes from, as a critical review scholars before him have made. He then takes the objection that the return of Jesus is ijma and mutawatir. He explains that ijma means a consensus of everyone who counts, that one of its conditions is the absence of a Quran or Sunnah text on the issue, that there is no consensus on what consensus is, and that in his view, set out in an earlier video, ijma began as collective assurance rather than a source of Sharia. On tawatur he says scholars such as Ibn Hajar define it so that even non-Muslims count as transmitters, yet the same scholars will not accept the Gospels as mutawatir, nor the thousands of alleged eyewitnesses to Sathya Sai Baba's miracles, nor the Shia's mutawatir transmission that Umar and Abu Bakr oppressed Fatima, so the broad claim collapses into accepting only their own mutawatir.", "summary_short": "There is no consensus on what ijma is, and tawatur is applied selectively: the same scholars reject the Gospels, Hindu miracle reports and Shia transmissions that would qualify by their own definition.", "answer_start": 5683, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "fiqh/legal-theory", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that there is no consensus on what consensus is, that ijma began as collective assurance rather than a source of Sharia, and that accepting only one's own mutawatir while rejecting others' is inconsistent.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "secondly there is no consensus on what consensus it's absurd there is no this is one of those myths", "start": 5677}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/24/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/25", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S25", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 25, "start": 5840, "end": 6077, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Zuhri's reports: Fatima's anger, the attempted suicide, and half the Jesus hadith", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Bukhari contains, through al-Zuhri, a hadith by the critics' own standards that Fatima was angry with Abu Bakr over the inheritance, which many scholars including a Shaykh Hasan [?] dismiss as Zuhri's own insertion, idraj. He says Bukhari also has, through Zuhri, that the Prophet tried to end his life on several occasions; Zuhri was known to add to chains, Ibn Hajar placed him in the third category of mudallisin whose reports are not accepted unless he says he heard them, and here he merely says he was informed, so scholars including al-Albani and those now attacking Mufti say Zuhri made it up. He points out that almost half the hadith of Jesus's return come through Zuhri with disconnected chains of the same kind, yet when he suggests the Messiah complex came from Zuhri the same scholars refuse to question him, while Zuhri's most reliable student, Malik, did not transmit it. He concludes that critical thinking will not come from a Muslim world caught up in sectarianism, and that the same critical review one would present to a non-Muslim should be applied to one's own tradition.", "summary_short": "Scholars discard Zuhri's Fatima and suicide reports as his insertions but refuse to question the Jesus reports, half of which come through him with disconnected chains; Mufti Abu Layth calls this a double standard.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/bukhari", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:idraj", "label": "idraj"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1652a026", "label": "report: fatima was angry with abu bakr over the inheritance"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c2ba830a", "label": "report: the prophet tried to end his life on several occasions"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/25/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/26", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S26", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 26, "start": 6077, "end": 6234, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A belief that changed nothing for the dead; the hadith on his teacher's wall", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the West has an atmosphere of critical thinking that Muslims should turn on their own tradition, to be true to themselves and to the religion, since this is not a core part of it. He argues that everyone who lived and died until today, whether or not they believed Jesus would return, was unaffected by it because Jesus has not come, so one cannot say they died lacking faith when they believed in Allah, his Messenger and his book; he calls the claim audacious. He then recalls studying in his teens with his teacher, whom he still considers his teacher and describes as humble and among the most learned in the English-speaking world, noting that he does not know the teacher's view on this matter, and says a hadith hung in calligraphy on his wall.", "summary_short": "The belief in Jesus's return has had zero impact on anyone who died until today, so it cannot be a core part of faith; Mufti Abu Layth introduces the hadith that shaped his approach.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the belief in Jesus's return has had no impact on the faith of anyone who died until today, so it cannot be a core part of Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "whether they believed Jesus was gonna come or not it hadn't zero impact on their lives because Jesus hasn't come up until today", "start": 6102}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/26/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/27", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S27", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 27, "start": 6234, "end": 6470, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Give glad tidings, make things easy: the hadith behind his approach; do not intimidate", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth quotes the hadith, in Bukhari and Muslim from Anas, that hung on his teacher's wall: bashshiru wa la tunaffiru, yassiru wa la tu'assiru, give glad tidings and do not scare people away, make things easy and do not make them difficult. He says he memorised it at about seventeen and it became the backdrop and pillar of his understanding of Islam. Against this he sets the current attempt to brand him a kafir and apostate over a disagreement, saying the Prophet did not intimidate people into beliefs, and cites Imam Malik's reply when asked whether he argued about the Sunnah: tell the person what you understand and leave it. He recites the verse praising God who guided us, for we would not have been guided otherwise, and says that if God had not enabled him to understand Islam for himself he fears today's clergy would have made him an atheist; he has love for many who serve the religion but says its sectarian, controlling aspect has destroyed it, recalling the verse about taking rabbis and monks as lords besides God.", "summary_short": "The Prophet's instruction to give glad tidings and make things easy is the pillar of Mufti Abu Layth's approach; intimidating people into beliefs contradicts it, and learning Islam for oneself is what kept him in it.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ae3e7bbf", "label": "report: bashshiru wa la tunaffiru yassiru wa la tuassiru"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:7:43", "label": "Quran 7:43"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:9:31", "label": "Quran 9:31"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's instruction to give glad tidings and make things easy is the pillar of his understanding of Islam, and that intimidating people into beliefs contradicts the Prophet's way and Imam Malik's.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this hadith that I learned I must have been seventeen i memorize that hadith that became the backdrop and the kind of pillar upon which my understanding of Islam has been", "start": 6293}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/27/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/28", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S28", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 28, "start": 6470, "end": 6628, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Anwar Shah Kashmiri's claim of ijma, and the scholars who rejected the return", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is disappointed that scholars attacked him rather than asking where he is coming from, and insists there is nothing in the Quran about a return. He says he is not against ijma but notes that those quoting Anwar Shah Kashmiri's book, which claims the return is mutawatir and agreed upon, reject Kashmiri on other matters, such as his classing Ibn Taymiyya as a deviant. He reports that Kashmiri gathered over a hundred hadith on Jesus, himself noting that over sixty were weak and that only some thirty or forty merited review, and that al-Shawkani and others bring more or less the same material. He then lists scholars who criticised the second coming: Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida, whom he describes as a great shaykh of al-Azhar [?], in Tafsir al-Manar, Mustafa al-Maraghi and Mahmud Shaltut as Shaykhs of al-Azhar, Ibn Ashur on aspects of it, Abu Zahra and Muhammad al-Ghazali.", "summary_short": "Kashmiri's compilation of over a hundred return hadith contains mostly weak reports by his own count, and a line of Azhar and other scholars from Abduh to Muhammad al-Ghazali rejected the second coming.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "history/modern-reformers-and-movements", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:anwar-shah-kashmiri", "label": "Anwar Shah Kashmiri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rashid-rida", "label": "Rashid Rida"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tafsir-al-manar", "label": "Tafsir al-Manar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-maraghi", "label": "Mustafa al-Maraghi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mahmud-shaltut", "label": "Mahmud Shaltut"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-zahra", "label": "Muhammad Abu Zahra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-ghazali", "label": "Muhammad al-Ghazali"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/28/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/29", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S29", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 29, "start": 6628, "end": 6784, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Rashid Rida at Deoband: how scholars disagree with adab", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts that Rashid Rida, whom he also calls a father figure of Salafiyya, visited India with a low opinion of Hanafis, and that Deoband invited him with great hospitality to a gathering where Anwar Shah Kashmiri gave the keynote speech in his praise; the Deobandis wished to show they were as grounded in hadith as anyone, and Rida wrote afterwards that the visit to Deoband made his whole trip worthwhile. He says that Rida championed the view that Jesus is not returning while Kashmiri wrote the opposite, yet they honoured each other, and that this is how one disagrees in this religion, not by calling someone a kafir for going against the mutawatir. He then notes that people say al-Shawkani declared the return mutawatir and ijma, which he confirms Shawkani did say.", "summary_short": "Rida and Kashmiri held opposite views on the return of Jesus yet honoured each other at Deoband; Mufti Abu Layth says this is how scholars should disagree.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/modern-reformers-and-movements", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rashid-rida", "label": "Rashid Rida"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:anwar-shah-kashmiri", "label": "Anwar Shah Kashmiri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:rashid-rida-visit-to-india", "label": "Rashid Rida's visit to India and Deoband"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/29/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/30", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S30", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 30, "start": 6784, "end": 7019, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Shawkani against claimed consensus: music, following a madhhab, four wives, raf' al-yadayn", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he loves al-Shawkani but disagrees with him on this point, and shows that Shawkani himself went against claimed consensuses: the ijma that musical instruments are haram reported by Hanafi and Shafi'i scholars; the ijma, recorded by al-Nawawi and others, that one must follow one of the four madhhabs; and the ijma reported by Ibn Hajar, al-Shafi'i, Ibn Qudama, al-Nawawi and al-Qurtubi that a man may not marry more than four wives, which Shawkani permitted, calling the contrary hadith weak, with Siddiq Hasan Khan agreeing in his commentary. He adds, warning that people will be upset, that Shawkani also went against the claimed consensus on anal intercourse in marriage, a point Mufti had earlier cited to show diversity. He notes Shawkani held raising the hands in prayer to be mutawatir from over thirty companions, yet those who quote him on Jesus do not adopt it. He then turns to the belief that the Prophet's parents are in the Fire, which most early scholars accepted on the basis of a hadith in Sahih Muslim, with al-Nawawi titling a chapter accordingly and Mulla Ali al-Qari writing a book claiming ijma on it, as did Ibrahim al-Halabi.", "summary_short": "Those who cite Shawkani's claim that the return is mutawatir do not follow him when he rejects other consensuses or calls raf' al-yadayn mutawatir; claimed consensuses have been overturned before.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-qudama", "label": "Ibn Qudama"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qurtubi", "label": "al-Qurtubi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:siddiq-hasan-khan", "label": "Siddiq Hasan Khan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mulla-ali-al-qari", "label": "Mulla Ali al-Qari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibrahim-al-halabi", "label": "Ibrahim al-Halabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6db69aaf", "label": "report: the parents of the prophet are in the fire"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Shawkani's claim that the return of Jesus is mutawatir cannot bind when Shawkani himself rejected claimed consensuses on music, following a madhhab and marrying more than four wives, and those who cite him ignore him elsewhere.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "so this point is look you yourselves don't agree with show Connie show Connie himself goes against all", "start": 6917}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/30/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/31", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S31", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 31, "start": 7019, "end": 7256, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Everyone picks and chooses: later scholars on mawlid, shrines, hadra and the Jesus hadith", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says later scholars such as al-Suyuti disagreed with the early view on the Prophet's parents by problematising the hadith, exactly as the scholars he cites do with the Jesus reports, and asks why picking and choosing is allowed for one side only. He lists practices the early scholars opposed that later scholars approved: celebrating the Prophet's birthday, tombs and shrines, collective dua after salah, Sufi tariqas, and the hadra, dancing and singing in the mosque, which he says all the early scholars called haram and a violation of the mosque's sanctity. He says those who accept the later scholars on these matters dismiss the later scholars who found problems in the Jesus hadith. He adds that Salafis appeal to the majority of the Ummah, though the majority was never Salafi and never believed God has body parts, so going against the majority is deemed fine for them but deviance for others, quoting a Bollywood line about one's own love being love and another's being lust.", "summary_short": "Every group accepts later scholars against earlier ones when it suits them; Mufti Abu Layth says rejecting the Jesus hadith on the later scholars' authority is no different.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mawlid", "label": "mawlid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hadra", "label": "hadra"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says everyone, Salafis included, picks and chooses between early and later scholars, so rejecting the Jesus hadith on the authority of later scholars is no different from what others do.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "so why is it that all of a sudden it's okay to go against the majority if it's for you but if somebody else goes against the majority then they must be deviants", "start": 7191}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/31/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/32", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S32", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 32, "start": 7256, "end": 7414, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Ashur, al-Shatibi and Ibn Khaldun on the Mahdi: a discussion within Islam", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has done nothing different from presenting what scholars have said. He cites Ibn Ashur, Shaykh al-Islam and Grand Mufti of the Malikis and an inspiration to him, who in his book Tahqiqat wa Anzar [?] finds the Mahdi material insufficient and faulty; al-Shatibi, who in al-I'tisam [?] held that the Mahdi is Jesus himself, since both are said to fill the earth with justice; and Ibn Khaldun, who in the Muqaddimah brings all twenty-eight Mahdi hadith and shows their problems. He says Ibn Ashur classed these matters as Islamic information to be read and discussed, not creed, and that Shaykh al-Sha'rawi, who believed in the second coming, likewise said it is not part of aqidah. He concludes that this is a discussion within Islam and that the more people claim it is clearly proven in the Quran and never disputed, the more they will fall flat as people discover otherwise. He then names Shaykh Hamza Maqbool and Shaykh Shadee Elmasry as scholars whose approach has disappointed him.", "summary_short": "Ibn Ashur, al-Shatibi and Ibn Khaldun all problematised the Mahdi reports and treated such matters as information rather than creed; Mufti Abu Layth says the return of Jesus is a discussion within Islam.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shatibi", "label": "al-Shatibi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-khaldun", "label": "Ibn Khaldun"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-sharawi", "label": "Muhammad Mutawalli al-Sha'rawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-maqbool", "label": "Hamza Maqbool"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shadee-elmasry", "label": "Shadee Elmasry"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muqaddimah", "label": "al-Muqaddimah (Ibn Khaldun)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-itisam", "label": "al-I'tisam [?] (al-Shatibi)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tahqiqat-wa-anzar", "label": "Tahqiqat wa Anzar [?] (Ibn Ashur)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:64e37134", "label": "report: the mahdi will fill the earth with justice"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Mahdi and the return of Jesus are matters of Islamic information open to discussion within Islam, not creed, as Ibn Ashur and al-Sha'rawi held.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "my whole thing of putting this out there is to say look people this is a discussion within Islam", "start": 7344}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/32/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/33", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S33", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 33, "start": 7414, "end": 7571, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reply to Shadee Elmasry and Hamza Maqbool: 'probably an apostate'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Shadee Elmasry called him a probable kafir and a probable apostate, which he mocks with a Carlsberg 'probably' joke. He says he will not be choked out of Islam by pressure, quoting an Urdu verse of Akbar Allahabadi, and tells such scholars that this is not their father's religion to expel people from. He calls the attitude a god complex and says the audacity of people sitting on a divine throne throwing others out of Islam surprises him, and that his being on this faith is by God's grace, not theirs. He adds that Shaykh Hamza Maqbool recently said the same, that this is kufr, and that he is disappointed in him too.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects being called a probable apostate: no one can expel him from Islam by pressure, and declaring people kafir over this shows a god complex.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shadee-elmasry", "label": "Shadee Elmasry"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-maqbool", "label": "Hamza Maqbool"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/33/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/34", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S34", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 34, "start": 7571, "end": 7729, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Creed of Tahawi is not the Quran; Ash'aris do not make takfir of ahl al-qiblah", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Elmasry declared that anyone who denies a line of the Creed of Tahawi is a kafir, and asks why denying Tahawi rather than the Quran should be kufr. He notes that Ibn Taymiyya problematised and rejected at least five points of the Tahawiyya, beginning with its definition of iman as excluding action and its use of the term al-qadim, without being called a kafir; that the creed refutes the Khawarij, the Mu'tazila and the Shia, so this standard would make them all kuffar; and that the Ash'ari creed these scholars claim is that one does not make takfir of the people of the qiblah, while the Tahawiyya is not even an Ash'ari text and was written over two hundred and fifty years after the Prophet. He then introduces the verse these scholars cite, 3:46, that Jesus will speak to people in the cradle and as a kahl, which Elmasry took to mean an old man and Maqbool as about forty years old.", "summary_short": "Denying a line of Tahawi's creed is not kufr: Ibn Taymiyya rejected several of its points, it refutes whole Muslim groups, and Ash'ari creed forbids takfir of the people of the qiblah.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:aqidah-tahawiyya", "label": "al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tahawi", "label": "al-Tahawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shadee-elmasry", "label": "Shadee Elmasry"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-maqbool", "label": "Hamza Maqbool"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:46", "label": "Quran 3:46"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Creed of al-Tahawi was written some 250 years after the Prophet and objects to treating the denial of a line of it as unbelief.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "he's writing this almost at least over 250 years after the Prophet why is he such a great Hojo love a sudden you know we don't accept him in anything else", "start": 7651}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/34/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/35", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S35", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 35, "start": 7729, "end": 7885, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Verse 3:46 and the meaning of kahl: al-Razi and the origin of the second-coming reading", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the claim that kahl means an old man may be colloquial Arabic but is not Quranic Arabic: kahl means maturity, the completion of the body when youth is over, which scholars placed at thirty or forty without a fixed age, like middle age, and he cites a line of early Arabic poetry [?] using the word. He reports that Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, one of the heads of Ash'ari creed, wrote that Jesus reached kuhula on earth during his lifetime, and that the tafsir works trace the reading of the verse as a reference to a second coming to al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali al-Naysaburi [?], who died in the 280s AH, with no one among the Salaf saying it before him. He says this is why he speaks of disappointing scholarship, since those declaring deniers kafir contradict their own authorities, and turns to the other verses described as clear.", "summary_short": "Kahl in 3:46 means mature manhood, which al-Razi says Jesus reached on earth; the reading of the verse as a second coming began only in the late third century with al-Bajali.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:46", "label": "Quran 3:46"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-husayn-ibn-al-fadl-al-bajali", "label": "al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali al-Naysaburi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kahl", "label": "kahl"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that kahl in 3:46 means mature manhood from about thirty or forty, which Jesus reached on earth as al-Razi said, and that reading the verse as a second coming began only with al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali in the third century.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "you are a complete man and many Olimar said that begins at 30 some said it begins at 40 it doesn't matter it's not a set age it's like saying middle aged", "start": 7730}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/35/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/36", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S36", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 36, "start": 7885, "end": 8121, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Verses 4:159 and 43:61: 'before his death' and 'knowledge of the hour'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes 4:159, that none of the People of the Book but will believe in him before his death, and says the referent of 'his' is disputed: some say the dying Christian who realises his error, some say Jesus, some the Prophet Muhammad; he reports that Ibn Abbas, in a transmission Ibn Kathir calls sahih, Mujahid, al-Sha'bi [?], Muhammad ibn Ali [?] and others read it as the Christian, and that Ubayy ibn Ka'b's recitation reads 'before their death' in the plural. He argues the second-coming reading fails because the Christians of two thousand years would already have died before any return, so only those alive then would be covered, whereas on death each realises the truth. He then takes 43:61, that he is knowledge of the hour: Hasan al-Basri read it of the Quran, Ibn Kathir reports some read it of the Prophet Muhammad, and even taking it of Jesus the text says 'ilm, knowledge, not a sign, so a sign reading is itself an interpretation of what was called a clear verse. He sums up that those quoting tawatur and ijma reject other mutawatir claims and disagree among themselves, and that the books of aqidah are silent, before asking about the Mahdi.", "summary_short": "Neither 4:159 nor 43:61 establishes a return: the early exegetes read 4:159 of each Christian at death, Ubayy's reading is plural, and 43:61 says knowledge, not sign.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:159", "label": "Quran 4:159"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:43:61", "label": "Quran 43:61"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mujahid", "label": "Mujahid ibn Jabr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubayy-ibn-kab", "label": "Ubayy ibn Ka'b"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-kathir", "label": "Ibn Kathir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hasan-al-basri", "label": "Hasan al-Basri"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that 4:159 refers to each Christian believing at death, following Ibn Abbas, Mujahid and Ubayy's plural reading, and that 43:61 says Jesus is knowledge of the hour, not a sign, so neither verse establishes a return.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so the true understanding here was that upon death they will realize that this was not the truth", "start": 8000}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/36/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/37", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S37", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 37, "start": 8121, "end": 8356, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why is Jesus coming at all? The Mahdi as mutawatir and the Dajjal anti-climax", "question_plain": "Why would Jesus need to come back at all?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Hajar called the Mahdi mutawatir and al-Shawkani brought fifty Mahdi hadith, more than for Jesus, with Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, al-Sakhawi and others [?] all calling it mutawatir, yet the Mahdi is absent from Tahawi and the early books of Ash'ari creed, which he calls a big problem for his critics. Restating why he gave this backdrop, he says the return reads exactly like the gospels and that Muslims seem to have tried too hard to find a reason for it: Jesus comes to kill the Dajjal, but the Dajjal melts the moment he appears, an anti-climax he compares to a disappointing Mayweather fight, when the Mahdi or the Muslims could have killed him. He asks why Jesus, himself a Jew who preached love and turning the other cheek, would return to kill the Jews, force everyone into Islam, rule over Jew and Gentile as judge with no one's faith counting any more, and kill pigs, when Imam Malik's sahih report has him greeting a pig in peace. He says that looking at the Quran and the Sunnah is the point.", "summary_short": "Muslims have had to invent a reason for Jesus's return; killing a Dajjal who melts on sight is an anti-climax, and the other tasks contradict Jesus's own character and the Quran.", "answer_start": 8201, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar-al-haytami", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Haytami"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-sakhawi", "label": "al-Sakhawi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:24232b79", "label": "report: jesus passed a pig and said pass by in peace"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims seem to try hard to invent a reason for Jesus to return, and that the tasks the reports give him contradict the love and compassion of his life.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so it seems that Muslims are almost trying really hard to make up a reason for why Jesus has to come back because oh he has to kill the Jews", "start": 8222}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/37/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/38", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S38", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 38, "start": 8356, "end": 8515, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Summary of the case against a second coming; Ibn Hazm on hadith against reason", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth summarises: first, the details of these hadith conflict with the overall message of the Quran, the Sunnah and the established principles of Islam; second, they are established through khabar al-ahad, single-transmitter reports, and are not part of aqidah as people have made them; third, the narrations contradict each other massively, on Constantinople, on whether the Dajjal was alive in the Prophet's time or born later, on the Prophet suspecting Ibn Sayyad without mentioning Jesus, and on a Dajjal every prophet warned of who melts like salt; fourth, the Christian narrative of Mount Sinai and Damascus, which became the setting once the capital moved there; and fifth, the Prophet, asked by Jibril about faith and the signs of the hour, did not mention Jesus. He then calls for a realistic approach to hadith in the manner of Malik and Abu Hanifa: the scholars did the best job they could in preserving them, but reports that clash with the principles must be set aside. He quotes Ibn Hazm that every hadith which goes against reason, the Quran or the principles of Islam is to be known as fabricated, and begins the remark that one need not even check its narrators.", "summary_short": "There is no second coming of Jesus in Islam: the reports contradict the Quran, Sunnah and principles, are single-transmitter reports not creed, contradict each other, parallel the Bible, and are absent from the Quran and the Prophet's definition of faith.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "belief/eschatology"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6b3b4416", "label": "report: jibril asks the prophet about iman and the signs of the hour"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:khabar-wahid-not-creed", "label": "single-transmitter reports do not establish creed"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth sums up that the reports of Jesus's return conflict with the Quran, the Sunnah and established principles, are single-transmitter reports rather than creed, contradict one another and echo Christian narratives, and that the Prophet did not mention Jesus when asked about faith or the signs of the hour.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "when we look at the details of these hadith we find them conflicting with the overall message of the Quran with the overall message of the Sunnah and with the established principles in Islam", "start": 8356}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/38/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/39", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S39", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 39, "start": 8515, "end": 8754, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Stop calling Bukhari the most authentic book after the Quran; fiqh preserved the living Sunnah", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth continues Ibn Hazm's point that a report contradicting the principles need not have its narrators checked, saying this was taught from Abu Hanifa and Malik down to Ibn Hazm and Ibn al-Jawzi, and that others do the same without admitting it: they dismiss fully chained Shia reports that Fatima was upset, and Bukhari's report of the Prophet attempting to end his life, as fabrications, yet refuse the same scrutiny elsewhere. He asks people to stop saying Bukhari is the most authentic book after the Quran, a statement that upsets him: Bukhari made an excellent effort and he prays God rewards him, though like any sane Muslim he wonders why certain hadith were included, and Bukhari did not ask anyone to believe them blindly; the comparison with the Quran is where Muslims went wrong and will lead to hurt when faults are found. He says hadith are an attempt to preserve the Sunnah, to be sifted against the Quran, reason and the principles, and that fiqh, documented separately from hadith, preserved Islam as a lived heritage in the madhhabs, through which the Sunnah is found in living form. He closes this part by offering these as his thoughts as a brother in Islam, to take or leave, noting that friends, students and teachers of his disagree with him on several things and that he holds no blind-following mentality.", "summary_short": "Sahih al-Bukhari is an excellent effort but should not be called the most authentic book after the Quran; hadith are sifted, while fiqh and the madhhabs carry the Sunnah in living form.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jawzi", "label": "Ibn al-Jawzi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Sahih al-Bukhari should not be called the most authentic book after the Quran: it is an excellent effort whose reports are still sifted, while fiqh and the madhhabs preserved the Sunnah in living form.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "let's stop saying these things of Buhari is the most sound book after the Quran well lucky I do not like these kind of statements upset me", "start": 8570}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/39/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/40", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S40", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 40, "start": 8754, "end": 9070, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Shaykh Abdul Majid's civility; the 'Mufti' remark clarified; music in front of one's daughters", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people who disagree need not be clones of each other or take digs, and that there is no shortage of space in paradise. He ends on a comment by Shaykh Abdul Majid [?], whom he takes to be a Salafi-oriented scholar from London, originally from India, who made a clip disagreeing with him yet, he says, was the most sensible public voice in the whole discourse, asking why people could not simply accept this as a scholar's research and a difference of opinion. He clarifies a point the shaykh raised: he never asked to be called Mufti, but objected that opponents attack his qualification rather than his opinion, like discrediting a doctor's licence instead of his prescription. He says he would be honoured to meet him for a discussion rather than a debate. On the shaykh's question whether, having quoted al-Shawkani on some of the Salaf and dancing girls, he would allow such things in front of his daughters, he calls this an emotional argument: not wanting something in front of one's children does not make it haram, as with romance between spouses, since everything has its time and place, and he does not consider these things haram.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth praises a critic's civility, clarifies that he objects to attacks on his qualification rather than seeking a title, and says that not wanting music or dancing before one's daughters does not make them haram.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "fiqh/entertainment/music", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-majid", "label": "Shaykh Abdul Majid [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that not wanting something done in front of one's daughters does not make it haram, since everything has its time and place, and that he does not consider such things haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "just because you wouldn't do things in front of certain people doesn't mean that you consider those things wrong", "start": 9030}}, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/40/"}, {"id": "NHzYu3BKBWE/s/41", "short_id": "2018-03-13-S41", "recording": "NHzYu3BKBWE", "n": 41, "start": 9070, "end": 9265, "date": "20180313", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Close: miracles and reason to come, follow the pages, closing prayer", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks viewers for their patience through an extended session. He says he will in future discuss miracles: he does not deny them but holds that they are events explicable through God's law operating in nature, as frogs or fish falling from the sky were once seen as miracles and are now understood. Asked what he means by reason, he defines it as the ability of a healthy mind to think and make judgements, especially on practical evidence, and says a full video on this is coming. He invites viewers to follow his pages and reach out, dismisses a complaint about asking for likes, and closes with praise of God and blessings on the Messenger, citing the hadith that Madinah is better for them if only they knew.", "summary_short": "Sign-off with a preview of talks on miracles and on the meaning of reason, an invitation to follow his pages, and a closing prayer.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4c9707e2", "label": "report: madinah is better for them if only they knew"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/NHzYu3BKBWE/s/41/"}, {"id": "NIVZcdJxC2o/s/1", "short_id": "2020-03-08-S01", "recording": "NIVZcdJxC2o", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 217, "date": "20200308", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Cousin marriage in Indo-Pak culture, and whether the Prophet married his cousin", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet marry his cousin?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth responds light-heartedly to a chat comment about his eyebrows, putting his looks down to God's blessing and to his parents not being related to each other. He then jokes at length about cousin marriage, saying he is glad nobody in his immediate family did it and imagining how awkward it must be, before saying he is only joking. Reading the chat, Mufti says briefly that he believes one can get married without a wali and has a detailed video on the hadith involved. To a viewer asking whether the Prophet did not marry his cousin, he says that is different: he identifies the case as Zaynab bint Jahsh, related to the Prophet through her mother while her father and tribe were different, whereas in some Pakistani families everybody keeps marrying within the same family, which is what he meant.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's marriage to Zaynab bint Jahsh, a relative only through her mother, is unlike families where everyone marries cousins; he also says marriage without a wali is valid.", "answer_start": 136, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/choosing-a-spouse", "fiqh/marriage-contracts", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:wali", "label": "wali (marriage guardian)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zaynab-bint-jahsh", "label": "Zaynab bint Jahsh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes that a person can get married without a wali.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "can one get married without a Wally I do believe I do believe that you can get married without a Willie and I've got a whole video detailed on that", "start": 136}}, "url": "/r/NIVZcdJxC2o/s/1/"}, {"id": "O3SO0Hmtatc/s/1", "short_id": "2018-07-21-S01", "recording": "O3SO0Hmtatc", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 195, "date": "20180721", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mut'ah is a question of fiqh, not iman: Sunnis are unfair to the Shia", "question_plain": "Is mut'ah a matter of belief that divides Sunnis and Shia?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not feel the differences between Sunnis and Shia are so huge, being largely historical and about politics and leadership. Recalling a Speakers' Corner debate a Shia friend sent him, in which mut'ah kept coming up, he says that, to be objective, Sunnis are unfair in slating the Shia over temporary marriage, since whether one accepts it is a matter of fiqh, not of iman. He says many companions allowed mut'ah, as did scholars down to the great Maliki Ibn Ashur [?], and that Sunnis today have their own low-commitment equivalent, misyar [?], which he likens to Erik Erikson's stage of low commitment and high exploration. He adds jokingly that if Sunni scholars were not so critical of mut'ah, Sunnis would be madly on it, then mentions his book shopping before moving on.", "summary_short": "No: accepting temporary marriage or not is a question of fiqh, not belief, so Sunnis are unfair to attack the Shia over mut'ah.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah-misyar", "label": "nikah misyar [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:erik-erikson", "label": "Erik Erikson"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that whether one accepts temporary marriage or not is a matter of fiqh, not a matter of iman.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "now whether you accept it or don't accept it is a matter of fit it's not actually a matter of Eman", "start": 39}}, "url": "/r/O3SO0Hmtatc/s/1/"}, {"id": "O3SO0Hmtatc/s/2", "short_id": "2018-07-21-S02", "recording": "O3SO0Hmtatc", "n": 2, "start": 195, "end": 357, "date": "20180721", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A Moroccan Maliki thesis on mut'ah and an immature debate over it", "question_plain": "Do any Sunni scholars say mut'ah is not haram?", "summary": "After a light-hearted exchange with viewers, Mufti Abu Layth turns to research he finds interesting: a recent Maliki scholar from Morocco has published a book, apparently his thesis, revisiting temporary marriage on the basis of Sunni thought, in which he argues from many sources that mut'ah is not actually haram. Mufti says this scholar debated a popular Salafi shaykh in Morocco, a debate available on YouTube, and that it was dumb: the Salafi's retort was to offer temporary marriage to the other man's daughter, and the reply was an insult about the Salafi's daughter. He contrasts this with how academics at Oxford or Cambridge would debate and calls the exchange immature.", "summary_short": "A recent Moroccan Maliki scholar argues in a book that mut'ah is not haram; Mufti Abu Layth calls the 'marry me your daughter' retort in his debate with a Salafi immature.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the debate's 'then marry your daughter to me' retort was an immature and stupid thing to say.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "the usual kind of responses which I found very immature like you know okay if you think motaz okay then marry your daughter to me", "start": 268}}, "url": "/r/O3SO0Hmtatc/s/2/"}, {"id": "OCiapHX4cGI/s/1", "short_id": "2020-06-20-S01", "recording": "OCiapHX4cGI", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 1079, "date": "20200620", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How Mufti Abu Layth's appearance and views changed since 2005", "question_plain": "Why did Mufti Abu Layth change from how he looked and spoke in his old videos?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people who came across a 2005 clip of him speaking at a conference, in a hat and beard and on a serious subject, have asked how he went from that to how he is now, with some theorising that he lost his faith or had a midlife crisis. He separates the question into his look and his personality. On his look and views, he says nothing changed overnight: it was simply life, years of furthering his knowledge, grappling with concepts and broadening his horizons after about seven or eight years studying abroad in Damascus and in Pakistan, followed by degrees in psychology and teaching, a master's, teaching philosophy at A level and discussions with professors, a gradual conceptual metamorphosis over three to four years and, in confidence, over more than a decade. On personality, he says he was always the same, cracking jokes and holding maverick opinions even in the madrasa, but had been taught that one must be serious and not joke when giving speeches, which is why the clip looks as it does. He describes the constant knock-back for independent thought in the madrasa and how a different circle of friends, scholars and professors after his return let him become confident in promoting his views and true to himself, a process he dates from about 2006 or 2007 to about 2017. He adds that his parents never forced him to study; they opposed it and he had to fight to go. He closes by saying a person whose thinking has not developed since 2005 should ask what the point of their existence is, and advises not to succumb to peer pressure.", "summary_short": "The change in his look and views came gradually over more than a decade through study, reading and new circles, not from any event or loss of faith. His personality, he says, was always the same; the old clip only shows the serious speaking style he was taught.", "answer_start": 152, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "wellbeing/personal-stories"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/OCiapHX4cGI/s/1/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/1", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S01", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 95, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: music and sharing the link with the guest", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The stream opens with music and a few fragments of speech. Mufti Abu Layth says he is sharing the link out with the guest, asks those tuning in to click like and express some love, and writes the link out.", "summary_short": "Music and housekeeping while Mufti Abu Layth shares the stream link with the guest.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/1/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/2", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S02", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 2, "start": 95, "end": 292, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Apology for the delay and how the dialogue was scheduled", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth expresses gratitude and says the guest, brother Muhammad, has been waiting patiently while he was delayed. He explains that Friday is a safe bet for guests in America because it is early evening there, which is why the MindTrap sessions work well with friends across the Atlantic, and that he had warned he might be late because of other commitments. He says a few hours had been set aside and they are still within that window, so even half an hour in which the guest steelmans his case for the Quran-only perspective would be welcome, and he apologises again, noting that he postponed another MindTrap with a shaykh from Australia to have this conversation. While waiting for the guest to come on he says he will preface what the discussion is about, switches on the comments and tries to quieten his computer's fan.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth apologises for being late, explains why Friday evenings suit guests in America, and says he postponed another MindTrap to hold this dialogue.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/2/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/3", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S03", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 3, "start": 292, "end": 452, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "How the dialogue came about: a guest who waited two hours at the last meetup", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth prefaces the discussion by saying he was not familiar with brother Muhammad, known as MFG, of the Quranist movement, and had not come across him before, which he says is no discredit to anyone. He recounts that at his last meetup the guest joined the waiting room when the link was shared and waited patiently for over two hours, so at the end Mufti brought him on screen out of courtesy to apologise and let him say a few words. The guest had said that many of his followers wanted him to have a discussion with Mufti, which piqued Mufti's curiosity, and he explained that he is a member of the Quranist movement. Mufti says that tonight he wants to examine whether a case can be made for the Quranist movement by a Quranist.", "summary_short": "The guest waited two hours at the previous meetup, said his followers wanted a dialogue, and tonight Mufti Abu Layth wants to hear a Quranist make the case for the Quran-only position.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:quranist", "label": "Quranist (Quran-only)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/3/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/4", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S04", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 4, "start": 452, "end": 644, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's view: the Quranist movement as a reaction of anger to misused hadith", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth see the Quran-only movement as a reaction of anger?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels the Quranist movement is a reaction carrying a lot of rage, anger and negativity, stressing that he is describing how it is perceived in his eyes rather than villainising anyone. He says the anger is sometimes justified, because people take hadith and misuse them, and certain hadith that are clearly incorrect are pushed by hadith dogmatists and exploited by Islamophobes. As examples he gives the age of Aisha, whom he says was in her late teens, between seventeen and twenty, when she married the Prophet, with the Bukhari report on it being inaccurate as he has explained at length; the hadith on killing the apostate, which he believes is fabricated and whose application he says was a political decision about treason common to all religions of the time, noting that some Hanafis hold there is no capital punishment for a female apostate because she poses no threat; and hadith used to justify marital rape, abuse and misogyny. He says the Quranist movement reacts by cancelling all hadith, but asks what they mean by that, since the guest told him last week that he was strawmanning their argument.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth sees the Quran-only movement as a reaction of anger, sometimes justified, to hadith that are misused, such as the Bukhari report on Aisha's age, the report on killing apostates and reports used to justify abuse; the question is what Quranists actually mean by rejecting hadith.", "answer_start": 452, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/false-and-fabricated", "history/sirah/age-of-aisha"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:quranist", "label": "Quranist (Quran-only)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3ec20135", "label": "report: killing the apostate (content not quoted; called fabricated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he perceives the Quranist movement as a reaction of anger to hadith that are misused, an anger sometimes justified, and he holds that Aisha married in her late teens, that the hadith on killing the apostate is fabricated and its application was political, and that hadith are wrongly used to justify abuse and misogyny.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel that the Quranist movement is really it's you know it's a kind of reaction with a lot of rage a lot of anger almost and negativity", "start": 452}}, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/4/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/5", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S05", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 5, "start": 644, "end": 938, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Steelmanning not strawmanning: hadith versus Sunnah, conditions for a report, and meeting anger with love", "question_plain": "Is there a middle way between rejecting all hadith and accepting every hadith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he wants to give the guest the opportunity to steelman his argument, since he may be misunderstanding it. He says there is a long-standing middle ground, that of Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa, which distinguishes between hadith and Sunnah: the Sunnah is what is followed, and hadith attempt to document it, sometimes succeeding, sometimes mistaken. He says scholars set conditions, accepting a hadith so long as it does not go against reason, does not clash with the Quran or the living tradition, and does not uproot an Islamic principle, while admitting that not all scholars follow these guidelines, that their application is disputed and that they may be misused. He says discarding the Sunnah of the Prophet, the most beloved of creation to Muslims, is a disservice to faith, but that everyone arguing for an angle in Islam does so from love, even if in this case he feels it is misplaced, so rather than bashing people one should listen with open hearts, since only love, compassion and light overcome anger. He adds that he himself carried irritability and anger in earlier years, and that teachers, loved ones, his own trauma, witnessing his mother's cancer and passing, and certain psychedelic experiences of death and of the presence of Allah changed how he feels life and other people's pain and joy, before welcoming the guest to the virtual stage.", "summary_short": "There is a middle way between rejecting hadith and hadith absolutism: Malik and Abu Hanifa distinguished Sunnah from hadith and accepted reports only if they do not contradict reason, the Quran, the living tradition or a principle of Islam. Mufti Abu Layth says Quranists should be met with love, not cornered, and recalls his own past anger.", "answer_start": 644, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "wellbeing/personal-stories"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "Sunnah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds the middle position of Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa that the Sunnah is what is followed and hadith only document it, so a report is accepted unless it contradicts reason, the Quran or the living tradition or uproots a principle of Islam, and that discarding the Sunnah is a disservice to faith.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "to discard the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam who is to Muslims the most beloved of creation is a disservice to I feel faith as a whole", "start": 748}}, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/5/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/6", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S06", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 6, "start": 938, "end": 1349, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest steelmans the Quran-only position: a principle, confirmed by epistemology", "question_plain": "Is the Quran-only position an argument from epistemology or from principle?", "summary": "The guest greets Mufti Abu Layth, who apologises for the delay and asks him to steelman his argument, noting that Quranist movements are not a monolith. Mufti frames the question he asked the previous week: is the Quran-only position an argument from epistemology, meaning hadith would be welcome but are set aside out of caution because one cannot be sure a report really conveys the Prophet's teaching, or an argument from principle, meaning the Quran is the only source of guidance and nothing comes even from the Prophet. The guest answers that Islam existed before the Prophet Muhammad and is the same Islam, that the Quran gives sufficient guidance on how to be a proper human being and present oneself to God, and that Quranists do not reject history or narrations but reject the religious authority of hadith as a corpus, since the Quran can be applied in many ways and remains the common ground of humanity. He says the position is from principle, because when God addresses the Jews and Christians he appeals back to the Torah, Gospel and Psalms and never to anyone's wisdom or application, and that it is also proved by epistemology, since the contradictory reports not authored by God or the messenger show inconsistency, ingratitude and an insulting nature. He adds that many converts who were not raised with hadith find the material problematic on its surface, whereas the Quran needs no one to hold your hand, and that the people of opinion who were dominant in the early courts were phased out by the hadith traditionalists.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Quran-only position rests on principle, since God refers earlier communities only to their books, and is confirmed by epistemology, since hadith are contradictory and insulting; Quranists reject the religious authority of hadith, not history or narrations as such.", "answer_start": 1111, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:quranist", "label": "Quranist (Quran-only)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-ray", "label": "ahl al-ra'y (people of opinion)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/6/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/7", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S07", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 7, "start": 1349, "end": 1662, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The Quran as centre: is there a Sunnah of the Prophet to follow, and was it preserved?", "question_plain": "Do Quranists accept any Sunnah of the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he wholeheartedly agrees that the Quran is central, which he describes as the teaching of the school of Madinah, of Imam Malik and of Abu Hanifa, repeating his analogy from the previous week that the Quran is the sun around which other sources orbit like planets and moons, and he asks whether the guest distinguishes between hadith and Sunnah at all. The guest says his definition of Sunnah differs: the Quran speaks of two sunnahs, the traditions of earlier peoples by which God guides the Prophet, and the sunnah of God in dealing with his servants and the disbelievers, and there is no specific Sunnah of the Prophet outlined in the Quran to follow. Asked whether the Prophet elaborated and clarified the Quran, the guest says he definitely did, but that this was not preserved; God guides us in the same manner, times have changed, and had it been necessary God would have preserved it, so the test is whether the word of God is sufficient or one needs to be spoon-fed. He adds that everyone claims a Quran-centric approach but in practice follows the tradition. Mufti asks whether the Prophet's guidance is therefore irrelevant, and the guest distinguishes a messenger, whose message is in the Quran for all people, from a prophet, whose guidance is localised to his own people.", "summary_short": "Both agree the Quran is central, but the guest says the Quran names only two sunnahs, of earlier peoples and of God, and that the Prophet's own clarifications were not preserved and so cannot have been necessary; Mufti Abu Layth presents this as the school of Madinah's Quran-centred view with other sources orbiting it.", "answer_start": 1441, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "Sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/7/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/8", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S08", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 8, "start": 1662, "end": 1962, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is the Prophet the embodiment of mercy and the most beloved of creation?", "question_plain": "Is the Prophet Muhammad the most beloved of creation and a mercy to the worlds?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why Muslims should learn from the examples of Musa and other prophets but not from their own Prophet, the seal of the prophets and a mercy for the entire world. The guest replies that the Prophet is not the mercy; God's sending of a messenger and a clear book is the mercy, and while the Prophet may embody the Quran, so can anyone, and he cannot be the embodiment of mercy because nothing can grasp the mercy of God and only al-Rahman embodies it. Mufti objects that he is using the words Allah uses, and the guest says Mufti is elevating a human being beyond his station, that calling him the most beloved of all creation cannot be proven and amounts to celebrity worship, and that exploring sources outside the Quran leads to idolatry. Asked whether some people are not more beloved to Allah than others, the guest accepts that some are more beloved but says one cannot say 'most'; Mufti replies that along such a spectrum someone must be at the top, and the guest asks why Abraham is not better than Muhammad. Mufti asks whether any other prophet is called a mercy in the Quran, and the guest begins to argue that the phrase describes the sending rather than the Prophet.", "summary_short": "The guest holds that God's sending of the messenger, not the Prophet himself, is the mercy, and that calling him the most beloved of creation is unprovable celebrity worship; Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet is a mercy for the worlds and that if some are more beloved than others one must be at the top.", "answer_start": 1662, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:107", "label": "Quran 21:107 (we sent you only as a mercy for the worlds)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/8/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/9", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S09", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 9, "start": 1962, "end": 2616, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The grammar of 21:107: does 'a mercy' describe the Prophet or the act of sending him?", "question_plain": "Does 'we sent you only as a mercy' (21:107) describe the Prophet or the act of sending him?", "summary": "The guest argues that in 'we have not sent you except as a mercy for the worlds' the mercy describes the sending, so that if the Prophet had sat in his house and done nothing there would be no mercy, and Mufti Abu Layth says he is confusing the function of the phrase; the exchange turns on whether the word is a circumstantial state describing the Prophet or a verbal noun [?]. Mufti says the primary understanding of the Arabic, which is the reading of the Quran the guest himself appeals to, is that the Prophet was sent as a mercy for the worlds, and that the guest may choose the secondary understanding that the sending of him is the mercy, but may not deny the primary one; he says he does not want to use the guest's still-developing Arabic as a trump card but asks him not to argue for the sake of argument. The guest insists his reading is verbatim and that Mufti took a portion of the verse, and that the negation with 'except' conditions the statement. Asked what the difference would be had the verse simply said 'you are but a mercy', Mufti explains that the exclusive negation amplifies rather than diminishes the meaning: it adds Allah's endorsement that his whole sending of the Prophet was as a mercy, as when a king is said to have sent someone 'but as an ambassador'. The guest replies that if he was not sent he would not be the mercy, and Mufti says that is like saying we would not exist had Allah not created us, before moving on.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the primary Arabic reading of 21:107 is that the Prophet himself was sent as a mercy for the worlds, with the exclusive negation amplifying that, while the guest's reading that the sending is the mercy is a secondary understanding he may hold but not impose.", "answer_start": 1962, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/arabic-language", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:107", "label": "Quran 21:107 (we sent you only as a mercy for the worlds)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hal", "label": "hal (circumstantial state) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:masdar", "label": "masdar (verbal noun)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/9/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/10", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S10", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 10, "start": 2616, "end": 3049, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The Prophet's honour, interruptions, and whether 'most beloved of creation' is a lie against God", "question_plain": "Why did Mufti Abu Layth challenge hadith in BukhariGate, and can the Prophet be called the most beloved of creation?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he assumes people have been harsh with the guest and strawmanned him, but asks him to understand that to countless Muslims the Prophet comes first and foremost before anything: his own challenges to hadith narratives, including BukhariGate, were made because those hadith insulted the honour of the Messenger of Allah, whose honour and life come before Muslims' own, and he does not want the discussion to go down the road of remarks such as what would be special about the Prophet had he sat at home. The guest says the Quran teaches not to fear the blame of a critic and that Quranists speak of Muhammad as Mufti speaks of Moses and Jesus; he complains that Mufti keeps interrupting and that he will use his own tactics if not heard, and Mufti asks to dissolve the us-versus-them talk and speak as brothers. Returning to his point, the guest says going outside the Quran leads to forms of idolatry and incorrect statements, that Mufti cannot prove the words 'most beloved of all creation' and is therefore saying a lie against God, citing the verse asking who is more oppressive than one who invents lies about God, and that only 'some guy in history' said so. Mufti says the guest does not accept the Prophet as the best of creation though he agrees there is one, which all Muslims believe; the guest replies that all Christians believe Jesus died on the cross. An exchange follows over the guest's phrase 'your books' and 'your Muslim tradition', Mufti asking why he speaks as if he were not a Muslim and the guest saying he is a submitter who dislikes labels, and the guest concludes that the Quran gives more favour to Abraham than to Muhammad, since the supposedly most beloved man is instructed to follow Abraham.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says his hadith criticism, including BukhariGate, was driven by reports that insult the Prophet, whose honour comes before Muslims' own; the guest says calling the Prophet the most beloved of creation is unprovable and a lie against God, and that the Quran favours Abraham, whom Muhammad is told to follow.", "answer_start": 2616, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/10/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/11", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S11", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 11, "start": 3049, "end": 3400, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "'He will teach them the Book and the Wisdom' (2:129): what is the hikma?", "question_plain": "What is the 'wisdom' the Prophet teaches alongside the Book in 2:129?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the Sunnah of the Prophet and cites the dua of Ibrahim asking for a messenger who will recite the verses, teach the Book and the Wisdom, and purify the people, asking what the hikma is if the Prophet taught nothing beyond the Quran. The guest says the hikma is the application of the Quran, which is itself found in the Quran, and that 'the Book' does not equal the Quran, since God speaks of Jesus being given the Book too; he says chapter 17 contains verses about the wisdom that end with the command not to set up another god with God, so the wisdom is found there. Mufti asks whether the guest takes the Book and the Wisdom to be the same thing; the guest cites 2:231, where the Book and the Wisdom admonish you, and says the two always come hand in hand and refer to what is taught in the books God sent. Mufti says the primary understanding any reader takes from the verse is that the messenger teaches the Book, meaning the Quran, and the wisdom, and that the Prophet, not just the Quran, purifies the people, so the Prophet does something beyond reciting. He then introduces the verse in which the reminder is revealed to the Prophet so that he may clarify to people what was revealed to them.", "summary_short": "The guest holds that the wisdom taught alongside the Book is the Quran's own application and is found in the Quran itself; Mufti Abu Layth says the primary reading of 2:129 is that the messenger teaches the Book and, separately, the wisdom, and himself purifies the people.", "answer_start": 3095, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:129", "label": "Quran 2:129 (send a messenger who teaches them the Book and the Wisdom and purifies them)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:231", "label": "Quran 2:231 (the Book and the Wisdom with which He admonishes you)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hikmah", "label": "hikmah (wisdom)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/11/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/12", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S12", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 12, "start": 3400, "end": 3684, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "'So that you may clarify to people what was revealed to them' (16:44) and the 'light and clear book' of 5:15", "question_plain": "Does 16:44 mean the Prophet explains the Quran, or that the Quran clarifies earlier scriptures?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why, if the Prophet's mode of being was not important, the Quran says the reminder was revealed to him so that he may clarify to people what was revealed to them; he is not claiming the Quran is inaccessible, but that it has depths, nuances and perspectives that the Messenger embodied and taught. The guest says the verse is taken out of context: it addresses the people of scripture, who had lost their earlier message, and it is the Quran received by the Prophet that clarifies what was sent to them, as when it corrects the Torah's claim that Aaron built the golden calf; the word is 'dhikr', revelation, not the Quran as such, so the revelation does the clarifying. Mufti accepts that this meaning could be taken by extension but says most if not all mufassirun, and the Arabic itself, read the verse as the Prophet explaining, which shows the Prophet's significance; he only wanted the guest's reflection. The guest then cites 5:15, where a light and a clear book have come from God, as again pointing to the same book and message; Mufti notes that 16:44 says 'people' in general while 5:15 addresses the people of the book, and the guest replies that it is the believers who need the clarification.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads 16:44 as showing the Prophet's role in explaining the revelation, as nearly every tafsir does; the guest says the verse is about the Quran clarifying earlier scriptures to the people of the book, and points to 5:15 as naming a single source.", "answer_start": 3444, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:16:44", "label": "Quran 16:44 (we revealed to you the reminder so that you may clarify to people what was revealed to them)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:15", "label": "Quran 5:15 (there has come to you from Allah a light and a clear book)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:harun", "label": "Harun (Aaron)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tafsir", "label": "tafsir"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/12/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/13", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S13", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 13, "start": 3684, "end": 4092, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is the 'light' of 5:15 the Prophet or the book? Pronouns in 5:16 and the waw of 33:7", "question_plain": "Is the 'light' that came with the clear book in 5:15 the Prophet or the Quran itself?", "summary": "Before moving on from revelation, Mufti Abu Layth asks about the light that has come from God in 5:15, which the mufassirun identify as the Prophet Muhammad, and asks what the guest takes the light to be. The guest says the light has been given to the Prophet rather than being him, and that the light and the book need not be two different things; he asks why 33:7 names the prophets and then 'you and Noah' if the conjunction always marks separate things. Mufti replies that a conjunction can specify, as when one says one spoke to all the staff and to him and him as well. The guest says the book is a form of light, that God is specifying the type of light, and that in 5:16 the pronoun in 'by which Allah guides' refers to the nearest antecedent, the book; Mufti agrees that grammarians say a pronoun goes to the nearest antecedent, but notes that the Quran also uses a singular pronoun for 'Allah and his messenger' when the two come in tandem, and says nobody denies that Allah guides by the Quran. The guest says the verse continually points to a singular source and nothing outside the book, and Mufti accepts this as the guest's interpretation that the light is another aspect of the book; the guest objects that calling it his interpretation misses that the other readings are negated by the Quran, and Mufti asks him to stop.", "summary_short": "The guest reads the light of 5:15 as an aspect of the book itself, arguing from the pronoun in 5:16 and the conjunction in 33:7; Mufti Abu Layth presents the view of the mufassirun that the light is the Prophet and accepts the guest's reading as one interpretation while objecting that the others are not negated.", "answer_start": 3722, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "quran/arabic-language", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:15", "label": "Quran 5:15 (there has come to you from Allah a light and a clear book)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:16", "label": "Quran 5:16 (by which Allah guides those who follow His pleasure)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:7", "label": "Quran 33:7 (the covenant from the prophets, from you and from Nuh)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tafsir", "label": "tafsir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/13/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/14", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S14", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 14, "start": 4092, "end": 4633, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Can 'light' mean the Prophet? Primary readings, Rashad Khalifa's followers, and mercy versus light", "question_plain": "Can 'light' in 5:15 refer to the Prophet, or only to guidance and the book?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is not trying to set the guest up on his Arabic and would not give him a platform if he did not respect him; he explains that the primary understandings of 5:15 are that the light means guidance, or that it means the Prophet Muhammad as many mufassirun said, and that the guest's reading of it as a modality of the book is acceptable, but he must not claim the other understandings are negated. The guest says the problem is precisely that such interpretations do not align with the Quranic narrative, complains that Mufti lectures him and does not let him finish, says it is his duty as a believer to show Mufti where he is wrong, and offers to end the conversation since neither is benefiting. Mufti clarifies that what he objected to was the claim that the other, primary readings do not exist. The guest then states his position: reading the light as guidance or as an aspect of the book makes sense, but reading it as the Prophet cannot be proven from the Quran and is not understood linguistically, since the word cannot signify a human being in basic Arabic; the mufassirun, he says, had the presupposition that the Prophet is the highest of all other than God and inserted him into the verse, as the followers of Rashad Khalifa insert him as a messenger. He says light is a set of which the clear book is a subset. Mufti asks how a mercy is not a light, and the guest replies that even disbelievers receive God's mercy yet remain in darkness, while Mufti asks who brought the Quran to them. Mufti moves on, and the guest objects that he is not allowed to finish his points; Mufti says a conversation requires both people to talk.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the primary readings of 'light' in 5:15 are guidance or the Prophet, as many mufassirun held, and that the guest's reading as the book is acceptable but may not negate the others; the guest says the word cannot refer to a human and that the mufassirun inserted the Prophet from presupposition.", "answer_start": 4092, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:15", "label": "Quran 5:15 (there has come to you from Allah a light and a clear book)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:rashad-khalifa", "label": "Rashad Khalifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tafsir", "label": "tafsir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:huda", "label": "huda (guidance)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/14/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/15", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S15", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 15, "start": 4633, "end": 4798, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Applying Islam from the Quran alone: the fatwa tradition and Hajj outside the usual days", "question_plain": "How do Quranists perform Hajj and apply Islam without the fiqh tradition?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks how the application of Islam unfolds for the guest, whether salah, Hajj or Ramadan: does he accept any of the fatwa that scholars such as Imam Malik have compiled over 1,400 years, or does he start from scratch? The guest says it is all in the Quran: the guidelines for prayer are there and applications may differ a little, everything to do with Hajj is in the Quran, and he and a group of fellow believers in the Quran have performed Hajj for several years, while Ramadan is fully detailed. Asked on what day they perform Hajj, the guest says it is not on the days of the rest of the Muslims, since the Quran speaks of months in the plural, so it is not the ninth of Dhul Hijjah, and they have performed Hajj in other months. Mufti then turns to salah, noting that the Quran mentions it but does not delineate how to pray, and asks how the guest goes about it.", "summary_short": "The guest says the application of Islam is all in the Quran: his group performs Hajj in months other than the usual days, since the Quran speaks of plural months, and Ramadan is fully detailed; he does not rely on the fatwa tradition.", "answer_start": 4686, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "fiqh/hajj-and-umrah", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hajj", "label": "hajj"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/15/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/16", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S16", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 16, "start": 4798, "end": 5178, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "How the guest prays: wudu, a chapter of the Quran, one long prostration, filling the time", "question_plain": "How does a Quranist pray salah?", "summary": "Asked how he knows whether to fold his hands, when to bow and whether to prostrate once or twice, the guest says these are not part of the salah, which is not about a unit count: one stands and recites the Book. Mufti Abu Layth asks for a sixty-second account from beginning to end. The guest says he makes wudu, stands, seeks refuge in God from the devil, opens with chapter one because it is a good dua, which he agrees is his own choice rather than something the Quran prescribes, reads a full chapter of the Quran, then prostrates to his Lord with supplication and glorification; whether he then sits, stands again or finishes depends on the moment between him and his Lord, since God gives the times of the prayers and one fills the time, perhaps with two or three chapters. In congregation, he says, the imam says 'stand for your Lord', recites the verses he wants while the others listen and ponder, then says 'prostrate' and all go into one long prostration, kneeling if he says so; their congregational prayers last thirty minutes to an hour, three times a day, with no fixed number of rak'at, only durations. Mufti repeats the word 'arbitrary' several times, and the guest says he has been cut off mid-sentence and asked no questions of his own, so this is an interrogation rather than a conversation.", "summary_short": "The guest's prayer has no unit count: after wudu he seeks refuge, reads al-Fatiha by his own choice and a full chapter, then prostrates once with supplication, filling the prayer time as the moment dictates; in congregation the imam leads a single long prostration and prayers last up to an hour, three times a day.", "answer_start": 4798, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud", "label": "sujud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rakah", "label": "rak'ah"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/16/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/17", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S17", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 17, "start": 5178, "end": 5469, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's counter: an unbroken living tradition of prayer; the guest asks why two prayers are silent", "question_plain": "How do Muslims know how to pray if the Quran does not spell it out?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is not an interrogation; he is simply trying to understand, as many people are, how the guest applies Islam. The guest pushes back: if these concepts are strange and one must learn salah from the living tradition, why does God mention these things in the Quran, if one just has to go to the mosque and learn from the man there something that does not align with what God says? Mufti states his own position, which he says is that of Muslims generally: there is an unbroken chain of living tradition of over 1,400 years, from father to child, of how to pray, guided by countless books built on Sunnah, hadith and fatwa, so that for any century one picks he could show from the books of the school of Madinah how people prayed as he does. The guest wants to push back on this and complains that his earlier question was never allowed; Mufti promises to come back to it but first wants to finish steelmanning the guest's salah. The guest says this is his personal salah, that people understand the Quran as God allows them, and that where there is a leader the group follows his application. He then asks why, when the Quran says in chapter 17 not to be loud or silent in prayer but to find a middle way, two of Mufti's prayers are silent in congregation, negating the book of God; Mufti says he will answer after closing the salah point.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims know how to pray from an unbroken living tradition of more than 1,400 years, father to child, documented in the books of every century; the guest asks why God describes prayer in the Quran if it must be learned at the mosque, and why two prayers are silent when 17:110 forbids silence.", "answer_start": 5221, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:17:110", "label": "Quran 17:110 (be neither loud nor silent in your prayer, but seek a way between)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/17/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/18", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S18", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 18, "start": 5469, "end": 5814, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Prayer 'in the moment': no fixed structure, hours in prostration, feedback from followers", "question_plain": "Does the Quranist prayer have any set structure?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth summarises the guest's prayer as generally three times a day, with standing, a chosen recitation and a single prostration; the guest says Mufti is trying to structure something he does not have structured, that it changes with how he is working with God in the moment, and that some days he spends four hours prostrating. He says the structure is set by the people of a society by agreed convention, while God gives the ingredients and the reason for prayer, citing the verse that prayer restrains immorality and obscenity and that the remembrance of God is greater; those who are not restrained did not really pray. Mufti clarifies for a viewer that 'arbitrary' does not mean random but put together by oneself. The guest paints a picture of reading a verse that hits close to home, contextualising it to himself rather than to history, weeping at the beauty of God's words and prostrating in the middle of his prayer to glorify and thank him before standing to carry on the chapter; he says people who pray as he teaches report feeling they have prayed for the first time in their lives, and mentions those who mock their prayers. Mufti says nobody is mocking and that the Quran making one cry is beautiful, and confirms that the prayer is set in the moment rather than on the day. The guest says he understands the questioning as an attempt at an undercutting defeater, to show the position as emotional and arbitrary, and adds that one may also pray exactly as the Sunnis do, apart from some words that are not from God.", "summary_short": "The guest's prayer has no set structure: it changes in the moment, may include hours of prostration or prostrating mid-recitation when a verse moves him, and its purpose per 29:45 is to restrain immorality; he says Quranists may also pray like Sunnis, minus words not from God.", "answer_start": 5506, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:29:45", "label": "Quran 29:45 (prayer restrains from immorality and wrong, and the remembrance of Allah is greater)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud", "label": "sujud"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/18/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/19", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S19", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 19, "start": 5814, "end": 6121, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Summing up the guest's prayer: duration not numbers, the meaning of salah, wudu from the Quran", "question_plain": "Why does the guest's prayer have no fixed number of units, and what counts as wudu?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sums up what he has understood: the guest prays in the moment according to his state of faith and commitments, perhaps one rak'ah one day and four another, with the numbers irrelevant, and everyone else prays their own version; the guest agrees that it is about duration. Asked whether a community does not need structure, the guest says that is why congregations have an imam, but alone with one's Lord no structure is needed. Mufti says psychology teaches that habit and routine are essential; the guest asks how he lacks a routine and asks what the word salah literally means, to which Mufti answers 'to pray', with some linking it to following or to dua, and the guest concludes that there is no reason to structure the conversation with God beyond what he has given. He says the emphasis on physical actions over the spiritual concept means many Sunnis who perform every action perfectly and then go out to obscenities did not pray at all; the components of prostration, kneeling and standing are part of the prayer and bring one closer, as in the command to prostrate and draw near, but there is no set order. He adds that wudu is clearly described in the Quran, washing the face and hands and wiping the head and feet, and that the tradition adds things not found there. Mufti then turns to Ramadan.", "summary_short": "The guest's prayer is about duration and connection rather than numbers of units, with an imam supplying structure only in congregation; prostration, kneeling and standing are components without a set order, and wudu is as 5:6 describes it, without the tradition's additions.", "answer_start": 5814, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/purification", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:6", "label": "Quran 5:6 (wash your faces and hands, wipe your heads and your feet)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:96:19", "label": "Quran 96:19 (prostrate and draw near)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/19/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/20", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S20", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 20, "start": 6121, "end": 6386, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "What breaks the fast? 2:187 and whether an inference is 'what God said'", "question_plain": "Does the Quran alone say what breaks the fast?", "summary": "The guest says eating, drinking and sexual intercourse invalidate the fast because those are what one fasts from, as chapter two states. Mufti Abu Layth says he does not disagree with the rules everybody agrees on, but asks where the verse specifically negates these things before nightfall, given that each person is entitled to approach the Quran with his own understanding and the guest allows salah to differ from person to person. The guest distinguishes implicit from explicit verses: the verse makes the night of the fast lawful for approaching one's wives, therefore it is unlawful by day. Mufti says the verse does not say that, and reminds the guest that a moment earlier he had said not to attribute to Allah what he did not say; the guest can say he inferred it, but not that Allah said it. The guest says the negation makes it very clear, since otherwise God would be giving empty language, and that the Quran being sufficient does not remove the need to use one's eyes and reason; Mufti replies that reason is then completing what the verse leaves unsaid, which he names adverse judgment.", "summary_short": "The guest says 2:187 shows that eating, drinking and intercourse break the fast by making them lawful at night; Mufti Abu Layth says the verse does not explicitly forbid them by day, so the Quran-only reader is inferring by reason rather than reporting what God said.", "answer_start": 6121, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting/what-breaks-the-fast", "quran/hermeneutics", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:187", "label": "Quran 2:187 (lawful for you on the night of the fast; eat and drink until the white thread)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sawm", "label": "sawm (fasting)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/20/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/21", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S21", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 21, "start": 6386, "end": 6602, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Back to 'best of creation': inference, a lie against God, and Abraham's precedence", "question_plain": "Can the Quran be used to call the Prophet the best of creation?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls that earlier, when the word 'light' could be understood as the Prophet, the Quran or guidance, the guest said the Quran negates the other readings and that one must not ascribe to Allah what he did not specifically say. The guest says the 'lie' he spoke of was the phrase 'best of mankind', which is a qualifying superlative Mufti cannot prove. Mufti says it is inferred from the Prophet being a mercy for the whole world, a title nobody else has; the guest says being favoured and a mercy cannot make him the best when verses negate it, since the supplications in the Sunnah place Abraham above him and a report in Mufti's own books has the Prophet say that the best of creation is Ibrahim, so the matter is debatable. Mufti replies that the guest could say he disagrees with the inference, but instead claims that no inference is possible at all, and points out that the guest has just inferred from 2:187 what breaks the fast when the verse does not say it.", "summary_short": "The guest says calling the Prophet the best of creation is an unprovable inference contradicted by verses and reports favouring Abraham; Mufti Abu Layth says the guest rejects inference for that title while relying on inference to say what breaks the fast.", "answer_start": 6427, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cfb090d1", "label": "report: the best of creation is ibrahim (as cited by the guest)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:107", "label": "Quran 21:107 (we sent you only as a mercy for the worlds)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/21/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/22", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S22", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 22, "start": 6602, "end": 6937, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Reading 2:187 in full: mafhum al-mukhalafa, a hypothetical Quranist, and verses that need the tradition", "question_plain": "Is the daytime ban on eating and intimacy in Ramadan stated in the Quran or inferred?", "summary": "The guest reads 2:187, that it is lawful on the night of the fast to approach one's wives and to eat and drink until the white thread of dawn, then to complete the fast until night, and asks whether Mufti Abu Layth honestly thinks it allows intercourse by day. Mufti says he is not saying that; the verse does not state the daytime prohibition, so the guest is using reason to complete it. He explains that in usul al-fiqh this is mafhum al-mukhalafa, the adverse judgment, a fifth category of textual indication that some accept and some do not, distinct from the explicit wording and the other indications; he accepts it himself, but it is not the explicit reading. He proposes a hypothetical: another Quranist reads the verse as not prohibiting intercourse by day. The guest says he could, and that everyone will present to God what he built: a five-minute prayer earns a five-minute reward, an incorrect understanding has its consequence and a better one its reward, which is how the Book is a living book. Asked what he would say to such a reader, Mufti says he would call it wrong because he believes in the Islamic tradition, which taught otherwise; the guest says Mufti thereby admits the verse is sufficient and that the problem lies in the reader. Mufti says his argument is that some verses, not all, require explanation by the people of the tradition who studied it, with whom one need not always agree but who set out rules.", "summary_short": "The daytime prohibition of eating and intimacy in Ramadan comes from 2:187 by mafhum al-mukhalafa, an adverse inference Mufti Abu Layth accepts but which is not the explicit reading, so some verses need the tradition's explanation; the guest says each reader is rewarded according to his understanding.", "answer_start": 6643, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/fasting/what-breaks-the-fast", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:187", "label": "Quran 2:187 (lawful for you on the night of the fast; eat and drink until the white thread)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mafhum-al-mukhalafa", "label": "mafhum al-mukhalafa (adverse inference)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:usul-al-fiqh", "label": "usul al-fiqh"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/22/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/23", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S23", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 23, "start": 6937, "end": 7113, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Does reason play a part in understanding revelation, and does the reasoning of earlier scholars count?", "question_plain": "If reason helps us understand the Quran, does the reasoning of earlier scholars matter too?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks a concluding question: if everything in the Quran is already locked, does reason have any play in understanding it? If it does, then some of the Quran depends on explanation, and whose explanation would be better than that of the Prophet, the Companions and the fuqaha, without removing our own participation. The guest says reason and logic were what enabled Ibrahim to break through the programming of polytheism, after which listening let him understand the curriculum he had to follow, so reason is entirely important and is what drives a person's faith, as even followers of tradition cannot accept what makes no sense to them. Mufti says he too champions the voice of reason, as did many of the Salaf such as Imam Malik, but that if reason has an active dynamic with revelation, his own reason alone is not the ultimate reason to have come since revelation, so the reservoir of understanding of those who went before, beginning with the Prophet teaching revelation and the Companions, is valuable as well. The guest asks him to bring the Prophet's explanation of the Quran.", "summary_short": "Both agree reason is essential to understanding revelation; Mufti Abu Layth adds that by the same logic the reasoning of the Prophet, the Companions and the scholars before us is a valuable reservoir, not his reason alone, and the guest demands the Prophet's own explanation.", "answer_start": 6990, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "fiqh/legal-theory", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/23/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/24", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S24", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 24, "start": 7113, "end": 7479, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Al Imran 188: its apparent reading, the Companions' worry and the Prophet's explanation", "question_plain": "Does 3:188 mean everyone who likes praise will be punished?", "summary": "As an example, Mufti Abu Layth reads 3:188: those who rejoice in what they have done and love to be praised for what they have not done should not be thought safe from punishment, for theirs is a painful punishment. He says he takes the generic meaning rather than the occasion of revelation, as the guest would, and that the Companions found the verse challenging and asked the Prophet whether every one of them did not love to be praised for things he had not done; the Prophet, he says, replied that the verse does not mean that, despite its apparent reading, but concerns tyrants and people of great arrogance, since loving praise is general human frailty. He asks how the guest understands the verse. The guest says the verse is telling you the things you should repent from, that the Quran is healing and that God explains his verses in detail; Mufti objects that none of that is in this verse. The guest says the verse describes characteristics a believer should not have, like Qarun being told not to exult in what he was given and the verse telling people not to declare themselves pure, so if you are doing this you stop in order to avoid a painful punishment.", "summary_short": "The apparent reading of 3:188 threatens anyone who loves praise for what he has not done, which troubled the Companions until the Prophet explained it as concerning tyrants and the arrogant; the guest reads it as a warning listing traits a believer must shed.", "answer_start": 7113, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:188", "label": "Quran 3:188 (those who rejoice in what they have done and love to be praised for what they have not done)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:01158813", "label": "report: the companions asked does not each of us love to be praised for what he has not done"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:28:76", "label": "Quran 28:76 (Qarun told not to exult)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:qarun", "label": "Qarun"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:asbab-al-nuzul", "label": "asbab al-nuzul (occasions of revelation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/24/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/25", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S25", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 25, "start": 7479, "end": 7846, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is loving praise a sin? The two conditions of the verse and the verb 'fariha'", "question_plain": "Is it a sin to enjoy being praised?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether being praised for work one has not done is therefore a major sin according to the guest; the guest asks where the word 'major' comes from, says he himself gets scared when praised, and says the Quran gives frightening verses so that one draws closer to God and avoids what he dislikes. Mufti says the question is not what the guest likes but what the verse says, and the guest insists the verse has two conditions, complaining of being cut off and of Mufti thinking he is running away. Mufti restates both parts, those who take joy in what they have done or been given, and those who love praise for what they have not achieved, with the example of a man praised as generous who was not; the guest agrees but says 'fariha' is not a negative verb by default, and when Mufti cites the verse that on that day the believers will rejoice, the guest says that is the day of judgement, whereas here it concerns material wealth. The guest says God is describing people who buy into the worldly life and have both traits, who will have a painful punishment, so a believer who reads it stops seeking such joy and praise. Mufti asks whether it is the guest's belief that anyone who finds joy in his achievements and in being praised will face excruciating punishment from God, and the guest says yes.", "summary_short": "The guest holds that 3:188 describes people buying into the worldly life, exulting in what they have and loving praise for what they have not done, and that such people are punished; pressed, he confirms that anyone with these traits faces punishment.", "answer_start": 7479, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:188", "label": "Quran 3:188 (those who rejoice in what they have done and love to be praised for what they have not done)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:30:4", "label": "Quran 30:4 (on that day the believers will rejoice) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/25/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/26", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S26", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 26, "start": 7846, "end": 8040, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Will most people be punished? Mercy, 'most are mushrikun' and the will of God", "question_plain": "If most people love praise and are punished, how is God the most merciful?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the guest does not find this the opposite of merciful, and where the voice of reason has gone, and whether the people described are not most people. The guest says they are not believers; most people are mushrikun, as the Quran says most do not believe in God without associating others with him, so God has already placed the majority of the world on the back foot, but he is extremely merciful and tolerant, giving them many exits, messengers, the message and warnings, and those who refuse to listen or reason and argue against his verses deserve punishment, as the destroyed peoples did. Mufti says everything is by the will of Allah; the guest replies that God has set the attributes of those he wills to guide, those who listen, turn to him, do not lie and observe his word, and of those he wills not to guide, the liars, the arrogant and those who turn away, so it is not random. Mufti says he did not raise the verse to go into the destiny debate.", "summary_short": "The guest says most people are mushrikun according to the Quran and that God is merciful in giving them messengers and exits, so those who refuse to reason deserve punishment; guidance follows the attributes God has set, not chance.", "answer_start": 7846, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/salvation-and-non-muslims", "belief/free-will-and-destiny", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:106", "label": "Quran 12:106 (most of them do not believe in Allah without associating others with Him)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shirk", "label": "shirk"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/26/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/27", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S27", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 27, "start": 8040, "end": 8331, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why the verse was raised: compassion, the Prophet's tafsir, and whether it was preserved", "question_plain": "Why did Mufti Abu Layth bring up 3:188 against the Quran-only position?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he assumed that one impetus of the Quran-only movement was finding hadith that seemed to lack compassion, yet the guest has been driven to a reading of this verse that punishes most of humanity; he cited the verse because the guest had asked for one where the Prophet's explanation made a difference. The guest says that is not what happened: he asked for the Prophet's book of clarifications and Mufti pointed him back to the Quran. Mufti recounts the chain of the argument, that reason has a role, that by the same logic the reasoning of those before us counts, and that the guest asked for an example, so he brought a verse that he has never known anyone to take on its apparent reading, which a hadith of the Prophet explains differently. The guest again demands the book of the Prophet's explanations, which Mufti says the guest himself holds was not preserved, and accuses him of strawmanning; Mufti says he brought the guest on to steelman, not strawman. He concludes that on the guest's reading, since most human beings love praise, most people will face an excruciating punishment, and the guest replies that this is the verse.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth cited 3:188 because its apparent reading is harsher than the Prophet's explanation, showing that the reasoning of those who came before is valuable; the guest says he asked for the Prophet's book of explanations and was pointed back to the Quran.", "answer_start": 8040, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:188", "label": "Quran 3:188 (those who rejoice in what they have done and love to be praised for what they have not done)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:01158813", "label": "report: the companions asked does not each of us love to be praised for what he has not done"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tafsir", "label": "tafsir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/27/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/28", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S28", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 28, "start": 8331, "end": 8641, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Steelmanning each other's position and the value of 1,400 years of scholarship", "question_plain": "What is Mufti Abu Layth's case for keeping the Islamic scholarly tradition?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the guest for his time, but the guest wants to answer what was presented: he says the methodology of presenting hypotheticals one does not believe in to negate the clarity of the Quran is what most Sunnis do, and both complain about interruptions, the guest calling Mufti disrespectful. The guest then steelmans Mufti's position as he understands it: some verses allow subjective reasoning and may be hard to understand, so one relies on the wisdom and tradition of those before, attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, to solve these issues. Mufti adds that it is the whole 1,400-year tradition, not only what is attributed to the Prophet, and phrases it himself: Islam has a tradition of over 1,400 years of scholarship beginning with the Prophet, his Sunnah and hadith, continuing through the Salaf, which is invaluable and sheds guidance on verses whose understanding appears challenging, and to throw it away is a disservice to Islam. The guest replies that Mufti relies on others' understanding for a few select problems, while the overall message of the Quran has no such issues, and that on most of what was presented they already agreed without hadith or the tradition. Mufti says he disagrees.", "summary_short": "The guest restates Mufti Abu Layth's view as relying on the tradition for a few hard verses and says the Quran's overall message has no such problems; Mufti says the 1,400-year tradition beginning with the Prophet's Sunnah is invaluable and discarding it is a disservice to Islam.", "answer_start": 8557, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "Sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/28/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/29", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S29", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 29, "start": 8641, "end": 9069, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "'Your tradition' or the Islamic tradition? Flaws, who 'we' are, and a first sign-off", "question_plain": "Why do Quranists reject the Islamic tradition as a whole?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the discussion of the application of Islam, beginning with salah, showed that many of the guest's choices were themselves taught through the tradition. The guest says Mufti reads between the lines of his game plan while forbidding him to judge intentions; Mufti says he is describing strategy, not intention. The guest says he can appeal only to the Quran whereas Mufti appeals to 'your tradition', which he says is not disrespect but fact, and Mufti notes that the guest refused to call it the Islamic tradition. The guest says Quranists have found many errors and holes in that tradition and that it does not align with the Quranic narrative, so it is safer not to go through guesswork; Mufti asks who 'we' is if every Quranist has his own interpretation, and the guest says they differ in interpretation but unanimously see the tradition's flaws, since what is part of the religion God would have preserved. He again asks why two of Mufti's prayers are silent, and answers that it is because the man in the mosque said so; Mufti says there is no point being disrespectful and begins to sign off, thanking the guest for a fruitful if heated and passionate discussion. The guest says Mufti's channel and BukhariGate have been a stepping stone for people who end up at his own channel, that his viewers have watched Quranists be interrogated many times while receiving no answers about the tradition, and that Mufti has still not answered his question about the silent prayers.", "summary_short": "The guest says Quranists differ in interpretation but agree that the Islamic tradition is riddled with errors, and that Mufti Abu Layth's BukhariGate work leads people to Quranism; Mufti says the guest's own prayer choices came from the tradition and objects to disrespect towards the people of the mosque.", "answer_start": 8798, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/29/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/30", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S30", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 30, "start": 9069, "end": 9681, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why two prayers are silent: Malik's living tradition and 17:110 as crying out to God", "question_plain": "Why are two of the daily prayers recited silently when 17:110 says not to be silent?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth answers that the silent prayers are the inherited tradition from the Prophet, as Imam Malik said that the people around him were the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Companions who learned from their fathers back to the Prophet, so the Sunnah is embodied in a living tradition that taught how to pray. The guest says this is being told to follow what God revealed and answering that one follows what one's forefathers did. Mufti asks which salah the verse speaks of and has the guest read 17:110: call upon Allah or al-Rahman, and be neither loud nor silent in your prayer but seek a way between. Mufti says the verse begins with calling upon Allah and concerns people crying out, neither screaming in despair nor falling silent as if they had given up, but taking a middle path; the guest asks whether that is his interpretation or the tafsir, since the exegetes say it concerns the prayer and the Prophet's quiet recitation, and Mufti says al-Razi and others give several meanings and that tafsir is the 1,400-year tradition. The guest says that is not from the Prophet, who is supposed to be the clarifier; Mufti replies that no Muslim has ever claimed every verse has a Prophetic tafsir, only select verses, and that this verse is self-explanatory: salah here means calling out, as the guest himself had defined salah as dua, not the five prayers. The guest calls this attributing a lie, and Mufti cites 8:35, where the polytheists' 'prayer' at the House was only whistling and clapping, a kind of chanting and calling out; the guest says the answer does not align with the Quran, and that his own prayer is not silent.", "summary_short": "The silent prayers come from the living tradition Malik described, handed down from the Companions' descendants; Mufti Abu Layth reads 17:110 as being about crying out to Allah, neither in despair nor in silence, rather than the five prayers, citing 8:35 where 'prayer' means whistling and clapping.", "answer_start": 9069, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "quran/tafsir", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:17:110", "label": "Quran 17:110 (be neither loud nor silent in your prayer, but seek a way between)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:8:35", "label": "Quran 8:35 (their prayer at the House was only whistling and clapping)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tafsir", "label": "tafsir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/30/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/31", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S31", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 31, "start": 9681, "end": 9986, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A Muwatta report that the Companions' practice had changed, and Malik as transmitter of living practice", "question_plain": "Does the Muwatta show that the Companions' practice had already changed by Malik's time?", "summary": "The guest asks to close with a quotation from the Muwatta of Imam Malik and reads from its book of prayer: Malik from his paternal uncle Abu Suhayl ibn Malik, from his father, that he recognised nothing nowadays of what he had seen the people, the Companions of the Messenger, doing, except the call to prayer; the guest takes this to show that by Malik's time the religion had already changed. Mufti Abu Layth jokes that the call to prayer is not in the Quran, then asks who 'the people' refers to, and says the tradition's commentaries explain it as referring to certain people in governance; the guest dismisses this as apologetics and asks for Malik's own explanation. Mufti replies that Malik throughout the Muwatta affirms what the people around him practised and that the children took it from their fathers back to the Prophet, that the Mudawwana transmits tens of thousands of questions from Malik with direct chains [?], so one cannot take one report to mean everything was forgotten; the guest says the report says changed, not abandoned. Asked whether he fails in his religion if he does not accept Malik, Mufti says he never said that, and that when asked about the path to Allah, Malik answered that the roads leading to God are many.", "summary_short": "The guest cites a Muwatta report that a Companion's contemporary recognised nothing of the Companions' practice except the call to prayer, as proof the religion had changed; Mufti Abu Layth says the report refers to those in governance and that Malik throughout his works transmits the living practice of Madinah.", "answer_start": 9772, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school/muwatta-and-mudawwana", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5d390fd5", "label": "report: i recognise nothing of what i saw the people doing except the call to prayer (Muwatta, book of prayer)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "'amal ahl al-Madinah (practice of Madinah)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/31/"}, {"id": "ONzjD7XMDhE/s/32", "short_id": "2025-10-18-S32", "recording": "ONzjD7XMDhE", "n": 32, "start": 9986, "end": 10164, "date": "20251018", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Closing: many roads to God, the Quran as common ground, and dialogue over hatred", "question_plain": "How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that some take one road and some another, that all are on a journey to find Allah, and thanks the guest, who apologises if things got heated and says it is passion for the book of God, which both call compelling. The guest says he can see why the tradition matters to Mufti as the preservation of the book, but that the Quran is the only thing that can unite Shia, Sunni and the rest, which Mufti agrees with. Mufti repeats, as he said in his preface, that anyone coming with a different perspective, even an entirely different one, comes from love for this deen, even if each may feel the other's love is misplaced; the only way forward is dialogue, humanising people and finding the bond of humanity, bringing the heat back down to avoid disrespect, and he admits he has been terrible in the past himself, since this life is a learning curve. He blesses the guest and the viewers who watched diligently, mentions that one-to-ones are available through Patreon, and wishes everyone a good evening or an early blessed morning.", "summary_short": "Those with very different views still come from love for the religion, and the only way forward is dialogue and humanising one another; the guest says the Quran is the only thing that can unite Shia and Sunni, and both sign off warmly.", "answer_start": 9986, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-from-god", "label": "Br Muhammad (MFG, MuhammadFromGod channel)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ONzjD7XMDhE/s/32/"}, {"id": "Opl3bF6wzAs/s/1", "short_id": "2018-03-05-S01", "recording": "Opl3bF6wzAs", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 55, "date": "20180305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Tattoos: haram when disfiguring, at most discouraged when small", "question_plain": "Are tattoos haram?", "summary": "In a clip from a weekly live session Mufti Abu Layth recalls having answered about tattoos before. He says most scholars held them to be haram, while some Maliki scholars, whom he names as al-Mazari [?] and al-Qarafi [?], argued they could not be haram but perhaps discouraged. He says that is probably the way he inclines: tattoos are not haram as long as they are not entirely disfiguring. He gives gang face tattoos as an example of disfigurement he would consider haram, while small tattoos seen as enhancement or beautification he does not believe to be haram, at most discouraged.", "summary_short": "Small tattoos for beautification are not haram, at most discouraged. Tattoos that disfigure, such as gang face tattoos, he considers haram.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-mazari", "label": "al-Mazari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qarafi", "label": "al-Qarafi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he inclines to the view that tattoos are not haram as long as they are not entirely disfiguring, small ones being at most discouraged.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "that's probably the way I inclined that I don't feel that they're Haram as long as they're not entirely disfiguring", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/Opl3bF6wzAs/s/1/"}, {"id": "OtQqc3K4HWA/s/1", "short_id": "2019-08-21b-S01", "recording": "OtQqc3K4HWA", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 155, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Opening: al-Yaqoubi's heated public remarks about Mufti Abu Layth, and the title 'His Eminence'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says someone sent him a video in which Shaykh al-Yaqoubi discussed his comments in a heated response, asking how he dared mock Imam al-Nawawi, say what he said about homosexuality and call himself a mufti. He says he was amazed that al-Yaqoubi would speak about him in a public gathering and, joking in Urdu, partially flattered. He notes that the remark about a self-styled mufti from the UK could only refer to him, promises to come to the homosexuality and al-Nawawi points later, and says he has nothing against al-Yaqoubi, before teasing the title 'His Eminence' as a claim to royalty that al-Yaqoubi does not call himself but does not stop others using.", "summary_short": "Al-Yaqoubi criticised Mufti Abu Layth in a public gathering for mocking al-Nawawi, for his remarks on homosexuality and for calling himself a mufti; Mufti says he was surprised and partly flattered, and teases the title 'His Eminence'.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/OtQqc3K4HWA/s/1/"}, {"id": "OtQqc3K4HWA/s/2", "short_id": "2019-08-21b-S02", "recording": "OtQqc3K4HWA", "n": 2, "start": 155, "end": 396, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "His view of al-Yaqoubi: a level-headed pir, knowledgeable, and an unassuming figure in Damascus", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that as pirs and shaykhs go he actually likes Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi: pirs of tariqahs lead what is in essence a cult, but al-Yaqoubi is among the more level-headed and balanced of them. He says al-Yaqoubi is knowledgeable, though he cannot say how knowledgeable since the one or two things he has seen were generic talks about being good rather than discussion of a deep issue, and he would welcome seeing that side. He says al-Yaqoubi comes from a family of scholars and is not a pir handed a silver spoon. He recalls that their paths crossed two decades ago in Damascus, in the late 1990s or early 2000s, when al-Yaqoubi, whose father was esteemed in Syria, was nothing special, taught at an institute and walked about like an ordinary academic, respected but without an entourage or anything resembling a cult, little knowing that the future held great power.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth likes al-Yaqoubi as one of the more level-headed and knowledgeable pirs, from a family of scholars, though he has only seen his generic talks. He recalls meeting him in Damascus two decades ago as an ordinary, respected academic with no entourage.", "answer_start": 155, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:pir", "label": "pir (Sufi shaykh, subcontinent usage)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tariqah", "label": "tariqah (Sufi order)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/OtQqc3K4HWA/s/2/"}, {"id": "OtQqc3K4HWA/s/3", "short_id": "2019-08-21b-S03", "recording": "OtQqc3K4HWA", "n": 3, "start": 396, "end": 633, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How al-Yaqoubi rose to prominence in Britain through the Barelvi community", "question_plain": "How did Shaykh al-Yaqoubi become so influential in the UK?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Yaqoubi had been visiting the UK for years without serious prominence until, around the late 2000s, the people who used to host him parted ways with him amid what he says was claimed to be a scandal he knows nothing about, and he was then fostered by people in the north. In the Midlands and the north, he says, there is a very strong Barelvi community, and al-Yaqoubi discovered in it a potential he had not realised: a level of devotion bordering on hero worship that the American students around him in Damascus had not shown. He recalls that one of al-Yaqoubi's early speeches in Birmingham praised Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanwi [?], the Deobandi scholar, in a Barelvi setting, a mistake he says al-Yaqoubi swiftly learnt never to repeat, after which he acclimatised to Deobandi-Barelvi politics and quietly distanced himself from the Deobandi heritage of the subcontinent because the market lay with the Barelvis. He says the Barelvis absorbed al-Yaqoubi completely and wanted more, and that he rose to great prominence on their back, with doors of wealth, money and power opening as people who run corporations backed him.", "summary_short": "After his earlier UK hosts parted with him, al-Yaqoubi found a devoted following in the Barelvi community of the Midlands and the north, learnt to avoid praising Deobandi scholars, and rose to prominence, wealth and power on its back.", "answer_start": 396, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "history/subcontinent"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ashraf-ali-thanwi", "label": "Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanwi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:pir", "label": "pir (Sufi shaykh, subcontinent usage)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/OtQqc3K4HWA/s/3/"}, {"id": "OtQqc3K4HWA/s/4", "short_id": "2019-08-21b-S04", "recording": "OtQqc3K4HWA", "n": 4, "start": 633, "end": 789, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A better cult than most: pirs, tariqahs and the SKT charity dispute", "question_plain": "Does Mufti Abu Layth regard Sufi tariqahs led by pirs as cults?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Yaqoubi settled comfortably into the role of head of a tariqah, with followers as his murids and the reins in his hands, and that this is the making of the man as he is today. As pirs go, he says, he does not mind him: pir sahibs are usually highly exploitative and abusive, all about power and money, and al-Yaqoubi is a better and good version of them. To Mufti all of these practices are cults, but if one is to join a cult, al-Yaqoubi's is a better and less harmful one. He adds that this does not make it scandal-free, citing what he calls a huge scandal in the last two years around the charity SKT: he says that, allegedly, key devotees of al-Yaqoubi gave him a position of prominence, that he then wished to take over the charity, and that when they removed him he sent messages instructing all his murids to boycott it, accusing it of mishandling funds, though Mufti believes the Charity Commission cleared it. He says this shows the power now wielded: the man he briefly shook hands with in Damascus could never have envisaged threatening a charity worth millions.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says all such tariqahs are in essence cults, though al-Yaqoubi's is a better and less harmful one than the usual exploitative pir. The SKT charity boycott, he says, shows how much power such shaykhs now wield.", "answer_start": 633, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/current-events/britain"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:pir", "label": "pir (Sufi shaykh, subcontinent usage)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tariqah", "label": "tariqah (Sufi order)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:murid", "label": "murid (disciple)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:skt", "label": "SKT (charity)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:charity-commission", "label": "the Charity Commission (England and Wales)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/OtQqc3K4HWA/s/4/"}, {"id": "OtQqc3K4HWA/s/5", "short_id": "2019-08-21b-S05", "recording": "OtQqc3K4HWA", "n": 5, "start": 789, "end": 1019, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'I did not mock Imam al-Nawawi': reading what al-Nawawi assumed about attraction to boys", "question_plain": "Did Mufti Abu Layth mock Imam al-Nawawi?", "summary": "Turning to the charge itself, Mufti Abu Layth says he did not mock Imam al-Nawawi. He doubts al-Yaqoubi watched the whole video, in which case he should not have passed judgment on it, and jokes that either al-Yaqoubi watches his videos or he judged without watching. He explains that in a lengthy YouTube discussion on homosexuality and Islam as a diverse history he read what al-Nawawi had written and said one must acknowledge that al-Nawawi speaks as though it were a given: writing that everybody knows young boys are far prettier than many women, he assumes in his day and age that everyone has a bisexual nature. Mufti compares this to someone saying that anyone left alone with a million pounds would at least consider stealing it, which assumes most people feel greed; al-Nawawi, he says, is saying that anyone left alone with a young boy would be tempted to have sex with him or at least look at him sexually, which Mufti says escalates quickly.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he did not mock al-Nawawi but read his own words, which assume as a given that young boys are prettier than many women and that anyone would be tempted by them. Al-Yaqoubi, he says, should have watched the whole video before judging.", "answer_start": 789, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "dialogue/responses-to-critics", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/OtQqc3K4HWA/s/5/"}, {"id": "OtQqc3K4HWA/s/6", "short_id": "2019-08-21b-S06", "recording": "OtQqc3K4HWA", "n": 6, "start": 1019, "end": 1254, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Al-Nawawi as a voice of his age: pederasty among medieval Muslims and Greeks, and a Saudi refuter", "question_plain": "Why did medieval scholars like al-Nawawi write that boys are prettier than women?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Nawawi was not alone in making this claim; many before him did, because in that age it was seen as a given. He stresses that they were not homosexual in today's sense and that he is not saying al-Nawawi was, but that al-Nawawi acknowledges a fundamental bisexuality he takes to be intrinsic and ubiquitous in human nature. He says there is nothing shocking in this: medieval Muslims and Arabs had a sense of pederasty, as the Greeks had with boys, meaning youths in their mid to late teens; Socrates, Plato and Aristotle would all have had such relationships, and he quotes a saying attributed to a contemporary of Socrates [?] about seducing men from their wives as a boy and wives from their men as a man, mentioning also Thrasymachus [?], who held that might is right. Al-Nawawi, he says, was simply articulating the sentiment of his age, and reporting what is written in his book is not mockery. He adds that a Saudi Wahhabi made an hour-long live video calling him a deviant, read out al-Nawawi's line that boys are prettier than many women and answered that this is because many women are ugly; Mufti ridicules the critic's appearance and says the answer amounts to saying one is not gay, there are just many attractive boys around.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Nawawi voiced a sentiment of his age, shared by many medieval Muslims and by the Greeks, in which attraction to adolescent boys was assumed; reporting this is not mockery. A Saudi critic's reply that many women are ugly, he says, proves the point.", "answer_start": 1019, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "history/scholars-and-imams", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:socrates", "label": "Socrates"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aristotle", "label": "Aristotle"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:thrasymachus", "label": "Thrasymachus [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Imam al-Nawawi was articulating the sentiment of his age, in which, as among the ancient Greeks, attraction to adolescent boys was taken as a given, and that reporting this from his book is not mockery.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the medieval Muslims and the medieval Arabs and the medieval kind of times people had a what a kind of sense of there was pederasty okay which is like what the Greeks had with boys", "start": 1066}}, "url": "/r/OtQqc3K4HWA/s/6/"}, {"id": "OtQqc3K4HWA/s/7", "short_id": "2019-08-21b-S07", "recording": "OtQqc3K4HWA", "n": 7, "start": 1254, "end": 1489, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The 'most authentic copy on earth': al-Yaqoubi's Bukhari edition, the Sultaniyya and business", "question_plain": "Is al-Yaqoubi's edition of Sahih al-Bukhari really the most authentic copy on earth?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Yaqoubi has released an edition of Sahih al-Bukhari advertised as the most authentic copy on earth, which he picked up on because he and Bukhari 'have a thing'. He says al-Yaqoubi's claim that his copy is based on the Sultaniyya is empty, since every copy of Bukhari is based on the Sultaniyya, and that al-Yaqoubi has since backtracked to say that his copy is based on the Sultaniyya which is the most authentic copy, meaning the overwhelming majority of copies on earth are the most authentic. He compares this to calling an athlete the best and, when others are shown to outperform him, answering that the athlete is human and humans are the best, and jokes about it in broken English. He says such things go on because this is really just business, which he says he loves and has nothing against, quoting the pirate in Captain Phillips who says he is a businessman; al-Yaqoubi's journey, like many before him, has gone from the word to the corpus of followers, from which it is a tiny step to corporation, and he wishes him more money. He adds, however, that using such tactics is problematic.", "summary_short": "No special claim can rest on being based on the Sultaniyya, Mufti Abu Layth says, since every copy of Bukhari is. He sees the advertising as business, which he does not mind in itself, but calls the tactics problematic.", "answer_start": 1254, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-sultaniyya", "label": "the Sultaniyya edition of Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/OtQqc3K4HWA/s/7/"}, {"id": "OtQqc3K4HWA/s/8", "short_id": "2019-08-21b-S08", "recording": "OtQqc3K4HWA", "n": 8, "start": 1489, "end": 1624, "date": "20190821", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "An invitation to a civil discussion on whether Sahih al-Bukhari can be doubted", "question_plain": "Would Mufti Abu Layth debate Shaykh al-Yaqoubi on Sahih al-Bukhari?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he would love to have a discussion with Shaykh al-Yaqoubi on Sahih al-Bukhari, having watched a clip of him saying it is impossible to doubt it. He quotes an Urdu couplet about not being Mount Sinai that crumbles at a glimpse, inviting the other party to come face to face whenever he wishes, and says the claim that Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be doubted is not a nice one and makes things complicated. If al-Yaqoubi watches this and is interested, he says, the discussion would be respectful and civil and the propriety due to His Eminence would be maintained, though he will be himself, but he expects it will never happen. He then moves on.", "summary_short": "Yes: he invites al-Yaqoubi to a civil, respectful discussion because he rejects the claim that Sahih al-Bukhari is impossible to doubt. He expects it will never happen.", "answer_start": 1489, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/OtQqc3K4HWA/s/8/"}, {"id": "P4QG7Z3O8k4/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-26-S01", "recording": "P4QG7Z3O8k4", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 210, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Eating meat that is not dhabiha: the purpose of halal slaughter today", "question_plain": "Is it haram to eat meat that is not halal-slaughtered, like a non-halal burger?", "summary": "The clip opens on Mufti Abu Layth's answer to a question about eating meat that is not dhabiha, such as non-halal burgers. He says that according to the Quran all chicken and beef is in principle halal, and refers to a detailed clip he has made on dhabiha, where he argued that its primary purpose was to demarcate Muslims from those who offered their slaughter to pagan gods, a practice that has largely disappeared today, while its secondary purpose, identity, remains. He says he supports and advocates halal meat because of the identity factor, but that if a person ate other meat, for example while travelling, he does not feel it would be haram, since the primary factor has disappeared. A follow-up from the chat asks whether he really said this, and he repeats that he supports, endorses and eats halal meat at home, that the detailed clip does the topic more justice, and that he is only saying the primary reason has lapsed.", "summary_short": "Eating meat that is not dhabiha is not haram in Mufti Abu Layth's view, because its original purpose of separating Muslims from pagan sacrifice has lapsed. He still supports and advocates halal meat for its identity value and eats it himself.", "answer_start": 2, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/food"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dhabiha", "label": "dhabiha (ritual slaughter)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:halal", "label": "halal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that eating meat that is not dhabiha is not haram today, because the primary purpose of halal slaughter, distinguishing Muslims from those who offered meat to pagan gods, has lapsed, while he still supports and advocates halal meat for its remaining identity value.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "if a person ate it i i don't feel it would be haram but i feel because of the identity factor we should stick to halal meat", "start": 77}}, "url": "/r/P4QG7Z3O8k4/s/1/"}, {"id": "PhrSS-NiR30/s/1", "short_id": "2020-12-06-S01", "recording": "PhrSS-NiR30", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 397, "date": "20201206", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa do not transmit from Imam Jafar al-Sadiq", "question_plain": "Why don't Sunni imams like Malik and Abu Hanifa transmit from Imam Jafar al-Sadiq?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth is asked about Imam Jafar al-Sadiq and his relationship with Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik. He offers what he calls his own theory: that Imam Jafar, Muhammad al-Baqir, Zayn al-Abidin and the other early imams of the Ahl al-Bayt were, for the most part if not in every detail, as the Shia describe them. He observes that the imams up to Jafar al-Sadiq are highly praised and well known in Sunni sources, as well known as Sunni scholars such as Sufyan al-Thawri, while the imams after him are still accepted by Sunni scholars but little mentioned and not well known among ordinary people. He says Sunni orthodoxy holds that these imams were nothing like the Shia describe, denying that they believed in the imam structure or in a select transmission within the family, and calls the Shia account propaganda, whereas he himself thinks that, even if the Shia claims are not wholly accurate, the imams were for the most part as the Shia say rather than Sunni. In his view this is why imams of the Sunni salaf such as Malik and Abu Hanifa, although on very good and respectful terms with them, do not transmit anything from them: it would have caused a political storm, since society would have known that these figures held those views. He adds that the differences then came without the hatred of today, that imams like Jafar were not fanatics or extremists and taught, mingled and were close to Malik and Abu Hanifa, and that neither side would have regarded the other as disbelievers or traitors. He says Sunnis will not accept this because it extends legitimacy to some Shia claims, but that in his perspective it does not make the Shia theological claims more authentic or change the arguments, and that covering something up does not destroy the beliefs the Shia built.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth's theory is that the early imams of the Ahl al-Bayt were for the most part as the Shia describe them, so Malik and Abu Hanifa, though respectful of them, did not transmit from them because it would have caused a political storm. He adds that this does not make the Shia theological claims more authentic.", "answer_start": 2, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/collections-and-compilation", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jafar-al-sadiq", "label": "Imam Jafar al-Sadiq"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-baqir", "label": "Imam Muhammad al-Baqir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zayn-al-abidin", "label": "Ali Zayn al-Abidin"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-bayt", "label": "Ahl al-Bayt"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:twelve-imams", "label": "the twelve imams"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ismaili", "label": "Ismaili"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth offers as his own theory that the early imams of the Ahl al-Bayt up to Jafar al-Sadiq were for the most part as the Shia describe them rather than Sunni, and that Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa, though on good terms with them, did not transmit from them because their views would have caused a political storm, while adding that this does not in his view make the Shia theological claims more authentic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "that's in my view the reason why imam malik doesn't transmit views from uh imam jaffar it's the reason why uh imam abu hanifa doesn't transmit from them", "start": 260}}, "url": "/r/PhrSS-NiR30/s/1/"}, {"id": "PhrSS-NiR30/s/2", "short_id": "2020-12-06-S02", "recording": "PhrSS-NiR30", "n": 2, "start": 397, "end": 526, "date": "20201206", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "But Malik and Abu Hanifa were Imam Jafar's students: what did they learn from him?", "question_plain": "Did Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa study under Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, and what did they learn from him?", "summary": "A comment read out at the end of the previous answer objects that Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa were students of Imam Jafar. Mufti Abu Layth answers that this is exactly his point: they transmit nothing from him, so the question is what they learned from him, and they do not tell us. He reports the view that they took 'spirituality' from him and says he finds that a blag: enjoying someone's company is fine, but taking spirituality from someone means nothing definite. His own view is that they were close to the imams and attended their circles, where the teaching was generally about Islam, but that the bulk of those imams' da'wah would to a great part have reflected the Shia da'wah; scholars such as Malik, not being Shia, would attend for the overall content and the company but would not teach it onward because they did not agree with it, which is why nothing is really transmitted from these imams into the broader Sunni circle. He concludes that the Sunni explanation that they learned only a spirituality that cannot be professed is absurd, and that the alternative explanation is that the teaching was Shia material.", "summary_short": "Malik and Abu Hanifa kept Imam Jafar's company and attended his circles but transmitted nothing from him, which Mufti Abu Layth explains by their disagreement with teaching that largely reflected the Shia da'wah. He calls the claim that they took only 'spirituality' from him absurd.", "answer_start": 397, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/collections-and-compilation", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jafar-al-sadiq", "label": "Imam Jafar al-Sadiq"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-bayt", "label": "Ahl al-Bayt"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dawah", "label": "dawah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth thinks Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa attended Imam Jafar's circles and kept his company but transmitted nothing from him to Sunni circles because the bulk of his teaching reflected the Shia da'wah, which they did not agree with, and he calls the explanation that they took only 'spirituality' from him absurd.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "i think that they did used to attend their circles where they taught generally about islam but i feel the bulk of the da'wah of those imams of albeit would reflect to a great part the shia dawa", "start": 452}}, "url": "/r/PhrSS-NiR30/s/2/"}, {"id": "PiFqxkWyrwg/s/1", "short_id": "2018-04-15b-S01", "recording": "PiFqxkWyrwg", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 307, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What magic means: fantasy magic versus illusion, and the Arabic sihr", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Opening the Q&A after Shaykh Akram Nadwi's talk, Mufti Abu Layth clarifies that magic in the sense of charm or wonder, or even trickery and illusion, is not the issue; the issue is fantasy magic, such as turning a toad into a prince, which everyone finds absurd until somebody stamps religion on it. He says the scholars, including Ibn Ashur, accept that the Quran's general usage of magic refers to the non-fantasy kind, though some earlier scholars, relying on certain reports, believed in transforming substances, and some still do. He says the Arabs had a concept but not a culture of magic, associating it with the ancients, the Babylonians and the Jews, and used sihr for anything inexplicable, such as barren land that should be fertile or a goat that gives no milk.", "summary_short": "The question is not illusion or trickery but 'fantasy magic' that changes reality, which he calls absurd; the Arabs used sihr for anything inexplicable.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sihr", "label": "sihr (magic)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the issue is fantasy magic, which people find absurd until somebody stamps religion on it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is Magic which we all consider to be absurd up until the point somebody stamps religion on it and then all of a sudden it becomes okay", "start": 75}}, "url": "/r/PiFqxkWyrwg/s/1/"}, {"id": "PiFqxkWyrwg/s/2", "short_id": "2018-04-15b-S02", "recording": "PiFqxkWyrwg", "n": 2, "start": 307, "end": 613, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Three kinds of what was called magic: mind control, potions and illusion", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says commentators such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi listed about eight categories of magic, which Ibn Ashur summarised into three, as did a leading Maliki scholar he names as Mustafa Bin Hamza [?]. The first is a kind of mind control, including hypnosis. The second is potions and naturally found chemicals, for which he gives the examples of lithium as a mood stabiliser and of aphrodisiac or oxytocin-inducing plants, recalling love-spell advertisements in Karachi, and says we now have explanations of how they work. The third is illusion and trickery as performed by stage illusionists such as Derren Brown, who admit it is a trick.", "summary_short": "What people called magic fell into three kinds: mind control and hypnosis, chemical potions, and stage illusion, all of which have natural explanations.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mustafa-bin-hamza", "label": "Mustafa Bin Hamza [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:derren-brown", "label": "Derren Brown"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that today we have explanations of how the potions once seen as magic actually work.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "remember they may believe that it's blessing but today we've actually got explanations of how they work", "start": 574}}, "url": "/r/PiFqxkWyrwg/s/2/"}, {"id": "PiFqxkWyrwg/s/3", "short_id": "2018-04-15b-S03", "recording": "PiFqxkWyrwg", "n": 3, "start": 613, "end": 923, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Magic in the Quran: Musa and Pharaoh's magicians, an illusion", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the claim of any fantasy magic is absurd, and that the Quran's verses on magic mostly concern Musa, in whose time magic was the thing of the age. He cites Musa calling their work only the plot of a magician, the showdown set for the forenoon, which he links to commentators' explanation that quicksilver reacts to sunlight, and the verses saying the ropes only seemed to move and that they bewitched the eyes of the people. He notes that Musa felt a slight fear, which, citing al-Razi transmitting from Hasan al-Basri, he calls a natural fear like being startled by a creaking floorboard, while the magic remained an illusion. He says scholars including, reportedly, Abu Hanifa, and later Ibn Ashur and the shaykhs of al-Azhar such as al-Maraghi [?] and Shaltut [?], held that it was only illusion.", "summary_short": "In the Quran the magic of Pharaoh's magicians was only an illusion; Musa's fear was a natural human reaction, not proof that the magic was real.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firawn", "label": "Pharaoh (Fir'awn)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:20:66", "label": "Quran 20:66 (their ropes seemed to him to move by their magic; verse not numbered by him)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:7:116", "label": "Quran 7:116 (they bewitched the eyes of the people; verse not numbered by him)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:20:67", "label": "Quran 20:67 (Musa sensed fear within himself; verse not numbered by him)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hasan-al-basri", "label": "Hasan al-Basri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mustafa-al-maraghi", "label": "Mustafa al-Maraghi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mahmud-shaltut", "label": "Mahmud Shaltut [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-azhar", "label": "al-Azhar"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the claim of any fantasy magic is absolutely absurd.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so this is what magic in essence was and how it was now the claim for any fantasy magic is absolutely absurd", "start": 613}}, "url": "/r/PiFqxkWyrwg/s/3/"}, {"id": "PiFqxkWyrwg/s/4", "short_id": "2018-04-15b-S04", "recording": "PiFqxkWyrwg", "n": 4, "start": 923, "end": 1503, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Was magic done on the Prophet? Why he rejects the report", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Arabs believed the Jews had a culture of magic, and that after the Hijrah a rumour spread that the Jews had bewitched the Muslims so that no boy would be born to them, until Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr [?] was born, which he says mattered because the belief threatened tawhid. He then turns to the report in al-Bukhari and Muslim that a man bewitched the Prophet for forty days or six months with a comb and hair placed in a well, during which he is described as forgetful and imagining marital relations he had not had, and he calls this an affront to the honour of the Prophet circulated by Muslims themselves. He cites the Quran's rebuke of those who said 'you follow only a bewitched man', rejects the claim that he was protected only in religious matters, comparing it to papal infallibility, and distinguishes physical harm such as the injury at Uhud from unseen harm the Prophet would not even know about. Echoing Shaykh Akram, he says the hadith clashes with the Quran and is unacceptable even though it is in al-Bukhari, and he asks how testimony and confessions could be relied on if the Prophet could believe he had done something he had not.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects the report that the Prophet was bewitched, even though it is in al-Bukhari, as an insult to the Prophet that clashes with the Quran.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:hijrah", "label": "the Hijrah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawhid", "label": "tawhid"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e92689a3", "label": "report: magic was done on the prophet and he became impotent"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:17:47", "label": "Quran 17:47 (you follow only a bewitched man; also 25:8; verse not numbered by him) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:67", "label": "Quran 5:67 (Allah will protect you from the people; verse not numbered by him)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-uhud", "label": "the battle of Uhud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he considers the reports of magic being done on the Prophet an affront to the honour of the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "like this to this extent I consider this an affront to the honour of the Prophet Muhammad", "start": 1156}}, "url": "/r/PiFqxkWyrwg/s/4/"}, {"id": "PiFqxkWyrwg/s/5", "short_id": "2018-04-15b-S05", "recording": "PiFqxkWyrwg", "n": 5, "start": 1503, "end": 1812, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Where the story came from: polemic, the poisoning report and the ajwa dates", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes the event is definitely misconstrued, and suggests another ingredient may have been a rumour spread by some Jews of the time, amid clashes with tribes such as the Banu Nadir and at Khaybar [?], to claim a Jewish man had affected the Prophet when Musa was unaffected by the best magicians; he says this is not an anti-Jewish point. He says he does not accept in its entirety the story, as it is described, of the Prophet being poisoned by a Jewish woman, nor the claim that he died of it. He suggests that Imam Malik, by presenting in the Muwatta only the hadith that the magician should be punished, may be raising an indirect question about why the man in the story was never punished. He points to the contradiction with the hadith that whoever eats seven ajwa dates is harmed by neither poison nor magic, and mentions Shaykh Akram's point about a chain through Hisham [?] from his father from Aisha, noting reports, transmitted by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, that Imam Malik disliked Hisham's later transmissions.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth believes the story is misconstrued, possibly fed by polemical rumours of the time, and notes it contradicts the hadith that ajwa dates protect from magic.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:banu-nadir", "label": "Banu Nadir [?]"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-khaybar", "label": "Khaybar [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0607111e", "label": "report: whoever eats such dates will not be harmed by poison or magic"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hisham-ibn-urwa", "label": "Hisham ibn Urwa [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khatib-al-baghdadi", "label": "al-Khatib al-Baghdadi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes the story of magic being done on the Prophet is definitely misconstrued.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "one understanding you've heard is that this is a misconstrued event I believe it definitely is misconstrued", "start": 1503}}, "url": "/r/PiFqxkWyrwg/s/5/"}, {"id": "PiFqxkWyrwg/s/6", "short_id": "2018-04-15b-S06", "recording": "PiFqxkWyrwg", "n": 6, "start": 1812, "end": 2424, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why great scholars accepted it: sectarian turf war with the Mu'tazila", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth addresses the objection that great scholars of the past did not reach this view, explaining through orthodoxy: the Prophet and the companions had no list of beliefs beyond belief in Allah, his messengers, books and the afterlife, Imam Malik's Mudawwana has no creed, and al-Fiqh al-Akbar [?] attributed to Abu Hanifa is largely the work of later scholars, while the main body was identified by its dedication to hadith. He says the Mu'tazila, whom he calls extremists for holding that a major sinner is in a state between belief and disbelief, mocked belief in magic, and that the main body retrospectively reinforced the narrative that the Prophet had magic done on him as part of a theological turf war. He gives parallels: raf' al-yadayn opposed in the Indian subcontinent because Salafis did it; triple talaq in one sitting counting as one, a minority view found in every school but treated harshly once Salafis adopted it, leading to the halala industry; and mut'ah opposed in sectarian terms because of the Shia. He says the same happened with magic and jinn possession because the Mu'tazila held a stance.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that belief in magic, even on the Prophet, hardened as a sectarian reaction against the Mu'tazila, just as other issues hardened against Salafis or Shia.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-fiqh-al-akbar", "label": "al-Fiqh al-Akbar [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:raf-al-yadayn", "label": "raf' al-yadayn (raising the hands in prayer)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "triple talaq"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:halala", "label": "halala"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the narrative that the Prophet had magic done on him was retrospectively reinforced to support a sectarian turf war with the Mu'tazila.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "even the Prophet had magic done unto him you see this was retrospectively reinforced as a narrative to support the sectarian turf war that was going on", "start": 2115}}, "url": "/r/PiFqxkWyrwg/s/6/"}, {"id": "PiFqxkWyrwg/s/7", "short_id": "2018-04-15b-S07", "recording": "PiFqxkWyrwg", "n": 7, "start": 2424, "end": 2618, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Harut and Marut, and how magic 'splits' people", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Harut and Marut in the Quran are generally understood as two angels, but according to the reading 'two kings', attributed to Ibn Abbas [?], many commentators say they were two very pious men in Babylon whom people perceived as angels, and the story of angels sent down who became stars is nonsense. He says they taught skills from the categories he described, such as hypnosis and chemical inducement, while warning people not to be tempted, and quotes Clarke's third law that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. He says the verse does not say how people split husband and wife, which could be through conspiracy, backbiting or embedded suggestion like that used to help people quit smoking, and that the doll-and-needles understanding of magic has not come from the Quran and Sunnah.", "summary_short": "Harut and Marut may have been two pious men taken for angels who taught skills that looked like magic; the doll-and-needles idea of magic is not from the Quran or Sunnah.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:102", "label": "Quran 2:102 (Harut and Marut in Babylon; verse not numbered by him)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:arthur-c-clarke", "label": "Arthur C. Clarke"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says nothing like the doll-and-needles understanding of magic has come from the Quran and Sunnah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is our understanding of magic nothing like that has come from the Koran asana", "start": 2578}}, "url": "/r/PiFqxkWyrwg/s/7/"}, {"id": "PiFqxkWyrwg/s/8", "short_id": "2018-04-15b-S08", "recording": "PiFqxkWyrwg", "n": 8, "start": 2618, "end": 2775, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The seven ajwa dates hadith as hyperbole", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says most commentators did not take literally the hadith in Sahih Muslim that seven ajwa dates protect from poison and magic: Qadi Iyad and others said it may have been specific to Madinah, and al-Mazari [?] and al-Nawawi in their commentaries said they did not know its reason. He says in his understanding it was hyperbole emphasising the benefit of dates, like saying a phone is so good it will make you forget everything, and cites Ibn Khaldun [?] and similar scholars on the Prophet's medicine reflecting his environment. He compares the hadith that a house without dates is a starving house, noting that an Andalusian commentator said that in al-Andalus they would say a house without figs.", "summary_short": "The hadith that ajwa dates protect from poison and magic is hyperbole praising dates; classical commentators did not take it literally either.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0607111e", "label": "report: whoever eats such dates will not be harmed by poison or magic"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-mazari", "label": "al-Mazari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-khaldun", "label": "Ibn Khaldun [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:bbe9b820", "label": "report: bayt la tamr fihi jiyaa ahluhu"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-andalus", "label": "al-Andalus"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding the hadith of the seven dates was hyperbole emphasising the benefits of dates.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "in my understanding this hadith was hyperbole it was it was just hyperbolic he was emphasizing the benefits of date of date", "start": 2656}}, "url": "/r/PiFqxkWyrwg/s/8/"}, {"id": "PiFqxkWyrwg/s/9", "short_id": "2018-04-15b-S09", "recording": "PiFqxkWyrwg", "n": 9, "start": 2775, "end": 3081, "date": "20180415", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Exploitation by 'babas', and the solution: proper help and mental health", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says this matters because of the ruthless abuse and exploitation carried out under this banner, mentioning a YouTube video of a 'baba' in the Midlands who rubs oil from his foot on women and charges large sums, and saying desperate people want miracle solutions, like a drowning man clutching at a straw. He recounts being taken to such a baba when ill with jaundice while studying in Pakistan and finding he offered nothing of use. He says the solution is first to seek proper help, from one's social network or the relevant professional for health, economic or relationship problems, joking that jinn masters could simply add zeros to bank accounts or raise Pakistan's GDP. Second, he says communities must tackle the social problems and cultural practices causing psychological harm and embrace mental health rather than shun it.", "summary_short": "Magic healers exploit desperate people; seek real help from your network or professionals, and communities should take mental health seriously.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "wellbeing/depression-and-anxiety"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the solution is to seek proper help from one's social network or the relevant professional.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the solution is to seek proper two things want to seek proper help from either your social network or from if it's a health issue", "start": 2931}}, "url": "/r/PiFqxkWyrwg/s/9/"}, {"id": "PkP3itoSKJc/s/1", "short_id": "2018-04-20-S01", "recording": "PkP3itoSKJc", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 376, "date": "20180420", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did the staff of Musa really become a snake?", "question_plain": "Did Musa's staff really turn into a snake?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up a question people have put to him about why the staff of Musa became a snake when he threw it. Mufti notes that the throwing of the staff occurs in three places in the Quran, once saying it was a snake and elsewhere that it moved as though it were a snake, and says that in his understanding it was not an actual snake. He explains that magic was the elite craft of Pharaoh's time and cites commentators who say the magicians filled their sticks with substances such as quicksilver (mercury) that reacted to the heat of the sun, which is why they set the contest for the forenoon. He says the people were terrified because they thought the sticks were real snakes, that Musa was taught by Allah how the trick was done, and that he believes Musa came across the same substance, before describing Musa's hand coming out shining without harm.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth holds the staff was described as moving as though it were a snake, while the magicians' sticks moved by a chemical trick.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firawn", "label": "Pharaoh (Fir'awn)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:20:59", "label": "Quran 20:59 (the meeting at forenoon on the day of the festival)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:20:66", "label": "Quran 20:66 (their ropes and sticks seemed to him to move)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:7:116", "label": "Quran 7:116 (they bewitched the eyes of the people and terrified them)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sihr", "label": "sihr (magic)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding the staff of Musa was not an actual snake but was described as though it were one.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "now in my understanding that it was not a snake okay when he threw the thing it was not a snake but it was described as though it was a snake", "start": 77}}, "url": "/r/PkP3itoSKJc/s/1/"}, {"id": "PkP3itoSKJc/s/2", "short_id": "2018-04-20-S02", "recording": "PkP3itoSKJc", "n": 2, "start": 376, "end": 812, "date": "20180420", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Musa's staff exposed the magicians' trick: Ibn Arabi's reading", "question_plain": "Did Musa beat Pharaoh's magicians with stronger magic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites the Sufi scholar Ibn Arabi [?], who reads the staff 'swallowing what they faked' as either eating their sticks or exposing their lie. Mufti relates Ibn Arabi's point that if Musa's snake had merely outperformed theirs, it would only reinforce superstition, since anyone with stronger magic could later outdo him. He says that in the eyes of the spectators such a contest would teach that might is right, an argument he links to Thrasymachus in the time of Socrates, whereas exposing the trick showed the magicians had no power from their gods. He says the second reading sits better with his understanding, calls the other one naive and superficial while saying people need not believe what he says, and closes with Imam Malik's reply to a debate challenge: if someone later beats us both, do we follow him, since truth ought to have consistency.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth prefers the reading that Musa's staff exposed the magicians' trickery, since out-doing their magic would only teach that might is right.", "answer_start": 376, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-arabi", "label": "Ibn Arabi (Muhyi al-Din) [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:thrasymachus", "label": "Thrasymachus"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:socrates", "label": "Socrates"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:might-is-right", "label": "might is right (the law of Thrasymachus), rejected"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Musa exposing the magicians' trickery, rather than outperforming their magic, sits better with his understanding.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "liars they have no connections with the gods that they speak of that they gods do not help them it is a lie that to me sits more right with my understanding", "start": 679}}, "url": "/r/PkP3itoSKJc/s/2/"}, {"id": "QAXeuR-UXvo/s/1", "short_id": "2021-02-14-S01", "recording": "QAXeuR-UXvo", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 493, "date": "20210214", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A caller's case for the return of Jesus: what would he return to do?", "question_plain": "Do Muslims have to believe that Jesus will come back?", "summary": "A caller who had sent Mufti Abu Layth quotes from scholars presses him on the return of Jesus. Mufti asks whether the caller holds it to be a fundamental belief, and the caller says not one whose denial takes a person out of Islam. Mufti repeatedly asks what the purpose of the return would be; the caller says it is to fix what the Christians have done, and Mufti asks why God would then leave Christians misguided for two thousand years. Mufti says the hadith has Jesus descend as a judge who gives people the choice of Islam or the sword, which he says comes from the Bible and Christian belief and was mixed in through Abu Hurayra and others, and that the Quran says there is no compulsion to embrace Islam. Mufti says such callers come underprepared and run away, and the exchange breaks off with phone trouble.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects the hadith of Jesus returning as a judge who offers Islam or the sword, saying it came from Christian belief and clashes with the Quran's no compulsion in religion.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/false-and-fabricated", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c3087e67", "label": "report: when jesus descends the people are offered islam or the sword"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:256", "label": "Quran 2:256 (no compulsion in religion), paraphrased"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal (the Antichrist)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith of Jesus descending as a judge on earth was made up from Christian belief taken from the Bible.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "which is the verse out of the bible by the way and it's christian belief and that's how this hadith was made up through abu hurairah and through those people who mixed it up", "start": 345}}, "url": "/r/QAXeuR-UXvo/s/1/"}, {"id": "QAXeuR-UXvo/s/2", "short_id": "2021-02-14-S02", "recording": "QAXeuR-UXvo", "n": 2, "start": 493, "end": 830, "date": "20210214", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Blind following in belief, and whether a Maliki majority is ijma'", "question_plain": "Can I blindly follow scholars in matters of belief?", "summary": "In a further exchange, Mufti Abu Layth asks the caller why he treats the Maliki scholars as an authority when they also held that taking slaves was fine, and says Muslims do not worship scholars. When the caller says the major Maliki scholars believed in the return of Jesus, Mufti asks whether blind following (taqlid) is allowed in belief, and says it is forbidden by the consensus of the scholars to believe something merely because someone said it. He argues that an agreement of the Maliki school alone carries no weight, since ijma' is the consensus of the whole ummah, and asks whether truth in Islam is established by a democratic vote. Mufti returns to the hadith of Jesus offering Islam or the sword, says it clashes with the Quran, and remarks that the caller runs off when the evidence is discussed.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says blind following in belief is forbidden by scholarly consensus, and the majority of one school is not ijma'.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:no-taqlid-in-creed", "label": "no taqlid in matters of creed"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqlid", "label": "taqlid (blind following)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c3087e67", "label": "report: when jesus descends the people are offered islam or the sword"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is forbidden, by the consensus of the scholars, to blindly follow others in matters of belief.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is adida 101 right it's not even one of you it is haram by isma of ulama of islam to blindly follow in just believing in one god", "start": 569}}, "url": "/r/QAXeuR-UXvo/s/2/"}, {"id": "QBvWBHOIzW4/s/1", "short_id": "2016-12-21-S01", "recording": "QBvWBHOIzW4", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 237, "date": "20161221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Opening reflection on everyday miracles and an introduction of Mufti Abu Layth", "question_plain": null, "summary": "An introducer opens the gathering, recalling a saying that walking on water, in the air or on fire is no miracle but walking on the earth is, that every step, breath and heartbeat is a miracle, and that the greatest is belonging to the ummah of Muhammad. Likening blessings to aid packages dropped to the displaced, the introducer says today's package has come via Birmingham and introduces Mufti Abu Layth, who confirms in passing that he studied in Damascus first. According to the introduction, Mufti studied in Damascus for about a year and a half, memorised the Quran in Islamabad, completed the Dars-i Nizami in Karachi and a two-year mufti course, then a master's, and is studying for a degree in psychology.", "summary_short": "An introducer reflects on everyday life as a miracle and introduces Mufti Abu Layth's studies in Damascus, Islamabad and Karachi.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["guest", "host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hifz", "label": "hifz"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mufti", "label": "mufti"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/QBvWBHOIzW4/s/1/"}, {"id": "QBvWBHOIzW4/s/2", "short_id": "2016-12-21-S02", "recording": "QBvWBHOIzW4", "n": 2, "start": 237, "end": 492, "date": "20161221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Gatherings of remembrance: even the passer-by who sits is not deprived", "question_plain": "What is the reward of sitting in a gathering of remembrance?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks his hosts and begins with the hadith that no people gather in a house to remember Allah, recite His words and study them together except that tranquillity descends on them, the angels surround them, mercy covers them and Allah mentions them in a greater gathering. He adds what he calls the significant ending of a related hadith: when the angels report on a gathering and Allah forgives them all, some angels mention a man who was not meant to be there and just happened to sit down, and Allah says that whoever sits with such people will never lose out.", "summary_short": "Gatherings for remembering Allah bring tranquillity, mercy and forgiveness, even for someone who only happened to sit with them.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c26c7d53", "label": "report: no people gather in a house of the houses of allah reciting the book of allah and studying it among themselves except that tranquillity descends upon them"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d4f7745a", "label": "report: they are the people whose companion is not deprived"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhikr", "label": "dhikr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/QBvWBHOIzW4/s/2/"}, {"id": "QBvWBHOIzW4/s/3", "short_id": "2016-12-21-S03", "recording": "QBvWBHOIzW4", "n": 3, "start": 492, "end": 725, "date": "20161221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Defining times: trials like a dark night, and Islam for every age", "question_plain": "Is Islam still relevant in today's confusing times?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says these are defining, pivotal times that will be remembered, and that Islam, or rather the people meant to represent it, is going through turbulence. He cites the Prophet's warnings that trials will descend like layers of a dark night that restrict what one can see, and that a newborn would turn grey, which he explains as an Arab figure of speech for utter confusion rather than only natural calamities. Yet Islam is for every time and place, not only the Arabian Peninsula and the companions, and its spread against the greatest odds is itself a miracle worth reflecting on.", "summary_short": "Yes: the Prophet foretold confusing trials like layers of night, but Islam is for every time and place and has spread against the greatest odds.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:695244ce", "label": "report: trials like pieces of the dark night"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam is for every time and every place, not restricted to the Arabian Peninsula.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "but Islam is for every time and every place it isn't restricted to just a it wasn't just for the Arabian Peninsula", "start": 646}}, "url": "/r/QBvWBHOIzW4/s/3/"}, {"id": "QBvWBHOIzW4/s/4", "short_id": "2016-12-21-S04", "recording": "QBvWBHOIzW4", "n": 4, "start": 725, "end": 1212, "date": "20161221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Islam in the media and the questions troubling young Muslims", "question_plain": "Why do so many young Muslims feel confused or embarrassed about Islam today?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam is highlighted in the media almost every day, mostly negatively, so that it seems hijacked, though what is judged is the portrayal of certain Muslims, since Muslims are honoured by Islam, not the other way round. He describes young people embarrassed by extremists and terrorism, the postmodern shift away from ultimate questions towards finding one's own values, and practising Muslims' sincere questions: why God allows evil, why the Sharia distinguishes men and women, why a woman does not pray at certain times, why talaq is instantaneous, why the madhhabs differ, and how culture relates to the deen. He adds the subtle and institutional racism many Muslims face in Britain, and asks what is to be done about it all.", "summary_short": "Negative media portrayal, extremism, postmodern questions, doubts about rulings, culture and racism all weigh on young Muslims, and Mufti Abu Layth asks what the answer is.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "society/technology-and-media", "society/race-and-identity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "talaq"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sharia", "label": "Sharia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/QBvWBHOIzW4/s/4/"}, {"id": "QBvWBHOIzW4/s/5", "short_id": "2016-12-21-S05", "recording": "QBvWBHOIzW4", "n": 5, "start": 1212, "end": 1918, "date": "20161221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Solutions come from within: Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak and the revival of the deen", "question_plain": "Where will the answers to Muslims' problems today come from?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites the hadith that Allah sent no disease without a cure and the verse that every messenger was sent in the tongue of his people, saying the answers will not descend from heaven but must come from Muslims themselves: 'we are the cavalry'. He recalls a scholar's answer about which way to pray on the moon, that those people will find their answers. From Qadi Iyad's Tartib al-Madarik he tells of Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, said to have been a drinker until, waking at dawn, he heard the verse 'has the time not come for those who believe' and turned to the deen, becoming a legend in hadith with his own madhhab, not a Hanafi as some claim, and mentions his exchange with Abu Hanifa over raising the hands in prayer. Asked on his deathbed who would serve the science after him, Ibn al-Mubarak said legends would be born for it, and Mufti points to al-Bukhari, Muslim and Abu Dawud who followed, to Allah sending revivers in every generation, and to later hadith critics whose precision astonishes him, saying people in Britain a few generations from now may speak like that.", "summary_short": "From Muslims themselves: as Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak said, legends will be born to carry the deen, and Allah sends revivers in every generation.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4d5b5008", "label": "report: allah did not send down a disease without sending down its cure those who know it know it and those who do not do not"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:14:4", "label": "Quran 14:4 (We sent no messenger except in the tongue of his people)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tartib-al-madarik", "label": "Tartib al-Madarik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-ibn-al-mubarak", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:57:16", "label": "Quran 57:16 (has the time not come for those who believe)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-muslim", "label": "Imam Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:904edb83", "label": "report: allah will send for this ummah one who will renew its religion"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the solutions to the problems Muslims face will come from within, from people among them who rise, learn and bring them about.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so the people the solutions will come within we will step forward people from amongst us will rise they will learn they will Empower they will bring about Solutions", "start": 1284}}, "url": "/r/QBvWBHOIzW4/s/5/"}, {"id": "QBvWBHOIzW4/s/6", "short_id": "2016-12-21-S06", "recording": "QBvWBHOIzW4", "n": 6, "start": 1918, "end": 2405, "date": "20161221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Not trigger-happy on haram: focus on the good", "question_plain": "Should religious Muslims focus on avoiding sin or on doing good?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says a common image of becoming religious is turning boring, grumpy and obsessed with death and with how sinful one is, and that sin is part of being human. He says he sincerely believes that in this age Muslims should focus on the positives and build up the good rather than dwell on wrongdoing, adding that this is not a fatwa, and cites the hadith that the companions would be destroyed if they left a tenth of the deen while a later people would succeed by holding on to a tenth, and the hadith to give glad tidings and make things easy. He says the books of the salaf, such as the collected fatwas of Imam Malik, seldom use the word haram, preferring 'I dislike' or 'I discourage', and that al-Mazari wrote that he sometimes struggled to condemn something because he knew a fatwa allowing it. He says the focus has shifted from things being permissible by default to things being haram by default, so that anyone who does not declare something haram is called a liberal or a sellout.", "summary_short": "Focus on building up the good, not on sins: the salaf rarely said haram, things are permissible by default, and the deen should be made easy.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:fb13a1a4", "label": "report: if you leave a tenth of what you are commanded you will be destroyed; a time will come when whoever holds to a tenth will be saved"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ae3e7bbf", "label": "report: bashshiru wa la tunaffiru yassiru wa la tuassiru"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-mazari", "label": "al-Mazari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:default-permissibility", "label": "everything is permissible by default until proven otherwise (al-asl al-ibaha)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he sincerely believes that in this age Muslims need to focus on the positives rather than on wrongdoing.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I sincerely believe this that we are in an age where we need to just focus on the positives don't worry about the the the wrongdoings", "start": 2028}}, "url": "/r/QBvWBHOIzW4/s/6/"}, {"id": "QBvWBHOIzW4/s/7", "short_id": "2016-12-21-S07", "recording": "QBvWBHOIzW4", "n": 7, "start": 2405, "end": 2714, "date": "20161221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Learn Arabic and get to know the scholars: making the deen appealing", "question_plain": "How can young Muslims be made interested in their faith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says real understanding comes when everyone gets involved: everyone should learn some Arabic, which he says can be learnt reasonably well in six months to a year with twenty to twenty-five minutes a day, and know how to worship. Greater still is getting to know the scholars and companions as people, who were not boring: Imam al-Bukhari was a sharpshooting archer who once damaged a private bridge with a long shot and went to pay its owner. He says that if young people know more about Bollywood actors than about the companions, the answer is not to scold them but to present the legacy of the deen in a way as fascinating as it truly is, and that the classical scholars loved humour, Sufyan al-Thawri laughing so much he would fall to the floor stamping his feet.", "summary_short": "Learn some Arabic and get to know the scholars as the fascinating, humorous people they were, presenting the deen as appealingly as it truly is.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam", "history/scholars-and-imams", "quran/arabic-language"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says everybody should on some level be learning Arabic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "everybody on some level should be doing Arabic everybody should on some level be learning Arab it's not a difficult language", "start": 2405}}, "url": "/r/QBvWBHOIzW4/s/7/"}, {"id": "QBvWBHOIzW4/s/8", "short_id": "2016-12-21-S08", "recording": "QBvWBHOIzW4", "n": 8, "start": 2714, "end": 3286, "date": "20161221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abu Hanifa and Sufyan al-Thawri on the swapped brides of Kufa", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth tells an incident from Kufa involving Sufyan al-Thawri, a contemporary of Abu Hanifa with whom he had differences but mutual respect. At a double wedding the two brides were taken to the wrong grooms and the marriages consummated, and the leading scholars of Kufa were called. Sufyan al-Thawri, citing a precedent from the companions, ruled that each woman should observe a waiting period and then return to her own husband; Abu Hanifa instead asked whether each groom was happy with the bride he had received, then had each divorce his original wife and marry the woman sent to him, who could move in at once since any waiting period was from him, sparing them lasting grudges. Mufti calls it a creative, innovative ijtihad, says the classical scholars were never dull, prays to be connected to this legacy, and then invites questions.", "summary_short": "Abu Hanifa's creative answer to two brides sent to the wrong grooms, outshining Sufyan al-Thawri's ruling, shows the scholars were never dull.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "fiqh/marriage-contracts"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "'iddah (waiting period)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijtihad", "label": "ijtihad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/QBvWBHOIzW4/s/8/"}, {"id": "QBvWBHOIzW4/s/9", "short_id": "2016-12-21-S09", "recording": "QBvWBHOIzW4", "n": 9, "start": 3286, "end": 3742, "date": "20161221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Fatwa in our times: are films and TV series a priority?", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to watch Bollywood films and TV series?", "summary": "An audience member asks how a mufti living in Britain reconciles the conditions of the time with things that might harm people's deen, giving Bollywood films as the example. Mufti Abu Layth says that, in the bigger picture, he does not necessarily see movies and TV series as high on the priority list; people watch them as entertainment, and keeping up with celebrities and culture is very human. He says that in the companions' time the celebrities were poets, and cites a hadith in al-Bukhari that they discussed the poetry of the jahiliyya in the Prophet's mosque, poetry as explicit and violent as any film, Imru' al-Qais being much repeated. Rather than telling people to stop and pushing them away, against the hadith warning to speak to people so that Allah and His Messenger are not denied, he says to focus on the good they can add, be warm and call people in.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth does not see films and TV as a priority issue: entertainment is human, as poetry was for the companions, so focus on adding good rather than pushing people away.", "answer_start": 3363, "questioner": "audience", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e17cbcb0", "label": "report: the companions discussed the poetry of the jahiliyya in the mosque of the prophet (cited as in al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jahiliyya", "label": "jahiliyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:imru-al-qais", "label": "Imru' al-Qais"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:526d7260", "label": "report: speak to people according to what they know; do you want allah and his messenger to be denied"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in the bigger picture, he does not necessarily see movies or TV series as high on the priority list.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "given the the the bigger picture I don't necessarily see these things as up there on the priority list uh things like movies or TV series", "start": 3363}}, "url": "/r/QBvWBHOIzW4/s/9/"}, {"id": "QBvWBHOIzW4/s/10", "short_id": "2016-12-21-S10", "recording": "QBvWBHOIzW4", "n": 10, "start": 3742, "end": 4362, "date": "20161221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Helping someone stop drinking: Abu Hanifa and his neighbour", "question_plain": "How can I help someone stop drinking without pushing them away?", "summary": "A written question asks how to convince someone to stop drinking in a positive way, and about the standing of someone who prays and performs umrah and Hajj but drinks. After a joke, Mufti Abu Layth says drinking is unacceptable from an Islamic viewpoint, but that like any addiction it is hard to leave and people relapse. He tells the story of Abu Hanifa's neighbour, a young man who drank and sang that they had let someone like him go to waste: Abu Hanifa never confronted him, but when the man was arrested Abu Hanifa went to the magistrate to have him released and asked him 'did we let you go to waste?', and the man turned his life around. Mufti says there must be wisdom and encouragement to good, giving people an alternative and helping with the problems behind their drinking rather than telling them off, which only makes one feel self-righteous, citing a verse of Akbar Allahabadi [?], and says he has met people immersed in sin who were more generous at heart than some practising people.", "summary_short": "Drinking is unacceptable, but like any addiction it needs wisdom: offer an alternative and help with the person's problems, as Abu Hanifa did with his drinking neighbour.", "answer_start": 3785, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:khamr", "label": "alcohol (khamr)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7dfd2715", "label": "report: whoever of you sees an evil let him change it with his hand"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:commanding-good-and-forbidding-evil", "label": "al-amr bil-ma'ruf wa al-nahy an al-munkar (commanding good and forbidding evil)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:akbar-allahabadi", "label": "Akbar Allahabadi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that with someone who drinks there has to be wisdom and encouragement to good, giving them an alternative rather than only telling them to stop.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there has to be wisdom there has to be more than wisdom encouragement to good don't focus on the bad give people an alternative", "start": 4132}}, "url": "/r/QBvWBHOIzW4/s/10/"}, {"id": "R7s1DcClcwU/s/1", "short_id": "2018-01-02-S01", "recording": "R7s1DcClcwU", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 236, "date": "20180102", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Introduction: the critic's video and the charges it makes", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces a video by a Salafi speaker from his own city, known online as an exorcist, titled 'Should we follow Mufti Abu Layth', which several people sent him and which he says he watched in full because it was dedicated to him. He describes the tone: the critic called him a clown and a joker and said he has no knowledge, but otherwise addressed him as Mufti and avoided personal attacks, for which Mufti gives him credit. He reports the critic's method of playing clips from the Monday night live sessions and refuting them, and the critic's summary charges: that Mufti is a deviant who admits to being a shaytan, misguides people, and reaffirms their whims and desires through reason, science and by finding some opinion within Islam to justify what they want. Mufti jokes that the remark about his large following flattered his ego, then announces he will go through some of what was said.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out who the critic is and the critic's charges against him before replying to them point by point.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ibraheem-husnayn", "label": "Abu Ibraheem Husnayn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/R7s1DcClcwU/s/1/"}, {"id": "R7s1DcClcwU/s/2", "short_id": "2018-01-02-S02", "recording": "R7s1DcClcwU", "n": 2, "start": 236, "end": 631, "date": "20180102", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Is the Quran created or uncreated? Why he calls the debate absurd", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The critic's first point is a clip in which Mufti Abu Layth, asked whether the Quran is created or uncreated, called the whole discussion absurd; Mufti says he stands by that. He quotes the critic's objection that the salaf and the Companions sacrificed for this belief and taught it, and asks in reply for a single narration in which the Companions discussed whether the Quran is created or uncreated, saying no such discussion exists and that the quotation the critic brought only says the Quran is the speech of Allah, which nobody denies. He says the debate was a political one that began in the time of al-Ma'mun and two further caliphs [?], that Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa never spoke of it, and that Imam Ahmad, whom he loves and respects, is not from the salaf. He recommends a book he calls 'Early Inquisitions in Islam' [?] and says the inquisition lasted fifteen years, well past al-Ma'mun's death. He explains the debate as a contest over authority: the caliphs, who called themselves the shadow of God on earth, were told that the uncreated word of God stood above them, and answered that the word was created and subject to men's interpretation; he concludes that it had nothing to do with theology and that everyone agrees the written mushaf is created, which is why he calls it absurd.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the created or uncreated Quran debate is absurd: the Companions never discussed it, and it arose as a political dispute over the caliphs' authority in the time of al-Ma'mun.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ibraheem-husnayn", "label": "Abu Ibraheem Husnayn"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-mamun", "label": "al-Ma'mun"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:mihna", "label": "the inquisition over the created Quran (mihna)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:early-inquisitions-in-islam", "label": "Early Inquisitions in Islam [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-allah", "label": "kalam Allah (the speech of Allah)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "The debate over whether the Quran is created or uncreated is absurd and without meaningful outcome: the Companions never discussed it, and it arose as a political dispute over the caliphs' authority in the time of al-Ma'mun.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the question is is the Quran created uncreated and I said that this the whole discussion is absurd which I stand by today and I say it's absurd", "start": 236}}, "url": "/r/R7s1DcClcwU/s/2/"}, {"id": "R7s1DcClcwU/s/3", "short_id": "2018-01-02-S03", "recording": "R7s1DcClcwU", "n": 3, "start": 631, "end": 864, "date": "20180102", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Shaving the beard: Qadi Iyad's view and the demand for one hadith", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After closing the previous point, Mufti Abu Layth turns to the critic's complaint that he justifies anything by quoting some scholar, illustrated by a clip in which, asked whether shaving the beard is haram, Mufti cited Qadi Iyad's commentary on Sahih Muslim that it is not, and said many of the Shafi'is said the same. He quotes the critic's reply that the Prophet said to grow the beard, and asks in return for one hadith in which the Prophet, in over twenty years of teaching, taught how to have a beard, saying a report of a Companion seeing the Prophet trim his beard could reflect Arab custom or the Prophet's personal preference. He points out that the critic himself answers by quoting how a shaykh [?] and Ibn Baz explained the matter, so that the critic is doing what he condemns, and that the critic's scholars are accepted while Mufti's are rejected. He then asks whether truth is a democracy, saying truth does not need numbers and one person can be right.", "summary_short": "The view that shaving the beard is not haram is presented as Qadi Iyad's, and Mufti Abu Layth challenges the critic to produce a hadith teaching how to keep a beard. He adds that truth is not decided by the number of scholars holding a view.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["possible_quoted_view", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ibraheem-husnayn", "label": "Abu Ibraheem Husnayn"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-baz", "label": "Ibn Baz"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:77e47ac0", "label": "report: i saw the prophet trim his beard (unresolved)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:truth-not-decided-by-numbers", "label": "truth is not a democracy; the number of scholars does not decide it"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/R7s1DcClcwU/s/3/"}, {"id": "R7s1DcClcwU/s/4", "short_id": "2018-01-02-S04", "recording": "R7s1DcClcwU", "n": 4, "start": 864, "end": 1490, "date": "20180102", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Music: the hadith on singing and hypocrisy, and scholars who permitted music", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the critic's point on music, recalling his own clip in which he said nothing categorically proves music haram and that lyrics, even sexual or violent ones, do not make it haram, although a person may choose not to listen. He quotes the critic's reply that the Prophet declared music haram and that singing grows hypocrisy in the heart as water grows vegetation. He recites the report in Arabic and says it is transmitted from Ibn Mas'ud [?] through five chains, three of which stop at Ibn Mas'ud, in collections such as Ibn Abi al-Dunya, al-Daylami, al-Bayhaqi, Abu Dawud and al-Hakim, and that every chain is criticised as weak, so a Salafi should bring a sahih report. He reads al-Shawkani in Nayl al-Awtar, who after collecting the hadith on music says many great scholars declared them all weak, and quotes Ibn Hazm, Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi in Ahkam al-Quran, Ibn Tahir [?] and al-Fakihani [?] that no sahih hadith or clear text forbids music, adding that only Allah and His Messenger are authorities in religion. He then lists, as quoted from these sources, people said to have listened to or permitted music: a Companion [?], Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz before he became caliph, Tawus [?], Sa'd ibn Ibrahim [?] the qadi of Madinah, the Maliki school as transmitted by Shafi'i authors [?], Abu Talib al-Makki in Qut al-Qulub, and the people of Madinah, of whom it is said there was no dispute about flutes and instruments. He closes by saying the critic should at least bring a sahih hadith, and that the one he brought is incredibly weak.", "summary_short": "Nothing proven categorically makes music haram, and lyrics by themselves do not make listening haram. The hadith the critic cited on singing and hypocrisy is weak in every chain, and he lists scholars who said no sahih report forbids music.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment", "hadith/authentication", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ibraheem-husnayn", "label": "Abu Ibraheem Husnayn"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e02d6353", "label": "report: singing grows hypocrisy in the heart as water grows vegetation (unresolved)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nayl-al-awtar", "label": "Nayl al-Awtar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:ahkam-al-quran", "label": "Ahkam al-Quran"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-tahir", "label": "Ibn Tahir [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-fakihani", "label": "al-Fakihani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-ibn-abd-al-aziz", "label": "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tawus", "label": "Tawus [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sad-ibn-ibrahim", "label": "Sa'd ibn Ibrahim [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-talib-al-makki", "label": "Abu Talib al-Makki"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:qut-al-qulub", "label": "Qut al-Qulub"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:daif", "label": "da'if"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahih", "label": "sahih"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:only-allah-and-his-messenger-are-authorities", "label": "only Allah and His Messenger are authorities in matters of religion"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Nothing proven categorically demonstrates that music is haram, lyrics by themselves do not make listening haram, and the hadith brought to forbid it, that singing breeds hypocrisy in the heart, is weak in every chain.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "there's nothing proven to categorically to demonstrate music is Haram and I think that's what I say enough and yes I add that lyrics do not make something Haram", "start": 868}}, "url": "/r/R7s1DcClcwU/s/4/"}, {"id": "R7s1DcClcwU/s/5", "short_id": "2018-01-02-S05", "recording": "R7s1DcClcwU", "n": 5, "start": 1490, "end": 2203, "date": "20180102", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Anal intercourse: the difference of opinion and the chains of the critic's hadith", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the critic's complaint that, asked about anal sex on a live session, he cracked a joke, which the critic says is not how the people of God behave, quoting Sufyan al-Thawri. Mufti replies that Sufyan al-Thawri was famous for laughing until he fell to the floor, so he is in good company, and explains that the joke was about the questioner's wording. He restates what he answered then: the majority of the ulama held it haram, but there is a difference of opinion, many Malikis did not consider it haram, there are narrations going back to Ibn Umar [?], and many scholars disliked it on grounds of hygiene, as Qadi Iyad transmits from some scholars including Abu Muhammad al-Asili [?], the hadith scholar of Muslim Spain who revived Sahih al-Bukhari there. He stresses that he did not tell people to practise it, only that there was a difference of opinion. He then quotes the critic's reports: from Khuzayma ibn Thabit [?] that Allah will not look at a man who has intercourse with his wife in her anus, and from Abu Hurayra that the Prophet cursed such a man and that whoever does it has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad. Reading al-Shawkani's Nayl al-Awtar, a commentary on Muntaqa al-Akhbar, he goes through the chains: the first report rests on a narrator nobody knows, with another unknown narrator in al-Nasa'i's chain [?]; the Abu Hurayra report in Musnad Ahmad, Abu Dawud, the Sunan and al-Bazzar has al-Harith ibn Makhlad [?], of whom it was said nobody knows who he is, Ibn Adi called it weak, and the stronger chain Ibn Hajar mentions in Bulugh al-Maram is mursal and so disconnected; the second Abu Hurayra report comes through Abu Tamima [?], of whom al-Bukhari said no transmission from Abu Hurayra is known, and al-Bazzar called it weak. He remarks on the irony of a Salafi quoting weak hadith and a 'modernist' correcting him.", "summary_short": "On anal intercourse Mufti Abu Layth says only that there is a difference of opinion: the majority held it haram, many Malikis did not and disliked it for hygiene. He argues that every hadith the critic quoted against it has a weak or disconnected chain.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["possible_quoted_view", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "hadith/authentication", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ibraheem-husnayn", "label": "Abu Ibraheem Husnayn"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-asili", "label": "Abu Muhammad al-Asili [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khuzayma-ibn-thabit", "label": "Khuzayma ibn Thabit [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7cef7cb5", "label": "report: whoever has intercourse with his wife in her anus allah will not look at him on the day of judgement (unresolved)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3efddf38", "label": "report: cursed is he who has intercourse with his wife in her anus (unresolved)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:df734495", "label": "report: whoever has anal intercourse has disbelieved in what was revealed to muhammad (unresolved)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nayl-al-awtar", "label": "Nayl al-Awtar"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muntaqa-al-akhbar", "label": "Muntaqa al-Akhbar"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bulugh-al-maram", "label": "Bulugh al-Maram"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mursal", "label": "mursal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:daif", "label": "da'if"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ikhtilaf", "label": "ikhtilaf (difference of opinion)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/R7s1DcClcwU/s/5/"}, {"id": "R7s1DcClcwU/s/6", "short_id": "2018-01-02-S06", "recording": "R7s1DcClcwU", "n": 6, "start": 2203, "end": 2438, "date": "20180102", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Refute me with sahih evidence: lying about the Prophet and the charge of misguidance", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Finishing the chain analysis, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not enjoy correcting a Salafi on hadith and that the critic tried but brought no sahih report. He says anyone is welcome to refute him, but that every refutation will receive a response, and warns against arrogance with the verse that above every person of knowledge is one more knowing. He says that looks, a necklace or a t-shirt will not let anyone quote weak hadith at him and get away with falsely attributing nonsense to the Messenger of God, and cites the report that whoever attributes a lie to the Prophet should prepare for damnation, which he says is sahih. He answers the charge that he tells people what they want to hear by asking who he is to conceal the knowledge of the religion, and the charge that he is misguided and fallen by saying that wherever he falls he falls in God's grace and it is not the critic's concern. He repeats that anyone may prove him wrong with categorical evidence from the Quran and Sunnah and let him respond.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth invites refutation but only on categorical evidence from the Quran and sahih hadith, and says quoting weak reports falsely attributed to the Prophet is shameful.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ibraheem-husnayn", "label": "Abu Ibraheem Husnayn"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:76", "label": "Quran 12:76 (above every person of knowledge is one more knowing) [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:24469dbc", "label": "report: he who attributes a lie to me let him prepare for damnation (unresolved; he calls it sahih)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:refutation-requires-categorical-evidence", "label": "a refutation must rest on categorical evidence from the Quran and Sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says anyone may try to prove him wrong but must bring categorical evidence from the Quran and the Sunnah, and that quoting weak reports as the Prophet's words is attributing lies to him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you and any of anybody else out there is most welcome to prove concepts prove me wrong but bring me categorical evidences from the kitab it was sooner and prove your point", "start": 2404}}, "url": "/r/R7s1DcClcwU/s/6/"}, {"id": "R7s1DcClcwU/s/7", "short_id": "2018-01-02-S07", "recording": "R7s1DcClcwU", "n": 7, "start": 2438, "end": 2758, "date": "20180102", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ruqya and the Quran as a cure: spiritual diseases, not cancer", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up the critic's last claim, that he denies the Quran is a cure for diseases and treats ruqya as mere ritual, against the verse that says the Quran is a shifa. He says he was briefly concerned until he read the rest of the verse, which he says speaks of a cure for what is in the hearts, and compares the critic to the people in a hadith who covered part of a verse with a hand until the Prophet told them to lift it and read the whole. He says the Quran is a shifa for the spiritual diseases of the heart, that the Prophet never taught anyone to recite over cancer or a brain tumour and expect it to disappear, and that the hadith on medicine tells people to seek medicine. He accuses the critic of first misattributing words to the Prophet and now to God. He closes with an Urdu couplet about storms and leaves, thanks the critic for taking the time to address him, and hopes the reply has been educational.", "summary_short": "The Quran is a cure for the spiritual diseases of the heart, not a replacement for medicine for physical illness. The Prophet told people to seek medicine.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/medical-ethics", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ibraheem-husnayn", "label": "Abu Ibraheem Husnayn"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:17:82", "label": "Quran 17:82 (we send down of the Quran what is a shifa) [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:25681cd0", "label": "report: lift your hand and read the whole verse (unresolved)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8a304df1", "label": "report: tadawaw seek medicine (unresolved)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shifa", "label": "shifa (cure)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "The Quran's description of itself as a cure refers to the spiritual diseases of the heart, not to physical illness, for which the Prophet instructed people to seek medicine.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if a person has cancer you don't say I know let's sit down and read the Quran in the cancer will go away the Prophet never taught you to do that", "start": 2592}}, "url": "/r/R7s1DcClcwU/s/7/"}, {"id": "RJe0SL67QzM/s/1", "short_id": "2018-11-10-S01", "recording": "RJe0SL67QzM", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 431, "date": "20181110", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Neanderthals, Homo sapiens and Adam as father of the cognitive revolution", "question_plain": "Did Adam come from Neanderthals?", "summary": "Asked whether Dr Abd al-Sabur Shahin [?] says Adam developed in a Neanderthal womb, Mufti Abu Layth says no: Neanderthals are cousins of Homo sapiens sharing common ancestors, not their forefathers, as the genome projects showed. He says Shahin's research suggests Homo sapiens already existed, with science now dating them to about 300,000 years after a fossil find in Morocco, while a cognitive revolution happened around 70,000 years ago, bringing art and the migration out of Africa. He says he believes Adam was the father of that cognitive revolution, meaning a level of consciousness that allows planning, constructing new knowledge and passing it on. He illustrates with a book he calls The Illusion of Knowledge [?]: no single person fully knows a Boeing aeroplane, and students who rated their knowledge of bicycles highly could not draw a working one. Citing Aristotle and the saying that man is social by nature, he says this ability to build and pass on knowledge gave Adam's offspring the upper hand over Neanderthals.", "summary_short": "No: Neanderthals were cousins of Homo sapiens, not ancestors. He believes Adam was the father of the cognitive revolution about 70,000 years ago.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/human-origins", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-sabur-shahin", "label": "Abd al-Sabur Shahin [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-knowledge-illusion", "label": "The Knowledge Illusion (called 'the illusion of knowledge') [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aristotle", "label": "Aristotle"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes Adam was the father of the cognitive revolution of about 70,000 years ago.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "what they call the cognitive revolution I believe that was Adam Adam was that the father of that the cognitive revolution", "start": 154}}, "url": "/r/RJe0SL67QzM/s/1/"}, {"id": "RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/1", "short_id": "2018-02-09-S01", "recording": "RM4jHsWJ_uM", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 270, "date": "20180209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Viral claims that Mufti Abu Layth insulted the companions", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After a stray closing remark that believing in superstition is forbidden because it cripples the mind, Mufti Abu Layth turns to viral videos and comments alleging he was blasphemous towards the companions. Mufti explains that in an earlier session he said the reports of a tree that cried in the Prophet's time are not established and that their chains have problems. He had added that if one did accept them, some companions may have exaggerated the Prophet's virtues out of love, as people today do for their own spiritual guides, while the Prophet, the best of creation, needs no exaggeration. He says critics took this to mean he accused the companions of lying, and tells them to stop talking of blasphemy and heathens as though it were the fifteenth or sixteenth century.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth explains that he called the crying-tree reports unestablished, and only suggested that, if accepted, some companions exaggerated out of love; that is not blasphemy.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ee4de6d9", "label": "report: the tree crying for the prophet"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/1/"}, {"id": "RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/2", "short_id": "2018-02-09-S02", "recording": "RM4jHsWJ_uM", "n": 2, "start": 270, "end": 458, "date": "20180209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Al-Bukhari is an amazing book, but not every hadith in it is sound", "question_plain": "Is every hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will show that the crying-tree reports are not established and that he does not believe these incidents happened. Mufti says Sahih al-Bukhari is an amazing effort to preserve the hadith, but Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa taught a difference between hadith and sunnah, and Imam Malik rejected several hadith with valid chains, as his Muwatta shows. He says that if even a hundred of al-Bukhari's roughly eight thousand narrations were found unreliable it would be no big deal, while warning against dogmatic blind following. He cites a hadith scholar [?] saying that a connected chain in al-Bukhari does not make a report certainly valid, and lists many hadith critics, among them al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Nasa'i, Ahmad and Ali ibn al-Madini, who disagreed in their rulings on hadith.", "summary_short": "Not necessarily: Mufti Abu Layth says al-Bukhari did an excellent job, a hundred unreliable reports among eight thousand would be no big deal, and great scholars disagreed in their rulings.", "answer_start": 270, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/authentication"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "sunnah distinguished from hadith"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-muslim", "label": "Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nasai", "label": "al-Nasa'i [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ali-ibn-al-madini", "label": "Ali ibn al-Madini [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ee4de6d9", "label": "report: the tree crying for the prophet"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if even a hundred of al-Bukhari's narrations were found unreliable it would be no big deal compared with the eight thousand he has.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "Imam Buhari has approximately over 8,000 narrations in his book if let's say 100 of them even have issues with them and are unreliable and eventually declared to be unacceptable that's no big deal", "start": 344}}, "url": "/r/RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/2/"}, {"id": "RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/3", "short_id": "2018-02-09-S03", "recording": "RM4jHsWJ_uM", "n": 3, "start": 458, "end": 990, "date": "20180209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The chains of the crying tree reports examined", "question_plain": "Is the hadith of the crying tree trunk authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth goes through the chains of the report, narrated from Jabir and Anas, that a tree cried when the Prophet moved to a new minbar. Mufti says a narrator in one of al-Bukhari's chains, the son of Ayman [?], was not relied on by Abu Hatim al-Razi [?], and that his father was unknown and problematic according to al-Dhahabi [?]. For another chain in al-Bukhari through Isma'il ibn Abi Uways and his brother, he cites Yahya ibn Ma'in [?] and al-Nasa'i declaring them weak and Ibn Abd al-Barr [?] calling such reports weak, while saying he loves Isma'il as a person. He then criticises further chains, in al-Tirmidhi and through Ubayy ibn Ka'b in other collections including al-Shafi'i's, and concludes that being in al-Bukhari does not make a report protected, since only the Book of Allah is preserved in its entirety and the hadith scholars, though excellent, were not infallible.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth finds weak narrators in each chain, including those in al-Bukhari, and says only the Quran is preserved in its entirety.", "answer_start": 458, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ee4de6d9", "label": "report: the tree crying for the prophet"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:minbar", "label": "minbar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jabir-ibn-abdullah", "label": "Jabir ibn Abdullah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hatim-al-razi", "label": "Abu Hatim al-Razi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ismail-ibn-abi-uways", "label": "Isma'il ibn Abi Uways"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-hamid-ibn-abi-uways", "label": "Abd al-Hamid ibn Abi Uways [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-main", "label": "Yahya ibn Ma'in [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nasai", "label": "al-Nasa'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tirmidhi", "label": "al-Tirmidhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubayy-ibn-kab", "label": "Ubayy ibn Ka'b"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the stories of the tree crying for the Prophet are unreliable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the tree started crying and the Prophet came and put his hand on it these things are unreliable these stories", "start": 570}}, "url": "/r/RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/3/"}, {"id": "RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/4", "short_id": "2018-02-09-S04", "recording": "RM4jHsWJ_uM", "n": 4, "start": 990, "end": 1121, "date": "20180209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Exaggeration out of love is not blasphemy; defending Mu'awiya", "question_plain": "Is it blasphemy to say some companions exaggerated out of love for the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth repeats that he does not believe the crying-tree reports are authentic, but says that if someone did accept them, his answer would be that some companions may have used hyperbole out of excessive love. Mufti asks those calling this blasphemous to pay attention, warning that trolls in the comments will be blocked. He recalls an online campaign some months earlier that insulted and swore at the companion Mu'awiya, and says he was the only person in the online Sunni scholarly community who clearly condemned it.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says suggesting that companions may have exaggerated out of love is not blasphemy, noting he alone defended Mu'awiya when he was abused online.", "answer_start": 990, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/companions", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ee4de6d9", "label": "report: the tree crying for the prophet"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if the reports were authentic, his answer would be that maybe some companions exaggerated out of excessive love.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "but the question is if you did believe them what would you respond by and I would respond by saying well fine that's you know maybe out of the excessive love that they exaggerated", "start": 1023}}, "url": "/r/RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/4/"}, {"id": "RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/5", "short_id": "2018-02-09-S05", "recording": "RM4jHsWJ_uM", "n": 5, "start": 1121, "end": 1582, "date": "20180209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The real blasphemy: reports that demean the Prophet", "question_plain": "Are some hadith about the Prophet actually blasphemous?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks those who call themselves lovers of the Prophet how they would feel if someone said the Prophet became forgetful and fantasised, had relations with a nine-year-old, was bewitched by a Jew for half a year, became impotent, that Musa ran naked so people could see his private parts, or that the Prophet sent Ali to kill a man accused over Mariya who turned out to have no penis. Mufti calls these reports absolute blasphemy and fuel for Islamophobia, and asks why he is the only one denouncing them while Sunni scholars endorse them. He says Mariya was the Prophet's wife, not a slave, citing a student of Imam Malik who listed her as a wife, and says that, though he loves and respects Ibn Hajar [?], his loyalty to the Prophet is above the social norms of Ibn Hajar's century. He urges scholars to denounce these reports, says Allah will hold them to account for letting the Prophet's name be defiled, and tells them that otherwise they should not call others blasphemers for saying someone exaggerated out of love.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says reports that the Prophet married a nine-year-old, was bewitched or became impotent are the real blasphemy, and urges scholars to denounce them.", "answer_start": 1121, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/defending-the-prophet", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7b34dd38", "label": "report: married her when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e92689a3", "label": "report: magic was done on the prophet and he became impotent"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e592ec95", "label": "report: musa ran naked so that people could see he had no hernia"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ecbe3efd", "label": "report: the prophet sent ali to kill a man accused with mariya and he was found to have no penis"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mariya-al-qibtiyya", "label": "Mariya al-Qibtiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that reports such as the Prophet having relations with a nine-year-old or becoming impotent are rubbish that should be denounced as blasphemy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "absolute utter rubbish these things are rubbish garbage being rigged educated in the name of Islam fuel for Islamophobia I urge you I beg you to please denounce this rubbish as blasphemy", "start": 1309}}, "url": "/r/RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/5/"}, {"id": "RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/6", "short_id": "2018-02-09-S06", "recording": "RM4jHsWJ_uM", "n": 6, "start": 1582, "end": 1732, "date": "20180209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Islamophobes use these reports; Aisha married in her late teens", "question_plain": "How old was Aisha when she married the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islamophobic groups, naming Tommy Robinson, love such reports coming from Muslim clerics because they use them, recalling a programme on grooming gangs in which Islamophobes said Muslims thought such abuse fine because they believed the Prophet did it. Mufti says it is Muslims who will have to answer for this. He says he has a full video showing that all the evidence demonstrates Aisha was in her late teens when she married, with texts varying between seventeen, eighteen and nineteen. He ends by saying the blasphemy card has been overused by Barelvi scholars and others against Salafis and others, while they themselves do not have the courage to speak out against real blasphemy.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the evidence shows Aisha married in her late teens, and warns that reports of a child marriage feed Islamophobes.", "answer_start": 1582, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:tommy-robinson", "label": "Tommy Robinson"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says all the evidence demonstrates that Aisha was in her late teens when she got married.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I do mention Ayesha I don't know specifically but all the evidence demonstrates she was in her late teens when she got married", "start": 1620}}, "url": "/r/RM4jHsWJ_uM/s/6/"}, {"id": "RNWtaWHPx3A/s/1", "short_id": "2015-03-07-S01", "recording": "RNWtaWHPx3A", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 296, "date": "20150307", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abu Hanifa and his drunkard neighbour: good character carries the message", "question_plain": "How did Abu Hanifa deal with his drunkard neighbour?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth tells the story of Imam Abu Hanifa's neighbour, a talented young man who drank, sang that the world had wasted him, and disliked men of religion as hypocrites, comparing his attitude to that of a poet whose name is garbled in the transcript, perhaps Ghalib [?]. He points out that Abu Hanifa never pulled the bottle from his hand or invoked the report that whoever sees an evil must change it with his hand, but stayed silent and respectful, though he did not like him. When the young man disappeared for two or three days, Abu Hanifa asked after him, learnt that he had been arrested, and went to the local qadi, the magistrates of the time being scholars, who was astonished that a man who had declined the post of chief judge of the Muslim world had come to ask for a drunkard's release. On his release Abu Hanifa asked him whether they had let him go to waste, and the man was so struck by the gesture that he turned his life around. Mufti concludes that good character takes a message further than one can imagine.", "summary_short": "Abu Hanifa never rebuked his drinking neighbour but bailed him out of jail and asked whether they had let him go to waste, and the man changed his life. Good character carries a message further than one can imagine.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qadi", "label": "qadi (judge)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5faffb9e", "label": "report: whoever saw an evil must change it with his hand"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mirza-ghalib", "label": "Ghalib (the poet) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that good character carries a message further than one can imagine, as Abu Hanifa's gesture towards his drunkard neighbour shows.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "good character people it takes people it takes messages so far that you can't imagine beyond your imagination", "start": 270}}, "url": "/r/RNWtaWHPx3A/s/1/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/1", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S01", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 307, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abdullah Sameer's post that the Quran allows paedophilia, leaving Islam, and the Khariji transmitter of the apostasy hadith", "question_plain": "Who transmitted the hadith 'whoever changes his religion, kill him', and does the Quran punish apostasy?", "summary": "At a viewer's prompting Mufti Abu Layth brings up a Facebook post by Abdullah Sameer, an ex-Muslim, claiming that the Quran allows paedophilia on the strength of a verse and a list of commentators, and says he wants to respond. He first says he has no problem with the growing number of ex-Muslims: people are free to leave, he is not insecure about Islam, and the Quran's attitude to those who leave is one of ambivalence, so the cry to kill the apostate is nonsense. He calls it a tragedy that the Sunni giants of hadith had a soft spot for the Khawarij, whom he describes as the extremist, hateful fathers of ISIS who regarded most companions as disbelievers, arranged the killing of Ali, tried to kill Mu'awiya and Amr ibn al-As, and were the first major internal threat Islam faced; the same scholars were vocal against the Shia, the Mu'tazila or those who said the Quran was created, but tolerant of Khariji narrators. He says Ikrima, a Khariji with a position among them, is the sole transmitter in Bukhari of the report 'whoever changes his religion, kill him', that Imam Malik disliked him and did not want people transmitting from him, that Ibn Umar and other companions spoke of him as bloodthirsty, and that it is from Ikrima that the claim that Ali burnt people for changing their religion comes. He asks whether a teaching about killing would be accepted from ISIS, and says Muslims have slipped up on this before returning to the subject.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran is ambivalent about those who leave Islam and that the call to kill apostates is nonsense; the report 'whoever changes his religion, kill him' in Bukhari rests solely on Ikrima, a Khariji whom Imam Malik and Ibn Umar distrusted. He introduces Abdullah Sameer's post as the subject he will answer.", "answer_start": 78, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-sameer", "label": "Abdullah Sameer"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ikrima", "label": "Ikrima"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0a236306", "label": "report: whoever changes his religion kill him"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:amr-ibn-al-as", "label": "Amr ibn al-As"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Quran is ambivalent towards those who leave Islam and prescribes no killing of apostates, and that the report 'whoever changes his religion, kill him' rests solely on Ikrima, a Khariji whom Imam Malik and companions distrusted.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "really the attitude of the Quran is one of ambivalence it doesn't really care although people act like oh my god kill the apostate kill the apostate that's all nonsense", "start": 78}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/1/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/2", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S02", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 2, "start": 307, "end": 386, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Respect for a genuine seeker: attack the argument, not the person", "question_plain": "How should Muslims respond to an ex-Muslim who criticises the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he respects people who are genuine in their search and should be allowed to follow it wherever it leads. He contrasts ex-Muslims who are vile, bitter and vindictive towards Islam, using straw-man arguments at every opportunity, with the impression he has from the posts he has seen that Abdullah Sameer is trying to be fair. He says his purpose is to show that the claim is untrue and that the Quran does not permit paedophilia, but he does not want to see people attacking Sameer as a person: attack the argument, not the person. He grounds this in adab and the character of the Prophet, saying that those who call the Messenger a mercy to the whole world must demonstrate that, and that the onus is on Muslims, not on non-Muslims, to champion such behaviour.", "summary_short": "Attack the argument, not the person: Mufti Abu Layth says a genuine seeker deserves respect, that the claim itself is false, and that Muslims who call the Prophet a mercy to the world must show it in how they respond.", "answer_start": 307, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-sameer", "label": "Abdullah Sameer"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adab", "label": "adab"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:107", "label": "Quran 21:107 (a mercy to the worlds) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that people who are genuine in their search should be left to search wherever it takes them, and that Muslims should not attack an ex-Muslim critic as a person.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if people are genuine in this search then let them let them search wherever that search takes them", "start": 307}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/2/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/3", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S03", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 3, "start": 386, "end": 620, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Surah al-Talaq 65:1: divorce for the iddah, what the waiting period is for, and the right to stay in the home", "question_plain": "What is the iddah after divorce and why does the Quran require it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth begins reading Surah al-Talaq from its first verse, which addresses the Prophet and by extension everyone: when you divorce women, divorce them for their iddah. He explains the iddah as a post-marital period of one to three menstrual cycles, roughly one to three months, which served to establish whether the woman was pregnant and carried other wisdoms: it prevented suspicion and social unrest, since an immediate remarriage after a divorce could in a warrior society lead to accusations and fighting. He continues with the command to count the iddah precisely, and with the words that the divorced woman is not to be expelled from the home: the relationship may be over, but she is entitled to lodging and need not leave at once, at least while her iddah lasts; the verse goes on to the case of pregnancy. He says this all comes before the verse the objector quotes.", "summary_short": "The iddah is a waiting period of one to three cycles after a divorce which establishes whether the woman is pregnant and prevents suspicion and conflict, and during it she keeps the right to stay in the home. Mufti Abu Layth reads this as the opening of the passage the objector quotes from.", "answer_start": 386, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/divorce", "quran/tafsir", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:1", "label": "Quran 65:1 (when you divorce women, divorce them for their iddah; do not expel them from their homes)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "iddah (waiting period after divorce)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "talaq (divorce)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:juz", "label": "juz"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the iddah in Surah al-Talaq serves to establish pregnancy and to prevent suspicion and conflict after a divorce, and that the divorced woman is entitled to remain in the home during it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there were other many other wisdoms to it as well it also prevented a lot of suspicion it prevented a lot of social unrest", "start": 462}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/3/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/4", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S04", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 4, "start": 620, "end": 933, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Surah al-Talaq 65:2-3: parting with kindness, witnesses, cooling off, and trust in God's provision", "question_plain": "What does the Quran say about how a divorce should end and about a divorced woman's future?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads on: when the term is reached the couple either reconcile with kindness or separate with kindness, and witnesses are to be called so that others know whether they are together or apart, as God's admonition to those who believe in him. He gives the wisdom of keeping the divorced wife in the house as a cooling-off period: a divorce pronounced in a rage can be reconsidered when both live their separate lives under one roof for weeks and begin to miss each other, and the verse then insists that a decision be made rather than left to drag on. He turns to the words that whoever is mindful of God will find a way made out for him and will be provided for from where he cannot imagine, and reads them as addressed to the vulnerable party at the end of a marriage: in patriarchal societies, then and now, a woman might fear she must grovel or accept oppression for food and shelter, and the verse tells her that God will provide if she sets out, that whoever relies on God finds him sufficient, and that God accomplishes what he sets out and has given everything its measure. He says the objector ignores all these verses and starts from the next one.", "summary_short": "At the end of the iddah the couple must either reconcile or part with kindness before witnesses, and Mufti Abu Layth reads the promise that God makes a way out and provides from unexpected places as reassurance to the vulnerable party that she need not accept oppression for shelter. The objector, he says, skips all of this.", "answer_start": 620, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/divorce", "wellbeing/tawakkul-and-trust", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:2", "label": "Quran 65:2 (retain them or part with them with kindness, and call witnesses; whoever fears Allah, He makes a way out)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:3", "label": "Quran 65:3 (He provides from where one does not expect; whoever relies on Allah, He is sufficient)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "iddah (waiting period after divorce)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "talaq (divorce)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqwa", "label": "taqwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawakkul", "label": "tawakkul (reliance on God)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the promise in 65:2-3 that God makes a way out and provides from unexpected places is addressed to the vulnerable party in a divorce, who need not accept oppression for the sake of shelter and food.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so if a relationship is is ending it could be daunting people could think well what's gonna happen now should i grovel should I beg should I put up with oppression just so I can get food", "start": 808}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/4/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/5", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S05", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 5, "start": 933, "end": 1089, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Surah al-Talaq 65:4: the women who have despaired of menstruation and the three-month iddah", "question_plain": "What does Quran 65:4 say about the waiting period for women whose periods have stopped?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads the verse the objector starts from: 'those women who have despaired of menstruation, if you are in doubt, their iddah is three months'. He notes that the verse does not say menopause but despairing of the menstrual cycle, and that the doubt is addressed to the men, with a masculine plural pronoun. He reports two readings of the doubt: that it concerns whether the woman's menses have really ceased, or that it concerns whether the iddah has begun or been completed; he finds the first more sensible, since men at the time would not have known whether a woman had reached the menopause. In case of such doubt the iddah is simply three months rather than three cycles, which he says gives ample time to settle whether there is a pregnancy. He continues to 'and those who have not menstruated' and to the pregnant, whose iddah lasts until childbirth, with the closing promise that whoever is mindful of God is given ease.", "summary_short": "Women who have despaired of menstruation wait three months, a rule Mufti Abu Layth reads as addressed to men who are unsure whether a woman has reached the menopause, so that pregnancy can be excluded; the pregnant wait until childbirth.", "answer_start": 933, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/divorce", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:4", "label": "Quran 65:4 (those who have despaired of menstruation, if you are in doubt, their iddah is three months, and those who have not menstruated; the pregnant until they give birth)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "iddah (waiting period after divorce)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahid", "label": "mahid (menstruation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the doubt in 65:4 is the men's doubt about whether a woman has reached the menopause, in which case her iddah is a flat three months so that pregnancy can be excluded.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "but what makes sense is that if you are in doubt as in the men about whether they have had the menopause or not", "start": 999}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/5/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/6", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S06", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 6, "start": 1089, "end": 1326, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Those who have not menstruated': women with absent cycles, not little girls, in Abu Hayyan, Ibn Ashur and other commentators", "question_plain": "Does 'those who have not menstruated' in Quran 65:4 refer to little girls?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth identifies the words the objector says allow paedophilia: 'and those who have not menstruated'. He poses the alternatives, whether this means girls of six or seven who have no cycle, or women who have no cycle because of some abnormality, and says the latter is very clearly what the verse meant. He cites Abu Hayyan, who explains that many women have abnormal or absent cycles through illness or irregularity and refers the phrase to them, and Ibn Ashur, whom he calls the great Maliki mufti of the twentieth century, who reads the phrase as a continuation of the preceding clause: even a woman not at the menopause but without cycles sits three months. He adds al-Tha'labi, who records that the occasion of revelation was a man who divorced his wife during her menses and was rebuked by the Prophet; al-Samarqandi, who says it simply concerns women who do not menstruate; Abu al-Su'ud, who speaks only of women and old age with no mention of girls; and Ibn Atiyya to the same effect.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the phrase refers to women whose cycles are absent through illness or irregularity, as Abu Hayyan, Ibn Ashur, al-Samarqandi, Abu al-Su'ud and Ibn Atiyya read it. Al-Tha'labi records that the verse was revealed about a man who divorced his wife during her menses.", "answer_start": 1089, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "fiqh/divorce", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:4", "label": "Quran 65:4 (those who have despaired of menstruation, if you are in doubt, their iddah is three months, and those who have not menstruated; the pregnant until they give birth)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "iddah (waiting period after divorce)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hayyan-al-andalusi", "label": "Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-thalabi", "label": "al-Tha'labi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-samarqandi", "label": "Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-suud", "label": "Abu al-Su'ud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-atiyya", "label": "Ibn Atiyya [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:asbab-al-nuzul", "label": "asbab al-nuzul (occasions of revelation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that 'those who have not menstruated' in 65:4 refers to women whose cycles are absent through illness or irregularity, not to prepubescent girls, as Abu Hayyan, Ibn Ashur and other commentators read it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "or does it mean those who don't have not had their cycle due to some kind of abnormality now this that's what this verse very clearly meant", "start": 1111}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/6/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/7", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S07", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 7, "start": 1326, "end": 1483, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Steel-manning the objection: the commentators who did include little girls, and why their saying so is not the Quran", "question_plain": "Did classical scholars really say Quran 65:4 includes little girls?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he wants to steel-man rather than straw-man the objection, and concedes the real problem: many commentators of the past, great people whom Muslims love for their work, made a mistake. Scholars writing hundreds of years after the Prophet, such as Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi, wrote in their tafsirs that the phrase can also include little girls, which he utterly condemns and disagrees with as making no sense. He says the objector could fairly reply that al-Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn al-Qayyim and al-Suyuti said so, and ask what the evidence is that it does not refer to little girls. His answer is that the scholars saying it does not mean the Quran said it: the Quran says only 'those who have not had this cycle', and the evidence lies in going back to the opening of the passage, which addresses the Prophet about divorcing women.", "summary_short": "Yes, some did: Mufti Abu Layth concedes that commentators such as Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi wrote that the phrase can include little girls, which he condemns as a mistake. He says their saying so is not the Quran saying so, and the evidence lies in how the passage opens.", "answer_start": 1326, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:4", "label": "Quran 65:4 (those who have despaired of menstruation, if you are in doubt, their iddah is three months, and those who have not menstruated; the pregnant until they give birth)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-kathir", "label": "Ibn Kathir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qurtubi", "label": "al-Qurtubi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qayyim", "label": "Ibn al-Qayyim [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth concedes that commentators such as Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi wrote that 65:4 can include little girls, condemns this as a mistake, and holds that a commentator's reading does not make the Quran say it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "scholars have said it does not mean that the Quran said it the Quran simply said those who do not have this who have not had this cycle", "start": 1373}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/7/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/8", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S08", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 8, "start": 1483, "end": 1639, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The passage addresses women, nisa, not girls; the childhood counter-argument; why a girl would not be thought pregnant", "question_plain": "Does the word 'women' in Surah al-Talaq rule out children?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that the opening words 'when you divorce women' use nisa, women, not jariyat or other words for girls, and not even 'your wives'; nobody calls a girl of six, seven or eight a woman. He anticipates the counter-argument that children in the past were robbed of their childhood and treated as small adults, so that the word could be used of them linguistically, and answers that this would apply equally to boys, yet nobody called boys rijal, men, just as nobody called girls nisa. He says the whole passage is about divorce and the iddah: whether the couple reconcile, how long to wait, what to do if cycles are irregular or the woman is pregnant. He asks why, if the verse spoke of a little girl, anyone would think her pregnant and make her wait in case she was, since the clause on pregnancy follows immediately.", "summary_short": "Yes: the passage opens with nisa, women, a word never used of a six- or seven-year-old, just as boys are never called rijal, and the verses go on to envisage pregnancy, which nobody would expect of a child.", "answer_start": 1483, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "quran/arabic-language", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:1", "label": "Quran 65:1 (when you divorce women, divorce them for their iddah; do not expel them from their homes)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:4", "label": "Quran 65:4 (those who have despaired of menstruation, if you are in doubt, their iddah is three months, and those who have not menstruated; the pregnant until they give birth)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nisa", "label": "nisa (women)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rijal", "label": "rijal (men)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jariyah", "label": "jariyah (girl)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "iddah (waiting period after divorce)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the word nisa with which the passage opens is never used of a little girl, any more than rijal is used of a boy, and that the passage's provision for pregnancy shows it concerns adult women.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "nobody refers you do not refer to a six-year-old girl as a woman or a seven-year-old girl or an eight-year-old girl", "start": 1487}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/8/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/9", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S09", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 9, "start": 1639, "end": 1798, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imam Malik's fatwa, the fatwas of men shaped by patriarchy, and the commentators who did not include girls", "question_plain": "Did Imam Malik allow marriage to be consummated with a girl who was not yet nubile?", "summary": "Finishing the point on pregnancy, Mufti Abu Layth says that if the verse concerned a child nobody would expect her to be pregnant, so the reading is stupid; he accepts that quite a few Muslim scholars wrote it in their books, but it is not in the Quran or the Sunnah, as the verse-by-verse reading has shown. He says Imam Malik was very clear in his fatwa that any sexual relationship with a wife was haram unless she was nubile. He stresses that fatwas are issued by men, as he himself issues them as a mufti, and that some fatwas of the past were wrong or influenced by the global patriarchy in which their authors lived, which does not make them Islam. Where scholars said it, he says, Muslims should accept that they were wrong, while noting that other scholars did not: he recaps Ibn Ashur, al-Samarqandi, who speaks only of old women, Abu Hayyan, who records the view about young age but refers the phrase to illness, and al-Alusi. He concludes that the Quran categorically addresses the divorced as women because that is what they are.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik's fatwa was clear that sexual relations with a wife are haram unless she is nubile. Scholars who read 65:4 to include girls were men influenced by the patriarchy of their age and were wrong, while others such as Ibn Ashur, al-Samarqandi, Abu Hayyan and al-Alusi did not read it so.", "answer_start": 1639, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:4", "label": "Quran 65:4 (those who have despaired of menstruation, if you are in doubt, their iddah is three months, and those who have not menstruated; the pregnant until they give birth)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-samarqandi", "label": "Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hayyan-al-andalusi", "label": "Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-alusi", "label": "al-Alusi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nisa", "label": "nisa (women)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Imam Malik ruled sexual relations with a wife haram unless she was nubile, and that the commentators who read 65:4 to include girls were wrong and influenced by the patriarchy of their age, which is not Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "Imam Malik was very clear in his fatwa that it was Haram right to have to have any kind of sexual relationship with any with a woman I mean through marriage unless she was nubile", "start": 1679}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/9/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/10", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S10", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 10, "start": 1798, "end": 1956, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The usuli principle: the clear term 'women' overrides the ambiguous phrase", "question_plain": "How does the rule that a clear verse overrides an ambiguous one apply to Quran 65:4?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth notes that the Quran could have said fatayat, young women, which can include girls in their late teens, but addressed them as women, and that Arabic does not call little girls women any more than it calls little boys men. He then applies a principle of usul: the phrase 'those who have not menstruated' is mutashabih, open to more than one direction, and its apparent sense when heard is a woman with some abnormality, not a seven-year-old, though one could extract the meaning that underage girls also lack cycles. Whenever such an ambiguous phrase meets a clear one, the clear overrides, and here the passage opens with the clear term women and sets its tone with divorce, counting the iddah, lodging and reconciliation. He allows that someone taking the phrase in isolation could include young girls, but says that understanding is cancelled by the opening word nisa.", "summary_short": "By a principle of usul the ambiguous phrase 'those who have not menstruated' is read in the light of the clear opening term women, which cancels any reading that includes girls. The Quran could have said fatayat but addressed them as nisa.", "answer_start": 1798, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "quran/hermeneutics", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:1", "label": "Quran 65:1 (when you divorce women, divorce them for their iddah; do not expel them from their homes)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:65:4", "label": "Quran 65:4 (those who have despaired of menstruation, if you are in doubt, their iddah is three months, and those who have not menstruated; the pregnant until they give birth)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nisa", "label": "nisa (women)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutashabih", "label": "mutashabih (ambiguous text)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatayat", "label": "fatayat (young women)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:usul-al-fiqh", "label": "usul al-fiqh"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:clear-text-overrides-ambiguous", "label": "a clear text overrides an ambiguous one"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that by the usuli principle that a clear text governs an ambiguous one, the opening term nisa in Surah al-Talaq cancels any reading of 'those who have not menstruated' that would include girls.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "whenever there's a slight challenge between something that may go one of two ways it has some let's say let's let's say there's some level of ambiguity right and there's something clear the clear always overrides", "start": 1875}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/10/"}, {"id": "T-X4Lyns2vE/s/11", "short_id": "2019-07-25-S11", "recording": "T-X4Lyns2vE", "n": 11, "start": 1956, "end": 2187, "date": "20190725", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Closing: Muslims who excuse coercion are the problem; Imam Malik on the independence that saved the first generations", "question_plain": "Is forcing your wife to have sex a sin in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he felt a duty to explain this because many Muslims may be confused by claims that the Quran allows paedophilia, which it does not, and begins to wrap up after more than two hours. He says some Muslims drop the community into this mess by defending the indefensible, recalling a conversation in which someone insisted that coercive sex with one's wife is not a sin, which he says is haram and unquestionably so; Muslims themselves are to blame while others try to show that the Quran and Sunnah do not say such things. He quotes Imam Malik that what will set right the last of this umma is what set right its first, and explains it as independence: the early generations respected a companion or a successor but challenged his understanding when it contradicted the essence of the deen, as Malik himself did. He concludes that past scholars were great but human, living in ages of patriarchy and medieval misogyny that made such readings seem normal to them, and that Muslims today can remove those blinkers, examine the text, and leave the cultural baggage of the medieval age behind while keeping the Quran.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says coercive sex with one's wife is haram, and that Muslims who deny this create the problem. He cites Imam Malik's saying that what set right the first of this umma will set right its last, meaning the independence to challenge inherited readings shaped by medieval patriarchy.", "answer_start": 1956, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/abuse-and-marital-rape", "fiqh/legal-theory", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:what-set-right-the-first-of-the-umma-sets-right-its-last", "label": "what set right the first of this umma will set right its last (Imam Malik)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tabiun", "label": "tabi'un"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahaba", "label": "sahaba (companions)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that coercive sex with one's wife is haram, that Muslims who deny this are the problem, and that, following Imam Malik's saying, the umma is set right by the independence to challenge inherited readings shaped by the patriarchy of past ages.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "he said well oh it's okay to you know it's not a sin to force to have coercive sex with your wife or not it's like what a new thing you want about of course it's a god it's Haram", "start": 1990}}, "url": "/r/T-X4Lyns2vE/s/11/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/1", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S01", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 317, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Condemning the attack on Salman Rushdie", "question_plain": "Does Islam allow attacking Salman Rushdie?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will discuss The Satanic Verses because of the attack on Salman Rushdie a few days earlier at an event in New York, and condemns it in categorical terms as cowardly and an abomination: Islam does not teach anyone to do this, harming Rushdie or anyone who speaks against Islam does Islam no favours, and ideas must be tackled with speech. He says Rushdie had long been forgotten, that the book was published in 1988 when Mufti was in primary school, and that most younger Muslims would not know his name, so the attack only demonises Islam and returns Rushdie, now about 75, to the limelight, with nominations for awards he never received before. He says it is very clear to him that the attacker must be suffering from mental illness, and argues that attackers of every background, including racists who shoot up schools and cinemas in the United States, are generally treated as mental health cases and that Muslim attackers should not be treated differently.", "summary_short": "No: he condemns the attack on Salman Rushdie as cowardly and contrary to Islam, saying ideas must be answered with speech and that the attack only demonised Islam and revived Rushdie's fame.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:attack-on-salman-rushdie-2022", "label": "the attack on Salman Rushdie in New York (August 2022)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-satanic-verses", "label": "The Satanic Verses (novel)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth condemns the attack on Salman Rushdie as cowardly and an abomination, saying Islam does not teach such acts and that those who speak against Islam must be answered with speech.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i want to first of all very clearly in categorical terms condemn this attack for the cowardice and the abomination that it is okay islam does not teach anybody to do things like this", "start": 1}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/1/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/2", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S02", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 2, "start": 317, "end": 558, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why Rushdie is back in the news, and Mufti Abu Layth's impression of him", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of Salman Rushdie as a person?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that since the attack Rushdie and The Satanic Verses are back in the limelight and widely searched, so he will assess the man, the book, the context and the history, and attempt a psychoanalysis. Speaking of his own impression, he says he finds Rushdie's character and personality abhorrent and senses from him a negativity, even a malice, that he seldom feels about anyone, and mentions a hadith about what is seen in people's faces [?]. He says he researched Rushdie with a heavy heart in order to be as fair as possible, then begins the biography: Rushdie was born in June 1947 in Bombay under the British Raj, a few months before Indian and Pakistani independence.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he personally finds Rushdie's personality abhorrent and senses a strong negativity from him, and that he researched him in order to be fair.", "answer_start": 317, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-satanic-verses", "label": "The Satanic Verses (novel)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/2/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/3", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S03", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 3, "start": 558, "end": 950, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Rushdie's privileged family, a name taken from Ibn Rushd, and an English boarding school", "question_plain": "What was Salman Rushdie's family background?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Rushdie was born into privilege: his father, Anis Ahmed, came from a wealthy Kashmiri Muslim family living in Bombay, studied law at Cambridge, was prosecuted for fraud in England, returned to India and became a successful businessman. He says the father adopted the name Rushdie out of admiration for Ibn Rushd, Averroes, the great Maliki of Muslim Spain, which is how Salman came by the name. Rushdie studied at a private English school in Bombay and then at Rugby, a boarding school in England; Mufti describes an inferiority complex towards the ruling British class among the Indian elite of the time, and recounts, from a later interview of Rushdie's, his mother's warning that the English did not wash after using the toilet and shared bath water, which he dismissed as envy until he found at boarding school that it was so. He contrasts this with the common Indian practice of washing with a lota among Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, says Rushdie went on to read history at Cambridge, and notes that he never got on with his father.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth describes Rushdie's privileged Muslim family in Bombay, a father who took the name Rushdie from Ibn Rushd, and an English boarding-school education shaped by admiration for the British ruling class.", "answer_start": 558, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events", "history/subcontinent"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anis-ahmed-rushdie", "label": "Anis Ahmed Rushdie"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/3/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/4", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S04", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 4, "start": 950, "end": 1503, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A psychoanalysis: Rushdie, his father, Freud and the move to Pakistan", "question_plain": "What made Salman Rushdie so hostile to Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the difficult relationship with his father shaped Rushdie's life: while Rushdie was studying in England in the 1960s, his father, who took pride in a rational Islam and admired Ibn Rushd, became more conscious of his Muslim identity and moved from Bombay to Karachi, a move Rushdie writes he never understood. Drawing on Freud's The Future of an Illusion, in which God is explained as the projection of a father figure, Mufti suggests that Rushdie's resentment of his father extended to the faith and is anchored in his childhood, contrasting him with atheists who are secure and calm about religion, whereas Rushdie, he says, shows spite towards Islam in all his interviews. He doubts Rushdie's claim to have resolved the matter with his father later in life, pointing to the character Saladin in The Satanic Verses, who finds a kind of reconciliation by shaving his father. He adds that Rushdie was the only son among three sisters and that a father who was a Cambridge lawyer turned businessman would have seen a history degree as a disappointment, and says this dynamic appears to have characterised Rushdie's whole life.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth suggests that Rushdie's hostility to Islam is rooted in an unresolved resentment of his father, who embraced his Muslim identity and moved to Pakistan.", "answer_start": 950, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "wellbeing/islamic-psychology"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anis-ahmed-rushdie", "label": "Anis Ahmed Rushdie"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sigmund-freud", "label": "Sigmund Freud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-future-of-an-illusion", "label": "The Future of an Illusion (Freud)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-satanic-verses", "label": "The Satanic Verses (novel)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/4/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/5", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S05", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 5, "start": 1503, "end": 1661, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Identity, Midnight's Children, the fatwa and the years in hiding", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Rushdie, the brown boy who tried to shed his Indian-ness to be accepted by the British while his father became Pakistani, had no secure anchor of identity, Indian, Pakistani, Muslim or British, and that most of his books, The Satanic Verses included, put this struggle into their characters. He mentions that Midnight's Children, about partition and identity, was praised and won an award before The Satanic Verses, and that after the latter was published Rushdie went into hiding for about ten years under the alias Joseph Anton, following Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa calling for his death, with a failed assassination attempt among other attacks. He begins to summarise The Satanic Verses, a novel of 546 pages, listing its main characters, Gibril Farishta, Saladin Chamcha, Pamela Lovelace, Rekha and Mahound, and says the last two are the point of concern.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Rushdie's lack of a secure identity runs through his books, and recounts Midnight's Children, Khomeini's fatwa and the years in hiding before turning to The Satanic Verses.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "arts/book-lounge"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:midnights-children", "label": "Midnight's Children"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-satanic-verses", "label": "The Satanic Verses (novel)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ruhollah-khomeini", "label": "Ayatollah Khomeini"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:khomeini-fatwa-against-rushdie-1989", "label": "Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie (1989)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/5/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/6", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S06", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 6, "start": 1661, "end": 1977, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The right to criticise is not a right to insult", "question_plain": "Is there a difference between criticising Islam and insulting it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Rushdie sometimes claimed the novel was not about Islam but in later interviews acknowledged that it is and asserted a right to insult. Mufti says he firmly believes everyone has the right to criticise what they do not believe in, even if it offends, but that criticising and insulting are different things that only sometimes overlap, like a Venn diagram, and that people conflate freedom of speech with a licence to insult. He recounts a talk in which Rushdie, asked about showing respect and about India's blasphemy and hate speech laws, asked why he should show respect, and claimed that the UK restricts hate speech only for things like racism and that America does not restrict even that, which Mufti believes is mistaken. He argues that every society has limits, asking whether a book glorifying paedophilia would be acceptable, and mentions that people get into trouble for speech about the LGBT or Jewish communities, before returning to the novel.", "summary_short": "Yes: he says everyone may criticise a religion they do not believe in, even if it offends, but that this is not a right to insult, and no society allows speech without limits.", "answer_start": 1661, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-satanic-verses", "label": "The Satanic Verses (novel)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:criticism-is-not-insult", "label": "freedom to criticise is not freedom to insult"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says everyone has the right to criticise what they do not believe in, even if it offends, but that freedom to criticise is not freedom to insult, and every society sets some limits on speech.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "every person i i firmly believe they have the right to criticize if they don't believe in something they have the right to criticize it even if it offends but there is a difference between just criticizing and insulting", "start": 1685}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/6/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/7", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S07", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 7, "start": 1977, "end": 2528, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The plot of The Satanic Verses: Gibril Farishta, Saladin Chamcha and Mahound", "question_plain": "What is The Satanic Verses actually about?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Rushdie clearly knew what he was doing in naming his protagonist Gibril Farishta, since farishta is not a name in Urdu but means angel, making him in effect the archangel Gabriel. He recounts the plot: Gibril, a Bollywood actor who plays deities, falls ill and is obsessed with a woman named Rekha; on a flight to London with Saladin Chamcha the plane crashes, both survive, Gibril develops angelic qualities and Saladin grows horns, and Saladin is detained by the authorities, which Mufti reads as the immigrant's perspective. Gibril, in a kind of schizophrenia, travels in a vision or another dimension to a cave on a mountain where he finds Mahound, a figure based on the Prophet, who takes Gibril's words as revelation and preaches them; when Gibril later tries to tell him it was delusion, Mahound has become powerful. Mufti describes the episode of a brothel whose twelve prostitutes bear the names of the Prophet's wives, the most popular named Aisha, which he calls utterly disgusting and nothing academic, and says the novel plays on reports that part of the Prophet's message came from Satan, which is why it is called The Satanic Verses. He says this part is only about twenty pages of the book, but enough to show the venom towards Islam and the harm it does to Muslims.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth summarises the novel's plot, including the Mahound episode and the brothel whose women bear the names of the Prophet's wives, and says this part, though short, shows the book's hostility to Islam.", "answer_start": 1977, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/book-lounge", "society/blasphemy-and-free-speech"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:the-satanic-verses", "label": "The Satanic Verses (novel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/7/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/8", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S08", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 8, "start": 2528, "end": 2688, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Insult, not critique: Mufti Abu Layth's verdict on the novel", "question_plain": "Is The Satanic Verses a critique of Islam or an insult?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth adds that Gibril also has visions of a promised imam fighting a woman named Aisha, which he thinks may be a play on Shia themes, and that most of the novel is about its two main characters. He says Rushdie knows what he is doing and that there is nothing about criticising a religion in the book: it does not argue against Islam or make a point, but is rude and offensive for its own sake, like claiming a right to insult someone's mother. He notes that Rushdie argues in his talks that without criticism of religion there would have been no reformations, citing Copernicus and the Protestants, and replies that portraying the Prophet as deluded and his wife as the most popular prostitute is no critique of Islam, adding that Rushdie later admitted in interviews that he was talking about the Prophet.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the novel is an insult rather than a critique, since it makes no argument and only portrays the Prophet and his wives offensively.", "answer_start": 2528, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "arts/book-lounge"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:the-satanic-verses", "label": "The Satanic Verses (novel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nicolaus-copernicus", "label": "Copernicus"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/8/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/9", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S09", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 9, "start": 2688, "end": 3164, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why he wrote it: identity, a father's disappointment and the backlash", "question_plain": "Why did Salman Rushdie write The Satanic Verses?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recaps his psychoanalysis: a man from a privileged elite family who struggled all his life with where he belonged, resented his father for embracing his Muslimness and moving to Pakistan, and wanted to be English but remained a brown outsider. He says Rushdie resents Imran Khan, who refused to share a stage with him and was more readily accepted in Britain, and describes Rushdie's remarks about him at a conference. In what he calls his personal opinion, Mufti thinks Rushdie never expected the reaction the book received, longed for fame and notoriety, and wrote the novel first and foremost as a gesture of defiance at his father and then at the mullah class. He says Rushdie's father saw his history degree and leftist causes as a waste, and that the left Rushdie thought he was championing now regards him as a bigot for attacking Muslims, while even non-Muslim literary figures avoided sharing a stage with him. He ends this part with a joke about Rushdie's hairline and where he would begin washing his face in wudu.", "summary_short": "In his personal opinion, Rushdie wrote the novel chiefly as defiance of his father, did not expect the backlash, and has since been abandoned even by the left he championed.", "answer_start": 2688, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "wellbeing/islamic-psychology"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-satanic-verses", "label": "The Satanic Verses (novel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anis-ahmed-rushdie", "label": "Anis Ahmed Rushdie"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:imran-khan", "label": "Imran Khan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/9/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/10", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S10", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 10, "start": 3164, "end": 3322, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Jokes about Rushdie's hairline and a mock hair-transplant offer", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth continues joking about Rushdie's hairline, saying he now understands Rushdie's grievance since he would not know where to start washing his face in wudu, and that he would have paid for a hair transplant in Istanbul had Rushdie asked him. Between the jokes he repeats that the attacker clearly had mental health issues and only gave Rushdie the limelight. He then tells himself to focus and says he will take some questions before discussing the satanic verses themselves.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth jokes about Rushdie's hairline and offers a mock hair transplant, repeating in passing that the attacker only gave Rushdie the limelight.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/10/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/11", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S11", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 11, "start": 3322, "end": 3401, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Rational choice theory: should every religion simply compete freely?", "question_plain": "Should all religions be free to compete without state backing?", "summary": "A questioner suggests applying rational choice theory to religion, letting every religion flourish and compete instead of having a state-backed [?] Islam. Mufti Abu Layth agrees that nobody has the right to force religion on others and that people have the right to criticise and show where something does not make sense. He repeats that analytical criticism, which has an objective and lets people see the point, is different from insult, which he calls petty, with no end other than to hurt.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees religion should not be forced on anyone and that people may criticise it freely, but says criticism with an objective is different from insults meant only to hurt.", "answer_start": 3322, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:criticism-is-not-insult", "label": "freedom to criticise is not freedom to insult"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says nobody has the right to force religion on others and that people may criticise religions freely, but that analytical criticism differs from insult, which only aims to hurt.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "people have the right to criticize things if you don't believe in something you have the right to criticize criticize it you have the right to show where it doesn't make sense", "start": 3331}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/11/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/12", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S12", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 12, "start": 3401, "end": 3637, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Rushdie's marriages, and bitterness that consumes the one who carries it", "question_plain": "What does holding on to bitterness do to a person?", "summary": "Returning to Rushdie, Mufti Abu Layth mentions his years undercover under the alias Joseph Anton and makes jokes about his looks, his several marriages, including to a model from India who later left him, and divorce settlements, saying that where looks fail a bank balance makes up for it. He then says bitterness never ends well, quoting a saying he attributes to Nelson Mandela, that harbouring bitterness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die, and an Arabic poet's lines that envy, like fire, consumes itself and begins with the one who harbours it. He prays that God heals the hearts of people who carry such venom, since they hurt those closest to them, their children, spouses, friends and society. He then says he has answered the questions and turns to the satanic verses themselves.", "summary_short": "After jokes about Rushdie's marriages, he says bitterness consumes the person who carries it and hurts those around them, and prays for such hearts to be healed.", "answer_start": 3401, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/anger-and-forgiveness", "society/blasphemy-and-free-speech"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nelson-mandela", "label": "Nelson Mandela"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says bitterness harboured against others destroys the one who carries it and hurts those closest to them, and he prays that God heals such hearts.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i tell you something about being bitter in life it never ends well", "start": 3500}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/12/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/13", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S13", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 13, "start": 3637, "end": 4162, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What the satanic verses were: Surah al-Najm, the three goddesses and the prostration", "question_plain": "What are the satanic verses in Islamic history?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out the incident: in Makkah, a few years into the Prophet's preaching, he recited Surah al-Najm, which opens with God's oath by the star that the Prophet has not strayed and does not speak from desire but from revelation, and reached verse 19, which names the three goddesses al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat, popular female deities of the pagans of Makkah. He says the report that everyone present, the pagans included, prostrated at the recitation is documented in Bukhari, Muslim and other books, but that these reports do not say why. He reviews explanations: that they were overwhelmed by the surah, that they momentarily saw the truth of the message, or, as some ulama said and as he finds quite plausible, that they prostrated out of respect because the names of their gods were mentioned. He says some later added narrations claiming the Prophet praised their gods with words calling them exalted beings whose intercession is hoped for, which are not a verse of the Quran and which he says are all false; these are what came to be called the satanic verses.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth explains that the Prophet's recitation of Surah al-Najm and the prostration of everyone present are documented, but that the added story of him praising the three goddesses is false.", "answer_start": 3637, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:53:1-4", "label": "Quran 53:1-4 (by the star; your companion has not strayed, nor does he speak from desire)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:53:19-20", "label": "Quran 53:19-20 (al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4bbbe027", "label": "report: the prophet recited surat al-najm and prostrated and everyone present prostrated muslims and mushrikin (unresolved; Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:085f3d75", "label": "report: tilka al-gharaniq al-ula wa inna shafaatahunna laturtaja (the alleged satanic verses [?]; called false by the host)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:gharaniq", "label": "gharaniq (the 'exalted ones' of the alleged verses)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud", "label": "sujud"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the prostration of everyone present when the Prophet recited Surah al-Najm is documented, possibly out of respect at the mention of their gods, but that the narrations claiming the Prophet praised the three goddesses are false.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the people fall into sujud they go into such that this incident is documented it is in bukhari it is in muslim", "start": 3926}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/13/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/14", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S14", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 14, "start": 4162, "end": 4480, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How the story was tied to Quran 22:52, and why Mufti Abu Layth calls it absurd", "question_plain": "Is Quran 22:52 about the satanic verses incident?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the story entered Islamic transmission through narrations from certain recurring names, some claiming the Prophet praised the gods once because he so wanted his people to accept Islam and later realised his mistake, and linking it to Surah al-Hajj 22:52, that Satan cast something into the wish of every earlier prophet and God then annulled it. Others, he says, proposed that the Prophet fell silent and Satan spoke in his voice, so that people thought the Prophet had praised their gods. He calls all of this absurd: Surah al-Hajj is a Madinan surah, and if the Prophet had been willing to compromise he could simply have accepted the Makkans' well-known offer of wealth and power in return for accommodating their gods, the very refusal for which they persecuted the Muslims. He adds that the Makkan surahs call these idols dumb, blind stone carvings, so it makes no sense for the Prophet to call them lofty beings whose intercession is hoped for.", "summary_short": "No: he rejects the link to 22:52, noting that Surah al-Hajj is Madinan, that the Prophet refused the Makkans' offers of compromise, and that the Quran calls the idols mere stone.", "answer_start": 4162, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:52", "label": "Quran 22:52 (Satan cast into the prophet's wish, then God annulled it)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:085f3d75", "label": "report: tilka al-gharaniq al-ula wa inna shafaatahunna laturtaja (the alleged satanic verses [?]; called false by the host)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the story that the Prophet praised the idols, or that Satan spoke in his voice, is absurd, and that 22:52, in a Madinan surah, has nothing to do with it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "first of all this verse is not speaking about anything to do with that okay this verse suratul hajj right is in the surah of hajj which is an issue of madinah", "start": 4310}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/14/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/15", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S15", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 15, "start": 4480, "end": 4720, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Maliki rejection: Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, al-Tabari's verdict and Qadi Iyad's al-Shifa", "question_plain": "What did the classical Maliki scholars say about the satanic verses story?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many ulama, especially the Malikis, made clear that these narrations are absurd and their chains worthless, citing Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi of Muslim Spain, who says people hostile to Islam crept them in and others transmitted them. To those who point out that al-Tabari mentions them in his tafsir under 22:52, he replies that al-Tabari brings them all but concludes that they are utterly false, so recording them is not affirming them. He praises Qadi Iyad's discussion in al-Shifa, a book on the Prophet, as one of the best: the Malikis were clear about the honour of the Prophet, and Qadi Iyad answers later people so committed to the hadith project that they suggested the story might be true with Satan saying the words. He reports Qadi Iyad's reasoning that even a sahih report that went against the Quran would be rejected, so reports that are weak and fabricated have even less standing.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki scholars, Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi and Qadi Iyad among them, rejected the story as fabricated, and that al-Tabari records the narrations but concludes they are false.", "answer_start": 4480, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabari", "label": "al-Tabari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tafsir-al-tabari", "label": "Tafsir al-Tabari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-shifa", "label": "al-Shifa (Qadi Iyad)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:52", "label": "Quran 22:52 (Satan cast into the prophet's wish, then God annulled it)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-takes-precedence-over-hadith", "label": "The Quran takes precedence over an isolated hadith"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki scholars rightly rejected the satanic verses narrations as fabricated, and that even a sahih report contradicting the Quran would be rejected, let alone weak ones.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this is why many of the ulama of islam oh sorry especially the malikiah very clearly made it very clear that look all of these things are utterly absurd they have no standing", "start": 4480}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/15/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/16", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S16", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 16, "start": 4720, "end": 5189, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Hajar's defence: many weak chains, mursal reports and hadith dogmatism", "question_plain": "Why did Ibn Hajar say the satanic verses story has some basis?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the problem arose with Ibn Hajar, centuries later, whom he calls a hadith dogmatist with an issue with the school of Qadi Iyad and Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi. He says the canonisation of Sahih al-Bukhari to its present unquestionable status came later, through Shafi'i scholars, first Ibn al-Salah and above all Ibn Hajar, who held that a sound chain settles a matter, and he stresses that he does not think Ibn Hajar acted from malice but from passion for the hadith project. He says that in Fath al-Bari, reacting to Qadi Iyad, Ibn Hajar argues that the many chains show the story has an origin even though they are weak, which Mufti compares to trusting five liars because there are five of them, something nobody would do with a bag of money. He adds that Ibn Hajar says he found three chains with narrators of the Sahih that do not reach the Prophet and argues that the Malikis accept mursal reports, which Mufti calls a clear, blind mistake made out of love for the hadith project.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Hajar wrongly argued that the many weak chains give the story a basis, and attributes the mistake to passion for the hadith project rather than malice.", "answer_start": 4720, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "hadith/authentication", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:fath-al-bari", "label": "Fath al-Bari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-salah", "label": "Ibn al-Salah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mursal", "label": "mursal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isnad", "label": "isnad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Hajar was wrong to argue that the many weak chains give the satanic verses story a basis, a mistake he attributes to passion for the hadith project rather than to malice.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this is ibn hajjar's clear blind mistake that he it's and i'm not saying he he i'm not saying he did this out of malice he didn't", "start": 5104}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/16/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/17", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S17", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 17, "start": 5189, "end": 5660, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Al-Suyuti's wording, and the Quranic case against the story", "question_plain": "What does the Quran say against the satanic verses story?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Suyuti, another Shafi'i deeply involved in the hadith project, does the same, with misleading wording that some chains are sahih when they only have narrators of the Sahih in a broken chain, and quotes al-Tabari without the conclusion in which al-Tabari calls the reports invalid. He mentions al-Suyuti's account of drinking Zamzam water with the intention of becoming like Ibn Hajar, citing the hadith that Zamzam is for whatever it is drunk for, and suggests this devotion may have blinded him. He reports a scholar he quotes [?] as saying the story spread among early commentators because it caught attention, and that transmitting it is haram. He points to the irony that it was placed in Surah al-Najm, which opens by saying the Prophet does not speak from desire, cites the verse that had the Prophet fabricated anything God would have seized him, and the verse in which Satan says on the Day of Judgement that he had no power over people except to call them, so that Satan cannot impersonate the Prophet's voice, as Qadi Iyad and Ibn al-Arabi say. He adds that Ibn Kathir notes the story's only basis is the report of the prostration in Bukhari and Muslim, and that Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi advises keeping the Quran at the centre and using one's intellect rather than following blindly.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Suyuti repeated Ibn Hajar's mistake, while the Quran rules the story out: the Prophet does not speak from desire and Satan has no power to speak in his voice.", "answer_start": 5189, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabari", "label": "al-Tabari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cfd72a49", "label": "report: the water of zamzam is for whatever it is drunk for (unresolved; collection not stated)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:53:1-4", "label": "Quran 53:1-4 (by the star; your companion has not strayed, nor does he speak from desire)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:69:44-46", "label": "Quran 69:44-46 (had he invented sayings against Us, We would have seized him)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:14:22", "label": "Quran 14:22 (Shaytan on the Day of Judgement: I had no authority over you except that I called you)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-kathir", "label": "Ibn Kathir"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4bbbe027", "label": "report: the prophet recited surat al-najm and prostrated and everyone present prostrated muslims and mushrikin (unresolved; Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-takes-precedence-over-hadith", "label": "The Quran takes precedence over an isolated hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran itself rules out the satanic verses story, since it says the Prophet does not speak from desire and that Satan has no power over people beyond calling them, so he cannot speak in the Prophet's voice.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "shaytan does not have the power to be talking impersonating your voice this is what qadha yad mentions this is what ibn arabi mentions", "start": 5452}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/17/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/18", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S18", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 18, "start": 5660, "end": 6130, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Al-Albani's refutation, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Ibn Khuzayma and the zindiqs", "question_plain": "Which scholars accepted the satanic verses story and which rejected it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shows pages from a book by al-Albani dedicated to refuting the story, Nasb al-Majaniq [?], which he says draws heavily on Qadi Iyad and Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi and also cites dissenting voices; the passages argue that the Quran's condemnation of stone idols makes the praise impossible, that even a sahih hadith clashing with the Quran would be weakened by it, and that the story contradicts the Prophet's whole struggle against Quraysh's requests to compromise. He then shows Ibn Taymiyya in his fatawa and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in a book of his, who he says incline to accepting the story, either that Satan put the words on the Prophet's tongue or that the Prophet was silent and Satan impersonated his voice, with Ibn Hajar inclining to the second. Against them he cites Ibn Khuzayma, a major hadith collector a generation or two after al-Bukhari, who said the story was fabricated by people unhappy with Islam. He explains that there were zindiqs, people who outwardly went along with Islam or brought in elements of their former Christian, Jewish or Zoroastrian cultures, and who transmitted reports innocently, through false memories or mishearing, or maliciously, noting that some people admitted to fabricating hadith for a cause.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Albani and Ibn Khuzayma rejected the story as a fabrication, while Ibn Taymiyya, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Ibn Hajar leaned towards giving it some basis.", "answer_start": 5660, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "hadith/false-and-fabricated", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nasb-al-majaniq", "label": "Nasb al-Majaniq li-Nasf Qissat al-Gharaniq [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:majmu-al-fatawa", "label": "Majmu' al-Fatawa (Ibn Taymiyya) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-abd-al-wahhab", "label": "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-khuzayma", "label": "Ibn Khuzayma"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zindiq", "label": "zindiq (pl. zanadiqa)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the satanic verses story was fabricated by people unhappy with Islam, as Ibn Khuzayma said, and that Ibn Taymiyya and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab were wrong to incline towards accepting it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "who clearly said look this was people who weren't happy with islam just kind of built on that story that was about all the people prostrating", "start": 6057}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/18/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/19", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S19", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 19, "start": 6130, "end": 6444, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Assessing the scholars who erred: Ibn Taymiyya and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of Ibn Taymiyya and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth calls the story utterly absurd and says some people made a huge mistake in accepting it, among them Ibn Hajar, Ibn Taymiyya, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and al-Suyuti. He says Ibn Hajar and al-Suyuti contributed enormously to the legacy of Islam and Ibn Taymiyya a certain amount, though far more to the Salafis, some of whose scholars, he says, have claimed Ibn Taymiyya excels certain companions, which he calls absurd. He says Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab had a great but misplaced passion for Islam and was, in his view, not a scholar of real depth, and describes him as fighting the Ottomans and killing and raiding Sunni Muslims, Sufis and pilgrims whom he declared mushriks, calling this the source of the ISIS image. He says that to him these are facts, that people admire him without knowing these details, and that there is no point in being obsessed with people since, as the Quran says, those were nations that have passed; all scholars are human and make mistakes, some grave, and he is not there to judge them.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Taymiyya's contribution is mainly to the Salafis and that Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's misplaced zeal did great harm, while stressing that all scholars are human and make mistakes.", "answer_start": 6130, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-abd-al-wahhab", "label": "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ottoman-empire", "label": "the Ottoman Empire"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushrikin", "label": "mushrik (pl. mushrikin)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Hajar and al-Suyuti contributed greatly to Islam and Ibn Taymiyya to a lesser degree, while Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, in his view not a scholar of depth, had a misplaced zeal that did great harm to Muslims.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "misplaced passion like his passion was very passionate about islam wanted to do something but ended up doing a lot of harm", "start": 6286}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/19/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/20", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S20", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 20, "start": 6444, "end": 6765, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Prophet's honour before any scholar: Imam Malik's maxim and a self-correction", "question_plain": "Should loyalty to a scholar ever come before the honour of the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he personally regards al-Suyuti as a great scholar whose writing on love for the Prophet he enjoys, including a book defending the Prophet's parents, and that these scholars loved the Prophet, but that on this point they were wrong, even with good intentions: Satan does not impersonate the Prophet's voice or put words on his tongue. He connects this to his argument about Bukhari, while noting that this story is not in al-Bukhari or any of the sahih books: when a report slings mud at the Prophet's character, one's loyalty is to the Prophet, not to any muhaddith or scholar. He cites Imam Malik's statement, made pointing to the Prophet's grave in Madinah, that from everyone one may accept and reject except the one buried there. He says he has been mistaken in the way he has sometimes said this, which made people react and double down, but that the honour of the Prophet is not up for question, and recalls that Imam Malik, out of love for the Prophet, would not wear shoes or ride an animal in the inner part of Madinah.", "summary_short": "No: he says loyalty belongs first to the Prophet, so a report that disparages him must be rejected whoever accepted it, citing Imam Malik's maxim that everyone's words can be accepted or rejected except the Prophet's.", "answer_start": 6444, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/defending-the-prophet", "hadith/bukhari", "history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:everyone-accepted-and-rejected-except-the-prophet", "label": "from everyone one may accept and reject, except the Prophet (Imam Malik)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when a report disparages the Prophet, loyalty belongs to the Prophet rather than to any scholar who accepted it, and that everyone's words may be accepted or rejected except the Prophet's.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if you find an incident that is doing that your loyalty is first and foremost with the prophet salallahu not with this great mahadev great person", "start": 6563}}, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/20/"}, {"id": "T0pHQRNJjBY/s/21", "short_id": "2022-08-19-S21", "recording": "T0pHQRNJjBY", "n": 21, "start": 6765, "end": 7134, "date": "20220819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Recap: the novel, insult versus critique, and the false story summarised", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recaps the session: an overview of Salman Rushdie, whose surname was an affiliation chosen by his father after the great Maliki Ibn Rushd, a psychoanalysis of why he may have written the book, its characters, and why it was blasphemous rather than a critique. He repeats that anyone who does not believe in Islam has the right to critique it, but not a licence to insult or swear at others, and that democracy means courtesy and choice, not a right to insult. He summarises the satanic verses story as false, scaffolded on the prostration at Surah al-Najm and later attached to 22:52, which he says is a general verse reminding people that some wishes can derail them. He says al-Tabari records the reports but calls them false, and that Ibn Khuzayma, Qadi Iyad and many others called them fabricated and haram to transmit, while Ibn Hajar, al-Suyuti and Ibn Taymiyya, invested in the isnad project, gave the story a basis, which he calls incoherent even by their own principles since the Shafi'is do not accept mursal reports. He recommends Qadi Iyad's al-Shifa and al-Albani's book for further reading.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth recaps that Rushdie's novel was an insult rather than a critique and that the satanic verses story is a fabrication rejected by al-Tabari, Ibn Khuzayma and Qadi Iyad, recommending al-Shifa and al-Albani's book.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "society/blasphemy-and-free-speech"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-satanic-verses", "label": "The Satanic Verses (novel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:52", "label": "Quran 22:52 (Satan cast into the prophet's wish, then God annulled it)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4bbbe027", "label": "report: the prophet recited surat al-najm and prostrated and everyone present prostrated muslims and mushrikin (unresolved; Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabari", "label": "al-Tabari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-khuzayma", "label": "Ibn Khuzayma"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-shifa", "label": "al-Shifa (Qadi Iyad)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nasb-al-majaniq", "label": "Nasb al-Majaniq li-Nasf Qissat al-Gharaniq [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mursal", "label": "mursal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isnad", "label": "isnad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/T0pHQRNJjBY/s/21/"}, {"id": "TFZo7S3T_8o/s/1", "short_id": "2018-07-29-S01", "recording": "TFZo7S3T_8o", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 390, "date": "20180729", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Did the Prophet say women lack intellect and faith? Reading the report", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet say women lack intellect and faith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens a hadith analysis of whether the Prophet described women as lacking intellect and faith. He says he is all for humour, including jokes about women, but attributing such things to the Prophet is entirely different because it gives them religious validation. Mufti says that in the past he thought this report was a kind of joke, but after revisiting it and discussing it with someone he stands corrected: the context has nothing to do with humour, and he will demonstrate that it is inauthentic, a misattribution that has insulted Islam. He reads the version in al-Bukhari through Abu Sa'id al-Khudri: on an Eid the Prophet told the women to give charity because he had seen them to be most of the inhabitants of hell for cursing much and being ungrateful to their husbands, that he had seen none lacking in intellect and faith yet more able to distract a resolute man, and that the lack of intellect is a woman's testimony counting as half a man's and the lack of faith is not praying or fasting while menstruating.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the report, though in al-Bukhari, is a false attribution to the Prophet, and that he once took it as a joke but now holds it inauthentic.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "society/women-and-gender", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3fce18c1", "label": "report: women are the majority of the people of hell and lacking in intellect and faith (in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-said-al-khudri", "label": "Abu Sa'id al-Khudri"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report that women lack intellect and faith is inauthentic and falsely attributed to the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I'm going to read this hadith and demonstrate today that this hadith is inauthentic it is not true and I'll show the many problems with this attribution misattribution to the Prophet", "start": 193}}, "url": "/r/TFZo7S3T_8o/s/1/"}, {"id": "TFZo7S3T_8o/s/2", "short_id": "2018-07-29-S02", "recording": "TFZo7S3T_8o", "n": 2, "start": 390, "end": 773, "date": "20180729", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The report against the Quran: no gender divide in hell, all humans weak", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say most people in hell are women?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report comes with varied wording from four companions, including Abu Sa'id al-Khudri and Abu Hurayra, and cites Ibn al-Jawzi, the Hanbali scholar, that a hadith cannot go against reason, the Quran, established Sunnah or a principle, and that poor wording or contradiction shows a report to be fabricated. Mufti says the report teaches that women are the majority in hell, which the Quran contradicts, since it addresses the children of Adam and mankind and never differentiates by gender in speaking of damnation. He says it also implies an inherent deficiency in women, whereas the Quran describes humans as a whole as created weak, forgetful and ungrateful, citing the verse that man was created weak and the verse that Adam was not found resolute. Turning to the Sunnah, Mufti asks why the Prophet, wanting the women to give charity on the joyous occasion of Eid, would open by telling them most of them would end up in hell.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran speaks of mankind as a whole, all created weak, and never divides the people of hell by gender, so the report clashes with it.", "answer_start": 390, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3fce18c1", "label": "report: women are the majority of the people of hell and lacking in intellect and faith (in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-said-al-khudri", "label": "Abu Sa'id al-Khudri"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jawzi", "label": "Ibn al-Jawzi"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:28", "label": "Quran 4:28 (man was created weak)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:20:115", "label": "Quran 20:115 (We made a covenant with Adam, but he forgot, and We found in him no resolve)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran never makes a gender differentiation regarding the people of hell, so the report goes against it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "speaking about people and and the afterlife and people damnation it never makes gender differentiation ever in the Koran right so this seems to be a new principle which is going up against the Quran", "start": 583}}, "url": "/r/TFZo7S3T_8o/s/2/"}, {"id": "TFZo7S3T_8o/s/3", "short_id": "2018-07-29-S03", "recording": "TFZo7S3T_8o", "n": 3, "start": 773, "end": 1001, "date": "20180729", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Turbulence in the report: which Eid, and who heard it", "question_plain": "Why do the versions of the 'women in hell' hadith contradict each other?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the narrations show turbulence (idtirab), first over when the address took place: some, like Abu Hurayra's, mention just a sermon, while most say it was one of the two Eids without knowing which. He argues this is no small slip, since the Prophet celebrated Eid al-Adha only once, after the farewell Hajj, a spectacular event a companion could not confuse with the yearly Eid al-Fitr. Mufti then points to turbulence over the setting: in some narrations the Prophet addressed men and women together, in others he went to where the women were gathered and addressed them privately, in which case the male companions who narrate it were not there and heard it from someone unknown who may have misunderstood or misrelayed it. He adds that in one narration the Prophet, leaning on Bilal, simply encouraged the women to give charity with none of this content.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the versions disagree on which Eid it was and whether the women were addressed privately, so the male narrators heard it second-hand from someone unknown.", "answer_start": 773, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3fce18c1", "label": "report: women are the majority of the people of hell and lacking in intellect and faith (in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:idtirab", "label": "idtirab (turbulence in transmission)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-said-al-khudri", "label": "Abu Sa'id al-Khudri"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:bilal-ibn-rabah", "label": "Bilal"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:farewell-pilgrimage", "label": "the farewell Hajj"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the narrations show turbulence, since the narrators could not say on which of the two Eids the address took place.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the person narrating keeps saying I I can't even remember which one it was so some turbulence let's move on more turbulence", "start": 888}}, "url": "/r/TFZo7S3T_8o/s/3/"}, {"id": "TFZo7S3T_8o/s/4", "short_id": "2018-07-29-S04", "recording": "TFZo7S3T_8o", "n": 4, "start": 1001, "end": 1424, "date": "20180729", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Factual errors in the report: who curses more, and ingratitude", "question_plain": "Do women really curse more than men, as the hadith says?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites Ibn al-Jawzi again that a report with factual errors is fabricated, and says this one has them: the women ask why they are most of hell's inhabitants and are told it is because they curse much and are ungrateful to their husbands. He says that cross-culturally and throughout history men outperform women in swearing, so this is a factual error, and adds that cursing per se is not haram, since the Prophet and companions used curses, whereas swearing at people to harm them is. Mufti says most wars have been caused by men and the Quran describes murder as the highest of crimes, yet the report puts women in hell for swearing, and says Qadi Iyad [?] and other scholars had already noticed the problem and suggested the Prophet meant particular women. He says ingratitude belongs to men and women alike, citing the Quran that man is excessively ungrateful, and explains that cursing and swearing are the same thing, swears following each era's taboos, from disease and famine in the past to sexual ones since the Victorian age.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says men swear more than women across cultures and ingratitude is shared by both, so the report's reasons are factual errors.", "answer_start": 1001, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3fce18c1", "label": "report: women are the majority of the people of hell and lacking in intellect and faith (in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jawzi", "label": "Ibn al-Jawzi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report contains a factual error, since men always outperform women in swearing in every culture.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it is unquestionable in any culture that men always outperform women in swearing right so this is one important point that this is actually a factual error", "start": 1152}}, "url": "/r/TFZo7S3T_8o/s/4/"}, {"id": "TFZo7S3T_8o/s/5", "short_id": "2018-07-29-S05", "recording": "TFZo7S3T_8o", "n": 5, "start": 1424, "end": 1842, "date": "20180729", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Lacking intellect and faith': testimony, menstruation and absurd logic", "question_plain": "Is not praying during menstruation a sign of weak faith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth notes that in one narration it is a companion, not the Prophet, who says women lack intellect, and asks how women can lack intellect yet distract a resolute man. He says the answers given, a woman's testimony and her not praying or fasting while menstruating, are rules that came to women from the religion itself, so shaming them for it is absurd, like telling someone to stay behind and then calling them dumb for staying. Mufti cites the narration in al-Bukhari that menstruation is something Allah has decreed for the daughters of Adam, and says the religion would not period-shame women for a dispensation it gave them. He argues that in the Sharia anyone lacking an ability, the ill, the traveller or the elderly, receives a dispensation and reward, not punishment, and that Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity. Mufti concludes that the report clashes with the Quran, the Sunnah and the principles of Islam, has turbulence and factual errors, and is an impossible misattribution and an insult to Allah, His Messenger and Islam.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says women refrain from prayer during menstruation because the religion told them to, so calling it a lack of faith is absurd and the report is a misattribution.", "answer_start": 1424, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "society/women-and-gender", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3fce18c1", "label": "report: women are the majority of the people of hell and lacking in intellect and faith (in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:47a536df", "label": "report: menstruation is a thing allah has decreed for the daughters of adam (in Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hayd", "label": "hayd (menstruation)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rukhsah", "label": "rukhsah (dispensation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is absurd to say women lack faith for not praying while menstruating, when the religion itself told them not to pray.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "do you not refrain from praying when you menstruating say yes I said well that's the lack of your faith wealthy irony here is that these rules have come to them from the religion so", "start": 1501}}, "url": "/r/TFZo7S3T_8o/s/5/"}, {"id": "TFZo7S3T_8o/s/6", "short_id": "2018-07-29-S06", "recording": "TFZo7S3T_8o", "n": 6, "start": 1842, "end": 2395, "date": "20180729", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The chains of the 'lacking intellect' report examined", "question_plain": "Are the chains of the 'women lack intellect' hadith sound?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth goes quickly through the chains, beginning with al-Bukhari's chain from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, where he points to a loose term of transmission, reports of strange narrations from one narrator, an alleged instance of tadlis by another, and confusion over which of two narrators of the same name is meant, one of whom critics called unknown. He says al-Bukhari elsewhere disguised the name of a teacher who had been criticised. For the chain in Sahih Muslim he points to a narrator al-Bukhari left out, a narrator who relied on books, and later narrators whom critics described as weak, mistaken or of poor memory, and he lists similar problems in the chains in Abu Dawud and other collections, including a narrator known for no other hadith. The captions garble most of the narrators' names. Mufti says all these narrations have some defect, so they are not unquestionably sound, and that critics should bring a bulletproof chain before overriding the Quran and the Prophet's reputation with a report that goes against the principles of Islam and has led to its ridicule.", "summary_short": "Not unquestionably: Mufti Abu Layth says every chain, in al-Bukhari, Muslim and elsewhere, has a weak or disputed link, too little to override the Quran.", "answer_start": 1842, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3fce18c1", "label": "report: women are the majority of the people of hell and lacking in intellect and faith (in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-said-al-khudri", "label": "Abu Sa'id al-Khudri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says all the chains of the report have some problem, so it is not unquestionably sound.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "all of these people have some problems the reason I'm highlighting this is to show that look when these narrations already have AE they have problems in the chain they have these are not unquestionably sound", "start": 2325}}, "url": "/r/TFZo7S3T_8o/s/6/"}, {"id": "TPH6TdXXLh4/s/1", "short_id": "2018-05-03-S01", "recording": "TPH6TdXXLh4", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 631, "date": "20180503", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are tattoos haram? Maliki views and the historical context of branding", "question_plain": "Are tattoos haram in Islam?", "summary": "Answering a question about tattoos, Mufti Abu Layth says there is a small difference of opinion: most ulama held tattoos to be haram, while some Malikis [?] held them only makruh. He says tattoos were historically used to brand cattle and slaves and to disfigure people and mark them as belonging to a group, not as adornment, and that the ulama did not condemn Berber tribes who had tattoos for centuries. He reports al-Qarafi [?], as quoted in a commentary [?] on al-Risalah, finding the Maliki and Shafi'i justification of deception unconvincing and arguing that if changing the creation of Allah were the reason then trimming nails, removing hair and circumcision would also be forbidden, so not every alteration is negative; Mufti applies this to plucking eyebrows and cites a transmission from Aisha about removing excessive facial hair. He says the hadith cursing tattooing must be read in the context of the Prophet's time, when tattoos were brands of property or tribal marks rather than a fashion statement, and he mentions the small tattoos of Berber women and of elderly women in Pakistan. After a brief aside about Latino gang culture, in which he condemns violence, he returns to al-Qarafi's [?] view that the hadith concerned a widow in mourning refraining from adornment, and concludes that in his understanding tattoos are permissible.", "summary_short": "Tattoos are permissible in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding, though he notes most scholars held them haram and some Malikis only makruh. He reads the prohibition in its historical context of branding slaves and cattle rather than beautification.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qarafi", "label": "al-Qarafi [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-risalah", "label": "al-Risalah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:historical-context-of-hadith", "label": "reading a hadith in its historical context"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:60bcb4ee", "label": "report: cursed the one who tattoos and the one tattooed and the woman who plucks eyebrows changing the creation of allah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:838663a8", "label": "report: aisha would have removed excessive facial hair from the daughters of abd al-rahman"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says tattoos are permissible in his understanding, because the hadith condemning tattooing addressed the branding and disfigurement of slaves and cattle in its historical context rather than beautification, while noting that most scholars held them haram and some Malikis only makruh.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so it's very important to understand the context in which the Prophet spoke when he said these things were Haram now", "start": 428}}, "url": "/r/TPH6TdXXLh4/s/1/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/1", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S01", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 1, "start": 3, "end": 166, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Opening: Qadhi's post on the drama of refutations and tonight's plan", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens by noting that Yasir Qadhi has made a post complaining about the drama of refutations and asking why people want to refute him. Mufti replies that one should refute the idea, not the person, and that after making clips on topics such as the second coming of Jesus one cannot suddenly say refutations are not nice or change the rules. He says Qadhi has made a lengthy video on the second coming of Jesus and that he will dedicate a large part of tonight's session to it, playing Qadhi's clip and going through his replies.", "summary_short": "Yasir Qadhi has complained about refutations; Mufti Abu Layth says ideas, not people, are being refuted and that tonight's session will reply to Qadhi's video on the second coming of Jesus.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/1/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/2", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S02", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 2, "start": 166, "end": 634, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's clip: the 'academic' framing and the Quranic verses said to foretell Jesus's return", "question_plain": "Which Quranic verses does Yasir Qadhi say point to the return of Jesus?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays the opening of Yasir Qadhi's video. In the clip Qadhi says the return of Jesus has caused controversy online, that he will take an academic look, remove the emotional back and forth and let the evidences speak, going back to what the Quran and the Sunnah say. Qadhi says the matter boils down to a few phrases in the Quran: that Jesus shall speak to mankind in maturity, which is no miracle unless he is not around at that age and so predicts his return, though the language itself does not indicate it and only the context does; that none of the People of the Book shall remain without believing in Jesus before his death; and what he calls the most explicit verse, that Jesus is a sign for the Day of Judgement, which Ibn Abbas and Ubayy recited differently. Mufti interjects throughout, remarking that the verse about the People of the Book is going on right now and until the end of the world, that if Jesus is the sign of the Hour then it came two thousand years ago and everyone missed it, and mocking the repeated phrase that the Quran strongly suggests the return. The clip concedes that this is not the unanimous interpretation and that the Quran only strongly suggests it, before moving on to the hadith.", "summary_short": "Qadhi's clip cites three or four Quranic phrases, Jesus speaking in maturity, the People of the Book believing before his death, and Jesus as a sign of the Hour, and concedes they only strongly suggest a return. Mufti Abu Layth interjects that the sign of the Hour would then have come two thousand years ago.", "answer_start": 166, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:46", "label": "Quran 3:46 (he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:159", "label": "Quran 4:159 (none of the People of the Book but will believe in him before his death)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:43:61", "label": "Quran 43:61 (he is a sign, or knowledge, of the Hour)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubayy-ibn-kab", "label": "Ubayy ibn Ka'b"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/2/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/3", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S03", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 3, "start": 634, "end": 950, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's clip: hadith beyond counting, tawatur, the tafsir works and the Maliki dons", "question_plain": "What does Yasir Qadhi claim about the hadith on Jesus's return being mutawatir?", "summary": "The clip moves to the hadith, which Qadhi says make the matter crystal clear and leave no ambiguity: the reports are too numerous to discount, the most authentic being in Sahih Muslim, they are narrated from around ten companions including Abu Hurayra, Jabir and Ibn Mas'ud, and multiple scholars have claimed that the hadith of the return are mutawatir. Mufti Abu Layth interjects that doubt has been killed, that there may be doubt in God but none in this, and explains with heavy sarcasm that mutawatir means it is inconceivable that the report could be false. Qadhi cites the tafsir of al-Samarqandi [?] and al-Jassas [?] among many works, says the return is found in dozens of works of Sunni theology, and tells any Malikis in the audience that these are the dons of the Maliki school, asking how anyone can claim allegiance to the Maliki madhhab and deny the return. Mufti responds with mock outrage directed at himself and his Maliki audience, then replays the point.", "summary_short": "Qadhi's clip claims the hadith of the return are too numerous to discount, narrated from about ten companions, held to be mutawatir and found in dozens of theological works, including those of the Maliki school's leading figures. Mufti Abu Layth responds with sarcasm and says the reply is still to come.", "answer_start": 634, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jabir-ibn-abdullah", "label": "Jabir ibn Abdullah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-samarqandi", "label": "al-Samarqandi (tafsir) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-jassas", "label": "al-Jassas [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/3/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/4", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S04", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 4, "start": 950, "end": 1345, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's clip: Imam Malik, the ijma claim, Muhammad Abduh and the Ahmadiyya link", "question_plain": "Who does Yasir Qadhi say first denied the return of Jesus, and what is the Ahmadiyya connection?", "summary": "Qadhi says in the clip that Imam Malik not having the hadith is neither here nor there, which Mufti Abu Layth calls a huge claim he will answer later, adding that this is only the teaser and that Qadhi must be heard out first. The clip cites an early historian who died in 355 AH [?] and Ibn Atiyya [?] (d. 541) saying the ummah unanimously agreed that Jesus is alive in the heavens and will return, with only philosophers and unbelievers denying it, and says Qadhi could find nobody before modernity who explicitly negated the return: the first was Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905), the student of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and a founder of modernist Islam, who reinterpreted the return as the coming of a Christ-like spirit of compassion. The clip then describes Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's movement in India, which held that Jesus died in Kashmir and that the second coming was a Jesus-like figure. Mufti says Qadhi is trying to associate denial of the second coming with the Qadianis, and notes the irony that the Ahmadi movement is itself built on a messianic vision, since its founder claimed to be the messiah. The clip says Abduh's school was sceptical of miracles and of the signs of the Day of Judgement; Mufti adds that Abduh is also the source of the evolution theory Qadhi himself holds, natural evolution until Adam, who was divinely placed. The clip ends by calling this the criterion between those who believe in the unseen and those who do not, which Mufti says is one charge short of kufr.", "summary_short": "Qadhi's clip claims ijma on the return, names Muhammad Abduh as the first to deny it and links deniers to the Ahmadiyya. Mufti Abu Layth calls the association ironic, since that movement is itself messianic, and says Qadhi's own evolution theory comes from Abduh.", "answer_start": 950, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "history/modern-reformers-and-movements"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-atiyya", "label": "Ibn Atiyya al-Andalusi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jamal-al-din-al-afghani", "label": "Jamal al-Din al-Afghani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/4/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/5", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S05", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 5, "start": 1345, "end": 1578, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Deniers as rejecters of the unseen: Mufti Abu Layth on belief, consciousness and being named a heretic", "question_plain": "Do those who deny Jesus's return reject the unseen, as Yasir Qadhi claims?", "summary": "In the clip Qadhi says that denial of the second coming and of miracles is a problem of people who refuse to accept the unseen, which he calls one notch below disbelief, and that this group follows Western scientific paradigms in which nothing outside the senses exists. Mufti Abu Layth replies that belief is all about God, who is unseen, and that nobody has a problem with that, nor with the unseen concept of consciousness; he says he is personally preoccupied with consciousness, which science does not currently understand, whose neural-correlate theory cannot be substantiated, and for which the evidence in his understanding argues for non-local consciousness, so the charge that deniers accept only what science affirms is false. The clip then charges those who hold this view with heresy and names Mufti among them, which Mufti replays, saying he will come back to it. The clip adds that all these figures, from Abduh down to the modern group, share the same arguments and define the Sunnah differently from the majority.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects Qadhi's charge that deniers of the return refuse the unseen: belief itself concerns the unseen God, and Mufti is preoccupied with consciousness, which science cannot explain and which he understands to be non-local. Qadhi's clip names Mufti among the heretics.", "answer_start": 1345, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/5/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/6", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S06", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 6, "start": 1578, "end": 1817, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Sunnah versus hadith: Qadhi calls the distinction a bigger problem than denying the return", "question_plain": "Is distinguishing the Sunnah from hadith a modernist invention?", "summary": "After a joke on Abduh's name, Mufti Abu Layth plays Qadhi saying that Abduh's school came up with the notion of distinguishing hadith from Sunnah. Mufti answers that had Qadhi studied the madhhabs he would know this is what they actually say, and that Imam Malik is the one who speaks of rejecting hadith that snatch away the deen, treating hadith as something somebody documented while the Sunnah was the living tradition. The clip continues that none of these figures considers the two Sahihs more authoritative than other books; Mufti agrees, saying truthfully that he does not consider Bukhari something special and judges all hadith on a similar platform by their own criteria. Qadhi calls the strand neo-rationalist or pseudo-enlightenment and says that separating the Sunnah from authentic hadith is a far bigger issue than their denial of Jesus, and that this group denies facts simply because they are not rational. Mufti mocks the confidence with which Qadhi calls it inconceivable that the hadith could be inaccurate.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says distinguishing hadith from the Sunnah is the teaching of the madhhabs and of Imam Malik, not an invention of Muhammad Abduh, and that he does not treat Bukhari as special but judges every hadith by the same criteria. Qadhi's clip calls this separation a bigger problem than denying Jesus's return.", "answer_start": 1578, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/6/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/7", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S07", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 7, "start": 1817, "end": 1971, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's clip: the claim of Judeo-Christian origins lacks evidence and destroys Islamic epistemology", "question_plain": "What does Yasir Qadhi say about the claim that the return of Jesus came from Judeo-Christian sources?", "summary": "In the clip Qadhi says this group claims that belief in the return of Jesus emanated from Judeo-Christian sources, through figures such as Wahb [?], Ka'b or al-Zuhri, and slowly crept in until it became mainstream, and he calls this a huge, preposterous claim without the slightest evidence. Mufti Abu Layth asks the audience to remember these words, since he will come back to them. Qadhi asks how a claim of such magnitude can be made without a shred of evidence when there are over seventy-five hadith and many companions, and which is more likely, that all those companions heard it from the Prophet or that they heard it from Wahb and ascribed it to him. He says the implications are mind-boggling: it means the faith was corrupted at the most basic level, the whole ummah misguided for fourteen centuries, and a Judeo-Christian belief became the ijma of the ummah and tawatur hadith, which to him is the destruction of Islamic epistemology and a far bigger problem than denying the return.", "summary_short": "Qadhi's clip calls the claim that the return of Jesus entered Islam from Judeo-Christian sources through Wahb, Ka'b or al-Zuhri a preposterous charge without evidence that would mean the faith was corrupted and the ummah misguided for fourteen centuries. Mufti Abu Layth asks listeners to remember these words.", "answer_start": 1817, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:kab-al-ahbar", "label": "Ka'b al-Ahbar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:israiliyyat", "label": "Israiliyyat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/7/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/8", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S08", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 8, "start": 1971, "end": 2130, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's clip: the one early authority on Jesus's death, and 'Allah said so' on pigs and jizya", "question_plain": "How does Yasir Qadhi answer the objection that Jesus killing pigs and refusing jizya makes no sense?", "summary": "The clip says the onus of proof is on those making the claim, and that all these figures view Jesus as having died on this earth and so deny he was raised alive; Qadhi says the interpretation that Jesus died a natural death is very obscure in early Islam but not unknown, one early authority having held that he died and will come back alive. Mufti Abu Layth notes that Qadhi now admits one person held this after claiming that nobody denied the return. The clip takes up the objection that the reports do not make sense, why Jesus would kill pigs, refuse the jizya and not allow kufr to remain when everyone is free to choose, and answers that the response to all these whys is that Allah said so, and that it actually makes sense: the level of kufr at that point means one is either a Muslim or on the side of the Dajjal with no middle category, so far from being illogical it is completely logical. Mufti replays the passage so that the audience does not miss it.", "summary_short": "Qadhi's clip concedes that one early authority held Jesus died a natural death, and answers the objection that the return reports are irrational, Jesus killing pigs and refusing jizya, with 'Allah said so' and the claim that there will be no middle category between Islam and the Dajjal.", "answer_start": 1971, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jizya", "label": "jizya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/8/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/9", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S09", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 9, "start": 2130, "end": 2287, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "From 'academic discussion' to bid'ah and heresy: Mufti Abu Layth's assessment of Qadhi's video", "question_plain": "Was Yasir Qadhi's video on the return of Jesus an academic discussion?", "summary": "The clip concludes that anyone who denies the return of Jesus has contravened the agreed beliefs of the ummah and contradicted the hadith, and that the least that can be said is that they have fallen into religious innovation, bid'ah. Mufti Abu Layth says that a discussion announced as academic and fair ended by fabricating entire narratives, such as a modernist school founded by Muhammad Abduh of which all these people are followers, by claiming they have a deep-seated problem with Islam because of an obsession with science, and by calling deniers a notch below kuffar, heretics in Islam and clear innovators. He says Qadhi borrowed his phrase about the dons of the Maliki madhhab and asked how one can claim to be Maliki or Sunni, and calls the speech nothing short of a preachy Friday khutbah rather than an academic discussion.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi's video, announced as academic, ended by fabricating a modernist-school narrative and declaring deniers heretics guilty of bid'ah, which he calls a preachy khutbah rather than academic discussion.", "answer_start": 2130, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/9/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/10", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S10", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 10, "start": 2287, "end": 2604, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Tag team: Qadhi's own Gog and Magog talk, half truths, and a man descending from the sky", "question_plain": "What did Yasir Qadhi himself say about problematic signs of the Hour such as Gog and Magog?", "summary": "Before beginning his reply Mufti Abu Layth says he will bring someone on board as a tag team, none other than Yasir Qadhi himself, and plays Qadhi's earlier talk on Gog and Magog, in which Qadhi says that for modern times this is perhaps the most problematic sign of the Day of Judgement, that it has caused youth to doubt and that he has met people who left Islam because of such tales, and that he will be honest and frank and tell the whole truth. Mufti notes that Gog and Magog and Jesus are alike signs of the Hour, and says that what he will show are Qadhi's half truths: not lies, but partial disclosure, as when he cites the Maliki dons without mentioning that they held the Jesus hadith not to be conclusively established. Qadhi says people are leaving the faith because such issues are dismissed rather than answered; Mufti agrees that a man descending from the sky before everyone's eyes and then chasing pigs around the globe is a reasonable thing to question, and asks whether such a picture is not disrespectful to the Prophet Jesus and to God. The clip then turns to the Midrash.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays Qadhi's earlier talk calling Gog and Magog the most problematic sign of the Hour and a cause of people leaving Islam. He accuses Qadhi of half truths, such as omitting that the Maliki authorities held the Jesus reports unestablished, and says a Jesus who descends from the sky to chase pigs is a reasonable thing to question.", "answer_start": 2287, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/10/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/11", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S11", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 11, "start": 2604, "end": 2839, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi on the Midrash: the minor and major messiah, Gog and Magog, and 'what a coincidence'", "question_plain": "Does the Muslim account of the Mahdi, Jesus and Gog and Magog parallel Jewish messianic literature?", "summary": "In the clip Qadhi explains that belief in a messiah is one of the thirteen principles of Jewish creed set out by Maimonides and others, and that Jewish literature, the Midrash, speaks of two messiahs: a minor messiah who is the forerunner and defeats the enemies of Israel, meaning the children of Israel, including Gog and Magog, after which the real messiah comes and judgement takes place and the righteous are rewarded. Mufti Abu Layth interjects with the hadith that Muslims would follow the ways of the Jews and Christians. Qadhi says it is interesting that one paragraph of midrashic literature mentions two figures, Gog and Magog and the Day of Judgement, just as Muslims have the Mahdi, the Messiah, Gog and Magog and the Day of Resurrection, and that when asked how Muslims could have been influenced by Jewish literature he suggests that perhaps both simply had it. Mufti replies with repeated sarcastic exclamations of what a coincidence. Qadhi then says Muslim books also contain bizarre material and that one must be discerning, since being written in Arabic does not make something true, which Mufti contrasts with his earlier appeal to what the scholars have said; the clip ends with Qadhi saying he was relieved to find classical scholars who problematised the Gog and Magog hadith.", "summary_short": "Qadhi's own clip lays out the Midrash's two messiahs, Gog and Magog and judgement, notes the parallel with the Muslim Mahdi, Messiah and Gog and Magog, and suggests both traditions simply had it. Mufti Abu Layth responds with sarcasm and notes Qadhi's admission that Muslim books contain bizarre material.", "answer_start": 2604, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "possible_quoted_view"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:maimonides", "label": "Maimonides"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:midrash", "label": "the Midrash"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0ce2fbfc", "label": "report: you will follow the ways of the jews and the christians"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/11/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/12", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S12", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 12, "start": 2839, "end": 2996, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Kathir on Gog and Magog as Israiliyyat through Abu Hurayra: Mufti Abu Layth charges hypocrisy", "question_plain": "Did Yasir Qadhi himself say a hadith came into Islam from Jewish sources through Abu Hurayra?", "summary": "The clip continues with Qadhi citing a classical scholar, Ibn Kathir, who said the Gog and Magog tradition has a hidden defect and is not from the Prophet, and might come from the Israelites because Abu Hurayra studied with Ka'b al-Ahbar, the son of a rabbi, who narrated Israelite material, so that a student of Abu Hurayra assumed it to be from the Prophet. Mufti Abu Layth stops the clip to ask whether he imagined hearing Qadhi say a moment ago that it is preposterous to assume Abu Hurayra or others introduced Jewish beliefs into Islam, and says he did not expect this hypocrisy. The clip resumes with Qadhi saying this is what he firmly believes and that the tradition is highly problematic. Mufti observes that Qadhi is about to problematise the whole thing on the basis of reason, logic, geography and science, and how the human body is understood to work.", "summary_short": "Qadhi's clip endorses Ibn Kathir's view that the Gog and Magog report is defective and came from Israelite material through Abu Hurayra and Ka'b al-Ahbar. Mufti Abu Layth calls this hypocrisy, since Qadhi called the same claim about the Jesus reports preposterous.", "answer_start": 2839, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-kathir", "label": "Ibn Kathir"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:kab-al-ahbar", "label": "Ka'b al-Ahbar"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:844b0ca8", "label": "report: yajuj and majuj dig through the barrier every day until they almost see the sun (abu hurayra)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:israiliyyat", "label": "Israiliyyat"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/12/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/13", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S13", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 13, "start": 2996, "end": 3319, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's zombie theory of Gog and Magog, and Mufti Abu Layth's jokes", "question_plain": "What is Yasir Qadhi's zombie theory about Gog and Magog?", "summary": "In the clip Qadhi says it is ludicrous for any rational mind to believe that billions of people are somewhere in today's world clawing away under the earth, and offers a theory he attributes to a friend in a private conversation: that the popular imagination's genre of zombie horror, humans who are not quite human, makes more sense than a billion people hidden in some far-away land, perhaps involving some type of virus or vaccine, and that he projects it onto his friend so that the audience's laughter will slowly turn to contemplation. Mufti Abu Layth supplies running jokes, calling the zombies the z monsters, linking the clip to the coronavirus and China, and joking that the idea makes sense only once LSD has kicked in. He then says that was Qadhi, and introduces another piece in which Qadhi is asked how one can believe the hadith when Google Earth has mapped the whole world, saying that since he has brought Qadhi in as a tag team partner it is only fair to give back as well as take.", "summary_short": "Qadhi's clip calls a hidden tribe of billions ludicrous and floats, through a friend, the idea that Gog and Magog could be zombie-like humans. Mufti Abu Layth responds with jokes and introduces Qadhi's answer to the Google Earth objection.", "answer_start": 2996, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/13/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/14", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S14", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 14, "start": 3319, "end": 3479, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi on Google Earth: 'Allah is all-powerful' versus 'I cannot believe it'", "question_plain": "Is Yasir Qadhi consistent about whether Gog and Magog could be hidden underground?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays Qadhi's answer to the question of how one can believe the Gog and Magog hadith when Google Earth has mapped the whole world and no massive land is hidden from mankind: Allah is all-powerful, and if one believes the hadith this is what they say; Qadhi cites a rule of Ibn Taymiyya that a hadith does not bring the impossible but may bring that which astounds the mind, so it is not impossible that somewhere underground Allah has thousands of people living, and it is not surprising that medieval scholars believed it. Mufti sets this beside the other clip, in which Qadhi said that anyone who knows science, geography and modern civilisation cannot believe that a tribe has been trapped behind a wall for four thousand years and that he himself cannot believe it. He asks whether there is any consistency to what Qadhi is saying and says he is trying to fathom it before he even begins his reply; a brief aside shows something a viewer sent him.", "summary_short": "In one clip Qadhi says it is not impossible, since Allah is all-powerful and Ibn Taymiyya's rule allows what astounds the mind, that thousands live underground; in another he says he cannot believe a tribe has been trapped for four thousand years. Mufti Abu Layth asks where the consistency is.", "answer_start": 3319, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "possible_quoted_view"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/14/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/15", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S15", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 15, "start": 3479, "end": 3717, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Haqiqatjou's clip: Qadhi on scholarship as regurgitation and breaking from the paradigm", "question_plain": "What has Yasir Qadhi said about challenging the giants of the Islamic tradition?", "summary": "Continuing what he calls a royal rumble, Mufti Abu Layth brings in a clip by a commentator he calls Danny boy, whom Mufti's remarks indicate is Daniel Haqiqatjou [?], highlighting Qadhi's underlying views of the Islamic tradition. In the clip Qadhi says that what is said in any of the Islamic sciences, even by giants, should not matter to a true researcher, that scholarship in the ummah as currently set up consists largely of regurgitating and memorising rather than challenging, and that one must be brave enough to break away from the paradigm, which is difficult for a Deobandi or Azhari or Madinah graduate who has studied for fifteen or twenty years. The commentator calls this a belittling of the Islamic tradition. Mufti points out that this critic is accusing Qadhi of the very thing Qadhi accuses Mufti and others of, being a modernist who breaks from the giants, and replays the passage.", "summary_short": "A clip circulated by a critic shows Qadhi saying that even the giants' views should not matter to a true researcher and that scholarship has become regurgitation. Mufti Abu Layth notes that the critic accuses Qadhi of exactly what Qadhi accuses Mufti of.", "answer_start": 3479, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/15/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/16", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S16", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 16, "start": 3717, "end": 3954, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi on majority opinion as socio-political: Mufti Abu Layth hears a modernist", "question_plain": "Did Yasir Qadhi say that majority scholarly opinion rests on socio-political factors?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a moment ago Qadhi asked how anyone could disagree with the second coming when giants said it and it is in every book, and now, in the other clip, Qadhi says that if a lot of people said something it does not make it right, that the correct opinion is independent of the names of men and the quantity of the names, that it should not matter to a true academic how many people or which major scholars held a position, and that majority opinion is typically based on socio-political factors: the dominant view of a time and place has to do with kings, rulers and the institutes they sponsor, as when the Ghaznavids sponsored the Karramiyya, the Hanbalis were powerful in fourth-century Baghdad and the Seljuks brought in Ash'arism, which remained dominant for centuries, none of which has to do with the truth being from Allah. Mufti says this is exactly what modernists and reformers say, and that one could almost be deluded into gaining the confidence to do one's own research by listening to Qadhi.", "summary_short": "In the clip Qadhi says correct opinion is independent of the names and number of scholars and that dominant positions rest on socio-political factors such as the Ghaznavids, the Hanbalis of Baghdad and the Seljuks. Mufti Abu Layth says this is exactly what modernists say and contradicts Qadhi's appeal to the giants on the return of Jesus.", "answer_start": 3717, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:karramiyya", "label": "Karramiyya"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ghaznavids", "label": "Ghaznavids"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:seljuks", "label": "Seljuks"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:truth-not-decided-by-numbers", "label": "truth is not decided by the number of those who hold a view"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/16/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/17", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S17", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 17, "start": 3954, "end": 4188, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi on aqidah as a spectrum and scholars' words as secondary evidence", "question_plain": "Does Yasir Qadhi hold that even positions in aqidah lie within a spectrum of opinion?", "summary": "The clip continues with Qadhi saying that if ninety-nine percent of one's teachers hold a position one naturally absorbs it without challenge, that this does not make it true, that even in aqidah every position lies within a spectrum of opinion, that very few are brave or foolish enough to break away because it comes with costs, and that no matter who says what, whether Ibn Taymiyya or anyone else, it is secondary or tertiary evidence and not evidence in itself. Mufti Abu Layth notes that Qadhi stresses this even for aqidah, and says that on one hand he is listening to this, and on the other hand he is being thrown out of Islam, called a heretic and accused of bid'ah by the same man: the hand that gives also takes away. He quotes a couplet about those who make their own place in the world, and says that with the assistance of Qadhi himself he has managed a reply before even beginning. A brief aside addresses a viewer's comment before he announces a quick overview of what Qadhi claimed.", "summary_short": "In the clip Qadhi says that even in aqidah positions lie within a spectrum, that absorbing one's teachers' view does not make it true, and that no scholar's word is evidence in itself. Mufti Abu Layth says this sits ill with Qadhi declaring him a heretic for departing from the majority on the return of Jesus.", "answer_start": 3954, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "possible_quoted_view"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/17/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/18", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S18", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 18, "start": 4188, "end": 4501, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Overview of Qadhi's claims: no sound hadith, Ibn Hazm on disagreement, creed books and the dons", "question_plain": "Is there really ijma that Jesus will return, and did Muhammad Abduh invent the denial?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sums up Qadhi's key claims with a short answer to each: that the response would be academic, which it clearly was not; that the Quran strongly suggests the second coming, which it does not; that four verses show it, which he denies; that the hadith leave no doubt, which he calls utter nonsense; that there are a hundred narrations, not a single one of which he considers sound; and that the reports in Bukhari and Muslim are indisputable, which he will examine shortly. He announces that over the coming weeks he will answer these points in a series he calls Disclosure with a big D, since Qadhi gave half truths. On the Maliki dons he says Qadhi can be a Salafi and disagree with Salafi scholars yet denies a Maliki the same right, which he calls hypocrisy. On the claim of ijma he says Qadhi did not cite Ibn Hazm, who documented some nine hundred years ago, eight hundred years before Abduh, that the main body of Muslims disagreed about whether Jesus will return, nor Ibn Taymiyya's notes that pass over the point. He says Qadhi highlights creed books that mention the return but not major creed works that do not, including Ibn Taymiyya's al-Wasitiyya [?], and that the scholars Qadhi calls dons describe the return not as mutawatir but as something still carrying doubt which they nonetheless accept. He adds that the metaphorical reading of the return as goodness at the end of time was mentioned six or seven hundred years ago in a work on maqasid [?], long before Abduh, and mocks the day and a half of research Qadhi says he did.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says none of Qadhi's claims hold: not one of the hundred narrations is sound, Ibn Hazm recorded Muslim disagreement on the return nine centuries ago, major creed works omit it, and the Maliki authorities Qadhi cites held the reports not to be mutawatir. He announces a reply series, Disclosure with a big D.", "answer_start": 4188, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-aqida-al-wasitiyya", "label": "al-Aqida al-Wasitiyya [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Qadhi's claims fail: the Quran does not suggest a second coming, none of the hundred narrations is sound, Ibn Hazm recorded Muslim disagreement on the return nine centuries ago, major creed works omit it, and the Maliki authorities Qadhi cites held the reports to carry doubt rather than to be mutawatir.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the quran strongly suggests the second coming uh it doesn't there are four verses show this to be true i'm afraid not these leave no doubt uh that's utter nonsense hundred narrations not a single one sound", "start": 4188}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/18/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/19", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S19", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 19, "start": 4501, "end": 4813, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hadith and Sunnah in Hanafi and Maliki usul; Salafi kalam built on fabricated chains", "question_plain": "Is separating hadith from the Sunnah a Hanafi and Maliki principle, and what does Mufti Abu Layth say about Salafi creed?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the distinction between hadith and Sunnah, which Qadhi attributes to Abduh, is the usul of the Hanafi and Maliki madhhabs, which separate the two unlike the Shafi'is, and that two and a half days of research would have shown it. He lists further inconsistencies: Qadhi says it is incredibly dangerous to challenge Islamic theology, yet on Gog and Magog he said what people have said does not matter; he says one tabi'i claimed Jesus died a natural death, when many did; he says hadith cannot be questioned since they are Allah's decision, yet calls the Gog and Magog hadith fabricated because it is illogical; and he calls the Judeo-Christian-origins claim outrageous while himself saying the Gog and Magog belief came in through Judeo-Christian sources. Mufti then says he will show in coming sessions that the Salafi aqidah and its entire kalam are built on fabrications, giving the example of the question whether the Quran is created: Salafi works bring chains back to companions such as Ibn Umar discussing it, which even the Salafi editors of those volumes reject, since the debate only emerged around 190 to 210 years after the Prophet, as preposterous as saying Queen Victoria or Newton debated Bitcoin. He then introduces the first verse Qadhi cited.", "summary_short": "Distinguishing hadith from the Sunnah is the usul of the Hanafi and Maliki schools, not Abduh's invention, and Qadhi applies to Gog and Magog the very reasoning he condemns in others. Mufti Abu Layth adds that Salafi kalam rests on fabricated chains, such as companions debating whether the Quran is created, a debate that arose only around 190 to 210 AH.", "answer_start": 4501, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam", "label": "kalam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that distinguishing hadith from the Sunnah is the usul of the Hanafi and Maliki schools rather than an innovation of Abduh, that Qadhi applies to Gog and Magog the reasoning he condemns in others, and that Salafi kalam rests on fabrications such as chains to companions debating whether the Quran is created, a debate that arose only around 190 to 210 AH.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this is the usual of the hanafi madhyab and the maliki method that we do tafriq al hadith sunnah unlike the shepherd's", "start": 4501}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/19/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/20", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S20", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 20, "start": 4813, "end": 5127, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Speaking in the cradle and in maturity, and 'before his death': who first read them as a return", "question_plain": "Does 'he will speak to people in maturity' or 'before his death' prove that Jesus will return?", "summary": "On the verse in Al Imran and al-Ma'idah that Jesus will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity, which Qadhi calls a clear indication of the return since Jesus must speak as a mature man, Mufti Abu Layth says many past scholars held that Jesus already reached maturity in this world, and that in his own reading the phrase concerns those addressed rather than Jesus: he addresses both the child in the crib and the grown man, which is mentioned because the Jewish high priests of the time disparaged children and found it blasphemous that Jesus addressed them as a boy, as in the Gospel of Luke. He says the books of tafsir show that the return reading came from none of the Prophet, the companions, the tabi'in or their successors, but first from al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali al-Naysaburi (d. 282 AH), who when asked whether the return is in the Quran pointed to this verse, and whom al-Hakim [?] says transmitted strange and sometimes fabricated reports; he cites al-Baghawi [?] and al-Tabarani [?] for the quotation. On the second verse, that the People of the Book will believe before his death, he notes that since Qadhi cites other recitations he should note that Ubayy and Ibn Abbas recited it as before their death, meaning the People of the Book, and that commentators including al-Tabari, al-Nasafi [?] and others said the pronoun could refer to Jesus, to the Prophet Muhammad, to the truth or to Allah, a plurality Qadhi does not highlight. He then introduces the verse Qadhi calls the strongest, that Jesus is a sign of the Hour.", "summary_short": "The verse about Jesus speaking in the cradle and in maturity concerns those he addresses, children and grown men, and the first to read it as a return was al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl, who died in 282 AH and transmitted strange reports. 'Before his death' was recited by Ubayy and Ibn Abbas as 'before their death' and read by commentators as referring to Jesus, the Prophet, the truth or Allah.", "answer_start": 4813, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:46", "label": "Quran 3:46 (he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:110", "label": "Quran 5:110 (you spoke to people in the cradle and in maturity)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:159", "label": "Quran 4:159 (none of the People of the Book but will believe in him before his death)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-husayn-ibn-al-fadl-al-bajali", "label": "al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali al-Naysaburi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-hakim-al-naysaburi", "label": "al-Hakim al-Naysaburi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baghawi", "label": "al-Baghawi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabarani", "label": "al-Tabarani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabari", "label": "al-Tabari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nasafi", "label": "al-Nasafi [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubayy-ibn-kab", "label": "Ubayy ibn Ka'b"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-luke", "label": "Gospel of Luke"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that 'he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity' refers to those Jesus addresses, children and grown men, not to a return, that the first to read it as a return was al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali (d. 282 AH), a transmitter of strange reports, and that 'before his death' was recited as 'before their death' and read by commentators as referring to Jesus, the Prophet, the truth or Allah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not jesus who's going to be speaking like that it's the people he will address he will address the child in the crib and he will address the old man or the mature man", "start": 4817}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/20/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/21", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S21", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 21, "start": 5127, "end": 5441, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Knowledge of the Hour, and the verses that count against a return: 5:75, 21:34 and 43:59", "question_plain": "Which Quranic verses count against Jesus returning?", "summary": "On the verse Qadhi calls the strongest, that Jesus is a sign of the Hour about which there is no doubt, Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi admits only that Hasan disagreed, whereas Hasan, Sa'id and others all said the verse speaks of the Quran as a sign of the Hour since revelation ends with it, which Mufti finds makes much more sense; he adds that the word 'ilm means knowledge, not sign, so the Quran contains knowledge of the Hour. He says Qadhi, who promised an academic discussion, does not disclose the verses that negate a second coming, and gives three. In al-Ma'idah 75 the Messiah was only a messenger, messengers before him died, his mother was a devout woman and both ate food, so they were subject to the natural laws that afflict human beings. In al-Anbiya 34 Allah says he gave no human before the Prophet eternal life, a verse which he says Imam al-Bukhari and several imams used to argue that Khidr cannot be alive and which Ibn Kathir and others cite, so he asks how Jesus can still be alive. In al-Zukhruf 59, two verses before the one Qadhi recites, Jesus is only a slave whom Allah favoured and made an example for the children of Israel; Mufti asks why, if Jesus will achieve what no human including the Prophet Muhammad achieved, world peace, the disappearance of disease and negative emotion and lions grazing with gazelles, he is called an example for the children of Israel alone rather than for all humanity. He begins on al-Ma'idah 110, where Allah lists ten or eleven blessings on Jesus without mentioning a second coming.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads 43:61 as the Quran being knowledge of the Hour, as Hasan and others said, and cites 5:75, 21:34 and 43:59 against a return: Jesus ate food and was subject to natural laws, no human before the Prophet was given eternal life, and Jesus is called an example for the children of Israel alone.", "answer_start": 5127, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:43:61", "label": "Quran 43:61 (he is a sign, or knowledge, of the Hour)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:75", "label": "Quran 5:75 (the Messiah was only a messenger; they both ate food)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:34", "label": "Quran 21:34 (we gave no human before you eternal life)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:43:59", "label": "Quran 43:59 (he is only a slave whom we favoured and made an example for the children of Israel)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:110", "label": "Quran 5:110 (remember my blessings upon you)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hasan-al-basri", "label": "Hasan al-Basri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-kathir", "label": "Ibn Kathir"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that 43:61 means the Quran is knowledge of the Hour, as Hasan and others said, and that 5:75, 21:34 and 43:59 count against a second coming, since Jesus ate food and was subject to natural laws, no human before the Prophet was given eternal life, and Jesus is called an example for the children of Israel alone.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "notice that this is actually a verse to show that jesus will not be coming back", "start": 5290}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/21/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/22", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S22", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 22, "start": 5441, "end": 5756, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'I will give you death' and the dialogue of 5:116-118: the Prophet's own reading in Bukhari", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say Jesus died, and how did the Prophet understand the verse 'when you took me'?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the ten or eleven blessings listed in al-Ma'idah 110 do not include a second coming, although it would be among the greatest blessings if Jesus were to accomplish world peace. He then cites the verse in which Allah says he will give Jesus death [?], noting that Ibn Abbas and many others said Jesus died, against Qadhi's claim that only one person said so. He calls 5:117-118 probably the clearest verses: on the Day of Judgement Allah asks Jesus whether he told people to take him and his mother as lords, and Jesus answers that he only said what he was commanded, that he was a witness over them while he was among them, and that once Allah took him Allah was the watcher over them, so Jesus does not know what his people did after him. Mufti says this seals the question, and adds what he calls the Prophet's own tafsir of the verse: a hadith in Bukhari in which the Prophet says people will be raised naked, that some of his companions will be turned away and he will be told they turned bad after him, and that he will then say what the righteous slave Jesus said, quoting this verse. Since nobody expects the Prophet to come back, he says, the Prophet understood the verse as describing Jesus's death and a like-for-like position for himself. He then turns to the hadith Qadhi calls untouchable, noting that Qadhi spent a day and a half on research and that he spent rather longer.", "summary_short": "The verse 'I will give you death' and Jesus's words in 5:117 that he does not know what his people did after he was taken show, in Mufti Abu Layth's reading, that Jesus died; the Prophet himself, in a Bukhari report, applies the same verse to his own absence from his companions, confirming the reading.", "answer_start": 5441, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:110", "label": "Quran 5:110 (remember my blessings upon you)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:55", "label": "Quran 3:55 (I will give you death and raise you to me) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:116-118", "label": "Quran 5:116-118 (did you tell people to take you and your mother as lords?)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8b0c9176", "label": "report: on the day of judgement people will be raised naked and some of my companions will be turned away and i will say as the righteous slave said"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the verse 'I will give you death' and the dialogue of 5:116-118, in which Jesus says he does not know what his people did after he was taken, show that Jesus died and will not return, and that the Prophet's own use of the verse in a Bukhari report about his companions turning bad after him confirms this reading.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this verse where allah says that i will give you death now note that this counts against the second coming because jesus has died", "start": 5441}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/22/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/23", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S23", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 23, "start": 5756, "end": 6314, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The first Bukhari chain: ambiguous names, al-Bukhari's practice, and al-Zuhri's insertions", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth say the Bukhari chain for Jesus's descent is unreliable?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the first hadith Qadhi presents from Bukhari on the descent of Jesus and asks who the Ishaq and the Salih in its chain are, since al-Bukhari left their names ambiguous. He says al-Bukhari is known on several occasions to make names ambiguous: al-Dhahabi records that he would cite his teacher Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli as Muhammad, Muhammad ibn Abdullah or Muhammad ibn Khalid, names he was never known by, when al-Bukhari had some eighty teachers called Muhammad, so that readers would think he meant someone else; Ibn Hajar and al-Dhahabi accept this. He says al-Bukhari transmits from some fifteen men called Ishaq, that Ibn Hajar and al-Jayyani [?] disagree about which is meant here, and that the candidates for Salih include a transmitter whom al-Bukhari himself admits to be weak in places and whom Abu Zur'a called munkar, so with deliberate ambiguity the identification is unreliable. Turning to al-Zuhri, he says he was known for idraj, inserting his own words into reports: a contemporary and teacher of Malik asked him to distinguish his own words from the Prophet's because he mixed them in; Ibn Rajab reports from al-Bukhari that al-Zuhri would insert sentences and make mursal reports reach the Prophet; Ibn Hajar transmits that of twenty-two reports of his only half reached the Prophet and that his mursal reports are like hot air; al-Shafi'i called his mursalat baseless; and al-Layth ibn Sa'd wrote to Malik that al-Zuhri would tell different parties different things, which is why they abandoned him. He adds that scholars attribute the report of the Prophet wanting to end his life to al-Zuhri's own insertion.", "summary_short": "The first Bukhari chain leaves two narrators' names ambiguous, a practice al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar record of al-Bukhari, and passes through al-Zuhri, whom the critics describe as inserting his own words into reports and making mursal reports reach the Prophet.", "answer_start": 5756, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/bukhari", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7ef9c7d8", "label": "report: yanzilu fikum ibn maryam hakaman adlan"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c2ba830a", "label": "report: the prophet tried to end his life on several occasions"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-yahya-al-dhuhli", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-jayyani", "label": "al-Jayyani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-zura", "label": "Abu Zur'a"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rajab-al-hanbali", "label": "Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-layth-ibn-sad", "label": "al-Layth ibn Sa'd"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mubham", "label": "mubham (an unnamed narrator)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:idraj", "label": "idraj"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mursal", "label": "mursal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the first Bukhari chain for Jesus's descent is unreliable because al-Bukhari left the names of Ishaq and Salih ambiguous, which he says al-Bukhari did on purpose with teachers' names so as to deceive readers, as al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar record, and because al-Zuhri was known to insert his own words into reports and to make mursal reports reach the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "buhari actually is known on several occasions to do to to kind of make names ambiguous so as to deceive his readers", "start": 5804}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/23/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/24", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S24", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 24, "start": 6314, "end": 6630, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The second Bukhari chain and the first Sahih Muslim chains: Qutayba, Yunus ibn Yazid and al-Zuhri again", "question_plain": "What problems does Mufti Abu Layth find in the Sahih Muslim chains for Jesus's return?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the second Bukhari report is generally reliable in its narrators, but points out that al-Bukhari himself relates asking Qutayba whom he was with when he wrote a particular hadith from al-Layth, and that Qutayba answered he was with Khalid al-Madaini [?], a known forger of hadith, so that Qutayba had heard a fabricated report from the forger, dropped him and presented it as heard from al-Layth; Mufti says this is at least a question mark over him, and the chain again contains al-Zuhri. He turns to three alternative chains in Sahih Muslim. The first contains a narrator about whom Ja'far al-Faryabi [?] records that some questioned his laxity and whose transmission from Ibn Shihab is problematic because he saw him only when very young and probably took the reports from a book; the second passes through Harmala and Yunus ibn Yazid al-Ayli, about whom it is said that he is not taken as evidence, that he did not remember hadith accurately, and, as Imam Ahmad transmits, that he lacked knowledge of hadith and would connect reports of Ibn Shihab to Sa'id that were not so connected; Hasan al-Hulwani [?] is also in the chain, and some said to throw his material away; al-Zuhri appears again, and a further chain differs only in its first narrator.", "summary_short": "The second Bukhari chain passes through Qutayba, who once concealed a known forger in a chain, and the Sahih Muslim chains pass through narrators faulted for lax or inaccurate transmission from al-Zuhri, notably Yunus ibn Yazid, with al-Zuhri himself recurring in each.", "answer_start": 6314, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qutayba-ibn-said", "label": "Qutayba ibn Said"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-layth-ibn-sad", "label": "al-Layth ibn Sa'd"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalid-al-madaini", "label": "Khalid al-Madaini [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yunus-ibn-yazid-al-ayli", "label": "Yunus ibn Yazid al-Ayli"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:harmala-ibn-yahya", "label": "Harmala ibn Yahya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the second Bukhari chain passes through Qutayba, who once concealed a known forger in a chain and presented the report as heard from al-Layth, and that the Sahih Muslim chains pass through Yunus ibn Yazid and other narrators whose transmission from al-Zuhri the critics faulted, with al-Zuhri recurring in each.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "there was a famous forger who quraiba sits with he hears this hadith from laith uh he doesn't hear it he hears khalid he drops him and himself presents it as though he heard it from leith", "start": 6357}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/24/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/25", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S25", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 25, "start": 6630, "end": 7022, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "More Muslim chains: a narrator with memory loss, a narrator who does not exist, a major mudallis", "question_plain": "Who are the problematic narrators in the Sahih Muslim reports on Jesus's return?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth continues through the Sahih Muslim chains. One variant has a narrator who is generally reliable but whom al-Bukhari avoided as not scrupulous, and a report said to be heard from al-Layth which al-Bukhari says was wrongly attributed; al-Zuhri and Yunus ibn Yazid recur. Another chain contains Sa'id [?], of whom Ibn Sa'd and others say that years before his death he suffered severe memory loss and possibly dementia. He then describes what he calls a ghost: a narrator from Abu Hurayra who transmits no other hadith, about whom al-Bukhari says there are three such men and Ali ibn al-Madini two, about whom al-Dhahabi says nobody knows anything, whose home town is variously given as Basra, Makkah or Madinah, and who is described as the freed slave of a man who died in 146 AH, some ninety years after Abu Hurayra's death in 57 AH, so that he himself could never have met Abu Hurayra; a book listing all narrators named Ata' omits him. In the next chain is a narrator of whom Hanbal says they wrote nothing from him, a major mudallis who, Malik said, grabbed anything and passed it off as hadith, whom al-Dhahabi says must be taken with a kilo of salt, who transmitted from a book while pretending to have heard it, and some of whose reports Hanbal calls outright fabrications; after him comes Abu al-Zubayr, whom Abu Hatim did not consider reliable.", "summary_short": "The Sahih Muslim chains include a narrator who suffered memory loss, a narrator who cannot be identified and could not have met Abu Hurayra, a major mudallis whose reports some critics discarded as fabrications, and Abu al-Zubayr, whom Abu Hatim did not consider reliable.", "answer_start": 6630, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ali-ibn-al-madini", "label": "Ali ibn al-Madini"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hatim-al-razi", "label": "Abu Hatim al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-zubayr", "label": "Abu al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yunus-ibn-yazid-al-ayli", "label": "Yunus ibn Yazid al-Ayli"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis (mudallis)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Sahih Muslim chains for Jesus's return include a narrator who suffered memory loss, a narrator who cannot be identified and could not have met Abu Hurayra, a major mudallis whose reports some critics discarded as fabrications, and Abu al-Zubayr, whom Abu Hatim did not consider reliable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "years before his death he suffered huge memory loss and possibly dementia and this is why he becomes unreliable and he's in this chain", "start": 6697}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/25/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/26", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S26", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 26, "start": 7022, "end": 7335, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Nawwas ibn Sam'an report, and why every chain examined has a problem", "question_plain": "Is there a single hadith on Jesus's return with an unproblematic chain?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the report of Nawwas ibn Sam'an in Sahih Muslim, transmitted by al-Walid ibn Muslim, of whom Abu Mushir says he would drop names and deceive and Ahmad ibn Hanbal that he made many mistakes, so he is out of the question; after him come Yahya [?], the judge of Homs, criticised for sending mursal reports that did not reach the Prophet, and others whose reports were rejected. He says he is skipping some and running over his usual time, having covered only a selection, but that these are the strongest reports Qadhi could present, from Bukhari and Muslim, and that he has shown that every single chain has a problem, whether al-Zuhri, Yunus, Abu al-Zubayr or others; his printout for seven hadith alone ran to twenty pages, and he says Qadhi, with his day and a half of research, has not even seen the ocean. He invites a challenge and a discussion, and anticipates the fair objection that al-Bukhari accepted the report by including it: he replies that those who challenged these narrators were equal dons, some greater and more senior than al-Bukhari, so that going with al-Bukhari's judgement alone is arbitrary, and that in any case this is doubt upon doubt where Qadhi claimed none.", "summary_short": "Every chain Mufti Abu Layth examined for the strongest reports in Bukhari and Muslim contains a criticised narrator, so Qadhi's claim that they leave no doubt fails; accepting a report because al-Bukhari included it, while ignoring critics who were his equals or seniors, is arbitrary.", "answer_start": 7022, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nawwas-ibn-saman", "label": "al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-walid-ibn-muslim", "label": "al-Walid ibn Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-mushir", "label": "Abu Mushir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis (mudallis)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says every chain he examined for the strongest reports of Jesus's return in Bukhari and Muslim has a criticised narrator, so Qadhi's claim that they leave no doubt fails, and that accepting a report because al-Bukhari included it while ignoring critics who were his equals or seniors is arbitrary.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "all of these chains are problematic every single chain has had a problem in it", "start": 7161}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/26/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/27", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S27", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 27, "start": 7335, "end": 7644, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The hadith of Aisha: a lone transmitter who dictated 41,000 reports in Isbahan", "question_plain": "Is the hadith of Aisha about Jesus and the Dajjal reliable?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth mentions a Bukhari report through a narrator described as not reliable, naive and weak, then takes up Qadhi's appeal to well-known companions with the hadith of Aisha. He says its narrators are problematised, among them a Yahya about whom al-Duri relates that they would tell him a hadith in the afternoon and by evening he would teach it as if from elsewhere, and whom al-Fallas said they did not transmit from. The most important point, he says, is the first narrator, not the famous Abu Dawud but another author of a hadith collection whose name is unclear in the recording [?], the only person to transmit this report from Aisha: whereas the others transmit the Prophet saying that if the Dajjal comes while he is among them he will deal with him, this narrator's version has Jesus coming. Mufti relates that this man knew many hadith but felt undervalued in Basra, moved to Isbahan where nobody wanted to learn from him, and, as Ibn Adi and others relate, began transmitting some forty-one thousand hadith without being asked and without a book, making mistakes in at least a thousand; in his version alone the Dajjal emerges from among the Jews of Isbahan, the very place where he felt undervalued, which Mufti finds suspicious.", "summary_short": "The hadith of Aisha on Jesus's return rests on a lone transmitter, an undervalued narrator who dictated 41,000 reports from memory in Isbahan with a thousand errors, and whose version alone has the Dajjal emerging from the Jews of Isbahan, which Mufti Abu Layth finds suspicious.", "answer_start": 7335, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2741e4cd", "label": "report: the dajjal emerges from the jews of isbahan (aisha)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4accedcd", "label": "report: if the dajjal comes while i am among you i will contend with him on your behalf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-adi", "label": "Ibn Adi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith of Aisha on Jesus's return rests on a lone transmitter, an undervalued narrator who dictated some forty-one thousand reports from memory in Isbahan with at least a thousand errors and whose version alone has the Dajjal emerging from the Jews of Isbahan, which he finds suspicious.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "he's the only person to have ever said that and that's where he was massively undervalued now you tell me is that not suspicious", "start": 7625}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/27/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/28", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S28", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 28, "start": 7644, "end": 7882, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Ibn Mas'ud report: the Christians' claim, unknown narrators and the fluid from beneath the Throne", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth say about the Ibn Mas'ud hadith on the end of time and Jesus's return?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud, noting that its chain contains a narrator nobody can identify, whose name is given variously, a problematised Hashim [?], and a barely known Abu Za'ra [?]. He points out that the report itself opens with Ibn Mas'ud saying that the Christians claim Jesus will come back, which he says shows the belief creeping in. The report then gives elaborate detail of the end of time: a wind, Gog and Magog, people dying and utter destruction, after which, Mufti says, bracing the audience, Allah sends down from beneath his Throne a fluid like the sperm of men, which showers the earth and from which life and the dead grow again. He repeats the passage, calls the idea of such a store beneath the Throne of God preposterous, and says this is one of the hadith Qadhi says cannot be questioned with reason.", "summary_short": "The Ibn Mas'ud report has unknown narrators, opens by noting the Christians' claim that Jesus will return, and ends with life regrowing from a seminal fluid sent from beneath the Throne, a detail Mufti Abu Layth calls preposterous and uses to argue that such reports can be questioned.", "answer_start": 7644, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6271346a", "label": "report: ibn masud the christians claim jesus will return and after the destruction allah sends down a fluid from beneath the throne like the sperm of men from which the dead regrow"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibn Mas'ud report of the return opens by noting the Christians' claim that Jesus will return, which shows the belief creeping in, has unidentifiable narrators in its chain, and ends with life regrowing from a seminal fluid sent from beneath the Throne, a detail he calls preposterous.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "ibn masawa begins by saying that the christians claim jesus will come back you see this belief creeping in", "start": 7660}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/28/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/29", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S29", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 29, "start": 7882, "end": 8038, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The blind narrator who had his slave girl check his hadith", "question_plain": "Who was the blind narrator of the return hadith who relied on his slave girl?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in one of the chains before the Ibn Mas'ud report there is a narrator, Yazid [?], who transmits that Jesus will return and who is not only unreliable but is recorded as having gone blind later in life, so that his memory weakened and he would ask his slave girl to check whatever he was doubtful about. He builds an extended comic scene of the slave girl, whose origin nobody knows and who he says was probably a Christian, being sat down as a hadith scholar to do the research and confirming that Jesus is coming, and says this was the state of some of those transmitting these hadith. He asks how, in that case, people can say such material cannot be questioned.", "summary_short": "One transmitter of the return reports went blind, lost his memory and relied on his slave girl to check what he doubted; Mufti Abu Layth uses the case, with extended mockery, to argue that these hadith can be questioned.", "answer_start": 7882, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yazid-ibn-abi-ziyad", "label": "Yazid [?] (narrator who went blind)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a transmitter of the return reports, Yazid, went blind, lost his memory and relied on his slave girl to check what he doubted, which shows the state of some of those transmitting these hadith and why they can be questioned.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "he became blind later on in life and his memory naturally got weak fakhana yesterday so how would he know what is going on he would get his slave girl to he would ask her whatever he was doubtful about", "start": 7910}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/29/"}, {"id": "TR3NSX3UFy8/s/30", "short_id": "2021-03-14-S30", "recording": "TR3NSX3UFy8", "n": 30, "start": 8038, "end": 8266, "date": "20210314", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Closing: reports against reason can be questioned; eighty percent through Abu Hurayra", "question_plain": "Can the hadith on Jesus's return be questioned, and how many of them depend on Abu Hurayra?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks how one cannot question reports that go against reason, given fluids beneath the Throne and slave girls doing the research, and says this is his point about such beliefs. He says there is more to cover but that it takes long, and challenges anyone to bring a single unquestionable hadith with no problem in its chain to prove the return. He says that eighty percent of these hadith come through Abu Hurayra alone and almost fifty percent through one man, that the other companions cited are not the well-known ones, with the Ibn Mas'ud and Aisha reports resting on the narrators he has described, and that the report of Umar being told by rabbis of their belief is not Umar relating the Prophet's words; he asks how what is supposed to be the greatest event in history reached us only through companions one rarely hears of, such as Nawwas ibn Sam'an, and through problematised chains. He repeats that over the coming weeks he will continue in a series he calls Disclosure with a big D, since Qadhi gave half truths, acknowledges a chat comment about his imitation of the slave girl, and wraps up the session.", "summary_short": "Reports that go against reason can be questioned, and not one unquestionable hadith establishes the return: eighty percent of them come through Abu Hurayra alone, about half through one man, and the other companions cited are obscure. Mufti Abu Layth promises a continuing series, Disclosure with a big D.", "answer_start": 8038, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nawwas-ibn-saman", "label": "al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith that goes against reason may be questioned"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that reports which go against reason may be questioned, that eighty percent of the hadith on Jesus's return come through Abu Hurayra alone and about half through one man, and that the other companions cited are obscure, so no unquestionable hadith establishes the return.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "bring me one unquestionable hadith just one to prove this that there's no question about anything in its chain", "start": 8084}}, "url": "/r/TR3NSX3UFy8/s/30/"}, {"id": "TRR4o2JZIZc/s/1", "short_id": "2019-11-03-S01", "recording": "TRR4o2JZIZc", "n": 1, "start": 4, "end": 550, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The verse of Surah al-Nur: covering the jayb, the khimar and the head", "question_plain": "Does the Quran actually tell women to cover their hair, or only their chest?", "summary": "A viewer notes that the verse of Surah al-Nur on hijab speaks more about covering the jayb than covering the head. Mufti Abu Layth says he has covered this before and will again, but explains that hijab is a modern term: in the Quran it means a barrier, the head covering is called the khimar in Arabic, and calling the head covering hijab dates from about the twentieth century. He says there is nothing explicit in the Quran or the Sunnah about covering the head; the verse in al-Nur tells women to draw their khimars over their jayb, the slit of the dress that exposed the chest, and he demonstrates with a towel how the khimar that Arab women already wore was to be brought round from the back to cover the bosom. He asks whether the khimar is itself an obligation or circumstantial, and gives the analogy of telling people to cover their expensive watches with their sleeves: centuries later, would that mean sleeves were required, or could one equally put the watch in a pocket? He adds that early Islam had a culture of women, and men, covering the head in the desert, that it was common though not necessarily universal, that there was debate among the tabi'in, with Imam Malik saying a woman need not cover her head in front of certain people such as a father-in-law, son-in-law and certain servants, and that within a generation it became the teaching that all women must cover their hair, which has been the culture for about a thousand years.", "summary_short": "There is nothing explicit in the Quran or Sunnah about covering the head; the verse of al-Nur tells women to cover the jayb (the chest opening) with the khimar they already wore, and whether the khimar itself is obligatory or circumstantial is an open question. Covering the hair became the settled teaching within a generation of the companions.", "answer_start": 4, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:31", "label": "Quran 24:31 (let them draw their khimars over their jayb)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khimar", "label": "khimar (head covering)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jayb", "label": "jayb (the chest opening of a garment)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:context-of-revelation", "label": "reading a command in the circumstances it addressed"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is nothing explicit in the Quran or the established Sunnah about covering the head: hijab is a modern term, the verse of al-Nur commands covering the jayb with the khimar women already wore, and whether the khimar itself is an obligation or a circumstance of the time is an open question.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "is there anything in the Quran and Sunnah that clearly speaks about the head covering the truth is there isn't there's nothing explicit in the or are nor in the Sun neither speaks about the head covering", "start": 82}}, "url": "/r/TRR4o2JZIZc/s/1/"}, {"id": "TRR4o2JZIZc/s/2", "short_id": "2019-11-03-S02", "recording": "TRR4o2JZIZc", "n": 2, "start": 550, "end": 709, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Scholars who say covering the hair is not obligatory: a valid position", "question_plain": "Is it a sin for a Muslim woman not to cover her hair?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has been asked what he says in this day and age, given that certain scholars, such as Javed Ahmad Ghamidi [?] and a few other contemporaries, have said it is not an obligation for women to cover the hair. He says he feels they have a valid position, though he would not tell women who cover that they are wrong: wearing what people now call hijab is part of their identity and he would always call it a good thing. Equally, women who do not cover the head, whether uninterested in the discussion or holding that it is not an obligation, hold what he calls an equally valid opinion, and he does not see it as a question of going to hell, because there is nothing explicit in the Quran or the soundly established Sunnah, and a hadith on it would have to be both soundly established and clear. He mentions that someone recently told him they were going to start wearing hijab and that he welcomed it, and says that if a woman was not wearing it he would point out that what the Quran explicitly establishes is modesty. These are people's personal journeys through the faith, he says, and not for others to impose.", "summary_short": "Contemporary scholars who say covering the hair is not obligatory hold a valid position, and not wearing hijab is an equally valid opinion to wearing it, which Mufti Abu Layth calls good as part of a woman's identity. What the Quran explicitly establishes is modesty, and the choice is a personal journey, not something to impose.", "answer_start": 550, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that scholars who say covering the hair is not obligatory have a valid position, that wearing hijab is a good thing as part of a woman's identity, and that not wearing it is an equally valid opinion and not a matter of going to hell, since only modesty is explicitly established in the Quran and the sound Sunnah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "some who are but feel it's not an obligation I would say that that equally is a valid opinion as well", "start": 571}}, "url": "/r/TRR4o2JZIZc/s/2/"}, {"id": "TRR4o2JZIZc/s/3", "short_id": "2019-11-03-S03", "recording": "TRR4o2JZIZc", "n": 3, "start": 709, "end": 1022, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Coercing women to cover: male insecurity and religious guilt", "question_plain": "Can a husband or father force a woman to wear hijab?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is not for men to force women to cover their hair: a man may hold the opinion, but coercing people would in his understanding be categorically wrong and do far greater harm. He says the problem has two sides. One is insecure men who cannot handle women being seen, who treat a woman as either wrapped up in bubble wrap or a prostitute, which he mocks as ridiculous and calls an embarrassing weakness in which what men lack within they try to impose without. The other is that some such people reach positions of power and guilt-trip others through fatwas, telling men that a wife walking around uncovered makes them a cuckold, that it is haram and an abomination and that God's curse descends on them, so that other men enforce covering on wives, sisters and daughters out of fear of being cursed. After an aside asking the chat to watch its language, he calls this religious burden of guilt sickening and those who impose it sick, says both the insecurity and the guilt are inaccurate and wrong, and says this is the problem with institutionalisation, which produces hypocrisy and guilt that Islam never came to produce.", "summary_short": "Forcing women to cover their hair is categorically wrong in Mufti Abu Layth's view and does greater harm. He attributes the pressure to men's insecurity about women and to guilt imposed through fatwas that curse men whose wives do not cover, both of which he calls wrong.", "answer_start": 709, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "relationships/masculinity-and-gender-roles", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that for men to coerce women into covering their hair is categorically wrong and does greater harm, and that the pressure to do so comes from male insecurity about women and from guilt imposed through fatwas, both of which he calls inaccurate and wrong.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "but to enforce that to kind of coerce people that would in my understanding be categorically wrong category wrong and you'd be doing much greater harm in my understanding", "start": 709}}, "url": "/r/TRR4o2JZIZc/s/3/"}, {"id": "TRR4o2JZIZc/s/4", "short_id": "2019-11-03-S04", "recording": "TRR4o2JZIZc", "n": 4, "start": 1022, "end": 1123, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The deen is ease: it should complement your life, not burden it", "question_plain": "Is Islam supposed to feel like a burden?", "summary": "Closing the answer, Mufti Abu Layth says, as he repeats time and again, that this deen is one of ease, citing the Prophet's words that the religion is ease. It should complement a person's lifestyle and never impede them, trip them up, hold them back or be an obstacle; it should be a boost that betters them and propels them to achieve, comforting and consoling them rather than weighing them down with guilt and suffering. If it is causing suffering, he says, that is not his understanding of the deen, and he and those who read it that way would disagree in their understandings: Islam as he understands it complements his life and is not burdensome. He acknowledges that for many other people it does seem to be a burden and that this is their interpretation, but says that interpretation is not the one the deen came with, and hopes his answer helps.", "summary_short": "The deen is one of ease and should complement a person's life rather than burden them with guilt and suffering. An interpretation of Islam that weighs people down is, in Mufti Abu Layth's view, not the one the religion came with.", "answer_start": 1022, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity", "fiqh/hijab-and-niqab"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:32d192a5", "label": "report: al-din yusr the religion is ease"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the deen is one of ease that should complement a person's life rather than impede it, and that an interpretation of Islam which burdens people with guilt and suffering is not the one the religion came with.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this theme is one of ease this Deen should complement your lifestyle people it should never impede it", "start": 1022}}, "url": "/r/TRR4o2JZIZc/s/4/"}, {"id": "TgaNlc0x_iI/s/1", "short_id": "2021-03-16-S01", "recording": "TgaNlc0x_iI", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 85, "date": "20210316", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Shaykh Dedew: critical in some things, dogmatic in others", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of Shaykh Dedew?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth is asked for his thoughts on Shaykh Dedew. He says he had a liking or soft spot for him, had once reached out and exchanged messages with him, but has not seen much of him on social media for two or three years. He says Shaykh Dedew has some very interesting fatawa and is strangely critical in some things and still dogmatic in others. He suggests taking the critical things from him while remaining open-minded about the dogmatic ones.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth has a soft spot for Shaykh Dedew and finds some of his fatawa very interesting, though he is critical in some things and dogmatic in others. Take the critical things from him and stay open-minded on the dogmatic ones.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-hasan-al-dedew", "label": "Muhammad al-Hasan Ould al-Dedew"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/TgaNlc0x_iI/s/1/"}, {"id": "TincZqdQpgs/s/1", "short_id": "2019-12-19-S01", "recording": "TincZqdQpgs", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 334, "date": "20191219", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Arabisation of Indo-Pak Islam and the import of Gulf culture", "question_plain": "Why are Indo-Pak Muslims adopting Gulf Arab culture?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says there seems to be a new branding of Islam in the Indian subcontinent, an Arabisation of Indo-Pak Muslims, which he personally does not like. He notes that a few centuries ago India's economy rivalled a third of the globe and that the subcontinent's Muslims today roughly double the Muslims of all Arab states, and says they historically saw themselves as distinct, never part of the Umayyads, Abbasids or Ottomans; he doubts claims that the Mughals, such as Akbar, cared about the Ottomans. Mufti says Islam has been in the region since the first century, under al-Hajjaj with Muhammad ibn al-Qasim [?] reaching Sindh, and its culture was in harmony with those around it. He says a new push to say Muslims were never the same people as their Hindu neighbours breeds the fascism seen in the rise of the far right in India, and he objects to replacing Persian words with Arabic ones, Gulf-style black clothing and hijab, and refusing to say Khuda Hafiz in favour of Allah Hafiz. Mufti says there is nothing wrong with Allah Hafiz, but when people try to stamp such things he feels politics is at play, and things should be natural rather than imposed.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth dislikes the push to Arabise Indo-Pak Islam, from Gulf dress to saying Allah Hafiz, feeling it is political and that culture should be natural, not imposed.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/subcontinent", "society/race-and-identity", "society/current-events/india-and-hindutva"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:mughal-empire", "label": "the Mughal Empire"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jalal-al-din-akbar", "label": "Jalal al-Din Akbar"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ottoman-empire", "label": "the Ottomans"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "the Umayyads"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "the Abbasids"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-hajjaj-ibn-yusuf", "label": "al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-ibn-al-qasim", "label": "Muhammad ibn al-Qasim [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:culture-versus-religion", "label": "culture versus religion"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he personally does not like the Arabisation of Indo-Pak Muslims, feeling that things should be natural and not imposed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel that there's a lot of politics at play that's all I personally don't like that kind I think that things should be natural you shouldn't try to impose things", "start": 299}}, "url": "/r/TincZqdQpgs/s/1/"}, {"id": "UiXtl3PQP-Q/s/1", "short_id": "2019-03-22-S01", "recording": "UiXtl3PQP-Q", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 155, "date": "20190322", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why Maliki fiqh? First, what fiqh is and how it relates to Shari'ah", "question_plain": "What is fiqh, and is it the same as Shari'ah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the question of why he chose Maliki fiqh and begins, for viewers who are less expert, with what fiqh is. He jokes about how the word is pronounced, noting that some Arabs today say it differently, while traditionally it is fiqh with a kasra. He defines fiqh as our understanding of what is expected of us towards God and towards people. He says it is partly synonymous with Shari'ah, which people tend to reserve for the legal side, whereas the other term is broader and includes worship and non-legal matters, describing the relationship between the two as one of general and particular [?]. He adds that within fiqh there are different ways of interpreting and extracting Islamic law, which leads into the schools.", "summary_short": "Fiqh is our understanding of what is expected of us towards God and towards people. It overlaps with Shari'ah, which people usually keep for the legal side, and it has different ways of deriving rulings.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shariah", "label": "Shari'ah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says fiqh is our understanding of what is expected of us towards God and towards people, partly synonymous with Shari'ah, a word people tend to reserve for the legal side.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's our understanding of what is kind of expected from us okay towards God or towards people", "start": 71}}, "url": "/r/UiXtl3PQP-Q/s/1/"}, {"id": "UiXtl3PQP-Q/s/2", "short_id": "2019-03-22-S02", "recording": "UiXtl3PQP-Q", "n": 2, "start": 155, "end": 441, "date": "20190322", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The four surviving schools, the school of Madinah, and why he left the Hanafi school", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth follow the Maliki school rather than the Hanafi?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that many schools of law once existed, in the tens or even hundreds, but four remained: the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali, and he jokes with his fingers that he counts the Hanbali school as the fourth out of kindness, calling its contribution to fiqh small. He describes the Maliki school as the school of Madinah, built upon welfare and firmly rooted in evidence, and says he did not choose it so much as it chose him, because it made so much sense to follow. He says one may follow any school, and that most people from the Indian subcontinent, himself included while growing up, are Hanafi; Abu Hanifa was a legend, but in his assessment the school has long been hijacked, has become the antithesis of its founder and is now a controlling school. He says the Maliki school ruled Muslim Spain, where Muslims were probably Maliki for at least seven hundred years, was spread across every continent and more diverse than any other school, and had key figures who contributed to it without shunning one another, which made it a rich and resourceful school.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth follows the Maliki school of Madinah because it is built on welfare and rooted in evidence and made the most sense to him. He says the Hanafi school, despite Abu Hanifa's greatness, has been hijacked into a controlling school.", "answer_start": 155, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-andalus", "label": "Muslim Spain (al-Andalus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he follows the Maliki school of Madinah because it is built upon welfare and rooted in evidence and made the most sense, and that the Hanafi school, though Abu Hanifa was a legend, has long been hijacked and become a controlling school that is the antithesis of its founder.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the Maliki method is known as the school of Medina it is the most awesome school of law there ever is because it is built upon welfare and firmly rooted in evidence", "start": 219}}, "url": "/r/UiXtl3PQP-Q/s/2/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/1", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S01", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 313, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Opening: the verse of Surah al-Hajj and what reason means", "question_plain": "What does reason mean in religion, and what does the Quran say about it?", "summary": "After the opening praise and thanks to the organisers for the chance to speak on something he says is desperately needed in our times, the role of reason in religion, Mufti Abu Layth reads the verse from Surah al-Hajj asking whether people do not travel the earth so as to have hearts with which to reason and ears with which to hear, for it is not the eyes that are blind but the hearts, which he takes as the backdrop of the talk. He says the word 'reason' is surprisingly contentious among Muslims, perhaps the only community in which 'rational' and 'intellectual' are used as slurs. Asking the audience what reason means, and distinguishing it from formal logic with its Greek baggage and fixed premises, he defines reason as the ability of a healthy mind to think and make judgements, especially on the basis of practical facts, a definition broader and more inclusive than logic, which practical facts such as quantum physics can outrun. He notes that the verse encourages people to go out, perceive things and so acquire faculties of reason.", "summary_short": "Reason is the ability of a healthy mind to think and make judgements based on practical facts, broader than formal logic; Mufti Abu Layth takes the Surah al-Hajj verse that the hearts, not the eyes, are blind as the backdrop of the talk.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:46", "label": "Quran 22:46 (it is not the eyes that are blind but the hearts; he names Surah al-Hajj without the verse number) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (reason)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says reason is the ability of a healthy mind to think and make judgements based on practical facts, broader than formal logic, and that the Quran in Surah al-Hajj urges people to travel and perceive so as to gain hearts that reason.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "reason is the ability of a healthy mind to to think and make judgment especially based on practical facts that is what reason is", "start": 226}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/1/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/2", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S02", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 2, "start": 313, "end": 560, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why does religion need reason at all? Audience suggestions and the prequel", "question_plain": "Why do Muslims need reason if they already have the Quran and Sunnah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth poses the question of what the big deal is: now that Islam has reached us in the Quran and Sunnah, why do we need our brains to analyse it? He takes suggestions from the audience. One member raises the example of Hindus defending the drinking of cow urine from scripture, and Muslims doing the same with camel urine, and Mufti agrees these points matter but says he wants to go to the prequel, the source of why reason is important in the first place. Other suggestions, that the message must be understood and that one reasons from evidence, are told they are getting there but that there is something much more important when it comes to religion and reason.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why reason matters once Islam has reached us, hears audience suggestions, and says the most important answer still lies before all of them, in the prequel he is about to give.", "answer_start": 313, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/2/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/3", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S03", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 3, "start": 560, "end": 954, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How do you know Islam is true? Hinduism, the mug deity and the story of Ganesh", "question_plain": "How do Muslims know Islam is true and other religions are not?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the ultimate question is how we know Islam is true and other religions are not. Taking Hinduism as his example, with an apology to any Hindus present, he asks why nobody in the room believes idols are gods, holding up a mug and asking why it could not be a deity; the audience answers from the general laws of nature and cause and effect. He tells a summarised version of the story of Ganesh, whose father beheaded him unknowingly and replaced his head with an elephant's, and asks by whose reason and whose intellect people call this absurd, given that intelligence varies. His answer is that human beings share an intersubjectivity, the basis of language itself, so that a normal healthy mind judging on practical facts can call something absurd when it does not add up to reality: heads are not replaced with elephant heads in the real world. He asks the audience to lock this thought in, since Muslims use reason to demonstrate the fallacy of Hinduism or of three gods being one, and asks whether they do not then have the responsibility to apply the same standards to Islam rather than exempting themselves because they are Muslims.", "summary_short": "Muslims reject Hinduism and the Trinity by reason, relying on a shared human intersubjectivity that judges by practical facts; Mufti Abu Layth says the same standard of reason must therefore be applied to Islam.", "answer_start": 560, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:one-standard-for-all-religions", "label": "one set of standards: judge Islam's claims by the same test applied to other religions"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Muslims use reason to reject Hinduism and the Trinity, that a shared human intersubjectivity lets a healthy mind judge such claims absurd, and that the same standard of reason must be applied to Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the question here comes do we do we not have the responsibility then to apply those same standards to Islam", "start": 906}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/3/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/4", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S04", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 4, "start": 954, "end": 1421, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Nazar and taqlid in creed: knowing rather than believing, and the two levels of faith", "question_plain": "Is blind faith (taqlid) in creed acceptable in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Islamic ruling is what theology calls nazar, the duty to contemplate and reason in order to have knowledge, since the Quran's first commandment to mankind is to know that there is no god but Allah, not merely to say it. He explains taqlid, which an audience member helps him define, as being led blindly, from the word for a leash, though without a degrading connotation when one follows a school of law. He reports that most scholars, especially the theologians who wrote the creeds, held that taqlid in matters of faith is haram and that such faith is invalid, which would mean most Muslims are not Muslims by that standard, since few reason their way to God. An audience member asks whether this was different before religious education became diluted; Mufti answers that in his view most people have always gone with the flow and that real thinkers are a minority. He reports that one author overstated the case by saying all theologians held this, while others such as al-Safarini [?], al-Shawkani and al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam [?] split faith into two levels: a tolerated level for those who are Muslim because they were born Muslim, and a richer level, which Islam aspires to, where one actually knows Allah to be one. The distinction, he says, is between knowing Islam to be true and merely thinking it true because one was told, and knowing requires comparing, contrasting and asking why Hinduism or the Arabs' idols could not be true.", "summary_short": "The theologians held that blind-following in creed is haram and that faith must rest on reasoning; later scholars tolerated inherited faith as a lower level while holding that Islam aspires to faith that knows God to be one.", "answer_start": 954, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:nazar", "label": "nazar (reasoned contemplation, in theology)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqlid", "label": "taqlid"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:47:19", "label": "Quran 47:19 (know that there is no god but Allah; verse not numbered by him) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-safarini", "label": "al-Safarini [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-izz-ibn-abd-al-salam", "label": "al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:no-taqlid-in-creed", "label": "creed cannot be blind-followed"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's command to know that there is no god but Allah requires reasoning and comparison rather than mere assertion, and he presents the theologians' view that blind-following in creed is impermissible alongside later scholars' distinction between a tolerated and a richer level of faith.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so to know it you have to compare you have to contrast you have to think well why can't that be true why can't Hinduism be true", "start": 1369}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/4/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/5", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S05", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 5, "start": 1421, "end": 1725, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why are Muslims against reason? Insecurity, an unreasonable God, and reason ceded to atheists", "question_plain": "Why are so many Muslims and scholars opposed to using reason in religion?", "summary": "Having argued that we know Islam to be true through reason, Mufti Abu Layth asks why so many people, scholars included, are against something so obvious, and an audience member suggests insecurities. He adds a further point: if we worship a God, we do not believe God is unreasonable, and he promises to come to the things within Islam that people think clash with reason, which he attributes to portrayals and interpretations. He observes that Islam, and religion as a whole, is not seen as reasonable today, that reason seems to have been monopolised by atheists and scientists, although it belonged to nobody: the old Muslim scholars called it wisdom, hikmah, and those who studied nature, like Aristotle, were doing what is now called science, a systematic observation of the world. He says that while Muslims like to call Islam a religion of reason, many, including scholars, become opposed to the idea that things ought to go back to reason, and he argues it makes no sense that Allah would give us reason, tell us to use it to discover Him, and then command things that clash with it, which he calls a sick joke. He mentions that he recently got into a debate on this.", "summary_short": "Opposition to reason comes from insecurity, Mufti Abu Layth says; God is not unreasonable and would not give people reason and then command what clashes with it, and Muslims have ceded reason, once called hikmah, to atheists and scientists.", "answer_start": 1421, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hikmah", "label": "hikmah (wisdom)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says God is not unreasonable and would not give people reason to discover Him and then command what clashes with reason, and that reason, which Muslim scholars once called hikmah, has been ceded to atheists and scientists.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it doesn't make sense that Allah would give us reason tell us to use it to discover him and then tell us to obey Him with things which clash with reason", "start": 1677}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/5/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/6", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S06", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 6, "start": 1725, "end": 2193, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A debate on 'revelation above reason': how do you know the Quran is from God?", "question_plain": "How do we know the Quran is the word of God, if not by reason?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts a recent discussion with someone who disliked his talk of going back to reason and said that in Islam reason is respected but revelation stands above it as the arbiter. He calls this an appeal to emotion built on what Sherman Jackson calls false universals, phrases that sound good but mean little, casting him as favouring reason over God. Setting the emotion aside, he asked how his interlocutor knew revelation to be the word of God. He reports the answers and his replies: that the book says it is the truth, to which he answered that the Vedas and the Bible say the same; that it is unlike any other book, which every scripture claims; that its Arabic is of unfathomable eloquence, to which he replied that his interlocutor did not fathom it himself and that most of mankind, including most of the roughly three hundred million Arabs, could never know it to be true on that basis; that it contains no mistakes, to which he said neither does Harry Potter, and that atheists in any case allege discrepancies such as a day being fifty thousand years in one place and a thousand in another; and finally that its verses of majesty, such as Allah sending down rain and bringing forth fruit, are so evident, which he said anyone could say. He concludes that a faith built on such arguments is weaker than a spiderweb, which the Quran calls the weakest of homes.", "summary_short": "Arguments that the Quran is true because it says so, is unlike other books, is eloquent or flawless, or speaks of rain and fruit are no stronger than a spiderweb, Mufti Abu Layth says; without reason one only believes Islam is true because one was told.", "answer_start": 1725, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sherman-jackson", "label": "Sherman Jackson"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:29:41", "label": "Quran 29:41 (the weakest of homes is the spider's; verse not numbered by him) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that arguments for the Quran's truth which rest on the book asserting its own truth, its uniqueness, its eloquence, its lack of mistakes or its verses about rain and fruit are no stronger than a spiderweb, and that revelation can only be known to be true through reason.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "if that's what you're building your faith on that is weaker than a spiderweb as Allah says in the Quran", "start": 2179}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/6/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/7", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S07", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 7, "start": 2193, "end": 2507, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Certainty over tolerated faith: the hadith of the grave and taking reason back", "question_plain": "Does Islam stand the test of reason, and why should Muslims not fear examining it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if someone wants to build their iman on such arguments that is the tolerated level of Islam, but they should not try to stop people who want to believe Islam with certainty; those who do so act out of insecurity and fear of finding things that do not make sense. He states as his personal conviction that Islam has stood not only the test of time but the test of reason, that Muslims owe it to Islam to measure it openly, and that fear along the way is part of the journey of faith. He cites a sahih hadith found in Bukhari and other books about the questioning in the grave, in which the person who does not know his Lord says he heard people saying something and went along with it, and is told that he neither knew nor followed; this, he says, is the evidence of all who say reason must be used in Islam. In a time when religion is being tested, he says, people cannot afford to shy away; Islam has never failed the test, and where an interpretation clashes with reason it must be re-evaluated. To those who say he is sucking up to the West out of insecurity, he replies that he simply wants to know Islam to be true, as Allah commands. His key message is that religion, with Islam at the forefront, is being shredded and mocked, so Muslims must take back the reason Allah gave them and show that Islam is the voice of reason, examining openly anything in it said to clash with reason.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has certainty that Islam has stood the test of reason as well as time, that the hadith of the grave condemns faith that merely repeats what people say, and that Muslims must take reason back rather than shy away.", "answer_start": 2193, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/afterlife/grave-and-barzakh", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b192ec8e", "label": "report: i heard people saying something so i said it"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has certainty that Islam has stood the test of reason as well as of time, that Muslims owe it to Islam to measure it openly, and that the hadith of the grave in which the dead person says he merely repeated what people said is evidence that reason is required in faith.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i tell you i have that much certainty this is me as a personal person might as a personal opinion and conviction in islam that it has stood not only the test of time but the test of reason", "start": 2217}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/7/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/8", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S08", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 8, "start": 2507, "end": 2739, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Zakir Naik's reply to an ex-Muslim on evolution, and what 'theory' means", "question_plain": "Was Zakir Naik right to dismiss evolution as 'just a theory'?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people are leaving the faith in droves because scientists and atheists tell them their religion is a joke, and Muslim scholars make it worse. He describes a clip sent to him of Zakir Naik being asked, respectfully, by a young ex-Muslim studying a biomedical subject what Islam says about evolution, since he could not reconcile it with Islam. In his account Naik first asked whether the man would become Muslim if answered, then mocked the question rather than answering it, calling evolution 'only a theory' and saying that as a medical doctor he knew these things; when the questioner replied that gravity is also called a theory, Naik said a theory is a hypothesis and went on to joke about coming from monkeys, cementing the man's disbelief. Mufti explains that 'theory' has a common usage, meaning a guess, and a technical usage in science, where it can denote an established fact such as the theory of gravity, and that people are naive about the difference. He says he was upset by the clip: not knowing an answer is fine, but one should not do Islam such a disservice. He then turns to what the Quran says, noting that it is not a journal of facts, though it contains signs from which lessons can be taken.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says Naik's mocking reply to an ex-Muslim did Islam a disservice, and that in science a theory can be an established fact, as with gravity, not merely a hypothesis.", "answer_start": 2507, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zakir-naik", "label": "Zakir Naik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/8/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/9", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S09", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 9, "start": 2739, "end": 2973, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Quran is not a science textbook: 'go and see how creation began' and 'everything in pairs'", "question_plain": "Does the Quran have to mention something for it to be true?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Allah is not giving scientific facts in the Quran, and that evolution is a brilliant example: in Surah al-Ankabut Allah says to walk the earth and look at how He began creation, telling people to explore. He says people wrongly assume that what is not mentioned in the Quran cannot be true, and that non-Muslims perceive this as the arrogance of religious people, who treat new knowledge in two ways: either it is not in the holy books so it cannot be true, or if it has some truth it must be insignificant, otherwise the book would have mentioned it. The Quran, he says, never claimed to exhaust all knowledge; it tells people to look, think and use their intellect. As an example he cites the verse that Allah created everything in pairs, and notes that a few creatures reproduce by parthenogenesis without a male, such as a whiptail lizard and some parasitic wasps, and that others such as the Komodo dragon can reproduce asexually; someone objected that such creatures cannot exist because Allah said otherwise, but Allah was giving a general understanding that creatures generally come in pairs, not a lesson in taxonomy. Reading the Quran as an exhaustive science lesson, he says, creates a problem.", "summary_short": "No: the Quran tells people to explore how creation began and never claimed to exhaust knowledge; its statement that everything is created in pairs is a general truth, not a taxonomy that rules out creatures which reproduce without a male.", "answer_start": 2739, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/quran-and-science", "quran/hermeneutics", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:29:20", "label": "Quran 29:20 (walk the earth and see how He began creation; he names Surah al-Ankabut without the verse number) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:51:49", "label": "Quran 51:49 (of everything We created pairs; verse not numbered by him) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Quran is not an exhaustive scientific textbook: its statement that everything is created in pairs is a general truth, and it tells people to explore how creation began rather than to reject knowledge absent from scripture.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Allah wasn't trying to teach you an exhaustive scientific lesson he was giving you a general understanding of life that generally things come in pairs", "start": 2913}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/9/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/10", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S10", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 10, "start": 2973, "end": 3368, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Where the aversion to reason began: the sectarian cold war with the Mu'tazila", "question_plain": "Why did Muslims become hostile to reason?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why Muslims are averse to reason when the Quran constantly says to use the intellect and the Prophet encouraged it, yet in Muslim culture and scholarship calling someone rational is a slur. From his reading of Islamic history he traces the culture to several causes, the first being sectarianism, a cold war like that between the USA and USSR, above all between the Mu'tazila and the main body of Muslims. He objects to translating Mu'tazila as rationalists: they were an extremist sect, influenced by the earlier Khawarij, whom he likens to ISIS, and they split from the Muslims by holding that a person who commits a major sin is neither Muslim nor kafir but in a limbo state, al-manzila bayn al-manzilatayn, from which their name, those who went off in isolation, derives. Because they were not hadith scholars like the mainstream, they argued through reason, which all Muslims were doing, but the mainstream reaction was to mock them for resorting to reason rather than to out-reason them, and this became the normal Muslim reaction. He believes this reinforced a narrative that there are things in Islam unsupported by reason and, as a method of control, re-engineered a whole genre of irrationality: when the Mu'tazila pointed to absurd narrations, the mainstream scholars, instead of conceding the problem, accused them of trying to rationalise everything, and because the conflict lasted centuries all this was written into the books. He then introduces the second cause, the Golden Age of Islam under Harun al-Rashid and the house of wisdom.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth traces Muslim hostility to reason to the centuries-long sectarian conflict with the Mu'tazila, in which the mainstream answered the Mu'tazila's use of reason by disparaging reason itself and defending absurd narrations.", "answer_start": 2973, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:manzila-bayn-al-manzilatayn", "label": "al-manzila bayn al-manzilatayn (the position between the two positions)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:harun-al-rashid", "label": "Harun al-Rashid"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Muslim aversion to reason grew out of the sectarian cold war with the Mu'tazila, when the mainstream reacted to the Mu'tazila's use of reason by disparaging reason itself and defending absurd narrations as a method of control.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "as a method of control for these people a whole genre of irrationality was recreated and re-engineered to kind of keep these people at bay", "start": 3293}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/10/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/11", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S11", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 11, "start": 3368, "end": 3524, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The backlash against the Golden Age and the institutionalisation of religion", "question_plain": "How did the Golden Age backlash and the clergy contribute to Muslim hostility to reason?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Islamic Golden Age refers not to prosperity but to an intellectual boom: the house of wisdom was set up, Greek manuscripts and philosophy were translated, and Muslim philosophers such as Ibn Sina, al-Kindi and al-Farabi [?] emerged, not always correct but thinkers, while Muslims began to make discoveries in medicine. Because the Golden Age so promoted philosophy and reason, he says, there was a reaction against it and a dumbing down of reason. A third factor is institutionalisation: every religion over the centuries became about power held by clergy and institutions. In Christianity the church became the state, whereas in Islam there was never a central mosque or a theocracy and the clergy never ran the kingdoms, yet the clergy were a powerful institution, and the notion that the deen is not supposed to make sense to you became a powerful tool for keeping people down when they disagreed with a fatwa.", "summary_short": "The philosophy and reason promoted in the Golden Age provoked a reaction that dumbed reason down, and institutionalised clergy found 'who said the deen is supposed to make sense' a useful tool of control.", "answer_start": 3368, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:bayt-al-hikma", "label": "the house of wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma), which he calls Dar al-Hikmah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-sina", "label": "Ibn Sina [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-kindi", "label": "al-Kindi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-farabi", "label": "al-Farabi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the backlash against the philosophy of the Golden Age and the institutionalisation of religion among the clergy produced a culture in which the idea that the deen need not make sense became a tool of control.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this concept of well who said the Deen is supposed to make sense to you this culture is a powerful tool to control people", "start": 3484}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/11/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/12", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S12", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 12, "start": 3524, "end": 3680, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Fear that reason leads out of Islam, and doubt as a path to certainty: Ibrahim's question", "question_plain": "Will using reason make me lose my faith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth addresses the fear that using reason leads people to leave Islam. He says this fear is itself an insecurity and a kind of hypocrisy: to warn that uncovering truths will lead someone out of Islam is to admit one suspects Islam is not true. People have told him countless times that they worry he will become an atheist. He replies that doubt is a testimony of iman, since the ability to doubt is what leads to a more certain understanding, and asks what the alternative is other than blind following. He cites Ibrahim asking Allah to show him how He gives life to the dead, not because he did not believe but for tranquillity of heart, and the hadith that Ibrahim doubted and that we are more deserving of such doubt; if doubt leads to a pure understanding of Allah and Islam, Muslims are more deserving of it. He then introduces a further objection, that not everything in Islam will make sense, for which people cite a report attributed to Ali.", "summary_short": "No, Mufti Abu Layth says: fearing that reason leads out of Islam betrays a lack of belief that Islam is true, and doubt that leads to a more certain understanding is legitimate, as Ibrahim's request to see how Allah revives the dead shows.", "answer_start": 3524, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "wellbeing/negative-thoughts-and-mindset"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:260", "label": "Quran 2:260 (my Lord, show me how You give life to the dead; verse not numbered by him) [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:95ed3e02", "label": "report: we are more deserving of doubt than ibrahim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that fearing reason will lead people out of Islam betrays a lack of real belief that Islam is true, and that doubt which leads to a more certain understanding is legitimate, as Ibrahim's question and the hadith about his doubt show.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if I say to you oh by using reason you're gonna end up leaving Islam well that just translates as okay so by trying to uncover truths you think I'll find certain truths which show that Islam isn't true", "start": 3524}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/12/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/13", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S13", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 13, "start": 3680, "end": 3916, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'If the deen were by opinion': Ali's report on wiping the khuff, and why rituals are not against reason", "question_plain": "Does Ali's saying about wiping the socks prove that religion is not based on reason?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth examines the report attributed to Ali that if the religion were by opinion the bottom of the leather sock would deserve wiping more than the top, but that he saw the Prophet wipe the top, which is transmitted in Abu Dawud, Musnad Ahmad, al-Bazzar, Abu Ya'la and other books and is cited to show that not everything in Islam makes sense. He says he does not accept that wording as sound: its chain runs through al-A'mash, a mudallis, and Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i, generally reliable men who nonetheless had problems, one known for tadlis and one whose memory failed later in life, and in the versions in Musnad Ahmad, Abu Ya'la and al-Bazzar the phrase about opinion is absent and Ali only says he saw the Prophet wipe in this way. Second, Imam Malik records in the Muwatta that Ibn Shihab wiped both the top and the bottom, reflecting the practice of Madinah, and wiping the bottom is sunnah in the Maliki school, so the premise holds only in some schools. Third, rituals as such are not claims against reason: every faith has worship, and the particular form of a ritual, one bowing rather than two, is not meant to have an objective beyond being performed; nobody, not even scientists, demands that rituals be defined by reason, and the concept of ritual accords with reason. He then turns to the question of miracles in the Quran.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the 'if the deen were by opinion' wording has a weak chain and is absent from several versions, that Malik's Muwatta records wiping both sides of the khuff, and that rituals are practices rather than claims against reason.", "answer_start": 3680, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "fiqh/purification"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2c98b2b9", "label": "report: if the deen were by opinion the bottom of the khuff would deserve wiping more than the top"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-amash", "label": "al-A'mash"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ishaq-al-sabii", "label": "Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-al-bazzar", "label": "Musnad al-Bazzar"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-abi-yala", "label": "Musnad Abi Ya'la"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mash-ala-al-khuffayn", "label": "mash over the khuff (wiping over leather socks)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis (mudallis)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report attributed to Ali that the bottom of the khuff would deserve wiping if religion were by opinion is weak in its chain and absent from several versions, that Malik's Muwatta records wiping both top and bottom, and that rituals are practices rather than claims against reason.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this hadith I don't personally even in that narration I don't accept it to be sorry there are huge problems in the chain", "start": 3719}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/13/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/14", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S14", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 14, "start": 3916, "end": 4152, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Miracles and the laws of nature: fish from the sky, demigods, and why reason cannot go", "question_plain": "Do miracles in the Quran break the laws of nature?", "summary": "To the question of miracles in the Quran, Mufti Abu Layth first repeats that reason is needed to know other faiths are untrue, since without it every faith could be true. Miracles, he says, exist on a spectrum: if a miracle means breaking the laws of nature, then those laws are Allah's own, and the Quran says His ways never change, so He would not break them. Events that appear miraculous have explanations: frogs falling from the sky in the time of Musa, or fish falling from the sky, have happened in several places and have a documented scientific explanation of how they are picked up and dropped, so they are not against the laws of nature even if they seem so to people. In his understanding everything called a miracle in the Quran has an explanation, some already known and some still being worked on. To those who say he limits Allah, he answers that by the same logic Allah could give Ganesh an elephant head or delegate to demigods as He delegates to angels, so that if reason goes out of the window everything becomes valid. He says people are scared because they were raised on certain stories, demonic possession, black magic, the splitting of the moon or the return of Jesus, without knowing much else about Islam.", "summary_short": "No, in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding: Allah does not break the laws He set, so every event called a miracle in the Quran has an explanation within nature, as fish falling from the sky does; abandoning reason would make every religion's claims equally valid.", "answer_start": 3916, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:miracles-do-not-defy-natural-law", "label": "miracles never defy God's laws; they have causes within nature"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Allah never breaks the laws He set in nature, so everything called a miracle in the Quran has an explanation within those laws even if not yet known, and that abandoning reason would make every religion's claims equally valid.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Allah will never break the laws of the natural world so in my understanding everything you call a miracle in the Quran has an explanation", "start": 4026}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/14/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/15", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S15", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 15, "start": 4152, "end": 4464, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn al-Jawzi's three conditions for a hadith, and the companion who refused to jump into the fire", "question_plain": "When should a hadith be rejected, and can a Muslim refuse a religious command that makes no sense?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the inherent fear is that if one childhood belief turns out untrue the rest, and Islam itself, may fall too, but it is better to rid Islam of interpretations that crept in than to present it so and have it bulldozed by atheists, who will show no mercy. He points out that the great hadith scholars said the same: Ibn al-Jawzi, quoted by al-Suyuti and later scholars, wrote that a sahih hadith is accepted on three conditions, that it does not go against reason, does not contradict the transmitted sources such as the Quran and established tradition, and does not uproot an established principle of Islam. Yet people embrace absurd reports and make Islam sound dumb. He then tells the story of an expedition sent by the Prophet whose commander, after a dispute, lit a fire and ordered his men to jump in, invoking the Prophet's command to obey him; one companion, whose name is garbled in the transcript, reasoned that they had believed in Allah to escape the fire and refused, and when they returned the Prophet told them he was right, that there is no obedience to a creature in disobedience of the Creator. The point, he says, is that the companion did not know that ruling and simply judged that the command clashed with reason, and he was correct. He sums up that this is why reason matters, that hiding behind cobwebs will not protect anyone, and that the straw-man religion being put up is ridiculed daily while the number of ex-Muslims rises.", "summary_short": "A hadith is accepted only if it does not contradict reason, the transmitted sources or an established principle, as Ibn al-Jawzi wrote; the companion who refused an order to jump into a fire shows reason rightly judging a command.", "answer_start": 4152, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jawzi", "label": "Ibn al-Jawzi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-hudhafa", "label": "Abdullah ibn Hudhafa [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e4777bc0", "label": "report: do not obey a creature in disobedience to the creator"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds, following Ibn al-Jawzi, that a hadith is accepted only if it does not contradict reason, the transmitted sources or an established principle of Islam, and that the companion who refused an order to jump into a fire shows reason rightly judging a religious command.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "at that time when he disobeyed him he didn't know that ruling he just reasoned that this what you're telling me to do clashes with reason doesn't make any sense", "start": 4376}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/15/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/16", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S16", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 16, "start": 4464, "end": 4622, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Answering the objections: scaremongering, rituals, 'whose reason', and Malik's rule", "question_plain": "If reason judges religion, whose reason counts, and what about rituals?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the scaremongering must be ignored: those who do not want to question may stay at that lower level of iman, but they should not prevent others from aspiring to the higher level Allah commands. To the objection that rituals are not derived from reason he repeats that the concept of ritual is what must make sense, not each detail, and he dismisses the reductio that reasoning would lead one to stop praying, since nobody thinks that way. To 'whose reason?' he returns to the Hinduism example: people accept intersubjectivity and the healthy mind's judgement there, and should not be swayed by opinions that merely became popular over time. He cites Imam Malik's saying that everyone's words are taken and rejected except the Messenger of Allah's, and says that although he follows and teaches the Maliki school with passion, having studied the other schools, this is Malik's own teaching: Islam is a tradition, not a cult.", "summary_short": "The concept of ritual must make sense, not every detail; the shared judgement of a healthy mind is the standard; and, by Malik's rule that only the Messenger's words are beyond rejection, following a school is not belonging to a cult.", "answer_start": 4464, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:only-allah-and-his-messenger-are-authorities", "label": "only Allah and His Messenger are authorities in matters of religion"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the concept of ritual rather than its details must accord with reason, that the shared judgement of a healthy mind is the standard of reason, and that following the Maliki school does not make one a cult member, since Malik taught that everyone's words may be rejected except the Messenger's.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the concept of ritual is what you make sense of as to the actual rituals it's fine", "start": 4491}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/16/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/17", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S17", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 17, "start": 4622, "end": 4779, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The crying tree hadith and the demand for one standard: 'we do not need a tree to prove the Prophet'", "question_plain": "Did a tree really cry for the Prophet, and why does Mufti Abu Layth reject the hadith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that those who want to refute him look for a scholar he has praised and quote him against him. He recalls being asked recently about the tree said to have cried in the time of the Prophet, and answering that it is not established and that he does not hold it sahih, because one cannot call stones, monkeys and elephants doing such things absurd while allowing trees to do them; consistency requires one yardstick, not one for oneself and another for Hinduism. When a Muslim replied that it is different because Allah allowed it for the Prophet, he asked how one knows Allah did not allow it for Krishna or Rama, since once anything goes reason is abandoned and no scary monster can be disproved, so the best faculty Allah gave, reason, must be the guide. He says he showed the problems in the chains of the crying-tree reports, that they go against the principled understanding that such things do not happen, and that Muslims do not need a crying tree to prove the Prophet's greatness, since he is the greatest of people to them. He adds that people reacted with refutations, and begins to describe how they used a scholar he rates.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth does not hold the crying-tree reports to be established: their chains are problematic and Muslims cannot call other religions' miracle stories absurd while accepting their own; the Prophet's greatness does not depend on a tree.", "answer_start": 4622, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ee4de6d9", "label": "report: the tree crying for the prophet"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:one-standard-for-all-religions", "label": "one set of standards: judge Islam's claims by the same test applied to other religions"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the report of the tree crying for the Prophet is not established, that its chains are problematic and it clashes with the principle that such things do not happen, and that Muslims cannot dismiss other religions' miracle stories as absurd while accepting their own.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I said this is not established and I don't believe this to be sahi why because how can we hold things like stones and monkeys and elephants not doing these kind of things and hold that as absurd", "start": 4644}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/17/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/18", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S18", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 18, "start": 4779, "end": 5016, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadi Iyad and al-Shifa: rating a scholar is not following him in everything", "question_plain": "If Mufti Abu Layth admires Qadi Iyad, must he accept everything in al-Shifa?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says his critics found Qadi Iyad, the Maliki scholar of Muslim Spain whom he calls a legend, and quoted him as affirming the crying tree, as though praising a scholar made Mufti his clone. He replies that this is cult thinking: the critics themselves do not follow Qadi Iyad in everything, Qadi Iyad disagreed with Imam Malik on several matters, as did the Maliki scholars of al-Andalus, and he was a product of his age and as much a victim of sectarian warfare as people today. He explains the context: in North Africa, closely connected to Muslim Spain, movements whose name is garbled in the transcript (the Ubaydids [?]) included people who were not Muslim and who insulted and cursed the Prophet in Arabic poetry, which Qadi Iyad records in Tartib al-Madarik [?], and in that culture he wrote a book on why Muslims should love the Prophet. Starting from below zero, he says, Qadi Iyad included in al-Shifa reports that scholars have called weak and even fabricated, not for an academic debate but to instil love of the Prophet, as one tells stories to the young, so the book cannot now be used as a yardstick. Rating Qadi Iyad does not mean adopting every narrative in a two-volume work written for that purpose.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says al-Shifa was written to instil love of the Prophet in a context of insults and knowingly includes weak and fabricated reports, and that admiring Qadi Iyad, who himself disagreed with Malik, does not make him a clone.", "answer_start": 4779, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "dialogue/responses-to-critics", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-shifa", "label": "al-Shifa (Qadi Iyad)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tartib-al-madarik", "label": "Tartib al-Madarik [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ubaydids", "label": "the Ubaydids [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that rating Qadi Iyad highly does not oblige him to accept every report in al-Shifa, which was written to instil love of the Prophet in a context of insults and knowingly includes weak and fabricated reports, and that Qadi Iyad himself disagreed with Malik on several matters.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he brought that for a reason because he wasn't trying to have an academic debate he was trying to instill the love of the Prophet in the hearts of people", "start": 4956}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/18/"}, {"id": "UuLDZkLvxvo/s/19", "short_id": "2018-04-09-S19", "recording": "UuLDZkLvxvo", "n": 19, "start": 5016, "end": 5167, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Closing: have the courage to re-examine; the age of Aisha and loyalty to the Prophet over Bukhari", "question_plain": "Should loyalty to Sahih al-Bukhari outweigh how a report presents the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that whether Muslims like it or not, Islam and its beliefs are being and will be put to the test, ridiculed and evaluated by non-Muslims, so Muslims should rise to the challenge with courage, filter through the material and re-examine what rests on interpretations rather than embracing it all as 'my aqidah'. As an example he cites the report on the age of Aisha he had discussed a few days earlier: people cling to it, he says, yet it presents the Prophet in a disrespectful light and is untrue, since Arab culture of the time did not marry girls as young as six or seven, even if historically girls of twelve to fourteen were married in parts of the world. He says those who refuse to compromise a hadith in Bukhari should remember that their loyalty should be to the Prophet rather than to al-Bukhari. He closes the talk and opens the floor for questions.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says loyalty belongs to the Prophet, not to al-Bukhari, and cites the age-of-Aisha report, which he holds untrue and disrespectful since Arabs of the time did not marry girls that young, as an example of what must be re-examined.", "answer_start": 5016, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the report of Aisha's age at marriage is untrue and presents the Prophet disrespectfully, since Arab culture of the time did not marry girls as young as six or seven, and that loyalty to the Prophet should outrank loyalty to al-Bukhari.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "you putting present in the Prophet sallallaahu I leave salam in such a disrespectful light and it is not true that people generally didn't in in the arab culture married girls that young they didn't", "start": 5072}}, "url": "/r/UuLDZkLvxvo/s/19/"}, {"id": "VRYy1_gzEUs/s/1", "short_id": "2021-03-16b-S01", "recording": "VRYy1_gzEUs", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 378, "date": "20210316", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Ibadism: an early Khariji offshoot that became a peaceful minority", "question_plain": "Who are the Ibadis and what do you think of Ibadism?", "summary": "Asked for his thoughts on Ibadism, Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibadis are interesting because, being very early, they offer a third line beside mainstream Sunnis and the Shia, a kind of triangulation. He describes them as a splinter of the Khawarij, whom he calls extremists while noting they were a spectrum that split into factions such as the Azariqa [?], and says the Ibadis trace their roots to Abdullah ibn Ibad in the Umayyad period and to Jabir ibn Zayd, a student of the companions. He says they were the less extreme strand, developed their own fiqh and fatwas, accepted hadith mainly through Jabir ibn Zayd, compiled a small collection called al-Jami' al-Sahih [?] which he places some three hundred years later, after Sahih al-Bukhari, and pray with the arms at the sides as the Malikis do. He recounts that the Khawarij of North Africa hunted the Umayyads in the time of Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya, were later crushed, and survived in the Bahrain region and Oman, today an Ibadi state whose late Sultan Qaboos was widely praised; he suggests that as an extreme minority they adapted by becoming known for peace and coexistence. He says he would like to host an Ibadi shaykh on MindTrap, and adds that because Sunnis, Shia and Ibadis were all opposed to the Umayyads, the three traditions could never have agreed to replace Makkah and the Hajj with another location, which is why triangulation helps to corroborate early evidence.", "summary_short": "The Ibadis are an early, less extreme offshoot of the Khawarij who survive today in Oman and, as a small minority, became known for coexistence. Their independence from Sunnis and Shia helps corroborate early history, such as the place of Makkah.", "answer_start": 2, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ibadi", "label": "Ibadi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:azariqa", "label": "Azariqa [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-ibad", "label": "Abdullah ibn Ibad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jabir-ibn-zayd", "label": "Jabir ibn Zayd"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-al-rabi-ibn-habib", "label": "the Ibadi hadith collection al-Jami' al-Sahih (Musnad al-Rabi' ibn Habib) [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sadl", "label": "sadl (arms hanging)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "the Umayyads"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "the Abbasids"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abd-al-rahman-al-dakhil", "label": "Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya (al-Dakhil)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sultan-qaboos", "label": "Sultan Qaboos of Oman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibadis moved away from extremism as time went by, and suggests that this may just have been adaptation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "but as time went by they did uh move remove themselves from that extremist um kind of manifesto so they stopped because you see maybe that's just uh maybe that's just adaptation", "start": 153}}, "url": "/r/VRYy1_gzEUs/s/1/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/1", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S01", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 1, "start": 10, "end": 168, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why he was imprisoned: helping a friend, a police officer and a charge of aiding misconduct", "question_plain": "Why was Mufti Abu Layth sent to prison?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the interviewer for the chance to respond to questions people have been asking and takes the first: what led to his imprisonment for just under two months, about seven weeks. He says the matter dated back over three years and was small but was made big later. A childhood friend came home to find his young children missing, felt the authorities were unhelpful and asked Mufti for help, so Mufti tried to arrange mediation, in the course of which he contacted a police officer. Nothing came of the mediation, but a year and a half or two years later he was asked to testify against that officer, which he was not interested in doing since he did not believe the officer had done anything wrong in trying to help; as a consequence he was charged with aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office and he and his friend were given a six-month sentence. He says he does not feel he did anything wrong, that he was simply trying to help a friend reconnect with his children, and that in his perception they were treated unfairly for refusing to add to the prosecution's case against the officer.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth was charged with aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office after contacting a police officer to arrange mediation for a friend whose children were missing, and served about seven weeks of a six-month sentence. He says he did nothing wrong and was treated unfairly for refusing to testify against the officer.", "answer_start": 10, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["wellbeing/personal-stories", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/1/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/2", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S02", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 2, "start": 168, "end": 323, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The experience of custody: contrary to expectation, and an insight into another world", "question_plain": "What was Mufti Abu Layth's time in prison like?", "summary": "Finishing the account of the case, Mufti Abu Layth says he feels he and his friend were unfairly treated for refusing to help the prosecution. Asked how he found custody, he says the seven weeks were relatively nothing compared with what others spend inside, but enough to give an amazing insight into a world he, like many others, had been oblivious to. Contrary to expectation the time went very well, and he says that however much one thanks Allah it is insufficient, since Allah looked out for them and they almost floated through those weeks. More than anything he is grateful for the insight: being able to share thoughts and stories and listen to the concerns of people from all walks of life whom he would otherwise never have crossed paths with, and to understand their struggles, which he found incredibly insightful.", "summary_short": "Contrary to expectation it went well, and he is grateful for the insight it gave him into people from all walks of life whom he would never otherwise have met.", "answer_start": 168, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["wellbeing/personal-stories", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/2/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/3", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S03", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 3, "start": 323, "end": 480, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Prevent has become toxic: why he no longer advises Muslims to engage with it", "question_plain": "Should Muslims engage with the Prevent programme?", "summary": "Asked whether he was involved in the Prevent programme, in what capacity, and whether Muslims should engage with it, Mufti Abu Layth says he has not been involved for over two years. He says he is not an expert on the strategy but believes it began several years ago with good objectives, engaging local communities in tackling radicalisation, which he calls an active duty of all Muslims and especially of the learned. He agrees with a Muslim former Chief Superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, Dal Babu [?], who recently criticised Prevent as having become toxic and lost its purpose: it is viewed with suspicion, local communities no longer wish to engage with it, and so, knowing what he now knows, he would not advise engagement with it at this stage, seeing it as counterproductive. He adds that his own experiences along the way were rather strange.", "summary_short": "No, not at this stage: he says Prevent began with good objectives but has become toxic and lost its purpose, as a former Met Chief Superintendent said, so engagement is now counterproductive. Tackling radicalisation itself remains a duty of Muslims.", "answer_start": 323, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "society/current-events/britain"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:prevent-programme", "label": "Prevent (UK counter-radicalisation programme)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dal-babu", "label": "Dal Babu, former Chief Superintendent, Metropolitan Police [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:metropolitan-police", "label": "Metropolitan Police"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Prevent began with good objectives but has become toxic and lost its purpose, so he would no longer advise Muslims to engage with it, while tackling radicalisation remains a duty of Muslims and especially of the learned.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "based on that I wouldn't at this stage having now known what I do know advise engagement with it because I see it as counterproductive", "start": 428}}, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/3/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/4", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S04", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 4, "start": 480, "end": 1029, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What a Prevent mentor did: voluntary meetings about faith, and why spying would be haram", "question_plain": "What did Mufti Abu Layth actually do as a Prevent mentor?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains his role. When Prevent came to local communities, most major mosques engaged with it and major imams were contacted to act as mentors, and he was asked too; his involvement was periodic, not full time. He describes the process: the council or the police, feeling someone was borderline radical but unable to discuss faith themselves since it is not their remit, would ask the person whether he was willing to speak to an imam, and only with his consent would a mentor such as Mufti be contacted and go to meet him, introduce himself, invite questions and offer to meet once or twice a month. Most people, he says, were not radicals but had said or written something silly or thought they were being funny, which got them flagged; the mentor would hear the story, meet a few times and help with questions. A minority did have dangerous thoughts or wishes, and the mentor would work with them, asking why they held such hatred and showing them that any harm would come back on everyone including Muslims, using historical examples. He says there were no covert operations as far as the mentors knew: every mentor was told that collecting data secretly would be unlawful, participation was voluntary, and spying on Muslims or landing people in trouble for money or favour would be absolutely haram, something he never encountered. He was open about the work with everyone who sat with him; it was neither espionage nor MI5, and he left it over two years ago, seeing what it has become. He begins a side note that countering the radical narrative is something all preachers and imams should do anyway.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth met, only with their consent, people the council or police had flagged, offered to discuss Islam with them and helped clear up misunderstandings; most were not radicals. There were no covert operations, and he says spying on Muslims would be haram.", "answer_start": 480, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "society/current-events/britain"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:prevent-programme", "label": "Prevent (UK counter-radicalisation programme)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Prevent mentoring as he practised it was voluntary and consensual with no covert element, and that spying on Muslims or landing people in trouble for money or favour would be absolutely haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "there was no such thing as spying I mean I would consider that absolutely Haram", "start": 889}}, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/4/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/5", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S05", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 5, "start": 1029, "end": 1266, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Counter-terrorism officers worked against him; against treating the authorities as false gods", "question_plain": "Is working with the government or Prevent a form of serving false gods?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says countering radicalisation is something imams, scholars and community leaders do anyway, before and after Prevent, without a government programme. He then says that, strangely, despite work the counter-terrorism unit knew to be good, he found certain counter-terrorism inspectors colluded and worked against him as an individual, which he says was part of what led to his imprisonment; it made no sense to him then or now, and he has pursued formal complaints, which took over a year to go through, so he has himself been a victim of the process. He repeats his agreement with the former Chief Superintendent that Prevent has become toxic and that he would not advise engagement, while Muslims should independently counter radicalisation. He then distinguishes his view from that of politically active Muslim groups who treat any association with the government as serving a false, monstrous god: he says this is not a correct scholarly interpretation, that assisting non-Muslim authorities does not make them false gods besides Allah, and that classical, traditional and true modern Muslim scholarship does not see things that way, though he accepts that negative elements within these programmes have worked against the Muslim community, himself included, and that the whole thing needs to be reviewed.", "summary_short": "No: he categorically rejects the view of some political groups that any association with the authorities is serving a false god, calling it unscholarly. He accepts that elements within the programmes, including counter-terrorism officers who he says worked against him, need reviewing.", "answer_start": 1029, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "society/current-events/britain"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:prevent-programme", "label": "Prevent (UK counter-radicalisation programme)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the view of politically active groups that any association with the government is serving a false god is not a correct scholarly interpretation, since assisting non-Muslim authorities does not make them gods besides Allah, while accepting that elements within these programmes have worked against Muslims, himself included, and that Prevent needs review.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I completely disagree categorically that these are Nots these are not false gods but I do accept that there are negative elements that are within these strategies", "start": 1199}}, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/5/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/6", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S06", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 6, "start": 1266, "end": 1579, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The 'Trojan Horse school' quote: a question aimed at the police, not the school", "question_plain": "Did Mufti Abu Layth call a Birmingham school the Trojan Horse school?", "summary": "Finishing the previous point, Mufti Abu Layth says Prevent needs to be reviewed but Muslims must stay engaged in correcting ideologies. He then addresses reports that, around the time of his trial, he was quoted calling a local school he used to work at the Trojan Horse school, and whether he was validating the Trojan Horse allegations. He says that misrepresents him: his statement was aimed at the police and the authorities, not the school. It made no sense to him that counter-terrorism officers, while the authorities and the media painted the school as one of potential extremism, the police having looked into it without proceeding, were at the same time colluding with the school, sharing confidential data about him, his whereabouts and his activities at the request of certain people within it, which contributed to his imprisonment. He found this a shocking disregard for data protection and confidentiality, and asked how the same authorities who pointed a finger at the school could work with it to point fingers at him. He says he was not sensationalising the Trojan Horse matter but questioning the sincerity of the local counter-terrorism officers, especially certain inspectors, and asking why they were after him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the quote was aimed at the police, not the school: he was asking why counter-terrorism officers shared confidential data about him with a school they themselves were calling a Trojan Horse school. He was not validating the allegations but questioning the officers' sincerity.", "answer_start": 1266, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["society/current-events/britain", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:trojan-horse-affair-2014", "label": "the Trojan Horse affair (Birmingham schools, 2014)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/6/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/7", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S07", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 7, "start": 1579, "end": 1656, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Islamophobes defending him? Mutual interest, not friendship", "question_plain": "Why did some Islamophobic journalists defend Mufti Abu Layth?", "summary": "Asked how he responds to some Islamophobes apparently coming out to defend him publicly, Mufti Abu Layth says many people have criticised him too, and that someone saying something does not make them his friend; people see their own interests. Since he spoke out against the local counter-terrorism inspector for sharing sensitive data about him with the school, some who had an interest in whatever concerns that school saw a mutual interest and highlighted or shared the story, and he does not think it went beyond that. Speculating further lends the argument no validity, and he does not agree that he has many Islamophobes protecting him; if they shared an article out of mutual interest, that is up to them, and many of them would disagree with most of what he says.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says it was mutual interest, not support: those concerned with the school highlighted his criticism of the counter-terrorism officers. Being shared by someone does not make them a friend, and most of them would disagree with most of what he says.", "answer_start": 1579, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["society/current-events/britain", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/7/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/8", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S08", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 8, "start": 1656, "end": 1890, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "ISIS: the first British fatwa against it, a threat to all, and the unfairness of collective guilt", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of ISIS?", "summary": "Asked for his views on the ISIS threat, Mufti Abu Layth says he has spoken openly against this dangerous takfiri mindset on social media and was part of the first fatwa released in the UK against this ideology and these people, signed by six imams in September of the previous year, before the later joint statement of around a hundred. He describes ISIS as ruthless and cold, showing no mercy, and stresses that it is a threat not just to non-Muslims but to everybody, since a larger proportion of its victims have been Muslim. The community must work to shed light on the true principles of Islam, which is difficult because Islam is constantly under attack, whether through ISIS or Boko Haram, and Muslims get the worst of it. He rejects the demand that Muslims march against ISIS or bear collective guilt, saying Christians are not blamed for Hitler. He adds that interesting recent documentaries show how the war on terror and foreign policy led to the creation of ISIS, one showing that many of its members came out of the long-running prisons of the joint special operations in Iraq, and he says denial of foreign policy's role is fundamental to the ongoing problem.", "summary_short": "ISIS is a ruthless takfiri threat to everyone, Muslims most of all, and he signed the first British fatwa against it. He rejects collective guilt for Muslims and says Western foreign policy and the Iraq prisons helped create it.", "answer_start": 1656, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:boko-haram", "label": "Boko Haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adolf-hitler", "label": "Adolf Hitler"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:british-imams-fatwa-against-isis-2014", "label": "the fatwa of six British imams against ISIS (September 2014)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says ISIS is a ruthless takfiri ideology that threatens Muslims and non-Muslims alike, that holding Muslims collectively guilty for it is unfair, and that Western foreign policy, including the prisons of the war in Iraq, contributed to its creation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so it's not that they're just a threat to non-muslims they're a threat to each and all really they do have a mentality that um shows no mercy", "start": 1731}}, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/8/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/9", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S09", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 9, "start": 1890, "end": 2125, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Tackling ISIS by reclaiming traditional Islam and owning the concept of jihad", "question_plain": "Should Muslims deny that jihad exists in Islam to counter extremism?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says crimes must be treated equally: countries cannot loot, deceive or kill indiscriminately with drones and call it good intention while a crime against them is heinous. To tackle ISIS, he says, Muslims need to reclaim traditional Islam rather than become apologetically defensive, which helps such groups. Jihad, for example, exists in the Quran and Sunnah and the majority of the ummah historically accepted it, including its offensive use by Muslim empires where strategic. Denying this, saying there is no jihad in Islam or that it is only a struggle against the self or only the last resort of self-defence, is a quick exit that feeds the frenzy of fanatics, who then tell people that these scholars are sellouts who do not know the sources. The true way is to take the bull by the horns and take ownership: these things exist in Islam but have a context and conditions and are not used at anyone's whim, as any civilisation has had its military aspect. Only by taking the questions head on, he says, can one be heard by those who find radical groups appealing, and he prays for the ability to reclaim traditional Islam and spread its harmonious message.", "summary_short": "No: he says denying jihad or reducing it to self-defence feeds extremists, who use it to call scholars sellouts. The answer is to reclaim traditional Islam and own the concept with its context and conditions.", "answer_start": 1890, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jihad", "label": "jihad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that extremism is tackled by reclaiming traditional Islam and owning the concept of jihad, which exists in the Quran and Sunnah with its context and conditions, rather than by denying it, which feeds groups such as ISIS.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I do feel that in order to tackle it we need to reclaim traditional Islam", "start": 1925}}, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/9/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/10", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S10", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 10, "start": 2125, "end": 2361, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is radicalisation rising? Depends on the lens: a far greater rise in traditional Islam", "question_plain": "Is extremism among Muslims really on the rise?", "summary": "Asked whether he agrees with the media narrative that extremism and radicalisation are rising, Mufti Abu Layth says yes in some ways and no in others. He dislikes words like Islamism, which taint Islam, but allows that if one compares today with two decades ago, groups like Boko Haram, ISIS and those in Libya and the Middle East did not exist in the same way, so from that lens there has been a rise. From another lens, however, he sees a much greater rise towards true traditional Islam among Muslims in general: a worldwide awakening and collective consciousness about Islam, countless books brought back to light after centuries, and engagement in discourse down to minute detail, such as whether raising the hands in prayer is sunnah, an interest that did not exist a few decades ago. With this social awakening, he says, some bad elements are also awoken, political groups making all sorts of cries and takfiris who excommunicate Muslims, so from one perspective one may see a rise in radicalisation, but on the other hand the majority of Muslims have awoken to the true, traditional spirit of Islam.", "summary_short": "In one sense yes, since groups like ISIS did not exist in this form two decades ago, but he says the far greater rise is in Muslims awakening to traditional Islam, with some bad elements awoken alongside it.", "answer_start": 2125, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "society/islam-and-modernity", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:boko-haram", "label": "Boko Haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that while militant groups have risen compared with two decades ago, the far greater rise is a worldwide awakening of Muslims to traditional Islam, of which some extremist elements are a side effect.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "I think there is a much greater rise towards true traditional Islam uh by the Muslims in large and in general as opposed to what there was let's say two decades ago", "start": 2154}}, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/10/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/11", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S11", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 11, "start": 2361, "end": 2672, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Branded a modernist: the school of Madinah, chains of transmission and dress versus thought", "question_plain": "Is Mufti Abu Layth a modernist?", "summary": "Asked how he responds to being branded a modernist, Mufti Abu Layth says he is not one, and distinguishes being of one's age in appearance and outlook from one's views. He says he has always called to the school of Madinah, the understanding present in Madinah in the time of the salaf, among them its scholar Imam Malik, whose views he passionately agrees with and tries to follow; the texts he has taught for years are traditional ones, usually over a thousand years old, including one of the oldest summary texts of the school of Madinah, which he has taught for two or three years [?]. He wholeheartedly disagrees with modernism as an academic approach, which he defines as calling to boycott classical thought or feeling unbound by it, saying one does not care what the imams said because they did not live in the twenty-first century; that attitude is wrong because the deen is a legacy conveyed generation to generation through chains, and he counts his chains in hadith and Quran, going back through his teachers to the Prophet, as an invaluable gift. He has never called to boycott classical thought and considers doing so a heresy, saying we need our legacy today more than ever. At the same time he says some misinterpret the legacy as requiring that one dress like the imams: Islam never sought to Arabise the world, and Abu Hanifa himself was criticised for adopting the new fashion of long sleeves. Appearing modern in dress or manner does not mean calling to boycott classical thought, and he believes the only true way forward is to reclaim traditional Islam.", "summary_short": "No: he follows the school of Madinah and Imam Malik, teaches thousand-year-old texts and holds chains back to the Prophet, and calls boycotting classical thought a heresy. Looking modern in dress, he says, is not modernism, and Abu Hanifa too was criticised for his dress.", "answer_start": 2361, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school (the school of Madinah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijazah", "label": "ijazah (authorisation to teach, with a chain)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-risalah", "label": "al-Risalah [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/11/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/12", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S12", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 12, "start": 2672, "end": 2830, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why Islamophobia is rising: a reaction to the Muslim awakening, fear of the unknown and scaremongering", "question_plain": "Why is Islamophobia rising?", "summary": "Finishing the previous answer, Mufti Abu Layth says appearing modern does not mean boycotting classical thought and that the only way forward is to reclaim traditional Islam. Asked whether Islamophobia is rising and why, he says it is, and gives his personal understanding: part of the rise is a reaction to the collective awakening of Islam and Muslims as a social phenomenon, with far more activity, books in print and interest than two or three decades ago, so that names like Imam Malik are now spoken of in communities where they were never mentioned. People are afraid of what is different, and he quotes an Arabic saying that people easily oppose what they do not understand, so Islamophobia is largely born of not understanding Islam and Muslims. He adds that a marginal input comes from some fools who misportray Islam, saying things like wanting to take over the country, which aggravates people and provokes reactions, as with the anti-Islam movements seen recently in Germany and elsewhere in Europe; much of it, he says, is down to scaremongering, misrepresentation and fear of the unknown.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is rising as a reaction to the worldwide awakening of Muslims to their faith, because people fear what they do not understand, and because of scaremongering and a few fools who misportray Islam.", "answer_start": 2672, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["society/race-and-identity", "society/islam-and-modernity", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the rise in Islamophobia is a reaction to the collective awakening of Muslims to their faith, fed by fear of what people do not understand, by scaremongering and misrepresentation, and marginally by fools who misportray Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel that the part of that rise in islamophobia is associated with the collective Awakening of Islam and the Muslims as a as a as a type of social phenomenon", "start": 2692}}, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/12/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/13", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S13", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 13, "start": 2830, "end": 2986, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Dealing with Islamophobia: begin with yourself, learn, keep links with the ulama, communicate better", "question_plain": "How should Muslims respond to Islamophobia?", "summary": "Asked how Muslims and imams in particular should deal with the rise of Islamophobia, Mufti Abu Layth says one must begin with oneself, citing the principle taught in the hadith that whether in charity or any good, one begins with oneself, then one's family, then those around, letting it permeate the community. Muslims need to correct their own understanding and be proactively engaged in learning, because people say things they do not understand, and sometimes say what they think they are meant to say when Islam in fact allows more scope, which triggers reactions back and forth. Learning, he says, will eradicate much ignorance, and it is necessary to keep links with the ulama, who are the lifeline of the community. He adds that Muslims often have the right concepts and some learning but do not express them in the right words, so the community must also work on its communication, since articulation and the form of expression are key to getting a message across and people who are right are often misinterpreted because of how they say things.", "summary_short": "Begin with yourself: learn properly, since much Islamophobia is fed by Muslims saying things they do not understand, keep links with the ulama, and work on communicating the right ideas in the right words.", "answer_start": 2830, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["society/race-and-identity", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2b141ddc", "label": "report: begin with yourself then those you are responsible for (the principle he cites, as paraphrased)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ulama", "label": "ulama"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims should respond to Islamophobia by beginning with themselves: learning so as not to misstate Islam, keeping links with the ulama as the community's lifeline, and improving how they communicate.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "we need to correct our own understanding I feel that we do need to all Muslims need to be proactively engaged in learning", "start": 2844}}, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/13/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/14", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S14", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 14, "start": 2986, "end": 3304, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Current projects: teaching fiqh, the Risalah, al-Ashmawiyyah, Qadi Iyad, sirah, hadith and an Andalusi poem", "question_plain": "What is Mufti Abu Layth currently teaching?", "summary": "Asked about his current projects, Mufti Abu Layth says he has been teaching fiqh for years, explaining fiqh as the whole of practised Islam from the five pillars through transactions, marriage, divorce and inheritance. His online course covers the Risalah, a classical text he calls one of the earliest summary texts of the school of Madinah, by Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, known as the young Malik, from modern Tunisia; he has also taught shorter texts in Birmingham such as al-Ashmawiyyah, completed in about six lessons and available online. He has concluded The Foundations of Islam by Qadi Iyad, a classical scholar of Muslim Spain from some nine hundred years ago, on the five pillars, whose recordings are available; he says he has always pushed to connect with the scholars of al-Andalus, who followed the school of Madinah and whose civilisation flourished on European soil for seven to eight hundred years, coexisting and thriving with non-Muslims, so there is much to learn from them. A sirah project of ten or eleven lessons is also available, and the online fiqh course continues. He plans to teach basic guidelines on how the categorisation of hadith works, and a poem by an Andalusi scholar [?] that appears to be a love poem but uses the technical terms of hadith, beginning 'my love is sahih' [?]. He also mentions projects on the madhhab of Imam Malik and a planned weekend retreat on what the school of Madinah is about and why it is crucial in the West, because he believes its principles would make the deen a comfortable way of life flowing with people's daily lives, mainly for Muslims themselves.", "summary_short": "An online fiqh course on the Risalah of Ibn Abi Zayd, al-Ashmawiyyah, a completed reading of Qadi Iyad's Foundations of Islam and a sirah series, with hadith categorisation, an Andalusi poem in hadith terms and a Maliki retreat planned. He believes the school of Madinah would make the deen a way of life for Muslims in the West.", "answer_start": 2986, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "fiqh/maliki-school/primers-risalah-and-ashmawiya", "history/foundations-of-islam-qadi-iyad"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-risalah", "label": "al-Risalah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abi-zayd-al-qayrawani", "label": "Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-ashmawiyyah", "label": "al-Ashmawiyyah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-foundations-of-islam", "label": "The Foundations of Islam (Qadi Iyad)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sirah", "label": "sirah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gharami-sahih", "label": "the hadith-terminology love poem 'Gharami sahih' (Ibn Farah al-Ishbili) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school (the school of Madinah)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes the principles of the school of Madinah would lend the deen an angle that makes it comfortable for people in the West to embrace it themselves.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "because I do believe it would lend a an angle it would let lend some type of light to the dean that would afford great com comfortability almost for people to embrace the Deen themselves", "start": 3261}}, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/14/"}, {"id": "VZRrlX3lIVk/s/15", "short_id": "2015-04-06-S15", "recording": "VZRrlX3lIVk", "n": 15, "start": 3304, "end": 3453, "date": "20150406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Next steps: continued teaching and counselling, prison outreach, and international projects", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth plan to do next?", "summary": "Finishing the account of his projects, Mufti Abu Layth says the school of Madinah's principles need to be incorporated for the deen to flow with people's lives. Asked about his next steps, he says he will remain involved in teaching and at times in counselling. Having spent some weeks in prison, he would also like to get involved in some way, even a small voluntary one, within prisons, since he saw so many people there abandoned by society, brushed off as criminals with nobody interested in offering assistance; he has a few ideas and would like to learn from American prison programmes [?] and start something here. He mentions international projects that had been planned, some in Germany, which are uncertain because of the travel restrictions following his release, and invites people with ideas to reach out if they want to get involved or want him involved.", "summary_short": "Continue teaching and counselling, start some form of voluntary work in prisons for people abandoned by society, and pursue international projects once travel restrictions after his release allow.", "answer_start": 3304, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/VZRrlX3lIVk/s/15/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/1", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S01", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 336, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imam Malik's birth, tribe and family", "question_plain": "Who was Imam Malik and where did he come from?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces Imam Malik, saying he needs several sessions. He says Malik was born in Madinah in 92 or 93 AH, about eighty years after the Prophet, an Arab of the Asbahi tribe, a branch of Himyar from southern Arabia. In a digression on Qahtan and Adnan, he says the genealogies may have been reshaped after Islam, that some held Qahtan descended from Isma'il, and that there is little archaeological evidence for the Qahtani narrative. He says Malik's great-grandfather was a Companion who fought alongside the Prophet, his grandfather Malik was among the tabi'un and one of the few who prayed over Uthman, and that Malik transmitted a little from his father Anas and from his uncle Abu Suhayl.", "summary_short": "Imam Malik was born in Madinah around 93 AH into an Arab family of Himyarite origin, with a Companion great-grandfather and a grandfather among the tabi'un.", "answer_start": 66, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:himyar", "label": "Himyar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:qahtan", "label": "Qahtan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adnan", "label": "Adnan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ismail", "label": "Isma'il"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tabiun", "label": "tabi'un"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/1/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/2", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S02", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 2, "start": 336, "end": 763, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A pregnancy of three years? Phantom pregnancies and the science of the age", "question_plain": "Can a pregnancy last for years, as was said of Imam Malik's birth?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many report Malik saying his elders told him his mother carried him for three or four years. He says we neither accept this dogmatically nor call those people liars, since they gained nothing by it and knew what a year was, and turns to research by Muslim and medical researchers, including a Saudi researcher's ethnographic work among bedouin-like settlements, on phantom pregnancies. He explains how a woman may develop the symptoms of pregnancy and a bloated abdomen for months or years, then later conceive, so that people count the pregnancy from the start of the phantom one. He says scholars then went by the science of their age, citing Imam Malik telling people asking about postnatal bleeding and menstruation to ask the women of their region.", "summary_short": "No: reports of years-long pregnancies are best explained by phantom pregnancies followed by real conception, not dismissed as lies or taken literally.", "answer_start": 414, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "fiqh/medical-ethics", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:phantom-pregnancy", "label": "phantom pregnancy (pseudocyesis)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:matt-walsh", "label": "Matt Walsh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nifas", "label": "nifas (postnatal bleeding)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the old reports of pregnancies lasting years, as with Imam Malik's, can be explained by phantom pregnancies.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so research in recent times has shown and several Muslim researchers and medical researchers have found have researched what they call Phantom pregnancies", "start": 413}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/2/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/3", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S03", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 3, "start": 763, "end": 1060, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Malik's youth: singing, and men's earrings and braids in early Islam", "question_plain": "Is it haram for men to wear earrings?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik grew up in a religious but relaxed family, was not very religious as a boy, was drawn to music and singing and wanted to become a singer, and wore an earring like many boys. He says many great imams of the early period, Malik and Sufyan among them, wore earrings, including to their hadith classes, and stopped as older men. He says Malik's fatwa that putting golden earrings on young boys is makruh concerns the gold, not the earring, since in his day most boys wore earrings, and mentions Shia accounts of the Prophet's grandsons' earrings at Karbala. He adds that many of the salaf wore ponytails or braids, that it is related the Prophet sometimes wore his hair in four plaits, and that such things are a culture shock only because the culture changed.", "summary_short": "Early imams including Malik wore earrings as boys; Malik disliked golden earrings for boys because of the gold, not the earring.", "answer_start": 803, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "fiqh/entertainment/music"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-ibn-uyayna", "label": "Sufyan [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:karbala", "label": "Karbala"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali (the Prophet's grandson, referred to)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4e196f83", "label": "report: the prophet had four plaits (unresolved)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says many of the great imams of the early period, Imam Malik among them, used to wear earrings.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "many of the Great imams in the early Islamic period especially in Arabia uh the great had the theme like Imam Malik like Sofia like all these people used to wear earrings", "start": 802}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/3/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/4", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S04", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 4, "start": 1060, "end": 1332, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "His mother turns him from singing to study", "question_plain": "How did Imam Malik come to study religion?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik's mother gave him direction without scolding him: pointing out that he was blond and blue-eyed, she said audiences in Arabia would not come to watch him perform, and suggested he put his mind to academic study instead. He says Malik's fair colouring came through his lineage, as with some other Arabs, and that this choice immortalised him and shaped Islamic civilisations. He says Malik's elder brother al-Nadr was the academic one, so that Malik was first known as his brother, but that once he devoted himself his whole family came to be known through him, citing the verse that God will teach those who are mindful of Him.", "summary_short": "His mother gently steered him from singing to study, and that choice made him one of the most influential figures in Islamic history.", "answer_start": 1060, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "relationships/parents-and-children/raising-children"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nadr-ibn-anas", "label": "al-Nadr, Imam Malik's brother"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:282", "label": "Quran 2:282 (be mindful of God and God will teach you), alluded to [?]"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/4/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/5", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S05", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 5, "start": 1332, "end": 1407, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Malik's teachers and Rabi'a's 'a thousand from a thousand'", "question_plain": "What did Imam Malik's teachers teach him about hadith and Sunnah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth names Ibn Hurmuz and Rabi'a among Malik's teachers, saying Rabi'a always stressed the way of the people of Madinah. He quotes Rabi'a's famous saying, which Malik repeated throughout his life, that a thousand from a thousand is more beloved to him than one from one: the one-from-one being the hadith literature, and the thousand-from-a-thousand the living tradition of Madinah, which he says perfectly instantiates the debate of hadith versus Sunnah.", "summary_short": "Rabi'a taught him that a practice transmitted by a thousand from a thousand outweighs a hadith passed one from one, the living tradition of Madinah.", "answer_start": 1332, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hurmuz", "label": "Ibn Hurmuz"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rabia-al-ray", "label": "Rabi'a al-Ra'y"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "'amal ahl al-madinah (the practice of the people of Madinah)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Rabi'a's saying 'a thousand from a thousand is more beloved to me than one from one' perfectly instantiates the debate of hadith versus Sunnah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this was the living tradition in Medina is such a powerful concept that not only that perfectly um instantiates this this debate of Hadith versus Sunnah", "start": 1366}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/5/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/6", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S06", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 6, "start": 1407, "end": 1561, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A wealthy cloth merchant who enjoyed fine clothes and meat", "question_plain": "Was Imam Malik an ascetic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik became a very successful trader, a cloth merchant whose investments were traded in Madinah, and that he spent his wealth on expensive clothes and enjoyed what God had given him without shyness. He says there is an ascetic tradition in Islam of abstaining from the dunya, but Malik was not from it. He says Malik ate meat daily, holding that it kept people strong so that people of faith had a presence and their talk of the deen carried awe, and that he was criticised for this as indulgence.", "summary_short": "No: Imam Malik was a wealthy merchant who enjoyed fine clothes and daily meat, unlike the ascetic tradition, and was criticised for it.", "answer_start": 1407, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "wellbeing/gratitude-giving-and-contentment"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zuhd", "label": "zuhd (asceticism)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik was not from the ascetic tradition in Islam; he enjoyed the wealth God had given him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "there is a tradition like that in Islam but Imam Malik was not from that tradition he spent money he enjoyed money", "start": 1484}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/6/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/7", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S07", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 7, "start": 1561, "end": 1862, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Malik's fame, the golden chain, and why the Muwatta is not ranked first", "question_plain": "Is the Muwatta of Imam Malik more authentic than Sahih al-Bukhari?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik became an imam celebrated in his lifetime, so that at Hajj people imitated even his straightening of his cloak. He says Malik was untouchable in hadith: al-Bukhari considered his chain, with two people between him and the Prophet, the golden chain, and the Muwatta is one of the earliest compendiums, a selection rather than a collection, and arguably the most authentic book of hadith, predating al-Bukhari by generations. He says the Malikis and others rank it first, and asks why the Shafi'is who dominated hadith literature and the Salafis do not, suggesting its small size of about 1,800 hadith and, more importantly, what Malik says in it.", "summary_short": "The Muwatta, with Malik's 'golden chain', is arguably the most authentic book of hadith and predates al-Bukhari, though others do not rank it first.", "answer_start": 1561, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "hadith/collections-and-compilation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:silsilat-al-dhahab", "label": "silsilat al-dhahab (the golden chain)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tirmidhi", "label": "al-Tirmidhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Muwatta is arguably the most authentic book of hadith from a hadith perspective.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "it is the mother is arguably the most authentic book in Hadith from a hadithi perspective", "start": 1713}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/7/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/8", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S08", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 8, "start": 1862, "end": 2244, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Our city does not act on this hadith': Malik and the hadith dogmatists", "question_plain": "Why did Imam Malik sometimes reject authentic hadith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik sometimes brings a hadith in the Muwatta and then says that in his city, Madinah, the city of the Prophet, they do not act upon it. He describes this as a catastrophic meteor for the second wave of hadith scholars, whose project centred on hadith, while Malik belonged to the first wave when hadith was being compiled. He says it is worse for them because of who said it, citing the hadith that people will travel far seeking knowledge and find none more knowledgeable than the scholar of Madinah, which many, Sufyan among them, applied to Malik, since by his old age he was the one scholar of Madinah to whom students came from Khurasan to al-Andalus. Coming from the holder of the golden chain, he says, such a statement was a bomb in the face of the later hadith dogmatists.", "summary_short": "Malik would cite a hadith and say Madinah did not act on it, a devastating stance for later hadith-centred scholars, given his unmatched authority.", "answer_start": 1862, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "'amal ahl al-madinah (the practice of the people of Madinah)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e4357cc0", "label": "report: people will not find anyone more knowledgeable than the scholar of madinah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-ibn-uyayna", "label": "Sufyan [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:silsilat-al-dhahab", "label": "silsilat al-dhahab (the golden chain)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth calls Malik's saying that his city does not act upon a hadith a catastrophe for the later hadith dogmatists.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "so he says we in our city do not act upon this Hadith this is a catastrophic meteor hahaha in the face of the second wave mahadithin project", "start": 1897}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/8/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/9", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S09", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 9, "start": 2244, "end": 2545, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why the Muwatta was left out of the six books, and hadith relativism", "question_plain": "What is the difference between a hadith and the Sunnah in the Maliki school?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says this is perhaps one reason the Muwatta is not counted among the six major books, which he calls a Shafi'i project of hadith dogmatists. He says Malik is hard to criticise: other imams had a weak spot, Abu Hanifa and al-Shafi'i being criticised in hadith and Imam Ahmad in fiqh, but Malik was held in awe unanimously. He says the school of Madinah built on its living tradition is not hadith dogmatist but hadith relativist, embracing a hadith where it correlates with the Sunnah and not where it does not, since hadith is historical data while the Sunnah is the Prophet's teaching. He adds that Malik's fatwas follow his teacher Rabi'a, the voice of reason, in making exceptions for public welfare, maslaha, and that the Maliki school spread across Spain, the Middle East and Central Africa.", "summary_short": "The school of Madinah is 'hadith relativist': it accepts a hadith where it matches the living Sunnah and not otherwise, since hadith is historical data and the Sunnah is the Prophet's teaching.", "answer_start": 2244, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kutub-al-sittah", "label": "the six books"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rabia-al-ray", "label": "Rabi'a al-Ra'y"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maslaha", "label": "maslaha (public welfare)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "'amal ahl al-madinah (the practice of the people of Madinah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says those who follow the school of Madinah are not hadith dogmatists but hadith relativists, embracing a hadith where it correlates with the Sunnah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "we who follow the school of Medina are not Hadith dogmatists Hadith relativists as in we embrace the Sunnah where the Hadith correlates with the Sunnah", "start": 2322}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/9/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/10", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S10", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 10, "start": 2545, "end": 2804, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Learning over voluntary worship: 'the paths to God are many'", "question_plain": "Is studying religious knowledge better than voluntary prayer?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik divided his life into thirds, learning, learning and giving back, then giving back, and was criticised for not being seen in voluntary prayers or fasts, and for his meat and fine clothes. He relates Malik's reply to a critic: he respected the man's worship, but they were both upon goodness, Malik teaching and discussing religion, and what the critic did was not necessarily better, for the paths to God are many. He relates that when Malik's Egyptian student Ibn Wahb, who spent three decades with him, closed his notes to get up for a voluntary prayer, Malik told him not to assume what he was going to was better than what he had been doing. He says one should not underestimate the value of devotion to learning.", "summary_short": "Imam Malik taught that devotion to learning is not lesser than voluntary worship, the paths to God being many, and Mufti Abu Layth urges not underestimating it.", "answer_start": 2545, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-wahb", "label": "Ibn Wahb"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nafl", "label": "nafl (voluntary worship)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says one should not underestimate the value of devotion to learning, or think voluntary prayer is somehow more valuable to God.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there is something about the Legacy about being devoted to learning that don't don't don't don't as underestimate its value", "start": 2725}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/10/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/11", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S11", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 11, "start": 2804, "end": 2998, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Malik's love for the Prophet and for Madinah", "question_plain": "Why did Imam Malik never leave Madinah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik had a bewildering love for the Prophet and would not tolerate disrespect, reprimanding a man who joked about the Prophet's cloak. He says Malik declared Madinah, the Prophet's resting place, the most virtuous place on earth, above Makkah, a view the Maliki school holds while the other schools disagree. He says Malik left Madinah only once, for Hajj, trading through intermediaries because he wanted to die there. He says Malik walked barefoot and refused to ride in the streets near the mosque because the Prophet had walked there, which was his own love, not a ruling he imposed on others.", "summary_short": "Out of love for the Prophet, Malik held Madinah above Makkah, never left it except once for Hajj, and would not wear shoes or ride near the Prophet's mosque.", "answer_start": 2804, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madinah", "label": "Madinah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makkah", "label": "Makkah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki school holds Madinah to be more virtuous than Makkah, while the other schools disagree.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "in the Maliki method we consider Medina to be more virtuous than Makkah the other methods disagree", "start": 2842}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/11/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/12", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S12", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 12, "start": 2998, "end": 3447, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The revolt of al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, the coerced divorce, and Malik's flogging", "question_plain": "Why was Imam Malik flogged?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik, though not fond of revolutions, implicitly lent support to the revolt of Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya when people asked whether they could break an allegiance to the Abbasid caliph given under coercion: he ruled that the divorce of a coerced person is not a divorce and transmitted it as a hadith through Ibn Abbas, the Abbasids' own ancestor. When ordered to stop, he refused, and he was beaten, publicly whipped and paraded on a donkey in Madinah, where he never rode, though the rulers later apologised and he held no grudge. He says Malik did not attend the mosque for the last twenty-five years of his life, saying he did not want to see things that would make him speak and cause problems; Mufti doubts this was due to ill health from the beating, since Malik taught at home for hours until his death. He relates Malik's advice never to give up teaching, saying it made him think he must teach again.", "summary_short": "Malik was flogged for refusing to stop transmitting that a coerced divorce is invalid, which undercut forced oaths of allegiance to the Abbasids.", "answer_start": 2998, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids", "fiqh/divorce"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-al-nafs-al-zakiyya", "label": "Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "the Abbasids"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:41c0b9f9", "label": "report: the divorce of one who is coerced is not a divorce (transmitted by Malik through Ibn Abbas; unresolved)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "talaq"}], "latest": true, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he doubts Malik stayed away from the mosque because of ill health, since he kept teaching at home for hours until his death.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "some people say maybe it was because he his health was really bad after the beating and I doubt it I mean it could be but then he used to teach at home", "start": 3333}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/12/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/13", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S13", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 13, "start": 3447, "end": 3737, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Malik's legacy, harmony with the school of Madinah, and 'we have only conjecture'", "question_plain": "Can we ever be completely certain about religious answers?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik chose as a young man a path that determined his destiny, and left a lamp in the darkness by showing that the deen can be understood through maslaha, hadith relativism and the distinction between hadith and Sunnah. He says learning Islam's legacy has brought him the joy of affiliation with the school of Madinah, with which he found himself in harmony, his own answers often matching it. He says Malik often repeated the verse that God is sufficient for us, and the verse that 'we only think it is conjecture and we are not certain'. He says people today want certainty, but the ultimate certainty is God alone, and whatever we think is the answer is limited by our understanding and that of those we heard it from.", "summary_short": "Only God is certain; every answer we hold is limited by our own understanding and that of those we learned from, a humility Imam Malik modelled.", "answer_start": 3447, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "fiqh/maliki-school", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maslaha", "label": "maslaha (public welfare)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:173", "label": "Quran 3:173 (God is sufficient for us)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:45:32", "label": "Quran 45:32 (we only think it is conjecture and we are not certain)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the ultimate certainty is God alone, and whatever we think is the answer is ultimately limited by our understanding.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the ultimate certainty is just Allah we have to understand that whatever we think is an answer is ultimately our understanding of what we think is the answer", "start": 3668}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/13/"}, {"id": "VhqVM47pNS0/s/14", "short_id": "2023-03-10-S14", "recording": "VhqVM47pNS0", "n": 14, "start": 3737, "end": 3989, "date": "20230310", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Muwatta, Malik's children, and the daughter who carried his legacy", "question_plain": "Who carried on Imam Malik's teaching after him?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik left the school of Madinah and the Muwatta, a small collection of about 1,800 hadith, and had three children, Muhammad, Yahya and Fatima. He says it was his daughter who carried his legacy forward and taught his classes after him; she had memorised the hadith and would correct students from behind a curtain while doing housework. He says one of his sons, perhaps Muhammad, had no interest, walking through the class with an earring, a trailing garment and a falcon, and that Malik praised God for not making knowledge something that can be inherited. He closes on that as a reminder that one must strive to determine one's own destiny.", "summary_short": "His daughter, who had memorised his hadith and taught his classes after him, while his sons showed little interest.", "answer_start": 3737, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fatima-bint-malik", "label": "Fatima, Imam Malik's daughter"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-ibn-malik", "label": "Muhammad, Imam Malik's son [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yahya-ibn-malik", "label": "Yahya, Imam Malik's son"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it was Imam Malik's daughter who carried his legacy forward, continuing to teach his classes after him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "it was actually his daughter that that took the the lamp of his legacy and marched forward with it she continued to teach his classes and things after him", "start": 3774}}, "url": "/r/VhqVM47pNS0/s/14/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/1", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S01", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 316, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Freedom of faith in the Quran: no compulsion, and no killing of apostates", "question_plain": "Does Islam punish someone for leaving the faith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens a discussion of apostasy, leaving the faith of Islam, and says he will look at what Allah, His Messenger and the scholars say. He states at the outset that Islam gives freedom of faith, discourages faith built on copying and condemns coercion, and that nowhere in the Quran or the established Sunnah is it said that an apostate must be killed, though he accepts that many Muslims say so and that there are hadith he will address later. He cites 'there is no compulsion in religion' (2:256), 'whoever wishes, let him believe, and whoever wishes, let him disbelieve' (18:29) and 10:99, where Allah asks the Prophet whether he would force people to believe, and says the Quran takes absolute precedence. He adds Surah al-Kafirun, 'to you your religion and to me mine', and reports that Ibn Ashur says in his tafsir that 'no compulsion in religion' abrogated the verses commanding fighting, since fighting was legislated in defence and such measures lapsed once Islam was secure.", "summary_short": "Islam gives freedom of belief: the Quran says there is no compulsion in religion and leaves belief to choice, and neither the Quran nor the established Sunnah says an apostate must be killed.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:256", "label": "Quran 2:256 (there is no compulsion in religion)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:29", "label": "Quran 18:29 (whoever wishes, let him believe, and whoever wishes, let him disbelieve)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:10:99", "label": "Quran 10:99 (would you compel people to become believers?)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:109:1-6", "label": "Quran 109:1-6 (Surah al-Kafirun: to you your religion and to me mine)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-tahrir-wa-al-tanwir", "label": "al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir (Ibn Ashur's tafsir)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:naskh", "label": "naskh (abrogation)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riddah", "label": "riddah (apostasy)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam gives freedom of faith and condemns coercion, and that neither the Quran nor the established Sunnah says an apostate must be killed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "an apostate must be killed that is not true an apostate is not killed in Islam", "start": 75}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/1/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/2", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S02", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 2, "start": 316, "end": 472, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The sanctity of life and the aims of the shari'ah", "question_plain": "Does the sanctity of life in Islam rule out killing apostates?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites 5:32, that whoever kills a single soul is as though he has killed all mankind and whoever saves one life is as though he has saved mankind, and says the sanctity of life is conclusive (qat'i) in Islam. He reports that Imam al-Shatibi writes in al-Muwafaqat that Islam and all religions came to preserve five matters, beginning with life, and that forbidden things may even be made permissible to preserve life. He lists the others as he puts them: freedom of religion for everyone, not only Muslims, progeny, reason and wealth, which are known as the maqasid al-shari'ah. He then turns to the objection that there were rulings in Islam taken by scholars on the basis of certain hadith, saying he will show that some of those hadith are deeply problematic, and introduces Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah's discussion of the matter.", "summary_short": "Life has conclusive sanctity in Islam, and preserving life and freedom of religion for everyone are among the aims of the shari'ah.", "answer_start": 316, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:32", "label": "Quran 5:32 (whoever kills a soul, it is as if he has killed all mankind)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shatibi", "label": "al-Shatibi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-muwafaqat", "label": "al-Muwafaqat (al-Shatibi)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid al-shari'a"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qati", "label": "qat'i (conclusive)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the sanctity of life is conclusive in Islam and that the preservation of life and freedom of religion for everyone are among the aims of the shari'ah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so these things we understand that the sanctity of life is cotton it is cut i ok the sanctity of life is conclusive", "start": 344}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/2/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/3", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S03", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 3, "start": 472, "end": 709, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why some classical scholars ruled for execution: treason in a different world", "question_plain": "Why did some classical scholars rule that apostates be executed?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reports that Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah, a Maliki scholar and a teacher of Hamza Yusuf, discusses in Sina'at al-Fatwa [?], other articles and a conference that many earlier scholars did rule for capital punishment, but that they were addressing what would today be called treason: betraying the community, breaking a covenant, rebelling with the sword or passing state secrets. He says such rulings clearly do not apply today, naming Bin Bayyah, Mahmud Shaltut and al-Buti [?] among modern scholars who say so. He suggests Muslims did not object at the time because the world was segregated into Christian and Muslim lands with little migration, and every dynasty, Christian or Muslim, executed traitors without anyone seeing an issue. He says this does not make those rulings accurate, and at the end of the passage turns to the Sunnah.", "summary_short": "Where classical scholars ruled that apostates be executed, they were dealing with what would now be treason or armed rebellion in a very different world; those rulings do not apply today, and their prevalence then did not make them right.", "answer_start": 472, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sinaat-al-fatwa", "label": "Sina'at al-Fatwa [?] (Abdullah bin Bayyah)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mahmud-shaltut", "label": "Mahmud Shaltut"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:said-ramadan-al-buti", "label": "Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that where classical scholars prescribed capital punishment they were addressing what would today be treason or rebellion in a very different world, that those rulings do not apply today, and that the whole world doing the same then does not make them right.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "any of these rulings today clearly do not apply many of these scholars have said today", "start": 536}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/3/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/4", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S04", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 4, "start": 709, "end": 942, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Prophet's life: no one executed for disbelief or apostasy", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet ever execute anyone for leaving Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why an apostate would deserve to be killed: if the reason ('illah) is disbelief, then by the same logic every disbeliever would deserve death, yet the Prophet spent his life preaching and never killed anyone for disbelief. He notes that the Prophet did not execute the known hypocrite Abdullah ibn Ubayy, who plotted against him, and even prayed his funeral prayer, and that he traded with Jewish people until his death, citing the report that he died with his shield pledged to a Jewish man for wheat, which he says contradicts any idea of killing a disbeliever and taking his wealth, and the verse 'we have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds' (21:107). He cites, without accepting it, the Dajjal-related report of Ibn Sayyad [?], who accepted the Prophet's message and then asked whether the Prophet accepted him as a messenger, which would make him an apostate whom the Prophet did not order killed. He also cites Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh, a relative of Uthman, who had committed treason and left Islam yet was pardoned by the Prophet at Uthman's intercession after the conquest of Makkah, and asks how that could be if killing were a fixed hadd.", "summary_short": "The Prophet never executed anyone for disbelief or apostasy: he spared the hypocrite Abdullah ibn Ubayy, traded with Jews until his death, did not act against Ibn Sayyad and pardoned Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh.", "answer_start": 709, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:illah", "label": "'illah (the operative cause of a ruling)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-ubayy", "label": "Abdullah ibn Ubayy"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:janazah", "label": "janazah (funeral prayer)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6546db09", "label": "report: the prophet died with his shield pledged to a jewish man for bags of wheat (unresolved; cited as in Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:107", "label": "Quran 21:107 (we sent you only as a mercy for the worlds)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-sayyad", "label": "Ibn Sayyad [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:58c43d93", "label": "report: ibn sayyad asked the prophet do you testify that i am the messenger of allah (unresolved; cited without being accepted)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-abi-sarh", "label": "Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:conquest-of-makkah", "label": "the conquest of Makkah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet never executed anyone for disbelief or apostasy, pointing to his treatment of Abdullah ibn Ubayy, his dealings with Jews until his death, Ibn Sayyad and his pardon of Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "according to that hadith which most of these people accept that person became an apostate did the Prophet instruct for him to be executed never", "start": 846}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/4/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/5", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S05", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 5, "start": 942, "end": 1408, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Classical scholars: apostates punished for waging war, not for disbelief", "question_plain": "Were apostates punished for disbelief or for fighting against Muslims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why the narrations from Umar and others give an apostate a chance to return if killing were a hadd from Allah, and cites al-Shawkani in Nayl al-Awtar on the Jews who openly cursed and mocked the Prophet without his calling for their death, which al-Shawkani explains by the welfare of bringing people to the religion. He reports that when a companion told Umar he had dealt in this way with someone who left Islam after embracing it, Umar said he would never have done so but would have restrained him and tried to bring him back, and that the report of giving three days was declared weak; he says this was also the understanding of Ibrahim al-Nakha'i [?]. He then reads from the Hanafi scholar al-Tahawi in Mushkil al-Athar [?], who asks whether those punished were punished for disbelief or for their actions, cites 5:33 on those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and spread corruption, and brings narrations from Aisha that the apostate liable to death was one who went out to wage physical war against Allah and His Messenger. Mufti says this is why the Hanafi school, including al-Sarakhsi in al-Mabsut, Ibn al-Humam [?], al-Kasani [?] and Ibn Abidin, did not apply the punishment to a female apostate, since women were not combatants, showing that the punishment was tied to insurgency against the state. He closes with Ibn Ashur's Maqasid on the freedom of belief Islam gives, arguing that this is why the repentance of an open rebel is accepted.", "summary_short": "The classical punishment targeted apostates who took up arms against the community, not disbelief itself: Umar preferred to restrain and persuade, al-Tahawi tied it to waging war, and the Hanafis exempted women because they were not combatants.", "answer_start": 942, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:df71d13f", "label": "report: umar said i would have restrained him and tried to bring him back (unresolved)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nayl-al-awtar", "label": "Nayl al-Awtar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibrahim-al-nakhai", "label": "Ibrahim al-Nakha'i [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tahawi", "label": "al-Tahawi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sharh-mushkil-al-athar", "label": "Sharh Mushkil al-Athar [?] (al-Tahawi)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:33", "label": "Quran 5:33 (the punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c39d4ab5", "label": "report: a man who leaves islam and goes out to wage war against allah and his messenger (unresolved; narrated from Aisha)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-sarakhsi", "label": "al-Sarakhsi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mabsut", "label": "al-Mabsut (al-Sarakhsi)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-humam", "label": "Kamal al-Din ibn al-Humam [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-kasani", "label": "al-Kasani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abidin", "label": "Ibn Abidin"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:maqasid-al-shariah-al-islamiyyah", "label": "Maqasid al-Shari'ah al-Islamiyyah (Ibn Ashur)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawbah", "label": "tawbah (repentance)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments); hadd"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that the practice of giving an apostate the chance to return, and the Hanafi exemption of the female apostate, show that the classical punishment was aimed at armed rebellion against the community rather than at disbelief.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "because they saw them as part of this insurgency this part of this rebellion against the Muslim state of the past that's why they said the female apostate would not be harmed", "start": 1230}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/5/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/6", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S06", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 6, "start": 1408, "end": 1566, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The main narrations, the period of grace, and scholars who got it wrong", "question_plain": "Which hadith are used to justify killing apostates, and were the scholars who used them right?", "summary": "Turning to the objection that there is a hadith in Bukhari, Mufti Abu Layth says the popular narrations on apostasy go back mainly to three or, by extension, four companions: Ibn Abbas, the most popular, Abu Hurayra, arguably Anas, and Hamza al-Aslami [?]. On the reports that Islam gives the apostate time, he says it is nonsensical that the time was for coming back to belief, and makes more sense that it was for submitting to peace and withdrawing from a rebellion. He says that if some scholars ruled that apostates be executed unless they returned to Islam, they were clearly and categorically wrong, being products of an age in which Christendom and the Muslim world alike placed little value on human life and religious people justified things by religion. He recalls, from Muslim Spain, Maliki scholars who disagreed over killing a man accused of apostasy, one saying 'kill him, his blood is on me', which he calls absurd.", "summary_short": "Some scholars did rule that apostates be killed, and he says they were clearly wrong, products of a ruthless age; the time given to apostates in the reports makes sense only as time to withdraw from rebellion.", "answer_start": 1408, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hamza-ibn-amr-al-aslami", "label": "Hamza al-Aslami [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:istitabah", "label": "istitabah (asking the apostate to repent)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-andalus", "label": "al-Andalus (Muslim Spain)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that scholars who ruled that apostates be executed unless they returned to Islam were clearly and categorically wrong, being products of an age that placed little value on human life.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "but they got it wrong if they said that they were wrong clearly clearly and categorically", "start": 1498}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/6/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/7", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S07", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 7, "start": 1566, "end": 1722, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Whoever changes his religion, kill him': the full narration of Ali and Ibn Abbas", "question_plain": "What is the context of the hadith 'whoever changes his religion, kill him'?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the most popular narration, 'whoever changes his religion, kill him', which he says is in Bukhari, al-Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawud and other major collections but not Sahih Muslim, and says that apart from clashing with the absolute verse of the Quran it must be read in full. In the full narration, which he notes is told by Ikrima, the client of Ibn Abbas, rather than by Ali, certain people described in most versions as hypocrites or apostates, and in versions in al-Nasa'i and Ahmad as idol worshippers, were brought to Ali, who burnt them alive. When this reached Ibn Abbas, he is reported to have said that Ali was wrong, since the Prophet forbade punishing with fire, which belongs to Allah alone, and that he should instead have executed them because the Prophet said 'whoever changes his religion, kill him'. He adds that Ikrima had been Ibn Abbas's slave before being freed.", "summary_short": "The report 'whoever changes his religion, kill him' clashes with the Quran, and in full it is Ikrima's account of Ali burning people alive and Ibn Abbas objecting that he should have executed them instead.", "answer_start": 1566, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0a236306", "label": "report: whoever changes his religion kill him (man baddala dinahu faqtuluhu; unresolved, Sahih al-Bukhari and others, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-nasai", "label": "Sunan al-Nasa'i"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-ibn-majah", "label": "Sunan Ibn Majah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ikrima", "label": "Ikrima"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report 'whoever changes his religion, kill him' clashes with the absolute verse of the Quran on freedom of belief and must be read in its full context of Ali burning people alive and Ibn Abbas objecting.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "first of all this narration apart from it clashing with the absolute verse of the Quran let's read the full narration", "start": 1615}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/7/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/8", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S08", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 8, "start": 1722, "end": 2116, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ikrima, the Khawarij and the scholars who called him a liar", "question_plain": "Is Ikrima, the narrator of the apostasy hadith, reliable?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says nearly every chain of the narration runs through Ikrima: Bukhari's, four of al-Nasa'i's six, Abu Dawud's, al-Tirmidhi's, Ibn Majah's and four of Ahmad's five. He describes Ikrima as one of the Khawarij, the early sect that held it permissible to kill those who commit major sins and whom he calls the forefathers of ISIS, and says that, like the Khawarij who hated Ali and Mu'awiya, he narrates that Ali went against the Prophet's command, which supports an extremist ideology of the sword. He lists criticisms of Ikrima: that Imam Malik rejected him and transmitted very little from him, that Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, al-Qasim ibn Muhammad, Mujahid, Ibn Sirin [?] and others called him a liar, that al-Dhahabi described him as holding that people could be put to the sword, that Ahmad ibn Hanbal recalled only one hadith Malik transmitted from him, and that al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman reports from al-Shafi'i that Malik did not consider it permissible to accept his hadith. He adds reports that Mus'ab al-Zubayri [?] said Ikrima lied about Ibn Abbas and claimed he held Khariji views, that Ali ibn Abdullah ibn Abbas tied Ikrima up for lying about his father, and that a servant was told not to lie as Ikrima lied about Ibn Abbas, and notes that one of Ahmad's narrations through Ikrima has Ali burning books, which he says disparages Ali.", "summary_short": "The main chains of 'whoever changes his religion, kill him' run through Ikrima, whom he describes as a Khariji, and whom Imam Malik and many early authorities rejected or called a liar.", "answer_start": 1722, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ikrima", "label": "Ikrima"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0a236306", "label": "report: whoever changes his religion kill him (man baddala dinahu faqtuluhu; unresolved, Sahih al-Bukhari and others, number not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:said-ibn-al-musayyib", "label": "Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qasim-ibn-muhammad", "label": "al-Qasim ibn Muhammad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mujahid", "label": "Mujahid ibn Jabr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-sirin", "label": "Ibn Sirin [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-rabi-ibn-sulayman", "label": "al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:musab-al-zubayri", "label": "Mus'ab al-Zubayri [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abdullah-ibn-abbas", "label": "Ali ibn Abdullah ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b802c2a5", "label": "report: ali burned books (unresolved; a narration of Ahmad through Ikrima)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-tirmidhi", "label": "Sunan al-Tirmidhi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/8/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/9", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S09", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 9, "start": 2116, "end": 2354, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The chain through Anas: a narrator with Mu'tazili tendencies and Qatada's tadlis", "question_plain": "Is the chain of the apostasy hadith through Anas reliable?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the objection that the same narration is also transmitted, by al-Nasa'i in two narrations, through Anas, from whom Qatada narrates, with Abd al-Samad [?] later in the chain. He says this Abd al-Samad was described as having Mu'tazili tendencies, and argues that the Mu'tazila, often presented today as rationalists, were like the Khawarij extremists who called for rising against the state and held that a sinner has left Islam for an intermediate state, so a hadith supporting such teachings should be treated with great wariness; he reports gradings of this narrator ranging from problematic to reliable but making mistakes. He mentions another version through a narrator [?] he also describes as Mu'tazili, and says Qatada is known for frequent tadlis, dropping people from the chain, as several critics state. He concludes that the narration on apostasy is weak and clashes with reason, with Islam's freedom of belief, with the Quran and the clear life of the Prophet, and with the principles of Islam.", "summary_short": "The alternative chain of the apostasy hadith through Anas is also weak: it includes a narrator with Mu'tazili tendencies and Qatada, who is known for tadlis, and the report clashes with reason, the Quran and the Prophet's life.", "answer_start": 2116, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0a236306", "label": "report: whoever changes his religion kill him (man baddala dinahu faqtuluhu; unresolved, Sahih al-Bukhari and others, number not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qatada", "label": "Qatada"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-samad-ibn-abd-al-warith", "label": "Abd al-Samad [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-nasai", "label": "Sunan al-Nasa'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the chain of the apostasy report through Anas is also problematic, because of a narrator with Mu'tazili tendencies and Qatada's known tadlis, and that the report clashes with reason, the Quran, the Prophet's life and the principles of Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the other thing is that it clearly clashes with all three it clashes with reason I slammed giving you freedom of belief a clashes with the established sources the Quran and the clear life of the Prophet", "start": 2315}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/9/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/10", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S10", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 10, "start": 2354, "end": 2591, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Abu Hurayra and Hamza al-Aslami narrations and their chains", "question_plain": "Are the Abu Hurayra and Hamza al-Aslami narrations on apostasy authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the second narration, from Abu Hurayra, which he says is transmitted in Bukhari [?], al-Darimi and Ahmad's Musnad in five versions, all through Bukayr; one chain is Qutayba from al-Layth from Bukayr from Sulayman ibn Yasar from Abu Hurayra. He says some transmitters place another person in that chain, that al-Hakim problematised narrations of Qutayba from al-Layth because Qutayba sometimes took from Khalid al-Mada'ini [?], who was rejected and called a liar, and that in al-Darimi Bukayr narrates from Abu Ishaq al-Dawsi [?] rather than Sulayman ibn Yasar, a narrator al-Dhahabi and others call unknown. On the narration of Hamza al-Aslami [?] in Abu Dawud and Ahmad, he says one chain runs through Ibn Jurayj, criticised as a mudallis whose narration is not accepted unless he states that he heard it, and the other through Hamza's son Muhammad, whom critics describe as unknown or weak. He then sets the chain analysis aside to return to a simpler point.", "summary_short": "The other narrations used for killing apostates, from Abu Hurayra and Hamza al-Aslami, also have problems in their chains: rejected or unknown narrators and a known mudallis.", "answer_start": 2354, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2ea15ea5", "label": "report: abu hurayra narration on killing the apostate (unresolved; content not quoted)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hamza-ibn-amr-al-aslami", "label": "Hamza al-Aslami [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3cceb4d9", "label": "report: hamza al-aslami narration on killing the apostate (unresolved; content not quoted)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-darimi", "label": "Sunan al-Darimi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qutayba-ibn-said", "label": "Qutayba ibn Sa'id"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-layth-ibn-sad", "label": "al-Layth ibn Sa'd"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sulayman-ibn-yasar", "label": "Sulayman ibn Yasar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-hakim-al-naysaburi", "label": "al-Hakim al-Naysaburi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-jurayj", "label": "Ibn Jurayj"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/10/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/11", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S11", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 11, "start": 2591, "end": 2905, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why would an apostate be killed? Born Muslims and the 'three days' to return", "question_plain": "Why would an apostate deserve death, and what about the three days to repent?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth returns to the question of why an apostate would deserve death: not for disbelief, or every disbeliever would; and if for accepting the message and then rejecting it, many never truly accepted it, being born Muslim or following others into it. He cites al-Tahawi [?] reporting that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz took the jizya from apostates, which he explains by their perhaps never having really accepted Islam. He calls absurd the claim, made by someone he heard debating ex-Muslims, that an apostate is given three days in which his doubts will be answered: if every doubt could be answered in three days the world would already be converted, and the claim belittles the Prophet, who preached in Makkah for thirteen years without converting most of its people. He says anyone threatened with death would of course profess Islam, so the practice would make Islam a promoter of hypocrisy, contradicting 10:99, and he rejects the three days in strong terms as disrespectful to the Messenger.", "summary_short": "An apostate cannot be killed for disbelief, since that would condemn every disbeliever, and the 'three days to return to Islam' is absurd: it coerces people into hypocrisy and belittles the Prophet's thirteen years of preaching.", "answer_start": 2591, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tahawi", "label": "al-Tahawi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-ibn-abd-al-aziz", "label": "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jizya", "label": "jizya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:istitabah", "label": "istitabah (asking the apostate to repent)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:10:99", "label": "Quran 10:99 (would you compel people to become believers?)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kufr", "label": "kufr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says an apostate cannot be killed for disbelief, since that would make every disbeliever deserving of death, and that giving an apostate three days to return on pain of death is absurd, coerces hypocrisy and belittles the Prophet's thirteen years of preaching in Makkah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "you are assuming that you can convert anybody back to faith within three days then in that case why do you go out and convert the world", "start": 2697}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/11/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/12", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S12", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 12, "start": 2905, "end": 3222, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Double standards, doubtful reports cannot take a life, and the comparison with ISIS", "question_plain": "Can a life be taken on the basis of a doubtful hadith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth notes that most theologians hold reasoning one's way to Islam to be obligatory, whereas most Muslims are simply born into it. He says Muslims in the West who defend killing apostates would call it atrocious if a fascist regime persecuted Muslims, or if Hindu extremists under BJP rule in India lynched people, which he calls a double standard and a disservice to Islam. He states that no verse of the Quran and no conclusively established hadith supports killing apostates, and that even those who accept the reports must concede they are isolated narrations (khabar ahad) carrying some doubt, while the sanctity of life is conclusive and cannot be overturned by doubt. He asks who authorised anyone to take life on such a basis, calls the teaching disgusting garbage dressed in an academic veneer, and says that if the only difference from ISIS is a judicial process, it is merely an administrative difference. He then notes reports that apostasy and atheism are rising sharply in Saudi Arabia.", "summary_short": "There is no verse and no conclusively established hadith for killing apostates, and a life, whose sanctity is conclusive, cannot be taken on isolated reports that carry doubt; defending it while demanding religious freedom in the West is a double standard.", "answer_start": 2905, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:nazar", "label": "nazar (reasoned contemplation, in theology)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:bjp", "label": "BJP"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qati", "label": "qat'i (conclusive)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:build-on-certainty", "label": "certainty is not overturned by doubt (applied to the sanctity of life)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is no verse and no conclusively established hadith for killing apostates, and that life, whose sanctity is conclusive, cannot be taken on the basis of isolated reports that carry doubt.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "there isn't a single verse in the Quran that would ever say this and in fact the Quran is against this message", "start": 3006}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/12/"}, {"id": "VyAwDWTHPa4/s/13", "short_id": "2018-05-10-S13", "recording": "VyAwDWTHPa4", "n": 13, "start": 3222, "end": 3617, "date": "20180510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Leave those who leave alone: misrepresentation, mercy and no mandate for a state", "question_plain": "How should Muslims treat people who leave Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth mentions people on death row in Saudi Arabia for blasphemy and rejects the claim that ex-Muslims left because of a disease in their hearts, citing the Prophet's rebuke 'did you split open his heart?'. He says none of them met the Prophet, and that those who hate him do so because of the distorted image given by bigots, who are to blame; whether someone leaves Islam is between them and God, they may be engaged in discussion but should be left alone, and he condemns posts claiming an ex-Muslim's wife is fair game. He tells the report of the man who urinated in the mosque, whom the Prophet told the people to leave alone and cleaned up after himself, and the parable of the owner who calls back his runaway horse with hay rather than chasing it, as the Prophet's way. He rejects the argument that apostates would be killed in an Islamic state, saying the Quran gives no command to set up a state, referring to a joint event with Shaykh Akram Nadwi, and calling the call for a state a fake nostalgia for empire. He closes with the Prophet's instruction to make things easy for people and not drive them away, and signs off.", "summary_short": "People who leave Islam should be left alone, since that is between them and God; those who misrepresent the Prophet bear blame for people's hatred, and the Prophet's way was gentleness, not coercion or a state.", "answer_start": 3222, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "society/converts-and-newcomers", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:72d55de9", "label": "report: did you split open his heart (unresolved)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:63460405", "label": "report: leave him alone the bedouin who urinated in the mosque (unresolved)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:428fe918", "label": "report: my example and yours with this man is like a man whose horse ran away (unresolved)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ae3e7bbf", "label": "report: bashshiru wa la tunaffiru yassiru wa la tuassiru"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that whether a person leaves Islam is between them and God and they should be left alone, and that those who have given a distorted image of the Prophet bear the blame for people's hatred of him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "to judge the look if a person left Islam that's the that's between them and God leave them alone", "start": 3315}}, "url": "/r/VyAwDWTHPa4/s/13/"}, {"id": "WCgxQDwCHKs/s/1", "short_id": "2021-04-27-S01", "recording": "WCgxQDwCHKs", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 263, "date": "20210427", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Sectarian attacks on Shaykh Aslam and the fossilised Hanafi madhhab", "question_plain": "Does today's Hanafi madhhab reflect Imam Abu Hanifa?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says there has been drama around Shaykh Aslam, whom he describes as a pleasant, uncontroversial person, including death threats, and calls it sectarian venom: some Barelvis, though from a similar Sufi background, turned on him over a video in which he prays carrying a child. He explains the Hanafi ruling that moving around in prayer breaks it, and says Hanafi fiqh is very pedantic and does not reflect the spirit of Imam Abu Hanifa in the slightest, being fossilised fatwas, a Frankenstein compared to what the imam was. He says open-minded people find it hard to remain Hanafi, praises Shaykh Atabek as a breath of fresh air for the Hanafis, and suggests that one thing that has helped Shaykh Atabek is that he is not from a part of the world that dominates Islamic discourse, recalling a book on why geography matters whose title he cannot remember.", "summary_short": "Not in spirit: Mufti Abu Layth calls later Hanafi rulings fossilised and pedantic, behind the sectarian attacks on Shaykh Aslam, and praises Shaykh Atabek as a fresh voice.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sufi", "label": "Sufi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Hanafi madhhab as it is today is like a Frankenstein compared to what Imam Abu Hanifa was.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the math hub itself is it's like a completely it's a it's a different it's like a frankenstein uh to what imam of hanifa was", "start": 117}}, "url": "/r/WCgxQDwCHKs/s/1/"}, {"id": "WCgxQDwCHKs/s/2", "short_id": "2021-04-27-S02", "recording": "WCgxQDwCHKs", "n": 2, "start": 263, "end": 741, "date": "20210427", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Praying while carrying a child: Hanafi movement rulings and the hounding of Shaykh Aslam", "question_plain": "Can I pray while carrying my child?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth returns to Hanafi fatwas on prayer that he calls strange: that laughing in prayer breaks wudu, that mentally processing meaningful written information breaks the prayer, and that more than three consecutive movements invalidate it. He says these are all made up, that the Malikis never accepted them, and that one may do all of it in prayer. Carrying a child involves several consecutive movements, so when Shaykh Aslam posted a video praying with a child and cited the hadith that the Prophet prayed carrying Umama, saying it is not excessive action, critics attacked him for leaving the Hanafi madhhab as defined by Ibn Abidin, who Mufti notes lived only about 150 years ago. Mufti describes the critics then mocking a children's programme in which the shaykh appears as a teddy bear and his long hair as imitating women, calls it mob mentality, and says in all honesty it is jealousy of his following, describing his talks as soft, mystical and Sufi, recently also in Mirpuri.", "summary_short": "Yes: the Hanafi rule that three consecutive movements break the prayer is made up, and the Prophet prayed carrying Umama; Mufti Abu Layth puts the attacks on Shaykh Aslam down to jealousy.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer/conditions-and-validity", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c0b608bd", "label": "report: the prophet prayed carrying a child (Umama)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abidin", "label": "Ibn Abidin"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says rulings such as prayer breaking after three consecutive movements are made up.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "if you do more than three consecutive movements in salah your salah breaks obviously needless to say all these things are made up", "start": 380}}, "url": "/r/WCgxQDwCHKs/s/2/"}, {"id": "WDD_GyzI9Dg/s/1", "short_id": "2020-08-19-S01", "recording": "WDD_GyzI9Dg", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 154, "date": "20200819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Introduction: the Quran-preservation debacle and a leaked 2016 email", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth, with music and laughter, introduces the person he nicknames Gangu Teli, whom the recording's title identifies as Farid, and says viewers do not know what has been going down. He describes the whole debacle over the preservation and readings of the Quran [?] as a cataclysmic event set off by somebody giving it a push, and lays out a puzzle about a chain of people involved. He goes back to 2016, when a third party [?] got hold of a private email of Yasir Qadhi which was then leaked to the whole world, and says he will keep one foot there and the other in the recent episode in which Yasir Qadhi tried to explain those emails.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces a commentary on who leaked a private 2016 email of Yasir Qadhi on the Quran's preservation, an episode he calls a cataclysmic debacle.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/WDD_GyzI9Dg/s/1/"}, {"id": "WDD_GyzI9Dg/s/2", "short_id": "2020-08-19-S02", "recording": "WDD_GyzI9Dg", "n": 2, "start": 154, "end": 311, "date": "20200819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Who leaked the emails: the missing link revealed", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls the recent moment when Yasir Qadhi tried to explain the leaked emails and, in his words, dug himself a deeper hole, and says it all goes back to the leak. He recalls that he was himself on a group called Knowledge Revival [?], to which Yasir Qadhi was also invited, where a talk was being prepared and the question of the emails was raised. He says that for years nobody was sure who had leaked the email, and then, with music and applause, reveals that behind all of it was the man he nicknames Gangu Teli.", "summary_short": "After years of uncertainty over who leaked Yasir Qadhi's email, Mufti Abu Layth says it has transpired that Farid was behind the leak.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:knowledge-revival", "label": "Knowledge Revival [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/WDD_GyzI9Dg/s/2/"}, {"id": "WDD_GyzI9Dg/s/3", "short_id": "2020-08-19-S03", "recording": "WDD_GyzI9Dg", "n": 3, "start": 311, "end": 526, "date": "20200819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Ismail Patel's published exchange: the apology and the 'academic' consulted", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Shaykh Ismail Patel has this week published on his Facebook page the transcript of emails between himself and Farid, and shows them on screen. He reports that in them Farid apologises for the mess but at the same time says he was in touch with one of the UK's finest academics, and reveals, to his own laughter, that the academic in question is Abdul Rahman Hassan. He jokes about the honorific attached to Farid's name in the emails, says he could not help himself, and sums up that the leak is now owned up to.", "summary_short": "Ismail Patel published his email exchange with Farid, in which Farid apologises for the leak and says he had consulted Abdul Rahman Hassan as an academic.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ismail-patel", "label": "Shaykh Ismail Patel"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/WDD_GyzI9Dg/s/3/"}, {"id": "WDD_GyzI9Dg/s/4", "short_id": "2020-08-19-S04", "recording": "WDD_GyzI9Dg", "n": 4, "start": 526, "end": 713, "date": "20200819", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The fallout: a fitna of doubt and apostasy, and what makes an academic", "question_plain": "What did the leak of Yasir Qadhi's emails on the Quran's preservation lead to?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reflects on the fitna and drama that followed: Yasir Qadhi dug such a deep hole that a portion of the ummah drowned, with reports of people apostatising and having doubts about Islam, and he says he would never have thought the person behind it was Farid. He asks what Farid was trying to achieve by exposing emails in order to save the ummah, and disputes the description of Abdul Rahman Hassan as one of the UK's best academics, saying that being clever and reading books does not make a person an academic, comparing it to calling Mullah Omar the greatest hippie or Donald Trump the greatest feminist. He closes by saying the leak was enough to drown Yasir Qadhi, who then took others down with him through his explanation, and that he had to share this because he did not see it coming.", "summary_short": "The leak of Yasir Qadhi's emails set off a fitna in which people doubted or left Islam, and Yasir Qadhi's own explanation made it worse. Being clever and well-read does not make someone an academic.", "answer_start": 526, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mullah-omar", "label": "Mullah Omar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/WDD_GyzI9Dg/s/4/"}, {"id": "WIrT3DXSvd8/s/1", "short_id": "2015-03-03-S01", "recording": "WIrT3DXSvd8", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 118, "date": "20150303", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Is there good and bad bid'ah? The question and a definition", "question_plain": "Is there such a thing as good bid'ah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens with a question people repeatedly write to him about, though it has been answered on many forums: whether bid'ah has a division, that is, whether there is such a thing as good and bad bid'ah. He explains that people ask because certain controversial practices are classified as good bid'ah. For those unfamiliar with the topic he says bid'ah linguistically refers to innovation and here means a religiously innovated matter, something to do with the deen, not with worldly matters.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth frames the question of whether bid'ah divides into good and bad, defining it as innovation in religious matters, not worldly ones.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah (innovation in religion)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/WIrT3DXSvd8/s/1/"}, {"id": "WIrT3DXSvd8/s/2", "short_id": "2015-03-03-S02", "recording": "WIrT3DXSvd8", "n": 2, "start": 118, "end": 386, "date": "20150303", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imam Malik's harsh stance on bid'ah, with rulings of makruh", "question_plain": "What did Imam Malik say about bid'ah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that classically there was a divergence: Imam Malik, and subsequently the school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, on one side, and the schools of Abu Hanifa and al-Shafi'i on the other. Imam Malik and many of the salaf did not accept any division of bid'ah, Malik arguing that a religious innovation implies the Prophet was either unaware of a path to Paradise or concealed it, and describing every innovation as misguidance. Mufti stresses that, despite this harsh wording, the ruling Imam Malik gives on a particular innovation is often only makruh, discouraged, not haram. He says many Hanbali scholars followed this stance of the school of Medina, and points to an early book by Ibn Waddah [?] transmitting Malik's rulings on innovations with chains, and to Malik's fatwas in al-Mudawwana.", "summary_short": "Imam Malik rejected any 'good' bid'ah and called innovations misguidance, yet he often ruled a given innovation only discouraged (makruh), not haram.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah (innovation in religion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-waddah", "label": "Ibn Waddah [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that although Imam Malik's wording against innovations is harsh at times, his ruling on a particular innovation is quite often just makruh, not haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "wording is harsh at times the ruling of that particular bidder or that innovation is quite often just seen as macro it is seen as discouraged it is not described as Haram", "start": 309}}, "url": "/r/WIrT3DXSvd8/s/2/"}, {"id": "WIrT3DXSvd8/s/3", "short_id": "2015-03-03-S03", "recording": "WIrT3DXSvd8", "n": 3, "start": 386, "end": 771, "date": "20150303", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Hanafi and Shafi'i view: recommended acts under broad guidelines", "question_plain": "Is making group dua after every salah a bid'ah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the other group, Abu Hanifa, al-Shafi'i and their followers, allow for good bid'ah: al-Shafi'i is reported to define the term, and while Abu Hanifa does not comment directly, his fatwas cater for practices the Prophet and the salaf did not do but which fall under general sanctioned guidelines, so that they may even be encouraged. He explains that the Hanafis have a recommended (mustahab) category beyond the emphasised and non-emphasised Sunnah, a category that does not exist in Maliki fiqh, where anything recommended is a non-emphasised Sunnah. As an example he says congregational dua with raised hands after every prayer is categorically not from the Sunnah, stressing he is relaying facts and not attacking anyone, and explains that its proponents combine the command to do good with the verse on helping one another in goodness. The objection of the other group, he says, is that combining the two produces a new practice the Messenger never taught.", "summary_short": "Group dua after every prayer is not from the Sunnah; the Hanafis and Shafi'is count such acts as recommended under general commands to do good, while the other side sees a new practice.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah (innovation in religion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mandub", "label": "mandub (recommended; mustahab)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:2", "label": "Quran 5:2 (help one another in goodness)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that making dua together in congregation after every prayer is categorically not from the Sunnah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "for everybody after Salah to make a dying congregation not this action as an example if I was to use as an example is categorically not from the Sun", "start": 578}}, "url": "/r/WIrT3DXSvd8/s/3/"}, {"id": "WIrT3DXSvd8/s/4", "short_id": "2015-03-03-S04", "recording": "WIrT3DXSvd8", "n": 4, "start": 771, "end": 1427, "date": "20150303", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ritualisation and intention: why Malikis discourage fixing acts of worship", "question_plain": "Is it a bid'ah to pray extra prayers on a fixed day every week?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says this debate ripples through fiqh, with the Maliki madhhab discouraging several practices because neither the Prophet nor the salaf did them, while other schools permit or encourage them since the Prophet never forbade them. He explains that bid'ah concerns acts of worship that become ritualised, and sets out a spectrum from merely permissible acts to legislated ones: unrestricted voluntary acts such as two rak'ahs of nafl at any time, acts tied to a situation such as tahiyyat al-masjid or istikhara, and what the Prophet did consistently and in congregation, which the Malikis call Sunnah, explaining in passing why the two rak'ahs before Fajr are often not classed as Sunnah. If someone fixes an unrestricted act to a time or place, the Malikis ask why: praying nafl every Saturday because it is a convenient day off is commendable and rewarded, but doing so for a religious reason such as the Sabbath ritualises it and makes it a bid'ah. He concludes that a person's intention can turn a good, rewarded action into something discouraged.", "summary_short": "Fixing a voluntary prayer to a day for convenience is commendable, but fixing it for a religious reason ritualises it, which the Malikis count as discouraged bid'ah.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/prayer"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah (innovation in religion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nafl", "label": "nafl (voluntary prayer)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tahiyyat-al-masjid", "label": "tahiyyat al-masjid (prayer on entering the mosque)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:istikhara", "label": "istikhara"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, from the Maliki perspective, the intention of a person can render their own action from a good and rewarding thing to something discouraged.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so the intention of a person can render his own action from being a good and rewarding thing to something discouraged and something that should be avoided", "start": 1390}}, "url": "/r/WIrT3DXSvd8/s/4/"}, {"id": "WIrT3DXSvd8/s/5", "short_id": "2015-03-03-S05", "recording": "WIrT3DXSvd8", "n": 5, "start": 1427, "end": 1811, "date": "20150303", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How good bid'ah entered the Maliki school from the sixth and seventh centuries", "question_plain": "Do Maliki scholars accept good bid'ah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth acknowledges that the Hanafi and Shafi'i schools are much more accommodating of good bid'ah, and says the Maliki madhhab for several centuries stayed with Imam Malik's understanding, with such practices creeping in around the 500s to 600s Hijri and becoming the majority practice by the 700s. Some link this to the plague, when people turned to religion in the absence of a cure, and others to the fall of the Almoravids and Almohads, whose ribats were taken over as Sufi lodges across North Africa and al-Andalus. Even so, he says, Maliki works such as Mukhtasar Khalil and its commentaries still record practices such as collective recitation and congregational dua as makruh, then add that later scholars such as Ibn Rushd [?] or Ibn Arafa [?] allowed them. He concludes that both opinions exist within the Maliki madhhab: the early school rejected the division for several hundred years and the later school accepted it.", "summary_short": "Both views exist: the early Maliki school rejected good bid'ah for centuries, but from around the 600s to 700s Hijri most Malikis accepted such practices while the books still list them as makruh.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school", "history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah (innovation in religion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:black-death", "label": "the plague (the Black Death) [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:almoravids", "label": "the Almoravids (al-Murabitun)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:almohads", "label": "the Almohads (al-Muwahhidun)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-andalus", "label": "al-Andalus (Muslim Spain)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:mukhtasar-khalil", "label": "Mukhtasar Khalil"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-arafa", "label": "Ibn Arafa [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that good bid'ah practices crept into the Maliki world around the 600s Hijri and, he would even say, became the majority practice by the 700s.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "and then by the 600's it's definitely there definitely by 700s I would even say becomes the majority practice", "start": 1501}}, "url": "/r/WIrT3DXSvd8/s/5/"}, {"id": "WIrT3DXSvd8/s/6", "short_id": "2015-03-03-S06", "recording": "WIrT3DXSvd8", "n": 6, "start": 1811, "end": 2069, "date": "20150303", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's own view: safer to stick to the Sunnah, with respect for both opinions", "question_plain": "Should I avoid practices that people call good bid'ah?", "summary": "Giving his personal opinion, Mufti Abu Layth says it is always safer to stick with the Sunnah, the understanding of Medina in Imam Malik's time, which he personally adheres to. He says he does not condemn people outright for practices seen as good bid'ah if they find goodness in them, and respects that. He criticises those who try to hijack the matter by presenting the acceptance of good bid'ah as the only view in Sunni Islam, calling that highly inaccurate and a disservice to Imam Malik. He says those who cite al-Qarafi, Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi or al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam [?] on kinds of bid'ah should read their actual rulings, which place the disputed practices among the makruh, and closes by calling for mutual respect rather than silencing the other opinion.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds it is safer to stick to the Sunnah as Medina understood it, but does not condemn those who follow good bid'ah, and asks for mutual respect.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah (innovation in religion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qarafi", "label": "al-Qarafi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-izz-ibn-abd-al-salam", "label": "al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says his personal opinion is that it is always safer to stick with the Sunnah, the understanding in Medina at the time of Imam Malik.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "my personal opinion is that it is always safer to stick with the Sunnah and that was the understanding in Medina at the time of man Malik", "start": 1811}}, "url": "/r/WIrT3DXSvd8/s/6/"}, {"id": "Wl7wIKke16Q/s/1", "short_id": "2018-02-15-S01", "recording": "Wl7wIKke16Q", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 338, "date": "20180215", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why don't other ulema say what he says? The maulana monolith and what makes a scholar", "question_plain": "Why don't most scholars say what Mufti Abu Layth says?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up a question that people put to him: if his views are right, why are they not voiced by many other ulema? He calls this the myth of the maulana monolith and says that to understand it one has to evaluate the situation of the scholars of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, stressing that he does not mean to disparage them. After a brief interruption he lists what people expect of an alim beyond knowledge: intelligence, articulacy, oratory and public speaking, charm and people skills, leadership and management, an authoritative personality and the ability to answer the challenges of the time. He says those who turn out like this usually do so in spite of the system, not because of it, since the madrasas do not teach leadership, personality, people skills or public speaking, and some do not emphasise critical thinking. He adds that madrasas produce scholars who replicate them, and that Islamic influence in the UK and the US comes mainly from the Indo-Pak subcontinent and partly from Saudi Arabia, not from places such as Malaysia or Indonesia.", "summary_short": "Scholars who are articulate leaders able to meet the challenges of the time usually become so in spite of the madrasa system, which does not teach these skills or, in some places, critical thinking.", "answer_start": 38, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas", "history/subcontinent"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ulama", "label": "ulama"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maulana", "label": "maulana"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madrasa", "label": "madrasa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that scholars who turn out articulate, charismatic and able to meet the challenges of the time usually do so in spite of having gone through the madrasa system, not because of it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "people who turn out like that are usually they turn out like that in spite of having gone through the system not because of having gone through the system", "start": 183}}, "url": "/r/Wl7wIKke16Q/s/1/"}, {"id": "Wl7wIKke16Q/s/2", "short_id": "2018-02-15-S02", "recording": "Wl7wIKke16Q", "n": 2, "start": 338, "end": 916, "date": "20180215", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Inside the mind of the twenty-first-century maulana: upbringing, alienation and inferiority", "question_plain": "Why do so many maulanas think the way they do?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that of perhaps five hundred ulema produced each year in the UK, at best one may have some substance, and that to see why one has to get into the mind of the twenty-first-century maulana. He poses scenarios, a bullied child who becomes a police officer, someone who knew poverty and becomes a doctor, an abused woman who becomes a family judge, to show that people's past shapes their outlook, and asks why this is not recognised for scholars. He describes the typical student: from a strict religious family of one denomination, spending some eight years in a madrasa learning material irrelevant to the real world, which he likens to studying navigation by the astrolabe; mocked by ordinary Muslims, looked down on as an immigrant by non-Muslims, particularly in small towns, insecure around women and alienated in a hyper-sexualised society, while taught by older teachers from India and Pakistan with a harsh mentality. Then, at twenty or twenty-five, he is put on a pedestal as a leader and women come to him with questions such as whether they may wear nail polish or cut their hair, and Mufti says one would be naive to think that his past does not influence his decisions. He repeats several times that he is only shedding light on the situation, not mocking or disparaging anyone, and adds that many have not been encouraged to think critically.", "summary_short": "Many maulanas grow up mocked, alienated and insecure, are trained in material irrelevant to the real world, and are then made leaders young, and that past shapes their decisions. He says he is shedding light, not disparaging them.", "answer_start": 338, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas", "history/subcontinent"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:maulana", "label": "maulana"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madrasa", "label": "madrasa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ulama", "label": "ulama"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says one would be naive to think that the past of young maulanas, who hardly interact with women, does not influence their decisions when women come to them with questions.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "is it okay for me to wear nail polish is it okay for me to cut my hair do you not think that their past will influence their decisions you've been naive to think that it doesn't", "start": 838}}, "url": "/r/Wl7wIKke16Q/s/2/"}, {"id": "Wl7wIKke16Q/s/3", "short_id": "2018-02-15-S03", "recording": "Wl7wIKke16Q", "n": 3, "start": 916, "end": 1070, "date": "20180215", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The madrasa is awesome with critical thought; why he studied across denominations", "question_plain": "Is it worth studying at a madrasa?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that his point is to shed light, and that a student who brings critical thought, evaluation and application can take a great deal from the madrasa system, which has a huge amount of excellent resources; without those qualities it will further dogmatise him. He recommends studying with different people and counts it a blessing that he studied with Sufis and Salafis and in Deobandi, Barelvi and Salafi madrasas, among others. Living with people of the opposite view humanises them, he says, and one comes to see the critical and the good aspects of each. He closes by saying that many maulanas being produced speak from a position of inferiority and naturally feel insecure in dealing with Western matters, which he says is not to mock them but to highlight the real issues.", "summary_short": "The madrasa is an excellent place if you bring critical thinking to it, and dogmatising if you do not; studying with several denominations, as he did, helps you see the good and the bad in each.", "answer_start": 916, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:madrasa", "label": "madrasa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sufi", "label": "Sufi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maulana", "label": "maulana"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the madrasa is an awesome place if one can bring critical thought, evaluation and application to it, and that otherwise it will further dogmatise one.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "bring some of those qualities of thinking critical thought evaluation application these kind of things to the table if you can do that motherís a is an awesome place if you can't it will further just dogma ties you", "start": 916}}, "url": "/r/Wl7wIKke16Q/s/3/"}, {"id": "Wl7wIKke16Q/s/4", "short_id": "2018-02-15-S04", "recording": "Wl7wIKke16Q", "n": 4, "start": 1070, "end": 1111, "date": "20180215", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does a mufti have to be appointed by the state?", "question_plain": "Does a mufti have to be appointed by the government?", "summary": "After a fragment, unclear in the transcript, of an answer about Salafis ending in the remark that depending on one's breadth of knowledge and skills one can be as good as anybody, Mufti Abu Layth takes a quick question on whether a mufti must be appointed by the state. He says no: it can be a voluntary or a professional role. He notes that there are many institutions around the Muslim world, and in the non-Muslim world, that give fatwas with salaried staff, and that one can also do it on a voluntary, freelance basis. The clip ends there.", "summary_short": "No. Being a mufti can be a salaried professional role, as in fatwa institutions, or a voluntary, freelance one.", "answer_start": 1070, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mufti", "label": "mufti"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dar-al-ifta", "label": "dar al-ifta (fatwa institution)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a mufti does not have to be appointed by the state and can hold a voluntary or a professional role.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "is a Mufti meant to be somebody appointed by the state doesn't have to be appointed by the state it can be a muscly can be a voluntary or a professional role", "start": 1070}}, "url": "/r/Wl7wIKke16Q/s/4/"}, {"id": "WmzC28PLYSQ/s/1", "short_id": "2021-03-15-S01", "recording": "WmzC28PLYSQ", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 144, "date": "20210315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why isn't he a Mu'tazili? Because he is Sunni; the 'super rationalist' label as propaganda", "question_plain": "Is Mufti Abu Layth a Mu'tazili?", "summary": "Asked why he is not a Mu'tazili (the name is garbled in the captions throughout the recording), Mufti Abu Layth answers that he is Sunni, and likens the question to asking someone why he is not a Roman Catholic, complaining that people are not happy to let others be. He describes the Mu'tazila as an early extremist, heretical faction who believed that anyone who committed a sin was no longer a Muslim. He says that much history is streamlined in hindsight to look as though a neat theme played out, which is only people's interpretation. He says that calling the Mu'tazila 'super rationalists' is wrong and part of propaganda that later Sunnis devised to resolve crises within their theology.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is not a Mu'tazili because he is Sunni. The Mu'tazila were an early faction defined by their view of sinners, and calling them 'super rationalists' is later Sunni propaganda.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ismaili", "label": "Isma'ili"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:catholic-church", "label": "Roman Catholic Church"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/WmzC28PLYSQ/s/1/"}, {"id": "WmzC28PLYSQ/s/2", "short_id": "2021-03-15-S02", "recording": "WmzC28PLYSQ", "n": 2, "start": 144, "end": 418, "date": "20210315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What defines a sect: the Shia and the right to rule, and mut'ah as propaganda", "question_plain": "What actually separates Sunnis and Shia, and is mut'ah really a Shia thing?", "summary": "To explain what defines a sect, Mufti Abu Layth says the Mu'tazila, like the Shia, are a clearly defined sect whose members then disagree among themselves. The whole Sunni-Shia split, he says, is over who has the right to rule, the Shia holding that it must remain within the Prophet's sacred bloodline, which Sunnis do not believe in; Shia then differ over which line it follows, through Hasan, Husayn or the Fatimids [?], and over the imams' powers and infallibility, with practices such as praying on a stone, self-flagellation in Muharram and visiting shrines being permutations of the tradition. He says the association of the Shia with mut'ah and with wiping over the feet has nothing to do with being Shia, but that Sunnis used these points in a propaganda campaign, a theological turf war in which the public are casualties and manipulated by dirty tactics. Because temporary marriage was a social taboo, he says, it was pinned on the Shia and called prostitution, although the companion Ibn Abbas was a clear proponent of mut'ah and many after him argued it was halal before it fell out of favour.", "summary_short": "The Sunni-Shia split is only about who has the right to rule, the Shia holding it stays in the Prophet's bloodline. Mut'ah and wiping the feet have nothing to do with being Shia; Sunnis used them as propaganda.", "answer_start": 144, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-bayt", "label": "Ahl al-Bayt (the household of the Prophet)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hasan-ibn-ali", "label": "Hasan ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:fatimids", "label": "the Fatimids [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the whole Sunni-Shia split is based on who has the right to rule, the Shia holding that it must remain within the Prophet's sacred bloodline.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the whole split of sunnishi adam is based on this factor who has the right to rule and they say that it must remain within the sacred bloodline that is what defines a shia", "start": 144}}, "url": "/r/WmzC28PLYSQ/s/2/"}, {"id": "WmzC28PLYSQ/s/3", "short_id": "2021-03-15-S03", "recording": "WmzC28PLYSQ", "n": 3, "start": 418, "end": 845, "date": "20210315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What defined the Mu'tazila, how Sunnis came to distrust reason, and labelling as a tactic", "question_plain": "Does using reason in Islam make someone a Mu'tazili?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says what defined the Mu'tazila was the view that a sinner is no longer a Muslim, that God is not in control of the evil in the world, and that God is duty-bound to do what is good, so that he must reward a good deed with paradise, whereas mainstream Sunnis held that God is omnipotent and not duty-bound. These issues, not reason, split them off; but over the next two centuries, he says, many Mu'tazila were grammarians and philosophers who gained the upper hand in debates, and around the fourth and fifth centuries Sunnis reacted by saying the deen is not built on intellect ('aql), a narrative later generations inherited. He says that in the first two to three hundred years the earliest people to claim and own reason were Sunnis, that the great philosophers such as al-Kindi [?] and al-Farabi [?] were not Mu'tazila, and that Ibn Rushd [?], a Maliki who inspires him, was not one either; he says Ibn Taymiyya later attacked anyone using reason with the label of a sect that had long died out, which he compares to calling someone a communist for supporting the NHS. He says this labelling is a dirty tactic of people who cannot handle a debate and want to disown their opponent, that the Quran instructs people to use reason, and that Ibn Taymiyya was neither God nor the Prophet, so there is no reason to treat him as supreme.", "summary_short": "The Mu'tazila were defined by doctrines about sin and God's obligations, not by reason; the Sunni distrust of reason was a later reaction to losing debates. Calling someone Mu'tazili for using reason is a tactic to avoid debate.", "answer_start": 418, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (intellect)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-kindi", "label": "al-Kindi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-farabi", "label": "al-Farabi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Sunnis started to say that the deen is not built on intellect only as a reaction, to get back at their opponents in debate, and that later generations inherited this narrative.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "sunnis tried to say oh but the deen isn't built on intellect and they started to pump this narrative just to get back at them it was all a reaction that's all it was and later subsequent generations just inherited", "start": 574}}, "url": "/r/WmzC28PLYSQ/s/3/"}, {"id": "WnchZwuZtf4/s/1", "short_id": "2019-09-17-S01", "recording": "WnchZwuZtf4", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 358, "date": "20190917", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is it sinful to urinate standing up?", "question_plain": "Is it a sin to pee standing up?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads, with jokes about its wording, a chat question asking whether it is sinful to urinate standing up, since public toilets are often very dirty. Mufti says it is absolutely fine and that the only reason some scholars disliked it was the clothing people wore, which made splashes on clothes likely, adding that the Hanafis are strict on it but need not worry anyone. Mufti explains that with a sarong-like izar, a lungi or a shalwar it is easy to squat, whereas with trousers it is hardly possible in public, and that in the past there were no public toilets of the modern kind. Mufti concludes there is no sin in it at all.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is not a sin at all; scholars only disliked it because the loose clothing of the past made splashes likely.", "answer_start": 78, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/purification", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:izar", "label": "izar (wrapped lower garment)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:najasa", "label": "najasa (impurity)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says urinating standing up is absolutely fine and there is no sin in it at all.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so it's absolutely fine don't worry about it relieve yourself", "start": 77}}, "url": "/r/WnchZwuZtf4/s/1/"}, {"id": "WoYX5hIFSVg/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-01-S01", "recording": "WoYX5hIFSVg", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 498, "date": "20201001", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Tattoos in the Maliki school, and whether tattooing is a halal job", "question_plain": "Are tattoos haram, and can I work as a tattoo artist?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will do a full session on tattoos and looks for a commentary on al-Risalah [?] that he had read in a PDF. He says al-Zanati [?] of the Malikis writes that tattoos are not haram except on the face, because of harm, and were simply permissible on the body, and that al-Qarafi [?] argues against calling tattoos a changing of God's creation when done for beauty. He responds to a clip in which some people mocked his view, saying aesthetic tattooing is a modern trend: tattoos were first used to brand slaves, then as tribal marks among peoples such as the Amazigh and the Zanata tribe, whose scholars gave these fatwas. Asked whether being a tattoo artist is halal, he says it is not haram by default and depends on what is done. He ends with a brief comment on a chat remark about another person's view on tattoos.", "summary_short": "Some Maliki scholars held tattoos permissible on the body, forbidding them only on the face because of harm, and being a tattoo artist is not haram by default.", "answer_start": 121, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/work-and-study-life"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:al-risalah", "label": "al-Risalah [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zanati", "label": "al-Zanati [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qarafi", "label": "al-Qarafi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:zanata", "label": "the Zanata (Amazigh tribe)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says being a tattoo artist is not haram by default.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so is being a tattoo artist a halal occupation yeah i mean it's not haram by default", "start": 416}}, "url": "/r/WoYX5hIFSVg/s/1/"}, {"id": "Wpqa8rxaI-U/s/1", "short_id": "2018-08-11-S01", "recording": "Wpqa8rxaI-U", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 233, "date": "20180811", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Did Nuh live 950 years? The two words for year in Quran 29:14", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet Nuh really live for 950 years?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens by saying that Nuh did not live for nine hundred and fifty years, anticipating the objection that this goes against the Quran, and asks listeners to hear him out. He reads the verse of Surah al-Ankabut that says Nuh remained among his people a thousand sana except fifty 'am, and asks why Allah uses two different Arabic words for year in the same phrase. He notes the common explanation that this is rhetorical variation to avoid repeating a word, grants that it is a point, but asks why Allah would not simply say nine hundred and fifty years if that were all that was meant.", "summary_short": "Nuh did not literally live 950 years, Mufti Abu Layth says. The verse's use of two different words for year, sana and 'am, is deliberate and not just rhetorical variation.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:29:14", "label": "Quran 29:14"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sana", "label": "sana (year)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:am", "label": "'am (year)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Nuh did not literally live for nine hundred and fifty years and that the Quran's use of two different words for year in 29:14, sana and 'am, is deliberate rather than mere rhetorical variation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "no Ali Salaam did not live for a thousand years like what people think but if you look at this verse of the Quran", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/Wpqa8rxaI-U/s/1/"}, {"id": "Wpqa8rxaI-U/s/2", "short_id": "2018-08-11-S02", "recording": "Wpqa8rxaI-U", "n": 2, "start": 233, "end": 549, "date": "20180811", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Sumerian king lists and counting by sixties before and after the flood", "question_plain": "Why do ancient texts say people lived for hundreds or thousands of years?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says some have argued for a linguistic difference between sana and 'am and that he wants to show the distinction is far more than a stylistic choice. He turns to recent archaeological discoveries about the antediluvian kingdoms of Mesopotamia, in particular the Sumerians, who devised the wheel and the division of the hour into sixty minutes and who recorded their affairs in cuneiform on clay tablets that hardened like stone. He says the Sumerian king lists give reigns of tens of thousands of years, which were first taken as exaggeration but are now understood as following a particular system, possibly multiplying by sixty or by hundreds given their affinity for the number sixty, and notes that the figures become much shorter, in the hundreds, for the kings after the flood. He says he believes the Jews inherited these figures during their time in Babylon and recorded them in the Old Testament as people living eight hundred or six hundred years without fully understanding the system, and that this is what the thousand sana for Nuh refers to.", "summary_short": "The enormous reigns in the Sumerian king lists reflect a different counting system, likely based on sixty, and the numbers shorten after the flood. Mufti Abu Layth believes the Old Testament's long lifespans were inherited from this Babylonian material.", "answer_start": 233, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:29:14", "label": "Quran 29:14"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:gilgamesh", "label": "Gilgamesh"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:old-testament", "label": "the Old Testament"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:great-flood", "label": "the flood of Nuh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sana", "label": "sana (year)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:am", "label": "'am (year)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the enormous reigns in the Sumerian king lists reflect a different counting system and that the long lifespans in the Old Testament were inherited from this Babylonian material.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this is what I believe that people in the old testament some of the Jews had inherited in their time when they were in Babylon and these other kingdoms", "start": 497}}, "url": "/r/Wpqa8rxaI-U/s/2/"}, {"id": "Wpqa8rxaI-U/s/3", "short_id": "2018-08-11-S03", "recording": "Wpqa8rxaI-U", "n": 3, "start": 549, "end": 737, "date": "20180811", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Quran speaks in the terms of each people's time: Nuh, Yusuf's king and Ibrahim's name", "question_plain": "Why does the Quran call the ruler in Yusuf's story a king but Musa's a Pharaoh?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth concludes that the thousand sana in 29:14 goes by the time reckoning Nuh's people used, while the fifty 'am subtracted are fifty years as we count them, and sees great divine wisdom in the distinction between the two words. He says this is not an isolated case: in the story of Yusuf the Quran calls the ruler of Egypt a king and not a pharaoh, because the pharaonic title had not yet been established, whereas in the story of Musa the ruler is called Pharaoh. He adds that in Surah al-Baqarah the name Ibrahim is written without the letter ya, unlike elsewhere in the Quran, and connects this to the biblical account that Ibrahim changed his name during his transformation. He says that when the Quran relates a narrative it at times reflects the reality of that time in a way that may not make sense until later discoveries, such as those about the Sumerians, bring new meanings to light, and that to him this reading of the Quran is far more grounded.", "summary_short": "The thousand sana follow the counting of Nuh's own people and the fifty 'am are years as we count them. The Quran relates narratives in the terms of their own time, as when Yusuf's ruler is a king and Musa's is Pharaoh.", "answer_start": 549, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:29:14", "label": "Quran 29:14"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusuf", "label": "Yusuf (Joseph)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sana", "label": "sana (year)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:am", "label": "'am (year)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that in Quran 29:14 the thousand sana follow the counting of Nuh's own people while the fifty 'am are years as we count them, and that the Quran relates narratives in the terms of their own time, as when the ruler in Yusuf's story is called a king and not a pharaoh.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "when allah addresses certain narratives in the quran at times he reflects the reality which they were upon", "start": 650}}, "url": "/r/Wpqa8rxaI-U/s/3/"}, {"id": "X27ZZBCSEyg/s/1", "short_id": "2020-06-09-S01", "recording": "X27ZZBCSEyg", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 144, "date": "20200609", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Shaykh Hasan Farhan al-Maliki", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Hasan Farhan al-Maliki?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth is asked for his thoughts on Hasan Farhan al-Maliki of Saudi Arabia. Mufti says that, as far as he has read, al-Maliki is a Maliki by tribe rather than by madhhab, though he could be wrong. He calls him a very open-minded, forward-thinking person, and says he likes and admires how al-Maliki problematises folkloric, cultural Islam such as demonic possession and magic, views Mufti says he holds himself. Where Mufti says his views clash is al-Maliki's attitude to companions of the Prophet such as Mu'awiya [?], which he describes as a Shia-inclined and strongly dismissive stance, and he points viewers to his detailed video on criticising the companions.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth admires Hasan Farhan al-Maliki's open-minded rejection of folkloric Islam but disagrees with his dismissive, Shia-inclined stance on companions such as Mu'awiya.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "history/companions", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hasan-farhan-al-maliki", "label": "Hasan Farhan al-Maliki"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/X27ZZBCSEyg/s/1/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/1", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S01", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 393, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Backdrop to BukhariGate: a widespread debate, his training, and transparency", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the BukhariGate discussion by saying it did not begin with him: criticism of Sahih al-Bukhari is widespread in the Arabic-speaking world, on television and online, and he has previously cited Urdu scholars who wrote against it. He distinguishes trained hadith scholars from academics such as Islam al-Buhayri [?] in Egypt, whose view that the whole heritage is garbage he says he does not share, since he is himself part of the tradition. He sets out his own training: he studied Sahih al-Bukhari and the other major hadith books cover to cover in class, was examined on them, holds a connected chain back to Imam Malik, and completed a mufti course. He says scholars have asked him privately to drop the subject, which he calls a culture of censorship, and that the religion is not diminished by Bukhari being questioned. He mentions that even his barber showed him these debates on Kurdish television.", "summary_short": "The criticism of Sahih al-Bukhari is a widespread debate that Mufti Abu Layth joins as a trained scholar who studied the book in full. The religion is not diminished by questioning it, and he refuses requests to keep the discussion private.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:islam-al-buhayri", "label": "Islam al-Buhayri [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that questioning Sahih al-Bukhari does not diminish the religion and that scholars should discuss its problems transparently rather than ask for the discussion to be kept private.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "i feel that we need transparency we need to be honest because we are in an age of information it's you know covering up things isn't going to cut it anymore", "start": 312}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/1/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/2", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S02", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 2, "start": 393, "end": 710, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The first problem: Bukhari's semi-divine status above the Quran in practice", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth announces three points and begins with the status given to Bukhari. He says nobody would object if he criticised Sunan Ibn Majah or the Sunan of Said ibn Mansur, and that the anger at his criticism proves Bukhari has been given a semi-divine status, on par with the Quran in the real world and, he argues, above it in practice. As evidence he cites verses that there is no compulsion in religion, that the Prophet cannot force people to believe, and that whoever wishes may believe or disbelieve, which he says people set aside for a single Bukhari report through Ikrima, whom he describes as a Khariji extremist, that Ali ordered the killing of one who changes his faith. He notes that scholars such as al-Shatibi hold that the Quran always takes precedence. He says he will never accept a status for Bukhari equal to, above or just below the Quran and that it is a book like the other hadith books. He then states his second point briefly: Bukhari contains problematic reports that are blasphemous, irrational or embarrassing alongside many that are unremarkable, though this is not why he began the discussion.", "summary_short": "Sahih al-Bukhari has been given a semi-divine status that in practice places it on par with or above the Quran, which he rejects outright. The Quran always takes precedence, and Bukhari is a book like the other hadith collections.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-ibn-majah", "label": "Sunan Ibn Majah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-said-ibn-mansur", "label": "Sunan Said ibn Mansur"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:256", "label": "Quran 2:256"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:10:99", "label": "Quran 10:99"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:29", "label": "Quran 18:29"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0a236306", "label": "report: whoever changes his religion kill him"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ikrima", "label": "Ikrima"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shatibi", "label": "al-Shatibi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-takes-precedence-over-hadith", "label": "The Quran takes precedence over an isolated hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Sahih al-Bukhari has been given a de facto status on par with or above the Quran, which he rejects entirely: it is a book like the other hadith collections and the Quran always takes precedence over it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "i will never ever accept that status that is more powerful than the quran or even on par with the quran or even just slightly below the quran that is nonsense", "start": 607}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/2/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/3", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S03", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 3, "start": 710, "end": 1103, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The third problem: can Bukhari be traced to its author? The bullet points", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth states his third and central point: Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be established back to its author beyond reasonable doubt. He says several prominent imams, including Jonathan Brown, refuted him publicly after he raised this, but nobody has answered his question of how the transmission is authenticated. He lists the factors he will later elaborate: the book rests on one man, Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri, whom nobody in his time vouched for; Farabri's students admit his copy was incomplete and that they altered it; the students, though copying one script, disagree among themselves in chapter headings, chains, names and hundreds of hadith; al-Yunini's makeover project in the seventh to eighth century chose one transmission, patched it and corrected the Arabic with the grammarian Ibn Malik; Yunini's own copy is lost and survives through copyists such as al-Nuwayri [?], who sold copies for a thousand dinars; and the Sultaniyya edition commissioned by Sultan Abdul Hamid had at least a hundred mistakes found by an al-Azhar board on its first revision. He stresses that he is not calling the book weak because of its problematic hadith, though he breaks down weak chains in Bukhari every week, but because its transmission is questionable, and he suspends that argument to first show what is in the book.", "summary_short": "Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be traced to its author beyond reasonable doubt. It rests on one unvouched transmitter, his students admit an incomplete and altered copy, their copies disagree, and later editions needed correction.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/collections-and-compilation"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yunini", "label": "Sharaf al-Din al-Yunini"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-malik", "label": "Ibn Malik (the grammarian)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nuwayri", "label": "al-Nuwayri [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the transmission of Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be established back to its author beyond reasonable doubt, because it rests on one unvouched transmitter whose students admit the copy was incomplete and altered, and whose copies disagree with one another.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "can we establish bukhari back to the imam with with confidence beyond reasonable doubt and the answer is we can't beyond reasonable doubt there is way too much conflict", "start": 710}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/3/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/4", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S04", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 4, "start": 1103, "end": 1682, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Problematic reports in Bukhari: the Isra, Moses and the rock, magic on the Prophet", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to what the book contains, beginning with what he calls a factual error: a report dating the Prophet's night journey from the Kaaba to before he was a prophet, which he says everyone rejects, adding that he himself holds the night journey to have been a vision. He reads hadith 5255 from the book of divorce, in which the Prophet asks a Muslim woman to give herself to him and she answers that a queen does not give herself to low-lifes and seeks refuge in Allah from him, which he calls nonsense that disrespects the Prophet. He reads the report that Moses bathed alone because of a swollen testicle, explaining the word udra, and that a rock ran off with his clothes until he beat it. He reads hadith 4594 in which a verse on those who stay behind from fighting is revealed and then immediately amended when a blind man objects, and asks why God did not reveal it correctly the first time; he says he has already shown its chains to be weak on a previous Monday night. He reads hadith 5765 from the book of medicine, that magic made the Prophet think he had had intercourse with his wives when he had not, and asks where testimony and justice would stand if the Prophet could not remember whether he had had sex.", "summary_short": "Several reports in Bukhari are factually wrong or disrespectful: the Isra dated before prophethood, a woman spurning the Prophet, Moses chasing a rock, a verse corrected on the spot, and magic making the Prophet forget intercourse. He also holds the night journey to have been a vision.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/false-and-fabricated", "history/sirah/isra-and-miraj"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8e1abb62", "label": "report: three came to him at the kaaba and took him on the night journey before he was a prophet"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:5255", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 5255"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5bbe2f3e", "label": "report: nothing stops musa bathing with us except a swollen testicle the rock ran away with his clothes"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:4594", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 4594"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:5765", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 5765"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isra", "label": "Isra (the night journey)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says these Bukhari reports contain a factual error, dating the night journey before prophethood, and portray the Prophet and Moses in a disrespectful and irrational light; he adds that he holds the night journey to have been a vision.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "then the prophet tries to touch her and she moves and she says to him i seek refuge in allah from you from who from the prophet nonsense utter nonsense disrespecting our prophet", "start": 1250}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/4/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/5", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S05", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 5, "start": 1682, "end": 1923, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Solomon's ninety women, the rich held back from paradise, Fatima angry with Abu Bakr", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads hadith 6639, in which Solomon vows to sleep with ninety women in one night so that each bears a warrior, is reminded by a companion to say 'if Allah wills' and does not, and only one woman bears a child, who is disabled; the Prophet is reported as swearing that had Solomon said it they would all have been born fighters. He calls the report disgusting and disrespectful to a prophet of God. He then reads a report that the Prophet stood at the gate of paradise and saw that most of those entering were the poor while the rich were held back, which he says shows an attitude towards the wealthy, though he counts it as less serious. He reads hadith 3093, that Fatima asked Abu Bakr for her inheritance, was refused, abandoned him and remained angry with him until she died, stressing that this is in Bukhari and not something he has made up.", "summary_short": "The reports of Solomon's ninety women, the rich held back from paradise and Fatima dying angry with Abu Bakr are all in Bukhari, and he calls the first disgusting and disrespectful to a prophet.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/false-and-fabricated", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:6639", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 6639"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c92486c9", "label": "report: i stood at the gate of jannah and most of those who entered were the poor while the rich were held back"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:3093", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 3093"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report of Solomon vowing to sleep with ninety women and being punished with a disabled child for not saying 'if Allah wills' is disgusting and disrespectful to a prophet of God.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this is a prophet of god who can't be bothered to say i mean just look at that hadith that is disgusting this is so disrespectful to our prophets", "start": 1761}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/5/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/6", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S06", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 6, "start": 1923, "end": 2162, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Nonsensical Arabic in hadith 5492: the alcohol slaughtered by fish and sun", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads the Arabic at the end of hadith 5492, a statement of Abu al-Darda [?] about a cooked dish, and says the sentence makes no sense. He says early Maliki scholars who held the tertiary manuscripts, such as al-Qabisi [?], crossed it out as a mistake, while later commentators including Ibn Hajar kept it, called it awkwardly worded and tried to justify it. He explains their reading: that 'ninan' is taken as the plural of the letter nun and made to mean fish, so the text says the alcohol was slaughtered by the fish and the sun, meaning that Abu al-Darda held that alcohol turned to vinegar may be used, that fish is lawful and that the sun purifies. He says nobody disputes that vinegar from alcohol may be used, citing the report that the best vinegar is the vinegar of your alcohol, or that fish is lawful by the verse on what is in the sea, but that the statement itself is absurd and scholars should admit it rather than perform gymnastics to defend it.", "summary_short": "The closing words of hadith 5492 are nonsensical Arabic that early scholars crossed out as an error. Later commentators should admit this rather than strain to make sense of it.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:5492", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 5492"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:814474b9", "label": "report: the best of your vinegar is the vinegar of your alcohol"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:96", "label": "Quran 5:96"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-darda", "label": "Abu al-Darda [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qabisi", "label": "al-Qabisi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the closing words of hadith 5492 are a syntactical error that the early scholars rightly crossed out, and that later commentators should admit the sentence is absurd instead of justifying it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the classical scholars like lacabisi and these great early maliki legends who were the early founders that had the manuscripts the kind of tertiary manuscripts they cross this out as a mistake because it makes no sense", "start": 1948}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/6/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/7", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S07", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 7, "start": 2162, "end": 2634, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The marriage to Aisha at six: consent, and the command to pray at seven", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After closing the previous point, Mufti Abu Layth reads hadith 5133, that the Prophet married Aisha at six and consummated the marriage at nine, and says that looking at a six-year-old with the intent of marriage is disgusting and an attack on the Prophet's honour. He rejects the defence that nine-year-olds of the time were like eighteen-year-olds today. He asks whether she consented, pointing to the chapter heading and hadith 5136 on the following page, that a father may not force a virgin or divorced daughter into marriage, with the report of a girl whose marriage the Prophet annulled and the report that a virgin's permission must be taken, even if given by silence. He asks how a six-year-old can consent, noting that a child of that age is not even obliged to pray. He then reads the report, graded sahih by Abu Dawud [?] and other scholars and numbered 491 in the edition he cites, that children are commanded to pray at seven, disciplined at ten and separated in their beds at ten, and argues that it is incoherent to hold both that boys and girls may sleep together until ten and that a nine-year-old had the body of a grown woman. He says such claims embarrass Muslims and do a disservice to the Prophet, and that a book containing them cannot be given a godly status.", "summary_short": "The report that the Prophet married Aisha at six dishonours him: Bukhari itself requires a virgin's consent, which a six-year-old cannot give, and the command to separate children's beds at ten contradicts the claim that a nine-year-old had a woman's body.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "hadith/bukhari", "fiqh/marriage-contracts"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:5133", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 5133"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:5136", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 5136"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:69a65512", "label": "report: command your children to pray at seven discipline them at ten and separate them in their beds"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report that the Prophet married Aisha at six and consummated at nine is an attack on the Prophet's honour, because a six-year-old cannot give the consent that Bukhari itself requires of a virgin, and the claim of physical maturity at nine contradicts the command to separate children's beds only at ten.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the prophet is looking at a six-year-old child with the intent of marriage which is a sexual relationship that is disgusting and it is an attack on the honor of our prophet", "start": 2212}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/7/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/8", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S08", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 8, "start": 2634, "end": 2871, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "More troubling reports: Umar's stoning verse, the adulterous monkeys, women in hellfire", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will in time show each of the three transmitters from Aisha whom Jonathan Brown and others cited to be unreliable, and that he has shown only a portion of the problematic material. He lists further examples: a companion asking whether the Prophet was talking nonsense when ill, which he says the Shia raise against Sunnis; Umar saying he still remembered the verse of stoning and would write it down but for the fuss it would cause; companions recalling that a surah used to be longer; and monkeys stoning a monkey for adultery. On the last he argues that adultery belongs to the institution of marriage, a human psychosocial construct, citing Wittgenstein on constructs animals cannot share, so that an animal may kill but cannot murder or commit adultery. He says many reports in Bukhari are unproblematic, but that the divine status given to the book makes Muslims suffer from reports such as women lacking intellect and women being the majority of the inhabitants of hellfire, which he has discussed before.", "summary_short": "Reports such as monkeys stoning an adulterous monkey, women lacking intellect and women filling hellfire are fabricated or misunderstood. Adultery is a human institution that animals cannot commit, and most crime and bloodshed is committed by men.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:57dd2ee7", "label": "report: umar said i would write the verse of stoning if people would not say he added to the book of allah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:06746893", "label": "report: monkeys stoned a monkey that had committed adultery"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:061599d0", "label": "report: i stood at the gate of jahannam and most of those who entered were women"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ludwig-wittgenstein", "label": "Ludwig Wittgenstein"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report of monkeys stoning an adulterer makes no sense, since adultery belongs to the human institution of marriage, which does not exist among animals.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "adultery is to do with the institution of marriage institutions don't exist in the monkey world or in the animal world okay", "start": 2742}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/8/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/9", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S09", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 9, "start": 2871, "end": 3509, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imam Bukhari's own practice: transmission by meaning, hidden names, a Khariji narrator", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Turning to Imam Bukhari himself, Mufti Abu Layth shows a page of Siyar A'lam al-Nubala where the governor of Bukhara asks Bukhari whether hadith he heard in one region and wrote down in another were recorded verbatim, and Bukhari falls silent; the margin notes that he permitted transmission by meaning. From al-Dhahabi's Mizan al-I'tidal he cites that Bukhari concealed the names of teachers others found problematic, referring to Muhammad ibn Yahya [?] simply as Muhammad or by a grandfather's name, so that the reader cannot tell which Muhammad is meant, a practice he says is noted in volume twelve page 275 of the same author [?] and for which Imam Muslim criticised him. He says his quarrel is not with Bukhari, whose requirement that two narrators be shown to have met he admires as a gold standard, but that Bukhari did not always apply it: al-Daraqutni's work on Bukhari's lapses [?] finds around 217 hadith that fall short of sahih, and Bukhari narrates from Imran ibn Hittan [?], a Khariji who praised the killer of Ali in poetry. He rejects the argument of Abu Dawud and others that Khawarij are reliable because they regard lying as a sin, noting that Ibn Abi Hatim records Khawarij admitting that they fabricated hadith when it suited them, and says anyone who justifies murder will not baulk at lying.", "summary_short": "Imam Bukhari set a gold standard but did not always apply it: he transmitted by meaning, hid the names of problematic teachers and narrated from a Khariji who praised Ali's killer. Mufti Abu Layth's quarrel is not with Bukhari himself but with how the book is treated.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/authentication"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:siyar-alam-al-nubala", "label": "Siyar A'lam al-Nubala"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:mizan-al-itidal", "label": "Mizan al-I'tidal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-yahya-al-dhuhli", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-muslim", "label": "Imam Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-daraqutni", "label": "al-Daraqutni"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imran-ibn-hittan", "label": "Imran ibn Hittan [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abi-hatim", "label": "Ibn Abi Hatim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riwaya-bil-mana", "label": "riwaya bil-ma'na (transmission by meaning)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Bukhari set a gold standard for authenticity but did not always apply it himself, since he transmitted by meaning, concealed the names of problematic teachers and narrated from a Khariji, so the narrators of his book are not all beyond question.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "my problem per se is not with imam buhari imam buhari even though he didn't stick by his rules and to be fair he also bent the rules just like people before him", "start": 3212}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/9/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/10", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S10", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 10, "start": 3509, "end": 3746, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Bukhari's persecution and why his book reaches us through one transmitter", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Bukhari, whom he respects for his effort, was ostracised and mentally tortured in the last four or five years of his life, driven out of Bukhara and refused entry to towns. He says the accusation was deviant belief over whether the written Quran is created, a debate he calls meaningless, and that the two groups behind the campaign were the Hanafis, because Bukhari attacked Abu Hanifa in his book, and the proto-Wahhabi literalists, the ancestors of today's Hanbalis. He points to the irony that these same two groups now semi-worship the book and insist it reaches us with certainty, when their persecution is the reason it does not: because Bukhari stopped teaching and his name became toxic, scholars including Imam Muslim boycotted him and stopped transmitting from him, so the Sahih reaches us only through Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri.", "summary_short": "Bukhari was persecuted and boycotted in his last years by Hanafis and Hanbali literalists, so few transmitted his book and it reaches us through Farabri alone. The same two groups now insist it reaches us with certainty.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "history/scholars-and-imams", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-muslim", "label": "Imam Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Bukhari's persecution by the Hanafis and the Hanbali literalists in his last years is why his book reaches us through a single transmitter, and that the same two groups now insist it reaches us with certainty.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the book doesn't reach us with certainty because of the suffering inflicted on him by the hanafi's and the humblings", "start": 3677}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/10/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/11", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S11", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 11, "start": 3746, "end": 4218, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Bukhari in his own chain, and the other students whose copies did not reach us", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shows a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari whose chain includes Imam Bukhari himself as the second narrator, transmitted by his own student, which he calls comedy in a book whose narrators are all supposed to be sound. He then introduces Farabri from Siyar A'lam al-Nubala: al-Dhahabi says he heard the Sahih from Bukhari twice, in 248 and 252, well before Bukhari's death, and that Farabri also claimed to have heard from Qutayba [?], which Mufti says is impossible given his age. He cites al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's chain in which Farabri claims ninety thousand people heard the Sahih from Bukhari but that only he remains to transmit it. He reviews the other students: Ibrahim ibn Ma'qil al-Nasafi [?], vouched for by a fifth-century scholar, whose incomplete version survives only through al-Khattabi's summary of twelve hundred hadith out of some seven thousand seven hundred, missing from the book of judgements onward; Hammad ibn Shakir, vouched for by al-Mustaghfiri [?], of whom almost nothing survives; and al-Bazdawi, the last transmitter, declared reliable by Ibn Makula. He says people readily declare these men reliable although they could not have known them, yet Bukhari does not reach us through any of them, and that the claim that we have the Sahih through all these sources is a lie.", "summary_short": "Sahih al-Bukhari reaches us through Farabri alone, although other students transmitted it. Nasafi's copy survives only in a summary of twelve hundred hadith, little of Hammad ibn Shakir's remains, Bazdawi's did not reach us, and Bukhari even appears in a chain in his own book.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/collections-and-compilation"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:siyar-alam-al-nubala", "label": "Siyar A'lam al-Nubala"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qutayba-ibn-said", "label": "Qutayba ibn Said [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khatib-al-baghdadi", "label": "al-Khatib al-Baghdadi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibrahim-ibn-maqil-al-nasafi", "label": "Ibrahim ibn Ma'qil al-Nasafi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khattabi", "label": "al-Khattabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hammad-ibn-shakir", "label": "Hammad ibn Shakir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-mustaghfiri", "label": "al-Mustaghfiri [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bazdawi", "label": "al-Bazdawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-makula", "label": "Ibn Makula"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that although Bukhari had other students who transmitted the Sahih, their versions were incomplete or did not reach later generations, so the book in fact reaches us through Farabri alone.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "there's been a lot of claims that we have sahil bukhari through all of these sources now that's a lie", "start": 4180}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/11/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/12", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S12", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 12, "start": 4218, "end": 4611, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Hajar and Ibn Rushayd on the transmissions: Farabri alone, found copies not taught", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads from Ibn Hajar's introduction to Fath al-Bari, which lists the transmissions of the Sahih and says Nasafi's copy was found and used for support but not taught, while the transmission that reached people through teaching and listening was Farabri's. He then reads an Andalusian scholar of the eighth century, Ibn Rushayd [?], who defends Farabri and, Mufti says, misrepresents the facts by claiming the copy was relied on for its perfection and that Farabri had Bukhari's own manuscript, yet admits on pages seventeen and eighteen that Farabri became the sole transmitter. He says those online who claim connected alternative transmissions are not being honest: a copy found centuries later, wijada, is not teaching, and Ibn Rushayd's pages of chains all go back to Farabri, whose copy itself lacked part of the book of judgements. He adds that a classical work [?] on page forty-nine records a consensus that one may not teach hadith from a found manuscript, however reliable its writer, because one cannot know they are the Prophet's words. He closes by asking why nobody who knew Farabri, a contemporary of Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Nasa'i and Ibn Khuzayma, ever declared him reliable.", "summary_short": "Ibn Hajar and Ibn Rushayd both record that Farabri's is the only transmission that reached later generations through teaching. Copies found centuries later cannot be taught from, so claims of independent connected transmissions are not honest.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/collections-and-compilation"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:fath-al-bari", "label": "Fath al-Bari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushayd", "label": "Ibn Rushayd [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibrahim-ibn-maqil-al-nasafi", "label": "Ibrahim ibn Ma'qil al-Nasafi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wijada", "label": "wijada (a found manuscript)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sama", "label": "sama' (transmission by hearing)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the only transmission of Sahih al-Bukhari that reached later generations through teaching is Farabri's, and that copies found without teaching cannot be used to claim an independent connected transmission.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "so all these people online trying to say we've got transmissions that are connected look this is the problem they're not being honest", "start": 4404}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/12/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/13", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S13", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 13, "start": 4611, "end": 5163, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Who vouched for Farabri? Baji, Sam'ani and whether transmission implies reliability", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks who ever declared Farabri reliable. He says Ibn Rushayd [?] attributes it to Abu al-Walid al-Baji, an early Maliki master of Muslim Spain, but that no contemporary, neither al-Dhahabi nor Ibn Hajar, ever quotes Baji saying so and it is not in Baji's own book on Bukhari; and to Abu Bakr al-Sam'ani of the fifth century, who lived over a century after Farabri and could not have known his memory or precision. He adds that in one manuscript of Ibn Rushayd's book the sentence about Sam'ani is missing, and that the entry on Farabri in al-Ansab by Sam'ani's son Abu Sa'd, number 3006, does not call him reliable while other entries do. He notes that Shia critics have raised the same point and that he was accused of being influenced by them for saying it. Against the argument that Farabri must be reliable because al-Hafiz Ibn al-Sakan and others transmitted from him, he reads al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, page eighty-four, that a scholar transmitting from someone does not declare them reliable, giving the example that Imam Malik transmitted from Abd al-Karim ibn Abi al-Mukhariq [?], an unreliable narrator; he says Ibn al-Salah in his Muqaddima and Ibn Hajar write the same.", "summary_short": "Nobody who knew Farabri declared him reliable, and the attributions to al-Baji and al-Sam'ani cannot be found in their works. That scholars transmitted from him proves nothing, since transmission is not endorsement.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushayd", "label": "Ibn Rushayd [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baji", "label": "Abu al-Walid al-Baji"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-al-samani", "label": "Abu Bakr al-Sam'ani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-sad-al-samani", "label": "Abu Sa'd al-Sam'ani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-ansab", "label": "al-Ansab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-sakan", "label": "Ibn al-Sakan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khatib-al-baghdadi", "label": "al-Khatib al-Baghdadi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-karim-ibn-abi-al-mukhariq", "label": "Abd al-Karim ibn Abi al-Mukhariq [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-salah", "label": "Ibn al-Salah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:transmission-is-not-endorsement", "label": "A scholar transmitting from a narrator does not declare him reliable"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says no contemporary who knew Farabri ever declared him reliable, that the later attributions to al-Baji and al-Sam'ani are unsupported in their own works, and that a scholar transmitting from someone does not make that person reliable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "nobody who actually knows him ever vouched for him as reliable", "start": 4668}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/13/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/14", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S14", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 14, "start": 5163, "end": 5564, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Farabri's incomplete copy, the differing student copies and the manuscript patchwork", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari, page six, quoting a student of Farabri that his copy had chapter headings with no hadith and hadith with no headings, so that the students moved material around, and al-Baji's observation that the copies of al-Mustamli, al-Sarakhsi, al-Kushmihani and al-Marwazi all differ although taken from one book, a remark Ibn Rushayd [?] says he wishes Baji had not made. He says Ibn al-Sakan was known for being lenient in grading narrators, as al-Albani [?] sets out in an introduction, and that the argument that Farabri must be reliable because he is absent from Ibn Adi's book of weak narrators is the most absurd he has heard. He traces the later manuscripts: al-Harawi's patchwork of the three students' copies, in which he admits deleting much of Kushmihani's because he was not a hadith scholar; the Karima copy based on Kushmihani; al-Asili's and al-Jurjani's in al-Andalus; al-Qabisi [?], about whom he says Ibn Hajar erred; al-Sadafi's undotted and badly written manuscript, with which his student disagreed massively and which underlies the copy relied on in the Maghrib; Yunini's commissioned makeover with the grammarian Ibn Malik, correcting the Arabic; and the copies of his lost copy redone under Sultan Abdul Hamid II, which still contain mistakes. He says the names in the chains themselves differ and that nobody can answer these points.", "summary_short": "Farabri's copy was incomplete and rearranged, his students' copies differ in chains and hadith, and every later manuscript down to the Sultaniyya edition was a patchwork that needed correction.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/collections-and-compilation"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:fath-al-bari", "label": "Fath al-Bari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baji", "label": "Abu al-Walid al-Baji"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-mustamli", "label": "al-Mustamli"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-sarakhsi", "label": "al-Sarakhsi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-kushmihani", "label": "al-Kushmihani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-marwazi", "label": "al-Marwazi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushayd", "label": "Ibn Rushayd [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-sakan", "label": "Ibn al-Sakan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-adi", "label": "Ibn Adi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-harawi", "label": "al-Harawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-asili", "label": "al-Asili"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-jurjani", "label": "al-Jurjani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qabisi", "label": "al-Qabisi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-sadafi", "label": "al-Sadafi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yunini", "label": "Sharaf al-Din al-Yunini"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-malik", "label": "Ibn Malik (the grammarian)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Farabri's own copy was incomplete and rearranged by his students, their copies differ in chains and hadith, and every later manuscript down to the Sultaniyya edition is a patchwork that still needed correction.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "these are all through fabri and they all disagree and it's not just little disagreements the actual names in the chains are missing as well", "start": 5481}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/14/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/15", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S15", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 15, "start": 5564, "end": 6037, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Summing up: judge Bukhari like any other book; the deen comes through living practice", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sums up: the claim that Sahih al-Bukhari is the most authentic book on earth after the Quran is absurd when the whole book rests on one unvouched man. He says he is not telling anyone to throw the book away, but that Muslims do not need to take their religion from it, because the deen and the sunnah reach us as a living, continuous practice through fiqh, and hadith was documented a hundred or more years after the Prophet. He says Bukhari should be read like any other hadith book, with each report judged on its own merits by three criteria he attributes to scholars such as Ibn al-Jawzi [?] and Ibn Hazm: it must not go against reason, clash with the Quran, or uproot an established Islamic principle; what passes may be taken as conjectural and useful, what brings nonsense is a problem. He wishes earlier Muslims had filtered or at least criticised such reports, and says his quarrel is with the grand claim of certainty. He argues that the book's semi-divine status leads people to throw the Prophet under the bus, accepting that he married a six-year-old rather than question Bukhari. He says many have left Islam over such material, that honesty would protect faith, and that there is no neutral peer review in Muslim circles, where he is called a deviant even for saying women may pluck their eyebrows.", "summary_short": "Bukhari should be read like any other hadith book, each report judged on its merits against reason, the Quran and established principles. The religion itself reaches Muslims through the living tradition of practice, not through this book.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-ibn-majah", "label": "Sunan Ibn Majah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jawzi", "label": "Ibn al-Jawzi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principle", "label": "A report is rejected if it contradicts reason, the Quran or an established principle"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Sahih al-Bukhari should be treated like any other hadith collection, with each report judged on its own merits by whether it contradicts reason, the Quran or an established principle, because the religion already reaches Muslims through the living tradition of practice.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the quality of what we're getting from sahil bukhari is in my understanding just like any other hadith", "start": 5828}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/15/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/16", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S16", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 16, "start": 6037, "end": 6514, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Replies to critics: Jonathan Brown, academic dialogue, going public, the Aisha debate", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that although he respects Jonathan Brown as a leading academic at Georgetown, Brown's response was emotional, mocking his pronunciation of a Maliki name when there were fourteen scholars of that name. He recounts sitting daily in the late nineties with an elderly shaykh renowned in Arabic grammar, discussing Sibawayh, the subject and predicate and the concept of ibtida, to show that belittling his knowledge misses the mark. He says he offered dialogue to another shaykh [?] and to Brown, who declined to discuss this topic. To those who ask why he went public and risked fitnah, he answers that the problems are the truth, that hiding them is what makes people lose faith, and that a published book would be public too; he objects to infantilising ordinary Muslims. He finds it irresponsible that several scholars shared Brown's chart showing Aisha as six as if it were a slap in his face, while he is called irresponsible for saying Bukhari cannot be proved sound beyond reasonable doubt. He says he will take up the debate on Aisha's age, having asked that the authenticity of Bukhari be discussed first in the same dialogue, and closes with a couplet from Jaun Elia that the only way to counter him is to crush him, thanking the audience for a long evening.", "summary_short": "The problems with Bukhari should be discussed openly, because hiding them is what makes people lose faith. He finds Jonathan Brown's response emotional rather than academic and will take up the debate on Aisha's age.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "history/sirah/age-of-aisha"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sibawayh", "label": "Sibawayh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jaun-elia", "label": "Jaun Elia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the problems with Sahih al-Bukhari should be discussed openly rather than hidden from ordinary Muslims, because concealing them is what causes people to lose their faith.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "if we were just honest from the beginning people wouldn't lose their faith", "start": 6219}}, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/16/"}, {"id": "X6SfFYRljeY/s/17", "short_id": "2018-08-30-S17", "recording": "X6SfFYRljeY", "n": 17, "start": 6514, "end": 6546, "date": "20180830", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Sign-off and where to follow the page", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth closes the session, invites new viewers to like the page and subscribe to the YouTube channel where clips are released, mentions his other social media pages, and signs off until the following week with salam.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth signs off, invites viewers to like the page and subscribe to the YouTube channel, and says goodbye until the following week.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/X6SfFYRljeY/s/17/"}, {"id": "XttbK-raL6A/s/1", "short_id": "2021-02-02-S01", "recording": "XttbK-raL6A", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 480, "date": "20210202", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Shadee Elmasry's Instagram post on the second coming, and what Ibn Ashur actually says", "question_plain": "Did Ibn Ashur say Muslims must believe Jesus was raised alive?", "summary": "After a musical opening, Mufti Abu Layth introduces Shadee Elmasry, mentions an earlier video of his on the man's competence and makes dismissive remarks about his PhD, saying his personal affairs are his own but preaching the religion is another matter. Mufti shows an Instagram post on the second coming of Jesus in which Shadee Elmasry, quoting Ibn Ashur, makes two points: that what must be believed from the Quran is that Jesus was neither killed nor crucified and that God raised him and saved him, anything else being doubtful; and that a group of companions narrated hadith on the second coming and nothing in the Quran goes against it. Mufti says the post portrays God as having raised Jesus miraculously alive, and shows the comment he left on it. Mufti then reads Ibn Ashur's own text, which says that what must be believed is that Jesus was not killed or crucified and that God raised and saved him, while how this happened, whether a real death, a later death or being raised alive, is open to interpretation (ihtimal), a matter Ibn Ashur discusses under the Al Imran verse.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth shows that Ibn Ashur, quoted in Shadee Elmasry's post, held only that Jesus was not killed or crucified and was raised and saved, leaving how it happened open to interpretation.", "answer_start": 375, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shadee-elmasry", "label": "Shadee Elmasry"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-tahrir-wa-al-tanwir", "label": "al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir (Ibn Ashur's tafsir)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:157-158", "label": "Quran 4:157-158 (they did not kill him nor crucify him; God raised him to Himself)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ihtimal", "label": "ihtimal (openness to interpretation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/XttbK-raL6A/s/1/"}, {"id": "XttbK-raL6A/s/2", "short_id": "2021-02-02-S02", "recording": "XttbK-raL6A", "n": 2, "start": 480, "end": 800, "date": "20210202", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Ashur on 'inni mutawaffika': Jesus was given death", "question_plain": "Did Ibn Ashur believe Jesus died?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads Ibn Ashur's commentary on the verse 'inni mutawaffika', which Ibn Ashur says apparently means 'I am giving you death', explaining that this is what the word means and that taking it as sleep would be a metaphor. Mufti shows Ibn Ashur adding that the verse in Surat al-Ma'ida, where Jesus speaks of a time after God took him, makes it even clearer, and that saying Jesus merely slept and was raised makes no sense. Mufti reads Ibn Ashur noting that some made other interpretations of how he was raised, and quoting Imam Malik in al-'Utbiyya that Jesus died, adding that the early scholars stayed silent about how it happened, which Ibn Ashur calls the successful approach. Mufti shows Ibn Ashur saying that texts describing Jesus as alive are better read as an honorific life, like the life of martyrs.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth shows that Ibn Ashur read 'inni mutawaffika' as real death, cited Imam Malik for it, and took texts calling Jesus alive as an honorific life like that of martyrs.", "answer_start": 480, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-tahrir-wa-al-tanwir", "label": "al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir (Ibn Ashur's tafsir)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:55", "label": "Quran 3:55 (inni mutawaffika: I will take you / give you death)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:117", "label": "Quran 5:117 (when You took me, You were the watcher over them)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-utbiyya", "label": "al-'Utbiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/XttbK-raL6A/s/2/"}, {"id": "XttbK-raL6A/s/3", "short_id": "2021-02-02-S03", "recording": "XttbK-raL6A", "n": 3, "start": 800, "end": 1270, "date": "20210202", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Misreading yata'arrad: Ibn Ashur says the Quran does not deal with the second coming", "question_plain": "Did Ibn Ashur say nothing in the Quran goes against the second coming of Jesus?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the post's second claim, that Ibn Ashur showed nothing in the Quran clashes with the second coming, and sets Shadee Elmasry's translation beside Ibn Ashur's text. Mufti says Ibn Ashur is discussing a problem in one of the hadith: he notes the reports from a group of companions, mentions an interpretation that Jesus died and would be raised on the Day of Judgement, which Mufti says he himself does not take, and says the report that Jesus will live forty years is not transmitted by others, and that the reports disagree with each other and are unclear. Mufti reads Ibn Ashur as saying that the Quran, when enumerating God's favours upon Jesus in Surat al-Ma'ida, did not deal with the second coming, which Mufti calls a dismissal of it. Using Google Translate and dictionaries, Mufti argues that the verb yata'arrad means to be exposed to or to deal with, and says Shadee Elmasry confused it with a similar verb from another root meaning to oppose, so that his translation reverses Ibn Ashur's point.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Ashur wrote that the Quran does not deal with the second coming, not that nothing in it opposes it; the post confused yata'arrad with a verb meaning 'to oppose'.", "answer_start": 902, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/arabic-language", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shadee-elmasry", "label": "Shadee Elmasry"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-tahrir-wa-al-tanwir", "label": "al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir (Ibn Ashur's tafsir)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:110", "label": "Quran 5:110 (God's favours upon Jesus enumerated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yataarrad", "label": "yata'arrad (to deal with, to be exposed to)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in Ibn Ashur's words the Quran does not deal with the second coming when it counts out the blessings of Jesus, rather than saying nothing in the Quran opposes it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the quran does not encounter this argument doesn't when it's counting out the blessings of jesus", "start": 1156}}, "url": "/r/XttbK-raL6A/s/3/"}, {"id": "XttbK-raL6A/s/4", "short_id": "2021-02-02-S04", "recording": "XttbK-raL6A", "n": 4, "start": 1270, "end": 1383, "date": "20210202", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth: either poor Arabic or deliberate misleading", "question_plain": "Did Shadee Elmasry mistranslate Ibn Ashur on purpose?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth concludes that there are only two explanations for the mistranslation: either the author of the post does not understand Arabic and is incompetent, or he knew and is intentionally misleading people. Mufti mocks the post at length, says this is what happens when people bluff, and closes as the recording cuts off.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the mistranslation shows either incompetence in Arabic or deliberate misleading.", "answer_start": 1270, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shadee-elmasry", "label": "Shadee Elmasry"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/XttbK-raL6A/s/4/"}, {"id": "YPFQpHdSbGg/s/1", "short_id": "2019-08-01-S01", "recording": "YPFQpHdSbGg", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 266, "date": "20190801", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Introducing the controversy over a famous Instagram 'couple goals' pair", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces, in his 'masala' segment, the controversy around a married couple very popular on Instagram for cheesy 'couple goals' content, joking about his own smaller following. He relays what was being reported on social media: that in private the couple mocked Islam and did not believe, that they ran ruqya and exorcism sessions as a business, and that the wife led a parallel life as a model away from her niqab-wearing public persona. He says they have now been exposed and that he wants to give his own angle on the matter.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces the social media controversy around a famous Muslim Instagram couple accused of living double lives.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media/social-media", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/YPFQpHdSbGg/s/1/"}, {"id": "YPFQpHdSbGg/s/2", "short_id": "2019-08-01-S02", "recording": "YPFQpHdSbGg", "n": 2, "start": 266, "end": 645, "date": "20190801", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "His issue is not their private lives but fake preaching and false ideals", "question_plain": "Why is it harmful when religious influencers present a fake perfect life?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that for him personally the drinking, clubbing, bikinis or modelling reported of the couple are not the issue, since those would be their private lives. He says the first problem is that they proactively preached standards of piety they knew they could not live by. The second is that they sold a fake, unattainable ideal of marriage while, he says, the messages now circulating show their own relationship was troubled, and that young people measuring themselves against it end up miserable, all the more because they spoke in the name of God. He adds an aside that he personally thinks feminism, in the sense of a man-hating attitude rather than women's rights, has made relationships worse, and says scholars receive people with doubts and failing relationships as a result.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says their private lives were their own business, and that the harm lay in preaching standards they could not live by and selling an unattainable ideal of marriage in God's name.", "answer_start": 266, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media/social-media", "relationships/marriage", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/YPFQpHdSbGg/s/2/"}, {"id": "YPFQpHdSbGg/s/3", "short_id": "2019-08-01-S03", "recording": "YPFQpHdSbGg", "n": 3, "start": 645, "end": 988, "date": "20190801", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Alleged staged ruqya, charity appeals, and no compulsion in belief", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to judge someone who has become an atheist or left Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the couple used their platform to boost a ruqya and exorcism business, reportedly charging about 300 pounds a session, and that videos of exorcisms have been exposed as staged with the wife's involvement, rejecting the view that she was only a victim. He says the worst part was charity appeals, reportedly raising 300,000 pounds into a personal bank account, money people gave believing it would help Muslims such as the Rohingya. He says that if a person is an atheist it is their choice, that there is no compulsion in Islam, and that he does not judge people who have doubts, have left the faith or drink. His issue, he says, is the facade, the fake preaching and the perpetuation of superstition and jinn possession they did not themselves believe, while taking money for charity.", "summary_short": "A person's atheism or doubts are their own choice and he does not judge them; what he objects to, he says, is staged exorcisms and charity money taken under false pretences.", "answer_start": 645, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "fiqh/zakat-and-charity", "belief/salvation-and-non-muslims"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ruqya", "label": "ruqya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:256", "label": "Quran 2:256 (no compulsion in religion), alluded to"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if a person is an atheist it is their choice, as there is no compulsion in Islam, and he does not judge people who have doubts or have left the faith.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if a person is an atheist it's his choice or her choice I believe there's no compulsion in Islam", "start": 836}}, "url": "/r/YPFQpHdSbGg/s/3/"}, {"id": "YPFQpHdSbGg/s/4", "short_id": "2019-08-01-S04", "recording": "YPFQpHdSbGg", "n": 4, "start": 988, "end": 1517, "date": "20190801", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Don't hate on polygamy: their personal choice, and love in all shapes", "question_plain": "Is it right to condemn people for being in a polygamous marriage?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says leaked messages about the couple's relationships are circulating, and that many people, especially young Muslim women on social media, were attacking them for the husband having two wives. He says he defended them on this point: polygamy is their personal choice, Islam allows it, and no one has to practise it. He contrasts young Muslims who defend gay and lesbian relationships as consensual with their assumption that anything associated with Islam, like polygamy, must be forced and oppressive, and says if people are happy it is their life. He jokes at length about 'triangular love', recites Urdu poetry on the dangers of love, and returns to the topic.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says polygamy is a personal choice Islam allows, so people should not hate on others for it, though nobody has to practise it.", "answer_start": 1289, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:polygamy", "label": "polygamy (ta'addud al-zawjat)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says polygamy is a personal choice that Islam allows, so people should not be hated for it, though no one has to practise it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the polygamy angle is there personal choice we shouldn't be hating on them for polygamy it doesn't mean that you have to do polygamy", "start": 1289}}, "url": "/r/YPFQpHdSbGg/s/4/"}, {"id": "YPFQpHdSbGg/s/5", "short_id": "2019-08-01-S05", "recording": "YPFQpHdSbGg", "n": 5, "start": 1517, "end": 1884, "date": "20190801", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Fake preaching and a hierarchy of people who do not believe what they preach", "question_plain": "Do you need to appear perfectly pious to be a good Muslim?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says his issue with the affair is fake preaching. He likens Islam to a hierarchy in which much of what is preached at the top is not believed by those preaching it, the people on the ground half believe only because they think others believe, and ordinary people then feel guilty, give up on faith and come to him. He says if people acted more genuinely it would reduce much of the trauma on the ground, and likens the internet to medieval public executions. He says he has never claimed to be pious, that one does not need to pretend to be, and that it is okay just to be human, which makes the deen more workable for the common person. He signs off.", "summary_short": "No one needs to pretend to be pious; being genuinely human makes the deen more workable, while sanctimonious fake preaching drives people from faith.", "answer_start": 1517, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "society/technology-and-media/social-media", "wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says one does not need to pretend to be pious, and that it is okay just to be human.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "what I am saying is you don't need to pretend to be pious I think it's okay to just be human just be yourself", "start": 1779}}, "url": "/r/YPFQpHdSbGg/s/5/"}, {"id": "Yd3ehW0VTls/s/1", "short_id": "2018-02-13b-S01", "recording": "Yd3ehW0VTls", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 410, "date": "20180213", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The evil eye, a God who only enables harm, and black magic", "question_plain": "Is the evil eye real in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls a discussion in which he said belief in the evil eye goes against the Quran and the Sunnah, citing Imam Malik that not every hadith is the Sunnah. He says the hadith that the eye is real does not literally mention the evil eye, and that the evil eye is synonymous with envy, which has real consequences in how it is acted upon. He relates arguing that it is absurd to believe a look can cause cancer, bankruptcy or a car accident, and that if God enabled only harmful looks and never a healing 'angel eye' he would be an evil god, not al-Rahman al-Rahim. He says such superstitions contradict tawhid and the Sunnah, and that black magic is only mind control and hypnosis, referring to a longer video with Shaykh Akram Nadwi [?]. He briefly calls doing istikhara for others live on shows absurd.", "summary_short": "Belief that a look can cause disease or disaster contradicts tawhid; the evil eye is simply envy, whose harm lies in how it is acted upon.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "belief/tawhid-and-shirk"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:517e74fc", "label": "report: the evil eye is real"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-ayn", "label": "al-'ayn (the evil eye)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hasad", "label": "hasad (envy)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawhid", "label": "tawhid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sihr", "label": "sihr (magic)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:istikhara", "label": "istikhara"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says believing in superstitions such as the evil eye causing harm contradicts the tawhid of Allah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so believing in these kind of superstitions contradicts the towhead of Allah it contradicts the Sunnah of the messenger of allah", "start": 293}}, "url": "/r/Yd3ehW0VTls/s/1/"}, {"id": "Yd3ehW0VTls/s/2", "short_id": "2018-02-13b-S02", "recording": "Yd3ehW0VTls", "n": 2, "start": 410, "end": 634, "date": "20180213", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The three Quls do not mention the evil eye; the report of magic on the Prophet", "question_plain": "Did someone really do magic on the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the three Quls say nothing about the evil eye and simply seek refuge in God from harmful things, and that al-Falaq and al-Nas were revealed in Makkah long before the Madinan incident in which the Prophet is said to have had magic done on him. He calls that incident falsely attributed and an affront to the Prophet's honour, describing reports that he became forgetful, made up statements and, in some narrations, impotent, and that he forgot the verses for half a year until angels reminded him. He says these narrations were misunderstood, manufactured by those who wanted to attack the Prophet's honour, or innocently relayed. He explains that seeking refuge from nightfall, the envier and those who blow on knots is seeking refuge from the harms associated with them, such as the social ramifications of superstition. He refers questions on Harut and Marut to his lecture on magic.", "summary_short": "No: he calls the report of magic on the Prophet falsely attributed and an affront to his honour, and says the Quls were revealed years earlier in Makkah.", "answer_start": 410, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "quran/tafsir/short-surahs"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:112:1-4", "label": "Quran 112 (Surat al-Ikhlas)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:113:1-5", "label": "Quran 113:1-5 (Surat al-Falaq)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:114:1-6", "label": "Quran 114 (Surat al-Nas)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:113:4", "label": "Quran 113:4 (from the evil of those who blow on knots)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muawwidhatayn", "label": "al-mu'awwidhatayn (the two surahs of seeking refuge)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e92689a3", "label": "report: magic was done on the prophet and he became impotent"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:102", "label": "Quran 2:102 (Harut and Marut)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sihr", "label": "sihr (magic)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the incident of magic being done on the Prophet in Madinah is falsely attributed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this a falsely attributed incident that the Prophet had magic turn onto him this is not only a blast blasphemous it is dishonorable", "start": 410}}, "url": "/r/Yd3ehW0VTls/s/2/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/1", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S01", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 1, "start": 4, "end": 217, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Introducing the guest: from medicine to the study of religion at Harvard", "question_plain": "Why did a medical doctor choose to study religion at Harvard?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the MindTrap episode by presenting his guest, Dr Javad Hashmi, with jokes about the prestige of Harvard, and the guest jokes that it is an honour to be on the 'Muslim Joe Rogan podcast'. Asked for an overview of his journey, the guest says he was born and raised in California, first studied engineering, which he hated, then medicine, which he also disliked but completed through residency. He then went back to university for a bachelor's in Arabic and Islamic studies at UC Berkeley and a master's at Harvard, and is now in the middle of a PhD in the study of religion, having also done a fellowship in medical ethics, while still practising part-time as a physician. Asked whether people in the South Asian community questioned a doctor becoming a religious scholar, he says his parents were not happy at first, that he told his wife after marrying that he would study religion, and that he loves the journey however long it takes.", "summary_short": "The guest describes training as a physician and then turning to Arabic and Islamic studies at Berkeley and Harvard, where he is now a PhD candidate in the study of religion, despite his family's initial unease.", "answer_start": 4, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:harvard-university", "label": "Harvard University"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:joe-rogan", "label": "Joe Rogan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/1/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/2", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S02", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 2, "start": 217, "end": 404, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Al-Azhar or Harvard? Why the guest chose the academic study of Islam", "question_plain": "Is it better to study Islam at a madrasa or at a Western university?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks how studying Islam at Harvard fits together, since one would expect a madrasa or al-Azhar instead. The guest says that after residency he had to choose between the traditional route, with al-Azhar in mind, and the Western university; he completed two years of al-Azhar's online Arabic and Islamic studies programme and audited madrasa courses in Pakistan, which he found beneficial, but chose the critical scholarly route. He says he has come to the conclusion that the academic study of Islam is superior to the madrasa route, though the madrasa gives real skills, including language, and an understanding of the traditional view. He recommends combining both, which he says is what he tries to do and what he sees Mufti doing too.", "summary_short": "The guest says he chose the critical academic study of Islam over al-Azhar, considering it superior, though he took two years of al-Azhar's online programme and recommends combining traditional and academic study.", "answer_start": 217, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-azhar", "label": "al-Azhar"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:harvard-university", "label": "Harvard University"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/2/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/3", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S03", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 3, "start": 404, "end": 605, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Should I go to Madinah University? Who the madrasa route suits", "question_plain": "Should I go to Madinah University or a madrasa to study Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people often ask him whether to go to Madinah University or elsewhere to deepen their knowledge, and asks what the guest would recommend. The guest says it depends on the person: an open-minded, critical thinker should not go to a traditional madrasa. He describes a pre-selective process, saying he was himself rejected by the Islamic University of Madinah more than a decade ago even though it takes students straight from high school, then five to ten years of programming in which a student who thinks differently is either expelled or conforms. He adds that madrasa graduates are isolated from the world and from the latest Western academic scholarship on Islam, so that the average mullah cannot deal with much of it, with exceptions, and notes that Yasir Qadhi chose to do a PhD at Yale.", "summary_short": "The guest advises open-minded, critical thinkers against a traditional madrasa, which he says selects, programmes and isolates its students from current scholarship, citing his own rejection by Madinah University.", "answer_start": 404, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam", "society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:islamic-university-of-madinah", "label": "Islamic University of Madinah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqiyya", "label": "taqiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/3/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/4", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S04", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 4, "start": 605, "end": 930, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The madrasa as defunct, and how those who deviate are blackballed", "question_plain": "Are madrasas failing their students?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives his own view that, while a madrasa can provide much good and the raw materials, the madrasa phenomenon, as opposed to any specific madrasa, is defunct and dysfunctional and is producing malfunctioning people, and that it would be brilliant if it taught and promoted critical thought. The guest adds a post-graduation weeding process, using Mufti as an example: fifteen years ago he was celebrated by Ash'aris, Maturidis and Sufis for confronting Salafis, but having changed his views he is now treated as a nobody, which the guest calls one way orthodoxy is controlled. Mufti describes it as cult-like, with a bullying, mafia-style pressure, guilt-tripping and boycotts by mosques and centres, and, while disparaging Daniel Haqiqatjou, cites him as saying that once his views changed he went from being lauded to being dismissed. The guest says that whoever deviates from the main group is blackballed, recommends a few years of traditional study combined with academic study, and the segment includes repeated microphone trouble.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the madrasa phenomenon is dysfunctional and dumbs students down though it supplies the raw materials; both say those who leave orthodox positions are ostracised, and the guest recommends a few years of traditional study combined with academic study.", "answer_start": 605, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madrasa", "label": "madrasa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/4/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/5", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S05", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 5, "start": 930, "end": 1168, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Islamic intellectual history: the philosophers, the Qadariyya and the Mu'tazila", "question_plain": "Why don't madrasas teach the Islamic philosophers and the Mu'tazila?", "summary": "Asked about his interest in Islamic intellectual history, the guest says he taught a series on it and that traditionalists are gaslighting Muslims by calling themselves traditional while valuing only a narrow sliver of the tradition. He says madrasas teach nothing about the great philosophers such as Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sina and Ibn Tufayl, nor that the Qadariyya were the first theological group and the Mu'tazila the first orthodoxy, with the Ash'ari and Hanbali systems coming much later, and that non-Sunni groups such as the Isma'ilis also had great philosophers. He says he found the answers to questions of religion and science not in the Ash'aris or Hanbalis but in Ibn Rushd, and that he also wants to take Islamic modernism seriously, along with non-orthodox Sufis and groups such as the Ahmadis, to widen what is thought of as Muslim. Mufti Abu Layth puts to him the usual response that such figures are not taught because they are misguided and would lead people astray.", "summary_short": "The guest says traditionalists value only a narrow sliver of Islam's diverse intellectual heritage, ignoring the philosophers, the early Qadariyya and Mu'tazila, Shia thinkers and modernists, and that he found answers on religion and science in Ibn Rushd.", "answer_start": 930, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-sina", "label": "Ibn Sina (Avicenna)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-tufayl", "label": "Ibn Tufayl"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qadariyya", "label": "Qadariyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ismaili", "label": "Isma'ili"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ahmadiyya", "label": "the Ahmadiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/5/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/6", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S06", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 6, "start": 1168, "end": 1359, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Better misguided? Orthodoxy, extremism and an alternative vision", "question_plain": "Does traditional orthodoxy lead to extremism?", "summary": "The guest answers, ironically, that if being guided means following what today's traditionalists teach, he would rather be misguided, since what they promote is reactionary conservatism and fundamentalism. He says that while they are not the same as terrorists, it is not a coincidence that, by his account, most terrorist groups in South Asia are Deobandi-inspired or Salafi, with a minority Barelvi, and asks what is being taught that mutates so easily into the Taliban or ISIS. He respects some reformed traditionalists but calls reformed traditionalism a failed project, and says he wants to channel the Islamic philosophers, the Mu'tazila and the modernists, a vision that has struggled because in Muslim countries its proponents are killed or exiled, which cannot happen to him in the United States. Mufti Abu Layth agrees that certain groups which are not themselves violent create an atmosphere that can be a springboard to extremism, mentioning Salafi thought, and the segment ends in microphone trouble.", "summary_short": "The guest says today's orthodoxy promotes reactionary conservatism that can mutate into groups like the Taliban and ISIS, and proposes reviving the philosophers, Mu'tazila and modernists; Mufti Abu Layth agrees some non-violent groups create a springboard for extremism.", "answer_start": 1168, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dalalah", "label": "dalala (misguidance)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:taliban", "label": "Taliban"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/6/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/7", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S07", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 7, "start": 1359, "end": 1782, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "No blind following in faith, yet blind following of creeds: reason used once and discarded", "question_plain": "If blind following in faith is forbidden, why must I accept a school's creed without question?", "summary": "After fixing the microphone, Mufti Abu Layth raises what he calls a paradox: people say one may not blindly follow in belief, citing the hadith that in the grave those who believed only because they heard others will be questioned, yet the Ash'ari and Hanbali schools say one must accept every point of their creeds. Amid further audio trouble, the guest says the consequence of their view is that reason is used only to arrive at God and the need for a prophet and is then thrown away, used instrumentally rather than rationally, whereas the Mu'tazila put reason and revelation on the same level and the philosophers gave reason precedence; he says modern reactionary conservatives equate reason with whims and desires. He cites Reliance of the Traveller as saying that someone on an isolated island who never heard revelation is not held accountable, which he says would allow such a person to commit any atrocity and be forgiven on becoming Muslim, and calls that absurd. He argues that reason is an ongoing tool in engaging with revelation, so that a verse saying something absurd would rightly make one question one's earlier conviction, and says he is inspired by the philosophers, the Mu'tazila and modern Islamic modernists.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth finds it paradoxical that schools forbid blind following in faith but demand blind acceptance of their creeds; the guest says traditionalists use reason only to reach revelation and then discard it, whereas reason must stay in continuous use.", "answer_start": 1465, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/salvation-and-non-muslims"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:102b6368", "label": "report: i heard the people saying something so i said it (unresolved; the questioning in the grave)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqlid", "label": "taqlid (blind following)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:reliance-of-the-traveller", "label": "Reliance of the Traveller ('Umdat al-Salik)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/7/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/8", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S08", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 8, "start": 1782, "end": 2038, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is reason subjective? Moral relativism, al-Ghazali and the Euthyphro dilemma", "question_plain": "Isn't reason subjective, and is something good only because God commands it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth puts the common objection that reason is subjective, since what is reasonable changes over centuries. The guest replies that the Ash'aris and the so-called orthodoxy are the greater moral relativists: al-Ghazali, whom he respects as a great intellectual, argued for cultural relativism, while the Mu'tazila and the modernists argued for a universal morality not subject to human desire, and he sees a strange alliance today between academic postmodernists and traditionalists. Referring to the Euthyphro dilemma, he calls it a false dilemma and favours a modified divine command theory in which good flows from God's nature, and says the Ash'ari ethical voluntarism is more relativist than the view that universal moral values exist even if people disagree on them. Mufti says he finds absurd the Ash'ari view that there is no good and bad except what God commands or forbids, calling it complete nonsense, and notes that Abu Hanifa and other early theologians opposed it.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Ash'ari voluntarist view of ethics is the real relativism and argues for universal moral values grounded in God's nature; Mufti Abu Layth calls the Ash'ari denial of inherent good and bad nonsense.", "answer_start": 1782, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:euthyphro-dilemma", "label": "the Euthyphro dilemma"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:divine-command-theory", "label": "divine command theory"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ethical-voluntarism", "label": "ethical voluntarism"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/8/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/9", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S09", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 9, "start": 2038, "end": 2387, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Grounding morality: the Hijab and Apostate Prophet debate, and moral realism", "question_plain": "Where does morality come from if not from God?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls a debate in which Mohammed Hijab kept asking his atheist opponent, Apostate Prophet [?], where his morals come from, and asks how the guest sees the question of morality. The guest says Hijab has only a cursory knowledge of Western philosophy, like the one-eyed man in the land of the blind, and uses it against an opponent he considers to know nothing; after a long interruption for audio trouble, he says his own worldview is theistic and that he is a moral realist, and a critical or common-sense scientific realist, which is out of fashion in philosophy departments that no longer invoke God. He says that Islamic traditionalists who have studied the philosophy of science now debate people who know no philosophy, mentioning a debate on Joe Rogan's show with a Muslim MMA trainer, Firas [?], whom he finds brilliant though he disagrees with him. He argues that an atheist who believes only in evolution and biology has no ground for universal morality, whereas a theist can ground moral realism in God, and that traditionalists are not moral realists but ethical voluntarists; Mufti then begins to give his own perspective.", "summary_short": "The guest says a theist can ground moral realism in God while an atheist who relies on evolution alone cannot, and that traditionalist debaters exploit opponents who know little philosophy.", "answer_start": 2085, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:apostate-prophet", "label": "Apostate Prophet [?] (YouTuber)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:joe-rogan", "label": "Joe Rogan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firas-zahabi", "label": "Firas Zahabi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:moral-realism", "label": "moral realism"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ethical-voluntarism", "label": "ethical voluntarism"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/9/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/10", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S10", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 10, "start": 2387, "end": 2597, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's view: the fitrah as a moral instinct built on harm and empathy", "question_plain": "Is morality an instinct God put in us?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out his view that Allah has created the fitrah as a kind of morality instinct, raw and hardwired like the language instinct and Chomsky's universal grammar, whose core components are recognising harm and hurt and feeling empathy, so that we do not want to inflict what we recognise as suffering. He says the rest is built on that base by our environment and age, as a language is learnt, and that he also believes in a collective consciousness of the age that tweaks our understanding. The guest finds this plausible but says one can confidently ground morality in God, who would not have given us intellect and moral consciousness in order to mislead us. He adds that problematising moral realism through cultural relativism is the zeitgeist of an age of atheism, now used by traditionalists against rationalist believers. Mufti then asks whether specific rules such as not stealing are taught by God or recognised by us.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the fitrah is a hardwired moral instinct of recognising harm and feeling empathy, built on by environment and a collective consciousness; the guest adds that morality can be confidently grounded in God.", "answer_start": 2387, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitrah", "label": "fitrah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:noam-chomsky", "label": "Noam Chomsky"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:moral-realism", "label": "moral realism"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/10/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/11", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S11", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 11, "start": 2597, "end": 2861, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Moral ideals in the mind of God: slavery, and ritual law versus moral law", "question_plain": "If morality is universal, why was slavery accepted for so long?", "summary": "The guest says moral ideals exist in a metaphysical space, in the mind of God so to speak, and that human societies only approximate them, more in some ages than others. On slavery, often used as the trump card for cultural relativism, he says people always knew slavery was bad: Muslims did not want Muslims enslaved, and his dissertation on the ethics of war and peace shows they got intra-Muslim warfare right, but they did not recognise the full humanity of non-Muslims and so did not extend the ideal to them. Asked by Mufti Abu Layth whether fornication or drinking alcohol are such moral ideals, he distinguishes ritual law from moral or natural law: eating pork is a ritual practice of the Muslim community and he does not think God will hold a non-Muslim to account for it, whereas raping and killing babies is wrong in any religion or none. Mufti then asks whether God's morality changes with time, since raiding other tribes was once a survival tactic and God legislated different things for different prophets.", "summary_short": "The guest says moral ideals exist in God and humans approximate them; past acceptance of slavery came from not recognising others' full humanity, and ritual laws such as the pork prohibition differ from universal moral law.", "answer_start": 2597, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:moral-realism", "label": "moral realism"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:ritual-law-versus-moral-law", "label": "ritual law is distinct from universal moral law"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/11/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/12", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S12", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 12, "start": 2861, "end": 2992, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Does morality change? The Quran retells the Exodus without a war of conquest", "question_plain": "Does God's morality change over time?", "summary": "Answering whether morality changes, the guest, who says he is not a moral philosopher, takes the story of Moses and his people persecuted by Pharaoh. He says that in the Bible they flee Egypt and conquer another land, killing all the women and children, whereas the Quran seems to imply that the land they acquire is Egypt itself, the land where they were persecuted. He reads this as the Quran correcting an ethical ideal, since killing innocents and aggressing against neutral third parties violates God's law, and says he does not think God would ever have allowed it. Universal moral values cannot change, he says, while ritual laws can, and humans can come closer to the moral ideal over time.", "summary_short": "The guest says universal morality does not change, only ritual law: the Quran corrects the biblical conquest narrative by implying the Israelites inherited Egypt rather than slaughtering another people.", "answer_start": 2861, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firawn", "label": "Pharaoh"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:exodus", "label": "the Exodus"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/12/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/13", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S13", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 13, "start": 2992, "end": 3238, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Primates and justice: is morality merely the product of evolution?", "question_plain": "Do animals have morality, and does that mean morality just evolved?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, as some viewers had commented, his view is that these moral components are very fundamental, as primate studies show a sense of justice: a female monkey later attacking one that had attacked her brother, and a monkey refusing to eat when another was given grapes and it an inferior food. He takes this as what Allah means by the fitrah, raw fundamentals that humans have in a more elevated form and build on in their environment. The guest cautions that animals also kill the runt of the litter and rape, so such evidence could suggest morality is simply a product of evolution; he accepts that morality may have evolved mechanistically, but says religion lets us say this is how God intended it, using symbols, metaphors and parables, and that rooting morality in God is the necessary step. Mufti replies that human morality is far more developed than any primate's and rests on two components, discerning harm and empathising with it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth sees a sense of justice in primates as evidence of a raw moral fitrah that humans develop further; the guest warns this can suggest morality is merely evolved and says rooting it in God is the necessary step.", "answer_start": 2992, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitrah", "label": "fitrah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/13/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/14", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S14", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 14, "start": 3238, "end": 3504, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "When empathy is overridden; consciousness, the zeitgeist and the Quran's undefined justice", "question_plain": "If we all recognise harm, why do people still do terrible things?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people who commit atrocities still register the cries of a victim, but other instincts such as the drive for power override their empathy and they block it out. He adds a component he admits may sound 'woo-woo': since he believes consciousness is the ruh, there is a connectedness through which the feel of an age changes, giving the example that people in the West now recoil at being called racist in a way they did not in the 1980s or 1990s, which he thinks is more than the effect of information. The guest agrees that spirit is probably the religious, symbolic word for consciousness but questions shared consciousness by asking why views do not change in a closed country like North Korea. Mufti cites the verse that Allah commands justice and ihsan, noting that justice is not defined, as though it is simply known, and that the good is called ma'ruf, the known; the guest says this points to the early rationalists, the Mu'tazila, whose views students in his course found to be common sense.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says empathy can be overridden by instincts such as power, and that a shared consciousness shapes the moral feel of an age; he notes the Quran commands justice without defining it, which the guest links to the Mu'tazila.", "answer_start": 3238, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh", "label": "ruh"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:16:90", "label": "Quran 16:90 (Allah commands justice and ihsan)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maruf", "label": "ma'ruf (the known good)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/14/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/15", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S15", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 15, "start": 3504, "end": 3743, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest's research: jihad in the Quran and Khalafallah's narrative art of the Quran", "question_plain": "How should the stories in the Quran be read?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the stories of the Quran and the Israelites' entry into the holy land, which touches on jihad, and asks the guest for his take. The guest says his dissertation is on jihad in the Quran in the formative period, but that his side project, with a fellow Harvard PhD candidate, is a translation and close reading of the book by Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah, an Egyptian Islamic modernist, on the narrative art of the Quran, which was blocked as a dissertation in Egypt as too controversial. He describes his interest as Islamic academic theology, applying the critical insights of the Western academy to Islamic theology, and says he thinks the author has hit the nail on the head.", "summary_short": "The guest describes his dissertation on jihad in the Quran and his project translating Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah's suppressed study of the Quran's narrative art, which he says is right.", "answer_start": 3584, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ahmad-khalafallah", "label": "Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-fann-al-qasasi-fi-al-quran-al-karim", "label": "al-Fann al-Qasasi fi al-Quran al-Karim [?] (Khalafallah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jihad", "label": "jihad"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:harvard-university", "label": "Harvard University"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/15/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/16", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S16", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 16, "start": 3743, "end": 4161, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The Quran as sacred literature: the People of the Cave, the flood and anthropomorphism", "question_plain": "Are the stories in the Quran meant to be literal history?", "summary": "The guest presents Khalafallah's thesis that the Quran is not a book of history or science but sacred literature, so its stories should not be read as literal historical events; he gives the People of the Cave, whose supposed site and objects are shown in documentaries, while the Quran itself says not to worry about how many they were. He says the Quran obscures detail because its intent is rhetorical and theological, that legend does not necessarily mean nothing happened but a dramatised and universalised account, and that the philosophers were right that revelation speaks in symbols, metaphors and parables. He says literalist colleagues look silly given the evidence about where the stories come from, that the flood could not have happened as described, and that rather than the scientistic move of calling it local he prefers Ibn Rushd's view that such stories are meant to be understood in their own register. On anthropomorphism he cites Ibn Rushd, and Ibn Sina's point that revelation likens God to a king so the masses can relate, with the verse 'there is nothing like unto Him' as the hint to the higher truth.", "summary_short": "The guest argues, following Khalafallah and Ibn Rushd, that the Quran's stories are sacred literature and legend, using symbol and parable for theological ends rather than reporting literal history.", "answer_start": 3743, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ahmad-khalafallah", "label": "Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:22", "label": "Quran 18:22 (the number of the People of the Cave)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashab-al-kahf", "label": "Ashab al-Kahf (the People of the Cave)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:great-flood", "label": "the flood of Nuh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-sina", "label": "Ibn Sina (Avicenna)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:42:11", "label": "Quran 42:11 (there is nothing like unto Him)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/16/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/17", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S17", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 17, "start": 4161, "end": 4387, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A 'Bultmannian leap': evolution, scientific facts and the higher truths of religion", "question_plain": "Can I accept evolution and still take the Quran's stories as true?", "summary": "The guest proposes what he calls a Bultmannian leap, after the Christian theologian Rudolf Bultmann who argued for demythologising the Bible: biting the bullet and reading the whole Quran as sacred literary art, rather than dealing ad hoc with each miracle. He says symbol, parable and legend are the language of religion and convey a higher truth than scientific truth, and that Muslims have an inferiority complex that makes them reconcile the Quran with Darwin. He says he wholeheartedly believes in evolution as a scientific fact, but that evolution alone leaves an anaemic moral worldview, which is where social Darwinism came from, whereas religion voices higher truths in symbolic language that ground human rights, which he says secular atheism is removing, leaving nihilism.", "summary_short": "The guest calls for reading the Quran wholesale as sacred literature, accepting evolution as scientific fact while holding that religion's symbolic truths, not science, ground human rights and meaning.", "answer_start": 4161, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:rudolf-bultmann", "label": "Rudolf Bultmann"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:charles-darwin", "label": "Charles Darwin"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/17/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/18", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S18", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 18, "start": 4387, "end": 4555, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on symbols and stories: Ibn Rushd, Harari and Karen Armstrong", "question_plain": "Does the Quran speak in symbols and metaphors?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is in line with Ibn Rushd's way of thinking, agrees that the Quran speaks in symbols and metaphors, and that anthropomorphic language was used deliberately because people, especially of that age, could relate to it. He cites Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens, which he loved, that what distinguishes humans is stories, myths and psychosocial narratives, retelling Harari's example that a thousand humans would outdo a thousand monkeys because of the power of shared stories. He notes he has said on his Monday night sessions that scripture is in many ways a kind of art, and mentions Karen Armstrong on the art of scripture. He then asks the guest whether he holds that the flood of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus or Adam are entirely fictitious.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees with Ibn Rushd that the Quran speaks in symbols and that scripture is a kind of art, but asks whether the guest thinks the prophets and their stories are fictitious.", "answer_start": 4387, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yuval-noah-harari", "label": "Yuval Noah Harari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sapiens", "label": "Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:karen-armstrong", "label": "Karen Armstrong"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/18/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/19", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S19", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 19, "start": 4555, "end": 4823, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Paradise and hell as symbols: al-Ghazali's charge and Ibn Rushd's reply", "question_plain": "Are paradise and hell in the Quran meant literally?", "summary": "The guest says that in his course he kept a teacher's distance and presented only the philosophers' views, but that he agrees with them and uses Ibn Rushd as his starting point on religion and science. A student asked whether treating everything as metaphor would destroy religion; he says the philosophers' opponents made exactly that accusation, and that he acknowledges the fear but answers as Ibn Rushd did. He explains that al-Ghazali in The Incoherence of the Philosophers accused them of kufr on three points, one being their disbelief in the bodily rewards and punishments of paradise and hell, and that Ibn Rushd replied that belief is defined by believing in the afterlife, not in how one understands its details, noting al-Ghazali's own report that some Sufis held them symbolic; he adds that the imagery of cool breezes and rivers suits desert-dwellers, not Scandinavians. Mufti Abu Layth says he has already said in detail that the afterlife is all symbolic, since the texts say it cannot be fathomed, but that the stories of the prophets are of this world.", "summary_short": "The guest, following Ibn Rushd against al-Ghazali, says belief requires accepting the afterlife, not literal readings of its details; Mufti Abu Layth agrees the afterlife is symbolic but says the prophets' stories are of this world.", "answer_start": 4555, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/afterlife/paradise-and-hell", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tahafut-al-falasifa", "label": "Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kufr", "label": "kufr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jannah", "label": "jannah (Paradise)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jahannam", "label": "jahannam (Hell)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/19/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/20", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S20", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 20, "start": 4823, "end": 5092, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Sacred time and archetypal stories: Lot and the golden calf told two ways", "question_plain": "Why does the Quran tell the same story in different ways?", "summary": "The guest says the Quranic stories are set not in historical time but in what scholars of religion call sacred time and sacred place, without centuries or geography, where useless details are left out and the rules are different from the 'one damn thing after another' of ordinary time. He says they follow archetypal patterns, such as the punishment stories in which a prophet is sent, mocked and rejected, is distressed and consoled, and the people are destroyed, and that they are really about the Prophet Muhammad's own situation. That is why, he says, the same story is told differently: the angels reveal themselves to Lot beforehand in one telling and not in another, and the golden calf story ends with mercy in one version and punishment in another. He says these are neither contradictions, as orientalists and missionaries claim, nor things to be reconciled by textual acrobatics, but reflect the different moments in the Prophet's mission and his relations with the People of the Book.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Quran's stories are set in sacred, not historical, time and follow archetypes that speak to the Prophet's own circumstances, which is why the same story, such as Lot's or the golden calf, is told differently.", "answer_start": 4823, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:lut", "label": "Lut (Lot)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:golden-calf", "label": "the golden calf of the Israelites"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-kitab", "label": "Ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/20/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/21", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S21", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 21, "start": 5092, "end": 5429, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Did the prophets exist? The historical Jesus and speaking in the cradle", "question_plain": "Did Jesus really speak in the cradle, and did the earlier prophets exist?", "summary": "Pressed by Mufti Abu Layth on whether the Israelites and their stories are fictitious, the guest says he once scandalised his wife with his views, and that as an academic he knows the Prophet Muhammad existed and believes that Jesus existed and was crucified, while the further back one goes the less sure historians can be, because of the fog of history before written records. He says the Quran's stories of Jesus are dramatised and told in a literary way, citing Khalafallah's argument that the Christians, who exaggerate Jesus' miracles, do not relate that he spoke in the cradle, and arguing that had he done so people would have believed in him. Mufti says that no clear verse of the Quran states that Jesus spoke in the cradle, and that this is inferred by reading between the lines; the guest calls such readings textual acrobatics and jokes that Mufti is seventy percent of the way to his view. He then turns to miracles.", "summary_short": "The guest says historians can be confident that Muhammad and Jesus existed but less so of earlier figures, and that the Quran's Jesus stories, such as speaking in the cradle, are dramatised; Mufti Abu Layth says no clear verse says Jesus spoke in the cradle.", "answer_start": 5092, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/hermeneutics", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ahmad-khalafallah", "label": "Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/21/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/22", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S22", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 22, "start": 5429, "end": 5696, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Did the Prophet perform miracles? The Quran's answer to demands for signs", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet Muhammad perform miracles?", "summary": "The guest says traditionalists hold that a miracle must confirm every claim to prophethood, and one of the two, apparently Mufti Abu Layth, interjects that they both consider that view wrong. The guest argues that the Quran in several places implies the Prophet performed no miracles: when the pagans demanded that he climb a ladder to the sky or bring down an angel, the Quran answers that if it did so the matter would be decided, linking miracles to compulsion, since a visible angel would end the time for belief. He says traditionalists therefore read miracles into the Quran, such as the splitting of the moon, and draw on hadith reports of plants shading the Prophet and his having no shadow, and asks why, had these happened, his enemies did not believe and the Quran kept answering demands for signs. He says Christian missionaries such as Jay Smith are right that the Quran shows the Prophet did no miracles, and cites Fazlur Rahman that miracles seem out of fashion in the Quran.", "summary_short": "The guest argues that the Quran implies the Prophet performed no miracles and ties signs to compulsion, so traditionalists read miracles in from hadith; both speakers appear to reject the view that every prophet needs a miracle.", "answer_start": 5429, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mujizah", "label": "mu'jizah (miracle)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:splitting-of-the-moon", "label": "the splitting of the moon"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e91189c2", "label": "report: the prophet had no shadow (unresolved; cited as an example of miracle reports)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jay-smith", "label": "Jay Smith"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fazlur-rahman", "label": "Fazlur Rahman"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/22/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/23", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S23", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 23, "start": 5696, "end": 5942, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The angels at Badr as literary language for strengthened hearts", "question_plain": "Did angels really fight at the battle of Badr?", "summary": "The guest says the only supernatural event in the Prophet's mission described in the Quran is the angels coming down at the battle of Badr. Citing Khalafallah, who quotes classical scholars, he asks why thousands of angels would be needed when one, as Jibril says in another report, could destroy them all, and notes that the names of the Muslims who killed the enemy chiefs are known. He concludes that this is rhetorical, literary language describing God strengthening the believers' hearts, not angels literally fighting, and that the same understanding applies to the stories of earlier prophets. When Mufti Abu Layth asks him to restate the point, he repeats it.", "summary_short": "The guest says the angels at Badr are a literary description of God strengthening the believers' hearts, since the named Muslims who killed the enemy chiefs are known, and that the same reading applies to earlier prophets' stories.", "answer_start": 5696, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "history/sirah", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-badr", "label": "the battle of Badr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ahmad-khalafallah", "label": "Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:eafb3bcb", "label": "report: if you want i can destroy them all for you (unresolved; Jibril's offer to the Prophet)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/23/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/24", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S24", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 24, "start": 5942, "end": 6145, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's footnote on Badr: the Karen knights theory, and the guest's objection", "question_plain": "Who were the riders seen at Badr?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he goes along with the guest that the angels sent to reinforce the believers at Badr are about meaning, strength and vigour rather than a physical event, but adds that he has a clip on reports of riders in green seen cutting through the enemy. He describes a theory that intrigues him, that these were knights of the House of Karen brought via Salman al-Farisi, who are described in similar terms at other battles involving the Sasanians. The guest says this is where they disagree: he would rather take the story as literary language than make the sacred profane through such explanations, which he finds ad hoc, and says the point of the story is that the believers risked their lives to defend their freedom of belief, which a literal reading denies them. Mufti explains a viewer's joke about 'Karens' by saying it is the name of a Persian house, not a feminine name.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the Badr angels as strength and vigour rather than a physical event and floats a theory that the riders seen were Persian knights of the House of Karen; the guest prefers a purely literary reading.", "answer_start": 5942, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["history/sirah", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-badr", "label": "the battle of Badr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-al-farisi", "label": "Salman al-Farisi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:house-of-karen", "label": "the House of Karen"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:sasanians", "label": "the Sasanians"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/24/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/25", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S25", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 25, "start": 6145, "end": 6337, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Fazlur Rahman on archaeology, and Jesus' miracles 'by God's permission'", "question_plain": "Should archaeology worry believers about the Quran's stories?", "summary": "The guest says he answers as Fazlur Rahman did, the University of Chicago professor and quintessential Islamic modernist, with whom he identifies, who wrote that believers should stop worrying that historical and archaeological work, for example on the Exodus, will disprove the events of scripture. He says what is certain is that Muhammad and Jesus existed, and that the Quran deals with Jesus' story in a literary way, re-attributing the miracles of the Christian stories to God by saying they were done with God's permission, for theological ends rather than to narrate history. He calls the stories legends, usually based on historical figures with dramatised elements, and says he does not think Jesus actually spoke in the cradle, comparing this to accepting that the Badr angels and the descriptions of paradise and hell are symbolic. Asked about the Israelites, he proposes to go a step further to the human creation story.", "summary_short": "The guest, as a self-described Islamic modernist following Fazlur Rahman, says believers need not fear archaeology, since the Quran re-attributes Jesus' miracles to God for theological rather than historical ends.", "answer_start": 6145, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/hermeneutics", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fazlur-rahman", "label": "Fazlur Rahman"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:exodus", "label": "the Exodus"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/25/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/26", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S26", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 26, "start": 6337, "end": 6765, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The Adam story as sacred myth: beyond literalism and scientism", "question_plain": "Is the story of Adam in the Quran a myth?", "summary": "The guest says he takes the Adam creation story neither literally nor scientistically, and that Mufti Abu Layth does what he does seventy percent of the time but offers scientistic explanations the other thirty, which he says belittles the Quranic story out of an inferiority complex towards Western science, noting that Muhammad Iqbal said similar things; he says the scientific story of humanity, in which he believes, leaves us morally bankrupt. He defines the stories of past prophets as sacred legends, possibly based on real figures and events and dramatised to give meaning and universality. Mufti agrees only to the extent that these were real people and events portrayed in ways that appeal to listeners. The guest says the Adam story is academically a myth, a story of origins, whose point is God's spirit breathed into the first human, raising all humans above creation; he traces the Babylonian Enuma Elish, in which humans are lowly servants of warring gods, the biblical story that elevated them, and the Quran's improvement on it, which removes original sin and the blaming of the woman and grounds human egalitarianism.", "summary_short": "The guest reads the Adam story as sacred myth whose point is human dignity, improving on the Babylonian and biblical accounts by removing original sin and blame of the woman; Mufti Abu Layth holds the figures and events were real but told to appeal to listeners.", "answer_start": 6337, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-iqbal", "label": "Allama Muhammad Iqbal"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:charles-darwin", "label": "Charles Darwin"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:enuma-elish", "label": "Enuma Elish"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:original-sin", "label": "original sin"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/26/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/27", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S27", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 27, "start": 6765, "end": 6972, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Every soul sacred: jihad, the exegetes, and moving from fiqh to ethics", "question_plain": "Does the Quran treat every human life as sacred, even in war?", "summary": "The guest says that in his work on jihad he finds the classical exegetes did not recognise the Quran's teaching that all human souls are sacred, believing instead that only Muslims, dhimmis and those with treaties were inviolable while others in the abode of war were fair game, apart from limits such as not targeting women and children. He says the Quran's default is that every human being is sacrosanct, which is the basis of human rights and of the Enlightenment idea that all are created equal, and that reading the creation story as literal history misses this. Mufti Abu Layth agrees and says Muslim scholarship needs to shift from its traditional orientation to ethics, since the fiqh books, though recently printed, are a couple of hundred years out of date, which may be a blessing in disguise. The guest adds that the Quran takes an anti-clerical stance, affirming Jesus' criticism of clerics who bastardised religion through legalism.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Quran holds every human soul sacred, which classical exegetes on jihad missed; Mufti Abu Layth says Muslim scholarship must shift from outdated fiqh to ethics.", "answer_start": 6765, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jihad", "label": "jihad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dar-al-harb", "label": "Dar al-Harb"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhimmi", "label": "dhimmi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/27/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/28", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S28", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 28, "start": 6972, "end": 7315, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Miracles the Quran never states, and the 'baggage' around the prophets", "question_plain": "Does the Quran actually say the miracles happened?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives his own understanding: in most miracle stories the Quran never actually says the miracle happened, as with the table requested by the disciples of Jesus, where it records the request and the warning but not that it descended, and people read the rest between the lines. He says these were real people and events, though not as people now imagine them because of baggage from Christianity and Western societies, mentions that he has argued Moses may have been Akhenaten, and says Allah is not teaching geography or history but presenting a theme to draw a moral from. The guest says that, against some reformists, he thinks the Quran must be read intertextually with the sources it engages; Mufti clarifies that by baggage he meant later institutional additions, such as the idea that Jesus never married, which the Quran does not state. The guest says the Quran engages and rearticulates the discourses and developed understandings of its milieu for theological purposes.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran often never states that a miracle occurred, as with the table for Jesus, and that the prophets were real though later assumptions colour them; the guest says the Quran rearticulates the discourses of its milieu.", "answer_start": 6972, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:112-115", "label": "Quran 5:112-115 (the table requested by the disciples of Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:akhenaten", "label": "Akhenaten"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/28/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/29", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S29", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 29, "start": 7315, "end": 7610, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Dhul Qarnayn as Cyrus, and Gog and Magog as the colonial powers: Mufti Abu Layth's reading", "question_plain": "Who was Dhul Qarnayn, and who are Gog and Magog?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks the guest about Dhul Qarnayn, which the guest notes became a hot topic after Yasir Qadhi's remarks about zombies, and gives his own view that Dhul Qarnayn was most likely Cyrus the Great. He says the Quran relates biblical stories because the learned of Arabia, outside the still largely pagan Hijaz, were Christians and Jews, and rabbis and others learned in scripture were brought to challenge the Prophet. On Gog and Magog he says he understands them as a fluid term for peoples or forces that wreak havoc, set straight in that time, with a later unleashing before the end of time that he relates to the colonial period. The guest notes that Javed Ahmad Ghamidi holds a similar view, and says that, following Khalafallah, Mufti has already been forced to use literary methods ad hoc; Mufti replies that the ambiguity adds a mystery reflecting the dynamism of human cognition.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth identifies Dhul Qarnayn most likely with Cyrus the Great and reads Gog and Magog as havoc-wreaking forces, later the colonial powers; the guest says this already relies on ad hoc literary reinterpretation.", "answer_start": 7315, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhul-qarnayn", "label": "Dhul Qarnayn"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:cyrus-the-great", "label": "Cyrus the Great"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ahmad-khalafallah", "label": "Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/29/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/30", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S30", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 30, "start": 7610, "end": 7884, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The Alexander legend: a Byzantine Christian origin for the Dhul Qarnayn story", "question_plain": "Is the Dhul Qarnayn story based on the legend of Alexander?", "summary": "The guest says the story was no mystery to its first audience, because Western scholars, he believes Sidney Griffith [?] among them, have shown with historical-critical methods that it refers to Alexander and originated in Byzantium around the Prophet's time, already circulating in Arabia. Mufti Abu Layth asks what relevance Alexander would have for the Jewish questioners. The guest describes the original Christian legend: Alexander travelled across the world and walled in Gog and Magog, savages barely human, who would break out near the end times, after which Byzantium would usher in an age of Christian peace and prosperity, a story meant to reassert the Byzantine empire after its losses to Persia, which he likens to the traditionalist story of the Mahdi. Mufti asks why, if this is a legend retold for a lesson, the Quran does not tell it plainly rather than in ambiguous terms.", "summary_short": "The guest says scholarship shows the Dhul Qarnayn story derives from a Byzantine Christian legend of Alexander walling in Gog and Magog, known to the Quran's first audience; Mufti Abu Layth asks why the Quran then tells it so ambiguously.", "answer_start": 7610, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "quran/tafsir", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:alexander-the-great", "label": "Alexander the Great"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sidney-griffith", "label": "Sidney Griffith [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:byzantine-empire", "label": "the Byzantine Empire"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/30/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/31", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S31", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 31, "start": 7884, "end": 8224, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why the Quran retells it: proof of the Prophet's knowledge, minus the Christian empire", "question_plain": "Why does the Quran tell the story of Dhul Qarnayn so briefly?", "summary": "The guest says the story is ambiguous only to later Muslims, who for theological reasons divorced the Quran from the pre-Quranic Christian and Jewish stories of its milieu. Following Khalafallah, he says the People of the Book used knowledge of sacred stories as a criterion to tell a true prophet from a false one, so the Quran, introduced by 'they ask you about', shows that the Prophet knew the story from God, and tells it concisely because the audience already knew it. Mufti Abu Layth objects that the story is not just elliptical but uses words, such as 'he followed a sabab', that the Quran never uses again, and that apart from Gog and Magog there is little to take from it; the guest answers that early exegetes found these words unclear because they rest on a Syriac subtext. He adds that the Quran theologically rearticulates the story by removing its sectarian Christian ending, making it universal.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Quran retells the known legend concisely to show the Prophet's knowledge from God, while stripping its Christian imperial ending; Mufti Abu Layth objects that its unusual wording is too vague for that.", "answer_start": 7884, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhul-qarnayn", "label": "Dhul Qarnayn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-kitab", "label": "Ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ahmad-khalafallah", "label": "Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sabab", "label": "sabab (means, cause)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:byzantine-empire", "label": "the Byzantine Empire"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/31/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/32", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S32", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 32, "start": 8224, "end": 8743, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Reading Surah al-Kahf 18:83-90: is the story too vague to be a retold legend?", "question_plain": "What do the unusual words in the Dhul Qarnayn verses mean?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that if the purpose were to retell a known legend the Quran would tell it effectively, but the story is very vague, and he reads through 18:83-86 and onward: 'we gave him of everything a sabab, and he followed a sabab', the sun setting in a murky spring, and the people for whom no covering was made, pointing to unusual wording. The guest says it made sense to the original audience who knew the Syriac story, cites a Western scholar's article tracing the word to that subtext, and says the similarities are too many to be superimposed, so one must conclude that one story preceded the other. Mufti says the verses give too little detail for the Alexander connection, and the guest says they may have to disagree: what Mufti calls Christian baggage is needed to understand the Quran, and without it the verses become vague and open to readings such as the Mongols, Western colonialism or the Soviet Union. He says his approach, literal but literary, does the Quran more justice.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues the wording of 18:83-90 is too vague to be a retelling of the Alexander legend; the guest says the Syriac subtext explains it and that without it the passage invites endless speculative readings, and they agree to differ.", "answer_start": 8224, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "quran/arabic-language", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:83-86", "label": "Quran 18:83-86 (they ask you about Dhul Qarnayn; he followed a sabab)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:89-90", "label": "Quran 18:89-90 (a people for whom no covering was made)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sabab", "label": "sabab (means, cause)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhul-qarnayn", "label": "Dhul Qarnayn"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:alexander-the-great", "label": "Alexander the Great"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/32/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/33", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S33", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 33, "start": 8743, "end": 9188, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why are some prophets barely mentioned? Archetypes, Ibn Kathir and Tolstoy", "question_plain": "Why does the Quran give so little detail about some prophets?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth notes that while Moses, Adam and Joseph are told in elaborate detail, prophets such as John (Yahya) are barely described, and asks what purpose that serves if the stories are legends. The guest says nineteenth- and early twentieth-century orientalists called the Quran haphazard and repetitive because it lacks a chronological narrative, and that Ibn Kathir's Stories of the Prophets had to reorder the verses and fill them in from hadith and Isra'iliyyat; read alone, he says, the Quranic stories cannot be understood. He says the stories, including those of Ad and Thamud where prophets go unnamed, are archetypal and serve a moral point for a specific moment in the Prophet's mission, usually consolation that earlier prophets were also rejected, briefly recalled because the audience knew them. Mufti replies that, as Tolstoy said that all great stories begin with a journey or a stranger coming to town, true events are also told in archetypal form, so following an archetype does not show a story was invented.", "summary_short": "The guest says the brief, repeated stories are archetypes recalled to console the Prophet, which audiences already knew; Mufti Abu Layth argues that following an archetype does not show a story was invented.", "answer_start": 8743, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yahya", "label": "Yahya (John)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusuf", "label": "Yusuf (Joseph)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-kathir", "label": "Ibn Kathir"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:qisas-al-anbiya", "label": "Qisas al-Anbiya (Ibn Kathir's Stories of the Prophets)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:israiliyyat", "label": "Israiliyyat"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:leo-tolstoy", "label": "Leo Tolstoy"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/33/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/34", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S34", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 34, "start": 9188, "end": 9664, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest's criticism of Yasir Qadhi: dogmatic style, zombies, evolution and jinn", "question_plain": "Why does the guest criticise Yasir Qadhi's views on jinn and evolution?", "summary": "The guest says his reading of Dhul Qarnayn responds to Yasir Qadhi, who years ago took the story literally and allowed no other view, and whom he says he loves and once considered his shaykh; Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi is also one of his beloveds. The guest criticises Qadhi's dogmatic, rough style towards those he considers beyond the pale, citing his responses to the Christian scholar Daniel Brubaker and his debate on evolution with Usama Hasan, and says many of the errors Qadhi pointed out are easily made even by professors; Mufti describes Brubaker as courteous in their exchanges, while the guest objects to the polemicists Brubaker appears with. They discuss Qadhi's later suggestion that Gog and Magog might be zombies, with Mufti joking about it, and the guest says Qadhi calls belief in human evolution kufr yet offers theories to accommodate the genetic evidence. The guest says Qadhi treats belief in ghosts and goblins across cultures as evidence of jinn and recounts exorcisms, and, drawing on his own experience as an emergency physician, says that several people are needed to restrain a combative woman without harming her, so there is a rational explanation.", "summary_short": "The guest criticises Yasir Qadhi's dogmatic style and his literal readings of Dhul Qarnayn, evolution and jinn, offering a medical explanation for exorcism accounts; Mufti Abu Layth jokes about the zombie theory and calls Brubaker courteous.", "answer_start": 9188, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-brubaker", "label": "Daniel Brubaker"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:usama-hasan", "label": "Usama Hasan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhul-qarnayn", "label": "Dhul Qarnayn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kufr", "label": "kufr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/34/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/35", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S35", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 35, "start": 9664, "end": 10070, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Are the jinn real? A late antique belief rearticulated, and Shaytan as personified evil", "question_plain": "Are the jinn real, or a symbol?", "summary": "The guest says that although the Quran mentions jinn he is not a materialist, believing in God, the afterlife, consciousness as what ruh refers to, and possibly unseen things such as dark matter, but that the descriptions of jinn and angels are too crude to take literally. Mufti Abu Layth remarks that jinn in Arabic simply refers to something hidden from sight, and the guest says his own view is different: the Quran must be contextualised in late antiquity, where pagans propitiated the jinn and believed they gave knowledge of the unseen to oracles and poets, and the Quran rearticulated this belief step by step, making the jinn subservient to God and blocking routes to shirk. He says he cannot be certain on a matter of the unseen but does not literally believe in jinn, calls Yasir Qadhi's claim that jinn stories prove the Quran theologically horrible, and says Shaytan is a symbol personifying humanity's innate evil so that we understand the struggle within. Mufti says this resonates with him: insinuations and pre-cognitive impulses whose source we do not understand are personified as good or bad forces, an interpretation he is in line with regarding the Shaytan and the angel said to accompany each person.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Quran rearticulated a late antique belief in jinn to subordinate them to God, that he does not literally believe in them, and that Shaytan personifies human evil; Mufti Abu Layth agrees that inner impulses are personified as good and bad forces.", "answer_start": 9664, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh", "label": "ruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shirk", "label": "shirk"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan (the devil)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/35/"}, {"id": "ZAsz48lX_WI/s/36", "short_id": "2020-12-11b-S36", "recording": "ZAsz48lX_WI", "n": 36, "start": 10070, "end": 10444, "date": "20201211", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: the guest's projects, his statement of faith, and a safe space for views", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says they never reached jihad and hopes to have the guest back, and asks about his projects. The guest says he hopes to publish an article on the book with his colleague within six months and eventually a book on the topics discussed, with Yasir Qadhi as his main interlocutor, whom he hopes will reciprocate respectfully; he is not active on social media but has a YouTube channel. He adds a disclaimer that he believes the Quran is divine revelation and is a believing and practising Muslim, that his views rearticulate a long tradition of believing Muslim philosophers and are legitimate, and that they help answer orientalists, Islamophobes and missionaries. Mufti says people with learned opinions need a safe place to express them, that such views may bring comfort to some, and that nobody has the authority to shut people down by calling them misguided or kafir, and he closes the episode with thanks and jokes.", "summary_short": "The guest describes his planned article and book, affirms that he believes the Quran is divine revelation and that his views are legitimate, and Mufti Abu Layth says no one has the authority to silence learned opinions by calling them misguided.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javad-hashmi", "label": "Dr Javad T. Hashmi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZAsz48lX_WI/s/36/"}, {"id": "ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/1", "short_id": "2018-04-01-S01", "recording": "ZMSmkLdEgSo", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 79, "date": "20180401", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Introduction: reflections on Shaykh Hassan Ali's video, and respect for him", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will give his reflections on a Facebook live video by Shaykh Hassan Ali on the second coming of Jesus, from points he has written down. He stresses that he has great respect for Hassan Ali, whom he regards as a senior in age, has met personally on several occasions and has disagreed with before, recalling a discussion on jinn possession years earlier in which they disagreed with zeal but respectfully. He says he does not know what is in people's hearts but goes by the apparent, and what he saw from Hassan Ali was love and respect.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces his reply to Shaykh Hassan Ali's video on the second coming of Jesus and affirms his respect for him despite earlier disagreements such as on jinn possession.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hassan-ali", "label": "Shaykh Hassan Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/1/"}, {"id": "ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/2", "short_id": "2018-04-01-S02", "recording": "ZMSmkLdEgSo", "n": 2, "start": 79, "end": 313, "date": "20180401", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The second coming cannot be proven from the Quran; majority belief is not proof; the hadith details clash with Islam", "question_plain": "Is the second coming of Jesus proven by the Quran or by the fact that most Muslims believe it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth continues his words of respect, recalling meeting Hassan Ali in London alongside other scholars [?] and his policy of returning respect to anyone who is respectful. Turning to the video, he welcomes Hassan Ali's transparency in stating that the second coming of Jesus cannot be clearly proven from the Quran, so that the discussion must focus on the hadith, which Mufti calls the truth and an honest step. To Hassan Ali's point that the majority of Muslims believe Jesus is coming back, he answers that they believe it because they were told the story as children, just as most Muslims believe folk accounts of Ya'juj and Ma'juj as gremlin-like creatures with enormous ears, for which there is no sahih hadith; majority belief, which he attributes to being raised on this mythology, does not make it true. He says he does not deny that these things come in hadith and asks Hassan Ali to watch his earlier video explaining why this is a narrative in crisis; the issue is not whether hadith exist but that they have problems, and he promises a future course-like video on the isnad problems. More than the chains, he says, the details inside these hadith clash with Islam: that Jesus will force people to become Muslim, seal the deal so that no evil remains, be a judge, make animals vegetarian, break the cross.", "summary_short": "The second coming cannot be proven from the Quran, as Hassan Ali concedes, and the fact that most Muslims believe it only reflects what they were taught as children, as with folk tales of Ya'juj and Ma'juj. The hadith on it have chain problems and, more importantly, details that clash with Islam.", "answer_start": 79, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hassan-ali", "label": "Shaykh Hassan Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-and-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahih", "label": "sahih"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isnad", "label": "isnad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the second coming of Jesus cannot be clearly proven from the Quran, that majority belief in it reflects childhood indoctrination rather than proof, and that the hadith on it have chain problems and contain details, such as Jesus forcing people to become Muslim, that clash with Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the issue here is that the details inside these hadith clash with Islam stuff like Jesus will force people to become Muslim", "start": 267}}, "url": "/r/ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/2/"}, {"id": "ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/3", "short_id": "2018-04-01-S03", "recording": "ZMSmkLdEgSo", "n": 3, "start": 313, "end": 626, "date": "20180401", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "If everything is a metaphor, why not Jesus? Minority and majority opinions, Abu Hanifa and the role of power", "question_plain": "Does it matter that the second coming of Jesus is the majority opinion and Mufti Abu Layth's view a minority one?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Hassan Ali treats the clashing details as metaphors, but if the breaking of the cross, the killing of the pig, the disappearance of evil and the animals becoming vegetarian are all metaphors, one could argue the whole thing is a metaphor, and asks why Jesus is the only non-metaphor. To Hassan Ali's point that scholars of the past held rare minority opinions, and his challenge to name a scholar with so many, he begins with Abu Hanifa, who in his own day was seen as an absolute deviant for views nobody in Islam had held before; for example, against the reading and consensus of the ulama and the Sahaba before him, he allowed zakat al-fitr to be paid in money because the objective was to help the poor. His views became the majority in parts of the world only through time, power, politics and sectarianism, notably when his student Abu Yusuf became the supreme judge and appointed only Hanafi judges; Mufti says reading what Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Sufyan al-Thawri said about Abu Hanifa is shocking, as they ripped him to shreds and some thanked God when 'that deviant' died. He concludes that minority and majority are deemed by later people, not by contemporaries, and are power positions: had the Shia become the majority, Sunnis would be deemed the deviant sect, and he adds that he does disagree with the Shia but that who is called majority or minority depends on how politics plays out over time.", "summary_short": "If every detail of the second-coming hadith is a metaphor, Mufti Abu Layth asks why Jesus himself is not. Majority and minority opinions are decided later by power and politics, as Abu Hanifa's case shows: condemned as a deviant by his contemporaries, his school spread when Abu Yusuf appointed only Hanafi judges.", "answer_start": 313, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hassan-ali", "label": "Shaykh Hassan Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zakat-al-fitr", "label": "zakat al-fitr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijtihad", "label": "ijtihad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yusuf", "label": "Abu Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if the details of the second-coming hadith are metaphors then the whole account could be one, and that which opinion counts as majority or minority is decided later by power and politics rather than by contemporaries, as the case of Abu Hanifa shows.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this minority majority is deemed by later people it's not deemed by the people at the time because this is a power position", "start": 536}}, "url": "/r/ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/3/"}, {"id": "ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/4", "short_id": "2018-04-01-S04", "recording": "ZMSmkLdEgSo", "n": 4, "start": 626, "end": 1097, "date": "20180401", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abu Hurayra and the second-coming hadith: Ka'b al-Ahbar, Banu Tamim and 'dressed yet naked'", "question_plain": "Why do almost all the hadith about Jesus returning come through Abu Hurayra?", "summary": "Hassan Ali asked whether the Prophet said these things; Mufti Abu Layth says he honestly does not believe the Prophet said these things about Jesus coming back. He asks why almost eighty percent of the hadith on the return of Jesus come only through Abu Hurayra, and about half of those through a single narrator, al-Zuhri [?], so that counting many chains means little. He recalls that Abu Hurayra learned from converts, Ka'b al-Ahbar and Abdullah ibn Salam, travelling to Mount Sinai to study with Ka'b, who taught him from the Torah while he taught Ka'b what the Prophet said. As an example he gives the report, which he thinks is in Sahih Muslim or Musnad Ahmad [?], that the harshest of the ummah against the Dajjal would be Banu Tamim, a tribe known as hard men, as a pre-Islamic poem on the name Tamim shows; the same statement appears in other books with a chain going back to Ka'b al-Ahbar as his own words, not the Prophet's. Since Abu Hurayra narrated hadith rapidly and continuously, what hadith scholars call sard, those writing from him may have taken everything he said as from the Prophet. A second example is the famous report in Sahih Muslim from Abu Hurayra about men holding the tails of cows and women dressed yet naked who will not enter Paradise though its scent reaches five hundred years; Imam Malik, whom he calls a don, brings it in the Muwatta but stops it at Abu Hurayra, and in other books, such as Ibn Abi Shayba [?], it goes back to Ka'b al-Ahbar, who converted in Umar's time, beginning 'I read in the Torah'. He asks where the great companions are: not a single hadith on the return of Jesus from Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali or Uthman, while Abu Hurayra came to Islam three years before the Prophet's death and Umar threatened to beat him for narrating so much. He does not say whether the mistake was Abu Hurayra's or his listeners', but suggests that of twenty things he taught, two learnt from Ka'b or Ibn Salam were written down as the Prophet's. He then turns to the principles Hassan Ali mentioned.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth does not believe the Prophet said the second-coming hadith: about eighty percent come through Abu Hurayra alone, who learned from the converts Ka'b al-Ahbar and Abdullah ibn Salam, and some of his reports appear elsewhere as Ka'b's words from the Torah. No such hadith comes from Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali or Uthman.", "answer_start": 626, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hassan-ali", "label": "Shaykh Hassan Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:kab-al-ahbar", "label": "Ka'b al-Ahbar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-salam", "label": "Abdullah ibn Salam"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ace50479", "label": "report: kab was teaching me from the torah and i was teaching him what the prophet said"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:banu-tamim", "label": "Banu Tamim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d490f6bb", "label": "report: the harshest of my ummah against the dajjal will be banu tamim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sard-al-hadith", "label": "sard al-hadith (rapid continuous narration)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:aea19cc5", "label": "report: men holding the tails of cows and women dressed yet naked paradise forbidden for them though its scent reaches five hundred years"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abi-shayba", "label": "Ibn Abi Shayba [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b339bf83", "label": "report: umar threatened to beat abu hurayra for transmitting so much"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe the Prophet said the hadith about Jesus coming back, since almost eighty percent of them come through Abu Hurayra alone, who learned from Ka'b al-Ahbar and Abdullah ibn Salam, some of his reports appear elsewhere as Ka'b's words from the Torah, and none comes from Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali or Uthman.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't believe the Prophet said these things about Jesus coming back I honestly don't", "start": 626}}, "url": "/r/ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/4/"}, {"id": "ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/5", "short_id": "2018-04-01-S05", "recording": "ZMSmkLdEgSo", "n": 5, "start": 1097, "end": 1332, "date": "20180401", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Creed requires mutawatir hadith; Mufti Abu Layth's three principles for rejecting a report; the gecko hadith", "question_plain": "On what principles can a hadith in Bukhari be rejected, and may ordinary Muslims do so?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth corrects Hassan Ali's claim that any hadith can be made part of aqidah: according to the Hanafis and Maturidis, who make up the bulk of Sunni Muslims, only firmly established, mutawatir hadith can, and the debate over ijma and tawatur was originally a matter of usul al-fiqh and creed, brought into hadith studies only later by Ibn al-Salah; Hassan Ali may hold otherwise, but that is not the Hanafi method he represents. To the consistency challenge, whether one who rejects a hadith in Bukhari will be consistent, he answers yes, and states his principles: once a chain is checked and valid, a report cannot go against reason, which the books of hadith terminology put first, cannot go against the established Quran and Sunnah, and cannot uproot the principles of Islam, as found in Ibn Hazm [?], Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Suyuti and others [?]; any hadith clashing with these is unacceptable. Asked whether lay people may do this, he says the common people have not studied the science and should consult scholars, but if a hadith troubles them as going against Islam they may safely suspend practising it while seeking clarification. As an example he gives the hadith in Bukhari and, he believes, Muslim, that killing a gecko earns a hundred rewards in the first strike, fewer in the second and third, because a gecko blew on the fire of Ibrahim; he says one lizard could not have affected the fire, that lizards are not conscious planners, and that the hadith is made up.", "summary_short": "A valid chain is not enough: a report must not go against reason, the established Quran and Sunnah, or the principles of Islam, and the Hanafi-Maturidi majority require mutawatir hadith for creed. Lay people may suspend a hadith that troubles them while seeking guidance; the gecko hadith is given as a report Mufti Abu Layth considers made up.", "answer_start": 1097, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hassan-ali", "label": "Shaykh Hassan Ali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:usul-al-fiqh", "label": "usul al-fiqh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-salah", "label": "Ibn al-Salah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jawzi", "label": "Ibn al-Jawzi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:97a63e0b", "label": "report: whoever kills a gecko in the first strike has a hundred rewards"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a hadith with a valid chain must still be rejected if it goes against reason, the established Quran and Sunnah, or the principles of Islam, that creed requires mutawatir reports according to the Hanafi and Maturidi majority, that lay people may suspend a hadith that troubles them while seeking guidance, and that the gecko hadith is made up.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "there you go that's my methodology and if any hadith clashes with these things it's unacceptable unacceptable", "start": 1200}}, "url": "/r/ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/5/"}, {"id": "ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/6", "short_id": "2018-04-01-S06", "recording": "ZMSmkLdEgSo", "n": 6, "start": 1332, "end": 1644, "date": "20180401", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Scare-mongering, Bukhari and Muslim are not the word of God, questioning, and closing advice", "question_plain": "If I doubt one hadith in Bukhari, will I end up doubting the Quran?", "summary": "The segment opens with the end of the gecko example, with its graded rewards, which Mufti Abu Layth says cannot be a hadith. He then addresses what he sees as scare-mongering in Hassan Ali's argument, which he says is nothing personal but part of a trend among preachers of intimidating the masses: how will you stand on the Day of Judgement, if you doubt this hadith today you will doubt the Quran tomorrow. He says this is untrue: one can reject a sahih report like the gecko hadith, or the report used to permit marrying a little girl, or a report in Sahih Muslim he considers insulting to the Prophet and to Ali, in which the Prophet sends Ali to kill a man accused with his slave girl, in fact his wife, and Ali finds the man castrated; he calls it utter garbage and blasphemy, says people need to reject such things, and says Bukhari and Muslim are not the word of God. The Day of Judgement talk should relax, since everybody is trying to attain the truth. Hassan Ali's belief that Jesus will come is fine as his belief, Mufti says, though in his own view Jesus is not going to come; to the warning that questioning beliefs will make everything fall to pieces he answers that this shows a low opinion of Islam, that the deen is much stronger and will not fall apart by removing cobwebs, and that one must question things or anything will get past, giving the example of wiping over socks being placed in the books of creed only to distinguish Sunnis from the Shia. He closes by thanking Hassan Ali for making the video, saying they are all Muslims and all part of the Sunni majority, and asking him to present the matter to his followers as a difference of opinion, a minority difference, and not to make it sectarian.", "summary_short": "The warning that doubting one hadith leads to doubting the Quran is scare-mongering: Bukhari and Muslim are not the word of God, some of their reports must be rejected, and the deen does not fall apart from questioning. Mufti Abu Layth says Jesus is not going to come but treats the matter as a difference of opinion, not a sectarian one.", "answer_start": 1332, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hassan-ali", "label": "Shaykh Hassan Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:97a63e0b", "label": "report: whoever kills a gecko in the first strike has a hundred rewards"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mariya-al-qibtiyya", "label": "Mariya al-Qibtiyya"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:be25f934", "label": "report: the prophet sent ali to kill the man accused with the slave girl and he found him castrated"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mash-ala-al-khuffayn", "label": "mash over the khuff (wiping over leather socks)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deen", "label": "deen"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that warning people that doubting one hadith leads to doubting the Quran is scare-mongering, since Bukhari and Muslim are not the word of God and the deen does not fall apart from questioning; he says that in his view Jesus is not going to come, while asking that the matter be treated as a difference of opinion rather than a sectarian one.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "by removing cobwebs the Deen is not gonna fall apart and I can guarantee you this Deen is not gonna fall apart", "start": 1503}}, "url": "/r/ZMSmkLdEgSo/s/6/"}, {"id": "ZOo6W9bfn7I/s/1", "short_id": "2017-09-06-S01", "recording": "ZOo6W9bfn7I", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 327, "date": "20170906", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi on usul, furu and fatwas that make life easier", "question_plain": "Should scholars give fatwas based on minority opinions if it makes life easier?", "summary": "In this recording the guest Shaykh Akram Nadwi answers whether scholars may give rulings on minority opinions for people's ease, and Mufti Abu Layth speaks only at its close. The guest says the religion is its fundamentals (usul) such as iman and taqwa, reached through major branches like prayer, fasting, zakat and hajj, while minor branches such as wudu come from the Quran, the Sunnah, consensus and analogy, citing the report that a mujtahid who errs still gets one reward. The guest says some rulings were temporary solutions that changed with time and place, as with Abu Hanifa and al-Shafi'i, quotes Sufyan al-Thawri that fiqh is finding solutions for believers, and says ease (umum al-balwa) has always been a consideration. The guest gives the examples of wiping over cotton socks, narrated from Abu Hanifa and helpful to students and office workers, and of combining prayers when travelling, and says a qualified faqih may even differ from the rest of the ummah where his opinion helps believers.", "summary_short": "In this clip Shaykh Akram Nadwi says scholars may give fatwas on easier minority opinions in minor matters of fiqh, since ease has always guided the jurists. Mufti Abu Layth speaks only at the end.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "fiqh/legal-theory", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:usul-al-fiqh", "label": "usul (fundamentals) and furu (branches)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqwa", "label": "taqwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma' (consensus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiyas", "label": "qiyas (analogy)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijtihad", "label": "ijtihad"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cf6490ae", "label": "report: when a judge strives and is right he gets two rewards and if he is wrong he gets one reward (unresolved; cited without a reference)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:umum-al-balwa", "label": "umum al-balwa (widespread hardship)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mash-ala-al-khuffayn", "label": "wiping over socks"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jam", "label": "jam' (combining prayers)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZOo6W9bfn7I/s/1/"}, {"id": "ZOo6W9bfn7I/s/2", "short_id": "2017-09-06-S02", "recording": "ZOo6W9bfn7I", "n": 2, "start": 327, "end": 487, "date": "20170906", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth: ease is the nature of Islam", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to choose the easier opinion in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a person, especially a student of Islam, ought to follow the opinion they believe correct, citing Ibn al-Qayyim's I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, and that choosing what is of ease is, in his understanding, the nature of Islam. Mufti cites a hadith in the Musnad of Ahmad that the best of your religion is the easiest of it, and a report in Sahih al-Bukhari that the Prophet was never given a choice between two things except that he chose the easier. Mufti says Islam must be relevant to people in every age and came so that people could connect with God, not over details such as combining prayers or how far a woman may travel, which are secondary but have become the key issue today. Mufti cites the companion's words that God sent them to take people from worshipping creation to worshipping the Creator and from the narrowness of this world to the vastness of the hereafter, stressing that this vastness is meant in this world, before the guest Shaykh Akram Nadwi takes up examples.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says choosing what is easier is the nature of Islam, citing hadith that the Prophet always chose the easier of two options. Islam came to connect people with God, not to make secondary details the main issue.", "answer_start": 327, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "fiqh/legal-theory", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qayyim", "label": "Ibn al-Qayyim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:ilam-al-muwaqqiin", "label": "I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:05e8357d", "label": "report: the best of your din is the easiest of it (unresolved; cited as in the Musnad of Ahmad, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8e18e945", "label": "report: the prophet was never given a choice between two things except he chose the easier (unresolved; cited as in Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:33c0f355", "label": "report: to take the creation from worshipping the creation to worshipping the creator and from the narrowness of this world to the vastness of the hereafter (unresolved; words of a companion, unnamed on air)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jam", "label": "jam' (combining prayers)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZOo6W9bfn7I/s/2/"}, {"id": "ZOo6W9bfn7I/s/3", "short_id": "2017-09-06-S03", "recording": "ZOo6W9bfn7I", "n": 3, "start": 487, "end": 748, "date": "20170906", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi: early jurists who gave the easier minority opinion", "question_plain": "Is choosing the easier scholarly opinion just following my desires?", "summary": "The guest Shaykh Akram Nadwi gives examples to show that following easier minority opinions is not new. In his account al-Shafi'i ruled that a man who told his wife she was divorced if she was not more beautiful than the moon had not divorced her, citing the verse that the human being is created in the best stature, and Abu Hanifa freed a man from an oath to perform an act of worship alone by telling him to do tawaf alone in an emptied mataf. The guest tells of a slave in the Abbasid period trapped by his wife's clever reply to his conditional triple divorce, whom Ibn Jarir al-Tabari freed by having him repeat her words with the condition 'if I divorce you'. The guest says Abu Hanifa, al-Shafi'i and Imam Malik all gave opinions differing from the majority and that people have always taken the more convenient opinion. Mufti Abu Layth asks whether this is following one's nafs, and the guest answers that it is not, so long as one is choosing among the jurists' opinions in order to follow Islam rather than doing whatever one likes.", "summary_short": "In this clip Shaykh Akram Nadwi gives examples of al-Shafi'i, Abu Hanifa and al-Tabari giving easier minority rulings, and says choosing among the jurists' opinions is not following one's nafs. Mufti Abu Layth only asks the question.", "answer_start": 487, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "fiqh/divorce", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:95:4", "label": "Quran 95:4 (We created the human being in the best stature)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawaf", "label": "tawaf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabari", "label": "Ibn Jarir al-Tabari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "talaq (divorce)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nafs", "label": "nafs (desire)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZOo6W9bfn7I/s/3/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/1", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S01", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 1, "start": 35, "end": 268, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Opening: introducing Edip Yuksel, who refuses titles and insists all are equal", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the MindTrap episode and introduces his guest, shown on screen as Professor Edip Yuksel, a philosopher from America, and after a technical delay brings him in. The guest protests at being introduced like a heavyweight boxing champion or a clergyman: he is just Edip, and he tells his students on the first day that each of them is an independent, equal human being and should call him by his first name, since everyone is in the same boat searching for the truth. He says clergymen of all sorts love long names a metre long, that all are children of Adam, and that in politics, philosophy and religion a person's name, title and age should be irrelevant, like the blindfolded statue of justice: only the words and statements are weighed against each other, and the better one is followed. Mufti agrees and begins to give viewers some background.", "summary_short": "The guest rejects titles such as professor, saying that in religion, philosophy and politics only the words count, not the name or rank of the person speaking.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/1/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/2", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S02", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 2, "start": 268, "end": 777, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest's background: languages, translations, books, Beltways and a constitution for Turkey", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives the guest's background: originally from Turkish Kurdistan, long resident in Arizona, a professor of philosophy and Quran studies, author of a Reformist Manifesto and a reformist translation of the Quran, and founder of the 19.org website, which Mufti explains refers to a number. The guest says English is his fifth language after Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic and Persian, that he reads Arabic better than most Arabs but does not speak it well, that he wrote in Turkish until the age of thirty and has translated the Quran into Turkish and English, and he shows a Quran app on his phone. He lists other books, Nineteen: God's Signature in Nature and Scripture, Running Like Zebras and Nineteen Questions for Atheists, and says he has not made a penny from his religious books since dedicating himself to God alone in July 1986, earning instead as a lawyer and as a teacher of philosophy and logic for twenty years. He describes Beltways, a patented accelerated-walkway mass transit system seeking investors, a ten-part documentary on nineteen prophecies he is proposing to Netflix, and a draft peace constitution for Turkey, mentioning earlier constitutional work and conferences at Arizona, Princeton and Oxford and a Peacemakers' Constitution written with a Saudi friend for a Tunisian group. Mufti notes that the books are described on the website.", "summary_short": "The guest describes his languages, his Turkish and English translations of the Quran, his books on the number 19, his unpaid religious work, his Beltways transit project, a proposed Netflix documentary and a draft constitution for Turkey.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "society/technology-and-media"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:quran-a-reformist-translation", "label": "Quran: A Reformist Translation"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:manifesto-for-islamic-reform", "label": "Manifesto for Islamic Reform"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nineteen-gods-signature-in-nature-and-scripture", "label": "Nineteen: God's Signature in Nature and Scripture"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:running-like-zebras", "label": "Running Like Zebras"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nineteen-questions-for-atheists", "label": "Nineteen Questions for Atheists"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/2/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/3", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S03", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 3, "start": 777, "end": 1289, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The reformist translation: working with Rashad Khalifa and what the guest calls the Sunni religion", "question_plain": "Why did Edip Yuksel write a reformist translation of the Quran?", "summary": "Asked whether there is a need for a reformist translation and about the project, the guest says he worked with Rashad Khalifa from 1989 until Khalifa's assassination in 1990; Khalifa was a mentor, friend and father figure who led him to give up what he calls the Sunni religion. He says his father was a top clergyman in Turkey, that he was a schoolmate and party colleague of the current Turkish president, whom he once outranked in the party, that as a street activist he promoted an Iranian-style revolution in Turkey, and that his brother [?] was killed by nationalists and is a legend among Turkish Islamists. He describes translating side by side with Khalifa in the mosque in Tucson seven days a week, each giving feedback and neither following the other blindly, and finding years later that both translations had errors because the Sunni culture affects people without their knowing. Asked what he means by the Sunni religion, he says the distortion begins with the shahada, to which Muhammad's name was added though according to the Quran it was only la ilaha illa Allah, since no messenger put his name next to God's and the Quran forbids distinguishing between messengers; even the name Islam has become a brand, whereas it means peacemaking and all earlier monotheists were Muslims. He says Khalifa's translation is far more accurate than the Sunni ones, while Sunni and Shia translations contain deliberate distortions that turn the Quran into a book of idol worship, and that the Muslim world betrayed the Quran through hadith and sunnah.", "summary_short": "The guest describes translating the Quran with Rashad Khalifa and says the Sunni religion distorted the message, beginning with adding Muhammad's name to the shahada; he calls Sunni and Shia translations deliberate distortions and says the Quran was betrayed through hadith.", "answer_start": 777, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "dialogue/guest-conversations", "belief/tawhid-and-shirk"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rashad-khalifa", "label": "Rashad Khalifa"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:recep-tayyip-erdogan", "label": "Recep Tayyip Erdogan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:metin-yuksel", "label": "Metin Yuksel [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:quran-a-reformist-translation", "label": "Quran: A Reformist Translation"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shahada", "label": "shahada"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:islam", "label": "Islam (as peacemaking)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/3/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/4", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S04", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 4, "start": 1289, "end": 1679, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A conspiracy against the Quran? The Umayyads, Bukhari, and hadith as political propaganda", "question_plain": "Was the hadith literature a conspiracy against the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says viewers may find the word betrayal loaded and asks whether the guest means a conspiracy, a gradual institutionalisation or a few propagandists. The guest answers that it was absolutely a conspiracy against the Quran by the enemies of Islam, people such as Abu Sufyan, the Umayyads and tribes unhappy that Islam ended their privileges with an egalitarian society, rights for women and shared wealth; he says Makkah was not conquered by the sword, since fath means opening in peace after the battle of minds was lost. Mufti asks whether this sounds like a hyper conspiracy theory. The guest replies that Sunnis and Shias readily accept that Christians and Jews distorted their scriptures but cannot see their own, because nonsense peddled from childhood as holy truth blinds people; he says Bukhari was compiled 230 years after the Prophet with no archaeological evidence even for that, that Mufti agrees hadith may be political propaganda, and that every fabrication has a motive: a man bitten by a black dog fabricates a report to kill black dogs, Christians in the guise of Muslims imported circumcision and the rosary, and rulers fabricated reports to justify massacres. He says the Banu Qurayza massacre is a lie invented to justify Umayyad, Abbasid and Ottoman killings, since the Quran forbids killing captives, and that the report of the Prophet killing a woman who insulted him contradicts 4:140, which prescribes only leaving the company of mockers.", "summary_short": "The guest says the hadith corpus is a deliberate conspiracy against the Quran by its enemies, including the Umayyads, and that reports such as the Banu Qurayza massacre and the killing of a woman critic were fabricated to justify later rulers' crimes.", "answer_start": 1289, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/false-and-fabricated", "hadith/collections-and-compilation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-sufyan", "label": "Abu Sufyan"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "the Umayyads"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:conquest-of-makkah", "label": "the conquest (opening) of Makkah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:banu-qurayza", "label": "the Banu Qurayza incident"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:140", "label": "Quran 4:140 (do not sit with those who mock the signs of Allah)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:14945522", "label": "report: the black dog is a devil"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:946103bb", "label": "report: the prophet had a woman killed for insulting him"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fath", "label": "fath (opening)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/4/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/5", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S05", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 5, "start": 1679, "end": 1913, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Are all hadith fabricated? Truth mixed with falsehood, and the messenger's duty to deliver", "question_plain": "Does the guest think every hadith is fabricated?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees with many of the examples but asks whether the guest holds that one hundred percent of hadith are fabricated or that hadith is simply unusable because the genuine cannot be told from the false. The guest says he does not claim all of it is evil: Satan mixes truth with falsehood like poison in candy, and the hadith books contain nice statements such as kindness to neighbours that the Prophet may have said, but the same can be found in Chinese proverbs, and the Prophet's words cannot be the source of the religion even if genuine; the Quran, he says, asks the Prophet himself to follow the Quran, and 42:21 rejects any source of sharia besides God, so the messenger's only duty was to deliver the message, as 6:19 and 25:30 say. Mufti notes that academics such as Fred Donner argue in Muhammad and the Believers that the Prophet's lifetime saw a believers' movement in the line of the Abrahamic traditions, with early documents bearing la ilaha illa Allah without the Prophet's name, and that John of Damascus described early Muslims as a fringe Christian faction, which resonates with the guest's position.", "summary_short": "The guest says not every hadith is evil, but truth is mixed with falsehood and even genuine sayings cannot be a source of religion, since the Quran makes God the only source of law and limits the messenger's duty to delivery.", "answer_start": 1679, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:42:21", "label": "Quran 42:21 (partners who legislate what Allah has not permitted)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:19", "label": "Quran 6:19 (this Quran was revealed to me to warn you)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:25:30", "label": "Quran 25:30 (my people have deserted this Quran)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fred-donner", "label": "Fred Donner"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muhammad-and-the-believers", "label": "Muhammad and the Believers (Fred Donner)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:john-of-damascus", "label": "John of Damascus"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shariah", "label": "Sharia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/5/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/6", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S06", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 6, "start": 1913, "end": 2304, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The Prophet's roles ended with his life: judge, leader, the two-way bay'ah and women voting", "question_plain": "Were the Prophet's judgements meant to bind Muslims after his death?", "summary": "The guest says the Quran gives Muhammad several roles: as a living prophet and leader he judged disputes and people had to accept his judgement, but those verses concern a live prophet listening to live people, and after his death a dead person cannot hear cases, just as today live judges and elected people decide live events, which keeps the system dynamic as conditions change. Mufti Abu Layth presses that the Prophet's judgements on daily affairs would surely have been conveyed; the guest answers that they were place and person specific, and that keeping Muhammad alive as one who knows the future and knows our troubles is to perceive him as God, a betrayal of the truth. He says the Quran mentions the Prophet's private life as an example of how leaders and people should treat one another, and reads the mubaya'a with women as the first recorded women's vote: unlike the Sunni and Shia one-way pledge of obedience to rulers, it was two-way, the Prophet promising justice and honesty and the people promising the same, and the verse that women would not disobey him in what is right implies they could disobey what was not. He says Muhammad was elected, consulted, not a tyrant, and accepted as leader and judge even by Jews, Christians and pagans in Madinah who rejected his prophethood, but that this leadership ended with his death; his messengership was fulfilled when the Quran was delivered, as 6:19 says, so obeying God and the messenger does not mean obeying Bukhari.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Prophet's authority as judge and leader was for his lifetime only, that his bay'ah was a reciprocal social contract in which women voted, and that his messengership ended once the Quran was delivered, so obeying the messenger cannot mean obeying Bukhari.", "answer_start": 1913, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:60:12", "label": "Quran 60:12 (the pledge of the believing women)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:19", "label": "Quran 6:19 (this Quran was revealed to me to warn you)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bayah", "label": "bay'ah (mubaya'a)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shura", "label": "shura"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/6/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/7", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S07", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 7, "start": 2304, "end": 2460, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "BukhariGate and the Quran made easy: can ijtihad be done from the Quran alone?", "question_plain": "Can Muslims do ijtihad from the Quran alone?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees with the guest about the idealisation of Bukhari and the making of Islam Bukhari-centric, to which he has dedicated his BukhariGate series, and asks whether the guest holds that Muslims have the Quran and can still exercise ijtihad on day-to-day issues from it, or whether such a tool was learnt from the Prophet. The guest answers that the Quran says four times that it has been made easy to learn from, so to say it is difficult is to tell God he is wrong; whoever rejects its clear verses finds it becomes invisible and inaccessible, as he shows students that believing a problem difficult makes it so. He says the Quran is a miraculous, mathematically designed book full of layers of information, that those who want to see mercy find the derivatives of rahma more frequent than any other root while those who want to see hell see only hell, and that it is a wonderful book if approached objectively.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees with the guest that making Islam Bukhari-centric is a problem, as his BukhariGate series argues. The guest says the Quran declares itself easy to understand and that whoever thinks it difficult or rejects its clear verses loses access to it.", "answer_start": 2304, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "quran/hermeneutics", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:54:17", "label": "Quran 54:17 (we have made the Quran easy to remember)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijtihad", "label": "ijtihad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/7/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/8", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S08", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 8, "start": 2460, "end": 2937, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Historical reports, the Mi'raj negotiation, and two contradictory images of Muhammad", "question_plain": "Are any hadith genuine, and what about reports confirmed by history?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks a final question on hadith: whether the guest holds that zero percent is genuine, or that some reports may be true but cannot be distinguished, and he raises historical reports, such as the Prophet speaking of the Persian ruler whose daughter succeeded him, which later history confirms. The guest says history is full of lies with some truth that a historian may sift, but that even a genuine saying is not religion, since the Prophet believed the Quran alone was sufficient and his job was to deliver it, not to add or abrogate; the hadith, he says, make Muhammad a God beside God, and on the Day of Judgement the messenger will complain that his people deserted the Quran, not the Quran plus his hadith. He describes the hadith Muhammad as a Greek god with many faces: in the Mi'raj report he negotiates with God on Moses' advice from fifty prayers down to five, which makes him more merciful than God and God a merciless boss, in contradiction to the Quran's statement that God does not burden people beyond their capacity; while other reports have him torturing people, cutting off limbs, gouging eyes and marrying a child of six or nine, so that he is noble in one report and a psychopath or sexual maniac in another. Mufti says he agrees one hundred percent that these concepts are absurd, that he has himself dismissed the Mi'raj negotiation, the child-marriage report and the Uraynah torture reports as false narrations, and begins to explain that his difference lies in a living tradition captured in fiqh.", "summary_short": "The guest says even genuine sayings of the Prophet are not religion and that the hadith paint contradictory portraits of him. Mufti Abu Layth agrees that the Mi'raj negotiation, the child-marriage report and the Uraynah torture reports are false narrations.", "answer_start": 2460, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "history/sirah/isra-and-miraj", "history/sirah/age-of-aisha"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:25:30", "label": "Quran 25:30 (my people have deserted this Quran)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:isra-and-miraj", "label": "the Isra and Mi'raj"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:48fbc580", "label": "report: the prophet negotiated the number of prayers from fifty to five on the night journey on the advice of moses"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9797b022", "label": "report: the people of uraynah had their hands and feet cut off and their eyes branded"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3635d5d3", "label": "report: the prophet married aisha at six and consummated the marriage at nine"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/8/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/9", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S09", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 9, "start": 2937, "end": 3170, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A living tradition versus a pile of garbage: the false witness and the stoning verse eaten by a goat", "question_plain": "Can hadith be sifted with criteria, or must the whole corpus be rejected?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says his position differs in that there is a living tradition passed down and captured in fiqh and, in part, in hadith, and that he measures every hadith against three criteria, that it does not contradict reason, the transmitted texts or the established principles, before accepting it. The guest calls this picking beans from a poisonous pile of garbage and asks what the Quran says of someone who falsely accuses another of adultery; Mufti answers that those who accuse chaste women without witnesses are punished and their testimony is never accepted again. The guest applies this to Bukhari and Abu Hurayra: the books contain not one false accusation against God and the Prophet but major lies and contradictions, including a fabricated stoning verse said to have been written on a sheet under Aisha's bed and eaten by a hungry goat, and Umar's saying that he would add it to the Quran were it not for fear of being accused of adding to it; Mufti confirms the report is in Ibn Majah and elsewhere. The guest says these liars had thousands killed by stoning, made music and even chess haram and turned millions of lives into hell, so it is inconsistent to admit they lied and still seek religion in their books.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's practice survives as a living tradition in fiqh and that he accepts a hadith only if it passes reason, the texts and the principles. The guest replies that narrators who fabricated a stoning verse forfeit all credibility, like a false witness in the Quran.", "answer_start": 2937, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the transmitted texts or the established principles"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:4", "label": "Quran 24:4 (those who accuse chaste women without four witnesses)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:75db0359", "label": "report: the verse of stoning was written on a sheet under aishas bed and a goat ate it"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:57dd2ee7", "label": "report: umar said i would write the verse of stoning if people would not say he added to the book of allah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-ibn-majah", "label": "Sunan Ibn Majah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/9/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/10", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S10", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 10, "start": 3170, "end": 3567, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Does any hadith explain the Quran? The initial letters, the word hadith in the Quran, and descriptive reports", "question_plain": "Does any hadith actually explain the Quran?", "summary": "The guest challenges those who follow hadith to find a single hadith that explains the Quran rather than distorting it, pointing to the twenty-nine chapters that open with initial letters, which hadith never explain; when Mufti Abu Layth asks what they mean, the guest says he has three meanings and promises to return to them. He says the word hadith in the Quran is almost always negative when it does not refer to the Quran, the best hadith, and that the two uses connected with the Prophet's words are both critical; the word sunnah in the Quran means God's law and is never used for a sunnah of Muhammad, which Mufti confirms is a term that arose later. The guest says the fabricators were ignorant of or hostile to the Quran. Mufti asks about descriptive matters known only through reports, such as the Prophet living in Makkah and the migration to Madinah; the guest answers that these are not needed for salvation and may be studied critically as history, and that the language of a report, such as shaykh meaning a married rather than an old person in the stoning report, or the praise of Yemen, Basra, Makkah or Damascus, reveals where and when it was fabricated. Mufti then turns to abrogation.", "summary_short": "The guest challenges hadith followers to find a hadith that explains the Quran, says the Quran uses the word hadith negatively and sunnah only for God's law, and holds that descriptive reports are history, not religion.", "answer_start": 3170, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "quran/hermeneutics", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muqattaat", "label": "al-huruf al-muqatta'at (the initial letters)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hadith", "label": "hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hijrah", "label": "the Hijrah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/10/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/11", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S11", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 11, "start": 3567, "end": 4119, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Abrogation: 2:106, the meaning of ayah, and the three-verse signature", "question_plain": "Does the Quran abrogate its own verses?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the Quran allows abrogation, naskh, on which the guest is vocal. The guest calls it one of the major fabrications against the Quran: the Quran says in 4:82 that a book from other than God would be full of contradictions, yet the hadith followers say there are many and resolve them by claiming one verse abrogates another, even holding that a sahih hadith can abrogate the Quran; he says al-Shafi'i, the first promoter of this, was an enemy of the Quran, whereas Abu Hanifa followed the Quran alone and was accused of heresy. Turning to 2:106, Mufti explains the traditional reading, that Allah does not abrogate or cause a verse to be forgotten without bringing a better one, and says that while he is not personally against abrogation he finds this verse does not prove it and completely disagrees with the belief that verses were lifted from the Quran. The guest says the singular ayah occurs eighty-four times and never means a verse but a sign or miracle, as all translators render it elsewhere, while only the plural refers to the Quran's verses; a single verse cannot be a sign because the shortest chapter has three verses, the minimum for the divine mathematical copyright, so 2:106 says that when a miracle such as Moses' parting of the sea is forgotten God brings another, and the Quran's mathematical structure is that miracle. Mufti asks whether, with no abrogation, slavery is today abrogated as he himself argues through trajectory hermeneutics.", "summary_short": "The guest denies abrogation, reading 2:106 as about miracles replaced over time, since ayah in the singular never means a verse. Mufti Abu Layth says he is not against abrogation in principle but that 2:106 does not prove it and that no verse was ever lifted from the Quran.", "answer_start": 3567, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:naskh", "label": "naskh (abrogation)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:82", "label": "Quran 4:82 (they would have found many contradictions)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:106", "label": "Quran 2:106 (we do not abrogate a sign or cause it to be forgotten)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ayah", "label": "ayah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "Imam al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/11/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/12", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S12", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 12, "start": 4119, "end": 4748, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Does the Quran abolish slavery? Rabb and abd, contractual marriage and freeing slaves", "question_plain": "Does the Quran ban slavery, and what does 'what your right hand possesses' mean?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has argued that slavery is abrogated by trajectory hermeneutics, since the Quran encourages freeing slaves but does not categorically ban slavery. The guest says this is like saying two times two is three: the Quran rejects slavery as the biggest crime, because to own a slave is to make oneself that person's rabb and the slave one's abd, which is idol worship and the stance of Pharaoh, so la ilaha illa Allah itself rejects slavery. When Mufti notes that historians say the Israelites were second-class citizens rather than slaves in Egypt, the guest says he does not believe historians, who contradict each other, but the mathematically proven book. He says ma malakat aymanukum is mistranslated: aymanukum in the plural means contracts, so it denotes a contractual marriage, distinct from nikah with a free person, with a freed slave or with a woman who joined the community while still married elsewhere, comparable to common-law marriage and carrying lighter penalties because of the person's trauma. He says the Quran mentions slaves because other communities kept them, so that Muslims could only buy and free them, as in the expiation of freeing a slave, and that a Muslim could not own one. Mufti says he agrees the Quran encourages freeing slaves and sets a trajectory for emancipation but did not actualise it in the Prophet's lifetime; the guest replies that Mufti is poisoned by the books he has read, that rabb is used in the Quran only for God, and that Pharaoh claiming to be the people's rabb meant controlling their lives, which is what a slave owner does, whereas he himself raised his children to question him rather than be monkeys.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Quran abolishes slavery as the greatest crime, since owning a slave is to claim to be a rabb like Pharaoh, and that what the right hand possesses means contractual marriage. Mufti Abu Layth holds that slavery is abrogated through trajectory hermeneutics rather than by an explicit ban.", "answer_start": 4119, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "belief/tawhid-and-shirk", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rabb", "label": "rabb"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:abd", "label": "abd"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shirk", "label": "shirk"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ma-malakat-aymanukum", "label": "ma malakat aymanukum (what the right hand possesses)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firawn", "label": "Pharaoh"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/12/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/13", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S13", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 13, "start": 4748, "end": 5219, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why no explicit verse? The word rabb in Arabic, Yusuf's master, and abolition in the shahada", "question_plain": "If the Quran abolished slavery, why is there no explicit verse saying so?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks two questions: if Islam clearly outlawed slavery in the Prophet's lifetime, why is there no clear verse, and why did none of the Christians, Zoroastrians or Persians the Muslims met record that these strange people outlawed slavery, when they say instead that Muslims had slaves. The guest says Mufti is reading stories whose authors and dates are unknown, and that according to the Quran, as opposed to Bukhari, Muhammad was foremost against slavery because he accepted no rabb but God; claiming to be someone's rabb is shirk, the one unforgivable sin, far worse than drinking or killing. Mufti raises the linguistic use of rabb for humans, as in rabbat al-bayt or the word master in English, and Yusuf's words in 12:41 that one prisoner would pour wine for his rabb; the guest says rabb occurs some 950 times exclusively for God, that as a verb it may be used of people but not as a noun, as one may show rahma but not be called Rahman, and that Yusuf speaks to idol worshippers in their terms while the verse innahu rabbi refers to God, not the governor. Mufti says that when Allah speaks of arbaban min dun Allah it is clearly about shirk rather than tenancy and that even landlord contains lord, a word the guest says he avoids; they agree to skip the point. Asked once more why abolition is not stated in plain words, the guest says la ilaha illa Allah is the abolition, since whoever claims an abd claims to be God. Mufti says he takes the point and moves on.", "summary_short": "The guest says rabb is used in the Quran only for God, so that owning a slave is shirk and la ilaha illa Allah is itself the abolition of slavery. Mufti Abu Layth notes that rabb has ordinary linguistic uses and that non-Muslims recorded Muslims as owning slaves.", "answer_start": 4748, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/tawhid-and-shirk", "quran/arabic-language", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rabb", "label": "rabb"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:abd", "label": "abd"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shirk", "label": "shirk"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:41", "label": "Quran 12:41 (one of you will pour wine for his master)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:23", "label": "Quran 12:23 (he is my Lord, innahu rabbi)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusuf", "label": "Yusuf (Joseph)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firawn", "label": "Pharaoh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/13/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/14", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S14", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 14, "start": 5219, "end": 5613, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The number 19: a claim of divine authorship, and the bismillah debate with a Turkish scholar", "question_plain": "What is the miracle of the number 19 in the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about the number 19, which the guest holds to be a miracle of the divine in scripture and nature, noting that the Quran mentions nineteen over hell and that the bismillah has nineteen letters. The guest says the subject deserves a session of its own, that it is the message for this time and proves letter by letter that the Quran is the word of God, preserved by a code with an error-correction function. He says Muslims claim the Quran is God's word without even ordinary evidence, since the appeal to literary excellence has no objective standard, and that scholars run from the number 19 like zebras. He recounts a live television debate in Turkey with the former head of religious affairs, Suleyman Ates [?], a Madinah graduate and author of a multi-volume tafsir, who he says fled the studio twice and claimed before millions that the bismillah has twenty-one letters, counting two invisible alifs. Mufti asks whether this is an orthographic question about alifs that are pronounced but not written, such as the one in Rahman; the guest answers that he counts the visible letters and words as written, since pronunciation varies from person to person and only the written text is a physical fact.", "summary_short": "The guest says the number 19 proves the Quran is God's word letter by letter and that Muslims otherwise have no objective evidence for its divine origin; he recounts a Turkish scholar insisting the bismillah has twenty-one letters rather than nineteen.", "answer_start": 5219, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:74:30", "label": "Quran 74:30 (over it are nineteen)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bismillah", "label": "bismillah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:suleyman-ates", "label": "Suleyman Ates [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:running-like-zebras", "label": "Running Like Zebras"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/14/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/15", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S15", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 15, "start": 5613, "end": 5924, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Word-frequency symmetries: dunya and akhirah, twelve months, 365 days, and the messengers' names", "question_plain": "What numerical patterns does the guest find in the Quran's word counts?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that what the guest describes is a code or meta-structure built on 19, which the guest calls God's signature in the Quran, the Old Testament and nature, to which most people are blind. Mufti says simpler symmetries impress him immediately, such as dunya and akhirah occurring in the same number of verses, or the word day occurring 365 times, whereas the public does not immediately see why 19 is divine. The guest says these too tie into 19 and describes what he calls the semantic mathematics of the Quran: dunya and akhirah each 115 times, angel and devil each 88, the singular month twelve times with exactly 354 days, a lunar year, between its first and last occurrence, the singular day 365 times, the command say 332 times matched by they said, and, as he found while in prison, the derivatives of rasul 512 times, equal to the total occurrences of the names of the prophets, Moses 136, Abraham 69, Muhammad four, Adam and Jesus 25 each. He says 19 is specifically mentioned in the Quran as a test to distinguish those who trust God from hypocrites and ingrates, and that most people fail it, as God intends.", "summary_short": "The guest lists word-frequency symmetries in the Quran, such as dunya and akhirah 115 times each, month twelve times and day 365 times, and says the number 19 is a test that most people fail.", "answer_start": 5613, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dunya", "label": "dunya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:akhirah", "label": "akhirah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rasul", "label": "rasul"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/15/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/16", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S16", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 16, "start": 5924, "end": 6314, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "19 as a test, Ivan Panin and Rabbi Judah, and retranslating 74:29-31", "question_plain": "How does the guest's number 19 differ from Bible numerics, and how does he read 74:29-31?", "summary": "The guest says that just as most people rejected the miracles of Moses and Jesus, most fail the test of 19, which he says atheists cannot refute in debate. Mufti Abu Layth asks what makes 19 unique when Ivan Panin, a Russian convert to Christianity, argued for numeric patterns of seven, eight and fifty in the Bible. The guest says Panin made impressive but anecdotal observations with no system, whereas he believes the Old and New Testaments carry a 19-based structure, citing an eleventh-century Rabbi Judah [?] who wrote volumes on 19 in the Old Testament of which one survives, and Mufti adds that the Hebrew calendar runs on a nineteen-year cycle. The guest then says two verses before the mention of nineteen in chapter 74 are mistranslated: lawwaha lil-bashar does not mean scorching the skin, since bashar in the Quran always means a human being, so it means obvious to humanity; saqar is not hell but a punishment through the frontal lobe, a metaphor for an intellectual challenge; and la tubqi wa la tadhar means neither more nor less, precise, a description of the mathematics of a numerical book, kitab marqum, which witnesses are enlightened by while the ignorant and corrupt are confounded by their dogmas.", "summary_short": "The guest says 19 is a test most people fail, distinguishes his system from Ivan Panin's Bible numerics, and retranslates 74:29-31 as describing a precise, obvious mathematical structure rather than scorching the skin in hell.", "answer_start": 5924, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/tafsir", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:74:29-31", "label": "Quran 74:29-31 (lawwaha lil-bashar, over it are nineteen)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ivan-panin", "label": "Ivan Panin"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:rabbi-judah", "label": "Rabbi Judah (11th century) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bashar", "label": "bashar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:saqar", "label": "saqar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kitab-marqum", "label": "kitab marqum (numerical book)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:old-testament", "label": "Old Testament"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/16/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/17", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S17", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 17, "start": 6314, "end": 6777, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Could 19 be a subconscious pattern? Mathematicians, chapter 74 and the prophecy of 1974", "question_plain": "Could the number 19 patterns in the Quran be a coincidence or a human habit?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth objects that humans may have a subconscious preference for certain numerical patterns, as poets kept pentameter before its mathematics was described, so correlations need not be divine. The guest says such suspicion is a good start but becomes dogmatism if one stops there without study; he says he has debated top mathematicians, including one who recently died of Covid-19 [?], and none can deal with it, since language is arbitrary and letter and word frequencies would not be multiples of 19 by chance; one may compose a sentence of nineteen letters, but the structure goes from simple to incredibly intricate. He gives one example, calling it also a prophecy: of the 285 numbers mentioned in the Quran, nineteen appears only once, in chapter 74, al-Muddaththir, the hidden one, and its meaning stayed hidden for exactly nineteen times seventy-four lunar years until it was unveiled in 1974 by Rashad Khalifa, whose name is mentioned nineteen times in the Quran; the opening words, O you hidden one, rise and warn, have nineteen letters whose abjad value is 1974. He adds that Khalifa's 1973 book on the initial letters shows no awareness of 19, which he discovered months later and announced in Ramadan.", "summary_short": "The guest says the 19 structure cannot be chance or subconscious habit, that mathematicians cannot refute it, and that 19 appearing only in chapter 74 and being unveiled in 1974, nineteen times seventy-four lunar years later, is a prophecy.", "answer_start": 6314, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rashad-khalifa", "label": "Rashad Khalifa"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:74:1-2", "label": "Quran 74:1-2 (O you who are hidden, rise and warn)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:abjad", "label": "abjad numerals"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:john-conway", "label": "John Conway [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muqattaat", "label": "al-huruf al-muqatta'at (the initial letters)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/17/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/18", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S18", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 18, "start": 6777, "end": 7012, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Did Rashad Khalifa claim to be a messenger? Nabi and rasul, and the two verses of Surat al-Tawba", "question_plain": "Did Rashad Khalifa claim to be a messenger of God?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether it is true that Rashad Khalifa claimed to be a messenger of God. The guest says yes: before the claim, studying 19 in Turkey, he concluded that such a divine secret, unveiled according to the Quran only through messengers, meant God had chosen Khalifa, and he found that all derivatives of rashad occur exactly nineteen times, with the word itself twice in chapter 40 in a prophetic passage about Joseph and the last messenger, so he had no problem when Khalifa declared his messengership months later. Asked whether this meant receiving revelation or something like a scholar, the guest says a messenger commissioned by God to unveil his miracle and expose the Sunni and Shia distortions; he says the Quran calls Muhammad the last prophet, not the last messenger, a prophet being a messenger who also brings a book, which Mufti notes is the reverse of the common explanation. Mufti adds that Khalifa saw 19 everywhere except in two verses at the end of Surat al-Tawba, which he therefore considered interpolations into the mushaf.", "summary_short": "The guest says Rashad Khalifa did claim to be a messenger, not a prophet, commissioned to unveil the miracle of 19, and that the Quran calls Muhammad the last prophet rather than the last messenger. Khalifa held the last two verses of Surat al-Tawba to be interpolations.", "answer_start": 6777, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rashad-khalifa", "label": "Rashad Khalifa"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:72:26-28", "label": "Quran 72:26-28 (he reveals the unseen to a messenger he chooses)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:40:34", "label": "Quran 40:34 (Joseph came to you before; no messenger after him) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:40", "label": "Quran 33:40 (khatam al-nabiyyin)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:9:128-129", "label": "Quran 9:128-129 (the last two verses of Surat al-Tawba)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabi", "label": "nabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rasul", "label": "rasul"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khatam-al-nabiyyin", "label": "khatam al-nabiyyin"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusuf", "label": "Yusuf (Joseph)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "mushaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/18/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/19", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S19", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 19, "start": 7012, "end": 7324, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The assassination of Rashad Khalifa, the 1989 Madinah fatwa, and nineteens around the murder", "question_plain": "Why was Rashad Khalifa assassinated?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about Khalifa's assassination. The guest says that in 1989 scholars from thirty-eight countries gathered in Madinah under Ibn Baz, competing with Iran's bounty on Salman Rushdie, and declared both Rushdie and Khalifa apostates; within a year Khalifa was killed by al-Fuqra [?], a group he links to al-Qaeda, and he says three of the 9/11 planners were in Tucson at the time, one clearly involved. He adds that the hitman was captured and sentenced nineteen years later, that Tucson's zip code and the mosque's area code are multiples of 19, that the mosque's parcel number was 114 and that it was built in 1919, which he calls minor signs, and that the three biggest events of the last twenty years relate to 19: the Y2K problem, which he says cost nearly a trillion dollars through ignorance of the number 19, and the 9/11 attacks carried out by nineteen hijackers, which he calls poetic justice since the murderers of Khalifa later attacked the United States, whose government he claims was more than ninety percent likely complicit with Saudi Arabia. Mufti confirms the number of hijackers and moves to questions.", "summary_short": "The guest says Rashad Khalifa was declared an apostate by a 1989 Madinah gathering under Ibn Baz and killed within a year by a group linked to al-Qaeda, and he lists coincidences of the number 19 around the murder, Y2K and the 9/11 attacks.", "answer_start": 7012, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rashad-khalifa", "label": "Rashad Khalifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-baz", "label": "Ibn Baz"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-rushdie", "label": "Salman Rushdie"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:assassination-of-rashad-khalifa-1990", "label": "the assassination of Rashad Khalifa (1990)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-fuqra", "label": "al-Fuqra [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-qaeda", "label": "al-Qaeda"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:september-11-attacks", "label": "the 9/11 attacks (2001)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:y2k", "label": "the Y2K problem"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/19/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/20", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S20", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 20, "start": 7324, "end": 7483, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was your first love nineteen? The FT-19 youth group before the discovery of 19", "question_plain": "Did the number 19 appear in the guest's life before he discovered it in the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes a chat question asking the guest, half in jest, whether the person he first fell in love with was nineteen years old. The guest says he went to college at nineteen and that two years before hearing of the number 19 in the Quran he founded a youth group of fifty or sixty high-school students within Turkey's largest youth organisation and called it FT-19, without knowing the number's importance or even the verse, training them with graffiti and pamphlets for college activism, which he reads as a deep connection the number had with him before he knew it. Mufti says he will take more questions.", "summary_short": "Before he knew anything about the number 19 the guest had named his youth activist group FT-19, which he sees as an early connection to the number.", "answer_start": 7324, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/20/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/21", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S21", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 21, "start": 7483, "end": 7952, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The hitting verse 4:34: daraba, idrib as get out, and four mistranslated words", "question_plain": "Does the Quran allow a husband to hit his wife?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth relays a question already asked about the guest's reinterpretation of verses such as the hitting verse, 4:34, which the guest has called a historical error of translation. The guest says daraba is a multi-meaning word like strike in English: the Quran uses it for giving an example, for covering with a cloth, for travelling and for other senses, so wadribuhunna need not mean beat. He says that translating in 1989 his Sunni reflex was to read it as beating, that he marked the verse on an orange paper for further research, and that in 1992 in Ankara he saw a film in which a North African co-wife told a woman to get out using idrib, which confirmed that the verse means to tell a persistently flirting wife to leave the house. He says four key words in the verse are mistranslated by male clergy to create authority over women: qawwamun means providers, not dictators, which Mufti says he has argued is descriptive of the society rather than prescriptive; nushuz is translated as rebellion for women but as disloyalty when the same word is used of men later in the chapter; and qanitat means obedient to God, as everywhere in the Quran, not to a husband. He says his translation's introduction gives about fifteen such examples to show readers they need no Arabic to see the problem, and Mufti displays the comparison table from the 19.org website.", "summary_short": "The guest reads 4:34 as telling a persistently flirting wife to leave rather than as permission to beat, and says four words in the verse were mistranslated to create male authority. Mufti Abu Layth says the statement that men provide is descriptive, not prescriptive.", "answer_start": 7483, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "society/women-and-gender", "relationships/marriage/abuse-and-marital-rape"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:34", "label": "Quran 4:34 (the 'hitting verse')"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:daraba", "label": "daraba (wadribuhunna)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qawwamun", "label": "qawwamun"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nushuz", "label": "nushuz"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qanitat", "label": "qanitat"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:quran-a-reformist-translation", "label": "Quran: A Reformist Translation"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/21/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/22", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S22", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 22, "start": 7952, "end": 8190, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Other retranslations: cutting off means, war reparations, active women, and polygamy for widows", "question_plain": "How does the guest translate the verses on cutting off the thief's hand, jizya and polygamy?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth goes through further entries in the guest's comparison table. On the thief's hand, the guest's rendering is to cut off the hands or means, and he says the word carries multiple meanings deliberately and that other verses rule out amputation, so cutting off the means must be the reading. On the tax levied on non-Muslims he translates it as war reparations, with nothing to do with religion, imposed after aggressive wars. He reads sa'ihat, usually taken as women who fast, as women active in society and travelling, and takes the word for first-ranked to mean leaders. Asked in jest whether polygamy allows marrying nineteen, he says polygamy in chapter 4 is sandwiched between verses on orphans whose fathers were killed and was an option to protect widows and their orphans in exigent circumstances, not a licence to marry for sex or to marry virgins; Mufti jokes that he will lose much of his male following.", "summary_short": "The guest's translation renders the thief's punishment as cutting off the means, the tax on non-Muslims as war reparations, sa'ihat as women active in society, and polygamy as permitted only for widows with orphans in exigent circumstances.", "answer_start": 7952, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:38", "label": "Quran 5:38 (the thief, cut off their hands)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jizya", "label": "jizya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:saihat", "label": "sa'ihat"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:quran-a-reformist-translation", "label": "Quran: A Reformist Translation"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/22/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/23", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S23", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 23, "start": 8190, "end": 8270, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Khatam al-nabiyyin: the best or the last prophet?", "question_plain": "Does khatam al-nabiyyin mean the last prophet or the best prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a chat question asking the guest's view of khatam al-nabiyyin as meaning the best rather than the last prophet, and whether nabi is synonymous with rasul given that Ismail is called both in the Quran. The guest says he understands khatam as seal and therefore last, because the Quran is for all people and speaks of Muhammad's community as lasting to the end of the world; he adds that the Quran gives the time of the end of the world, a subject he would love to discuss on another occasion.", "summary_short": "The guest understands khatam al-nabiyyin as the last prophet, since the Quran addresses all people until the end of the world, and says the Quran gives the time of the end of the world.", "answer_start": 8190, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "belief/eschatology", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:40", "label": "Quran 33:40 (khatam al-nabiyyin)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khatam-al-nabiyyin", "label": "khatam al-nabiyyin"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabi", "label": "nabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rasul", "label": "rasul"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ismail", "label": "Ismail (Ishmael)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/23/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/24", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S24", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 24, "start": 8270, "end": 8430, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does 19 recur before bad luck? Against numerology, and an invitation to Zakir Naik and Nouman Ali Khan", "question_plain": "Is seeing the number 19 everywhere a sign or a superstition?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a chat question from someone who says the number 19 recurs in their life before something bad happens, and asks how the guest feels about such associations with superstition. The guest says people may hallucinate nineteens and manipulate numbers to produce them, that one in nineteen numbers is a multiple of 19 by chance, and that he is very sceptical of and rejects anecdotal or arbitrary claims; the Quran's structure, he says, is not numerology or speculation but physical. He proposes a future session with people who reject the number 19 and invites Zakir Naik and Nouman Ali Khan to debate anyone who believes in the Quran alone, saying such slick speakers mislead people by promoting hadith and sunnah and should face him rather than talk behind the Quran-alone movement. Mufti says that would be amazing.", "summary_short": "The guest rejects personal and anecdotal sightings of 19 as numerology and chance, distinguishing them from the Quran's structure, and invites Zakir Naik and Nouman Ali Khan to debate him.", "answer_start": 8270, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zakir-naik", "label": "Zakir Naik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/24/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/25", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S25", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 25, "start": 8430, "end": 8509, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's own position: a Sunni critical of parts of hadith who does not outcast Quran-only Muslims", "question_plain": "What is Mufti Abu Layth's own position on hadith compared with the Quran-only view?", "summary": "The guest finishes by saying that the messengers and their followers always debated in public squares, so his opponents should come and face him. Since people have asked about his own position, Mufti Abu Layth clarifies that he is a Sunni and that his difference from the guest is that, although critical of several parts of the hadith literature, he does not reject the whole of it; at the same time he is not about calling people who choose to stick to the Quran alone deviants or misguided, since in the end it is what makes sense to people, and he is personally against the clerical approach of outcasting people, which he says is about power and position.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is a Sunni who is critical of parts of the hadith literature without rejecting it wholesale, and he opposes labelling Quran-only Muslims as deviants or misguided.", "answer_start": 8430, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hadith", "label": "hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/25/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/26", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S26", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 26, "start": 8509, "end": 8664, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The qira'at: does the 19 structure hold across the Hafs and Warsh readings?", "question_plain": "Does the number 19 structure work in all the readings of the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a chat question on the different recitations of the Quran, asking whether the guest holds all of them equally valid. The guest says that having found the incredibly precise 19 structure in the Hafs reading, which has an error-correction ability, he found in it a couple of spelling errors and two added verses, and that older manuscripts justified his conclusion in at least two important cases, so he has no doubt about it; the Warsh reading, he says, differs little and the mathematical structure cannot be counterfeited or faked. Mufti says he has heard others say the structure holds in Hafs but that they are unsure about other readings. A further chat question asks about Ghulam Ahmad Parwez of the subcontinent; the guest says he has not read much but likes him and thinks he was very close to the message of the Quran alone.", "summary_short": "The guest says the 19 structure is found in the Hafs reading, where it revealed two spelling errors and two added verses, and that the Warsh reading differs little; he also expresses regard for Ghulam Ahmad Parwez.", "answer_start": 8509, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hafs", "label": "Hafs"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:warsh", "label": "Warsh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ghulam-ahmad-parwez", "label": "Ghulam Ahmad Parwez"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/26/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/27", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S27", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 27, "start": 8664, "end": 8816, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Were the Israelites slaves of Pharaoh? A chat question on 26:22", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say the Israelites were slaves in Egypt?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth struggles to read an Arabic question in the chat, then understands it as asking whether 26:22, in which Moses tells Pharaoh that he enslaved the Children of Israel, does not indicate that the Israelites were enslaved. He calls it interesting and says he will look into it, explaining that historians seem to state that the Israelites were not slaves as such but second- or third-class citizens with their own settlement who were cast out, blamed by some Egyptians for famine and plague and regarded as dirty, though he grants that the verse is interesting.", "summary_short": "A chat question cites 26:22, where Moses says Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites; Mufti Abu Layth says historians describe them as outcast second-class citizens rather than slaves but grants the verse deserves a closer look.", "answer_start": 8664, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:26:22", "label": "Quran 26:22 (that you enslaved the Children of Israel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firawn", "label": "Pharaoh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/27/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/28", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S28", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 28, "start": 8816, "end": 8974, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "On Sam Gerrans, and the number 19 as a test of bigotry", "question_plain": "What does Edip Yuksel think of Sam Gerrans?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a chat question asking the guest's view of Sam Gerrans, another Quran-alone writer. The guest says Gerrans is articulate and studious and he likes that, but that his inability to see the miracle of 19 makes him miss all twenty-nine initial-letter passages, for which he makes up arbitrary meanings without evidence. He says the Quran's verse about the number 19 states that it is a test that makes hypocrites and ingrates fail to see, so anyone who does not witness it has something wrong in his heart; he asks listeners not to rush to judgement either way but to study, comparing it to the camel of Salih that people dismissed, and says he cannot explain Gerrans' bigotry on this point. Mufti asks for final questions.", "summary_short": "The guest respects Sam Gerrans as articulate but says his failure to see the number 19 leads him to invent arbitrary meanings for the initial letters, and that 19 is a divine test of one's bigotry.", "answer_start": 8816, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sam-gerrans", "label": "Sam Gerrans"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muqattaat", "label": "al-huruf al-muqatta'at (the initial letters)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:salih", "label": "Salih"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/28/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/29", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S29", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 29, "start": 8974, "end": 9131, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Quick questions: owning a slave as shirk, the meaning of kawthar, and al-kitab given to all prophets", "question_plain": "Is al-kitab the same book given to every prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth puts three short chat questions. Asked whether the guest holds that owning a slave is shirk, the guest says of course: whoever makes someone his abd claims to be that person's rabb, which is to be a Pharaoh. Asked whether kawthar has a special meaning, he says it is not a pool but comes from a root meaning plurality, so it means abundance given to everyone, and the stories about a pool are made up. Asked about Muhammad Shahrur and his view that al-kitab is one book given to all prophets, the guest says he does not know Shahrur but agrees that al-kitab, in the singular, is God's one book or law sent to every group, whose details may change from age to age; its goal, which he calls Islam or peacemaking, is secular, while iman is different, so there can be Christian or Jewish peacemakers, as in the Prophet's Madinah, and the Arabic verb aslama means to actually make peace.", "summary_short": "The guest says owning a slave is shirk, that kawthar means abundance rather than a pool, and that al-kitab is the one divine law sent to every prophet, whose goal, peacemaking, is secular while iman is distinct.", "answer_start": 8974, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/tawhid-and-shirk", "quran/tafsir", "belief/salvation-and-non-muslims"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:108:1", "label": "Quran 108:1 (we have given you al-kawthar)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kawthar", "label": "kawthar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-kitab", "label": "al-kitab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shirk", "label": "shirk"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-shahrur", "label": "Muhammad Shahrur"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:islam", "label": "Islam (as peacemaking)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/29/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/30", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S30", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 30, "start": 9131, "end": 9366, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Do you reject all hadith books, and how do you know how to pray? The circular argument", "question_plain": "If you reject all hadith, how do you know how to pray?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a chat question asking whether the guest rejects all books of hadith or accepts some, such as the Nahj al-Balagha of Imam Ali. The guest says he rejects all hadith, including his own, as a source of the system, since God alone legislates, has no shortage of words and is not forgetful, so the detailed Quran suffices. Mufti then puts the common question of how the five prayers are determined without hadith. The guest gives his shorter answer: if praying according to the hadith books requires associating partners with God, oppressing women, stoning people and putting women in black sacks, a trail that leads to evil, he does not want that prayer, since the Quran says prayer should make a person more righteous. He says the demand to find the hadith description of prayer in the Quran is a circular argument that presupposes fabricated and contradictory details and then calls the Quran insufficient, and that the Quran's account of the Jewish rabbis and the heifer at the start of chapter 2 is given precisely as a warning against such frivolous detail.", "summary_short": "The guest rejects every hadith collection, including Nahj al-Balagha, as a source of religion, and says the objection that the Quran does not detail the five prayers is a circular argument built on fabricated details.", "answer_start": 9131, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "fiqh/prayer", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nahj-al-balagha", "label": "Nahj al-Balagha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:67-71", "label": "Quran 2:67-71 (the heifer of the Children of Israel)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/30/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/31", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S31", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 31, "start": 9366, "end": 9526, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The heifer of the Israelites: cutting a symbolic bond and the rabbis' frivolous questions", "question_plain": "Why were the Israelites told to sacrifice a heifer, and what does it teach about religious detail?", "summary": "The guest explains why God told the Israelites to sacrifice a heifer: the cow was a symbol of their Egyptian masters, whose religion the enslaved had absorbed as enslaved peoples adopt their masters' faith, so even after Moses freed them they retained a respect for it, and the physical sacrifice, like a psychological treatment for an obsession, was meant to cut that bond. Mufti Abu Layth says he has argued the same, that a request the Israelites make in the Quran [?] came from a subconscious attachment to Egyptian Osiris worship, and calls it a gem that Allah was instructing them to jettison this baggage. The guest says the rabbis instead asked frivolous questions about the cow's colour and age, and that each time more detail was given they asked for more, which is the mentality of clergymen who generate volumes of books and so disable ordinary people; the same, he says, happened with prayer.", "summary_short": "The heifer was commanded to break the Israelites' lingering reverence for their Egyptian masters' cow worship, and the rabbis' frivolous questions about it exemplify the clerical obsession with detail. Mufti Abu Layth agrees and recalls arguing the same.", "answer_start": 9366, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "quran/tafsir", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:67-71", "label": "Quran 2:67-71 (the heifer of the Children of Israel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firawn", "label": "Pharaoh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/31/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/32", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S32", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 32, "start": 9526, "end": 9760, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "What salat means in the Quran: solidarity with God, with the messenger and among believers", "question_plain": "What does the word salat mean in the Quran according to the Quran-only view?", "summary": "The guest says the Quran itself defines salat in 75:31, where the one who did not believe and did not pray is described as turning away, so that salat is the opposite of turning away: turning towards, showing empathy and solidarity. He reads 33:56, that God and his angels support the messenger and believers should do likewise, and the verse that God and his angels yusalli upon the believers to bring them from darkness to light, and 9:103, where the Prophet is told to take charity and to salli upon the people, which he reads as supporting and calming them. He says this shows solidarity in three directions, between God and believers, God and the messenger, and the messenger and the believers, so that salat has two aspects: solidarity with God in the domain of iman, a mental connection, support and promise to follow God's way, and solidarity with people, which is the secular Friday gathering, a civic duty for all peacemakers; salat with God, he says, is prayer and remembrance, which may be physical but whose essence is dhikr.", "summary_short": "The guest defines salat from the Quran as solidarity rather than ritual: with God, which is remembrance and connection, and with people, which is the secular Friday gathering; the essence is dhikr, not physical form.", "answer_start": 9526, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "quran/arabic-language", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:75:31", "label": "Quran 75:31 (he neither believed nor prayed)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:56", "label": "Quran 33:56 (Allah and his angels send salat upon the Prophet)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:9:103", "label": "Quran 9:103 (take from their wealth a charity and pray for them)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jumuah", "label": "jumu'ah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhikr", "label": "dhikr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/32/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/33", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S33", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 33, "start": 9760, "end": 9914, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is the physical form of salah necessary? Sitting, driving, imagined ablution and remembering God", "question_plain": "Does prayer have to be physical, or is remembering God enough?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth relays a chat comment that the guest seems to be against the physical exercise of salah. The guest says he is not: sujud means mentally obeying God, and as people greet with a smile or a handshake there is nothing wrong with expressing devotion with the body, but the physical side is an expression of the essence, the connection with God. He says that according to the Quran one may pray sitting, while driving a camel, a car or a plane, that ablution may be done by imagining purification when there is no water, and that prayer may be shortened in war; the only necessary component is consciously and intellectually connecting to God, which is why the Quran forbids approaching prayer when drunk. He describes it as self-reflection on one's position as a human being who will return to his Lord, which calms anger, greed and depression, and Mufti notes that this is what some today call mindfulness.", "summary_short": "The guest is not against the physical form of prayer but says it is only an expression; the one necessary component of salat according to the Quran is conscious connection with God, so one may pray sitting or while travelling.", "answer_start": 9760, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "hadith/quran-only-movement", "wellbeing/mindfulness-and-presence"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:43", "label": "Quran 4:43 (do not approach prayer while intoxicated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud", "label": "sujud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhikr", "label": "dhikr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/33/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/34", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S34", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 34, "start": 9914, "end": 10150, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: how to reach the guest, conferences, peace with Sunnis and Shias, and parliamentary speeches", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the guest and asks how people can reach him. The guest declines to give his phone number, mentions his email and the 19.org website, and proposes Zoom sessions and joint conference panels with Sunni and Shia brothers to discuss these matters. He says he has no animosity towards Sunnis or Shias because of their religion, and Mufti confirms that their earlier private conversations were loving and without hostility. The guest says he debates without mercy because the truth matters but would defend the rights of his greatest opponent if unjustly treated, since he wants to live in peace with everyone while discussing with passion, as long as no one threatens, kills or falsely accuses another; all children of Adam are brothers who can learn even from the bonobo apes. He recommends his speeches at the British Parliament and the European Parliament and an interview with a Kurdish television channel refuting ISIS, which Mufti says viewers can find on YouTube.", "summary_short": "The guest invites contact through his website and proposes Zoom sessions and conferences with Sunni and Shia scholars, saying he debates fiercely but bears no animosity and defends anyone's rights; he points viewers to his parliamentary speeches and his refutation of ISIS.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/34/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/35", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S35", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 35, "start": 10150, "end": 10385, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Suspended from Twitter: social media as the new public square and censorship by corporations", "question_plain": "Should social media companies be allowed to censor people as the new public square?", "summary": "Asked about his social media, the guest says he is less active on Facebook and that Twitter, where he had 150,000 followers and great impact, suspended him at the instance of the Turkish government, in cahoots with the company, without stating which tweet broke the rules. He says he is considering a lawsuit but that the First Amendment protects speech against government, not corporations, so he will instead argue in American code from the contract, and expects to win damages. Mufti Abu Layth observes that a company has the right to manage its platform, but agrees it is a fascinating question whether commercial properties that have become the public square should be able to censor; the guest says the public square has moved from the physical to the virtual, controlled by a few corporations who can block anyone, which is a danger to society, so they should be regulated and follow due process. Mufti says they will celebrate when he wins, and asks one last question.", "summary_short": "The guest says Twitter suspended him at the Turkish government's instance and that corporations now controlling the virtual public square should be regulated and bound by due process; Mufti Abu Layth agrees the question is a fascinating one.", "answer_start": 10150, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media/social-media", "society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:twitter", "label": "Twitter"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:recep-tayyip-erdogan", "label": "Recep Tayyip Erdogan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/35/"}, {"id": "ZmIrskjob4o/s/36", "short_id": "2020-06-26-S36", "recording": "ZmIrskjob4o", "n": 36, "start": 10385, "end": 10856, "date": "20200626", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mind and body: Berkeley, Descartes, non-local consciousness and the soul as information", "question_plain": "Is consciousness in the brain, or is the brain a receiver for the soul?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about the guest's paper on Berkeley and Descartes. The guest outlines the positions: Descartes' dualism of body plus mind, Berkeley's idealism that everything is spirit and idea, and materialism that the soul is a function of the brain, with the problem for dualism of how a non-physical soul communicates with a body governed by physical law; he compares the materialist view to an MP3 player with everything inside, the idealist to a broadcast and dualism to a radio receiving an independent signal. Mufti says he has previously argued for non-local consciousness, that the ruh is non-local and the brain is like a radio or a phone picking up the signal. The guest disagrees, saying such talk has no meaning: a human is matter plus information, the ordered arrangement of elements into molecules, genes and organs, so that the whole exceeds the sum of its parts, like a computer whose hardware is the body and whose software is the uploaded knowledge; that information, our genetic makeup, habits, convictions and sins, is continuously backed up in God's record, and when the body dies God will create a new body and match the saved personality to it in another creation, while the dead are not conscious until then. Mufti closes the lengthy session, thanks the guest, and signs off.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that consciousness is non-local and the brain a receiver like a radio; the guest disagrees, describing a human as matter plus information that is backed up in God's record and restored to a new body at the resurrection.", "answer_start": 10385, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "belief/afterlife"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:george-berkeley", "label": "George Berkeley"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:rene-descartes", "label": "Rene Descartes"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh", "label": "ruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiyamah", "label": "qiyamah (resurrection)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/ZmIrskjob4o/s/36/"}, {"id": "Zs1rLN2Djss/s/1", "short_id": "2018-03-05b-S01", "recording": "Zs1rLN2Djss", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 310, "date": "20180305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is zina today what it was then? Outdated social theory and the marriage crisis", "question_plain": "Is zina today the same issue it was in the past?", "summary": "The clip opens with Mufti Abu Layth calling it a very interesting question whether zina is really today what it was in the past, followed by some joking with the chat about creating a scandal. Returning to the point, he agrees that there is a problem today, not on the side of creed and faith but on the social and practical side of Islam, where much of the inherited theory no longer matches what people face, and says that he does not know the solution but would welcome an open and honest discussion by ulama prepared to re-analyse the context and offer suitable ijtihad. He then describes the difficulty of marriage as he sees it in the cases he deals with: getting into a relationship is hard, weddings cost as much as half a house, divorce is stigmatised, polygamy is disowned and looked down upon, and expectations are idealistic. He says people are confused between the pragmatic, functional marriages of their parents' generation and a hyper-romanticised Instagram culture that he does not think is real, which leaves people depressed and unsure when to marry.", "summary_short": "Much of the inherited social theory on relationships and marriage no longer matches today's reality, and Mufti Abu Layth calls for ulama to re-examine the context with fresh ijtihad. He describes marriage today as costly and idealised, with divorce and polygamy stigmatised.", "answer_start": 78, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["relationships/marriage", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:zina", "label": "zina"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijtihad", "label": "ijtihad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ulama", "label": "ulama"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that much of the inherited social theory on relationships and marriage no longer matches today's circumstances and that ulama should re-analyse the context and offer suitable ijtihad.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "we are in a huge kind of crisis almost that a lot of our theory is outdated it doesn't match what we are facing today", "start": 77}}, "url": "/r/Zs1rLN2Djss/s/1/"}, {"id": "Zs1rLN2Djss/s/2", "short_id": "2018-03-05b-S02", "recording": "Zs1rLN2Djss", "n": 2, "start": 310, "end": 625, "date": "20180305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Marrying at eighteen, sexual need and the absence of solutions today", "question_plain": "Why is it so hard for young Muslims to marry, and what are they supposed to do about desire?", "summary": "Continuing the answer, Mufti Abu Layth says that telling an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old to marry is a recipe for disaster given the immaturity of men at that age, while telling them to wait leaves them in a hyper-sexualised society where everything is about sex or romance. He says he wishes he had a solution and that many people reach out to him, but that the ulama refuse to recognise the problem. He describes what he sees when very young couples marry, including unwanted pregnancies, regret, fights and a lack of communication, and says the real issue is that men of that age are not ready for full family life yet have a strong need for sex, so that from a religious perspective Islam as presently offered has no solution. Asking listeners to suspend judgement, he says the past did not face this problem because divorce was not stigmatised and other outlets such as concubinage existed, and he calls the standard advice to fast, lower the gaze and take cold showers inept and inadequate in the face of high testosterone, saying the need is for sexual interaction. He says scholarship should first acknowledge that there is a problem, and greets a viewer doing research in this area with Dr Sherman Jackson.", "summary_short": "Men of eighteen or nineteen are generally not ready for marriage but have strong sexual needs, and Mufti Abu Layth says current religious teaching offers no real solution. He calls advice to fast and lower the gaze inadequate and asks scholars to acknowledge the problem.", "answer_start": 310, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/marriage", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sherman-jackson", "label": "Sherman Jackson"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ulama", "label": "ulama"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that men of eighteen or nineteen are generally not ready for marriage yet have strong sexual needs, that the usual advice to fast and lower the gaze is inadequate, and that, unlike in the past, Islam today has no solution to offer to this problem, which scholarship should acknowledge.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so this is a huge problem from a religious perspective because there is no solution Islam has zero solutions to offer today", "start": 458}}, "url": "/r/Zs1rLN2Djss/s/2/"}, {"id": "Zs1rLN2Djss/s/3", "short_id": "2018-03-05b-S03", "recording": "Zs1rLN2Djss", "n": 3, "start": 625, "end": 782, "date": "20180305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is an exclusive boyfriend-girlfriend relationship equivalent to nikah?", "question_plain": "Does an exclusive boyfriend-girlfriend relationship count as a nikah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth repeats his wish for an open discussion on what the solution is in our day and age, and relays a question put to him: whether an exclusive boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, recognised by everyone as a couple and attended as such at events, would not in a sense fall under nikah, since people recognise their exclusivity. He calls it a very interesting and good question that he wishes the ulama would acknowledge and bring to the table, but says they will not, and does not himself endorse the equivalence. He then says that the base desires have always existed but that in the past the outlets were never an issue: marriage was simple, divorce was not stigmatised, polygamy was the norm and men were permitted other partners such as concubines, which is why earlier scholars never stressed this topic. Today, he says, society has flipped and become hyper-sexualised while Muslims have only the option of nikah, which has been dramatised by culture, made very expensive and locked in.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth does not endorse the idea but calls it a good question that the ulama should discuss. He says the past had simple marriage, unstigmatised divorce and other accepted outlets, whereas Muslims today have only a culturally dramatised, expensive nikah.", "answer_start": 625, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "relationships/marriage", "fiqh/sexual-ethics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ulama", "label": "ulama"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that in the past marriage was simple, divorce was not stigmatised and other outlets were accepted, so earlier scholars never stressed this topic, whereas Muslims today have only a culturally dramatised and expensive nikah; he leaves the question whether an exclusive relationship amounts to nikah for the ulama to discuss.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this is why they never stressed in the past on this topic what we have today is society has flipped things on its heads", "start": 726}}, "url": "/r/Zs1rLN2Djss/s/3/"}, {"id": "Zs1rLN2Djss/s/4", "short_id": "2018-03-05b-S04", "recording": "Zs1rLN2Djss", "n": 4, "start": 782, "end": 1090, "date": "20180305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Civil registration of nikah: state permission to leave and the money on both sides", "question_plain": "Should I register my nikah as a civil marriage?", "summary": "After some joking with the chat about his sense of humour getting him into trouble, Mufti Abu Layth turns to a programme about Muslim women in the UK who did not know that the nikah and the civil marriage are two different things, and repeats that ulama should be prepared to discuss these matters. He says he is not sure civil registration is the solution, because he dislikes the idea that a relationship cannot officially end until the state endorses it, likening a year in court to needing a document to stop being someone's friend. On the financial side he says many men refuse to register because they fear losing half of a house or car they earned if the marriage ends within a year, and that he understands this, but that there is a flip side: a woman who after twenty years of being kept from working and developing herself is left with nothing when the relationship ends, which he also calls a wrong.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is not sure civil registration is the answer, because he objects to needing the state's permission to leave a relationship. He accepts the financial arguments on both sides, the man's fear of losing half his property and the woman's risk of being left with nothing.", "answer_start": 937, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "relationships/marriage", "fiqh/divorce"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ulama", "label": "ulama"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is not sure civil registration is the solution for Muslim marriages, because he objects to needing the state's permission to leave a relationship, while acknowledging the financial arguments on both sides.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I'm not so sure if civil registration civil marriage is the solution because I'll tell you what I'm against or what I dislike", "start": 920}}, "url": "/r/Zs1rLN2Djss/s/4/"}, {"id": "Zs1rLN2Djss/s/5", "short_id": "2018-03-05b-S05", "recording": "Zs1rLN2Djss", "n": 5, "start": 1090, "end": 1326, "date": "20180305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Before marrying: an honest conversation, registration or independence, and women working", "question_plain": "What should a couple agree before marriage about registering and money?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he accepts both sides of the argument and that the two positions repel each other, so his advice is a very open conversation before marriage: a person who insists on registration should say so and the other party will agree or not. If the other party refuses to register and wants a relationship and shared family life without it, he says the woman can make clear that she will continue her individual life, work, and keep her own money or a portion of it to invest, for instance buying a property to rent out as a separate income, which he encourages because it keeps her independent and leaves her with a home and an income should things fall apart. He condemns the attitude that a woman may not work or have these things as backward, cultural and nothing to do with Islam, noting that in rural Pakistan the great majority of women work in the fields, and says the objection is an insecurity in the man. He adds that he does understand men's suspicion that a partner might leave after a year and claim half their property, while calling such suspicions unhealthy for a society. The segment ends as a question about anabolic steroids is read out.", "summary_short": "Have an open conversation before marriage about registration and finances, and if the marriage is not registered the woman should keep her own work, income and property. Saying a woman may not work is cultural and backward, not Islam.", "answer_start": 1090, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/marriage", "society/women-and-gender", "fiqh/marriage-contracts"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth advises an open conversation before marriage about registration and finances, encourages women to keep independent income and property, and condemns as cultural and un-Islamic the attitude that a woman may not work.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "woman wants to work or if a woman wants this that she's not allowed to have that or she can't do this that is backwards it is nothing to do with Islam it is cultural", "start": 1228}}, "url": "/r/Zs1rLN2Djss/s/5/"}, {"id": "Zs1rLN2Djss/s/6", "short_id": "2018-03-05b-S06", "recording": "Zs1rLN2Djss", "n": 6, "start": 1326, "end": 1440, "date": "20180305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Rapid-round replies: steroids, state control and prenuptial agreements", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth finishes a brief answer on anabolic steroids, saying they are a matter of legality rather than theology; the transcript is unclear on whether he adds that they are haram. Responding to chat comments, he says the problems he described are insecurities certain people have, that the state and government profit from divorces, and that he is against that kind of state control, totalitarianism and Orwellian states. In a rapid round he says prenuptial agreements do not work in the UK because they are not legally binding, agrees that women should be independent, and says he has always been against totalitarianism and favours a laissez-faire, hands-off approach to ruling people.", "summary_short": "Steroids are a matter of legality rather than theology, prenuptial agreements are not legally binding in the UK, and Mufti Abu Layth says he is against state control and favours a hands-off approach to governing.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/Zs1rLN2Djss/s/6/"}, {"id": "_dSMPIAR0BM/s/1", "short_id": "2019-12-16-S01", "recording": "_dSMPIAR0BM", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 191, "date": "20191216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was Islam spread by the sword? Yasir Qadhi's talk on empire and conversion", "question_plain": "Was Islam spread by the sword?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up a question about compulsion prompted by a recent talk by Yasir Qadhi, which he says has delighted many ex-Muslims and some Islamophobes. He says that, from the part he listened to, Qadhi seems to say that Islam was spread by force and by empire, that people by and large embraced Islam because their kings did, and that while not everyone was forced, most people probably were; he thinks Qadhi may be trying to do a good thing by provoking critical thought in his audience, and says he considers him a friend. He describes a YouTube video by a critic, whose name the transcript does not render, who plays the clip and thanks Qadhi for saying Islam was not peace and love but spread by the sword. He then says this is simply not true, while adding that he is sure there was compulsion in certain places, which would have been wrong, as in any human society, and notes that Qadhi mocks the 'Sunday school' story that places such as Malaysia embraced Islam through traders.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is simply not true that Islam was spread by the sword, though there was surely compulsion in some places, and that it was wrong.", "answer_start": 153, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the claim that Islam was spread by the sword is simply not true, though he is sure there was compulsion in certain places.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the truth is that that's that that is no way the case it isn't simply not true now I'm not saying that there was never compulsion I'm sure there was compulsion in certain places it would have been wrong", "start": 152}}, "url": "/r/_dSMPIAR0BM/s/1/"}, {"id": "_dSMPIAR0BM/s/2", "short_id": "2019-12-16-S02", "recording": "_dSMPIAR0BM", "n": 2, "start": 191, "end": 495, "date": "20191216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How people in the past took on religion: identity, and openness to new gods", "question_plain": "Why did people in the past convert to new religions so readily?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that to understand how people in the past embraced religion one has to leave the twenty-first-century frame of mind, which is more liberal but more insecure about identity: national identities such as British, Pakistani or Egyptian were once descriptions rather than an integral part of who people were, and religion was similar for much of the world. He says people in the past were much more open to new gods, citing the Romans, who incorporated the Greek gods and the gods of the lands they conquered, and the Roman ruler who was bewildered to find no image in the Temple of Jerusalem. He says people sought new gods in the hope of better luck and prosperity, pointing to the Vikings as shown in a television series and to India, where he says 'Hinduism' is a British label for many peoples worshipping different deities. Because religion today has become an issue of identity, he says, we find this way of thinking strange.", "summary_short": "People in the past were far more open to new gods than we are, adopting them in hope of good luck, so judging their conversions by today's identity-bound religion misleads.", "answer_start": 191, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:roman-empire", "label": "Roman Empire"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hinduism", "label": "Hinduism"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says people in the past were much more open to new gods and welcomed them if they felt they would bring them good luck.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "but in the past they actually did think like that so people were quite welcoming for other gods if they felt it would bring them good luck", "start": 418}}, "url": "/r/_dSMPIAR0BM/s/2/"}, {"id": "_dSMPIAR0BM/s/3", "short_id": "2019-12-16-S03", "recording": "_dSMPIAR0BM", "n": 3, "start": 495, "end": 749, "date": "20191216", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Silk Road, Arabic as lingua franca, and who would have policed forced conversion", "question_plain": "If Islam was not forced on people, why did so many convert?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Muslims' control of the Middle East, at the centre of the Silk Road trade, gave them great power, and that Arabic was then the lingua franca, prestigious in the way English is today, which he calls documented fact. A powerful, wealthy nation with a new God was attractive to people intrigued by new gods and good omens. He calls the idea that everyone was forced to become Muslim and stay Muslim nonsense, asking who monitored their Islam in a largely rural world, why they raised their children Muslim, and why they stayed Muslim when dynasties collapsed; he says the claim is propaganda, bigotry, or, if genuine, an inability to fathom how people in the past thought. He compares it, as a loose parallel, to people adopting a lifestyle such as veganism today. He says he is sure some people were converted by force over the course of history, but that it was never the norm or the majority of how Islam spread.", "summary_short": "Forced conversion was never the norm: Islam's power, trade and prestige drew people, and nobody could have policed the faith of a rural population. Some were surely forced, but not most.", "answer_start": 495, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:silk-road", "label": "the Silk Road"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is sure that, over the whole of history, many people were converted by force, but that this was never the norm or the majority of how Islam spread.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I'm sure there were many oh if you know if you're gonna look over entire history of human civilizations but they would never that was never the norm of how it was happening that was never the majority", "start": 691}}, "url": "/r/_dSMPIAR0BM/s/3/"}, {"id": "_lwqZ9dM5Zs/s/1", "short_id": "2021-11-20-S01", "recording": "_lwqZ9dM5Zs", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 122, "date": "20211120", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Quran-only Muslims: love for the Quran, misunderstanding of the tradition", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of Quran-only Muslims?", "summary": "In a short clip Mufti Abu Layth says he commends Quranists and tells people to understand that those who say they are Quran-only come from a place of deep love for the Quran, not from hatred of the Prophet. He describes them as coming from a hyper-skepticism about the ahadith as epistemological sources. He says he also feels they have misunderstood or not appreciated the living tradition in its totality, since their outcry seems aimed at a Shafi'i-style methodology. He says the majority of the ummah were Hanafi or Maliki, who were hadith relativists rather than hadith absolutists and were more about the sunnah than about hadith.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth commends Quranists' love for the Quran but feels they have misunderstood the living tradition. Most of the ummah, Hanafi and Maliki, were hadith relativists who put the sunnah before hadith.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:quranist", "label": "Quranist (Quran-only)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-relativism", "label": "hadith relativism"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that Quran-only Muslims have misunderstood, or not appreciated, the living tradition in its totality.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "i also feel that they've misunderstood the tradition and the living tradition", "start": 40}}, "url": "/r/_lwqZ9dM5Zs/s/1/"}, {"id": "a-CIW2-K4Y0/s/1", "short_id": "2018-05-26-S01", "recording": "a-CIW2-K4Y0", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 296, "date": "20180526", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Could Yunus have survived being swallowed by a whale?", "question_plain": "Is it possible for Prophet Yunus to have survived inside a whale?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says scholars have discussed whether Yunus being swallowed is possible from a natural perspective, and that large toothless sea creatures such as the sperm whale or whale shark have wide oesophagi and several stomach chambers. He notes that the Bible gives three days while the Quran gives no period, and says there are accounts of sailors and dogs recovered after being swallowed by whales. He says the Quran mentions nothing superhuman, only that Yunus was thrown out heavily sick, and calls the event highly unlikely but not impossible. He adds that people have been resuscitated hours after drowning, and that God mentions such stories for a lesson, not to set the Quran against science.", "summary_short": "Highly unlikely but not impossible: the Quran describes no superhuman feat, only that he was swallowed and thrown out very sick.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/quran-and-science"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:yunus", "label": "Yunus (Jonah)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:37:142", "label": "Quran 37:142 (the fish swallowed him while he was blameworthy)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:37:145", "label": "Quran 37:145 (We cast him onto the open shore while he was sick)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Yunus being swallowed and surviving was a very unlikely event but not impossible.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "one would say these events are highly unlikely in the Quran explains it as a very unlikely event that it would happen but not impossible", "start": 189}}, "url": "/r/a-CIW2-K4Y0/s/1/"}, {"id": "a3i0x1A5CFw/s/1", "short_id": "2018-08-12-S01", "recording": "a3i0x1A5CFw", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 314, "date": "20180812", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The report of Abu Hurayra, the zakat treasury and the thief who came back three nights", "question_plain": "What is the hadith about Abu Hurayra, the thief and Ayat al-Kursi?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces another very popular report in Sahih al-Bukhari that he calls fabricated or mis-transmitted, in which Abu Hurayra was taught something by the devil, saying it completely contradicts the Quran and Sunnah and disrespects Islam. He narrates it: the Prophet put Abu Hurayra in charge of the zakat wealth, the Muslims' treasury (bayt al-mal), for the night; a man came and stole, and when caught told a story of his family's poverty, so Abu Hurayra let him go, which Mufti says was out of order since it was not for Abu Hurayra to dispense the Muslims' treasury as he felt. The next day the Prophet asked what had happened, said the man was a liar and would return; he returned, told the same story and was let go again, although the Prophet had declared him a liar; and the same happened a third time. On the third night Abu Hurayra refused to release him, and the thief offered, if released, to teach him something of his religion that he did not know. Mufti pauses on the offer: a thief the Prophet has twice called a liar is proposing to teach a companion with direct access to the Prophet about his religion. Abu Hurayra agreed, the thief taught him to recite Ayat al-Kursi before sleeping, and Abu Hurayra let him go.", "summary_short": "The report has Abu Hurayra guarding the zakat treasury and releasing a thief three nights running despite the Prophet calling him a liar, until the thief teaches him to recite Ayat al-Kursi before sleep. Mufti Abu Layth calls it fabricated or mis-transmitted and contrary to the Quran and Sunnah.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated", "hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9d01b67f", "label": "report: abu hurayra guarded the zakat wealth and let a thief go three nights until the thief taught him ayat al-kursi and the prophet said that was a devil who told the truth"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:255", "label": "Quran 2:255 (Ayat al-Kursi)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ayat-al-kursi", "label": "Ayat al-Kursi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bayt-al-mal", "label": "bayt al-mal (the public treasury)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zakat", "label": "zakat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan (the devil)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Sahih al-Bukhari report of Abu Hurayra being taught Ayat al-Kursi by a thieving devil is fabricated or mis-transmitted, contradicts the Quran and Sunnah and disrespects Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "fabricated or Mis transmitted hadith in salvo hari which is this one about a bull rider of the law unquote the devil and the devil taught him something ridiculous totally ridiculous I mean it completely contradicts the Quran and Sunnah", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/a3i0x1A5CFw/s/1/"}, {"id": "a3i0x1A5CFw/s/2", "short_id": "2018-08-12-S02", "recording": "a3i0x1A5CFw", "n": 2, "start": 314, "end": 471, "date": "20180812", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'That was the devil, but he told the truth': why Mufti Abu Layth calls the report blasphemous", "question_plain": "Did Abu Hurayra learn to recite Ayat al-Kursi at bedtime from a devil?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth completes the report: Abu Hurayra told the Prophet what the thief had taught him, and the Prophet said that it was the devil, but that on this occasion he had told the truth. He asks how blasphemous this is, and cites Imam Malik's statement that there is nothing of this deen except what the Prophet taught us, no path to Paradise, worship or du'a that the Prophet did not set out, whereas here the devil comes to teach Muslims about Islam and the Prophet confirms that he has not taught it himself but the devil got it right. He says the report shows Abu Hurayra to be incredibly clumsy and to disobey the Prophet, shows the Prophet not to have taught the people and to let theft from the national treasury happen, and shows a companion falling for the same trick every night; he calls it a mockery of the deen. He says such nonsense has crept into the tradition and that Muslims must be wary of reports that go against the Quran, the Sunnah and principles such as the one Imam Malik highlighted, that all the rituals of this deen were taught by the Prophet, adding that those who want the devil as their teacher are welcome to him, and moves on.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects the report as blasphemous: it has the devil teaching Islam while the Prophet confirms it, against Imam Malik's principle that everything of the deen came from the Prophet. It also portrays Abu Hurayra as clumsy and disobedient and the Prophet as tolerating theft.", "answer_start": 314, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated", "hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9d01b67f", "label": "report: abu hurayra guarded the zakat wealth and let a thief go three nights until the thief taught him ayat al-kursi and the prophet said that was a devil who told the truth"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:255", "label": "Quran 2:255 (Ayat al-Kursi)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:deen-taught-only-by-the-prophet", "label": "everything of the deen and its rituals was taught by the Prophet (attributed to Imam Malik)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan (the devil)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the report is blasphemous and a mockery of the deen, since it shows Abu Hurayra clumsy and disobedient, the Prophet failing to teach and tolerating theft from the treasury, and the devil teaching Islam, against Imam Malik's principle that everything of the deen was taught by the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "what how blasphemous disrespectful is this hadith it shows Abu Huraira to be incredibly", "start": 347}}, "url": "/r/a3i0x1A5CFw/s/2/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/1", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S01", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 1, "start": 39, "end": 593, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: sound checks, chat greetings and tonight's plan", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens with the praise of Allah and blessings on the Prophet, greets viewers in several languages and spends several minutes adjusting the sound and the layout of the Facebook and YouTube comments. A family member briefly says salaam to viewers. He announces that he will discuss the Hagia Sophia, or Aya Sofya, and the Islamabad mandir tonight. A stretch of about a minute and a half is almost empty in the captions, and a chat question about a man marrying four sisters is read out but not answered.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: greetings, sound checks and the announcement that the Hagia Sophia and the Islamabad temple will be discussed tonight.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:islamabad-hindu-temple-controversy", "label": "the Hindu temple (mandir) in Islamabad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/1/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/2", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S02", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 2, "start": 593, "end": 1023, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "The week's chatter: a podcast plug, Kanye West for president and a viral video", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plugs his latest podcast, a discussion with a shaykh [?] on consumerism, coherence in the Quran, cynicism and optimism, and riba, and asks viewers to subscribe. He jokes about the news that Kanye West may run for US president and about a celebrity couple's much-mocked 'entanglement' explanation that went viral. He plays a viral video and asks viewers whether it is real, joking about medieval Muslim ideas of Gog and Magog behind a wall. He then thanks donors, notes that a super chat asks him to discuss the Hagia Sophia and the Islamabad temple controversy, and says Erdogan will come up later.", "summary_short": "Light chatter about the week's news and viral videos before the questions begin.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:kanye-west", "label": "Kanye West"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:recep-tayyip-erdogan", "label": "Recep Tayyip Erdogan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/2/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/3", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S03", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 3, "start": 1023, "end": 1431, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is a turban-style hijab enough? Modesty, covering the hair, and al-Hajjaj's turban", "question_plain": "Is wearing my hijab turban-style allowed?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether a turban-style hijab comes under the Quranic command. Mufti Abu Layth refers to his detailed video on Surah al-Nur and says that, according to him, it is fine, because covering the hair is not clearly proven from the Quran or the Sunnah, though it is part of Muslim culture and of the madhhabs. He says early Islam emphasised modesty, but there was ambiguity for one to two centuries over what it meant, from those who would leave only one eye showing, which he calls as dumb as it gets, to those for whom the face, arms or feet were not part of it, before a culture standardised covering all but the face and hands. On the turban, he recounts al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf's speech on arriving as governor, quoting a poet's line that when he puts on his turban they will know who he is, and explains that certain turbans then signified war; he jokes that she can wear a turban and sit at home teaching Sahih al-Bukhari. He then has some camera trouble, and a question on the adult breastfeeding hadith is noticed but not taken.", "summary_short": "Yes, he says a turban-style covering is fine, because covering the hair is not clearly proven from the Quran or Sunnah; the emphasis was on modesty.", "answer_start": 1063, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:31", "label": "Surah al-Nur (his video on it) [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-hajjaj-ibn-yusuf", "label": "al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:imamah", "label": "imamah (turban)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haya", "label": "modesty"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, according to him, a turban-style hijab is fine because covering the hair is not clearly proven from the Quran or the Sunnah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "according to me that's fine because the covering of the hair is not clearly proven from the Quran wasana it is something part of Muslim culture", "start": 1062}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/3/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/4", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S04", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 4, "start": 1431, "end": 1850, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The Wayfair rumours, Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein: blackmail and the CIA", "question_plain": "What do you think of the Wayfair trafficking rumours and Epstein?", "summary": "A chat question asks him to speak about the Wayfair affair. Mufti Abu Layth explains the rumour that Wayfair listed cabinets under the names of missing children at absurd prices as a cover for trafficking, and links to Ghislaine Maxwell's ties with Epstein; he says he does not know whether it is true but would not be totally shocked, and hopes it is thoroughly investigated. When chat says she was Epstein's partner, he says that makes it even more striking. He says the theory he goes with, which he says Joe Rogan discussed and many accept, is that Epstein was blackmailing powerful figures, such as Prince Andrew, with recordings of encounters, many with underage girls, and that the CIA struck a deal with him for that leverage and protected him. He doubts a chat suggestion that it was Mossad rather than the CIA, and in reply to another question says he does not believe in Illuminati conspiracy theories.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth suspects Epstein was blackmailing powerful figures and was protected by the CIA in return for that leverage; the Wayfair rumours he cannot confirm but hopes are investigated.", "answer_start": 1469, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:wayfair", "label": "Wayfair"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ghislaine-maxwell", "label": "Ghislaine Maxwell"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jeffrey-epstein", "label": "Jeffrey Epstein"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:joe-rogan", "label": "Joe Rogan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:prince-andrew", "label": "Prince Andrew"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:cia", "label": "the CIA"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:mossad", "label": "Mossad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/4/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/5", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S05", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 5, "start": 1850, "end": 2002, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Shah Wali Allah al-Dihlawi: reviving hadith studies and the spirit of the Sharia", "question_plain": "What do you think of Shah Wali Allah?", "summary": "Struggling to read the Facebook comments in his new layout, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question asking his thoughts on Shah Wali Allah. He calls him amazing, an old scholar of the Indian subcontinent, and points to his video on the subcontinent's contribution to hadith and the Delhi school. He says Shah Wali Allah was ahead of the curve and reinvigorated hadith studies and the maqasid al-shari'a, the objectives or spirit of the law, though, curiously, without using the word maqasid. His famous book Hujjat Allah al-Baligha speaks of the hikmah and spirit of the Sharia, and Mufti says he never understood why he avoided the term. Chat then asks whether he knows a particular shaykh, which he takes up next.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls Shah Wali Allah an amazing scholar, ahead of his time, who revived hadith studies and wrote on the objectives of the Sharia without using the word maqasid.", "answer_start": 1890, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/subcontinent", "history/scholars-and-imams", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shah-wali-allah", "label": "Shah Wali Allah al-Dihlawi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:hujjat-allah-al-baligha", "label": "Hujjat Allah al-Baligha"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid al-shari'a"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hikmah", "label": "hikmah (wisdom)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Shah Wali Allah was an amazing individual, ahead of the curve, who reinvigorated hadith studies.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he was an amazing individual very you know ahead of a head of the curve really and something he did was he reinvigorated hadith studies", "start": 1927}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/5/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/6", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S06", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 6, "start": 2002, "end": 2304, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The 'awrah of men and women: the core and the extended 'awrah in the school of Madinah", "question_plain": "What parts of the body count as 'awrah for men and women?", "summary": "After briefly saying he may know a UK shaykh a viewer asked about, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question on the 'awrah of men and women. He explains that the school of Madinah distinguished a core 'awrah from an extended 'awrah: both are covered, but uncovering the extended 'awrah can be excused and does not invalidate the prayer, while uncovering the core does. For a woman the core is her private parts, from beneath the navel to the thighs; he notes with curiosity that some included the abdomen but not the breasts, and mentions, with doubts about its truth, a story linking the exposed midriff of the sari to a ruler's fetish. He says the school of Madinah's understanding is the one he would go with, and that for men the core 'awrah is the genitals and the rear, with disagreement over the thighs.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth follows the school of Madinah: the core 'awrah is the private parts (for women, from below the navel to the thighs), and uncovering the rest in prayer does not invalidate it.", "answer_start": 2041, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "fiqh/prayer/conditions-and-validity", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school (the school of Madinah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he goes with the school of Madinah's understanding that a woman's core 'awrah is her private parts and the area from beneath the navel to the thighs, the rest being extended 'awrah whose uncovering in prayer does not invalidate it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "that would be my understanding that I would go with the the understanding that the school of Medina presents that the core aura is really the woman's kind of private parts", "start": 2192}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/6/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/7", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S07", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 7, "start": 2304, "end": 2456, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Illiyyin and Sijjin, and why afterlife imagery is symbolic", "question_plain": "What do Illiyyin and Sijjin mean in the Quran?", "summary": "Closing the 'awrah answer, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question on Illiyyin and Sijjin. He says they generally refer to a record or a place, in paradise and in hell, where people are said to be written. He says that, to him, everything about the afterlife is more symbolic, since we can never conceptualise it and the imagery Allah gives is an approximation, and promises to gather what the mufassirun have said and return to it next week. He then tells chat that the shaykh asked about earlier is from Bradford and that he will message him about coming on.", "summary_short": "They refer to a record or place of the righteous and the wicked; he takes afterlife imagery as symbolic and promises more next week.", "answer_start": 2344, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/afterlife/paradise-and-hell", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:illiyyin", "label": "Illiyyin"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sijjin", "label": "Sijjin"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mufassirun", "label": "mufassirun"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, to him, the descriptions of the afterlife are more symbolic, an approximation of something we can never conceptualise.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "to me these things all about the afterlife are more so kind of symbolic so they're not like I don't take these things as I think that we can never conceptualize the afterlife", "start": 2382}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/7/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/8", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S08", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 8, "start": 2456, "end": 2569, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did the Prophet kill a man with a spear? His battles were defensive", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet Muhammad ever kill anyone himself?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether the Prophet really killed a man with a spear while riding a horse. Mufti Abu Layth says he is not sure which incident is meant; scholars discuss whether the Prophet killed anyone, and even the reports used do not show people dying on the spot. He cites the incident in which the Prophet asked a man who will protect you now, which teachers gave as an example although the man died later and the Prophet did not kill him. He allows that it may have happened in battle, since that is the nature of battles, but says all the Prophet's battles were in essence defensive, even if pre-emptively defensive.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is not aware of such a killing and doubts the usual example, though it may have happened in battle; the Prophet's battles were all defensive in essence.", "answer_start": 2456, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/defending-the-prophet", "history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:76d23e12", "label": "report: man yamnauka minni (who will protect you from me)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jihad", "label": "battles of the Prophet"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says all of the Prophet's battles were in essence defensive, even if pre-emptively defensive.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "to be fair all of the prophets battles in his lifetime were in essence were always defensive even if you feel that they were preemptive ly defensive", "start": 2533}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/8/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/9", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S09", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 9, "start": 2569, "end": 2721, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mohammed Hijab's podcast and the mediocrity of today's representatives", "question_plain": "What do you think of the scholars on Mohammed Hijab's podcast?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether he has seen Mohammed Hijab's podcast with guests; he asks whether it is the one with Jonathan Brown and another guest whose name is garbled in the captions [?]. He says the problem is that the people given the position of representing mainstream Islam are an embarrassment, because in truth they do not have much in-depth knowledge; it is not that they have none, but it is mediocre. On the other hand, he jokes, people like him who do not do mediocrity do not look or behave the part, so the situation is hopeless. He ends with a recurring joke about a clip on the small and the big Dajjal.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says those now promoted as representatives of mainstream Islam have only mediocre knowledge, while those with more knowledge, like himself, lack the image.", "answer_start": 2609, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/9/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/10", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S10", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 10, "start": 2721, "end": 2985, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Al-Kashshaf and al-Zamakhshari: a linguistic legend with Mu'tazili beliefs", "question_plain": "Is al-Zamakhshari's tafsir al-Kashshaf worth reading?", "summary": "A question asks him to review al-Kashshaf of al-Zamakhshari. Mufti Abu Layth calls al-Zamakhshari a legend whose intelligence, ingenuity and linguistic ability are untouchable, a pioneer of the Arabic rhetorical sciences with works such as Asas al-Balagha [?]; he was a Hanafi in fiqh but a Mu'tazili in creed and adamant about it, which is why Hanafis rarely quote him. He mentions Mu'tazili views such as that God is bound to do what is best and that a grave sinner is no longer a Muslim, but says some scholars over-demonise the Mu'tazila, who were great, intelligent scholars in their own right. He explains al-Zamakhshari's title Jar Allah, the neighbour of God, from his years beside the Kaaba when it was relatively empty, and names other Mu'tazili thinkers such as al-Jahiz [?] and Qadi Abd al-Jabbar, great thinkers with some warped views that appear as oddities in al-Kashshaf.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth praises al-Kashshaf as linguistically overwhelming and al-Zamakhshari as a legend, while noting the Mu'tazili oddities in it; the Mu'tazila were great scholars, often over-demonised.", "answer_start": 2721, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:al-kashshaf", "label": "al-Kashshaf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zamakhshari", "label": "al-Zamakhshari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:asas-al-balagha", "label": "Asas al-Balagha [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:balagha", "label": "balagha (rhetoric)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-jahiz", "label": "al-Jahiz [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-abd-al-jabbar", "label": "Qadi Abd al-Jabbar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Ka'bah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says some scholars over-demonise the Mu'tazila, who were in their own right great and intelligent scholars of Islam, though some of their views were a bit warped.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I think sometimes some scholars just over demonize them it's not that's not really fear they were in their own right legends you know they they were really intelligent really great scholars of Islam", "start": 2829}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/10/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/11", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S11", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 11, "start": 2985, "end": 3139, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Al-Ash'ari's three-person argument against the Mu'tazila", "question_plain": "What was al-Ash'ari's argument against the Mu'tazila about God always doing what is best?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts the hypothetical debate attributed to Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari with a Mu'tazili scholar. On the day of judgement a believer who lived a long life, a disbeliever, and a child who died young question God; on the Mu'tazili view that God must reward and punish by fixed rules, the believer and the child go to paradise and the disbeliever to hell. Asked why the child gets less, the Mu'tazili answers that the believer worshipped more; when the child objects that he died young, God is made to answer that He let him die because he would have sinned, perhaps even become a disbeliever. Al-Ash'ari then has the disbeliever ask why he too was not given death as a child; Mufti says this paradox is where the Mu'tazili position crumbles. He then reads a super chat.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth tells the debate attributed to al-Ash'ari, in which a disbeliever asks why he was not allowed to die as a child, and says this is where the Mu'tazili view of a God bound to do the best crumbles.", "answer_start": 2985, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/free-will-and-destiny", "belief/salvation-and-non-muslims"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-hasan-al-ashari", "label": "Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the paradox in the debate attributed to al-Ash'ari is where the Mu'tazili view that God is bound to act by a fixed rule crumbles.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "in the afterlife and it and this kind of paradox is where the Methuselah kind of thing crumbles", "start": 3099}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/11/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/12", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S12", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 12, "start": 3139, "end": 3284, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was Aisha 48? Her age at marriage: late teens to twenty", "question_plain": "Was Aisha really 48 when she married the Prophet?", "summary": "A super chat says a book by Dr Shabbir Ahmed [?] cites Abd al-Jabbar as an early source that Aisha was 48 when she married the Prophet. Mufti Abu Layth says he is not sure, probably meaning the Mu'tazili Abd al-Jabbar, and has never heard of 48. He says it is very clear that Aisha was probably between her very late teens and twenty when she married the Prophet, and by no means a child of six or nine. He says he has long planned a discussion-format programme with someone on the age of Aisha covering all the chains, and wants to put the chains into charts first.", "summary_short": "No: he has never heard of 48, but says it is clear Aisha was in her late teens to about twenty when she married, not six or nine.", "answer_start": 3170, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:shabbir-ahmed", "label": "Dr Shabbir Ahmed [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-abd-al-jabbar", "label": "Qadi Abd al-Jabbar"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is very clear that Aisha was probably between her very late teens and twenty when she married the Prophet, and by no means a child.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "she was probably anything between her very late teens to 20 anything between that she was around that kind of age she was not by any means a child", "start": 3207}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/12/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/13", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S13", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 13, "start": 3284, "end": 3543, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why the young-age narration began: rumours against Aisha and her nephew Urwa", "question_plain": "Where did the idea that Aisha was six or nine come from?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains why, in his view, the age narrative arose. Decades after the Prophet, in Aisha's lifetime, a backlash against her began, especially from some Shia, with rumours that she had committed adultery; some extremist Shia still say on YouTube that she was of bad character, that she had been married rather than engaged to Jubayr ibn Mut'im [?], and a Shia preacher he names, Yasser al-Habib [?], calls her lustful. He says it was Urwa, her nephew, who countered these rumours by pushing her age back to six and nine, so that such claims became inconceivable, though he did not need to. He says every narration of six and nine comes through Urwa, and that in the one or two said not to, his name seems to have been dropped from the chain, so Urwa is the missing link.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the six-and-nine narration seems to originate with Aisha's nephew Urwa, countering rumours spread against her, and that every chain runs through him.", "answer_start": 3284, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:urwa-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Urwa ibn al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jubayr-ibn-mutim", "label": "Jubayr ibn Mut'im [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasser-al-habib", "label": "Yasser al-Habib [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the narration of Aisha being six and then nine seems to come from her nephew Urwa, who was trying to combat rumours about her.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the genesis of this rewire of her being six and then nine it comes from her nephew trying to combat those rumors", "start": 3474}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/13/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/14", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S14", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 14, "start": 3543, "end": 3661, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "'Leave what makes you doubt': does it mean following the strictest opinion?", "question_plain": "Does 'leave what makes you doubt' mean I should always follow the strictest opinion?", "summary": "A chat request about Dhul-Qarnayn and Gog and Magog is brushed aside with a joke. A super chat then asks whether the hadith 'leave what makes you doubt for what does not' means following the strictest of all opinions. Mufti Abu Layth calls it an amazing question and says he sees it the opposite way: one does not need to believe something is obligatory or be strict unless it is proven with certainty. He says the hadith is a universal rule that can apply to dubious matters in general life, but that reading it as a call to strictness makes no sense to him; it does not say leave the easiest for the most difficult.", "summary_short": "No: he reads it the opposite way, since nothing should be made binding unless proven with certainty; it is a general rule about dubious matters, not a call to strictness.", "answer_start": 3582, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "fiqh/legal-theory", "wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0ef3fb30", "label": "report: da ma yaribuka ila ma la yaribuk"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith telling people to leave what makes them doubt does not mean following the strictest of all opinions.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it doesn't mean I don't see it at all about the strictest thing that doesn't make any sense to me", "start": 3622}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/14/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/15", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S15", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 15, "start": 3661, "end": 3814, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The mut'ah ban in al-Bukhari: inconsistent and turbulent reports", "question_plain": "How do I make sense of the hadith that the Prophet banned mut'ah?", "summary": "A question asks how to reconcile the report in al-Bukhari that the Prophet banned mut'ah. Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith about mut'ah are very inconsistent and turbulent and seem to contradict each other. He notes a report in which the Prophet forbids mut'ah together with donkey meat and other things, yet donkey meat is not deemed haram by everyone, the school of Madinah included, so things listed in the same hadith are not treated as haram. He adds that the reports have the Prophet permitting and forbidding it repeatedly, and that the usual explanation, that people needed it, would apply to people today as well. His connection briefly freezes during the answer.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the reports on the banning of mut'ah are inconsistent and contradict each other, so they are hard to rely on.", "answer_start": 3661, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:92ce9938", "label": "report: the prophet forbade mutah and the meat of domestic donkeys"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:idtirab", "label": "idtirab (turbulence in the reports)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school (the school of Madinah)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith about mut'ah are very inconsistent and turbulent, seeming to contradict each other.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the hadith about Mota are very inconsistent and they're very turbulent they seem to they seem to contradict each other", "start": 3661}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/15/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/16", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S16", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 16, "start": 3814, "end": 3998, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was Aisha Abu Bakr's sister? No; her later age fits her personality", "question_plain": "Was Aisha Abu Bakr's sister rather than his daughter?", "summary": "A chat message claims that, according to early sources from Abd al-Jabbar, Abu Bakr was Aisha's brother. Mufti Abu Layth says he would not buy that, it is too far a stretch, and that she was definitely Abu Bakr's daughter. He says that her being older at marriage reflects her character: her vibrancy, her role on the battlefield and the stories about her among the other wives fit someone in her twenties during the Prophet's lifetime, whereas saying she was in her fifties makes no sense. He then announces that the Hagia Sophia is coming and thanks donors.", "summary_short": "No, she was definitely Abu Bakr's daughter; her being in her twenties during the Prophet's lifetime fits her personality, not her being fifty.", "answer_start": 3853, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-abd-al-jabbar", "label": "Qadi Abd al-Jabbar"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he would not buy the claim that Aisha was Abu Bakr's sister, as she was definitely his daughter.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "something like that that is too too far stretch but she was not over Kurt she was definitely his daughter not his sister", "start": 3852}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/16/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/17", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S17", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 17, "start": 3998, "end": 4409, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why would God speak of the Prophet's dinner guests? Micro-transgressions in al-Ahzab", "question_plain": "Why does the Quran talk about something as small as the Prophet's dinner guests?", "summary": "A question asks why God would talk about such specific things as the Prophet's dinner guests in Surah al-Ahzab, and whether these are not trivial for the word of God. Mufti Abu Layth says that seen in isolation the question stands, but the verse teaches etiquette: transgressions are not only murder and theft, and lesser, civil transgressions such as imposing on or burdening people also matter and can boil over in society. He cites the verse that Allah is not ashamed to give the example of a mosquito or what is above it, which many mufassirun read as the cosmos, both being equally insignificant to God. He says the verse also shows that even the Prophet felt things he did not express to spare others' feelings, a human experience everyone shares, and that these etiquettes are the building blocks of a healthy society.", "summary_short": "They are not trivial: the verse teaches that small transgressions like imposing on people matter, and such etiquettes build a healthy society.", "answer_start": 3998, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:53", "label": "Quran 33:53 (the Prophet's dinner guests)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:26", "label": "Quran 2:26 (the example of a mosquito or what is above it)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mufassirun", "label": "mufassirun"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the verse on the Prophet's dinner guests shows that micro-transgressions such as imposing on people are not to be disregarded, and that these etiquettes are building blocks of a healthy society.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "he also mentions micro transgressions that don't harass people don't become a burden on people unnecessarily don't kind of impose yourself that these etiquettes two are the building block of a healthy society", "start": 4378}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/17/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/18", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S18", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 18, "start": 4409, "end": 4636, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Hagia Sophia ruling, reactions online, and the building's history", "question_plain": "What happened with the Hagia Sophia?", "summary": "After a word about the chat moderators and an abusive comment he calls unacceptable, Mufti Abu Layth turns to the Hagia Sophia, which many were awaiting. He explains that Erdogan and the Turkish courts have ruled that the Hagia Sophia, or Aya Sofya as he prefers, is to be converted back into a mosque, that the adhan has already been given there, and that reactions are all over social media; he reads a post mocking objectors while Hindu temples and churches are built in Muslim countries. As a backdrop he says the building existed before Islam, built, he believes, by Justinian I as a cathedral, at one point claimed to be the largest in Christendom or at least in the Byzantine east.", "summary_short": "Turkey's courts ruled that the Hagia Sophia, originally Justinian's cathedral, be turned back into a mosque, to celebration and mockery online.", "answer_start": 4449, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:recep-tayyip-erdogan", "label": "Recep Tayyip Erdogan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:justinian-i", "label": "Justinian I"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adhan", "label": "adhan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/18/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/19", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S19", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 19, "start": 4636, "end": 4945, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Should places of worship be turned into mosques? Umar in Jerusalem and Surah al-Hajj", "question_plain": "Does Islam allow turning churches into mosques?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Mehmed al-Fatih conquered the city and the building was converted into a mosque, and frames two questions: whether places of worship should be converted into mosques at all, and whether something should now be reconverted. He says that in the time of the Companions, Umar did not convert the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or other holy sites when he entered Jerusalem unopposed, and that this was never the objective of Islam; whether or not Christians were paid at the conquest of Constantinople, it happened. He cites Surah al-Hajj 22:40-41: had Allah not checked one people by another, monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques, where Allah's name is glorified often, would have been destroyed, and those given power establish prayer and welfare and command good. He stresses that this Madinan passage describes how Muslims in power should behave, and concludes that Islam does not set out to convert holy sites into mosques.", "summary_short": "Islam never set out to convert other faiths' holy sites: Umar left Jerusalem's churches alone, and Quran 22:40 names them among places where Allah's name is glorified.", "answer_start": 4636, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "quran/tafsir", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:40-41", "label": "Quran 22:40-41 (Surah al-Hajj)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mehmed-ii", "label": "Sultan Mehmed al-Fatih"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:conquest-of-constantinople", "label": "the conquest of Constantinople"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam never set out to convert other faiths' holy sites into mosques.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Islam does not set out to convert holy sites to mosques it's never that's never been the goal of Islam", "start": 4906}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/19/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/20", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S20", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 20, "start": 4945, "end": 5100, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Medieval conversions both ways: not haram, but not a good thing", "question_plain": "Was it haram for the Ottomans to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims and many others did convert places of worship, perhaps because these were the main buildings of their time and a natural choice for a new community's prayer hall. He notes that in Muslim Spain Christians turned mosques into cathedrals just as Muslims had turned churches into mosques, a back-and-forth law of the jungle in medieval times that Islam neither encouraged nor prohibited. So he does not say the original conversion was haram: it was the politics of conquest, like slavery, which he calls detestable but which everyone practised, and he does not think it was a good thing. He then explains that the Hagia Sophia remained a mosque for centuries until the Turkish nation-state made it a museum, and that the argument for reconversion rests on its once having been a mosque.", "summary_short": "The original conversion was not haram but the politics of conquest, practised by Muslims and Christians alike, and he does not think it was good.", "answer_start": 4945, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the medieval conversion of churches into mosques was not haram but the politics of the time, though he does not think it was a good thing.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "if they did it in the past I'm not saying it was haram it wasn't I suppose they've kind of conquered and this is what they did I don't think it was a good thing", "start": 5022}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/20/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/21", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S21", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 21, "start": 5100, "end": 5253, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Not a question of halal and haram but of right and wrong: a great mistake", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the issue is not halal and haram: the Hagia Sophia is the property of the Turkish state, which may legally and Islamically do with it what it wants, from a car park to opening hours. The question is whether it is right, and he says a hadith teaches that you will know wrong when you see it [?]. He says converting it into a mosque is absolutely wrong, a great mistake celebrated by people lacking insight into world affairs. He feels the regime is doing it for brownie points, to make Turkey the new leader of the Islamic world as a new amir al-mu'minin rivalling Saudi Arabia, promoting the Ertugrul drama and converting other churches too.", "summary_short": "It is not haram, since Turkey may do as it likes with its property, but it is absolutely wrong and a great mistake, done for political standing.", "answer_start": 5100, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:recep-tayyip-erdogan", "label": "Recep Tayyip Erdogan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amir-al-muminin", "label": "amir al-mu'minin"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:90dfbb22", "label": "report: you will know them when they are wrong (as paraphrased) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque is absolutely wrong and a great mistake.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "that this Hagia Sophia aya sofya converting it into a Masjid is absolutely wrong it is it is a great mistake", "start": 5177}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/21/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/22", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S22", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 22, "start": 5253, "end": 5406, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Ottomans were a dynasty, not a symbol of Islam", "question_plain": "Were the Ottomans representatives of Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has not watched a single episode of the Ertugrul drama and finds such things preposterous, though he has nothing against drama as such. He says the Ottoman Empire was nothing more than a dynasty that happened to be Muslim: its unwritten law of mandatory fratricide on a new sultan's accession was even given a permitting fatwa by some Hanbali [?] scholars. He says the Ottomans never claimed to represent Islam, styling themselves Caesar of Rome, Mehmed al-Fatih included; they had good and bad sides, were based largely in eastern Europe, and respected Islam in their way, but the image of them as symbols of Islam is a later romanticisation.", "summary_short": "The Ottoman Empire was a dynasty that happened to be Muslim, never a symbol of Islam; the romantic image is a later invention.", "answer_start": 5253, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:ottoman-empire", "label": "the Ottoman Empire"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mehmed-ii", "label": "Sultan Mehmed al-Fatih"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali scholars [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Ottoman Empire was nothing more than a dynasty that happened to be Muslim and is not symbolic of Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the Ottoman Empire was never it was nothing more than a dynasty that just happened to be Muslim it is not symbolic of Islam", "start": 5253}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/22/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/23", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S23", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 23, "start": 5406, "end": 5599, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "No need for a new mosque: the Blue Mosque next door, and the drama over the adhan", "question_plain": "Does Istanbul need the Hagia Sophia as a mosque?", "summary": "Showing an image, Mufti Abu Layth says the Sultan Ahmed or Blue Mosque is a four-minute walk from the Hagia Sophia and holds at least ten thousand people, so there is no need for a new mosque, an argument he wants out of the way first. He then takes the argument that, since it was once a mosque and Turkey is a Muslim-majority democracy, it may be converted back. He mocks those moved to tears by hearing the adhan from the Hagia Sophia, since every mosque in Istanbul, including the great one opposite, calls the adhan five times a day, and tells them to stop being drama queens.", "summary_short": "There is no need: the Blue Mosque, holding ten thousand, is four minutes away and hundreds of mosques in Istanbul already call the adhan.", "answer_start": 5406, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adhan", "label": "adhan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is no need for the Hagia Sophia as a mosque, since the Blue Mosque, holding at least ten thousand people, is a four-minute walk away.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "a four minute walk from the aya sofya a four minute walk four minutes that's how it is literally just in front of it right now there is no need for a new masjid", "start": 5444}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/23/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/24", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S24", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 24, "start": 5599, "end": 5829, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Might is right: Thrasymachus, al-Aqsa, the Babri Masjid and the rise of right-wing fascism", "question_plain": "If Turkey can reconvert the Hagia Sophia, can Israel or India reconvert mosques too?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth calls the majority argument the law of Thrasymachus, Socrates' contemporary, that might is right. If Muslims abide by it, he says, they cannot complain when al-Aqsa, under Israeli control, is converted back into the Temple of Solomon that stood there first, or when India's Hindu majority converts the Babri Masjid and other mosques said to stand on temples. He accepts it was a mosque for centuries, but it was a cathedral before and a museum for decades, and no one lacks a place to pray. He adds that the adhan over loudspeakers is itself a bid'ah, but lets that pass, and says power swings both ways: by that argument he feels Israel would have every right over al-Aqsa. He sees it as part of the right-wing fascism rising in the world.", "summary_short": "By the 'might is right' logic behind the reconversion, Israel could reclaim al-Aqsa and India's Hindus the Babri Masjid, so Muslims who celebrate cannot then complain.", "answer_start": 5599, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "society/current-events/palestine", "society/current-events/india-and-hindutva"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:thrasymachus", "label": "Thrasymachus"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:socrates", "label": "Socrates"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:might-is-right", "label": "might is right (the law of Thrasymachus), rejected"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:masjid-al-aqsa", "label": "al-Masjid al-Aqsa"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:babri-masjid-dispute", "label": "the Babri Masjid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah (the adhan over loudspeakers, in passing)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if Muslims justify the reconversion by the principle that might is right, they cannot complain when, by the same logic, Israel converts al-Aqsa back into the Temple of Solomon or India's Hindu majority converts mosques into temples.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if you want to abide by this fair enough but don't come crying tomorrow when Masjid al-aqsa because it's under Israeli control is then converted back to the Temple of Solomon", "start": 5599}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/24/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/25", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S25", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 25, "start": 5829, "end": 6022, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Muslims crying wolf; the waqf argument and Abu Hanifa on endowments", "question_plain": "Can a mosque that was once a waqf never be anything else?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says this right-wing turn is found not only among Hindu nationalists, Trump supporters and far-right Zionists but among Muslims, who then cry wolf when the same is done to them. He reports the reply that it will remain a museum as well as a mosque, and the argument that as a former mosque it was a waqf, which can never be overturned. He says those arguing are Hanafis, yet Abu Hanifa himself held that an endowment can be overturned, one donating only its benefit; Hanafis abandon him here because it does not serve those in power or the clergy, who drew much of their money from endowments, though he grants that endowments were a helpful financial system. He repeats that it is a great mistake that will let Zionists and Hindu nationalists go up a notch.", "summary_short": "The waqf argument fails, he says, because Abu Hanifa held that an endowment can be overturned, a view Hanafis drop when it does not serve power.", "answer_start": 5829, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:waqf", "label": "waqf (endowment)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa himself held that a waqf is not perpetual and can be overturned.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he says that yes you can donate the benefits of something but it will always remain you know you can always overturn", "start": 5867}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/25/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/26", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S26", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 26, "start": 6022, "end": 6289, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Allah's name is glorified in other places of worship; the Islamabad temple and Muslim bigotry", "question_plain": "Should Pakistan allow a Hindu temple in Islamabad?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth returns to the verse that Allah's name is glorified often in monasteries, churches and synagogues, saying that had he said this himself people would call him a disbeliever, and recalls someone who called Christians the worst polytheists deserving no respect. He then turns to videos opposing the Hindu temple in Islamabad, where people say Imran Khan should build it in his own backyard, and asks what the problem is. He says Muslims have become bigots who know only victimhood: Pakistanis demand that India accommodate Muslims' mosques, madrasas and family law, yet oppose a temple at home. He supports building places of worship for other communities in Pakistan, which is not a khilafah but a nation-state in which all citizens are equal, just as Muslims in the UK, a small minority, have their mosques.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth supports the Islamabad temple: Pakistan is a nation-state of equal citizens, and Muslims who demand tolerance abroad but deny it at home are bigots.", "answer_start": 6022, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/pakistan", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:22:40-41", "label": "Quran 22:40-41 (Surah al-Hajj)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:imran-khan", "label": "Imran Khan"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:islamabad-hindu-temple-controversy", "label": "the Hindu temple (mandir) in Islamabad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khilafah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushrikin", "label": "mushrikin"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he supports building places of worship for other communities in Pakistan, which is a nation-state in which all citizens are equal.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I actually I do support them building for other cultures in Pakistan Pakistan is not a Khilafah for God's sake it's a nation state", "start": 6209}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/26/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/27", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S27", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 27, "start": 6289, "end": 6363, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why follow hadith if the Quran is fully detailed?", "question_plain": "Why follow hadith if the Quran is complete?", "summary": "A chat question asks why he goes by hadith when the Quran says not to follow any statement other than it and that it is explained in full detail. Mufti Abu Layth says it is very evident that some of the hadith and the Sunnah are accurate, and that it makes absolute sense to him that the Prophet would have legislated in addition to the Quran and that this should be followed. He adds that the Prophet bequeathed to his community the means to continue adding to the Sharia.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth follows hadith because some of the hadith and Sunnah are clearly accurate and the Prophet legislated in addition to the Quran.", "answer_start": 6289, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:quranist", "label": "Quranist (Quran-only)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it makes absolute sense to him that the Prophet would have legislated in addition to the Quran and that this should be followed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "it makes absolute sense to me to follow that the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would have legislated as well in addition to the Quran and to follow that", "start": 6325}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/27/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/28", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S28", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 28, "start": 6363, "end": 6439, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The hadith on the army that will conquer Constantinople", "question_plain": "Is the hadith about conquering Constantinople authentic?", "summary": "A chat question asks about the hadith that an army will conquer Constantinople. Mufti Abu Layth says many such hadith were made up, but the Prophet may have said it: Constantinople was the symbol of Byzantine power, and from his vision he may have seen that Islam would one day conquer it, which it did. He feels that because it symbolised utmost power Muslims became obsessed with it and fabricated further hadith to encourage military expeditions, but that the original saying seems very plausible.", "summary_short": "It may be authentic, since Constantinople symbolised Byzantine power, but he feels many further hadith about it were fabricated to encourage campaigns.", "answer_start": 6363, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4a9d4173", "label": "report: constantinople will be conquered by an army of my ummah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:conquest-of-constantinople", "label": "the conquest of Constantinople"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it seems very plausible to him that the Prophet may have foretold the conquest of Constantinople, because it symbolised power in that region.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I do feel that it may have had a a significant that the Prophet may have said it seems very plausible because not so much of because of it but more so", "start": 6400}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/28/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/29", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S29", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 29, "start": 6439, "end": 6478, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Sharia courts in the UK? Only Sharia councils", "question_plain": "Are there Sharia courts in the UK?", "summary": "Asked in chat about Sharia courts in the UK, Mufti Abu Layth says there are none: there are Sharia councils that deal with religious marriages and divorces. He says some of those involved foolishly call them Sharia courts, which makes things difficult for everyone.", "summary_short": "There are no Sharia courts in the UK, only Sharia councils dealing with religious marriages and divorces.", "answer_start": 6439, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/britain", "fiqh/divorce"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sharia-councils-uk", "label": "Sharia councils in the UK"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there are no Sharia courts in the UK, only Sharia councils dealing with religious marriages and divorces.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "there are no Sharia Courts in the UK there are Sharia councils which deal with religious divorces and things like that", "start": 6439}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/29/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/30", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S30", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 30, "start": 6478, "end": 6634, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The Prophet cleansing the Kaaba of idols is no precedent for the Hagia Sophia", "question_plain": "Isn't the Prophet clearing the Kaaba of idols a precedent for the Hagia Sophia?", "summary": "A question says the Prophet cleansed the Kaaba of idols and rededicated it as the house of Allah, and that this is cited as a precedent. Mufti Abu Layth says he never said such things were haram and has discussed that. He says the Kaaba was a sanctuary rather than a building of that kind, that Islam kept its sanctuary status and opened up the existing Hajj to everyone, and that the idols were removed because they were tied to superstition and harmful pagan rituals. That, he says, cannot be linked to a museum in a secular country with hundreds of mosques, which he calls a political stunt by Erdogan to gain standing among Muslim countries.", "summary_short": "No: removing the idols from the Kaaba was about ending superstition, and cannot justify converting a museum in a secular country, which he calls a political stunt.", "answer_start": 6478, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Ka'bah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hajj", "label": "Hajj"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:recep-tayyip-erdogan", "label": "Recep Tayyip Erdogan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's removal of the idols from the Kaaba, which were tied to superstition, cannot be linked to converting a museum in a secular country today.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I'm absolutely again for removing superstition that you can't link that to today in a city in a country that first of all is not an Islamic country", "start": 6555}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/30/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/31", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S31", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 31, "start": 6634, "end": 6750, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is alcohol-based perfume pure? And Sharia councils as necessary", "question_plain": "Can I wear perfume that contains alcohol?", "summary": "A super chat asks whether alcohol-based perfume is halal or najis. Mufti Abu Layth says halal concerns what is eaten, so the question is whether it is pure, and says it is pure and there is nothing to worry about. He says that alcohol itself is not najis in the view of many scholars of Madinah, including Rabi'a, Imam Malik's teacher, though most consider it impure, and that the alcohol in perfumes is in any case not the drinking alcohol but a related chemical. Replying to a chat note that there are Jewish councils too, he says religions should have the right to practise, and that Sharia councils are necessary in the UK, since abolishing them would make matters a hundred times worse.", "summary_short": "It is pure and nothing to worry about: alcohol is not impure for many scholars of Madinah, and perfume alcohol is not the drinking kind anyway.", "answer_start": 6634, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/purification", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:najasa", "label": "najasa (impurity)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khamr", "label": "alcohol (khamr)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rabia-al-ray", "label": "Rabi'a al-Ra'y"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:sharia-councils-uk", "label": "Sharia councils in the UK"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says perfume with an alcohol base is pure and there is nothing to worry about.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "is it pure or is it nudges it's pure absolutely there's nothing to worry about", "start": 6634}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/31/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/32", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S32", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 32, "start": 6750, "end": 6896, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is crocodile meat halal? Only pig is categorically haram in the school of Madinah", "question_plain": "Is it halal to eat crocodile?", "summary": "A chat question asks about crocodile meat. Mufti Abu Layth says it is halal in the school of Madinah, where all sea creatures, amphibians, birds and even predatory animals are permitted, and the only thing categorically haram is pig, besides what is sacrificed to a pagan god or found already dead. He says the school of Madinah is very accommodating for exotic tastes and that he once had a crocodile burger, which was crunchy, a bit like chicken. He then cannot make sense of a chat question about incest in 'CK2'.", "summary_short": "Yes, crocodile is halal in the school of Madinah, where only pig is categorically forbidden besides carrion and what is sacrificed to idols.", "answer_start": 6750, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/food", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school (the school of Madinah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:halal", "label": "halal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says crocodile meat is halal in the school of Madinah, in which only pig is categorically haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "crocodile meat is halal in the school of Medina all kind of marine life in a sense all anything that's from the sea", "start": 6750}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/32/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/33", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S33", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 33, "start": 6896, "end": 7118, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is eating dog haram? Not forbidden is not the same as eaten", "question_plain": "Is it haram to eat dog meat?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether eating dog is haram. Mufti Abu Layth says dogs are not haram according to the school of Madinah, but people do not eat them, and that it is a mistake to think that whatever is not haram is something people eat; diet is usually cultural. He notes that some Malikis disagreed and tried to make many things haram, but the general view follows Quran 6:145, which says nothing is forbidden to eat except carrion, blood, pig and what is sacrificed to other than God. He says other scholars reason their way to more prohibitions, which is up to them, but he follows the school of Madinah; monkeys, for example, are not haram yet nobody eats them. He then learns that CK2 is a video game and jokes about strange things people ask.", "summary_short": "Dog is not haram in the school of Madinah, which follows Quran 6:145, but not being haram does not mean people eat it.", "answer_start": 6896, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/food", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school (the school of Madinah)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:145", "label": "Quran 6:145 (I do not find in what was revealed to me anything forbidden to eat except ...)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says dogs are not haram to eat according to the school of Madinah, though people do not really eat them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not Haram in the Sharia to eat it so dogs are not Haram but people don't really eat dogs", "start": 6935}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/33/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/34", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S34", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 34, "start": 7118, "end": 7301, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "An Urdu poem by Ahmad Faraz: the enemy of my life was once dearer than life", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Reminded that he has not done any poetry, Mufti Abu Layth reads an Urdu ghazal by Ahmad Faraz, whom he calls a legend, translating as he goes. The poem says that the enemy and destroyer of my life was once dearer to me than life, and asks how one can tell anyone today that someone was once ours. It continues that every friend is like a passing cloud, that people in the future will ask whether we too once suffered, and that though we are now found downcast in every gathering, people say Faraz was once the life of the party.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads and translates an Urdu ghazal by Ahmad Faraz on a lost love who was once dearer than life.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["arts/urdu-poetry"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ahmad-faraz", "label": "Ahmad Faraz"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/34/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/35", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S35", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 35, "start": 7301, "end": 7680, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Arabic poetry: Antara ibn Shaddad's love for Abla", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Answering a viewer who said he never recites anything in Arabic, Mufti Abu Layth reads from Antara ibn Shaddad, the pre-Islamic warrior poet of the Mu'allaqat, who was also overcome by love for Abla. He explains the motif of the tayf, the night apparition of the beloved, and translates lines in which her apparition visits and kisses him and leaves a flame within his bones that his tears must put out, and in which he asks how he can get over a love held since childhood. He notes that Antara was black, of partial African descent, and translates his lines that his dark skin is something he wears with pride, that his heart is firmer than mountains and that he hunts lions. He jokes about whether Antara was friend-zoned, and in passing says he has read only extracts of The Satanic Verses.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads and translates love poetry by Antara ibn Shaddad for Abla, including his lines of pride in his dark skin and his courage.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters", "history/pre-islamic-arabia", "relationships/love-and-romance/classical-love-stories"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:antara-ibn-shaddad", "label": "Antara ibn Shaddad"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abla", "label": "Abla (Antara's beloved)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muallaqat", "label": "Mu'allaqat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tayf", "label": "tayf (the night apparition of the beloved) [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-satanic-verses", "label": "The Satanic Verses"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/35/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/36", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S36", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 36, "start": 7680, "end": 7828, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Sudan scraps its apostasy and alcohol laws and ends flogging and FGM", "question_plain": "Was Sudan right to drop its alcohol and apostasy laws and end flogging?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shares the news that Sudan is scrapping its alcohol and apostasy laws, so that non-Muslims may now drink alcohol, and ending flogging, while female genital mutilation is to be outlawed, which he says is about time. He says Muslims ought to be on board, and that flogging in this day and age does nothing but damage Allah, His Messenger and their message, pointing to his detailed videos on changing with the times. He says alcohol was never prohibited for non-Muslims anyway, and cites Ibn Ashur, the Maliki scholar through whom his own academic lineage passes, as writing that a Muslim whose non-Muslim parents drink alcohol should give them the money for it if they are struggling, since for them it is not haram.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth welcomes Sudan's reforms: flogging today only damages Islam's message, FGM should be outlawed, and alcohol was never prohibited for non-Muslims.", "answer_start": 7680, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:sudan-legal-reforms-2020", "label": "Sudan's legal reforms (2020)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:female-genital-mutilation", "label": "female genital mutilation"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khamr", "label": "alcohol (khamr)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says flogging in this day and age is nothing but damaging to Allah, His Messenger and their message.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "this kind of thing in this day and age is nothing but just damaging to Allah and His Messenger okay and their message", "start": 7718}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/36/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/37", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S37", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 37, "start": 7828, "end": 7970, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does Islam emphasise giving up sleep?", "question_plain": "Does Islam want me to sacrifice sleep?", "summary": "After struggling to read a blurred super chat, Mufti Abu Layth makes out a question on whether Islam emphasises giving up sleep. He says he does not think so, though it depends: sleep is sometimes associated with inactivity, and like motivational speakers who urge waking early and sacrificing sleep to chase dreams, Islam does emphasise being effective. But it is not against sleep; one can get all one's hours of sleep and still be effective. He then fields some chat banter.", "summary_short": "No: Islam emphasises being effective, not losing sleep, and you can get your full sleep and still be effective.", "answer_start": 7855, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose/goals-and-habits"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think Islam emphasises giving up sleep, but rather being effective.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not necessarily an T sleep it's just trying to say that be you know effective so you could still get all your hours of sleeping but just be effective", "start": 7895}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/37/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/38", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S38", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 38, "start": 7970, "end": 8272, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The masala segment: allegations on Twitter against a well-known Quran reciter", "question_plain": "What are the allegations against the Quran reciter on Twitter?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens his masala segment, previewing a viral clip of a preacher and a scandal that has blown up on Twitter concerning a well-known young Quran reciter, named on air by his first name [?]. He shows posts warning people to protect Muslim sisters from him, which go back as far as eight years and include very serious allegations, among them abuse and rape, and jokes in passing about the name and Sultan al-Fatih. He says he does not know whether these things are true, and that if they are criminal as stated there should be a police investigation. He reads a post alleging that the reciter fled the US, and a woman's account of meeting him in high school that turned rough, and says that as a bystander it is very difficult to tell who is telling the truth.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth shows the allegations circulating on Twitter against a well-known Quran reciter, says he cannot tell whether they are true, and says criminal claims should go to the police.", "answer_start": 7970, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/38/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/39", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S39", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 39, "start": 8272, "end": 8455, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Private life versus abuse: report crimes, and why meet a reciter in a car park?", "question_plain": "Should Muslims expose the private lives of religious figures?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many things are feasible, but in his view what people do in their private lives is their private life, and he is not interested in a witch hunt; consensual acts between adults, right or wrong Islamically, are nobody's business. Abuse is different: if there is abuse, rape or drugging, it must be reported through the proper channels. He also advises against meeting people in private car parks, saying he met the reciter many years ago, when he was young, seemed like a lad and was a reciter with an amazing voice rather than a scholar. He asks why anyone would meet a Quran reciter, even a favourite such as Sheikh al-Sudais, in an alleyway, when there is nothing to ask a reciter except to recite.", "summary_short": "What consenting adults do privately is their business, but abuse must be reported through proper channels; and do not meet anyone, even a famous reciter, in a car park.", "answer_start": 8272, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-rahman-al-sudais", "label": "Abd al-Rahman al-Sudais"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/39/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/40", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S40", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 40, "start": 8455, "end": 8835, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imams who sell girls a pious fantasy, and the toxicity of religious circles", "question_plain": "How do some imams use religion to exploit young women?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has an issue with imams and religious figures who use their religious card to gain entry. He describes tight-knit religious groups as, in his experience, the most toxic communities, often made up of obsessive and unusual people, though he says this is not meant against autistic people. He says some girls dream of an Islamic husband with whom they will read hadith, pray and spend a honeymoon in Makkah, an idea he calls almost borderline blasphemous, while such men are as sexually driven as any other and some play on these fantasies to lure girls. He tells girls to wake up from such fantasies, says criminal matters should always be reported, and calls imams who sell these fantasies despicable for giving Islam a bad name, as distinct from a man's private relationships, which are his own business.", "summary_short": "Imams who use religion to sell girls a fantasy of a pious relationship are despicable; girls should wake up from such fantasies and crimes should be reported.", "answer_start": 8455, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "relationships/marriage/choosing-a-spouse"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says imams who sell girls fantasies of a pious relationship, knowing there is a clientele for it, are as far as he is concerned absolutely despicable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "these Imams who are selling these fantasies because they know this a clientele this punter ship for it they are as far as I'm concerned absolutely despicable", "start": 8797}}, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/40/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/41", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S41", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 41, "start": 8835, "end": 9154, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A viral clip of a preacher who rarely leaves home because of women", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a viral clip of a preacher, whom chat had circulated with the caption that he struggles to go outside because of women, saying in it that he does not leave his house much. Mufti says that in his own way the preacher is very sincere and that he felt sorry for him. He then makes mocking remarks about another man shown in the clip, eating a banana, and wonders whether the preacher's act has all along been a parody.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth shows a viral clip of a preacher who says he avoids going out because of women, calls him sincere in his way, and jokes about the clip.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/41/"}, {"id": "a6H5lYE4MN8/s/42", "short_id": "2020-07-14-S42", "recording": "a6H5lYE4MN8", "n": 42, "start": 9154, "end": 9278, "date": "20200714", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Sign-off: subscribe, daily videos and next week's mind traps", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth wraps up the session, asks viewers to subscribe to his YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels and turn on notifications, and says he is releasing new videos every day. He previews mind traps for the coming week, thanks donors and signs off with salaam.", "summary_short": "Sign-off and channel announcements.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/a6H5lYE4MN8/s/42/"}, {"id": "aNLFdEEOH5Y/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-29-S01", "recording": "aNLFdEEOH5Y", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 115, "date": "20201029", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ignore cartoons of the Prophet: do not let provocation wind you up", "question_plain": "How should Muslims respond to cartoons of the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls that a teacher in France was beheaded for showing cartoons depicting the Prophet, an incident he had spoken about in his last Q&A. He repeats that people have the right to critique and criticise religion, and that if some want to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muslims should ignore them, since they are drawn to provoke and to hurt. He says it may hurt a person but Muslims are not here to control the world, and that while it is very silly to try to offend Muslims this way, it is their choice.", "summary_short": "Ignore them: people have the right to criticise religion, and the cartoons are drawn to provoke a reaction.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:murder-of-samuel-paty-2020", "label": "the killing of the teacher Samuel Paty in France (2020)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if people want to draw cartoons of the Prophet, Muslims should just ignore it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "people have the right to critique to criticize religion if if certain people want to draw cartoons of the prophet we should just ignore it", "start": 39}}, "url": "/r/aNLFdEEOH5Y/s/1/"}, {"id": "aNLFdEEOH5Y/s/2", "short_id": "2020-10-29-S02", "recording": "aNLFdEEOH5Y", "n": 2, "start": 115, "end": 312, "date": "20201029", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The killing of Samuel Paty: barbaric, but no automatic hero of the state", "question_plain": "Does Islam justify killing someone for showing cartoons of the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the teacher, Samuel Paty, was probably showing the cartoons because they were relevant to the ongoing Charlie Hebdo trials and a discussion of freedom of speech, though he says he could be wrong. An eighteen-year-old French Chechen found and killed him, which Mufti calls utterly unacceptable from an Islamic perspective and an act of barbarity. He says the state's processional funeral is fine, and that the teacher was within his rights to discuss the topic and to show the cartoons, even if doing so just to provoke would have been silly. He says he does not personally think being killed for it automatically makes someone a hero of the state, but that France is a sovereign state and may declare him one.", "summary_short": "No: the killing was barbaric and unacceptable in Islam, and the teacher was within his rights, though being killed does not automatically make him a state hero.", "answer_start": 115, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:samuel-paty", "label": "Samuel Paty"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:murder-of-samuel-paty-2020", "label": "the killing of the teacher Samuel Paty in France (2020)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:charlie-hebdo", "label": "Charlie Hebdo"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the killing of the teacher was utterly unacceptable from an Islamic perspective.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "i have expressed that this is utterly unacceptable from an islamic perspective you cannot commit these acts of barbarity", "start": 192}}, "url": "/r/aNLFdEEOH5Y/s/2/"}, {"id": "aNLFdEEOH5Y/s/3", "short_id": "2020-10-29-S03", "recording": "aNLFdEEOH5Y", "n": 3, "start": 312, "end": 546, "date": "20201029", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Macron projecting the cartoons: a government represents its Muslim citizens too", "question_plain": "Was it right for the French government to display the cartoons?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth describes President Macron having the cartoons of the Prophet projected onto large buildings, as he has read, across the country, while saying openly that drawing them is a right. Mufti calls it very poorly managed and regrettable: he endorses that the killing was barbaric, wrong and has no place in Islam, but says answering it by putting the cartoons everywhere is taking the mick. He says satirical papers, right-wing groups or individuals may do such things, but a government represents all its people, including France's substantial Muslim minority, and should take everyone's sentiments into account. He gives the hypothetical of an insulting slogan about Muslims to show how a president endorsing such a thing takes it to a ridiculous height.", "summary_short": "No: individuals and satirists may draw them, but a government represents all its citizens, including Muslims, and Macron's move was poorly managed and provocative.", "answer_start": 312, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:emmanuel-macron", "label": "Emmanuel Macron"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says governments should not get involved in displaying such cartoons, since they are there to represent all the people.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's fine you know it's their right but government shouldn't get involved in these things this is not a government thing for the government to do it", "start": 429}}, "url": "/r/aNLFdEEOH5Y/s/3/"}, {"id": "aNLFdEEOH5Y/s/4", "short_id": "2020-10-29-S04", "recording": "aNLFdEEOH5Y", "n": 4, "start": 546, "end": 818, "date": "20201029", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Protests and boycotts of France: understandable, but do not guilt-trip others", "question_plain": "Do I have to boycott French products?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth calls the French administration's move a shame and very provocative, hopes Muslims will not react violently, and says protesting is their right. He says he can understand Muslims choosing to boycott France economically, but that those who do not boycott should not be guilt-tripped or pressured, giving the example of someone buying a French perfume. He says boycotts by Muslim countries at state level make sense as a state-to-state response that hits where it hurts, given France's large exports to North Africa and the Middle East, a legacy of colonisation, while noting the products themselves did nothing. He says a president who acts this way is a Neanderthal who should be replaced by someone cool-headed and diplomatic, and repeats that boycotting is a personal choice.", "summary_short": "No: boycotting is a personal choice and understandable, and state-level boycotts make sense, but Muslims who do not boycott should not be guilt-tripped.", "answer_start": 546, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events", "society/blasphemy-and-free-speech"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:emmanuel-macron", "label": "Emmanuel Macron"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:european-colonialism", "label": "European colonisation of the Muslim world"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if a Muslim does not boycott France, they should not be guilt-tripped, since it is a personal choice.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if somebody doesn't boycott france i don't think they should be guilt-tripped i don't think you should kill trip", "start": 584}}, "url": "/r/aNLFdEEOH5Y/s/4/"}, {"id": "aNLFdEEOH5Y/s/5", "short_id": "2020-10-29-S05", "recording": "aNLFdEEOH5Y", "n": 5, "start": 818, "end": 915, "date": "20201029", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Light-hearted replies to viewers about what to boycott", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reacts light-heartedly to viewer comments about boycotts, declaring that French fries and French kissing are exempt, wondering how anyone could boycott a passport, and noting that French fries may be Belgian. In passing he says he does not think Mohammed Hijab would want to come on his show to debate, for reasons given earlier in the stream.", "summary_short": "Jokes about what to boycott; Mufti Abu Layth doubts Mohammed Hijab would come on to debate.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/aNLFdEEOH5Y/s/5/"}, {"id": "awbO9rHPvpU/s/1", "short_id": "2015-03-20-S01", "recording": "awbO9rHPvpU", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 777, "date": "20150320", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Isbal: is it haram for men to wear trousers or garments below the ankles?", "question_plain": "Do I have to wear my trousers above my ankles?", "summary": "After the opening formula Mufti Abu Layth takes up the question of isbal, letting a garment, whether trousers, jeans, a thawb or shalwar kameez, hang below the ankles, which he explains is why some men fold up their trousers before praying. His answer is that it is not haram unless done with arrogance or to display pride; at most it may be makruh, which in the Maliki school is a category within the permissible rather than a near-haram one. He reviews the hadith: in several wordings the Prophet says that whoever drags his izar or thawb will not be looked at by Allah on the Day of Judgement or is in the Fire, and he notes that every narration carries the qualification 'out of arrogance' (khuyala or batar), which is the cause of the prohibition. He recounts that Abu Bakr's izar would slip below his ankles because he was slim, and that the Prophet told him he was not among those who do it out of arrogance, a report he says is in Sahih al-Bukhari. He cites Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani's Risalah, which forbids dragging the garment out of arrogance, and its commentators who conclude that without arrogance it is permissible; Ibn Abd al-Barr, who says all the narrations are restricted by the arrogance clause; al-Nawawi, who calls it haram with arrogance and otherwise makruh; and Ibn Taymiyya in his Sharh al-Umda, who records that most scholars make the element of pride decisive even though he himself leans to prohibition. He closes with the context of the present day: covering the ankles is normal and the opposite attracts unwarranted attention, so insisting on it is contrary to the maqasid of the ruling and shows a lack of understanding; if the hadith applies to anyone today, he suggests, it is to those who let their trousers sag, not to those whose ankles are covered.", "summary_short": "No: for men, wearing the garment below the ankles is not haram unless it is done out of arrogance, in which case the hadith apply; otherwise it is at most makruh. In today's societies covering the ankles is normal and carries no arrogance, so insisting on it misses the purpose of the ruling.", "answer_start": 78, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/maliki-school/primers-risalah-and-ashmawiya"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:isbal", "label": "isbal (garments below the ankle)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khuyala", "label": "khuyala (arrogance)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:izar", "label": "izar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:thawb", "label": "thawb"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:955dafe4", "label": "report: whoever drags his garment out of arrogance allah will not look at him on the day of judgment"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6dede3f3", "label": "report: abu bakr said one side of my izar hangs down unless i attend to it and the prophet said you are not one of those who do it out of arrogance"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abi-zayd-al-qayrawani", "label": "Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-risalah", "label": "al-Risalah of Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sharh-al-umda", "label": "Sharh al-Umda of Ibn Taymiyya [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid al-shari'a"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that a man letting his garment hang below the ankles is not haram unless it is done out of arrogance and is at most makruh otherwise, adding that in present-day societies covering the ankles is normal and is not a sign of arrogance.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so that's once again in summary it is permissible as long as it is not done with an intention of arrogance which once again in our societies seldom exists", "start": 754}}, "url": "/r/awbO9rHPvpU/s/1/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/1", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S01", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 1, "start": 21, "end": 776, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: tonight's plan, the Disclosure series, a Twitter storm and a song", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream, straightens his camera and confirms that the Facebook and YouTube comments are merged; a chat question on the punishment of the grave is read out but not taken up. He says a huge part of tonight will be his reply to a lecture on the second coming of Jesus by Yasir Qadhi, who is named later in the stream, and that he will continue it every week in a series he calls Disclosure with a big D. He also previews a Twitter storm over a fatwa on suckling, which he will take at the end, quoting Rumi along the way, a stir on Muslim Twitter over a shaykh's remarks on what he called prophet worship, and a report that Mohammed Hijab shaved off his dreadlocks after a backlash. He plays a song he has played before, then turns to the chat and defers a question on what is happening to Mohammed Hijab and al-Albani to the end of the show.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth sets out tonight's plan, chiefly a long reply to Yasir Qadhi on the second coming of Jesus and a Twitter storm over a suckling fatwa, and plays a song.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rumi", "label": "Rumi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-nizami", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad Nizami [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/1/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/2", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S02", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 2, "start": 776, "end": 922, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is Cardano going to the moon? Suspicion of big fund announcements", "question_plain": "Is Cardano going to shoot up in value?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether ADA is going to the moon and whether it is all about Cardano. Mufti Abu Layth says he is a bit suspicious when people make announcements such as a Dubai fund's that it will move some 750 million out of bitcoin into other coins, and wonders whether it is a false flag to make people buy a particular coin and drop the value of bitcoin so that they can buy more of it. He compares the market to war, where one must think about what the other side thinks you are thinking. He then says he is behind time tonight because he had to print and prepare his reply to a video that was sprung on him at the cost of his weekend, and jokes about a chat comment on the lota.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is suspicious of big announcements that funds will move money out of bitcoin into other coins, suspecting they may be ploys to move prices.", "answer_start": 776, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is a bit suspicious when big investors announce they will move money out of bitcoin into other coins.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "they're going to basically remove it from bitcoin and invest in other and others but i really think that when people i don't know i i'm a bit suspicious when people make these kind of claims", "start": 776}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/2/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/3", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S03", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 3, "start": 922, "end": 1309, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was Ali born in the Kaaba? Possible, uncertain, and not what makes him great", "question_plain": "Was Ali born inside the Kaaba?", "summary": "After a joke about a chat comment, Mufti Abu Layth reads a question on whether Ali was born in the Kaaba. He asks what is meant: the cube itself, its courtyard, or the homes of Banu Hashim, which were built attached to the precinct as the Prophet's ancestor Qusayy [?] had designed it. He thinks birth inside the cube unlikely, since idols were stored there, and birth in the courtyard also unlikely, and would assume the attached homes of Banu Hashim were meant, while noting a suggestion that it was within the semicircular wall of the hatim [?]. He says such a birth was not an important event when it happened, so a story retold thirty to sixty years later is hard to verify: it may have happened and is not implausible, but it is not certain, and such stories may have been made up later to elevate him. He says Ali's greatness rests on his closeness to the Prophet, his cousin whom he followed everywhere as a child, not on where he was born, and notes that one of the major splits in Islam formed around him.", "summary_short": "It may have happened but is uncertain, and most likely means the homes of Banu Hashim attached to the Kaaba rather than the cube itself; Ali's greatness does not depend on it.", "answer_start": 963, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/companions", "history/sirah", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Ka'bah"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:banu-hashim", "label": "Banu Hashim"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:qusayy-ibn-kilab", "label": "Qusayy ibn Kilab [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Ali's value should not be based on whether he was born in the Kaaba or not.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so i don't think his value should be based on whether he was born in the kaaba or not", "start": 1235}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/3/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/4", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S04", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 4, "start": 1309, "end": 1466, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ranking the companions: preferring Ali is personal, and the quarrel is childish", "question_plain": "Do I have to believe Umar and Uthman were better than Ali?", "summary": "Continuing, Mufti Abu Layth says that whether people are Shia, or Sunni with Shia inclinations who prefer Ali over other companions, is their personal preference, and that he is not trying to convince anyone that Uthman or Umar was better than Ali. He calls the argument over ranking childish and petty, like children in a schoolyard, while noting that the caliphate worked out historically in a certain order. He allows a hierarchy between the close companions and someone who met the Prophet once or spent a month with him, but says ranking the close friends of the Prophet as friend number one and number two is childish, and that Muslims fight and kill each other over it. He says the reverse, treating Ali as superhuman, incapable of mistakes, and calling anyone who questions his judgements a hypocrite, is equally wrong, a reverse form of bullying, and that people should have their own preferences without trying to control others.", "summary_short": "No: preferring one close companion over another is a personal preference, and he calls arguing over the ranking childish; treating Ali as infallible is equally wrong.", "answer_start": 1309, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/companions", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in his opinion, arguing over which of the Prophet's close companions was better is just childishness.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "but amongst the close friends of the companions of the prophet it's difficult really you know saying well he's friend number one he's friend number two you know this kind of stuff is it's really childish isn't it", "start": 1388}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/4/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/5", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S05", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 5, "start": 1466, "end": 1689, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Without the Mongols and colonisation, would Muslims have had an enlightenment?", "question_plain": "Without colonialism and the Mongols, would the Muslim world have had its own enlightenment?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether, but for the misfortunes of the Reconquista, the Mongol invasion, the Black Death and colonisation, the Muslim world would have undergone a secular enlightenment or revolution. After a remark about YouTube adverts, Mufti Abu Layth answers that it would have: he thinks that, left to their own devices, Muslims would have been the pioneers of enlightenment. What stopped Muslim progress, he says, was a reactionary bravado: Europe beat the Muslim world to industrialisation, and Muslims then denounced the goal as sour grapes. He adds that other civilisations had beaten Muslims to ideas before and Muslims had built on them, but this time Europe not only won the race but used its lead to beat up the Muslim world. He then passes over a few chat remarks, saying he has already answered a question about the Quran's challenge to produce a chapter like it.", "summary_short": "Yes: he thinks Muslims left to themselves would have pioneered the enlightenment, but Europe's head start in industrialisation, used to subdue the Muslim world, provoked a reactionary rejection instead.", "answer_start": 1506, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:reconquista", "label": "the Reconquista"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:mongol-invasions", "label": "the Mongol invasions"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:black-death", "label": "the Black Death"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:european-colonialism", "label": "European colonisation of the Muslim world"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:industrial-revolution", "label": "the industrial revolution"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he thinks that, left to their own devices, Muslims would have been the pioneers of enlightenment.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "because you see i think muslims would have if left to our own devices we would have been the pioneers of enlightenment", "start": 1540}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/5/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/6", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S06", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 6, "start": 1689, "end": 2234, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does Ibn Hazm contradict himself in The Ring of the Dove? A book on love", "question_plain": "Does Ibn Hazm contradict himself in The Ring of the Dove?", "summary": "A viewer asks whether Ibn Hazm contradicts himself in The Ring of the Dove; Mufti Abu Layth says he does not know what is meant. He describes the book as a treatise psychologising love, written some nine hundred years ago before psychology existed, on love at first sight, obsession, the stages of love and sex, including stories of relations inside and outside wedlock and of same-sex love, which he finds surprising from a great hafiz of hadith. He notes that Ibn Hazm says in his introduction that he had long passed forty, so the book is not a folly of youth. He then retells at length, with jokes, a bawdy story he recalls from the book about a sailor on a ship to Hajj who approached sleeping women at night, and a pious woman who readied a blade for him but gave in when her turn came. He ends by calling the book fascinating and saying he is not sure how Ibn Hazm contradicts himself.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth knows of no contradiction; he describes The Ring of the Dove as Ibn Hazm's mature study of the psychology of love and retells one of its bawdy stories.", "answer_start": 1689, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/love-and-romance/classical-love-stories", "history/scholars-and-imams", "arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tawq-al-hamama", "label": "Tawq al-Hamama (The Ring of the Dove)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hajj", "label": "Hajj"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/6/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/7", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S07", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 7, "start": 2234, "end": 2383, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The Akhenaten and Moses theory: inclined to it, research ongoing", "question_plain": "Was the Prophet Moses actually the pharaoh Akhenaten?", "summary": "Asked to explain the theory linking Akhenaten and Moses, Mufti Abu Layth refers to a recent clip from a meetup in which someone challenged him on it. He says he is inclined towards the theory that Moses was Akhenaten, but that his research is ongoing and he cannot state it as a fact; so far he finds a strong alignment between the two narratives. He adds that the Levites, Moses's tribe, had Egyptian rather than Hebrew names, unlike the other eleven tribes, which he finds fascinating. He then reads a few chat remarks, among them a request to invite a particular mufti onto MindTrap, which he says he would welcome.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth leans towards the theory that Moses was Akhenaten but says his research is ongoing and it is not established; he notes that the Levites bore Egyptian names.", "answer_start": 2234, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:akhenaten", "label": "Akhenaten"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:levites", "label": "the Levites"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is inclined towards the theory that Moses was Akhenaten, though his research is still ongoing and he cannot say it as a fact.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "do check that out i go into it i am inclined towards the the theory that moses is was a canarton", "start": 2234}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/7/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/8", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S08", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 8, "start": 2383, "end": 2612, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Do Muslims whitewash their historical figures? Everybody does; ask the adversaries", "question_plain": "Do Muslims whitewash their own historical heroes?", "summary": "Going through super chats, Mufti Abu Layth reads a question comparing right-wing Europeans' praise of Charles Martel with Muslims' view of their own historical figures. He answers that of course everybody does this: history is the biography of men and their accomplishments, and what counts as an accomplishment depends on who writes it, so the Mongol destruction of Baghdad is a tragedy in Muslim histories and presumably an achievement in Mongol ones, and Europeans and Muslims alike make larger-than-life figures of Charlemagne or Harun al-Rashid. For a fairer picture he suggests looking at what adversaries said, citing an Arabic saying that true testimony is what one's adversaries bear witness to, and gives Salah al-Din, praised by many of his adversaries, as an example. He recounts that an academic told him he studied Umar through Jewish sources of the time, as more neutral than Sunni or Shia ones, and found that they praised his justice, which Mufti calls a reasonably objective method.", "summary_short": "Yes, every community whitewashes its heroes, because history records what its writers deem accomplishments; a fairer test is what a figure's adversaries said, as with Salah al-Din or Jewish sources on Umar.", "answer_start": 2383, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:charles-martel", "label": "Charles Martel"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:mongol-sack-of-baghdad-1258", "label": "the Mongol destruction of Baghdad (1258)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:charlemagne", "label": "Charlemagne"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:harun-al-rashid", "label": "Harun al-Rashid"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:salah-al-din-al-ayyubi", "label": "Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that of course everybody, Muslims included, whitewashes their historical figures.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "mufti do you think we whitewash muslim historical figures of course of course everybody does you know in these kind of things", "start": 2383}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/8/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/9", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S09", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 9, "start": 2612, "end": 2801, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can revelation be explained without the supernatural? Words manifesting to the Prophet", "question_plain": "Can the revelation of the Quran be explained without the supernatural?", "summary": "A super chat asks how Mufti Abu Layth explains the revelation of the Quran to the Prophet without the supernatural. He refers to his MindTrap conversations with two academics on the ontology of revelation, and says the Prophet describes it as something that appears to him, sometimes with a ringing tone, manifesting in his mind; he is not saying the Prophet was making the words, but that the words were manifesting to him. Whether this is supernatural, he says, depends on what is meant: people who walk the path of psychedelics, and shamans in a trance, experience things that concern consciousness rather than the supernatural. He stresses that he is not saying this is how the Prophet received revelation, which for Muslims is revelation, only offering an approximation for understanding messages from the unconscious, and says he has to spell this out because his critics are watching.", "summary_short": "The words of revelation manifested in the Prophet's mind rather than being composed by him; whether that counts as supernatural depends on the definition, and trance experiences are only an approximation.", "answer_start": 2650, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:wahy", "label": "wahy (revelation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is not saying the Prophet was making the words of the Quran, but that the words were manifesting to him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i do say i'm not saying that the prophets was making the words for it but the words were manifesting to him", "start": 2650}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/9/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/10", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S10", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 10, "start": 2801, "end": 3337, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A shaykh's clip against 'prophet worship', and why he strongly disagrees", "question_plain": "Is the great love Muslims have for the Prophet a kind of prophet worship?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip that caused a stir on Muslim Twitter, in which a shaykh whose name the transcript renders as Muhammad Nizami [?] says some people go too far into prophet and personality worship, that the Quran keeps telling people to focus on the message rather than the messenger, and that people show more love to the Prophet than to God. Mufti says he had heard of the shaykh's attitude before but not from him directly: if the point were only that Muslims should show more love towards God, it would be a fine reminder, but what he has come across is a view of the Prophet as a momentary conduit to get over, which he calls unacceptable to most Muslims. He says the Prophet is the embodiment of everything Islam is, that people need a human figure to love and for Muslims that figure is the Prophet, so this is not prophet worship at all, while praying to the Prophet is wrong and comes from cultural folklore. He condemns violence done in the name of that love, calls the devotion Muslims have for the Prophet unparalleled today, says the Quran itself reaches us through the Prophet, and says he strongly disagrees, perhaps the shaykh meant something else, but it was an unnecessary battle to pick.", "summary_short": "Muslims' love for the Prophet is not prophet worship: people need a human figure to love, and for Muslims it is the Prophet, though praying to him is wrong. He strongly disagrees with the shaykh and calls it an unnecessary battle.", "answer_start": 2908, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/tawhid-and-shirk", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-nizami", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad Nizami [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawhid", "label": "tawhid (monotheism)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/10/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/11", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S11", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 11, "start": 3337, "end": 3598, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Has Islam become a religion about Muhammad? The need for a human archetype", "question_plain": "Has Islam become a religion about Muhammad rather than the religion he brought?", "summary": "A chat comment says that it is prophet worship, since the religion brought by Muhammad became a religion about Muhammad. Mufti Abu Layth answers that if one psychologises human beings there is a fundamental need, deep in the psyche, for a human archetype, not one to pray to, and that this is why the Quran presents the Messenger as the model and says that God raised his mention. He says that, born a Muslim, he accepts a charge of bias, but as someone who studied the faith and observes the world he sees the change the Prophet brought to human civilisation and is proud of the affiliation, without forcing that view on anyone. He then recounts that as a teenager of sixteen or seventeen, not much concerned with religion, he felt the trajectory of his life change during a family visit to the Prophet's mosque, by the barakah of the Prophet, as he told in a recent interview he will share, and that he hopes to return there one day to bring the journey full circle.", "summary_short": "No: there is a deep human need for a human archetype, not someone to pray to, and for Muslims that is the Prophet. He adds that his own life changed in the Prophet's mosque.", "answer_start": 3337, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/tawhid-and-shirk", "wellbeing/personal-stories", "history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:21", "label": "Quran 33:21"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:94:4", "label": "Quran 94:4"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barakah", "label": "barakah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:masjid-al-nabawi", "label": "al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet's mosque)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says human beings have a fundamental need, deep within the psyche, for a human archetype, not one to pray to.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "need for a human not to pray to but a human that is that ultimate archetype for you this is in all it's it's deep within our psyche", "start": 3374}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/11/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/12", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S12", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 12, "start": 3598, "end": 3831, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why did Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh leave Islam? Incentives, not a crisis of faith", "question_plain": "Why did Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh leave Islam for a time?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a super chat, garbled in the transcript, about the apostasy of a man he later describes as becoming a governor in Egypt, taken here to be Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh [?]. He refers to his video on this and says the claim that the man left because he lacked certainty in the Quran rests on stories without any established chain, and is unlikely given that he became Muslim again. He feels it was human, all too human, not a theological crisis: converts often stayed in touch with Makkah, and he was incentivised, went back to Makkah, shared secrets about how volatile Madinah was and its weak points, and was rewarded generously. He compares the famous poet al-A'sha [?], who was on his way to embrace Islam when the Quraysh paid him camels to delay a year, fearing his celebrity, and who died within the year. He says this is why the Prophet deemed the man an enemy of the state and a serious threat, though he did not have him executed, and that he later played a powerful role as a governor in Egypt.", "summary_short": "Not doubt about the Quran: he feels the man was incentivised by the Makkans and rewarded for intelligence about Madinah, and he later returned to Islam and governed in Egypt.", "answer_start": 3637, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["history/companions", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-abi-sarh", "label": "Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-asha", "label": "al-A'sha [?] (the poet)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels the apostasy asked about was not a theological crisis but a case of being incentivised by the Makkans.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he is rewarded generously for some of the intel that he provides and i feel that that was the situation it was just human all too human you know it wasn't a theological crisis", "start": 3676}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/12/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/13", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S13", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 13, "start": 3831, "end": 3989, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Qadhi's post on the 'drama of refutations', and tonight's reply", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the main item, reading a post by Yasir Qadhi complaining about the drama of refutations and asking why people want to refute him rather than the idea. Mufti replies that after making clips that deal with topics such as the second coming of Jesus in that way, one can see a refutation on the horizon and cannot suddenly change the rules. He says Qadhi has made a lengthy video on the second coming and that he will dedicate a large part of tonight's session to it, playing Qadhi's clip and going through his replies.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Yasir Qadhi, who complained of the drama of refutations, cannot change the rules after his clips on the second coming of Jesus, and introduces his reply.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/13/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/14", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S14", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 14, "start": 3989, "end": 4436, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's clip: an 'academic' look and the Quranic verses said to foretell the return", "question_plain": "Which Quranic verses does Yasir Qadhi say point to Jesus coming back?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays the opening of Yasir Qadhi's lecture, in which Qadhi says the return of Jesus has caused controversy online and that he will take an academic look, removing the emotional back and forth and letting the evidence speak, starting from what the Quran and the Sunnah say. Qadhi says it comes down to a few Quranic phrases: that Jesus shall speak to mankind in maturity, which would be a prediction of his return if he was not around at an older age, though the language alone does not indicate it and only the context may; that none of the People of the Book will remain without believing in him before his death, belief here meaning affirming him as a prophet; and what he calls the most explicit verse, that Jesus is a sign of the Hour, in another recitation. Mufti interjects that on Qadhi's reading all Jews and Christians would affirm Jesus at death until the end of the world, and mocks the idea that Jesus, who came two thousand years ago, is a sign of the Hour that everybody missed. Qadhi concludes that the Quran strongly suggests the return, though this is not the unanimous interpretation, and Mufti remarks that it is not actually anywhere in the Quran.", "summary_short": "In the clip Qadhi says three verses strongly suggest Jesus's return; Mufti Abu Layth mocks the readings and says the return is not in the Quran.", "answer_start": 3989, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:46", "label": "Quran 3:46"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:159", "label": "Quran 4:159"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:43:61", "label": "Quran 43:61"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the variant readings)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/14/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/15", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S15", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 15, "start": 4436, "end": 4780, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's clip: hadith beyond counting, tawatur, the tafsir works and the Maliki dons", "question_plain": "Are the hadith about Jesus's return mutawatir, as Yasir Qadhi claims?", "summary": "The clip moves to the hadith, which Qadhi says make the issue crystal clear: the reports are too numerous to discount, they are narrated from around ten companions, including Abu Hurayra, Jabir and Ibn Mas'ud, the Indian scholar Anwar Shah Kashmiri wrote a famous book on them, and multiple scholars have called them mutawatir. Mufti Abu Layth interjects sarcastically that there may be doubt in God but there is no doubt in this, and explains that mutawatir means it is inconceivable that a report is false. Qadhi says the return is found in tafsir works such as those of al-Samarqandi [?] and al-Jassas [?] and in dozens of works of Sunni theology, and, addressing Malikis, that these are the dons of the Maliki school, asking how anyone can claim allegiance to the Maliki madhhab and deny the return. Mufti answers with mock outrage at Malikis, taking the phrase about dons with a big D for himself. The clip ends with Qadhi saying that Imam Malik not having the hadith is neither here nor there.", "summary_short": "In the clip Qadhi says the hadith on Jesus's return are mutawatir, found in dozens of tafsir and creed works and held by the Maliki authorities; Mufti Abu Layth answers with sarcasm.", "answer_start": 4436, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jabir-ibn-abdullah", "label": "Jabir ibn Abdullah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:anwar-shah-kashmiri", "label": "Anwar Shah Kashmiri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-samarqandi", "label": "al-Samarqandi (tafsir) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-jassas", "label": "al-Jassas [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/15/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/16", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S16", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 16, "start": 4780, "end": 5168, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's clip: the ijma claim, Abduh as first denier, and the Ahmadiyya link", "question_plain": "Was Muhammad Abduh the first Muslim to deny the return of Jesus?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth calls Qadhi's remark about Imam Malik a huge claim, says this is only a teaser for a response still to come, and that Qadhi must first be heard out. The clip cites an early author who died in 355 AH [?] and Ibn Atiyya [?] (d. 541 AH), who wrote that the ummah unanimously agreed Jesus is alive in the heavens and will return, with only philosophers and unbelievers denying it, and Qadhi says he found nobody before modernity who explicitly negated the return: the first was Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905), student of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and a founder of modernist Islam, who reinterpreted the return as a Christ-like spirit of goodness. Qadhi then mentions Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in India, who claimed Jesus died and was buried in Kashmir and that the second coming was of a Jesus-like figure; Mufti says Qadhi is trying to associate denial of the second coming with the Qadiani movement although, ironically, that movement is built on a messianic vision. As the clip describes this school as sceptical of miracles, of the signs of the Day of Judgement and of hadith, Mufti notes in an aside that Abduh and al-Afghani are also the source of the theory of natural evolution up to a divinely placed Adam, which he says the shaykh himself [?] holds.", "summary_short": "In the clip Qadhi claims ijma on the return, names Muhammad Abduh as the first to deny it and links deniers to the Ahmadiyya; Mufti Abu Layth calls the link ironic, since the Ahmadiyya is built on a messianic claim.", "answer_start": 4780, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "history/modern-reformers-and-movements"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-atiyya", "label": "Ibn Atiyya [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jamal-al-din-al-afghani", "label": "Jamal al-Din al-Afghani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ahmadiyya", "label": "the Ahmadiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/16/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/17", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S17", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 17, "start": 5168, "end": 5355, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Deniers as rejecters of the unseen? Belief, consciousness and the heresy charge", "question_plain": "Do people who deny Jesus's return reject the unseen?", "summary": "Qadhi's clip has just called denial of the return and of miracles a refusal to accept the unseen, one notch below disbelief. Mufti Abu Layth replies that belief is all about God, who is unseen, and nobody has a problem with that, nor with consciousness, which is also unseen from a scientific perspective. The clip continues that this group follows Western scientific paradigms in which nothing outside the senses can exist, and Mufti says that one thing he is personally preoccupied with is consciousness, which science does not currently understand, whose neural-correlate theory cannot be substantiated, and for which in his understanding the evidence argues for a non-local consciousness. He notes that Qadhi names him, by his moniker, among the figures he charges with heresy.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects Qadhi's charge that deniers of the return reject the unseen: belief itself is in the unseen God, and he is himself preoccupied with consciousness, which science cannot explain.", "answer_start": 5168, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ghayb", "label": "ghayb (the unseen)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/17/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/18", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S18", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 18, "start": 5355, "end": 5627, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Sunnah versus hadith: Qadhi calls the distinction worse than denying the return", "question_plain": "Is distinguishing the Sunnah from hadith a modernist invention?", "summary": "The clip says that all these figures, from Muhammad Abduh to modern groups, define the Sunnah differently from the majority, and that Abduh's school came up with differentiating hadith from Sunnah. After joking about Abduh's name, Mufti Abu Layth answers that had they studied the madhhabs they would know this is what the madhhabs actually say, and that Imam Malik is the one who treats hadith as something somebody documented while the Sunnah was the living tradition. When the clip says none of these figures considers the Sahih more authoritative than other books, Mufti says Qadhi is telling the truth here: he does not consider Bukhari something so special, and all hadith are to be judged by their own criteria. Qadhi calls separating the Sunnah from authentic hadith a far bigger issue than denying Jesus's return, and Mufti mocks his confidence that mutawatir reports are as undeniable as the existence of China.", "summary_short": "Qadhi calls the hadith-Sunnah distinction a modernist invention worse than denying the return; Mufti Abu Layth says it is what the madhhabs and Imam Malik actually teach, and that Bukhari is not beyond criticism.", "answer_start": 5355, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/18/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/19", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S19", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 19, "start": 5627, "end": 5790, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's clip: Judeo-Christian origins 'without a shred of evidence' and Islam's epistemology", "question_plain": "What does Yasir Qadhi say about the return of Jesus coming from Jewish and Christian sources?", "summary": "In the clip Qadhi says this group claims that belief in Jesus's return emanated from Judeo-Christian sources, through figures such as Wahb [?], Abu Hurayra or al-Zuhri, and slowly crept in until it became mainstream; he calls it a huge, preposterous claim without the slightest evidence. Mufti Abu Layth tells the audience to remember these words, as he will come back to them. Qadhi asks, given more than seventy-five hadith and many companions, which is more likely: that the companions heard it from the Prophet, or that they heard it from Wahb and ascribed it to him. He says that claiming a Judeo-Christian belief became the default position, the ijma of the ummah and tawatur hadith implies that the faith was corrupted at its most basic level and the ummah misguided for fourteen centuries, which to him is the destruction of the epistemology of Islam and a far bigger problem than denying the return, and that the onus of proof is on the deniers.", "summary_short": "In the clip Qadhi calls the claim that the return came from Judeo-Christian sources baseless and says it would destroy Islamic epistemology; Mufti Abu Layth marks his words for later.", "answer_start": 5627, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:wahb-ibn-munabbih", "label": "Wahb ibn Munabbih [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/19/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/20", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S20", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 20, "start": 5790, "end": 5946, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's clip: the one early authority on Jesus's death, and 'Allah said so'", "question_plain": "How does Yasir Qadhi answer the objection that Jesus killing pigs makes no sense?", "summary": "The clip says all these figures view Jesus as having died on earth and so deny that he was raised alive and will return, and that the view that he died a natural death is very obscure in early Islam but not unknown, one early authority holding that he died and will come back alive. Mufti Abu Layth notes that Qadhi had claimed nobody denied the return and now admits one person. Qadhi takes up the objection that the reports make no sense: why Jesus would kill pigs, refuse the jizya and not allow kufr to remain when everyone is free to choose. His answer to all these whys is that Allah said so, and that with the level of kufr at that time one will be either a Muslim or on the side of the Dajjal, with no middle category, so the reports are completely logical.", "summary_short": "In the clip Qadhi admits one early authority held that Jesus died, and answers objections to Jesus killing pigs and refusing the jizya with 'Allah said so'.", "answer_start": 5790, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jizya", "label": "jizya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kufr", "label": "kufr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/20/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/21", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S21", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 21, "start": 5946, "end": 6126, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "From 'academic discussion' to bid'ah: Mufti Abu Layth's verdict on Qadhi's lecture", "question_plain": "Was Yasir Qadhi's lecture on Jesus's return really academic?", "summary": "The clip concludes that anyone who denies the return, having contravened the agreed beliefs of the ummah and contradicted the hadith, has at the least fallen into religious innovation, bid'ah. Mufti Abu Layth says that a discussion announced as academic and fair ended by fabricating narratives, such as a modernist school begun by Muhammad Abduh of which all these people are followers, by claiming that they have a deep-seated problem because they are obsessed with science, and by calling deniers a notch below kufr, heretics and clear innovators. He says Qadhi borrowed his own phrase about the dons of the Maliki madhhab to ask how one could claim to be a Maliki or a Sunni, and calls the speech preachy, nothing short of a Friday khutbah. Before beginning his reply, he says, he will as always bring someone on board.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi's lecture, billed as academic, ended by branding deniers of the return innovators and heretics, making it a preachy Friday sermon rather than an academic discussion.", "answer_start": 5946, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khutbah", "label": "khutbah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/21/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/22", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S22", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 22, "start": 6126, "end": 6396, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Tag team: Qadhi's own Gog and Magog talk, half truths, and a man chasing pigs", "question_plain": "Is Yasir Qadhi giving the whole picture on the Maliki scholars and Jesus's return?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that to help him reply he will bring in a tag-team partner, none other than Yasir Qadhi himself, and plays Qadhi's earlier talk on Gog and Magog, in which Qadhi says this is perhaps the most problematic sign of the Day of Judgement for modern times, that it has caused youth to doubt and that he has met people who left Islam over such tales, and that he will be honest and frank. Mufti notes that Gog and Magog and the return of Jesus are both signs of the Hour, and says that what he will show are half truths: Qadhi is not lying, but he quotes the Maliki dons, such as Ibn Abd al-Barr, accepting the return without quoting their statement that the hadith on Jesus are not conclusively established. When Qadhi says one reason people leave Islam is that their problems are not addressed, Mufti says that a man coming down from the sky in front of everyone, only to chase and kill the pigs on the globe, is a very reasonable thing to question and in many ways disrespectful to Jesus and to God.", "summary_short": "Using Qadhi's own talk on Gog and Magog, Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi tells half truths, citing the Maliki authorities without their view that the hadith on Jesus are not conclusively established.", "answer_start": 6126, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/22/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/23", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S23", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 23, "start": 6396, "end": 6626, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi on the Midrash: a minor and a major messiah, and 'what a coincidence'", "question_plain": "Do Muslim beliefs about the Mahdi, Jesus and Gog and Magog mirror Jewish messianic texts?", "summary": "In the clip Qadhi turns to Jewish scripture: Maimonides made belief in the messiah one of his thirteen principles of creed, and the Midrash speaks of a forerunner, a minor messiah who defeats the enemies of Israel, meaning the children of Israel, among them Gog and Magog, after which the real messiah comes, judgement takes place and the righteous are rewarded. Mufti Abu Layth interjects with the hadith that Muslims would follow the ways of the Jews and Christians. Qadhi notes that one midrashic paragraph mentions two figures, Gog and Magog and the Day of Judgement, just as Muslims have the Mahdi, the Messiah, Gog and Magog and the Day of Resurrection, and asks whether Muslims took it from them or both simply had it, which Mufti mocks as 'what a coincidence'. The clip goes on to say there is bizarre material in Muslim books and that being written in Arabic does not make something true, which Mufti sets against Qadhi's earlier appeal to what the scholars said, and Qadhi begins to suggest that the notion of a living tribe of Gog and Magog may not be correct.", "summary_short": "In the clip Qadhi sets out the Jewish belief in a minor and a major messiah alongside Gog and Magog, mirroring Muslim end-time beliefs; Mufti Abu Layth mocks his 'what a coincidence'.", "answer_start": 6396, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:maimonides", "label": "Maimonides"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:midrash", "label": "the Midrash"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0ce2fbfc", "label": "report: you will follow the ways of the jews and the christians"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/23/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/24", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S24", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 24, "start": 6626, "end": 6809, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Kathir on Gog and Magog as Israelite lore via Abu Hurayra: 'this hypocrisy'", "question_plain": "Did Yasir Qadhi himself say a hadith came into Islam from Jewish lore?", "summary": "Qadhi says in the clip that the great scholars of the past believed in Gog and Magog, but that he was relieved to find classical scholars who problematised the hadith, saying it has a hidden defect and is not from the Prophet. Mufti Abu Layth stresses that this is a hadith in Sunni sources, established by their standards, and Qadhi goes on to say it might come from the Israelites, since Abu Hurayra listened to Ka'b [?], the son of a rabbi who narrated Israelite material, so that a student of Abu Hurayra assumed it to be from the Prophet; Qadhi says this is Ibn Kathir's view and what he firmly believes. Mufti stops the clip to ask whether he imagined Qadhi a moment ago calling it preposterous that Abu Hurayra or others introduced Jewish beliefs into Islam, and calls it hypocrisy. He notes that Qadhi then problematises the Gog and Magog report on the basis of reason, logic, geography and science.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi is inconsistent: he calls Israelite origins for the return preposterous, yet with Ibn Kathir firmly believes the Gog and Magog report came from Israelite lore through Abu Hurayra's circle.", "answer_start": 6626, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-kathir", "label": "Ibn Kathir"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:kab-al-ahbar", "label": "Ka'b al-Ahbar [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:israiliyyat", "label": "Israiliyyat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/24/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/25", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S25", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 25, "start": 6809, "end": 7056, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi's zombie theory of Gog and Magog, and Mufti Abu Layth's jokes", "question_plain": "What is Yasir Qadhi's zombie theory of Gog and Magog?", "summary": "In the clip Qadhi says it is ludicrous to posit that billions of people are somewhere under the earth in today's world, since we can see the whole earth, and offers a more entertaining theory he attributes to a friend in a private conversation: that the zombies of popular horror films and series such as The Walking Dead, human but not quite human, make more sense than a billion people hidden in some far-away land, perhaps through some virus or vaccine. Qadhi says he projected the idea onto his friend so that the audience's laughter would slowly turn to contemplation. Mufti Abu Layth supplies running jokes, linking the idea to the coronavirus, China and the Great Wall, and saying that one would realise zombies make sense only once the LSD had kicked in.", "summary_short": "In the clip Qadhi rejects a hidden tribe of Gog and Magog as irrational and floats a zombie theory instead, which Mufti Abu Layth mocks.", "answer_start": 6809, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/25/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/26", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S26", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 26, "start": 7056, "end": 7309, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi on Google Earth: 'not impossible' in one clip, 'I cannot believe it' in another", "question_plain": "Has Yasir Qadhi been consistent about whether Gog and Magog could be hidden underground?", "summary": "Saying that since he brought in Qadhi as a tag team it is only fair to assist Qadhi too, Mufti Abu Layth plays an older clip in which Qadhi answers the question how one can believe the Gog and Magog hadith when Google Earth has mapped the whole world: this is what the hadith tell us, and a rule of Ibn Taymiyya holds that the Sunnah does not bring the impossible but may bring what astounds the mind, so it is not impossible that Allah has thousands of people living somewhere underground. Mufti sets this beside the clip in which Qadhi said that anyone who knows science, geography and modern civilisation cannot believe a tribe has been trapped behind a wall for four thousand years, and that he himself cannot believe it. He plays the two against each other amid laughter, saying this is all very interesting before he has even begun his reply.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth sets an older Qadhi clip defending the Gog and Magog hadith as 'not impossible' against his later statement that he cannot believe it.", "answer_start": 7056, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/26/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/27", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S27", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 27, "start": 7309, "end": 7505, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A critic's clip of Qadhi on scholarship as regurgitation and breaking the paradigm", "question_plain": "Has Yasir Qadhi said that the views of great scholars should not bind a researcher?", "summary": "Calling it a royal rumble in which everyone must be brought in, Mufti Abu Layth introduces a clip circulated by a commentator he calls Danny boy, whom he takes to be Daniel Haqiqatjou [?], highlighting Qadhi's underlying views of the Islamic tradition. In the clip Qadhi says that what is said, even by giants of the Islamic tradition, should not matter to a true researcher; that scholarship as the ummah is currently set up largely consists of regurgitating and memorising rather than challenging; and that one must be brave enough to break away from the paradigm, which brings baggage and tension for a Deobandi, an Azhari or a Madinah graduate who has studied for fifteen or twenty years. The commentator calls this a belittling of the Islamic tradition. Mufti says the commentator is accusing Qadhi of the very same thing Qadhi accuses people like him of, being a modernist.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip of Qadhi urging researchers to break from inherited scholarship, and notes that the critic sharing it accuses Qadhi of the modernism Qadhi charges others with.", "answer_start": 7309, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou [?] ('Danny boy')"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/27/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/28", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S28", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 28, "start": 7505, "end": 7754, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi on majority opinion as socio-political, against his appeal to the giants", "question_plain": "Does the majority of scholars holding a view make it right?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a moment ago Qadhi asked how anyone could disagree on the second coming when giants said it, it is in every book and the whole ummah cannot have gone astray, and that now Qadhi's other personality is activated. In the clip Qadhi says that many people saying something does not make it right, that the correct opinion is independent of the names and number of men, that it should not matter to a true academic how many people or which major scholars held a position, and that majority opinion is typically based on socio-political factors, the kings, rulers and institutes they sponsor, citing the Karramiyya under the Ghaznavids [?], the Hanbalis in fourth-century Baghdad and the Ash'aris under the Seljuks. Mufti comments, in mock outrage, that this is exactly what modernists and reformers say. Qadhi adds that if ninety-nine percent of one's teachers hold a position one naturally absorbs it, which does not make it the truth.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth shows Qadhi saying that majority opinion rests on socio-political factors and that numbers do not make a view right, against his own appeal to the giants on the second coming.", "answer_start": 7505, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:karramiyya", "label": "Karramiyya"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ghaznavids", "label": "Ghaznavids [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:seljuks", "label": "Seljuks"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:truth-not-decided-by-numbers", "label": "a correct opinion does not depend on the names or number of those who hold it"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/28/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/29", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S29", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 29, "start": 7754, "end": 7972, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Qadhi on aqidah as a spectrum and scholars' words as secondary evidence", "question_plain": "Can positions in aqidah fall within a range of scholarly opinion?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that on one hand he is listening to Qadhi say this, and on the other he is all but thrown out of Islam and called a heretic doing bid'ah: the hand that gives takes away. The clip continues that people are taught a certain philosophy, that even in aqidah every position lies within a spectrum of opinion, that very few are brave or foolish enough to break away and think for themselves because it comes with costs, and that no matter who says what, it is secondary or even tertiary evidence, not evidence in itself; Mufti underlines that Qadhi says this even of aqidah. Qadhi ends by saying that the position transcends the quantity and the big names who held it, whether Ibn Taymiyya or others, and that this was one of the most important points of his lecture. Mufti says that, with Qadhi's own assistance, he has made his case without even beginning his reply.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth shows Qadhi teaching that even aqidah positions lie on a spectrum and that no scholar's word is evidence in itself, while calling Mufti a heretic for departing from the majority.", "answer_start": 7754, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah (creed)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/29/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/30", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S30", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 30, "start": 7972, "end": 8293, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Overview of Qadhi's claims: ijma, Ibn Hazm on disagreement, creed books and the dons", "question_plain": "Is there really scholarly consensus that Jesus will return?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sums up Qadhi's key claims with a short answer to each: that the response would be academic, which it clearly was not; that the Quran strongly suggests the second coming, which it does not; that four verses show it, which he denies; that the hadith leave no doubt, which he calls utter nonsense; that there are a hundred narrations, not one of which he considers sound; and that the reports in Bukhari and Muslim are indisputable, which he will examine. He says he will answer the points over the coming weeks in the series Disclosure with a big D, since Qadhi gave half truths. On the Maliki dons he says Qadhi can be a Salafi and disagree with Salafi scholars but will not let Malikis do the same; on ijma he says Qadhi omits that Ibn Hazm recorded some nine hundred years ago that Muslims disagreed on whether Jesus will return, and that Ibn Taymiyya's notes on Ibn Hazm's work on consensus [?] do not criticise that point. On creed he says Qadhi omits the major creed works that do not mention the return, among them Ibn Taymiyya's al-Aqida al-Wasitiyya, and that the scholars he cites as dons held the reports to be not mutawatir but accepted with some doubt; he adds that an exegete some six or seven hundred years ago [?] already mentioned reading the return as a metaphor for goodness at the end of time, so Muhammad Abduh was not the first.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects Qadhi's claims one by one: the Quran does not suggest a return, no narration is sound, Ibn Hazm recorded disagreement on it, and the Maliki authorities did not hold the reports to be mutawatir.", "answer_start": 7972, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:maratib-al-ijma", "label": "Maratib al-Ijma' (Ibn Hazm) [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-aqida-al-wasitiyya", "label": "al-Aqida al-Wasitiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not strongly suggest a second coming of Jesus, contrary to Qadhi's claim.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "these were some of the key things that below it has made that the response would be academic clearly wasn't the quran strongly suggests the second coming it doesn't", "start": 8008}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/30/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/31", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S31", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 31, "start": 8293, "end": 8596, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hadith and Sunnah in Hanafi and Maliki usul; Salafi kalam on fabricated chains", "question_plain": "Is separating hadith from the Sunnah a Hanafi and Maliki principle?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the distinction between hadith and Sunnah, which Qadhi traces to Muhammad Abduh, is the usul of the Hanafi and Maliki schools, which separate the two unlike the Shafi'is and the Hanbalis. He lists further inconsistencies: Qadhi calls challenging Islamic theology incredibly dangerous, yet on Gog and Magog said that what people have said does not matter; says one early authority held that Jesus died a natural death, when many did; says hadith cannot be questioned because they are Allah's decision, yet rejects the Gog and Magog report as illogical; and calls the claim of Judeo-Christian origins outrageous while himself saying the Gog and Magog belief came in that way and that the parallel with the Jewish forerunner messiah is a coincidence. He then says that in coming sessions he will show that Salafi kalam is built on fabrications: works arguing that the Quran is not created bring chains to companions such as Ibn Umar discussing the question, although the debate did not emerge until some 190 to 210 years after the Prophet, as even their Salafi editors admit; he likens it to saying Queen Victoria or Newton debated bitcoin.", "summary_short": "The hadith-Sunnah distinction is Hanafi and Maliki usul, not Abduh's invention; Mufti Abu Layth lists Qadhi's inconsistencies and says Salafi kalam rests on fabricated chains.", "answer_start": 8293, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam", "label": "kalam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that distinguishing hadith from the Sunnah is the usul of the Hanafi and Maliki madhhabs.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this is the usual of the hanafi matab and the maliki method that we do tafriq hadith sunnah", "start": 8293}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/31/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/32", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S32", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 32, "start": 8596, "end": 8889, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Speaking in the cradle and in maturity, and 'before his death': no proof of a return", "question_plain": "Does the verse about Jesus speaking 'in maturity' mean he will come back?", "summary": "On the verse in Al Imran 46 and al-Ma'idah 110, which Qadhi calls a clear indication of the return because Jesus must speak to people as a mature man, Mufti Abu Layth says many past scholars held that Jesus had already reached maturity in this world, and that the phrase concerns the people Jesus addresses, the child in the crib and the mature man, not Jesus speaking at those ages. It is mentioned, he says, because the Jewish high priests of the time disparaged children and found Jesus addressing them on religion at around the age of ten, as in the Gospel of Luke, almost blasphemous. He says the books of tafsir show that the reading as a return came from none of the Prophet, the companions or the generations after them, but from al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali [?] (d. 282 AH), who was asked whether he finds the coming of Jesus in the Quran and pointed to this verse, and of whom al-Hakim says he transmitted bizarre hadith, some of them fabricated, citing al-Baghawi and al-Tabarani. On 'before his death', he says Qadhi cites the reading of Ubayy and Ibn Abbas, but that reading is 'before their death', meaning the People of the Book, and the commentators, among them al-Tabari, al-Nasafi and the Tafsir al-Mazhari [?], say the pronoun could refer to Jesus, the Prophet, the truth or Allah, a plurality Qadhi does not highlight.", "summary_short": "Neither verse proves a return: 'in the cradle and in maturity' refers to the people Jesus addresses, the return reading began with a late transmitter of strange reports, and 'before his death' has several readings.", "answer_start": 8596, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:46", "label": "Quran 3:46"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:110", "label": "Quran 5:110"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:159", "label": "Quran 4:159"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kahl", "label": "kahl"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-luke", "label": "Gospel of Luke"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-husayn-ibn-al-fadl-al-bajali", "label": "al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-hakim-al-naysaburi", "label": "al-Hakim al-Naysaburi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baghawi", "label": "al-Baghawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabarani", "label": "al-Tabarani"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubayy-ibn-kab", "label": "Ubayy ibn Ka'b"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabari", "label": "al-Tabari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nasafi", "label": "al-Nasafi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tafsir-al-mazhari", "label": "Tafsir al-Mazhari [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in the verse on speaking in the cradle and in maturity it is the people Jesus addresses, the child and the mature man, who are meant, not Jesus speaking at an older age.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not jesus who's going to be speaking like that it's the people he will address he will address the child in the crib and he will address the old man or the mature man", "start": 8633}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/32/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/33", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S33", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 33, "start": 8889, "end": 9239, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Knowledge of the Hour, and verses against a return: 5:75, 21:34 and 43:59", "question_plain": "Which verses of the Quran count against Jesus coming back?", "summary": "On 43:61, which Qadhi calls the strongest verse, that Jesus is a sign of the Hour, Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi mentions only that Hasan disagreed, whereas Hasan and others said it speaks of the Quran, a sign of the Hour since revelation ends with it, which he says makes much more sense; he adds that the word means knowledge rather than sign, the Quran containing knowledge of the Hour. He says Qadhi, having promised an academic discussion, does not disclose the verses that count against a second coming, and gives three. In al-Ma'idah 75 the Messiah was only a messenger, messengers before him died, and he and his mother ate food and were subject to the natural laws of this world; in al-Anbiya 34 Allah gave no human before the Prophet eternal life, which al-Bukhari, several imams and Ibn Kathir use to say Jesus cannot be alive. In al-Zukhruf 59, two verses before Qadhi's verse, Jesus is only a servant favoured and made an example for the children of Israel, which Mufti asks how to square with a returning Jesus who would achieve what no human, not even the Prophet, achieved: world peace, the end of disease and of predatory animals, and global abundance.", "summary_short": "43:61 refers to the Quran as knowledge of the Hour, not to Jesus; 5:75, 21:34 and 43:59, which Qadhi does not mention, count against a return.", "answer_start": 8889, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:43:61", "label": "Quran 43:61"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:75", "label": "Quran 5:75"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:34", "label": "Quran 21:34"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:43:59", "label": "Quran 43:59"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hasan-al-basri", "label": "Hasan al-Basri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-kathir", "label": "Ibn Kathir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it makes much more sense to read 43:61 as speaking of the Quran, since revelation ends with it, than of Jesus as a sign of the Hour.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "and that actually makes much more sense if you think about it that the entire revelation will now end makes a lot more sense than rather saying jesus is a sign for the hour", "start": 8927}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/33/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/34", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S34", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 34, "start": 9239, "end": 9535, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'I will give you death', 5:116-118, and the Prophet's own reading in Bukhari", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say that Jesus died?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that among the ten or eleven blessings Allah lists for Jesus in al-Ma'idah 110 there is no second coming, although it would be among the greatest if Jesus were to bring world peace. He cites the verse in which Allah says 'I will give you death', noting that Ibn Abbas said Jesus died and that al-Razi and many others mention it, against Qadhi's claim that only one person said so. He calls the dialogue of al-Ma'idah 116-118 probably the clearest: on the Day of Judgement Allah asks Jesus whether he told people to take him and his mother as lords, and Jesus says he was a witness over them while he was among them, but when Allah took him, Allah was the watcher over them, so that Jesus does not know what happened after him. He says a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari seals the deal: the Prophet describes some of his companions being turned away from him on the Day of Judgement because they turned bad after him, and says he will speak as Jesus did, reciting this verse, which shows the Prophet understood it to mean that Jesus had died.", "summary_short": "'I will give you death' and Jesus's words at the Judgement show that he died, and the Prophet applied those words to himself in a Bukhari report, which settles the reading.", "answer_start": 9239, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:110", "label": "Quran 5:110"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:55", "label": "Quran 3:55"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:116-118", "label": "Quran 5:116-118"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8b0c9176", "label": "report: on the day of judgement people will be raised naked and some of my companions will be turned away and i will say as the righteous slave said"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's use of Jesus's words 'when you took me' for himself, in a report in Bukhari, shows that he understood the verse to mean Jesus had died.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "according to bukhari as saying that this that jesus had died because he is saying that oh what about my companions", "start": 9500}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/34/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/35", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S35", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 35, "start": 9535, "end": 10108, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The first Bukhari chain: unnamed narrators, al-Bukhari's practice, al-Zuhri's insertions", "question_plain": "Is the hadith in Bukhari about Jesus coming down reliable?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi calls the hadith in Bukhari and Muslim untouchable after a day and a half of research, and turns to the first report in Bukhari on the descent of Jesus, asking who the Ishaq and the Salih in its chain are, since al-Bukhari left their names ambiguous (mubham). He says al-Bukhari is known to have done this on purpose: al-Dhahabi records that he cited his teacher Muhammad ibn Yahya as Muhammad, Muhammad ibn Abdullah or Muhammad ibn Khalid, names he was not known by, when al-Bukhari had some eighty teachers called Muhammad, so as to deceive readers into thinking he meant another teacher, which Ibn Hajar and al-Dhahabi accept. He says al-Bukhari transmits from some fifteen men named Ishaq and seven named Ishaq ibn Ibrahim, that one candidate was called matruk by others, and that the Salih could be either of two Madinan narrators from al-Zuhri, one of whom al-Bukhari himself calls weak in places. He then says al-Zuhri was known for idraj, inserting his own words into hadith: a teacher of Imam Malik told him to distinguish his words from the Prophet's; Ibn Rajab relates from al-Bukhari that al-Zuhri inserted sentences and made mursal reports reach the Prophet; Abu Dawud says only half of his 2,200 hadith reach the Prophet; Ibn Hajar and al-Shafi'i dismiss his mursal reports; and al-Layth ibn Sa'd wrote to Imam Malik that they abandoned al-Zuhri for telling different parties different things, and the report that the Prophet tried to end his own life is said to come from him.", "summary_short": "The first Bukhari chain is doubtful: al-Bukhari left two narrators unnamed, which he is known to have done deliberately, and the chain runs through al-Zuhri, who was known to insert his own words into hadith.", "answer_start": 9535, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/bukhari", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7ef9c7d8", "label": "report: yanzilu fikum ibn maryam hakaman adlan"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-yahya-al-dhuhli", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rajab-al-hanbali", "label": "Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-layth-ibn-sad", "label": "al-Layth ibn Sa'd"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mubham", "label": "mubham (an unnamed narrator)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:idraj", "label": "idraj"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mursal", "label": "mursal"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c2ba830a", "label": "report: the prophet tried to end his life on several occasions"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Bukhari on purpose referred to his teacher Muhammad ibn Yahya by names he was not known by, so as to deceive his readers.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "avoiding the name that he's known by so as to deceive the readers or the listeners into thinking this is one of his other teachers", "start": 9720}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/35/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/36", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S36", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 36, "start": 10108, "end": 10450, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The second Bukhari chain and the first Muslim chains: Qutayba, Yunus, al-Zuhri again", "question_plain": "What is wrong with the other Bukhari and Muslim chains on Jesus's return?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to a second report in Bukhari, from al-Layth from Ibn Shihab. He says Qutayba is generally reliable, but that al-Bukhari himself relates asking Qutayba whom he was with when he wrote a particular hadith from al-Layth, and Qutayba said he was with Khalid [?], a known forger; Qutayba, he says, heard a fabricated hadith from the forger, dropped him and presented it as heard from al-Layth, which puts at least a question mark over him, and the chain again contains al-Zuhri. He then takes three alternative chains in Sahih Muslim: the first has a narrator some questioned for laxity, and one whose transmission from Ibn Shihab is doubted because he saw him only when very young; another runs through Harmala, of whom Abu Hatim says they do not take him as evidence, and Yunus ibn Yazid al-Ayli, who according to Imam Ahmad did not remember hadith accurately and wrongly joined reports to Sa'id; it also contains al-Hasan al-Halwani [?], whose material some said should be thrown away, and al-Zuhri again.", "summary_short": "The second Bukhari chain passes through Qutayba, who once concealed a forger, and al-Zuhri; the Sahih Muslim chains include Harmala, Yunus ibn Yazid and others the critics faulted.", "answer_start": 10108, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qutayba-ibn-said", "label": "Qutayba ibn Said"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-layth-ibn-sad", "label": "al-Layth ibn Sa'd"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalid-al-madaini", "label": "Khalid [?], a known forger"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:harmala-ibn-yahya", "label": "Harmala ibn Yahya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hatim-al-razi", "label": "Abu Hatim al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yunus-ibn-yazid-al-ayli", "label": "Yunus ibn Yazid al-Ayli"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-hasan-al-halwani", "label": "al-Hasan al-Halwani [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qutayba heard a fabricated hadith from a known forger, dropped him and presented it as heard from al-Layth, which puts at least a question mark over him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "there was a famous forger who quraiba sits with he hears this hadith from laith he doesn't hear it he hears khalid he drops him and himself presents it as though he heard it from leith", "start": 10173}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/36/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/37", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S37", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 37, "start": 10450, "end": 10824, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "More Muslim chains: memory loss, a narrator who does not exist, a major mudallis", "question_plain": "Are the Sahih Muslim reports about Jesus's return reliable?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth continues with Sahih Muslim. One variant has a narrator who is generally reliable but whom al-Bukhari and Abu Dawud avoided as not scrupulous, and a report claimed as heard from al-Layth that al-Bukhari says was got totally wrong, with al-Zuhri and Yunus ibn Yazid recurring. Another chain contains a Sa'id [?] who, the scholars say, suffered severe memory loss and possibly dementia years before his death. He then describes a narrator from Abu Hurayra who transmits no other hadith and whom he calls a ghost: the critics disagree whether the men of that name are one, two or three, al-Dhahabi says nobody knows anything about him, his home is given as Basra, Makkah or Madinah, and the man said to be his master died in 146 AH, some ninety years after Abu Hurayra (d. 57 AH), so he could never have seen Abu Hurayra, and a book on all narrators of that name omits him. In a further Muslim chain he points to Ibn Jurayj, whom he calls a major mudallis: Imam Malik said he would pass anything off as hadith, al-Dhahabi that he must be taken with more than a pinch of salt, Ibn Uyayna [?] that he transmitted from a book while pretending to have heard, and Ahmad that some of his hadith were fabrications; and after him Abu al-Zubayr, whom Abu Hatim and others did not consider reliable.", "summary_short": "Further Sahih Muslim chains contain a narrator with memory loss, an unidentifiable narrator who could not have met Abu Hurayra, Ibn Jurayj, whom he calls a major mudallis, and Abu al-Zubayr.", "answer_start": 10450, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-layth-ibn-sad", "label": "al-Layth ibn Sa'd"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yunus-ibn-yazid-al-ayli", "label": "Yunus ibn Yazid al-Ayli"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ali-ibn-al-madini", "label": "Ali ibn al-Madini"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-jurayj", "label": "Ibn Jurayj"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-ibn-uyayna", "label": "Sufyan ibn Uyayna [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-zubayr", "label": "Abu al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hatim-al-razi", "label": "Abu Hatim al-Razi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis (mudallis)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says one narrator from Abu Hurayra in a Sahih Muslim chain for the return transmits no other hadith and is a ghost who does not exist.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he doesn't transmit any other hadith and what's shocking is he doesn't exist this guy is a is a ghost right there are the attacks that transmit from abu hurairah", "start": 10562}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/37/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/38", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S38", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 38, "start": 10824, "end": 11173, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Nawwas ibn Sam'an report, and why every chain examined has a problem", "question_plain": "Is there a single hadith on Jesus's return with a flawless chain?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the report of al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an in Sahih Muslim, transmitted by al-Walid, of whom Abu Mushir says he would drop names and deceive and Imam Ahmad that he made many mistakes, so he is out of the question; after him come a narrator called weak and matruk, and a Yahya [?], judge of Homs, criticised for sending reports that did not reach the Prophet. He says he is running over his normal time and has covered only select reports, but these are the strongest Qadhi could present, from Bukhari and Muslim, and every single chain has a problem in it, whether al-Zuhri, Abu al-Zubayr or others; his printout on just seven hadith ran to twenty pages, and he likens Qadhi's day and a half of research to a sewage stream beside the ocean, inviting a discussion. He grants that al-Bukhari including a report indicates he accepted it, but asks why one person's judgement should prevail when critics who challenged it are equal authorities or more senior, calling it arbitrary given Qadhi's claim of no doubt. He adds that one Bukhari report runs through a narrator critics called unreliable and weak, before turning to Qadhi's appeal to well-known companions.", "summary_short": "Every chain he examined among the strongest Bukhari and Muslim reports, including that of al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an, has a criticised narrator, so Qadhi's 'no doubt' fails; preferring al-Bukhari over equal critics is arbitrary.", "answer_start": 10824, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nawwas-ibn-saman", "label": "al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-walid-ibn-muslim", "label": "al-Walid ibn Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-mushir", "label": "Abu Mushir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-zubayr", "label": "Abu al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mursal", "label": "mursal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says every single chain he examined among the strongest reports in Bukhari and Muslim has a problem in it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "where he said this is it doesn't leave there's no doubt how is there no doubt all of these chains are problematic single chain has had a problem in it", "start": 10977}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/38/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/39", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S39", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 39, "start": 11173, "end": 11442, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The hadith of Aisha: a lone transmitter who dictated 41,000 reports in Isbahan", "question_plain": "Is the hadith of Aisha about Jesus and the Dajjal reliable?", "summary": "Taking up the hadith of Aisha, Mufti Abu Layth says its narrators are problematised, among them a Yahya [?] who sent mursal reports and about whom al-Duri relates that they would tell him a hadith in the afternoon and by evening he would teach it to them as if he knew it from elsewhere. The most important point, he says, is the first transmitter, not the famous Abu Dawud but an older namesake with his own hadith book, Abu Dawud [al-Tayalisi] [?], the only one to transmit this report with Jesus in it from Aisha; others transmit only the Prophet saying that if the Dajjal comes while he is among them he will contend with him. He tells how this transmitter, undervalued in Basra, moved to Isbahan, where nobody wanted to learn from him, and began dictating hadith en masse without being asked and without a book, some forty-one thousand, with mistakes in at least a thousand, as Ibn Adi and others relate. Only in his version, Mufti says, does the Dajjal emerge from the Jews of Isbahan, the very place where he felt undervalued, and he asks his audience whether that is not suspicious.", "summary_short": "The Aisha report rests on one transmitter who dictated tens of thousands of hadith from memory in Isbahan, and only his version has the Dajjal emerge from the Jews of Isbahan, which Mufti Abu Layth finds suspicious.", "answer_start": 11173, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2741e4cd", "label": "report: the dajjal emerges from the jews of isbahan (aisha)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4accedcd", "label": "report: if the dajjal comes while i am among you i will contend with him on your behalf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud-al-tayalisi", "label": "Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-adi", "label": "Ibn Adi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mursal", "label": "mursal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says only one transmitter relates from Aisha the report with Jesus in it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he transmits this hadith of jesus he's the only one to transmit it from aisha check this out people i want you to grasp this", "start": 11250}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/39/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/40", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S40", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 40, "start": 11442, "end": 11687, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Ibn Mas'ud report: the Christians' claim, unknown narrators and the fluid beneath the Throne", "question_plain": "What does the Ibn Mas'ud hadith about the end of time say, and is it reliable?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to a report of Ibn Mas'ud, whose chain has a narrator nobody can identify, whose name is given variously [?], a problematised Hashim [?], a barely known narrator and a Hasan ibn Hafs [?] who is also criticised. He points out that the report begins with the statement that the Christians claim Jesus will come back, which he says shows the belief creeping in. It then gives elaborate detail of the end of time, a wind, Gog and Magog, people dying and utter destruction, after which, he says, bracing his audience, Allah sends down on the earth from beneath his Throne a fluid like the sperm of men, from which life grows again. He reads the passage twice amid laughter, jokes about a blizzard and a sperm bank beneath the Throne, and says this is the kind of hadith Qadhi says cannot be questioned with reason, calling it preposterous.", "summary_short": "The Ibn Mas'ud report has unknown narrators, opens by citing the Christians' claim that Jesus will return, and ends with life regrowing from a fluid sent from beneath the Throne, which Mufti Abu Layth calls preposterous.", "answer_start": 11442, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6271346a", "label": "report: ibn masud the christians claim jesus will return and after the destruction allah sends down a fluid from beneath the throne like the sperm of men from which the dead regrow"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says one report begins with the statement that the Christians claim Jesus will come back, which shows the belief creeping in.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "there is this hadith of namaste begins by saying that the christians claim jesus will come back you see this belief creeping in", "start": 11469}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/40/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/41", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S41", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 41, "start": 11687, "end": 11869, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The blind narrator who had his slave girl check his hadith", "question_plain": "Who was the blind narrator of the return hadith who relied on his slave girl?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in one of the chains before the Ibn Mas'ud report is a narrator, Yazid [?], who transmits that Jesus will return and who is not only unreliable: al-Khatib al-Baghdadi [?] records that he went blind later in life, his memory weakened, and he would ask his slave girl about whatever he was doubtful of. He builds an extended comic scene of the slave girl, whose origin nobody knows and who he says was probably a Christian, sat down to do the research and confirming that Jesus is coming. He says this was the situation of some of the people transmitting these hadith, and asks how, then, people can say such material cannot be questioned.", "summary_short": "One transmitter of the return reports went blind, lost his memory and relied on his slave girl to check his hadith, which Mufti Abu Layth says shows the state of some of these narrators.", "answer_start": 11687, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yazid-ibn-abi-ziyad", "label": "Yazid [?] (narrator who went blind)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khatib-al-baghdadi", "label": "al-Khatib al-Baghdadi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a narrator in one of the chains who transmits that Jesus will come back is not reliable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "check this out this is a person who's transmitting this that jesus will come back not only is he not reliable and people", "start": 11687}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/41/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/42", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S42", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 42, "start": 11869, "end": 12090, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Closing the reply: eighty percent through Abu Hurayra, and the series to come", "question_plain": "Can the hadith about Jesus's return be questioned?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks how one cannot question such reports when they go against reason, and says there is more to cover than time allows. He challenges anyone to bring one unquestionable hadith on the return with nothing in its chain to question, and says eighty percent of these hadith come through Abu Hurayra alone and almost fifty percent through one man, Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri [?], while the other companions cited are not the well-known ones: nothing comes from Abu Bakr, Umar or Ali, the report of Umar being told by rabbis of their belief is not Umar relating it from the Prophet, and companions such as al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an are rarely heard of, with problematic chains. He asks how what is meant to be the greatest event in history could be transmitted only this way, and says he will continue the series Disclosure with a big D over the coming weeks because Qadhi gave half truths. After a joke about a chat comment on his impression of the slave girl, he says the show has run long and decides to cover the Mohammed Hijab story quickly.", "summary_short": "No report on the return is beyond question: about eighty percent come through Abu Hurayra and about half through one narrator, none from Abu Bakr, Umar or Ali; the series will continue.", "answer_start": 11869, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nawwas-ibn-saman", "label": "al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says eighty percent of the hadith on Jesus's return come through Abu Hurayra alone.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "you know eighty percent of these entire hadith are just through abu hurairah just through him and almost 50 percent of the entire narration is just through one man", "start": 11907}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/42/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/43", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S43", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 43, "start": 12090, "end": 12450, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mohammed Hijab against al-Albani's fatwa on suckling an adult: the Salim report", "question_plain": "Is the hadith about a woman breastfeeding the adult Salim authentic?", "summary": "After replaying a moment of Qadhi's clip and joking about the word 'moniker', Mufti Abu Layth turns to what he calls Mohammed Hijab's meltdown on Twitter, which he rather likes because he thinks Hijab is outgrowing his Salafi shell: by attacking a fatwa of al-Albani on suckling grown men, he has indirectly attacked the Salafis as a whole, pointing out that Salafis look down on Yusuf al-Qaradawi's fatwa on shaking hands with the opposite gender, which is less severe. Mufti explains the report behind the fatwa, in which Sahla [?] wanted to make Salim [?], of the household of Abu Hudhayfa, a mahram and the Prophet allegedly told her to let him drink her milk, and says the hadith is fabricated anyway because it is ridiculous, since a woman without infant children does not simply produce milk. He says al-Albani, asked how the milk was to be drunk, said he had no problem with it being drunk directly, and that exposing the nipple is not a fitnah because men do not desire it, being dark, which Mufti mocks.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls the report of the adult Salim being suckled fabricated and mocks al-Albani's fatwa permitting it directly, welcoming Mohammed Hijab's attack on it as a sign he is outgrowing Salafism.", "answer_start": 12236, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated", "fiqh/gender-interaction", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yusuf-al-qaradawi", "label": "Yusuf al-Qaradawi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sahla-bint-suhayl", "label": "Sahla bint Suhayl [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:salim-mawla-abi-hudhayfa", "label": "Salim, of the household of Abu Hudhayfa [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:17a84e78", "label": "report: let him drink your milk so that he becomes your mahram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rada", "label": "rada' (breastfeeding)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahram", "label": "mahram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report that the Prophet told a woman to let the grown Salim drink her milk is fabricated, because it is ridiculous.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "allegedly the prophet said well why don't you let him drink your milk now he doesn't mention how to drink that milk and this hadith is fabricated anyway because it's ridiculous", "start": 12235}}, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/43/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/44", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S44", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 44, "start": 12450, "end": 12830, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hijab's crude replies on Twitter, and Mufti Abu Layth's view that he is outgrowing Salafism", "question_plain": "Is Mohammed Hijab breaking away from the Salafis?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Mohammed Hijab took the fatwa to task and that he thinks it a fair point, and goes through Hijab's tweets, warning that they use crude language: Hijab asks why, if someone believes such suckling is halal, a request to do it with that person's mother should be refused, and says it is bizarre to imagine anyone finding it acceptable to watch a wife, mother or daughter suckle another man. Mufti says Hijab has a point, though he dislikes the way it is said, and jokes about the suggestion that analogy might open other options. He notes Hijab's explanation that he wrote the tweets while on medication for a broken back, and his further crude replies to someone who told him to stop. He says that, although the language was not his style, he thinks it fair enough that Hijab is trying to outgrow the Salafi trend and that he may take on the Salafi da'wah head on, and adds that he had no idea al-Albani had said this until Hijab brought it to his attention, asking sarcastically about the sample size behind al-Albani's claim.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth thinks Hijab's point against the fatwa is fair, though his language was crude and not Mufti's style, and welcomes what he sees as Hijab outgrowing Salafism.", "answer_start": 12450, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/44/"}, {"id": "b1OOltqtPTw/s/45", "short_id": "2021-03-02-S45", "recording": "b1OOltqtPTw", "n": 45, "start": 12830, "end": 12910, "date": "20210302", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Sign-off: a recap of the night", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recaps the night, from the report of a fluid beneath the Throne and the slave girl checking hadith, through Qadhi's inconsistencies, to Mohammed Hijab's confrontation with the Salafis over the suckling fatwa. He signs off until next week's Monday Nights with Mufti, asks viewers to like and subscribe, and ends with a last joke.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth recaps the night's topics and signs off until next week.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/b1OOltqtPTw/s/45/"}, {"id": "bO72u9ThuK8/s/1", "short_id": "2018-05-04b-S01", "recording": "bO72u9ThuK8", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 159, "date": "20180504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The hadith that a woman who goes out wearing perfume is a fornicator", "question_plain": "Is there a hadith that says a woman who wears perfume outside is a zaniya?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces the subject of women leaving home wearing perfume and the hadith on it, asking viewers to share the video. He says the report is transmitted by one companion, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, and that two other narrations, one from Zaynab al-Thaqafiyya, the wife of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, and one from Abu Hurayra, may lend some support to the notion but are not this report, and that he will discuss them later. He gives the wording: any woman who puts on perfume and passes by people so that they smell it is a fornicator. He says it is found in the Sunan of al-Nasa'i, Abu Dawud, Musnad Ahmad in three readings, and al-Tirmidhi, and that some versions add that every eye that looks at her is a fornicating eye.", "summary_short": "The report, transmitted only from Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and found in al-Nasa'i, Abu Dawud, Ahmad and al-Tirmidhi, says a woman who passes people while wearing perfume is a fornicator.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0783df04", "label": "report: ayyuma imraatin istatarat fa marrat ala qawmin li yajidu rihaha fa hiya zaniya (with the variant every eye is a fornicator)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-musa-al-ashari", "label": "Abu Musa al-Ash'ari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zaynab-al-thaqafiyya", "label": "Zaynab al-Thaqafiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-nasai", "label": "Sunan al-Nasa'i"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-tirmidhi", "label": "Sunan al-Tirmidhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zina", "label": "zina"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/bO72u9ThuK8/s/1/"}, {"id": "bO72u9ThuK8/s/2", "short_id": "2018-05-04b-S02", "recording": "bO72u9ThuK8", "n": 2, "start": 159, "end": 632, "date": "20180504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "One chain through Ghunaym ibn Qays and Thabit ibn Umara: why the report is not sahih", "question_plain": "Is the hadith about women wearing perfume being zaniya authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report is widely preached from pulpits, that it is not sahih and is a lie attributed to the Prophet. He says every version rests on Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, from him only Ghunaym ibn Qays, and from him only Thabit ibn Umara, and he cites al-Darimi's teacher Abu Asim [?] of Basra as saying that some companions raised it to the Prophet while others stopped it at the companion. On Ghunaym he says some claimed he was a companion, while al-Bukhari, Ibn Abi Hatim and others said he lived in the Prophet's time but never met him; he notes that through the same chain Imam Ahmad records Abu Musa telling his companions they were the same number as the army of Talut against Goliath, which he gives as an example of the strange things transmitted this way, and that Ghunaym transmits very little. On Thabit ibn Umara he cites Abu Hatim al-Razi, Ibn Hajar, al-Dhahabi and others [?] as calling him not strong. He concludes that an isolated chain through a weak narrator from an almost unknown transmitter, which some early authorities did not attribute to the Prophet, is not a hadith.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report is not authentic: every version comes through one weak narrator, Thabit ibn Umara, from the obscure Ghunaym ibn Qays, and some early authorities stopped it at the companion.", "answer_start": 159, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0783df04", "label": "report: ayyuma imraatin istatarat fa marrat ala qawmin li yajidu rihaha fa hiya zaniya"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6cc10484", "label": "report: antum al-yawm ala iddati ashabi talut (Abu Musa, via Ghunaym, in Ahmad)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-musa-al-ashari", "label": "Abu Musa al-Ash'ari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ghunaym-ibn-qays", "label": "Ghunaym ibn Qays"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:thabit-ibn-umara", "label": "Thabit ibn Umara"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-darimi", "label": "al-Darimi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-darimi", "label": "Sunan al-Darimi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-asim-al-nabil", "label": "Abu Asim [?] (al-Darimi's teacher, of Basra)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abi-hatim", "label": "Ibn Abi Hatim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hatim-al-razi", "label": "Abu Hatim al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawud", "label": "David (Dawud)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:talut", "label": "Talut"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahih", "label": "sahih"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahabah", "label": "sahabah (companions)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jarh-wa-tadil", "label": "jarh wa ta'dil"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the perfume report is not sahih and is a lie attributed to the Prophet, because it rests on a single chain through the weak Thabit ibn Umara from the little-known Ghunaym ibn Qays, and some early authorities did not attribute it to the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this hadith is not sorry okay it is not sorry this hadith is life life people and this is a lie attributed to the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam", "start": 185}}, "url": "/r/bO72u9ThuK8/s/2/"}, {"id": "bO72u9ThuK8/s/3", "short_id": "2018-05-04b-S03", "recording": "bO72u9ThuK8", "n": 3, "start": 632, "end": 1187, "date": "20180504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Calling a woman a fornicator is qadhf: why the report slanders the Prophet", "question_plain": "Would the Prophet really call a woman wearing perfume a fornicator?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the deeper problem is not only that the report seeks to control women but that it attacks the Prophet, since calling a woman a fornicator carries a hadd in the Quran: those who accuse chaste women and do not bring four witnesses are lashed eighty times and their testimony is never accepted (24:4). He explains that the Malikis punish such an accusation whatever the speaker's intention, while the Hanbalis, Shafi'is and Hanafis consider intention where the wording is not explicit, and he reads from the Mudawwana that Imam Malik applied the hadd to a man who called a woman a fornicator even when he added that it was against her will or before she became Muslim, and treated 'your eye fornicates' as slander too. He contrasts this with the Prophet's character, citing the verse on his great character [?], Anas's description in al-Bukhari that he was never obscene, abusive or given to cursing, and a report in Abu Dawud that whoever accuses a believer to degrade him will be held on a bridge over the fire. He says the Prophet would not label women fornicators merely to deter them when he could simply have said not to wear perfume, and restates that the chain is weak and was not traced to the Prophet by some early transmitters.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says calling a woman a fornicator is the crime of qadhf under Quran 24:4, punished by the Malikis whatever the intention, and the Prophet was never obscene, so the report insults him.", "answer_start": 632, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:4", "label": "Quran 24:4 (those who accuse chaste women without four witnesses)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:68:4", "label": "Quran 68:4 (you are of a great character) [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0783df04", "label": "report: ayyuma imraatin istatarat fa marrat ala qawmin li yajidu rihaha fa hiya zaniya"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:51d6c137", "label": "report: lam yakun al-nabi fahishan wa la sabbaban wa la laanan (Anas, in al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:91e93693", "label": "report: man rama musliman bi shayin yuridu shaynahu bihi habasahu allah ala jisri jahannam (Abu Dawud, number not stated)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qasim", "label": "Ibn al-Qasim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qadhf", "label": "qadhf (accusation of zina)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hadd"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zina", "label": "zina"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report slanders the Prophet, since calling a woman a fornicator is qadhf punishable under the Quran and, for the Malikis, regardless of intention, and the Prophet was never obscene and would not have labelled women this way to deter them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "this is the Prophet would never ever have said something like this this is a slander against the honor of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam right that he would speak about women in such a way", "start": 938}}, "url": "/r/bO72u9ThuK8/s/3/"}, {"id": "bO72u9ThuK8/s/4", "short_id": "2018-05-04b-S04", "recording": "bO72u9ThuK8", "n": 4, "start": 1187, "end": 1420, "date": "20180504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Zaynab al-Thaqafiyya's report: no perfume at the late Isha, a specific instruction", "question_plain": "Doesn't the hadith of Zaynab forbid women from wearing perfume to the mosque?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the report of Zaynab al-Thaqafiyya, the wife of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, transmitted in Sahih Muslim and other books through one student, Busr ibn Sa'id [?], in which the Prophet says that if a woman attends the late Isha she should not wear perfume. He notes that in some narrations, such as al-Nasa'i's, the instruction is to her alone and in others to women in the plural. He asks why every version mentions only the late Isha, rejects the suggestion that only then did women go out, since women went to markets and about their business by day, and says that if perfume outside were haram in general the Prophet would have said so to all women. In his understanding it was an isolated, specific matter, perhaps a particular perfume or overuse, whose reason the hadith does not give, and it does not make perfume haram for all women.", "summary_short": "The report only tells women not to wear perfume to the late Isha, sometimes Zaynab alone, so Mufti Abu Layth reads it as a specific instruction, not a general ban.", "answer_start": 1187, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:127763c2", "label": "report: idha shahidat ihdakunna al-isha al-akhira fa la tamassa tiban (Zaynab al-Thaqafiyya; Sahih Muslim and al-Nasa'i, number not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zaynab-al-thaqafiyya", "label": "Zaynab al-Thaqafiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:busr-ibn-said", "label": "Busr ibn Sa'id [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-nasai", "label": "Sunan al-Nasa'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isha", "label": "Isha (the night prayer)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Zaynab's report, which mentions only the late Isha and in some versions addresses her alone, was a specific instruction for an unstated reason and not a general prohibition of perfume for women.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "in my understanding this was just an isolated incident that may whatever it was it was not a general ruling because if it was a general ruling the Prophet", "start": 1315}}, "url": "/r/bO72u9ThuK8/s/4/"}, {"id": "bO72u9ThuK8/s/5", "short_id": "2018-05-04b-S05", "recording": "bO72u9ThuK8", "n": 5, "start": 1420, "end": 1575, "date": "20180504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abu Hurayra's report that a perfumed woman's prayer needs a ghusl", "question_plain": "Is a woman's prayer rejected if she wears perfume to the mosque?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth discusses the report in Abu Dawud and Musnad Ahmad that Abu Hurayra met a perfumed woman coming from the mosque and told her that the prayer of a woman who wears perfume to the mosque is not accepted until she performs a ghusl like that for janabah. He says this is not a hadith of the Prophet but a statement of Abu Hurayra, transmitted only by Ubayd, the client of Abu Ruhm [?], whom Ibn al-Qattan [?] says is unknown, from him by an unknown Abd al-Karim, and in the better-known chains by Asim ibn Ubaydullah, whom he says a number of critics [?], among them Abu Hatim, Abu Zur'a al-Razi and al-Bukhari, judged weak or munkar al-hadith. He says the report is utterly unacceptable as a hadith of the Prophet, whether or not Abu Hurayra said it, and that nobody holds that a woman's prayer is invalid or that she must take a ritual bath.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the report is a statement attributed to Abu Hurayra through unknown and weak narrators, not a hadith of the Prophet, and no one holds that such a prayer is invalid.", "answer_start": 1420, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:89fbbe22", "label": "report: la tuqbalu salatu imraatin tatayyabat lil-masjid hatta taghtasila ghuslaha min al-janaba (Abu Hurayra; Abu Dawud and Ahmad, number not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ubayd-mawla-abi-ruhm", "label": "Ubayd, client of Abu Ruhm [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asim-ibn-ubaydullah", "label": "Asim ibn Ubaydullah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qattan", "label": "Ibn al-Qattan [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hatim-al-razi", "label": "Abu Hatim al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-zura", "label": "Abu Zur'a al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ghusl", "label": "ghusl"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:majhul", "label": "majhul (unknown narrator)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:munkar", "label": "munkar"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report that a perfumed woman's prayer is not accepted until she bathes is not from the Prophet, rests on unknown and weak narrators, and is followed by no one.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "that hadith is utterly utterly unacceptable as a hadith from the prophet salallahu alaihe salam whether these things somehow above herrera said them or not is a different story but nobody accepts these rulings", "start": 1547}}, "url": "/r/bO72u9ThuK8/s/5/"}, {"id": "bO72u9ThuK8/s/6", "short_id": "2018-05-04b-S06", "recording": "bO72u9ThuK8", "n": 6, "start": 1575, "end": 1683, "date": "20180504", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The ruling: women may wear perfume when they go out", "question_plain": "Can women wear perfume when they go out?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth returns to the main report that a woman who leaves home wearing perfume is a fornicator and asks people not to attribute such slanderous labels to the Prophet, whom he describes as a mercy to the worlds and the most articulate of people, who could simply have said that something was haram without calling women fornicators. He says such words do not befit the Prophet's noble character and advises people to refrain from them. On the general ruling he says that women can of course wear perfume when they go out, that people should smell good and be presentable as a blessing from God, and that the deen is built on hygiene and presentability.", "summary_short": "Yes, women may wear perfume when they go out; Mufti Abu Layth says people should smell good and be presentable, and the slanderous reports must not be attributed to the Prophet.", "answer_start": 1654, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:107", "label": "Quran 21:107 (a mercy to the worlds)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0783df04", "label": "report: ayyuma imraatin istatarat fa marrat ala qawmin li yajidu rihaha fa hiya zaniya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says women may wear perfume when they go out, that everyone should smell good and be presentable, and that the reports calling such women fornicators must not be attributed to the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "yes of course they can work perfume when they go out and people should wear a certain amount of perfume people should always smell good", "start": 1624}}, "url": "/r/bO72u9ThuK8/s/6/"}, {"id": "bU0XXOk5oIU/s/1", "short_id": "2017-05-17b-S01", "recording": "bU0XXOk5oIU", "n": 1, "start": 20, "end": 296, "date": "20170517", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is tarawih eight or twenty rak'ahs? No set number, with eight as the base", "question_plain": "Should I pray 8 or 20 rak'ahs of tarawih?", "summary": "Asked whether tarawih is eight or twenty rak'ahs according to the madhhabs, Mufti Abu Layth says the broad understanding of all four schools is twenty, but that other numbers are transmitted: thirty-six from Imam Malik, who also reports it of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz in Madinah, forty from Imam Ahmad, and eight within the schools, argued for by Taqi al-Din al-Subki among the Shafi'is, favoured to some degree by al-Suyuti, and among the Malikis by Ibn Habib, he believes, and clearly by al-Lakhmi. He notes that Imam Malik transmits both reports of Umar ibn al-Khattab gathering people, with twenty and with eight, in the Muwatta. The understanding he likes is that of Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, and in a similar vein al-Shawkani: tarawih came without a set number, as the night prayer the Prophet established, which many argue is the same as tahajjud; the least nafl the Prophet prayed was eight, so that is the base and anything beyond it is fine. He says the companions often prayed twenty but the number was more coincidental than mandatory, cites Ibn Abd al-Barr listing different numbers in al-Kafi [?], and says neither eight nor twenty is wrong, adding that he personally feels this view makes a lot of sense.", "summary_short": "Tarawih has no fixed number: eight, the least the Prophet prayed, is the base and anything above it is valid. Twenty was the common practice and the schools' broad view, but neither eight nor twenty is wrong.", "answer_start": 20, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting/night-worship-and-laylat-al-qadr", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:tarawih", "label": "tarawih"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rakah", "label": "rak'ah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-ibn-abd-al-aziz", "label": "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:taqi-al-din-al-subki", "label": "Taqi al-Din al-Subki"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-malik-ibn-habib", "label": "Ibn Habib al-Maliki"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-lakhmi", "label": "al-Lakhmi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-kafi-fi-fiqh-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "al-Kafi fi Fiqh Ahl al-Madinah [?] (Ibn Abd al-Barr)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tahajjud", "label": "tahajjud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nafl", "label": "nafl (voluntary prayer)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he would go with and promote the understanding that tarawih has no set number, with eight, the least the Prophet prayed, as the base and anything above it valid.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "I would actually go with that understanding and promote it that we know that the least amount the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam prayed was eight. So, you have that base kind of number. And anything above that is is valid,", "start": 241}}, "url": "/r/bU0XXOk5oIU/s/1/"}, {"id": "bY3zp-4lYFI/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-12-S01", "recording": "bY3zp-4lYFI", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 263, "date": "20201012", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is Muhammad ibn Munir [?] really a mufti? How one becomes a mufti", "question_plain": "Is the preacher Muhammad ibn Munir actually a qualified mufti?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth is asked his thoughts on Mufti Muhammad ibn Munir [?], an American graduate of Medina University. He plays a short humorous clip of a preacher asking an audience how many brothers have more than one wife, saying he is not sure it is the same person and that he is not mocking the clip. Mufti says he first came across the name when someone told him to speak to a mufti at Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, which intrigued him because Salafi institutions have no mufti courses: one becomes a mufti either by government appointment or by completing a certified mufti course, so a Salafi mufti would have had to train in a Deobandi or Barelvi background first. Having checked his videos, he says it turns out he is not a mufti and the title is a nickname that stuck, but that he seems a cool person with a good sense of humour and charisma whom Mufti would love to have on his programme.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Mufti Munir turned out not to be a certified mufti, the title being a nickname, but seems a cool, funny and charismatic person he would like to host.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "guest_overlap"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-munir", "label": "Mufti Muhammad ibn Munir [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:islamic-university-of-madinah", "label": "Islamic University of Madinah"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:green-lane-masjid", "label": "Green Lane Masjid (Birmingham)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mufti", "label": "mufti"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/bY3zp-4lYFI/s/1/"}, {"id": "c8fjy8MceZM/s/1", "short_id": "2019-05-10-S01", "recording": "c8fjy8MceZM", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 309, "date": "20190510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "If a wife converts to Islam, must she leave her non-Muslim husband?", "question_plain": "I converted to Islam but my husband didn't. Do I have to leave him?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up a question he says people, especially women converts, have asked: when one spouse embraces Islam and the other does not, must they separate? He says the advice to leave the husband is home-wrecking and disastrous. He lists scholars who have ruled that the wife may stay, among them Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah, Abdullah al-Judai [?], Yusuf al-Qaradawi [?] and senior figures at al-Azhar, and says he agrees with them, and that the same applies to a husband who converts. On a couple not in a civil marriage, he says a mere dating relationship is different, but an exclusive relationship known to people seems in his understanding to fulfil the conditions of an urfi marriage, so she could remain in it if she wished.", "summary_short": "No: he agrees with scholars such as Abdullah bin Bayyah that a convert wife may stay with her non-Muslim husband, and vice versa. Telling converts to leave their spouses is home-wrecking.", "answer_start": 78, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "society/converts-and-newcomers"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-al-judai", "label": "Abdullah al-Judai [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yusuf-al-qaradawi", "label": "Yusuf al-Qaradawi [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-umar-hashim", "label": "Ahmad Umar Hashim [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-azhar", "label": "al-Azhar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:urf", "label": "urfi marriage (marriage by custom)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees with these scholars that a woman who embraces Islam does not need to leave her non-Muslim husband, and vice versa.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so I to agree with these scholars that the woman does not need to leave her husband", "start": 194}}, "url": "/r/c8fjy8MceZM/s/1/"}, {"id": "c8fjy8MceZM/s/2", "short_id": "2019-05-10-S02", "recording": "c8fjy8MceZM", "n": 2, "start": 309, "end": 537, "date": "20190510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What is nikah? Its linguistic and technical meaning", "question_plain": "What does the word nikah actually mean?", "summary": "To explain the ruling, Mufti Abu Layth goes to the root of what a nikah is: a special or sacred relationship, usually of exclusivity with rights to and for one another, whose meaning can differ by context. He says that linguistically nikah just means sex, while as a technical term it refers to the marriage contract. He illustrates this with an anecdote about an Arabic social media post on attending a nikah that an automatic translation rendered crudely as a contract of sex, and says not to be surprised when translation tools render nikah as sex.", "summary_short": "Linguistically nikah means sex; technically it is the marriage contract, a relationship of exclusivity with mutual rights.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "quran/arabic-language"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that linguistically the term nikah just means sex, while technically it refers to the marriage contract.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "linguistically the term Nika just means sex that's all it means", "start": 386}}, "url": "/r/c8fjy8MceZM/s/2/"}, {"id": "c8fjy8MceZM/s/3", "short_id": "2019-05-10-S03", "recording": "c8fjy8MceZM", "n": 3, "start": 537, "end": 925, "date": "20190510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Non-Muslim marriages are valid in Islam", "question_plain": "Do converts have to redo their marriage after becoming Muslim?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says all Muslims agree that a Muslim nikah has conditions such as offer, acceptance and witnesses or announcement, but the majority hold that non-Muslim marriages, valid by their own rules, are valid for Muslims too, so a Hindu or atheist couple must be honoured as a couple. He cites al-Sarakhsi [?] that non-Muslims who married without witnesses, guardian or mahr are not asked to repeat their nikah on becoming Muslim, and notes the Prophet never asked converts or whole tribes to do so. He compares this to how English courts recognise a marriage certificate from a sovereign state such as Pakistan for a divorce even if it would not meet UK rules. He adds the example of the Prophet's daughter Zaynab, whose husband Abu al-As was a mushrik in Makkah, who later joined her in Madinah under her protection and embraced Islam without their nikah being repeated.", "summary_short": "No: a non-Muslim marriage valid by its own rules is valid in Islam, and converts were never asked to repeat their nikah. The Prophet's daughter Zaynab and her husband are an example.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "society/converts-and-newcomers"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahr", "label": "mahr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-sarakhsi", "label": "al-Sarakhsi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zaynab-bint-muhammad", "label": "Zaynab, daughter of the Prophet"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-al-as-ibn-al-rabi", "label": "Abu al-As ibn al-Rabi'"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the nikah of non-Muslims, valid according to their own rules, is valid for Muslims too.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "deduce from thee that the nikah of the non-muslims is valid", "start": 692}}, "url": "/r/c8fjy8MceZM/s/3/"}, {"id": "c8fjy8MceZM/s/4", "short_id": "2019-05-10-S04", "recording": "c8fjy8MceZM", "n": 4, "start": 925, "end": 1224, "date": "20190510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Aisha's hadith on the four kinds of marriage before Islam", "question_plain": "Did Islam invent marriage?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Nikah, number 5127, in which Aisha says marriage in the Jahiliyyah was of four kinds, one of which is the marriage people still practise today, proposal and acceptance. He says this shows that Islam did not introduce nikah but recognised an existing pre-Islamic practice. He describes, with much joking, the other kinds in the report: a group of fewer than ten men visiting one woman who then names the father, another kind he mentions only briefly, and women who hung flags at their doors, whose children's paternity was decided by an expert in physical resemblance. He concludes that the form that continued was the ordinary one that Islam allowed.", "summary_short": "No: Aisha's hadith lists four kinds of pre-Islamic marriage, and the ordinary one of proposal and acceptance continued with Islam's approval.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/pre-islamic-arabia", "fiqh/marriage-contracts", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:5127", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 5127 (Aisha: marriage in the Jahiliyyah was of four kinds)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jahiliyya", "label": "jahiliyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Aisha's hadith shows that Islam never introduced nikah but recognised a practice already present before Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "it shows us that Islam never introduced Mika he never introduced these things these were practices from jahiliyya", "start": 963}}, "url": "/r/c8fjy8MceZM/s/4/"}, {"id": "c8fjy8MceZM/s/5", "short_id": "2019-05-10-S05", "recording": "c8fjy8MceZM", "n": 5, "start": 1224, "end": 1637, "date": "20190510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Interfaith marriage: the prohibiting verses and the People of the Book", "question_plain": "Which verses forbid or allow marrying non-Muslims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether there are precedents for intermarriage. He presents the objections: the verse that the emigrant women are not lawful for their husbands in Makkah, and al-Baqarah 221, do not marry mushrik women or marry your women to mushrik men until they believe. Against these he reads al-Ma'idah 4-5, which makes lawful the food of the People of the Book and their chaste women, and asks why, if Christians are permitted despite holding Jesus to be Lord, which a report from Ibn Umar calls shirk, others should not be. He rejects the explanation that the food of Christians was the reason, citing Imam Malik and Imam Ahmad that a Muslim husband may not stop his Christian wife bringing wine or pork into his home, and that she will inevitably feed pork to the children, which is why Malik disliked such marriages.", "summary_short": "Al-Baqarah 221 and the verse on the emigrant women are cited against intermarriage, while al-Ma'idah 5 allows marrying Christian and Jewish women. Imam Malik disliked it because a husband may not stop his Christian wife bringing pork and wine home.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:60:10", "label": "Quran 60:10 (they are not lawful for them, nor are they lawful for them)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:221", "label": "Quran 2:221 (do not marry mushrik women until they believe)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:4-5", "label": "Quran 5:4-5 (the food and chaste women of the People of the Book are lawful)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-kitab", "label": "Ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a63dafe9", "label": "report: i do not know of a greater shirk than one who says jesus is her lord"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/c8fjy8MceZM/s/5/"}, {"id": "c8fjy8MceZM/s/6", "short_id": "2019-05-10-S06", "recording": "c8fjy8MceZM", "n": 6, "start": 1637, "end": 1983, "date": "20190510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Zoroastrian and idolater spouses in early opinions, and why same-faith marriage was stressed", "question_plain": "Did any early scholars allow marrying Zoroastrians or idol worshippers?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth notes that Imam Malik in al-Muwatta transmits, unusually, through Ja'far al-Sadiq, Muhammad al-Baqir and Zayn al-Abidin, that Umar did not know what to do about the Zoroastrians and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf reported that the Prophet said to treat them as the People of the Book, which he takes as a sign of mutual respect later obscured by politics. Based on this, he says, Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman, Amr ibn Dinar and others allowed relations with Zoroastrian women, and Tawus, a student of Ibn Abbas, extended it to idol-worshipping women, citing the captives after the battle of Awtas; he refers to his separate segment on slavery and trajectory hermeneutics. He explains that intermarriage was uncommon because early Islam was in an insecure, make-or-break phase that needed Muslim families and society, unlike today with 1.8 billion Muslims. He says he feels that sharing a common faith, especially in family life, is still strongly encouraged.", "summary_short": "Yes: some companions and early scholars allowed relations with Zoroastrian and even idol-worshipping women. Same-faith marriage was stressed because early Islam needed stable Muslim families, and it remains strongly encouraged.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jafar-al-sadiq", "label": "Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-baqir", "label": "Imam Muhammad al-Baqir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zayn-al-abidin", "label": "Ali Zayn al-Abidin"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-rahman-ibn-awf", "label": "Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1bc19689", "label": "report: sunnu bihim sunnata ahl al-kitab (treat the Zoroastrians as the People of the Book; al-Muwatta, numbered 631 in his edition)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:majus", "label": "Majus (Zoroastrians)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hudhayfa-ibn-al-yaman", "label": "Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:amr-ibn-dinar", "label": "Amr ibn Dinar [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tawus", "label": "Tawus [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-awtas", "label": "the battle of Awtas [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that sharing a common faith and common goals is still strongly encouraged, especially in family life.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel that it is still strongly encouraged that that is that you share common faith you share common goals", "start": 1945}}, "url": "/r/c8fjy8MceZM/s/6/"}, {"id": "c8fjy8MceZM/s/7", "short_id": "2019-05-10-S07", "recording": "c8fjy8MceZM", "n": 7, "start": 1983, "end": 2219, "date": "20190510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Is a Muslim and non-Muslim marriage valid? Verse 60:10 and Umar's divorces", "question_plain": "Does Quran 60:10 mean a marriage to a non-Muslim is automatically void?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, without claiming it is good or advisable, he believes a marriage where one spouse is not Muslim is valid, as the scholars he quoted hold. Addressing the verse 'do not hold on to ties with disbelieving women', he argues that if it meant such marriages were void they would have broken automatically, yet when it was revealed Umar divorced his two mushrik wives, Qurayba bint Abi Umayya and Umm Kulthum bint Jarwal [?], and one only divorces a wife whose marriage is valid. He cites Abdullah bin Bayyah that the verse 'they are not lawful for them' concerned the emigrant women after the treaty of Hudaybiyya, whom the Prophet refused to return to Makkah, and not people in general, since marriages to Christians and, by some early opinions, to idolaters and Zoroastrians were permitted. He notes that one scholar records nine opinions on a woman who converts while her husband does not.", "summary_short": "No: Umar divorced his non-Muslim wives after the verse came down, which shows their marriages had been valid. The verse on the emigrant women was specific to the Hudaybiyya context.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:60:10", "label": "Quran 60:10 (do not hold on to ties with disbelieving women)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:qurayba-bint-abi-umayya", "label": "Qurayba bint Abi Umayya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umm-kulthum-bint-jarwal", "label": "Umm Kulthum bint Jarwal [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "talaq (divorce)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:treaty-of-hudaybiyya", "label": "the treaty of Hudaybiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes a marriage between a Muslim and a non-Muslim is valid, without saying it is a good thing or advisable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "it valid and I believe it is valid just as those other of scholars I've quoted", "start": 1983}}, "url": "/r/c8fjy8MceZM/s/7/"}, {"id": "c8fjy8MceZM/s/8", "short_id": "2019-05-10-S08", "recording": "c8fjy8MceZM", "n": 8, "start": 2219, "end": 2448, "date": "20190510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A convert need not try to convert her spouse: Imam Malik's view", "question_plain": "As a convert, should I try to convert my spouse or family?", "summary": "Summing up that a woman who embraces Islam may stay with her non-Muslim husband if she wishes, Mufti Abu Layth adds that she does not have to try to convert him. He says clips were made of him calling him an agent for having told converts not to try to convert their families, and cites al-Mudawwana, transmitted by Ibn al-Qasim, where Imam Malik is asked whether Islam should be presented to the husband of a woman who became Muslim and says it should not, since he knows what Islam is. He says Islam is not cheap and need not throw itself around: there is no harm in speaking about Islam, but no need for an obsession with converting people, and asks whether his critics would call Imam Malik a sellout.", "summary_short": "No need: Imam Malik said Islam should not be pressed on a convert's husband, since he knows what Islam is. Speaking about Islam is fine, but obsessing over converting people is not.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/converts-and-newcomers", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qasim", "label": "Ibn al-Qasim [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is no harm in speaking about Islam but no need for an obsession with trying to convert people.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there's no need for this obsession to try to convert people", "start": 2371}}, "url": "/r/c8fjy8MceZM/s/8/"}, {"id": "c8fjy8MceZM/s/9", "short_id": "2019-05-10-S09", "recording": "c8fjy8MceZM", "n": 9, "start": 2448, "end": 2841, "date": "20190510", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Valid but discouraged: summary on mixed-faith marriage and the children", "question_plain": "Is a marriage between a Muslim and a non-Muslim valid?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth summarises: nikah is a relationship with rights and exclusivity that Islam recognised rather than introduced; Islam honours the marriages of any culture or faith, so converts are not asked to repeat theirs, and by extension a nikah between a Muslim and a non-Muslim would also be valid, as shown by companions such as Umar divorcing their mushrik wives. He stresses that Islam strongly encourages marrying within the faith so that children are raised without conflict between parents, and distinguishes the validity of a marriage from its quality: a Muslim marrying a Hindu would be valid even if it might be a disastrous choice from a faith perspective. Answering chat comments, he says a child does not necessarily follow the father's religion, noting that in Jewish teaching it follows the mother, and closes with light remarks.", "summary_short": "Yes, it would be valid, but it is discouraged: Islam strongly encourages marrying within the faith so children are not raised amid conflict. Validity is not the same as being a good choice.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "relationships/marriage/choosing-a-spouse"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a marriage between a Muslim and a Hindu, for example, would still be valid, though it may be a disastrous choice from a religious perspective.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "even if a Muslim married a Hindu for example that then Macau would still be valid", "start": 2713}}, "url": "/r/c8fjy8MceZM/s/9/"}, {"id": "c9vke9Rpq9o/s/1", "short_id": "2019-09-19b-S01", "recording": "c9vke9Rpq9o", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 150, "date": "20190919", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Building bridges with ex-Muslims, and a preacher's objection", "question_plain": "Should Muslims build bridges with ex-Muslims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains that he recently had long, friendly and civil dialogues with two ex-Muslims, one of whom he names as Harris Sultan [?], in which their views were at loggerheads but neither side was hostile. He says he hopes Muslims can build bridges with ex-Muslims and anyone who has issues with Islam, since we are human beings first and the early converts came to Islam through human connection. He then relates that Asadullah al-Andalusi [?] objected in a post that he could never be friends with such people, who hate Allah and the Prophet, and that doing so would be betrayal, which Mufti characterises as building walls instead of bridges.", "summary_short": "Yes: he hopes Muslims can talk with ex-Muslims and critics as fellow human beings, as the early converts were won by human connection. He contrasts this with a preacher who refused any friendship with them.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:harris-sultan", "label": "Harris Sultan [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:asadullah-al-andalusi", "label": "Asadullah al-Andalusi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he hopes Muslims can build bridges with ex-Muslims and anyone who has issues with Islam, since we are human beings first and foremost.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I hope we can build bridges with X Muslims or anybody who has issues with Islam", "start": 37}}, "url": "/r/c9vke9Rpq9o/s/1/"}, {"id": "c9vke9Rpq9o/s/2", "short_id": "2019-09-19b-S02", "recording": "c9vke9Rpq9o", "n": 2, "start": 150, "end": 417, "date": "20190919", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The age of Aisha: why the story of six or nine is false", "question_plain": "How old was Aisha when she married the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he replied that while some critics are bigots, Muslims are partly to blame: they teach that the Prophet married a six- or nine-year-old and then take offence when people call it paedophilia. He says the story is not true and that, as he explains in a detailed video, Aisha would have been in her late teens, roughly seventeen to nineteen, some saying up to twenty. He cites her age relative to her elder sister, her being allowed onto the battlefield when Ibn Umar was turned away at fourteen, her memory of a Makkan surah revealed years before the hijrah when she was a jariyah, and her prior engagement to Jubayr ibn Mut'im [?], which would be absurd at two or three. He says it is irresponsible for a Muslim to promote that the Prophet married a child of six, and relates that the preacher answered that real scholarly research shows she was a little girl of six.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report that Aisha was six or nine is false and that she was in her late teens, about seventeen to nineteen. Promoting the child-marriage story and then taking offence at the charge of paedophilia is irresponsible.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:asma-bint-abi-bakr", "label": "Asma bint Abi Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Abdullah ibn Umar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jariyah", "label": "jariyah (girl approaching adolescence)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cd7aae33", "label": "report: aisha was a jariyah playing when the verse was revealed"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jubayr-ibn-mutim", "label": "Jubayr ibn Mut'im [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the story that Aisha was six, seven or nine is not true and that she would have been in her late teens.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this story is not true that I share was six years old or seven or nine", "start": 225}}, "url": "/r/c9vke9Rpq9o/s/2/"}, {"id": "c9vke9Rpq9o/s/3", "short_id": "2019-09-19b-S03", "recording": "c9vke9Rpq9o", "n": 3, "start": 417, "end": 787, "date": "20190919", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Challenge to bring sound chains for Aisha's young age", "question_plain": "Are the hadith about Aisha's young age authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth challenges the preacher, if he is not blind following, to bring undisputable chains proving Aisha's young age, saying he will show that each chain is massively flawed, and that a blind follower should not raise his voice. He says the claim is pushed mainly by Wahhabis, but also by some Deobandis, who would throw the honour of the Prophet under the bus to preserve the sanctity of al-Bukhari. In a garbled passage he says the chains rest on narrators such as Hisham ibn Urwa, whom Imam Malik would not accept from, al-A'mash, al-Zuhri and Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i, whom he calls mudallis narrators. He says all the narrations come from Urwa, Aisha's nephew, and raises the possibility that, since some in the first century fabricated stories of affairs against the Prophet's wives, Urwa may have pushed her age back to make such slanders implausible. He adds that those who use these hadith to justify marrying children have a conflict of interest.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says every chain for Aisha's young age is flawed, resting on narrators accused of tadlis and all going back to Urwa. Those who defend them put al-Bukhari's sanctity above the Prophet's honour.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hisham-ibn-urwa", "label": "Hisham ibn Urwa [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-amash", "label": "al-A'mash [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ishaq-al-sabii", "label": "Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis (mudallis)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:urwa-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Urwa ibn al-Zubayr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he can show that every chain brought to prove Aisha's young age is massively flawed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I will show you how each and every one of these chains that you bring is massively flawed", "start": 451}}, "url": "/r/c9vke9Rpq9o/s/3/"}, {"id": "c9vke9Rpq9o/s/4", "short_id": "2019-09-19b-S04", "recording": "c9vke9Rpq9o", "n": 4, "start": 787, "end": 982, "date": "20190919", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Islamic institutes, preachers' depth of learning, and passionate converts", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the preacher was, he believes, referring to the Yaqeen Institute, and that if this is what they promote they need to revisit themselves. He says he respects and applauds Omar Suleiman's social justice work and protests for discriminated communities, but says such preachers have not really studied Islam in depth or qualified through a formal institute, are put on a pedestal by the institution and must then cement it, and were mostly very Wahhabi-inclined at one point. He says Asadullah al-Andalusi [?] once held ridiculous views about killing ex-Muslims and apostates, which he thinks he has since turned away from. He applauds converts for a step he thinks few born Muslims would take, mentioning Hamza Yusuf as one who studied deeply and to whom many are indebted, while noting that some converts with turbulent backgrounds embrace Islam as a cause.", "summary_short": null, "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/converts-and-newcomers"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:yaqeen-institute", "label": "Yaqeen Institute"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:asadullah-al-andalusi", "label": "Asadullah al-Andalusi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/c9vke9Rpq9o/s/4/"}, {"id": "c9vke9Rpq9o/s/5", "short_id": "2019-09-19b-S05", "recording": "c9vke9Rpq9o", "n": 5, "start": 982, "end": 1160, "date": "20190919", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Converts who start teaching at once, with lines of Urdu poetry", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth continues that some people, as soon as they embrace Islam, start teaching it to others. He recites Urdu and Persian verses, poorly captured in the transcript, on a road that does not lead to a destination and on taking two or three steps without completing a journey, and on embracing even those who are not one's own. He says he has never claimed piety, and cites the Quranic rebuke of those who consider their becoming Muslim a favour. He says it bothers him when he sees this, and that it is not exclusive to converts, as many born Muslims tread the same path.", "summary_short": null, "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/converts-and-newcomers", "arts/urdu-poetry"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:49:17", "label": "Quran 49:17 (they consider it a favour to you that they have embraced Islam) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/c9vke9Rpq9o/s/5/"}, {"id": "c9vke9Rpq9o/s/6", "short_id": "2019-09-19b-S06", "recording": "c9vke9Rpq9o", "n": 6, "start": 1160, "end": 1455, "date": "20190919", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Meet hatred with love: extending a hand of humanity to ex-Muslims", "question_plain": "How should Muslims respond to ex-Muslims who hate God?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam is about humanity, not boxing people off, and that hatred should be met with love, as Islam spread in its early time. If someone attacks the Prophet with a story, Muslims should ask where it came from and, if it came from Muslims, question themselves for forwarding it. He says that if someone hates God, it does not hurt God; he need not attack or abuse that person and so prove that religion is bigotry, but can extend a hand of humanity and remain friends. He says he is not telling ex-Muslims or atheists to become Muslim, but that many of them are hurting because they expected much from faith and others stood like a wall between them and it, and he criticises talk of killing them in an ideal Islamic state.", "summary_short": "Meet hatred with love: hating God does not harm God, so there is no need to abuse such people. Many ex-Muslims are hurting, and Muslims can stay their friends.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if someone hates God, Muslims need not attack or abuse them but can extend a hand of humanity and remain friends.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I can extend a hand of humanity a bridge of compassion", "start": 1238}}, "url": "/r/c9vke9Rpq9o/s/6/"}, {"id": "cAjsGNs9EiY/s/1", "short_id": "2020-08-28-S01", "recording": "cAjsGNs9EiY", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 494, "date": "20200828", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "After the dialogue with Edip Yuksel: rejecting all hadith is the other extreme", "question_plain": "Does Edip Yuksel believe in praying five times a day?", "summary": "A chat questioner asks Mufti Abu Layth whether Dr Edip Yuksel believes in praying five times a day, and Mufti says he thinks Edip Yuksel accepts it without seeing it as the primary objective. Mufti says the dialogue shows the difference between himself and someone who truly rejects hadith, and calls rejecting all hadith the opposite extreme to hadith dogmatism such as the report about killing geckos. Answering chat comments that Edip Yuksel bullied him or won, Mufti says he respects him as his senior who dedicated decades to Islam, disagrees with calling people deviants, and says his show probes and cross-examines guests rather than holding debates. Mufti says he agrees with many of the symptoms Edip Yuksel points to, such as the age of Aisha, but not the solution, since everything known about the Prophet, even the move to Medina, comes through the living tradition. Mufti calls the claim that the Quran outlaws slavery a huge stretch, recounts challenging him on the word rabb used for a master in the story of Yusuf, says the Prophet's companions lived a warrior lifestyle yet the Prophet taught compassion, and says the number 19 theory is overdone and Rashad Khalifa's claim that some verses were interpolated is a huge stretch. The next chat question, about the challenge of the Quran, is cut off as the recording ends.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth thinks Edip Yuksel accepts the five prayers but not as the primary objective. Mufti calls rejecting all hadith the opposite extreme to hadith dogmatism, since all we know of early Islam comes through the living tradition.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "dialogue/guest-conversations", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:edip-yuksel", "label": "Edip Yuksel"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:quranist", "label": "Quran-only (Quranist)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:68a420f4", "label": "report: killing geckos is rewarded (unresolved; cited as an example of hadith dogmatism)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "the living tradition as a source"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rabb", "label": "rabb (lord, master)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:41", "label": "Quran 12:41 (one of you will pour wine for his master)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusuf", "label": "Yusuf (Joseph)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rashad-khalifa", "label": "Rashad Khalifa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not buy rejecting all hadith, which he feels is the opposite extreme to hadith dogmatism.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "i don't buy the whole rejecting all hadith i feel it's the opposite extreme of you know you have hadith dogmatists", "start": 38}}, "url": "/r/cAjsGNs9EiY/s/1/"}, {"id": "cHVPqWZ6BeE/s/1", "short_id": "2024-02-28-S01", "recording": "cHVPqWZ6BeE", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 60, "date": "20240228", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A fate worse than death: each of us is a mirror for divine potential", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has spent roughly the last half year immersing himself in the works of great spiritual scholars of Islam and will share that in the coming months. He relates something he read that day: that there is a fate worse than death, which is living to hear the eulogies of the person you could have become. He says each person is a mirror for the divine potential that Allah has gifted, and urges viewers not to let it go to waste.", "summary_short": "Each person mirrors a divine potential given by Allah; do not let it go to waste and live to mourn the person you could have become.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose", "belief/sufism"], "entities": [], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says each of us is a mirror for the divine potential that Allah has gifted and urges people not to let it go to waste.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "each and every one of us folks is a mirror for the Divine potential that Allah has gifted do not let that go to waste", "start": 42}}, "url": "/r/cHVPqWZ6BeE/s/1/"}, {"id": "cHyxRI7Trnk/s/1", "short_id": "2018-11-30-S01", "recording": "cHyxRI7Trnk", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 393, "date": "20181130", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reaction to Omar Suleiman and Yaqeen's conclusion that Aisha was nine", "question_plain": "Was Aisha really nine, as Yaqeen Institute concluded?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says someone sent him a clip of Shaykh Omar Suleiman summarising, in a khutbah, a Yaqeen Institute research project on Aisha's age: several projects were run in parallel, and as Mufti reports it, one allowed that she may have been older while the others concluded overwhelmingly that she was nine. He says he respects Omar Suleiman for his social work and his stand for the rights of Black people, Native Americans and others, but was deeply disappointed by the conclusion and by the closing plea not to reduce Aisha to a number, which he says would not work as a defence in any court. He asks those who defend the narrative what would then be wrong with marrying a child of three or two, and says that the marriage of a six-year-old would be abhorrent and did not happen; he rejects the argument that the Quraysh would have condemned it, saying they did not condemn it because it did not happen. He also rejects Suleiman's statement that it is not a moral judgment, saying it is plainly a moral issue, as slavery is. He refers to his detailed video and says he will later show that the few chains of the report, including Hisham ibn Urwa from his father in Bukhari and the one in Muslim, are all unreliable.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects the conclusion that Aisha was six at marriage and nine at its consummation, saying such a marriage would be morally abhorrent and did not happen. He disputes the claim that the question is not a moral one and says the chains of the report are unreliable.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:yaqeen-institute", "label": "Yaqeen Institute"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7b34dd38", "label": "report: married her when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hisham-ibn-urwa", "label": "Hisham ibn Urwa"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khutbah", "label": "khutbah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a marriage of the Prophet to Aisha at six would be disgusting and did not happen, that the question is plainly a moral one, and that the few chains of the report of her age are all unreliable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "six years old that is a tiny girl that's disgusting that it did not happen", "start": 232}}, "url": "/r/cHyxRI7Trnk/s/1/"}, {"id": "cHyxRI7Trnk/s/2", "short_id": "2018-11-30-S02", "recording": "cHyxRI7Trnk", "n": 2, "start": 393, "end": 627, "date": "20181130", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The year of sorrow and Khawla's suggestion: what a wife could bring the Prophet", "question_plain": "Why was a marriage suggested to the Prophet after the year of sorrow?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says what settled the matter for him is the narrative of the Prophet's life. In the year of sorrow the Prophet lost Khadijah, who supported him and his household, and within months his uncle Abu Talib, who gave him social protection, leaving him vulnerable to attack and boycott, and he was then humiliated and attacked at Ta'if [?]. At that point Khawla [?], who had a maternal role in his life, saw him depressed and suggested he marry, naming a young woman, the daughter of his friend Abu Bakr, and a divorcee, Sawda; he sent proposals to both, and the marriage to Aisha did not go ahead at once because she was already engaged. Mufti then sets out four ways a wife could help the Prophet in that situation: looking after the home and his children, emotional support and companionship, intimacy and tranquillity, and freeing his time for work and helping with his mission, which he says is common sense.", "summary_short": "After the year of sorrow, Khawla suggested the Prophet marry and named Aisha and Sawda. Mufti Abu Layth says a wife was meant to help him with the home and children, companionship, intimacy and his mission.", "answer_start": 393, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:year-of-sorrow", "label": "The year of sorrow"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khadijah", "label": "Khadijah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-talib", "label": "Abu Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khawla-bint-hakim", "label": "Khawla bint Hakim [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sawda-bint-zama", "label": "Sawda bint Zam'a"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the marriage was suggested by Khawla to support the Prophet after the year of sorrow, and that a wife could help him with the home and children, companionship, intimacy and his mission.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "so these aspects are well how a wife could have helped the Prophet at that time of tragedy", "start": 578}}, "url": "/r/cHyxRI7Trnk/s/2/"}, {"id": "cHyxRI7Trnk/s/3", "short_id": "2018-11-30-S03", "recording": "cHyxRI7Trnk", "n": 3, "start": 627, "end": 943, "date": "20181130", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why a six-year-old makes no sense: the narrative, the battles, the engagement and the dates", "question_plain": "What evidence suggests Aisha was older than nine when she married?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth returns to the picture of a six-year-old, younger than the Prophet's own children, and says she could have helped in none of the four ways, so suggesting her marriage would have made no sense. He takes up the reports in Bukhari of Aisha at the battles of Badr and Uhud carrying water and tending the wounded, and the reply, which he says Omar Suleiman also makes, that boys such as Ibn Umar [?] were turned away at fourteen and accepted at fifteen because they were to fight; he argues a fourteen-year-old boy would still have been far more useful than a girl of ten. He points to Aisha's earlier engagement to Jubayr ibn Mut'im [?], broken off because the family feared she would convert their son, and asks how a six-year-old could convert a grown man, concluding that she was at least seventeen when the Prophet proposed. He adds the calculation from her death, which he dates to 50 AH at the age of 67, and her report that she was a young girl (jariyah) who understood things when a verse of Surat al-Qamar was revealed some eight years before the hijra. He begins to say that the only reason some scholars keep the young age is that they lack a precedent.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that a six-year-old could not have been the help the Prophet needed, and that the battle reports, her earlier engagement, her age at death and her memory of a Makkan verse point to her being at least seventeen.", "answer_start": 627, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-badr", "label": "the battle of Badr"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-uhud", "label": "the battle of Uhud"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6ff2ecf8", "label": "report: ibn umar presented at uhud at fourteen and refused presented at fifteen and accepted"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jubayr-ibn-mutim", "label": "Jubayr ibn Mut'im [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cd7aae33", "label": "report: aisha was a jariyah playing when the verse was revealed"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jariyah", "label": "jariyah (girl)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the marriage narrative, the battle reports, Aisha's earlier engagement to Jubayr ibn Mut'im, her age at death and her memory of a verse revealed in Makkah all indicate that she was at least seventeen when the Prophet proposed.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "at that time when the Prophet approached her she was at least seventeen at least that's what the maths show", "start": 813}}, "url": "/r/cHyxRI7Trnk/s/3/"}, {"id": "cHyxRI7Trnk/s/4", "short_id": "2018-11-30-S04", "recording": "cHyxRI7Trnk", "n": 4, "start": 943, "end": 1219, "date": "20181130", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why scholars hold back: precedent, medieval consensus, and reports that blemish the Prophet", "question_plain": "Why do some scholars still insist Aisha was nine?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the sensible scholars who keep the young age do so not to provoke the West, which he says only others do, but because they lack the courage to stand without a precedent: if one Salafi authority such as al-Albani had said it, he says, they would all say it. He replies that it was not a debate in the medieval period, and that medieval scholars also held slavery to be acceptable and claimed consensus on it, which no one would say today. As a further example he cites a fatwa of Ibn Taymiyya, which he says is easily found, that a Muslim who enters non-Muslim territory without permission may keep what he steals, because the wealth of non-Muslims in Dar al-Harb has no protection; Mufti calls this utterly haram and says most scholars of that age may have accepted it because the world then dehumanised the other side, as non-Muslims did Muslims. He concludes that no hadith provides certain knowledge, being khabar ahad, while the honour of the Prophet is conclusive, so an inconclusive report that blemishes it is rejected. He ends by repeating his disappointment that the project reached the same conclusion while urging people not to reduce Aisha to a number, comparing that to a defence no court would accept.", "summary_short": "Lacking an earlier authority is no reason to keep the young age, since medieval scholars also accepted slavery and other rulings no one would defend today. No hadith gives certain knowledge, so an inconclusive report that blemishes the Prophet's honour is rejected.", "answer_start": 943, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dar-al-harb", "label": "Dar al-Harb"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:yaqeen-institute", "label": "Yaqeen Institute"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the lack of an earlier authority is no reason to keep the young age, since medieval scholars also held slavery acceptable and gave rulings he calls haram, and that because no hadith gives certain knowledge, an inconclusive report that blemishes the Prophet's honour is rejected.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "so the honour of the Prophet is conclusive if anything will bring a blemish to the honour of the Prophet and it is inconclusive it's based on huh bro a hard we reject it", "start": 1122}}, "url": "/r/cHyxRI7Trnk/s/4/"}, {"id": "cKWRLHtBYgo/s/1", "short_id": "2018-01-14-S01", "recording": "cKWRLHtBYgo", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 329, "date": "20180114", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Green Lane khutbah against him: 'how can a jahil be a mufti', mocking the deen, blaming parents", "question_plain": "What did the Green Lane Masjid khutbah say about Mufti Abu Layth?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has been sent a clip of another Jumu'ah khutbah from Green Lane Masjid in which a segment was dedicated to him; the video carried his name, though the maulana referred to him only as 'this mufti on Facebook who dresses like this and makes jokes'. He reports the maulana's argument that a jahil cannot be a mufti, and mocks its reasoning as 'how can a person be capable when he is incapable'. He reports the further charges that he mocks the deen of Allah, mocks the people of tawhid and mocks hadith, and remarks that he is also one of the people of tawhid and asks why the maulana distinguishes between them. He says that while he is not dissing all Salafis, the Salafis of Green Lane seem very upset, and contrasts a globally funded multi-million pound organisation with himself as one person using Facebook for free. He reports the maulana blaming the parents of those who follow him online for never teaching them tawhid and the correct aqidah, and jokes that he blames his own parents too and that everyone should sit their parents down for that chat.", "summary_short": "The khutbah called him a jahil who cannot be a mufti, said he mocks the deen, the people of tawhid and hadith, and blamed his followers' parents for not teaching them the correct aqidah. Mufti Abu Layth reports each charge with mockery and notes a well-funded Salafi organisation targeting one man on Facebook.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zakaullah-saleem", "label": "Maulana Zakaullah Saleem [?] (imam at Green Lane Masjid; named in the video description)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:green-lane-masjid", "label": "Green Lane Masjid (Birmingham)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khutbah", "label": "khutbah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jahil", "label": "jahil (ignorant person)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawhid", "label": "tawhid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah (creed)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mufti", "label": "mufti"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/cKWRLHtBYgo/s/1/"}, {"id": "cKWRLHtBYgo/s/2", "short_id": "2018-01-14-S02", "recording": "cKWRLHtBYgo", "n": 2, "start": 329, "end": 617, "date": "20180114", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Aqidah as a construction of the ages, and a challenge to prove it from the Quran and Sunnah alone", "question_plain": "Can the detailed aqidah taught today be proven from the Quran and Sunnah alone?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, to be honest, everybody's aqidah is something Muslims have put together over the ages: the Prophet taught simple belief in Allah, revelation, the afterlife and Allah's control of everything, and never taught the way these people teach, so anyone who says otherwise is misattributing. He extends an offer to the maulana, since he has called him out as a jahil, which he says he is: come face to face and prove that this aqidah is taught exclusively and explicitly from the Quran and Sunnah, which he guarantees a hundred percent cannot be done, and since he is a jahil it should not be difficult to disprove him. He calls it a humble offer, says he respects the maulana as a senior, and asks what he says. He closes with a poet's couplet about arms that are tried and tested, which no one will be able to lift against, says he will move on to the questions, and repeats that he is not dissing Salafis in general.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says aqidah as taught today was put together by Muslims over the ages, while the Prophet taught only simple belief. He challenges the maulana to a face-to-face meeting to prove his aqidah exclusively from the Quran and Sunnah, guaranteeing it cannot be done.", "answer_start": 329, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zakaullah-saleem", "label": "Maulana Zakaullah Saleem [?] (imam at Green Lane Masjid; named in the video description)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:green-lane-masjid", "label": "Green Lane Masjid (Birmingham)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah (creed)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawhid", "label": "tawhid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jahil", "label": "jahil (ignorant person)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/cKWRLHtBYgo/s/2/"}, {"id": "cV8ZMcMyPk0/s/1", "short_id": "2020-11-17-S01", "recording": "cV8ZMcMyPk0", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 166, "date": "20201117", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Open challenge to Salafi scholars: prove your aqidah from the Quran alone", "question_plain": "Would the Mufti debate a Salafi scholar on aqidah?", "summary": "Asked whether he would debate Salafi scholars, Mufti Abu Layth issues an open challenge to any learned Salafi to come on his channel and debate their aqidah. His condition is that they prove their aqidah valid, and obligatory as they preach it, from the Quran alone, without hadith or quotations from Ibn Taymiyya. He says he guarantees and would swear by Allah that none of them can do so clearly and conclusively, even with all their minds together and one spokesperson. He recalls an earlier meeting in which someone who came to debate him was left unable to answer.", "summary_short": "Yes: he challenges any learned Salafi to prove their aqidah obligatory from the Quran alone. He says he is sure none can do it clearly.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he guarantees that no Salafi scholar can clearly prove from the Quran alone that the Salafi aqidah, as they preach it, is valid and a must.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "i guarantee you they won't be able to prove their ah either from the quran quran only", "start": 85}}, "url": "/r/cV8ZMcMyPk0/s/1/"}, {"id": "cVGwFnbQv0Q/s/1", "short_id": "2018-10-25-S01", "recording": "cVGwFnbQv0Q", "n": 1, "start": 5, "end": 393, "date": "20181025", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Quran's rhetoric about Jesus: the Word of God and the Holy Spirit", "question_plain": "Why does the Quran call Jesus the Word of God and mention the Holy Spirit with him?", "summary": "Taking up Yasir Qadhi's remark that people who challenge the virgin birth are deviants, Mufti Abu Layth first says the Quran's language about Jesus is styled in ways no Muslim believes literally. He cites the glad tidings to Mary of a word from God in Al Imran (3:45, which he cites as verse 43) and al-Nisa 4:171 (cited as 170), which calls the Messiah God's messenger, his word cast to Mary and a spirit from him, and compares this to the opening of the Gospel of John; he argues that if God's word is uncreated this would tie into Jesus being uncreated, and that the reply that Jesus had no father fails because Adam had none and is not called the Word of God. He lists the verses in which Jesus is helped with the Holy Spirit, 2:87, 2:253 and 5:110, and says the term is used of no other prophet except once of revelation, suggesting this Christian rhetoric was perhaps used to build bridges with Christians and bring them closer to Islam. Checking a verse suggested to him, 58:22, he finds it speaks of a spirit from Him, not the Holy Spirit, which people identify with Jibril, and concludes that the rhetoric about Jesus is different before turning to the virgin birth.", "summary_short": "The Quran uses terms of Jesus that it uses of no other prophet, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, which Muslims do not take literally. He suggests this Christian rhetoric was perhaps meant to build bridges with Christians.", "answer_start": 5, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:45", "label": "Quran 3:45 (a word from Him, the Messiah Jesus son of Mary; he cites it as 3:43)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:171", "label": "Quran 4:171 (the Messiah, messenger of Allah and His word; he cites it as 4:170)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:87", "label": "Quran 2:87 (we helped him with the Holy Spirit)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:253", "label": "Quran 2:253 (we gave him clear signs and helped him with the Holy Spirit)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:110", "label": "Quran 5:110 (O Jesus, remember my blessing; I helped you with the Holy Spirit; captioned as verse 115)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:58:22", "label": "Quran 58:22 (strengthened them with a spirit from Him)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-john", "label": "Gospel of John"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril (Gabriel)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalimat-allah", "label": "kalimat Allah (the Word of God)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh-al-qudus", "label": "ruh al-qudus (the Holy Spirit)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran uses Christian rhetoric about Jesus, such as the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, perhaps in order to build bridges between the Muslim and Christian communities.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there's a lot of rhetoric being used when it comes to Jesus that was generally the kind of Christian rhetoric that is used in the Quran perhaps in a sense of building bridges between the Muslim and Christian communities", "start": 194}}, "url": "/r/cVGwFnbQv0Q/s/1/"}, {"id": "cVGwFnbQv0Q/s/2", "short_id": "2018-10-25-S02", "recording": "cVGwFnbQv0Q", "n": 2, "start": 393, "end": 703, "date": "20181025", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The virgin birth: early Christians, Mary's marriage, and the Muslim difference of opinion", "question_plain": "Does the Quran actually say Mary had a virgin birth?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that apart from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew the Bible hardly refers to a virgin birth, that the early Christians most likely did not believe in one, that the Old Testament prophecy they rely on uses almah, a young maiden who need not be a virgin, and that the letters of Paul never mention a miraculous birth, which became doctrine by the second or third century. He says Mary is never called the Virgin Mary in Islam, that she was married and most likely did not remain a virgin throughout her life as the Catholic Church holds, since the Gospels of Mark and Matthew name James, Joses, Jude, Simon and unnamed sisters as her children. He stresses that he has not said people cannot believe in the virgin birth, only that Muslims have differed on it: it is the general belief, but no verse of the Quran says it directly, a verse only implies it as the table verse implies the table came down, and he challenges Qadhi to show a clear verse. He then presents the scholars who held a natural birth, Abdul Karim Athari [?] and Tamanna Imadi [?] among them, who read the miracle as Joseph abstaining from intimacy until the angel's announcement, after which Mary conceived naturally, as the wives of Ibrahim and Zakariya did after their announcements.", "summary_short": "No verse of the Quran directly says Jesus was born of a virgin; a verse implies it, and Muslims have differed on it. Mary was married, is never called the Virgin Mary in Islam, and most likely did not remain a virgin all her life.", "answer_start": 393, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-luke", "label": "Gospel of Luke"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-matthew", "label": "Gospel of Matthew"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-mark", "label": "Gospel of Mark"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:almah", "label": "almah (young maiden)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:catholic-church", "label": "Catholic Church"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:112-115", "label": "Quran 5:112-115 (the table asked for by the disciples)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tamanna-imadi", "label": "Tamanna Imadi [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zakariya", "label": "Zakariya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that no verse of the Quran directly says that Mary's was a virgin birth, though a verse implies it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "that you do have that as a general belief that Muslims feel that Mary had a virgin birth although no verse in the Quran says that she had in birth a verse implies it does not say", "start": 545}}, "url": "/r/cVGwFnbQv0Q/s/2/"}, {"id": "cVGwFnbQv0Q/s/3", "short_id": "2018-10-25-S03", "recording": "cVGwFnbQv0Q", "n": 3, "start": 703, "end": 1223, "date": "20181025", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Surah al-Tahrim, Surah Maryam, and the arguments for a natural birth of Jesus", "question_plain": "What verses do Muslims use to argue Jesus had a natural birth with a father?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads 66:12, that Mary guarded her private parts and 'we breathed into it of our spirit', noting that ahsanat is used of chastity through marriage as in 4:24, and says no Muslim he knows takes this verse literally, so Yasir Qadhi cannot insist on every literal implication elsewhere. He reads the annunciation in Surah Maryam, 19:16-22, where the spirit, generally understood as Jibril though the verse does not say so, appears as a man and says he will give her a pure boy, which Muslims do not take literally either, and asks where it says the conception was virginal; he says he accepts that it implies it, as the table verse implies, but that God could have said plainly that Jesus had no father and never does. He then presents the arguments of those who held a natural birth, naming Abdul Karim Athari [?], his teacher Inayatullah Athari [?] and Tamanna Imadi [?]: 6:85-87 lists Zakariya, Yahya, Isa and other prophets and then 'their fathers', which they say weighs on the side of Jesus having a father; and 6:101, where God argues that he cannot have a child since he has no companion, an argument they say only makes sense if all births follow the natural order. He says it is entirely up to people what they believe, but that declaring such readers deviant or no longer mainstream Muslims when the Quran does not say it is a huge stretch.", "summary_short": "The Quran implies a virgin conception but never states it, and the scholars who held Jesus had a father argue from 6:85-87 and 6:101. People may believe either, but calling those scholars deviant is a huge stretch.", "answer_start": 703, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:66:12", "label": "Quran 66:12 (Mary who guarded her chastity; we breathed into it of our spirit)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:24", "label": "Quran 4:24 (al-muhsanat, the married women)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:19:16-22", "label": "Quran 19:16-22 (the annunciation to Mary)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:85-87", "label": "Quran 6:85-87 (Zakariya, Yahya, Isa ... and their fathers)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:101", "label": "Quran 6:101 (how can He have a child when He has no companion)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:112-115", "label": "Quran 5:112-115 (the table asked for by the disciples)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril (Gabriel)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:inayatullah-athari", "label": "Inayatullah Athari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tamanna-imadi", "label": "Tamanna Imadi [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that declaring those who read the Quran as not teaching a virgin birth deviant or no longer mainstream Muslims is a huge stretch, when the Quran itself does not actually say it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "they've lost the plot they they no longer main three Muslims they no longer this they no longer that because they have this reading of the Quran when the Quran itself doesn't actually say that that's a huge stretch", "start": 1200}}, "url": "/r/cVGwFnbQv0Q/s/3/"}, {"id": "d95_pYj6NiA/s/1", "short_id": "2014-04-12-S01", "recording": "d95_pYj6NiA", "n": 1, "start": 4, "end": 241, "date": "20140412", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Trimming the beard below a fist: permissible, with a recognised difference of opinion", "question_plain": "Can I trim my beard short or to a goatee, below a fist's length?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up a question posed to him for some time: whether it is permissible to have a beard trimmed from the sides, a goatee, or a beard trimmed so that it is small and all round. He says first that this is permissible and not haram, while recognising that there is a difference of opinion among the ulama, which he does not deny, and that anyone is welcome to follow the other opinions. What he will demonstrate, he says, is that there is a valid opinion backed by many classical scholars up to the present day that trimming the beard from the sides or having it less than a fist in length is permissible. He adds that anyone who replies that a particular shaykh said it must be a fistful and has a hadith to prove it is not being contradicted: he is not saying there is no evidence for the other view, only proving that this opinion exists, has existed and continues to do so within the tradition of the deen. He closes with the definition of the beard, the lihyah, as what grows on the lower jaw, which many though not all of the fuqaha agree is what grows on the chin, with some disagreement about how far along the jaw it extends.", "summary_short": "Trimming the beard from the sides, to a goatee or to less than a fist's length is permissible and not haram, though a difference of opinion exists and others may follow it. Mufti Abu Layth's aim is to show that this opinion has a long and continuing place in the tradition.", "answer_start": 82, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:lihyah", "label": "lihyah (beard)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ikhtilaf", "label": "ikhtilaf (difference of opinion)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:faqih", "label": "fuqaha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that trimming the beard from the sides, to a goatee or to less than a fist's length is permissible and not haram, while recognising a valid difference of opinion that others may follow.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so first of all I'd like to say that this is permissible this is not Haram okay I do recognize that there is a difference of opinion amongst the", "start": 85}}, "url": "/r/d95_pYj6NiA/s/1/"}, {"id": "d95_pYj6NiA/s/2", "short_id": "2014-04-12-S02", "recording": "d95_pYj6NiA", "n": 2, "start": 241, "end": 556, "date": "20140412", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Classical and modern scholars who held that trimming or shaving the beard is not haram", "question_plain": "Which scholars have allowed trimming or shaving the beard?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth surveys the scholars who held that trimming the beard, or even shaving it, is not haram. He begins with a Maliki commentator on Sahih Muslim [?] who, speaking of shaving the beard completely, says it is not haram but simply discouraged, which Mufti says is the position of the Maliki school and of some other fuqaha: better not to do it, but no blame if one does, so that it stays within permissibility. He cites another scholar [?] who defines the beard as only what is on the lower chin, and others from the other schools of law who wrote that trimming, especially trimming right down, is not haram but makruh, with one view [?] allowing it to be trimmed almost down to stubble. He then lists modern scholars across the schools up to the present day who gave fatwas to this effect or practised it in person, among them muftis of Tunisia [?], shaykhs of al-Azhar [?], Muhammad Abu Zahra [?], a scholar from Kuwait [?], a scholar who was clean-shaven for a good while [?] and Hamza al-Kattani [?]; some kept their beards very trimmed, some a thin line, some a goatee and some were almost clean-shaven. He concludes that this opinion has clearly existed and continues to do so.", "summary_short": "Maliki and other classical jurists held that trimming or even shaving the beard is at most makruh, not haram, and many modern scholars across the schools have given the same fatwa or kept trimmed, goateed or clean-shaven beards themselves. Mufti Abu Layth presents this to show the opinion's long standing, not to deny the other view.", "answer_start": 241, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair", "fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim (a Maliki commentary on it) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-zahra", "label": "Muhammad Abu Zahra [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-al-kattani", "label": "Hamza al-Kattani [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the view that trimming or even shaving the beard is at most makruh and not haram has been held by Maliki and other classical jurists and by many modern scholars, some of whom were themselves trimmed, goateed or clean-shaven.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "many of these have all written very clearly that it is not Haram to trim or even shave but especially to trim right down the beard they've not considered it haram", "start": 351}}, "url": "/r/d95_pYj6NiA/s/2/"}, {"id": "d95_pYj6NiA/s/3", "short_id": "2014-04-12-S03", "recording": "d95_pYj6NiA", "n": 3, "start": 556, "end": 798, "date": "20140412", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The three sound hadith on the beard: moustache and beard together, and being different", "question_plain": "What do the sound hadith about the beard actually say?", "summary": "Turning to the evidence relied on by the scholars who permit trimming, and not the evidence of those who require a fistful, Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith that speak of growing the beard, though many, are reduced to three whose chains are not disputed, the others having some discussion in their chains. All three contain two commands, a word commonly interpreted as growing the beard and trimming the moustache right down. One, in Sahih Muslim, says to be different to the mushrikin [?]; the hadith of Abu Hurayra [?] in the Musnad of Ahmad says to be different to the Majus, the Zoroastrians, trimming the moustache and releasing the beard, where he notes that one linguistic meaning of the word used is actually to trim; and a third hadith [?], also in the Musnad of Ahmad, has the Prophet coming out to a gathering and, in one wording, using a word that means a goatee, telling them to leave it and be different to the others. He draws two points: in all three the moustache and the beard are combined, and each carries a stipulation to be different from the Jews and Christians, the Majus or the mushrikin. Many take this as an obligatory command, but he says other hadith show quite differently and begins to turn to them as the part ends.", "summary_short": "Only three hadith on the beard have undisputed chains, and each pairs trimming the moustache with the beard and gives the reason of differing from the Jews and Christians, the Majus or the mushrikin. Many read this as an obligatory command, but Mufti Abu Layth says other hadith show otherwise.", "answer_start": 556, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3e31381a", "label": "report: be different to the mushrikin trim the moustaches and let the beards grow"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b3bd592a", "label": "report: trim the moustache and release the beard and be different to the majus"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8737fe17", "label": "report: the prophet came out to a gathering and said leave the goatee and be different to them"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:majus", "label": "Majus (Zoroastrians)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:resemblance-to-non-muslim-religious-practice", "label": "prohibition explained by resemblance to a non-Muslim religious practice"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the sound hadith on the beard reduce to three, each pairing the moustache with the beard and giving the reason of being different from non-Muslims, and that the command need not be read as obligatory, as other hadith show.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "now many people have interpreted this to mean that it is an obligatory command a mandatory command but we see quite differently from other Hadith", "start": 749}}, "url": "/r/d95_pYj6NiA/s/3/"}, {"id": "dECxAg9D9g8/s/1", "short_id": "2019-01-15-S01", "recording": "dECxAg9D9g8", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 393, "date": "20190115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Backdrop: trolling by Ahmadis and the video that prompted the reply", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has to give the backdrop to why he is addressing the Qadianis: over the past few days he has been trolled online by Ahmadis after one of them made a video about him, which he finds embarrassing and mocks. He says he has not been picking on Ahmadis and has spoken against the persecution of anyone, including them. He describes the video as claiming that anything sensible he has said he took from the Ahmadis, such as his view that there is no second coming of Jesus, though he says his own video explains that the messiah concept is what gave rise to the Ahmadiyya, and that there is no killing of apostates, and as replaying clips of him saying tattoos are not haram. A short clip of the video's maker is played, in which he says the Prophet brought the last shari'ah and is the last law-bearing prophet. Mufti says he was repeatedly tagged, warned that he would respond, and that dozens of accounts then flooded his posts, so that he blocked around forty; one person then emailed him, and he says he put a sincere question to him about Mirza Ghulam.", "summary_short": "The reply was prompted by an Ahmadi video claiming Mufti Abu Layth borrowed his views from them, followed by days of online trolling. Mufti says he opposes persecution of Ahmadis but will respond.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "society/technology-and-media"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/dECxAg9D9g8/s/1/"}, {"id": "dECxAg9D9g8/s/2", "short_id": "2019-01-15-S02", "recording": "dECxAg9D9g8", "n": 2, "start": 393, "end": 872, "date": "20190115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Who Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was and the claim that God spoke to him in Punjabi", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will share the emails anyway, then turns to explaining who Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian was, showing a printed photograph and remarking repeatedly on his looks. He says he was born in 1839 in Punjab. He recounts an exchange with a convert to Ahmadiyya who said she believed God spoke to Mirza, and that he asked whether she really believed God spoke to him in Punjabi. He then puts his argument: in an age of colonialism, mass killing and the plunder of resources, the idea that God would break the laws of nature and intervene in free will by having a chat with a man in Punjabi, with no change following, is not a credible divine plan. The segment ends with an extended comparison of Mirza's photograph with a social-media personality known for photoshopped pictures, which Mufti says is not an insult because Mirza later claimed to be an incarnation of Krishna.", "summary_short": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born in 1839 in Punjab. Mufti Abu Layth argues that God intervening in an age of colonial suffering by merely talking to one man in Punjabi, with nothing changing, is not a credible divine plan.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/dECxAg9D9g8/s/2/"}, {"id": "dECxAg9D9g8/s/3", "short_id": "2019-01-15-S03", "recording": "dECxAg9D9g8", "n": 3, "start": 872, "end": 1266, "date": "20190115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's developing claims: reformer, messiah, prophet, Krishna", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many Ahmadis argue that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad never claimed prophethood and quote his books, which he calls a half-truth: Mirza went on a developmental journey, proclaiming himself a revivalist and reformer in 1884, announcing seven years later that he was the promised messiah, claiming prophethood in 1901 and claiming to be Krishna in 1904. In reply to a chat comment he clarifies that Punjab is largely in Pakistan and has nothing to do with Sikhs, and allows that some Ahmadis may not accept Mirza as a prophet though most do. He mentions Mirza's addiction to certain drugs while saying he is not judging. He then quotes claims from Mirza's writings: that an angel comes to him and that Jibril was renamed; that he swore by Allah that these were the words of Allah revealed to him; from Ruhani Khaza'in, that God placed his name as a nabi and called him the promised messiah and that revelation kept coming like rain addressing him as a prophet; his son Mirza Bashiruddin's statement that the door of prophethood remains open after the Prophet Muhammad; and the words 'I am Adam, I am Noah, I am David, I am Jesus the son of Mary and I am Muhammad'. He says Mirza called his new law the Ark of Noah, wrote that blessed is the one who recognises him, and that his followers send salat and salam upon him and call him the imam of creation, as in the Ahmadi paper Al-Fazl [?].", "summary_short": "The claim that Mirza never claimed prophethood is a half-truth: he began as a reformer in 1884, then claimed to be the promised messiah, a prophet in 1901 and Krishna in 1904. Mufti Abu Layth quotes these claims from Mirza's own books.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-bashiruddin-mahmud-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:ruhani-khazain", "label": "Ruhani Khaza'in (Spiritual Treasures)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:kashti-nuh", "label": "Kashti-e-Nuh (The Ark of Noah)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-fazl", "label": "Al-Fazl [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabi", "label": "nabi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the claim that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad never claimed prophethood is a half-truth, since his early writings disclaim it but from 1891 onward he claimed to be the promised messiah, then a prophet, then Krishna.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he did not claim to be a prophet some people will say this to you and and they will quote you his books right now the interesting thing is that's partially true that's a half truth", "start": 875}}, "url": "/r/dECxAg9D9g8/s/3/"}, {"id": "dECxAg9D9g8/s/4", "short_id": "2019-01-15-S04", "recording": "dECxAg9D9g8", "n": 4, "start": 1266, "end": 1663, "date": "20190115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Early denials, the second coming, revelations in English and claims of divinity", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Mirza's early books, such as A'ina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam [?], do say that anyone claiming prophethood after the Prophet is cursed and that he is not a prophet but one addressed by God, which Ahmadis cite, but that this belongs to his early years, since in the Ark of Noah he writes that he is the one meant by Mary and Christ. He distinguishes the Ahmadi denial of the second coming of Jesus, which he says exists because Mirza was to be that Christ, from the denial by scholars he lists, including shaykhs of al-Azhar, Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida, Shaltut, Mustafa al-Maraghi, Abul Kalam Azad, Ubaydullah Sindhi [?] and Iqbal, who held that Islam was completed with the Prophet. Agreeing with a chat comment, he says he believes Mirza was not lying but had mental health problems, which is why he faults him less than his followers. He then quotes further claims: that God spoke to Mirza in English, saying 'I love you'; that Quranic verses such as 'we have raised your praise' and 'we have not sent you except as a mercy' were revealed about him; that new Quranic verses came to him, including one placing revelation near Qadian; that al-Masjid al-Aqsa of the night journey was his mosque in Qadian, as virtuous as Makkah, so that those unable to perform hajj could come there; that late in life he claimed to be Krishna after a dream of Hindus prostrating to him; and, from A'ina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam [?] and Kitab al-Bariyya, that he saw in a dream or vision that he was the Lord and firmly believed it.", "summary_short": "Mirza's early denials of prophethood were superseded by later claims to be Christ, to receive Quranic verses, to own the real al-Aqsa and to be God. Mufti Abu Layth believes Mirza was mentally unwell rather than lying.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "belief/eschatology"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:aina-kamalat-i-islam", "label": "A'ina-e-Kamalat-e-Islam [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:kashti-nuh", "label": "Kashti-e-Nuh (The Ark of Noah)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:kitab-al-bariyya", "label": "Kitab al-Bariyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rashid-rida", "label": "Rashid Rida"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mahmud-shaltut", "label": "Mahmud Shaltut"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mustafa-al-maraghi", "label": "Mustafa al-Maraghi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abul-kalam-azad", "label": "Abul Kalam Azad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ubaydullah-sindhi", "label": "Ubaydullah Sindhi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-iqbal", "label": "Allama Muhammad Iqbal"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:94:4", "label": "Quran 94:4"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:107", "label": "Quran 21:107"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:isra-and-miraj", "label": "the night journey (al-Isra)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was not lying but had mental health problems, and that the Ahmadi denial of the second coming rests on Mirza's claim to be the awaited Christ.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "i actually do feel that he it wasn't about him lying i feel that he had mental health issues i actually do believe this", "start": 1375}}, "url": "/r/dECxAg9D9g8/s/4/"}, {"id": "dECxAg9D9g8/s/5", "short_id": "2019-01-15-S05", "recording": "dECxAg9D9g8", "n": 5, "start": 1663, "end": 2137, "date": "20190115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's unfulfilled prophecies, the mubahala oaths and his death", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth jokes about the hadith 'indeed God is beautiful' in light of the claims, then quotes Mirza writing that he had given commandments and prescribed laws for his followers and named his shari'ah the Ark of Noah. He lists prophecies he says were not fulfilled: that Mirza would live to at least eighty; that he would marry Muhammadi Begum [?]; that God would give him another son and more virtuous wives; that he would marry a certain widow; and that he would die in Makkah or Madinah. He describes Mirza's opponent Sanaullah Amritsari [?], of the Ahl al-Hadith movement, who debated him and with whom he entered a mubahala, an oath that the liar would die first, and says Mirza did the same with a man he describes as a Christian, Dr Abdul Hakim [?], and died first in both cases. He says Mirza died of cholera, which he had earlier called a curse from God, and of bowel illness, reading from his son's biography the account of repeated bouts of diarrhoea and of the attending doctors' note that he had too much dryness and could not speak, and shows a photograph from his final days.", "summary_short": "Mirza's prophecies about living to eighty, further marriages, another son and dying in Makkah or Madinah were not fulfilled, and he died first after mubahala oaths. He died of cholera and bowel illness, as his son's biography records.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:kashti-nuh", "label": "Kashti-e-Nuh (The Ark of Noah)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sanaullah-amritsari", "label": "Sanaullah Amritsari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-bashir-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Bashir Ahmad [?], author of the biography"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mubahala", "label": "mubahala"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2a4080d4", "label": "report: indeed allah is beautiful"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's prophecies about his lifespan, his marriages, a further son and his place of death were not fulfilled, and that he died of cholera and bowel illness.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "i'll tell you about some of the uh prophecies he made that weren't for foot i mean obviously they weren't fulfilled", "start": 1717}}, "url": "/r/dECxAg9D9g8/s/5/"}, {"id": "dECxAg9D9g8/s/6", "short_id": "2019-01-15-S06", "recording": "dECxAg9D9g8", "n": 6, "start": 2137, "end": 2453, "date": "20190115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Final thoughts: mental health, persecution, free speech and the victim card", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he genuinely believes Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was mentally unstable and finds his followers' passionate belief more surprising than his claims. He says the early Ahmadis were extreme in declaring other Muslims kafir, which is why Muslims reacted harshly, and that he condemns any persecution of them while calling the constant playing of the victim card nonsense. He rejects the accusation that mocking the claims means supporting killing or terrorism, saying that Ahmadis have the freedom to say God sent Mirza and Muslims have the freedom to criticise that. He says that not declaring Ahmadis Muslims does not add to persecution, just as the wrongful persecution of Christians in some Muslim countries does not require calling Christians Muslims, and notes that Ahmadi websites call homosexuals sinners while claiming not to be homophobic. He repeats his shock at days of trolling, expresses sympathy for anyone with mental health difficulties, and signs off.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth condemns any persecution of Ahmadis but says criticising their beliefs is free speech, not persecution, and that not calling them Muslims does not amount to persecuting them.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth condemns any persecution of Ahmadis but holds that criticising their beliefs is free speech, not persecution, and that not declaring them Muslims does not add to their persecution.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i don't justify and i condem any persecution of them i condemn that but i'm being honest look just playing the victim card all the time it's just nonsense", "start": 2198}}, "url": "/r/dECxAg9D9g8/s/6/"}, {"id": "dROSEctL_tQ/s/1", "short_id": "2018-12-24-S01", "recording": "dROSEctL_tQ", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 331, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The story of Musa and the servant of Allah in Surah al-Kahf and al-Bukhari", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens Surah al-Kahf at verse 60, where the story of Musa and his young companion, named in the hadith as Joshua (Yusha), begins. Mufti summarises the story: the fish slips into the sea where the two seas meet, they find a servant of Allah given special knowledge, who damages a ship, kills a boy and repairs a wall while Musa objects each time, and who finally explains that he acted on God's instruction. He says the fuller account is in Sahih al-Bukhari [?], hadith 4725 in the book of tafsir, which begins with Ibn Abbas being told that a storyteller claimed this was a different Musa, and Ibn Abbas saying he was lying. He relates from the hadith that Musa, asked who was the most knowledgeable of people, said he was, was told of a servant more knowledgeable than him where the two seas meet, and set off carrying a fish.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth outlines the story of Musa and the servant of Allah from Surah al-Kahf 18:60 onwards and its fuller telling in al-Bukhari's hadith 4725.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:60", "label": "Quran 18:60 (Musa sets out for the meeting of the two seas)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusha-ibn-nun", "label": "Yusha ibn Nun (Joshua)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khidr", "label": "al-Khidr (the servant of Allah; name garbled in the transcript) [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:4725", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 4725 (Musa and al-Khidr, Book of Tafsir; the collection's name is garbled in the transcript) [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/dROSEctL_tQ/s/1/"}, {"id": "dROSEctL_tQ/s/2", "short_id": "2018-12-24-S02", "recording": "dROSEctL_tQ", "n": 2, "start": 331, "end": 682, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Everything after Musa fell asleep at the rock was a vision", "question_plain": "Did the journey of Musa and Khidr really happen, or was it a vision?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says a point he feels earlier scholars overlooked is that Musa and Joshua lay down and slept at the rock, and that everything that follows happens in a vision from which they never wake within the story. Mufti reads the strange details this way: the fish taking its path into the sea with the water standing around it, the servant of Allah making the ground turn green where he sits, and the sudden shifts from boat to land to town. He notes the commentators' question of why the people on the boat let him damage it, and the answer of some early figures that he was invisible to them. He retells the killing of the boy, the repair of the wall for villagers who had refused hospitality, the parting of ways and the servant's explanations, and says that while some have challenged the morality of God allowing a killing, the truth is that it was all a vision.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that everything after Musa and Joshua slept at the rock happened in a vision, which explains the story's strange shifts.", "answer_start": 331, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "belief/dreams-and-visions", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusha-ibn-nun", "label": "Yusha ibn Nun (Joshua)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khidr", "label": "al-Khidr (the servant of Allah; name garbled in the transcript) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that he feels earlier scholars overlooked that everything after Musa and his companion fell asleep at the rock happened in a vision.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is where a lot of I feel the scholars in the past for whatever reasons overlooked this the rest of everything that happens Happ happens whilst they were asleep it was a vision", "start": 331}}, "url": "/r/dROSEctL_tQ/s/2/"}, {"id": "dROSEctL_tQ/s/3", "short_id": "2018-12-24-S03", "recording": "dROSEctL_tQ", "n": 3, "start": 682, "end": 1000, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The three events of the vision mirror Musa's own mission", "question_plain": "Why did Khidr kill the boy in Surah al-Kahf?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Musa was shown the vision to reinforce his own mission, since its three events are tied to his life. Mufti reads the damaged ship as the damaged Israelites, whom Musa was leading out of calamity towards a greater good. He says the boy was not killed in reality, since God would never allow a child to be murdered and the 'greater good' argument would justify killing every child who might grow up a disbeliever; instead it recalls Musa's accidental killing of an Egyptian, which led to his flight and so to his prophethood and the salvation of the Israelites. The wall repaired for inhospitable villagers reflects Musa's frustration with the Israelites, who built the golden calf, and shows him that, though he died before they reached Jerusalem, the orphans' hidden treasure would become the kingdom of Dawud and Sulayman.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads the ship, the boy and the wall as a vision mirroring Musa's mission; no child was really killed, since God would never allow that.", "answer_start": 682, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "belief/dreams-and-visions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bani-israil", "label": "Bani Isra'il (the Israelites)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:golden-calf", "label": "the golden calf of the Israelites"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawud", "label": "Dawud (David)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the boy was not killed in reality, since God would never allow anybody to murder a child.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the fact that murders this this child he didn't murder him in real life God would never allow anybody to murder a child that would be absurd", "start": 759}}, "url": "/r/dROSEctL_tQ/s/3/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/1", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S01", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 312, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The viral Tommy Robinson clip: a Muslim debater concedes the rape narrative about Safiyya", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet take Safiyya the night her husband was killed, as the Tommy Robinson clip claims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth moves on to the claim about how the Prophet married Safiyya, his wife of Jewish ancestry, prompted by a viral video in which a Muslim chases Tommy Robinson to debate him. He pleads with Muslims who have not studied Islam not to do this, since their five minutes of fame does Islam far more harm than good. In the clip Robinson asks whether it is true that the Prophet, after killing Safiyya's father and husband, took her as his own that night, and the Muslim answers yes; asked where the books say it was rape, Mufti says that killing a woman's husband and father in front of her, dragging her away as a slave and having relations with her that night could only be rape, so there is no point conceding the scenario and quibbling over the word. He says Islamic history is intricate and full of transmitted nonsense, and those who have not studied it should let their egos take a hit and step back. He adds that the debater also affirmed that Aisha was nine and 'developed', which he calls a sick response; he has made a detailed video on Aisha's age and finds the narrative of the Prophet marrying a child blasphemous. He then turns to Safiyya's background.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the story conceded by the Muslim debater is false and that, as described, it would be rape, so conceding it and arguing over the word is indefensible. Muslims who have not studied Islamic history should not debate these subjects.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:tommy-robinson", "label": "Tommy Robinson"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Muslims who have not studied Islam should not debate far-right figures, and that the scenario the debater conceded, killing Safiyya's husband and father and taking her that night, can only be described as rape and is not what happened.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so what do you mean where does it say that's rape that is not what happened why are you conceding to them why are you accepting this", "start": 189}}, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/1/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/2", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S02", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 2, "start": 312, "end": 546, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Background to Khaybar: Banu Nadir, Huyayy ibn Akhtab, the coalition against Madinah and the fortresses", "question_plain": "Who was Safiyya and why did the Muslims march on Khaybar?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives the background: Safiyya was a Jewish woman of Banu Nadir living in Khaybar, whose father Huyayy ibn Akhtab was a chief and one of the most hostile men to the Prophet, while her uncle Abu Yasir [?] had embraced Islam early, lived among them and pleaded with them about Islam. He says nothing in Islamic history is concrete and there is disagreement on everything, including the date of Khaybar: the popular view is 7 AH, Malik said 6 AH. It came after Hudaybiyya, because the Jews of Khaybar, with Quraysh, had been behind the coalition at the Trench that meant to wipe out Madinah and had drawn Banu Qurayza into it, so the Muslim community had been under constant threat from Khaybar. Once the treaty with Makkah gave some security, the Prophet marched on Khaybar with some 1,400 to 1,600 men, by one view only those who had been at Hudaybiyya. The Arabs were not used to fighting fortresses, and Khaybar had eight, taken one at a time over several weeks; the Muslims won, with around eighty killed, among them Mahmud, the brother of the companion Muhammad ibn Maslama, killed by Safiyya's father or husband, with Muhammad ibn Maslama arguably the one who retaliated.", "summary_short": "Safiyya was the daughter of Huyayy ibn Akhtab, a chief of Banu Nadir at Khaybar who had organised the coalition against Madinah, while her uncle was a Muslim. After Hudaybiyya the Prophet marched on Khaybar's fortresses, which fell after weeks of fighting in which about eighty Muslims died.", "answer_start": 312, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:banu-nadir", "label": "Banu Nadir"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:huyayy-ibn-akhtab", "label": "Huyayy ibn Akhtab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-yasir-ibn-akhtab", "label": "Abu Yasir ibn Akhtab [?]"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-khaybar", "label": "the battle of Khaybar"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:treaty-of-hudaybiyya", "label": "the treaty of Hudaybiyya"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:siege-of-madinah", "label": "the siege of Madinah (battle of the trench)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:banu-qurayza", "label": "the Banu Qurayza incident"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-ibn-maslama", "label": "Muhammad ibn Maslama"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mahmud-ibn-maslama", "label": "Mahmud ibn Maslama"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that nothing in Islamic history is concrete and that there is disagreement on everything, including whether Khaybar took place in 6 or 7 AH.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "let's get one point clear nothing is concrete in Islamic history this this difference is on everything", "start": 346}}, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/2/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/3", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S03", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 3, "start": 546, "end": 697, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The narrative being pushed: executions, Dihya al-Kalbi, 'marry me or stay a slave' and consummation that night", "question_plain": "What is the common story about how the Prophet married Safiyya?", "summary": "Pausing at the point where Safiyya leaves Khaybar with the Muslims, Mufti Abu Layth sets out the narrative circulated even by some Muslims, which he says is untrue: that the victorious Prophet had her husband Kinana [?] and her father Huyayy tied up and executed, that she was dragged out and taken as spoils and given to Dihya al-Kalbi, that the Prophet took her from him because she was known to be beautiful and offered her the choice of slavery or marrying him, that she agreed, and that in some versions he consummated the marriage that night or a few nights later, while in others she detested him at first. He says all of this is nonsense and promises to give the true account.", "summary_short": "The circulated story is that after Khaybar the Prophet executed Safiyya's husband and father, took her from Dihya al-Kalbi for her beauty, gave her the choice of slavery or marriage and consummated it that night. Mufti Abu Layth says every part of this is false.", "answer_start": 546, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:kinana-ibn-al-rabi", "label": "Kinana ibn al-Rabi' [?] (Safiyya's husband)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:huyayy-ibn-akhtab", "label": "Huyayy ibn Akhtab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dihya-al-kalbi", "label": "Dihya al-Kalbi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the circulating account that the Prophet had Safiyya's husband and father executed, took her from Dihya al-Kalbi for her beauty, offered her marriage or slavery and consummated the marriage that night is untrue.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this this these narrations that I'm telling you now are not true but I'm telling you this is what people push this is the narrative", "start": 580}}, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/3/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/4", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S04", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 4, "start": 697, "end": 1169, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "All through Anas: the mass of conflicting narrations about Safiyya and transmission by meaning", "question_plain": "Why do the hadith about Safiyya's marriage contradict each other?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says almost all the narrations about this marriage, several of them in Bukhari and others in Ibn Ishaq, the tabaqat and the history books, come through a single companion, Anas ibn Malik, and conflict with each other so massively that, by the hadith scholars' own rule on conflicting reports, none is reliable as it stands. He believes they contain truths that were distorted over time by mistakes, forgetfulness and transmission by meaning. Anas was perhaps sixteen at Khaybar and died in 93 AH aged over a hundred, so his stories passed through many hands down to Bukhari, who himself transmitted by meaning and admitted writing in Egypt hadith he had heard in Basra. He lists the conflicts: she stayed a slave, or was freed, or married; she was given to Dihya and taken back, or bought with seven head of cattle; the marriage was at al-Rawha [?] or Sadd al-Sahba [?] or only in Madinah; they returned directly or by another route; consummation was that night, nights later, or in Madinah; she was taken in the fortress or found in the street; she had admired the Prophet before Islam or hated him; she embraced Islam at once or later; she grieved for her husband, or he had beaten her black and blue. He says this noise has to be filtered, and that two things are certain: Safiyya left Khaybar with the Muslims, and at some stage she became the Prophet's wife.", "summary_short": "Nearly all the reports come through one companion, Anas ibn Malik, who was a teenager at Khaybar and died decades later, and they contradict each other on almost every detail, so none can be taken as it stands. Only two facts are certain: Safiyya left with the Muslims and later became the Prophet's wife.", "answer_start": 697, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "hadith/authentication", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ishaq", "label": "Ibn Ishaq"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riwaya-bil-mana", "label": "riwaya bil-ma'na (transmission by meaning)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:idtirab", "label": "idtirab (irreconcilable conflict between narrations) [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dihya-al-kalbi", "label": "Dihya al-Kalbi"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:matn-criticism", "label": "judging a report by its content (matn)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the narrations about Safiyya's marriage, almost all transmitted through Anas ibn Malik, conflict so heavily that none is reliable as it stands, though they contain truths distorted over a long chain of transmission by meaning.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "there is so much conflict and if there are what the hadith in call it there are is when narrations conflict so massively none of them are reliable", "start": 731}}, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/4/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/5", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S05", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 5, "start": 1169, "end": 1484, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Impossible by the Quran: the widow's iddah, the Awtas objection, and why Anas assumed a marriage", "question_plain": "Could the Prophet have married Safiyya right after Khaybar?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is impossible that the Prophet married Safiyya at Khaybar because it clearly goes against the Quran. Her husband died in the battle, killed by Muhammad ibn Maslama in retaliation for his brother, so she was a widow, and the Quran commands widows to wait four months and ten days before remarrying. Some reply with a hadith from Awtas that a female captive need only wait one menstrual cycle; he calls this absurd because Awtas happened a year or two later, the report does not concern widows, its chain is problematic, and even on that reading a marriage the same or next day makes no sense, unless one claims the Prophet did not understand the Quran. He then asks why people think he married her there and turns to a sahih report from Anas: the companions saw Safiyya travelling with the Prophet and discussed whether she was a captive or his wife, since nobody witnessed any nikah, and when they saw the Prophet give her something to cover herself with they assumed she must be his wife; when the party stopped and had a celebration, Anas took it for the wedding feast. Mufti says he will now go back to what actually happened when Khaybar fell, where her father, one of the Prophet's chief enemies, and her husband, a leading man of the tribe, both died.", "summary_short": "No: she was a widow and the Quran requires a waiting period of four months and ten days, so a marriage at Khaybar would contradict the Quran. The companions only assumed a marriage because they saw the Prophet veil her and took a victory meal for a wedding feast.", "answer_start": 1169, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "fiqh/divorce"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:234", "label": "Quran 2:234 (widows wait four months and ten days)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "'iddah (waiting period)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c1643a4a", "label": "report: a female captive need only observe one menstrual cycle before marriage (awtas)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:94531d95", "label": "report: if the prophet veiled safiyya she was a wife and if not she was what his right hand possessed"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-ibn-maslama", "label": "Muhammad ibn Maslama"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-takes-precedence-over-hadith", "label": "The Quran takes precedence over an isolated hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet cannot have married Safiyya at Khaybar, since as a widow she owed the Quranic waiting period of four months and ten days, and that the companions' belief that he had married her rested on Anas's assumption from seeing her veiled and a feast held.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "first of all it is impossible that the Prophet married her then imposter why you asked me right he posted no evidence right okay why is it impossible because it clearly goes against the Quran", "start": 1169}}, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/5/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/6", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S06", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 6, "start": 1484, "end": 1641, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Safiyya before Khaybar: her Muslim uncle, the dream of the moon and her husband's beating", "question_plain": "Why was Safiyya bruised when she came to the Prophet after Khaybar?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out what is known about Safiyya from before: her uncle Abu Yasir [?], her father's brother, had been a Muslim for years, visited and supported the Prophet, and there are sound reports that she too spoke well of the Prophet before Islam. She had recently been married to the chief Kinana [?] for tribal reasons, and told him she had dreamt of a moon landing in her lap, without mentioning the Prophet. Her husband replied that she was obsessed with Muhammad and wanted to be with him, and beat her so badly that she was bruised. In the sahih hadith, when Khaybar is over she comes before the Prophet with her eye green with bruising; he asks what happened, and she says Kinana beat her because of the dream. Amid the aftermath of the battle people make disparaging remarks about her as a Jewish woman, which the Prophet rebukes. In passing Mufti warns viewers against disruptive comments and notes that the difference between a widow's and a divorcee's iddah is basic knowledge.", "summary_short": "Safiyya had told her husband Kinana she dreamt a moon fell into her lap; he accused her of wanting Muhammad and beat her, leaving her eye bruised when she came before the Prophet. Her uncle was a long-standing Muslim and she had spoken well of the Prophet before.", "answer_start": 1484, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-yasir-ibn-akhtab", "label": "Abu Yasir ibn Akhtab [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:kinana-ibn-al-rabi", "label": "Kinana ibn al-Rabi' [?] (Safiyya's husband)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:87a6618e", "label": "report: safiyya came with her eye bruised and said kinana beat me because i dreamt a moon fell into my lap"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/6/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/7", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S07", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 7, "start": 1641, "end": 1797, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth freed her and did not marry her: the ride on the camel, the knee, the fall and the cloak", "question_plain": "Why did Safiyya ride with the Prophet on the way back from Khaybar?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet rebuked those who abused Safiyya and, when some wanted to hold her as a captive, freed her; he did not marry her. Because of the animosity shown to her he told her to ride with him, which Mufti says was common in that society, citing the hadith in which the Prophet, passing Asma bint Abi Bakr walking with a load, offered to take her on his camel and she declined. The hadith records that he laid out a cloth on the camel for her and bowed his knee so that she could step on it and climb up, which Mufti presents as the Prophet's akhlaq towards a Jewish woman being mocked after a battle. On the way back the camel stumbled and both fell, the Prophet hurting himself slightly, and he took his cloak and covered her with it. He repeats that none of this was marriage.", "summary_short": "Because others were abusing her, the Prophet freed her and had her ride with him, laying out a cloth and offering his knee for her to mount, and covering her with his cloak when the camel fell. Mufti Abu Layth says this was kindness, not a marriage.", "answer_start": 1641, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:asma-bint-abi-bakr", "label": "Asma bint Abi Bakr"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a44612d9", "label": "report: the prophet offered asma bint abi bakr to ride behind him on his camel and she declined"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ebce1887", "label": "report: the prophet laid a cloth on the camel and put out his knee for safiyya to step on and mount"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:943d2716", "label": "report: the camel stumbled and the prophet covered safiyya with his cloak"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that at Khaybar the Prophet freed Safiyya rather than marrying her, and that his having her ride with him, laying a cloth and offering his knee, and covering her with his cloak when the camel fell were acts of kindness to a woman being abused, not a marriage.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "some people held her as a captive they'd wanted to hold her as a captive the Prophet freed her he did not marry her he freed her", "start": 1641}}, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/7/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/8", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S08", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 8, "start": 1797, "end": 1955, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Back in Madinah: no nikah at Khaybar, lodging with Umm Sulaym, and her later embrace of Islam", "question_plain": "Where did Safiyya live when she first came to Madinah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that given the Prophet's conduct towards her, Safiyya would naturally have seen that he had not approached her, while Anas assumed a marriage because she rode with the Prophet and he showed her kindness. He says the stop at al-Rawha [?] or Sadd al-Sahba [?] was a victory feast after the hunger of the siege, which Anas or those transmitting from him took for a wedding feast; no nikah took place, it would have been haram since she was in her iddah, and she had not even embraced Islam. He adds that she was sympathetic to the Prophet already, because of her beloved uncle and because her husband had beaten her over him. On reaching Madinah the Prophet had her stay in another household, with Umm Sulaym [?] and others, not with him. When Aisha and others made derogatory remarks about 'that Jew', the Prophet told them off. In the months that followed she embraced Islam, having seen the Prophet's attitude to her in the midst of his victory.", "summary_short": "She did not live with the Prophet but was lodged with Umm Sulaym and others, and the Prophet rebuked Aisha and others who called her 'that Jew'. The feast on the road was a victory meal, not a wedding, and she embraced Islam in the months that followed.", "answer_start": 1797, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umm-sulaym", "label": "Umm Sulaym [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "'iddah (waiting period)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that no nikah took place on the road from Khaybar, since Safiyya was in her waiting period and had not embraced Islam, that the feast Anas took for a wedding was a victory meal, and that in Madinah she lodged in another household and embraced Islam in the following months.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "this is an assumption this did not happen there was no nikka that took place it would have been Haram she was in her in there anyway", "start": 1854}}, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/8/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/9", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S09", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 9, "start": 1955, "end": 2113, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "She married him later and by consent; Anas as sole transmitter; Abu Hurayra on the spoils of Khaybar", "question_plain": "When and how did Safiyya actually marry the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recaps the Prophet's conduct towards Safiyya: asking about her bruised eye, having her ride with him, covering her when she fell, giving her a place to stay, and not marrying her. In time she embraced Islam, took an interest in the Prophet herself, and they married; that is a fact, but it is inaccurate and absurd to compress it all into one night at Khaybar. Marriage requires consent in Islam, as everyone accepts, so she would have had to consent. He stresses again that Anas, sixteen at the time, is the key transmitter of the knee, the cloth and the beating, that people transmitted from him over a long life, and that his countless clashing narrations became subject to interpretation. He adds a report in the Muwatta and in Bukhari from Abu Hurayra, who arrived as the Muslims returned: nothing was taken from Khaybar as spoils except clothing, cattle and sheep, with no mention of wealth, women or captives.", "summary_short": "She embraced Islam in the months after Khaybar, became interested in the Prophet herself and married him with her consent, not on the night of the battle. Abu Hurayra reported that nothing was taken from Khaybar but clothing, cattle and sheep.", "answer_start": 1955, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "fiqh/marriage-contracts", "hadith/authentication"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:consent", "label": "consent as the basis of a valid marriage"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:38a17c20", "label": "report: abu hurayra from khaybar we took no spoils except clothing cattle and sheep"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Safiyya embraced Islam in the months after Khaybar and then married the Prophet with her consent, and that Abu Hurayra's report that no spoils but clothing, cattle and sheep were taken from Khaybar tells against the story of captives and slaves.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "she does embrace Islam in time to come in the months that followed she does and then she herself is interested in the prophet and they do get married that is a fact", "start": 1965}}, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/9/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/10", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S10", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 10, "start": 2113, "end": 2425, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The greater picture: weigh the reports against the Quran and the Prophet's character, and stop relaying the Khaybar-night story", "question_plain": "How should Muslims judge hadith that say the Prophet took Safiyya on the night of Khaybar?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims must look at the greater picture: hadith on historical events conflict because they were documented two generations later, so important matters must be weighed against the Quran first. It is impossible that the Prophet taught widows the iddah and then took Safiyya regardless, impossible that he preached no compulsion in religion and forced her to become Muslim, and impossible that she lived happily with him after her husband was killed and she was made a sex slave that night. All these mutually contradictory narrations come through one person, so there is a problem, and it is impossible that this is the Prophet's character. He says relaying him this way is a lie against the Prophet, and recounts a scholar telling him that very day that the Prophet gave her the choice of slavery or marriage, which shocked him: why think so lowly of the Prophet and accept it so quickly without analysing the conflicting texts? To then demand that the word rape be shown is stupid, since the picture drawn is rape and actions speak louder than words; nobody would tolerate it from anyone else. He urges Muslims not to transmit stories of the Prophet snatching Safiyya and having her that night, which throw his honour off a cliff.", "summary_short": "Weigh them against the Quran and the Prophet's character: the story contradicts the widow's waiting period, the verse on no compulsion and everything known of his conduct, and all its versions come from one conflicting source. Mufti Abu Layth says relaying it is a lie against the Prophet and the picture it draws is rape.", "answer_start": 2113, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/defending-the-prophet", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:256", "label": "Quran 2:256 (there is no compulsion in religion)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:234", "label": "Quran 2:234 (widows wait four months and ten days)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-takes-precedence-over-hadith", "label": "The Quran takes precedence over an isolated hadith"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:matn-criticism", "label": "judging a report by its content (matn)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that conflicting historical hadith must be weighed against the Quran and the Prophet's character, that the story of Safiyya taken on the night of Khaybar fails both tests and amounts to a lie against the Prophet, and that Muslims who relay it are degrading his honour.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "hadith sometimes they conflict especially on historical accounts because these things didn't get documented two generations later so when it's something very important like this you have to weigh it up against the teachings of the Quran", "start": 2122}}, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/10/"}, {"id": "dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/11", "short_id": "2018-02-21b-S11", "recording": "dpeR6Y4MGwA", "n": 11, "start": 2425, "end": 2734, "date": "20180221", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'But it is in Bukhari': conflicting reports, past scholars bound by their age, and Einstein's changed answers", "question_plain": "If the Safiyya story is in Sahih al-Bukhari, why question it?", "summary": "To the objection that the story is in Sahih al-Bukhari, Mufti Abu Layth answers that Bukhari itself holds many conflicting narrations of the incident, that it all comes from one companion, and that Anas himself says in Bukhari that they were unsure whether the Prophet had married her because there were no witnesses, deciding that if he covered her she was his wife, which Mufti calls an interpretation. To those who ask which scholars held this understanding before him, he says we are not held to account by the understanding of those before us: they were legends and geniuses, but their culture and age shaped their perception, and some may have heard the story and, in a brutal world, not thought to question it; that is no reason to turn a blind eye today, when attacks on Islam must be revisited in the light of our own understanding, since Allah addresses us in the Quran and asks whether we do not use reason. He tells the story attributed to Einstein who set his students the same exam as the year before because the answers had changed, meaning that perspectives change with time. He says one should not stop at 'Ibn Hajar said it is fine'; he respects and has read such scholars but will not blindly follow and throw the Prophet's honour away out of loyalty to a sect or group, since the honour of the Messenger and of Islam comes first. He closes saying he has spoken too long, that watching the clips hurt him since Muslims do Islamophobes' work for them, and that he hopes viewers will share this understanding.", "summary_short": "Because Bukhari's own narrations of the incident conflict, all rest on Anas, and Anas himself says nobody witnessed a marriage and they only assumed one from her being veiled. Earlier scholars were great but shaped by their times, and loyalty to them should not come before the Prophet's honour.", "answer_start": 2425, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "fiqh/legal-theory", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:94531d95", "label": "report: if the prophet veiled safiyya she was a wife and if not she was what his right hand possessed"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:albert-einstein", "label": "Albert Einstein"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:no-taqlid-in-creed", "label": "creed cannot be blind-followed"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that a report being in Sahih al-Bukhari does not settle the matter when Bukhari's own narrations of it conflict and rest on one companion's assumption, and that Muslims are not bound by earlier scholars' understanding, shaped by their age, when the Prophet's honour is at stake.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "we are not held to account by the understanding of people before us they were amazing legends they were great geniuses but their own culture their own age influence their perception", "start": 2471}}, "url": "/r/dpeR6Y4MGwA/s/11/"}, {"id": "e6jWtFf8smw/s/1", "short_id": "2018-12-06-S01", "recording": "e6jWtFf8smw", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 589, "date": "20181206", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Quranic verses read in favour of human evolution", "question_plain": "Does the Quran support human evolution?", "summary": "Responding to someone who spoke against evolution, Mufti Abu Layth goes through verses he says are used in its favour: that Allah created people in stages and grew them from the earth like plants (Nuh), that every living thing was made from water (al-Anbiya 30), and that the likeness of Jesus is that of Adam, created from dust and then told 'be' (Al Imran 59), which he reads as Adam being created first and only then commanded. He discusses al-Mu'minun 12-13 on an extract of clay and a drop in a stable place, noting the exegetes' confusion over how Adam could be in a womb and the reply of proponents of evolution such as Abd al-Sabur Shahin [?]. He says Eve is not mentioned in the Quran but in some hadith, that the verses on creation from a single soul never name Adam and use a feminine word, and that al-A'raf 189-190, where the couple commit shirk, makes little sense of Adam unless it speaks of someone before him. He reads khalifah in al-Baqarah 30 as succeeding other hominins, and closes that no one has to accept evolution, though genetics has made it pretty much a scientific fact, but believers in it should not be called heretics or accused of devaluing the Quran.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads several verses as arguing for evolution and says Eve is not named in the Quran. No one has to accept evolution, but those who do should not be called heretics.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["quran/quran-and-science/evolution", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation", "history/human-origins"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:71:14", "label": "Quran 71:14 (He created you in stages)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:71:17", "label": "Quran 71:17 (Allah grew you from the earth like plants)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:30", "label": "Quran 21:30 (the heavens and earth were one; every living thing from water)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:59", "label": "Quran 3:59 (the likeness of Jesus is that of Adam)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:23:12-13", "label": "Quran 23:12-13 (insan from an extract of clay, then a drop in a stable place)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:7:189-190", "label": "Quran 7:189-190 (the single self and its partner; they committed shirk)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:30", "label": "Quran 2:30 (I will place a khalifa on the earth)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hawwa", "label": "Hawwa (Eve)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabari", "label": "al-Tabari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-sabur-shahin", "label": "Abd al-Sabur Shahin [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shirk", "label": "shirk"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, while people may believe what they want about evolution, these Quranic verses clearly argue for it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "you can believe what you want an eeveelution I'm not saying it's up to you but these verses clearly argue for that", "start": 39}}, "url": "/r/e6jWtFf8smw/s/1/"}, {"id": "eJS0IBhhPg0/s/1", "short_id": "2019-08-02b-S01", "recording": "eJS0IBhhPg0", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 312, "date": "20190802", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why homosexual activity is prohibited: family units and the absence of clear hadith", "question_plain": "Why does Islam forbid homosexual activity?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a question asking for the rationale behind the prohibition of homosexual activity in Islam. He says there is a difference of opinion even on what homosexual activity means, and that the fiqh texts capture much of the Sunnah but also much opinion shaped by the issues of their age. In his understanding Islam did not address homosexuality directly: it focused on building healthy, stable family units as the foundation of a civilisation, and because men would rather not shoulder the responsibility of a relationship it outlawed all sexual activity except through marriage, so that homosexuality was outlawed as a by-product. He says there are no clear sahih hadith on homosexuality, which he has gone through in the past. A second layer, he says, was the attitude of Muslim scholarship to anal sex, which many ulama declared haram and by which male homosexual relationships were further condemned; yet not everyone considered it haram, some transmissions from Imam Malik, many Malikis and the Shia argued that what a couple does behind closed doors is their business, as Imam Malik's teacher said, and this diversity was later silenced.", "summary_short": "Islam did not address homosexuality directly; it outlawed all sex outside marriage to build strong family units, and homosexuality was prohibited as a by-product. There are no clear sahih hadith on it, and scholars differed on related questions such as anal sex.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahih", "label": "sahih"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Islam did not address homosexuality directly but outlawed all sexual activity outside marriage in order to build strong family units, so that homosexuality was prohibited as a by-product, and that there are no clear sahih hadith on it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "homosexuality became outlawed as a byproduct the main thing what Islam was trying to do was set up a family unit that's in my understanding because there are no clear hadith to do with homosexuality at all", "start": 152}}, "url": "/r/eJS0IBhhPg0/s/1/"}, {"id": "eJS0IBhhPg0/s/2", "short_id": "2019-08-02b-S02", "recording": "eJS0IBhhPg0", "n": 2, "start": 312, "end": 702, "date": "20190802", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The khuntha: how classical scholars failed intersex people", "question_plain": "How did classical scholars treat intersex people (khuntha) and their right to marry?", "summary": "Continuing the answer, Mufti Abu Layth describes a third layer he calls utterly cruel: the treatment of hermaphrodites, called khuntha in Arabic and in the Sharia. He explains that in the past this was usually biological rather than chosen: a person born with both sets of genitals, with neither, or with the organs of one sex who developed the features of the other at puberty, and he adds that today such conditions are usually corrected medically at a young age or at puberty. He also describes eunuchs, whose numbers rose because royalty and the aristocracy wanted castrated men who could still do a man's work. He says the scholars of the past wrote very clearly that a khuntha cannot marry and cannot be married, which he calls outright oppression: because some of them would have been like women with a penis, and any intercourse would have been anal, the scholars did not want to deal with the situation and simply said the khuntha could never marry. He calls this ridiculous and absurd and a perfect case study of the failure of scholarship to provide a truly Islamic answer to a challenge of its age.", "summary_short": "Classical scholars ruled that a khuntha, an intersex person, can neither marry nor be married, which Mufti Abu Layth calls cruel, absurd and a failure of scholarship to give a truly Islamic answer.", "answer_start": 312, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "fiqh/marriage-contracts", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:khuntha", "label": "khuntha (hermaphrodite, intersex person)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shariah", "label": "Sharia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the classical ruling that a khuntha can never marry was ridiculous and absurd, and a case study of scholarship failing to provide a truly Islamic answer to a challenge of its age.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "that's a perfect case study to show the failing of scholarship in a particular IRRI that they that the scholars failed in providing a truly Islamic answer to the challenge", "start": 648}}, "url": "/r/eJS0IBhhPg0/s/2/"}, {"id": "eJS0IBhhPg0/s/3", "short_id": "2019-08-02b-S03", "recording": "eJS0IBhhPg0", "n": 3, "start": 702, "end": 1044, "date": "20190802", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn al-Arabi's recollection of a bearded, breasted classmate with two servant girls", "question_plain": "What did Ibn al-Arabi write about a classmate who was both bearded and breasted?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will continue his research, but that wherever he has read about the khuntha in the fiqh books they say it cannot marry or be married, which he finds cruel. He then retells a story he has shared before from Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, the Maliki scholar and judge of Muslim Spain. He observes that in the past, whenever people were stuck, they seem to have found a loophole with servants and slaves: someone feeling homosexual or bisexual without an apparent outlet would resort to them, and presumably a khuntha would settle with servants and slaves too. Ibn al-Arabi, he says, writes in his journals that when he travelled east and studied with al-Ghazali [?], one student used to turn up to class with a big beard and large breasts, always accompanied by two servant girls, and that he wondered whether the man was more like a man or a woman and wanted to muster the courage to ask him but never did. Mufti notes that Ibn al-Arabi slides his journal into his works, including his commentary on al-Tirmidhi [?], and that writing more than ten years later he says the question still beat him and he wished he had asked. Mufti closes with the joke that whoever is weighed down by problems should remember a judge was weighed down by greater ones.", "summary_short": "Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi recorded a classmate with a beard and breasts who came to al-Ghazali's lessons with two servant girls and whose nature puzzled him for years. Mufti Abu Layth reads this as an example of people in the past finding outlets with servants and slaves.", "answer_start": 702, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:aridat-al-ahwadhi", "label": "Aridat al-Ahwadhi (Ibn al-Arabi's commentary on al-Tirmidhi) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khuntha", "label": "khuntha (hermaphrodite, intersex person)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in the past, it seems, people who were stuck, such as those who were homosexual or bisexual without an apparent outlet, and presumably khuntha too, found a loophole with servants and slaves.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "in the past it seems to be wherever people were kind of stuck they found a loophole if you like with servants", "start": 724}}, "url": "/r/eJS0IBhhPg0/s/3/"}, {"id": "eR1bDjDv0l0/s/1", "short_id": "2020-06-29-S01", "recording": "eR1bDjDv0l0", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 280, "date": "20200629", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Masala segment: Mufti Abdul Qavi's reported fatwa that alcohol under forty percent is permissible", "question_plain": "Is alcohol under forty percent permissible, as a Pakistani mufti reportedly said?", "summary": "In what he calls the masala segment, Mufti Abu Layth turns to Mufti Abdul Qavi of Pakistan, recalling that he was previously caught up in public controversy around Qandeel Baloch, whose murder Mufti calls an atrocious injustice, while noting that the mufti had nothing to do with it, and in a later reported scandal with an actress. He says that in the clip under discussion the mufti is reported to have said that alcohol up to forty percent is permissible, and that he is not sure what is meant: if forty percent alcohol strength, that would be ridiculous, since it would cover spirits; or whether it means a proportion mixed with another drink such as tonic or cola; and the mufti's phrase about something from minerals [?] is also unclear to him. He suspects the ruling is based on the Hanafi fatwa on nabidh [?], says he wants to hear an explanation, and says the closing analogy that if cigarettes are allowed then this is allowed made no sense to him. Searching for an explanation, he found only an interview in which the anchor pressed the mufti about the scandals, where he also seemed to accept mut'ah [?], which Mufti says he himself does not believe permissible either. He notes that Mufti Abdul Qavi has been a prominent mufti in Pakistan who has held leading positions in councils such as the moon-sighting committee [?]. The clip itself is not audible in the transcript and is known only through Mufti's description.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he cannot tell what the mufti meant: forty percent strength would be ridiculous, a diluted drink might rest on the Hanafi view on nabidh, and the cigarette analogy made no sense to him. He wants to hear the mufti's explanation before judging.", "answer_start": 73, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/current-events/pakistan"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-qavi", "label": "Mufti Abdul Qavi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:qandeel-baloch", "label": "Qandeel Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage) [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ruet-e-hilal-committee", "label": "Ruet-e-Hilal (moon-sighting) committee, Pakistan [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eR1bDjDv0l0/s/1/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S01", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 1, "start": 10, "end": 502, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: sound check, Covid recovery, a spoof of the lockdown announcement", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth does a sound check on YouTube and Facebook and says it is exactly three weeks since he caught Covid: a residual cough remains, but today he felt strength return and did push-ups. He plays a spoof of a Boris Johnson press conference announcing absurd figures, then jokes that the message could have been put simply as stay at home. He says the UK has gone into a full lockdown again until mid-February or March, that nobody seems to know what is going on, and that he hopes everyone is simply given the vaccine. He mocks the government's promise of a hundred million vaccines by the end of the year when it has not even a hundred thousand.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth reports on his Covid recovery, plays a spoof of the UK lockdown announcement and mocks the vaccine promises.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/covid-19"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:boris-johnson", "label": "Boris Johnson"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the Covid-19 pandemic (2020)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/1/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/2", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S02", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 2, "start": 502, "end": 615, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Sleeping late and waking at asr: pray when you wake; the religion is ease", "question_plain": "If I sleep late and wake up at asr, can I pray the missed prayers together then?", "summary": "A super chat says the questioner goes to sleep very late and joins the prayers together on waking at asr time. Mufti Abu Layth says that if that is when you wake up, that is when you wake up: as the hadith says, when you wake up, pray, since one cannot pray asleep. He says the religion should be kept real, and mentions a post mocking him as the Malik of now against the Malik of old for making things easy for people. He replies that this is the religion, citing the Prophet's saying that the religion is ease and that the best of the religion is the easiest, said three times, and that what he teaches is from the Sunnah.", "summary_short": "If you wake at asr after sleeping late, pray when you wake; he says the religion is meant to be easy, as the Prophet taught.", "answer_start": 525, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "answer_to_specific_questioner", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer/missed-prayers", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a8f03a5c", "label": "report: idha istayqazta fa-salli (when you wake up, pray)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:32d192a5", "label": "report: al-din yusr the religion is ease"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ea6d857b", "label": "report: khayr dinikum aysaruhu the best of your religion is the easiest of it"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if someone who sleeps late wakes up at asr time, that is when they pray, as the hadith says: when you wake up, pray.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "If that's when you wake up, that's when you wake up. You know, when you, as the hadith says, when you wake up, then pray.", "start": 525}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/2/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/3", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S03", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 3, "start": 615, "end": 842, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Dr Abdul Majid's response to BukhariGate, and an invitation to Mind Trap", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Responding to a chat mention of Dr Abdul Majid's response to his BukhariGate video, Mufti Abu Layth says he has watched some of it and could not tell which part was the response. He says he has reached out through an intermediary and invited Dr Abdul Majid onto Mind Trap, that the reply was in sha Allah, and that he hopes it will happen this month once his cough has gone. He quotes a poet on patience, and says that from what he watched he could not understand any part that refuted him, only that he should be questioned for raising the question. He says he looks forward to a dialogue.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth has invited Dr Abdul Majid onto Mind Trap to discuss BukhariGate, and says he found no actual refutation in the response he watched.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-abdul-majid", "label": "Dr Abdul Majid"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/3/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/4", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S04", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 4, "start": 842, "end": 974, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The great reset and depopulation: no global plot", "question_plain": "Is the great reset or a depopulation plot real?", "summary": "Taking a chat question on the great reset and depopulation, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think there is a super plot in which the powers of the world have converged to bring about a great reset. He accepts that many people, though not the majority, may wish the world were reset by a disaster. He compares the Netflix drama Sacred Games 2, whose plot is a nuclear reset after which a generation preserved in bunkers repopulates the globe. He says it would not surprise him that some nutcases dream of this, but he does not buy into such conspiracies about governments.", "summary_short": "No: he does not believe in a great reset or depopulation plot by governments, though some individuals may wish for such a thing.", "answer_start": 842, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think anything like a great reset plot is at play with governments, and that he does not buy into such conspiracies.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't think anything like this is at play with the governments and things like this. I don't buy into any of those kind of conspiracies.", "start": 948}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/4/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/5", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S05", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 5, "start": 974, "end": 1041, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Banter: what he is drinking, and a shout-out", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Asked in the chat what he is drinking, Mufti Abu Layth jokes about his prescription for dark storms. He gives a requested shout-out for 2021 and moves to the questions.", "summary_short": "Banter about his drink and a shout-out before the questions.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/5/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/6", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S06", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 6, "start": 1041, "end": 1222, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Which is the most authentic hadith book? Each hadith on its merits", "question_plain": "Which hadith book is the most authentic?", "summary": "Asked which is the most authentic hadith book, Mufti Abu Layth says his approach is to take every hadith on its merits rather than make a particular book sacrosanct. He accepts that some muhaddithun, Imam Bukhari among them, had more stringent rules, such as requiring that narrators had met, but says that does not make the net product above all other books, since we do not know what made him choose his content and some of it is problematic. He adds that there are dubious claims about whether the book we have today is what he compiled, referring viewers to his BukhariGate video. He says that if anything the most authentic is the Muwatta of Imam Malik, though Malik himself rejects some of the hadith in it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth takes each hadith on its merits rather than trusting one book; if anything, he would call Imam Malik's Muwatta the most authentic.", "answer_start": 1041, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/collections-and-compilation", "hadith/bukhari", "fiqh/maliki-school/muwatta-and-mudawwana"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he would not single out a particular hadith book, taking each hadith on its merits, but if anything he supposes he would call the Muwatta of Imam Malik the most authentic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I would not advocate a particular book uh I would say if anything the the most classic book we have of hadith is the m of IM Malik", "start": 1156}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/6/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/7", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S07", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 7, "start": 1222, "end": 1468, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Should we call it the UK virus? Mutations, government agendas and the Wuhan lab", "question_plain": "Can we call coronavirus the UK virus?", "summary": "A super chat asks whether the coronavirus can be called the UK virus since it originates there. Mufti Abu Layth says it does not originate there; the talk is of a mutation, and viruses mutate all the time, which is why there is no universal flu jab. He says he is somewhat suspicious of what the government says and thinks it sometimes highlights things like the new strain in line with enforcing lockdowns, while not denying the virus is real. He says the virus did come from China and that he believes it came from the Wuhan lab, manipulated rather than released on purpose. He agrees with a chat comment that people's stubbornness made the lockdown necessary and corrects a claim that the virus is two years old.", "summary_short": "No: the virus did not originate in the UK, which only has a mutation; he believes it came from the Wuhan lab, though not on purpose.", "answer_start": 1222, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/covid-19", "society/current-events/britain"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the Covid-19 pandemic (2020)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:wuhan-institute-of-virology", "label": "the Wuhan laboratory (Wuhan Institute of Virology)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes the coronavirus came from the Wuhan lab and was manipulated there, though not released on purpose.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "I do believe still that it was um it was the kind of result of laboratory kind of work. I think that the corona virus came from the Wuhan lab.", "start": 1347}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/7/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/8", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S08", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 8, "start": 1468, "end": 1860, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "A mother attacked for kissing her son with Down syndrome: nothing haram", "question_plain": "Is it haram for a mother to kiss her child on the lips?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a video sent to him by a viewer, in which a mother who makes videos to raise awareness of Down syndrome replies to people who told her it is haram to kiss her young child, saying she will carry on. Mufti says that such a reaction shows how dysfunctional the religion has become for some, prays for her and her child and for all who care for people with disabilities, and calls this the true message of Islam. He says there is nothing haram in what she does, and that the only haram is the comments and the perverted mentality that oversexualises everything. He says general affection between family members was displayed and accepted in the time of the Prophet and the companions, and that the Prophet often kissed Hasan and Husayn, as documented in many hadith.", "summary_short": "There is nothing haram in a mother kissing her child; he says the haram lies in the perverted comments, and the Prophet kissed his grandsons.", "answer_start": 1561, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "guest_overlap"], "topics": ["relationships/parents-and-children", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:hasan-ibn-ali", "label": "Hasan ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cdce764b", "label": "report: the prophet kissed al-hasan and al-husayn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/8/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/9", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S09", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 9, "start": 1860, "end": 2182, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Advice for 2021: leave toxic circles; Juha, his son and the donkey", "question_plain": "How do I deal with toxic people and negativity around me?", "summary": "As a new year's resolution, Mufti Abu Layth advises removing oneself from circles of toxicity: leaving WhatsApp groups and echo chambers, finding new friends and blocking people online who frustrate you. He cites a report that a man who builds a house will only hear that he should have placed the door elsewhere, meaning people can never be pleased. He tells the story of Juha and his son travelling with a donkey, criticised whichever of them rides, when both ride and when both walk, and concludes that one cannot please everyone, so let 2021 be the year of focusing on your own goals. He then defers a super chat on the meaning of rightly guided caliph and Muawiya to later, and responding to a chat comment he adds that, controversially, he finds most religious circles toxic and suffocating and advises having friends who are just normal people.", "summary_short": "Leave toxic groups and block negativity, since people can never be pleased; he adds that he finds most religious circles toxic.", "answer_start": 1860, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/negative-thoughts-and-mindset", "relationships/friendship-and-social-life", "wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose/goals-and-habits"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:juha", "label": "Juha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6e606353", "label": "report: a man built a house and people said if only he had placed the door elsewhere"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in his perspective, most religious circles are unfortunately toxic, suffocating and claustrophobic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I I I go a step further to say that unfortunately most religious circles are toxic", "start": 2148}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/9/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/10", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S10", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 10, "start": 2182, "end": 2404, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mortgages and urinating standing up", "question_plain": "Can I take a mortgage, and can I urinate standing up?", "summary": "A super chat asks what Islam says about two things: taking a mortgage with riba and urinating standing up. After joking about the questioner's priorities, Mufti Abu Layth refers to his detailed video on riba and says that in his understanding the riba of the Quran refers to loan-sharking, not to regular bank interest. On urinating standing up he says yes, it is fine: the Hanafi school had a problem with it but the other schools are fine, and Imam Malik when asked did not object, only advising care with splashback. He adds that there is a hadith in which the Prophet relieved himself in that manner, so there is no sin.", "summary_short": "Bank interest is not the Quran's riba in his understanding, and urinating standing up is fine, with care over splashing.", "answer_start": 2260, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "fiqh/purification"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in his understanding, the riba of the Quran refers to loan-sharking and not to regular bank interest.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "my understanding is that ribba is not ribba of the Quran is referring to loan sharky. It is not referring to regular interest that that takes place in the banks.", "start": 2294}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/10/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/11", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S11", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 11, "start": 2404, "end": 2911, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Do you lose good deeds by owning a dog? The hygiene reading of the hadith", "question_plain": "Do I lose good deeds if I keep a dog as a pet?", "summary": "Asked whether one loses good deeds by owning a dog for pleasure, Mufti Abu Layth says no. He describes reading through Maliki texts on whether life entails purity, and digresses on a famous Maliki work [?] whose author, according to a report some have challenged, was told by his teacher Abu al-Abbas [?] that it was useless to beginners and unnecessary for experts, with which he agrees given its coded style. He repeats his earlier view that the hadith on the dog licking a bowl, on putting dogs down, and on losing reward were about diseases such as rabies. He reads from the Muqaddimat of Ibn Rushd al-Jadd, volume one, page 90, that washing the bowl seven times is a recommendation for hygiene rather than a matter of halal and haram, and says, also citing a discussion in al-Mazari, that the Prophet used religious rhetoric about lost reward and angels not entering to distance people from diseased dogs they were attached to.", "summary_short": "No, owning a dog does not cost you reward; he reads the dog hadith as hygiene measures against diseases like rabies, citing Ibn Rushd al-Jadd.", "answer_start": 2454, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/animals-and-pets", "fiqh/purification", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd-al-jadd", "label": "Ibn Rushd al-Jadd"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-muqaddimat-al-mumahhidat", "label": "al-Muqaddimat al-Mumahhidat (Ibn Rushd al-Jadd)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-mazari", "label": "al-Mazari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:91d7502c", "label": "report: if a dog licks the bowl wash it seven times"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:25953135", "label": "report: whoever keeps a dog loses a qirat of his reward every day"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:563127df", "label": "report: the angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:najasa", "label": "najasa (impurity)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says owning a dog does not make you lose rewards.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "So, you mean can you own a dog? Uh does it impact do you lose rewards? No, you don't.", "start": 2453}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/11/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/12", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S12", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 12, "start": 2911, "end": 3269, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The woman who refused the Prophet in Bukhari's book of divorce, and institutionalised scholars", "question_plain": "Was the woman who refused the Prophet in Bukhari's divorce chapter his wife?", "summary": "A super chat asks whether, since the hadith of the woman who refused the Prophet's advance is in the book of talaq, she was his wife. Mufti Abu Layth says there is much confusion: the chapter has three hadith, one in which the Prophet says give yourself to me and she replies that a queen does not give herself to a low-born man, which defenders read as a proposal of marriage, and a next one showing an advance in which he tries to touch her, after which some say it was a different woman. He says he rates scholars such as Ibn Hajar but that they were invested in the field and could not bulldoze it. He compares them at length to doctors institutionalised in their training, who will not think of amino acids or growth hormone for recovery as some bodybuilders do, and says scholars invested in a field were likewise institutionalised, with only occasional ones thinking out of the box.", "summary_short": "The chapter's reports are confused and defenders strain to reconcile them; he says hadith scholars, like doctors, were institutionalised in their field.", "answer_start": 2911, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:5255", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 5255 (give yourself to me; does a queen give herself to a commoner)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that most scholars of Islam in the past who were invested in a particular field were institutionalised by it and did not critique it the way an outsider does, though a few thought out of the box.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "Those who were invested in a particular field were institutionalized by that field. They don't critique it the same way as somebody that's looking at it from outside of the box does.", "start": 3187}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/12/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/13", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S13", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 13, "start": 3269, "end": 3654, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How to stop Salafi ideas spreading: denounce hate preachers, Shia and Salafi alike", "question_plain": "How can we stop Salafi ideas from dominating how people see Islam?", "summary": "A questioner asks how to stop the spread of Salafi ideas that dominate public opinion on Islam. Mufti Abu Layth first plays a clip, shared on Instagram and WhatsApp, of a Shia cleric whose handle he cannot quite read, presenting terrorism as the Islam of Abu Bakr and cursing Abu Bakr and Umar. He says anyone who preaches hatred is an enemy of the Prophet even if unaware of it, calls this person a cancer in the ummah, says many Shia would denounce him and asks Shia especially to do so publicly so bridges can be built. He says the same applies to Salafi extremists who call everyone a mushrik or misguided, a loud part of the Sunni audience, and that the answer is to learn more and spread the right narrative. He says he feels the Salafi dawah, which had a golden appeal in the 1990s and 2000s, is somewhat dying a death as the young want things to make sense by reason.", "summary_short": "Denounce every preacher of hatred, Shia or Salafi, and spread a reasoned narrative; he feels the Salafi dawah is already losing ground.", "answer_start": 3290, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/13/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/14", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S14", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 14, "start": 3654, "end": 4031, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Dawah Man on pigs, wife-sharing and handshakes, played and mocked", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Speaking of Salafis, Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip of Dawah Man saying that the pig is the only animal that lets another male mate with its female, that non-Muslims who eat pork acquire this trait, and telling how he refused his neighbour's wife's handshake while her husband stood by. Mufti mocks the zoological claim as the scientific breakthrough of the century and the equation of a handshake with intercourse, and remarks that Dawah Man still has a very large following. He says he has a video explaining that shaking hands is not haram, that there are examples from the salaf shaking hands, including with certain women, and that not a single narration prohibits it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays and mocks Dawah Man's claims about pigs and handshakes, and says shaking hands is not haram.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dawah-man", "label": "Dawah Man"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/14/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/15", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S15", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 15, "start": 4031, "end": 4458, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The myth of Lilith, Adam's first wife who wanted to be on top", "question_plain": "Who was Lilith in Jewish legend?", "summary": "After a joking non-answer to how many wives he has, Mufti Abu Layth recalls Dawah Man's claim that the key to evil was the woman being on top during intercourse, and wonders whether he drew on biblical mythology. He explains that Genesis has two accounts of creation, one in which Adam and Eve are created together and one in which Eve is made from Adam's rib, and that some Jewish scholars reconciled them by saying the first woman was Lilith. In the legend, he says, Lilith was created equal with Adam, wanted dominance including being on top, quarrelled with him, took the Lord's name and flew off, escaped the angels sent after her, and haunts men at night as a succubus, gives birth to demons and kills infants. He jokes that the legend could also explain sleep paralysis.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth retells the Jewish legend of Lilith, Adam's first wife, who left him over equality and became a night demon.", "answer_start": 4087, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dawah-man", "label": "Dawah Man"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:lilith", "label": "Lilith"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hawwa", "label": "Eve (Hawwa)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible (Genesis)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/15/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/16", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S16", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 16, "start": 4458, "end": 4593, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is the Lilith story in the Bible?", "question_plain": "Is the story of Lilith in the Bible?", "summary": "Asked whether the Lilith story is in the Bible, Mufti Abu Layth says Lilith is mentioned vaguely in the book of Isaiah as some kind of evil spirit, but the story comes from old Jewish commentaries on the Bible. They used it to reconcile the two accounts of Adam's creation, saying God first created Adam and Lilith and, after Lilith left, created Eve when Adam was lonely. He then glances through the chat and jokes with a comment about women like Lilith.", "summary_short": "No: the story comes from Jewish commentary on Genesis; the Bible only names Lilith vaguely in Isaiah as an evil spirit.", "answer_start": 4458, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lilith", "label": "Lilith"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:book-of-isaiah", "label": "Book of Isaiah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the exact story of Lilith is not in the Bible but in the mythology surrounding Genesis, though her name appears in the book of Isaiah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "So the exact story of Lilith is more mentioned in the kind of uh mythology surrounding Genesis.", "start": 4488}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/16/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/17", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S17", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 17, "start": 4593, "end": 5056, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Following up the New Year meetup: what he means by miracles, and their purpose", "question_plain": "Do you believe in miracles?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth returns to a question on miracles raised at his New Year's Day meetup by a young attendee who asked why he says miracles are not real. He says he does not deny miracles: life, consciousness, vision, our relations and being saved from calamities are miracles, but God does not break his laws of nature, since the Quran tells us to look at the sky, the earth and plants, and one can only learn from what is consistent. He describes how the theologians define the mu'jizah as a supernatural act that breaks the laws of nature, such as water pouring from fingertips or a pregnant she-camel emerging from a rock, a story he says is not in the Quran and was spread because spicy stories travel. He says their stated purpose, proving God's power so people believe, fails: those who saw them did not believe, while Quraysh begged the Prophet for such signs and the Quran has him reply that he is only a human.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth accepts miracles in the sense of life's wonders and timely help, but says God does not break His laws of nature and the supernatural signs failed their stated purpose.", "answer_start": 4649, "questioner": "audience", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mujizah", "label": "mu'jizah (miracle)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:miracles-do-not-defy-natural-law", "label": "miracles never defy God's laws; they have causes within nature"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:88:17-20", "label": "Quran 88:17-20 (do they not look at the camel, the sky, the mountains and the earth), paraphrased"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:17:90-93", "label": "Quran 17:90-93 (Quraysh demand springs and signs; say: am I anything but a human messenger?), paraphrased"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says God does not break his laws of nature, because they are his laws.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Now, I have explained that God does not break his laws of nature because they are his laws. Why would he tell us to go and learn from nature?", "start": 4753}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/17/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/18", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S18", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 18, "start": 5056, "end": 5398, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Is the Quran a universal miracle? Why he ended that meetup exchange", "question_plain": "Is the Quran a miracle that proves Islam to everyone?", "summary": "Continuing, Mufti Abu Layth recounts asking the attendee what the Prophet's miracle was, being told the Quran because of its Arabic, and pointing out that the attendee did not understand Arabic, that most people do not, and that most Arabic speakers cannot explain what the miracle is. He explains his discomfort by analogy: refuting someone who says the Prophet is God forces you to stress the Prophet's human weaknesses, and likewise he did not want to downplay the Quran, which has a special place in his heart. He says the Quran is miraculous in the emotions and experiences it creates subjectively, but cannot be called a universal miracle that makes everyone who hears it Muslim, since many Makkan Arabs did not believe. He mentions grammarians such as al-Mazini who problematised aspects of its Arabic, and says he cut the conversation short because it made him uncomfortable, not out of fear of the argument.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds the Quran is subjectively miraculous in its effect but not a universal miracle that converts all who hear it, and he cut the exchange short out of discomfort.", "answer_start": 5056, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "quran/arabic-language"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mujizah", "label": "mu'jizah (miracle)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-mazini", "label": "al-Mazini (the grammarian)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran is miraculous in the emotions and experiences it creates subjectively, but cannot be called a universal miracle that makes everyone who hears it Muslim.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I said look the Quran is miraculous in the emotions and the experiences it creates subjectively but you can't say this is a universal you can't say well look anybody who hears the Quran will become Muslim", "start": 5248}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/18/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/19", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S19", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 19, "start": 5398, "end": 5580, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why need miracles? Believe privately if you wish, but do not preach them", "question_plain": "If miracles don't break nature's laws, what is the point of miracles?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth poses the question of what the point of miracles is and asks where the idea comes from that belief requires a miracle, when life, consciousness and the hand of God in our lives are miracle enough. He says that believing only with a miracle is not faith. Replying to a chat comment, he says people may privately believe in supernatural miracles, rocks cracking open and animals jumping out, and he will not try to refute or strongarm them, though he does not think they are correct. His problem is when such stories are presented to non-Muslims as standard Islam, are destroyed, and make Islam look silly. He adds that the topic raises the deeper question of why such miracles do not happen today.", "summary_short": "Belief does not need supernatural miracles; private belief in them is fine, but preaching them as standard Islam damages Islam.", "answer_start": 5398, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims may privately believe in supernatural miracle stories, though he does not think they are correct; his only problem is when they are preached as standard Islam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I will say that I don't believe they're correct but I'm not going to try to force you or strongarm you. My only problem is when you preach them as standard Islam", "start": 5529}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/19/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/20", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S20", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 20, "start": 5580, "end": 5751, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Hamza Tzortzis, Firas Zahabi and Nouman Ali Khan on Mind Trap? Upcoming guests", "question_plain": "Will Hamza Tzortzis or Nouman Ali Khan come on Mind Trap?", "summary": "Asked whether Hamza Tzortzis and Firas Zahabi [?] are his friends and about Nouman Ali Khan, Mufti Abu Layth says he would love for them to come on Mind Trap. He says he will resume Mind Trap once he has fully recovered from Covid, describing his returning strength, and that some people have agreed to come on. He says he has been told that Dr Shady Nasser of Harvard, author of a book on the variant readings of the Quran, is happy to come on. Answering another chat comment, he says he would love to have Pervez Hoodbhoy [?] on and asks anyone in touch with him to reach out.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth would love to host them on Mind Trap and will resume after his Covid recovery; Shady Nasser has agreed to come on.", "answer_start": 5608, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:hamza-tzortzis", "label": "Hamza Tzortzis"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firas-zahabi", "label": "Firas Zahabi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shady-nasser", "label": "Shady Hekmat Nasser"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:pervez-hoodbhoy", "label": "Pervez Hoodbhoy [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/20/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/21", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S21", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 21, "start": 5751, "end": 6275, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "New year advice: positive words, smiling, starting something, and bitcoin", "question_plain": "How can I make the new year a more positive one?", "summary": "Responding to birthday wishes, Mufti Abu Layth says the past year was like a roller coaster: frightening but a thrill by the end, and one should always look for the silver lining. He gives tips for the new year: answer with positive words instead of not bad, smile since the mind takes a smile for happiness, leave circles of toxicity and care less what people say. His fourth tip is to start something, a skill, learning or an investment, since a year from now you will wish you had started today; he recalls urging friends a year earlier to buy bitcoin at about five thousand pounds, which none did. He suggests telling oneself I get to rather than I have to, finds vacuuming therapeutic, and answering a chat question says bitcoin's price is now rocketing, so he does not know how much higher it will go.", "summary_short": "His tips for the year: speak positively, smile, leave toxic circles and start something new, whether a skill or an investment.", "answer_start": 5751, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/negative-thoughts-and-mindset", "wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose/goals-and-habits", "fiqh/finance"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth advises that people stop responding with negative words such as not bad and respond with positive words instead.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "never you know stop that don't ever respond with not bad respond that I'm good. You know, great.", "start": 5849}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/21/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/22", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S22", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 22, "start": 6275, "end": 6333, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "As an actor, are any scenes haram to perform? A joking non-answer", "question_plain": "As an actor, are there scenes that would be haram for me to perform?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether, as an actor, there are any scenes that would be haram to perform. Mufti Abu Layth first misreads it as calling him an actor, then jokes that he is sure he could think of one or two and tells the chat to behave, without giving a ruling.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth jokes rather than answers, saying he could think of one or two such scenes.", "answer_start": 6304, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/22/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/23", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S23", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 23, "start": 6333, "end": 6648, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is there a basis for not celebrating birthdays? And turning forty", "question_plain": "Is it haram to celebrate my birthday?", "summary": "Asked whether there is a real basis for not celebrating one's birthday, Mufti Abu Layth says it is absolutely fine to celebrate if you want to: these are worldly things with no religion attached, and it is entirely your choice. He says he has not properly celebrated his own, which falls in January, since childhood, but finds it fun for children and useful as a landmark. He says birthdays can be daunting, recalls the unease he felt approaching forty, and how an older friend's advice while travelling soothed him. He recommends having friends a decade or so older for that reassurance, and closes with a saying from his madrasa teacher about crossing bridges when one gets there.", "summary_short": "Celebrating birthdays is fine and entirely your choice; he also recommends older friends for perspective when age brings anxiety.", "answer_start": 6333, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/festivals-and-greetings", "relationships/friendship-and-social-life"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is absolutely fine to celebrate your birthday if you want to, since there is no religion attached to it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "It is absolutely fine to celebrate your birthday if you want to.", "start": 6333}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/23/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/24", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S24", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 24, "start": 6648, "end": 6706, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Lupe Fiasco follows him: will he come on Mind Trap?", "question_plain": "Will Lupe Fiasco come on Mind Trap?", "summary": "A super chat says the rapper Lupe Fiasco follows Mufti Abu Layth's Instagram and asks whether he has thought of having him on Mind Trap. Mufti says he has been in touch and Lupe Fiasco agreed, but he did not chase it up because Lupe seemed busy with unrest in the States, and he will now chase it up.", "summary_short": "Yes: Lupe Fiasco has agreed in principle, and Mufti Abu Layth says he will follow it up.", "answer_start": 6648, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/24/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/25", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S25", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 25, "start": 6706, "end": 7028, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "A Christian who speaks with God, and the one-god-further argument", "question_plain": "Can a Christian really speak with God?", "summary": "A super chat says the questioner's Christian stepfather says he speaks with God and asks for Mufti Abu Layth's thoughts, since Islam is believed to bring us closer to God. Mufti says God is not only the God of Muslims, and he believes everybody has a direct line to Allah, whatever they call him. He then addresses the atheist argument, made by Dawkins and others, that believers are atheists about thousands of gods and atheists just go one god further. He calls it a fallacy because people have generally had one concept of God, personified through symbols such as Brahma, Osiris or Ram, or deputised to lesser beings like angels, so Muslims disagree with the symbolism but not that it was the same God.", "summary_short": "Anyone can have a direct line to God whatever they call Him; he says the atheist one-god-further argument is a fallacy.", "answer_start": 6732, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god", "belief/salvation-and-non-muslims"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:richard-dawkins", "label": "Richard Dawkins"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes that anybody and everybody has a direct line to Allah, whatever they call him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "God is not the God just of Muslims or of Islam. I believe that anybody and everybody has that direct line to Allah whether they call him God", "start": 6732}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/25/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/26", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S26", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 26, "start": 7028, "end": 7512, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "What does rightly guided caliph mean? Muawiya, Ali, and piety versus governing", "question_plain": "What does rightly guided caliph mean, and did Muawiya see Ali as one?", "summary": "After losing a super chat, Mufti Abu Layth returns to the question read earlier on the meaning of rightly guided caliph and whether Muawiya thought Ali rightly guided. He explains rashidun as those of guidance, rushd also meaning insight or maturity, and says the term was not used in their own time but probably arose in the early Abbasid era, around Abu Hanifa and Malik. He thinks Muawiya would have seen Ali as religiously superior, citing a report he believes is in Sahih Muslim in which Muawiya says he does not deny Ali's greater virtue, but would have thought he could run the show better politically. He says Muawiya gets too much slack: he ruled twenty years as governor and twenty as caliph with no successful rebellion. He argues piety and managing people often belong to different people, that Umar's undiplomatic rule was an exception wrongly taken as the blueprint, and compares Plato's philosopher-ruler.", "summary_short": "The term rashidun came later; he thinks Muawiya saw Ali as more pious but himself as the better ruler, and that piety and governing skill rarely coincide.", "answer_start": 7054, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "history/companions", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:rashidun", "label": "al-Khulafa al-Rashidun (the rightly guided caliphs)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:71fcade0", "label": "report: muawiya i do not deny that ali is more virtuous than me (cited as in Sahih Muslim, unverified)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in his assessment, Muawiya would have thought that from a political perspective he could run the show better than Ali.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "But from a political perspective, I think Muawia would have thought that he can run the show better than Ali.", "start": 7225}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/26/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/27", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S27", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 27, "start": 7512, "end": 8001, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did early Muslims not count Ali as the fourth caliph? Ranking companions and the door of Fatima", "question_plain": "Did early Muslims really not count Ali as the fourth rightly guided caliph?", "summary": "After agreeing to bring in Dan Gibson, whose work he likes, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question that early Muslims did not count Ali as the fourth rightly guided caliph. He says some, such as Imam Malik in one narration, problematised it, but Muslims generally accept Ali as one of the most amazing companions and a hero of Islam, though not the near-superhuman some Shia make him. He says ranking companions does not matter to him: considering Ali the best is a personal preference, the order in the creed books is written by people, and the problem is insulting religious symbols. He rejects the story that Umar tried to burn Fatima's door: Fatima's sermons and main Shia books do not mention it, it would make Ali look weak, Banu Hashim were present, and Ali as ruler never raised it or Fadak. He accepts Ali may have been sidelined in the rush of events, urges moving on, and recommends the Al-Mahdi Institute and Shaykh Arif [?] to Shia who want to learn from Shia sources.", "summary_short": "Ali is a hero of Islam and preferring him is a personal matter, but he rejects the story of Umar burning Fatima's door and urges moving on.", "answer_start": 7548, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "history/companions", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dan-gibson", "label": "Dan Gibson"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rashidun", "label": "al-Khulafa al-Rashidun (the rightly guided caliphs)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fatima", "label": "Fatima"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:banu-hashim", "label": "Banu Hashim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fadak", "label": "Fadak"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-mahdi-institute", "label": "Al-Mahdi Institute"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:arif-abdulhussain", "label": "Shaykh Arif [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if somebody considers Ali the best of all the companions, to him that is not a problematic statement but a personal preference.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "So, if somebody did feel to them saying Ali was number one from all the companions, I don't to me there's that's not a problematic statement.", "start": 7690}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/27/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/28", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S28", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 28, "start": 8001, "end": 8081, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was Christianity still true until the first revelation to Muhammad?", "question_plain": "Was Christianity still a true religion until Muhammad's first revelation?", "summary": "Asked whether Christianity was a true religion up to the moment Muhammad received revelation or was corrupted before, Mufti Abu Layth says it is not about Christianity being corrupted. He believes there were many prophets and people between prophets with an intuition towards God, such as the hunafa in Arabia who were inclined to monotheism before the Prophet. He says Jesus was never sent to the Arabs but to the Israelites, and that there may have been many prophets the Quran does not mention.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reframes the question: Jesus was sent to the Israelites, not the Arabs, and monotheists existed in Arabia before the Prophet.", "answer_start": 8023, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hunafa", "label": "hunafa (pre-Islamic monotheists)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Jesus was never sent to the Arabs but to the Israelites.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "So um and and and Jesus was never sent to the Arabs. So Jesus was sent to the Israelites.", "start": 8055}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/28/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/29", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S29", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 29, "start": 8081, "end": 8227, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Do Shia scholars approach people better than Salafis? Views on Ammar Nakshawani", "question_plain": "Do Shia scholars treat ordinary people better than Salafi scholars do?", "summary": "A chat comment says many Shia scholars have a better approach to the common person than many Salafis; Mufti Abu Layth says possibly, but the problem is the extremes, and anyone speaking about humanity has more power to them. Told to watch Ammar Nakshawani, he says he has watched only a few clips: one an academic presentation on the companions that was decent, others in which he was insulting and took digs at Aisha. His impression is that Nakshawani is like a Salafi version of the Shia, though he could be wrong and some say these were old videos he has moved on from, so he cannot promote him.", "summary_short": "The problem lies in the extremes of both; from the few clips he has seen he cannot promote Ammar Nakshawani, though he may be wrong.", "answer_start": 8081, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ammar-nakshawani", "label": "Ammar Nakshawani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/29/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/30", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S30", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 30, "start": 8227, "end": 8293, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "What is his karama as a wali? A joke about Sufi hagiographies", "question_plain": "What miracle do you have as a saint?", "summary": "Asked what his karama is, Mufti Abu Layth jokes about what people after him will say, referring to Salafi books that mock Sufi hagiographies by quoting stories of a saint's karamat, and wonders what his own could be. He then says it is getting late and turns to some clips.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth answers with a joke about Sufi hagiographies rather than claiming any karama.", "answer_start": 8227, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sufism"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:karamah", "label": "karama (saintly miracle)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wali", "label": "wali (saint)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sufi", "label": "Sufi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/30/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/31", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S31", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 31, "start": 8293, "end": 8502, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A preacher's video on masturbation: would you do it in front of your parents?", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a video by a religious man on masturbation, set to a nasheed, showing a pious man praying and reciting before giving in to the urge, and advising that next time one should ask whether one would do it in front of one's father or mother, and if not, how one can do it in front of Allah. Mufti mocks the advice, asking why anyone would want to think about their parents at such a moment, and says there are many things one would not do in front of one's parents.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays and mocks a preacher's anti-masturbation video built on the question of whether you would do it in front of your parents.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/31/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/32", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S32", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 32, "start": 8502, "end": 8950, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "An 'educational video' on anal intercourse, guilt-tripping, and Abu al-Zinad's uncle", "question_plain": "Is anal intercourse with my wife haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a second video from the same preacher saying anal intercourse with one's wife is absolutely haram and that, per a hadith, Allah will not look at a man who does it. Mufti asks why God would be angry, and says that, without encouraging the practice, there is not a single sahih hadith or anything in the Quran or Sunnah making it haram, referring to his reply to Abu Ibraheem the exorcist. He mocks the preacher's sense of priorities during lockdown, unemployment and depression, and asks people to stop guilt-tripping, noting that Zakir Naik and others have done a U-turn on masturbation. He tells a story of a teacher of Imam Malik whose nephew, Abu al-Zinad [?], pressed him about intimacy and was told that behind closed doors one may do as one wishes. He concludes that being unable to do something in front of one's parents does not make it haram.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says no sahih hadith makes anal intercourse with one's wife haram, and that preachers should stop guilt-tripping people over private matters.", "answer_start": 8590, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/intimacy", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7cef7cb5", "label": "report: whoever has intercourse with his wife in her anus allah will not look at him on the day of judgement (unresolved)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ibraheem-husnayn", "label": "Abu Ibraheem Husnayn"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zakir-naik", "label": "Zakir Naik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-zinad", "label": "Abu al-Zinad [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/32/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/33", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S33", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 33, "start": 8950, "end": 9507, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why is Yasir Qadhi saying this? His clip on the Prophet and Zaynab bint Jahsh", "question_plain": "Why is Yasir Qadhi saying the Prophet was infatuated with Zaynab?", "summary": "Before closing, Mufti Abu Layth turns to Yasir Qadhi, saying people have asked him why Qadhi makes comments that give material to Islamophobes. He recalls his own video replying to the atheist claim that the Prophet lusted after Zaynab bint Jahsh, the wife of his adopted son Zayd, in which he calls the claim ridiculous since she was a relative the Prophet had known all along and he himself arranged her marriage to Zayd. He says Qadhi has now said that the Prophet seeing her and feeling something for her is a genuine Islamic narrative, and plays part of a compilation by another YouTuber. In the clip Qadhi calls the version in which the Prophet saw her and became infatuated the prototype found in nearly all the early books and says it was later sanitised, while an older clip of Qadhi dismisses the love story's source as a tabloid; Mufti interjects that the claim about the early books is not factually true.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth finds Yasir Qadhi's recent claim, that the Prophet's infatuation with Zaynab was the early normative account, baffling and harmful, and plays clips to show it.", "answer_start": 9024, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zaynab-bint-jahsh", "label": "Zaynab bint Jahsh"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zayd-ibn-haritha", "label": "Zayd ibn Haritha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/33/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/34", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S34", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 34, "start": 9507, "end": 9927, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Zaynab love story was never the normative account: Mufti Abu Layth's reply", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet fall in love with Zaynab bint Jahsh?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the clips show Qadhi knows the answers, having given them a decade ago, yet in 2020 says the love story may have some validity and was the standard version later sanitised. He says that was not the case: major early muhaddithun, Malik and Bukhari among them, do not transmit it and what they transmit is quite different; he grants its source was a scholar quoted by al-Shafi'i, but with strange views. He argues that the Prophet grew up with Zaynab, a relative from his clan, arranged her marriage to Zayd, and could easily have proposed to her had he wished, and that she was not famed for beauty as some other wives were. He says such public statements feed Islamophobes, ex-Muslims and Christian polemicists, and contrasts Qadhi's daring here with his refusal to challenge the narrations on Aisha's age.", "summary_short": "No: he says the early hadith collections do not carry the love story, and it makes no sense given the Prophet had known Zaynab all his life.", "answer_start": 9507, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zaynab-bint-jahsh", "label": "Zaynab bint Jahsh"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zayd-ibn-haritha", "label": "Zayd ibn Haritha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that many of the major early muhaddithun, including Malik, do not transmit the love story of the Prophet and Zaynab.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "In fact many of the major major early Muhadin do not transmit it. Malik doesn't transmit it.", "start": 9545}}, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/34/"}, {"id": "eo90sV4JVHo/s/35", "short_id": "2021-01-05-S35", "recording": "eo90sV4JVHo", "n": 35, "start": 9927, "end": 10032, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: subscribe, a DNA result next week, Patreon sessions", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth points viewers to his full reply on YouTube, asks them to like, subscribe and spread the channel, and says he will share his DNA breakdown next week if he remembers. He thanks his Patreon supporters, says he will catch up with them in private sessions this week after his Covid recovery, and signs off.", "summary_short": "Sign-off: subscribe, a DNA result promised for next week, and Patreon sessions resuming.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eo90sV4JVHo/s/35/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S01", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 1, "start": 22, "end": 427, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: greetings and the night's agenda", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the live session on YouTube and Facebook, greets viewers and jokes about his coffee and not having been to the gym. He lists the topics he plans to cover: his afterthoughts on the discussion with Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid [?] from Luton, the question of what his agenda is, what he calls the ripple, boomerang or bounce effect in hadith and an idea about hadith and evolution, a clip sent to him of Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah on docetism and the crucifixion, a fatwa on building snowmen from a figure he calls the green turban, and a clip of Dawah Man on intimacy.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the session and sets out the night's topics, from his BukhariGate afterthoughts and the hadith ripple effect to a docetism clip and a snowman fatwa.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-abdul-majid", "label": "Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-faruq-abdullah", "label": "Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawah-man", "label": "Dawah Man"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/1/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/2", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S02", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 2, "start": 427, "end": 663, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A clip on parent titles for LGBTQIA+ families, and gender-neutral language", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After a brief comic clip, Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip suggesting words that parents in the LGBTQIA+ community might be addressed by instead of mother or father, and reacts with incomprehension. He says he does not know whether such things exist only on social media, mentions hearing that teachers were told not to call the pupils of a girls' school girls, and a recommendation he attributes to the British Medical Association [?] to say pregnant people rather than pregnant women, which he says he would need to check. He says people forget that humans, however remarkable, are part of nature.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays and reacts to a clip on alternative parent titles in LGBTQIA+ families and comments on gender-neutral language, saying people forget humans are part of nature.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:british-medical-association", "label": "British Medical Association [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/2/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/3", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S03", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 3, "start": 663, "end": 981, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Condolences, and Covid-19 as Russian roulette from a lab", "question_plain": "Was Covid-19 made in a lab?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth offers condolences on the recent death of a friend's father and prays for everyone who has died in the pandemic and for their families. He describes Covid-19 as like Russian roulette, missing many people, giving others a mild or a severe illness and killing some, apparently at random, and says it does not infect children. He mentions reading that the virus relies on cholesterol to infect successfully, and says such features make him feel it definitely came out of a lab and was bioengineered, since it seems to strike affluent, sedentary or obese populations harder than poorer countries. He says he wonders what will come of it all in the future.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes Covid-19 came out of a laboratory and was engineered, pointing to reports that it spares children and relies on cholesterol.", "answer_start": 663, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/covid-19"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes Covid-19 came out of a laboratory and was bioengineered, citing reports that it spares children and relies on cholesterol to infect.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "when i read this kind of stuff i feel um this definitely came out of a lab and it was definitely it was you know bioengineering tweaked", "start": 871}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/3/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/4", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S04", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 4, "start": 981, "end": 1138, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Perfumes, quick chat replies and gym injuries", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth talks about his passion for perfumes, describing a Dior fragrance he tried that day and found more feminine than he would wear. He says he does not know a person a viewer asks about and jokes about a question on mut'ah with an atheist. He describes not having been able to go to the gym for about two months and injuring himself doing push-ups at home after recovering from Covid.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth chats about perfumes, jokes about a chat question and describes injuring himself exercising at home after Covid.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/4/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/5", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S05", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 5, "start": 1138, "end": 1294, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Spreading disinformation? Covid-19 and the Wuhan laboratory", "question_plain": "Did Covid-19 come from the Wuhan lab?", "summary": "Asked to be honest about whether he is here to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories, Mufti Abu Layth says not at all, though he does question certain things. He says it is a fact, on which he would swear, that Covid-19 came out of the level-four laboratory in Wuhan, twenty minutes from the wet market, but that he does not think it was a malicious plot: someone was accidentally infected and it spread, while the lab had definitely been engineering it. He says this is not hidden, citing reports of the lab's work on coronavirus structure around 2018, and that the way it spares children and hits affluent people sounds engineered, ending with jokes about how it escaped.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth denies spreading conspiracy theories but says Covid-19 escaped from the Wuhan laboratory, in his view by accident rather than design, after being engineered there.", "answer_start": 1138, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/covid-19"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:wuhan-institute-of-virology", "label": "the Wuhan laboratory (Wuhan Institute of Virology)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Covid-19 escaped, in his view accidentally and not as a plot, from the Wuhan laboratory where it had been engineered.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "i think it accidentally kind of came out somebody accidentally got infected and it spread but they definitely were engineering it", "start": 1174}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/5/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/6", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S06", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 6, "start": 1294, "end": 1845, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is the Quran centred on men? Women witnesses, male address and patriarchy", "question_plain": "Why does the Quran seem focused on men, and why are two women witnesses needed?", "summary": "A questioner relays the question why the Quran is so centred on men and not women, for example in needing four women as witnesses. Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not ask for four women: it speaks of two women witnesses for debts written while travelling, not because women are deficient but, as he explains in another video and as another explanation [?] he cites also says, because in those unstable circumstances a single woman was easier to intimidate than a man, so a second complicates intimidation; otherwise one woman equals one man, as the hadith says that women are the counterparts of men. He says the Quran's usual address in the masculine reflects humanity rather than Islam, since most human societies have been patriarchal in the neutral sense that leaders were mostly men. He calls the reason an interesting anthropological question and contrasts patriarchal and violent chimpanzees with matriarchal, peaceable bonobos, citing the primatologist Frans de Waal, before saying he does not know why he digressed onto bonobos.", "summary_short": "The Quran asks for two women witnesses only for debt contracts, because a lone woman was easier to intimidate, not because women are lesser; otherwise one woman equals one man, and the masculine address reflects historically patriarchal societies.", "answer_start": 1294, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "history/human-origins"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:282", "label": "Quran 2:282 (two women witnesses for a debt, so that if one errs the other reminds her)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:75de6857", "label": "report: women are the counterparts of men (unresolved; collection not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:frans-de-waal", "label": "Frans de Waal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's requirement of two women witnesses applies only to debt transactions, because a lone woman was easier to intimidate, and not because women are deficient, and that otherwise one woman's testimony equals one man's.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "hence if there were two women it would complicate that process a bit so that's um and that so it's only to do with that otherwise one woman is equivalent to one man", "start": 1398}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/6/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/7", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S07", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 7, "start": 1845, "end": 2160, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why he will not found an academy to train rational muftis", "question_plain": "Will the Mufti open an academy to train muftis?", "summary": "Asked whether he plans to train more muftis who go by reason, for example through an academy, Mufti Abu Layth thanks the questioner but says he does not see himself founding one, though teaching at one would be different. He says establishing an institution sucks the life out of you and takes away the freedom of ideas and speech, making you a slave to its longevity, while videos and books can also produce people. He gives the example of Hamza Yusuf's Zaytuna, which he considers perhaps the most successful Muslim academy in the West, asking what it ultimately achieves beyond degrees when teaching online could reach far more people, and says that in the West institutions are run by boards, citing a case in which a well-known teacher was sidelined by his organisation's new administration. He ends with jokes about how to contact him and about why ex-Muslims keep the name.", "summary_short": "No: he says founding an institution drains one's life and takes away the freedom to think and speak, and that online teaching and books reach more people.", "answer_start": 1845, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:zaytuna-college", "label": "Zaytuna College"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/7/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/8", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S08", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 8, "start": 2160, "end": 2395, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "When should children's religious education begin, and what should it include?", "question_plain": "At what age should children start learning about Islam, and what should they learn?", "summary": "Asked when religious education should begin and what a good Islamic education programme for children should include, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not know whether his answer would work in practice. He thinks it is fine for young children to grow up with a general identity and affiliation to Islam, learning to read the Quran and recite the prayer, at home or in a class, along with basics such as the five pillars and the stories of the prophets. He doubts the value of making young children memorise advanced material such as Arabic when it is not meaningful to them and is retained only out of fear, and suggests deeper teaching about Islam when they are older. He says it is a difficult question, since outcomes differ and children are individuals with their own personalities and circumstances.", "summary_short": "Keep early religious education basic and natural, such as reading the Quran, the prayer and the stories of the prophets, with deeper study when children are older; he admits it depends on the child.", "answer_start": 2160, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/parents-and-children/raising-children", "society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, as far as he can tell, it is fine for young children to learn only the basics, such as reading the Quran, the prayer and the stories of the prophets, with deeper teaching when they are older, while admitting he is unsure and that it depends on the child.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "when they get a bit older then maybe teaching them things about islam and a more deeper insight that's what i'm thinking", "start": 2361}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/8/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/9", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S09", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 9, "start": 2395, "end": 2472, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Tayammum in winter when water worsens a cough", "question_plain": "Can I do tayammum instead of wudu if water makes my cough worse?", "summary": "A questioner asks whether they can do tayammum in winter because their cough gets much worse when they touch even warm or hot water. After a joke, Mufti Abu Layth says not to worry and to do tayammum if it is needed, since it is in the Quran for those with an excuse. He says the excuse is the person's own to judge and nobody else's.", "summary_short": "Yes: tayammum is allowed for anyone with an excuse, and whether the excuse applies is for the person to judge.", "answer_start": 2395, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/purification"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:tayammum", "label": "tayammum"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says someone whose cough worsens with water may perform tayammum, since the Quran allows it for those with an excuse, and that the person judges for themselves whether the excuse applies.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "if you need to do them you can do it look it's in the quran tiemoue is there as well okay so if you have an excuse it's your excuse to judge", "start": 2439}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/9/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/10", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S10", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 10, "start": 2472, "end": 2711, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Quran 66:1, forbidding what Allah made lawful, and the law of defaults", "question_plain": "If the Prophet couldn't forbid what Allah allowed, how can scholars issue fatwas?", "summary": "A questioner asks, setting aside the hadith about it, how the ulama justify jurisprudence and fatwas if 66:1 shows that even the Messenger may not declare things impermissible. Mufti Abu Layth says the verse does not say the ruling changed, since the Prophet is a legislator: it addresses him for forbidding himself something permissible in order to console and please others, not for changing a ruling. He adds that halal becoming haram is not the same as haram becoming halal, because things are permissible by a powerful law of defaults, called istishab [?] especially among the Malikis, akin to innocent until proven guilty: everything is halal until proven haram, so making something haram is a big call. By contrast, he says, prohibitions are made for a reason, and if the reason disappears the ruling disappears.", "summary_short": "The verse rebukes the Prophet for forbidding himself something permissible to please others, not for legislating; things are permissible by default, so declaring something haram is a weighty step.", "answer_start": 2472, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/legal-theory", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:66:1", "label": "Quran 66:1 (why do you forbid what Allah has made lawful for you, seeking to please your wives)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:default-permissibility", "label": "everything is permissible by default until proven otherwise (al-asl al-ibaha)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:istishab", "label": "istishab [?] (the presumption of continuity)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says 66:1 addresses the Prophet for forbidding himself something permissible to console others, not for legislating, and that because everything is permissible by default, declaring something haram is a weighty matter, while a prohibition lapses when its reason disappears.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you see things are permissible by default making them haram is is a big call okay", "start": 2631}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/10/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/11", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S11", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 11, "start": 2711, "end": 2788, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is the Prophet Shu'ayb the biblical Jethro?", "question_plain": "Is Prophet Shu'ayb the same as Jethro in the Bible?", "summary": "Asked whether the Prophet Shu'ayb is Jethro, Mufti Abu Layth says he is not completely sure: the assumption is made because the high priest of Midian to whom Moses goes in the Bible is called Jethro. He says he has not had an interest in researching the overlap and differences between the two figures, that at face value they seem to be the same person, and that he can try to look into it.", "summary_short": "At face value they seem to be the same person, since Moses goes to the priest of Midian in both accounts, but he says he has not researched it.", "answer_start": 2711, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:shuayb", "label": "Shu'ayb"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jethro", "label": "Jethro (biblical)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/11/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/12", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S12", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 12, "start": 2788, "end": 3021, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "'What intoxicates in large amounts': bananas, trace alcohol and normal consumption", "question_plain": "If a lot of anything can intoxicate, does that make tiny amounts of alcohol haram?", "summary": "A questioner asks whether the hadith that whatever intoxicates in a large amount is haram in a small amount is authentic, since bananas and water would intoxicate in large amounts. After joking about the question, Mufti Abu Layth says this is not what the Prophet was talking about: the debate is over what 'much' means, and it means the amount of a drink that is normally consumed, such as a pint or two, not an ocean or a hundred barrels. So a drink that intoxicates in its normal quantity is haram even in a small amount, while things such as orange peel that contain a tiny percentage of alcohol would not intoxicate anyone. He says many ulama, even among the Salafis, allow up to about three percent alcohol, citing a clip he has played before of a scholar whose name is unclear in the transcript [?].", "summary_short": "The hadith refers to drinks that intoxicate in the amount normally drunk, so a little of such a drink is haram; foods with trace alcohol that cannot intoxicate are not covered.", "answer_start": 2788, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a9513bc7", "label": "report: what intoxicates in large amounts a small amount of it is haram (unresolved; collection not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith refers to drinks that intoxicate in the amounts normally drunk, so even a small amount of such a drink is haram, while foods with trace alcohol that cannot intoxicate in normal consumption are not covered.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "that drink which much of intoxicates a small amount of it is equally haram but here when it says much of what does that mean that means what it much of in terms of what is casually drunk", "start": 2850}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/12/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/13", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S13", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 13, "start": 3021, "end": 3179, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can a woman be an imam?", "question_plain": "Can a woman be an imam and lead the prayer?", "summary": "A questioner asks whether a woman can become an imam and, if not, why, given that men and women can pray next to each other at the Kaaba. Mufti Abu Layth says he will bypass the details: she can become an imam as far as Islam is concerned, but imamship is a working model, part of which is representing the community and giving sermons, so it works only if her society accepts it, though it is not inherently invalid. Her leading the prayer, he says, is likewise permissible and valid, though not usually done, for reasons he calls rather obvious. He then reads a viewer's thanks for helping him let go of cult behaviour and jokes about a question on sugar babies.", "summary_short": "Yes: a woman can be an imam and her leading the prayer is valid, though whether it works in practice depends on her society accepting it.", "answer_start": 3021, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques", "fiqh/prayer/congregation-and-jumuah"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:imam", "label": "imam"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a woman can be an imam and her leading the prayer is permissible and valid, though whether imamship works in practice depends on whether her society accepts it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "she can become an imam islam is concerned but then imamship has certain interactions it's it's a working it's a working model", "start": 3035}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/13/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/14", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S14", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 14, "start": 3179, "end": 3417, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Creation myths across cultures, and where the name Adam comes from", "question_plain": "Do creation myths in other cultures share a source with the Islamic account?", "summary": "Asked about creation myths in different cultures and the Islamic narratives of creation, Mufti Abu Layth says he feels many of these myths share a common origin and may be metaphorical while having some essence to them. He notes that the figure of Adam appears in many cultures, citing Adamu in the Sumerian tradition, and that some ancient Hindu narratives are not very different. He says he does not accept that Adam has Arabic or Hebrew roots, since Adamu precedes the biblical story, and wonders whether the word could be of Sanskrit origin, meaning ancient, while saying he does not know. He then jokes briefly about a question on whether worshipping idols is halal and is confused by a question about which scholars he would consider.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth feels the world's creation myths probably share a common origin, and suggests the name Adam predates Arabic and Hebrew, possibly from Sanskrit, though he is not sure.", "answer_start": 3179, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says many cultures' creation myths seem to share a common origin, and that the name Adam is not of Arabic origin and may be older, possibly Sanskrit, though he is not certain.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "one thing i don't buy that adam has arabic roots it's just later on it's made to match arabic roots but it's not an arabic word", "start": 3248}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/14/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/15", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S15", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 15, "start": 3417, "end": 3970, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can a woman become a mufti? A neglected field and dogmatic institutions", "question_plain": "Can a woman become a mufti?", "summary": "After telling a viewer not to worry about whether he will try psychedelics, Mufti Abu Layth answers that a woman can become a mufti, joking that one should not want it in order to insult people, and says it is good to see interest in a field he calls endangered. He says the Bollywood actress Sana Khan, by marrying a mufti, probably did more overnight for interest in becoming a mufti than the ulama did for centuries, and that the ulama are partly to blame for making it rigid and boring. Prompted by a supporter's message on Patreon, he says the field is not invested in and does not attract talent because there is no money or support, describing his own research as hours of following questions through the night, which he does out of passion. He says anybody can become a mufti, but must go through the studies and persevere through institutions that will often be very dogmatic, and only afterwards do their own thing; he then jokes about a flat-earth super chat.", "summary_short": "Yes: anyone, a woman included, can become a mufti, but must persevere through often dogmatic institutions, in a field he says is neglected and lacks support.", "answer_start": 3417, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:sana-khan", "label": "Sana Khan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a woman can become a mufti, that the field of Islamic scholarship is neglected and attracts little talent because it lacks support, and that anyone who wants to become a mufti must persevere through often dogmatic institutions.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "anybody can become a a mufti um you know but it does require going through the studies and then you got a soldier through it", "start": 3867}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/15/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/16", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S16", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 16, "start": 3970, "end": 4525, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Disheartened by what scholars wrote about women: two feeds, and al-Qabisi's fatwa", "question_plain": "How should I deal with the misogynistic things some scholars wrote about women?", "summary": "A questioner says it is very disheartening to read some of the nonsense scholars have written about women. Mufti Abu Layth distinguishes two feeds: contemporary people who say misogynistic things, such as a figure whose clip he played the previous week [?], whom he finds strange for an intelligent, Harvard-educated man, and who should not be allowed to hijack one's Islam; and the traditional writings, which he says should be read more gently. Citing Jordan Peterson's reply to a feminist that men and women in the past were both barely surviving disease, poverty and war rather than men oppressing women, he says past scholars saw things as their world was, so their writings reflect the light of Islam in their age, as a reflection of the sun, without imprisoning Islam within them. As an example he reads a question put to al-Qabisi, the blind Maliki scholar of Qayrawan in modern Tunisia, a companion of Ibn Abi Zayd and a major transmitter of Bukhari manuscripts, about a man who married a woman for a dowry of seventy [?] dinars, paid thirty up front, and whose wife died before the marriage was consummated, where the whole discussion is whether he gets his money back. He jokes about how this reads today, and says that something written about a thousand years ago should not be used to judge one's understanding of Islam today.", "summary_short": "Do not let contemporary misogynists hijack your Islam, and read past scholars' views on women as reflections of their own age, which do not confine Islam.", "answer_start": 3970, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jordan-peterson", "label": "Jordan Peterson"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qabisi", "label": "al-Qabisi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abi-zayd-al-qayrawani", "label": "Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahr", "label": "mahr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says contemporary misogyny should not be allowed to hijack one's Islam, and that past scholars' writings about women reflect their own age and do not confine Islam, which each age reflects in its own way.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "when you read things of the past just know that this is their day and age this is not a reflection it doesn't um you know it doesn't capture or imprison islam within it", "start": 4127}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/16/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/17", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S17", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 17, "start": 4525, "end": 4605, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Pir Naseeruddin Naseer", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of Pir Naseeruddin Naseer?", "summary": "Asked for his thoughts on Pir Naseeruddin Naseer [?], Mufti Abu Layth checks that he has the right person in mind and says he is a very respected pir from modern-day Pakistan who passed away some time ago, with his khanqah, he believes, near Pindi [?]. He says he commands huge respect as a widely respected authority across a broad spectrum of Sunnis, then moves on to his discussion of Bukhari.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Pir Naseeruddin Naseer was a widely respected authority across the spectrum of Sunnis.", "answer_start": 4525, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/sufism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:pir-naseeruddin-naseer", "label": "Pir Naseeruddin Naseer Gilani [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/17/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/18", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S18", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 18, "start": 4605, "end": 4919, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Afterthoughts on the BukhariGate discussion: phenomenology, ontology, epistemology", "question_plain": "Did the debate with Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid answer the BukhariGate challenge?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the BukhariGate discussion with Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid [?] from Luton, a conversation of about five and a half hours that had already had some 18,000 views, and thanks the guest for his love, respect, good character and banter. He says the discussion in no way put BukhariGate to bed but further cemented its challenges, which he looks at from three aspects. The phenomenology is the status of Bukhari today as an impeccable, quasi-divine authority; the ontology is what the book contains, mostly ordinary and good teachings but also some reports he calls massively problematic, even cancerous, that need to be recognised and rejected; and the epistemology is how the book reaches us. Since it cannot be established with certainty that the book comes exactly from al-Bukhari, he says, reports in it that contradict reason, the Quran or the principles of Islam should be walked away from, as Imam Malik taught that isolated narrations can snatch the religion from you.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the discussion did not settle BukhariGate but strengthened it, since doubts about the book's transmission mean reports contradicting reason or the Quran should be set aside.", "answer_start": 4605, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-abdul-majid", "label": "Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad (isolated reports)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principle", "label": "A report is rejected if it contradicts reason, the Quran or an established principle"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the discussion did not put BukhariGate to rest but further cemented it, and that because Sahih al-Bukhari cannot be shown with certainty to reach us exactly from its author, reports in it that contradict reason, the Quran or Islam's principles should be set aside.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "if we can't establish with utter certainty which we can't that this book reaches us exactly from let's say source a which is allegedly imam bukhari himself", "start": 4870}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/18/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/19", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S19", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 19, "start": 4919, "end": 5548, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How the discussion went: manuscripts, a vowelling mistake, and the problematic reports", "question_plain": "How did the BukhariGate discussion go on manuscripts and problematic hadith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the discussion first covered how Bukhari should be regarded and then its epistemology, where he had expected more resistance from Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid [?] but found that he engaged and seemed to acknowledge the points; he adds that online critics such as Farid [?] do not know the complicated study of manuscripts and transmission. He explains his argument that hadith pass through isolated sources with bursts at a few powerhouse transmitters, that only about a dozen main manuscripts of Bukhari are relied on, and that editors choosing between variants shows someone transmitted erroneously. He recounts an anecdote told by a young Saudi Salafi about two students named Abdullah, one nicknamed after the dorms, and a class reading a Bukhari report about a handkerchief given to the Prophet, where one vowel reverses the meaning between rejecting and not rejecting it, a mistake that Fath al-Bari attributes to Ibn al-Sakan. On the content, he says the guest tried hard to defend reports he calls blasphemous and embarrassing, such as Moses running naked, the Prophet being bewitched and becoming clumsy, and the Prophet forgetting the Quran, and that any defender would struggle. He sums up that the defence amounts to saying the Prophet could forget and err in these ways but al-Bukhari could never have made a mistake, which he says proves his point.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the guest did not contest the manuscript evidence, and that defending the problematic reports amounts to claiming the Prophet could err but al-Bukhari could not.", "answer_start": 4919, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "hadith/collections-and-compilation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-abdul-majid", "label": "Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:fath-al-bari", "label": "Fath al-Bari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-sakan", "label": "Ibn al-Sakan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:07f4ecd1", "label": "report: the prophet was given a handkerchief and he did not want it (unresolved; Sahih al-Bukhari, vowelling disputed)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e592ec95", "label": "report: musa ran naked so that people could see he had no hernia"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that defending reports in Bukhari which portray the Prophet as bewitched or forgetting the Quran amounts to claiming the Prophet could err but al-Bukhari could not, when errors in the book's transmission are far more likely.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "the prophet could forget the quran the prophet could be clumsy the prophet could forget surahs and verses the prophet could do all of these things but bukhari could never have made a mistake", "start": 5483}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/19/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/20", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S20", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 20, "start": 5548, "end": 5865, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What is his agenda? Respect for Imam Bukhari, and a book altered in transmission", "question_plain": "Is Mufti Abu Layth against Imam Bukhari?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to his agenda, which came up when the guest mentioned Bashar Awwad [?] refuting secularists in the Arab world. He says he is not and has never been against Imam Bukhari, whom he regards as a great and exceptionally talented scholar of hadith in the heavyweight league, though not the most senior of his day and not infallible, while maintaining that his book was mediocre and only later became what it is. He says he would never tolerate swearing at al-Bukhari and rejects those in the Arab and Indo-Pakistani worlds who call him a kafir, a hypocrite or a conspirator forging hadith to defile the Prophet. He says the book that reaches us is perhaps eighty or ninety percent al-Bukhari's and has been altered along the way, sometimes by people with good intentions, giving the example of the Ibn Sa'ada [?] manuscript known as al-Shaykha, on which the editions used in Morocco and the Muslim West rely and which disappeared and resurfaced some 400 years later. So, he says, when a report concerns killing someone or disrespecting the prophets one must back off, and he closes by recommending the discussion and announcing a challenge.", "summary_short": "No: he says he respects al-Bukhari as an outstanding hadith scholar, though not infallible, but holds that the book reaching us was altered in transmission, so troubling reports deserve caution.", "answer_start": 5548, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-abdul-majid", "label": "Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:bashar-awwad-maruf", "label": "Bashar Awwad Ma'ruf [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nuskhat-ibn-saada", "label": "the Ibn Sa'ada manuscript of Sahih al-Bukhari (al-Shaykha) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has never been against Imam Bukhari, whom he regards as an outstanding though fallible hadith scholar, but holds that the book reaching us was altered in transmission, so reports in it that disrespect the prophets or concern killing should be treated with caution.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "he wasn't a prophet and he wasn't infallible and you have to remember the book that comes to us from him 100 of it is probably not from him but maybe 90 of it was his", "start": 5676}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/20/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/21", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S21", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 21, "start": 5865, "end": 6257, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "An invitation to Sunni Defence, bad blood with Farid, and interrupting in debates", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth extends what he calls a challenge, meaning simply an invitation, to Abdullah of Sunni Defence, who made a video refuting BukhariGate and is confident he answered every question, to a respectful discussion on MindTrap within fourteen days. He says he would be happy to host Farid [?], formerly of Sunni Defence, but does not expect him to come and admits there is bad blood: he says Farid made personal videos calling him a kafir and a zindiq, misrepresented him as laughing at the dead and linked him to a post about LGBTQ, and that he in turn has given Farid a mocking nickname and made comic videos about him. He says he will cut this part out as a separate clip to be sent to Abdullah. He then responds to viewers who said he interrupted the guest in the five-and-a-half-hour discussion, saying he did so less later on and that interjecting when someone misunderstands or answers a different question is natural in a healthy conversation between mature adults.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth invites a presenter of Sunni Defence to discuss BukhariGate on MindTrap, describes the bad blood with Farid, and defends occasional interruptions in debate.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:sunni-defence", "label": "Sunni Defence (YouTube channel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-abdul-majid", "label": "Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zindiq", "label": "zindiq"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/21/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/22", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S22", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 22, "start": 6257, "end": 6337, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Quick chat: Mufti Abu Layth's height and diet", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Asked how tall he is, Mufti Abu Layth says five foot nine, which he thinks is standard in some countries and short in others, and jokes with viewers about it. Asked about his diet, he says it could be a lot better and that he has been trying to improve it since seeing a consultant about his throat.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth answers chat questions about his height and diet.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/22/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/23", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S23", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 23, "start": 6337, "end": 6746, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "The snowman fatwas: building a snowman as an idol, or permitted by the dolls hadith", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to what he calls pressing matters: after heavy snow in the UK he plays a clip of the head of a group he calls 'the green turban lot' [?] ruling that a child making a snowman is making an idol and that the parents, not the child, will be sinful. He then shows another fatwa permitting snowmen because of the hadith in Bukhari that girls had dolls, and mocks the need to search hadith collections to decide whether children may build a snowman, saying such thinking has made Muslims a laughing stock and that one's Islam is massively problematic if it operates that way. He lists this alongside other figures he regards as disappointing public faces of Islamic teaching, including the ones he calls Danny boy [?] and Dawah Man.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays and mocks two fatwas on snowmen, one calling them idols and one permitting them by a hadith about dolls, saying such reasoning makes Muslims a laughing stock.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/tawhid-and-shirk"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:dawat-e-islami", "label": "Dawat-e-Islami ('the green turban') [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:40645889", "label": "report: the girls had dolls (unresolved; cited from Sahih al-Bukhari in the second fatwa)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawah-man", "label": "Dawah Man"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/23/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/24", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S24", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 24, "start": 6746, "end": 6982, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Peace talks with Farid? No hatred, but mockery as a reply to takfir", "question_plain": "Would the Mufti make peace with Farid?", "summary": "Asked whether he would start peace talks with Farid [?], Mufti Abu Layth says there are very few people he has ever felt hatred for and that he does not hate or resent even those he mocks, including Farid, who calls him a kafir. He says he would immediately be respectful to anyone who was respectful to him, but that his opponents call him a disbeliever, a hidden apostate and a zindiq from pulpits, in podcasts and on Twitter. He recounts a sensible person messaging him to say his mocking videos were wrong, and says he replied that his opponents do worse in their own style, by publicly declaring him a kafir, while his style is to mock them and be funny. He says he sees no reason to stop, since it is fun, and moves on to the hadith topics.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he holds no hatred for Farid and would return respect if shown it, but answers public takfir against him with mockery and sees no reason to stop.", "answer_start": 6746, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:farid", "label": "Farid [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zindiq", "label": "zindiq"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/24/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/25", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S25", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 25, "start": 6982, "end": 7453, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The hadith ripple or boomerang effect, and Ahmad Shakir's edit in al-Muhalla", "question_plain": "If a hadith is also in other books besides Bukhari, does that confirm it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains what he calls the bounce, ripple or boomerang effect, in reply to the objection that sidelining Bukhari changes nothing because the same hadith are in other books: because al-Bukhari was so respected, a transmitter who heard his version might, consciously or not, alter his own to match it, as people do with shared memories when someone they look up to tells an event differently. To show this is not a long shot, he presents Ahmad Shakir's edition of Ibn Hazm's al-Muhalla, where a statement of Imam Malik allowing wudu from a pool that animals drink from and relieve themselves in, if the water appears fine, is transmitted from Ibn Ghanim [?]. He shows that Shakir, finding that name in the Egyptian and Yemeni manuscripts, assumed it must be Ibn al-Qasim, who usually transmits from Malik, and changed it, then noted he could not find the statement in Ibn al-Qasim's Mudawwana, although Ibn Ghanim was a real and highly esteemed student of Malik from North Africa who later became a judge. He says Shakir did this with good intentions, but asks how many times such corrections happened in history without anyone catching them.", "summary_short": "Not necessarily: he says transmitters and editors, often with good intentions, aligned names and texts with versions they knew, as Ahmad Shakir did in al-Muhalla, so parallel versions may not be independent.", "answer_start": 6982, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/collections-and-compilation", "hadith/bukhari", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-shakir", "label": "Ahmad Shakir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-muhalla", "label": "al-Muhalla (Ibn Hazm)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ghanim", "label": "Ibn Ghanim [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qasim", "label": "Ibn al-Qasim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sahnun", "label": "Sahnun"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that later transmitters and editors, even with good intentions, may have altered reports and names to match versions they knew, so that the same hadith appearing in other books need not be independent of al-Bukhari.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "my question to that is how do you know this is not a bounce effect or a ripple and boomerang effect that basically because imam buhari was a uh you know he was a great person", "start": 6989}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/25/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/26", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S26", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 26, "start": 7453, "end": 7923, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A second example: Ibn Jurayj's chain, a standardised name, and the 'die a slave' report", "question_plain": "How could hadith chains and texts have been standardised over time?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives a second example from al-Muhalla: a standard hadith about menstruation transmitted by three narrators, Sharik [?], Zuhayr [?] and Ubaydullah [?], with a man named Imran in the chain, and by a fourth, Ibn Jurayj, whose version, found in al-Tabarani and other books, mistakenly gives the name as Umar. He says Ibn Hazm compounded the error by giving Ibn Jurayj's variant with the chain of the other narrators and declaring that no such Umar exists, and that Ahmad Shakir, centuries later, corrected Ibn Jurayj's version to Imran, standardising the text instead of preserving the document as transmitted, mistake included. He stresses the phenomenon rather than the names: editors work on a living document according to their current understanding, which may have happened unnoticed in the past with the books of Muslim, Abu Dawud [?] and others. He cites the report in which the Prophet allegedly says that, were it not for jihad, hajj and caring for his mother, he would love to die a slave, which he calls absurd since nobody wants to be a slave and the Prophet's mother was not alive, and says versions then appear reading 'by Him in whose hand is Abu Hurayra's soul', an idea that is reified and comes back into the tradition.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says editors who standardised variant chains and texts, as Ahmad Shakir did with Ibn Jurayj's version, erased how reports were really transmitted, and that this may have happened unnoticed in the classical collections.", "answer_start": 7453, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/collections-and-compilation", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-muhalla", "label": "al-Muhalla (Ibn Hazm)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-shakir", "label": "Ahmad Shakir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-jurayj", "label": "Ibn Jurayj"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabarani", "label": "al-Tabarani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5cfe6af1", "label": "report: were it not for jihad and hajj and kindness to my mother i would love to die a slave (unresolved; Abu Hurayra, collection not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says editors who standardise variant chains and texts to match the majority, even with good intentions, erase evidence of how reports were actually transmitted, and that this may also have happened unnoticed with the classical hadith collections.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you're standardizing a model and this is exactly what may have happened in the past see you're just catching it out now because ahmad shakir highlighted this", "start": 7828}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/26/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/27", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S27", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 27, "start": 7923, "end": 8551, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Darwin's Cathedral: is the hadith system an evolving organism?", "question_plain": "Could the hadith tradition evolve like a living organism?", "summary": "Closing the ripple-effect explanation, Mufti Abu Layth introduces David Sloan Wilson's Darwin's Cathedral, which argues that belief systems and cultures evolve like living organisms, and Richard Dawkins's idea of memes as information that is copied and takes on a life of its own like a parasite in society. He applies this to hadith, which he describes as a system rather than individual reports, involving memorising, relaying, interpreting and paraphrasing, with authority, power and orthodoxy built on it. He suggests that, just as people once could not imagine germs or a film arriving through the air by Wi-Fi, we have a shallow understanding of consciousness and of ideas, which may reside in the realm of consciousness and be drawn to people as a virus is drawn to its host. Such a system, he suggests, would outlive individuals and, without being conscious, drive its adherents to standardise and correct it for its survival, which would explain the boomerang and ripple effects. He adds a footnote that Plato's forms might exist as concepts in the realm of consciousness, offering it all as food for thought and joking that people will think he has lost the plot.", "summary_short": "As food for thought, he suggests that the hadith system, like other belief systems, behaves like an evolving organism that drives people to standardise and preserve it.", "answer_start": 7923, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:david-sloan-wilson", "label": "David Sloan Wilson"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:darwins-cathedral", "label": "Darwin's Cathedral"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:richard-dawkins", "label": "Richard Dawkins"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth suggests, as food for thought, that the hadith system behaves like an evolving organism that, without consciousness, drives those engaged with it to standardise and correct it so that it survives.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "as a kind of psychosocial organism this belief system it would be driven to make people do that to kind of ensure its longevity to survive", "start": 8392}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/27/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/28", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S28", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 28, "start": 8551, "end": 8708, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is hadith a cancer? Filtering the tradition, not discarding it", "question_plain": "Should we throw away hadith altogether?", "summary": "After joking that a viewer asking whom to listen to should listen to him, Mufti Abu Layth responds to a comment that hadith is cancer by correcting it and completing his point about his agenda: his aim is simply to filter. He says he is against speaking rudely of the heritage as a whole, since some elements may be infected but the whole need not be thrown away, and condemns Arab secular channels that swear at Bukhari, saying he does not believe in any conspiracy by al-Bukhari or that anyone was a double agent. He says it is wonderful that so many descriptions and details of the Prophet have reached us, that some became corrupted along the way but it remains a beautiful tradition other religions would be overjoyed to have for their figures of faith, and that binning everything would be reductionist and naive.", "summary_short": "No: he says the hadith tradition is a beautiful, unparalleled record of the Prophet that should be filtered for corrupted reports, not discarded.", "answer_start": 8551, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith tradition is a beautiful and unparalleled record of the Prophet that should be filtered for the reports that became corrupted, not thrown away.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "some infection crept in and it's our job to to to clean it but that's it i i don't say that you need to throw hadith away", "start": 8605}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/28/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/29", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S29", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 29, "start": 8708, "end": 8865, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Quick chat: LSD, paratha and nihari, and jinn as microbes", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Answering chat in quick succession, Mufti Abu Layth says LSD is halal and refers viewers to his video on psychedelics, then jokes about eating paratha with curry, tells a mock anecdote about Queen Victoria and paratha, and gives his view of nihari. Asked whether jinn might be viruses or microbes, he says that is one interpretation and that Rashid Rida describes them in that way in his tafsir.", "summary_short": "In quick chat replies he refers to his video on psychedelics, jokes about food, and says reading jinn as microbes is one interpretation, held by Rashid Rida.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rashid-rida", "label": "Rashid Rida"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/29/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/30", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S30", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 30, "start": 8865, "end": 9022, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Quick chat: Mufti Abu Layth's taste in music", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Asked what music he is into, Mufti Abu Layth describes a mix: classic Bollywood songs, qawwali such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and, in the past, Aziz Mian, and instrumental tracks for working out, and says he does not really listen to Celine Dion. He then goes to play the clip of Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah, finds he has not uploaded it and searches for it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth answers a chat question about the music he listens to.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:nusrat-fateh-ali-khan", "label": "Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aziz-mian", "label": "Aziz Mian"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/30/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/31", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S31", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 31, "start": 9022, "end": 9653, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Docetism: what early Christians disagreed on, and a clip of Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah", "question_plain": "Was docetism about someone else being crucified in Jesus's place?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip, sent to him by someone asking his opinion, in which Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah says the first thing Christians disagreed on was not the Trinity, which took almost 400 years to develop, but docetism, which he explains as the belief that Jesus was not the man crucified but someone made to look like him, linking this to the Quran. Mufti says that from an Islamic perspective he does not believe that is what happened or what the Quran says: in his reading the verse says the crucifixion appeared to them to have succeeded, though he grants the wording could be taken the other way. He says the presentation of docetism is inaccurate, since it was an umbrella for several groups debating whether Jesus was truly flesh or only appeared human, comparable to some Muslims' belief that the Prophet was light and had no shadow. He describes related beliefs, that the infant Jesus did not cry and that Mary felt no labour pains, which he says Thomas Aquinas also held, and notes that the Quran by contrast mentions Mary's labour pains. He says the look-alike story belongs rather to Simon Magus, who claimed Jesus had been swapped with him at the crucifixion, and that presenting the Quran as touching on the first Christian heresy in that way is misleading.", "summary_short": "No: he says docetism was a debate over whether Jesus was truly human, and that the Quran says the crucifixion only appeared to succeed, not that a look-alike was crucified.", "answer_start": 9102, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-faruq-abdullah", "label": "Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:157", "label": "Quran 4:157 (they did not kill him nor crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:19:23-25", "label": "Quran 19:23-25 (the pains of labour drove her to the trunk of the palm tree)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:docetism", "label": "docetism"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:thomas-aquinas", "label": "Thomas Aquinas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:simon-magus", "label": "Simon Magus"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/31/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/32", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S32", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 32, "start": 9653, "end": 10046, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Thoughts on Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah: rare talent, and a turn to pir-style spirituality", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives his thoughts on Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah himself: an incredibly talented man who has studied Islam since before Mufti was born, one of the earliest Western Malikis, from a wave of converts from elite backgrounds influenced by Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi. He praises his Arabic as exceptional for a convert, saying that unlike most converts, Hamza Yusuf included, he has no foreign accent, and that a recorded lesson of his could have been taken for a Saudi shaykh. He says, as his heartfelt view, that it is a waste of talent that in old age such figures seem to turn to the pir-murid style of becoming a spiritual shaykh who takes bay'ah, since a Western shaykh will never gain the standing of the pirs of the East, and the pursuit is silly in any case. He stresses that this is not hatred and that he respects his intelligence and knowledge, and wonders whether it is an American pattern of retreating, as al-Ghazali did, at a certain age.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah exceptionally talented, with remarkable Arabic, but says his later turn to a pir-style spiritual role wastes that talent.", "answer_start": 9653, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/sufism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-faruq-abdullah", "label": "Dr Umar Faruq Abdullah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdalqadir-as-sufi", "label": "Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bayah", "label": "bay'ah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/32/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/33", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S33", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 33, "start": 10046, "end": 10205, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did Jesus speak as a baby? The cradle verse and the boy in the Temple", "question_plain": "Did Jesus really speak as a newborn baby in the Quran?", "summary": "Taking a couple of quick questions, Mufti Abu Layth answers one about Jesus speaking as a child, saying he has a video on it: the Quran does not say Jesus spoke as a baby, which is only inferred, but describes him as one who was in the cradle as a boy. He takes this to refer to the incident in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus, as a boy of about ten or eleven, argues with the priests in the Temple, who find it offensive and disrespectful. He then answers a question about rock music, saying that some tracks by Elvis and Sinatra cannot be beaten.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not state that Jesus spoke as a newborn, and that the cradle verse points to the episode in Luke of the boy Jesus arguing with the Temple priests.", "answer_start": 10046, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:19:29", "label": "Quran 19:29 (how can we speak to one who is in the cradle, a child)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-luke", "label": "Gospel of Luke"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not state that Jesus spoke as a newborn, and that its reference to his speaking from the cradle as a boy points to the episode in Luke of the young Jesus arguing with the Temple priests.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "jesus it doesn't mention he's speaking as a baby that's just inferred by people he actually says that kefanu who was a boy", "start": 10080}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/33/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/34", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S34", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 34, "start": 10205, "end": 10760, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Abu Hurayra's five thousand hadith, Umar's threat, and the Ruqayya comb report", "question_plain": "How could Abu Hurayra narrate 5,000 hadith after only two years with the Prophet?", "summary": "Asked about Abu Hurayra, who spent only the last two years with the Prophet yet narrated some five thousand hadith, and Umar telling him to stop, Mufti Abu Layth says he spent at best about two years with the Prophet and that he thinks many false memories were transmitted. He says Umar threatened to beat him if he heard him narrating, as reported in the hadith, and that Abu Hurayra narrated much more after Umar died, saying he could not while Umar was alive; Umar did this not as a personal matter but because he saw it as a danger to the religion, while Umar himself, ruling for about a decade, narrated only about 86 hadith, and five thousand would be believable from Umar, Uthman or Ali but not from someone who came in the last two years. He says Abu Hurayra was not evil, but that narrating became a claim to fame, which need not be a bad thing. As an example he cites a report in Musnad Ahmad and al-Mustadrak in which Abu Hurayra says he visited Ruqayya, the Prophet's daughter, as she held a comb after combing the Prophet's hair and he told her to honour Uthman, which Mufti says is impossible since Ruqayya died around the battle of Badr, years before Abu Hurayra became Muslim. He says Sunnis should themselves call such reports nonsense, whether the mistake was his or a later transmitter's, so that Shia critics are not the ones doing it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is implausible that Abu Hurayra narrated so much after about two years with the Prophet, that Umar restrained him, and that impossible reports such as the Ruqayya comb story should be rejected by Sunnis themselves.", "answer_start": 10205, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/companions", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b339bf83", "label": "report: umar threatened to beat abu hurayra for transmitting so much"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:144726cc", "label": "report: i entered upon ruqayya with a comb in her hand and she said the prophet has just left (unresolved; Abu Hurayra, Musnad Ahmad and al-Mustadrak, numbers not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ruqayya", "label": "Ruqayya bint Muhammad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mustadrak", "label": "al-Mustadrak (al-Hakim)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-badr", "label": "the battle of Badr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is implausible that Abu Hurayra, who spent about two years with the Prophet, narrated some five thousand hadith, that false memories likely entered his reports, and that Sunnis should themselves reject reports that are factually impossible.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "i definitely think that a lot of you know there was a lot of um maybe false memories being transmitted and stuff like that", "start": 10219}}, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/34/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/35", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S35", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 35, "start": 10760, "end": 11153, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Dawah Man on intimacy positions, citing Ibn al-Qayyim, played and mocked", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Saying people in lockdown need advice on intimacy, Mufti Abu Layth plays clips of a preacher he calls Dawah Man, who, citing Ibn al-Qayyim, says the position with the woman on top is not haram but should be avoided because it puts the man in the woman's position and encourages femininity, and warns that this has led some men to ask to be penetrated by their wives. Mufti mocks the advice, plays a montage linking it to the ills of society and gender-neutral parenting, and says he does not know where such concerns come from. He closes the segment with puns about staying on top of things.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays and mocks a preacher's advice, attributed to Ibn al-Qayyim, against the woman-on-top position as encouraging femininity in men.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/intimacy", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dawah-man", "label": "Dawah Man"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qayyim", "label": "Ibn al-Qayyim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/35/"}, {"id": "eoKcNwGGIBA/s/36", "short_id": "2021-01-26b-S36", "recording": "eoKcNwGGIBA", "n": 36, "start": 11153, "end": 11345, "date": "20210126", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Sign-off: subscribers, Patreon, Discord and next MindTrap", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth wraps up, asks viewers to like, subscribe and turn on notifications, mentions the channel reaching 22,000 subscribers and recommends watching his full debate. He thanks his patrons, says he will look into what an event on the Discord server is, and announces a MindTrap later in the week, hopefully with Shaykh Atabek [?], before saying salam.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth signs off, thanks subscribers and patrons, and announces a MindTrap episode later in the week.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/eoKcNwGGIBA/s/36/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/1", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S01", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 1, "start": 18, "end": 176, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: audio check and introducing Dr Shehzad Saleem", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the MindTrap episode and says an esteemed guest will shed light on a matter that has been disturbing many people recently: the controversy over the nature of the Quran, the variant readings and the ahruf. After an audio check with viewers on YouTube and Facebook, he brings up the profile picture of Dr Shehzad Saleem, whom he describes as a master of Quranic sciences, a specialist on the variation and compilation of the Quran, known in Arabic as jam' al-Quran, a fellow of Javed Ahmad Ghamidi's institute and someone close to Ghamidi himself. He greets the guest, who says it is an honour to be with him.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping before the conversation: an audio check, then the introduction of the guest, Dr Shehzad Saleem, a specialist on the compilation and variant readings of the Quran from Ghamidi's institute.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jam-al-quran", "label": "jam' al-Quran (the compilation of the Quran)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahruf", "label": "the seven ahruf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/1/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/2", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S02", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 2, "start": 176, "end": 632, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest's journey: how teaching the history of the Quran in 1999 raised the questions behind his book", "question_plain": "How did Dr Shehzad Saleem come to research the history of the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the guest and gives a brief overview of his work, holding up his book, The History of the Quran: A Critical Study, which grew out of a PhD spanning many years and several countries, and asks him to tell the story of his journey. The guest says it began in 1999 when he was asked to teach Quranic studies to graduate students at Al-Mawrid, including the history of the Quran, which he expected to be the easiest part since the Quran is preserved to perfection; preparing it, he was shocked by the questions that arose from the way the history is reported in the history and hadith books, and resolved to find answers for himself once the course ended. He lists the questions: why at least five versions of the Quran are extant, Hafs read by about ninety-seven percent of Muslims and Warsh and others in some eleven countries, with differences in words and word order, some affecting meaning, which seemed to shake the claim of word-for-word preservation and took him to Morocco, where the reading of Nafi' has been recited for twelve centuries; hadith reports that the Quran is incomplete, such as the verse of rajm, which Aisha is reported to have said was still being read when the Prophet died; the apparently haphazard compilation by the companions on the testimony of two witnesses, with Umar's rajm verse rejected for lack of a second witness; the differing codices ascribed to Ibn Mas'ud, Ubayy and Ali; and the Shia account of the collection, diametrically opposed to the Sunni one. Mufti says the book, published in November 2019, is underrepresented, and that he has read about forty percent of it and found it an immense study covering the traditional, contemporary and manuscript angles.", "summary_short": "Teaching the history of the Quran at Al-Mawrid in 1999, the guest was shocked by questions in the Muslim sources themselves: multiple extant readings, reports of a lost rajm verse, compilation by two witnesses, differing companion codices and the Shia account. His book is the result of the quest that followed.", "answer_start": 242, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:history-of-the-quran-a-critical-study", "label": "The History of the Quran: A Critical Study (Shehzad Saleem)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-mawrid", "label": "Al-Mawrid"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hafs", "label": "Hafs"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:warsh", "label": "Warsh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nafi-al-madani", "label": "Nafi' al-Madani (the reciter)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the variant readings)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rajm", "label": "rajm (stoning)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3271c27e", "label": "report: aisha said the verse of rajm was being read when the prophet died"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3c5e8bae", "label": "report: umar brought the verse of rajm but it was not accepted for lack of a second witness"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubayy-ibn-kab", "label": "Ubayy ibn Ka'b"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "the companions' codices (masahif)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/2/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/3", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S03", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 3, "start": 632, "end": 1025, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is the Quran preserved? The Yasir Qadhi controversy and the guest's categorical answer", "question_plain": "Is the Quran preserved exactly as it was revealed?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the discussion has become relevant in the past week or two because an American scholar with a huge following, Yasir Qadhi, who comes from a Salafi background though he has drifted from its hardline approach, said in an interview that there are problems with saying the Quran is preserved and that the traditional narratives have failures; this sent shockwaves through his audience and was seized on by Islamophobes, orientalists and ex-Muslims, Jay Smith among them, so that ordinary Muslims are asking their local scholars to explain the nature of the Quran. He asks the guest, whose perspective he believes is in line with Ghamidi's, the simple question whether the Quran is preserved and what preservation means. The guest answers that it is absolutely preserved: the Quran revealed to the Prophet fourteen centuries ago is with us exactly, dot for dot, with the verses in the order they were given, and the only question is the other versions circulating under the name of Quran and the variations in single verses, which need a separate and, he says, cogent explanation. Preservation in its original language, he adds, is the miracle of the Quran and what distinguishes it from the Old and New Testaments, which survive only in translations. He says he met Yasir Qadhi last year, gave a talk at his institute and discussed their differences in a friendly way, calling him a phenomenal scholar. Asked whether his holistic view is Ghamidi's, he says his work is in fact an explanation of a module in Hamiduddin Farahi's thesis on the collection and transmission of the Quran, put forward a century ago, passed through Amin Ahsan Islahi to Ghamidi, with contemporary details added.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Quran is preserved absolutely, dot for dot and in the revealed order, and that the other readings need a separate explanation; preservation in its original language is what distinguishes it from the Bible. His view develops Farahi's thesis as transmitted through Islahi and Ghamidi.", "answer_start": 790, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jay-smith", "label": "Jay Smith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamiduddin-farahi", "label": "Hamiduddin Farahi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:amin-ahsan-islahi", "label": "Amin Ahsan Islahi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:old-testament", "label": "Old Testament"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:new-testament", "label": "New Testament"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the variant readings)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/3/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/4", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S04", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 4, "start": 1025, "end": 1260, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Preserved primarily by memory: thousands of companions, tawatur as a pyramid, writing following recitation", "question_plain": "How was the Quran preserved: by memory or in writing?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth traces the legacy from Farahi through Islahi to Ghamidi and asks the guest to state in a paragraph what he means by saying the Quran is preserved. The guest says it was preserved primarily orally, through memorisation by thousands of companions, and only secondarily in writing, since diacritical and vowel marks were sparingly used and everything written followed the oral recitation. A very large number of people memorised the Quran in whole or in part and passed it to the next generation, generation to generation rather than a few to a few, which is what tawatur means historically as well as religiously: so many transmit something that collusion on falsehood is impossible, like a pyramid whose base keeps expanding. Writing followed recitation and always needed a hafiz's testimony that it was correct, a method he calls novel for a book but natural in a culture of orality in which Arabs kept genealogies by heart, Abu Bakr himself being a genealogist. Mufti adds that Keith Small, who works on Quran manuscripts, has said the early manuscripts make a strong oral tradition self-evident, the writing serving as a code to nudge the memory.", "summary_short": "The Quran was preserved primarily by thousands of companions memorising it and passing it on generation to generation, which is what tawatur means; writing was secondary and always needed a hafiz's testimony.", "answer_start": 1025, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamiduddin-farahi", "label": "Hamiduddin Farahi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:amin-ahsan-islahi", "label": "Amin Ahsan Islahi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir (tawatur)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hifz", "label": "hifz (memorisation; hafiz)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:keith-small", "label": "Keith Small"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/4/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/5", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S05", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 5, "start": 1260, "end": 1497, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "At the Prophet's death: a living tradition, no official written codex, and inflated stories about the caliphs' compilation", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet leave a written Quran, and what did the caliphs really do?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says few doubt that the Quran was complete and taught in the Prophet's lifetime, and asks what happened at his death. The guest says the Quran was then with the living tradition of the Muslims: written, taught, read, memorised and compared. Students of the Prophet had written it down, but he never left an officially compiled written Quran, which the guest calls wise, since protecting a written text in such a society would have been hard and it would have rotted away; the written culture existed but was not relied on, like students taking notes and comparing them. The Prophet himself received the Quran orally from Jibril, not being a reader or writer, and transmitted it exactly as he received it. The stories of what the caliphs did after his death, that Abu Bakr, Umar or Uthman made copies, are in his view grossly inflated and misinterpreted: as responsible rulers of an expanding realm with wars and new converts, they simply spread copies of the Quran that was already there. The narratives in Bukhari and other hadith books about how the Quran came to be compiled, he says, he has shown in his research to be lacking not only in their chains but in their content, with many conflicting versions. Mufti then asks whether, in the guest's understanding, the Quran's words were absolutely fixed as they are today, and the guest says yes, with an explanation that follows.", "summary_short": "At the Prophet's death the Quran lived in the community's recitation, teaching and notes; he deliberately left no official codex. The caliphs merely spread copies, and the guest says the Bukhari narratives about their compilation are weak in chain and content.", "answer_start": 1260, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril (Gabriel)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/5/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/6", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S06", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 6, "start": 1497, "end": 1734, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Were the words fixed? Surah al-Qiyamah 75:16-19, the chronological recitation and its remnants as the source of the qira'at", "question_plain": "Where do the variant readings of the Quran come from?", "summary": "The guest says the Quran itself speaks of its compilation, and this is where Farahi began: in Surah al-Qiyamah 75:16-19 Allah reassures the Prophet that the Quran, revealed piecemeal, will be collected by Allah and then read out, and that when it is reread in its final compilation the Prophet must follow that recitation and abandon the chronological one. The Quran was thus revealed chronologically and recompiled in a different, divinely given order, with some tenses, word orders and settings changed because it was now addressed to all mankind. The remnants of the chronological recitation persisted, because the companions did not want to give up what they had heard from the Prophet's mouth, and in the guest's view this parallel transmission is the biggest single source, perhaps seventy percent, of the extra-Quranic readings. Mufti Abu Layth checks his understanding that the qira'at originate in the earlier revelatory sequence that was later reread, and the guest confirms it, citing the reports that in his final Ramadan the Prophet revised the whole Quran twice with Jibril and sat in i'tikaf for twenty days instead of ten so that the new order could be preserved and passed to the ummah, a revision that had happened every Ramadan for that year's revelation.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Quran was revealed chronologically and then recompiled in a new divine order, as 75:16-19 describes; remnants of the earlier recitation kept by the companions are the biggest source of the qira'at. The final order was fixed when the Prophet revised the Quran twice with Jibril in his last Ramadan.", "answer_start": 1497, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/tafsir", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:75:16-19", "label": "Quran 75:16-19 (upon Us is its collection and its recitation)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamiduddin-farahi", "label": "Hamiduddin Farahi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the variant readings)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril (Gabriel)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:itikaf", "label": "i'tikaf"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0254fac3", "label": "report: in his final ramadan the prophet revised the quran with jibril twice and sat in itikaf for twenty days"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/6/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/7", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S07", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 7, "start": 1734, "end": 2207, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "How the earlier readings survived and mixed in: the companions' archive, al-Shafi'i's two kinds of knowledge, similar passages, tafsir synonyms and fabrication", "question_plain": "How did the earlier recitation and other readings get mixed up with the Quran?", "summary": "The guest says some companions insisted on preserving the parts of the earlier recitation they had heard as an archival, prized possession, clear that it was not part of the Quran; but among their students' students the distinction blurred and these remnants came to be thought of as Quran, producing a number of readings. Al-Shafi'i's Risalah then held it incumbent on scholars to preserve not only the knowledge meant for everyone, ilm al-'amma, but also the specialists' knowledge, ilm al-khassa, transmitted by single reports, so a dual transmission arose in which the masses carried the original Quran while scholars preserved the revelatory remnants, and reports that the Prophet read a verse 'like this as well' lost the knowledge that it was a companion's explanation or the earlier sequence. A further source is the Quran's many similar passages, which a hafiz without a very sharp memory tends to mix up; he has traced in his book how readings ascribed to Nafi', Hafs, Asim and others result from intermingling two similar verses, as with the phrase about Allah being al-ghaniyy al-hamid with or without 'huwa'. Mufti Abu Layth recaps for viewers, and asks why nobody followed the verse of al-Qiyamah; the guest answers that traditional scholars interpreted it, following a report from Ibn Abbas, to mean that the Quran would be collected in the Prophet's heart. Mufti confirms that on this view the order of the Quran is tawqifi, divinely set, with pronoun changes coming by revelation. The guest adds a third source, tafsir readings: companions teaching the Quran would explain a word with a synonym, which their students took as an alternative reading; and a fourth, fabrication in the second and third centuries, just as hadith were concocted in large numbers. Mufti adds the manuscript example of a note reading 'do not say bismillah' at the head of Surah al-Tawba, clearly a scribe's note rather than revelation.", "summary_short": "The guest names four sources of the variant readings: remnants of the earlier revelatory sequence kept by the companions and later blurred with the Quran under al-Shafi'i's scholarly transmission, the mixing of similar passages, companions' explanatory synonyms taken as readings, and fabrication in the second and third centuries.", "answer_start": 1734, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-risalah-al-shafii", "label": "al-Risalah of al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ilm-al-khassa", "label": "ilm al-khassa (the specialists' knowledge)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ilm-al-amma", "label": "ilm al-'amma (knowledge meant for everyone)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nafi-al-madani", "label": "Nafi' al-Madani (the reciter)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hafs", "label": "Hafs"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asim-ibn-abi-al-najud", "label": "Asim ibn Abi al-Najud (the reciter)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:75:17", "label": "Quran 75:17 (upon Us is its collection and its recitation)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawqifi", "label": "tawqifi (divinely fixed order)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tafsir", "label": "tafsir readings (explanatory synonyms)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mawdu", "label": "fabrication (mawdu')"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/7/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/8", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S08", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 8, "start": 2207, "end": 2519, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The hadith that the Quran was revealed in seven ahruf: forty interpretations, unsound reports, and reports that cancel each other", "question_plain": "Is the hadith that the Quran was revealed in seven ahruf authentic, and what does it mean?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about the hadith everyone brings up, that the Quran was revealed in seven ahruf: is it baseless, or does it have another interpretation? The guest first cites al-Suyuti, who counted it among the mutashabihat, ambiguous narratives whose meaning is yet to be known. In a chapter of his book he lists some forty explanations of the word ahruf, examines seven or eight major ones and shows that they are inconsistent and do not match the Arabic of the word; he has also shown that none of the versions is soundly reported, while allowing that so many reports from so many companions suggest some kernel of truth. Mufti holds up the section of the book dealing with the ahruf, the chains and the versions. Asked whether it is simply made up, the guest says not necessarily: the Prophet may have said something about the Quran that was misrepresented and misinterpreted, as with the return-of-Jesus narratives he is now working on, which more than twenty-five companions narrate; more than twenty companions does not make tawatur, and he follows the usulis' definition of tawatur as a very large number rather than the hadith scholars'. Mufti adds that the early hadith scholars did not have the term tawatur, which was introduced much later. The guest says he deliberately refrained from offering his own interpretation, since any explanation would be guesswork and would focus the debate on his reading of the Prophet's words; he restricts himself to showing that the famous versions, Umar's narrative in al-Hakim's Mustadrak and Ubayy ibn Ka'b's, have many problems and contradict one another, and that under the scholars' own rule contradictory reports that cannot be reconciled cancel each other out and must be dropped.", "summary_short": "The guest says the seven-ahruf hadith is ambiguous, as al-Suyuti admitted, that its forty-odd interpretations are inconsistent and its versions unsoundly reported and contradictory, so they cancel each other out. He refrains from guessing what the Prophet originally said.", "answer_start": 2286, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "hadith/authentication"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:37807dc3", "label": "report: the quran was revealed in seven ahruf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahruf", "label": "the seven ahruf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutashabih", "label": "mutashabihat (ambiguous texts)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir (tawatur)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubayy-ibn-kab", "label": "Ubayy ibn Ka'b"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-hakim-al-naysaburi", "label": "al-Hakim al-Naysaburi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mustadrak", "label": "al-Mustadrak (al-Hakim)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:history-of-the-quran-a-critical-study", "label": "The History of the Quran: A Critical Study (Shehzad Saleem)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tasaqut", "label": "tasaqut (contradictory reports cancel each other out)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/8/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/9", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S09", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 9, "start": 2519, "end": 2835, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why did Muslims transmit reports of disagreement over the Quran instead of hiding them? Honesty, scribal errors and parallel transmission", "question_plain": "Why did Muslim scholars record disagreements about the Quran's text rather than hide them?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the guest does not try to dominate the narrative but leaves the ahruf discussion with the conclusion that it has little to stand on. He then asks why, given the many transmissions in hadith, sunan and history books about people reciting differently, Hisham ibn Hakim and Umar disagreeing, Ibn Mas'ud's codex and the rest, the Muslims transmitted all this from their own sources rather than covering it up, when scholars have buried other things: he notes that he personally agrees with Ghamidi that there is no second coming of Jesus, and that Ibn Hazm recorded disagreement on it among scholars, yet their names were buried and not transmitted. The guest answers that it was sheer honesty: whatever was the reality was brought forth, just as every scholar acknowledges scribal errors in the mushaf, extra alifs, vowels and letters, which were preserved in writing because orality was strong enough for people to recognise them, and marked with a circle. The companions transmitted the other readings because they believed them to have some historical connection with the Quran, and this purity of intent, which survives today, explains the phenomenon of parallel transmission. He adds that the variations were bound to exist because the Quran was revealed over twenty-two years and then rearranged; had it kept its revealed sequence there would have been none, but the remnants of the earlier order were so dear to the companions that they would not do away with them, not realising this would later become a problem.", "summary_short": "The guest says the scholars transmitted the variant reports out of sheer honesty, just as they preserved and marked scribal errors in the mushaf, and that variation was inevitable once the revealed sequence was rearranged. Mufti Abu Layth notes in passing that he agrees with Ghamidi that there is no second coming of Jesus.", "answer_start": 2675, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hisham-ibn-hakim", "label": "Hisham ibn Hakim"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cee14f23", "label": "report: hisham ibn hakim recited differently and umar disagreed"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "mushaf (scribal errors in it)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/9/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/10", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S10", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 10, "start": 2835, "end": 3149, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The early generations' confidence, the qira'a al-'amma of the companions, and why Morocco reads Nafi'", "question_plain": "What was the qira'a al-'amma, and why does Morocco recite a different reading?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels the early generations, up to the age of Imam Malik, were more secure in their faith and not shaken by things like multiple readings, which were openly discussed in the sources, and that in his view insecurity about anything challenging the narrative came with the institutionalisation of Islam. The guest says the early Muslims were so confident that the common reading, al-qira'a al-'amma, was well established and would spread everywhere that they let the singular readings be transmitted on the margins; even today only the scholarly community knows of them, and people hearing his talks are often learning of other readings for the first time. Mufti asks whether al-qira'a al-'amma means a proto-reading that is the mushaf we have today, and the guest confirms that the tabi'un gave this name to the reading: Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami [?], who lived in the first century, said that the reading of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, the Muhajirun and the Ansar was one and was called al-qira'a al-'amma, so for the first hundred years there was no problem and the other readings were sidetracked. Because al-Shafi'i assigned ilm al-khassa to the scholars, the readings were preserved in tafsir, qira'at and hadith books but never among the masses, where only the common reading is found. The exception is eleven countries with four different readings: he went to Morocco and found that a third-century ruler had imposed the reading of Nafi' because Imam Malik, whose fiqh prevailed in North Africa, preferred it; so a different reading was imposed by state authority there and has continued since.", "summary_short": "The common reading of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali and the companions, al-qira'a al-'amma, is the mushaf we have, while the other readings stayed in scholars' books; Morocco reads Nafi' only because a third-century ruler imposed it on account of Imam Malik's preference. Mufti Abu Layth adds that the early generations were more secure in their faith than later, institutionalised Islam.", "answer_start": 2912, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraa-al-amma", "label": "al-qira'a al-'amma (the common reading)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-abd-al-rahman-al-sulami", "label": "Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ilm-al-khassa", "label": "ilm al-khassa (the specialists' knowledge)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nafi-al-madani", "label": "Nafi' al-Madani (the reciter)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "mushaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/10/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/11", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S11", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 11, "start": 3149, "end": 3465, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The seven readers and the privilege of ikhtiyar: how the systematic qira'at were formed in the third century", "question_plain": "How did the seven canonical readings of the Quran come about?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth summarises for viewers: the variant readings are popularly known through seven readers, each with two transmitters, fourteen in all, with some counting twenty, thirty or even fifty; Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid popularised the seven; and these are not mutawatir and not on the level of the common reading, which he says he personally agrees with. The guest describes the history: just as fiqh produced the great imams Abu Hanifa, Ahmad, Malik and al-Shafi'i, so around the second or early third century great reciters were invested with the privilege of choosing between the various readings inherited from the companions and tabi'un, and were called sahib al-ikhtiyar. People had different readings coming from the same companion, so each of the seven set his own criteria and, for every verse that had several variations, preferred one, applying a single principle throughout and so producing a systematic Quran with seven variants. Mufti clarifies for less familiar viewers: Uthman's template was consonantal and without vowels, so like text-message abbreviations it could be read in more than one way by someone not already privy to the reading, and people inherited varied readings and chose this part from one reader and that from another, until the seven who became popular became the mouthpieces of a particular selection.", "summary_short": "In the second and third centuries leading reciters were given the privilege of ikhtiyar, choosing one of the inherited variants for each verse by their own criteria, and Ibn Mujahid later popularised seven of them. Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees these readings are not mutawatir and not on the level of the common reading.", "answer_start": 3229, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-mujahid", "label": "Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the variant readings)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir (tawatur)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ikhtiyar", "label": "ikhtiyar (a reciter's choice among readings)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "the Uthmanic mushaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/11/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/12", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S12", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 12, "start": 3465, "end": 3778, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why Hafs from Asim became the common reading, the seven-ahruf hadith as the licence for ikhtiyar, and Ibn Mujahid's seven", "question_plain": "Why did the reading of Hafs from Asim become the standard Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks the elephant-in-the-room question: of the fourteen transmitters, how did Hafs from Asim become the common reading while the other thirteen missed it. The guest says his teacher Ghamidi has tried to solve this riddle with the thesis that Hafs was the only one who read the qira'a al-'amma without adding his own ikhtiyar, while the rest chose from different readers and companions and made their own selections. The reciters, mostly non-Arabs from Iran and elsewhere, were adept and wanted to read in the dialect and accent of the Arabs, each with his distinctive pronunciation, and each also exercised ikhtiyar; Hafs alone, as history expressly states, simply presented the reading of Asim, which was inherited from the reading on which Uthman had gathered the Muslims. Mufti observes that by exercising this licence the reciters showed, without saying so, that they believed such choosing permissible; the guest agrees and says the hadith of the seven ahruf itself gave the readings their sanctity, since one of its interpretations is that there are seven types of variation, and its continuation, 'so read whichever is easy for you', was taken as permission, though granted only to people of insight. Before Ibn Mujahid selected seven, others had selected thirty or twenty-five; Ibn Mujahid's choice prevailed because he was popular in Baghdad and held a state position, so his selection was adopted as if by state authority, and the reciters took the hadith as licence to apply to the piecemeal verse data before them.", "summary_short": "The guest relays Ghamidi's thesis that Hafs alone transmitted the common reading without adding his own choices, so his reading coincides with the original. The seven-ahruf hadith was taken as licence for the reciters' choices, and Ibn Mujahid's seven prevailed through his standing and state position.", "answer_start": 3465, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hafs", "label": "Hafs"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asim-ibn-abi-al-najud", "label": "Asim ibn Abi al-Najud (the reciter)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraa-al-amma", "label": "al-qira'a al-'amma (the common reading)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ikhtiyar", "label": "ikhtiyar (a reciter's choice among readings)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:37807dc3", "label": "report: the quran was revealed in seven ahruf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahruf", "label": "the seven ahruf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-mujahid", "label": "Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:lahja", "label": "lahja (dialect, accent)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/12/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/13", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S13", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 13, "start": 3778, "end": 4169, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Dialect versus reading: if Quraysh did not pronounce the hamza, why does the reading of Hafs?", "question_plain": "If Quraysh did not pronounce the hamza, why does the Hafs reading of the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth raises the dialect of Quraysh: the Prophet was Qurashi, Quraysh are said not to have pronounced the hamza, Nafi' accordingly drops it, and reports of the compilation say that where the scribes disagreed the word was to be written in the tongue of Quraysh; so if the common reading goes back to how the Prophet himself recited, why is Hafs from Asim a reading that pronounces the hamza, saying mu'min rather than mumin? The guest distinguishes lahja from qira'a: dialect is a matter of pronunciation, like an accent that makes a Pakistani or an Indian speaker of English recognisable, and in it the word never changes, whereas in the qira'at the word itself changes, a pronoun replacing a noun or one word another, which is what is significant. Mufti presses that if everyone wanted to read exactly as the Prophet read, the popular reading ought to reflect his dialect, as if people copied his writing but pronounced it in an American way. The guest answers that this is one of the areas in which leverage was given: morphological and phonetic variations of the same word carry the same meaning and are a matter of beautifying the recitation; the claim that Quraysh had no hamza is itself an assumption that needs to be established; and even if established, a variation the Prophet himself allowed is acceptable. Mufti adds his own earlier conclusion, reached after much reading, that there was a standardised formal Arabic that did use the hamza, in which the Prophet spoke formally and the Quran came, just as Pakistanis speak Urdu rather than their local tongue in formal settings.", "summary_short": "The guest says dialect only changes pronunciation, not the word, and such variation was permitted, while the claim that Quraysh had no hamza is itself unproven. Mufti Abu Layth says he had concluded that the Quran came in a standardised formal Arabic that used the hamza.", "answer_start": 3856, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/arabic-language", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:lahja", "label": "lahja (dialect, accent)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hamza", "label": "hamza (the glottal stop)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nafi-al-madani", "label": "Nafi' al-Madani (the reciter)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hafs", "label": "Hafs"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asim-ibn-abi-al-najud", "label": "Asim ibn Abi al-Najud (the reciter)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3466446f", "label": "report: when you disagree write it in the tongue of quraysh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/13/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/14", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S14", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 14, "start": 4169, "end": 4559, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Early manuscripts with different words, the criteria of a valid reading, and the Basran grammarians who mocked the reciters", "question_plain": "Do the early manuscripts with different words undermine the preservation of the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about the manuscripts: the extra pronouns, replaced words and genuinely different words such as maliki and malik in yawm al-din that critics now cite, one claiming thirty-seven variant masahif; is the guest saying these are people's best attempts rather than the actual recitation, and that the one real reading is the Hafs we have? The guest repeats that the word must not change while pronunciation may vary, and says such manuscripts were bound to exist, because once people read on these variations it was natural to write them down, so manuscripts with the readings of Nafi', Asim, Hamza or al-Kisa'i are to be expected; they were not pure ijtihad, since the criteria of a reading are correct Arabic and a sound chain back to the Prophet, so one cannot invent a reading the Prophet never read, and ijtihad enters only in preferring one transmitted reading of a verse over another. Mufti notes that in this field the harshest critics of the readings were Muslims: the Basran grammarians mocked some of the reciters, al-Mazini saying Nafi' was not a true Arab and did not know Arabic properly, and others accusing Hamza of a grammatical mistake for splitting a construction in a verse, and standard Arabic today rests largely on Basran grammar; only later grammarians such as Ibn Malik embraced the readings as evidence. He then says he wants to ask something before taking viewers' questions.", "summary_short": "The guest says such manuscripts were bound to exist once people wrote down the readings, and that a reading needs correct Arabic and a chain to the Prophet, with ijtihad only in preference. Mufti Abu Layth adds that the harshest critics of the readings were Muslim grammarians of Basra such as al-Mazini, until later grammarians like Ibn Malik embraced them.", "answer_start": 4245, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/arabic-language", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:1:4", "label": "Quran 1:4 (maliki / malik yawm al-din)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "masahif (manuscripts)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the variant readings)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijtihad", "label": "ijtihad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isnad", "label": "sihhat al-sanad (a sound chain for a reading)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nafi-al-madani", "label": "Nafi' al-Madani (the reciter)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asim-ibn-abi-al-najud", "label": "Asim ibn Abi al-Najud (the reciter)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-al-zayyat", "label": "Hamza al-Zayyat (the reciter)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-kisai", "label": "al-Kisa'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-mazini", "label": "al-Mazini (the grammarian)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sibawayh", "label": "Sibawayh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-malik", "label": "Ibn Malik (the grammarian)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/14/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/15", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S15", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 15, "start": 4559, "end": 4871, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's own view of a dynamic Quran, and whether one true reading coinciding with Hafs is too convenient", "question_plain": "Isn't it too convenient that the one preserved reading is exactly the Hafs Quran we have?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says his own position differs slightly: while he agrees with Ghamidi on many things and that the qira'at are not mutawatir, his view has been that the Quran was always dynamic and meant to be, with a flexibility that disturbs some people today; he notes the guest's book records that Imam Malik, al-Shafi'i and, he thinks, Imam Ahmad [?] held that some companions could substitute an easier word, one interpretation of the ahruf, and that for him ahruf simply means multiplicity. He says he puts this on record because he has expressed it on his Monday night shows, but is here to present and understand the guest's and Ghamidi's view. He then asks the question non-Muslims, orientalists and critics will put: is it not too convenient to say that there was always one static Quran, that it happens to coincide with Hafs from Asim, and that all the other manuscripts were people's best attempts? The guest answers that the conclusion matters less than the reasoning that led to it, which will have its flaws and should be analysed rather than reverse-engineered from a convenient result; truths are often simple and right under one's nose. The reasoning here is that the verses of al-Qiyamah had a meaning that eluded later generations because they stuck to an interpretation resting on a report from Ibn Abbas which he has shown is not soundly attributed and is flawed in content, and because the ummah became so hadith-centric that it could not read the Quran without a hadith; a scholar then came along and said the point had simply been missed. He does not expect people to accept this at once against fourteen centuries, but asks for academic critique rather than dismissal, calling the work a combined quest and a humble presentation by Farahi and his students.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth states his own view that the Quran was always dynamic and allowed some flexibility of wording, as Imam Malik and al-Shafi'i held companions could substitute words. The guest answers the convenience objection by saying the reasoning, not the result, should be judged, and that later scholars missed the verses of al-Qiyamah because of a flawed report from Ibn Abbas and a hadith-centric mindset.", "answer_start": 4715, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahruf", "label": "the seven ahruf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir (tawatur)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hafs", "label": "Hafs"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asim-ibn-abi-al-najud", "label": "Asim ibn Abi al-Najud (the reciter)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:75:16-19", "label": "Quran 75:16-19 (upon Us is its collection and its recitation)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamiduddin-farahi", "label": "Hamiduddin Farahi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/15/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/16", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S16", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 16, "start": 4871, "end": 5080, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Where the slogan 'preserved to the very dot' comes from: fundamentalism in the face of modernity and colonialism", "question_plain": "Where does the claim that the Quran is preserved to the very dot come from?", "summary": "The guest finishes by saying the work is a combined effort and a humble presentation, and welcomes being shown where it goes against accepted principles. Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding, which he has given on his Monday night shows, the recent controversy is not the real problem; the problem is that Muslims have to unlearn some things they learnt. He says it is a matter of fact that in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the rise of modernity and colonialism, people of religion, Muslims and Christians alike, tried to entrench themselves in fundamentalism to stabilise their identity, producing slogans such as 'Islam is a way of life' and 'Islam is the solution to all your problems', and, in contrast to the Bible, 'the Quran is preserved to the very dot'; he feels that era cemented this creed, which is now bothersome as information and manuscripts become more accessible. The slogan, he says, was not a traditional one: early Muslims were comfortable saying that even if it varies it is still the same Quran in essence, which he compares to a substance in chemistry that under certain conditions is simultaneously a solid and a liquid, so that for them the Quran was preserved while allowing differences. He offers this as food for thought and moves to viewers' questions.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the slogan that the Quran is preserved to the very dot is not traditional but a creed cemented in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when religious people entrenched themselves in fundamentalism against modernity and colonialism. Early Muslims were comfortable with a Quran that was preserved while allowing variation.", "answer_start": 4871, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "society/islam-and-modernity", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamiduddin-farahi", "label": "Hamiduddin Farahi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/16/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/17", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S17", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 17, "start": 5080, "end": 5237, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is this confirmation bias that discounts Western academia?", "question_plain": "Is the guest's approach to the Quran's history just confirmation bias?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a comment saying that people should not discount Western academia and should look at the matter without confirmation bias, and asking whether the guest's approach is in essence confirmation bias. The guest answers that his work was not prompted by Western criticism: the Muslim scholarly tradition has known about these variations all along, while the West became aware of them only in the last two hundred and fifty years, and in his own quest the questions were put to him not by any Western scholar but by his own history and hadith books, so the problem was his own belief that he wanted to examine, and he found the inconsistencies were really there. He adds that Western scholars have done nothing but extract these things from the Muslims' own books and point out that either the claim of preservation or the data must be wrong; Muslims historically clung to both contradictory things, snubbed the critics and told them to go away, not realising that the Quran is a book for mankind, so that when anyone from mankind poses the question it is a Muslim responsibility to answer it rather than to dismiss it. It remained, he says, a personal quest.", "summary_short": "The guest says his questions came from the Muslim sources themselves, not from Western scholars, who have merely extracted the same data from Muslim books. Muslims must answer such questions rather than snub them, since the Quran is a book for all mankind.", "answer_start": 5080, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:confirmation-bias", "label": "confirmation bias"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/17/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/18", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S18", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 18, "start": 5237, "end": 5471, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "If Allah preserves the Quran, isn't the confusion of readings a failure of preservation? The divine scheme, and Mufti Abu Layth's 'umbrella revelation'", "question_plain": "If Allah promised to preserve the Quran, why are there variant readings at all?", "summary": "Taking a question whether, given the verse that Allah himself guards the Quran, the existence of the other readings and the widespread belief that they are all mutawatir does not amount to a lack of preservation, Mufti Abu Layth asks whether Allah could not have preserved it without the confusion. The guest answers that one must understand the scheme of God: he has given people discretion and does not stop them behaving as they choose, as in hadith, where people misreported and misrepresented the Prophet without Allah preventing it. In the human paradigm Allah's task was to preserve his part, the real Quran, not to undo what others did; there would be obstructions and problems, but nothing unresolvable for one with a quest for the truth, and what else exists in the name of the Quran is an impediment of human intellect and error that Allah tolerates in every human sphere, which is where the test lies. Mufti then states his own understanding for those asking: the Quran we have today is from the Quran, which he sees as an umbrella revelation that allowed variations, so what we have is from it but there were other ways of reading it that may have disappeared with the Prophet or soon after; it is one way of reading, not the only thing that ever was. A viewer asks the guest how he would write the Quran if given a blank mushaf; the guest says absolutely verbatim as the mushaf is today, and Mufti says that despite believing in the Quran's dynamism he would do exactly the same, since it is the Quran in his understanding too.", "summary_short": "The guest says Allah preserved his part, the real Quran, and left people the discretion that produced the other readings, just as he allowed hadith to be misreported; the test is in seeking the truth through them. Mufti Abu Layth states his own view that the Quran we have is from an umbrella revelation that allowed variations.", "answer_start": 5237, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "belief/free-will-and-destiny", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:15:9", "label": "Quran 15:9 (We sent down the reminder and We are its guardian)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the variant readings)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir (tawatur)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "mushaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/18/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/19", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S19", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 19, "start": 5471, "end": 5785, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The verse of rajm: Farahi's reading of the muharaba verse, and Mufti Abu Layth's view that stoning was condoned, not legislated", "question_plain": "Was there ever a verse of stoning in the Quran, and does stoning still apply?", "summary": "A viewer asks how to explain the verse of rajm, which some hadith say Umar and others regarded as a verse of the Quran. The guest says Farahi offered a solution: rajm is based on the Quran though not found in it in those words, namely the muharaba verse of Surah al-Ma'idah, 5:33, whose first prescribed punishment, 'that they be killed' in an intensive form, means an exemplary killing for crimes such as rape, and stoning is one such exemplary killing; so Umar was referring to the derivation of rajm from that verse, not to a separate verse, and people mistook it for a 'verse of rajm' whose supposed wording about the old man and the old woman is not even Quranic Arabic. Asked by Mufti Abu Layth whether rajm was abrogated or continues, the guest says it is still there for extreme crimes as one form of exemplary punishment. Mufti sets out his own, somewhat different understanding: rajm was never introduced by the Prophet but, as the hadith in Sahih Muslim about the Jews shows, condoned from Jewish practice until the Quran's verse of lashing was revealed, and the proof is the verse giving married slaves half the punishment, since there is no half of stoning; he adds that in the Maliki school al-Burzuli [?] in the seventh and eighth centuries ruled that the Sharia itself mandated that the hudud change with the age, substituting financial penalties, which continued in north-west Africa, while in the east Suleiman al-Qanuni substituted other penalties, so for him these things change through trajectory hermeneutics. He says he is not sure whether Ghamidi holds the same or thinks the hudud should be suspended today. The guest says their view is that the punishments are still valid provided stringent conditions of proof are met, and that it is an error of interpretation to think rajm is only for married adulterers: it belongs to muharaba and spreading corruption, for the offender who deserves no leniency, a topic for another day.", "summary_short": "The guest says Umar's 'verse of rajm' refers to the muharaba verse 5:33, from which exemplary punishment including stoning derives, and that it still applies to extreme crimes under strict conditions. Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet only condoned stoning from Jewish practice until the lashing verse, and that under Maliki scholars like al-Burzuli the hudud change with the age.", "answer_start": 5471, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rajm", "label": "rajm (stoning)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamiduddin-farahi", "label": "Hamiduddin Farahi"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:33", "label": "Quran 5:33 (the muharaba verse)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muharaba", "label": "muharaba (waging war on society)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:57dd2ee7", "label": "report: umar said i would write the verse of stoning if people would not say he added to the book of allah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:af6cfd42", "label": "report: some jews came to the prophet and asked to be judged by the book"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:2", "label": "Quran 24:2 (the verse of lashing)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:25", "label": "Quran 4:25 (married slave women receive half the punishment)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-burzuli", "label": "al-Burzuli [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hudud-change-with-the-age", "label": "punishments change to reflect their age (attributed to al-Burzuli) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:suleiman-the-magnificent", "label": "Sultan Suleiman al-Qanuni (the Magnificent)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid al-shari'ah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/19/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/20", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S20", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 20, "start": 5785, "end": 5851, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How much weight does a reciter's chain of huffaz back to the Prophet carry?", "question_plain": "Does a reciter's chain of teachers back to the Prophet prove the Quran's text?", "summary": "A viewer asks how much importance the guest gives to the chains of huffaz, like an ijazah, by which a reciter traces his memorisation teacher by teacher back to the Prophet. The guest answers that its only importance is that the person testifies that his teacher was so-and-so, who read from so-and-so; it has no importance for authenticating the text in its totality, because preservation rests on a vast number of people doing the same thing, so one hafiz taken singly is a drop in the ocean, significant only as part of the greater whole. Mufti Abu Layth says this is very well put.", "summary_short": "A single chain of huffaz only testifies who taught whom and does not authenticate the text on its own; preservation rests on the vast number of people transmitting the same thing, of which one chain is a drop in the ocean.", "answer_start": 5785, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/memorisation-and-recitation", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isnad", "label": "sanad (chain of transmission)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijazah", "label": "ijazah (authorisation to teach)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hifz", "label": "huffaz (memorisers of the Quran)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/20/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/21", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S21", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 21, "start": 5851, "end": 6088, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Ibn Mas'ud's codex: not substantially different, with the 'qul' of the last surahs; and Mufti Abu Layth on cutting the hand today", "question_plain": "Was Ibn Mas'ud's Quran different from the Quran we have?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth first answers a viewer who asked him whether he would advocate cutting off the hand if the conditions were met today: he would not, because in his understanding the Sharia, with its maqasid, has already changed, as the Maliki scholars he mentioned held, so that today the hudud would be whatever suits the age, such as sentences and fines; he refers to his video on trajectory hermeneutics. A viewer then asks the guest whether Ibn Mas'ud's version of the Quran was substantially different. The guest says absolutely not: he has shown in his book that the narratives ascribed to Ibn Mas'ud, such as that he did not count al-Fatiha or the last two surahs as part of the Quran, are erroneously ascribed to him and have problems in their chains and content, and that Ibn Mas'ud, Ubayy ibn Ka'b and all the major companions vouched for the same Quran; he cites a successor of the companions, whose name is garbled in the transcript [?], who said he compared three readings, of Ibn Abbas, Ubayy and Ibn Mas'ud, and found they had exactly the same number of verses and matched completely. Mufti praises the book's treatment, which shows nothing clear about what the dispute over the mu'awwidhatayn was, and the gem that some narrations locate the difference only in the word 'qul' at the start of the two surahs, whether it was part of the revelation. He then reads a few short chat comments, a joke about copyright and a remark about chains of narration and popularity whose question he cannot find, and introduces the question whether the variations arose from the lack of diacritical marks.", "summary_short": "No: the guest says the reports that Ibn Mas'ud rejected al-Fatiha or the last two surahs are wrongly ascribed to him, and the major companions vouched for the same Quran, the only traceable dispute being over the word 'qul'. Mufti Abu Layth also says he would not advocate cutting the hand today, since for him the hudud have already changed with the age.", "answer_start": 5851, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-masud", "label": "Ibn Mas'ud"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubayy-ibn-kab", "label": "Ubayy ibn Ka'b"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:muawwidhatayn", "label": "al-mu'awwidhatayn (the two surahs of seeking refuge)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:1:1-7", "label": "Surah al-Fatiha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9cd4796e", "label": "report: ibn masud did not count al-fatiha and the last two surahs as part of the quran"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid al-shari'ah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:trajectory-hermeneutics", "label": "trajectory hermeneutics"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/21/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/22", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S22", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 22, "start": 6088, "end": 6167, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did the variant readings arise from the lack of dots and vowel marks? And a clarification: no verse of rajm in the Quran", "question_plain": "Did the variant readings of the Quran come from missing dots and vowel marks?", "summary": "Asked whether the variations in the Quran are due to the early script lacking diacritical marks, the guest says this is one of several reasons he enumerates in his book: without dots a word like ya'lamun could also be read ta'lamun, since the distinguishing marks above and below were absent, and where both readings were ascribed to the Prophet the reciters applied their preferential criteria. Mufti Abu Layth then clears up a repeated question on rajm: neither he nor the guest says there is a verse of rajm in the Quran; the guest's point was that the muharaba verse could incorporate the concept of stoning, not that a verse of rajm exists.", "summary_short": "Partly: the guest says the lack of diacritics let words like ya'lamun and ta'lamun be read either way where both were ascribed to the Prophet, one of several causes he lists. Mufti Abu Layth clarifies that nobody is claiming a verse of rajm exists in the Quran.", "answer_start": 6088, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/arabic-language", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the variant readings)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rajm", "label": "rajm (stoning)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:33", "label": "Quran 5:33 (the muharaba verse)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/22/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/23", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S23", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 23, "start": 6167, "end": 6403, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is the Quran's language miraculous, and how, if there are multiple versions? The guest's linguistic miracle and Mufti Abu Layth's three senses", "question_plain": "In what sense is the Quran a miracle?", "summary": "A viewer asks whether the Quran's language is miraculous and how there can be multiple versions if so; Mufti Abu Layth adds whether the guest thinks numerical or mathematical claims reflect this. The guest says he does not think the mathematical relationships do; the miracle is linguistic: the way the language is employed, the verses set apart and the discourse progresses speaks for itself that it cannot be a human composition, and the philosophy and the language in which it is couched have a cumulative effect that makes it a piece of literature that cannot be copied or emulated, so its miraculous nature rests on its linguistic aspect. Mufti adds his own answer, given when asked before: the Quran is a miracle depending on what one means, in three senses: the subjective, sublime experience of reading it; its impact as the backbone of a civilisation; and its linguistic composition, including symmetries such as the equal mention of dunya and akhirah or of believers and disbelievers spread across the whole text rather than juxtaposed, symmetry being one of the highest forms of aesthetic beauty, so that anyone who thought the Prophet invented it would have to credit him with incomprehensible genius. He does not regard claims of scientific foreknowledge, such as embryology, as the miracle, calling them amazing but not necessary, and says it is a miracle not in the sense of bending the laws of nature.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Quran's miracle is linguistic, a composition that cannot be emulated, not mathematical. Mufti Abu Layth adds that for him it is a miracle in the subjective experience of reading it, in its civilisational impact and in its literary symmetry, not in bending the laws of nature or in scientific foreknowledge.", "answer_start": 6167, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dunya", "label": "dunya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:akhirah", "label": "akhirah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:miracles-do-not-defy-natural-law", "label": "miracles never defy God's laws; they have causes within nature"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/23/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/24", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S24", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 24, "start": 6403, "end": 6696, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Which reading reached the subcontinent and the Far East, and Mufti Abu Layth's summary of the guest's thesis", "question_plain": "Which reading of the Quran reached India, Malaysia and Indonesia, and why?", "summary": "A viewer asks which reading was first introduced in the Indian subcontinent. The guest says the entry of the readings took place very early, in the second century, when Hafs, who died around 169 AH, was alive or not yet born, and that what entered the subcontinent and went on to Malaysia, Indonesia and the Far East was the qira'a al-'amma, which only later came to be dubbed the reading of Hafs; his book shows that all the non-Arab territories have the common reading, while only in Arab lands did scholars hold contests of readings and preserve them in their books. He proposes a rule: wherever scholars arrived first, ilm al-khassa and the reading of a particular imam took root; wherever the masses came first, by conquest or trade as in Indonesia, the common reading prevailed. A viewer asks once more whether, simply put, the Quran is preserved perfectly as revealed, and the guest says yes, absolutely and categorically. Mufti Abu Layth sums up the guest's view: most Muslims agree the Quran is preserved, and the guest's teaching is that the recitation we have today is the Prophet's own, fixed with finality in his last year, called the qira'a al-'amma and transmitted by the masses; the consonantal template of Uthman allowed certain variations of vowelling that contributed, with other factors, to the qira'at; Hafs from Asim coincides with the common reading because Hafs made no ikhtiyar; and the manuscripts being found today reflect those readings and not the Quran as preserved, which the lands reached from the ground up by the masses still read.", "summary_short": "The common reading, later called the reading of Hafs, reached the subcontinent and the Far East through the masses, while the other readings took root only where scholars arrived first. Mufti Abu Layth sums up: the Quran is preserved as the qira'a al-'amma of the Prophet's final recitation, and Hafs coincides with it because he made no choices of his own.", "answer_start": 6403, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "history/subcontinent", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hafs", "label": "Hafs"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asim-ibn-abi-al-najud", "label": "Asim ibn Abi al-Najud (the reciter)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraa-al-amma", "label": "al-qira'a al-'amma (the common reading)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ilm-al-khassa", "label": "ilm al-khassa (the specialists' knowledge)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ikhtiyar", "label": "ikhtiyar (a reciter's choice among readings)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the variant readings)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:history-of-the-quran-a-critical-study", "label": "The History of the Quran: A Critical Study (Shehzad Saleem)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/24/"}, {"id": "f2BcGWatU5g/s/25", "short_id": "2020-06-19-S25", "recording": "f2BcGWatU5g", "n": 25, "start": 6696, "end": 7226, "date": "20200619", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: thanks, where to find the book, the guest's contact details and his final message on critical thinking", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the guest and says he would love a follow-up session on the main themes of the book, The History of the Quran: A Critical Study, which he bought on Kindle and in hard copy from the Al-Mawrid website; the guest says it is on Amazon in the United States and that a shorter version, History of the Quran: A Concise Study, summarises it in about a hundred and fifty pages. Mufti recommends the full book to serious students and the concise one to others, praising it as academic but not dogmatic, laying out the narrations and evaluating them without preaching. The guest shares his public email, Facebook profiles and a WhatsApp number for questions on the history of the Quran, saying he holds four live sessions a week and prefers that general questions go there; Mufti posts the details in the comments and asks viewers to respect the guest's time and not pester him. Asked for a final message, the guest says our responsibility is to become seekers of the truth through critical thinking: not to take things for granted because society, the clergy or one's parents said so, to question and analyse everything, since God will hold each person answerable for what they themselves believe, and to hold opinions on the basis of reasoning rather than emotion or dogma. Mufti thanks him, wishes him and his family health amid the Covid situation in Pakistan, and signs off.", "summary_short": "Closing thanks and practical notes: where to buy the book and its concise edition, the guest's public contact channels, and his final message that Muslims must be seekers of truth who question everything and hold opinions on reasoning rather than dogma.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad Saleem (guest)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:history-of-the-quran-a-critical-study", "label": "The History of the Quran: A Critical Study (Shehzad Saleem)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:history-of-the-quran-a-concise-study", "label": "History of the Quran: A Concise Study (Shehzad Saleem)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-mawrid", "label": "Al-Mawrid"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the Covid-19 pandemic (2020)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/f2BcGWatU5g/s/25/"}, {"id": "f4R0NXnYmpc/s/1", "short_id": "2018-07-10-S01", "recording": "f4R0NXnYmpc", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 913, "date": "20180710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Men wearing gold and silk: the hadith, the Companions who wore them, and karaha", "question_plain": "Is it haram for men to wear gold or silk?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes two questions together, one asking his view on men wearing gold and another on men wearing silk, and says there is a difference of opinion. He cites the hadith that Allah made these two things haram upon the males of the ummah, and another narration that whoever wears them is deprived of them in Jannah, and says that a comprehensive approach must ask why silk and gold in particular, since this is not a ritual: nobody says diamonds, which are worth more than gold, are haram for men. He then says that many Companions continued to wear silk and gold throughout their lives, asking the audience not to shoot the messenger. He reports the narration that the Prophet permitted al-Zubayr and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf [?] to wear silk because of an itch, which many ulama treated as a medicinal dispensation, and that others found the dispensation unconvincing for men of that time and argued instead that the silk the Companions wore was mixed silk, the cloth known as khazz [?], which most ulama hold to be fine, and he recites a verse of poetry about a donkey dressed in khazz. He cites al-Shawkani in Nayl al-Awtar, who lists up to twenty Companions including al-Bara ibn Azib [?] who wore pure silk all their lives and concludes that silk is not haram but makruh, and Ibn Hazm, who lists five or more Companions including Anas ibn Malik who wore gold until they died. He then states his own view: he is in line with the ulama who held the prohibition to be a matter of karaha, meant to keep people focused and away from luxury in a rough and dangerous time, comparing it to someone taking a spa day during a crisis. He adds that the popular opinion is that it is haram, that this is fine, and that nobody needs to follow his understanding. Comments from viewers are addressed in passing and a troll is blocked.", "summary_short": "In Mufti Abu Layth's view the prohibition of gold and silk for men is a matter of dislike (karaha), not a categorical haram, since many Companions wore both all their lives and the Prophet's aim was to keep people focused in hard times. He notes the popular opinion is that it is haram and says nobody has to follow his understanding.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "written", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3b2452f7", "label": "report: allah has made these two gold and silk haram upon the males of my ummah (unresolved)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e668f0cc", "label": "report: whoever wears silk in this world is deprived of it in jannah (unresolved)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:bef7f59e", "label": "report: the prophet permitted al-zubayr and abd al-rahman ibn awf to wear silk because of an itch (unresolved)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zubayr-ibn-al-awwam", "label": "al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-rahman-ibn-awf", "label": "Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:nayl-al-awtar", "label": "Nayl al-Awtar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bara-ibn-azib", "label": "al-Bara ibn Azib [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anas-ibn-malik", "label": "Anas ibn Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khazz", "label": "khazz (silk mixed with other fibres) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:prohibition-tied-to-circumstances-of-the-time", "label": "a prophetic prohibition explained by the circumstances of the early community"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is in line with the ulama who held that the Prophet's prohibition of gold and silk for men was a matter of karaha intended to keep the early community focused and away from luxury in a dangerous time, not a categorical haram, while noting that the popular opinion is that it is haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "when he told people off from gold and silk in I fall in line with those Olimar who felt that this was who say who felt that this was to do with the kuraha and to keep people focused", "start": 840}}, "url": "/r/f4R0NXnYmpc/s/1/"}, {"id": "foIzotT_sog/s/1", "short_id": "2020-08-23-S01", "recording": "foIzotT_sog", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 85, "date": "20200823", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why Salafis disregard al-Muwatta: Imam Malik's use and rejection of hadith", "question_plain": "Why do Salafis ignore Imam Malik's Muwatta?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a chat question asking why al-Muwatta is disregarded by Salafis and calls it a very good question. He says he feels that deep down Salafis struggle with Imam Malik, because on one hand he is an absolute authority in hadith who cannot be questioned there, and on the other he equally rejects hadith when they go against certain practices. He says that in the Muwatta Imam Malik brings a hadith and then says it will not be acted upon. The clip ends with a light remark to the audience.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth feels Salafis struggle with Imam Malik because he is a master of hadith who also rejects hadith that go against established practice. In the Muwatta he narrates a hadith and then says it is not acted upon.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school/muwatta-and-mudawwana", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that deep down Salafis struggle with Imam Malik, who is an unquestionable authority in hadith yet rejects hadith that go against certain practices.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "i feel that the selfies because they i think deep down the salafi struggle with imam malik", "start": 1}}, "url": "/r/foIzotT_sog/s/1/"}, {"id": "g57BdMdAUKM/s/1", "short_id": "2020-04-19-S01", "recording": "g57BdMdAUKM", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 209, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab: a dogmatist whose movement did more harm than good", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth repeats a question about his thoughts on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. He says that if he had to classify him simply as negative or positive he would put him in the negative, while adding that this does not make anyone the embodiment of evil and that he surely did some good things. He describes him as a hard-line dogmatist and puritan who linked up with the Saud family to their mutual benefit, wanted to establish a puritan state, demolished tombs he regarded as polytheism and shirk, and killed many pilgrims he considered polytheists for not practising pure Islam. He says Ibn Abd al-Wahhab inspired the Salafi movement, which he feels was dangerous and overall did much more harm than good, while acknowledging that good also came from it: it revived the concept of hadith, challenged blind following, challenged the absence of Quran and Sunnah in discourse and removed superstitions. He adds that it injected a puritanical hatred into people and is the number one springboard for extremism, though not every Salafi is an extremist, and closes by saying the problems are not so much the anthropomorphising of God as the way of thinking.", "summary_short": "On balance Mufti Abu Layth places Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the negative: a puritan dogmatist who demolished tombs, killed pilgrims and inspired the Salafi movement, which he feels did more harm than good and is a springboard for extremism. He adds that the movement also revived hadith and challenged blind following and superstition.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "history/scholars-and-imams", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-abd-al-wahhab", "label": "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-saud", "label": "the Saud family (Al Saud)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shirk", "label": "shirk"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tajsim", "label": "tajsim (anthropomorphism)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, forced to choose, he would probably classify Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab as negative, a puritan dogmatist allied with the Saud family who demolished tombs and killed pilgrims, and that the Salafi movement he inspired did more harm than good and is the number one springboard for extremism, though it also revived hadith and challenged blind following and superstition.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "if I was to group him in one and I could only group him in negative or positive then at a simple level I would probably put him in negative", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/g57BdMdAUKM/s/1/"}, {"id": "gCid83kRA2I/s/1", "short_id": "2018-09-17-S01", "recording": "gCid83kRA2I", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 206, "date": "20180917", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was the Prophet poisoned before he died? The report and why he calls it nonsense", "question_plain": "Was the Prophet Muhammad poisoned, and did he die from it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has been asked whether the Prophet was poisoned before his death, and announces that he will present the hadith, show why hadith dogmatism is problematic, and present what he calls a hadith paradox. He notes that ex-Muslims, atheists and Islamophobes circulate the claim that the Prophet died a humiliating death by poison, and that the report is found in Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abi Dawud, al-Darimi [?] and Musnad Ahmad. He gives the Bukhari version: in his final illness the Prophet said he still felt the pain of the poisoned food he had eaten, and that the poison was now cutting his aorta, which would mean a poison eaten about three years earlier was finally killing him. He states that this is nonsense, that the Prophet did not die of poisoning, that someone along the way seems to have thought it would be fitting for the Prophet to be a martyr as well, and that the story is massively contradictory in both content and chain, which he will now show.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet did not die of poisoning. The report in Bukhari that he felt the poison cutting his aorta in his final illness is, in his view, a fabricated story that contradicts itself and fails on its chain.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:4428", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 4428 (I still feel the pain of the food I ate; the poison cutting my aorta)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-darimi", "label": "Sunan al-Darimi [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet did not die of poisoning and that the report in which the Prophet says in his final illness that he feels the poison cutting his aorta is a fabricated story.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "Now first of all this is nonsense. Okay the prophet did not die of poisoning.", "start": 151}}, "url": "/r/gCid83kRA2I/s/1/"}, {"id": "gCid83kRA2I/s/2", "short_id": "2018-09-17-S02", "recording": "gCid83kRA2I", "n": 2, "start": 206, "end": 409, "date": "20180917", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The chain of the poisoning report: Yunus, al-Zuhri and the Abu Dawud version", "question_plain": "Is the chain of the hadith that the Prophet died of poison reliable?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth examines the chain, taking the strongest version, Sahih al-Bukhari 4428, which he says is narrated from Yunus [?] from al-Zuhri. On Yunus he reports that Abu Zur'a said that when Yunus did not transmit from something written it was as though he had nothing, that Imam Ahmad said he was not someone who knew hadith and would mix up reports from different teachers, and that other critics called his memory terrible, said he was not an evidence and that he brought unacceptable reports. On al-Zuhri he says that here al-Zuhri does not state that he heard the report, that a critic placed him among those whose reports are not accepted without explicit hearing, and that al-Zuhri sometimes covered up not having heard directly, hearing some reports through his brother; al-Nasa'i [?] likewise does not state hearing. He adds that the Abu Dawud version has a narrator whose name is garbled in the transcript whom critics, including Imam Malik, problematised as truthful but prone to mistakes, and that the Musnad Ahmad version again comes through al-Zuhri, so most chains are unacceptable in his view.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth finds the chains unacceptable: the Bukhari version runs through Yunus, whom early critics faulted for his memory, and through al-Zuhri, who does not state that he heard it, while the Abu Dawud version has a narrator criticised for mistakes.", "answer_start": 206, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:4428", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 4428 (I still feel the pain of the food I ate; the poison cutting my aorta)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yunus-ibn-yazid", "label": "Yunus ibn Yazid al-Ayli [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-zura", "label": "Abu Zur'a"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nasai", "label": "al-Nasa'i [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tadlis", "label": "tadlis (not stating that one heard a report)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the chain of the poisoning report is unacceptable because Yunus was faulted by early critics for his memory and al-Zuhri does not state that he heard it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I will show the contradiction and then also show from the chain perspective why it is unacceptable.", "start": 206}}, "url": "/r/gCid83kRA2I/s/2/"}, {"id": "gCid83kRA2I/s/3", "short_id": "2018-09-17-S03", "recording": "gCid83kRA2I", "n": 3, "start": 409, "end": 631, "date": "20180917", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Contradictions in the story: the companion who died at once and the three-year poison", "question_plain": "How can the same poison kill one companion at once and the Prophet three years later?", "summary": "Turning to the content, Mufti Abu Layth recounts the story as the reports give it: after a hard-fought battle whose name is lost in the transcript, a Jewish woman invited the Prophet and some companions to eat; while they ate, the angel told the Prophet the food was poisoned, he told everyone to stop, but the companion Bishr [?] had already eaten and died, either on the spot or, in some versions, within days. He says the reports then disagree about when the Prophet questioned the woman, who answered that if he were a prophet he would find out anyway and that if he were not she would have killed him; in Muslim's version the Prophet replies that Allah would not let her do that. He points out the contradiction: Bishr dies from the poison immediately, yet the Prophet is said to die from the same poison three years later, which he says is not how such a poison works. Answering a viewer who asks whether it could be like toxic radiation, he says it cannot, since this is poison, and that if the companion died within hours or days the Prophet could not take years to die.", "summary_short": "The story contradicts itself: the companion who ate the food died at once, so the same poison cannot have killed the Prophet three years later, and the Prophet in Muslim's version says Allah would not let the woman do it.", "answer_start": 409, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:bishr-ibn-al-bara", "label": "Bishr ibn al-Bara' [?]"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-khaybar", "label": "the battle of Khaybar [?] (the name is garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e16705ba", "label": "report: the woman who poisoned the food said if you were a prophet you would find out and the prophet said allah would not let you do that"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the poisoning story is internally contradictory, since the companion who ate the food died at once while the Prophet is said to have died from the same poison three years later.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "This is already a contradiction. The fact that dies from that poison, how can that poison take three years when Bishar has already died from it?", "start": 549}}, "url": "/r/gCid83kRA2I/s/3/"}, {"id": "gCid83kRA2I/s/4", "short_id": "2018-09-17-S04", "recording": "gCid83kRA2I", "n": 4, "start": 631, "end": 767, "date": "20180917", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Clash with the Quran: Allah's promise of protection and the cutting of the aorta", "question_plain": "Does the hadith that the Prophet died of poison contradict the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report contradicts the Quran, which tells the Messenger to stand with the message and promises that Allah will protect him from the people, whereas by this story he was poisoned and died of it. He then cites the verses, which he numbers 44 to 46, in which Allah says that had the Prophet invented sayings against Him, He would have seized him and cut his aorta; the hadith, in different words, describes the same phenomenon of the aorta or arteries being cut. He says non-Muslims could use this to argue that the Prophet was making things up, since the Quran describes exactly this kind of death as the punishment for forging revelation, and calls the report humiliating rather than dignifying. He adds the further irony that the same people transmit a hadith that whoever eats certain dates cannot be affected by poison or magic.", "summary_short": "Yes, in Mufti Abu Layth's view: the Quran promises that Allah will protect the Prophet from the people, and it describes cutting the aorta as the punishment for one who forges revelation, so a report that the Prophet died that way humiliates him.", "answer_start": 631, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:67", "label": "Quran 5:67 (Allah will protect you from the people; verse not numbered by him) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:69:44-46", "label": "Quran 69:44-46 (had he invented sayings against Us, We would have seized him and cut his aorta; he cites verses 44 to 46 without naming the surah)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0607111e", "label": "report: whoever eats such dates will not be harmed by poison or magic"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the poisoning report clashes with the Quran's promise to protect the Prophet from the people and makes the Prophet's death resemble the punishment described in the Quran for one who forges revelation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "Allah said in the Quran that that oh messenger of God that stand up with the message Allah will protect you and here evidently Allah has not then protected him", "start": 635}}, "url": "/r/gCid83kRA2I/s/4/"}, {"id": "gCid83kRA2I/s/5", "short_id": "2018-09-17-S05", "recording": "gCid83kRA2I", "n": 5, "start": 767, "end": 1131, "date": "20180917", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Set it aside as Malik would: the delayed-poison objection, the angel's late warning, the verdict", "question_plain": "Why should Muslims reject the hadith that the Prophet died of poison?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is ridiculous and an insult to the Prophet that the two things people say affected him are magic and poison, and that hadith must stop being given primacy over the Quran. He cites Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa as examples: when a hadith contradicts the overall message of the Quran it is put aside, as Malik did with the solidly transmitted report on washing a bowl a dog has licked, saying the Quran teaches otherwise and he did not know what the report was about, and warning that accepting such one-from-one reports would snatch the religion away. A viewer asks whether the delayed poison could have been a miracle; he answers that it would be a miracle of humiliation, since the Quran presents this kind of death as the fate of one who lies against God, and he reads the verses again, saying the report reverse-engineers them onto the Prophet. He then examines the story on its own terms: the angel came to warn of the poison but not fast enough to save Bishr [?], so on the story's own logic the Prophet failed to save a companion and an atheist could call it a failure. He concludes that the hadith is false, its chain unacceptable because of al-Zuhri and Yunus [?], and its content clashing with the Quran and the general understanding of Islam. To someone who calls it destiny he replies that it is humiliation: to say the Jews poisoned the Prophet and he died of it insults Islam, God and the Prophet, and he asks people to think about what they are saying.", "summary_short": "Following Imam Malik, a hadith that contradicts the overall message of the Quran is set aside; Mufti Abu Layth rules the poisoning report false on chain and content and says that calling the Prophet's death a poisoning insults Islam, God and the Prophet.", "answer_start": 767, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "history/sirah/defending-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yunus-ibn-yazid", "label": "Yunus ibn Yazid al-Ayli [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:bishr-ibn-al-bara", "label": "Bishr ibn al-Bara' [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:91d7502c", "label": "report: the dog licking the vessel and malik said we do not know its reality"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:69:44-46", "label": "Quran 69:44-46 (had he invented sayings against Us, We would have seized him and cut his aorta; he cites verses 44 to 46 without naming the surah)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-takes-precedence-over-hadith", "label": "The Quran takes precedence over an isolated hadith"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that a hadith contradicting the overall message of the Quran must be set aside, as Imam Malik did, and that saying the Prophet died of poisoning insults Islam, God and the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "We need to learn from the the examples of Im Malik Im Abu Hanifh that when a hadith comes that contradicts the overall message of the Quran you need to put it aside.", "start": 767}}, "url": "/r/gCid83kRA2I/s/5/"}, {"id": "gV69XFzFuEk/s/1", "short_id": "2019-03-04-S01", "recording": "gV69XFzFuEk", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 618, "date": "20190304", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Praying in a bikini by the pool: covering as an obligation separate from salah", "question_plain": "Is my prayer valid if I pray in a bikini or swimwear?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up a viral clip of a woman praying her salah poolside in swimwear, which people have asked him about. He first says nobody has the right to tear into her or troll her; in a digression he says he does not use 'brother' and 'sister' for everyone, calling it a recent, synthetic version of Islam developed in the West, before returning to say that people could have advised her kindly. He then cites Qadi Isma'il, whom he calls a Maliki legend and chief judge of Baghdad and Basra, and the Malikis of Baghdad and Iraq who followed him, for the view that covering the 'awrah is a separate obligation unrelated to the conditions of salah, so that a prayer offered uncovered is valid; he sets out the range of opinions within the Maliki school (obligation, obligation with capacity, sunnah, recommendation) and notes that the other schools and most Malikis made covering a condition of the prayer. He says he would not recommend praying in swimwear, but that he personally feels Qadi Isma'il and the Malikis have a strong point, so on that view her prayer would have been valid though she was still obliged to cover. He adds that he admired that she remembered her prayer at all, that harshness will only drive such people away, and that if he spoke to her he would suggest wrapping up in a gown to avoid controversy, telling critics to stop playing God.", "summary_short": "On the Maliki view of Qadi Isma'il, which he finds strong, her prayer would have been valid, since covering is an obligation separate from salah; it is still not something he recommends. Either way nobody has the right to attack her.", "answer_start": 38, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer/conditions-and-validity", "fiqh/maliki-school", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ismail-al-qadi", "label": "Qadi Isma'il (Isma'il ibn Ishaq al-Qadi)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah (recommended act)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fard", "label": "fard"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he personally feels Qadi Isma'il and the Malikis have a strong point in holding that covering oneself in salah is a separate obligation, not a condition of the prayer.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "i personally do feel that ismail and the malikiah the school of medina have a strong point on what they've said that covering yourself in salah is a separate obligation", "start": 502}}, "url": "/r/gV69XFzFuEk/s/1/"}, {"id": "gXBZY_ph7Bg/s/1", "short_id": "2019-12-31-S01", "recording": "gXBZY_ph7Bg", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 462, "date": "20191231", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How did the angels fight at Badr? Literal or symbolic", "question_plain": "Did angels really fight at the Battle of Badr?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes a question from the chat on how angels fought the polytheists at Badr. Mufti sets the scene: the believers, traditionally numbered at 313, were outnumbered by a Quraysh army probably at least a thousand strong, were poorly equipped and had hoped to reach the caravan without war, yet won a clear and emotional victory; he cites the Prophet's prayer that if this band perished Allah would not be worshipped on earth. On the Quran's description of angelic reinforcement, Mufti says many Muslims take it as literary, symbolic language, comparing the verse on the pledge of Ridwan that Allah's hand was above their hands, which nobody takes literally. He notes that some companions later described angels in green armour with masked faces cutting through the enemy, and says these may be storytelling, or what people in the midst of battle felt they saw, which he calls another interpretation.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says many take the angelic help at Badr as symbolic language for strengthened resolve, and the companions' later descriptions as storytelling or what they felt they saw.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah", "belief/unseen-beings", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-badr", "label": "the battle of Badr"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7a76ff4c", "label": "report: o allah if this band perishes you will not be worshipped on earth"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:48:10", "label": "Quran 48:10 (the hand of Allah is over their hands)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:bayat-al-ridwan", "label": "the pledge of Ridwan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the evidence suggests the Quraysh army at Badr was probably at least a thousand strong, outnumbering the believers.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "they were outnumbered that part seems to be you know what the evidence clearly suggests that the army of grace were probably at least a thousand strong", "start": 38}}, "url": "/r/gXBZY_ph7Bg/s/1/"}, {"id": "gXBZY_ph7Bg/s/2", "short_id": "2019-12-31-S02", "recording": "gXBZY_ph7Bg", "n": 2, "start": 462, "end": 906, "date": "20191231", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A rare theory: Persian knights of the House of Karen at Badr", "question_plain": "Were the angels at Badr actually Persian knights?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth presents a rare interpretation he came across, while saying it is most likely untrue and that he has not looked into it deeply. Mufti relates that some historians of Persia have hypothesised that Salman al-Farisi, from a Zoroastrian priestly family, was originally sent by the Persian Empire to gather intelligence and mobilise the Arabs against the Byzantines, without claiming that his conversion was fake, and that he was close to the House of Karen, a Persian noble house that rivalled the Sasanians. They cite a story in which green-armoured, masked knights of the House of Karen rescued a famous Persian ruler against a Turkic army about two generations before Islam, and argue that Salman sent word for the same knights to help at Badr, after which they disappeared and the Muslims took them for angels. Mufti says this would need much exploration of the history, and that even if true it would not be problematic, since the believers, told of angelic help as a literary device, would simply have assumed this help to be it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth finds the theory that Persian knights summoned by Salman al-Farisi were taken for angels at Badr interesting but most likely untrue, and harmless even if true.", "answer_start": 462, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-al-farisi", "label": "Salman al-Farisi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:house-of-karen", "label": "the House of Karen"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:sasanians", "label": "the Sasanians"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:byzantine-empire", "label": "the Byzantine Empire"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-badr", "label": "the battle of Badr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the theory that knights of the House of Karen helped at Badr is most likely not true, but that even if it were true it would not be problematic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "make any sense I mean I'm not saying it's true I don't most likely wasn't true but I feel even if it was true it's not in any way problematic", "start": 879}}, "url": "/r/gXBZY_ph7Bg/s/2/"}, {"id": "gyRfZZZcA8g/s/1", "short_id": "2018-12-24b-S01", "recording": "gyRfZZZcA8g", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 158, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Introduction: the Wood versus Hijab debate on Tawhid and the Trinity, and who won", "question_plain": "Who won the David Wood versus Mohammed Hijab debate on Tawhid and the Trinity?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces the debate between David Wood and Mohammed Hijab, which he calls monumental and says will go down as a key debate; at just under three hours it is lengthy, but he watched the whole thing and found it entertaining and worth watching, in parts if necessary. He asks whether viewers know anything about David Wood, mentions an account that Wood once tried to kill his father, which he says is one version he is not sure of, and describes him as an evangelical Christian preacher whose material is Islamophobic and anti-Islam, who has debated many Muslims including Shabir Ally and has a channel with a large following. The debate's topic was Tawhid versus the Trinity. His verdict is that it is very clear Mohammed Hijab won hands down, with no two ways about it, and he says he will go through some of the points and then give his thoughts on what was being debated.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls the Wood versus Hijab debate on Tawhid and the Trinity monumental and worth watching, and says Mohammed Hijab clearly won. He introduces David Wood as an evangelical, anti-Islam preacher who has debated many Muslims.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawhid", "label": "tawhid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:trinity", "label": "the Trinity"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/gyRfZZZcA8g/s/1/"}, {"id": "gyRfZZZcA8g/s/2", "short_id": "2018-12-24b-S02", "recording": "gyRfZZZcA8g", "n": 2, "start": 158, "end": 315, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A topic that favours reason, and Hijab's impressive command of the Bible", "question_plain": "Did the topic of Tawhid versus the Trinity favour the Muslim side, and how well prepared was Hijab?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the chosen topic gave one side an advantage: Tawhid, the oneness of God, is very much in line with reason, whereas the Trinity is by default what Christians themselves call an irrational or supra-logical truth, and whenever one side appeals to reason and the other does not, the side of reason will generally prevail because that is what appeals to people. One could therefore argue that Hijab had the upper hand from the word go and that the debate was almost destined to be won on the topic alone. Nevertheless he says he was very impressed by Hijab's research: he must have spent an incredible amount of time studying the biblical sources, and quoted the Bible time after time with references, including impromptu in the question-and-answer session, which demonstrates in-depth knowledge rather than rehearsal. The background to the Trinity was likewise well researched. By contrast, he says, Wood is reported to be usually well prepared, but did not seem to be for this debate.", "summary_short": "Tawhid appeals to reason while the Trinity is held by Christians as a supra-rational truth, so the topic itself favoured Hijab. Even so, Mufti Abu Layth was impressed by Hijab's thorough biblical research and impromptu quotation of the Bible, while Wood seemed unprepared.", "answer_start": 158, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawhid", "label": "tawhid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:trinity", "label": "the Trinity"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that when one side of a debate appeals to reason and the other defends what it calls irrational truths, the side of reason will generally prevail, so the topic favoured Hijab, whose biblical research he nonetheless credits as impressive.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "whenever you're debating something that way one side appeals to reason and the other doesn't the reason side will always make sense and prevail generally speaking as a rule of thumb", "start": 187}}, "url": "/r/gyRfZZZcA8g/s/2/"}, {"id": "gyRfZZZcA8g/s/3", "short_id": "2018-12-24b-S03", "recording": "gyRfZZZcA8g", "n": 3, "start": 315, "end": 551, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Wood's shaky showing and Hijab's central argument: show the Nicene Trinity before 325", "question_plain": "What was Hijab's main argument against the Trinity, and did Wood answer it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Wood came across as shaky and said some embarrassing things, including a lengthy reply in defence of Christianity that Mufti does not think was correct and that drew laughter, so whether or not he had prepared, he did not appear to have. He observes that the debate as conducted did not lean much on reason, even though it could have been won on reason alone since one makes sense and three-in-one does not; apart from a few points Hijab did not press that line. Hijab's main argument, as Mufti reports it, was that the creed of the Trinity, with co-equal, co-eternal and independent persons of one Godhead, was formulated at the Council of Nicaea in 325, and he challenged Wood to show any Christian source from the preceding three hundred years that believed it in that form, allowing that earlier Christians believed in it differently, with hierarchies or other views, or did not believe in it at all. Mufti calls this very well done and well researched, and says that although he disagrees with Hijab on several topics outside the debate, credit is due: the points were precise and to the point, and Wood failed to answer them sufficiently, replying only that early Christians believed Jesus and the Holy Spirit were God so the exact keywords need not be found. He adds that Hijab quoted Christian sources throughout, and that while he answered many of Wood's comebacks, he did not answer them all.", "summary_short": "Hijab's central argument was that the Trinitarian creed defined at Nicaea in 325 cannot be shown in any earlier Christian source, which Mufti Abu Layth calls precise and well researched and which Wood failed to answer sufficiently. Wood seemed shaky and unprepared, and the debate leaned less on reason than it could have.", "answer_start": 315, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:council-of-nicaea-325", "label": "the Council of Nicaea (325)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:trinity", "label": "the Trinity"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/gyRfZZZcA8g/s/3/"}, {"id": "gyRfZZZcA8g/s/4", "short_id": "2018-12-24b-S04", "recording": "gyRfZZZcA8g", "n": 4, "start": 551, "end": 676, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Wood's linguistic objection: if 'Allah performs salah' on the Prophet, to whom does He pray?", "question_plain": "What does it mean that Allah performs salah upon the Prophet?", "summary": "Turning to David Wood, Mufti Abu Layth says he did not generally carry himself well in the debate but did pose some good questions, yet got stuck on linguistic questions that Mufti calls dumb. Wood repeatedly hinged on the verse 'Allah and His angels perform salah upon the Prophet' [?], asking that if Allah does salah, to whom is He praying. Mufti says Hijab answered this very well by explaining that the phrase does not mean Allah is praying to anyone but that He sends blessings upon the Prophet, a translation Mufti endorses even if unsure of Hijab's exact words. Wood would not leave the point alone and brought it up time and again, which Mufti calls dumb and pathetic on his part: once a question has been answered and one does not know the Arabic language, one should take the answer for now and research it further.", "summary_short": "Wood kept asking to whom Allah prays if He 'performs salah' on the Prophet, which Hijab answered well as sending blessings. Mufti Abu Layth says pressing a linguistic point after it was answered, without knowing Arabic, was pathetic.", "answer_start": 551, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "quran/arabic-language", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:56", "label": "Quran 33:56 (Allah and His angels perform salah upon the Prophet) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/gyRfZZZcA8g/s/4/"}, {"id": "gyRfZZZcA8g/s/5", "short_id": "2018-12-24b-S05", "recording": "gyRfZZZcA8g", "n": 5, "start": 676, "end": 914, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Wood's tough but badly articulated challenge: Islam's own incomprehensible doctrines", "question_plain": "Do Muslims accept doctrines as irrational as the Trinity, such as the uncreated Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Wood did present some tough questions but articulated them so poorly that he never landed a punch with them. As Mufti understands it, Wood's underlying point was that Hijab ridiculed the Trinity as incoherent and incomprehensible while Islam itself holds many incomprehensible truths that Muslims accept: if an appeal to reason shows that three cannot equal one, then the doctrine of the uncreated Quran is equally counter to reason, as is the doctrine of divine attributes that exist alongside God and are neither Him nor other than Him. Mufti allows that he may be crediting Wood with more than he meant, and says that because the points were put so clumsily most people did not grasp them and the whole argument fell by the wayside. He gives the example of intercession: Wood asked how the Quran could intercede for someone if the Quran is God, since God cannot intercede before God, and Hijab answered that one's recitation of the Quran is an action and the reward is the intercession, which Mufti considers answered. The difficult question about the uncreated Quran, he says, Hijab did not answer, but because the questions were presented weakly Hijab was able to dismantle them easily. Mufti says this leads back to a point he stresses on many occasions.", "summary_short": "Wood's real challenge was that Muslims who mock the Trinity as irrational themselves accept doctrines such as the uncreated Quran and attributes that are 'neither God nor other than God'. Mufti Abu Layth says this was a genuinely tough point that Hijab did not fully answer, but Wood put it so badly that few noticed.", "answer_start": 676, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-allah", "label": "kalam Allah (the uncreated Quran)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sifat", "label": "sifat (the divine attributes)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafaah", "label": "shafa'ah (intercession)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:trinity", "label": "the Trinity"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/gyRfZZZcA8g/s/5/"}, {"id": "gyRfZZZcA8g/s/6", "short_id": "2018-12-24b-S06", "recording": "gyRfZZZcA8g", "n": 6, "start": 914, "end": 1058, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reason must go all the way: miracles, anthropomorphism, and winning versus truth in debate", "question_plain": "If Muslims accept miracles that defy reason, can they still object that the Trinity is irrational?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says this illustrates a point he stresses especially in this day and age: Muslims must hold the Quran to be in line with the voice of reason, otherwise arguments like Hijab's do not stand. Had Wood articulated it better, he says, the point would have been very hard to answer: if one accepts miracles that make no sense, then one cannot object that three equalling one makes no sense, since the card of making sense has gone out of the window; it is all or nothing, and saying that ten or twenty percent need not make sense while the rest must is arbitrary. He notes that Wood also raised the anthropomorphic beliefs some Muslims have held, that God has body parts, and says that to be fair there have been Muslims who believed that. He understands that the purpose of a debate is to win, quoting the saying attributed to Imam al-Shafi'i [?], of whose authenticity he is unsure, that he debated praying the truth would appear on his opponent's tongue, and says that nowadays it is all drama and about winning; so Hijab dismissed these objections by saying Muslims have never said such things, when in fact some Muslims have, although Mufti does not agree with them.", "summary_short": "Muslims must hold the Quran to be in line with reason, because accepting miracles that make no sense removes any ground for objecting that three cannot equal one; consistency is all or nothing. Hijab denied that Muslims ever held anthropomorphic beliefs, but some did, though Mufti Abu Layth does not share them.", "answer_start": 914, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/god-and-attributes", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tajsim", "label": "tajsim (anthropomorphism)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:miracles-do-not-defy-natural-law", "label": "miracles never defy God's laws; they have causes within nature"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Muslims must believe the Quran to be in line with the voice of reason, since accepting miracles that make no sense would leave no ground to object that three cannot equal one, and he says that some Muslims did hold anthropomorphic beliefs about God, which he does not share.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel especially in this day and age that Muslims we do believe in the Quran to be in line with the voice of reason otherwise these arguments don't actually stand", "start": 914}}, "url": "/r/gyRfZZZcA8g/s/6/"}, {"id": "gyRfZZZcA8g/s/7", "short_id": "2018-12-24b-S07", "recording": "gyRfZZZcA8g", "n": 7, "start": 1058, "end": 1282, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Faith, not creed: the Prophet taught iman, the formal aqidah came centuries later", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet teach a creed about God's attributes, and when did the Muslim creed emerge?", "summary": "Finishing the previous point, Mufti Abu Layth says that on a few occasions Wood's objections that some Muslims had said certain things were in fact true, though not of all Muslims, and Hijab simply denied them. He then says that if one is going to hold Christians to the Nicene creed as a formal creed, the same test applies to Muslims, which is why he has never favoured such formulations and always distinguishes aqidah from iman: the Prophet came to teach faith, not creed, because creed is always institutionalised, and the Muslim creed itself is at least two to three hundred years younger than the Prophet. He says the Prophet taught very little about what Muslims must believe about God beyond the very basics, such as that God is one, whereas today Muslims are taught a creed of attributes that he calls irrational, nonsensical and not based in the Quran and Sunnah, leading to contradiction: many push the doctrine that Allah has attributes which are neither Him nor other than Him, a formula found in many theology books, of which Ibn Rushd the philosopher said its proponents must be drunk on something. The plus side, he says, which Wood's points inadvertently showed, is that despite the clergy's efforts to institutionalise everyone into creed the common Muslim has never heard of this material, so Wood's objections did not resonate and Hijab could easily dismiss them. He closes that Wood's genuine challenge remains: Muslims must be consistent in appealing to reason all the way, or not at all, and he moves on to how the debate was conducted.", "summary_short": "The Prophet taught faith, not a formal creed; the Muslim creed emerged two to three hundred years later, and its doctrine of attributes 'neither God nor other than God' is, in Mufti Abu Layth's view, irrational and unfounded in the Quran and Sunnah. Ordinary Muslims do not know this material, which is why Wood's objections did not land.", "answer_start": 1058, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/god-and-attributes", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sifat", "label": "sifat (the divine attributes)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:council-of-nicaea-325", "label": "the Council of Nicaea (325)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:faith-not-creed", "label": "the Prophet taught faith (iman), not a formal creed (aqidah)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet came to teach faith rather than creed, that the Muslim formal creed emerged two to three hundred years after him, and that the doctrine of divine attributes that are neither God nor other than God is irrational and not based in the Quran and Sunnah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I always make a distinction between our teeth and Iman the Creed and faith that the Prophet came to teach faith not to teach Creed because with Creed it's always institutionalized", "start": 1094}}, "url": "/r/gyRfZZZcA8g/s/7/"}, {"id": "gyRfZZZcA8g/s/8", "short_id": "2018-12-24b-S08", "recording": "gyRfZZZcA8g", "n": 8, "start": 1282, "end": 1673, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Debate demeanour: Hijab's aggression, Wood's composure, and a dilemma over showing no respect", "question_plain": "Was Hijab right to show David Wood no respect in the debate?", "summary": "On conduct, Mufti Abu Layth notes that Hijab announced he would show David Wood no respect during the debate, which left Mufti in a dilemma. On one hand Hijab justified it by saying Wood has been a bigot and an Islamophobe who has caused hatred of Muslims, and if that is true one can understand a zero-tolerance attitude; so Hijab's demeanour was undeniably aggressive, condescending and loud, with constant demands to answer and not to ask, perhaps partly a habit from debating at Speakers' Corner. Wood, by contrast, was reasonable in his behaviour throughout, with only a few sneers and digs at Islam, and did not become equally aggressive. Mufti says that although Hijab unquestionably dismantled Wood, and the attitude amplified that so that Wood must have felt terrible, it also made Muslims look like the stereotype of the shouting, disrespectful mawlawi in a well-known meme, and that almost all the non-Muslim comments online used this to detract from the win and to ask why he did not turn the other cheek and kill with kindness. He describes it as damned if you do and damned if you don't: he can see Hijab wanting to teach Wood a lesson after years of mocking Muslims, and notes that Hijab's size and presence close to Wood added to the effect, but overall the manner was clearly used as ammunition, and the Muslim crowd's takbirs did not help, since they showed Muslims as rowdy. He repeats that the debate is nonetheless monumental and worth watching.", "summary_short": "Hijab's aggressive, loud and condescending manner, which he justified by Wood's record of bigotry, was used by non-Muslim commenters as ammunition and made Muslims look rowdy, while Wood stayed composed. Mufti Abu Layth sees it as damned if you do, damned if you don't.", "answer_start": 1282, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takbir", "label": "takbir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/gyRfZZZcA8g/s/8/"}, {"id": "gyRfZZZcA8g/s/9", "short_id": "2018-12-24b-S09", "recording": "gyRfZZZcA8g", "n": 9, "start": 1673, "end": 1900, "date": "20181224", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Takeaways: thorough knowledge, better adab, and consistency in following reason", "question_plain": "What should Muslims learn from the Wood versus Hijab debate?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the debate will go down in history and that Wood will forever be embarrassed by it, noting with amusement that in the YouTube comments Wood's supporters still acted as though he had won, with one commenter asking why he was acting like the winner. His takeaways for anyone who debates, Hijab included: the performance of knowledge on the biblical side was excellent and inspiring, and he has read that Hijab may even have studied Hebrew, which impresses him if true; one must have thorough knowledge. Second, the shouting pushed Muslims back into the stereotyped era, so Muslims need to raise their adab. Third, if Muslims are to be objective and true to themselves they cannot hold irrational beliefs and condemn others for theirs; they must be consistent and revisit some of their understandings. If one says the laws of nature do not matter, he argues, then three equalling one does not matter either, since God could make himself three manifestations if reason is thrown out, and the counter that mathematics forbids it fails once one allows God to make exceptions by his power; the argument becomes absurd precisely because it abandons the voice of reason. So if Muslims stick to reason they must follow it through within Islam too, and he says that clips sent to him about drinking camel urine, miracles that suspend the laws of nature, or there being no laws of nature when God does not want them give a confusing message. He closes by congratulating Hijab on the debate.", "summary_short": "Thorough knowledge wins debates, Muslims must raise their adab, and they must be consistent: if the laws of nature do not matter for miracles, then there is no ground to say three cannot equal one. Clips about camel urine or suspended laws of nature send a confusing message.", "answer_start": 1673, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adab", "label": "adab"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:37195d28", "label": "report: the prophet told the sick to drink camel urine"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:miracles-do-not-defy-natural-law", "label": "miracles never defy God's laws; they have causes within nature"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Muslims must be consistent in following the voice of reason, because if they say the laws of nature do not matter when it comes to miracles they lose any ground for saying that three cannot equal one, and that Muslims also need to raise their adab in debate.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "what we can't do is have irrational beliefs ourselves and then condemn other people for irrational beliefs like we must be consistent", "start": 1771}}, "url": "/r/gyRfZZZcA8g/s/9/"}, {"id": "gzKvxYPY-GI/s/1", "short_id": "2022-04-16-S01", "recording": "gzKvxYPY-GI", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 501, "date": "20220416", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on praying out of fear of punishment, and salah as structure", "question_plain": "Am I only praying because I fear God will punish me?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says several people have told him they struggle with salah because they feel they pray only so that God will not punish them, and says that is not a healthy mindset. Mufti says salah does not benefit God at all and only the worshipper's devotion reaches God, and that the Quran never threatens punishment for not worshipping, saying the verse 'what brought you to Saqar' must be read on to the denial of the truth. Mufti notes that the Quran speaks of establishing salah like a structure, and argues that life tends towards disorder, so performing a ritual of structures and substructures makes a person a manifestation of structure. Mufti cites Pascal on sitting quietly alone and an experiment in which people preferred an electric shock to sitting still, saying solitary ritual generates inward-directed thought, and compares salah to making one's bed in the morning, which projects order onto the day. Mufti links this to a hadith that whoever establishes salah has his rizq increased, through increased productivity, and ends by encouraging people to see salah as devotion and structure whenever they can do it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says praying only out of fear of punishment is unhealthy: salah is devotion that benefits us, bringing structure and order into our day.", "answer_start": 38, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity", "wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose/goals-and-habits"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:74:42-46", "label": "Quran 74:42-46 (what brought you to Saqar? We were not of those who prayed ... we used to deny)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:blaise-pascal", "label": "Blaise Pascal"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jordan-peterson", "label": "Jordan Peterson"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d333f073", "label": "report: a person who establishes his salah his rizq increases (unresolved; cited without a reference)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rizq", "label": "rizq (provision)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says salah does not benefit God in the slightest and that it is only the worshipper's devotion that reaches God.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "your salah does not benefit god in the slightest nothing we do benefits god nothing okay it is just your devotion that reaches god", "start": 38}}, "url": "/r/gzKvxYPY-GI/s/1/"}, {"id": "hE3WjiQoxAA/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-05b-S01", "recording": "hE3WjiQoxAA", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 391, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The Chechen mufti urging women to remove the niqab: no basis, but no force", "question_plain": "Is the niqab required, and is it right to make women take it off?", "summary": "Asked to comment on a clip of the mufti of Chechnya urging women to remove their face veils, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think the mufti is forcing them. He agrees with the mufti that the face veil is not from the Quran and Sunnah, while admitting it is not purely a Wahhabi innovation, since it has been in fiqh textbooks from early on. He says Hanafi and some Maliki scholars who spoke of face covering made clear it was not from the Quran and Sunnah but a measure against harm where women felt endangered, while the Shafi'is and some Hanbalis held it obligatory by extrapolation. He says such fears of bandits centuries ago do not apply in London, Paris or New York today. He disagrees with forcing women to remove it: one may advise and educate that it is the opinion of some men, not the Quran and Sunnah, but forcibly removing it would violate a person's civil rights, since covering harms no one.", "summary_short": "The face veil has no basis in the Quran and Sunnah, being the opinion of some later scholars. Forcing a woman to remove it is still wrong; one may only advise.", "answer_start": 19, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:niqab", "label": "niqab (face veil)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the face veil has no basis in the Quran and Sunnah, but force of any kind to remove it is wrong.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "that's my views on it that it has no basis but force of any kind is wrong", "start": 364}}, "url": "/r/hE3WjiQoxAA/s/1/"}, {"id": "hE3WjiQoxAA/s/2", "short_id": "2021-01-05b-S02", "recording": "hE3WjiQoxAA", "n": 2, "start": 391, "end": 631, "date": "20210105", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Men's role in pressuring women into the niqab", "question_plain": "Why do some women feel they must wear the niqab?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth responds to a chat comment questioning why women who believe they need a niqab leave their houses at all. He says he does not blame the women: although women who wear the niqab will not admit it, it is really men who have convinced them, making them feel guilty and fearful of hell, sometimes out of insecurity about other men seeing their wives' faces. He relates, without names, how a man proudly told him that his wife refused to open the door to a friend he had sent to collect something because the friend was not her mahram. He mocks the man's pride in this and calls such a mindset not normal and very worrying.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth blames men rather than women: men convince women they need the niqab by making them fear hell, sometimes out of insecurity. He calls the extreme mindsets this produces worrying.", "answer_start": 391, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:niqab", "label": "niqab (face veil)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahram", "label": "mahram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, although women who wear the niqab will not admit it, it is really men who have convinced them they need it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "although even the women that wear nihab won't admit to this but really it's the men who've convinced", "start": 391}}, "url": "/r/hE3WjiQoxAA/s/2/"}, {"id": "hMUrvU2c9YQ/s/1", "short_id": "2024-09-29-S01", "recording": "hMUrvU2c9YQ", "n": 1, "start": 3, "end": 312, "date": "20240929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mufti Tariq Masood's remark on scribal errors, and Islam as a deen of mercy", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he wants to address the orthography (rasm) of the written Quran, and states that there are categorically no mistakes in the Quran or the mushaf. Mufti explains that the Pakistani scholar Mufti Tariq Masood, in a speech while on tour, said that the Prophet could not read or write and relied on scribes, some of whom wrote verses with grammatical errors with which the Quran has nonetheless been preserved. He says this triggered accusations that he had blasphemed against the Prophet and, given the extremist culture in parts of Pakistan, fear for his life, so that he has not yet returned home. Mufti responds that Islam is a deen of mercy: the Prophet was sent as a mercy to the worlds and to perfect good character, Muslims are his ambassadors, and the bloodthirsty call to kill someone whenever they make a mistake has no place in it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says there are no mistakes in the Quran's script, but Islam is a deen of mercy, so Mufti Tariq Masood's error should not bring calls for his death.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "society/current-events/pakistan"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tariq-masood", "label": "Mufti Tariq Masood"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rasm-uthmani", "label": "rasm (the orthography of the mushaf)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "mushaf"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:107", "label": "Quran 21:107 (a mercy to the worlds)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:68:4", "label": "Quran 68:4 (you are of a great character)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c55bd513", "label": "report: i was sent only to perfect good character"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:10e8ca76", "label": "report: make things easy and do not make them difficult give good tidings and do not drive people away"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Islam is a deen of mercy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "firstly I want to highlight this thing of saying that they should Islam is a dean of Mercy okay the messenger of Allah sallallah alaihi wasallam came as a mercy for the entire worlds", "start": 192}}, "url": "/r/hMUrvU2c9YQ/s/1/"}, {"id": "hMUrvU2c9YQ/s/2", "short_id": "2024-09-29-S02", "recording": "hMUrvU2c9YQ", "n": 2, "start": 312, "end": 586, "date": "20240929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mufti Tariq Masood was wrong, but a mistake is not blasphemy", "question_plain": "Is someone who says something wrong about the Prophet guilty of blasphemy?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Mufti Tariq Masood was clearly wrong, since there are no grammatical errors in the Quran. Mufti says the majority hold that the Prophet did not read or write, though a substantial number disagreed, among them the Andalusian scholar Abu al-Walid al-Baji [?], who wrote a book on it; he calls that a legitimate disagreement, but says the claim that mistaken writing was preserved was categorically wrong, adding that the first dictionary, by al-Khalil ibn Ahmad [?], came generations after the Prophet. He then says that people who make a mistake are not blaspheming even when the mistake is horrendous, citing the hadith of the man who finds his lost camel and in his joy says 'You are my servant and I am your Lord', which is not counted as disbelief because he did not intend it. He says the speaker meant to praise the Prophet, so jumping to call him a kafir or a blasphemer is unacceptable.", "summary_short": "Not when there was no such intention: Mufti Abu Layth says Mufti Tariq Masood was clearly wrong, but he meant to praise the Prophet, so calling him a blasphemer is unacceptable.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tariq-masood", "label": "Mufti Tariq Masood"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baji", "label": "Abu al-Walid al-Baji [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khalil-ibn-ahmad", "label": "al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f9e49159", "label": "report: the man who lost his camel in the desert said o allah you are my servant and i am your lord"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kufr", "label": "kufr"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when people make mistakes it does not mean they are blaspheming, even if the mistake is horrendous.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "when people make mistakes it does not mean that they are Blas feing even if they get it wrong even if it's horrendous that's not their intention", "start": 388}}, "url": "/r/hMUrvU2c9YQ/s/2/"}, {"id": "hMUrvU2c9YQ/s/3", "short_id": "2024-09-29-S03", "recording": "hMUrvU2c9YQ", "n": 3, "start": 586, "end": 891, "date": "20240929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "How scholars' rhetoric fed Pakistan's blasphemy killings, in Mufti Abu Layth's view", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces the verse about seizing by the forelock that the controversy concerned, then says that while Mufti Tariq Masood and others now rightly say that intention must be considered in blasphemy, the same voices historically helped create the extremist culture. Mufti recalls the killing of the Pakistani governor Salman Taseer by his own security guard after he was accused of blasphemy, although Taseer had publicly said he was only questioning a blasphemy law of the government. He says the killing was celebrated across Pakistan's denominations and that Mufti Tariq Masood at the time made public videos saying anyone who blasphemes should be killed, a stance he later changed. Mufti says blood is sacred, prays for the protection of Mufti Tariq Masood and his family, and says scholars must drum into the public that this deen is one of mercy, not only when it falls on them, since ordinary people executed over blasphemy have nobody to speak for them.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says scholars who long told the public to kill blasphemers, Mufti Tariq Masood once among them, helped build the culture now threatening him, and must teach mercy for everyone.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/pakistan", "society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:96:15", "label": "Quran 96:15 (we will seize him by the forelock)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-jahl", "label": "Abu Jahl"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tariq-masood", "label": "Mufti Tariq Masood"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:salman-taseer", "label": "Salman Taseer"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hMUrvU2c9YQ/s/3/"}, {"id": "hMUrvU2c9YQ/s/4", "short_id": "2024-09-29-S04", "recording": "hMUrvU2c9YQ", "n": 4, "start": 891, "end": 1258, "date": "20240929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why lanasfa'an in Quran 96:15 is written with an alif", "question_plain": "Why is lanasfa'an in Quran 96:15 written with an alif, and is it a mistake?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the orthography in question, the word lanasfa'an in the verse 'we will seize him by the forelock', which the mushaf writes with an alif rather than a nun. Mufti explains that this is the emphatic nun, which makes the same sound whether written as a nun or as tanwin. He reads from what he calls the most authoritative book of Arabic grammar, the Kitab of Sibawayh [?], the student of al-Khalil ibn Ahmad [?], in its fourth volume, where Sibawayh says that when one stops on the light emphatic nun it turns into an alif. Mufti likens this to the rules for an exclamation mark in English punctuation, and says that writing it with an alif is the traditional way, while later generations popularly wrote it with a nun.", "summary_short": "It is not a mistake: Mufti Abu Layth shows from Sibawayh that the emphatic nun becomes an alif when stopping on it, so the alif spelling is the traditional one.", "answer_start": 891, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/arabic-language", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:96:15", "label": "Quran 96:15 (lanasfa'an bil-nasiyah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nun-al-tawkid", "label": "nun al-tawkid (the emphatic nun)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sibawayh", "label": "Sibawayh [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-kitab-sibawayh", "label": "al-Kitab of Sibawayh [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khalil-ibn-ahmad", "label": "al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rasm-uthmani", "label": "rasm (the orthography of the mushaf)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that writing the emphatic nun of lanasfa'an with an alif is the traditional way of writing it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "that is actually the traditional way of writing it now as time developed and generations became much more a writing people they popularly started to write it the other way", "start": 1218}}, "url": "/r/hMUrvU2c9YQ/s/4/"}, {"id": "hMUrvU2c9YQ/s/5", "short_id": "2024-09-29-S05", "recording": "hMUrvU2c9YQ", "n": 5, "start": 1258, "end": 1348, "date": "20240929", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Spread love, and take account of the damage our words have done", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth closes by saying the most important point is that this deen is one of love and hope, and that Muslims must spread that message in whatever they do. Mufti says people do not realise what damage they may already have done with their words, and includes himself in this. He says everyone has to take themselves to account for what they have said in the past and how it may have stained the beautiful message of Islam, and ends with a prayer that Allah enable Muslims to spread love and peace.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says this deen is one of love and hope, and everyone, himself included, must reckon with the harm their words may have done.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that all Muslims, himself included, have to take themselves to account for the damage their past words may have done.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "include myself in this that what damage we may have done already with our words you know I I we all have to take ourselves into account for that", "start": 1294}}, "url": "/r/hMUrvU2c9YQ/s/5/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/1", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S01", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 1, "start": 40, "end": 196, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: welcoming Shaykh Kashif Khan from Australia and an audio check", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the MindTrap episode with greetings and introduces the guest, Shaykh Kashif Khan, joining from Australia, showing an intro page with his image. After the guest briefly drops out and returns, the guest thanks Mufti for the invitation. Mufti checks with the audience on Facebook and in the chat that everyone can hear them clearly.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth welcomes Shaykh Kashif Khan to the MindTrap episode and checks that the audience can hear them.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/1/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/2", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S02", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 2, "start": 196, "end": 508, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest's training with Salafi scholars in Pakistan: Salafi, Ahl al-Hadith and Jamaat al-Muslimin", "question_plain": "Where did Shaykh Kashif Khan study, and what is the difference between Salafi and Ahl al-Hadith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth clarifies that the guest is not another mufti mentioned in the chat and asks him about his journey. The guest says he studied the Islamic sciences with Salafi scholars in different cities of Pakistan, some of whose names are garbled in the transcript. Asked whether they call themselves Salafi or Ahl al-Hadith, he says those who studied at the University of Madinah or in Saudi Arabia prefer the name Salafi, while the Pakistani Ahl al-Hadith prefer Ahl al-Hadith, and a group originating in Karachi, Jamaat al-Muslimin [?], calls itself simply Muslims. He says he was born and raised in Karachi in a Hanafi family, studied for a time at Jamia Muhammadiyya [?], an old Ahl al-Hadith madrasa dating from before partition, but did most of his study privately with scholars, travelling in the Punjab, and mentions Abd al-Mannan Nurpuri [?] among those who taught there.", "summary_short": "The guest studied with Salafi scholars in Pakistan, mostly privately; he says Madinah graduates prefer the name Salafi and the Pakistani Ahl al-Hadith prefer Ahl al-Hadith.", "answer_start": 196, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "dialogue/guest-conversations", "history/subcontinent"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-hadith", "label": "Ahl al-Hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:islamic-university-of-madinah", "label": "Islamic University of Madinah"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:jamaat-al-muslimin", "label": "Jamaat al-Muslimin [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:jamia-muhammadiyya", "label": "Jamia Muhammadiyya [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-mannan-nurpuri", "label": "Abd al-Mannan Nurpuri [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/2/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/3", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S03", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 3, "start": 508, "end": 1059, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "From engineering student to zealous Salafi, and whether he regrets it", "question_plain": "How did Shaykh Kashif Khan become religious, and does he regret his zealous phase?", "summary": "Asked what sparked his religious turn in a family that was not very religious, the guest says he came across Islamic material on the internet while searching for songs and began reading books; he faced resistance from his family, grew his beard, skipped engineering classes his father wanted him to take, and his younger brother broke the pictures in the house as they became Salafis. He says he cut off his old friends, made religious friends, faced hassles inside and outside the family, failed semesters in engineering and then computer science, enrolled in commerce, and spent his time travelling and staying with scholars for months. Asked how he feels about it now, he says it was a developing experience and that anyone born into a Pakistani or Indian family is inspired by some scholar at some point. He illustrates this with a relative who left the final year of his medical degree for religious study despite his family's backlash, and says that without that phase he would still be doing things that are not part of the religion, contrasting this with clerics in Pakistan now encouraging people to pray in mosques during the pandemic against the government.", "summary_short": "The guest describes turning religious through the internet, cutting off friends and failing his degrees to travel with scholars, and says he does not regret it, calling it a developing experience.", "answer_start": 508, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/3/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/4", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S04", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 4, "start": 1059, "end": 1212, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why Pakistani clerics announced the reopening of mosques during the pandemic", "question_plain": "Why did clerics in Pakistan insist on reopening mosques during the coronavirus lockdown?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about the recent announcement by a committee of clerics, led by a mufti whose name is garbled [?], that mosques in Pakistan would reopen during the coronavirus lockdown. The guest says that, first, these clerics believe the coronavirus is a conspiracy theory but will not say so on national television, and gave the public the impression that they had been forced to make an earlier statement closing the mosques, which they reversed the next day. He relays from friends and family in Pakistan that on the following Friday in Karachi worshippers at a mosque attacked the police and the Rangers, including a female officer, and that the police did not retaliate because of the crowd. He says such matters quickly become religious, blasphemy and sectarian issues that no one wants to step into.", "summary_short": "The guest says the clerics privately regard the coronavirus as a conspiracy and turned mosque closures into a religious issue that the authorities were reluctant to confront.", "answer_start": 1059, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/current-events/pakistan", "society/current-events/covid-19", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muneeb-ur-rehman", "label": "Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman [?]"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the coronavirus pandemic and mosque closures (2020)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/4/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/5", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S05", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 5, "start": 1212, "end": 1517, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Religion as a business and the trap of denominational dependency", "question_plain": "Do religious scholars lose their independence when they depend on donations?", "summary": "The guest says the second factor is financial: religion has become a huge business. He says that when he moved abroad he decided never to earn through religion, because he had seen madrasa graduates who could not find jobs cry and ask for work and have no option but to join a group and follow its line. He relates that a scholar advised him to get a degree from Saudi Arabia and open a madrasa so he would have no financial problems, and that he refused because those who depend on charity or a madrasa's supporters must act according to their audience. He adds that when a famous cleric switches to a group, he is given a wife from it, a home, a car and financial support, and so does not leave. Mufti Abu Layth says that dependence on a particular denomination may be a boost at first but becomes a nightmare that cripples a person's independent thinking.", "summary_short": "The guest refuses to earn from religion because dependence on a group or donors forces scholars to say what their audience wants; Mufti Abu Layth says denominational dependency cripples independent thinking.", "answer_start": 1212, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "society/education-and-madrasas", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madrasa", "label": "madrasa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/5/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/6", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S06", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 6, "start": 1517, "end": 1754, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Ahl al-Hadith rigidity: a fatwa forbidding medical students to dissect cadavers", "question_plain": "Is it haram for medical students to dissect dead bodies?", "summary": "Asked which Ahl al-Hadith views he has publicly criticised, the guest says their main problem is that they are not fond of reading fiqh. He relates that his brother brought him a medical student whom a senior Salafi scholar in Karachi, whom he declines to name, had told that practising on dead bodies was haram because it meant seeing a naked body, leaving the student unsure how to continue his studies. The guest says he explained to the student that it is totally fine, since general rulings cannot be applied to dissection done for learning. He gives this as one example of thinking in a closed box, likening it to debates over whether one may pray on a boat, a train or a plane.", "summary_short": "The guest says dissecting cadavers for medical training is permissible, and cites a Salafi fatwa forbidding it as an example of Ahl al-Hadith rigidity.", "answer_start": 1517, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/medical-ethics", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-hadith", "label": "Ahl al-Hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah (nakedness of the dead)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/6/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/7", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S07", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 7, "start": 1754, "end": 2145, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Women in the mosque: the fitnah argument, the report in al-Tirmidhi and men and women making wudu together", "question_plain": "Can women be stopped from going to the mosque because of fitnah?", "summary": "The guest says he has always taken his mother to the Eid prayer, and that women are told not to go to the mosque while they go to markets, universities and colleges, with no evidence other than fitnah. He cites a report in al-Tirmidhi, which he calls authentic, that a woman was raped on her way to the mosque for the dawn prayer, and says even this did not lead the Prophet to ban women from the mosque; Mufti Abu Layth says he had read of harassment rather than rape. The guest adds a report that some men in the prayer would look at a beautiful woman praying behind them, which he calls human nature, and incidents of groping in tawaf, saying that God, knowing these things would happen, could have prescribed separate times for men and women. Mufti raises Imam Malik's report in the Muwatta that men and women made wudu together in the Prophet's lifetime, which he says he is personally glad Malik included because it rocks the boat, and the guest adds that the full version says they did so from one vessel, against scholars who reinterpret it.", "summary_short": "The guest says there is no evidence for keeping women from the mosque beyond fear of fitnah, since even harassment in the Prophet's time did not lead to a ban; Mufti Abu Layth cites Malik's report of men and women making wudu together.", "answer_start": 1754, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques", "fiqh/gender-interaction", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3f06fae0", "label": "report: a woman was raped on her way to the mosque for the fajr prayer (al-Tirmidhi, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:02d23582", "label": "report: some men in the prayer would look at a beautiful woman praying behind them"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:275cfe21", "label": "report: men and women used to perform wudu together in the time of the prophet (al-Muwatta)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-al-tirmidhi", "label": "Sunan al-Tirmidhi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawaf", "label": "tawaf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi ulama"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/7/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/8", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S08", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 8, "start": 2145, "end": 2541, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Menstruation is not impurity; a late Hanbali view on intercourse during menses; Abu Hanifa on breastfeeding", "question_plain": "Is a woman on her period ritually impure?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has spoken on menstruation and holds that it is not a state of impurity: the prayer is forgiven as a gift from God to make life easy, and where the Prophet spoke of certain women not coming to the mosque it was a hygiene matter in an age without sanitary products, so a woman is not impure because she is menstruating. The guest says some late Hanbali scholars, in a text and its commentary whose names are garbled [?], permitted intercourse during menstruation for a man overwhelmed by desire, which he finds fascinating from a fatwa perspective and says would be called kufr today if stated without quoting a scholar. He adds that Abu Hanifa held that breastfeeding could extend beyond two years, to two and a half, for which he was criticised for opposing the Quran; Mufti says the Quran describes two years as the standard rather than setting a limit, so going a day over is not haram. The guest says many scholarly differences of opinion have simply not been conveyed to people.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says menstruation is a hygiene matter, not impurity; the guest cites late Hanbali scholars who permitted intercourse during menses and Abu Hanifa's longer breastfeeding period to show how varied the fiqh is.", "answer_start": 2145, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/purification", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahid", "label": "menstruation (hayd)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "late Hanbali scholars [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rada", "label": "rada' (breastfeeding)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kufr", "label": "kufr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/8/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/9", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S09", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 9, "start": 2541, "end": 2849, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Paying taxes instead of zakah? Ghamidi, Ibn Taymiyya, and how defined zakah was in the Prophet's time", "question_plain": "How clearly was zakah defined in the Prophet's lifetime?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says any out-of-the-ordinary fatwa makes people trigger-happy to call it kufr, noting that Ibn Taymiyya said a menstruating woman may perform tawaf, leaning on Abu Hanifa's view that purity is not a condition for it. The guest says Javed Ahmad Ghamidi [?] stated on his website that someone paying taxes to the government need not pay zakah, and was called a deviant and a kafir, but that Ibn Taymiyya and some of the salaf said the same of levies paid to the authorities, such as a toll for crossing a bridge. Mufti says that zakah is a case study: although it existed in the Prophet's lifetime, it was not clearly defined; the tribes were told to pay it a few months before his death, and it is unclear what was stipulated or whether they paid out of obligation or appreciation. He says that accepting a collector's right to count one's livestock meant relinquishing control of one's property, which for proud Arabs was the ultimate submission to authority, that there is almost no single sahih hadith on the nisab of gold and silver, and that he feels the scholars made a pragmatic decision because a state needs a tax system.", "summary_short": "The guest says some salaf and Ibn Taymiyya counted taxes paid to the authorities as zakah; Mufti Abu Layth says zakah was not clearly defined in the Prophet's time and its later rules were a pragmatic tax decision.", "answer_start": 2541, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/zakat-and-charity", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zakat", "label": "zakah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nisab", "label": "nisab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawaf", "label": "tawaf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/9/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/10", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S10", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 10, "start": 2849, "end": 3316, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Can taxes with welfare replace zakah? The wars against the zakah refusers as defiance, not apostasy", "question_plain": "Were the people who refused zakah after the Prophet's death apostates?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether taxes collected by a government that provides welfare could substitute for zakah. The guest says many Companions received stipends from the treasury, a concept of a welfare state, that a state cannot work without taxes, and that some of the salaf held that taxes so collected count as zakah. On Abu Bakr's fight against tribes that stopped paying zakah, he says the famous view is that they apostatised, but that al-Shafi'i and al-Khattabi held it was disobedience to the ruler rather than apostasy; Mufti says he is inclined that way too and mentions Fred Donner's work on the early Islamic conquests. The guest says the Prophet did not execute Musaylima for claiming prophethood, nor did Abu Bakr fight him for that claim, but for challenging authority and killing people, and that Umar's initial questioning of Abu Bakr shows it was not about apostasy; he also cites a report in al-Tirmidhi from Abdullah ibn Shaqiq that the Companions considered no omission kufr except abandoning the prayer. Mufti summarises that it was a political decision to establish the writ of the state.", "summary_short": "The guest says taxes that fund welfare can count as zakah, and that the refusers fought by Abu Bakr were rebels against the state rather than apostates; Mufti Abu Layth says he is inclined to that view.", "answer_start": 2849, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "fiqh/zakat-and-charity", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musaylima", "label": "Musaylima"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khattabi", "label": "al-Khattabi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fred-donner", "label": "Fred Donner"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-early-islamic-conquests", "label": "The Early Islamic Conquests (Fred Donner)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:ridda-wars", "label": "the wars of the ridda"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ef3aff8b", "label": "report: the companions did not consider abandoning any deed kufr except the prayer (Abdullah ibn Shaqiq, al-Tirmidhi, number not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zakat", "label": "zakah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bayt-al-mal", "label": "bayt al-mal (the public treasury)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/10/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/11", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S11", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 11, "start": 3316, "end": 3864, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why share strange opinions? A husband drinking his wife's breast milk, and a Karachi tea story", "question_plain": "Is it haram for a husband to drink his wife's breast milk?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks the guest what the objective is behind posting strange opinions such as intercourse during menstruation, and whether it spreads fitnah. The guest says many married people ask him in private; a father of five had been told that he may not drink his wife's milk during intimacy because it is for the child, and the guest shared fatwas that it is permissible, saying it is not his own opinion but that of the classical jurists, who even discussed hypotheticals such as the offspring of a dog and a goat. Mufti says the Maliki school considers human milk pure and places no prohibition on it, while the Hanafi school is borderline on it, and adds that the questions are real, mentioning bodybuilders. He tells a case he read in a Karachi fatwa collection during his studies: a woman with excess milk left it in a bowl in the kitchen, her husband unknowingly made tea with it, and they wrote in for a fatwa; he recalls, unsure, that the answer treated the marriage as affected. The guest mentions the Hanafi ruling that seeing the private parts of one's in-laws makes one's wife forbidden.", "summary_short": "The guest says classical jurists allowed a husband to drink his wife's milk, and Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki school considers it pure and not haram, unlike a stricter Hanafi view.", "answer_start": 3316, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/intimacy", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rada", "label": "rada' (breastfeeding)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hurmat-al-musahara", "label": "hurmat al-musahara (prohibition through marriage relations)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/11/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/12", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S12", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 12, "start": 3864, "end": 4021, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Muftis who take concessions for themselves: the guest's account of a local mufti and triple talaq", "question_plain": "Do some muftis use lenient rulings for themselves but give strict ones to others?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he felt sorry for the couple in the breast-milk case, imagining them separated. The guest relates a second-hand account from his neighbourhood in Karachi about a local mufti who, after pronouncing a triple talaq in anger, obtained a fatwa from the Ahl al-Hadith through an elderly man there; the guest says he was himself later banned from that mosque. Mufti says such rulings ruin families and destroy homes through the stubbornness of fiqh. The guest says that such muftis, when they fall into trouble, use all the concessions themselves, but in their fatwas to the public they fear-monger. The individual is not named here because the account concerns a private family matter.", "summary_short": "The guest says some muftis take concessions such as the Ahl al-Hadith view on triple talaq for themselves while giving people harsh rulings, citing an account about a mufti in his neighbourhood.", "answer_start": 3864, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/divorce", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "triple talaq"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-hadith", "label": "Ahl al-Hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/12/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/13", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S13", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 13, "start": 4021, "end": 4411, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Hurmat al-musahara: fatwas that dissolved marriages over a past affair and an accidental touch", "question_plain": "Can a past relationship or an accidental touch make my spouse haram for me?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth tells the Juha story of a man who said a wall soiled by an animal must be knocked down and rebuilt, until told it was the wall between his house and the asker's, when washing it seven times became enough. He then recounts a fatwa he saw as a student: a man who as a teenager had twice had sex with an older woman later married her daughter, had five children, and years afterwards read in a booklet that this made his wife forbidden; the fatwa told him to separate immediately. Mufti says he told his colleague this was crazy and destroyed a home, pointing to the Maliki school, whose ulama say this ruling does not exist. He describes a worse case written up as a fatwa: a man who at night went to the bed where he thought his wife slept, found it was his teenage daughter, touched her arm and withdrew, then read that a touch with desire towards a family member voids the marriage, and was told under the Hanafi ruling that his nikah was void. He calls this crazy.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Hanafi fatwas of hurmat al-musahara that dissolve marriages over a premarital relationship with an in-law or an accidental touch destroy families, and that the Maliki school does not hold the ruling.", "answer_start": 4021, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hurmat-al-musahara", "label": "hurmat al-musahara (prohibition through marriage relations)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:juha", "label": "Juha"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/13/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/14", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S14", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 14, "start": 4411, "end": 4757, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Triple talaq in India and Pakistan, and an Ahl al-Hadith scholar who would not publish his view", "question_plain": "Does a triple talaq count as one divorce or three?", "summary": "The guest says these rulings caused great controversy in India, where Hindus used them to attack Islam and the Indian media focused on them, though the Ahl al-Hadith opposed them, and that triple talaq is the main reason many people turn to the Ahl al-Hadith or seek a Salafi fatwa. He mentions Shaykh Zubair Ali Zai [?], a major Salafi hadith researcher whose research appears in Darussalam's English editions such as Abu Dawud, and a senior student of his whom he does not name, who teaches male and female students and holds that a triple talaq counts as three. When the guest asked him why he did not write an academic paper on it, the student said people would think they were acting like the Hanafis, and that ordinary people do not understand how fiqh works; the guest notes Zubair Ali Zai also challenged the Ahl al-Hadith on sacrifice on the fourth day. He says every group has fixed issues on which it never compromises, five or six for the Ahl al-Hadith and some thirty-four for the Hanafis.", "summary_short": "The guest says triple talaq drives many to the Ahl al-Hadith view that it counts as one, while some Ahl al-Hadith scholars privately hold it counts as three but will not publish this for fear of controversy.", "answer_start": 4411, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/divorce", "society/current-events/india-and-hindutva", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zubair-ali-zai", "label": "Shaykh Zubair Ali Zai [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:darussalam", "label": "Darussalam (publisher)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "triple talaq"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-hadith", "label": "Ahl al-Hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qurbani", "label": "qurbani (sacrifice) on the fourth day"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/14/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/15", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S15", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 15, "start": 4757, "end": 4990, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Criticism for challenging views: debating Deobandi relatives, and Zubair Ali Zai's advice on independence", "question_plain": "Why do people react so strongly when a scholar challenges established views?", "summary": "Asked whether he is criticised for legitimising strange views and opening Pandora's box, the guest says that after he became Ahl al-Hadith and convinced a cousin to leave the Hanafi school, a Deobandi relative sent a team of maulanas to debate him, and after the debate the cousin also became Ahl al-Hadith. He says people become insecure and threatened when anyone, especially the young, challenges their authority or simply differs, and that Salafis too disliked his writing on fresh issues even when he quoted Salafi scholars. He relates that Zubair Ali Zai [?] advised him that if you accept charity or join a group you will always be biased for them, and that he himself worked in a cloth shop by day and researched in the evening. The guest says research should be done honestly and conveyed, that differences of opinion must be tolerated, and that one cannot agree one hundred percent with anyone other than the Prophet.", "summary_short": "The guest says people feel threatened when their views are challenged, and that independence from groups and donors is what lets a scholar research and speak honestly.", "answer_start": 4757, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zubair-ali-zai", "label": "Shaykh Zubair Ali Zai [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-hadith", "label": "Ahl al-Hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/15/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/16", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S16", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 16, "start": 4990, "end": 5303, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "'Opening Pandora's box': Mufti Abu Layth's fatwas on marriage to non-Muslims and anal sex, and the face veil", "question_plain": "Is a marriage between a Muslim and a non-Muslim valid?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he gets the same criticism, and recalls his video fatwa on marriage with non-Muslims: Muslims generally marry Muslims and faith is an incredibly important factor, but if a Muslim and a non-Muslim contracted a nikah he believes it would be valid, even if certain factors were missing, drawing on the Hanafi distinction between void and defective contracts, and particularly for women who convert while their husbands remain non-Muslim, who he said could stay with them; he says several of the salaf held this and there are some nine opinions. He says he is accused of popularising long-dead fatwas, as when he said there is a difference of opinion on anal sex within the Maliki school, with transmissions from Imam Malik, a report in Sahih al-Bukhari [?], and others holding that nothing sexual is haram within nikah, and similarly over masturbation. The guest says ten or fifteen years ago Indian and Pakistani Salafis maligned al-Albani for his book on the face veil, that he himself debated a Barelvi mufti on it although the Hanafi school holds the face veil is not obligatory, and that his article on the validity of prayer with trousers below the ankles, quoting Ahmad, Abu Hanifa, al-Bukhari and Ibn Taymiyya, was still called opening Pandora's box.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he holds that a nikah between a Muslim and a non-Muslim would be valid, especially for converts whose spouses remain non-Muslim; both say quoting recorded minority views gets them accused of opening Pandora's box.", "answer_start": 4990, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/marriage-contracts", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/hijab-and-niqab"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:batil-and-fasid", "label": "batil and fasid (void and defective contracts)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:685512fc", "label": "report: ibn umar report on anal intercourse with wives in sahih al-bukhari (unresolved; garbled)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:niqab", "label": "niqab (face veil)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isbal", "label": "isbal (garments below the ankle)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/16/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/17", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S17", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 17, "start": 5303, "end": 5543, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A naked image seen in a reflection: 'I am responsible for what I say, not what you understand'", "question_plain": "Is looking at an image of a naked person the same as looking at a real one in Islamic law?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth raises a post by the guest citing a Shafi'i jurist [?] who said that looking at the reflection of a naked woman is not haram even with desire, which in this day and age amounts to pornography, and says people will object that viewers will now watch pornography or masturbate guilt-free. The guest replies that he is responsible for what he says, not for what people understand from it, and that teenagers, young people and others contact him with this very question. He says fatwa questions are often shocking, but they must be answered, and that where no text prohibits something he cannot call it haram. He says he can set out the different scholars' opinions and evidences and leave the asker to decide, since declaring something halal or haram must be done in the light of evidence. Mufti then asks, as devil's advocate, how this squares with lowering the gaze.", "summary_short": "The guest says he cannot call something haram without a text prohibiting it, so he presents the scholars' differing views on looking at a reflection or image and leaves the choice to the asker.", "answer_start": 5303, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/legal-theory", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "a Shafi'i jurist [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:only-allah-declares-haram", "label": "no one may declare haram what Allah has not declared haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/17/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/18", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S18", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 18, "start": 5543, "end": 6019, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Lowering the gaze: lustful looks, the real and the virtual, and a teacher attracted to students", "question_plain": "Does lowering the gaze apply to images and screens?", "summary": "The guest says he wrote an article showing that the prohibited gazes in the classical works are, according to most scholars, the lustful ones, and that jurists distinguish between seeing someone face to face and seeing a reflection or a film; he cites Ibn Qudama and says a contemporary shaykh, Ibn Uthaymin [?], asked about watching female news anchors without hijab, made the same distinction. In a tangent he mentions the low-alcohol nabidh the salaf drank. Mufti Abu Layth restates the distinction between the real and the virtual, and the guest says even the Hanafis differed over reflections in the context of hurmat al-musahara. On the 'awrah, Mufti says a woman not meeting the minimum requirements of covering is technically uncovered whether she shows her neck or more, though what stimulates people differs. The guest relates that a man who teaches mixed classes and felt attracted to students who wore make-up asked whether to leave his job, and he told him that others' covering is not his responsibility and that he cannot lower his gaze all the time while teaching. Mufti notes the objection that lust is still lust, and the guest replies that there are two opinions, each with evidence, and that this is in the fiqh books, not his own view.", "summary_short": "The guest says most classical scholars took the forbidden gaze to be the lustful one, and that jurists distinguished seeing a person in the flesh from a reflection or screen, a matter on which there are two opinions.", "answer_start": 5543, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-qudama", "label": "Ibn Qudama"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-uthaymin", "label": "Ibn Uthaymin [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ghadd-al-basar", "label": "lowering the gaze (ghadd al-basar)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hurmat-al-musahara", "label": "hurmat al-musahara"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/18/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/19", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S19", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 19, "start": 6019, "end": 6256, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Must non-Muslim women cover? Hasan al-Basri, Imam Ahmad, and a medieval traveller's Makkah", "question_plain": "Do non-Muslim women in a Muslim country have to cover up?", "summary": "The guest asks whether a non-Muslim woman in a Muslim society is obliged to cover, and says scholars including Ibrahim [?] and Sufyan al-Thawri held that non-Muslim women cannot be forced to cover. He says Hasan al-Basri, asked about seeing the bellies and hair of non-Muslim women, said there was no problem, in the context of seeing them in person. As a side note Mufti Abu Layth describes a travelogue he read the previous day, by Ibn Jubayr [?], describing the people of Makkah and a town just outside it where women wore skin-tight leather garments some seven centuries ago, which he finds a fascinating cultural insight against the idea that such things are only modern. The guest adds that some earlier scholars said the prohibition of looking applies only to believing women, that Imam Ahmad refrained from applying it to non-believing women, and that they took evidence from the Quran.", "summary_short": "The guest says early scholars held that non-Muslim women cannot be forced to cover and that the prohibition on looking was applied only to believing women.", "answer_start": 6019, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "fiqh/gender-interaction", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hasan-al-basri", "label": "Hasan al-Basri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-jubayr", "label": "Ibn Jubayr [?] (travel writer)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/19/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/20", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S20", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 20, "start": 6256, "end": 6470, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is pornography an outlet? Haram, disliked and 'should not be done', and Imam Ahmad on mut'ah", "question_plain": "If pornography is not called haram, does that mean it is encouraged?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the guest is saying that pornography is an outlet for people of any age or gender, statistically mostly men, dealing with their desires. The guest says one must understand fiqh terminology: saying something should not be done or is disliked differs from declaring it haram. He says Imam Ahmad's statements of this kind were read by Hanbali commentators as possibly not meaning haram, that a scholar [?] said it is not authentically established that any of the four imams declared the matter haram, and that another shaykh [?] considered mut'ah a legitimate difference of opinion like other recognised differences. Mufti checks that he understands the guest correctly: they do not encourage pornography, which may well have detrimental effects, but they are not saying it is haram.", "summary_short": "The guest distinguishes saying something should not be done from declaring it haram; Mufti Abu Layth restates that they are not encouraging pornography, which may be harmful, but not calling it haram.", "answer_start": 6256, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/legal-theory", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali commentators"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/20/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/21", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S21", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 21, "start": 6470, "end": 6698, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Masturbation: no Companion forbade it, Ibn Abbas's answer, and al-Albani on the fast", "question_plain": "Is masturbation haram in Islam?", "summary": "The guest says the prohibition of masturbation is not proven from any Companion, not even through a weak chain, and that authentic reports show it was practised; he cites Ibn Abbas saying it is better to marry a slave woman than to masturbate. Mufti Abu Layth remarks that masturbation is still widespread and is seen as humiliating to own up to for men, while for women it is seen as cheeky, which he calls a demonisation of men's sexuality in contemporary societies. The guest says those who prohibit it have only the Prophet's advice to fast for whoever cannot marry. He says al-Albani was criticised for his fatwa that masturbation does not invalidate the fast, and mentions an unrecorded opinion of al-Albani that smoking does not invalidate it. Mufti jokes about the guest's name.", "summary_short": "The guest says no Companion is reported to have forbidden masturbation and that the only evidence cited against it is the advice to fast; Mufti Abu Layth says modern society demonises men's sexuality.", "answer_start": 6470, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/fasting/what-breaks-the-fast", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0ae0c8a8", "label": "report: a young man came to ibn abbas and said he stimulates himself and ibn abbas said what you are doing is better than zina but marrying a slave girl is better than what you are doing"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:defff671", "label": "report: whoever cannot marry should fast for it is a shield"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sawm", "label": "sawm (fasting)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/21/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/22", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S22", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 22, "start": 6698, "end": 7014, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Al-Shawkani's treatise, women and the verse, Malik's disdain, and mut'ah versus halala", "question_plain": "Did classical scholars permit masturbation, and for women too?", "summary": "The guest says al-Shawkani wrote a whole treatise on the permissibility of masturbation, and that the verse on guarding the private parts except with wives and concubines speaks of men, so some held that women are exempt from the prohibition; he says some Hanafi and Maliki scholars permitted it, and that Hanafi texts discuss women using objects for pleasure [?]. Mufti Abu Layth says that when Imam Malik was asked about it under a euphemism he simply showed disdain, which reflects a social outlook that has always seen it as humiliating, especially for men, and asks whether some of the salaf said they commanded their youth to do it to stay chaste; the guest says Ibn Hazm brings such reports. The guest says this is the reason mut'ah was legislated, and that Ibn Taymiyya said mut'ah is more rational than halala, which Mufti explains is when a divorced wife is quickly married to someone else so she can return to her husband, and which he calls disgusting. The guest adds reports from Imam Ahmad permitting masturbation.", "summary_short": "The guest cites al-Shawkani's treatise and some Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali reports permitting masturbation, and says some held the prohibition applies only to men; Mufti Abu Layth notes Malik's disdain as a social attitude.", "answer_start": 6698, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:halala", "label": "halala"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/22/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/23", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S23", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 23, "start": 7014, "end": 7325, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Pornography as the new concubines? Hidden books, a withdrawn book on oral sex, and real talk", "question_plain": "Is pornography today like the concubines of the past?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth mentions that Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens, said in an interview that pornography is today's equivalent of concubines, and asks the guest whether he sees it that way. The guest says mut'ah, even short-term, is a natural relationship, whereas pornography is instant gratification, and urges reading al-Shawkani's treatise thoroughly. He relates that some years ago a Salafi shaykh staying at his home for a conference in Karachi found that treatise and asked him not to make it public, and says Salafis in Pakistan and India publish long refutations of al-Albani's book on the face veil but never translate the book itself. He says a famous Pakistani Salafi scholar's book arguing that oral sex is halal was withdrawn from the market the next day by the publisher and an ulama committee, and that critics ignore the seventy to eighty percent of his posts on normal issues. Mufti says the topic came up organically, that people in the comments asked about it, and that because pornography is ubiquitous and everyone is exposed to it, these are real questions and it is important to hear the guest's response.", "summary_short": "The guest rejects likening pornography to concubinage or mut'ah, calling it instant gratification, and describes Salafi efforts to suppress permissive classical texts; Mufti Abu Layth says these are real questions that need open discussion.", "answer_start": 7014, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yuval-noah-harari", "label": "Yuval Noah Harari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sapiens", "label": "Sapiens"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah (temporary marriage)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ma-malakat-aymanukum", "label": "ma malakat aymanukum (concubines)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:niqab", "label": "niqab (face veil)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/23/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/24", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S24", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 24, "start": 7325, "end": 7699, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Does haya make it haram? Modesty, Abu Hanifa's critics, and the Companion who ate ice while fasting", "question_plain": "Doesn't the Islamic teaching on modesty make pornography haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the many teachings on haya, modesty, which a hadith calls a branch of iman, are not enough to declare such things haram. The guest says haram is a very big word, and that if Abu Hanifa were alive today he would be declared an apostate; Mufti adds that when Abu Hanifa died some said thank God he is dead, and that there was a difference of opinion over whether he was a Muslim. The guest says jurists of different backgrounds, including Ibrahim [?] and Ahmad, allowed looking at non-Muslim women who expose their 'awrah, so he can say something is better not done and may be detrimental, but cannot call it haram without clear evidence. He says he has found no evidence that smoking breaks the fast, and cites a Companion who ate ice while fasting, saying it was neither food nor drink, whom the others did not rebuke. Mufti says he is not convinced by that ruling and would not say one may eat ice while fasting, but is intrigued that it existed.", "summary_short": "The guest says the general teaching on modesty is not enough to declare something haram without clear evidence; Mufti Abu Layth says he is not convinced by the report that eating ice does not break the fast.", "answer_start": 7325, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/fasting/what-breaks-the-fast", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haya", "label": "haya (modesty)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:99393127", "label": "report: haya is a branch of iman"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:79609bdc", "label": "report: a companion ate ice while fasting saying it is neither food nor drink"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sawm", "label": "sawm (fasting)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/24/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/25", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S25", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 25, "start": 7699, "end": 8007, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Sexual acts while fasting: Aisha's report, al-Albani, and what invalidates the fast", "question_plain": "Does masturbation or other sexual activity break the fast?", "summary": "The guest says scholars agree that vaginal intercourse invalidates the fast, but other acts are different, citing a report from Aisha, which he calls authentically established, that the Prophet did everything except vaginal penetration, and he says al-Albani held that ejaculation does not invalidate the fast. Mufti Abu Layth recalls his own earlier post and short clip noting that several Hanafi scholars, al-Albani, al-Shawkani and Ibn Hazm held this view, and says he finds himself in line with the understanding that masturbation per se does not break the fast, without commenting on whether it is good. The guest cites a report that Ibn Umar [?] broke his fast with intercourse, and argues that even if masturbation were haram, like swearing it would not invalidate the fast, since the fast is invalidated only by what the Quran and Sunnah clearly mention, not by anyone's opinion; he mentions a view that backbiting invalidates the fast, which the scholars did not accept. To the charge of legitimising desires he replies that he found no evidence of prohibition, and that the religion is not his to say whatever he wants.", "summary_short": "The guest says only intercourse is agreed to break the fast, citing Aisha's report and al-Albani; Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees that masturbation per se does not break the fast.", "answer_start": 7699, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting/what-breaks-the-fast", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c74399f3", "label": "report: the prophet did everything with his wives while fasting except intercourse"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi scholars"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1fe14df4", "label": "report: ibn umar would break his fast with intercourse"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sawm", "label": "sawm (fasting)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/25/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/26", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S26", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 26, "start": 8007, "end": 8468, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why do sex-related fatwas trigger people? Legitimate difference, a culture of shame, and no shyness in learning", "question_plain": "Why do people get so upset about Islamic rulings on sex?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why rulings on sexual matters trigger people far more than other disagreements, such as the Maliki view that one may pray at times others call forbidden. The guest says people ask him genuinely and he gives the differing opinions and evidence, and when asked his own view says he has found no evidence either way; he cites Imam al-Shafi'i that one cannot denounce someone who holds nabidh halal, music not haram or mut'ah halal, since these are legitimate differences. He says people raised in Pakistan and India are fed a culture of shame in which women cannot even name menstruation or pregnancy, use euphemisms, are looked down on for walking out while pregnant, and hide eating during Ramadan when not fasting. He says the classical scholars openly discussed questions such as placing the mushaf on a bed where intercourse took place, which Ibn Abbas [?] said was no harm, and that al-Bukhari's book of knowledge cites Mujahid that the shy and the arrogant cannot learn, and the report of a woman asking the Prophet directly about her menstruation, to show there is no shyness in learning the religion.", "summary_short": "The guest blames a culture of shame in the subcontinent, and says the classical scholars and al-Bukhari show there is no shyness in learning the religion and that legitimate differences cannot be denounced.", "answer_start": 8007, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1ee130b0", "label": "report: ibn abbas there is no harm in placing the mushaf on the bed where intercourse took place"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "mushaf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari (Kitab al-Ilm)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mujahid", "label": "Mujahid ibn Jabr"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a32a1d6b", "label": "report: two do not learn the shy person and the arrogant"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2d64585f", "label": "report: a woman came to the prophet and asked directly about her menstruation"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/26/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/27", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S27", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 27, "start": 8468, "end": 8620, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A student debate on oral sex at Jamia Abi Bakr: the right hand and impurity", "question_plain": "Is oral sex between spouses haram because the private parts are impure?", "summary": "The guest describes a debate among students at Jamia Abi Bakr about oral sex. He says those who opposed it argued that the Prophet forbade touching the private part with the right hand, to which he replied that one can use the left; and that it is impure, to which he replied that one's own body parts are not impure. He cites the statement that a person's private part is only a part of him, asking why anyone would carry something impure. He says these people have no logic. Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees with everything the guest is saying, and then puts a question to him.", "summary_short": "The guest says the arguments against oral sex within marriage, from the right-hand prohibition and from impurity, do not hold, since one's own body is not impure; Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees.", "answer_start": 8468, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "possible_quoted_view"], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/intimacy", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:jamia-abi-bakr", "label": "Jamia Abi Bakr (Karachi)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e173790f", "label": "report: the prophet forbade touching the private part with the right hand"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:aab1ee44", "label": "report: it is only a part of you"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:najasa", "label": "najasa (impurity)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/27/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/28", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S28", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 28, "start": 8620, "end": 8934, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "If people will do it anyway, why make these opinions public?", "question_plain": "Why talk publicly about permissive opinions if it might encourage people?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says nobody has the courage to discuss these matters: a maulana who held such views would never say so in public, only behind closed doors. The guest says he has no financial conflict of interest, works a full-time job, studies out of personal passion, and never wants to be an imam. Mufti then puts the question that people will watch pornography or masturbate anyway, not because of a statement on MindTrap, so why put this discourse out and make it Islamic for them, rather than let them get on with it. The guest says a shaykh, al-Awni [?], has a detailed article on hiding knowledge, that nothing can be hidden today since the books are a click away for anyone with a little Arabic, Urdu or English, and that people who find out they were not told the truth lose trust in scholarship, so helping is better than keeping quiet. He adds that al-Bukhari and others held that a talaq pronounced without intention does not occur, and Mufti says he would argue the same from Imam Malik's answer about a man who began to say 'you are divorced if' and stopped.", "summary_short": "The guest says knowledge cannot be hidden in the internet age and that people lose trust when scholars conceal it, so it is better to tell them the recorded opinions.", "answer_start": 8620, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-awni", "label": "Shaykh al-Awni [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "talaq without intention"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/28/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/29", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S29", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 29, "start": 8934, "end": 9217, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Abu Hanifa and the hadd for sodomy: attacks on Hanafis, madrasa abuse, and a convenient fatwa", "question_plain": "Did Abu Hanifa hold that there is no hadd punishment for sodomy?", "summary": "The guest says Abu Hanifa held that there is no prescribed hadd punishment for sodomy, which Ibn Qudama described as opposing the consensus of the Companions, and that the Hanafis have defended him while Salafis in India and Pakistan attack him as legitimising sodomy, including his view on acts with animals. He says Salafis link this to abuse in Hanafi madrasas, and that recent videos from madrasas showed abuse of underage children, which traumatises them. He says one can interpret such opinions positively or negatively, and relates that when a Salafi scholar with a PhD was caught in such an act, the mufti of his own group, who did not want to punish him, used the views of Ibn Hazm and Abu Hanifa that the reports on the hadd are weak, whereas their fatwas normally say the person must be killed, by an Islamic court. He asks whether one would then say the fatwa provided the man with an Islamic justification.", "summary_short": "The guest says Abu Hanifa held there is no hadd for sodomy, that Salafis attack Hanafis for it, and that a Salafi mufti used the same view to shield one of their own scholars.", "answer_start": 8934, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-qudama", "label": "Ibn Qudama"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hadd (prescribed punishment)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma' of the Companions"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madrasa", "label": "madrasa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/29/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/30", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S30", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 30, "start": 9217, "end": 9360, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Isn't it better to sin with guilt and then repent?", "question_plain": "Isn't it better to feel guilty when sinning so that you repent?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth puts the question that it may be better for people to do these things with guilt, so that they later seek to redeem themselves through tawbah and istighfar, rather than guilt-free. The guest says that when he talks about pornography he often says that according to most scholars it is haram to watch it, so people should not watch it, but that when discussed academically the evidence is like Imam Ahmad's statement on mut'ah, that he does not say it is haram but dislikes it, since he could find no evidence for the prohibition. He says he is not encouraging people, and mentions memes made about him by Pakistani friends. Mufti notes that if some scholars hold something is not haram, Imam al-Shafi'i's principle means one cannot impose one's view, citing those who drank nabidh, and asks whether guilt is a good thing at all, and whether Islam teaches guilt-tripping people into being good.", "summary_short": "The guest says most scholars hold watching pornography is haram and people should not watch it, while academically the evidence resembles Imam Ahmad's 'I dislike it but do not say it is haram'.", "answer_start": 9217, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutah", "label": "mut'ah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawbah", "label": "tawbah (repentance)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/30/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/31", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S31", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 31, "start": 9360, "end": 9674, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is guilt an Islamic idea? Forbidding evil only on what is agreed, and funeral customs", "question_plain": "Does Islam teach us to feel guilty?", "summary": "The guest says guilt-tripping does not work, and that if something were truly haram God would have mentioned it, as with riba and zina; he cites al-Ghazali [?] that one cannot rebuke a Hanafi drinking nabidh or a Shafi'i eating lizard, since forbidding evil applies to what the texts prohibit, not to matters of difference. Mufti Abu Layth says he does not personally feel guilt is an Islamic thing, that the Arabic word used for it means sin rather than the wearing emotion of guilt, and that he feels the concept was injected from the Judeo-Christian tradition, particularly Catholicism. The guest says people nurtured on cultural practices from childhood cannot easily leave them, describing funeral customs in Pakistan and India that burden grieving families, and a case where a husband who had become Salafi objected to the tent and feast at his wife's father's funeral after holding them for his own father; a shaykh advised him that it was not the time to correct her. He says he does not force his posts on anyone, and that these opinions are in published and translated Hanafi books.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says guilt-tripping is not an Islamic concept but one taken from the Judeo-Christian tradition, and the guest says forbidding evil applies only to what the texts clearly prohibit.", "answer_start": 9360, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity", "fiqh/funerals-and-burial", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:commanding-good-and-forbidding-evil", "label": "al-amr bil-ma'ruf wa al-nahy an al-munkar (commanding good and forbidding evil)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ithm", "label": "ithm (sin)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/31/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/32", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S32", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 32, "start": 9674, "end": 9911, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The need for honest dialogue, guilt and depression, and unrealistic solutions", "question_plain": "Does making people feel guilty about pornography make things worse?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his experience hardly anyone is prepared to have this dialogue, though the questions are on everybody's mind, and that young adults are exposed to pornography through social media and devices, many out of curiosity. He asks whether making people guilt-driven over things that are not categorically haram adds to their depression, saying that most men will watch pornography to some extent, that this may be very detrimental, but that simply telling people not to do it is not a solution because instincts do not work that way. He describes young imams in a gathering proposing to take the door off its hinges so that a person has no privacy, which he calls unrealistic. The guest says scholars in Pakistan, India and the Arab world first declared television haram, then satellite and cable, then the internet, before accepting them, and likens the matter to selling a knife: the seller is not obliged to ask what the buyer will do with it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says telling people simply not to watch pornography is unrealistic and that guilt-tripping over what is not categorically haram may add to depression; the guest likens past bans on television and the internet.", "answer_start": 9674, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "society/technology-and-media"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/32/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/33", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S33", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 33, "start": 9911, "end": 10443, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does consuming pornography create demand for sex trafficking?", "question_plain": "Does watching porn fuel sex trafficking?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not see how guilt-tripping helps, and the guest adds that the Prophet declined monitor lizard because it was not eaten in his land but the Companions ate it, so cultural dislike is not prohibition; Mufti then reads a question from the chat. He says men will always be drawn to sex and pornography, that nobody condones the atrocities in the industry or says pornography is good, and that he personally thinks smoking is not good and that people should give it up but would not guilt-trip a smoker. The guest says sugar, refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils are more harmful than many things scholars call haram, yet no one calls sugar haram, and mentions medicinal cannabis. Mufti compares buying a burger to supporting battery farming, saying he is part of that market but it will not disappear because he gives up burgers, and that he does not see the logic connecting a fatwa that something is not haram with aiding the market. The guest says that when asked about pornography he explains its detrimental effects, such as addiction, rather than giving false hopes that it is haram, and that an ordinary person should act on the majority of scholars and not watch it, since at most it is a minor sin.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says saying pornography is not categorically haram is not condoning abuses in the industry and does not in itself aid the market; the guest says people should be told its harms and follow the majority who forbid it.", "answer_start": 9988, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c6b62319", "label": "report: the prophet was given a monitor lizard and said it is not eaten in my land but you may eat it"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/33/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/34", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S34", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 34, "start": 10443, "end": 10911, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Closing reflections: the transparency of the early scholars, study without bias, and courage", "question_plain": "How should someone approach studying Islam with an open mind?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the guest and says that his honesty and transparency mirror the attitude of the scholars of the salaf, who spoke openly even on minority positions, as Abu Hanifa did in refusing to declare nabidh haram because the Companions drank it, and that this transparency is desperately needed today. In his closing words the guest urges viewers to put aside bias and partisanship, free their minds, study sincerely, compare books and check the scholars, rather than refusing to learn from people labelled deviant, and says many muftis and shaykhs are unaware of these opinions because knowledge is restricted; some ask him privately but avoid him in public. Mufti says people tell him they would like to appear on the show but fear their followers, and that he despises cowardice and admires courage. The guest relates that a hadith scholar, Waki' [?], was nearly killed by a mob for narrating a report that the Prophet's body began to change after his death, until Sufyan ibn Uyayna intervened with the judge, and that Barelvis tore up copies of a book when he quoted Hanafi texts to them in a debate, adding that those who are sincere should study every book.", "summary_short": "The guest urges viewers to study sincerely, without bias or partisanship, across all books; Mufti Abu Layth says the transparency of the early scholars is badly needed today.", "answer_start": 10443, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:waki-ibn-al-jarrah", "label": "Waki' ibn al-Jarrah [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-ibn-uyayna", "label": "Sufyan ibn Uyayna"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b8955c52", "label": "report: the body of the prophet began to change after his death before burial"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/34/"}, {"id": "hOusirOkBVU/s/35", "short_id": "2020-04-19b-S35", "recording": "hOusirOkBVU", "n": 35, "start": 10911, "end": 11032, "date": "20200419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Sign-off: thanks, more sessions to come, and how to reach the guest", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the guest for his words, for his courage in being transparent on a daunting and controversial topic, and for his time, and hopes to arrange more sessions. He asks viewers to subscribe to his channels and asks the guest how people can reach him, which the guest says is through his social media page. Mufti invites follow-up questions and comments and signs off.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the guest, says more sessions will follow and signs off.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:kashif-khan", "label": "Shaykh Kashif Khan (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hOusirOkBVU/s/35/"}, {"id": "hcscudhD8bU/s/1", "short_id": "2014-05-09-S01", "recording": "hcscudhD8bU", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 382, "date": "20140509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is a woman's face 'awrah in the Maliki school?", "question_plain": "Is the face part of a woman's 'awrah in the Maliki school?", "summary": "In a recorded conversation, Mufti Abu Layth and his guest, Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks, discuss face covering; the captions are poor and it is often unclear which of the two is speaking. One speaker asks whether the other distinguishes between two terms used in the Maliki commentaries (the words are lost in the captions); the reply is that the face veil is usually discussed under 'awrah and in the chapter on prayer, with some saying a woman should cover if there is fitnah. One speaker says that by default neither the Maliki nor the Hanafi madhhab counts the face as 'awrah, that covering it is not proven by the Quran and Sunnah, and that the condition 'if there is fitnah' shows it is a safeguarding measure. That speaker cites the hadith in Sahih Muslim of the Prophet turning a young man's face away from a woman he kept looking at, arguing that had covering been obligatory the Prophet would have said so, before the connection drops.", "summary_short": "One speaker argues that neither the Maliki nor the Hanafi school counts the face as 'awrah, so covering it is at most a precaution against fitnah.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdus-shakur-brooks", "label": "Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:niqab", "label": "niqab (face veil)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9c7f9d0b", "label": "report: al-fadl ibn abbas kept looking at a woman and the prophet turned his face away (cited as in Sahih Muslim)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hcscudhD8bU/s/1/"}, {"id": "hcscudhD8bU/s/2", "short_id": "2014-05-09-S02", "recording": "hcscudhD8bU", "n": 2, "start": 390, "end": 691, "date": "20140509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "What counts as fitnah, and judging later times by the Prophet's", "question_plain": "Must a young woman cover her face because of fitnah?", "summary": "After reconnecting, the two speakers debate what fitnah would require a woman to cover her face. One says the books define it, distinguishing a young woman, for whom there is fitnah, from an older woman, for whom there is none; the other replies that men are attracted to almost every reasonably young woman, so the rule would become general and contradict the Prophet never stipulating it. They argue over judging later times by the Prophet's: one cites the Prophet's command not to prevent women from going to the mosque and Aisha's remark that he would have stopped them had he seen what women did, saying hers was only a statement against the Prophet's text, while the other gives the example of Abu Hanifa prohibiting a practice, the marking of sacrificial camels [?], because people were not fulfilling its condition. One speaker then begins quoting Imam Malik.", "summary_short": "The speakers disagree: one holds the books require covering where there is fitnah from young women, the other that such a rule would swallow the Prophet's own practice.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdus-shakur-brooks", "label": "Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:80ebd445", "label": "report: do not prevent the female servants of allah from the mosques of allah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:90dd1daf", "label": "report: if the prophet had seen what the women do now he would have prevented them from the mosque (Aisha)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hcscudhD8bU/s/2/"}, {"id": "hcscudhD8bU/s/3", "short_id": "2014-05-09-S03", "recording": "hcscudhD8bU", "n": 3, "start": 691, "end": 1190, "date": "20140509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Imam Malik's fatwa on eating with a husband's friends and looking at the face", "question_plain": "Did Imam Malik allow a woman to show her face to her husband's friends?", "summary": "One speaker quotes Imam Malik's fatwa, cited in Maliki works, that a woman may sit and eat with her husband's friends, with later Maliki authorities including al-Baji endorsing it, and argues this shows the face is uncovered and that looking at it is permissible, while a man who wishes may look away. The other asks whether Imam Malik meant only an older woman; the first says the text is clear that he did not. They debate whether the command of hijab given to the wives of the Prophet applies to all women, one saying that is the view of those who generalise it and not of the Malikis. The other says the later books split women into two kinds, requiring covering where there is fitnah; the first answers that these are interpretations of some, while all agree that covering the face is not ordained by the Quran and Sunnah.", "summary_short": "One speaker reads Imam Malik's fatwa allowing a woman to eat with her husband's friends as proof that the face is uncovered; the other cites the later split between young and older women.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/gender-interaction"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdus-shakur-brooks", "label": "Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baji", "label": "Abu al-Walid al-Baji"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:awrah", "label": "'awrah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hcscudhD8bU/s/3/"}, {"id": "hcscudhD8bU/s/4", "short_id": "2014-05-09-S04", "recording": "hcscudhD8bU", "n": 4, "start": 1190, "end": 1346, "date": "20140509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Imam Malik's own fatwa versus the later madhhab", "question_plain": "Is Imam Malik's own fatwa the Maliki madhhab?", "summary": "The speakers dispute whether Imam Malik's own statements or the madhhab as transmitted is decisive, using the example of praying while holding back the call of nature: one says Imam Malik in the Mudawwana [?] holds the prayer invalid only if it takes away concentration, the other that the madhhab as it came down treats it differently. One speaker then says that Imam Malik's fatwas on hijab, such as a woman not having to cover her hair before her slave, are much more relaxed than those of other madhhabs, and that his fatwa clearly has the woman not covering the face, in line with the Quran and Sunnah.", "summary_short": "The speakers disagree on whether Imam Malik's own words or the later transmitted madhhab decide a ruling; one says Malik's hijab fatwas were relaxed and left the face uncovered.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "fiqh/hijab-and-niqab"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdus-shakur-brooks", "label": "Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hcscudhD8bU/s/4/"}, {"id": "hcscudhD8bU/s/5", "short_id": "2014-05-09-S05", "recording": "hcscudhD8bU", "n": 5, "start": 1346, "end": 1658, "date": "20140509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "May women go out of the house? Maliki views on travel and leisure", "question_plain": "Can a woman go out of the house without a need?", "summary": "One speaker says that in the Maliki position women did not go out except for need; the other replies that the hadith books show women out in the marketplaces, and cites a Maliki scholar, Ibn al-Arabi [?], saying a woman travelling in a caravan needs neither women nor men with her, arguing that going out locally was never a problem. They dispute whether that passage concerns hajj, which the Malikis already allow without a mahram in a safe group, or ordinary journeys. One asks what text makes going out for leisure haram, saying everything is permissible unless texts make an exception and that no Maliki has prohibited women going out leisurely; the other warns against going back to the texts after senior scholars have spoken, and the first points to the commentaries on hadith of visits and of Fatimah bint Qays [?] staying at the house of Ibn Umm Maktum as showing casual mixing.", "summary_short": "One speaker holds women went out only for need; the other that hadith and Maliki texts show women in public and travelling, with no text forbidding going out.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender", "fiqh/maliki-school", "fiqh/gender-interaction"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdus-shakur-brooks", "label": "Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahram", "label": "mahram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hajj", "label": "hajj"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:91868db6", "label": "report: fatima bint qays was told to spend her waiting period in the house of ibn umm maktum [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:default-permissibility", "label": "everything is permissible by default until proven otherwise (al-asl al-ibaha)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hcscudhD8bU/s/5/"}, {"id": "hcscudhD8bU/s/6", "short_id": "2014-05-09-S06", "recording": "hcscudhD8bU", "n": 6, "start": 1658, "end": 2300, "date": "20140509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Fatwa protocols: can a woman go out for a walk?", "question_plain": "Is it haram for a woman to go out for a walk?", "summary": "One speaker asks whether, when giving fatwa in the name of the Malikis, they are bound to the protocols and relied-upon works of the madhhab rather than going back to the hadith books, since they are at the lowest degree of scholarship. The other answers that the school of Medina is known for taking from the Sunnah, and that the chapters cited on women going to the mosque concern worship and congestion, not ordinary going out. That speaker repeatedly challenges the first to bring fatwas from Imam Malik and the leading scholars of the madhhab saying a woman may not go out for a walk, saying there is nothing to make it haram and that she may go for a walk if she wants, based on the guidance of the Prophet and the salaf and on the principle that things are permissible by default. They agree that a single scholar's fatwa, if produced, would be admissible and would then be investigated against the opposing views.", "summary_short": "One speaker says nothing makes it haram for a woman to go for a walk and challenges the other to produce a Maliki fatwa forbidding it; the other asks whether fatwa must follow the madhhab's protocols.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdus-shakur-brooks", "label": "Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:default-permissibility", "label": "everything is permissible by default until proven otherwise (al-asl al-ibaha)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hcscudhD8bU/s/6/"}, {"id": "hcscudhD8bU/s/7", "short_id": "2014-05-09-S07", "recording": "hcscudhD8bU", "n": 7, "start": 2300, "end": 2383, "date": "20140509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A last point on praying behind an imam, and farewell", "question_plain": null, "summary": "One speaker raises a passage on an imam who allows his wife to go out uncovered, and the other asks for the reference; mention is made of the difference of opinion over praying behind a sinful (fasiq) imam, the sound opinion being that one may. One of the two then says he has to get to a radio show, they talk briefly about webcams, and agree to continue another time.", "summary_short": "A brief last point on praying behind a sinful imam, then the conversation ends for a radio show.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdus-shakur-brooks", "label": "Ustadh Abdus Shakur Brooks (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fasiq", "label": "fasiq (openly sinful person)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/hcscudhD8bU/s/7/"}, {"id": "ht0qJv5Om9o/s/1", "short_id": "2021-10-25-S01", "recording": "ht0qJv5Om9o", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 270, "date": "20211025", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "A caller's Quranist idea, and the arrogance of judging who is saved", "question_plain": "Will Allah judge someone who follows only the Quran by the Quran alone?", "summary": "A caller says he keeps getting into discussions with a local Quranist group, that he is not completely against them and finds truth in their view, and puts forward his own idea: the Quran can be misinterpreted because language is understood differently, but on the Day of Judgement Allah may judge someone who had only the Quran by the Quran, since the doors of paradise are wide, while those who take the narrower ways of the various groups have confined themselves. Mufti Abu Layth says the question has several layers. On the first, salvation in the hereafter, he says he personally finds it very arrogant for a human to presume who will go where, since Allah's mercy encompasses all creation and only Allah knows how He will treat people. He says nobody should go around telling others they are going to hell; we concern ourselves with our own path and serve people.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth will not speak on who is saved: he finds it arrogant for a human to presume where anyone ends up, since Allah's mercy encompasses everything. We should concern ourselves with our own path.", "answer_start": 156, "questioner": "caller", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/salvation-and-non-muslims", "hadith/quran-only-movement"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:quranist", "label": "Quranist (Quran-only)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:akhirah", "label": "akhirah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that he personally finds it very arrogant for a human to presume who will go where in the afterlife, which only Allah knows.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is me personally i always find it very arrogant to to assume on these matters about who will go where in the afterlife", "start": 193}}, "url": "/r/ht0qJv5Om9o/s/1/"}, {"id": "ht0qJv5Om9o/s/2", "short_id": "2021-10-25-S02", "recording": "ht0qJv5Om9o", "n": 2, "start": 270, "end": 427, "date": "20211025", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Quranists are not a monolith; Islam reached us through the living tradition", "question_plain": "Did Muslims learn how to pray from hadith books?", "summary": "Continuing his answer to the caller, Mufti Abu Layth says Quranists are not a monolith, comparing the term to 'Sunni', which covers Sufis, Salafis, Barelvis, Deobandis and Jamaat-e-Islami. Some called Quranists accept the sunnah of the Prophet but doubt that hadith reached us with accuracy, which he calls an epistemological issue rather than disloyalty to the Prophet. He says that in his view the practice of Islam did not reach us through hadith but through the living tradition: Abu Dawud and al-Bukhari came about two hundred years after the Prophet, and people were praying before them because Islam was taught from parent to child and in community. He says he advises embracing the inherited tradition, which in such matters as the five prayers is not a corruption.", "summary_short": "No: the practice of Islam reached us through the living tradition, taught from parent to child, not through hadith collections compiled two centuries later. Quranists are not one group, and many only doubt the accuracy of hadith.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:quranist", "label": "Quranist (Quran-only)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sufi", "label": "Sufi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:jamaat-e-islami", "label": "Jamaat-e-Islami"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tirmidhi", "label": "al-Tirmidhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, personally, he would say the practice of Islam has not reached us through hadith but through the living tradition.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "i personally you see i would say that the islam the practice of islam has not reached us through hadith it's reached us through the living tradition", "start": 349}}, "url": "/r/ht0qJv5Om9o/s/2/"}, {"id": "ht0qJv5Om9o/s/3", "short_id": "2021-10-25-S03", "recording": "ht0qJv5Om9o", "n": 3, "start": 427, "end": 772, "date": "20211025", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why arguing with Quranists achieves nothing, and seeing them with compassion", "question_plain": "Should I debate Quranists?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if a Quranist wants his view he will give it, but arguing gets nowhere: nobody has ever been argued into a belief, and humiliating someone in a debate may massage one's ego but leaves them hating you more. He cites Imam Malik's advice, when asked about debating over the sunnah, to answer if asked but not to argue. He says the Prophet looked at people through a lens of compassion, citing the report that he stood for the funeral of a Jewish woman and said it was a soul, and that Salafis, Shia, Quranists and others are each coming from a place of love for the deen. He explains the Quranist reasoning that because some hadith are certainly fabricated it is safer to discard them, and says they assume fiqh is built on hadith as it is today because of the Salafi movement, whereas before it fiqh was built on the living tradition, which he says is why Quranists did not exist in the past and why he does not find their argument as convincing as they think. He closes that they should not be bashed or humiliated.", "summary_short": "No: arguing never changes anyone's mind and only breeds hatred, so give your view if asked and see Quranists with compassion. He finds their case weaker than they think, since fiqh was built on the living tradition, not on hadith.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/quran-only-movement", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:quranist", "label": "Quranist (Quran-only)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:61e009d9", "label": "report: the prophet stood for the funeral of a jewish woman and said is it not a soul (as told by the host; unresolved)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "The deen reaches us through continuous living practice"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think debates really yield results, since humiliating someone in an argument only makes them hate you more.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "if it's a debate i don't think these really uh yield results", "start": 504}}, "url": "/r/ht0qJv5Om9o/s/3/"}, {"id": "iCr0sV2UrcU/s/1", "short_id": "2018-03-15-S01", "recording": "iCr0sV2UrcU", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 156, "date": "20180315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Reaction to being called a probable kafir by Shadee Elmasry and others", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he heard Shadee Elmasry, among a few other scholars, and that he is very disappointed in their approach, because they outright called him a kafir or a 'probable kafir' and a probable apostate, which he mocks with a Carlsberg joke and the phrase 'this ain't your dad's deen'. He recites an Urdu couplet he attributes to Akbar Allahabadi to the effect that those who would eradicate him from Islam cannot do so, and says no amount of pressure will choke him out of Islam: he is here to stay. He calls the attitude of declaring people apostates a god complex, as if its holders sat on a divine throne throwing people out of Islam, and says shame on them for speaking to others this way. He repeats that being on this faith is by the grace of God and has nothing to do with them.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects being called a probable kafir and apostate by Shadee Elmasry and others, says no pressure can remove him from Islam, and calls the readiness to throw people out of Islam a god complex.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shadee-elmasry", "label": "Shadee Elmasry"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:akbar-allahabadi", "label": "Akbar Allahabadi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/iCr0sV2UrcU/s/1/"}, {"id": "iCr0sV2UrcU/s/2", "short_id": "2018-03-15-S02", "recording": "iCr0sV2UrcU", "n": 2, "start": 156, "end": 313, "date": "20180315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Does denying a line of al-Tahawi make one a kafir? Elmasry's own departures and Ash'ari creed", "question_plain": "Is someone who denies a line of al-Tahawi's creed a kafir?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Elmasry and Hamza Maqbool both recently said his view is kufr, and that Elmasry said in an interview that anyone who denies a line of al-Tahawi's creed is a kafir. He objects that this makes al-Tahawi's text, not the Quran, the standard, and says Elmasry himself has problematised at least five points of al-Tahawi, beginning with his definition of iman, which does not include action, and his use of words such as qadim for Allah. He asks whether the passages of the creed refuting the Khawarij, the Mu'tazila and the Shia make all of those groups kafir, and where such a rule comes from, since the creed of the Ash'aris is that they do not do takfir of the people of the qibla, and al-Tahawi's text is not even an Ash'ari text. He adds that al-Tahawi wrote more than 250 years after the Prophet and asks why he should suddenly be such a decisive authority when he is not accepted in anything else. He then turns to the verse they cite about Jesus speaking to people in the cradle and as a kahl, which they say means an old man; Maqbool, he says, at least reined it in to about forty.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says this makes al-Tahawi rather than the Quran the standard, that Elmasry himself departs from al-Tahawi on several points, that Ash'ari creed does not make takfir of the people of the qibla, and that al-Tahawi wrote 250 years after the Prophet and is not an Ash'ari authority.", "answer_start": 156, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shadee-elmasry", "label": "Shadee Elmasry"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-maqbool", "label": "Hamza Maqbool"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tahawi", "label": "al-Tahawi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:aqidah-tahawiyya", "label": "al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:no-takfir-of-ahl-al-qibla", "label": "no takfir of the people of the qibla"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:46", "label": "Quran 3:46 (he will speak to people in the cradle and as a kahl; the phrase also occurs in 5:110)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kahl", "label": "kahl"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/iCr0sV2UrcU/s/2/"}, {"id": "iCr0sV2UrcU/s/3", "short_id": "2018-03-15-S03", "recording": "iCr0sV2UrcU", "n": 3, "start": 313, "end": 471, "date": "20180315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What kahl means: maturity on earth according to al-Razi, and the late origin of the second-coming reading", "question_plain": "Does the verse about Jesus speaking as a kahl prove he will return?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the critics' argument is that Jesus could only speak to people as a mature man if he returns, and answers that kahl can mean forty or thirty and onwards: it denotes the completeness of the body when youth is over, as scholars said beginning at thirty or forty, like 'middle age' with no set starting point. He cites a line of classical poetry for the usage and says Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, one of the heads of Ash'ari creed, states that Jesus reached kuhula on earth while he was here, which he contrasts with the claim that denying the return is kufr. He says all the commentaries record that the first person to read this verse as a reference to Jesus returning was a Naysaburi scholar whom he names indistinctly, who died in the 280s of the hijra, over two hundred years after the Prophet, and that none of the salaf understood the Quran this way. He says this is why scholarship has disappointed people and why he is up against such claims.", "summary_short": "No: kahl means mature adulthood from about thirty or forty, and al-Razi says Jesus reached that age on earth. The reading of the verse as the second coming first appeared with a scholar who died in the 280s AH, not among the salaf.", "answer_start": 313, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kahl", "label": "kahl"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:46", "label": "Quran 3:46 (he will speak to people in the cradle and as a kahl; the phrase also occurs in 5:110)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:fakhr-al-din-al-razi", "label": "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-fadl-ibn-al-husayn-al-naysaburi", "label": "al-Fadl ibn al-Husayn al-Bajali al-Naysaburi (d. 280s AH) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that kahl in the verse means mature adulthood, which Jesus reached on earth as al-Razi states, and that the reading of the verse as a prophecy of his return originated with a scholar who died in the 280s AH and was unknown to the salaf.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "who said that this verse could refer to Jesus coming back India his second coming before him nobody said that this wasn't how they understood the Quran", "start": 418}}, "url": "/r/iCr0sV2UrcU/s/3/"}, {"id": "iCr0sV2UrcU/s/4", "short_id": "2018-03-15-S04", "recording": "iCr0sV2UrcU", "n": 4, "start": 471, "end": 626, "date": "20180315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Before his death' in 4:159: whose death, and Ubayy's reading 'before their death'", "question_plain": "Does 'before his death' in Quran 4:159 refer to the return of Jesus?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the verse that there is none of the People of the Book but will believe in him before his death, which the critics call clear. He says the commentators disagree about the pronoun: some refer it to the Christian himself, who realises on dying that what he followed was false; some to Jesus; some to the Prophet Muhammad. He says that even on the second-coming reading, Ibn Abbas is reported, by a transmission he says Ibn Kathir calls sahih, to have taken it as the Christian, as did Mujahid, al-Dahhak and other early authorities whom he names indistinctly. He adds that the recitation of Ubayy ibn Ka'b reads 'before their death', in the plural, which cannot refer to Jesus. He argues that the second-coming reading makes no sense: if every Christian were to believe in Jesus before Jesus's death at his return, the Christians who have lived and died over two thousand years would be excluded, so the true meaning is that each realises the truth upon death. He then says the critics bring another verse.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says early authorities including Ibn Abbas, Mujahid and al-Dahhak read the pronoun as the Christian who realises the truth at death, and Ubayy ibn Ka'b's recitation has 'before their death'. Referring it to Jesus's return would exclude every Christian who died over two thousand years.", "answer_start": 471, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "quran/tafsir", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:159", "label": "Quran 4:159 (none of the People of the Book but will believe in him before his death)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-kathir", "label": "Ibn Kathir [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mujahid", "label": "Mujahid ibn Jabr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dahhak", "label": "al-Dahhak [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubayy-ibn-kab", "label": "Ubayy ibn Ka'b"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that 'before his death' in 4:159 refers to the death of each Christian, not to Jesus, following Ibn Abbas, Mujahid and al-Dahhak and the plural reading of Ubayy ibn Ka'b, and that the second-coming reading makes no sense of the Christians who have already died.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so the true understanding here was that upon death they will realize that this was not the truth", "start": 610}}, "url": "/r/iCr0sV2UrcU/s/4/"}, {"id": "iCr0sV2UrcU/s/5", "short_id": "2018-03-15-S05", "recording": "iCr0sV2UrcU", "n": 5, "start": 626, "end": 782, "date": "20180315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Knowledge of the hour' in 43:61, and the critics' inconsistency over what is mutawatir", "question_plain": "Does Quran 43:61 say Jesus is the sign of the hour?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes the verse 'and he is knowledge of the hour', which the critics read as Jesus being the sign of the hour at his return. He answers that Hasan al-Basri said it refers to the Quran, that others said it refers to the Prophet Muhammad, and that even on their reading the verse says 'ilm, knowledge, not sign, so they themselves must interpret it, which contradicts their claim that God stated the matter clearly. He summarises that the critics contradict themselves: they quote claims of mutawatir transmission and of consensus that scholars reject and that they disagree over among themselves. He points out that the Mahdi was also called mutawatir, by Ibn Hajar, by al-Shawkani who brings fifty hadith for the Mahdi against fewer for Jesus, and by al-Haytami, al-Sakhawi, al-Safarini and al-Barzanji, yet the Mahdi is not in al-Tahawi's creed nor in the early books of Ash'ari creed, which he calls a big problem for their standard. He says he has given this backdrop because the matter caused such discussion online and because he feels the narrative reads exactly from the Gospels.", "summary_short": "No: Hasan al-Basri read 'knowledge of the hour' as the Quran, others as the Prophet, and the verse says knowledge, not sign, so the critics must interpret it too. Mufti Abu Layth adds that the Mahdi was also called mutawatir by Ibn Hajar, al-Shawkani and others yet is absent from al-Tahawi's creed.", "answer_start": 626, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:43:61", "label": "Quran 43:61 (and he is knowledge of the hour)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hasan-al-basri", "label": "Hasan al-Basri"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar-al-haytami", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Haytami"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-sakhawi", "label": "al-Sakhawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-safarini", "label": "al-Safarini"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-barzanji", "label": "al-Barzanji"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:aqidah-tahawiyya", "label": "al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that 43:61 does not state that Jesus is the sign of the hour, that the critics contradict themselves by invoking mutawatir and consensus claims they reject elsewhere, and that the second-coming narrative reads exactly from the Gospels.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I wanted people to understand where I'm coming from why I feel this is because it reads exactly from the Gospels", "start": 767}}, "url": "/r/iCr0sV2UrcU/s/5/"}, {"id": "iCr0sV2UrcU/s/6", "short_id": "2018-03-15-S06", "recording": "iCr0sV2UrcU", "n": 6, "start": 782, "end": 942, "date": "20180315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why would Jesus return? The anticlimax of the Dajjal, the Jews, and the killing of pigs", "question_plain": "Why would Jesus need to come back at all?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why Jesus is supposed to come back and says Muslims seem to have tried too hard to find a reason. On the claim that he comes to kill the Dajjal, he says the narrations have the Dajjal simply melting on seeing Jesus, which he calls an anticlimax after the build-up of a great showdown, worse than a disappointing boxing match; if that were all it took, the Mahdi or the Muslims could have killed him. On the claim that he comes to kill the Jews so that even rocks give them up, he asks where this hatred of Jews suddenly comes from, noting that Jesus was a Jew who spent his life preaching love, compassion and turning the other cheek, yet is made to return as a force compelling everyone to be Muslim and ruling over Jew and Gentile with nobody's faith counting any more. On the claim that animals will become safe except pigs, which Jesus goes around killing, he says this makes no sense and cites a sahih report brought by Imam Malik that Jesus, on seeing pigs, was peaceful towards them. He says his point is not to attack but to show the conflict.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the reasons given for a return do not hold together: the Dajjal simply melts, hatred of Jews contradicts Jesus's own message as a Jew preaching compassion, and killing pigs contradicts a report in Malik that Jesus was peaceful towards pigs.", "answer_start": 782, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:db4e34c0", "label": "report: when isa descends the dajjal melts like salt in water"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:fbb17a0e", "label": "report: isa will descend break the cross and kill the pigs"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:dd36e1dd", "label": "report: isa passed by pigs and said pass in peace"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the reasons given for Jesus's return, killing the Dajjal who simply melts, killing the Jews, and killing pigs, conflict with each other and with Jesus's own message, and that a report in Malik has Jesus peaceful towards pigs.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "Jesus is a Jew by the way Jesus a Jewish you know it doesn't make any sense and Jesus spent his whole life speaking about love and compassion and turn the other cheek", "start": 847}}, "url": "/r/iCr0sV2UrcU/s/6/"}, {"id": "iCr0sV2UrcU/s/7", "short_id": "2018-03-15-S07", "recording": "iCr0sV2UrcU", "n": 7, "start": 942, "end": 1069, "date": "20180315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Summary: the return narrations conflict with the Quran, rest on khabar ahad, and contradict each other", "question_plain": "What are the main problems with the hadith about Jesus returning?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sums up his objections to the narrations of Jesus's return in three points. First, their details conflict with the overall message of the Quran, of the Sunnah and of the established principles of Islam. Second, they are established through khabar ahad, solitary reports, and are not part of aqidah in the way people have made them. Third, the narrations contradict each other massively: one says the Dajjal will come when the Muslims conquer Constantinople, which happened hundreds of years ago; others say the Dajjal already existed, or will be born later; one has the Prophet thinking the Dajjal was a particular Jew and saying he would deal with him himself without mention of Jesus; others say every prophet warned of the Dajjal, yet he melts like salt the moment Jesus appears. He adds that the setting in Damascus becomes prominent in the hadith only after the Muslims moved their capital there, and that when Jibril asks the Prophet what faith is, and when the Prophet is asked about the signs of the hour, Jesus is not mentioned.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the return narrations conflict with the Quran, the Sunnah and Islam's principles, rest on solitary reports that cannot found aqidah, and contradict one another, from Constantinople to who the Dajjal is. He notes that the hadith of Jibril on faith and the Prophet's answers on the signs of the hour do not mention Jesus.", "answer_start": 942, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahad", "label": "khabar al-ahad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:khabar-wahid-not-creed", "label": "single-transmitter reports do not establish creed"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-must-not-contradict-reason-quran-or-principles", "label": "a hadith must not contradict reason, the Quran and established Sunnah, or uproot a principle of Islam"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:conquest-of-constantinople", "label": "the conquest of Constantinople"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:444310bc", "label": "report: when you conquer constantinople the dajjal will come out"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3a3f2709", "label": "report: the prophet thought the dajjal was a jew and said i will take care of him"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f5b8c382", "label": "report: jibril asked the prophet what is iman"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the narrations of Jesus's return conflict with the Quran, the Sunnah and the established principles of Islam, are solitary reports that are not part of creed in the way people have made them, and contradict one another.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "when we look at the details of these hadith we find them conflicting with the overall message of the Quran with the overall message of the Sunnah and with the established principles in Islam", "start": 942}}, "url": "/r/iCr0sV2UrcU/s/7/"}, {"id": "iJ2ml87pTrs/s/1", "short_id": "2017-09-09-S01", "recording": "iJ2ml87pTrs", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 130, "date": "20170909", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Religion is personal; believers are not obliged to establish a society or a state", "question_plain": "Are Muslims obliged to establish an Islamic state or khilafah?", "summary": "The guest, Shaykh Akram Nadwi, says that what is missed in understanding the religion is that, according to the Quran and Sunnah, religion is basically a personal matter between a person and their Lord. When many people accept it a society comes about, and then the command of Allah is that the society be run according to His command, enjoining good and forbidding evil; when believers gain power they are commanded to obey Allah in running the state. But, he says, none of them has an obligation to make an effort to obtain a society or a state; sometimes things move in that direction and sometimes it never happens. Many prophets and messengers had believers but never established a society or any power, such as Ibrahim and Isa, and it did them no harm; they were still the best and chosen people, and some lived under non-Muslim rule and remain examples for the believers. He cites the last four prophets of the Jewish people, Zakariya, Yahya, Maryam and Isa, who lived under the Roman Empire, never rebelled or tried to establish Jewish rule, and taught only the personal religion of worship, prayer, remembrance, fasting and repentance, while the Quran praises them, makes them examples and says 'follow their guidance' [?], as it does for Ibrahim.", "summary_short": "The guest says religion is a personal matter between a person and God, and believers have no obligation to obtain a society or a state, though if they have power they must run it by God's command. Prophets such as Ibrahim and Isa, and Zakariya, Yahya and Maryam under Roman rule, never sought power and remain examples.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khilafah"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:commanding-good-and-forbidding-evil", "label": "al-amr bil-ma'ruf wa al-nahy an al-munkar (commanding good and forbidding evil)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zakariya", "label": "Zakariya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yahya", "label": "Yahya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:roman-empire", "label": "Roman Empire"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:90", "label": "Quran 6:90 (follow their guidance) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/iJ2ml87pTrs/s/1/"}, {"id": "iJ2ml87pTrs/s/2", "short_id": "2017-09-09-S02", "recording": "iJ2ml87pTrs", "n": 2, "start": 130, "end": 311, "date": "20170909", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The hijrah was not to found a state; the khilafah rashidah ended with Ali and the promise was for the first generation", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet migrate to Madinah to set up a state, and when did the khilafah end?", "summary": "The guest says the understanding that believers have a duty to establish the khilafah is not right: when people gain power their duty is to run it by Allah's command, but obtaining power was never the command. Saying the Prophet moved to Madinah to establish a state is a big misunderstanding: the hadith says he did not like leaving, was forced out by the people, and turned to Makkah saying that had its people not forced him he would never have left; in Makkah he established no khilafah, implemented no Islamic law and was a minority. The state emerged by Allah's plan without the Prophet having a plan, and once he had power he told people to follow Allah's command. He says that those who speak of khilafah do not understand it: the khilafah rashidah, ruling by the command of Allah and His Messenger, lasted only until Ali ibn Abi Talib; after that came kingship, Mu'awiya and his dynasty, Marwan ibn al-Hakam and his, then the Abbasids, who called themselves khalifah but were kings, and Abu Hanifa, Malik and al-Shafi'i lived under them without ever trying to establish a khilafah, though some argue the time of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was similar. The Quran's promise 'He will make them khalifah' [?] was, he says, only for the Khulafa al-Rashidun, the first Muhajirun and Ansar; since then there has been no promise and no khilafah, only the potential for kingship, and what was abolished in 1924 was a powerless man named khalifah, not a khilafah. The khilafah Muslims love is the khilafah rashidah.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Prophet left Makkah because he was forced out, not to found a state, and the khilafah rashidah ended with Ali, after which Umayyads and Abbasids were kings in all but name. The Quranic promise of khilafah was for the first generation only, and the 1924 abolition ended a powerless kingship, not a khilafah.", "answer_start": 130, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khilafah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hijrah", "label": "the hijrah to Madinah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:36e5405e", "label": "report: o makkah had your people not forced me out i would never have left you"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rashidun", "label": "al-Khulafa al-Rashidun (the rightly guided caliphs)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:marwan-ibn-al-hakam", "label": "Marwan ibn al-Hakam"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "the Abbasids"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-ibn-abd-al-aziz", "label": "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:24:55", "label": "Quran 24:55 (He will make them successors) [?]"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:abolition-of-the-ottoman-caliphate-1924", "label": "the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate (1924)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/iJ2ml87pTrs/s/2/"}, {"id": "iJ2ml87pTrs/s/3", "short_id": "2017-09-09-S03", "recording": "iJ2ml87pTrs", "n": 3, "start": 311, "end": 529, "date": "20170909", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Fantasy nostalgia for the khilafah, guilt-tripping the young and the breeding of extremism", "question_plain": "Why is the call to restore the khilafah dangerous for young Muslims?", "summary": "The guest finishes: the khilafah rashidah lasted only thirty years, after which there was kingship, sometimes good kings such as Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, and in India too, very often bad ones, as in any other world tradition; there is no proof in the Quran and Sunnah that believers are obliged to work for the khilafah, and neither the prophets nor their followers did so. Mufti Abu Layth says the Shaykh has said enough and adds that this is a problem today because it misguides and guilt-trips many young and vulnerable people. People are given a romantic fantasy nostalgia, what he calls a Bollywood version of Islamic history, in which all was perfect until 1923 or 1924 and going back would fix every problem; but the single-state khilafah rashidah as they describe it never existed beyond Ali, as al-Amir al-San'ani [?] notes in his Rasa'il and Ahmad al-Raysuni has highlighted, and as the Prophet said it would turn to dynasties and kings. Those who point to Muslim suffering in Kashmir, Palestine and Burma and ask what the listener is doing produce a dangerous guilt; some then tell them that the whole world is Dar al-Harb without a khilafah, so that others become enemy combatants, and a handful may attack people, feeling they might as well die. He says this helps to breed the extremist narrative and traps sincere young people, who either become radicalised or carry the guilt for life, so it needs to be tackled.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the nostalgic 'Bollywood version' of Islamic history, in which a perfect khilafah existed until 1924, is a fantasy, since the khilafah rashidah never went beyond Ali. Guilt-tripping young Muslims with it and with Dar al-Harb rhetoric breeds the extremist narrative and needs tackling.", "answer_start": 311, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["guest", "host"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khilafah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rashidun", "label": "al-Khulafa al-Rashidun (the rightly guided caliphs)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:salah-al-din-al-ayyubi", "label": "Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-ibn-abd-al-aziz", "label": "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-amir-al-sanani", "label": "al-Amir al-San'ani [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:rasail-al-amir-al-sanani", "label": "the Rasa'il of al-Amir al-San'ani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-al-raysuni", "label": "Ahmad al-Raysuni"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:65011e61", "label": "report: after the khilafah there will be kingship and dynasties (content paraphrased by the host)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dar-al-harb", "label": "Dar al-Harb"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:abolition-of-the-ottoman-caliphate-1924", "label": "the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate (1924)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/iJ2ml87pTrs/s/3/"}, {"id": "iJ2ml87pTrs/s/4", "short_id": "2017-09-09-S04", "recording": "iJ2ml87pTrs", "n": 4, "start": 529, "end": 749, "date": "20170909", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Politicised Islam as modern Khawarij; fifty Muslim countries, Pakistan and the lack of sincerity", "question_plain": "If Muslims want a khilafah, why not first establish Islam in the countries they already have?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding those pushing a purely politicised version of Islam are near the Khawarij, part of a modern-day Khawarij movement, not exactly like the Khawarij of the past but obsessed with rulership, declaring rulers taghut and using the same evidences as ISIS; he thanks the Shaykh for his words. The guest adds that Muslims already have fifty countries and should establish Islam there first. Before partition, he says, Indian Muslims were desperate for Pakistan in order to establish Nizam-e-Mustafa and Islamic law, yet now everybody in Pakistan would love to come to Britain, and if India opened its border many would go there too, which he calls a deception and a lack of sincerity, asking how Allah could like such people; if America opened its doors, those who hate it would run there. He tells of a friend in Makkah, director of a Quranic school, who asked him for a job in Britain because there was no freedom to do religious work at home. He says the groups fighting for khilafah fight among themselves and cannot implement Islam on themselves, that if Britain were given to any Muslim group for a year it would first set about finishing off every other group and Muslims would flee, and recalls a teacher's saying, 'Leave the khilafah, we cannot even run a madrasa'; Allah does not give people what they do not deserve.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says those pushing a purely politicised Islam are, in his understanding, near the modern Khawarij and use the same evidences as ISIS. The guest says Muslims already have fifty countries, that Pakistanis who sought Nizam-e-Mustafa now want to leave, that khilafah groups cannot even unite, and that Allah does not give what people do not deserve.", "answer_start": 529, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate", "history/subcontinent", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khilafah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taghut", "label": "taghut"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:partition-of-india-1947", "label": "the partition of India (1947)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nizam-e-mustafa", "label": "Nizam-e-Mustafa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madrasa", "label": "madrasa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/iJ2ml87pTrs/s/4/"}, {"id": "iQVd5_ag6DE/s/1", "short_id": "2020-01-17-S01", "recording": "iQVd5_ag6DE", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 305, "date": "20200117", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Reaction to Daniel Haqiqatjou's post about Mufti Menk writing 'Almighty' instead of 'Allah'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "In a segment of his live stream Mufti Abu Layth shows a post by Daniel Haqiqatjou [?], whom he nicknames 'Danny Boy' after a Bollywood reference, complaining that Mufti Menk deliberately avoids the name Allah in his tweets, using 'Almighty' instead, and that the last time he tweeted the name Allah was in 2017, and asking whether any other religion's celebrity preachers substitute a generic translation for the name of their God. Mufti reads the post out mockingly and asks viewers to see how petty and silly some so-called Muslim leaders have become. He brings up another account's humorous posts on the same subject. He says he finds it sad that Haqiqatjou combed through Mufti Menk's entire output back to 2017, and describes him as a troubled soul preoccupied with this. He says people like this are not trained in the Sharia, that although he himself would disagree with Mufti Menk on many opinions, Menk at least does not do this kind of thing, and that in his view Haqiqatjou gets obsessed with right-wing factions, at times promotes what he calls white supremacy and right-wing speech and statements by Trump because he hates the left and LGBTQ communities, and so goes out of his way to be on the opposite end. He then recalls a clip of Haqiqatjou on women praying in wardrobes.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth mocks Daniel Haqiqatjou's complaint that Mufti Menk tweets 'Almighty' rather than 'Allah' as petty, says Haqiqatjou is not trained in the Sharia, and says he is driven by hostility to the left rather than scholarship.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mufti-menk", "label": "Mufti Menk"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anil-kapoor", "label": "Anil Kapoor"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/iQVd5_ag6DE/s/1/"}, {"id": "iQVd5_ag6DE/s/2", "short_id": "2020-01-17-S02", "recording": "iQVd5_ag6DE", "n": 2, "start": 305, "end": 449, "date": "20200117", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The 'women praying in wardrobes' claim rests on a false hadith; dogma and herd mentality", "question_plain": "Is it a Sunnah for women to pray in a wardrobe or the innermost room?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls a clip in which Daniel Haqiqatjou [?] said that his wife praying in her wardrobe, where she kept a prayer mat, was fulfilling a Sunnah of the Prophet. Mufti says this rests on a weak hadith which is in fact a false one and not a saying of the Prophet at all, and that Haqiqatjou did not merely call it a saying of the Prophet but a Sunnah within Islam to put women into wardrobes; he asks when there were wardrobes in the Prophet's time. He says he feels for such people and finds it shocking that so many Muslims believe and follow them, calling this dogmatism, and says this is why he liked the television series Messiah, which showed herd mentality, how people follow blindly through dogma, and what creates belief. He then moves on to other matters.", "summary_short": "The claim that women praying in a wardrobe is a Sunnah rests on a weak, indeed false, hadith that is not a saying of the Prophet. Mufti Abu Layth sees the following of such claims as dogma and herd mentality.", "answer_start": 305, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "society/women-and-gender/women-in-worship-and-mosques", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e4df847f", "label": "report: the woman prays in her wardrobe (content not quoted; called weak and false)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report used to call women praying in a wardrobe a Sunnah is a weak and in fact false hadith, not a saying of the Prophet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "because he is this weak hadith which is a false hadith people it's not even a saying of the Prophet", "start": 305}}, "url": "/r/iQVd5_ag6DE/s/2/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S01", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 110, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Introduction: the Sunni perspective on Karbala, a tragedy all Muslims recognise", "question_plain": "What is the Sunni view of Karbala?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has been asked by a few people for the Sunni perspective on the event of Karbala, and that there is so much to say that he doubts he can do it justice. He sets out his plan: to look at Karbala, at issues surrounding its commemoration today, then at its precursors, and then to return to Karbala, leaving questions for later. He says Karbala was unquestionably a great tragedy for the Ummah and that he thinks all Muslims, for the most part, agree that the martyrdom of Husayn was a great tragedy. He adds that the major events are known, while there is disagreement over minor details.", "summary_short": "Karbala was unquestionably a great tragedy, and Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims generally agree on that; the major events are known and only details are disputed.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:karbala", "label": "Karbala"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Karbala was unquestionably a great tragedy for the Ummah, and thinks all Muslims, for the most part, agree that the martyrdom of Husayn was a great tragedy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "Karbala is unquestionably a a great tragedy that befell the Ummah of Islam. Okay? I think that isn't hidden from anyone. I think all Muslims are in agreement that the martyrdom of Hussein radiyallahu anhu was a great tragedy.", "start": 56}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/1/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/2", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S02", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 2, "start": 110, "end": 385, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The journey to Kufa: who the early Shia were and the interception at Karbala", "question_plain": "Who were the Shia who invited Husayn to Kufa?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth describes Husayn travelling to Kufa with some seventy men, as well as women and children, because he had been invited by the Shia. He distinguishes the sect of Shia today, a theological group, from the Shia of early Islam, which he says was mainly political, those who favoured Ali, with only a theological undertone. He calls Karbala an eruption of pressures long building up, and notes that the name evokes karb, pain, and bala, trial. He says Husayn was intercepted on the way by a force that some Shia sources describe as vast, which he calls a fabrication, assuming it was a couple of hundred men, led by Umar ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, son of the great companion, in the time of Yazid, with Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad as governor of Kufa. He then pauses the story to go back in time to its causes.", "summary_short": "The Shia who invited Husayn to Kufa were a political faction favouring Ali, not today's sect; a force of perhaps a couple of hundred under Umar ibn Sa'd intercepted him at Karbala.", "answer_start": 110, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:karbala", "label": "Karbala"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-sad", "label": "Umar ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yazid-ibn-muawiya", "label": "Yazid ibn Mu'awiya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubaydullah-ibn-ziyad", "label": "Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in early Islam Shia was more a political than a theological thing, meaning those who favoured Ali.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "In early Islam, Shi'a was more a political thing. It wasn't a theological thing. There was slight There was a undertone theological undertone, but it was really political. So, it was about those people who favored Ali.", "start": 174}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/2/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/3", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S03", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 3, "start": 385, "end": 640, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The roots of the rivalry: Banu Umayya and Banu Hashim, and a minor Makkah", "question_plain": "Where did the rivalry between Banu Umayya and Banu Hashim come from?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the roots of Karbala lie before Islam, in a rivalry between two related clans of Quraysh, Banu Umayya and Banu Hashim, which at that stage was benign, a contest over prestige such as feeding and watering the pilgrims. He says he does not buy the popular narrative that Quraysh were highly regarded in Arabia, and that in his understanding Makkah was an almost irrelevant town, on no trade route or map, whose importance later Muslims projected back because the majesty of Islam eclipsed pre-Islamic history. He says that at the conquest of Makkah Banu Umayya were the town's powerhouse, and that Abu Sufyan, Muawiya and others embraced Islam. Because the Prophet was of Quraysh, he says, Quraysh gained an unmatched standing, so the clans set aside their quarrels and stood together as Quraysh.", "summary_short": "The rivalry behind Karbala began before Islam between Banu Umayya and Banu Hashim; Mufti Abu Layth holds that Makkah and Quraysh mattered far less in pre-Islamic Arabia than later Muslims assumed.", "answer_start": 385, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/pre-islamic-arabia", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "Banu Umayya"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:banu-hashim", "label": "Banu Hashim"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-sufyan", "label": "Abu Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:conquest-of-makkah", "label": "the conquest of Makkah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding Makkah was an almost irrelevant town in pre-Islamic Arabia, not as later Muslims thought it was.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "and neither Mecca, in my understanding, was a very uh almost irrelevant town in Arabia. It wasn't how later Muslims thought it was.", "start": 466}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/3/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/4", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S04", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 4, "start": 640, "end": 900, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "After the Prophet: the Saqifa, Umar's warning in Bukhari, and a shura", "question_plain": "How was Abu Bakr chosen as leader after the Prophet died?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says turbulence began after the Prophet's death over who should lead. He rejects the popular understanding that leaders would always be from Quraysh and that the companions knew this, and says the Arabs did not rate Quraysh, citing Banu Tamim and Himyar. He describes Banu Hashim gathering in the house of Fatima, as he believes, while the Ansar met at the Saqifa of Banu Sa'ida and some proposed an amir from each side, and Umar moved first and declared for Abu Bakr, which he calls a gamble that worked. He cites a report in Sahih al-Bukhari in which Umar later said that what happened was a falta that could have caused chaos, from which Allah saved them, and that the Muslims must not do it again but decide by shura, which is why Umar left a committee after him. Uthman then became caliph.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects the idea that the companions knew leaders must come from Quraysh, and cites Umar's own words in Bukhari that Abu Bakr's hasty election must not be repeated and leaders should be chosen by shura.", "answer_start": 640, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/caliphate"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fatima", "label": "Fatima"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:banu-tamim", "label": "Banu Tamim"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:banu-hashim", "label": "Banu Hashim"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:saqifa-of-banu-saida", "label": "the Saqifa of Banu Sa'ida"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:6830", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 6830 (Umar's speech: the pledge to Abu Bakr was a falta; do not repeat it without consultation)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shura", "label": "shura"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe it was known among the companions that the leaders would always be from Quraysh.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "There's a a popular understanding that the leaders will always be from Quraysh and somehow the companions all knew this. I don't buy any of that. I don't believe that was known", "start": 669}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/4/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/5", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S05", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 5, "start": 900, "end": 1293, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Uthman's caliphate: an empire doubled, and governors from his own clan", "question_plain": "Why did Uthman appoint his relatives as governors?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives what he calls his personal assessment: Umar's era became an icon everyone wished for, because he ruled unquestioned, with an iron fist that worked, as Islam spread into the Sasanid and Byzantine lands, Jerusalem and Egypt. Under Uthman, he says, everything doubled and he lacked Umar's personality to rule that way. He illustrates the strain with running a household, then the households of one's siblings, cousins and a whole street of strangers of other languages and religions, noting that Uthman's realm now reached non-Arab lands across North Africa. Uthman therefore relied on his own family, as people today rely on friends, since in the West friends are the new family, placing relatives over Egypt and parts of Africa. Uthman being of Banu Umayya, with Muawiya already governor in Damascus, the old rivalry rose again and complaints followed, which Mufti says must each be judged on their merits.", "summary_short": "In Mufti Abu Layth's assessment, Uthman lacked Umar's iron fist for an empire that had doubled, so he relied on his own Umayyad relatives as governors, reviving the old clan rivalry.", "answer_start": 900, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "Banu Umayya"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:sasanians", "label": "the Sasanians"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:byzantine-empire", "label": "the Byzantine Empire"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says, as his personal assessment, that Uthman did not have the personality Umar had to rule with an iron fist once everything had doubled.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "And you see when Uthman comes in things double. Now everything is so huge and he doesn't have that personality that Omar had to kind of rule with a like an iron fist.", "start": 953}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/5/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/6", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S06", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 6, "start": 1293, "end": 1458, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ali's caliphate, the Umayyad governors, and the civil war to Siffin", "question_plain": "Why did the Muslims fight each other at Siffin?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that after the murder of Uthman the rebels pledged allegiance to Ali, who first declined and then accepted. He says Ali found that the governors everywhere, in Damascus, Egypt, Africa, Iraq and Yemen, were of Banu Umayya, who demanded that Uthman's murder be dealt with, and that his attempt to remove them was taken as an open declaration of hostility, setting the old rivalry alight. Civil war followed, including the battle between Ali and Aisha, which he says had nothing to do with the clans, and then the intense battle of Siffin against Muawiya, which he calls a point of no return after which the Muslims became forever divided. He describes the arbitration that went wrong, proposing to remove everyone from power, and Ali's martyrdom before it could meet again.", "summary_short": "When Ali tried to remove Uthman's Umayyad governors the old rivalry flared into civil war, and Mufti Abu Layth calls Siffin the point of no return that left Muslims forever divided.", "answer_start": 1293, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:assassination-of-uthman", "label": "assassination of Uthman"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "Banu Umayya"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:banu-hashim", "label": "Banu Hashim"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-the-camel", "label": "the battle of the Camel"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-siffin", "label": "the battle of Siffin"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the battle of Siffin was a point of no return for Muslim history, after which the Muslims became forever divided.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "And it ends up with a kind of um it is a point of no return for Muslim history. Because here you the Muslims become forever divided.", "start": 1405}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/6/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/7", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S07", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 7, "start": 1458, "end": 1660, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hasan ibn Ali: the wisest of the three, and the truce with Muawiya", "question_plain": "Why did Hasan ibn Ali give up the caliphate to Muawiya?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says, aware it may seem controversial, that of Ali and his two sons he feels Hasan was the wisest, with more insight than his father, while stressing that Ali was unquestionably one of the most amazing people of the Ummah. He says Hasan's approach was always diplomacy, how to avoid the most harm for the greatest number, and that at Siffin he told his father that fighting was a huge mistake, though he stayed loyal and fought with him, because war is always wrong. He cites the hadith that this son of the Prophet would bring two great factions of the Ummah together, and says Hasan did so by handing rule to Muawiya for the sake of peace and unity. Things then stabilised for a couple of decades, he says, but Banu Umayya were once again entrenched in power.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth feels Hasan was the wisest of Ali's family, a diplomat who opposed fighting at Siffin and handed power to Muawiya for peace, fulfilling the hadith on reconciling two factions.", "answer_start": 1458, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/companions", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:hasan-ibn-ali", "label": "Hasan ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-siffin", "label": "the battle of Siffin"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ef524ec4", "label": "report: this son of mine will bring two great factions together"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that of Ali and his two sons Hasan was the wisest, with more insight than his father Ali.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "out of Ali and his two sons Hassan and Hussein, I feel that Hassan out of all three was the most wisest.", "start": 1458}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/7/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/8", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S08", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 8, "start": 1660, "end": 1783, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Muawiya's rule: stability, expansion and Sasanid administration", "question_plain": "Was Muawiya a good ruler?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that under Muawiya's rule things were very stable, with renewed expansion and an improving economy. He says there are many records of Muawiya asking former Sasanid imperial administrators how they raised revenue, and adopting their contracts on land and produce, including fiefdoms whose holders gave a share of the produce, a style of contract the Arabs had not known. At the same time, he says, Banu Umayya were consolidated and cemented in power, carrying a sense from before Islam that they were the real chiefs.", "summary_short": "Under Muawiya there was stability, expansion and economic growth, helped by Sasanid revenue methods, but Banu Umayya's hold on power was cemented.", "answer_start": 1660, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/umayyads-and-abbasids", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:sasanians", "label": "the Sasanians"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "Banu Umayya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that under Muawiya's rule things were actually very stable, with renewed expansion and an improving economy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "But, on on the flip side of the coin in under Muawiyah's rule things were actually very stable. And there's once again expansion. There's there's the economy improves for Muslims.", "start": 1660}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/8/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/9", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S09", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 9, "start": 1783, "end": 1924, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Muawiya names Yazid as heir, and the political adoption of Ziyad", "question_plain": "Why did Muawiya make Yazid his heir?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that as Muawiya approached death he set up his son Yazid as heir, although great companions were still alive, among them Abdullah ibn Umar, Abdullah ibn Abbas, Husayn and Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, none of them of Banu Umayya. He says he feels Muawiya must have believed that in the end it was Banu Umayya who called the shots, given their air of authority. Before that, he says, Muawiya brought in and consolidated members of his clan, among them Ziyad, an alleged son of Abu Sufyan never recognised in his lifetime, a formidable warrior from Ali's army who was captured and then declared Muawiya's brother, which he feels was a political move.", "summary_short": "Muawiya named Yazid heir while senior companions lived, and Mufti Abu Layth feels his recognition of Ziyad as Abu Sufyan's son was a political move.", "answer_start": 1783, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/umayyads-and-abbasids", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yazid-ibn-muawiya", "label": "Yazid ibn Mu'awiya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ziyad-ibn-abihi", "label": "Ziyad (ibn Abihi)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-sufyan", "label": "Abu Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Abdullah ibn Umar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "Banu Umayya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that the recognition of Ziyad as Abu Sufyan's son was a political move.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "And then somebody tells him that, you know, he's the alleged son of Abu Sufyan. He's your alleged brother. But really, I feel that this was a political move.", "start": 1896}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/9/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/10", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S10", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 10, "start": 1924, "end": 2111, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why he admires Muawiya: ruling is not about piety", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth admire Muawiya?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people ask why he admires Muawiya, and that he does, because Muawiya knew how to handle people and play the game. He says politics and piety do not mix: Umar's iconic age was in his understanding an exception, never the rule, which many pious people mistook for the norm, whereas rulers usually have to be astute and diplomatic and win hearts and minds. He quotes Muawiya's saying that between him and the people is a fine hair which he eases when they pull and pulls when they ease, and describes him playing good cop to Amr ibn al-As's bad cop. He concludes that, unfortunately, this is how politics works: it is about how one manages people, not how much one fasts and prays.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth admires Muawiya for knowing how to handle people, saying ruling is a matter of political skill rather than piety, and that Umar's era was the exception.", "answer_start": 1924, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/umayyads-and-abbasids", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:amr-ibn-al-as", "label": "Amr ibn al-As"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he admires Muawiya because he feels Muawiya knew how to handle people.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "You know, one thing people ask me, why do you admire Muawiyah on? I do I won't lie. I do admire Muawiyah on. I admire him because I feel that he knew how to handle people.", "start": 1924}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/10/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/11", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S11", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 11, "start": 2111, "end": 2451, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Yazid: Muawiya's grave mistake, the attack on Madinah and Ibn Ziyad in Kufa", "question_plain": "What kind of ruler was Yazid?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muawiya's ultimate grave mistake was placing Yazid as his heir, calling Yazid a disappointment and the opposite of his father, though he rejects as nonsense the claim that he was secretly a disbeliever and believes he was a Muslim. He says Yazid felt the rule was simply his due and saw himself in the line of the pre-Islamic Arab kings of the region, the Lakhmids and Ghassanids, and wanted to rule with an iron fist. Muawiya, he says, told Yazid he had handed him rule on a plate, with only five men of Quraysh yet to pledge, Abdullah ibn Umar, Abdullah ibn Abbas, Husayn, Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr and Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, yet Yazid made a mess of it, attacking Madinah in the event of al-Harrah for withholding its pledge. In Kufa he replaced the governor Nu'man ibn Bashir, a companion sympathetic to those who would not pledge, with Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, a tyrant whom Yazid personally disliked and mocked as a false claimant to the clan but appointed because he would keep Kufa under control.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls Muawiya's choice of Yazid a grave mistake: Yazid was a Muslim but a disappointment who attacked Madinah and installed the tyrant Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad in Kufa.", "answer_start": 2111, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/umayyads-and-abbasids", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:yazid-ibn-muawiya", "label": "Yazid ibn Mu'awiya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Abdullah ibn Umar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abd-al-rahman-ibn-abi-bakr", "label": "Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:numan-ibn-bashir", "label": "Nu'man ibn Bashir"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubaydullah-ibn-ziyad", "label": "Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:lakhmids", "label": "the Lakhmids"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ghassanids", "label": "the Ghassanids"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-al-harrah", "label": "the event of al-Harrah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bayah", "label": "bay'ah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels Muawiya's ultimate grave mistake was placing Yazid as his heir.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "But what I feel an ultimate grave mistake of Muawiyah on was placing Yazid as his heir.", "start": 2111}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/11/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/12", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S12", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 12, "start": 2451, "end": 2710, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Letters from Kufa, the resistance in the Hijaz, and warnings to Husayn", "question_plain": "Why did Husayn go to Kufa when he was warned not to?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in Kufa thousands of the political Shia of Ali were writing to Husayn to come and receive their allegiance, disappointed with Yazid. He repeats that he does not agree Yazid was a kafir, but accepts most people would have seen him at the very least as a disappointment, and as one who did grave damage by attacking the city of the Prophet. In the Hijaz, he says, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr had died, Abdullah ibn Umar and Abdullah ibn Abbas pledged to Yazid to avoid bloodshed, and Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr and Husayn resisted, Ibn al-Zubayr making Makkah his base and winning hearts among Arabians who felt the home cities of Islam had lost their prominence. Husayn's relatives, including his brother, warned him not to go to Iraq, and Ibn Abbas advised him to go to Yemen, whose people had been loyal to his father, rather than to the wavering people of Iraq; but he went, sending his cousin Muslim ibn Aqil ahead.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Husayn was invited by thousands in Kufa but warned by his relatives and Ibn Abbas, who urged Yemen instead, while Ibn al-Zubayr resisted Yazid from Makkah.", "answer_start": 2451, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yazid-ibn-muawiya", "label": "Yazid ibn Mu'awiya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Abdullah ibn Umar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abd-al-rahman-ibn-abi-bakr", "label": "Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muslim-ibn-aqil", "label": "Muslim ibn Aqil"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe Yazid was a kafir, but accepts that most people would have seen him at the very least as a disappointment.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "certain things that people say about him being a kafir. I don't believe I don't agree with that, but I do accept that most people would have clearly seen him at the very least as a disappointment", "start": 2477}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/12/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/13", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S13", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 13, "start": 2710, "end": 3020, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The tragedy unfolds: Muslim ibn Aqil's death, the interception and the burned camp", "question_plain": "Why did the army at Karbala not let Husayn go back?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslim ibn Aqil could not send word back in time and was caught and killed on Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad's orders, betrayed by the Shia of Kufa, after being tortured and thrown from a building, as was Hani, who sheltered him, and other sympathisers. He tells of the poet al-Farazdaq meeting Husayn on the road and telling him that the people of Iraq had their hearts with him but their swords against him. Ibn Ziyad sent Umar ibn Sa'd to intercept Husayn, and at Karbala nearly all the men were martyred. He says Sunni sources report negotiations, Husayn asking to withdraw or to be taken to Yazid, and that Husayn recognised in the force men of clans that had petitioned him; he feels there may be truth in that, since they would then fear execution for treason if he reached Yazid. He says this fits reports that they burned the camps, though they did not attack the women, perhaps because Husayn carried the signed petitions with him.", "summary_short": "After Muslim ibn Aqil was killed, Husayn's party was intercepted and the men martyred; Mufti Abu Layth thinks the army may have refused to let him go because some of its own clans had invited him.", "answer_start": 2710, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:karbala", "label": "Karbala"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muslim-ibn-aqil", "label": "Muslim ibn Aqil"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hani-ibn-urwa", "label": "Hani (ibn Urwa)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-farazdaq", "label": "al-Farazdaq"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubaydullah-ibn-ziyad", "label": "Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-sad", "label": "Umar ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yazid-ibn-muawiya", "label": "Yazid ibn Mu'awiya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels there may be some truth to the Sunni reports that Husayn recognised in the army men of clans that had petitioned him to come.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "are you guys not part of the petitioners who petitioned me to come?\" And he calls out and he announces this. Now, I feel that there may be some truth to that.", "start": 2910}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/13/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/14", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S14", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 14, "start": 3020, "end": 3295, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Which Karbala stories to doubt: the water, the details, and Yazid's role", "question_plain": "Are the stories that Husayn's family was denied water at Karbala true?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the burning of the camps makes sense to him, but that much of the precise detail of the martyrdom, such as what a particular arrow did, is probably not authentic. He says he is personally not convinced that Husayn's party and the babies were denied water, given how battles were then conducted, and thinks such stories may come more from Shia narrations. The tragedy itself, he says, is unquestionable, and he puts it down mainly to the men there fearing that letting Husayn go would come back to bite them. In his opinion Yazid would not have wanted Husayn killed, though he does not think he was bothered by it, and he dismisses as fabrications the claims that Yazid planned revenge for his ancestors and recited a poem denying revelation. He accepts the Sunni report that Yazid said he would never have done this had Husayn come to him, says he was ambivalent, and describes Yazid keeping the women in his palace for three days before sending them off by caravan.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth doubts many details of the Karbala story, including the denial of water, and thinks Yazid did not want Husayn killed but was not troubled that it happened.", "answer_start": 3020, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:karbala", "label": "Karbala"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yazid-ibn-muawiya", "label": "Yazid ibn Mu'awiya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is personally not convinced that Husayn's party and the babies were denied water.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "there's a story they denied uh some of the babies water and they denied this I don't feel that that's uh personally I'm not convinced that that happened", "start": 3098}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/14/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/15", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S15", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 15, "start": 3295, "end": 3411, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Should the death of Husayn be mourned every year?", "question_plain": "Should Muslims mourn Husayn every year on Ashura?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the anniversary of Husayn's death should be commemorated and says he does not personally do so. He says that in his opinion holding days of mourning or matam every tenth of Muharram is not an Islamic practice, but that he does not condemn people who choose to do it. He says all Muslims acknowledge it was a huge tragedy, but he does not feel it needs to be mourned every year or ritualised as the Shia have done; if they want to, he says, it is a free world and that is their take on Islam.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth does not see annual mourning for Husayn as an Islamic practice and does not do it, but he does not condemn those who do.", "answer_start": 3295, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:matam", "label": "matam (ritual mourning)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashura", "label": "Ashura (the tenth of Muharram)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his opinion ritual annual mourning for Husayn is not an Islamic practice, though he does not condemn people who choose to do it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't feel it's in my opinion it's not a um an Islamic practice but people who do do it I wouldn't personally I don't personally condemn them I don't condemn people who choose to do it", "start": 3334}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/15/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/16", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S16", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 16, "start": 3411, "end": 3600, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does he absolve Yazid? A tyrant, but not a kafir, and not to be cursed", "question_plain": "Was Yazid a kafir, and is it right to curse him?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a viewer's question asking whether he absolves Yazid. He says he does not: he feels Yazid was wretched in what he did, an utter disappointment, a tyrant and arrogant, believing rule belonged to his tribe, and cites coins dating his reign from year one rather than the Prophet's hijrah, adding that dressing a donkey in a designer suit does not change what it is. He says he does not go to the extreme of calling Yazid a kafir and does not curse him or encourage others to, because he does not believe in a culture of cursing; he notes that some scholars such as Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal held cursing him permissible, while Abu Hanifa disagreed and Imam Malik generally did not curse. On a further question whether he accepts that Yazid would not personally have killed Husayn had he reached him, he says it is hypothetical but he can believe it, though he thinks Yazid had no remorse; Yazid died shortly afterwards.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth calls Yazid a wretched, arrogant tyrant, but he does not call him a kafir or curse him, since he rejects a culture of cursing. He can believe Yazid would not have killed Husayn himself.", "answer_start": 3411, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["history/umayyads-and-abbasids", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:yazid-ibn-muawiya", "label": "Yazid ibn Mu'awiya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijrah", "label": "hijrah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not curse Yazid or encourage people to curse him, because he does not believe in a culture of cursing.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't believe he was a kafir and I don't I don't curse him I don't encourage people to curse him I but that's generally I don't believe in a culture of cursing", "start": 3493}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/16/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/17", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S17", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 17, "start": 3600, "end": 3713, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Who was to blame for Karbala: the Shia who invited Husayn, Ibn Ziyad, then Yazid", "question_plain": "Who was really responsible for the killing of Husayn at Karbala?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels responsibility for Karbala was collective, a joint venture, but that in order the real culprits were the Shia of Ali who invited Husayn, whose part he says was later forgotten, and who were indirectly responsible for the deaths. Second he puts Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, the main active element from the side of rule, and third Yazid, the passive element. He adds that had Husayn not gone and instead stayed with Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, they might have established something powerful that changed history, but that it was what it was.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth blames first the Shia who invited Husayn, then Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad as the active agent, and Yazid as the passive one.", "answer_start": 3600, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:karbala", "label": "Karbala"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubaydullah-ibn-ziyad", "label": "Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yazid-ibn-muawiya", "label": "Yazid ibn Mu'awiya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels responsibility for Karbala was shared, but that in order the real culprits were first the Shia who invited Husayn, then Ibn Ziyad as the active element, and Yazid as the passive element.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel the real culprits were seriously were the Shia that invited Hussein. I feel that they were the real culprits who who were kind of like ignored later on.", "start": 3622}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/17/"}, {"id": "iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/18", "short_id": "2020-10-16-S18", "recording": "iaBL5ViS3Rg", "n": 18, "start": 3713, "end": 3843, "date": "20201016", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Against cursing the companions and self-flagellation in Husayn's name", "question_plain": "Is it right to curse the companions or beat oneself in mourning for Husayn?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if it was destiny, it was what it was, and repeats that he does not agree with commemorating Husayn's death by mourning. He says he strongly condemns using the mourning of Husayn as an excuse to curse the companions and push a sectarian agenda, which he feels is a disservice to Husayn, who never cursed them in his lifetime. He calls the practice of beating oneself ignorance, noting that many Shia authorities, among them Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei, have condemned it or considered it haram while others support it, and says it gives a horrid picture of Islam and avails nothing. He closes that the affair belongs to Allah before and after.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth condemns using Husayn's mourning to curse the companions, a disservice to Husayn, and calls self-flagellation ignorance that many Shia authorities also reject.", "answer_start": 3713, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:matam", "label": "matam (ritual mourning)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ruhollah-khomeini", "label": "Ayatollah Khomeini"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ali-khamenei", "label": "Ayatollah Khamenei"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:marja", "label": "marja' (Shia religious authority)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he condemns using the mourning of Husayn as an excuse to curse the companions, which he feels is a disservice to Husayn.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I condemn if people are using the mourning of Hussein as an excuse to curse and to push an agenda of like let's say Shia Islam to say well, let's curse all the companions", "start": 3713}}, "url": "/r/iaBL5ViS3Rg/s/18/"}, {"id": "j6pXWGpnWd0/s/1", "short_id": "2019-08-04-S01", "recording": "j6pXWGpnWd0", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 384, "date": "20190804", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mohammed Hijab's liberalism lecture argues like a sectarian polemic", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to a university lecture by Mohammed Hijab on liberalism, which people had sent him and which claimed liberalism is baseless. He says the lecture seemed aimed at a Muslim audience and that, since Mohammed Hijab is intelligent, he is unsure whether he has not grasped the concept or is deliberately arguing to win points, but calls it a very poor job. He explains that the lecture argues against liberalism the way Muslims conduct sectarian debates: finding a figure the opponent supposedly reveres, such as Abu Hanifa, Ibn Taymiyya, Imam Malik or a Shia ayatollah, and quoting him to corner the opponent through compelling authority. He says this tactic makes no sense outside religion, where people do not feel bound by allegiance to such figures.", "summary_short": null, "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sufi", "label": "Sufi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:raf-al-yadayn", "label": "raf' al-yadayn (raising the hands in prayer)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/j6pXWGpnWd0/s/1/"}, {"id": "j6pXWGpnWd0/s/2", "short_id": "2019-08-04-S02", "recording": "j6pXWGpnWd0", "n": 2, "start": 384, "end": 763, "date": "20190804", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Liberalism is a stance against authoritarianism, not allegiance to Locke", "question_plain": "What is liberalism, and do liberals have to follow John Locke?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says liberalism is, in essence, simply a stance or sentiment against authoritarianism. He says Mohammed Hijab spent much of the lecture on historical figures such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Rousseau, arguing that they were Christians who grounded rights in God, and that the term human rights barely existed before the United Nations charter of the 1940s, so a liberal who rejects their religion is a hypocrite. He calls this the worst kind of reasoning he has seen outside religion, since holding a view against authoritarianism that Locke also held does not make one a Christian, nor bind one to all of Kantian philosophy. He calls this a fallacy that people like Mohammed Hijab often resort to with non-Muslims.", "summary_short": "Liberalism is essentially a stance against authoritarianism, not allegiance to historical philosophers. Agreeing with Locke on one point does not make anyone a Christian or bind them to his whole philosophy.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:john-locke", "label": "John Locke"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:thomas-hobbes", "label": "Thomas Hobbes"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jean-jacques-rousseau", "label": "Jean-Jacques Rousseau"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:united-nations", "label": "United Nations"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:immanuel-kant", "label": "Immanuel Kant"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says liberalism is, in essence, simply a stance against authoritarianism.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "liberalism is simply a stance against authoritarianism that's all it is in essence", "start": 421}}, "url": "/r/j6pXWGpnWd0/s/2/"}, {"id": "j6pXWGpnWd0/s/3", "short_id": "2019-08-04-S03", "recording": "j6pXWGpnWd0", "n": 3, "start": 763, "end": 1142, "date": "20190804", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Leave LGBTQ people alone; homosexuality is not 'unnatural'", "question_plain": "Should Muslims campaign against LGBTQ people, and is homosexuality unnatural?", "summary": "Responding to the lecture's claim that homosexuality is unnatural, Mufti Abu Layth says he feels Muslims should leave LGBTQ people alone and let them live their lives: this is not a fight Muslims will win, since the LGBTQ community is at the centre of today's civil rights movement and has won the culture wars, and the stubborn resistance will deface Islam. He also says Muslims should stop calling homosexuality unnatural, which he says is inaccurate because most species are bisexual and it is heavily found in nature. Against Mohammed Hijab's comparison with incest, he cites studies on genetic sexual attraction and the Westermarck effect, which he says Jared Diamond discusses in The Third Chimpanzee, showing that animals prefer mates resembling their siblings but avoid actual siblings, so incest, unlike homosexuality, is generally not found in nature.", "summary_short": "Muslims should leave LGBTQ people alone, since fighting them will only deface Islam. Calling homosexuality unnatural is inaccurate, as it is widely found in nature, unlike incest.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jared-diamond", "label": "Jared Diamond"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-third-chimpanzee", "label": "The Third Chimpanzee"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels Muslims should really leave LGBTQ people alone and let them be.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel that we as Muslims should really leave the LGBTQ people alone", "start": 801}}, "url": "/r/j6pXWGpnWd0/s/3/"}, {"id": "j6pXWGpnWd0/s/4", "short_id": "2019-08-04-S04", "recording": "j6pXWGpnWd0", "n": 4, "start": 1142, "end": 1486, "date": "20190804", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Can humans have morality without scripture?", "question_plain": "Can people be moral without religion?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the lecture over-relies on removing human agency by claiming that without religion there would be no morality. He accepts that most laws, such as English common law, have a Judeo-Christian heritage, but says humans would know killing is wrong without scripture, noting that primates such as chimpanzees have a basic sense of justice, and that the commandment 'thou shalt not kill' came to reinforce what people already knew. He says largely secular European societies have arrived at ethics without God that, though not perfect, seem more ethical than the Muslim world, giving his own embarrassment that he would trust a non-Muslim car seller over a Muslim one and saying Muslim countries are heavily corrupt. He says he strongly disagrees with deriding the idea that people could reach ethics without scripture.", "summary_short": "Yes: humans know that killing is wrong without scripture, which came to reinforce it, and secular European societies have reached ethics without God. He strongly disagrees with deriding that.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says human beings knew killing was wrong without scripture, and the commandment came only to reinforce it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "of course they knew that to kill was wrong the commandment simply came as a reinforcement", "start": 1297}}, "url": "/r/j6pXWGpnWd0/s/4/"}, {"id": "j6pXWGpnWd0/s/5", "short_id": "2019-08-04-S05", "recording": "j6pXWGpnWd0", "n": 5, "start": 1486, "end": 1792, "date": "20190804", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Ethics evolve: slavery, human agency and the genetic fallacy", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that if ethics do not develop over time and only seventh-century ethics count, one would have to say slavery is fine, since the Quran acknowledged its ubiquity without abolishing it at the time, which he calls ridiculous. He says people hold liberal attitudes without having read Locke or Rousseau, being capable agents, not automatons. By the lecture's logic, he says, everything in Islam first championed by others would belong to them, as Socrates and Plato spoke of God and the soul first, which he calls an infantilising theory. He gives his own opposition to capital punishment, shared by most people in Europe, as an example of a view held without allegiance to Rousseau, Locke, Bentham or Bertrand Russell.", "summary_short": null, "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:john-locke", "label": "John Locke"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jean-jacques-rousseau", "label": "Jean-Jacques Rousseau"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:socrates", "label": "Socrates"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:plato", "label": "Plato"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aristotle", "label": "Aristotle"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jeremy-bentham", "label": "Jeremy Bentham"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:bertrand-russell", "label": "Bertrand Russell"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that human beings are very capable agents who construct their worldview as they go along, not people who adopt views because they read philosophers.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "human beings we are very capable agents we are constructing our worldview as we going along", "start": 1679}}, "url": "/r/j6pXWGpnWd0/s/5/"}, {"id": "j6pXWGpnWd0/s/6", "short_id": "2019-08-04-S06", "recording": "j6pXWGpnWd0", "n": 6, "start": 1792, "end": 2237, "date": "20190804", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Apostasy as treason, and why he opposes capital punishment", "question_plain": "Is capital punishment, including for apostasy, justified?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Mohammed Hijab seemed hesitant on apostasy and has probably moved on from the Salafi-Wahhabi view that apostates should be killed, taking instead the stance that apostasy is treason; he agrees many later scholars saw it as treason, but reminds him that his favourite scholars, such as Ibn Taymiyya [?] and Ibn al-Qayyim, and the overwhelming majority of past ulama said to kill the apostate, and says he likes that Mohammed Hijab has jumped ship in light of reason. He rejects the lecture's appeal to the American Constitution's allowance of the death penalty, since an opponent of capital punishment owes no allegiance to any constitution. Asked what he has against capital punishment, he says he finds it ironic and absurd to kill people to stop people killing, likening it to smashing a window to stop window-breaking, and points to Europe, where its absence has not led to chaos. He calls justifying the killing of people for changing faith by treason a stupid argument, while respecting Mohammed Hijab's move.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth opposes capital punishment as absurd, killing to stop killing, and calls justifying death for apostasy as treason a stupid argument. He welcomes Mohammed Hijab's apparent move away from the classical ruling to kill apostates.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riddah", "label": "riddah (apostasy)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qayyim", "label": "Ibn al-Qayyim [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he finds it ironic and absurd that, to stop people from killing, the state kills people.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I find that so ironic that to stop people from killing people we kill people", "start": 2089}}, "url": "/r/j6pXWGpnWd0/s/6/"}, {"id": "j6pXWGpnWd0/s/7", "short_id": "2019-08-04-S07", "recording": "j6pXWGpnWd0", "n": 7, "start": 2237, "end": 2605, "date": "20190804", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "'Islam gave these rights first' and blinding people with jargon", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth addresses the lecture's point that Islam gave rights such as voting 1,400 years before the suffragettes, saying that is fine to mention but people alive in 2019 will ask why Muslim rulings are still backward today, so it is nothing to gloat about. He criticises dropping philosophical names and terms that impress those who do not know them but make Muslims look weaker to those who do, as some did in arguments for God, and parodies such jargon. He says a real discussion would define liberalism and admit that some fascist versions of it exist and can be dangerous, but that liberalism is an attitude against imposed authority, not a separate religion. He concludes that the lecture was a straw man resting on Locke, Hobbes and Kant, and hopes Mohammed Hijab might reflect on it.", "summary_short": null, "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:john-locke", "label": "John Locke"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:thomas-hobbes", "label": "Thomas Hobbes"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:immanuel-kant", "label": "Immanuel Kant"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that throwing in impressive philosophical jargon makes Muslims look much weaker to those who know and to non-Muslims.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it makes you look much weaker than you actually are", "start": 2391}}, "url": "/r/j6pXWGpnWd0/s/7/"}, {"id": "jp8GjvVONMs/s/1", "short_id": "2018-04-22-S01", "recording": "jp8GjvVONMs", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 571, "date": "20180422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can a woman travel without a mahram? The ruling and the narrations", "question_plain": "Can a woman travel without a mahram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes a question on women travelling without a mahram, explaining that a mahram is a male relative she could not marry, and mentions in passing his separate video saying it is absurd that a man becomes a woman's mahram by drinking her milk. He gives the ruling first: of course a woman can travel in Islam without a guardian, and the ruling was simply about safety. Mufti says the issue arises from reports of four companions, Ibn Umar, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, Abu Hurayra and Ibn Abbas, which scholars understood to concern journeys, not going to the streets or markets. He goes through the versions in al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud and the Musnad of Ahmad, which vary between three days, three nights, more than three days, two days, one day and a night, and one night, and notes that Ibn Abbas's version gives no time span and ends with a man told to leave a military expedition and join his wife on Hajj. Mufti says most scholars of the past held that a woman cannot go on a journey unaccompanied, based on these reports.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says a woman can travel without a mahram, since the ruling was about safety. The reports behind it disagree on how long a journey they mean.", "answer_start": 72, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "society/women-and-gender", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mahram", "label": "mahram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rada", "label": "rada' (breastfeeding)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:43b54f5f", "label": "report: a woman may not travel except with a mahram (Ibn Umar, Abu Hurayra, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, Ibn Abbas; numbers not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-said-al-khudri", "label": "Abu Sa'id al-Khudri"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that of course a woman can travel without a mahram, the ruling having been simply about safety.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "yes of course a woman can travel in Islam without a guardian I'm explaining that first of all so I'm gonna give you the ruling first of all of course she can and this ruling was simply about safety", "start": 71}}, "url": "/r/jp8GjvVONMs/s/1/"}, {"id": "jp8GjvVONMs/s/2", "short_id": "2018-04-22-S02", "recording": "jp8GjvVONMs", "n": 2, "start": 571, "end": 723, "date": "20180422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hajj without a mahram: the classical views", "question_plain": "Can a woman go on Hajj without a mahram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the issue then arose of a woman obliged to perform Hajj, as the Quran instructs, who has no guardian to go with her, and that scholars disagreed widely. He reports that some of the salaf such as Ibn Sirin [?], and al-Shafi'i and his school, said she can go in a group of women, while Imam Malik had a very open view that she can go with any safe company, men or not. Mufti cites a Maliki commentator on Sahih al-Bukhari from al-Andalus, over a thousand years ago, saying the majority of scholars held this, and a report that Ibn Umar performed Hajj accompanied by women who were his neighbours. He reports that Abu Hanifa required a mahram only for a journey of more than three days, such as Hajj, and that the Hanbalis seem to have gone along with that.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reports that al-Shafi'i allowed a woman to go with a group of women and Imam Malik with any safe company, while Abu Hanifa required a mahram for journeys over three days.", "answer_start": 571, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/hajj-and-umrah", "fiqh/gender-interaction", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:97", "label": "Quran 3:97 (pilgrimage to the House is a duty owed to Allah by people)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hajj", "label": "Hajj"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-sirin", "label": "Ibn Sirin [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-umar", "label": "Ibn Umar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/jp8GjvVONMs/s/2/"}, {"id": "jp8GjvVONMs/s/3", "short_id": "2018-04-22-S03", "recording": "jp8GjvVONMs", "n": 3, "start": 723, "end": 945, "date": "20180422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The kidnapped woman's escape: Ibn al-Humam and thinking within one's age", "question_plain": "Must a kidnapped woman have a mahram to escape?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says some scholars even problematised the case of a woman kidnapped or converted in a hostile land who has the chance to run away without a guardian. He reports Kamal al-Din ibn al-Humam's way out, that she must still flee because in Arabic this is called an escape, not a journey, and mocks the need to justify it at all, saying she should simply run. Mufti says that when people say all the past scholars missed an issue, one must understand that they did not always think as we do but within their own environment. He suggests Ibn al-Humam strained to justify it because of the notorious control of the Hanafi school, noting that Ibn al-Humam disagreed with it on some issues, faced heavy criticism and was disowned by his own student.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth ridicules the classical debate over whether a captive woman may flee without a mahram, saying past scholars reasoned within their own environment.", "answer_start": 723, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-humam", "label": "Kamal al-Din ibn al-Humam"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says scholars of the past did not always think the way we do, but were thinking within their own environment.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you've got to understand that they didn't always think the way we think we are thinking within our own environment they were thinking within their own environment", "start": 866}}, "url": "/r/jp8GjvVONMs/s/3/"}, {"id": "jp8GjvVONMs/s/4", "short_id": "2018-04-22-S04", "recording": "jp8GjvVONMs", "n": 4, "start": 945, "end": 1178, "date": "20180422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "From Abu Hanifa's three days to the 48-mile rule", "question_plain": "Is it haram for a woman to travel more than 48 miles alone?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa was actually trying to make life easy for the women of his time, since most scholars held she could not travel on any journey, so he took the longest span, three days and nights, allowing shorter journeys unaccompanied. He says his school later did something else: Ibn Abidin [?], building on others, adopted one day and one night instead and converted it into 48 miles, making a woman Islamically incapable of travelling that far. Mufti says this is now taught in the UK, citing 2016 newspaper reports that a Muslim association in Blackburn had advised that it is impermissible for a woman to travel 48 miles. He mocks the idea that 47 miles is permitted but the final step is haram, calling it absurd and a mockery of the religion.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth calls the 48-mile rule absurd, a later Hanafi hardening of Abu Hanifa's three-day limit, which was itself meant to ease things for women.", "answer_start": 945, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abidin", "label": "Ibn Abidin [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says forbidding a woman to travel 48 miles is absurd and makes a mockery of the religion.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "know that final step that's gonna make it 48 miles that's one small step for a woman one giant leap this is absurd this is ridiculous this one is making mockery of the religion", "start": 1141}}, "url": "/r/jp8GjvVONMs/s/4/"}, {"id": "jp8GjvVONMs/s/5", "short_id": "2018-04-22-S05", "recording": "jp8GjvVONMs", "n": 5, "start": 1178, "end": 1381, "date": "20180422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Saudi fatwas: no journey at all without a mahram", "question_plain": "What do Saudi scholars say about women travelling without a mahram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Saudi Salafis go further than the Hanafis, reading out a fatwa of the Saudi board of fatwa that a woman's journey without a mahram is haram whether long or short. He jokes about the name of Shaykh Ibn Baz, then prays for mercy on him, and relates that Ibn Baz was asked by a Saudi female teacher whether staff could take the school bus to deliver sessions in neighbouring localities, and said no, it is haram because it goes against the hadith of the Prophet. Mufti says he does not think Ibn Baz allowed women to travel without a guardian generally, and says he will come to what is really going on.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reports the Saudi fatwa board and Ibn Baz forbidding any journey without a mahram, even a short staff bus trip, and mocks the strictness.", "answer_start": 1178, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:saudi-permanent-committee-for-fatwa", "label": "the Saudi board of fatwa (al-Lajna al-Da'ima) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-baz", "label": "Ibn Baz"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/jp8GjvVONMs/s/5/"}, {"id": "jp8GjvVONMs/s/6", "short_id": "2018-04-22-S06", "recording": "jp8GjvVONMs", "n": 6, "start": 1381, "end": 1648, "date": "20180422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why the Prophet limited women's travel: safety in a hostile Arabia", "question_plain": "Why did the Prophet say women should not travel without a mahram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet was not setting boundaries to confine women, and anyone who thinks so has a poor opinion of him; he was trying to safeguard them. He describes the hostilities the Muslims of Madinah faced from neighbouring tribes and the coalition, and the clause of the treaty of Hudaybiyya under which men who came over would be returned but not women, which infuriated Quraysh and others who were eager for a chance to seize the women. Mufti says that as treaties spread, Khaybar was settled and most of Arabia came under Islam, the safe zone widened, which explains why the reports move from one day to two, three and more than three days. He says men were targets too, but women were softer targets.", "summary_short": "For their safety: Mufti Abu Layth says the limits tracked how far the safe zone around Madinah reached, widening as treaties spread, not a rule to confine women.", "answer_start": 1381, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "history/sirah", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:43b54f5f", "label": "report: a woman may not travel except with a mahram (Ibn Umar, Abu Hurayra, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, Ibn Abbas; numbers not stated)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:treaty-of-hudaybiyya", "label": "the treaty of Hudaybiyya"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-the-trench", "label": "the coalition against Madinah (al-Ahzab)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-khaybar", "label": "Khaybar"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet was not setting boundaries to confine women in these hadith but was trying to safeguard them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "these hadith were the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam not trying to set boundaries to confine women at all and anybody who thinks that anybody who thinks that has a poor", "start": 1381}}, "url": "/r/jp8GjvVONMs/s/6/"}, {"id": "jp8GjvVONMs/s/7", "short_id": "2018-04-22-S07", "recording": "jp8GjvVONMs", "n": 7, "start": 1648, "end": 1839, "date": "20180422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The prophecy to Adi ibn Hatim: a woman travelling alone from al-Hira", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet foresee women travelling alone safely?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites a hadith in al-Bukhari in which the Prophet told Adi ibn Hatim that if he lived long he would see a woman travel alone from al-Hira, in Iraq, to Makkah and perform tawaf fearing none but Allah. Adi wondered how she could pass the raiding tribes, yet said that in his old age he saw it happen, so much stability had come to the region. Mufti calls these amazing hadith that people have turned a blind eye to. He says some Saudi scholars, whom he names only in garbled form, have themselves rejected the claim that a woman cannot travel alone, and that another has a fatwa on a woman travelling by aeroplane, adding that this ruling has existed in the schools.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth cites the Prophet's prophecy to Adi ibn Hatim of a lone woman travelling from Iraq to Makkah, which Adi lived to see.", "answer_start": 1648, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "history/sirah"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2154cd27", "label": "report: you will see a woman travel from al-hira to makkah and circumambulate the kaba fearing none but allah (Adi ibn Hatim; in Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adi-ibn-hatim", "label": "Adi ibn Hatim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's prophecy to Adi ibn Hatim of a woman travelling alone from al-Hira to Makkah came true as stability came to the region.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "yet he says wallahi in my old age I saw the the hyena a woman coming from that place to Makkah on her own not fearing nobody except Allah but that much stability had come about in the region", "start": 1763}}, "url": "/r/jp8GjvVONMs/s/7/"}, {"id": "jp8GjvVONMs/s/8", "short_id": "2018-04-22-S08", "recording": "jp8GjvVONMs", "n": 8, "start": 1839, "end": 2107, "date": "20180422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Al-Baji on safe caravans, and Imam Malik's ordering of the travel hadith", "question_plain": "What did the Maliki scholars say about women travelling with a safe group?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth quotes Abu al-Walid al-Baji, the Andalusian Maliki who died in 474 AH, commenting on the Muwatta: the hadith of Abu Sa'id forbidding a woman a day-and-night journey without a mahram concerns a small number of travellers or a woman alone, but large caravans and busy safe highways are like marketplaces, where a woman is safe without a mahram or female companion. Mufti notes that the Malikis often refer to scholars by their kunya. He says that Imam Malik, in the chapter on a woman travelling without a mahram, first brings the hadith that one traveller is a devil, two are two devils and three are a company, before the hadith forbidding a woman to travel without a mahram. Mufti asks why the Prophet would call two travellers devils, and says it was religious rhetoric used in that age to safeguard people in hostile territory.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth cites al-Baji that a woman is safe without a mahram in large caravans and busy highways, and reads Imam Malik's ordering of the hadith as showing they were about safety.", "answer_start": 1839, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "fiqh/maliki-school/muwatta-and-mudawwana", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baji", "label": "Abu al-Walid al-Baji"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:43b54f5f", "label": "report: a woman may not travel except with a mahram (Ibn Umar, Abu Hurayra, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, Ibn Abbas; numbers not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8bb1ef7b", "label": "report: the single rider is a devil two riders are two devils and three are a company (in the Muwatta, number not stated)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kunya", "label": "kunya"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's calling two travellers devils was religious rhetoric used in that age to safeguard people in hostile territory.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "now you tell me why is the prophet calling two people traveling Devils this was religious rhetoric too kind that was used in the day and age to safeguard them because there was hostile territory", "start": 2069}}, "url": "/r/jp8GjvVONMs/s/8/"}, {"id": "jp8GjvVONMs/s/9", "short_id": "2018-04-22-S09", "recording": "jp8GjvVONMs", "n": 9, "start": 2107, "end": 2294, "date": "20180422", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Conclusion: a woman may travel alone; stop circulating the 48-mile rule", "question_plain": "Is it safe and allowed for a woman to fly alone?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says women can of course travel, and reports that some Salafis, against those like Mustafa al-Zarqa [?] who allowed a woman to travel by aeroplane and be received at the other end, argued that airport security is not real safety and only a husband can truly protect her. He mocks this, picturing a husband taking on attackers alone instead of trained security staff. Mufti says it is absolutely fine for a woman to travel on her own, the key having always been safety, and asks people to stop circulating rulings about 48 miles, which make a mockery of the religion. He quotes Suhaib Webb [?] that some scholars in the UK are building caves, not communities, and says scholars like al-Baji were ahead of them a thousand years ago.", "summary_short": "Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says a woman may travel alone, including by air, since the ruling was always about safety, and rejects the claim that only a husband can protect her.", "answer_start": 2107, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mustafa-al-zarqa", "label": "Mustafa al-Zarqa [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:suhaib-webb", "label": "Suhaib Webb [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baji", "label": "Abu al-Walid al-Baji"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is absolutely fine for a woman to travel on her own, the key thing having been safety.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so yes it is absolutely fine for a woman to travel on her own as and the key thing was all about safety", "start": 2224}}, "url": "/r/jp8GjvVONMs/s/9/"}, {"id": "k9V9aM16G1k/s/1", "short_id": "2019-08-04b-S01", "recording": "k9V9aM16G1k", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 159, "date": "20190804", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Music is not haram: sound, vibration and music therapy", "question_plain": "Is music haram in Islam?", "summary": "The clip begins with Mufti Abu Layth saying that music is not haram and is arguably the nourishment of the soul. He reflects that if string theory is true the essence of everything is vibration, and says sound has no physical reality of its own but is the interaction between waves in the air and an organism that interprets them, which he says answers the old question of the tree falling in an empty forest. He adds that medieval Muslim hospitals (bimaristans [?]) used music therapy and that music helps some people with neurodegenerative illnesses, and asks how it could be haram.", "summary_short": "No: he says music is not haram and is arguably nourishment for the soul, pointing to its use for healing in medieval Muslim hospitals.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:bimaristan", "label": "bimaristan (medieval hospital) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says music is not haram and is arguably the nourishment of the soul.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "music is not Haram music is arguably it is the nourishment of the soul okay and you can see the reality to that", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/k9V9aM16G1k/s/1/"}, {"id": "kDSBNnTRJKo/s/1", "short_id": "2018-07-02-S01", "recording": "kDSBNnTRJKo", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 303, "date": "20180702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is the Quran's imagery of paradise literal or an incentive?", "question_plain": "Are the descriptions of paradise in the Quran meant literally?", "summary": "Picking up a question about something he said earlier, Mufti Abu Layth explains that he believes, as Muslims do, that there will be an afterlife, but asks whether imagery such as servant boys and rivers of alcohol, milk and honey is literal. In his understanding it was an incentivising method for the first recipient community, which later Muslims may not find attractive, and he cites the Prophet's saying that no human can conceive of Jannah. After a partly inaudible exchange about the verse on clear and ambiguous verses, he grants that one could place this under the mutashabihat, summarises views of what the mutashabihat are, and says he would generally not restrict it but feels Jannah, which means garden, was understood by people. He remarks that Muslims have shifted toward a Christian-like picture of heaven in the clouds, says he has no problem with anyone who takes the imagery literally though he does not personally, and distinguishes the literal concept of an afterlife from its descriptions, whose nature nobody knows. The transcript ends mid-sentence.", "summary_short": "The afterlife is real, but he believes the Quran's imagery of paradise was an encouragement suited to its first audience rather than a literal description. Anyone who takes it literally is free to do so.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["belief/afterlife/paradise-and-hell", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jannah", "label": "jannah (Paradise)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:4abab576", "label": "report: no human can ever conceptualise jannah"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:7", "label": "Quran 3:7 (clear and ambiguous verses)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutashabih", "label": "mutashabihat (ambiguous texts)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:quran-addresses-the-imagination", "label": "Quranic imagery draws on the imagination of its listeners and is not a report of fact"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the afterlife itself is literal but he does not personally believe the Quran's imagery of paradise is, thinking it was just an encouragement.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't personally believe it I think it was just an encouragement the", "start": 226}}, "url": "/r/kDSBNnTRJKo/s/1/"}, {"id": "kkjqsRxJ3KM/s/1", "short_id": "2014-04-12b-S01", "recording": "kkjqsRxJ3KM", "n": 1, "start": 4, "end": 772, "date": "20140412", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Trimming the beard below a fist's length: the evidence and the scholars", "question_plain": "Is it haram to trim my beard shorter than a fist's length?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the beard hadith combine the moustache and the beard with a command to be different from Jews, Christians or Magians, which many take as mandatory. He compares hadith with the same wording, to dye the hair, to pray in shoes and to eat suhur in order to differ from the People of the Book, and says the scholars generally agree those commands are not mandatory but permissible or recommended, so he asks why the beard alone should be obligatory. He adds that the reports of ten acts of fitrah include the beard, though some chains have problems, while trimming the moustache is established as fitrah and not obligatory. He cites a Maliki scholar of al-Andalus nearly a thousand years ago, Abu al-Walid al-Baji [?], who read the command as possibly meaning to shorten the beard relative to the Jews and Christians, and says the view that a fistful beard is not obligatory runs to contemporary scholars such as Mustafa al-Zarqa [?]. He says people may follow other opinions but cannot deny this one, cites Imam Malik that one should inform and not argue about the Sunnah, and says the matter is not a tenet of faith.", "summary_short": "Trimming the beard below a fist is not haram according to many great scholars, a well-founded view in the tradition, though others may follow stricter opinions.", "answer_start": 4, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:lihyah", "label": "lihyah (beard)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3e31381a", "label": "report: be different to the mushrikin trim the moustaches and let the beards grow"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:42fd73b8", "label": "report: be different to the jews and the christians and dye your hair"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1fd6f410", "label": "report: be different to the jews and the christians and pray in your shoes"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:700a667a", "label": "report: the difference between our fasting and that of the people of the book is the suhur (unresolved; Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:091fe423", "label": "report: ten actions are from the fitrah (unresolved; includes letting the beard grow)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fitrah", "label": "fitrah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baji", "label": "Abu al-Walid al-Baji [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mustafa-al-zarqa", "label": "Mustafa al-Zarqa [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the opinion that trimming the beard below a fist's length is not haram is well founded in the tradition.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "this is something that is well found and established in our books and we have to recognize that the is well founded it is in our tradition it is unden denable", "start": 493}}, "url": "/r/kkjqsRxJ3KM/s/1/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/1", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S01", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 1, "start": 15, "end": 460, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: sound check, a lockdown haircut and a news story", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens with the usual audio check on YouTube and Facebook and remarks that, with the lockdown, he will have to trim his own hair. He reads out a news story about a jealous wife who stabbed her husband after seeing her younger self in old photos, joking about self-defence. Mufti thanks a regular viewer for sending a tracksuit.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth checks the sound, jokes about a lockdown haircut and shares an odd news story.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/1/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/2", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S02", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 2, "start": 460, "end": 1202, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Perfume reviews, a joke question and the Dogecoin rally", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Asked by the chat to talk about his perfumes, Mufti Abu Layth reviews a Louis Vuitton sample, giving it about six and a half out of ten, and says no perfume house has impressed him as much as Tiziana Terenzi, describing the projection and sillage of two of its fragrances. Mufti praises Maison Francis Kurkdjian, noting that the silver and gold versions of Gentle Fluidity use the same ingredients in different quantities, and calls a heavily hyped Tom Ford scent overrated. He names Creed Aventus and Parfums de Marly's Layton as his joint favourites. After brushing off a joke question about his sexuality, Mufti remarks that crypto has rocketed with Dogecoin, which he calls a joke coin, and advises those benefiting to keep it sensible with some risk management.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rates perfumes, with Tiziana Terenzi as the house that has impressed him most, and notes the crypto bull run with a word of caution.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/2/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/3", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S03", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 3, "start": 1202, "end": 1430, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A sung Andalusian Arabic poem shared from YouTube", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that people have asked him about Arabic poetry and plays a snippet of a sung classical poem he has been listening to on YouTube, translating a line about whoever falls into the trap of love. Mufti calls it majestic and says he will share classic Andalusian-style poems from time to time.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a sung classical Arabic poem and calls it majestic.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/3/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/4", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S04", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 4, "start": 1430, "end": 1799, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "What counts as khamr? Abu Hanifa's ruling and why scholars grew embarrassed", "question_plain": "What counts as khamr, and is a drink with a little alcohol haram?", "summary": "After the poem a chat question asks what an intoxicant is and how far it must cover the intellect to be khamr. Mufti Abu Layth says that in Quranic terminology khamr was just wine; other drinks of the time, made from honey or fruit, were haram if clearly of a similar intoxicating nature, but weak drinks of one or two percent that would not intoxicate with average consumption were not. Mufti says this is the position Abu Hanifa stood up for, and that scholars attacked the Hanafi school over it for two or three centuries until the Hanafis became embarrassed of it. He compares this with later Malikis becoming embarrassed of Imam Malik's view that nothing sexual between a couple is haram, and says both imams were defending the principle that no one may declare haram what God has not declared haram.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says khamr in the Quran meant wine; other drinks were haram only when they intoxicated like it, which was Abu Hanifa's position.", "answer_start": 1469, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:khamr", "label": "alcohol (khamr)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in Quranic terminology khamr was just wine.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "in the quranic terminology hammer was just wine other drinks that came about are the kind of beers that were around", "start": 1505}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/4/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/5", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S05", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 5, "start": 1799, "end": 2063, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imam Malik on food: only the pig is haram", "question_plain": "Is pork the only meat that is haram in the Maliki school?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains that Imam Malik held that, of food, only the pig is haram because it is mentioned in the Quran, excepting animals offered to other gods or found already dead. Mufti says this does not mean Imam Malik told people to eat dogs, tigers or elephants, just as soil is not haram to eat but is not good to eat; declaring something haram is different from whether people eat it. He accuses the mullahs of a god complex in declaring haram what God did not, and says the imams would probably have found such foods disgusting but did not claim the right to forbid them. Mufti then answers a chat insult with a joke about the word fuzul.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in the Maliki school no meat is haram in itself except the pig, which does not mean the imams urged people to eat everything.", "answer_start": 1799, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/food", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in the Maliki school no meat is haram to eat in and of itself except the pig.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "but in and of themselves no meat was haram on earth whether it was from the sea the land or the sky nothing is haram bar pig in the maliki method", "start": 1836}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/5/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/6", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S06", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 6, "start": 2063, "end": 2824, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Was al-Ghazali against science and reason?", "question_plain": "Was al-Ghazali against science and philosophy?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether al-Ghazali was against science, reason and Greek philosophy. Mufti Abu Layth says these fell under hikmah in that era, and that al-Ghazali was at first a huge advocate of them, but went through a crisis of faith, perhaps for a month or two, became a recluse and abandoned reason for a blind spirituality, as he describes in al-Munqidh min al-Dalal. Mufti says that in his later years al-Ghazali returned to Baghdad and to teaching, seeming to mitigate his ascetic view, and that the Maliki scholar Abu Bakr [ibn al-Arabi] [?] stayed with him in the desert. He contrasts al-Ghazali's suspicion of reason with what he mocks as the Wahhabis' call to dogmatism, and says al-Ghazali's influence harmed the voice of reason only indirectly, through the Sufi tradition that later took him as a model.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali was not against reason at first, but after a crisis of faith he turned to ascetic mysticism, and through later Sufism this indirectly harmed the voice of reason.", "answer_start": 2063, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/sufism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-munqidh-min-al-dalal", "label": "al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance from Error)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hikmah", "label": "hikmah (wisdom)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sufi", "label": "Sufi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is true that al-Ghazali's influence had a detrimental impact on the voice of reason, although he thinks it did so indirectly.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "hence i would say yes it is true that imam razali uh his influence had a detrimental impact on the voice of reason although i think it did so indirectly", "start": 2675}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/6/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/7", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S07", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 7, "start": 2824, "end": 2977, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Were some great religious figures autistic?", "question_plain": "Were some of the great imams autistic?", "summary": "A chat question suggests that many religious figures were autistic. Mufti Abu Layth agrees, saying he feels Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Imam al-Shafi'i were autistic: highly intelligent but not always reading social cues, which can do damage when such people become leaders who are emulated. Mufti says he does not get the impression Ibn Taymiyya was autistic, but thinks he may have suffered from bipolar disorder or some psychotic disorder.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels Imam Ahmad and Imam al-Shafi'i were autistic, and suspects Ibn Taymiyya had bipolar or a psychotic disorder.", "answer_start": 2824, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd", "label": "Ibn Rushd (Averroes)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels people like Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Imam al-Shafi'i were autistic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "they definitely were i feel that uh people like imam ahmed ibn hambal imam shafi'i i feel they were autistic people", "start": 2824}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/7/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/8", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S08", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 8, "start": 2977, "end": 3198, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Yasir Qadhi's mugs and Bollywood lines: do his critics watch him?", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Asked his caste, Mufti Abu Layth says he is Jat. A chat question about Yasir Qadhi leads him to play a clip, following last week's one of Yasir Qadhi quoting Bollywood dialogue, in which Yasir Qadhi now shows off branded mugs. Mufti asks how closely such people watch him and invites insiders to tell him. He recounts inviting a mufti onto his Mind Trap podcast, who replied that many people eagerly watch Mufti's segments.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip of Yasir Qadhi with branded mugs and wonders aloud how closely his critics watch him.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/8/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/9", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S09", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 9, "start": 3198, "end": 3390, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Losing muscle in lockdown and a members' Discord server", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Answering a super chat, Mufti Abu Layth says he has lost a lot of muscle mass after two months without the gym. Mufti announces an 'executive task force' that has been building a Discord server linked to Patreon and YouTube memberships, with exclusive videos, courses, learning streams and a members' voice channel called the Sanctuary. He distinguishes it from a separate fan-run Discord group, which he supports and which is open to everyone.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth announces a members' Discord server linked to Patreon, separate from the open fan group.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/9/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/10", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S10", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 10, "start": 3390, "end": 3467, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is watching Netflix haram?", "question_plain": "Is it haram to watch Netflix?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether watching Netflix is haram. Mufti Abu Layth says of course it is not, and that one would have a miserable life in this day and age without some form of TV. Asked about the Indian series Tandav, Mufti says he was impressed and thought it was epic.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says watching Netflix is of course not haram.", "answer_start": 3431, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that of course watching Netflix is not haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "of course watching netflix is not haram what what a miserable life one would have if they lived in this day and age and did not watch some form of tv", "start": 3430}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/10/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/11", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S11", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 11, "start": 3467, "end": 3654, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Al-Firabri, sole transmitter of Sahih al-Bukhari: somewhat dubious", "question_plain": "Can al-Firabri, the transmitter of Sahih al-Bukhari, be trusted?", "summary": "A chat question asks for Mufti Abu Layth's opinion of al-Firabri. Mufti says al-Firabri, the sole transmitter of Sahih al-Bukhari, is somewhat dubious, carefully caveating that he is not evil or defamed. He points to al-Firabri's grandiose claim that tens of thousands had transmitted the book from al-Bukhari and that only he remained, which he says suggests ego play and calls for a pinch of salt. Mufti says al-Firabri was not a great imam in his own time and that this status was back-projected onto him because of the later success of the book he transmitted.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Firabri deserves some suspicion: not evil, but not the great imam later generations made him.", "answer_start": 3498, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Firabri, the transmitter of Sahih al-Bukhari, is somewhat dubious and that there must be some level of suspicion towards him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "so he's somewhat dubious um i think i'm not saying he's evil or is bad or something but he's somebody there must be some level of suspicion", "start": 3497}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/11/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/12", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S12", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 12, "start": 3654, "end": 4029, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Could the verse on the stupor of death be about DMT? Psychedelics as a portal", "question_plain": "Is the Quran's verse about the stupor of death talking about DMT?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether the verse 'the stupor of death will bring the truth; that is what you were trying to escape' could be speaking about DMT. Mufti Abu Layth calls it one of the most hard-hitting passages for him and says he does not think it is about DMT specifically, but that the DMT death experience could relate to it. Mufti says he feels breakthroughs with DMT or psilocybin are glimpses of and a portal to the hereafter, that the Muslim ummah missed the boat on art, music and psychedelics, and that in coming generations this portal will lead people back to God as institutional religion fails. He calls their main challenge that they are a shortcut, and closes with a disclaimer that he advocates them only where they are legal.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the verse is not about DMT specifically, though the DMT death experience could relate to it; he sees psychedelics as a portal to the hereafter where legal.", "answer_start": 3691, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:50:19", "label": "Quran 50:19 (the stupor of death brings the truth)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:50:22", "label": "Quran 50:22 (your sight this day is sharp)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:41:53", "label": "Quran 41:53 (We will show them Our signs until it becomes clear that it is the truth)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dmt", "label": "DMT (dimethyltryptamine)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:psilocybin", "label": "psilocybin"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think the verse is talking about DMT specifically, but that the DMT death experience could also relate to it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "do i think it's talking about dmt i don't think it's talking about dmt specifically but could i feel that the dmt death experience could also relate to that verse of course", "start": 3690}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/12/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/13", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S13", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 13, "start": 4029, "end": 4212, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's educational background", "question_plain": "What qualifications does Mufti Abu Layth have?", "summary": "A chat question asks about Mufti Abu Layth's educational background. Mufti says degrees honestly mean little to him, then lists a bachelor of science in psychology, which he took out of passion, a postgraduate teaching qualification, a master's in education, an alim course equivalent to a master's in Arabic and Islamic studies in Pakistan, his mufti course with ijazahs in the major hadith books, and an ijazah with a chain in the Quran. He says his respect for research begins at PhD level.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth lists degrees in psychology and education, an alim and mufti course and ijazahs, but says degrees mean little to him.", "answer_start": 4057, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "wellbeing/personal-stories"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/13/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/14", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S14", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 14, "start": 4212, "end": 4361, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did the companions see Jibril in human form?", "question_plain": "Did the companions really see the angel Jibril as a man?", "summary": "A chat question asks how to explain the Prophet and the companions seeing Jibril in human form. Mufti Abu Layth says that when the Prophet sees Jibril it is in a trance-like state, a vision the Prophet has alone. Mufti compares companions who thought a stranger was Jibril with people in India and Pakistan today who believe a stranger who saved a child was an angel in human form, and calls such beliefs folklore.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says only the Prophet saw Jibril, in a trance-like vision; companions who thought a stranger was Jibril were assuming.", "answer_start": 4212, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when the Prophet sees Jibril it is in a trance-like state, a vision the Prophet is having alone.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "when the prophet sees jibril it's in this trance-like state people are not seeing it it's it's a vision that the prophet is having alone", "start": 4212}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/14/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/15", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S15", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 15, "start": 4361, "end": 4939, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Debate invitations to Abdul Rahman Hassan and 'Danny boy'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Asked about a preacher whose name is bleeped in the captions, Mufti Abu Layth says he has love for him despite disagreements and has not yet watched the latest exchange. Mufti says he will later discuss attacks on Shabir Ally by critics he nicknames. He says he has messaged Abdul Rahman Hassan on Twitter inviting him onto Mind Trap to defend the Salafi creed from the Quran alone, adding that a debate on Bukhari would be unfair given his research, and has had no reply. Mufti says he has also invited the critic he calls 'Danny boy' to discuss ijma', challenging him even to define it, and complains that such people pick on Shabir Ally because he does not hit back.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth invites Abdul Rahman Hassan to defend Salafi creed and 'Danny boy' to define ijma', saying critics pick on Shabir Ally instead.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-rahman-hassan", "label": "Abdul Rahman Hassan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/15/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/16", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S16", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 16, "start": 4939, "end": 5270, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Cleaning after the toilet: use water", "question_plain": "Should I use water or toilet paper after going to the toilet?", "summary": "A super chat asks 'which finger', which Mufti Abu Layth takes as a question about cleaning oneself after the toilet. Mufti says a person should always use water if possible, using paper only when stuck without water, and ideally both. He calls it embarrassing that most of the first world, France and some places excepted, still does not use a bidet or toilet shower, having cracked the atom while forgetting to wash. Mufti argues that no one would accept wiping filth off their hand with a tissue alone, and then jokes with the chat about being mental or a genius.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says a person should always clean with water after the toilet where possible, with paper only as a fallback.", "answer_start": 4972, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/purification"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a person should always, if possible, use water when cleaning after the toilet.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "a person should always if possible use water water people water obviously if if you're stuck and you don't have water then you will uh use paper", "start": 4971}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/16/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/17", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S17", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 17, "start": 5270, "end": 5346, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Inducing hallucinations with sensory deprivation tanks or meditation", "question_plain": "Is it haram to use a sensory deprivation tank or meditation to hallucinate?", "summary": "A super chat asks whether there is a ruling on intentionally seeking hallucination-like experiences, such as through sensory deprivation tanks or meditation. Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think these things are haram, while granting they are not everyone's cup of tea. Mufti adds that he wonders what a deprivation tank is like and may try one.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says using sensory deprivation tanks or meditation to bring on hallucinations is not haram.", "answer_start": 5310, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think setting oneself up to hallucinate through sensory deprivation tanks or meditation is haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "i don't think these things are haram if that's what you're asking do i feel this is haram no no um it isn't haram", "start": 5309}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/17/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/18", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S18", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 18, "start": 5346, "end": 5719, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is Birmingham a bad place? Drugs, Mirpur and legalising cannabis", "question_plain": "What is Birmingham really like for Muslims?", "summary": "A chat question asks, crudely, whether Birmingham is a bad place. Mufti Abu Layth says he loves Birmingham and finds the vibe good, though as a large city it has run-down areas. Mufti says drugs are a wretched cancer in the community and that in Birmingham many, perhaps most, of the dealers are Pakistani Muslims, recounting friends' observation that in Canada the pattern is reversed between Pakistanis and Sikhs. He says this is why he thinks several drugs, especially cannabis, should be legalised and regulated, and attributes a rural mindset to the large share of British Pakistanis from Mirpur. In passing he says slits in the eyebrows are fine.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth defends Birmingham but calls drugs a cancer in its Muslim community, and says cannabis should be legalised and regulated.", "answer_start": 5346, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/britain", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:cannabis", "label": "cannabis (marijuana, hashish)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he thinks several drugs should be legalised, especially things like cannabis.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "drugs should be legalized i i do feel that you know especially things like cannabis and stuff like because it would just cut out this entire market and then it could be regulated", "start": 5615}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/18/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/19", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S19", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 19, "start": 5719, "end": 5886, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Every sect in Birmingham, and why that leaves room for him", "question_plain": "Why does Birmingham have so many different Muslim sects?", "summary": "Picking up a chat remark, Mufti Abu Layth says every sect has a strong presence in Birmingham, so that they cancel each other out, and recalls a line of Jaun Elia about fear cancelling out when everyone fears everyone. Mufti contrasts Birmingham with Leicester, which he says is heavily Deobandi and controls the religious narrative, and lists strong Barelvi, Deobandi, Salafi, Shia, Ahmadi and Jamaat-e-Islami mosques in Birmingham. He jokes that this leaves room for him to 'spread fasad', alluding to the verse on corruption appearing, and says he dislikes the Birmingham and Black Country accents.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Birmingham's many strong sects cancel each other out, which he thinks is a good thing compared with towns one sect dominates.", "answer_start": 5719, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "society/current-events/britain"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jaun-elia", "label": "Jaun Elia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:30:41", "label": "Quran 30:41 (corruption has appeared on land and sea), alluded to as a joke"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in Birmingham every sect has a strong presence, and that he thinks that is a good thing.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "you've got everybody here you know and and i think that's a good thing because there's certain towns like leicester is close to birmingham which is heavily diopandi", "start": 5768}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/19/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/20", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S20", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 20, "start": 5886, "end": 6080, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's accent, and hearing ethnicity over the phone", "question_plain": "What accent does Mufti Abu Layth have?", "summary": "A chat question asks about Mufti Abu Layth's accent. Mufti says he has no set accent, having spent seven or eight formative years abroad and trained in voice projection for teaching, and that people on the phone usually guess somewhere in the south. He says that in Britain one can usually tell a person's ethnicity over the phone from the texture of their voice, not their words, mentioning the O.J. Simpson trial, but finds this harder with Americans.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has no set accent, and that in Britain one can usually hear a caller's ethnicity in the texture of their voice.", "answer_start": 5886, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/personal-stories", "society/race-and-identity"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:oj-simpson-trial-1995", "label": "the O.J. Simpson trial (1995)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in the UK, with British English, one can usually tell a person's ethnicity over the phone from the texture of their voice.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "but definitely over the phone you can tell you see in the uk with british english we can tell over the phone usually your ethnicity by listening to", "start": 5964}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/20/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/21", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S21", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 21, "start": 6080, "end": 6226, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Chat banter about embarrassing names", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Responding to a chat remark that some Indian names are funny, Mufti Abu Layth jokes about Sikh and Muslim names that sound embarrassing in English. Mufti says anyone with such a name should simply change it by deed poll. A question about Manchester goes unanswered.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth jokes about names that sound embarrassing in English and says people should change them by deed poll.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/21/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/22", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S22", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 22, "start": 6226, "end": 6878, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Materialism or asceticism? Wealth is fine, arrogance is not", "question_plain": "Is it wrong in Islam to want to be rich?", "summary": "A super chat asks how much is too much and what Islam says about materialism versus asceticism, noting the Bible's saying about the rich man and paradise. After a joke, Mufti Abu Layth says Islam is not against making money and is not an ascetic religion, though asceticism won the cultural war in Islamic history. Mufti cites the hadith 'Allah is beautiful and loves beauty' as showing that the Prophet condemned arrogance, despising others, not fine clothes or shoes, and says he personally advocates making money, dressing well and enjoying things, since wealth enables giving. He relates the open letter criticising Imam Malik for lavish clothes, eating meat daily and few voluntary prayers, and Malik's reply that good food and clothing give knowledge its impact and that teaching is as good as their worship. Mufti says the Quran never condemns wealth, only its distracting people from meaning in life.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam is not against wealth; what is haram is arrogance and looking down on others, and he encourages people to make money and enjoy it.", "answer_start": 6293, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance", "wellbeing/gratitude-giving-and-contentment", "history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2a4080d4", "label": "report: indeed allah is beautiful"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zuhd", "label": "zuhd (asceticism)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Islam is not against the aggregation of wealth.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "islam is not against the aggregation of wealth right so you know making money islam is fine with people making money", "start": 6292}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/22/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/23", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S23", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 23, "start": 6878, "end": 6956, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are covered calls in stocks halal?", "question_plain": "Is trading covered calls on stocks halal?", "summary": "A super chat asks whether covered calls in stocks are halal. Mufti Abu Layth says these things are halal and that he does not feel any of today's trades are haram. Mufti explains that they operate within a framework of statutory regulation that removes the grounds the old prohibitions had, such as disputes leading to bloodshed.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says covered calls are halal, and he does not consider any of today's regulated trades haram.", "answer_start": 6878, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not feel any of today's trades are haram, since they operate within a framework of statutory regulation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "i do not feel any of them are haram okay they operate within a framework and greater statutory regulations that uh protect that framework", "start": 6917}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/23/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/24", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S24", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 24, "start": 6956, "end": 7452, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why Pakistan has so many angry religious people: the CIA and the Afghan jihad", "question_plain": "Why is Pakistan so full of religious extremism?", "summary": "A chat question asks why Pakistan is full of angry religious people when Jinnah was pro-education and secular. Mufti Abu Layth agrees about Jinnah and says much of it comes down to geopolitics: the CIA, to thwart the Soviets, encouraged Muslim states to send mujahideen to Afghanistan, and for a decade sermons, magazines and madrasas promoted jihad, citing verses such as the one rebuking those who cling to the earth. Mufti says this is where Osama bin Laden emerged, and that after the Soviet collapse these fighters turned on the United States, citing Noam Chomsky. He describes large Karachi madrasas such as Jamia Binoria and Jamia Faruqiya producing thousands of graduates who open new madrasas, so that the problem is still being mass-produced.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says religious militancy in Pakistan was boosted by the CIA-backed Afghan jihad against the Soviets and is still mass-produced by madrasa networks.", "answer_start": 6956, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/pakistan", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "society/education-and-madrasas"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-ali-jinnah", "label": "Muhammad Ali Jinnah"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:cia", "label": "the CIA"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:soviet-afghan-war", "label": "the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1989)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:osama-bin-laden", "label": "Osama bin Laden"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:noam-chomsky", "label": "Noam Chomsky"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:9:38", "label": "Quran 9:38 (why do you cling to the earth when told to go forth)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:jamia-binoria", "label": "Jamia Binoria"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:jamia-faruqiya", "label": "Jamia Faruqiya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the CIA and the war against the Russians played a facilitating, enabling role in boosting the extremist tradition in Pakistan and the Islamic world, though they are not solely responsible.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the cia and the war against the russians you see you can't ignore the role that these people played now it's not entirely their fault they're not re solely responsible for the phenomenon but they played a facilitating enabling character", "start": 7030}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/24/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/25", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S25", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 25, "start": 7452, "end": 7532, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The ascetic phase in awakening stories as an archetype", "question_plain": "Why does every spiritual awakening story have a time of withdrawal?", "summary": "A super chat observes that every awakening narrative has an ascetic phase: Moses in the desert, Jesus in the wilderness, the Prophet in the cave and the Buddha under the tree. Mufti Abu Layth agrees that these are archetypes, and cites Leo Tolstoy's saying that every great story is either a man going on a journey or a stranger coming to town. Mufti adds that such stories need not be fictional to be great.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees that the ascetic phase in awakening stories is an archetype, like Tolstoy's two plots.", "answer_start": 7452, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas/narrative-and-story"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:buddha", "label": "the Buddha"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:leo-tolstoy", "label": "Leo Tolstoy"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the ascetic phase in awakening narratives is like an archetype.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "yeah i mean these are like archetypes ain't they that you have uh", "start": 7452}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/25/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/26", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S26", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 26, "start": 7532, "end": 7839, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "His madrasa in Pakistan, and which groups bred violence", "question_plain": "What was Mufti Abu Layth's madrasa in Pakistan like?", "summary": "After declining a request to lead a viewer's wedding, Mufti Abu Layth answers a question about his madrasa [?] in Pakistan, saying its head, Mufti Naeem [?], was calm, with business acumen, and not hot-headed. Mufti says the Barelvis were historically Sufi and non-violent, and have only recently become radicalised with figures like Khadim Hussain Rizvi calling for blasphemers to be killed, whereas militancy is no new phenomenon among Deobandis, citing Sipah-e-Sahaba. He notes that not all Deobandis are radical, the Tablighi Jamaat even speaks against violence, but that neutral Deobandi madrasas can become resting grounds where militants camouflage themselves. He compares this with how ISIS and al-Qaeda camouflage among ordinary Salafis.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says his madrasa's head was not hot-headed, and that Barelvi radicalism is recent while militancy has long existed in parts of the Deobandi world.", "answer_start": 7532, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/current-events/pakistan", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-naeem", "label": "Mufti Naeem [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khadim-hussain-rizvi", "label": "Khadim Hussain Rizvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:sipah-e-sahaba", "label": "Sipah-e-Sahaba [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:tablighi-jamaat", "label": "Tablighi Jamaat"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-qaeda", "label": "al-Qaeda"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Barelvi scene in Pakistan has only recently become extreme.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "you understand like so the brillvi scene in pakistan has only recently become extreme", "start": 7568}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/26/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/27", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S27", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 27, "start": 7839, "end": 8062, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is hitting the face in martial arts training haram?", "question_plain": "Is it haram to hit someone in the face in boxing or MMA training?", "summary": "A super chat asks what proved Islam true before modern prophecies were seen, which is not taken up, and another asks whether hitting the face is haram in the context of training. Mufti Abu Layth refers to his clip saying boxing and MMA are absolutely permissible, and says the hadith against hitting the face was about discipline, not about training or the art of fighting. Mufti says harsh discipline of children is not necessarily abuse, recalls from his teaching days that English law allowed reasonable force by a parent but not against another's child, and says ideally children are raised so that it is never needed.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says hitting the face in sparring is fine; the hadith against striking the face concerned discipline, not fighting practice.", "answer_start": 7839, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment", "relationships/parents-and-children/raising-children"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0576bb02", "label": "report: when one of you strikes he should avoid the face"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith about not hitting the face was about discipline, not about training or practising the art of fighting.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "speaking on discipline mentioned that you shouldn't hit the face of each other oh it didn't say overchampion hit the face or just even casually with people but it wasn't talking about war training", "start": 8021}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/27/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/28", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S28", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 28, "start": 8062, "end": 8107, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are the Prophet's parents in paradise?", "question_plain": "Are the Prophet's parents in heaven or hell?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether the Prophet's parents are going to heaven or hell. Mufti Abu Layth says he understands the question is genuine but finds it absurd, and that the Prophet's parents are unquestionably among the people of salvation, as is anyone before the Prophet.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's parents are unquestionably among the saved.", "answer_start": 8062, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/salvation-and-non-muslims", "history/sirah"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's parents are unquestionably from the people of salvation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the prophet's parents are unquestionably from people of salvation just as anybody before the prophet", "start": 8062}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/28/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/29", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S29", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 29, "start": 8107, "end": 8456, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The falling-out with a Moroccan shaykh who called him deviant", "question_plain": "What happened between Mufti Abu Layth and a Moroccan shaykh?", "summary": "A chat question asks what happened between Mufti Abu Layth and a Moroccan shaykh. Mufti says the shaykh called him a deviant after Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters, whom he had been attacking, contacted him, and that Mufti responded by pointing out that, as he understands it, the shaykh had a past terrorism conviction. Mufti says he had visited the shaykh years earlier and spoken well of him at the time, not knowing his background.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says a Moroccan shaykh he once visited later called him deviant, and he responded by pointing to the shaykh's past conviction.", "answer_start": 8107, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "org", "id": "org:hizb-ut-tahrir", "label": "Hizb ut-Tahrir [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/29/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/30", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S30", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 30, "start": 8456, "end": 9238, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Indian farmers' protests: standing with the farmers", "question_plain": "Who is right in India's farmers' protests?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the farmers' protests in India, saying the issue has gripped the nation, and plays a news clip on police violence and internet shutdowns. Mufti says he stands with the farmers: whatever one thinks of the laws, the people affected must be involved, and imposing them is tyranny, adding that tyrants never think they are tyrants. He describes the backlash in India to Rihanna's tweet and Greta Thunberg's support, including people searching whether Rihanna is Muslim, and says celebrities such as Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn acted as lap dogs of the Modi government by posting identical tweets. He suggests incentivising the farmers and resolving the dispute through composed reason.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth stands with India's protesting farmers, saying laws affecting them must not be imposed without their consent.", "answer_start": 8456, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/current-events/india-and-hindutva"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:indian-farmers-protest-2020-2021", "label": "the Indian farmers' protest (2020-2021)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:narendra-modi", "label": "Narendra Modi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:rihanna", "label": "Rihanna"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:greta-thunberg", "label": "Greta Thunberg"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:akshay-kumar", "label": "Akshay Kumar"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ajay-devgn", "label": "Ajay Devgn"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adolf-hitler", "label": "Adolf Hitler"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/30/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/31", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S31", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 31, "start": 9238, "end": 9932, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The red pill movement and hating on women", "question_plain": "What does Islam say about the red pill movement?", "summary": "A chat question asks for Mufti Abu Layth's thoughts on the red pill movement, which talks about female nature and hypergamy. After asking the chat what the terms mean and reading a description aloud, Mufti says he finds hating on any gender ridiculous and that men who hate on women are hating on their own insecurities. He says the mere presence of a woman can debilitate men and calls woman the manifestation of divine beauty on earth. Mufti grants that some of the arguments are true, such as women being seen more innocently and treated more leniently in criminal justice, but says this is no reason to hate them, and adds that 'simping' is unattractive to women.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says hating on women, or men, is ridiculous, though he grants some red pill points about how society treats the sexes.", "answer_start": 9532, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/masculinity-and-gender-roles", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he finds hating on any gender, whether men or women, to be ridiculous.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "but i i i find hating on any gender whether it's hating on men or hating on women to be ridiculous", "start": 9557}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/31/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/32", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S32", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 32, "start": 9932, "end": 10088, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is Mufti Abu Layth a male feminist?", "question_plain": "Is Mufti Abu Layth a feminist?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether Mufti Abu Layth is a male feminist. Mufti says he would like to think he is, since he advocates women's rights in Islam and speaks against people shunning women, but that feminists seem to dislike him the moment they watch him. He wonders aloud whether he gives off a vibe of toxic masculinity, and responds to a chat remark calling him a male chauvinist that he does not think he is one.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he would like to think he is a feminist, though feminists seem not to like him.", "answer_start": 9932, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/women-and-gender", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/32/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/33", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S33", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 33, "start": 10088, "end": 10791, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Clips: three critics' videos attacking Shabir Ally", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a warm-up clip of a preacher he calls 'our beloved' shooting someone with a 'space gun', and mocks it. Mufti then introduces videos in which the critic he calls 'Danny boy' and the critic he nicknames Gangu Teli, with a companion he nicknames Snow White, attack Shabir Ally as a deviant who dresses like a scholar, one of them calling Shabir Ally a light version of Abu Layth. The clips include Ali's report that if the religion were by opinion the bottom of the khuff would be wiped, used by the critics to argue for following revelation and the companions, and a clip of Shabir Ally saying that hudud punishments may not apply in modern times. Mufti mocks the critics' dress.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth plays and mocks videos in which three critics attack Shabir Ally's views, including his view on hudud.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2c98b2b9", "label": "report: if the deen were by opinion the bottom of the khuff would deserve wiping more than the top"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/33/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/34", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S34", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 34, "start": 10791, "end": 11151, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why the critics target Shabir Ally, and a standing challenge", "question_plain": "Why do critics keep attacking Shabir Ally?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the trio attack Shabir Ally because, as a voice of reason who does not hit back, he is a soft target, and calls three of them targeting him at once a strategised attempt at bullying. Mufti says he has repeatedly invited the critic he nicknames Gangu Teli to discuss Bukhari, offering to go live that very evening, and dismisses the refusal to 'discuss with deviants' as a cop-out. He extends the same invitation to the others on Mind Trap, says they would run a thousand miles rather than face him, and plays a short clip calling them the three stooges.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the critics target Shabir Ally as a soft target who will not hit back, and repeats his offer to debate them.", "answer_start": 10791, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/34/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/35", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S35", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 35, "start": 11151, "end": 11777, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Not 'some guy': al-Burzuli's fatwa on punishing with wealth", "question_plain": "Did Maliki scholars really allow fines instead of hudud punishments?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth answers a critic who said he had 'come across' a Maliki who held this view, saying the critics only learned of al-Burzuli [?] from his own discussion and at first called him a liar. Mufti says al-Burzuli was the Shaykh al-Islam of the Malikis in his time, about six hundred years ago, and reads from later works in which scholars such as Mayyara [?] and Ibn Lubaba [?] endorse the principle of punishing with wealth, the matter even being raised with rulers. He says some Malikis disagreed but that the fatwa was acted upon as the law, the practice of Fez, for hundreds of years, until a Mauritanian shaykh defended it in the last century. He refers viewers to his video on whether hudud can change with time.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki fatwa allowing punishment through wealth was the work of a major scholar and was practised as law for centuries, not a forgotten opinion.", "answer_start": 11151, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "fiqh/maliki-school", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-burzuli", "label": "al-Burzuli [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mayyara", "label": "Mayyara [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-lubaba", "label": "Ibn Lubaba [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hudud-change-with-the-age", "label": "the hudud change with the age"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the fatwa on punishing with wealth that he cites was acted upon as the law and understood as the sharia for hundreds of years.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "but some great people have said this and it was acted as the law it was understood as the sharia for hundreds and hundreds of years", "start": 11698}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/35/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/36", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S36", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 36, "start": 11777, "end": 12163, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is flipping a coin to decide things haram? Reason, not chance or dreams", "question_plain": "Is it haram to flip a coin to make a decision?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether flipping coins to decide things is haram. Mufti Abu Layth says it is not haram and is fine for trivial choices, but that important decisions should be reasoned through, so that if they go wrong one at least bears responsibility for a considered choice. Mufti criticises people who decide on marriage by waiting for a dream, asking whether they would choose a career or manage their money that way. He tells of a former colleague at a school who admitted she took a job she came to hate because she liked the trees on the road leading to it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says flipping a coin is not haram, but important decisions should be made by reasoning, not by a coin or a dream.", "answer_start": 11777, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct", "belief/dreams-and-visions"], "entities": [], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says flipping coins is not haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "no it's not haram flipping coins um clear shukran for the stars it's not haram to flip coins but i would say look", "start": 11777}}, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/36/"}, {"id": "l4n4wD2jjps/s/37", "short_id": "2021-02-09-S37", "recording": "l4n4wD2jjps", "n": 37, "start": 12163, "end": 12427, "date": "20210209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: the members' Discord, a tractor story and sign-off", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says a short video will announce the members' Discord server, with a chat forum called the Reservoir, the Sanctuary voice channel, a Q&A 'quick fix' and learning streams, integrated with Patreon and YouTube memberships and almost complete. Mufti again welcomes viewers to the separate open fan Discord. Prompted by a viewer who said he would ask and never did, he tells a story of a friend in Pakistan who psyched himself up to overtake a tractor and then drove parallel to it into oncoming traffic, and signs off.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth previews the members' Discord server and signs off with a story.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/l4n4wD2jjps/s/37/"}, {"id": "llllbKdGrA4/s/1", "short_id": "2019-08-14-S01", "recording": "llllbKdGrA4", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 311, "date": "20190814", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Gender dysphoria in Islam, and not creating doubt in children", "question_plain": "Does Islam allow gender transition for someone diagnosed with gender dysphoria?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth defines gender dysphoria as a person being confused about their gender or feeling they are the other gender, joking about how many genders there now are. He says that where there are legitimate biological concerns, with input from medical experts and the person's own introspection, he believes there is permissibility and that Islam caters for it. He then says some people are creating unnecessary confusion: if someone is gay that is their life and nobody has the right to persecute them, and he has no problem with schools telling children that some men marry men and some women marry women. What he opposes, calling it a form of abuse, is putting doubt into children about whether they are really a boy or a girl, citing a reported school exercise requiring a love letter to a friend of the same gender, which he says would be disgusting if true.", "summary_short": "Where there are legitimate biological concerns and medical input, he believes it is permissible, but he opposes sowing doubt about gender in children.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "fiqh/medical-ethics", "relationships/parents-and-children/raising-children"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes there is permissibility where there are legitimate biological concerns, with medical experts giving their input.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "where these cases are legitimate biological concerns I believe that there is permissibility where there are legitimate biological concerns and the medical experts can have their input", "start": 78}}, "url": "/r/llllbKdGrA4/s/1/"}, {"id": "llllbKdGrA4/s/2", "short_id": "2019-08-14-S02", "recording": "llllbKdGrA4", "n": 2, "start": 311, "end": 703, "date": "20190814", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Supporting women's rights while rejecting hostility to masculinity", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he supports women's rights, has spoken for equal rights in Islam on matters such as wills and inheritance, and holds abuse unacceptable in all circumstances. He says he seriously does not understand what he sees as this age's hostility to men being men under the label of toxic masculinity. He says femininity is among the most attractive features of women for him and, he assumes, for most men, and assumes masculinity is likewise attractive to women. He says people who are naturally soft or effeminate are fine and that men should be encouraged to express their emotions, but objects to what he sees as American social media pushing hatred of masculine men, closing with joking asides and a call to condemn abuse and the deprivation of rights while stopping the hate on men.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth backs women's rights and condemns abuse, but rejects what he sees as a campaign against masculinity, while accepting men who are naturally soft.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/masculinity-and-gender-roles", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he seriously does not understand the hostility of this age against masculinity.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "I seriously do not understand the problem of this age against masculinity people seem to there seems to be this hatred against men being men", "start": 349}}, "url": "/r/llllbKdGrA4/s/2/"}, {"id": "mLNpcjXYpqM/s/1", "short_id": "2020-04-06-S01", "recording": "mLNpcjXYpqM", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 157, "date": "20200406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Opening remarks and Mufti Abu Layth's assessment of Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi?", "summary": "After some joking housekeeping in Spanish and English while he sets up, Mufti Abu Layth introduces the subject: Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, a prominent Syrian scholar with his own Sufi tariqa. He says that, as far as Sufi orders go, if someone told him they felt they had to join an order he would probably point them to someone like al-Yaqoubi, because he is a scholar, level-headed, has spoken against extremism and is to some extent relevant. He adds that he thinks people overdo their praise of him, which he will come to, that al-Yaqoubi has a side concerned with knowledge and tells his people to study, and that he seems to like protocol and having fans and supporters, though who does not. He then turns to the fact that al-Yaqoubi is being attacked, saying he does not mind people having issues with others, since people have issues with him too, and that he himself once raised an issue with al-Yaqoubi over statements on Bukhari that he found misleading.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth regards Shaykh al-Yaqoubi as a level-headed scholar who has spoken against extremism and would point someone set on joining a Sufi order to a figure like him, while thinking his admirers overdo it. He himself once took issue with al-Yaqoubi's statements on Bukhari.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/sufism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tariqah", "label": "tariqa (Sufi order)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sufi", "label": "Sufi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/mLNpcjXYpqM/s/1/"}, {"id": "mLNpcjXYpqM/s/2", "short_id": "2020-04-06-S02", "recording": "mLNpcjXYpqM", "n": 2, "start": 157, "end": 471, "date": "20200406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A Bradford board's letter demanding that Shaykh al-Yaqoubi make takfir: its demands and signatories", "question_plain": "What was in the letter attacking Shaykh al-Yaqoubi, and who sent it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says having issues with people is fine and everyone is entitled to an opinion, but the problem is when it is a sectarian game. He describes a letter in English sent to Shaykh al-Yaqoubi by a body calling itself a board of ulama and mashaykh for protecting the beliefs of Islam and Ahl al-Sunnah [?], based in Bradford, which he mocks as 'the feds' ready to deal with any crisis to the faith. He says the letter took digs at al-Yaqoubi and tried to bully him: why does he not call certain people kafir, how dare he praise Mufti Taqi Usmani [?], a Deobandi, why does he not declare the Shia, the leaders of the Deobandis, Ashraf Ali Thanwi [?], the Salafis and Wahhabis kafir, and why has he not condemned The Study Quran and Hamza Yusuf for praising it; he calls it a full-fledged bullying session. Among the signatories he recognised only two names: one whose name is garbled in the transcript and of whom he found a clip, and Pir Saqib Shaami [?], at whose inclusion he was surprised, suggesting the name may have been added without his full validation since he had thought him more intelligent than to be involved in such things. He says he had never heard of the other signatories and tried to track down the board, joking about Bradford and coronavirus and about the board's rules on who may be called kafir.", "summary_short": "A Bradford-based board wrote to Shaykh al-Yaqoubi demanding he declare Shia, Deobandi and Salafi figures kafir and condemn The Study Quran and Hamza Yusuf, which Mufti Abu Layth calls a sectarian bullying session. He recognised only two signatories and was surprised to see Pir Saqib Shaami's name.", "answer_start": 157, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:board-for-protecting-sunni-beliefs-bradford", "label": "Board of Ulama and Mashaykh for Protecting the Beliefs of Islam (Bradford) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:taqi-usmani", "label": "Mufti Taqi Usmani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ashraf-ali-thanwi", "label": "Ashraf Ali Thanwi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:saqib-shaami", "label": "Pir Saqib Shaami [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-study-quran", "label": "The Study Quran"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi (Wahhabi)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/mLNpcjXYpqM/s/2/"}, {"id": "mLNpcjXYpqM/s/3", "short_id": "2020-04-06-S03", "recording": "mLNpcjXYpqM", "n": 3, "start": 471, "end": 691, "date": "20200406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "The letter's attack on Shaykh Akram Nadwi, and a played debate clip: 'one, two, three, kufr'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the letter, which ran to ten or twelve pages like a booklet, also asked why Shaykh Akram Nadwi was not being called a deviant and how al-Yaqoubi dared to praise him, with threats about what would follow if no answer came. He then turns to the one signatory whose name he recognised, saying there is an audio clip on YouTube of a debate he had with some Deobandis in which he deploys what Mufti calls 'the ultimate strategy', and plays the clip. During and after the clip Mufti reacts that one could not make this up and that this is how absurd it is for people to try to bully grown men into beliefs out of hatred for one person. He repeats the clip's refrain of counting 'one, two, three' and pronouncing kufr, says he believes the speaker was one of the senior figures of these self-styled defenders of the faith, jokes that he feels safe knowing they are out there, and adds that the speaker's actual point seems to have been that he wanted the other side to listen. The transcript around the clip is fragmentary and the clip's own words are not reliably captured.", "summary_short": "The letter also demanded that Shaykh Akram Nadwi be called a deviant. Mufti Abu Layth plays a debate clip of one signatory repeatedly counting 'one, two, three' and pronouncing kufr, which he holds up as absurd bullying.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:akram-nadwi", "label": "Shaykh Akram Nadwi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kufr", "label": "kufr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/mLNpcjXYpqM/s/3/"}, {"id": "mLNpcjXYpqM/s/4", "short_id": "2020-04-06-S04", "recording": "mLNpcjXYpqM", "n": 4, "start": 691, "end": 927, "date": "20200406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "You cannot bully people into beliefs, and the opposite excess: exalting al-Yaqoubi with miracle stories", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth say both the attackers and the admirers of Shaykh al-Yaqoubi need balance?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the speaker in the clip kept demanding that his opponents 'do one, two, three' before debating, and asks when people will learn that you cannot bully people, mocking the 'defenders of the faith' as if they were assembling superheroes. He notes that Shaykh al-Yaqoubi has not responded to them, which would be ridiculous, and that the counting refrain was the 'root' the letter-writers want to return to. On the same token, he says, people need to calm down on the other side: someone replying in al-Yaqoubi's defence wrote five pages exalting him, claiming to have witnessed his miracles and that he read the whole Shama'il [?] in four hours as a karama. Mufti, while accepting that al-Yaqoubi may well be a noble and respectable person, asks whether he is the only sober one, says such claims are not fair, and calls for balance, because overdoing praise provokes people to hate the person praised. He gives the example of someone telling him that al-Yaqoubi's Arabic is as magnificent as pre-Islamic Arabic, which he found far too much. He ends by picking up a comment about Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah, saying he would not call him the current don of Maliki knowledge but that he is certainly a Maliki scholar and a great scholar.", "summary_short": "People cannot be bullied into beliefs, and al-Yaqoubi has rightly not responded to the letter. But his admirers also need balance: claims that he performs miracles or read the Shama'il in four hours go too far and provoke hatred of him.", "answer_start": 691, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-shamail", "label": "the Shama'il [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:karamah", "label": "karama (saintly miracle)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-bin-bayyah", "label": "Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/mLNpcjXYpqM/s/4/"}, {"id": "mLNpcjXYpqM/s/5", "short_id": "2020-04-06-S05", "recording": "mLNpcjXYpqM", "n": 5, "start": 927, "end": 1012, "date": "20200406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How is the letter bullying? Sectarianism by threat of takfir, and nobody's job to expel people from the deen", "question_plain": "Why is demanding that a scholar make takfir a form of bullying?", "summary": "Reading a comment asking how the letter counts as bullying rather than a request for clarity, Mufti Abu Layth answers that it is bullying because it pushes the agenda of sectarianism on the back of a threat: if you do not comply we will declare you a deviant, and he believes some of them are prepared to call al-Yaqoubi a kafir while others would say he is no longer Sunni or outside mainstream Islam, simply because he refuses to comment on certain people's beliefs or to call certain people kafir. He asks who put anybody in charge of that and says such people treat the religion as their father's property, deciding who is in and who is out. Because of this behaviour, he says, people are sick to death of this religion or of any religion, so we need to calm ourselves: the deen is from Allah and not ours to control; we may teach what we believe its main teachings to be, but it is not our duty to throw this person and that person out of the deen until only oneself and one's village are left.", "summary_short": "It is bullying because it pushes a sectarian agenda by threatening to declare al-Yaqoubi a deviant or a kafir for refusing to pronounce on others' beliefs. The deen belongs to Allah, and it is nobody's duty to expel people from it.", "answer_start": 927, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deen", "label": "deen"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/mLNpcjXYpqM/s/5/"}, {"id": "mOfS_0uGn4E/s/1", "short_id": "2023-02-22-S01", "recording": "mOfS_0uGn4E", "n": 1, "start": 8, "end": 535, "date": "20230222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Should scholars condemn a scholar over an alleged libation ritual?", "question_plain": "Should scholars publicly condemn a scholar said to have joined in a libation ritual?", "summary": "After greetings with a caller, the caller says Mufti Abu Layth is thought to hold views on LGBTQ matters that differ from mainstream Muslims and asks why well-known scholars have not refuted scholars in North America and Europe who join hands with the LGBTQ community, naming Daniel Haqiqatjou as one of the few who spoke out. Asked what is meant, the caller refers to Omar Suleiman taking part in a libation ritual, pouring water on the ground, which the caller says has pagan roots. Mufti recounts Omar Suleiman's defence that he went to a protest, did what others did and did not know the ritual's history, and says he does not think people have to condemn him, asking whether pouring water is really a big deal. The caller says he knows it is wrong but ordinary Muslims look to the scholar as a beacon, and that joining hands with gay priests promotes their agenda; Mufti asks whether libation has increased among Muslims and reframes the question as whether Muslims should be anti-gay.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth does not think people have to condemn the scholar; to Mufti, pouring some water at a protest, as the scholar says he did without knowing the ritual's history, is not a big deal.", "answer_start": 312, "questioner": "caller", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "belief/tawhid-and-shirk"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/mOfS_0uGn4E/s/1/"}, {"id": "mOfS_0uGn4E/s/2", "short_id": "2023-02-22-S02", "recording": "mOfS_0uGn4E", "n": 2, "start": 535, "end": 880, "date": "20230222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Should Muslims preach the Quran's view to gay people in America?", "question_plain": "Should Muslims tell gay people what the Quran says about homosexuality?", "summary": "The caller says he is not anti-gay in the sense of violence, which he associates with ignorance, and that people are free to be gay as a matter between them and God, but that Muslims should still preach the Quran's message, as the Bible and the Jewish texts also speak against the act of the people of Lot. Mufti Abu Layth asks whether that means going up to gay people to tell them what the Quran says, and argues that Muslims are a tiny minority in America, so speaking generally about issues in a country means speaking about its norms, and the overwhelming majority of Americans are not Muslim. The caller says the Muslim minority looks to scholars as a source of guidance and that scholars should publicly say what was done was wrong. Mufti says he last spoke to Omar Suleiman about five years ago and does not speak for him, and confirms that the caller accepts Americans' right to be gay, the issue being scholars' support for or silence on the movement.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Americans are overwhelmingly not Muslim, so speaking on issues there means speaking to non-Muslim norms rather than preaching the Quran to them.", "answer_start": 648, "questioner": "caller", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-suleiman", "label": "Omar Suleiman"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:lut", "label": "Lut (Lot)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when speaking generally about issues in a country such as America one speaks about its norms, not its exceptions.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so when you're speaking generally about issues in a country you're going to speak about the Norms not the exceptions", "start": 687}}, "url": "/r/mOfS_0uGn4E/s/2/"}, {"id": "mOfS_0uGn4E/s/3", "short_id": "2023-02-22-S03", "recording": "mOfS_0uGn4E", "n": 3, "start": 880, "end": 1223, "date": "20230222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on diverse views of homosexuality in Islamic history", "question_plain": "Did some Muslim scholars say homosexuality is not haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks the caller what the insecurity is, and the caller says something prohibited in the Quran should not be promoted in the community, adding that Mufti disagrees. Mufti asks where he said that, and explains that his earlier video gave a history of diverse perspectives: a minority said homosexuality was not haram, some were ambivalent and the majority said it was haram, while it is not anyone's job to police people. Mufti says the point of that video was that persecuting people, especially Muslim homosexuals, is unacceptable, and that the diversity exists in Islamic history whether people like it or not. Mufti says that several ulama were bisexual and that many scholars appreciated bisexuality in their poetry, whether or not they practised it, and recalls quoting al-Nawawi [?] saying many boys are more attractive to men than women, which he says acknowledges a tendency without meaning al-Nawawi was gay. The caller apologises for misunderstanding him, and Mufti asks again what the insecurity is.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he described, not endorsed, a minority view that it is not haram; Islamic history holds diverse views, many scholars' poetry shows bisexual appreciation, and persecution is unacceptable.", "answer_start": 993, "questioner": "caller", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "fiqh/sexual-ethics", "arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that many scholars of Islam clearly had an appreciation for bisexuality, whether or not they practised it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "many countless Scholars of Islam uh they they appreciated bisexuality", "start": 1107}}, "url": "/r/mOfS_0uGn4E/s/3/"}, {"id": "mOfS_0uGn4E/s/4", "short_id": "2023-02-22-S04", "recording": "mOfS_0uGn4E", "n": 4, "start": 1223, "end": 1490, "date": "20230222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Media, schools and the double standard on polygamy", "question_plain": "Is there an LGBTQ push in media and schools?", "summary": "The caller says the agenda is being promoted in Muslim society through media and cartoons, and Mufti Abu Layth agrees that there is a disproportionate push on LGBTQ themes in media, such as a quota of gay couples even in children's shows. Mufti says one view is that this is meant to normalise and prevent abuse, while another is that it misrepresents reality. Mufti says he found it disturbing that some UK schools wanted to push sexualisation onto five- and six-year-olds, though he has no problem with telling young children that some have two mothers or two fathers, since that describes reality. Mufti calls it hypocritical that schools cannot equally say that some fathers have two or three wives, which is also reality, especially in Muslim areas.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees there is a disproportionate LGBTQ push in media and objects to sexualising young children, calling it hypocritical that polygamy cannot be described the same way.", "answer_start": 1223, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media", "relationships/parents-and-children/raising-children", "fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:polygamy", "label": "polygamy"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does feel there is a disproportionate push on LGBTQ themes in media.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I do feel there is a disproportional kind of push on uh on all of this stuff", "start": 1223}}, "url": "/r/mOfS_0uGn4E/s/4/"}, {"id": "mOfS_0uGn4E/s/5", "short_id": "2023-02-22-S05", "recording": "mOfS_0uGn4E", "n": 5, "start": 1490, "end": 1721, "date": "20230222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "'Their way of life': Imam Malik on non-Muslim customs and an unnecessary insecurity", "question_plain": "Will gay people around us make Muslims gay?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is a lot of 'wishy-washy' change in society that disturbs people, such as not being allowed to say what a woman is, mentioning Matt Walsh's programme, and the caller agrees. Mufti says people lump homosexuality together with these issues, and on homosexuality cites Imam Malik, who when asked whether Muslims should interfere with Zoroastrian [?] communities that practised incest said that it was their religion, which God tolerated. Mufti notes that incest disturbs people more than homosexuality and that even animals avoid it, citing Jared Diamond's The Third Chimpanzee on mice. Mufti says that if being gay is people's way of life, it is their way of life, that people being gay will not make anyone else gay, and that the fear of it is an unnecessary insecurity, while agreeing that a wider wishy-washy trend is under way.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says people being gay does not make others gay and the fear of it is an unnecessary insecurity; like Imam Malik on others' customs, their way of life is theirs.", "answer_start": 1490, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "belief/salvation-and-non-muslims"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:matt-walsh", "label": "Matt Walsh"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:majus", "label": "Majus (Zoroastrians) [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jared-diamond", "label": "Jared Diamond"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-third-chimpanzee", "label": "The Third Chimpanzee"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the fear that people being gay will make Muslims gay is, in his view, an unnecessary insecurity.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "you know it doesn't I think this is an unnecessary insecurity like some people have like oh my God oh my God we're all going to become gay", "start": 1682}}, "url": "/r/mOfS_0uGn4E/s/5/"}, {"id": "mOfS_0uGn4E/s/6", "short_id": "2023-02-22-S06", "recording": "mOfS_0uGn4E", "n": 6, "start": 1721, "end": 2108, "date": "20230222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Transgender adults, brain studies and protecting children", "question_plain": "Is it okay for adults or children to change gender?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people are being silenced, for example being told not to say that women have babies, and the caller cites a psychologist on television who said transgender women are not women because chromosomes do not change. Mufti agrees chromosomes do not change but describes studies showing regional differences between male and female brains, such as in the thalamus, and cases of gender dysphoria in which the brain correlated with the gender the person transitioned to, while noting regrets in other cases. Mufti says that for an adult who has consulted professionals it is their life, their journey and their choice. Mufti says his worry is children: in an increasingly corporatised industry, children should not be put through it until they can decide for themselves, distinguishing intersex conditions present from birth.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says gender transition is an adult's own choice after professional advice, but children should not be put through it until they can decide for themselves.", "answer_start": 1721, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "fiqh/medical-ethics", "relationships/parents-and-children/raising-children"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says children should not be put through gender transition until they can make the decision for themselves, setting aside intersex conditions.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "you shouldn't put children through this kind of stuff until they can't make a decision for themselves", "start": 2071}}, "url": "/r/mOfS_0uGn4E/s/6/"}, {"id": "mOfS_0uGn4E/s/7", "short_id": "2023-02-22-S07", "recording": "mOfS_0uGn4E", "n": 7, "start": 2108, "end": 2262, "date": "20230222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Should Sunnis preach to Shia about their practices?", "question_plain": "Should Sunnis preach to Shia Muslims about what they get wrong?", "summary": "The caller asks a second question: why scholars do not preach to Shia Muslims about practices he regards as wrong. Mufti Abu Layth says it just turns into argument and sectarian fighting, since people are born into what they are; he is open to discussion but sees many of these as moot points where each side keeps its view. Mufti says it is better to let people walk their own path and, if someone comes with questions, to sit with them and provide answers, but that he is not personally for Sunni-Shia debating because it does no good and only harm.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says no: it only leads to sectarian fighting. Answer people who come asking, but Sunni-Shia debating does no good.", "answer_start": 2184, "questioner": "caller", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is not personally for Sunni-Shia debating because he feels it does no good and only does harm.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I'm not personally for all the kind of Sunni Shia debating thing because I feel it does no good it just does harm", "start": 2222}}, "url": "/r/mOfS_0uGn4E/s/7/"}, {"id": "mOfS_0uGn4E/s/8", "short_id": "2023-02-22-S08", "recording": "mOfS_0uGn4E", "n": 8, "start": 2262, "end": 2407, "date": "20230222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "A duty to preach, or a duty to be an example?", "question_plain": "Is it my duty as a Muslim to preach to others?", "summary": "The caller asks whether preaching is not part of a Muslim's duty, calling Muslims and non-Muslims to Islam. Mufti Abu Layth says there is a lot of misunderstanding around this: Muslims have a duty to be an example, not a duty to preach, and the Quran asks them to be examples of virtue, pillars of the community who help people, give charity and glorify God. Mufti says that if that is called preaching or teaching by example it makes no difference, but confusing it with preaching information makes people judgmental, condemning others to hell and boasting of their own prayers.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims have a duty to be an example, not a duty to preach; turning religion into preaching information makes people judgmental.", "answer_start": 2299, "questioner": "caller", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dawah", "label": "da'wah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims have a duty to be an example, not a duty to preach.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "we have a duty to be an example there's a difference not a duty to preach", "start": 2299}}, "url": "/r/mOfS_0uGn4E/s/8/"}, {"id": "mOfS_0uGn4E/s/9", "short_id": "2023-02-22-S09", "recording": "mOfS_0uGn4E", "n": 9, "start": 2407, "end": 2562, "date": "20230222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Closing thoughts: focus on yourself and be a light", "question_plain": "What should Muslims focus on in confusing times?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth ends the call, saying he has to go and pray, and thanks the caller. Reflecting on the discussion, Mufti says that in confusing times the best thing a person can do is focus on themselves, then their family, and be an example of light, so that others ask why that person is always positive, happy and at peace. Mufti says this is how people came to Islam and was the message of the Prophet, and urges people to worry about inviting and welcoming everyone rather than condemning.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the best thing is to focus on yourself and be an example of light, inviting and welcoming people rather than condemning them.", "answer_start": 2443, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the best possible thing a person can do is focus on themselves and be an example of light.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the best possible thing you could do is focus on yourself be an example of", "start": 2442}}, "url": "/r/mOfS_0uGn4E/s/9/"}, {"id": "mnpGDvjs2nk/s/1", "short_id": "2020-11-15-S01", "recording": "mnpGDvjs2nk", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 161, "date": "20201115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A clip of Shaykh Hassan Ali on the evil eye from loved ones", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the evil eye discussion and plays a clip, partly drowned by music, of Shaykh Hassan Ali. In the clip the shaykh says the evil eye need not come from someone evil and can be given by those who love you, such as parents, grandparents or spouses. He relates that years ago his young son's tongue would stick when speaking after visits to his grandparents' house, and that instead of cutting off the visits he recited remedies that he says scholars before him had tried and tested.", "summary_short": "A played clip in which Shaykh Hassan Ali says the evil eye can come even from loving relatives, with a story about his own son.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hassan-ali", "label": "Shaykh Hassan Ali"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/mnpGDvjs2nk/s/1/"}, {"id": "mnpGDvjs2nk/s/2", "short_id": "2020-11-15-S02", "recording": "mnpGDvjs2nk", "n": 2, "start": 161, "end": 564, "date": "20201115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Quran never mentions the evil eye: tafsir of 'they would almost make you slip'", "question_plain": "Does the Quran mention the evil eye?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people rely on two key verses and on hadith in al-Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Majah and elsewhere, which he says are not authentic and clash with the Quran. He says the Quran never once mentions the evil eye (al-'ayn); it mentions hasad, envy, which is a different word. On the verse that the disbelievers would almost make the Prophet slip with their eyes, he cites Ibn Ashur's tafsir that the usage is metaphorical, like looking daggers at someone, comparable to Shaytan making people slip in another verse. He adds that al-Tha'alibi [?] and al-Zamakhshari give the same first interpretation, enmity expressed in hateful stares, quoting a poem, while mentioning that some linked it to the evil eye.", "summary_short": "No: the Quran mentions envy (hasad) but never the evil eye, and the verse about eyes making the Prophet slip is a metaphor for hateful stares, as Ibn Ashur and others explain.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:68:51", "label": "Quran 68:51 (they would almost make you slip with their eyes)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hasad", "label": "hasad (envy)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-ayn", "label": "al-'ayn (the evil eye)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-tahrir-wa-al-tanwir", "label": "al-Tahrir wa al-Tanwir (Ibn Ashur's tafsir)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:155", "label": "Quran 3:155 (Shaytan caused them to slip) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-thaalibi", "label": "al-Tha'alibi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zamakhshari", "label": "al-Zamakhshari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran has never once mentioned the evil eye, only envy, which is a different word.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the quran has never ever spoken of the evil eye", "start": 197}}, "url": "/r/mnpGDvjs2nk/s/2/"}, {"id": "mnpGDvjs2nk/s/3", "short_id": "2020-11-15-S03", "recording": "mnpGDvjs2nk", "n": 3, "start": 564, "end": 1064, "date": "20201115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How the evil eye was thought to work, and why the Quran is silent", "question_plain": "If the evil eye is real, why doesn't the Quran mention it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a classical explanation of the mechanism: a poison sent from the eye through the air to the body of the one looked at, or envy boiling the humours of the body, in the old Greek medical theory, so that heat emanates from the eyes. He says believers in it place it in the unseen, hold it can afflict even one's loved ones, and attribute to it disease, cancer, death, famine, infant mortality, strokes, loss of beauty and impotence, infants and beautiful women being its main victims, and calls its spread by preachers superstition. Since it is so ubiquitous and unseen, he asks how God could have failed to mention it, noting that Deuteronomy and other ancient scriptures warn about it while the Quran, which says nothing was neglected in the Book, does not. He adds that the belief is among the most widely shared across civilisations and languages, and asks why so many cultures arrived at it.", "summary_short": "The evil eye was believed to be an unseen force causing illness, death and impotence, yet the Quran never mentions it, unlike older scriptures. He finds that silence telling for something said to affect everyone.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ghayb", "label": "ghayb (the unseen)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hassan-ali", "label": "Shaykh Hassan Ali"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:deuteronomy", "label": "Deuteronomy"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:38", "label": "Quran 6:38 (We have not neglected anything in the Book)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/mnpGDvjs2nk/s/3/"}, {"id": "mnpGDvjs2nk/s/4", "short_id": "2020-11-15-S04", "recording": "mnpGDvjs2nk", "n": 4, "start": 1064, "end": 1712, "date": "20201115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The eye as an active organ: symbolism, the 'fascinator' and amulets", "question_plain": "Why did so many cultures believe in the evil eye?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains why so many cultures held the belief: the eye was long seen as an active organ, and in ancient symbolism the eye and mouth were associated with the genitals as sources of life, and hence also of destruction through spells and evil glances. He says that until the sixteenth or seventeenth century people, even Francis Bacon, believed the eye projected rays, and Bacon described envy as an ejaculation from the eye. Citing anthropological essays on the evil eye, he says the belief helped people explain or rationalise sickness, misfortune and loss of crops or animals, with infants and young people especially vulnerable, and that Arabs would hire people thought to have the evil eye, as some tried against the Prophet. He says the evil eye is nonsense with no reality, and describes the amulets that arose to avert it, such as the eye of Horus and the hand of Fatima, and the many luminaries who believed in it, including Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Luther.", "summary_short": "Because people long believed the eye actively shot out rays, and the belief helped explain sudden illness and misfortune. He says the evil eye itself is nonsense.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:francis-bacon", "label": "Francis Bacon"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:thomas-aquinas", "label": "Thomas Aquinas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dante-alighieri", "label": "Dante"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:leonardo-da-vinci", "label": "Leonardo da Vinci"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:martin-luther", "label": "Martin Luther"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the evil eye is nonsense and does not have a reality.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "obviously the evil eye is nonsense it's bs it does not it doesn't have a reality", "start": 1562}}, "url": "/r/mnpGDvjs2nk/s/4/"}, {"id": "mnpGDvjs2nk/s/5", "short_id": "2020-11-15-S05", "recording": "mnpGDvjs2nk", "n": 5, "start": 1712, "end": 2466, "date": "20201115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Extramission, Ibn al-Haytham and Ibn al-Qayyim's 'arrows' of the eye", "question_plain": "Is the evil eye based on science?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if the eye emits rays, it was reasonable to think those rays could harm, and that the intromission theory, that light enters the eye, was first posited by the Muslim scientist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) but did not become mainstream in Muslim literature. He presents Ibn al-Qayyim's widely followed definition, in which the envious viewer fires little arrows at the one looked at, which strike the unprotected and are blocked by protection, and says the imams who teach the evil eye base it on this. Citing a study of the evil eye and the language of distress, he says the belief is a way to explain and cope with suffering, and that intelligent people such as Bacon, Shakespeare and Dante held it because, before germ theory, they explained the inexplicable, as people did with the plague. He says that in antiquity it was regarded as science, not superstition, and that studies by Winer [?] found about half of adults still believe the eye emits something, though it has been shown that the eyes only take in light.", "summary_short": "It rested on the old belief that eyes shoot out rays, which people once took as science; Ibn al-Qayyim described envious 'arrows' from the eye. Ibn al-Haytham and later science showed that eyes only take in light.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-al-haytham", "label": "Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qayyim", "label": "Ibn al-Qayyim [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:francis-bacon", "label": "Francis Bacon"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:william-shakespeare", "label": "William Shakespeare"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dante-alighieri", "label": "Dante"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-khaldun", "label": "Ibn Khaldun"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in antiquity the evil eye was regarded as science, built on the belief that the eyes emit rays, a theory since debunked.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "people were coming from this backdrop that this is how the eyes work so to them this was science", "start": 2389}}, "url": "/r/mnpGDvjs2nk/s/5/"}, {"id": "mnpGDvjs2nk/s/6", "short_id": "2020-11-15-S06", "recording": "mnpGDvjs2nk", "n": 6, "start": 2466, "end": 2668, "date": "20201115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Confirmation bias: reading the evil eye into the Quran", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that people came to Islam already believing the evil eye was science and, through confirmation bias, found it in verses that do not mention it, such as the verse about eyes almost making the Prophet slip, even though many exegetes did not read it that way. He recommends the Urdu tafsir of Abdul Karim Athari, whom he describes as coming from a small, unusually reason-based circle within the Ahl-e-Hadith of India, and says Athari also reads the verse as the disbelievers staring as though to trip the Prophet, before calling him insane.", "summary_short": null, "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:68:51", "label": "Quran 68:51 (they would almost make you slip with their eyes)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Abdul Karim Athari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says people approached the Quran with a confirmation bias, already believing in the evil eye, and so found it in verses that do not mention it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "there is not one verse in the quran that mentions the evil eye but they approach this trying to find it", "start": 2466}}, "url": "/r/mnpGDvjs2nk/s/6/"}, {"id": "mnpGDvjs2nk/s/7", "short_id": "2020-11-15-S07", "recording": "mnpGDvjs2nk", "n": 7, "start": 2668, "end": 3367, "date": "20201115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Surah Yusuf 12:67: Jacob's advice to enter by different gates", "question_plain": "Does Surah Yusuf prove the evil eye is real?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is silly that people cite Surah Yusuf for the evil eye. He retells how Yusuf's brothers came to Egypt for grain, how Yusuf asked them to bring Benjamin and had their original goods slipped back into their bags, and how they persuaded their father to send Benjamin hoping to get double. On verse 67, where Jacob tells them not to enter by one gate, possibly of Memphis or Thebes, while saying he cannot avail them against God's decree, he says many exegetes, among them al-Sam'ani [?], Ibn Ashur and Abdul Karim Athari, explain it as safeguarding them from a plot by blending in rather than as the evil eye. He argues that the evil eye reading makes no sense because they had already been to Egypt and seen the king, that their supposed beauty would have drawn eyes all along the road, and that, like people returning goods they got by mistake, they had reason not to arrive as one conspicuous group.", "summary_short": "No: Jacob told his sons to use different gates for their safety and to avoid drawing attention, not because of the evil eye. They had already been to Egypt, so the evil eye reading makes no sense.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:58-68", "label": "Quran 12:58-68 (Yusuf's brothers in Egypt; Jacob's advice on the gates)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusuf", "label": "Yusuf (Joseph)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yaqub", "label": "Ya'qub (Jacob)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:binyamin", "label": "Binyamin (Benjamin)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-muzaffar-al-samani", "label": "al-Sam'ani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Abdul Karim Athari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Jacob told his sons to split up at the gates to look out for them, not because of the evil eye, which makes no sense since they had already been to Egypt.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "split up because if you are gonna go then go like that because he's trying to obviously look out for them the evil eye makes no sense", "start": 3289}}, "url": "/r/mnpGDvjs2nk/s/7/"}, {"id": "mnpGDvjs2nk/s/8", "short_id": "2020-11-15-S08", "recording": "mnpGDvjs2nk", "n": 8, "start": 3367, "end": 4098, "date": "20201115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The hadith on the evil eye examined", "question_plain": "Are the hadith about the evil eye authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a crucial belief not found in the Quran should be treated as suspect, citing Imam Malik's caution about things found only in hadith. He says the main report, that the eye is real, comes from Abu Hurayra through Abd al-Razzaq from Ma'mar [?], also containing a ban on tattoos that many Malikis do not hold, and cites criticisms of Abd al-Razzaq by al-Daraqutni, Abu Hatim and others. Another chain from Ibn Abbas runs through Wuhayb [?], said to have suffered dementia in old age, and Muslim ibn Ibrahim [?], from whom Imam Ahmad reportedly wrote nothing, and he notes Ibn Abbas spent little time with the Prophet as a boy. He then discusses the report in al-Muwatta and elsewhere of Sahl ibn Hunayf and Amir ibn Rabi'a, in which one admires the other's thigh, the latter falls ill and is cured when the admirer bathes, pointing to its sexual wording, confused versions and a cure nobody practises, and suggests Malik included it to show it was strange or because it was then considered science. He concludes the hadith are baseless, and that the remedies preachers prescribe, such as reciting something 41 times, work only in the mind.", "summary_short": "No: he says the evil eye hadith rest on weak or criticised narrators and odd reports, and a belief so important would have come from many companions and the Quran. He calls them baseless.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:517e74fc", "label": "report: the evil eye is real"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-razzaq-al-sanani", "label": "Abd al-Razzaq al-San'ani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mamar-ibn-rashid", "label": "Ma'mar ibn Rashid [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-daraqutni", "label": "al-Daraqutni [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hatim-al-razi", "label": "Abu Hatim al-Razi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:wuhayb-ibn-khalid", "label": "Wuhayb [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muslim-ibn-ibrahim", "label": "Muslim ibn Ibrahim [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sahl-ibn-hunayf", "label": "Sahl ibn Hunayf"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:amir-ibn-rabia", "label": "Amir ibn Rabi'a"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hassan-ali", "label": "Shaykh Hassan Ali"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith on the evil eye are baseless and all problematic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "it was something that was necessary and we don't find it so the ahadith are baseless they're all problematic", "start": 3993}}, "url": "/r/mnpGDvjs2nk/s/8/"}, {"id": "mnpGDvjs2nk/s/9", "short_id": "2020-11-15-S09", "recording": "mnpGDvjs2nk", "n": 9, "start": 4098, "end": 4331, "date": "20201115", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Surat al-Falaq: refuge from what envy and superstition lead to", "question_plain": "Is Surat al-Falaq about protection from the evil eye?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is a testimony to the Quran's truthfulness, which he finds miraculous, that it never mentions the evil eye even though it was the scientific belief of the age, and instead teaches that what is destined comes from Allah, not from hocus pocus. He says the envier in Surat al-Falaq refers to hasad, envy, not the evil eye: one seeks refuge from what envious people act out in malice, such as sabotaging one's property. Likewise, he says, the nightfall is not evil in itself but in what happens under it, and seeking refuge from those who blow on knots is from the whole superstitious culture associated with it, its sacrifices, harm, anxiety and stress, as Ibn Ashur writes.", "summary_short": "No: it seeks refuge from the harm envious people act out and from the superstitious culture around magic, not from an evil eye. The Quran's silence on the evil eye is, to him, a sign of its truth.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "quran/tafsir/short-surahs"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:113:1-5", "label": "Quran 113:1-5 (Surat al-Falaq)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hasad", "label": "hasad (envy)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in Surat al-Falaq one seeks refuge from the harm envious people act out, not from an evil eye.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's the acting out that you're seeking refuge from", "start": 4175}}, "url": "/r/mnpGDvjs2nk/s/9/"}, {"id": "nZdIoI1JWwM/s/1", "short_id": "2018-04-23-S01", "recording": "nZdIoI1JWwM", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 237, "date": "20180423", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "His mission: reaching Muslims disenfranchised with the faith", "question_plain": "Who is Mufti Abu Layth's message aimed at?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is not part of a sect, Sufi order or group, and that people who learn from him do so of their own goodwill. He says his message is not for the small minority of hardcore practising Muslims but for the majority who do not practise, and especially those who feel the deen is mythology that cannot stand up to modernity or criticism. He says he disagrees with a shaykh [?] who said Muslims cannot do dialogue, and that he intends to show throughout his life that Islam stands the test of reason and will embrace science. He says this is one reason he struggled with the belief in the coming of Jesus, which did not make sense to him, and that he is prepared to discuss it but not at the cost of people losing heart in Islam.", "summary_short": "His message is for the majority of Muslims who do not practise or feel Islam cannot stand up to reason, to show them that it can.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/nZdIoI1JWwM/s/1/"}, {"id": "nndcs2uHoqE/s/1", "short_id": "2019-09-28-S01", "recording": "nndcs2uHoqE", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 458, "date": "20190928", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does questioning hadith undermine the Quran? How the Quran was transmitted", "question_plain": "If some hadith are unreliable, doesn't that make the Quran unreliable too?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not throw away Sahih al-Bukhari but treats it like any other hadith book, judging each hadith on its merits and accepting it if it does not clash with reason, the Quran, the living tradition or an Islamic principle. He says people have sent him clips, including one of a Pakistani scholar whose name the captions garble and one of Dawah Man [?], whom he says is not a scholar, arguing that weakening hadith weakens the Quran because the same people transmitted both. He says those making this argument have not understood how the Quran was transmitted, and calls it cowardly to throw the Quran under the bus to save al-Bukhari. He explains that the Quran was transmitted en masse as part of the living tradition, taught by parents to children and neighbours before any institutionalisation, and that as a recitation with a rhythmic essence it was preserved in memory and recited in prayer and tarawih.", "summary_short": "No: the Quran was passed on en masse as a recited living tradition, so doubts about particular hadith chains do not carry over to it.", "answer_start": 118, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason", "hadith/bukhari"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawah-man", "label": "Dawah Man [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "the living tradition"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tarawih", "label": "tarawih"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says those who argue that weakening hadith weakens the Quran have not truly understood how the Quran was transmitted.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "not truly understood how the Koran was transmitted okay these people who are saying this they have just been institutionalized", "start": 155}}, "url": "/r/nndcs2uHoqE/s/1/"}, {"id": "nndcs2uHoqE/s/2", "short_id": "2019-09-28-S02", "recording": "nndcs2uHoqE", "n": 2, "start": 458, "end": 767, "date": "20190928", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why people fabricated hadith: good intentions, false memories, money and politics", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sets out the motives people have had for fabricating teachings. Some were well-meaning, such as inventing merits of Hajj, with some saying they lied for the Prophet rather than against him; others came from false memories. Others were malicious attempts to corrupt the faith, or vested interests, such as a fabricated hadith on the merits of eating aubergines. He says many teachings were fabricated for political or sectarian ends, to stir uprising against the Umayyad state, which he says many Shia did by pushing the messianic idea of the Mahdi, or to consolidate the state, such as a hadith about a great battle of India appearing when the Umayyads wanted to conquer India. A brief disconnection interrupts the stream.", "summary_short": "Hadith were fabricated for many reasons: pious intentions, false memories, malice, commercial interests, and political and sectarian aims on all sides.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mawdu", "label": "fabrication (mawdu')"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "the Umayyad dynasty"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says some people fabricated teachings with good intentions, saying they lied for the Prophet rather than against him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "believe it or not people have done this it's like some of them used to say that we don't fabricate again the profit we fabricate for the profit", "start": 496}}, "url": "/r/nndcs2uHoqE/s/2/"}, {"id": "nndcs2uHoqE/s/3", "short_id": "2019-09-28-S03", "recording": "nndcs2uHoqE", "n": 3, "start": 767, "end": 1426, "date": "20190928", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why the Quran could not be corrupted like hadith, and the fashion for chains", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks what obstacles someone trying to corrupt the faith would face: an addition to the Quran would have to match its universal style, context and rhythm while it was recited everywhere, and he says the Satanic Verses attempt flopped because it clashed with the overall message, so such an effort offered little return. Hadith, by contrast, were not part of the living tradition and began to be documented about a hundred years after the Prophet, when many false hadith were already circulating, and one only had to say 'the Prophet said'. He says the Quran was never transmitted through a sole transmitter but en masse, while chains were documented from a decade or two after Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz and scrutinised well but not infallibly, so a hadith that clashes with the Quran or Islamic principles is abandoned. Comparing it to the spread of 'stories' across social media apps, he says chains became a fashion that spread to grammar, poetry, fiqh and the Quran as something decorative, which he values as a collector's item, and that later people naively assumed the Quran was transmitted only through chains.", "summary_short": "Corrupting the Quran was next to impossible because it was recited en masse everywhere; hadith, written down a century later, were easy to fabricate, and chains for the Quran came later as a fashion.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/collections-and-compilation", "hadith/mutawatir-and-epistemology"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:gharaniq", "label": "the 'Satanic Verses' (gharaniq) incident"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:umar-ibn-abd-al-aziz", "label": "Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isnad", "label": "isnad (chain of transmission)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijazah", "label": "ijazah (authorisation to teach, with a chain)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "the living tradition"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran was never transmitted through a sole transmitter but taught en masse, so problematising hadith does not problematise the Quran.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "if you problematize hadith then you by default problematize the Quran no you don't at all the Quran was never transmitted through a soul transmitter it was just taught on mass", "start": 1029}}, "url": "/r/nndcs2uHoqE/s/3/"}, {"id": "noE0Z72gUbs/s/1", "short_id": "2019-07-18-S01", "recording": "noE0Z72gUbs", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 152, "date": "20190718", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Al-Suyuti on sex: al-Ghazali's orgasm quote and the two worldly pleasures", "question_plain": "What is al-Suyuti's book about sex?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a garbled chat question about a book on sexology by Imam al-Suyuti. He says al-Suyuti is strange in some things and has a section, possibly published as a separate booklet, on the different names for the penis. He describes al-Suyuti commenting on al-Ghazali's statement that the pleasures of paradise are hidden from this world and that the closest pleasure to them is orgasm, and says that, though he disagrees with al-Ghazali on many things, he cannot object to him on that point. He then relates al-Suyuti's quote that the pleasures of this world can be summarised as two, horse riding and sex, with al-Suyuti commenting that this is correct.", "summary_short": "Al-Suyuti wrote about sex, including a section on names for the penis, and endorsed a saying that the two greatest worldly pleasures are horse riding and sex. Mufti Abu Layth agrees with al-Ghazali that orgasm is the closest worldly pleasure to those of paradise.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["relationships/marriage/intimacy", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jannah", "label": "jannah (Paradise)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he cannot object to al-Ghazali's point that the closest worldly pleasure to the pleasures of paradise is orgasm.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the pleasures of paradise is an orgasm I totally I cannot object to your mama has early on that point", "start": 74}}, "url": "/r/noE0Z72gUbs/s/1/"}, {"id": "noE0Z72gUbs/s/2", "short_id": "2019-07-18-S02", "recording": "noE0Z72gUbs", "n": 2, "start": 152, "end": 274, "date": "20190718", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Banter with the chat after the al-Suyuti answer", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth jokes that if he sat with scholars like these he would have their darkest secrets out within an hour, saying people tend to open up their secrets in front of him. He responds light-heartedly to chat comments about the previous answer and tells a viewer who did not get the joke not to worry. He ends with a joke he shares with friends that only a couple of men they know are 'hope for humanity'.", "summary_short": "Light-hearted banter with viewers after the al-Suyuti answer, with no ruling given.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/noE0Z72gUbs/s/2/"}, {"id": "oAG-F3hxCDY/s/1", "short_id": "2023-05-09-S01", "recording": "oAG-F3hxCDY", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 378, "date": "20230509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "A convert facing doubts after the first high of faith", "question_plain": "I'm a new Muslim and my faith has crashed after the first high. What should I do?", "summary": "A caller who recently converted to Islam from a non-religious background says they went through a very high iman phase, then hit a brick wall and have had heavy doubts, intellectual ones and others caused by the lack of kindness and empathy of some YouTube dawah figures, and thanks Mufti Abu Layth for the reason and kindness of his channel. Mufti says he appreciates it and that life and faith are journeys with speed bumps and hurdles. He explains that embracing a faith brings an energy that runs with a person but is temporary, so a burnout is inevitable, and the hope is that while it lasts a person immerses themselves and learns, like a booster pack that takes a rocket into orbit, otherwise there is turbulence when it drops. Mufti says the caller's recognition of compassion and kindness is the core of Islam, which in a reductionist nutshell comes down to two things in a verse of the Quran: justice, so that people receive what they are entitled to, and kindness and compassion.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the first energy of faith always burns out, so the aim is to learn and live the faith while it lasts; at its core Islam is justice and kindness.", "answer_start": 151, "questioner": "caller", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/converts-and-newcomers", "wellbeing/resilience-and-hardship"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman (faith)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dawah", "label": "dawah"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the energy that comes with embracing a faith is temporary, so a burnout is inevitable.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the thing about that energy is it is it has a kind of temporality about it it has a uh it's not never-ending it comes for a certain set period there will be a burnout yeah it's inevitable", "start": 188}}, "url": "/r/oAG-F3hxCDY/s/1/"}, {"id": "oAG-F3hxCDY/s/2", "short_id": "2023-05-09-S02", "recording": "oAG-F3hxCDY", "n": 2, "start": 378, "end": 604, "date": "20230509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Misplaced dawah zeal and the Prophet's gentleness", "question_plain": "Was the Prophet harsh with people?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the caller is right that some dawah figures are harsh, and that he refrains from that kind of dawah because, although their intentions and love for the faith may be good, their efforts can be misplaced into showing Islam is strong by putting others down. He says the Prophet lived in a warrior society and stood his ground and fought when pressed, but was not a figure of bravado walking around with a sword. Mufti describes the Prophet as so soft with people and so attentive when speaking to them that one man thought he was the Prophet's closest friend. He says the Prophet did not throw his weight around, since intimidation works only through fear, and refers to an assassination attempt on the Prophet he has discussed elsewhere as showing the same nature.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet was soft and attentive with people and came from mercy, unlike harsh dawah that puts others down.", "answer_start": 378, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dawah", "label": "dawah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet did not come from intimidation but from mercy and compassion for the world.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "even if they do work they work from a fear angle an intimidation the prophet came from a mercy a compassion for the world", "start": 526}}, "url": "/r/oAG-F3hxCDY/s/2/"}, {"id": "oAG-F3hxCDY/s/3", "short_id": "2023-05-09-S03", "recording": "oAG-F3hxCDY", "n": 3, "start": 604, "end": 789, "date": "20230509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mercy and firmness in balance: the Prophet kissing children and riding out at night", "question_plain": "How did the Prophet balance gentleness and strength?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people speak today of a balance of masculine and feminine energies, and that the Prophet was secure in himself, kind and compassionate. He relates that the Arabs thought the Prophet's kissing his children was weakness, that a man said he had several children and had kissed none, and that the Prophet replied that whoever does not show mercy cannot expect mercy from God. Mufti then relates a narration he places in Sahih Muslim: people on the outskirts of Madinah, frightened by a loud sound before dawn, came out of their homes and saw the Prophet returning on a horse without a saddle, having already gone to check for their safety. He says this shows compassion joined with firmness when the time comes, for people's well-being and not as intimidation, and calls such hadith mesmerisingly beautiful.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet was tender, kissing his children, yet firm when safety demanded, riding out alone at night to check on a frightening sound.", "answer_start": 604, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah", "relationships/masculinity-and-gender-roles", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:cdce764b", "label": "report: the prophet kissed his children; a man said he had not kissed any of his and was told whoever shows no mercy is shown none"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3530749e", "label": "report: the prophet rode out on a horse without a saddle to check a loud noise at night and returned (Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet combined compassion with firmness, being firm for the well-being of people and not in an intimidating way.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not about you have the compassion but where the time comes a person is firm firm for the well-being of people not in a thugly intimidation kind of way", "start": 750}}, "url": "/r/oAG-F3hxCDY/s/3/"}, {"id": "oAG-F3hxCDY/s/4", "short_id": "2023-05-09-S04", "recording": "oAG-F3hxCDY", "n": 4, "start": 789, "end": 1173, "date": "20230509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why religious debates bring out the ego", "question_plain": "Why do religious debates make people so defensive?", "summary": "The caller says such hadith are hidden gems, and that in religious arguments people naturally become harsh because they feel vulnerable to being wrong; in their own high-iman phase they became defensive and lost a sense of humanity whenever challenged. Mufti Abu Layth replies that the Quran permits debate only in the best manner, and that people seldom accept truths in debates, citing the backfire effect, by which people double down. He says he told someone he does not want to do debates, only conversations on podcasts where people can disagree, because he knows his ego will kick in and it becomes about overpowering the other person. Mufti says that after some twenty-four years of debating he finds himself excelling under pressure, which is a blessing but gets wrapped up with the ego, since debating is about wit and recall on the spot rather than knowledge. He concludes that this is not healthy and not what iman is about, and that conversation and discussion are better.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says debates rarely change minds and feed the ego, so he prefers conversations where people can disagree.", "answer_start": 907, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "wellbeing/self-esteem-ego-and-confidence"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:backfire-effect", "label": "the backfire effect"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman (faith)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says debating is so wrapped up in the ego that it is not healthy and is not what iman is about.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's just something which you know maybe some people have it some people don't but it is so wrapped up in the ego that it's not healthy and it's not what Iman is about", "start": 1134}}, "url": "/r/oAG-F3hxCDY/s/4/"}, {"id": "oAG-F3hxCDY/s/5", "short_id": "2023-05-09-S05", "recording": "oAG-F3hxCDY", "n": 5, "start": 1173, "end": 1373, "date": "20230509", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Advice to a new convert: many chapters to come, don't sweat it", "question_plain": "How do I stop worrying about the ups and downs of my faith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the caller, invites them to stay in touch, and says they have many chapters of life still to unfold. He tells them to hold on to the rope they are holding, the kindness within Islam, which he calls the rope of God, and not to worry about the turbulence, which is all part of the journey. Mufti says they may want to learn a lot or slow down at times, and should go with the flow without anxiously questioning their faith. He says some people only appreciate their faith when something hits them in life and it rises as a bedrock to hold them, and that the caller may be in chapter three of their story while the meaning becomes clear only later.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth tells the convert not to worry about turbulence in faith, which is part of the journey; faith often shows its worth later as a bedrock in hard times.", "answer_start": 1173, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "answer_to_specific_questioner", "speakers": ["host", "questioner"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/converts-and-newcomers", "wellbeing/tawakkul-and-trust"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman (faith)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth tells the caller not to sweat the turbulence in their faith, saying it is all part of the journey.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "don't just just just don't worry don't sweat it don't don't you know things there will be turbulence here and there it's all part of the journey", "start": 1244}}, "url": "/r/oAG-F3hxCDY/s/5/"}, {"id": "oXTsV9fn3zE/s/1", "short_id": "2019-12-12-S01", "recording": "oXTsV9fn3zE", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 160, "date": "20191212", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Assessment of Mohammed Hijab and his deliberate aggression in debates", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Mohammed Hijab's aggressive debating style?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives his thoughts on Mohammed Hijab and the dawah scene he belongs to, saying first that his opinion may change and that he does not follow him closely. His present assessment is that Hijab is intelligent, articulate, clearly passionate and shows a maturity of thought. He then describes a clip he was sent in which Hijab, asked about shouting at and speaking down to atheist and Christian interlocutors in recent dialogues, said he does so on purpose because Allah says believers should be harsh against those who challenge Islam and dominate them. Mufti says he is trying to give Hijab an exit in case he did not mean it that way, but that if that is what he meant it is utterly nonsensical and unacceptable, and that it is not true that Allah teaches this.", "summary_short": "Mohammed Hijab is intelligent, articulate and shows maturity of thought, but deliberately shouting at and dominating opponents on the claim that Allah commands harshness towards those who challenge Islam is, if that is what he meant, nonsensical and unacceptable.", "answer_start": 2, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dawah", "label": "dawah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oXTsV9fn3zE/s/1/"}, {"id": "oXTsV9fn3zE/s/2", "short_id": "2019-12-12-S02", "recording": "oXTsV9fn3zE", "n": 2, "start": 160, "end": 393, "date": "20191212", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The verse on not loving those who oppose Allah: context, not a ban on friendship", "question_plain": "Does the Quran forbid Muslims from being friends with non-Muslims who challenge Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up the verse Hijab relied on, that those who believe in Allah and His Messenger will not be found loving those who oppose Him. He explains that the verb is the third, reciprocal form of the root of love, expressing an overwhelming mutual love, and reports Hijab's reading that one cannot be friends with anyone who challenges Islam in any way, such as an atheist questioning its validity. He says the verse is definitely not saying that: everyone who is not a Muslim challenges Islam at some level, just as his own lifestyle denies Hinduism or Sikhism without open hostility, and non-Muslims in the Prophet's lifetime who were not at war were not necessarily happy with Islam either. He says the verse was revealed when the non-Muslims were forming a confederation of tribes to attack the Muslims while some Muslims still had ties to those tribes, so Allah was saying that no true believer would hold that tribe's interests above the Muslims'. He adds that since Muslims may marry Christians and Jews there must be love or at least friendship with them, so saying one must only be harsh against non-Muslims is utterly unacceptable.", "summary_short": "The verse about not loving those who oppose Allah was revealed when tribes were confederating to attack the Muslims and concerns loyalty to them, not friendship with non-Muslims. Permission to marry Christians and Jews shows love and friendship with non-Muslims are allowed.", "answer_start": 160, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:58:22", "label": "Quran 58:22 (you will not find believers loving those who oppose Allah and His Messenger) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mawadda", "label": "mawadda (mutual love)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:context-of-revelation", "label": "reading a verse in the context of its revelation"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the verse that believers will not be found loving those who oppose Allah and His Messenger was revealed about Muslims who kept ties with tribes confederating to attack the Muslims, and that it does not forbid friendship with non-Muslims, as the permission to marry Christians and Jews shows.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this verse was revealed at a time when Muslims were being attacked and they and the non-muslims were forming allies and a confederation of different tribes to attack the Muslims", "start": 308}}, "url": "/r/oXTsV9fn3zE/s/2/"}, {"id": "oXTsV9fn3zE/s/3", "short_id": "2019-12-12-S03", "recording": "oXTsV9fn3zE", "n": 3, "start": 393, "end": 472, "date": "20191212", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hijab's Salafi standpoint and why Salafis borrow Ash'ari and Maturidi arguments", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth say Salafis cannot debate atheists without borrowing Ash'ari arguments?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he hopes the remark was a blunder that Hijab did not think through, and repeats that he sees maturity of thought in him and is hopeful for years to come. He says that for now Hijab argues from a very Salafi standpoint, and that Salafis in all honesty cannot stand a chance in front of thinking people such as atheists, because their anthropomorphic way of looking at things was never a tradition of argumentation. He says that when people of a Salafi background argue they use Ash'ari and Maturidi arguments, since those were the schools that historically argued for theology in the Muslim sciences, whereas the Hanbalis were literalist and textualist people.", "summary_short": "Salafis argue from a standpoint that cannot hold its own against atheists, so Salafi-background debaters end up using Ash'ari and Maturidi arguments. The Hanbalis were literalists, not the theologians of the tradition.", "answer_start": 393, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oXTsV9fn3zE/s/3/"}, {"id": "oXTsV9fn3zE/s/4", "short_id": "2019-12-12-S04", "recording": "oXTsV9fn3zE", "n": 4, "start": 472, "end": 649, "date": "20191212", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Al-wala wal-bara: loving and hating for the sake of God as a Wahhabi invention", "question_plain": "Is al-wala wal-bara, loving and hating for the sake of Allah, part of Islam?", "summary": "Finishing the point that the Hanbalis were harsh but never geniuses of philosophy or theology, Mufti Abu Layth says the idea of loving and hating for the sake of God, al-wala wal-bara, does not exist in the tradition and is a Wahhabi invention that spread through mass advertising, petroleum money and glossy literature until everyone had heard the term. He says it is mainly a Hanbali and Wahhabi notion on which Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab based his whole movement and insurgency, using it as a justification to kill other Muslims, and that if one checks, al-wala wal-bara is written about only by Saudi, Gulf and Wahhabi scholars. He allows that one might extract such words from other contexts, but says nobody spoke of it as a belief construct. He notes that the Quran says Allah does not like disbelief or the plot of the disbelievers, and declares that Allah and His Messenger are free of association with those who broke the covenant, and says this is what bara'a means in essence, a detachment of association, not hatred. He concludes that the doctrine of loving and hating for the sake of God is an innovation and nothing but Salafi and Wahhabi propaganda, and tells viewers not to buy into it.", "summary_short": "The doctrine of loving and hating for the sake of God (al-wala wal-bara) is a Wahhabi invention spread with Gulf money and not part of the tradition. The Quranic bara'a means detachment of association, not hatred.", "answer_start": 472, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:al-wala-wal-bara", "label": "al-wala wal-bara (loyalty and disavowal)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bara", "label": "bara'a (disavowal, detachment of association)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-abd-al-wahhab", "label": "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:9:1-3", "label": "Quran 9:1-3 (a declaration of bara'a from Allah and His Messenger towards those who broke the covenant) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bidah", "label": "bid'ah (innovation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the doctrine of loving and hating for the sake of God, al-wala wal-bara, does not exist in the tradition but is a Wahhabi innovation written about only by Saudi, Gulf and Wahhabi scholars, and that the Quranic bara'a means detachment of association rather than hatred.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "for the sake of God is it's an innovation in Islam and it is nothing but kind of selfie stroke Wahhabi propaganda", "start": 618}}, "url": "/r/oXTsV9fn3zE/s/4/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/1", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S01", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 194, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: sound trouble and welcoming Lupe Fiasco to MindTrap", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The stream opens with checks on whether the audio is coming through, and Mufti Abu Layth jokes that viewers could not hear the guest's voice of guidance. He introduces Lupe Fiasco as an award-winning, internationally acclaimed artist and a man of profound wisdom. The guest says he is honoured to be on MindTrap, that he has watched a few episodes and religiously watches Mufti's shorts from the library for his 'daily dose of fear', and Mufti says he is deeply honoured.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: after sound checks Mufti Abu Layth introduces his guest, the rapper Lupe Fiasco.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/1/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/2", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S02", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 2, "start": 194, "end": 412, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "What does 'Wasalu' mean? A name and being born Muslim", "question_plain": "What does Lupe Fiasco's name Wasalu mean, and how was he raised?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the guest's first name, Wasalu, comes from the Arabic root wasala, to connect. The guest says his father named him after an army friend, that he was told it means warrior but has never confirmed that in any language, and that he has also heard it is a place in Africa and heard it in a song in a restaurant. Mufti suggests it means to connect, and the guest agrees he is often the middle man. He says his family are American descendants of enslaved people, not African immigrants; his parents converted to Islam and met at the mosque, so he was born Muslim, saying that this life chose him.", "summary_short": "The guest says he has never confirmed what his name Wasalu means; Mufti Abu Layth suggests the Arabic 'to connect'. Born to convert parents, he says he was born Muslim.", "answer_start": 194, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "society/converts-and-newcomers"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/2/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/3", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S03", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 3, "start": 412, "end": 875, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Childhood: martial arts, chess, classical music and the clarinet", "question_plain": "What was Lupe Fiasco's childhood like?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about his disciplined upbringing. The guest describes his father, a military man, hospital engineer and musician who played bagpipes, African drums and other instruments and ran martial arts schools across Chicago, so that the family business was martial arts, which he did from the age of three, alongside Islam, music, technology and science, all in the hood. He says he did theatre as a sound technician, academic decathlon and chess club, and that he stepped away from chess partly because of the hadith likening it to bathing in pig's blood. Asked how this fits the stereotype of the hood, he says these are just activities, describes listening to classical music, jazz and Benny Goodman as a child, and tells the story, which he says may not all be true, that he became a rapper after the school band told him it was too late to learn the clarinet.", "summary_short": "The guest describes growing up in Chicago in a family of martial arts, music and engineering, giving up chess over a hadith, and turning to rap when he could not learn the clarinet.", "answer_start": 412, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "wellbeing/personal-stories", "fiqh/entertainment/music"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:00bc4106", "label": "report: whoever plays nardashir is like one who dips his hand in the flesh and blood of a pig (cited on air as about chess) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/3/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/4", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S04", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 4, "start": 875, "end": 1142, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "From rocket science to a record deal: the guest's career path", "question_plain": "How did Lupe Fiasco go from science to rap?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether he could see his career coming. The guest says he meant to be a scientist, going to an aviation camp, launching model rockets with his father and doing robotics, but that he was never good at maths. He says he also told stories and did martial arts, and that he had a real professional opportunity in rap while still in high school, graduating in 2000 and signing his first record deal later that year. He says he fell into what he found himself doing every day, writing raps and thinking about words.", "summary_short": "The guest says he wanted to be a rocket scientist but struggled with maths, and signed a record deal straight out of high school.", "answer_start": 914, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "wellbeing/personal-stories"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/4/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/5", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S05", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 5, "start": 1142, "end": 1525, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Conscious rap, being real, and working hard for words", "question_plain": "Did Lupe Fiasco's way with words come naturally?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the guest is known as a conscious rapper who wanted a message, and asks whether words come to him naturally. The guest says he went down the sex, drugs and rock and roll path too, and that his social world ranged from gangs and nerds to imams and sex workers, so he will not pretend to have been a saint; Mufti says what comes across is that he is real and not sanctimonious, citing his first album Food & Liquor. On words, the guest compares himself to Ronaldo, who had to work, rather than the natural Messi: after school he copied words from magazine covers at the pharmacy and made himself put them into raps, building lists of words, then metaphors and similes, until it became natural.", "summary_short": "The guest says words did not come naturally: he trained himself by copying words from magazine covers into raps until metaphors and images came easily.", "answer_start": 1180, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas/language-and-semiotics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/5/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/6", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S06", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 6, "start": 1525, "end": 1993, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Thinking in words or images? Semiotics, shapes and alien abductions", "question_plain": "Do we think in words or in images?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says psychologists debate whether thought is in words or images, since infants think iconically. The guest says that, having become a master rapper, he turned to linguistics, semiotics and rhetoric to understand what he was doing, and argues that words are refined shapes and that the world itself is a text, so that buildings could serve as an alphabet. He tells of once believing he had been abducted by aliens and recounts the theory that the big-headed alien figure is a fuzzy early memory of one's mother leaning over the crib, and Mufti links this to the stage of ego development described by psychoanalysts. Mufti says words, though expansive, are equally reductive, since expressing something profound means limiting it to words, and that most communication is non-verbal.", "summary_short": "The guest argues that shapes are more fundamental than words or pictures; Mufti Abu Layth says words are also reductive, forcing profound things into limited form.", "answer_start": 1603, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas/language-and-semiotics", "wellbeing/islamic-psychology"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/6/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/7", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S07", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 7, "start": 1993, "end": 2187, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Storytelling as minds syncing, and consciousness as the ruh", "question_plain": "Is the soul the same thing as consciousness?", "summary": "The guest says that telling a story transfers one's mind into someone else's, so that for the length of the story the listener's brain comes to resemble the storyteller's, a kind of syncing that is telepathic without the 'hoodoo voodoo'. Mufti Abu Layth says he has often said he feels consciousness, or the mind linked to it, is synonymous with the ruh [?], and that there is a connection, perhaps weak, between people, citing stories of relatives far apart who suddenly sense that something is wrong, which he says are above probability. He then asks the guest for his thoughts on the soul.", "summary_short": "The guest describes storytelling as a syncing of minds; Mufti Abu Layth says he feels consciousness is synonymous with the ruh and links people weakly at a distance.", "answer_start": 2108, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas/narrative-and-story"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh", "label": "ruh [?] (captioned 'rule')"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/7/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/8", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S08", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 8, "start": 2187, "end": 2537, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest on the soul: born Muslim, many faiths, still searching", "question_plain": "What does Lupe Fiasco think the soul is?", "summary": "The guest says he was born Muslim but not raised Muslim, attending a family friend's church as well as Friday prayers in mosques with different communities, and watching a Chicago mosque change over the years, once displaying a picture of Elijah Muhammad and later growing stricter. He says Zen Buddhism through martial arts, Christian and Jewish friends and travel showed him many interpretations, which did not make him abandon Islam but showed him the potential for variation, as do teachers such as Suhaib Webb. He says he is still floating and has not landed, and that his mind tells him the soul is a title for an accumulation of functions in the body, with relationships to radiation, vibration and quantum processes, before concluding that he is comfortable with 'I don't know'.", "summary_short": "The guest says exposure to many faiths has left him still searching, and that he thinks of the soul as a name for many functions of the body, holding his 'I don't know' comfortably.", "answer_start": 2187, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:elijah-muhammad", "label": "Elijah Muhammad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:suhaib-webb", "label": "Suhaib Webb"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jumuah", "label": "Jumu'ah"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/8/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/9", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S09", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 9, "start": 2537, "end": 2615, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Faith as a lifelong journey, not a fixed mould", "question_plain": "Is it normal for faith to keep changing over a lifetime?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth responds that being on a journey and still absorbing things is what faith and life ought to be. He says people expect that adhering to a religion means fixed codes with little room to move, whereas it is the journey of a human being to discover God. He says he sees iman not as a static mould that people want to fit onto everybody but as an organic journey that will go here and there, including times of not knowing.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says faith is a lifelong journey and iman an organic process, not a fixed mould to be fitted onto everyone.", "answer_start": 2537, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/9/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/10", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S10", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 10, "start": 2615, "end": 3154, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Religion and the state in China: hell money and spiritual pollution", "question_plain": "How does the Chinese state deal with religion?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether institutionalised religion has been hijacked. The guest says Islam's debates are interesting but repeat old ones, and that China's interface with religion is the cutting edge. He describes seeing offerings burned outside a temple in Singapore, learning that paper money, houses, cars, gadgets and even paper dolls are burned to send to the dead, an industry missionaries called 'hell money', and reading that during a hugely popular Chinese singing show people burned dolls of contestants. He says the Chinese government cracked down on such modern offerings, relating this to the 1980s Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign, and notes that this bears on Xinjiang and Muslims today.", "summary_short": "The guest describes Chinese paper offerings burned for the dead, a government crackdown on their modern forms, and the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign as examples of the state managing religion.", "answer_start": 2647, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:anti-spiritual-pollution-campaign-1983", "label": "the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign (China, 1980s)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:chinese-communist-party", "label": "Chinese Communist Party"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/10/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/11", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S11", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 11, "start": 3154, "end": 3465, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Legislating reincarnation: China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama", "question_plain": "Why does China try to control who becomes the Dalai Lama?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says China is an enigma, without a state religion yet deeply superstitious, citing feng shui and lucky numbers. The guest says the Chinese government created policy to legislate reincarnation in Tibet, and explains the process of finding a new Dalai Lama through signs and tests of children with his possessions, which he says the government seeks to control so as to install a Dalai Lama friendly to it, a spiritual coup d'etat. He asks what a supposedly atheist state demands of religious functionaries, and says pieces of the same thing appear in Pakistan, America and elsewhere, wherever a ruling class uses religion to promote itself and capture minds.", "summary_short": "The guest says China's attempt to control the Dalai Lama's reincarnation shows a state using religion, something he sees in pieces in Muslim countries and elsewhere.", "answer_start": 3192, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dalai-lama", "label": "the Dalai Lama"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:chinese-communist-party", "label": "Chinese Communist Party"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/11/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/12", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S12", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 12, "start": 3465, "end": 3736, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Psychedelics, alcohol and the 'medicinal line'", "question_plain": "Are psychedelics like mushrooms and DMT haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks for the guest's thoughts on psychedelics such as mushrooms and DMT, mentioning that he has a video saying psychedelics are not haram. The guest says his mother drank and smoked, that he bucketed all such substances with alcohol, so he has never drunk or smoked or experimented, and that he is still on the fence about their ethics. Mufti distinguishes intoxicants used to numb people from curiosity about discovering the realm; the guest says he looks at it along a medicinal line, noting that many medicines start in nature, and expects his first cannabis brownie for his arthritis will be memorable. Mufti jokes that he tried to tempt the fasting guest to break his fast before the stream.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has a video saying psychedelics are not haram; the guest says he has never drunk or used drugs and judges such substances by a medicinal line.", "answer_start": 3504, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances/psychedelics", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/12/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/13", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S13", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 13, "start": 3736, "end": 4204, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A Muslim in the music industry: religion and the actions of people", "question_plain": "Can a Muslim work in the music industry and keep their faith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks how the guest has navigated faith in an industry said to take people's souls. The guest says he gets combative, comparing the music business with madrasa training that, in some cases he describes, produces people who memorise the Quran yet go on to hurt others; he says this is not the norm but is part of it. He says there are Muslims, Jews and Christians throughout the music business, that religion needs to be separated from the actions of people, and that someone in music may do more good than someone who only waits at the mosque for iftar, recounting being duped by a man at a mosque. Mufti says this is the struggle many ordinary people have with religious institutions that do not seem real to them, and that inspiring people through poetry and music in a way they can relate to is more powerful than simply telling them to go to the mosque and pray.", "summary_short": "The guest says religion should be judged apart from the actions of its followers in any industry; Mufti Abu Layth says relatable poetry and music inspire people more than being told to go to the mosque.", "answer_start": 3776, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madrasa", "label": "madrasa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hafiz", "label": "hafiz"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/13/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/14", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S14", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 14, "start": 4204, "end": 4555, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Poets at the time of the Prophet, and a deen that complements life", "question_plain": "Did everyone at the time of the Prophet accept Islam without questions?", "summary": "The guest says he uses Ramadan to study religion, recalling that as a young man reading the Quran felt like God threatening him personally. He describes a study he is reading of poets who lived from the jahiliyya into Islam, who he says were somewhat agnostic about it and criticised the restraint placed on the young and on freedom of expression, a society of shame but not guilt. He says he does not believe everyone at the time of the Prophet had no critiques or problems the spiritual could not solve, and that people then, as now, sought compromises to live right by God while still being sensory human beings. Mufti Abu Layth says he has often said that the deen ought to complement one's life and not complicate it, and that institutionalisation over the centuries has turned it into a list of don'ts that has lost its spirit.", "summary_short": "The guest says early Muslims, including poets, had real critiques; Mufti Abu Layth says the deen should complement life rather than complicate it.", "answer_start": 4204, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters", "history/pre-islamic-arabia", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jahiliyya", "label": "jahiliyya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deen", "label": "deen"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/14/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/15", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S15", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 15, "start": 4555, "end": 5022, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A heretic poet's tour of paradise, and the guest's album The Cool", "question_plain": "What inspired the story of Lupe Fiasco's album The Cool?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts a classical poet [?] accused of heresy who wrote a work [?] in which a protagonist [?] sneaks into paradise and meets people he did not expect, including pre-Islamic poets such as al-A'sha [?], who say God favoured them for poems expressing humanity; he says it went on to inspire Dante's Divine Comedy. He links it to the guest's character in The Cool, who reaches heaven and is sent back. The guest says the story began on his first album, inspired by Michael Jackson's Thriller and the zombie genre, with a hustler, the Streets personified as a woman, and the Game as a demonic figure; the hustler dies and digs himself out of his grave, echoing the Day of Resurrection, only to find the world has passed him by. He adds that libations poured out by his friends brought him back, and that his record Drogas Wave imagines enslaved Africans thrown from slave ships surviving underwater to sink slave ships.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth describes a classical tale of a poet's journey through paradise; the guest explains the resurrection story behind his album The Cool and the slave-ship myth of Drogas Wave.", "answer_start": 4672, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas/narrative-and-story", "belief/afterlife"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-al-ala-al-maarri", "label": "Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri [?] (described, not named on air)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:risalat-al-ghufran", "label": "Risalat al-Ghufran [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-asha", "label": "al-A'sha [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dante-alighieri", "label": "Dante Alighieri"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:michael-jackson", "label": "Michael Jackson"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/15/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/16", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S16", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 16, "start": 5022, "end": 5335, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is humanity's morality improving or declining?", "question_plain": "Is humanity becoming more or less moral?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether, after decades of rapid technological change, humanity is on a moral incline or decline. The guest says he does not really trust history but it is all we have, and asks what conditions set the tone for morality through crisis, plenty, famine and disruption, and what happens when archaic social strategies are applied to an era that has passed. He says morality 'gets made day of': each person can treat others differently each morning, adjusting others' ethics for a while before it resets, as it has since the beginning and even in the animal kingdom. He concludes there is no up or down and no consistent definition of morality, and Mufti says he agrees.", "summary_short": "The guest says morality is remade daily, with no overall rise or fall and no consistent definition; Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees.", "answer_start": 5062, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/16/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/17", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S17", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 17, "start": 5335, "end": 5795, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Intrusive and blasphemous thoughts in prayer, and what the jinn are", "question_plain": "Do obscene or blasphemous thoughts during prayer ruin my salah?", "summary": "The guest asks Mufti Abu Layth about his salah: he says he once had to overcome being obsessive about wudu and the number of times he did things, and now obscene words or blasphemous thoughts come into his mind while he prays correctly, so that he feels he is not present, wants to start over, and even questions reciting Surat al-Nas because he does not believe in jinn. Mufti says that the fact he is conscientiously checking himself is the greatest sign it is not something to worry about, citing a hadith in which companions said they had thoughts too horrendous to express and the Prophet called that pure faith. He says that the word jinn in the Quran just means the unseen, that the popular idea of demons possessing people is folklore passed down the generations, and that questioning such things shows an interactive relationship with the text. He advises not being hard on oneself and dispelling such thoughts, noting that many people ask him about this, including OCD with wudu.", "summary_short": "Intrusive or blasphemous thoughts in prayer are not a reason to worry: noticing them is a sign of faith, as a hadith says. Mufti Abu Layth adds that jinn in the Quran means the unseen and possession stories are folklore.", "answer_start": 5489, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["wellbeing/religious-guilt-and-scrupulosity", "fiqh/prayer/conditions-and-validity", "belief/unseen-beings/jinn-possession"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salah", "label": "salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:waswasa", "label": "waswasa"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:114:1-6", "label": "Quran 114 (Surat al-Nas)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:55e8eba1", "label": "report: that is clear faith (unresolved; said of thoughts too horrendous to express)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/17/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/18", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S18", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 18, "start": 5795, "end": 6263, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Crisis of purpose, not existence: young people, meaning and suicide", "question_plain": "Are young people today facing an existential crisis?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether young people today face a harder existential crisis. The guest says that, as someone who works with words, he critiques modern thought as much as Islam, and argues most people face a crisis of purpose or meaning rather than of existence, which belongs to people whose lives are at stake today. He describes, in deliberately provocative terms, how he has talked people he knows out of suicide by redirecting them to serve others, such as helping a neighbour with shopping or volunteering abroad, and urges anyone with suicidal thoughts to seek help from people with expertise. He says young people live in a world that does not seem to need them as work is automated, so some seek importance by being rebellious, while many find purpose and credibility on their own without needing religion, and should be told they do not have to follow the classic rules of success to have value.", "summary_short": "The guest says most people face a crisis of purpose rather than of existence, urges anyone with suicidal thoughts to seek expert help, and says young people can find value without conventional success.", "answer_start": 5834, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose", "wellbeing/depression-and-anxiety"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/18/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/19", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S19", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 19, "start": 6263, "end": 6531, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Working with Kanye West and Jay-Z, and Kanye's religious rebirth", "question_plain": "What is Lupe Fiasco's view of Kanye West's religious rebirth?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth invites viewers' questions and relays ones about working with Jay-Z and Kanye West and about Kanye's religious rebirth. The guest says he does not want to speak about anyone's faith decisions, recalling that Kanye made 'Jesus Walks' long ago, and that he does not question anyone's legitimacy, joking that he questions daily whether he is Muslim himself because he does not believe in jinn. He describes Kanye as a creative genius whose distinguishing trait is relentless work ethic, which he has seen first hand as they are both from Chicago, while saying he has firm disagreements with him, and calls Jay-Z a sage, a genius with words and one of his mentors.", "summary_short": "The guest declines to judge Kanye West's faith, praising his work ethic while disagreeing with him, and calls Jay-Z a mentor and a genius with words.", "answer_start": 6338, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "fiqh/entertainment/music"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:kanye-west", "label": "Kanye West"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jay-z", "label": "Jay-Z"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/19/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/20", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S20", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 20, "start": 6531, "end": 6688, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The inspiration for 'Words I Never Said'", "question_plain": "What inspired Lupe Fiasco's song Words I Never Said?", "summary": "A viewer asks what inspired his song 'Words I Never Said'. The guest says he has always had a dose of disestablishmentarianism, recalling playing his militant song 'American Terrorist' for his father, who told him to listen to Tupac instead. He says the song continues a tradition of speaking truth to power and critiquing the narratives of the states we live in, written when he was famous enough to start political thought around the time of Occupy Wall Street, on wealth disparity and militarism. He names other conscious rappers who do the same.", "summary_short": "The guest says 'Words I Never Said' was his attempt, at the height of his fame, to speak truth to power about wealth disparity and militarism.", "answer_start": 6531, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/entertainment/music", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:occupy-wall-street-2011", "label": "Occupy Wall Street (2011)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/20/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/21", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S21", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 21, "start": 6688, "end": 6801, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Killah Priest's 'B.I.B.L.E.' and faith built on earlier scriptures", "question_plain": "What does Lupe Fiasco think of Killah Priest's song B.I.B.L.E.?", "summary": "A viewer asks for his thoughts on Killah Priest's song 'B.I.B.L.E.', which Mufti Abu Layth has not heard. The guest says it traces Killah Priest's religious journey through Moorish thought, Islam and Christianity, and that the faith Muslims practise is reinforced by Judaism and Christianity, so going back to the source material, such as the Hebrew Bible he watches lectures on, creates intellectual tension. He says people often move between faiths as each stops making sense, sometimes misled by a weak report or a misreading, and that he sees the song as a person's journey rather than anything blasphemous.", "summary_short": "The guest calls Killah Priest's 'B.I.B.L.E.' an amazing record about a spiritual journey, noting that studying Islam's Jewish and Christian sources creates intellectual tension.", "answer_start": 6726, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "fiqh/entertainment/music"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:killah-priest", "label": "Killah Priest"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:hebrew-bible", "label": "the Hebrew Bible"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/21/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/22", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S22", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 22, "start": 6801, "end": 6880, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did he know DMX? And meeting Dave Chappelle", "question_plain": "Did Lupe Fiasco know DMX?", "summary": "A viewer asks whether he knew DMX. The guest says they moved in the same studio circles in Chicago and probably met, but he did not have a deep relationship with him as he does with Kanye or Jay-Z. He adds that he met Dave Chappelle a few times, most vividly at a jam session of a jazz musician friend, and calls him a cool brother whose comedy he loves.", "summary_short": "The guest says he did not know DMX closely, and describes meeting Dave Chappelle.", "answer_start": 6801, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dmx", "label": "DMX"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dave-chappelle", "label": "Dave Chappelle"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/22/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/23", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S23", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 23, "start": 6880, "end": 7070, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How the guest found Mufti Abu Layth: beyond the Salafi YouTube wall", "question_plain": "How did Lupe Fiasco discover Mufti Abu Layth?", "summary": "A viewer asks how the guest came across Mufti Abu Layth. He says that during Ramadan he becomes sensitive about whether he is doing things correctly, and that for a long time YouTube Muslims like him, outside a Muslim community, kept hitting the same wall of hardline Salafi content with no difference of opinion. He says a video of Mufti's popped up offering another point of view and showed him what the Malikis are about, bringing balance to largely uncontested narratives. He adds that a Salafi preacher's practical advice did help him come off his wudu obsession, though other things sounded medieval to him, and that he and Mufti have exchanged questions by direct message for a couple of years.", "summary_short": "The guest says he found Mufti Abu Layth while looking for alternatives to the Salafi content that dominates Muslim YouTube, and values his different point of view.", "answer_start": 6915, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/23/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/24", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S24", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 24, "start": 7070, "end": 7289, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Retirement, turning forty and life as a garden", "question_plain": "Is Lupe Fiasco retiring from music?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about the guest's announcement that he is hanging up the gloves. The guest says he cannot really retire but is organising his life as he turns forty, reviewing what he did in his twenties and thirties, and adopting a new metaphor of life as a garden, with more order and control, rather than a jungle, as his body starts to hit walls. He says he expects serious technological change within the next ten years, such as life extension and full immersion in simulations, and wants to simplify and prepare.", "summary_short": "The guest says he is not retiring but reorganising his life at forty around the metaphor of a garden, preparing for major technological change.", "answer_start": 7109, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose/goals-and-habits", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/24/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/25", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S25", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 25, "start": 7289, "end": 7484, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is life a dream? The guest on the material world and the supernatural", "question_plain": "Is life just a dream in the mind of God?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the guest ever feels life is a dream, and the guest recalls Mufti's own question whether we are a dream in the mind of God. He says he thinks we are real and material and have consequences, that he does not think we are coming back the way we think, if at all, and that some questions he will simply ask God when he meets him. He says unseen forces such as the electromagnetic spectrum are real but natural, that nature is awe-inspiring enough without the supernatural, and that superstition originally meant giving too much power to things, so for the common person interfacing with the supernatural does not matter.", "summary_short": "The guest says life is real and material, the unseen is part of nature, and ordinary people do not need the supernatural.", "answer_start": 7327, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/afterlife", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/25/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/26", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S26", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 26, "start": 7484, "end": 7600, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How is Ramadan going? Covid, the mosque and tarawih", "question_plain": "How is Lupe Fiasco finding Ramadan during Covid?", "summary": "A viewer asks how Ramadan is going. The guest says it has been easy, but that he misses the mosque, having stayed away during Covid out of concern for the older worshippers in crowded spaces where everyone makes wudu in the same place, and he urges people to get vaccinated and socially distance. He says this means missing tarawih, where as a non-hafiz he goes to hear the Quran, so his own prayers at home are quick, and that his struggle in Ramadan is mental rather than physical.", "summary_short": "The guest says Ramadan has been easy, though he misses the mosque and tarawih after staying away during Covid to protect older worshippers.", "answer_start": 7524, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting", "society/current-events/covid-19"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tarawih", "label": "tarawih"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ramadan", "label": "Ramadan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/26/"}, {"id": "oYiiPEhuiHA/s/27", "short_id": "2021-04-26-S27", "recording": "oYiiPEhuiHA", "n": 27, "start": 7600, "end": 7881, "date": "20210426", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: thanks, the guest's message and sign-off", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the guest for his time, and asked for a message to viewers the guest jokingly promotes his merchandise shop before wishing everyone, Muslim or not, a good Ramadan and spiritual or intellectual insights. He thanks Mufti for bringing balance and another side of the story, and Mufti thanks him and gives a shout-out to a longtime local fan. Mufti plays a track of the guest's to close, checks whether viewers can hear it, and signs off.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: thanks, the guest's closing message and Mufti Abu Layth's sign-off.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/oYiiPEhuiHA/s/27/"}, {"id": "pkjtq8AXGRE/s/1", "short_id": "2019-07-24b-S01", "recording": "pkjtq8AXGRE", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 157, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Can men wear earrings? The ruling is yes, and the plan for a holistic overview", "question_plain": "Can men wear earrings in Islam?", "summary": "After some banter with the stream's admin, Mufti Abu Layth opens the topic of earrings and asks what the ruling is: can men wear earrings according to Islam? He says the answer is clearly yes, but that rather than a simple ruling he wants to give a holistic overview and then come back to the ruling, focusing on certain traditions that have been narrated and on the practices of the Salaf. He identifies the misconception he wants to address: that an earring is effeminate, that only homosexuals or men trying to act like women would wear one, and that earrings are something one identifies only with women, which someone had commented on one of his photos. He says he will zoom out to give a backdrop on earrings over thousands of years of human use of jewellery, and then zoom back in.", "summary_short": "Yes, men may wear earrings according to Islam. Mufti Abu Layth sets out to show, through history and the practice of the Salaf, that the idea that earrings are effeminate is a misconception.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "the Salaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that men may wear earrings according to Islam, and that the idea that earrings are effeminate or exclusive to women is a misconception.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "can men wear earrings according to Islam now the answer is clearly yes they can we hearings", "start": 35}}, "url": "/r/pkjtq8AXGRE/s/1/"}, {"id": "pkjtq8AXGRE/s/2", "short_id": "2019-07-24b-S02", "recording": "pkjtq8AXGRE", "n": 2, "start": 157, "end": 622, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Men's earrings through history: Assyria, Egypt, the Israelites, Persia, Rome, India and Europe", "question_plain": "Have men historically worn earrings, or is it a recent fashion?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that inscriptions and rock art show human beings adorning themselves with jewellery for at least seven to nine thousand years. He goes through civilisations in which men wore earrings: the Assyrian kingdoms of some four and a half thousand years ago, whose clay tablets describe aristocrats and nobles wearing earrings to denote status; ancient Egypt, whose papyri describe prominent men with earrings and whose unwrapped mummies have pierced ears; and the Israelites, since in the biblical account of the golden calf, a story the Quran also tells, Harun asks the people to bring him the earrings of their boys as well as their girls. He cites the Achaemenid Persian empire from Cyrus to Darius III, whose surviving paintings at Persepolis show soldiers with earrings, and notes that the Romans generally did not wear them, regarding them as an Eastern and slavish thing, perhaps because of their rivalry with the Persians. He adds the Tamil Chola dynasty of India, whose statues depict kings with earrings, and ancient Europe, where earrings marked class, copper for peasants, gold and silver for merchants and rubies or emeralds for kings, and where Cossack families marked an only son with a right earring and the last male of a line with a left one. He says the church, as it grew in power, prohibited men from wearing earrings and restricted them to women, so that those who defied authority, such as pirates, kept wearing them, and mentions native American peoples too. His point, he says, is that men's earrings are not a recent phenomenon dating from the hippies but something worn for thousands of years, often by nobles and soldiers.", "summary_short": "Men have worn earrings for thousands of years, in Assyria, Egypt, among the Israelites, in Persia, India and Europe, usually as a mark of nobility or soldiery. Only the European church restricted them to women, which is why defiant groups such as pirates kept wearing them.", "answer_start": 157, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:harun", "label": "Harun (Aaron)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:golden-calf", "label": "the golden calf of the Israelites"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that men across the ancient world, from Assyria and Egypt to Persia, India and Europe, wore earrings for thousands of years, often as a mark of nobility or soldiery, and that their restriction to women in Europe came from the church.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the church prohibited men from wearing earrings now so you see the church influenced it starts to say that no these things should be restricted to women", "start": 539}}, "url": "/r/pkjtq8AXGRE/s/2/"}, {"id": "pkjtq8AXGRE/s/3", "short_id": "2019-07-24b-S03", "recording": "pkjtq8AXGRE", "n": 3, "start": 622, "end": 780, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Earrings in the Prophet's time and among the Salaf, and how later clergy turned against them", "question_plain": "Did men and boys wear earrings in the time of the Prophet and the early Muslims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth finishes the backdrop by noting that sailors wore earrings to show they had travelled the world, and that across diverse societies earrings were never generally seen as exclusive to women. Zooming back into the Islamic setting, he says that in the society in which the Prophet lived men, and especially young boys, wore earrings, and that this continued during the time of the Salaf, the Sahaba, the Tabi'un and their successors, when boys commonly wore earrings and many considered it sunnah for a boy; when they became men some removed them and some kept them, but their wearing them as boys was widespread. He says that as the centuries progressed much of mainstream Sunni orthodoxy and its clergy stamped down on the practice and prohibited it, just as the Christian church of Europe had and perhaps under its influence, and that the Shia differed from the Sunnis on this point and kept the practice alive to the present day. He then introduces the sources, beginning with a hadith of Ibn Abbas in the Mu'jam al-Awsat of al-Tabarani [?], which he says several scholars including a recent authority of al-Azhar [?] declared sahih.", "summary_short": "In the Prophet's society and among the Salaf boys commonly wore earrings, and many considered it sunnah for a boy. Later Sunni clergy prohibited the practice, perhaps influenced by the Christian church, while the Shia kept it alive.", "answer_start": 622, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "the Salaf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sahabah", "label": "Sahabah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tabiun", "label": "Tabi'un"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-tabarani", "label": "al-Tabarani [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mujam-al-awsat", "label": "al-Mu'jam al-Awsat of al-Tabarani [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that boys commonly wore earrings in the Prophet's time and among the Salaf, that later Sunni clergy prohibited the practice perhaps under the influence of the Christian church, and that the Shia kept it alive.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "you will see that in the society in which the Prophet lived boy is especially young boys wore earrings and you will see that this trend continues or at least during the time of the selleth", "start": 654}}, "url": "/r/pkjtq8AXGRE/s/3/"}, {"id": "pkjtq8AXGRE/s/4", "short_id": "2019-07-24b-S04", "recording": "pkjtq8AXGRE", "n": 4, "start": 780, "end": 1018, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The seven sunnahs for a newborn boy, and the earrings of Hasan and Husayn", "question_plain": "Did Hasan and Husayn wear earrings?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads the hadith of Ibn Abbas that seven things are from the sunnah for the boy on the seventh day: he is formally named, circumcised, his ear is pierced, and the aqiqah is given, among other things. He then says that the Prophet's grandsons Hasan and Husayn both had their ears pierced and wore earrings, and that Husayn wore two, one of the kind the Arabs called a qurt on the lobe and one called a shanf on the upper ear. He says the Shia traditions continue to narrate this: Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, the teacher of Abu Hanifa and of Imam Malik in Madinah, transmits through his father Muhammad al-Baqir and Zayn al-Abidin from Husayn a report in which the Prophet told Fatima to pierce the ears of Hasan and Husayn [?], and there are several narrations that the two wore earrings; these, he stresses, are the grandsons of the Prophet and among the greatest people in Islam, and the Imams in the chain are accepted by Sunnis too. He adds narrations that Husayn's ear was pierced at his birth, and a vivid account by one of the men involved in killing Husayn at Karbala, Hani ibn Thubayt al-Hadrami [?], who said he was among the ten standing when Husayn fell and watched him look left and right with both his earrings shaking.", "summary_short": "Ibn Abbas lists piercing the ear among seven sunnahs for a newborn boy, and Hasan and Husayn had their ears pierced and wore earrings, Husayn wearing two. The reports come through Imam Jafar al-Sadiq's chain and an eyewitness account from Karbala.", "answer_start": 780, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "history/companions", "history/early-succession-and-civil-strife/karbala"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:664cc2c3", "label": "report: ibn abbas said seven things are from the sunnah for the boy on the seventh day he is named circumcised and his ear is pierced"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqiqah", "label": "aqiqah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hasan-ibn-ali", "label": "Hasan ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fatima", "label": "Fatima"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jafar-al-sadiq", "label": "Imam Jafar al-Sadiq"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-baqir", "label": "Muhammad al-Baqir"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zayn-al-abidin", "label": "Ali Zayn al-Abidin"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0e110483", "label": "report: o fatima pierce the ears of hasan and husayn"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hani-ibn-thubayt", "label": "Hani ibn Thubayt al-Hadrami [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:17fbddbc", "label": "report: i was among the ten standing when husayn fell he looked left and right and his two earrings were shaking"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:karbala", "label": "Karbala"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the Prophet's grandsons Hasan and Husayn had their ears pierced and wore earrings, Husayn wearing two, as Shia traditions through Imam Jafar al-Sadiq and accounts of Karbala relate.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam scranton both of his grandsons Hasan and Husayn radi allahu anhu man had the ears pierced and they both wore earrings", "start": 806}}, "url": "/r/pkjtq8AXGRE/s/4/"}, {"id": "pkjtq8AXGRE/s/5", "short_id": "2019-07-24b-S05", "recording": "pkjtq8AXGRE", "n": 5, "start": 1018, "end": 1173, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Sunni sources: a hadith student with two earrings, and Sufyan ibn Uyayna's earring", "question_plain": "Did early Sunni hadith scholars such as Sufyan ibn Uyayna wear earrings?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Husayn is described in another narration as wearing earrings in both ears, and asks listeners to hold any doubt about that while he turns to Sunni sources. From the Musnad of Abu Ya'la, a Hanbali hadith scholar, he cites a transmitter who recalled visiting a shaykh [?] while still a young man and wearing two earrings at the time he was studying hadith. Anticipating that people will ask who that narrator was, he goes to a greater figure: Sufyan ibn Uyayna, the great hadith master of Makkah from the era of the Salaf, of whom al-Dhahabi in Siyar A'lam al-Nubala, volume eight page 462, transmits an eyewitness description as a young man carrying his writing tablets, wandering the streets with his friends and sitting in the hadith class of Amr ibn Dinar, the greatest hadith master of Makkah at the time, with an earring in his ear. He then asks who could be a greater legend of the Salaf than Sufyan ibn Uyayna, and answers that it is the man Sufyan himself called the greatest scholar in the Hijaz: Imam Malik.", "summary_short": "Yes: the Musnad of Abu Ya'la records a hadith student wearing two earrings, and al-Dhahabi's Siyar A'lam al-Nubala describes the young Sufyan ibn Uyayna sitting in Amr ibn Dinar's hadith class with an earring in his ear.", "answer_start": 1018, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-abi-yala", "label": "Musnad Abi Ya'la"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yala-al-mawsili", "label": "Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:11191dca", "label": "report: i went to visit him while still a young man and at that time i had two earrings in my ear when i studied hadith"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-ibn-uyayna", "label": "Sufyan ibn Uyayna"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:siyar-alam-al-nubala", "label": "Siyar A'lam al-Nubala"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3c7da8ed", "label": "report: i saw sufyan ibn uyayna as a young man carrying his tablets sitting in the class of amr ibn dinar with an earring in his ear"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:amr-ibn-dinar", "label": "Amr ibn Dinar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/pkjtq8AXGRE/s/5/"}, {"id": "pkjtq8AXGRE/s/6", "short_id": "2019-07-24b-S06", "recording": "pkjtq8AXGRE", "n": 6, "start": 1173, "end": 1332, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imam Malik's earring: the biography by Mufti Abu Layth's teacher and the Maliki sources", "question_plain": "Did Imam Malik wear an earring?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Imam Malik, the scholar of Madinah, wore an earring, and cites the biography of Malik written by his own teacher Shaykh Abd al-Ghani al-Daqr [?], one of the great ulama of Sham, in a series on the great Imams. He describes his teacher as an old man with a great sense of humour, well known throughout the Arab world, who gave a weekly lesson in a Damascus mosque on a commentary of Bukhari, was deemed the most knowledgeable person of his era in the Kitab of Sibawayh, won countless awards, and was fascinated to meet a Maliki of Pakistani origin. In that book, he says, the author relates that Malik was fortunate to study with Rabi'a, one of the great scholars of Madinah, and that while still bursting with youth he had an earring in his ear. He adds that another Maliki scholar, in the introduction to a work on the hadith of the Mudawwana [?] whose edition was checked by a Sudanese shaykh, records the same thing.", "summary_short": "Yes: his teacher's biography of Imam Malik records that Malik, while still a youth studying with Rabi'a, had an earring in his ear, and another Maliki work on the hadith of the Mudawwana says the same.", "answer_start": 1173, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-ghani-al-daqr", "label": "Shaykh Abd al-Ghani al-Daqr [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rabia-al-ray", "label": "Rabi'a al-Ra'y"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:29d1db38", "label": "report: malik studied with rabia while still bursting with youth and he had an earring in his ear"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sibawayh", "label": "Sibawayh"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Imam Malik wore an earring as a young man while studying with Rabi'a, as recorded in his teacher Abd al-Ghani al-Daqr's biography of Malik and in another Maliki source.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "at this time Malik was still bursting with youth he was a young man Maya's a law court Maya's a law court people feel Denis he he still had an earring on in his ear", "start": 1261}}, "url": "/r/pkjtq8AXGRE/s/6/"}, {"id": "pkjtq8AXGRE/s/7", "short_id": "2019-07-24b-S07", "recording": "pkjtq8AXGRE", "n": 7, "start": 1332, "end": 1645, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Malik's son's earring, Malik on gold earrings for boys, and theft rulings that assume boys wore earrings", "question_plain": "What did Imam Malik and the Maliki jurists say about boys wearing earrings?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Malik wore an earring at least as a young man, whether or not he kept it later, and that Malik's son Muhammad was known to wear an earring while playing with his falcon. He then cites al-Bayan wa'l-Tahsil of Ibn Rushd al-Jadd, volume eighteen page 441 in the Kitab al-Jami', where Malik is asked about a gold earring for young boys and answers that he prefers they not wear it; Ibn Rushd explains the dislike by the fact that although the child is not mukallaf his parent is, so just as a parent may not give a child alcohol he should not adorn his son with gold, the issue being the gold rather than the earring. From al-Lakhmi's [?] Tabsira he takes a discussion of theft and what counts as guarded property, in which the case of someone snatching an earring from a boy is considered: if the boy was old enough it counts as theft, while an infant's case is discussed separately. He notes that a hundred years earlier Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani in Tunis addressed the same issue of someone stealing an earring or bracelet from a boy, and concludes that these rulings, discussed by the ulama across the centuries, show that boys wearing earrings was a common matter and that the early generations did not see earrings as something restricted to women.", "summary_short": "Malik preferred that boys not wear gold earrings, which Ibn Rushd explains as a ruling about gold rather than earrings, and Maliki theft rulings by al-Lakhmi and Ibn Abi Zayd treat an earring stolen from a boy as an ordinary case. Mufti Abu Layth concludes that boys wearing earrings was common and not seen as feminine.", "answer_start": 1332, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd-al-jadd", "label": "Ibn Rushd al-Jadd"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-bayan-wa-al-tahsil", "label": "al-Bayan wa'l-Tahsil"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mukallaf", "label": "mukallaf (legally responsible)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-lakhmi", "label": "al-Lakhmi [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-tabsira", "label": "al-Tabsira of al-Lakhmi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abi-zayd-al-qayrawani", "label": "Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hirz", "label": "hirz (guarded property)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Malik's reported preference against gold earrings for boys concerned the gold rather than the earring, and that the Maliki theft rulings of al-Lakhmi and Ibn Abi Zayd about earrings stolen from boys show that boys commonly wore them and the early generations did not treat earrings as restricted to women.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "but look at this being a common issue that boys wearing earrings so this ruling", "start": 1559}}, "url": "/r/pkjtq8AXGRE/s/7/"}, {"id": "pkjtq8AXGRE/s/8", "short_id": "2019-07-24b-S08", "recording": "pkjtq8AXGRE", "n": 8, "start": 1645, "end": 1882, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hanafi and Hanbali views, and replies to the objections of harm, imitating women and men's kohl", "question_plain": "Is a man wearing an earring imitating women or harmful?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a commentary on the aqiqah chapter [?] records that boys having their ears pierced was also a ruling among the Hanafis: Qadi Khan said the tifl, the young child, has its ears pierced, and although later Hanafis say this refers only to a girl, the word used is tifl. He adds that the Hanbalis said one should not pierce even a girl's ears because of the harm, but that the same source says there is no problem according to Qadi Khan with boys having an earring, since the people of the jahiliyya did this and the Prophet did not criticise or object to it, while some Hanafis again say that concerned girls. To those who oppose earrings on the grounds of harm, he says that if piercing is permitted for girls it is permitted for boys, since the ruling would be the same, and to those who say it imitates women he answers that thousands of years of history show men wearing earrings equally. He compares men wearing kohl or surma as eyeliner, common among religious men in the Indo-Pak world even though Imam Malik disliked it and said it was not sunnah but done for medicinal purposes, and remarks that eyeliner is far more effeminate today, so these are simply cultural matters.", "summary_short": "No: Qadi Khan of the Hanafis allowed boys' earrings since the jahiliyya practice went uncriticised by the Prophet, the harm argument cannot permit piercing for girls and forbid it for boys, and history shows men wearing earrings. Men wearing kohl shows that what is 'effeminate' is a cultural matter.", "answer_start": 1645, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-khan", "label": "Qadi Khan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqiqah", "label": "aqiqah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jahiliyya", "label": "jahiliyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kohl", "label": "kohl (surma)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:culture-versus-religion", "label": "what counts as effeminate dress is a cultural matter, not a religious one"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the objections to men's earrings fail: if piercing is permitted for girls the harm argument cannot forbid it for boys, the imitation-of-women claim ignores thousands of years of men wearing earrings, and men wearing kohl shows that what counts as effeminate is a cultural matter.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "if you can do it for girls then you should be able to do for guys it makes no difference the ruling is the same", "start": 1826}}, "url": "/r/pkjtq8AXGRE/s/8/"}, {"id": "pkjtq8AXGRE/s/9", "short_id": "2019-07-24b-S09", "recording": "pkjtq8AXGRE", "n": 9, "start": 1882, "end": 2198, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Rejecting the Hasan and Husayn reports because they are Shia: Imran ibn Hittan and Bukhari's double standard", "question_plain": "Can reports from Shia sources about Hasan and Husayn be trusted?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth takes up the objection that the reports of Hasan and Husayn wearing earrings come from Shia sources. He accepts that they do and says he himself believes the two Imams wore earrings, but argues that the rule that everything the Shia transmit must be a lie is biased and prejudiced: there is no reason the Shia or Imam Jafar, transmitting about his own great-great-grandfather, would invent something like earrings to discredit their own Imams and the Prophet's grandsons, so such reports only make sense if factual, though nobody is obliged to believe them. He then makes a comparison: Imran ibn Hittan, a leading Khariji of his time from the Tabi'un, is used as a narrator by al-Bukhari in more than one place, yet, as Ibn Hajar records in Fath al-Bari, he openly praised Ibn Muljam for killing Ali, with a famous poem calling the fatal strike one full of taqwa, and Bukhari accepted him as one of the worshipping people of this ummah. Mufti says he disagrees with the Shia on their points and his videos are clear on his stance regarding the companions, whom he calls all great and close to the Prophet, but asks whether a narrator who wrote poems praising the murderer of Umar would be accepted, and says accepting Imran ibn Hittan while refusing anything from Imam Jafar or the Shia Imams about Husayn's earrings is a hypocrisy, drowned in prejudice, that understandably infuriates the Shia. He notes that Ibn Hajar reports some saying Imran repented while others deny it, and closes by recalling that great muhaddithin and imams such as the Abu Ya'la narrator, Sufyan ibn Uyayna and Imam Malik wore earrings.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth accepts the reports as factual, saying the Shia had no reason to invent earrings for their own Imams, and calls it hypocrisy that Sunnis accept Imran ibn Hittan, a Khariji who praised Ali's killer, as a narrator in Sahih al-Bukhari while rejecting anything from Imam Jafar al-Sadiq.", "answer_start": 1882, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:hasan-ibn-ali", "label": "Hasan ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jafar-al-sadiq", "label": "Imam Jafar al-Sadiq"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imran-ibn-hittan", "label": "Imran ibn Hittan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hajar", "label": "Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:fath-al-bari", "label": "Fath al-Bari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-muljam", "label": "Ibn Muljam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-ibn-uyayna", "label": "Sufyan ibn Uyayna"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes Hasan and Husayn wore earrings, that dismissing every Shia report as a lie is prejudice, and that accepting the Khariji narrator Imran ibn Hittan, who praised Ali's killer, in Sahih al-Bukhari while rejecting Imam Jafar's reports is a hypocrisy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "we can't take from imam ja'far or any of the Shia Imams if it's in a Shia book when they're describing that Hussein used to wear earrings why oh because it's coming from that's just stupid", "start": 2169}}, "url": "/r/pkjtq8AXGRE/s/9/"}, {"id": "pkjtq8AXGRE/s/10", "short_id": "2019-07-24b-S10", "recording": "pkjtq8AXGRE", "n": 10, "start": 2198, "end": 2340, "date": "20190724", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The pious man with an earring in Ibn Qudama's Tawwabin, and the holistic conclusion", "question_plain": "Is it haram for a man to wear an earring?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites a statement he believes is in Ibn Qudama's [?] Kitab al-Tawwabin, where the author describes the most God-fearing man he met in his life and mentions that he wore an earring. He then sums up the overview: wearing earrings is permissible for men; for thousands of years men have worn them, soldiers, Assyrians, pirates and others, sometimes to show defiance of authorities such as the European church; in the Prophet's time men and certainly children wore them; among the Salaf the Prophet's grandsons Hasan and Husayn, Imam Malik and Sufyan ibn Uyayna wore them; and only hundreds of years later did the ulama turn against the practice, perhaps under the influence of the Christian church or other traditions, which they are entitled to think. He says anyone who chooses to wear an earring has a great precedent and is in great company, that calling it imitation of women is ridiculous when kohl would be a stronger case and men wear eyeliner without objection, so such statements are arbitrary. He accepts that people may still say it is haram, but says the evidence speaks for itself, and moves on to the next topic.", "summary_short": "No: men's earrings are permissible, with the precedent of Hasan, Husayn, Imam Malik and Sufyan ibn Uyayna, and the later scholars who opposed them were likely influenced by outside traditions. Mufti Abu Layth accepts that others may call it haram but says the evidence speaks for itself.", "answer_start": 2198, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-qudama", "label": "Ibn Qudama [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:kitab-al-tawwabin", "label": "Kitab al-Tawwabin [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6897f8ca", "label": "report: the most god fearing man i met in my life wore an earring"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:hasan-ibn-ali", "label": "Hasan ibn Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-ibn-uyayna", "label": "Sufyan ibn Uyayna"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kohl", "label": "kohl (surma)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth concludes that wearing earrings is permissible for men, with the precedent of Hasan, Husayn, Imam Malik and Sufyan ibn Uyayna, that the later ulama's opposition may reflect the influence of the Christian church or other traditions, and that calling it imitation of women is an arbitrary claim.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "so this is a kind of an overview a holistic overview that yes wearing earrings is permissible for men", "start": 2207}}, "url": "/r/pkjtq8AXGRE/s/10/"}, {"id": "psuMMzjvfRI/s/1", "short_id": "2019-10-10-S01", "recording": "psuMMzjvfRI", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 141, "date": "20191010", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can I hug my friends who are girls? A question answered with banter", "question_plain": "Can I hug my female friends?", "summary": "During a live session on relationships Mufti Abu Layth reads a question from a man asking whether he can hug his friends who are girls. He does not give a ruling: he jokes about how many such friends the questioner has and where one finds them, suggests the questioner wants a fatwa that would get Mufti blacklisted while the questioner gets to enjoy his friends, and remarks that the questioner has been friend-zoned so often that a collective effort is needed to get him out of the zone. He closes by saying the questioner has bigger issues to worry about and moves on. The transcript of this clip is poor and several phrases cannot be made out.", "summary_short": "No ruling is given: Mufti Abu Layth answers the question with jokes about the questioner being friend-zoned and declines to issue a fatwa. He moves on saying the questioner has bigger issues to worry about.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "relationships/friendship-and-social-life"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/psuMMzjvfRI/s/1/"}, {"id": "qdIQiwiz1mY/s/1", "short_id": "2020-07-02-S01", "recording": "qdIQiwiz1mY", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 157, "date": "20200702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Amena Khan (Pearl Daisy) removes her hijab: her choice, and whether hijab is obligatory", "question_plain": "Is it wrong for a hijabi YouTuber to take off her hijab?", "summary": "In what he calls the masala segment, Mufti Abu Layth introduces Amena Khan, known as Pearl Daisy, a hijabi YouTuber who has removed her hijab, and plays a clip in which she says people have the right to choose what they do with their bodies, that she is a massive believer in female autonomy, that others' decisions should not affect what you do, and that she has said from day one that she is not a religious figure. Mufti says that removing the hijab is her own business and her choice, and that there is in any case a difference of opinion on whether hijab is obligatory at all: several scholars hold that it is not, he sees more strength in their argument than in the other, and he points to his detailed YouTube video on the verses of Surah al-Nur. He says that what he supports is not her as such but her right to decide.", "summary_short": "Removing the hijab is her own choice and her own business, Mufti Abu Layth says; he adds that some scholars hold hijab is not obligatory and that he finds their argument stronger.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "society/current-events", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:amena-khan", "label": "Amena Khan (Pearl Daisy)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/qdIQiwiz1mY/s/1/"}, {"id": "qdIQiwiz1mY/s/2", "short_id": "2020-07-02-S02", "recording": "qdIQiwiz1mY", "n": 2, "start": 157, "end": 512, "date": "20200702", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The real problem: trading on a religious image you do not believe in", "question_plain": "Why are people angry at a hijabi influencer who removed her hijab if it is her choice?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth repeats that she is a human being with the right to do whatever she wants, even to return with a punk hairstyle, but says there is a problem: contrary to what she says, in his account she played the religious card and rode the wave of hijab to become famous and rich, selling hijab as how a Muslim woman should present herself, and she did speak on religious matters on several occasions and promoted scholars. He mocks her statement that she never wore hijab in her personal life, saying nobody, not even the pro-hijab camp, demands it at home, and that such claims are what people make up when they have no argument left. He compares it to himself building a brand on wearing a thawb and talking about Islam, and says that as one of the first hijabi YouTubers she won contracts with companies such as, he thinks, L'Oreal, and made money on the back of that image. He is all for entrepreneurship, he says, but a double life cannot be sustained and comes crashing down, which is why he refuses to be fake himself despite people telling him to dress differently or stop posting about food. He understands why people are enraged, and says the problem is not whether one wears hijab, nor whether it is obligatory, but presenting a fake image one does not believe in to extract money or status, and he advises everyone against living such fake lifestyles.", "summary_short": "The problem is not the hijab but duplicity: Mufti Abu Layth says building fame and income on a religious image one does not believe in is a double life that inevitably collapses, and he advises against living fake lifestyles.", "answer_start": 157, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media/social-media", "fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:amena-khan", "label": "Amena Khan (Pearl Daisy)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:loreal", "label": "L'Oreal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the problem is not removing the hijab but presenting a religious image one does not believe in to gain money or status, and that such a double life inevitably collapses.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so the problem isn't that whether you want to wear hijab or don't wager don't worry who cares and the problem is not that is it an obligate it's your private choice the problem is presenting a fake image", "start": 448}}, "url": "/r/qdIQiwiz1mY/s/2/"}, {"id": "r196CQ7qkaY/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-07-S01", "recording": "r196CQ7qkaY", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 138, "date": "20210107", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is jumu'ah mandatory in a country that is not a Muslim country?", "question_plain": "Do I have to go to jumu'ah every Friday if I live in a non-Muslim country?", "summary": "A question is read asking whether it is mandatory to attend jumu'ah every Friday. Mufti Abu Layth says jumu'ah is a communal obligation with both a religious and a political aspect, and that scholars disagree over which aspect preponderates. He says he feels the political aspect is stronger, an organisational structure for a Muslim state, which is why rulers are named in it. He says countries such as the UK, America and Europe are not against Islam and allow its practice but are not Muslim countries, so he does not feel jumu'ah is mandatory there for each individual, though it is good to hold it as a communal set-up.", "summary_short": "In his understanding jumu'ah is not mandatory on each individual in countries like the UK that are not Muslim countries, though holding it communally is good.", "answer_start": 2, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer/congregation-and-jumuah"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jumuah", "label": "jumu'ah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fard-kifayah", "label": "fard kifayah (communal obligation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not feel jumu'ah is mandatory on each individual in countries that are not Muslim countries, such as the UK.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "therefore is Juma mandated in this country I would say that it's I don't feel it's mandated I don't feel it's mandatory", "start": 80}}, "url": "/r/r196CQ7qkaY/s/1/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S01", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 1, "start": 8, "end": 157, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: welcoming Shaykh Atabek Shukurov and an audio check", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the MindTrap and introduces his guest, Shaykh Atabek Shukurov, as a treat for the evening. He checks with viewers on Facebook and YouTube that the sound is coming through, and the guest thanks him for the invitation. He introduces the guest as a scholar from Uzbekistan, the region of Bukhara, who has spent many years teaching online and in person and challenging ideas, calling him one of the pioneers of rational thought and a voice of reason.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth welcomes Shaykh Atabek Shukurov from Uzbekistan, introduced as a voice of reason, and checks the audio.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/1/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/2", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S02", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 2, "start": 157, "end": 377, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest's current work: separating culture from religion and teaching principles first", "question_plain": "What is Shaykh Atabek Shukurov working on, and why does he teach principles before rulings?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks the guest about his current teaching. The guest says he runs two colleges: Maturidi College, for religious study, where the hardest task is removing cultures and traditions presented as part of religion so as to present the pure religion of Islam, and where students are trained in the principles rather than the furu, since going into the furu before the principles is a waste of time; and a college of Greek or Islamic medicine, where since August they have been working on an elixir to help patients with Covid symptoms. He adds that he is also writing books. Mufti jokes that the guest makes lazy people feel terrible; the guest replies that Mufti's activity on social media far exceeds his own. Mufti then introduces him to viewers as a Hanafi, saying that non-dogmatic Hanafis who represent Abu Hanifa's free thinking are very hard to find today.", "summary_short": "The guest says his main work is separating inherited culture from religion and teaching principles before detailed rulings, alongside a college of traditional medicine and writing books.", "answer_start": 183, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:usul-al-fiqh", "label": "usul (principles)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the Covid-19 pandemic"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/2/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/3", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S03", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 3, "start": 377, "end": 786, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest's path: Soviet childhood, Binori Town, Saudi Arabia and eight years in Syria", "question_plain": "How did Shaykh Atabek Shukurov become a scholar?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the guest's interest in becoming a scholar began in childhood. The guest says his mother was religious and, because religion was dangerous in the Soviet Union, told stories of the prophets without calling them prophets, and that he is very curious, adding that a student of knowledge without curiosity will not succeed. He says he studied for nearly three years at Binori Town in Karachi from 1995, then went to Saudi Arabia, where he received his biggest shock: each place he went practised its own culture as Islam, Uzbek culture at home and Pakistani culture in Pakistan, which did not match the classical texts. He then spent eight years in Syria, at an evening branch of an institute affiliated with al-Azhar [?], where he compared his experiences of different cultures with the classical texts and the texts with earlier opinions. Mufti notes that he too studied at Binori Town and was in Damascus from 1998, and the two recall Damascus in the late 1990s as a hub for students of knowledge, including students from the UK who later became well known.", "summary_short": "The guest traces his path from a Soviet childhood through Karachi and Saudi Arabia to eight years in Syria, where he learned to compare inherited cultures with the classical texts.", "answer_start": 377, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:jamia-binori-town", "label": "Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, Binori Town (Karachi)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-azhar", "label": "al-Azhar [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusuf", "label": "Yusuf (Joseph)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/3/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/4", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S04", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 4, "start": 786, "end": 1057, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Islam in the UK from two cultures, and challenging subcontinent scholars from Uzbekistan", "question_plain": "How do people react when a scholar from Uzbekistan challenges subcontinent scholars?", "summary": "After a light aside on the guest's knowledge of Urdu, Mufti Abu Layth says that in the UK Islam comes almost entirely from two cultural sources, the Indo-Pakistani tradition and Saudi Arabia, and asks how the guest has fared challenging those cultures while championing the Hanafi school. The guest says he was once part of that cultural movement and challenged himself, which made it easier for him to change. He says that in our time the scholars of the subcontinent are regarded as the imams of fiqh and hadith, so a young man from a former communist country who challenges them provokes disturbing reactions, which he understands because being challenged on what one takes to be Islam is painful. He says open-minded people who are willing to test what he presents and accept it if true are what keep him going.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says UK Islam comes almost wholly from Indo-Pakistani and Saudi culture; the guest says challenging subcontinent scholars from Uzbekistan draws harsh reactions, but open-minded people keep him going.", "answer_start": 901, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["history/subcontinent", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/4/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/5", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S05", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 5, "start": 1057, "end": 1402, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Principles as a constitution before which all are equal: the beard as mubah", "question_plain": "Is growing a beard obligatory in the Hanafi school?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when he challenges people he calls them to the Maliki school, so he looks different to them, whereas the guest calls himself a Hanafi and still reaches conclusions that differ from theirs, such as trimming the beard, which he expects riles people more. The guest says there should be a law or constitution, the principles of Abu Hanifa, before which everyone, including Abu Hanifa himself, is equal, and that some who apply them miss details and reach wrong conclusions. On the beard he says the Hanafi principles make keeping it mubah, but scholars of the subcontinent mixed the principles with texts and concluded it is wajib, which he said publicly some years ago was incorrect. Asked about Ibn Abidin, he distinguishes keeping the beard from shaving it: later texts call keeping it sunnah and shaving it haram as imitation of women, a motive different from the hadith advising to keep it, and he says he has explained elsewhere why that reasoning is baseless. He closes that whoever applies the principles incorrectly should be corrected, since everyone is equal before them.", "summary_short": "The guest says Hanafi principles act as a constitution before which everyone is equal, and that by them keeping the beard is mubah, not wajib as subcontinent scholars concluded.", "answer_start": 1117, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abidin", "label": "Ibn Abidin"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mubah", "label": "mubah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wajib", "label": "wajib"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/5/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/6", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S06", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 6, "start": 1402, "end": 1873, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why a mortgage is agency (wakala), not a loan, and so not riba", "question_plain": "Is a mortgage riba?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth and guest recall when the guest's mortgage fatwa became public, about seven or eight years earlier, though he had taught it privately from 2009, and Mufti recalls meeting him in 2006 and discussing a philosopher's adoption of Aristotle's ten intellects [?], which the guest explained by parallels with the angels. Asked his angle on riba, the guest says that, as he believes all schools agree, money given with instructions on how to use it is not a loan, because the giver remains in charge; it is wakala, agency, as when the bank says to buy a specific house and may sue for misuse. Riba exists only where one takes money as a loan, is free to use it, and repays it with extra. Asked about paying back more than the price, he gives the example of a seller who will only take cash: he buys the car with his money and sells it to you in instalments. Mufti restates this for viewers as agency followed by a sale, and names a partnership contract whose name the captions do not catch.", "summary_short": "The guest says a mortgage is not riba because the bank acts as an agent buying a specific house and then sells it on in instalments; riba is only a free loan repaid with extra.", "answer_start": 1559, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wakala", "label": "wakala (agency)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawkil", "label": "tawkil (appointing an agent)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bay", "label": "bay' (sale)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:aristotle", "label": "Aristotle"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/6/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/7", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S07", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 7, "start": 1873, "end": 2033, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is the mortgage argument a loophole? Names do not change essences", "question_plain": "Isn't calling a mortgage agency just a loophole for interest?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth puts the objection that this is going round in circles, finding loopholes and calling the same thing by a different name. The guest turns it round: it is his opponents who give a different name to make the halal haram, since calling Mufti a palm tree does not change his essence, and one must look at what is technically happening, which is agency. Mufti raises a second objection, that a bank is known and advertised as an institution that gives loans. The guest answers that a pub is known for alcohol but also sells mashed potato, and one unlawful product does not make the others unlawful: banks give loans, some of which are riba, but they also do mortgages, and a mortgage is fine.", "summary_short": "The guest says the loophole charge is backwards: what counts is what is technically happening, and a bank that also gives loans can still offer a permissible mortgage, as a pub also sells food.", "answer_start": 1873, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawkil", "label": "tawkil (appointing an agent)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/7/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/8", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S08", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 8, "start": 2033, "end": 2378, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The open letter to Mufti Taqi Usmani on mortgages and the reaction to it", "question_plain": "What happened when Shaykh Atabek wrote to Mufti Taqi Usmani about mortgages?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about the open letter the guest wrote. The guest says that after explaining his mortgage view in a lecture around 2008 or 2009 he was told many scholars call it haram, and found that the fatwa came mainly from Mufti Taqi Usmani [?], whom he calls the main jurist of Islamic finance in the Hanafi school today and whom he respects as a fatherly, caring figure with an undeniable service to students. He says he tried to raise the issue with him in person at a dinner gathering of scholars, but a teacher interrupted, and he was asked to send his profile instead. Saying that approaching muftis is hard because of protocol and intermediaries with their own agendas, he wrote a short, respectful open letter, still on his blog, and heard from two sources that it was placed on the mufti's desk. He says there was no reply, but that people he describes as first- or second-generation students responded harshly and abusively, which he does not think the mufti ordered.", "summary_short": "The guest says his respectful open letter to Mufti Taqi Usmani on mortgages got no reply, only an abusive reaction from students, which he does not think the mufti ordered.", "answer_start": 2033, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:taqi-usmani", "label": "Mufti Taqi Usmani [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:darul-uloom-karachi", "label": "Darul Uloom Karachi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/8/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/9", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S09", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 9, "start": 2378, "end": 2809, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Could a senior jurist publicly accept the mortgage argument? Scholars' dependence", "question_plain": "Could a senior scholar ever publicly change his fatwa on mortgages?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the jurist, even if he agreed, could ever say so publicly. The guest recalls meeting him in his office in 1994, absorbed in his work, and says that besides his fatherly character he is not only an academic but also a politician who was part of a financial institution funded by HSBC, so wisdom requires him to consider all parties; his second letter, unlike the mild first one, was an explicit statement with proofs addressed to those who reacted. Mufti says he does not think he could, and recounts that when the jurist wanted to declare photographs permissible he first held a three-day closed conference of senior Indo-Pakistani scholars before concluding it was not clearly haram, so riba would be a minefield for him. The guest says over 99 percent of scholars are not fully academically independent, being bound by politics, their audience or salaries, which limits what they say.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth doubts the jurist could ever publicly accept the guest's view; the guest says almost no scholar is fully independent of politics, audience or salary.", "answer_start": 2413, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:taqi-usmani", "label": "Mufti Taqi Usmani [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:hsbc", "label": "HSBC"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/9/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/10", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S10", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 10, "start": 2809, "end": 3040, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Restoring the early Hanafi school: Abu Hanifa's independence and reason", "question_plain": "Why does Shaykh Atabek want to restore the early Hanafi school?", "summary": "The guest reminds Mufti Abu Layth that in 2006 he said his main aim was to restore the early Hanafi school, and Mufti recalls telling him he did not think he could. The guest says Abu Hanifa was fully academic and independent, a very rich merchant who supported the scholars and students of Kufa, which let him express his opinion, while scholars today, especially of closed-minded schools, are limited. Mufti agrees that most scholars are dogmatic, and says Abu Hanifa was a legend and among the champions of reason, but that his madhhab later became almost the opposite of him, citing his fatwa that someone whose Arabic is poor may recite in Persian in prayer. He asks whether a hijacking took place early on, with Abu Yusuf rising to power and Imam Zufar sidelined; the guest jokes that Mufti wants to provoke a second wave of reactions and says the subject needs time, as it is nearly one in the morning for him.", "summary_short": "The guest wants to restore the early Hanafi school of a fully independent Abu Hanifa; Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa championed reason but his school later became almost his opposite.", "answer_start": 2809, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yusuf", "label": "Abu Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-al-hasan-al-shaybani", "label": "Imam Muhammad (al-Shaybani)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zufar", "label": "Zufar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/10/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/11", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S11", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 11, "start": 3040, "end": 3279, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Power struggles in the Hanafi school, Abu Yusuf, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal as muhaddith", "question_plain": "Was there a power struggle in the early Hanafi school?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has said before that he feels there were power struggles early in the Hanafi school, with Abu Yusuf rising to become chief judge, and that he does not see in Abu Yusuf the champion of reason Abu Hanifa was, though he is sure he was a great scholar. The guest compares Imam Muhammad to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, whom he calls the best muhaddith ever, more so than Malik, who was a polymath while Ahmad was a specialist. He says early authorities did not count Ahmad among the jurists, that his madhhab was gathered by al-Khallal [?], and that he spoke critically of reasoning, whereas Malik himself initiated his school's principles and Ahmad's were developed by his followers. He adds that he is preparing a book and is struck by Ahmad's knowledge of hadith.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth feels the early Hanafi school saw power struggles and that Abu Yusuf lacked Abu Hanifa's reason; the guest calls Ahmad ibn Hanbal the greatest muhaddith but not a jurist of the first rank.", "answer_start": 3073, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yusuf", "label": "Abu Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-al-hasan-al-shaybani", "label": "Imam Muhammad (al-Shaybani)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-khallal", "label": "al-Khallal [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/11/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/12", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S12", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 12, "start": 3279, "end": 3528, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Musnad Ahmad: Imam Ahmad's draft, and inauthentic by its own standard of wijada", "question_plain": "Is the Musnad really Imam Ahmad's book, and is it authentic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth mentions his clip on the Musnad of Ahmad, arguing that it is not really Ahmad's Musnad but was put together by a later transmitter, al-Qati'i [?], not even by his son Abdullah. The guest says the Musnad shows both Ahmad's high rank in hadith and his lower rank in other fields, and that it is Ahmad's draft, his notes from his teachers. His radical point, he says, is that by the standards of both the mainstream and the hadith scholars the Musnad cannot be authentic: Ahmad himself forbade transmitting a page found from someone's book, which is wijada, yet left the Musnad in that state, and Abdullah copied it and added many reports of his own. Mufti calls this a point he had never thought of. The guest adds that the Musnad also shows how little regard Ahmad had for reasoning and other principles, to the point of preferring a weak hadith.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Musnad is Imam Ahmad's draft but cannot be authentic by its own rules, since it reached us by wijada with additions by his son; Mufti Abu Layth holds that it was not Ahmad's book at all.", "answer_start": 3306, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/collections-and-compilation", "hadith/authentication"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:musnad-ahmad", "label": "Musnad Ahmad"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-ibn-ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qatii", "label": "al-Qati'i [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wijada", "label": "wijada (a found manuscript)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/12/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/13", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S13", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 13, "start": 3528, "end": 3986, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Question marks over Bukhari: Abbasid canonisation and the Hanafi view of hadith", "question_plain": "Why do Hanafis defend Sahih al-Bukhari when their school differs from it?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that with Bukharigate he was not saying Sahih al-Bukhari should be thrown away but that it has question marks and is not the gold standard people have made it, and that the guest first interested him in the manuscripts and the Nasafi transmission [?]. The guest says, as a follower of the early school, that al-Bukhari criticised Abu Hanifa on the basis of narrations, that the later Abbasid period backed the Athari approach and canonised certain collections, and that the Hanafis, whose school rests on the Quran with athar only clarifying it, were forced into that movement, keeping only the furu while their principles were neglected after al-Halwani [?]. Mufti explains for viewers that the Hanafi and Maliki schools were built on reason and distinguished sunnah, the practice, from hadith, the documented reports, and that later followers became crypto-Shafi'is without realising it. The guest adds that al-Bukhari wrote against the Hanafis in Bukhara itself and repeatedly criticises Abu Hanifa in the Sahih as 'some people', and that by the Hanafi school the most authentic collection should be the Athar of Imam Muhammad or of Abu Yusuf.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Bukhari has question marks and is not the gold standard; the guest says its canonisation was an Abbasid-era Athari project, and that for Hanafis the Athar of their own imams should rank highest.", "answer_start": 3568, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibrahim-ibn-maqil-al-nasafi", "label": "Ibrahim ibn Ma'qil al-Nasafi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-halwani", "label": "al-Halwani [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:kitab-al-athar", "label": "Kitab al-Athar (of Imam Muhammad and of Abu Yusuf)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:athari", "label": "Athari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunnah", "label": "sunnah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/13/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/14", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S14", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 14, "start": 3986, "end": 4264, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Wijada, the apostasy hadith, and hadith as raw material for jurists", "question_plain": "What is wijada, and why does it matter for the hadith on killing apostates?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks the guest to explain wijada, picking up a book of hadith rather than receiving it from a teacher. The guest says that by consensus wijada does not reach the level of a sound transmission, that strictly it requires recognising the author's handwriting, and that all hadith in our time are transmitted this way. He says he raised the point against those who kill apostates on the basis of the hadith in Bukhari: its wording would also require killing a Christian who becomes Muslim, which they never accept, and it reaches them by less than wijada. Mufti says the harm of the Salafi call was to have people drop the madhhabs and learn from Bukhari, since a ruling presented as the Prophet's words, unlike an imam's fatwa, cannot be revised for a changed age. The guest says hadith is raw material, cites Imam Malik that hadith is valid only from and for the fuqaha, and says publishing collections for the public lets anyone find the hadith on killing the apostate and become a killer.", "summary_short": "The guest says the apostasy hadith cannot justify killing, since its own wording is not followed and it reaches us only by wijada; Mufti Abu Layth blames the Salafi call for putting raw hadith in place of the madhhabs.", "answer_start": 3986, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "hadith/collections-and-compilation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wijada", "label": "wijada (a found manuscript)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0a236306", "label": "report: whoever changes his religion kill him"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yusuf", "label": "Abu Yusuf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/14/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/15", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S15", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 15, "start": 4264, "end": 4379, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Apostasy in the early Hanafi school: two narrations, threat and treason", "question_plain": "Did the early Hanafis hold that apostates should be killed?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the early Hanafis challenged the killing of apostates, yet Hanafis today implement blasphemy laws, as in Pakistan's well-known cases, which he calls upside down. The guest says two statements are transmitted from Abu Hanifa: the first, supported by the early scholars, that apostasy carries no punishment for either gender, and the second, from Imam Muhammad, that a woman is not punished but a man is. Mufti says the distinction was the threat of revolt from a man; the guest agrees that later Hanafis took a potential threat as valid, while Zufar and the early scholars required an actual threat, regardless of religion, so that even a Muslim who causes such a threat is punished. Mufti sums it up as treason or social instability rather than religion, and the guest agrees, adding that later Hanafis took on a Shafi'i inclination.", "summary_short": "The guest says the early Hanafi view, from Abu Hanifa and Zufar, is that apostasy itself carries no punishment and only an actual threat is punished; Mufti Abu Layth calls today's Hanafi blasphemy laws upside down.", "answer_start": 4303, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance/apostasy-and-blasphemy", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-al-hasan-al-shaybani", "label": "Imam Muhammad (al-Shaybani)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zufar", "label": "Zufar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riddah", "label": "riddah (apostasy)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/15/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/16", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S16", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 16, "start": 4379, "end": 4583, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Abu Hanifa on mildly fermented drinks: a Quran-oriented way of thinking", "question_plain": "Did Abu Hanifa allow drinks with a little alcohol?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth raises the early Hanafi position on drinks other than wine. The guest jokes about it, then says the position shows Abu Hanifa was Quran-oriented: hadith make all of it haram, but the Quran does not support that, so where reports contradicted the Quran he disregarded them. Mufti says that khamr in the Quran refers specifically to wine, and that Abu Hanifa held that a mildly fermented drink which two glasses of does not make one drunk should not be haram, a view that brought the Hanafis a backlash for two or three hundred years. The guest adds that by Abu Hanifa's reasoning liquid medicines containing some alcohol are mubah because they do not intoxicate. Mufti says the point is not the topic itself but the imam's way of thinking, and that he was ahead of his time.", "summary_short": "The guest says Abu Hanifa's ruling that mildly fermented non-wine drinks are not haram shows he followed the Quran over reports; Mufti Abu Layth says the lesson is his way of thinking.", "answer_start": 4404, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khamr", "label": "khamr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mubah", "label": "mubah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/16/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/17", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S17", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 17, "start": 4583, "end": 4826, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Abu Hanifa's students: why the guest relies on Zufar", "question_plain": "Who was Abu Hanifa's most trusted student?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the guest has a favourite among Abu Hanifa's companions. The guest names Imam Zufar, saying that in Abu Hanifa's biography it was Zufar he authorised to teach and give rulings and sent on major missions to spread knowledge, while recording the school fell to a senior student he calls Afiya [?]. He says Abu Hanifa was very intelligent and would choose who could teach and record his school, so he follows that choice strictly and takes from others only for comparison. Asked about the six books of Imam Muhammad, he says Imam Muhammad was a teenager when Abu Hanifa died, while Zufar was a senior student whom Abu Hanifa sometimes treated almost as a friend. Mufti notes that Zufar is mentioned in the books only as a secondary figure and asks whether his sidelining was politics; the guest says it needs a separate session of two or three hours, and Mufti remarks that there is a lot of politics there.", "summary_short": "The guest relies chiefly on Zufar, whom he says Abu Hanifa himself authorised to teach, over Imam Muhammad, who was a teenager when Abu Hanifa died; Zufar's sidelining is left for another session.", "answer_start": 4583, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zufar", "label": "Zufar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yusuf", "label": "Abu Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-al-hasan-al-shaybani", "label": "Imam Muhammad (al-Shaybani)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/17/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/18", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S18", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 18, "start": 4826, "end": 4990, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is al-Fiqh al-Akbar by Abu Hanifa? Balkh and Zufar's lost books", "question_plain": "Did Abu Hanifa really write al-Fiqh al-Akbar?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about the book attributed to Abu Hanifa, al-Fiqh al-Akbar [?]. The guest says Abu Hanifa definitely wrote it and parts survive in the five or six books transmitted from him, but that later people added to it, while some genuine scholars tried to restore the lost book, so it cannot be trusted one hundred percent, though many chapters are consistent with his principles. Mufti asks why the scholars of the Balkh region, where Abu Hanifa had great influence and key students, are rarely mentioned; the guest says the knowledge was spread mainly by Hanbali-oriented scholars, so little is heard of Zufar and his circle. He adds that Zufar wrote several books, none of which survive in full, only as chapters quoted by other scholars.", "summary_short": "The guest says Abu Hanifa did write al-Fiqh al-Akbar but the text has later additions, and that Zufar's books survive only in fragments.", "answer_start": 4826, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-fiqh-al-akbar", "label": "al-Fiqh al-Akbar [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zufar", "label": "Zufar"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/18/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/19", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S19", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 19, "start": 4990, "end": 5065, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "The guest's laptop battery runs low; viewers' questions deferred", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The guest says his laptop is not charging and will soon go off, and Mufti Abu Layth, who wanted to put viewers' questions to him, asks whether he has a charger. They agree to meet again in a week or two and that the questions can be copied for next time, and Mufti decides to use the remaining minutes.", "summary_short": "The guest's laptop is running out of battery, so viewers' questions are kept for a follow-up session.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/19/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/20", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S20", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 20, "start": 5065, "end": 5301, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest on his debate over the Isha time: a lecture, not a debate", "question_plain": "What does Shaykh Atabek think of his debate on the Isha time?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks the guest's thoughts on a debate he had with another shaykh, which drew wide attention. The guest says it was not a debate but a kind of game: his proofs and statements had been public for two years, yet his first twenty minutes were wasted and none of his points were tackled. He says his opponent spoke about everything but the issue, including Pakistan and a scholar of the subcontinent whom the guest says he never insulted, so he calls it his own lecture interrupted by the other side. He also says that those who collected signatures against him never came to speak to him privately.", "summary_short": "The guest says his much-watched exchange on the Isha time was not a real debate, since his opponent never addressed his proofs.", "answer_start": 5093, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "fiqh/prayer"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isha", "label": "Isha (the night prayer)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/20/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/21", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S21", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 21, "start": 5301, "end": 5549, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Isha in a UK summer when twilight never ends: the two Hanafi opinions", "question_plain": "When should I pray Isha in the UK summer when it never gets fully dark?", "summary": "The guest explains that for Abu Hanifa the Isha time begins after the redness and then the whiteness of twilight, the shafaq, disappear, which does not happen in a UK summer. He says the Hanafi school has two opinions, that Isha is not prayed or that it is prayed, and on that basis he said Isha may be prayed in summer: the time is absent but the order remains, so it can be prayed straight after sunset, before dawn or in between. He says his opponents insisted on dividing the night into seven, and Mufti Abu Layth notes that the Malikis instead follow the closest country. The guest says that is the Shafi'i approach, makes claims about his opponent's affiliation and knowledge, and denies having insulted the subcontinent scholar his opponent defended; Mufti remarks that a scholar belongs to all Muslims, not to one family.", "summary_short": "The guest says that where twilight never fades, the Hanafi school allows Isha to be prayed keeping the order of prayers, rather than dividing the night into seven.", "answer_start": 5301, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:isha", "label": "Isha (the night prayer)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafaq", "label": "shafaq (evening twilight)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/21/"}, {"id": "rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/22", "short_id": "2021-01-29-S22", "recording": "rtwyWCa2-pQ", "n": 22, "start": 5549, "end": 5660, "date": "20210129", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: thanks, a promised follow-up and the guest's book on Hanafi principles", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the guest for his time, promises a follow-up in which viewers' questions will be taken, and urges viewers to follow him on social media. The guest thanks him and says they still need to discuss the Musnad of Ahmad and the questions. Mufti shows the guest's book, Hanafi Principles of Testing Hadith, available on Amazon, and signs off.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth thanks the guest, promises a follow-up, and recommends his book Hanafi Principles of Testing Hadith.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek Shukurov (guest)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:hanafi-principles-of-testing-hadith", "label": "Hanafi Principles of Testing Hadith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/rtwyWCa2-pQ/s/22/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/1", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S01", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 396, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Introducing Abu Hanifa: the kunya, Persian ancestry, birth in Kufa and a trading family", "question_plain": "Who was Imam Abu Hanifa and where did he come from?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he wants to introduce the great imams on different occasions, beginning with Abu Hanifa, and explains that Abu Hanifa is a kunya that became his name, as with Abu Hurayra among the Companions; he gives the actual name as he recalls it, garbled in the transcript as Marzaban [?]. He says Abu Hanifa was of Persian ancestry, from a wealthy family originally from Kabul whose grandparents embraced Islam and moved towards Iraq, and that he was born in Kufa in 80 AH, among the later tabi'un or those after them. He relates a story that the grandparents served a dessert, faludhaj, to a notable figure [?] who prayed for the family, and uses it to urge viewers to gift one another a dua, which costs nothing. He says Abu Hanifa grew up in a well-to-do trading family dealing in cloth and textiles, was not initially part of the circles of knowledge, and was a successful, stylish young businessman who kept his dashing dress throughout his life as an imam, at an age when most seekers of knowledge had begun at around ten.", "summary_short": "Abu Hanifa, a kunya that became his name, was of Persian ancestry with roots in Kabul, was born in Kufa in 80 AH and grew up as a stylish, successful cloth trader before turning to knowledge.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kunya", "label": "kunya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tabiun", "label": "tabi'un"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/1/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/2", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S02", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 2, "start": 396, "end": 785, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Al-Sha'bi's advice, the curious mind, and the teacher Hammad: becoming the voice of reason", "question_plain": "How did Abu Hanifa become a scholar after starting out as a merchant?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth relates that as a grown man thriving in business, Abu Hanifa walked past the great imam al-Sha'bi in Iraq, who asked which circles of knowledge he attended; when he replied that he went to the markets and traded, al-Sha'bi told him to make it his business to attend those circles, for he saw in him a brilliance and an extraordinary future. He says the words struck him, and this began a life-changing metamorphosis into the legendary imam, linking it to a quote shown earlier that blessed are the curious, for they will have adventures. He says Abu Hanifa brought a mind on fire, studied fiqh and tafsir among other subjects, and above all took the tutelage of Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman [?], a link in a chain of early Iraqi scholars. After Hammad's death he became the central figure in Kufa, alongside others such as Sufyan al-Thawri and Ibn Abi Layla, loved Hammad so much that he named his son Hammad, and concretised the school of reason, of which Mufti calls him a legendary voice.", "summary_short": "Encouraged by al-Sha'bi to join the circles of knowledge, the merchant Abu Hanifa studied with Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman, succeeded him as the central figure of Kufa and became the voice of the school of reason.", "answer_start": 396, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/scholars-and-imams", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shabi", "label": "al-Sha'bi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hammad-ibn-abi-sulayman", "label": "Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abi-layla", "label": "Ibn Abi Layla"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-ray", "label": "the school of reason (ahl al-ra'y)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa concretised the school of reason in Kufa and was a legendary voice of reason whose story is inspiring.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he concretizes this school which becomes known as the school of reason and he was a legendary voice for the voice of reason honestly a legend and it's so inspiring", "start": 731}}, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/2/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/3", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S03", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 3, "start": 785, "end": 1021, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Dressing well as a scholar, and the hostility and propaganda Abu Hanifa faced", "question_plain": "Why was Abu Hanifa criticised so much in his own time?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains why Abu Hanifa's fashion sense mattered: Imam Malik said a person of knowledge becomes a symbol to people, and so worked on his physique and ate a portion of meat daily for posture and stature, which affect how people feel in one's presence. He says that with notoriety came hate: Abu Hanifa was subjected to immense hostility and false propaganda claiming that his Islam was based on desires and opinion, that he put reason over the Quran, that he was a deviant and that everything was permissible according to him. He finds it striking that nobody would think this of him now, and says some of the hostility came from rivals such as Sufyan al-Thawri, a great imam who lived in the same town and often spoke against him, which Mufti says was not a good thing, whereas he has never read Abu Hanifa being venomous about others. He contrasts this with Imam Malik, whom everyone respected, and says that even when the imams criticised one another they remained respectful and dignified.", "summary_short": "Abu Hanifa was accused in his lifetime of following desire and opinion over the Quran, partly by rivals such as Sufyan al-Thawri, though the imams generally stayed respectful of one another.", "answer_start": 785, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the hostility Sufyan al-Thawri often showed towards Abu Hanifa was not a good thing, and that he has never read Abu Hanifa being venomous about others.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "sophiana thori who's a great Imam but he often hated on Imam which wasn't really you know a good thing to be honest", "start": 922}}, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/3/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/4", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S04", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 4, "start": 1021, "end": 1336, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Malik's verdict, the gathering of imams, and legal stratagems as a way of creating ease", "question_plain": "Why did Abu Hanifa allow things like praying in Persian?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik felt Abu Hanifa's opinions missed the mark yet did not disrespect him, saying he had met a man of great understanding who should have built on a firm foundation. He describes a gathering in the Prophet's mosque of Imam Malik, Abu Hanifa, al-Awza'i [?] and Sufyan al-Thawri or Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, after which Malik said Abu Hanifa could argue that a pillar was made of gold and win, a sign of his quick wit. He says people came to Abu Hanifa when stuck in religious matters and he found legal ways out for them, and his student Muhammad wrote a book of such stratagems; critics saw them as loopholes, but Mufti says Abu Hanifa saw them as facilitating, so that people would fall in love with a faith that is not rigid. He cites his fatwa that someone who struggled with Arabic could pray in Persian, which was weaponised against him, and explains that in the early Umayyad era many new Muslims did not speak Arabic, so the aim was ease until they learnt it. He says this spirit is the one needed today.", "summary_short": "Abu Hanifa's legal stratagems, such as letting someone who knew no Arabic pray in Persian, were meant to create ease for new Muslims, not to change Islam, and Mufti Abu Layth says that spirit is needed today.", "answer_start": 1021, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/legal-theory", "fiqh/prayer/conditions-and-validity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-awzai", "label": "al-Awza'i [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-ibn-al-mubarak", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-al-hasan-al-shaybani", "label": "Imam Muhammad (al-Shaybani)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hiyal", "label": "hiyal (legal stratagems, loopholes)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa's legal stratagems, such as allowing prayer in Persian, were meant to create ease and welcome people rather than to change Islam, and that this spirit is the one needed today.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "he wasn't trying to say change Islam he was trying to make it easy for them", "start": 1263}}, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/4/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/5", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S05", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 5, "start": 1336, "end": 1492, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abu Hanifa's political stances: Zayd ibn Ali, flight to Makkah, and supervising the building of Baghdad", "question_plain": "Was Abu Hanifa involved in politics?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth describes Abu Hanifa's political side and two inquisitions he suffered, one under the Umayyads and one under the Abbasids. He says that although Abu Hanifa did not rise up himself, it is written that he stood in solidarity with the uprising of Zayd, son of Zayn al-Abidin, from the family of the Prophet, got into serious trouble for it under the Umayyads, and fled Iraq to Makkah for some time, leaving Kufa around 130 AH. He returned when the Abbasids took over around 131 AH and later had trouble with them too, yet they recognised his standing: Mufti says the caliph building Baghdad commissioned him as what would today be called chief project manager, supervising the construction for four years. He notes that by then Abu Hanifa had countless students.", "summary_short": "Abu Hanifa supported Zayd ibn Ali's uprising and fled to Makkah under the Umayyads, and the Abbasids later made him chief supervisor of the building of Baghdad.", "answer_start": 1336, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/umayyads-and-abbasids", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zayd-ibn-ali", "label": "Zayd ibn Ali (son of Zayn al-Abidin)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "the Umayyads"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "the Abbasids"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-bayt", "label": "ahl al-bayt (the family of the Prophet)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:founding-of-baghdad", "label": "the building of Baghdad"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/5/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/6", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S06", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 6, "start": 1492, "end": 1728, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The students and the six books of the madhhab, and how the school lost Abu Hanifa's spirit", "question_plain": "How did the Hanafi school develop from Abu Hanifa's teaching?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth names Abu Hanifa's main students: Abu Yusuf, Imam Muhammad, who studied with him for perhaps only two years yet transmitted the main books and is the real voice of the Hanafi madhhab, and Zufar, a senior student placed third, whose ranking he says is another discussion. He says that with Abu Hanifa the school was a spirit rather than a structured institution, and that the institution begins with Muhammad and Abu Yusuf. He describes Muhammad's six mother texts, the zahir al-riwaya, containing perhaps over a hundred thousand issues, later summarised by a scholar whose name he does not recall and expanded in al-Mabsut [?]. He says he has always felt there is a difference between the imam and his madhhab: over the centuries it lost his spirit, became radically institutionalised and focused on the letter of the law, with most things declared haram, which Sherman Jackson calls the crypto-Shafi'isation of the madhhab, opposite to Abu Hanifa's reluctance to declare things haram and his concern to create ease.", "summary_short": "Abu Hanifa's students, above all Imam Muhammad, turned his spirit into an institution through the six books of the zahir al-riwaya, and Mufti Abu Layth feels the madhhab later lost that spirit and became focused on the letter of the law.", "answer_start": 1492, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yusuf", "label": "Abu Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-al-hasan-al-shaybani", "label": "Imam Muhammad (al-Shaybani)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zufar", "label": "Zufar"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sherman-jackson", "label": "Sherman Jackson"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zahir-al-riwaya", "label": "zahir al-riwaya (the six mother texts of the Hanafi madhhab)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mabsut", "label": "al-Mabsut [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:madhhab", "label": "madhhab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Hanafi madhhab, over the generations, lost the spirit Abu Hanifa brought, became radically institutionalised and focused on the letter of the law, declaring most things haram, contrary to his concern to create ease.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I feel that his method kind of along the way as the generations went by they lost our spirit and and the more centuries that went by became radically kind of institutionalized", "start": 1649}}, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/6/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/7", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S07", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 7, "start": 1728, "end": 1962, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ease in practice: wudu with nabidh, and people trapped by their own divorce oaths", "question_plain": "Did Abu Hanifa allow wudu with nabidh when there was no water?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gives an example of the ease Abu Hanifa created: when water was hard to find, in an age when travellers often drank fermented drinks because they were less likely to carry germs, as Roman soldiers drank weak beer, one could make wudu with nabidh, a fermented date drink with perhaps around one percent alcohol. He explains that such a negligible amount of alcohol was not haram in the early school of Abu Hanifa, while noting that later Hanafis disagreed, and he says Islam's move away from fermented alternatives pushed Muslims to build aqueducts and bring in water. He adds that people of that age created self-inflicted problems by making their wives' divorce conditional on all sorts of things and then came to Abu Hanifa to find a way out. He contrasts Imam Malik, also a voice of reason but with zero tolerance for such cases and a serious manner, with Abu Hanifa's jolly, people-loving personality, which he links to his upbringing as a businessman.", "summary_short": "In the early school of Abu Hanifa, someone without water could make wudu with nabidh, a weak fermented date drink, and he helped people out of rash conditional divorce oaths, unlike the sterner Imam Malik.", "answer_start": 1728, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/purification", "fiqh/divorce"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nabidh", "label": "nabidh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:talaq", "label": "talaq (conditional divorce oaths)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/7/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/8", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S08", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 8, "start": 1962, "end": 2514, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The joint wedding where the brides were sent to the wrong grooms", "question_plain": "How did Abu Hanifa solve the case of two brides sent to the wrong grooms?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth tells a story set in Kufa of two couples who held a joint wedding to share costs; at the zifaf, the wedding night, the brides were mistakenly sent to the wrong homes, and since arranged couples often had not seen each other, each spent the night with the wrong spouse and only discovered the mistake in the morning. The imams of the town, among them Sufyan al-Thawri and Abu Hanifa, were called in. Sufyan advised that each husband divorce the wife he had been with, that each wait out a period of three menstrual cycles to be sure there was no pregnancy, and that each then contract the nikah with the original spouse, citing a similar case from the salaf. Abu Hanifa, unimpressed, first asked the grooms and, in private, the brides how they found the person they had ended up with, and on hearing they had got on well, advised each man to divorce his original wife and contract a nikah on the spot with the woman he had spent the night with, with no waiting period since any pregnancy would be his own, and no lingering jealousy. Mufti says the couples were impressed and took that opinion, a testimony to Abu Hanifa's innovative, on-the-spot thinking.", "summary_short": "Where Sufyan al-Thawri advised divorces, a waiting period and remarriage to the original spouses, Abu Hanifa had each man marry on the spot the woman he had spent the night with, sparing a waiting period and jealousy.", "answer_start": 1962, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/strength-in-stories", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/marriage-contracts"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zifaf", "label": "zifaf (the wedding night)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "'iddah (waiting period after divorce)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/8/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/9", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S09", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 9, "start": 2514, "end": 2749, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imprisonment under the Abbasids, and the compassion and generosity that won hearts", "question_plain": "How did Abu Hanifa die, and what was he known for among people?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa got into trouble again in the time of Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, a movement from the family of the Prophet that arose in Madinah, by extending solidarity to his brother Ibrahim [?] in Kufa, for which he was punished and imprisoned and eventually died, or arguably was poisoned, in prison by the caliph or the politics of the time. He says what really stands out, and won the hearts of so many, was Abu Hanifa's compassion: being very wealthy, he spent on his students, teachers and people in need, for example funding a struggling family's wedding. He relates that Abu Hanifa once kept back after class a student who always dressed as if impoverished and offered him a purse of gold to buy good clothes; the student said he was in fact well off, and Abu Hanifa replied that if Allah has blessed you, then let the signs of His blessing be seen on you, not boastfully. Mufti adds that he is not speaking of the disheveled wandering Sufi mystics, who had their own way, but of people living in society who act as if they were struggling.", "summary_short": "Abu Hanifa was imprisoned by the Abbasids for supporting an uprising from the Prophet's family and died, perhaps poisoned, in prison; he was loved above all for his compassion and generosity.", "answer_start": 2514, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-al-nafs-al-zakiyya", "label": "Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim-ibn-abd-allah", "label": "Ibrahim, brother of al-Nafs al-Zakiyya [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "the Abbasids"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-bayt", "label": "ahl al-bayt (the family of the Prophet)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sufi", "label": "Sufi wandering mystics"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the feature that most made Abu Hanifa's legacy glow and won people's hearts was his compassion and generosity towards students, teachers and people in need.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the thing about Imam one of that that really stands out was his compassion for people you know this is what really won the heart of so many people around him was his compassion", "start": 2535}}, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/9/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/10", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S10", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 10, "start": 2749, "end": 3384, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The drunkard neighbour: 'did we let you go to waste?'", "question_plain": "What did Abu Hanifa do about his neighbour who drank and sang at night?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth tells the story of Abu Hanifa's neighbour, in Kufa or possibly Baghdad, a Muslim who disliked religious people as judgmental bigots and was a known drunkard who sat outside at night singing a poem that they had wasted a young man like him, using people like him as cannon fodder. He remarks that people in that era were not policed in the way some imagine, and that the neighbour was in the wrong for disturbing the peace, so Abu Hanifa, who had the authority of someone the caliph begged to become chief judge, could have had him stopped, yet he only smiled. When the singing stopped for some days, Abu Hanifa learnt that the man had been arrested for some delinquency, went to the local police, asked them as a favour to release him into his responsibility, and when the man came out said to him: young man, did we let you go to waste? Mufti says the man was so moved by this sincerity and compassion that he radically transformed his life, and draws the lesson that kindness conquers hearts, adding a line of poetry about why such heroes and legends are remembered.", "summary_short": "Rather than punishing his drunken, noisy neighbour, Abu Hanifa had him released from custody and asked whether he had let him go to waste, a kindness that transformed the man's life.", "answer_start": 2749, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "history/strength-in-stories", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khamr", "label": "alcohol (khamr)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth draws from the story of Abu Hanifa's drunkard neighbour that doing kindness to people conquers their hearts.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "but you know that you you do kindness to people it conquers the hearts this person was so he had like an existential profound moment", "start": 3283}}, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/10/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/11", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S11", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 11, "start": 3384, "end": 4095, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "His death in 150 AH, and the woman who tricked him in return for a marriage reference", "question_plain": "What is the story of the woman who tricked Abu Hanifa into a marriage proposal?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa died in 150 AH and is buried in Baghdad, where a structure marks his tomb, and that in the same year another imam [?] was born. He then tells a story whose accuracy he says is unknown: a beautiful woman came to Abu Hanifa's consultation, removed her hijab despite his request, and asked him to marry her, saying her father, a grocer, always put off suitors by describing her as cross-eyed, hunched and with learning difficulties. Abu Hanifa agreed, the father gave the same description, the nikah was contracted with a few witnesses, which Mufti links to a hadith that the simplest marriages have the most barakah, and the bride turned out to be the daughter described; Abu Hanifa apologised, released her and paid the expenses. Weeks later the first woman returned and explained that she had done this to get him back for vouching for her husband: when a poor suitor needed a reference, Abu Hanifa had asked him whether he would sell a limb for twelve thousand dinars, and then told her family only that the man had turned down twelve thousand gold pieces in front of him. Abu Hanifa replied that he had not meant to deceive but to help a good man who should not be turned down for money.", "summary_short": "Abu Hanifa died in 150 AH and is buried in Baghdad. In a story of uncertain accuracy, a woman tricked him into a marriage with a different bride to get him back for the clever reference he once gave a poor suitor.", "answer_start": 3384, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/strength-in-stories", "relationships/marriage/choosing-a-spouse", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:07a1c5d0", "label": "report: the nikah with the least burden has the most barakah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nikah", "label": "nikah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:polygamy", "label": "polygamy"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/11/"}, {"id": "s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/12", "short_id": "2022-12-10-S12", "recording": "s-Vm6mgbLl8", "n": 12, "start": 4095, "end": 4242, "date": "20221210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abu Hanifa on the young Malik, and how the Hanafi madhhab became restrictive", "question_plain": "What did Abu Hanifa say about Imam Malik?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth relates that when Abu Hanifa returned to Iraq and was asked about Imam Malik, at least twelve or thirteen years his junior, he said he had seen the blonde-haired, blue-eyed lad, explaining that blond hair and blue eyes were then an oddity in the Middle East with no special appeal. He closes by saying the imams left a legacy for whoever chooses to learn, but that the Hanafi madhhab became very restrictive and controlling, especially in the last two or three hundred years, while scholars such as one whose name is garbled [?] held that the matter of taqlid was still open and that one does not have to follow blindly. He says some of the other madhhabs, such as the Maliki, kept their freedoms, and ends with a prayer that the legacy inspires people to learn.", "summary_short": "Abu Hanifa called the younger Imam Malik a blonde, blue-eyed lad. Mufti Abu Layth closes that the Hanafi madhhab became restrictive in recent centuries while schools such as the Maliki kept their freedoms.", "answer_start": 4095, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqlid", "label": "taqlid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Hanafi madhhab became very restrictive and controlling, especially in the last two or three centuries, whereas other schools such as the Maliki kept their freedoms.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the mother did become quite regimental of especially in the latter centuries you know the last maybe two through 200 300 years whereas some of the other meth have still kept their freedoms", "start": 4177}}, "url": "/r/s-Vm6mgbLl8/s/12/"}, {"id": "s9JKA9ZjI28/s/1", "short_id": "2020-11-12-S01", "recording": "s9JKA9ZjI28", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 92, "date": "20201112", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth challenges Shadee Elmasry to debate Maliki fiqh", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will speak next week about Shadee Elmasry and another critic whose name the captions garble, saying they know nothing about Maliki fiqh. Mufti openly challenges them to debate any fiqh topic within the Maliki school and, saying Shadee Elmasry goes on about Mufti being a kafir, calls him a failed academic. Mufti says they are studying basic texts that he taught years ago and have not read the Mukhtasar of Khalil, which he is deciding when to teach, before returning to his main topic.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says his critics do not know Maliki fiqh and challenges them to debate him on any Maliki topic.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shadee-elmasry", "label": "Shadee Elmasry"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:mukhtasar-khalil", "label": "Mukhtasar Khalil"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/s9JKA9ZjI28/s/1/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/1", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S01", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 154, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Moving to Yasir Qadhi, by way of an Urdu couplet on Moses at Sinai", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth announces that he is moving on to Shaykh Yasir Qadhi and asks viewers who have just tuned in to like and share. Before doing so he recites an Urdu couplet, whose words the captions do not catch, by a poet who addresses the divine manifestation and asks whether he is taken to be like Moses, saying he is not Mount Sinai to collapse whenever the divine shows itself. He adds lines to the effect that everything comes down to unbridled passion: take two steps towards your destiny and the destination will be in front of you. He then introduces Qadhi with joking nicknames as the judge and the zombie slayer.", "summary_short": "Before turning to Yasir Qadhi Mufti Abu Layth recites Urdu verses on Moses at Sinai and on passion carrying one to one's destiny.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["arts/urdu-poetry"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/1/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/2", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S02", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 2, "start": 154, "end": 382, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The backdrop: an existential crisis, and even hypocrisy needs standards", "question_plain": "Why is Mufti Abu Layth responding to Yasir Qadhi?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will give the backdrop and then the controversy of Qadhi taking digs at him, looking at contradictions in his statements. He says that, as his own perspective, he feels Qadhi may be going through an existential crisis, though he is not sure Qadhi has admitted it, and that he does not believe a lot of what he expresses. He says that even hypocrisy should be done with standards and integrity, and recites an Urdu poem, whose words the captions do not catch, in which the speaker openly admits to being a fraud, a con artist by profession who is incapable of truly loving and whose words are superficial. He says there is an admirable quality in the poet's brutal honesty.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels Qadhi may be in an existential crisis and does not believe much of what he says, and that even hypocrisy should keep some integrity, like the frankly self-confessed fraud of an Urdu poem.", "answer_start": 154, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "arts/urdu-poetry"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/2/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/3", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S03", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 3, "start": 382, "end": 720, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj: the traditional reading, Qadhi's doubts and his zombie theory", "question_plain": "What are Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog), and could they be zombies?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says people with double standards preach what they cannot believe, and that Qadhi recently said he can no longer accept the traditional understanding of Ya'juj and Ma'juj. He explains that understanding: creatures, human-like or otherwise, trapped behind a barrier built by Dhul Qarnayn [?], who will break through at the end of time and pour forth from every direction, as the Quran says, wreaking havoc; he notes the words are not clearly Arabic and that some identified them with the Turks or the Chinese, which he calls stupid. He says Qadhi rejected the traditional reading because modern geography has mapped the earth and found no hidden billions, and suggested it might be a metaphor for chaos or for colonialism, an interpretation Mufti says he himself has said holds very strongly for him. He then mocks Qadhi's further suggestion, attributed to students of knowledge, that Ya'juj and Ma'juj could be zombies, listing sarcastic boxes it ticks.", "summary_short": "Qadhi rejected the traditional reading of Ya'juj and Ma'juj on geographical grounds and floated colonialism and zombies; Mufti Abu Layth says the colonial reading holds strongly for him and mocks the zombie idea.", "answer_start": 382, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhul-qarnayn", "label": "Dhul Qarnayn [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:96", "label": "Quran 21:96"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has said in the past that the colonial phenomenon holds a very strong interpretation of Ya'juj and Ma'juj for him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I've said as well in the past that that does hold a very strong interpretation for me for being the kind of colonial phenomenon that humans went through", "start": 607}}, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/3/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/4", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S04", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 4, "start": 720, "end": 1007, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Refutations of the zombie theory and Qadhi's attempts to justify it", "question_plain": "Can Yasir Qadhi's zombie theory of Gog and Magog be defended?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many Salafis attacked Qadhi over the zombie remark, among them the online critic Abu Ibrahim, known as the Exorcist, who once wrote a refutation of Mufti in which, Mufti says, he caught him out over a report he quoted; Abu Ibrahim too made a video refuting Qadhi. He says Qadhi has since been trying to justify the remark, which he says cannot be justified and should simply be disowned, comparing it to a viral clip of a man who owns an embarrassing moment. He sums up Qadhi's reasoning as: hidden subhuman peoples are geographically unfathomable and irrational, so it is zombies, and mocks it with an old anecdote of a feared scholar who turns out to be harmless, and with jokes about drugs.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi's zombie theory, refuted even by Salafi critics, cannot be justified and should simply be disowned.", "answer_start": 720, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ibrahim", "label": "Abu Ibrahim [?] (online critic)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/4/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/5", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S05", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 5, "start": 1007, "end": 1349, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "On a podcast, Qadhi says Mufti Abu Layth should declare himself a Mu'tazili", "question_plain": "What did Yasir Qadhi say about Mufti Abu Layth on the Mad Mamluks podcast?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Qadhi then appeared on a podcast, the Mad Mamluks [?], in which he says Qadhi was trying to reassert that he is still very traditional. He asks sarcastically how one reasserts one's position, answering that the usual Salafi or Wahhabi way is to declare others heretics and so assume a position of orthodoxy. He reports that, about an hour and thirteen minutes in, the podcast host said that people like Mufti Abu Layth deny certain miracles and the virginity of Maryam, which Mufti says was phrased to sound scandalous. He reports Qadhi's answer, which does not use Mufti's name: that one must look to the Quran and Sunnah, and that such people should simply declare that they are not Sunni and not from orthodox Islam but Mu'tazila, an old deviant sect, and then there would be no issue.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi, trying to reassert his traditional credentials on a podcast, said people like Mufti should declare themselves Mu'tazila rather than Sunni.", "answer_start": 1007, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:the-mad-mamluks", "label": "the Mad Mamluks podcast [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/5/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/6", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S06", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 6, "start": 1349, "end": 1533, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The irony: a Wahhabi telling others they are not Sunni", "question_plain": "Do most Sunnis consider Wahhabis and Salafis to be Sunni?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth answers first that the deen is not Qadhi's father's to decide who belongs. His second point is that Qadhi is himself a Wahhabi, and that the majority of Sunnis do not consider Wahhabis to be Sunni; he says it is only a minority, himself among them, who hold that Salafis too should be considered part of the Sunni majority. He recalls the slogan in parts of India and Pakistan, 'Sunni Shia brothers', with the question of where this third category came from. He says that most Sunnis, the Ash'aris categorically, do not consider Wahhabis Sunni, which makes Qadhi's demand such an irony.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is ironic for a Wahhabi to expel others from Sunni Islam, since most Sunnis do not count Wahhabis as Sunni, while he himself is among the few who do.", "answer_start": 1349, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is among the minority who hold that Salafis too should be considered part of the Sunni majority of Muslims.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's only a few the minority and amongst at minorities me that says no Salafis too should be park should be considered part of the Sunni majority of Muslims", "start": 1426}}, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/6/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/7", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S07", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 7, "start": 1533, "end": 1687, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Who were the Mu'tazila? The sinner's limbo, and why some came to distrust the intellect", "question_plain": "Who were the Mu'tazila and what did they believe?", "summary": "Asked by a viewer to define the Mu'tazila, Mufti Abu Layth says they were an extreme, now extinct sect of early Islam whose founding pillar was that a Muslim who commits a sin is neither a Muslim nor a kafir but in a limbo, al-manzila bayn al-manzilatayn, until they renew their faith. He says this was the first of their five key beliefs, and that they later developed others, such as God being bound by certain structures. He says that some later theologians, four or five hundred years after the Prophet, answered the Mu'tazila's mockery by accusing them of using their intellect instead of meeting idea with idea. That, he says, created a problem still with us, the belief of some Muslims that the intellect is bad, which he calls the dumbest thing anybody could say.", "summary_short": "The Mu'tazila were an extinct early sect who held that a sinning Muslim is neither believer nor kafir; Mufti Abu Layth says later theologians' defensive reaction left some Muslims thinking the intellect is bad, which he calls the dumbest idea.", "answer_start": 1533, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:manzila-bayn-al-manzilatayn", "label": "al-manzila bayn al-manzilatayn (the position between the two positions)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kafir", "label": "kafir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (intellect)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the belief of some Muslims that the intellect is bad is the dumbest thing anybody could say.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it created a problem which we're still dealing with today that some Muslims believed think that maybe the intellect is bad which is the dumbest the dumbest thing anybody could say", "start": 1648}}, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/7/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/8", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S08", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 8, "start": 1687, "end": 1990, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The virgin birth: what the Quran says explicitly, and the scholars who revisited it", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say Jesus was born of a virgin?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi deemed him a heretic by essence, outside mainstream Islam, for questioning interpretations, and urges viewers to watch the discussion themselves. He says all he said about the virgin birth was that the Quran does not explicitly say Jesus was born of a virgin; that the early Christians did not believe it and it became doctrine by the third century; that the Bible does not mention it; and that Matthew's use of Isaiah's prophecy rests on the word almah, a young woman, rather than betulah, a virgin. He cites scholars of recent times who revisited the matter, Tamanna Imadi [?] and Maulana Abdul Karim Athari [?], and a book on the birth of the son of Mary by the latter's teacher, whose name the captions garble. He reports their argument that the angel's glad tidings to Maryam parallel those to Ibrahim and Zakariyya, which did not exclude a natural father, and that one may infer that Mary's husband Joseph was not inclined to intimacy until the divine decree changed this, which he says one may call a miracle.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not explicitly state a virgin birth, citing recent scholars who read Mary's glad tidings like those given to Ibrahim and Zakariyya.", "answer_start": 1687, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zakariyya", "label": "Zakariyya (Zechariah)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-matthew", "label": "Gospel of Matthew"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:book-of-isaiah", "label": "Book of Isaiah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tamanna-imadi", "label": "Tamanna Imadi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not explicitly mention that Jesus was born of a virgin birth.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so now coming back to this in the Quran it does not explicitly anyway mention that Jesus was born of a virgin birth", "start": 1799}}, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/8/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/9", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S09", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 9, "start": 1990, "end": 2439, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reason, science and geography: the double standard on revisiting interpretations", "question_plain": "Is it inconsistent to reinterpret Gog and Magog by geography but not other beliefs by science?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth defines reason as the ability of a healthy mind to pass judgement, especially on evidence, and science as our observation of the world around us. He says that Qadhi, after calling him a heretic for saying certain things go against science or reason, went on to say that contemporary geography shows the medieval interpretation of Ya'juj and Ma'juj cannot be true and must be revisited, which Mufti mocks as favouritism for geography over science. He says Qadhi justified this with a precedent from his teacher's teacher, the twentieth-century Shaykh al-Sa'di [?], while the nineteenth- and twentieth-century authorities Mufti cites, such as Tamanna Imadi [?], Abdul Karim Athari [?] and Muhammad Abduh, are dismissed as modern. He calls this utter hypocrisy, laughable but disappointing, and jokes about Qadhi's geography teacher.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi calls him a heretic for revisiting interpretations on grounds of science and reason, yet revisits Gog and Magog on grounds of geography with his own teacher's precedent, which he calls hypocrisy.", "answer_start": 1990, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yajuj-wa-majuj", "label": "Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-rahman-al-sadi", "label": "Abd al-Rahman al-Sa'di [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:tamanna-imadi", "label": "Tamanna Imadi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (reason)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/9/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/10", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S10", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 10, "start": 2439, "end": 2819, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A soft target, and the Salafi past behind today's extremism", "question_plain": "Did the Salafi movement play a part in producing modern extremism?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he is a soft target because of his goatee and earring, but that he is who he is openly and does not hide behind a veneer. He says that while he accepts Salafis today are against terrorism, a huge part of today's terrorism came from these Wahhabis: he names Ibn Baz, al-Albani [?] and Muqbil [?] as participants in al-Jama'a al-Salafiyya al-Muhtasiba in the 1970s, which he describes as going about like the Taliban, and says the group went on to the 1979 seizure of the Kaaba under Juhayman, calling those scholars, as he puts it, its founding fathers despite their later dissociation. He recounts a viral TV clip in which a Gulf Salafi cleric, whose name the captions garble, condemned ISIS and was confronted by a caller with a clip of himself praising them. He says Qadhi was a hothead in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a product of this, that he is sure Qadhi has moved on, but that the teachers Qadhi still praises fertilised the movement.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Salafis now oppose terrorism but their movement helped produce it, from the 1970s Salafi group to the 1979 Kaaba seizure, and that Qadhi's teachers belonged to that past.", "answer_start": 2439, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-baz", "label": "Ibn Baz"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muqbil-al-wadii", "label": "Muqbil al-Wadi'i [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-jamaa-al-salafiyya-al-muhtasiba", "label": "al-Jama'a al-Salafiyya al-Muhtasiba"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:seizure-of-the-grand-mosque-1979", "label": "the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Makkah (1979)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:juhayman-al-utaybi", "label": "Juhayman al-Utaybi"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, although Salafis today are against terrorism, a huge part of the terrorism seen today came from these Wahhabis.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I accept that these selfies are anti-terrorism yeah I accept this but it was only yesterday that these people gave birth to terrorism this terrorism that we seen today a huge part of it is only from these wahhabis", "start": 2476}}, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/10/"}, {"id": "sMOOcEVIGDE/s/11", "short_id": "2019-11-03b-S11", "recording": "sMOOcEVIGDE", "n": 11, "start": 2819, "end": 2926, "date": "20191103", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Closing: reason has primacy, and interpretations may be revisited", "question_plain": "Can old interpretations of the Quran be revisited, and what role does reason play?", "summary": "Wrapping up, Mufti Abu Layth clarifies that he does hold that certain interpretations which have existed for hundreds of years need to be revisited, because they are an interpretation by certain people rather than the clear expression of the Quran, and that several great scholars of recent times have said so. He says the voice of reason is always paramount and that he gives it primacy, because through it one understands that the deen of Islam is valid and holds true. What he will not do, he says, is reinterpret things himself while calling others deviants for doing the same, which he calls a reflection of a fanatic past of excommunicating people, now expelling them from mainstream Islam instead. He then signs off.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says long-standing interpretations that are not the Quran's clear expression may be revisited and that reason has primacy, but one must not condemn others for doing what one does oneself.", "answer_start": 2819, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (reason)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deen", "label": "deen"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the voice of reason is always paramount and that he gives it primacy, because through it one can understand that the deen of Islam holds true.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "and yes reason the voice of reason is always paramount and I do give primacy to it because through it we can understand that the deen of islam has validity that is to us it holds true", "start": 2819}}, "url": "/r/sMOOcEVIGDE/s/11/"}, {"id": "t9EI_hrzL84/s/1", "short_id": "2021-05-18-S01", "recording": "t9EI_hrzL84", "n": 1, "start": 8, "end": 89, "date": "20210518", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Statement on the break-in at Mufti Abu Layth's home", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth describes what he calls a shocking and disgusting assault on his home: masked men barged in and frightened his wife and his two young daughters, who could not sleep that night. He asks those responsible whether they have mothers, sisters, wives and daughters of their own, whether this is what Islam teaches and whether it reflects the character of the Prophet. He says people are spreading lies about him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth describes masked men breaking into his home and terrifying his family, and asks whether this is the character Islam teaches.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:break-in-at-the-hosts-home-2021", "label": "Break-in at the host's home (May 2021)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/t9EI_hrzL84/s/1/"}, {"id": "t9EI_hrzL84/s/2", "short_id": "2021-05-18-S02", "recording": "t9EI_hrzL84", "n": 2, "start": 89, "end": 547, "date": "20210518", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Response to accusations over Palestine remarks and claims he is not Muslim", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has always been pro-Palestine, with posts condemning Israel going back to 2014, and that clips of him have been cut and pasted to claim otherwise. He says what he actually said is that no country is helping the Palestinians while a genocide takes place, and that if Israel will not allow a separate state it should at least let them leave with their lives, as hijrah, citing the Prophet's own departure from Makkah. He admits he once used the word 'exile', calls that a slip of the tongue in a two- to three-hour live stream and says his other clips say migration or hijrah. He compares the men who entered his home and frightened his young daughter to the Israeli army entering Palestinian homes, denies he has ever spoken against Masjid al-Aqsa, and rejects claims that he is not a Muslim, saying he has testified to faith all his life, has memorised the Quran and many hadith, and has defended the Prophet's honour against accusations. He cites a report that one Muslim's blood is more valuable than the Kaaba to argue for safe passage for Palestinians, repeats that Israel is a terrorist state, and closes by saying only Allah can judge him and will take those responsible to task.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has always supported Palestine and only argued for safe passage for its people, that 'exile' was a slip of the tongue, and that those calling him a non-Muslim and invading his home are not following Islam.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:break-in-at-the-hosts-home-2021", "label": "Break-in at the host's home (May 2021)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:palestinian-crisis-2021", "label": "The Palestinian crisis (May 2021)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijrah", "label": "hijrah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:takfir", "label": "takfir"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6e8a4bfd", "label": "report: the life and blood of one muslim is more valuable than the kaaba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/t9EI_hrzL84/s/2/"}, {"id": "tZNGKXyIaxU/s/1", "short_id": "2020-03-03-S01", "recording": "tZNGKXyIaxU", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 84, "date": "20200303", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Shaykh Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti", "question_plain": "What does the Mufti think of Shaykh Ramadan al-Buti?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth is asked for his view on Shaykh Ramadan al-Buti. He says al-Buti was a great scholar, definitely a scholar of his time, and that he benefited from some of his books, especially his question-and-answer volumes Ma'a al-Nas, of which he owns two. He says it is a shame that al-Buti got caught up in the politics in Damascus and Syria. He recalls meeting him and attending a few of his packed live lessons at a masjid. He prays that Allah grant him an elevated station in Jannah, remarks that such matters always become political, and mentions a dispute between al-Buti and, he thinks, Shaykh al-Yaqoubi and their followers.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth regards al-Buti as a great scholar of his time whose books, especially Ma'a al-Nas, he benefited from. He says it is a shame al-Buti got caught up in Syrian politics.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:said-ramadan-al-buti", "label": "Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:maa-al-nas", "label": "Ma'a al-Nas (al-Buti's question-and-answer books) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-al-yaqoubi", "label": "Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jannah", "label": "jannah (Paradise)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/tZNGKXyIaxU/s/1/"}, {"id": "ttQ_CXlVaso/s/1", "short_id": "2020-12-10-S01", "recording": "ttQ_CXlVaso", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 418, "date": "20201210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Yasir Qadhi's reply to Jay Smith over 'holes in the standard narrative'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces the week's segment on Yasir Qadhi's video replying to Jay Smith, David Wood and Daniel Brubaker, who had been pressing him over his phrase that there are holes in the standard narrative of the Quran. He plays snippets in which Yasir Qadhi says his phrase has been misused by Christian missionaries, calls himself an academic who researches what he says, points out errors by Jay Smith and others, and calls them 'ultracrepidarians' whom he wants Muslims to popularise the word for. In the clip Yasir Qadhi says there are many standard narratives, the one he holds being just not the most common today, and likens differences between readings to American and British pronunciation of the same sentence. Mufti comments lightly and mimics the accents.", "summary_short": "A played clip of Yasir Qadhi answering Christian polemicists who used his 'holes in the standard narrative' remark, calling them unqualified and likening variant readings to accents.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jay-smith", "label": "Jay Smith"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-brubaker", "label": "Daniel Brubaker"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hafs", "label": "Hafs"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-yusuf-ali", "label": "Abdullah Yusuf Ali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:marmaduke-pickthall", "label": "Marmaduke Pickthall"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ttQ_CXlVaso/s/1/"}, {"id": "ttQ_CXlVaso/s/2", "short_id": "2020-12-10-S02", "recording": "ttQ_CXlVaso", "n": 2, "start": 418, "end": 837, "date": "20201210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Agreeing with Yasir Qadhi that Jay Smith and David Wood are not clued up", "question_plain": "Is Jay Smith a reliable critic of the Quran's preservation?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Yasir Qadhi is now striking back at Jay Smith and others for using his name for months. He says he agrees with Yasir Qadhi that Jay Smith is not clued up about Islam and makes terrible blunders on Quran preservation, giving the example of Jay Smith claiming nobody can prove Muhammad existed while quoting Patricia Crone, who holds his existence beyond doubt. He calls Jay Smith a fanatic Christian dawah preacher driven by sensationalism, comparable to some Muslim street preachers, and says his five stages of canonisation are a summary taken from Shady Nasser's lecture, misattributing a point of Ibn Ghalbun [?] to al-Dani. He says David Wood is on a similar level, that Daniel Brubaker's blunders shown in the clip are laughable, and that on all these points Yasir Qadhi is right that they are clout chasing, though most Christians would not agree with their approach.", "summary_short": "No: he agrees with Yasir Qadhi that Jay Smith and David Wood are not clued up and chase sensation, repeating academics' summaries without understanding them.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jay-smith", "label": "Jay Smith"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:patricia-crone", "label": "Patricia Crone"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-mujahid", "label": "Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-amr-al-dani", "label": "Abu Amr al-Dani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ghalbun", "label": "Ibn Ghalbun [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:shady-nasser", "label": "Shady Nasser"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:david-wood", "label": "David Wood"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-brubaker", "label": "Daniel Brubaker"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ttQ_CXlVaso/s/2/"}, {"id": "ttQ_CXlVaso/s/3", "short_id": "2020-12-10-S03", "recording": "ttQ_CXlVaso", "n": 3, "start": 837, "end": 1183, "date": "20201210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Yasir Qadhi still has not explained his 'holes in the narrative'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the controversy over 'holes in the narrative' is one Yasir Qadhi landed himself in deeply, since he never offered a response or clarity at the time beyond suggesting people take his course. He expects critics like Jay Smith to chase him over it because they know he cannot answer it. He jokes at length about Yasir Qadhi wanting Muslims to popularise the word 'ultracrepidarian', saying it shows he has lived most of his life in a library. He says he respects him for saying he holds a different view and for raising awareness that there are some forty views, but is disappointed that in what was meant as his final word he again evaded explaining what he actually believes.", "summary_short": null, "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jay-smith", "label": "Jay Smith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ttQ_CXlVaso/s/3/"}, {"id": "ttQ_CXlVaso/s/4", "short_id": "2020-12-10-S04", "recording": "ttQ_CXlVaso", "n": 4, "start": 1183, "end": 1714, "date": "20201210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The dynamic nature of the Quran: from essence to written embodiment", "question_plain": "Was the Quran always fixed word for word, or was it flexible at first?", "summary": "Answering requests for his own view, Mufti Abu Layth shares notes in which he says the Quran has always been dynamic and that the idea that it is static vowel for vowel is a nineteenth- and twentieth-century phenomenon. He sets out stages: the essence stage, the eternal speech (al-kalam al-azali) which the Ash'aris say is meaning, not words; the revelation stage, where it manifests as the Arabic Quran, citing al-Baqillani [?] and al-Bajuri, and where he sides with the view that the Arabic came into being in the mind of the Prophet, revealed to him and not invented; and the dynamic interaction stage of rulings, abrogation and companions substituting synonyms, which he says Imam Malik and al-Shafi'i allowed and which he regards as the default nature (azimah), not a dispensation. The fourth is the embodiment stage, the move from oral to written under Abu Bakr and Uthman, with the challenge of script: he says the Nabataean script, imported from al-Hira, was a worldly choice, citing Abu Sufyan, Mu'awiya and the Badr captives who could buy their freedom by teaching writing.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds the Quran was dynamic in the Prophet's time, with companions allowed to substitute synonyms, and that a fixed vowel-for-vowel text is a modern idea. Writing it down in a worldly script brought its own constraints.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-allah", "label": "kalam Allah (eternal speech, al-kalam al-azali)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baqillani", "label": "al-Baqillani [?] (name garbled in the transcript)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bajuri", "label": "al-Bajuri"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rukhsah", "label": "rukhsah (dispensation)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-bakr", "label": "Abu Bakr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:nabataeans", "label": "the Nabataeans"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-sufyan", "label": "Abu Sufyan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan", "label": "Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-badr", "label": "the battle of Badr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he finds himself in line with the view that the Arabic Quran came into being in the mind of the Prophet, revealed to him and not invented by him.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i find myself in line with that latter that is in the mind of the prophet", "start": 1407}}, "url": "/r/ttQ_CXlVaso/s/4/"}, {"id": "ttQ_CXlVaso/s/5", "short_id": "2020-12-10-S05", "recording": "ttQ_CXlVaso", "n": 5, "start": 1714, "end": 2099, "date": "20201210", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "From the Uthmanic rasm to the canonised readings: dynamism restricted", "question_plain": "Can we substitute words of the Quran today as the companions did?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth continues with the fifth stage, the constriction under Uthman, whose consonantal codex sought unity in recitation but trapped the wording so that words could no longer be substituted, ending the dynamic era. Then came the deciphering stage, when many readings emerged as people worked out vowels and diacritics, which he likens to reading abbreviated text messages, with grammar and the readings shaping each other. In the canonisation stage Ibn Mujahid chose seven readers, later scholars fixed two transmitters for each, al-Shatibi [?] restricted it to seven and Ibn al-Jazari accommodated more, and, like stable isotopes, certain readings came to dominate. He concludes that the Quran was dynamic in the Prophet's time but has come to us static, so it would not be correct to play with it today, and says that while it is unclear whether Imam Malik saw word substitution as the default or a dispensation, he himself feels it was the default.", "summary_short": "No: the Quran was dynamic in the Prophet's time, but after Uthman's codex and the canonised readings it has reached us fixed, so changing it today would not be correct. He feels word substitution was the original default, not a mere dispensation.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rasm-uthmani", "label": "rasm uthmani (the Uthmanic consonantal text)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-mujahid", "label": "Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiraat", "label": "qira'at (the variant readings)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-amr-al-dani", "label": "Abu Amr al-Dani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qasim-al-shatibi", "label": "al-Shatibi (author of the Shatibiyya) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jazari", "label": "Ibn al-Jazari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rukhsah", "label": "rukhsah (dispensation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that the companions' substituting of words was the default ruling for the Quran rather than merely a dispensation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so they may have felt the latter i feel the former that it is by default", "start": 2058}}, "url": "/r/ttQ_CXlVaso/s/5/"}, {"id": "uBbLk0EhDGk/s/1", "short_id": "2018-04-09b-S01", "recording": "uBbLk0EhDGk", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 372, "date": "20180409", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Do you believe in the Dajjal? Why the Antichrist concept is problematic", "question_plain": "Does the Dajjal (Antichrist) exist in Islam?", "summary": "A chat questioner asks whether Mufti Abu Layth believes in the Dajjal. He says the question is built on a presupposed belief construct: asking about 'the Dajjal' is not starting from ground zero, as it would be with an unfamiliar word, but carrying beliefs one already holds. He repeats what he has told people before, that the Dajjal as the Antichrist is a myth that does not exist in Islam; the word, meaning deceiver, does occur in several hadith, sometimes on its own, and he ties these to the topic of the second coming of Jesus and the Mahdi, saying his approach is that all the hadith linked to one another in this cluster are unacceptable. He argues that it is absurd to think God would test people with a devil child possessing immense powers to defy the laws of nature and raise the dead: Allah asks people to believe on the basis of reason, perception and the signs around them, so sending a figure who provides proof and then punishing those who follow what they see would make God unreasonable and sadistic, like a caricature of the God of the Old Testament, and clashes with the concept of al-Rahman and al-Rahim. He says people may believe it if they wish, as they believe in the spaghetti monster or the bogeyman, but that for him Allah does not toy with people or trip them up. After a brief aside about a posted link and blocking trolls, he says that anyone starting from ground zero would find the hadith linked with Jesus problematic, which he will show in a future course on the second coming being false, and offers two readings of the Dajjal hadith: some refer to Shaytan as the deceiver, while the report that every prophet warned his ummah of a time of powerful deception may, in his tentative take, point to an age in which the virtual becomes indistinguishable from the real; people may instead set those reports aside or take them as about the devil.", "summary_short": "No: the Dajjal as the Antichrist is a myth that does not exist in Islam, since a God who tested people with a miracle-working devil child would contradict al-Rahman and al-Rahim. The Dajjal hadith refer either to Shaytan or, tentatively, to an age where the virtual becomes indistinguishable from the real.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Shaytan"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ca03ed2b", "label": "report: every prophet warned his ummah about the deceiver and a time of deception will come"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:old-testament", "label": "the Old Testament"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Dajjal as an Antichrist figure is a myth that does not exist in Islam, that the hadith linking the Dajjal with the second coming of Jesus and the Mahdi are unacceptable because a God who tested people with a miracle-working devil child would be unreasonable and clash with al-Rahman and al-Rahim, and that the Dajjal reports refer either to Shaytan or, on his tentative reading, to an age in which the virtual becomes indistinguishable from the real.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I've told people before that gel as the Antichrist is a myth does not exist in Islam", "start": 39}}, "url": "/r/uBbLk0EhDGk/s/1/"}, {"id": "uMKu_OCFTes/s/1", "short_id": "2021-05-15-S01", "recording": "uMKu_OCFTes", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 394, "date": "20210515", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Layers of the crisis: occupation, Gulf normalisation, Netanyahu's position, Arab buffer zones", "question_plain": "What are the layers behind the Palestinian crisis of May 2021?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces the Palestinian plight and Israeli injustice, saying the world is aware of the recent atrocities by Israel and that the situation is on the brink of full-scale war, and he makes dua for the Palestinians and all victims. He says the crisis has layers. The first is the illegal Israeli occupation and expansion, most recently a court ruling to forcibly remove Palestinians from a number of homes, which he says has been spoken against in the United Nations Security Council and by the global community and parts of the media, and which he calls clear oppression and a crime against humanity. He says there is a religious aspect, to come later, and a political layer in which the crisis is riddled with politics given a veneer of religion or resistance. Among the political elements he lists the newly normalised relations between the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel, which he says have passed this test since they have not reacted; Netanyahu's precarious domestic position with elections and investigations, and the old trick of fear, since research shows frightened people lean to the right; and the interest of Arab neighbours in keeping Palestine as a buffer, the West Bank for Jordan and Gaza for Egypt. He adds that only Allah knows what else is at play behind the scenes.", "summary_short": "The crisis has an occupation layer, which Mufti Abu Layth calls clear oppression and a crime against humanity, and a political layer: Gulf normalisation with Israel, Netanyahu's domestic insecurity and fear politics, and Arab neighbours' interest in a Palestinian buffer zone.", "answer_start": 80, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:palestinian-crisis-2021", "label": "The Palestinian crisis (May 2021)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:united-nations-security-council", "label": "United Nations Security Council"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:benjamin-netanyahu", "label": "Benjamin Netanyahu"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Palestinian crisis has an occupation layer, the illegal Israeli occupation and forced removals that are clear oppression and a crime against humanity, and a political layer involving Gulf normalisation with Israel, Netanyahu's domestic position and Arab neighbours' interest in a buffer zone.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "i mean there are layers to this crisis one layer is that of the illegal israeli occupancy that they have moved in illegally they have expanded", "start": 79}}, "url": "/r/uMKu_OCFTes/s/1/"}, {"id": "uMKu_OCFTes/s/2", "short_id": "2021-05-15-S02", "recording": "uMKu_OCFTes", "n": 2, "start": 394, "end": 709, "date": "20210515", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What can be done: global outcry, Israeli impunity, boycotts and the limits of online awareness", "question_plain": "What can ordinary people do about the Palestinian crisis, and do social-media posts help?", "summary": "Turning to what can actually be done, Mufti Abu Layth says the matter is complex: a global outcry is necessary, but Israel acts with impunity and does not care, ignoring several United Nations Security Council resolutions, and Biden, while somewhat critical, remarked that Israel's actions were not out of proportion; other countries condemn but will not physically stop the atrocities and at most request. He says outcry by governments and people is necessary rather than silence, that people can create awareness and boycott Israeli products and brands, but that it is important not to guilt-trip other Muslims. He explains that a person's circle is at most about 150 people and that Muslim circles are ethnic, insular echo chambers in which everyone already knows what is going on, so the crisis is not a result of lack of awareness. He says sharing posts or videos of bloodshed on Instagram, which itself desensitises people to the sanctity of blood, makes zero difference to the crisis when Israel ignores even the Security Council, calling this a hard-hitting truth; people may still do it, but not to take a holier-than-thou attitude to those who do not.", "summary_short": "Global outcry and boycotts are necessary even though Israel ignores them and acts with impunity, but Instagram posts make no difference to the crisis, which is not caused by lack of awareness, so Muslims should not guilt-trip one another.", "answer_start": 394, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "society/technology-and-media/social-media"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:palestinian-crisis-2021", "label": "The Palestinian crisis (May 2021)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:united-nations-security-council", "label": "United Nations Security Council"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:joe-biden", "label": "Joe Biden"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a global outcry is necessary even though Israel acts with impunity and people can boycott Israeli products, but that social-media posts make no difference to the crisis, so Muslims should not guilt-trip others who do not make them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "people doing this in all honesty makes zero difference to the actual crisis israel is not going to stop because you posted something on instagram", "start": 619}}, "url": "/r/uMKu_OCFTes/s/2/"}, {"id": "uMKu_OCFTes/s/3", "short_id": "2021-05-15-S03", "recording": "uMKu_OCFTes", "n": 3, "start": 709, "end": 866, "date": "20210515", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Protests, their slow effect, and the Birmingham road blockade as an example of what not to do", "question_plain": "Do protests help Palestine, and was blocking the roads in Birmingham justified?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says holding protests is another form of action: it creates sensationalism for the media, demonstrates an outcry and puts pressure on politicians, who present something to the House of Parliament and press the prime minister, but the time frame of lobbying and voting is long and any action is at most a request to Israel, which does not care. As an example of what not to do, he cites a protest the previous day in Birmingham in which protesters blocked the main roads into the city centre with their vehicles at rush hour. He calls this an utter disservice to the Palestinian cause: frustration and anger give nobody the right to break the law, it causes great distress to fellow civilians who have nothing to do with the matter, and it increases sentiment against what is going on in Palestine. He reports comments on his Instagram story that two ambulances were stuck and that a family could not get a child to the children's hospital for about an hour, calls the action utterly disgraceful, and says whoever suggests such ideas is doing a disservice to a humanitarian cause, since a dumb action is not a meaningful action.", "summary_short": "Protests put slow pressure on politicians who can only request, and blocking Birmingham's roads at rush hour was a disservice to the Palestinian cause: it broke the law, harmed civilians and turned sentiment against Palestine.", "answer_start": 709, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "society/current-events/britain"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:palestinian-crisis-2021", "label": "The Palestinian crisis (May 2021)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:birmingham-road-blockade-protest-2021", "label": "Birmingham road blockade protest for Palestine (May 2021)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says blocking the roads into Birmingham at rush hour was an utter disservice to the Palestinian cause, since frustration gives nobody the right to break the law, it distressed uninvolved civilians and it increased sentiment against Palestine.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this is an utter disservice to the palestinian cause you have to understand that people trying to justify this by stating that oh but we are frustrated and angry one it does not give anybody the right", "start": 774}}, "url": "/r/uMKu_OCFTes/s/3/"}, {"id": "uMKu_OCFTes/s/4", "short_id": "2021-05-15-S04", "recording": "uMKu_OCFTes", "n": 4, "start": 866, "end": 1099, "date": "20210515", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Possible solutions: ceasefire, two states, naturalisation, or relocation and al-Albani's hijrah fatwa", "question_plain": "What solutions are possible for Palestine?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says frustration does not justify doing something stupid, and turns to possible solutions. The immediate hope is de-escalation and a ceasefire, which will again be a global request granted when Israel decides, so people are for a great part helpless, a bitter truth. Zooming out, he says one must accept that, tyrannical as it is, Israel is here to stay, which leaves a limited set of solutions. One is a two-state solution, which Israel would not allow but which people could push for. Another, which he calls counter-intuitive, is to naturalise the whole of Palestine within Israel, noting that Arabs already make up over twenty percent of Israel's population and that Palestine is not a sovereign state, receiving its finances, airports, currency and passports through Israel. The third, as shocking as it sounds, is relocation, for which scholars such as al-Albani gave a fatwa of hijrah for the Muslims there; he calls this realistic rather than defeatist and gives the parallel of a house on fire, where one first tries to put it out but at some point must evacuate regardless of the home's monetary or sentimental value.", "summary_short": "Israel is here to stay, so the realistic options are a two-state solution, naturalising Palestinians within Israel, or relocation, for which al-Albani gave a fatwa of hijrah, compared to evacuating a house whose fire cannot be put out.", "answer_start": 866, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:palestinian-crisis-2021", "label": "The Palestinian crisis (May 2021)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijrah", "label": "hijrah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that Israel is here to stay, which leaves a limited set of solutions: a two-state solution, naturalisation of Palestine within Israel, or relocation as in al-Albani's fatwa of hijrah, which he compares to evacuating a house whose fire cannot be put out.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "tyrannical as israel is it is here to stay it is not going anywhere now that only leaves a certain amount of solutions one would be a two-state solution", "start": 931}}, "url": "/r/uMKu_OCFTes/s/4/"}, {"id": "uMKu_OCFTes/s/5", "short_id": "2021-05-15-S05", "recording": "uMKu_OCFTes", "n": 5, "start": 1099, "end": 1257, "date": "20210515", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A genocide, not a war: armchair coward-shaming and the religious-centre mentality", "question_plain": "Is the Gaza conflict a war or a genocide, and who is egging Palestinians on?", "summary": "Continuing the house-on-fire parallel, Mufti Abu Layth says the priority becomes saving one's life and the lives of one's loved ones. He says the Gaza-Israel war is not a war but a genocide, resulting only in exponential Palestinian deaths and generational trauma, and that people are not ready to have this conversation. He says elements of the global community are coward-shaming and egging Palestinians on towards martyrdom; the Palestinians have shown valour of biblical proportions, but to urge them from the comfort of one's home to die and have their children killed for the cause is an armchair-coward approach. He ties this back to the buffer-zone theory of neighbouring Arab countries, to international coward-shaming, and to a religious-centre mentality that treats the land as the holiest of holies or a little Haramayn, which he says is a discussion in itself and which he begins to open by turning to the Jewish claim.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls the conflict a genocide rather than a war and says urging Palestinians towards martyrdom from the comfort of one's home is armchair cowardice, driven by Arab buffer-zone interests and a religious-centre mentality.", "answer_start": 1099, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:palestinian-crisis-2021", "label": "The Palestinian crisis (May 2021)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the conflict is a genocide rather than a war, and that egging Palestinians on towards martyrdom from the comfort of one's home is an armchair-coward approach.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "so this this raza israel war is not a war it is a genocide and people have to you see the reality is that that's all it is", "start": 1099}}, "url": "/r/uMKu_OCFTes/s/5/"}, {"id": "uMKu_OCFTes/s/6", "short_id": "2021-05-15-S06", "recording": "uMKu_OCFTes", "n": 6, "start": 1257, "end": 1489, "date": "20210515", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Jewish claim and our own narrations: David's kingdom, al-Aqsa, the first qibla and Umayyad Jerusalem", "question_plain": "Is there archaeological evidence for David's kingdom, and how did Jerusalem become holy for Muslims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says historians and archaeologists have dug extensively for the kingdoms of David and Solomon and found nothing to substantiate a united monarchy beyond one tiny inscription, so the Jewish claim that those kingdoms were there remains unfounded and science suggests they either were not there or did not enjoy the vast kingdom claimed. He says Muslims find it easy to accept that the Jewish people got this wrong but do not look at their own tradition with the same eye: in the Muslim narrations there is great difference over what was meant by al-Masjid al-Aqsa and by the first qibla, several early mufassirun held that the farthest point of the Prophet's prostration was in the heavens rather than Jerusalem, many Companions held the night journey to be a vision, and those who held it to be a physical visit did not know where the place was, which was only pointed out later by a Jewish person. He says it was the Umayyad caliphate under Abd al-Malik that carried out a huge amount of Jerusalem propaganda to rival Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr in Makkah, fabricating many hadith to create a holy ground for themselves in Sham, grooming and propaganda he says Muslims are still victims of today. He calls these bitter truths and a Pandora's box.", "summary_short": "Archaeology has not found the kingdoms of David and Solomon, and Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims should apply the same scrutiny to their own narrations, where early scholars differed over al-Aqsa and the first qibla and the Umayyads under Abd al-Malik promoted Jerusalem with fabricated hadith to rival Ibn al-Zubayr.", "answer_start": 1257, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "history/sirah/isra-and-miraj"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dawud", "label": "David (Dawud)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Solomon (Sulayman)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:masjid-al-aqsa", "label": "al-Masjid al-Aqsa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qiblah", "label": "qiblah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:isra-and-miraj", "label": "the night journey (al-Isra)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abd-al-malik-ibn-marwan", "label": "Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says archaeology has not substantiated the kingdoms of David and Solomon, that early Muslim scholars differed over whether al-Masjid al-Aqsa was in Jerusalem or the heavens and whether the night journey was a vision, and that the Umayyads under Abd al-Malik fabricated hadith to promote Jerusalem against Ibn al-Zubayr in Makkah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "the truth is it was abdul malik and it was the umayyad caliphate that did a huge amount of jerusalem propaganda to rival abdullah zubair in mecca and they fabricated a hell of a lot of hadith", "start": 1430}}, "url": "/r/uMKu_OCFTes/s/6/"}, {"id": "uMKu_OCFTes/s/7", "short_id": "2021-05-15-S07", "recording": "uMKu_OCFTes", "n": 7, "start": 1489, "end": 1868, "date": "20210515", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Politics on every side, what people can do, and migration as a last resort", "question_plain": "What can people realistically do for Palestine, and is migration an option?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says none of this detracts from the Gaza crisis or the Palestinian plight, nor should it diminish sentiment for the humanitarian cause, but it shows the immense politics at work. He lists the Israelis using religion by claiming the same God of Abraham gave them the land, while Muslims argue the same God speaks to them in the Quran, a veneer of religion that makes the non-Abrahamic world think this is what religion does to people; the politics of history, with the kingdoms of David and Solomon nowhere to be found archaeologically in modern Israel and most likely in Egypt; the historical politics of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties; the Arab nations' buffer zones; the normalisation deals of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt with Israel; and Netanyahu's political losses and the playing of the war card, with the innocent dying in all of it. On what people can do, he repeats practical steps: pressure on local members of parliament, which is not very effective, and economic boycotts, which have historically had some impact on Israel. He says the hard truth is that the everyday person is largely helpless beyond dua because the parties refuse meaningful negotiation, that no land is worth a genocide, that the Prophet taught people to migrate and the Islamic calendar begins with the hijrah, and that while not every place requires migration, an assessment of genocide does, or else meaningful negotiation, which he says neighbouring Arab governments do not encourage, preferring a one-sided resistance. He closes with dua, says he shared these thoughts because several people asked, acknowledges that people may disagree with his opinion, and urges anyone who can effect real change to do so.", "summary_short": "Politics runs through every side of the crisis, and ordinary people are largely helpless beyond pressuring MPs, boycotts and dua; Mufti Abu Layth says no land is worth a genocide and that the Prophet taught migration where an assessment calls for it, or else meaningful negotiation.", "answer_start": 1646, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events/palestine", "society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:palestinian-crisis-2021", "label": "The Palestinian crisis (May 2021)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:benjamin-netanyahu", "label": "Benjamin Netanyahu"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijrah", "label": "hijrah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hijrah", "label": "the hijrah to Madinah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says ordinary people are largely helpless beyond pressuring members of parliament, economic boycotts and dua, that no land is worth a genocide, and that, since the Prophet taught people to migrate, an assessment that a genocide is under way calls for migration or else meaningful negotiation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it is not this land is never worth the genocide the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam did teach people to migrate", "start": 1742}}, "url": "/r/uMKu_OCFTes/s/7/"}, {"id": "uVRr1jjbLEs/s/1", "short_id": "2018-03-05c-S01", "recording": "uVRr1jjbLEs", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 66, "date": "20180305", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Can men wear earrings? Not haram, though not the general custom", "question_plain": "Is it haram for men to wear earrings?", "summary": "In a clip from a live session Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe it is haram for men to wear earrings and asks why it would be. He notes that the general custom in the medieval period was that men did not wear earrings but boys did, and that some narrations [?] describe a newborn boy being given an earring to wear on the seventh day, which is why many boys wore them. He cites Imam Malik being asked whether a boy may wear a gold earring and answering that boys should not wear gold, without condemning the earring itself, and adds that some transmit that Imam Malik's son wore an earring. He concludes that it is not the general culture, which he recognises, but that it is not haram.", "summary_short": "It is not haram for men to wear earrings, though it is not the general custom. Boys wore them in the early period, and Imam Malik objected only to gold, not to the earring.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:54f5da0f", "label": "report: when a boy is born on the seventh day he is given an earring to wear"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that it is not haram for men to wear earrings, although it is not the general custom, noting that boys wore them in the medieval period and that Imam Malik objected only to a boy wearing gold, not to the earring itself.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't believe it's Haram for men to wear earrings why would it be Haram although the custom generally in the medieval ages was that men did not generally wear earrings but boys did", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/uVRr1jjbLEs/s/1/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/1", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S01", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 124, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Opening: riba as a complex, over-claimed and symbolic subject", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens by saying he is coming to the issue of riba, jokes about provoking people and deleting annoying comments 'because I can', and asks viewers to focus. He says that in his understanding riba is an incredibly complex yet over-claimed subject, in that too many people feel they understand it, and that the concept has become symbolic within Islam. He greets viewers joining late, asks them to like and share the live feed, and says this is an interesting and important point from which he would like many people to benefit.", "summary_short": "Riba is a complex but over-claimed subject that has become symbolic in Islam. Mufti Abu Layth asks viewers to bear with a detailed explanation.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/1/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/2", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S02", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 2, "start": 124, "end": 331, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Religion as symbolism, and riba as one of Islam's symbols", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth say riba has become a symbol rather than something people understand?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that to understand riba one must step back: religion to many people is just symbolism, a point he says he discussed last week with a shaykh from Birmingham. People identify with religion through symbols and icons, such as dress, beards, hijab, rituals that can be seen, and later domes and minarets, which did not exist in the Prophet's time but have come to represent Islam, and this is why he himself is not considered religious by many, since he carries none of the symbols. He says riba has become one of these symbols: people may not understand what it is but hold it to be an incredibly important aspect of Islam. What they do know is that Allah has declared war on riba, and that the Quran says Allah destroys riba and increases sadaqat, which he explains as riba having no barakah and being detested by God.", "summary_short": "Riba has become a symbol of Islam that many hold important without understanding it, because religion for many people is a matter of visible symbols. What people know is that Allah declared war on riba and destroys it while increasing charity.", "answer_start": 124, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:279", "label": "Quran 2:279 (be informed of a war from Allah)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:276", "label": "Quran 2:276 (Allah destroys riba and increases sadaqat)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sadaqah", "label": "sadaqah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barakah", "label": "barakah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that religion for many people is a matter of visible symbols, and that riba has become one such symbol of Islam, held to be incredibly important by people who may not understand what it is.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "So riba has become one of those things that is symbolic. That it is seen to many people to be an important aspect of Islam.", "start": 267}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/2/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/3", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S03", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 3, "start": 331, "end": 556, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Three kinds of riba, and the loan-shark riba of the jahiliyyah", "question_plain": "What was the riba of the jahiliyyah that the Quran condemned?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites the verse that Allah permitted sale and forbade riba, and says that in Islam riba is spoken of as three things, though the Quran uses the word generally and usually refers to one of them: riba al-jahiliyyah, riba al-fadl and riba al-nasi'a. He describes riba al-jahiliyyah as the draconian, highly oppressive loan-shark riba of pre-Islamic Arabia: a borrower in need of gold who could not repay faced compounding demands, and when he still could not pay he could be killed or worse. After a tangent on a famous Arabic poem about surviving the death of loved ones and one's own death being the greater tragedy, he says the debtor might be tortured, his children enslaved and dragged away, and his wife or wives tortured, and that this highly oppressive context, a loan-shark culture to the power of ten, is what the concept of riba contained.", "summary_short": "Riba is spoken of as three kinds: riba al-jahiliyyah, riba al-fadl and riba al-nasi'a. The riba of the jahiliyyah was a tyrannical loan-shark practice of compounding debt enforced by killing, torture and enslavement.", "answer_start": 372, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "history/pre-islamic-arabia"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:275", "label": "Quran 2:275 (Allah has permitted sale and forbidden riba)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba-al-jahiliyyah", "label": "riba al-jahiliyyah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba-al-fadl", "label": "riba al-fadl (riba of excess)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba-al-nasia", "label": "riba al-nasi'a (riba of delay)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth describes the riba of the jahiliyyah as a tyrannical loan-shark practice in which compounding demands on a debtor who could not repay could end in killing, torture and the enslavement of his family.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "Ribal jahiliyyah is the riba that it's a kind of inc- a tyrant like a very uh draconian highly oppressive loan shark kind of riba.", "start": 390}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/3/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/4", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S04", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 4, "start": 556, "end": 856, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Riba al-fadl: the six-commodities hadith, hand-to-hand exchange and the exemption of gold and silver", "question_plain": "What is riba al-fadl and what does the hadith on gold, silver, wheat, barley, dates and salt say?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to riba al-fadl, taking more than one gives in an exchange within a category, and cites the sahih hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and other books that gold for gold, silver for silver, wheat for wheat, barley for barley, dates for dates and salt for salt must be equal, joking about books that announce five things and list four. He asks why anyone would trade a kilo of wheat for a kilo of wheat, and explains that the hadith also forbids delay: if one party collects his goods tomorrow, even between different categories, it is declared riba, which he says does not make much sense, since the hadith allows selling dates for wheat as one wishes so long as it is hand to hand, and the moment one side is delayed it becomes riba. He notes that the hadith includes gold and silver, which would make buying anything on credit impossible, and that the scholars by a kind of consensus exempted gold and silver, that is currency, from the hadith while keeping the remaining four.", "summary_short": "The six-commodities hadith requires equal, hand-to-hand exchange and makes delay riba, even between different goods. Taken literally it would make credit impossible, so the scholars exempted gold and silver by a kind of consensus.", "answer_start": 556, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:bca2b93a", "label": "report: gold for gold silver for silver wheat for wheat barley for barley dates for dates salt for salt like for like hand to hand (unresolved; in al-Bukhari and Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba-al-fadl", "label": "riba al-fadl (riba of excess)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba-al-nasia", "label": "riba al-nasi'a (riba of delay)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the six-commodities hadith, taken as it stands, would make any purchase on credit impossible, and that the scholars by a kind of consensus exempted gold and silver from it while keeping the other four goods.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "Now the Hadith actually includes gold and silver too. Which would mean it's impossible impossible to buy anything on credit anything.", "start": 766}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/4/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/5", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S05", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 5, "start": 856, "end": 1032, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "What 'the riba' in the Quran refers to: the definite article, estimated dates, Umar and Ibn Abbas", "question_plain": "Does the Quran forbid every kind of excess when it forbids riba?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth analyses the verse that Allah permitted sale and forbade riba: the definite article on sale is either generic or exhaustive, making all sale or the category of sale halal, but the definite article on riba cannot mean every riba, because riba simply means an excess and everyone agrees most excesses are not haram, so it refers to a particular riba known to the listener, what grammarians call al-'ahd al-dhihni. As evidence he cites the practice in the Prophet's time of buying the dates still on a tree for dates in hand, with experts estimating the quantity and a margin of error of up to a third allowed by the scholars, which guaranteed an excess in the transaction. He says there has never been agreement on what riba is even about: Umar ibn al-Khattab famously wished the Prophet had explained riba before he passed away, and Ibn Abbas, as recorded in Sahih Muslim, denied any riba except in delayed transactions, so that hand-to-hand trading at any ratio was fine, which rules out an entire category of riba.", "summary_short": "The definite article in 'Allah forbade riba' points to a specific known kind of riba, not every excess, since most excesses are not haram. Umar wished the Prophet had explained riba, and Ibn Abbas held there was no riba except in delay.", "answer_start": 856, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "quran/tafsir", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:275", "label": "Quran 2:275 (Allah has permitted sale and forbidden riba)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahd-dhihni", "label": "al-'ahd al-dhihni (definite article referring to a known thing)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khars", "label": "khars (estimating dates on the tree) [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9a6e8d05", "label": "report: i wish the prophet had explained riba to us before he passed away (unresolved)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:74385080", "label": "report: ibn abbas there is no riba except in nasi'a (unresolved; in Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the definite article in the Quran's prohibition of riba refers to a particular kind of riba already known to its hearers, not to every excess, since riba simply means excess and most excesses are agreed not to be haram.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Because riba simply means an excess. And everybody agrees that not all excesses are haram in fact most excesses are not haram.", "start": 856}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/5/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/6", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S06", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 6, "start": 1032, "end": 1306, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "No agreement on what riba covers: delay in barter, mobile phones and the schools' disagreement", "question_plain": "Did the scholars ever agree on what counts as riba?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why delaying payment in a barter between different categories, such as dates collected tomorrow for wheat taken today, should be riba when the goods are not fluctuating currency, and says Ibn Ulayya [?] and a few scholars were the only ones to say it was fine. He says he has asked almost every senior scholar he could to explain it and none gave a thirst-quenching explanation beyond a possibility of exploitation, so it makes little rational sense to start with. He then asks what riba operates in: nobody calls one phone for three phones, a house for two houses or a car swap riba. He says the schools massively disagreed: the Hanafis read the hadith as covering goods sold by weight and measure, the Shafi'is as covering food, and the Malikis as covering storable food, so that apples are riba for the Hanafis and not for the Malikis. He concludes that there was never any clarity from the outset on what riba was speaking about, and that he is explaining this to make it relevant to today.", "summary_short": "There has never been clarity or agreement on what riba applies to: the Hanafi, Shafi'i and Maliki schools each defined its scope differently, and nobody calls a phone-for-phones swap riba. No scholar has given Mufti Abu Layth a satisfying explanation of why delay in barter is riba.", "answer_start": 1032, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "fiqh/madhhabs-and-following"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ulayya", "label": "Ibn Ulayya [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there has never been agreement or clarity among the scholars on what riba applies to, and that none of the senior scholars he has asked has given a satisfying explanation of why delaying one side of a barter between different goods is riba.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I've never come across a kind of thirst-quenching explanation on why uh bartering the delaying of one of the kind of product is riba.", "start": 1123}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/6/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/7", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S07", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 7, "start": 1306, "end": 1785, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Are mortgages and bank loans the Quranic riba? Banks, legal protection and who is giving more", "question_plain": "Are mortgages and bank loans the riba forbidden in the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to what bothers people today, who do not barter but want a mortgage or a loan, and says that in his understanding these are not riba in the Quranic sense, despite the similarity that more is repaid than taken. He gives his reasons: the concept of a bank or corporation buying a house for someone to repay over a lifetime did not exist in the Prophet's time; riba was made haram because of a diabolical loan-shark culture of extortion, which today's banking does not resemble; and the borrower is not the one taking but the one giving back more, out of necessity rather than greed. He says a mortgage operates within a greater legal framework in which the bank cooperates with a defaulter because it is in its interest not to seize the property, giving six months to a year compared with eviction after two months by a private landlord, and that debt management programmes, IVAs and bankruptcy lasting twelve months without seizure of essential assets protect the borrower, whether or not the bank mentions them. He says the war the Quran declared was on tyranny, not on this. He then summarises: it was never clear what riba meant, there has never been agreement on which kinds are haram, and today's loans and mortgages, though they take back more with inflation and profit built in, do not operate like the barbaric loan-shark culture and come with a safety net.", "summary_short": "Mortgages and bank loans are not the riba forbidden in the Quran, which addressed a tyrannical loan-shark culture. Today's borrower is the one giving more, not taking, and is protected by a legal framework of cooperation, debt management and bankruptcy.", "answer_start": 1306, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:279", "label": "Quran 2:279 (be informed of a war from Allah)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:ruling-lapses-with-its-cause", "label": "a ruling does not continue when its cause has ceased"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that mortgages and bank loans are not the riba forbidden in the Quran, which was declared war on because of a tyrannical loan-shark culture unlike today's regulated banking, in which the borrower gives back more out of necessity and is legally protected.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "Are these things riba? These things are not riba in the Quranic sense, in my understanding.", "start": 1331}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/7/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/8", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S08", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 8, "start": 1785, "end": 2219, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How economics changed: money as humanity's greatest story and the end of finite gold", "question_plain": "How was the economy of the Prophet's time different from today's?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the key point is that the concept of commerce and economics has entirely changed since the eighteenth century with industrialisation. He calls money the most successful story human beings ever invented, followed by gods and kingship, saying that by arbitrarily placing value on objects people created an imaginative system for trade, and that trading and ownership are stories. He says that when the Quran was revealed in seventh-century Arabia money was finite: if Birmingham had five million gold pieces it had only that, a borrower could not pull a thousand gold pieces out of thin air, and a town could only grow richer by raiding another, as he illustrates with Birmingham raiding Manchester, which he says is why the Quran warns against wealth circulating only among the rich. He says the next great trick was to remove the element from money and make it paper, so that money could be given out that did not actually exist, and asks viewers to hold that thought.", "summary_short": "The Quranic prohibition came in an economy of finite gold, where wealth could only grow by taking it from others. Money, which Mufti Abu Layth calls humanity's greatest invented story, was later dematerialised into paper, changing everything.", "answer_start": 1785, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "society/islam-and-modernity", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:59:7", "label": "Quran 59:7 (so that wealth does not circulate only among the rich among you) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran was revealed in an economy of finite money, in which wealth could only grow by taking it from others, and that this changed entirely when money was dematerialised into paper a few hundred years ago.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "When the Quran was revealed in 7th century Arabia money was finite.", "start": 1985}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/8/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/9", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S09", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 9, "start": 2219, "end": 2499, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Adam Smith, the pursuit of self-interest and the promise of a better tomorrow", "question_plain": "How did Adam Smith and industrialisation change attitudes to greed and lending?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that alongside paper money came Adam Smith, who in The Wealth of Nations promoted free trade and free markets and, crucially, the pursuit of self-interest. Before Smith, he says, greed was simply seen as evil, as it was when the Quran condemned riba in seventh-century Arabia; today a shopkeeper will say that by opening a shop he creates jobs, disseminates wealth and gives back to the community, which nobody would have thought five hundred years ago. He greets an imam joining the stream and explains Adam Smith briefly for a viewer who asked. He then adds a further ingredient: the promise that tomorrow will be better than yesterday, which never existed before industrialisation, when people expected raids, war and disease and so would not lend money.", "summary_short": "Adam Smith's idea of the pursuit of self-interest and the industrial-era promise of a better tomorrow changed a mindset in which greed was simply evil and nobody would lend. These are ingredients of the modern economy the Quran did not address.", "answer_start": 2219, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:adam-smith", "label": "Adam Smith"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-wealth-of-nations", "label": "The Wealth of Nations"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that before Adam Smith's promotion of the pursuit of self-interest greed was seen simply as evil, as it was when the Quran condemned riba, and that industrialisation brought a new promise of a better tomorrow, before which people would not lend money.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "So, when the Quran was condemning riba in the time of the Arabs of 7th century Arabia greed was just seen as an evil thing. But everything changes in the 18th century.", "start": 2263}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/9/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/10", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S10", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 10, "start": 2499, "end": 2843, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How banks lend more than they hold: an illustration of money creation", "question_plain": "How can a bank lend out more money than it has?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth gathers his ingredients, the pursuit of self-interest, dematerialised money and the shared belief in a better tomorrow, and adds that banks were authorised to lend far more than they hold, which he says people may see as a bad thing but which allowed societies to flourish. He illustrates with a story using viewers' names as placeholders: he deposits a million in a bank, a businessman borrows a million to set up a business, pays it to a contractor who deposits it back in the bank, the contractor doubles his price, the bank lends another million, and so on, so that a bank which only ever had one million has lent out three or four million while a business is set up, jobs are created and people spend. He says laws allow banks to lend up to ten times what they hold, acknowledges irresponsible lending and the bust that followed, but says the point is that communities flourish. He describes digital money as money 3.0, created out of thin air by adding zeros, yet enriching a community because whoever has it spends it.", "summary_short": "Banks lending out far more than they hold, though it can be abused, is what allows communities to flourish. Money today is created out of nothing, but spending it enriches others.", "answer_start": 2552, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "fiqh/finance", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that banks being authorised to lend far more money than they hold, although it can be done irresponsibly, is what allowed communities and societies to flourish.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "Now, people might see this as a bad thing. But, it allowed the community and societies to flourish.", "start": 2532}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/10/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/11", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S11", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 11, "start": 2843, "end": 3105, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why the Quran declared war on riba: tyranny, not repaying more", "question_plain": "Why did the Quran declare war on riba?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that unlike the finite money of the seventh century, money now has no limits, and human beings have eradicated poverty to great extents and afforded the common person immense luxuries, which could not have happened without these structures and this shared imaginative reality. He returns to the culture in which the Quranic riba came: an immensely oppressive loan-shark culture where money was finite and a defaulter was butchered or enslaved and his family kidnapped and sold, and says that is why Allah declared war on it. He contrasts this with a bank that arranges a house to be repaid over twenty-five years with debt management and twelve-month bankruptcy available should the borrower fail, affecting only a credit score. He says the only similarity is that more is repaid than taken, which the banks explain by inflation and by the self-interest that motivates the whole imaginative reality, and he again stresses that the borrower is the one giving, not consuming others' money.", "summary_short": "The Quran declared war on riba because of the tyranny of a loan-shark culture in a world of finite money, which modern banking does not resemble. The only similarity is that more is repaid than taken, which banks explain by inflation and motivation.", "answer_start": 2984, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:279", "label": "Quran 2:279 (be informed of a war from Allah)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam-smith", "label": "Adam Smith"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran declared war on riba because of the tyranny of a loan-shark culture in a world of finite money, and that modern bank lending, whose only similarity is that more is repaid than taken, is nothing like it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "And that's why Allah declares war on it. Because of the tyranny that was happening. That is nothing like banks saying,", "start": 3020}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/11/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/12", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S12", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 12, "start": 3105, "end": 3402, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Conclusion: not Quranic riba; Islamic mortgages as a play on words; Umar and the jizya called a gift", "question_plain": "Is an Islamic mortgage any different from a conventional mortgage?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth concludes that, taking all these elements into account, he does not feel that mortgages or loans taken from banks today are what the Quran is speaking about, saying people may disagree but that in his understanding it is categorically a different narrative: the Quran addressed an extremely oppressive loan-shark culture, which exists today only as a rarity. He says that to him a conventional mortgage and an Islamic mortgage are the same thing, that so-called Islamic mortgages are just mortgages dressed up in buying, renting and shares, a play on words he dislikes, and that the Maliki school has never liked the attitude of creating loopholes to trick God. He tells the story of Umar ibn al-Khattab and a non-Muslim provincial ruler who, finding the name jizya denigrating, offered to pay the same amount at the same time under the name hadiyya, a gift; Umar wrote back that it is the jizya, call it what you will, just send it on time, which Mufti admires as swagger. He says likewise that one can call it an Islamic mortgage or do gymnastics, but the whole banking system is new, with its promise of tomorrow and its safety structures, and is not a loan-shark culture.", "summary_short": "Mortgages and bank loans today are not the riba the Quran condemns, in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding. Islamic mortgages are the same thing under another name, a loophole the Maliki school has never liked, as Umar said of the jizya renamed a gift.", "answer_start": 3195, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "fiqh/maliki-school", "history/companions"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hiyal", "label": "hiyal (legal stratagems, loopholes)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jizya", "label": "jizya"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hadiyya", "label": "hadiyya (gift)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:17da26fe", "label": "report: umar it is the jizya call it what you want but send it on time (unresolved)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that conventional mortgages and bank loans are not the riba the Quran condemns, and that so-called Islamic mortgages are the same thing under another name, a play on words of the loophole kind the Maliki school has never liked.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "To me, a conventional mortgage and Islamic mortgage or whatever mortgage are all the same in my understanding.", "start": 3194}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/12/"}, {"id": "ucdrbLyGY70/s/13", "short_id": "2017-10-19-S13", "recording": "ucdrbLyGY70", "n": 13, "start": 3402, "end": 3607, "date": "20171019", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Not haram, not obligatory: investing in property, hiyal, and student and car loans in the same category", "question_plain": "Are student loans, car finance and mortgages haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding these things are not haram, though he is not saying people have to take them. As an added thought he says that Muslims living as minorities in Britain, the United States or Europe should invest in property and have assets and capital, offering it as his own thinking which viewers may accept or discard, quoting the verse about retaining in kindness or releasing with grace. He says renting is fine and that he is not against Islamic mortgages as such, although like the Maliki and Hanbali schools he dislikes the concept of hiyal, which they found denigrating as an attempt to trick God; if it helps someone sleep better they should do it. He puts student loans, loans for repairs, car finance and mortgages in the same category and says he does not believe them to be haram, repeating that riba never had an agreed meaning from the outset, so that Muslims symbolised the term while its meaning stayed blurry. He greets viewers joining, among them a shaykh who studied at the same madrasah in Karachi, and says he will take some rapid questions.", "summary_short": "Mortgages, student loans, car finance and other bank loans are not haram in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding, though nobody is obliged to take them. He encourages Muslims in the West to invest in property, while leaving renting or Islamic mortgages to personal choice.", "answer_start": 3402, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "fiqh/finance", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hiyal", "label": "hiyal (legal stratagems, loopholes)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:229", "label": "Quran 2:229 (retain in kindness or release with grace), quoted in passing"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that mortgages, student loans, car finance and other bank loans are not haram, though nobody is obliged to take them, and offers as his own thought, which viewers may discard, that Muslims living as minorities in the West should invest in property and build assets.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "Okay? I do not believe them to be haram based on all of these elements.", "start": 3516}}, "url": "/r/ucdrbLyGY70/s/13/"}, {"id": "udJveM_S0sY/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-12b-S01", "recording": "udJveM_S0sY", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 313, "date": "20201012", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why the circumstances of the marriage rule out a six-year-old Aisha", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says what settled the matter of Aisha's age for him was the backdrop to the marriage: the year of sorrow, in which the Prophet lost Khadija and Abu Talib, had young children at home, worked for a living and had lost his protection from Quraysh. He recounts that Khawla [?] suggested he remarry and proposed Sawda and Aisha, and lists what a wife could have offered him at that time: companionship, running the household, support in the da'wah and intimacy. He says that if Aisha had been six she could have met none of these and would only have been another child to care for, which he calls absurd. The guest adds that it would not have made sense for the Prophet to marry a girl younger than his own daughters, who needed motherly care that Sawda could provide, and that a marriage to so young a girl would have served no reasonable purpose. Mufti then notes that the Prophet did not accept at once because Aisha was already engaged, and that when Abu Bakr went to ask, the boy's mother refused for fear that Aisha would convert her son; he asks how a girl of six could have been engaged for several years and feared as a converter.", "summary_short": "Aisha cannot have been six when the Prophet married her, because the marriage was meant to give him companionship, household help and support after the year of sorrow, which a child could not provide. Her engagement of several years before that, and the fear that she would convert her fiance, point the same way.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:year-of-sorrow", "label": "The year of sorrow"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/udJveM_S0sY/s/1/"}, {"id": "udJveM_S0sY/s/2", "short_id": "2020-10-12b-S02", "recording": "udJveM_S0sY", "n": 2, "start": 313, "end": 558, "date": "20201012", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Writers who place Aisha in her teens, and how narrators exaggerated ages", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The guest lists work arguing that Aisha was much older than the hadith states: a short treatise by a sister in Britain, Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood [?], published in Birmingham; a Turkish author's recent book on Aisha's life; a shaykh in Pakistan named Amjad [?] writing on an Islamic website; and a one-hour lecture by Jamal Badawi in Australia that analysed the famous hadith and concluded she was in her teens. He says the age in the popular hadith was misstated, and that other hadith show narrators mixing up numbers, so that 'she was young' was exaggerated downwards as the story was retold. By contrast, he says, Khadija's age was overstated: she bore the Prophet several daughters and at least two sons, which fits a younger woman than the forty of the usual account, and the orientalist Lawrence Conrad as well as a report from Ibn Abbas put her at twenty-eight. The segment closes with the summary that Khadija's age was exaggerated upwards and Aisha's downwards, which the speaker calls a better overall explanation; the transcript does not make clear whether Mufti Abu Layth or the guest speaks this conclusion.", "summary_short": "Several modern writers conclude that Aisha was in her teens at marriage, and the speakers explain the hadith's figures as numbers garbled and exaggerated downwards by narrators. Khadija's age, by contrast, was exaggerated upwards from about twenty-eight to forty.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "history/sirah/wives-of-the-prophet", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:7b34dd38", "label": "report: married her when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ruqaiyyah-waris-maqsood", "label": "Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:amjad", "label": "Amjad [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jamal-badawi", "label": "Jamal Badawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:lawrence-conrad", "label": "Lawrence Conrad"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shabir-ally", "label": "Dr Shabir Ally (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/udJveM_S0sY/s/2/"}, {"id": "udmzRAYYgfI/s/1", "short_id": "2022-01-08-S01", "recording": "udmzRAYYgfI", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 245, "date": "20220108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why Mufti Abu Layth says he wronged Dawah Man", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth say he wronged Dawah Man?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls that a week earlier, while distracted on his phone at the gym, he saw something that set him thinking about dawah and about Dawah Man. He says their world views are polarised and each surely disagrees strongly with the other, but that his principle has generally been to criticise only people who had publicly criticised him, and that he picked on Dawah Man on many occasions although Dawah Man never publicly said anything about him. He describes meeting him once, at a charity conference around 2014, when Dawah Man was less well known and spoke very kindly about Mufti just before he went on. He says he felt in his heart that he had wronged him and had departed from his own principle, so he is saying so publicly. He adds that each is entitled to his views and that he hopes Dawah Man changes his, as others hope he changes his own, and closes with a prayer that God bless him and keep him smiling.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he wronged Dawah Man by picking on him repeatedly although Dawah Man never publicly criticised him, breaking his own rule, and he wishes him well despite their differences.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/dawah-and-debate-culture", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:dawah-man", "label": "Dawah Man"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dawah", "label": "dawah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/udmzRAYYgfI/s/1/"}, {"id": "ueCmAZD-LXw/s/1", "short_id": "2015-12-27-S01", "recording": "ueCmAZD-LXw", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 200, "date": "20151227", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Saying Merry Christmas to non-Muslims is permissible", "question_plain": "Can I say Merry Christmas to non-Muslims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has issued what he calls a Facebook fatwa that it is permissible to say Merry Christmas to non-Muslims, and comments on the responses. He says iman should be firm enough not to collapse over a greeting. He addresses those quoting ulama from centuries ago who held it haram to give a gift on a non-Muslim festival as an endorsement, saying he understands them but the world has changed, and compares their similar rulings against medical care from non-Muslim doctors in a world without diverse societies. He adds that in countries like the UK Christmas is more a winter festivity of gift exchange than an act of worship, and that the Quran permits marrying Christian women and building families with them, so a greeting cannot be what breaks Islam. He says those who prefer 'happy holidays' may choose that without feeling pressured, and closes by joking about a reply that called him an apostate and claimed his shoe had more tawhid than him.", "summary_short": "Yes, saying Merry Christmas is permissible: old rulings against it came from a very different world, and in the UK Christmas is largely a winter festivity. Those who prefer another greeting may use it without feeling pressured.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/festivals-and-greetings", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iman", "label": "iman"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:5:5", "label": "Quran 5:5 (permission to marry women of the People of the Book)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawhid", "label": "tawhid"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is permissible to say Merry Christmas to non-Muslims.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "I've said it's permissible to say Merry Christmas to non-Muslims.", "start": 1}}, "url": "/r/ueCmAZD-LXw/s/1/"}, {"id": "umPepYIsc_g/s/1", "short_id": "2021-07-04-S01", "recording": "umPepYIsc_g", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 59, "date": "20210704", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is it wrong to want to be rich? Wealth in the hands, not in the heart", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to want to be rich?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth raises a question people ask him: is it wrong to want to be rich, to become a millionaire or to run a very lucrative business? He says there is nothing wrong with these things in Islam, since Allah is al-Razzaq and provides for whom He wills, and that a person with wealth can do many good things and help many people. The defining point, he says, is purpose, and he shares a dua he attributes to the Prophet in a hadith: O Allah, place the dunya in our hands and do not place it in our hearts. He calls this the perfect balance: having the resources while keeping one's purpose.", "summary_short": "Wanting to be rich or to build a lucrative business is not wrong in Islam. The balance is to hold wealth in your hands and not in your heart, keeping your purpose.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance", "wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:al-razzaq", "label": "al-Razzaq (the Provider)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0da2986c", "label": "report: allahumma ijal al-dunya fi aydina wa la tajalha fi qulubina"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dunya", "label": "dunya"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is nothing wrong in Islam with wanting to be rich or to have a lucrative business, so long as wealth is held in one's hands and not in one's heart and one keeps a purpose.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "There's nothing wrong with these things in Islam. Allah is Al-Razzaq, yarzuqu man yasha. Set these dreams, become these things.", "start": 0}}, "url": "/r/umPepYIsc_g/s/1/"}, {"id": "v-1HD1uAMBM/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-20-S01", "recording": "v-1HD1uAMBM", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 239, "date": "20201020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The challenge to debate Sahih al-Bukhari's authenticity and Jonathan Brown's withdrawal", "question_plain": "Why do critics refuse to debate the authenticity of Sahih al-Bukhari?", "summary": "Joining mid-conversation, Mufti Abu Layth recounts inviting a critic who wanted to discuss Sahih al-Bukhari to come on his MindTrap show and prove its authenticity, reasoning that if the critic believes Mufti does not know what he is talking about, it should be easy to defeat him in conversation. The guest remarks that the critic seems reluctant to appear on Mufti's show and suggests a neutral platform. Mufti replies that he is not going to attack, harm or swear at anyone, that the critic can disconnect at any point, and that in forty episodes of MindTrap he has never behaved that way, whereas the critic publicly wrote on Twitter that he would humiliate him. He compares this with Jonathan Brown, who, he says, tried to challenge him and then honestly stated on Facebook that he lacked the knowledge and research to speak about Sahih al-Bukhari in that way and so could not accept the dialogue. He says such people see a man with a chain, an earring and a goatee and assume he knows nothing, and recounts Brown saying he had got a scholar's name wrong, to which he replied with a screenshot that fourteen scholars share that name and the one he meant was from Tunis rather than the Maghrib [?]. On the manuscripts, he mentions the Yunini [?] and other recensions, says he has a whole BukhariGate video, and repeats that all anyone need do is prove al-Farabri reliable from a book, but that this can only be done from people who came hundreds of years later, not from anyone who actually knew him.", "summary_short": "Critics who say Mufti Abu Layth knows nothing about Sahih al-Bukhari decline his invitation to debate it, and Jonathan Brown admitted on Facebook that he lacked the research. Mufti says al-Farabri's reliability can only be asserted from sources centuries later, not from anyone who knew him.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yunini", "label": "Sharaf al-Din al-Yunini [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/v-1HD1uAMBM/s/1/"}, {"id": "v-1HD1uAMBM/s/2", "short_id": "2020-10-20-S02", "recording": "v-1HD1uAMBM", "n": 2, "start": 239, "end": 397, "date": "20201020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Debaters of the Shia, not of Bukhari: the book rests on one unvouched man, al-Farabri", "question_plain": "Who vouched for al-Farabri, the transmitter of Sahih al-Bukhari?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth credits Jonathan Brown with the decency, after many people pressed him on his Facebook post to debate, of stating openly that he did not have the research in this field. Other critics, he says, are not skilled in it: they know how to debate the Shia and to quote and argue, and he says he is equally honest that Shia sources are not his speciality and that he is not interested in researching them. For these people, he says, everything rests on Sahih al-Bukhari, and it shook their world that Bukhari rests on al-Farabri, who has been glorified for no particular reason and whom nobody vouched for. He repeats his standing offer: bring one person who knew al-Farabri and called him reliable and he will accept everything. He says the whole dogma that makes the Quran revolve around Bukhari is built on the shoulders of one man, that this is not al-Farabri's fault since the book was an investment and a project for him and we know nothing about him beyond his students and this claim to fame, and that fame and money follow such things. He mentions being asked moments earlier whether he would gain more followers if he wore a thobe and a hat, and says he is certain they would grow exponentially.", "summary_short": "Sahih al-Bukhari reaches us through al-Farabri alone, and nobody who knew him vouched for him, so Mufti Abu Layth says the whole edifice rests on one man. Critics who only know how to debate the Shia avoid this question.", "answer_start": 239, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/bukhari", "dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/v-1HD1uAMBM/s/2/"}, {"id": "v-1HD1uAMBM/s/3", "short_id": "2020-10-20-S03", "recording": "v-1HD1uAMBM", "n": 3, "start": 397, "end": 633, "date": "20201020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Preachers controlled by their crowd: audience pressure and the shaykh who was friendly off camera", "question_plain": "Why do preachers attack views in public that they tolerate in private?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says most people take what brings them value, and that al-Farabri, like any other human, saw an opportunity that brought fame, wealth and status and took it, which he does not call evil; but nobody told others to be blind, and one can still think that something is dubious. The guest says, in fairness to one critic [?], that he is tied up because a large part of his audience is hardline Salafi, so he tries hard to please them and has no flexibility in what he shares. Mufti agrees entirely, adds that his point is not about that individual, and says the guest has hit the nail on the head: with most preachers, the crowd that follows them actually controls them. When the guest notes that another figure is from the Barelvi community rather than Salafi, Mufti says it is the same thing, and recounts a shaykh [?] who was decent, friendly and joking off camera, recalling their time together in Damascus, but who turned serious and hostile as soon as his camera was on and would not even call him Mufti on air. He says such people have no personal problem with him and some say they would like to hang out with him; one shaykh messaged him in the morning proposing to meet and that evening called him a deviant in a public talk, which Mufti exposed, after which the shaykh blocked him. He concludes that they do this only because of pressure from a following that expects them to behave a certain way.", "summary_short": "Most preachers are controlled by the crowd that follows them: the same figures who are friendly off camera attack Mufti Abu Layth on camera because their followers expect it. Al-Farabri likewise took an opportunity that brought fame, which does not oblige others to be blind.", "answer_start": 397, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:farabri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Farabri"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/v-1HD1uAMBM/s/3/"}, {"id": "v-1HD1uAMBM/s/4", "short_id": "2020-10-20-S04", "recording": "v-1HD1uAMBM", "n": 4, "start": 633, "end": 787, "date": "20201020", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A scholars' messaging group and the refused group photo: 'our followers are not mature enough'", "question_plain": "Why do scholars avoid showing unity across Barelvi, Deobandi and Salafi lines?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls that years ago, before Monday Nights with Mufti and when his views were still developing, he was on a messaging platform of UK shaykhs [?] of various orientations which held meetings, and that he attended one although people there disliked him. He describes the shaykhs eating, talking and praying together, massaging each other's egos, which he says is fine, and taking individual photos, and says he suggested a group photo of all of them, even without him. The organisers and several of those present refused, saying their followings were not mature enough yet and not ready to see it; he says he objected that this was a perfect chance to show unity, with Barelvi, Deobandi and Salafi scholars in one room, including a Barelvi scholar he says he respects a lot, but that apart from the Barelvis the others declined. He concludes that this is the problem: scholars feed their followers' expectations because they fear their congregation will disown them. He then thanks the guest for the conversation and signs off.", "summary_short": "Scholars from different sects who met privately refused even a group photo, saying their followers were not mature enough to see it. Mufti Abu Layth says this shows preachers feeding their followers' expectations out of fear of being disowned.", "answer_start": 633, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/v-1HD1uAMBM/s/4/"}, {"id": "v8pLoq2vpUY/s/1", "short_id": "2019-08-17-S01", "recording": "v8pLoq2vpUY", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 287, "date": "20190817", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Thoughts on Shaykh Saqib Shaami: influence, spirituality and turning lives around", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Shaykh Saqib Shaami?", "summary": "Asked what he thinks of Pir Saqib Shaami, Mufti Abu Layth says he is one of the mashayikh of tasawwuf with his own tariqa, which he believes is Chishti [?], whose followers write 'Saqibi' after their names. He says he does not know him well but thinks he is very intelligent for what he has achieved, and that he has a unique and intriguing influence over people: he is, in Mufti's view, the only Western-raised scholar, imam or pir with an influence in the East, which is otherwise unheard of, since the only Western shaykhs with such influence were established in the East before migrating. On knowledge, he says he does not get the impression that Saqib Shaami tackles academic or ilmi issues or the contemporary challenges to Islam such as atheism, and that his thing is spirituality and tasawwuf. He adds that he has heard, and seen for himself, that many people who were lost causes, in densely Muslim parts of Birmingham such as Alum Rock and Aston, lost to drugs, addiction and crime, have had their lives turned around by him into kind-hearted human beings, and that this alone deserves a salute and his respect; the other things are not his own concern, but he respects him for that.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth respects Saqib Shaami for turning people lost to drugs and crime into good human beings and finds his influence in the East unique for a Western-raised shaykh. He sees him as focused on spirituality and tasawwuf rather than academic or contemporary intellectual issues.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "belief/sufism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:saqib-shaami", "label": "Shaykh Saqib Shaami"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:chishti-order", "label": "the Chishti tariqa [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tariqah", "label": "tariqah (Sufi order)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tasawwuf", "label": "tasawwuf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:pir", "label": "pir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/v8pLoq2vpUY/s/1/"}, {"id": "vF5yuEYz9Vo/s/1", "short_id": "2018-06-12-S01", "recording": "vF5yuEYz9Vo", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 274, "date": "20180612", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Do you have to grow a beard? Arab custom, the 'be different' hadith and selective application", "question_plain": "Do I have to grow a beard?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet did have a long beard, about a fist, but so did everybody in Arabia, including the disbelievers of Quraysh, so the beard was not something the Prophet introduced and the question is how one knows it is Islamic. To those who say the Prophet commanded growing a beard he answers that most people in the room have a beard of some sort, a goatee is still a beard, and whether it is the type worn in Arabia is beside the point. He takes the hadith 'be different to the Jews and the Christians, grow the beard', noting that the wordings differ and some narrations say 'the mushrikin', and remarks that since Jews today wear very long beards, practising that hadith would mean shaving. He then shows the same wording used elsewhere: 'be different to the Jews and the Christians, dye your hair', which people treat as voluntary and not even Islamic, and 'be different to the Jews and the Christians, pray with your shoes on', which people would condemn; the wording is identical in all three, yet one defines a person's Islam, one is optional and one is forbidden, which he calls selective application and not consistency. He argues that if the beard were so important, in some twenty-three years of prophethood the Prophet would at least once have defined what it should look like, and notes that scholars disagree: some took it as a command, some as a recommendation like dyeing the hair, and some as a matter of custom.", "summary_short": "The beard was the custom of all Arabs, not something the Prophet introduced, and the 'be different from the Jews and Christians' wording is applied selectively, since the same words command dyeing hair and praying in shoes. The Prophet never defined what a beard should look like, and scholars disagree whether the command was binding.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:lihyah", "label": "lihyah (beard)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3e31381a", "label": "report: be different to the mushrikin trim the moustaches and let the beards grow"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:42fd73b8", "label": "report: be different to the jews and the christians and dye your hair"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:1fd6f410", "label": "report: be different to the jews and the christians and pray in your shoes"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:quraysh", "label": "Quraysh"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:consistency-in-applying-hadith", "label": "reports with the same wording must be applied consistently"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:urf", "label": "urf (custom)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the beard was the common custom of all Arabs including the disbelievers of Quraysh rather than something the Prophet introduced, that the 'be different from the Jews and Christians' wording is applied selectively since the same words command dyeing the hair and praying in shoes, and that the Prophet never once defined what the beard should look like.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "yet the wording is the same in all of them but we have selective application like we reject where the Prophet said it here and we accept it where he said it here so that's not consistency", "start": 195}}, "url": "/r/vF5yuEYz9Vo/s/1/"}, {"id": "vGoAxXEHpHk/s/1", "short_id": "2020-09-02-S01", "recording": "vGoAxXEHpHk", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 157, "date": "20200902", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The clip: Haqiqatjou on Yasir Qadhi calling verses mushkil", "question_plain": "What did Daniel Haqiqatjou say about Yasir Qadhi calling verses mushkil?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens a 'masala segment' on a dispute between Daniel Haqiqatjou and Jonathan Brown, referring to them by nicknames, and plays a clip of Haqiqatjou. In the clip Haqiqatjou refers to a four- or five-minute segment in which Yasir Qadhi described some verses of the Quran as problematic or bizarre, and to Qadhi's later clarification, in an interview with Mohammed Hijab, that some classical scholars also used the term mushkil for certain verses and that he meant that applying them today poses a problem, not that the verses themselves are a problem. Haqiqatjou says this is not a good explanation, because in the classical tradition mushkil means ambiguous: texts that are ambiguous in relation to one another, not texts that fail to conform to what reason or science is thought to prove.", "summary_short": "In a clip, Daniel Haqiqatjou argues that Yasir Qadhi's explanation of 'problematic' verses as mushkil fails, since he says mushkil classically means ambiguous, not at odds with reason or science.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushkil", "label": "mushkil"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aql", "label": "aql (reason)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/vGoAxXEHpHk/s/1/"}, {"id": "vGoAxXEHpHk/s/2", "short_id": "2020-09-02-S02", "recording": "vGoAxXEHpHk", "n": 2, "start": 157, "end": 311, "date": "20200902", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Background to the feud: Yaqeen Institute, a dismissal and a replacement", "question_plain": "What is the background to the feud between Daniel Haqiqatjou and Jonathan Brown?", "summary": "The clip ends with Haqiqatjou calling it ironic that Qadhi would appeal to this reasoning, since his doctoral work at Yale was on Ibn Taymiyya. Mufti Abu Layth recaps the point, saying he has not heard the Qadhi clip himself, and gives what he calls the backstory: Haqiqatjou used to be head of research at Yaqeen Institute, was dismissed, and was replaced by Jonathan Brown. He describes Haqiqatjou's views in strongly dismissive terms, likening him intellectually to Mullah Omar of the Taliban. He reports that in a long lecture with another figure, whom he also calls an extremist, Haqiqatjou called Yaqeen sellouts who take government counter-extremism money and promote an LGBTQ agenda, citing Linda Sarsour and Dalia Mogahed as people they promote, and that the mushkil point came up in the middle of that rant.", "summary_short": "The feud goes back to Haqiqatjou's dismissal from Yaqeen Institute and his replacement by Jonathan Brown; Mufti Abu Layth says Haqiqatjou has since accused Yaqeen of selling out, and he calls his views extreme.", "answer_start": 157, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:yaqeen-institute", "label": "Yaqeen Institute"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mullah-omar", "label": "Mullah Omar"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:taliban", "label": "Taliban"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:linda-sarsour", "label": "Linda Sarsour"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dalia-mogahed", "label": "Dalia Mogahed"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushkil", "label": "mushkil"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/vGoAxXEHpHk/s/2/"}, {"id": "vGoAxXEHpHk/s/3", "short_id": "2020-09-02-S03", "recording": "vGoAxXEHpHk", "n": 3, "start": 311, "end": 557, "date": "20200902", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Brown's reply, and why mushkil can mean both ambiguous and problematic", "question_plain": "Does mushkil mean ambiguous or problematic?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth describes round two: Jonathan Brown replied that Haqiqatjou does not know basic Arabic scholarly terms, that mushkil does not mean ambiguous but problematic or requiring explanation or reconciliation, and told him to hit the books; others joined in, some asking whether mushkil can carry the sense of ambiguous and one saying Brown was avoiding the main critique by picking on a side point. Mufti says that, to be fair, mushkil could mean both: it was used technically for something that may appear ambiguous in the sense that scholars hope to reconcile it, and sometimes for something indeterminable, as with the intersex person whose sex could not be determined, and it is an established term in phrases such as mushkil al-hadith and mushkil al-Quran. He adds that Brown also has a point, since Yasir Qadhi was probably not using the word in the technical sense of al-Shafi'i and others but as a common Arabic word for problematic. He then turns to what he sees as Brown's habit of pettiness over small points.", "summary_short": "Both sides have a point: mushkil was used technically for texts needing reconciliation and for the indeterminable, while Yasir Qadhi most likely meant it simply as 'problematic'.", "answer_start": 390, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/arabic-language", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushkil", "label": "mushkil"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khuntha", "label": "khuntha (hermaphrodite, intersex person)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says mushkil has been used technically both for texts that seem to conflict and need reconciling and for what cannot be determined, so both sides have a point, and that Yasir Qadhi was probably using it as the common Arabic word for problematic.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you see now to be fair the mushkil could mean both ways i mean it wasn't mushkil is sometimes used historically to be technically used to mean something um that may appear ambiguous", "start": 407}}, "url": "/r/vGoAxXEHpHk/s/3/"}, {"id": "vGoAxXEHpHk/s/4", "short_id": "2020-09-02-S04", "recording": "vGoAxXEHpHk", "n": 4, "start": 557, "end": 836, "date": "20200902", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Correcting each other's Arabic: Brown's pettiness, credentials and two dogmatic sides", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth make of the Brown and Haqiqatjou dispute over mushkil?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls that during his BukhariGate series Brown, instead of addressing the issue, posted that Mufti had mispronounced the name of a scholar he quoted, al-Bunani [?], and that Mufti had to post a photograph of the book to show his reading was right. He says Brown went for an Arabic point rather than Haqiqatjou's argument and is now being criticised in turn, since mushkil can mean ambiguous. He reports Haqiqatjou's reply that he has no ijazah or formal degree but has studied Arabic for many years, and his argument that asking about credentials is a distraction because he is not commenting on Islamic matters; Mufti answers that someone who says others misrepresent Islam will naturally be asked about his qualifications, and briefly replays a line from the clip. He concludes that he does not understand the angles either side comes from or why both present such strangely dogmatic views, and that the exchange came down to correcting each other's Arabic.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Brown tends to nitpick Arabic instead of engaging the argument, rejects Haqiqatjou's claim that his credentials are irrelevant, and calls both sides strangely dogmatic.", "answer_start": 557, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "quran/arabic-language"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jonathan-brown", "label": "Jonathan Brown"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:daniel-haqiqatjou", "label": "Daniel Haqiqatjou"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bunani", "label": "al-Bunani [?] (the scholar the host quoted in BukhariGate)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijazah", "label": "ijazah (authorisation to teach, with a chain)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushkil", "label": "mushkil"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/vGoAxXEHpHk/s/4/"}, {"id": "voxmwEQ6rz4/s/1", "short_id": "2022-01-19-S01", "recording": "voxmwEQ6rz4", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 496, "date": "20220119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Where Neanderthals and Denisovans fit: hominins before Adam and the meaning of khalifah", "question_plain": "Where do Neanderthals fit in the Islamic story of Adam?", "summary": "After joking about the question, Mufti Abu Layth says Neanderthals, Denisovans and possibly another unknown species contributed to human DNA, and that Islam says nothing about them because it is not an archaeology, anthropology or biology manual but a message to connect people to the divine. He says the Quran hints, without stating it clearly, that other hominins preceded Adam, for example in calling Adam a type of bashar, since such details were not pertinent to the Arabs of the time. He points to the angels asking whether Allah would place on earth one who spreads corruption and sheds blood, and, after mentioning views that they based this on the jinn or on earlier beasts, says it seems more apt that they based it on his resemblance to earlier hominins. He argues that khalifah did not mean a ruler before Islam but something that comes after or at the end, so the verse can be read as the final succession in a series of hominins, culminating in the cognitive revolution.", "summary_short": "Islam is not a science manual and says nothing directly about them, but he says the Quran hints that other hominins came before Adam, who was the final 'successor' in that line.", "answer_start": 39, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/human-origins", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/adam-and-creation", "quran/quran-and-science/evolution"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bashar", "label": "bashar"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:30", "label": "Quran 2:30 (I will place a khalifah on the earth; verse not numbered by him)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khalifah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran hints, without clearly stating it, that other hominins preceded Adam.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the quran hints towards um other homonyms that preceded adam ali salam", "start": 78}}, "url": "/r/voxmwEQ6rz4/s/1/"}, {"id": "voxmwEQ6rz4/s/2", "short_id": "2022-01-19-S02", "recording": "voxmwEQ6rz4", "n": 2, "start": 496, "end": 610, "date": "20220119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Neanderthals were more intelligent than people think", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Responding to remarks in the chat, Mufti Abu Layth says Neanderthals were not stupid, even though people use the word as an insult. He says they were more intelligent than people assume, not like chimpanzees or gorillas, and probably about as intelligent as an eight or nine year old child, compared with chimpanzees at about the level of a three year old. He adds that an adult human brain can think in an abstraction that a child cannot, but that an eight or nine year old is not dumb by any measure.", "summary_short": "Neanderthals were not stupid: he puts their intelligence at roughly that of an eight or nine year old child, far above chimpanzees.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/human-origins"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Neanderthals were probably about as intelligent as an eight or nine year old child.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "they were probably as intelligent as maybe like an eight nine year old child which is pretty intelligent", "start": 533}}, "url": "/r/voxmwEQ6rz4/s/2/"}, {"id": "voxmwEQ6rz4/s/3", "short_id": "2022-01-19-S03", "recording": "voxmwEQ6rz4", "n": 3, "start": 610, "end": 836, "date": "20220119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Did Neanderthals and humans interbreed, and do we carry their DNA?", "question_plain": "Did humans and Neanderthals interbreed?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a chat remark that Neanderthals and humans interbred and asks whether humans wiped them out. He says he does not accept that Homo sapiens simply absorbed the Neanderthals; they did interbreed, but he does not think excessively, suggesting that differing scents would have been somewhat off-putting. He thinks it was more often Neanderthal men with some Homo sapiens women, with the children raised in the human tribe so that the Neanderthal DNA was filtered out over generations, leaving non-Africans today with about one to four percent, Europeans the most. He adds that this inheritance contributes to a greater propensity to become addicted to smoking.", "summary_short": "Yes, but in his view not much: Neanderthal DNA was diluted over generations, leaving non-Africans with about one to four percent.", "answer_start": 610, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/human-origins"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred excessively.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "they did obviously interbreed i don't think they excessively interbred", "start": 610}}, "url": "/r/voxmwEQ6rz4/s/3/"}, {"id": "voxmwEQ6rz4/s/4", "short_id": "2022-01-19-S04", "recording": "voxmwEQ6rz4", "n": 4, "start": 836, "end": 954, "date": "20220119", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why people of African ancestry have no Neanderthal DNA", "question_plain": "Is it true that Africans have no Neanderthal DNA?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth responds to joking chat comments and to a viewer who had never heard that Africans have no Neanderthal DNA, saying this is anthropology. He explains that someone considered African today may have non-African ancestry because people have always migrated, mentioning that his own ancestry DNA test showed a share of Gaelic ancestry. He says that people with only African ancestry have no Neanderthal DNA because Neanderthals were not in Africa.", "summary_short": "Generally yes: Neanderthals never lived in Africa, though some people seen as African today have mixed ancestry from migration.", "answer_start": 836, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/human-origins"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says people with only African ancestry have no Neanderthal DNA because Neanderthals were not in Africa.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "people who have only had african ancestry they won't have any uh neanderthal dna that's the the science behind it it's not just a statement because neanderthals were not in africa", "start": 914}}, "url": "/r/voxmwEQ6rz4/s/4/"}, {"id": "vrR5CWw8asg/s/1", "short_id": "2021-12-22-S01", "recording": "vrR5CWw8asg", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 384, "date": "20211222", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The twelve Shia imams in Sunni Islam, Ja'far al-Sadiq, and agreeing to disagree", "question_plain": "What do Sunni Muslims think of the twelve Shia imams?", "summary": "Asked his opinion on the twelve imams revered in Shia and Sufi Islam, Mufti Abu Layth says the imams of the Ahl al-Bayt are generally revered and respected in Sunni Islam, though some may disagree on the twelfth, and that the dispute is over how far they are reference points. Taking Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq as his example, he says Sunnis respect him highly but do not turn to him for hadith or fiqh, and that although he taught Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa they seldom quote him. He says he feels this may be deliberate, and that Ja'far may have been closer to what the Shia claim of him than what the Sunnis claim, calling this an assumption rather than a known fact. He then says the differences between Sunnis and Shia are here to stay, that both come from love for the deen, that Sunnis share principles such as love for the family of the Prophet, and that he feels the Shia tradition is caught up in history and the tragedy of the Ahl al-Bayt, which leads to hating certain companions. He closes by urging both sides to agree to disagree, to seek common ground rather than convert each other, and, recalling the verse discussed in the stream, not to let disagreement with a sect make them unfair.", "summary_short": "The Shia imams are generally respected in Sunni Islam but are not used as reference points; he suspects Ja'far al-Sadiq was closer to the Shia picture of him than Sunnis admit, as an assumption. Sunnis and Shia should agree to disagree and be fair to each other.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "unknown", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:twelve-imams", "label": "the twelve imams"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-bayt", "label": "Ahl al-Bayt"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jafar-al-sadiq", "label": "Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sufi", "label": "Sufi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq may have been closer to what the Shia claim him to be than to what the Sunnis claim, while calling this an assumption and not a known fact.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "i feel that because maybe he was closer to what the shia claim him to be than what the sunnis claim him to be allah but i i feel that may be the case", "start": 118}}, "url": "/r/vrR5CWw8asg/s/1/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S01", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 1, "start": 27, "end": 467, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream and lists tonight's topics", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the live stream with a sound check, explains that he had not missed a week but streamed two days earlier, and greets viewers and super chats. He says he will speak about Khabib's win, about the beheading of the teacher Samuel Paty in France, President Macron's reaction and the Muslim call for a boycott, and take live questions. Mufti says he will also respond, in the closing masala segment, to a maulana who has commented on him again, whom he mocks with nicknames.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream and lists the night's topics, from Khabib and the French cartoon crisis to a reply to a critic.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:khabib-nurmagomedov", "label": "Khabib Nurmagomedov"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:samuel-paty", "label": "Samuel Paty"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:emmanuel-macron", "label": "Emmanuel Macron"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/1/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/2", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S02", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 2, "start": 467, "end": 731, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on which civil war the early generations called 'the fitnah'", "question_plain": "Which civil war did early Muslims mean by 'the fitnah'?", "summary": "A chat question asks which civil war was meant when an early figure spoke of what people did before 'the fitnah', noting that he died about a decade before the third fitnah. Mufti Abu Layth says it is not always clear which upheaval the early generations meant, since numbering them is sometimes arbitrary. He lists candidates: the murder of Uthman, after which things began to go downhill; Husayn's death, though Husayn was not a military threat to the state; the crushing of Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, whose territory once outnumbered the state's, along with the bombardment of the Kaaba; Yazid's army being unleashed on Medina; the rebellion of Ibn al-Ash'ath [?] against al-Hajjaj, in which many scholars fought; and the uprising of Zayd ibn Ali [?].", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is often unclear which civil war early scholars meant by 'the fitnah', as several upheavals were each called the great one.", "answer_start": 467, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/early-succession-and-civil-strife", "history/umayyads-and-abbasids"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:fitnah", "label": "fitnah"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:assassination-of-uthman", "label": "the murder of Uthman"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:uthman-ibn-affan", "label": "Uthman ibn Affan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:husayn-ibn-ali", "label": "Husayn ibn Ali"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:karbala", "label": "Karbala"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abdullah-ibn-al-zubayr", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaaba", "label": "Kaaba"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yazid-ibn-muawiya", "label": "Yazid ibn Muawiya"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-al-harrah", "label": "Yazid's army against Medina (al-Harrah)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abd-al-rahman-ibn-al-ashath", "label": "Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Ash'ath [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-hajjaj-ibn-yusuf", "label": "al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zayd-ibn-ali", "label": "Zayd ibn Ali [?]"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "Umayyads"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the numbering of the early fitnahs is sometimes quite arbitrary, and not everybody agrees on which they call the greatest.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "sometimes it's quite arbitrary it's not a a clear you know not everybody's in agreement in what they call the greatest fitnner", "start": 504}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/2/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/3", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S03", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 3, "start": 731, "end": 1562, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on healing the inner child and raising children", "question_plain": "How do I heal my inner child, and how should I raise my children?", "summary": "A super chat asks for advice on healing the inner child and on bringing up children. Mufti Abu Layth says he thinks we are ultimately an extension of our inner child, and that children are like glass moulded by their family and environment. He contrasts the loved child, who enters the world with confidence and a sense of ethics but may struggle when the world does not favour them, with the child who suffered, who may spend life escaping childhood but gains survival skills and a drive to prove a point. Mufti recalls his own hard childhood, which he says gave him a thick skin, stoicism and imagination, and describes being hypnotised by a psychologist and taken back to childhood, which shook him for weeks, and how watching the series This Is Us helped him come to terms with his childhood. On raising children, he says we all to some extent wing it, that the bond should be qualitative more than quantitative, and that he does not try to dogmatise his own children but lets them grow up naturally, though he does not know whether that approach is correct.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says we are an extension of our inner child and that reconnecting with it can be unnerving but healing; with children, go with your heart and build a qualitative bond.", "answer_start": 771, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/trauma-and-healing", "relationships/parents-and-children/raising-children"], "entities": [], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he thinks we ultimately are an extension of our inner child.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I think we ultimately are an extension of our inner child.", "start": 770}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/3/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/4", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S04", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 4, "start": 1562, "end": 2027, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on why Yasir Qadhi and other critics will not come on Mind Trap", "question_plain": "Why don't scholars like Yasir Qadhi come on Mind Trap with you?", "summary": "A chat viewer asks him to do a Mind Trap with Yasir Qadhi. Mufti Abu Layth says he would love to, but does not think Yasir Qadhi would come on, and that he is better off with academics and free thinkers who are not concerned about the mob, since followers often control imams more than imams control them. He suggests such figures may not want to lend him legitimacy or make him more famous, though they share platforms with Christians and atheists, and says he honestly feels a bigger reason, which they will not own up to, is that they are insecure and intimidated by him. He mentions a Facebook critic and others who criticise him publicly but decline a discussion, and repeats his invitation to come on and talk. Asked why Salafi Sunnis hate him so much, Mufti jokes that when all kinds of people hate you, you must be doing something right.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says critics such as Yasir Qadhi will not join him on Mind Trap, and he feels the real reason is that they are intimidated by him.", "answer_start": 1562, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/4/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/5", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S05", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 5, "start": 2027, "end": 2578, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's sixth-form story: walking out and landing a college place by mistake", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Asked by a super chat for a story from his time abroad, Mufti Abu Layth says things in his life have often unfolded as if destined, better than if he had planned them. He tells a story from sixth form, when he had begun praying but was still messing about: a teacher singled out his friend, who feared his strict father, and Mufti walked out with him in solidarity. An advice centre sent them the same day to a vocational centre that happened to be expecting two new applicants, so the staff mistook them for the new students, showed them round and enrolled them in business administration, and when the mistake came out at the paperwork the deputy let them stay. Mufti says this is how the Lord opens doors, and that he has found such things often in life. At the end a viewer asks him to revisit interfaith marriage, and he points to his detailed video on it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth tells how walking out of sixth form with a friend led, by a case of mistaken identity, to a place on a business course the same day.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/personal-stories", "wellbeing/tawakkul-and-trust"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/5/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/6", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S06", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 6, "start": 2578, "end": 2815, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on the US election, Trump and free health care", "question_plain": "Who do you think will win the US election?", "summary": "A viewer asks who is winning the US election. Mufti Abu Layth says he has a scary feeling that Donald Trump is going to win again, which would not be awesome news given the rhetoric and the rise of the far right, but would not be the end of the world. He says Trump is a spanner in the works for the conspiratorial belief that corporations and the administration are one monolith, since he is a billionaire opposed by the media and the administration. Mufti says he does not know whether Biden is a better person, and that he cannot understand why many Americans do not support a free national health service, which in Europe is a given.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth has a scary feeling that Trump will win again but says it would not be the end of the world; he cannot understand Americans' resistance to free health care.", "answer_start": 2604, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:joe-biden", "label": "Joe Biden"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has a scary feeling that Donald Trump is going to win again.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "I I I I have this scary feeling that Donald Trump is just going to win again.", "start": 2603}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/6/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/7", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S07", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 7, "start": 2815, "end": 3022, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's chat round: answering critics, soft drinks and Syrian rue", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Told that someone he had mentioned the week before had made her account private, Mufti Abu Layth says he is not interested in being petty: when people back off he backs off, and he responds publicly only to persistent public attacks. Asked whether all non-alcoholic beverages are halal, Mufti says of course. A viewer asks whether he has read hadith in the Twelver Shia tradition recommending harmala (Syrian rue) as incense and drink; he says he has not, asks for them, and says he has heard it was used as incense and drunk, as Rumi and others mention.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he only answers persistent public critics, that non-alcoholic drinks are halal, and that he has not read the reports on Syrian rue.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "fiqh/intoxicants-and-substances"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:halal", "label": "halal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:harmala", "label": "harmala (Peganum harmala, Syrian rue)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Twelver Shia"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rumi", "label": "Rumi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/7/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/8", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S08", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 8, "start": 3022, "end": 3613, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on justice to orphans and the polygamy verse", "question_plain": "What does 'justice' mean in the Quran's verse on marrying more than one wife?", "summary": "A viewer asks what justice means in the verse about fearing that one cannot do justice to the orphans. Mufti Abu Layth says the verse is about having more than one wife, jokes about being equally unfair, and explains that 'orphans' does not mean little children: in a tribal, raiding society like the Vikings, protection came from the clan, and orphans extended into the late teens. He says marriage to orphaned girls was offered as an incentive for selfish men to give them protection, shelter and sustenance, and mentions that he personally goes with the opinion, which he attributes to a scholar whose name is garbled [?], that the verse sets no limit of four. Justice, Mufti says, means treating wives equally; the Quran accepts that one will not always manage it, but equality must be the benchmark. He disagrees with those who read the later verse as ruling polygamy out, since the passage would then begin by permitting it only to take it back. He also says non-alcoholic beer and wine are fine.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the verse requires equal treatment of wives as the benchmark, accepting human shortfalls, and does not rule polygamy out.", "answer_start": 3022, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah", "quran/tafsir/contested-verses"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:3", "label": "Quran 4:3"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:129", "label": "Quran 4:129"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:polygamy", "label": "polygamy"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-talib", "label": "Abu Talib"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the verse on never being truly just does not mean that polygamy cannot really be done.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "some people said that that meant that oh you can't really do polygamy then I think that that's not what the verse is saying", "start": 3553}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/8/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/9", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S09", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 9, "start": 3613, "end": 4206, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on Sharia-compliant investing, riba and loopholes", "question_plain": "Is Sharia-compliant investing really different from normal investing?", "summary": "A viewer asks what he thinks of Sharia-compliant ethical investing. Mufti Abu Layth says that if it means avoiding weapons, pollution and the like, that is simply ethical investing and he commends it. If it means rewording transactions to avoid riba, he finds it absurd: he does not believe modern bank interest is the riba of the Quran, which he says was a brutal loan-sharking, and he says mortgages are permissible; but anyone who believes it is riba should not take God for a fool with loopholes. He contrasts Imam Malik, who condemned such tricks and openly made exceptions on grounds of maslaha, citing the Maliki ruling on brides' ritual bathing during week-long weddings, with schools such as the Hanafis who built loopholes. Mufti says that one scholar of Islamic finance, whose name is garbled in the captions, was in his account well paid by banks to front it and later backtracked, and says much of today's clergy is not sincere.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says ethical investing is fine, but interest loopholes are absurd: bank interest is not Quranic riba and mortgages are permissible.", "answer_start": 3641, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hiyal", "label": "hiyal (legal stratagems)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maslaha", "label": "maslaha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe the modern interest system is the riba of the Quran, and that mortgages are permissible.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "So I don't believe that this is the ribba of the Quran. Mortgages are permissible.", "start": 3865}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/9/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/10", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S10", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 10, "start": 4206, "end": 4332, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's chat round: Sunni and Maliki, beards and quick answers", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Asked whether he is Sunni, Shia, Sufi or Salafi, Mufti Abu Layth says he is Sunni and Maliki. To a comment that the beard is in the din, Mufti replies that the din is not in the beard. He points a question about being gay to his video on the diverse history of homosexuality in Islam, jokes about a super chat asking how he met his wife, and says he is not sure who one person a viewer wants on Mind Trap is.", "summary_short": "Quick answers: Mufti Abu Layth says he is Sunni and Maliki, and that the din is not in the beard.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sunni", "label": "Sunni"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/10/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/11", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S11", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 11, "start": 4332, "end": 4720, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth: why would the God of the cosmos care about beards?", "question_plain": "Does God really care whether I have a beard?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth jokes about Judgement Day beginning with the beards, then asks why the unfathomably intelligent and compassionate God of the cosmos would be obsessed with facial hair or small rulings. He says the basis of the Sharia was the preservation of life and of what allows it to prosper, such as reason, progeny and wealth, in order to establish order. Mufti says people have infantilised God into an angry child throwing tantrums or a warlord who is occasionally kind, and cites the Quranic idea that they did not truly estimate God's majesty. He tells an allegory of a termite claiming to map out the cosmos, and says that is how laughable we are before the transcendent divine.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Sharia exists to preserve life and order, and that picturing God as obsessed with beards shrinks God into a child throwing tantrums.", "answer_start": 4332, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/beard-and-hair", "belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:maqasid", "label": "maqasid (aims of the Sharia)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shariah", "label": "Sharia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the basis of the Sharia was the preservation of life.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "because the basis of the Sharia was preservation of life.", "start": 4384}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/11/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/12", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S12", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 12, "start": 4720, "end": 4872, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on 'Fatima is part of me' and Ali's second marriage", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet forbid Ali from taking a second wife?", "summary": "A super chat asks about the hadith from Bukhari that Fatima is a part of the Prophet and what hurts her hurts him, and that Ali could not take a second wife. Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think the Prophet would have stopped Ali from taking a second wife as such, though he grants that jealousy and discomfort at it were natural even in a society where polygamy was the norm. The issue, he says, was that Ali wanted to marry the daughter of Abu Jahl, who epitomised the enemy, and he urges reading the full hadith, in which the Prophet says one roof will not host the daughter of the Messenger of Allah and the daughter of the enemy of Allah.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet objected not to Ali taking a second wife but to his marrying the daughter of Abu Jahl.", "answer_start": 4720, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/individual-hadith-explained", "fiqh/polygamy-and-mutah"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:054ae057", "label": "report: fatima is a part of me whoever angers her angers me (unresolved; Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:fatima", "label": "Fatima"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-jahl", "label": "Abu Jahl"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, to be honest, he does not think the Prophet would have stopped Ali from taking a second wife.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I don't think the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would have uh stopped Ali from taking a second wife.", "start": 4720}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/12/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/13", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S13", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 13, "start": 4872, "end": 5270, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth: there was never an Islamic clothing for the clergy", "question_plain": "Why do imams in the West wear 'Islamic' robes?", "summary": "A super chat asks why shaykhs in the West wear 'Islamic clothing', which creates a barrier and status differentiation. Mufti Abu Layth agrees and says there was never an Islamic clothing to begin with: the robes and hats are regional Muslim dress of a few centuries ago, and the clergy use them as a symbol of power and holiness. He describes what the Prophet and companions wore, a hullah, an izar and a simple shirt, many companions going bare-chested, turbans wrapped against the sand, and long, plaited or tied hair, and says today's clergy would not let them on the minbar. Mufti says the uniform came hundreds of years later to set a priesthood apart, giving examples from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and that it builds barriers with ordinary people who are too scared to ask them anything. At the end he says he is happy to host a Quranist a viewer had asked about.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says there was never an Islamic clothing; clerical dress came centuries later as a symbol of status that distances scholars from people.", "answer_start": 4872, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:thawb", "label": "thawb"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:niqab", "label": "niqab (worn by men against the sand)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there was never an Islamic clothing to begin with.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "There was never an Islamic clothing to begin with.", "start": 4894}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/13/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/14", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S14", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 14, "start": 5270, "end": 5626, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on the age-of-Aisha chains and Hisham ibn Urwa", "question_plain": "Are there other narrations of Aisha's age besides Bukhari's?", "summary": "A viewer asks whether, beyond Bukhari, other books carry more narrations on Aisha's age. Mufti Abu Layth says every single chain on Aisha's age was fabricated, or engineered, with Hisham as the common link, perhaps for righteous reasons, and that every narrator at the lower level is from Iraq. He says Hisham sought to salvage the honour of Aisha, his great-aunt, against Shia slurs, and to reinforce the Zubayrid narrative that suited the Abbasids, who could lean neither on the Umayyad nor the Shia version of history. Mufti says the ages six and nine echo a temple practice among some Zoroastrians, in which a girl was devoted to a temple at six and received by her husband at nine, and that the story grew over time from 'she was young' to fixed ages.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says every chain on Aisha's age was engineered, with Hisham as the common link and Iraqi narrators throughout.", "answer_start": 5270, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hisham-ibn-urwa", "label": "Hisham ibn Urwa"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3635d5d3", "label": "report: the prophet married aisha at six and consummated the marriage at nine"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:abbasids", "label": "Abbasids"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "Umayyads"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zoroastrianism", "label": "Zoroastrianism"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says every single chain of narration about the age of Aisha was fabricated, which he rephrases as engineered.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "Every single chain of narration to do with the age of Aisha was fabricated.", "start": 5270}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/14/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/15", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S15", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 15, "start": 5626, "end": 6117, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on jinn, consciousness and other dimensions", "question_plain": "Are jinn just archetypes in our unconscious mind?", "summary": "A super chat asks whether the jinn might be Jungian archetypes in the collective unconscious. Mufti Abu Layth says he has not looked into it, and that he thinks the jinn are not something in the mind but beings in a dimension of consciousness we generally cannot access, which people have encountered, often through psychedelics, as beings of light, since jinn simply means what cannot be seen. After brief replies on genetics, Mufti says Amazonian peoples' knowledge of which plants to combine is hard to explain by trial and error and suggests a communication beyond words. Answering a viewer who says he contradicted himself about Sulayman's ant, he clarifies that in the everyday realm nature does not speak to us, but in a vision it can, and notes that physics discusses ten or eleven dimensions. He also says the Muwatta is more authentic than Bukhari, with a shorter chain.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth thinks the jinn are beings in a dimension of consciousness we cannot normally reach, not mental archetypes.", "answer_start": 5658, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/unseen-beings", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:collective-consciousness", "label": "collective unconscious"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:18", "label": "Quran 27:18 (the ant)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "Muwatta"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he thinks the jinn are things that exist in a dimension of consciousness that we generally do not have access to.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I think that these are the things that exist in a dimension of consciousness that we generally don't have access to", "start": 5657}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/15/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/16", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S16", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 16, "start": 6117, "end": 6691, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on Khabib as a phenomenon and his rivalry with McGregor", "question_plain": "Why is Khabib such a hero to Muslims?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to Khabib Nurmagomedov, saying that although he does not follow sport, Khabib is more than a sportsman: a Muslim from Russia who breaks the stereotype of what a Muslim looks like and proudly says alhamdulillah. Mufti says Muslims who feel downtrodden find solace in an undefeated world champion, and that there is nothing wrong with that. He says Khabib's openness about his faith is admirable given that Russia gives Muslims fewer rights than the West, and jokes about his accent and his retiring because of a promise to his mother. On McGregor, Mufti says he was creating hype, as Muhammad Ali did but with insults, while Khabib took it too personally; he ends by laughing that Amir Khan copied a tweet by Sonny Bill Williams word for word.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls Khabib a phenomenon and admires him for openly wearing his Islam, while saying he took McGregor's hype too personally.", "answer_start": 6117, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/race-and-identity", "society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:khabib-nurmagomedov", "label": "Khabib Nurmagomedov"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:conor-mcgregor", "label": "Conor McGregor"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:amir-khan", "label": "Amir Khan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sonny-bill-williams", "label": "Sonny Bill Williams"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/16/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/17", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S17", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 17, "start": 6813, "end": 7662, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on the Samuel Paty killing, Macron and boycotting France", "question_plain": "Should Muslims boycott France over the cartoons?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recaps the killing of the teacher Samuel Paty for showing cartoons of the Prophet, repeats that Muslims should ignore such provocation, and says the killing is utterly unacceptable from an Islamic perspective, adding that the killer has no place in Islam. He says the teacher was within his rights to discuss the Charlie Hebdo case and show the cartoons, though he does not think being killed automatically makes one a hero of the state. Mufti calls President Macron's projection of the cartoons onto buildings very poorly managed: individuals and satirical papers may do it, but governments represent all citizens, French Muslims included, and should not get involved. He says economic boycott by individuals is understandable and by states a justified response, but Muslims who do not boycott should not be guilt-tripped, and he jokes about boycotting French fries and French kissing.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth condemns the killing outright but says Macron was wrong to project the cartoons; boycotts are understandable but no one should be guilt-tripped.", "answer_start": 6813, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:samuel-paty", "label": "Samuel Paty"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:emmanuel-macron", "label": "Emmanuel Macron"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:charlie-hebdo", "label": "Charlie Hebdo"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:murder-of-samuel-paty-2020", "label": "the killing of Samuel Paty (2020)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that individuals may publish such cartoons as their right, but governments should not get involved in these things.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "I get the fact if some people want to do it it's fine fine, you know, it's their right, but governments shouldn't get involved in these things.", "start": 7224}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/17/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/18", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S18", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 18, "start": 7662, "end": 7742, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on inviting Mohammed Hijab and Richard Dawkins to talk", "question_plain": "Would you debate Mohammed Hijab or talk with Richard Dawkins?", "summary": "Asked by viewers to debate Mohammed Hijab, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think Hijab would come on Mind Trap, for the reasons he gave earlier. After more jokes about French fries, he is asked whether he could have a chat with Richard Dawkins, and Mufti says he would love to: he absolutely admires Dawkins as an amazing mind, though he does not agree with everything he says.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth doubts Mohammed Hijab would come on Mind Trap, and says he would love to talk with Richard Dawkins, whom he admires.", "answer_start": 7662, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "dialogue/atheists-and-polemicists"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:richard-dawkins", "label": "Richard Dawkins"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/18/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/19", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S19", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 19, "start": 7742, "end": 8310, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on a woman slapped for insulting Islam in public", "question_plain": "Was it right to slap someone for insulting Islam?", "summary": "A viewer asks what he thinks of a clip in which a woman was slapped. Mufti Abu Layth says he saw only a short clip, in which she was said to be insulting Allah and the Prophet and the man who struck her was said to be a Christian. He condemns any assault, saying humans are not set apart by brute force but by the mind. Mufti says she is, from the little he has seen, very provocative, and cites an analogy Mohammed Hijab gave from Die Hard about wearing a racist billboard in Harlem: it may be free speech, but one is likely to be attacked. He compares it to flashing cash where muggings happen, which he says is wrong for anyone to exploit yet likely, and advises critics of religion to be wary and to speak online or with security rather than openly in a park.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth condemns the assault outright, but says provocative critics should be wary and take precautions, since some will not be as civil.", "answer_start": 7781, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/blasphemy-and-free-speech", "society/dawah-and-debate-culture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:mohammed-hijab", "label": "Mohammed Hijab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he condemns any kind of assault.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I condemn any kind of assault okay I look we are not look look at the entire animal kingdom", "start": 7859}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/19/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/20", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S20", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 20, "start": 8310, "end": 8491, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's open debate challenge to Salafi scholars", "question_plain": "Would you debate a Salafi scholar?", "summary": "Asked whether he will debate any Salafi scholars, Mufti Abu Layth issues an open challenge to any learned Salafi to come on Mind Trap. He says he wants them to prove something they preach as obligatory from the Quran or clear sunnah alone, but the key word is lost in the captions. Mufti says he guarantees none of them can, recalls a Medina graduate who came to debate him and was left speechless, and says he could swear by Allah that they will not be able to prove it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth challenges any Salafi scholar to debate him and prove a practice they call obligatory from the Quran or sunnah alone.", "answer_start": 8310, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["dialogue/debate-challenges-and-reviews", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/20/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/21", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S21", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 21, "start": 8491, "end": 8862, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on who the Bedouin Arabs of Surah al-Tawbah were", "question_plain": "Who were the Bedouin Arabs criticised in Surah al-Tawbah?", "summary": "A viewer asks who the a'rab were in the Prophet's time, in light of Surah al-Tawbah verse 97. Mufti Abu Layth reads and translates verses 97 to 99: the Bedouins are the hardest in disbelief and hypocrisy, some treat what they spend as a debt and wait for misfortune to strike the believers, and others spend sincerely as a means of nearness to God. He says the verses refer to tribes of the Hijaz and beyond that were not under established rule, unlike the settled southern and northern kingdoms. Mufti says these semi-nomadic raiding tribes had military strength and wealth that could help the Prophet, but some joined as a power play, and that people not exposed to the voice of reason were harshest against him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the a'rab of Surah al-Tawbah were semi-nomadic raiding tribes not under settled rule, some of whom joined only as a power play.", "answer_start": 8531, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "history/pre-islamic-arabia"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:9:97-99", "label": "Quran 9:97-99"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the verses speak of the tribes of the Hijaz and beyond that were not under established rule.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "he's speaking of the kind of tribes that were in the hij and I suppose expanded out as well, but that weren't under established rule.", "start": 8680}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/21/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/22", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S22", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 22, "start": 8862, "end": 9087, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on whether a Christian can claim sharif status", "question_plain": "Can a non-Muslim descendant of the Prophet claim sharif status?", "summary": "After saying he has heard good things about Juan Cole's book on the Prophet but not read it, Mufti Abu Layth takes a question from a Christian of prophetic descent who asks whether a Christian can claim sharif status. Mufti says sharif status is more a political thing than something Islam inherently brought, though Islam's governance allowed it to be created. He says many descendants of the Prophet over 1,400 years will not have been Muslim, and that some states, especially Morocco in the past, gave the shurafa a stipend, and Pakistan may have something in theory because they cannot take zakat.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says sharif status is a political institution rather than something Islam brought, and descendants of the Prophet can be non-Muslims.", "answer_start": 8920, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/race-and-identity"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sharif", "label": "sharif"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-bayt", "label": "descendants of the Prophet"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zakat", "label": "zakat"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:juan-cole", "label": "Juan Cole"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says sharif status is more a political thing and not really something Islam inherently brings with it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this sharif status is more a political thing. It's not really something that Islam inherently brings with it.", "start": 8919}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/22/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/23", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S23", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 23, "start": 9087, "end": 9359, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on non-dhabiha meat and why he still advocates halal", "question_plain": "Is non-halal chicken and beef actually haram?", "summary": "A viewer asks whether, since the Quran has no notion of dhabiha, all chicken and beef are halal. Mufti Abu Layth says the primary purpose of the slaughter rules was to distinguish Muslims from those making offerings to pagan gods, which has largely disappeared, while the secondary purpose, identity, remains. So, Mufti says, he does not feel eating non-dhabiha meat would be haram, for example when travelling, but because of identity Muslims should stick to halal meat, which he personally does and advocates. He refers viewers to his detailed clip, then jokes about a comment on sex before marriage.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says eating non-dhabiha meat is not haram, since its original purpose has gone, but he advocates halal meat for the sake of identity.", "answer_start": 9118, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/food"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dhabiha", "label": "dhabiha"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:halal", "label": "halal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not feel it would be haram if a person ate non-dhabiha meat, but that because of identity Muslims should stick to halal meat.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "So if a person ate it, I I don't feel it would be haram, but I feel because of the identity factor, we should stick to halal meat.", "start": 9172}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/23/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/24", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S24", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 24, "start": 9359, "end": 9856, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on 'simps', masculinity and the younger generation", "question_plain": "What do you think about men who 'simp' for women?", "summary": "Asked what he thinks of 'simping', Mufti Abu Layth says he understands it to mean men who let women treat them as doormats, and urges people to dignify themselves. He says abuse is wrong and masculinity has nothing to do with hitting women, but he feels something distinctively manly is becoming rarer in the younger generation, which he calls effeminate, though it is their life to live. Mufti says men and women are instinctively drawn to primal masculinity and femininity, and that a narrowing of the difference leaves people vulnerable in a world that remains raw. He ends by saying he finds himself part of a dying breed with these views.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says self-respect matters and feels distinct manliness is becoming rarer among young men, though he says each to their own.", "answer_start": 9359, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/masculinity-and-gender-roles"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels there is something distinctively manly that is becoming a rarer quality in the current younger generation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "there is something distinctively manly that I feel is a a real it's becoming a rarer quality uh in the current younger generation", "start": 9482}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/24/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/25", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S25", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 25, "start": 9856, "end": 10002, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's advice: carry as little hate as possible", "question_plain": "How do I stop hating people who hurt me?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think beauty is an illusion, then answers a viewer joking that she supports only him and insults all other men. He advises against hating men or anyone: hatred is human, but one should keep it to a minimum, as life is always better with the least hate. Mufti says some women may have been repeatedly hurt by men, but any hateful sentiment, whether bigotry or racial hatred, is baggage that harms the one who carries it. He adds that life is always better with the opposite gender, and that younger generations need not see the world his way.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth advises keeping hatred to a minimum, of men or anyone, because hate is baggage that harms the person who carries it.", "answer_start": 9881, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/anger-and-forgiveness", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says life will always be better with the least amount of hate one carries around.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Trust me that life will always be better with the least amount of hate you carry around.", "start": 9880}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/25/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/26", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S26", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 26, "start": 10002, "end": 10196, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's chat round: Birmingham over London and channel housekeeping", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Asked Birmingham or London, Mufti Abu Layth says definitely Birmingham: London has class in the name, but it is congested, hard to drive and park in, and extraordinarily overpriced compared with a city of over a million where one can still buy a semi-detached house. He reacts with interest to a claim about an Indian actor's Husseini Brahmin lineage, asks the chat not to abuse the moderators, asks who a politician a viewer mentions is, and explains what a super chat is.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth picks Birmingham over London and handles housekeeping in the chat.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "wellbeing/personal-stories"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/26/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/27", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S27", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 27, "start": 10196, "end": 10262, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on reciting the Quran in the shower", "question_plain": "Can I recite the Quran in the shower?", "summary": "A viewer asks whether one can recite the Quran in the shower. Mufti Abu Layth says one physically can, but intentionally setting out to recite it while washing is very bad etiquette, because the Quran has a sanctity and adab. He distinguishes reciting a verse by habit or as the mind drifts, which is fine, from deliberately reciting it in the shower.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says deliberately reciting the Quran in the shower is bad etiquette, though a verse slipping out by habit is fine.", "answer_start": 10196, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/memorisation-and-recitation"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:adab", "label": "adab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says intentionally reciting the Quran in the shower is very bad etiquette, because the Quran has a sanctity.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "it's very bad etiquette to do something like look the Quran is has a sanctity to it.", "start": 10196}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/27/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/28", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S28", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 28, "start": 10262, "end": 10339, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth's own reasons for God and the Quran", "question_plain": "Why do you believe in God and that the Quran is from God?", "summary": "A super chat asks what his personal reasoning is for the existence of God and the Quran being God's word. Mufti Abu Layth points to his video and sums up: he feels consciousness cannot come from nothing and is reflective of the transcendent divine. Of the major world religions, he says, only Islam stands the test of reason for him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says consciousness points to the transcendent divine, and that among world religions only Islam passes the test of reason for him.", "answer_start": 10287, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/atheism-and-the-existence-of-god", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels consciousness cannot come from nothing and is, to him, reflective of the transcendent divine.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "consciousness cannot just come from just nothing. To me, it is reflective of the transcendent divine to me.", "start": 10286}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/28/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/29", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S29", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 29, "start": 10339, "end": 10439, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on schizophrenia and religious insight", "question_plain": "Do people with schizophrenia have real religious insight?", "summary": "Answering a viewer who asks whether schizophrenics have profound religious insight, since many have religious delusions and many prophets were called mad, Mufti Abu Layth says it does not necessarily follow, but he finds it plausible. He notes that high neural activity in the temporal lobe has been linked both with certain disorders and with high religiosity, and says there could be an overlap, though as a correlation rather than a causative demonstration. He then answers a few light chat comments.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says an overlap between such disorders and religiosity is plausible, but it would be a correlation, not proof of cause.", "answer_start": 10339, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "wellbeing/islamic-psychology"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there could be an overlap between certain disorders and high religiosity, both linked with high temporal-lobe activity, but that it would be a correlation, not a causative demonstration.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I think there could be an overlap, but there it's not, you know, it's not a causitative demonstration.", "start": 10376}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/29/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/30", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S30", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 30, "start": 10439, "end": 10820, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on a webinar against the Qadianis and the messiah complex", "question_plain": "Is the second coming of Jesus the right answer to the Qadianis?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens his masala segment on a maulana who has criticised him, whose name is garbled in the captions and whom he mocks with nicknames. He describes a three-hour webinar on the finality of prophethood aimed at the Qadianis, which he says is fine in itself, since he too believes Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a false messiah. Mufti says the maulana used his slot to argue for the second coming of Jesus and to call those who deny it disbelievers, which he finds ironic, because the Qadiani belief is built on a messiah complex: Ghulam Ahmad affirmed an awaited messiah and then claimed to be him. The true answer to the Qadianis, Mufti says, is that there is no messiah to come, as some scholars of India said and as Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, Adnan Ibrahim and he himself say.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says that the real answer to the Qadiani claim is that no messiah is coming, not a defence of the second coming.", "answer_start": 10439, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/ahmadiyya-and-false-messiahs", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mirza-ghulam-ahmad", "label": "Mirza Ghulam Ahmad"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ahmadiyya", "label": "Ahmadiyya (Qadianis)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khatm-al-nubuwwa", "label": "finality of prophethood"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Jesus (Isa)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:adnan-ibrahim", "label": "Adnan Ibrahim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that people like him do not believe in awaiting a messiah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "So people like me don't believe in the messiah uh complex and we don't believe in awaiting a messiah.", "start": 10700}}, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/30/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/31", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S31", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 31, "start": 10820, "end": 11487, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth replies to a critic on Jesus's death and Imam Malik", "question_plain": "Did Imam Malik say that Jesus died?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip in which the maulana says the descent of Jesus is narrated by tawatur and that the opinion attributed to Imam Malik that Jesus died comes from an unreliable third-tier Maliki book transmitted through al-Bayan [?]. Mufti replies that there is no verse in the Quran that says there will be a second coming, offering to discuss it live, and says the early Hanafis were wary of Abu Hurayra's hadith. He holds up the Jami' of Ibn Yunus, which he calls a major reliable Maliki text that Khalil drew on, says it quotes Imam Malik that Jesus died at thirty-three, and adds that Ibn Rushd al-Jadd [?] is reliable. Mufti says the maulana is not well read, challenges him and other critics to debate any topic in the Maliki school, and says he responds only when people speak against him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is no Quranic verse on a second coming and that the Imam Malik report of Jesus's death is in a reliable Maliki source.", "answer_start": 11006, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "fiqh/maliki-school", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Jesus (Isa)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "tawatur"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-bayan-wa-al-tahsil", "label": "al-Bayan wa al-Tahsil [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-rushd-al-jadd", "label": "Ibn Rushd al-Jadd [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-yunus-al-siqilli", "label": "Ibn Yunus al-Siqilli"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-jami-li-masail-al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Jami' of Ibn Yunus"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-ibn-ishaq", "label": "Khalil ibn Ishaq"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/31/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/32", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S32", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 32, "start": 11487, "end": 11766, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth mocks a critic's clip on intimacy and slit bedsheets", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays, several times and with laughter, a clip in which the maulana recalls being shown by a grandmother bedsheets with a slit, used because intimacy was considered so spiritually foul that it was allowed only for the minimum needed to procreate, followed by immediate repentance. Mufti mocks the idea with jokes about ghosts and Halloween, and then digresses to joke that elephants are self-conscious, showing a book on animal minds.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth ridicules a critic's story that intimacy was once seen as so foul that couples used slit bedsheets.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "relationships/marriage/intimacy"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/32/"}, {"id": "w6TqWuUumCg/s/33", "short_id": "2020-10-27-S33", "recording": "w6TqWuUumCg", "n": 33, "start": 11766, "end": 11871, "date": "20201027", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth closes the stream and announces Mind Trap", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth repeats his offer of a discussion or debate to his critics on Mind Trap and wraps up. He says he hopes to host a professor from Kashmir on Mind Trap the next day, asks viewers to subscribe as the channel nears 20,000 subscribers, thanks Patreon supporters and signs off.", "summary_short": "Sign-off: Mufti Abu Layth announces a Mind Trap guest for the next day and thanks supporters.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/w6TqWuUumCg/s/33/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/1", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S01", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 1, "start": 7, "end": 119, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: sound check, and Facebook stars now visible", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens with the Arabic praise formula and an audio check to make sure the stream is going out live, then brings in viewers from Facebook. Mufti says he has now integrated Facebook comments and stars into his streaming software, and apologises that until now he could not see the stars people sent and so could not thank them.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth checks the sound and says Facebook stars now show up on his screen.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/1/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/2", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S02", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 2, "start": 119, "end": 230, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces his guest, Shaykh Omar Baloch", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces the night's guest, Shaykh Omar Baloch, an imam from New York, and the two exchange greetings; the guest says he has benefited from Mufti's lectures and that they had been trying to arrange the conversation for a while. Mufti describes him as an imam in the sense of a scholar within Islam who is also trained in Jungian psychology, practises cognitive behavioural therapy and is closely involved in his local community.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces Shaykh Omar Baloch, a New York imam trained in Jungian psychology and CBT.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/2/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/3", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S03", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 3, "start": 230, "end": 578, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Shaykh Omar Baloch's background and his teachers", "question_plain": "Who did Shaykh Omar Baloch study with?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks the guest about his journey and background. The guest says he is Pakistani by heritage and was born in Chicago, studied for a while at an Arabic school in South India, and after his family moved to Pakistan began studying at about thirteen with Dr Israr Ahmed [?], sitting in on his course at the Quran Academy and later becoming one of his main students in the US; he recalls Israr Ahmed joking at a convention in Columbus, Ohio, that he had 'discovered' Omar Baloch. Asked by Mufti, the guest confirms that Israr Ahmed took bay'ah from followers. The guest then describes first meeting Imran Hosein, who had joined hands with Israr Ahmed, while the older man was vacuuming a mosque in Queens, New York, studying with him for two years, and being told by him that he was beginning to think like a scholar. Mufti asks what Imran Hosein is like as a person, saying he has never met him.", "summary_short": "The guest describes studying with Dr Israr Ahmed from the age of about thirteen and then with Imran Hosein in New York.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:israr-ahmed", "label": "Israr Ahmed"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imran-hosein", "label": "Imran Hosein"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bayah", "label": "bay'ah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/3/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/4", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S04", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 4, "start": 578, "end": 872, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Imran Hosein's thinking, the age of Aisha, and his split with Israr Ahmed", "question_plain": "What is Imran Hosein's approach, and why did he disagree with Israr Ahmed?", "summary": "The guest says Imran Hosein thinks outside the box, integrating economics, the social sciences and world events with the tradition, and is critical of some things that have entered it, so that he and Mufti Abu Layth may share more than expected on hadith. Mufti says people have cut clips of his talks and Imran Hosein's together on similar topics and he can see the overlap. The guest gives Imran Hosein's argument that marrying a six-year-old is ruled out by the Quran's word for women, and Mufti says he is really glad Imran Hosein has spoken out about it passionately, adding that he has sometimes felt, perhaps misunderstanding him, that Imran Hosein has an almost conspiratorial outlook on the apocalyptic nature of this world. The guest replies that his overall view is bigger than that and very traditionally oriented. Asked about Israr Ahmed [?], the guest says the two did not get along on Islamic eschatology, that Israr Ahmed once told Imran Hosein not to discuss certain topics, and that, loving both, he thinks putting a ban on knowledge was wrong.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth praises Imran Hosein's stand on the age of Aisha but finds his outlook almost conspiratorial; the guest says Imran Hosein and Israr Ahmed fell out over eschatology.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars", "history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "belief/eschatology"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imran-hosein", "label": "Imran Hosein"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:israr-ahmed", "label": "Israr Ahmed"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/4/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/5", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S05", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 5, "start": 872, "end": 1296, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Farahi's school and the coherence (nazm) of the Quran: paired surahs", "question_plain": "Is there an order and coherence to the surahs of the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth explains that within a madhhab there are sub-schools, and describes the subcontinental school of Hamiduddin Farahi, of the late 1800s, which refocused on the Quran and its coherent nature and influenced Amin Ahsan Islahi, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, the guest and Imran Hosein in different ways. The guest says Farahi was answering Orientalists who claimed the Quran had no order, notes that al-Suyuti had recorded both opinions on whether it has coherence, and says Farahi made demonstrating it his life's mission. The guest illustrates the idea that every surah has a pair: al-Isra and al-Kahf, which open with praise of God for His servant and are of similar length, and al-Rahman and al-Waqi'a, where what one begins with the other ends with. The guest adds that al-Baqarah speaks to a Jewish, historical way of thinking and Al Imran to a Christian way of thinking through parables, such as the likeness of Jesus being that of Adam. Mufti calls it an amazing insight and says this coherence is the key theme of Islahi's Tadabbur-i-Quran.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth and the guest trace Farahi's school of Quranic coherence, which the guest illustrates with surahs that come in pairs.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamiduddin-farahi", "label": "Hamiduddin Farahi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:amin-ahsan-islahi", "label": "Amin Ahsan Islahi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:javed-ahmad-ghamidi", "label": "Javed Ahmad Ghamidi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imran-hosein", "label": "Imran Hosein"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tadabbur-i-quran", "label": "Tadabbur-i-Quran"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nazm", "label": "nazm (coherence of the Quran)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:17:1", "label": "Quran 17:1"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:1", "label": "Quran 18:1"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:59", "label": "Quran 3:59"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/5/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/6", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S06", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 6, "start": 1296, "end": 1375, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "The stream drops and comes back", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After the stream cuts out, Mufti Abu Layth checks that the feed is going through again and tells viewers he is live again, joking that forces are at work. Mufti quotes Mike Tyson that everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face, and says that is what live means.", "summary_short": "Technical trouble: Mufti Abu Layth gets the stream back online.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/6/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/7", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S07", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 7, "start": 1375, "end": 1645, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "America in crisis: losing its global standing and soft power", "question_plain": "Is America losing its place in the world?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recaps the coherence discussion and asks the guest, as someone active in his community, about the challenges he sees in the United States. The guest says America is in a precarious internal crisis while determining its future, and shows a Politico piece on experts who knew a pandemic was coming and nine disasters they fear next. The guest says many academic papers now argue that America will never be the same and has lost its ability to assert itself globally, an internal debate over whether it should police the world involving think tanks such as the RAND Corporation. Asked by Mufti whether America does not still have power, as Britain did after its empire, the guest says real power is economic power and the soft power of alliances and credibility, and that Donald Trump has fallen out with African countries, Europe, Russia and China.", "summary_short": "The guest argues that America is in an internal crisis and has lost the soft power of alliances and credibility that matters more than military strength.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:rand-corporation", "label": "RAND Corporation"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/7/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/8", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S08", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 8, "start": 1645, "end": 1993, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Trump's 'don't give a damn' style, Fox News and the politics of fear", "question_plain": "Why do so many people admire Trump's style?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth wonders aloud, perhaps as a male thing, whether Donald Trump's cowboy, macho, 'I don't give a damn' way of doing things is how many boys would dream of ruling, without being an outright tyrant. A chat comment suggests the word is chauvinist; Mufti agrees that Trump is unquestionably chauvinist but says the wish to speak one's mind without fear is something many men aspire to. The guest compares rulers in the East who act with impunity but at arm's length, says wanting that is in some ways wanting to be a psychopath, and argues that Trump in fact presents a vision, fake or not, to followers. The guest says Fox News has more viewers than its rivals combined and sells a politics of fear about Democrats, atheists and minorities, with the Republican Party much harder on Muslims. Mufti says he completely condemns Trump as a person and does not like his views at all, but kind of admires the power he wields.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth condemns Trump and his views but admits a grudging admiration for his impunity; the guest ties Trump's rise to Fox News and a politics of fear.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:fox-news", "label": "Fox News"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/8/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/9", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S09", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 9, "start": 1993, "end": 2173, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Hate groups, scapegoating and the case for mosque security in the US", "question_plain": "Are mosques in America at risk from far-right anger?", "summary": "The guest says that during Barack Obama's presidency white supremacist hate groups rose to their highest level, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center's count of more than a thousand, and links it to the housing collapse that cost millions of middle-class Americans their homes and left them looking for someone to blame. In the conversation the scapegoating of migrants is compared to the time of Hitler and to Brexit. The guest says that is why every mosque in the US needs security now, citing a Fox News presenter named Tucker [?] who asked why protesters vandalise churches but not mosques when Muhammad also believed in slaves, which the guest says gives people the idea of what happened in New Zealand. The guest says it is a miracle of Allah that attacks have not happened more often, given the anger of Bible-thumping America, which Trump represents. Mufti Abu Layth then asks whether the guest sees the trajectory spiralling out of control.", "summary_short": "The guest warns that rising white supremacist anger in the US, fed by scapegoating and Fox News, means every mosque now needs security.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/race-and-identity", "society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:barack-obama", "label": "Barack Obama"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:southern-poverty-law-center", "label": "Southern Poverty Law Center"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adolf-hitler", "label": "Adolf Hitler"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:tucker-carlson", "label": "Tucker Carlson"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:fox-news", "label": "Fox News"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/9/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/10", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S10", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 10, "start": 2173, "end": 2327, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Will America spiral or recover? Mufti Abu Layth's optimism", "question_plain": "Will people's better judgement win out over hatred?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether the guest sees things spiralling out of control or the goodness and better judgement of people prevailing; the guest jokes about his home city of Chicago and says he is speaking academically. Mufti says that, from what he sees through the media in America and Europe, there is an underbelly of hatred but people are growing with time to see reason, and better judgement is prevailing, especially among younger people. Mufti cites the idea of some philosophers that new ideas prevail less by persuasion than because people with old ideas die and are replaced. The guest begins to answer by pointing to the police killing of a black man and the response of defunding the police.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is optimistic: he sees better judgement prevailing over time, especially among the young.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/current-events", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/10/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/11", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S11", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 11, "start": 2327, "end": 2479, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Defunding the police and a polarised America", "question_plain": "What does defunding the police mean in practice?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether defunding the police means replacing corrupt officers with better trained ones, and says he had assumed it meant a reshuffle. The guest says the country is in a phase of anarchy in between, that Republicans and Democrats hold opposite opinions with no real conversation, and gives a real-life case in which he and others heard a child crying for help in a house where a man was beating his wife, called the police, and waited 28 minutes for officers who did nothing. The guest says the police attitude is now that if people do not like them they will not act, and that Democrats and Republicans hate each other and are divided within their own parties.", "summary_short": "The guest describes police in his area withdrawing after criticism and a country too polarised for real conversation.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events", "society/extremism-crime-and-justice"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/11/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/12", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S12", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 12, "start": 2479, "end": 2788, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Demographic fear and the shrinking American middle class", "question_plain": "Why is America so polarised?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks whether differences are not simply part of the fabric of human beings, and questions the guest's leap to Nazi Germany. The guest compares the fear to that of Pharaoh's rulers as the Children of Israel grew in number, saying intellectuals are worried about demographic change, with minorities such as black, Hispanic and Muslim Americans blamed for a decline once guaranteed by lifelong jobs, pensions and Medicare. Mufti says he hears similar claims in the UK and asks whether that era was not a selective post-war period. The guest blames large companies that use cheap and abusive labour overseas and pay Walmart workers so little they need food stamps, cites a Harvard study of revolutions finding that unrest follows when the middle class is hit, and describes small family stores being displaced by chains such as Best Buy, Amazon and Walmart.", "summary_short": "The guest argues that demographic fear and the hollowing out of the middle class by big corporations are driving American polarisation.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events", "society/race-and-identity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adolf-hitler", "label": "Adolf Hitler"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bani-israil", "label": "Bani Isra'il"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:walmart", "label": "Walmart"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:amazon", "label": "Amazon"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/12/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/13", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S13", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 13, "start": 2788, "end": 3017, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "AI and automation: lost jobs or new markets?", "question_plain": "Will AI destroy jobs or create new ones?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recalls a friend in artificial intelligence describing how conglomerates swallow small businesses and machines replace workers, even doctors, and asks whether a new market is not also created in services, web design and IT. The guest agrees that new fields such as fintech and blockchain will appear, but says AI will first replace commercial truck drivers within ten to fifteen years because a machine can drive 24 hours and make more profit, and that an AI has beaten lawyers in an exam. Mufti mentions the British series Humans, about artificial human beings, and the guest turns to a verse of Surah Yunus on which he offers his own reading.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth suggests AI also creates new industries; the guest agrees but says automation will take labour jobs first for the sake of profit.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/technology-and-media"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/13/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/14", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S14", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 14, "start": 3017, "end": 3167, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Surah Yunus 10:24 read as the oil age, and whether modern life can last", "question_plain": "Does the Quran predict that modern industrial society will collapse?", "summary": "The guest gives what he calls his own take on Quran 10:24: the world economy was agrarian until the Ottoman era, then the earth 'took on its ornament' in oil, iron and copper and the Industrial Age, people thought they had full control, and the verse's ending, as if it had not flourished the day before, means modern society is not sustainable because oil will not last. Mufti Abu Layth replies that although there will not be oil forever, human beings and knowledge work in a way that will develop alternatives such as nuclear energy and power from light. The guest says that by game theory most intellectuals foresee negative outcomes, whether from climate change, resources or war.", "summary_short": "The guest reads Quran 10:24 as a warning that oil-based modern life will collapse; Mufti Abu Layth expects human knowledge to find new energy.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:10:24", "label": "Quran 10:24"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ottoman-empire", "label": "Ottoman Empire"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/14/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/15", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S15", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 15, "start": 3167, "end": 3511, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Clash of civilisations or end of history? Prosperity and trust in the future", "question_plain": "Is humanity better off today than ever before?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says intellectuals also note that humans today live in the greatest prosperity; the guest sets out Samuel Huntington's clash of civilisations, influential after 9/11, against Francis Fukuyama's end of history, which he says many now doubt. Mufti says he is not claiming democracy is the end, but that humanity unquestionably lives in an era of prosperity, affluence, amenities and freedoms unmatched in history. The guest says that from the Quran he does not expect much good from our better selves, since people are not less greedy. Mufti answers that humans are more trusting in a future as a species, and that loans, banking, contracts and money rest on that psychosocial trust in tomorrow, distinguishing it from the 1973 oil-for-dollars deal the guest raises with Henry Kissinger. Mufti suggests earlier powers such as the Ottomans did not chase discovery because they felt they had reached a pinnacle, and says humanity has since become exponentially better through industrial, technological and scientific revolutions.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that humanity lives in unmatched prosperity built on trust in the future; the guest doubts people have become any less greedy.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:samuel-huntington", "label": "Samuel Huntington"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:francis-fukuyama", "label": "Francis Fukuyama"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:henry-kissinger", "label": "Henry Kissinger"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:ottoman-empire", "label": "Ottoman Empire"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/15/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/16", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S16", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 16, "start": 3511, "end": 3744, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Modernity, nuclear deterrence and the leaders who hold the buttons", "question_plain": "Have nuclear weapons made the world more peaceful?", "summary": "The guest defines modernity as the premise that today is necessarily better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today, and doubts that nations will get along better, joking that if someone has muscles they will use them. Mufti Abu Layth replies that the principle of Chekhov's gun has been defied by nuclear powers, saying it is ironic, as Yuval Noah Harari also notes, that weapons of mass destruction have become the basis for peace, as when India and Pakistan stepped back from war the previous year. The guest invokes structuralism, arguing that what matters is the people within the structures, and that with leaders such as Trump in power someone may act stupidly or by accident. The guest concludes that nobody knows the future but God does.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that nuclear deterrence has ironically kept the peace; the guest fears what the people holding the weapons might do.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "society/current-events"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yuval-noah-harari", "label": "Yuval Noah Harari"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:anton-chekhov", "label": "Anton Chekhov (Chekhov's gun)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:donald-trump", "label": "Donald Trump"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/16/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/17", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S17", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 17, "start": 3744, "end": 3936, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Will every town be destroyed before the Day of Judgement?", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say every city will be destroyed before Judgement Day?", "summary": "The guest recites Quran 17:58, that there is no town but God will destroy it before the Day of Resurrection or punish it severely, and says this need not mean destruction as punishment; it could mean that whatever lives will die, as Babylon is gone. The guest says that, with coming conflicts over fresh water and oil, it seems to him humanity is headed for trouble. Mufti Abu Layth says he does get that some verses of the Quran unquestionably speak of punishment, but feels there are others in which God is not one to withhold His blessings, and asks what God gains by punishing people. The guest replies that such verses speak of a village of tyrants on a micro scale, and Mufti says he is enjoying the exchange.", "summary_short": "The guest reads Quran 17:58 as a sign that humanity is headed for trouble; Mufti Abu Layth points to verses of blessing and God's lack of need to punish.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "belief/eschatology"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:17:58", "label": "Quran 17:58"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:4:147", "label": "Quran 4:147"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/17/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/18", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S18", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 18, "start": 3936, "end": 4130, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is humanity on a positive trajectory? Rights, the economy and suffering", "question_plain": "Is the world getting better or worse?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he feels humanity is on a trajectory more positive than negative, with hope brighter than despair, pointing to the greater rights people now have, extending even to animals, pets and the environment. The guest raises the environment and says non-Muslims are more organised and have higher moral standards than many Muslims, but that someone else being wrong does not make the other right, and argues that the Western economic model is built on loans upon loans and will bust while ordinary people suffer. Mufti replies that suffering is an inherent part of living but is a spectrum, from terminal illness to the pangs of daily life, and that the West is not paradise but not a hellhole either.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth sees humanity heading in a more positive than negative direction; the guest says the loan-based Western economy will bust.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/18/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/19", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S19", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 19, "start": 4130, "end": 4364, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Personal peace, goodness in people, and corporations driving human destiny", "question_plain": "Are people basically good, or is the system the problem?", "summary": "The guest says there can be no global peace without personal peace, pointing to depression as an epidemic, unhealthy nutrition and the work ethic and entitlement of millennials, and suggests Mufti Abu Layth sees a good future because he is a good person. Mufti says it is not about personality: those who lose optimism have often been through things that marked them deeply, and while his own life has not been rosy, stepping back he sees goodness in people alongside immorality. The guest gives the example of a drug dealer outside a mosque who moves to another corner when asked, saying gangs live by codes, and argues that the problem is not the individual but the species, which is no longer in the driving seat of its destiny. The guest says corporations, legal entities treated as living bodies, now drive humanity, so that even a good banker is caught in the system.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth sees goodness in people despite immorality; the guest says the problem is a system run by corporations, not individuals.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/19/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/20", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S20", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 20, "start": 4364, "end": 4593, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Iqbal on Western civilisation: a dazzling exterior around a core of knowledge", "question_plain": "How did Iqbal see Western civilisation?", "summary": "The guest presents Muhammad Iqbal's view from The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, which he says meets Mufti Abu Layth's position more than his own; Mufti says he sees Iqbal as hopeful but despondent because of his circumstances. The guest says Iqbal described Western civilisation as having an outer core, the dazzling exterior of entertainment, dance and film, and an inner core of knowledge, rationality, observation and measurement, and held that through trial and error, from communism to democracy to socialism, humanity would reach the conclusion the Prophet was taking it to. The guest adds that, in his own feeling, Western civilisation as it now exists is headed for a very big problem because of the entities driving human destiny. Mufti calls Iqbal's view brilliant and says his own understanding is that what the prophets taught was simply to reconnect creation with the Creator.", "summary_short": "The guest sets out Iqbal's two-layer view of the West; Mufti Abu Layth says the prophets' message was simply to reconnect creation with the Creator.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "history/modern-reformers-and-movements"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-iqbal", "label": "Muhammad Iqbal"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-reconstruction-of-religious-thought-in-islam", "label": "The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/20/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/21", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S21", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 21, "start": 4593, "end": 4866, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is the glitter of entertainment uniquely Western? Consciousness and meaning", "question_plain": "Is Western culture uniquely shallow?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in all honesty, he feels the split Iqbal described is not exclusively Western: human beings have always been drawn to entertainment, dance, music and intoxication, and the unquenchable thirst to know, which Socrates tied to wonder, is human nature, though Western societies may personify it more in a given era. Mufti adds that in the last two decades more people in the West want to understand consciousness, see consumerism on steroids as unhealthy and care about health and the environment. The guest agrees that people are asking existential questions, and Mufti says people want meaning and purpose more than ever. The guest says the lockdown has left people with little to do but think, that many non-Muslims are learning about Islam, but that, as Max Weber said, the dice has been cast, and with AI and corporations society is likely to break down further.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the pull of glitter and the thirst for knowledge are human, not Western, and that people now seek meaning more than ever.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "belief/soul-nafs-and-consciousness"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-iqbal", "label": "Muhammad Iqbal"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:socrates", "label": "Socrates"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:max-weber", "label": "Max Weber"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the COVID-19 pandemic"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/21/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/22", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S22", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 22, "start": 4866, "end": 5060, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Debt, consumerism and the theme of Surah al-Kahf", "question_plain": "What is the main theme of Surah al-Kahf?", "summary": "The guest says that in the richest country in the world most people are in debt, and that China and Russia are refusing to buy oil in dollars, so something has to give. Mufti Abu Layth agrees that consumerism has a destructive, manic drive behind it. The guest says the main theme of Surah al-Kahf is not falling for materialism, citing its command not to turn one's eyes away from the believers, and Mufti says it could also be a theme of identity and belonging, since the people of the cave felt they did not belong with their people and sought refuge. The guest describes them as people suppressed for their faith who had to leave city life, a theme he says academic papers are returning to after the pandemic. Mufti says that, whether or not banking systems and the debt accrued under them crumble, he feels human beings with prosperity will replace them with other, organic systems.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees consumerism is destructive and reads Surah al-Kahf as also being about identity and belonging.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:28", "label": "Quran 18:28"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/22/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/23", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S23", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 23, "start": 5060, "end": 5171, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is riba the root problem? Mufti Abu Layth asks why lending for profit is wrong", "question_plain": "Why is lending money for profit considered wrong in Islam?", "summary": "The guest says the whole infrastructure of the economy is riba-based, pointing to dollars being printed for the stimulus package. Mufti Abu Layth asks whether he sees riba as one of the major causes of downfall, and says that, wanting to understand it from a secular perspective before the religious one, he wonders how a society could lubricate its finances without profit on loans, since few would lend except as charity. The guest replies that someone who wants to lend for business can use mudarabah [?], a profit-sharing partnership, which pays more than two or three percent interest.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth tests why profit on loans is a problem; the guest points to profit-sharing partnership as the alternative.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mudarabah", "label": "mudarabah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/23/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/24", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S24", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 24, "start": 5171, "end": 5443, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Losing a home after years of payments: a mortgage default example", "question_plain": "Can the bank take my whole house if I default near the end of my mortgage?", "summary": "The guest says the part of riba he objects to is not the fee for the service but the case of someone who borrows a million dollars over thirty years, pays off nine hundred thousand, loses his job, and has the whole house taken. Mufti Abu Layth says the example has many confounding variables and that, in the UK, repossession needs a warrant from the county court and the occupant can present a defence. Mufti says that, from practice, mortgage companies are much more lenient than landlords, arranging short-term agreements with a borrower who has lost his job, whereas a landlord would simply give notice, and that if a house is sold the borrower receives the share he paid. Mufti then asks to return from particulars to the concept of riba.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, in UK practice, mortgage lenders are far more lenient with defaulters than landlords, and asks to discuss riba as a concept.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "society/current-events/britain"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/24/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/25", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S25", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 25, "start": 5443, "end": 5753, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Riba as a concept versus mortgages: is buying better than renting?", "question_plain": "Is it better to rent or to take a mortgage?", "summary": "The guest says that in Islam a lender does not take ownership of all your work if you cannot pay. Mufti Abu Layth calls this a false comparison between a detailed real case and a utopian ideal, and asks whether they are discussing mortgages or riba, which he describes as getting back more than you give, the very thing that motivates human endeavour. The guest separates the fiqh issue from the philosophy and admits he does not have a good answer, since renters also pay their landlord's mortgage, and says most homeowners pay only the minimum and build little equity. Mufti asks whether they have not lived more cheaply than renting, and says that from a utilitarian view, if the choice is between renting and the modern mortgage system, the mortgage is probably better because it gives capital as well as being cheaper. The guest says owners invest far more in a home than renters, and Mufti says he is not defending vicious mortgage schemes but wants to establish what the actual problem with riba is.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that, compared with renting, a mortgage is probably the better option, and presses the guest on what is wrong with riba as a concept.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/25/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/26", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S26", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 26, "start": 5753, "end": 6139, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Risk-sharing, loan sharks and Mufti Abu Layth's reading of Quranic riba", "question_plain": "Is bank interest the same as the riba forbidden in the Quran?", "summary": "The guest says partnership achieves the same goal more efficiently by sharing risk, so that a buyer who defaults gets back the share he paid, and that cycles of cheap credit and mass foreclosure have repeated many times, leaving the first generation worse off than its parents. Mufti Abu Layth agrees about the housing bubble but says he does not see it as an Islamic problem because he does not see riba as meaning mortgages, and uses the example of a ten thousand pound loan repaid as fourteen thousand over five years, saying a borrower would want to repay nothing extra but society needs to motivate lenders. Mufti says his general view is that the riba of the Quran was speaking about loan sharking, not the monetary system we have today. The guest asks what the banks are doing if not loan sharking, and describes an Islamic sale at an agreed mark-up in which a buyer who defaults keeps his share. Mufti agrees that cruel mortgage schemes exist but says that in the UK the home is treated as a sacred space and is not easily taken, and the guest says that in the US it takes about a year.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the riba of the Quran meant loan sharking, not modern banking; the guest says today's banks are loan sharks.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/26/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/27", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S27", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 27, "start": 6139, "end": 6413, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Foreclosed family homes and the zero-sum economy of early Islam", "question_plain": "Why might the Quran's ban on riba not apply to modern loans?", "summary": "The guest says that through his roofing business he has been inside hundreds of foreclosed middle-class houses, with family pictures left behind by people who had paid for years. Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees that bankers can be capricious and is not there to justify them, but explains why he does not see riba applying to today's loans or mortgages: he feels it came when society was zero-sum, with the gold in a region more or less fixed and agriculture static, so wealth could only change hands. The guest cites the Quran's concern that wealth should not circulate only among the rich, says the rich hoard or speculate when the economy is bad, and describes a poor borrower facing compound interest who might have to give up his children or wish the earth would swallow him, which he says is why God declared war on riba as worse than murder.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that Quranic riba belonged to a zero-sum economy and does not apply to modern loans; the guest describes its human cost.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:59:7", "label": "Quran 59:7"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:279", "label": "Quran 2:279"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/27/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/28", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S28", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 28, "start": 6413, "end": 6643, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "From gold to digital money: does bank lending let societies prosper?", "question_plain": "Does bank lending help society prosper?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that as societies progressed money moved from minerals to paper, then to digital money and now cryptocurrency, and banks can lend several times what they hold. The guest says the stimulus cheques added to government debt, which passes into higher rents and prices, and that a society cannot keep adding debt. Mufti compares the US response to the pandemic with the UK's furlough scheme, then says he is speaking at a greater level than schemes: money deposited in a bank is lent out, spent and deposited again, allowing a single sum to regenerate an entire industry. Mufti says it is things like this that have allowed modern societies to prosper.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth argues that bank lending, by recycling the same money, is what has allowed modern societies to prosper; the guest warns of endless debt.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "fiqh/finance"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:covid-19-pandemic", "label": "the COVID-19 pandemic"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/28/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/29", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S29", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 29, "start": 6643, "end": 6910, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Lender or partner? Collateral loans versus profit-sharing investment", "question_plain": "Is investing as a partner better than lending at interest?", "summary": "The guest compares two banks: one asks only for collateral and ignores the borrower's business plan, while the other offers to become a partner, studies the plan, and invests more and adds a consultant because it believes in the business. Mufti Abu Layth says both tap into the same source, greed, as a motivating factor, the difference being that the investor shares the risk while the creditor carries none. The guest asks why a lender who trusts the borrower would ask back only thirteen thousand rather than become a partner. Mufti says he accepts partnership is a better way, but that the question was whether riba is still what it was historically understood to be. The guest says the present system, if it is not riba, is worse than riba.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth accepts partnership as a better model but says lending and investing both run on greed; the guest calls today's system worse than riba.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/29/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/30", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S30", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 30, "start": 6910, "end": 7144, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Safety nets and the profit motive: is wanting a return wrong?", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to expect something back when you lend money?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, unlike loan sharking, credit cards and loans operate within a framework with safety nets such as debt management and insolvency programmes, and that the percentages on ordinary unsecured loans are not of that kind, while he is not trying to justify banking greed. The guest says card companies still pile charges on anyone who defaults, and Mufti replies that in the UK debts are means-tested and go through the courts. Mufti says a borrower naturally wants to repay nothing extra while a lender asks why he should lend ten thousand to get ten thousand back, and stresses that he is speaking of society rather than personal loans between friends. Mufti says human beings as a species are not philanthropists and are motivated by 'what's in it for me', and that there is nothing wrong with that.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says modern lending has safety nets that loan sharks lack, and that people being motivated by a return is nothing wrong.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/30/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/31", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S31", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 31, "start": 7144, "end": 7453, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Does the Quran motivate by self-interest? Selfishness and the marshmallow test", "question_plain": "Does the Quran motivate people through self-interest?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that, though he could be wrong, he feels even the Quran motivates people on the basis of greed, promising paradise and its pleasures because instant gratification is otherwise absent. The guest says the Quran criticises immediate gratification, that there are two kinds of selfishness, and that some selfishness is needed to survive, the question being to what extent; Mufti agrees. Mufti asks how Islam can ask people to give their lives for God if taking everything from them is wrong, and the guest calls that a credit bargain and describes the marshmallow experiment of the early 1970s, in which children who could wait went on to better lives. Mufti asks whether it is not unfair that some are created with a better temperament for waiting, and the two agree that humans have the capacity for harm without an urge to it and that there should be rules.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth suggests, tentatively, that even the Quran motivates through self-interest; the guest distinguishes healthy from harmful selfishness.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/afterlife/paradise-and-hell", "wellbeing/motivation-and-purpose"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jannah", "label": "jannah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zakat", "label": "zakat"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/31/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/32", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S32", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 32, "start": 7453, "end": 7571, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is the Quran's imagery of paradise literal or symbolic?", "question_plain": "Are the descriptions of paradise in the Quran literal?", "summary": "The guest says, as a side point, that the Quran's mention of pleasures such as women in paradise answers people who complained, as people did in the time of Malcolm X, that faith meant giving up alcohol and relationships, and that the early Meccan Quran addresses such complaints so that those people have something to hope for. Mufti Abu Layth says he personally does not take the imagery of the Quran as literal but feels it is symbolic, a motivating factor for certain people. The report that what awaits in paradise is something no eye has seen, no ear has heard and no mind has conceived is cited, and Mufti says he totally agrees.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he takes the Quran's imagery of paradise as symbolic, a motivation for people, rather than literal.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/afterlife/paradise-and-hell"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:malcolm-x", "label": "Malcolm X"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jannah", "label": "jannah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:505178dd", "label": "report: ma la aynun raat wa la udhunun samiat wa la khatara ala qalbi bashar"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/32/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/33", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S33", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 33, "start": 7571, "end": 7953, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Islamic finance and Islamic mortgages: a moral alternative or a loophole?", "question_plain": "Are Islamic mortgages really different from normal mortgages?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he personally feels Islamic finance differs from regular finance only by a veneer. The guest says there is moral and immoral financing, that all the Abrahamic religions have opposed loan-based profit, and that it helps to see how Jews and Christians define interest. Mufti says the Islamic examples are usually loopholes, which Islam itself frowns upon, and usually more expensive; the guest compares it to fitting a Mercedes part to a lesser car, but says he would accept paying more if he kept his share after bad luck. Mufti argues that foreclosure law varies by country and that mortgage payments are in lieu of rent; the guest says owners invest in a home as they never would in an apartment and that millions lost homes after paying for twenty years. Mufti says he is not justifying the banks, that buying is generally cheaper than renting and gives a return and a home for one's children, and that Islamic mortgages are just a loophole doing exactly the same thing while charging more.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth calls Islamic mortgages a loophole that does the same thing as a conventional one at a higher price with an Islamic veneer.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages", "fiqh/finance"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/33/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/34", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S34", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 34, "start": 7953, "end": 8341, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is an Islamic economic system utopian? Welfare, Trotsky's question and dynasties", "question_plain": "Is an Islamic economic system realistic or utopian?", "summary": "The guest says Islam is not a fragmented system: its social, political and economic parts come as one package. Mufti Abu Layth asks whether that is not utopian, imagining that everyone is nice and helps one another. The guest proposes a thought experiment of adopting the most liberal opinions in all of fiqh and building a complete social order from them, which he says would not be utopian, and says such a state would be something of a welfare state providing basic needs such as homes. Mufti jokes about Jeremy Corbyn, says this was not done in the Prophet's lifetime, when people built their own houses, and asks how a society that gives everyone a free home could prosper. The guest recounts a subcontinental scholar, whose name is garbled in the captions [?], who after the Bolshevik Revolution met Trotsky, who asked him whether this system existed anywhere on earth, leaving him embarrassed. Asked by Mufti whether it is then a false ideal, the guest says the Muslim dynasties were kingship and Arab imperialism, not Islam, and Mufti then proposes taking questions.", "summary_short": "The guest argues that Islam offers a complete welfare-minded social order; Mufti Abu Layth presses him on whether it is utopian.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "fiqh/finance"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jeremy-corbyn", "label": "Jeremy Corbyn"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:leon-trotsky", "label": "Leon Trotsky"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:vladimir-lenin", "label": "Vladimir Lenin"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/34/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/35", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S35", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 35, "start": 8341, "end": 8532, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Chat questions on banking, mosques funded by loans, and Mufti Abu Layth's view of riba", "question_plain": "Is bank interest the riba that the Quran forbids?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the floor to questions. One chat comment says that, halal or not, Western financial institutions are unsustainable and often bailed out; Mufti says he is not defending institutions but feels the critique juxtaposes reality with a fantasy. Another asks how mosques can be reconciled with relying on donations from business owners who have mostly taken bank loans, and the guest says riba is about the system, not individuals who have to live their lives, which Mufti accepts. After thanking supporters and reading a super chat that says consumerism and hypersexuality will destroy the West more than any invasion, Mufti answers a viewer who missed his view on riba: in his view the riba of the Quran does not refer to interest-based loans but to loan sharking in its extreme sense, which does not make banks philanthropists. Mufti adds that the guest would feel that it does apply, which was the whole dialogue.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth's view: the riba of the Quran means loan sharking, not interest-based bank loans, though banks are not philanthropists.", "answer_start": 8495, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance/riba-and-mortgages"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/35/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/36", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S36", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 36, "start": 8532, "end": 8724, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Pakistan's Hindu temple controversy in Islamabad", "question_plain": "Should Pakistan allow a Hindu temple to be built in Islamabad?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a request to comment on Pakistan's Hindu temple controversy and asks the guest, who says he has not looked into it but that in general there is nothing wrong with giving people their place of worship, though he does not know of any political strings. Mufti explains that a temple is to be built on allocated land in Islamabad and that protesters said Imran Khan should build it in his own backyard because this is the land of tawhid. Mufti says he personally thinks it is a very kind gesture to build a temple for Pakistani Hindus, asks why a country of some 200 million Muslims should be insecure about Hindus having a temple with their idols when nobody is forced to go, and mentions a clip of a man who flew in just to protest. Mufti then thanks supporters, and the two joke about their matching rooms and English humour.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth thinks building a temple for Pakistani Hindus is a kind gesture and that Muslims have no reason to feel insecure about it.", "answer_start": 8570, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["society/current-events/pakistan", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:islamabad-hindu-temple-controversy", "label": "the Islamabad Hindu temple controversy (2020)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:imran-khan", "label": "Imran Khan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hinduism", "label": "Hinduism"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawhid", "label": "tawhid"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/36/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/37", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S37", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 37, "start": 8724, "end": 8840, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Turkey's conversion of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque", "question_plain": "Was it right for Turkey to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque?", "summary": "Answering a chat request for views on Turkey converting the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, the guest says he thinks it is wrong, that some have defended it in Islamic law, but that he goes back to what Umar [?] did at a church, out of a fear he shares, and that Greece and Russia are unhappy. After a break in the connection, the guest says that changing it from a museum into a mosque means, he personally feels on the basis of the Quran, that prayers there will not be accepted. Mufti Abu Layth says he would not personally issue that fatwa but agrees with the sentiment, and asks why Muslims, almost two billion of them, feel so insecure that they must Islamise everything, take back what used to be a mosque or stop Hindus from building, saying Muslims should be comfortable in their skin.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth would not issue a fatwa against praying in the Hagia Sophia, but says Muslims should stop being insecure and be comfortable in their skin.", "answer_start": 8724, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/current-events/middle-east-and-world", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:hagia-sophia-reconversion-to-mosque", "label": "the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque (2020)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/37/"}, {"id": "wCe73zqCi_I/s/38", "short_id": "2020-07-10-S38", "recording": "wCe73zqCi_I", "n": 38, "start": 8840, "end": 8923, "date": "20200710", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: a promised episode on Dhul-Qarnayn, and goodbyes", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says they have taken up enough of the guest's time and that they must have him back for an episode on Dhul-Qarnayn, which was one of the main reasons for inviting him. Asked where viewers can find him, the guest points to YouTube and invites Mufti onto his own show. Mufti thanks him and the viewers, asks people to like, subscribe and turn on notifications, and closes with salam.", "summary_short": "Sign-off: Mufti Abu Layth plans a return episode with the guest on Dhul-Qarnayn.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:omar-baloch", "label": "Shaykh Omar Baloch"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhul-qarnayn", "label": "Dhul-Qarnayn"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/wCe73zqCi_I/s/38/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/1", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S01", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 1, "start": 54, "end": 181, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: welcoming Dr Khalil Andani to MindTrap", "question_plain": null, "summary": "After opening music Mufti Abu Layth welcomes viewers to another MindTrap session and brings up his guest's picture; the guest jokes about whether this is a podcast or a dating show and mentions the July 4th holiday weekend. Mufti introduces Dr Khalil Andani as a professor from Canada now teaching in the United States, whose expertise is Islamic theology, Islamic studies, history and the development of the different denominations within Islam.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream and introduces his guest, Dr Khalil Andani, a scholar of Islamic theology and history.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/1/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/2", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S02", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 2, "start": 181, "end": 408, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The guest's journey: from accountancy to a Harvard PhD in Islamic studies", "question_plain": "Who is Dr Khalil Andani and how did he come to study Islam academically?", "summary": "Asked about his journey, the guest says he was born and raised in Canada and became interested in high school in the historical, academic study of Islam, reading published books on Islamic political thought, theology, metaphysics and mysticism for fun. He trained as an accountant and CPA, then about twelve or thirteen years ago left his financial career to do a master's and then a PhD in Islamic studies at Harvard, finishing at the end of the previous year. He now teaches religion, Islamic studies and Christian-Muslim interfaith studies at a liberal arts college in the US, and mentions the challenge of learning classical Arabic and Persian coming from a maths background. The segment ends with a sound check prompted by viewers' comments.", "summary_short": "The guest describes leaving a career in accountancy to study Islamic studies at Harvard, where he finished a PhD and now teaches religion at a US college.", "answer_start": 181, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/guest-conversations", "society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:harvard-university", "label": "Harvard University"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/2/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/3", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S03", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 3, "start": 408, "end": 779, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is the Quran the word of God in the form of a book? The guest's thesis", "question_plain": "Did Muslims always see the Quran as God's word in the form of a book?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces the debate over the nature of the Quran, whether it is static or dynamic and what the ahruf are, mentioning that Dr Shehzad [?] has given his perspective on the show and he himself has given his. The guest says his dissertation studied Muslim theories of what the Quran is and how it was revealed over about five hundred years, up to around 1200, across Sunni and Shi'i genres. He says the textbook claim that for all Muslims the Quran is the direct word of God in the form of a book contains two claims, that its Arabic words are literally God's and that its form is a written book, and that historically Muslims did not all think this way from the beginning; he stresses he is not making a theological judgement. Reading the Quran on its own terms without hadith or tafsir, he says it presents itself not as a closed book but as a historical series of oral revelations, each instance of which is 'Quran', claiming to manifest a transcendent heavenly writing.", "summary_short": "The guest argues that the idea of the Quran as God's literal words in book form was not held by all Muslims historically, and that the Quran presents itself as a series of oral revelations manifesting a heavenly writing.", "answer_start": 460, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:shehzad-saleem", "label": "Dr Shehzad [?] (Shehzad Saleem)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahruf", "label": "ahruf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/3/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/4", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S04", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 4, "start": 779, "end": 1198, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Oral revelation versus the written Mushaf: Google Maps and a printed map", "question_plain": "What difference does it make that the Quran was first oral and only later written down?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks what difference it makes whether the Quran is oral or written down. The guest says the oral Quran, delivered over twenty years, behaved not like a book but as real-time guidance, commentary and apologetics suited to changing situations, and that compiling the written material later, partly jumbled and without the context, created a new phenomenon in the Mushaf. He compares the oral Quran to driving with Google Maps rerouting you and the Mushaf to a static printed map; Mufti suggests it is like going from three dimensions to two, which the guest accepts, adding that ritual recitation in prayer partly relives the original. Mufti asks whether this was not inevitable once the Prophet died, and the guest says he personally does not think the compilation into a single Mushaf had to happen and calls it a contingent historical moment.", "summary_short": "The guest argues that the Mushaf is a secondary product that loses the context and immediacy of the oral revelation, like a printed map compared with live navigation.", "answer_start": 806, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "Mushaf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahy", "label": "wahy"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/4/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/5", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S05", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 5, "start": 1198, "end": 1356, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Does revelation continue after the Prophet? Imams, saints and jurists", "question_plain": "Did revelation end with the Prophet, or does inspiration continue?", "summary": "Answering Mufti Abu Layth's point that the lived experience of revelation could only last during the Prophet's lifetime, the guest says the answer depends on one's persuasion: for some Shi'i Muslims a mode of the inspiration that manifested as the Quran continues through the Imamate, and for many Sufis it continues through the awliya, citing Rumi on a subsidiary wahy given to saints and Jami calling the Mathnawi the Quran in Persian. He adds that academically one could say a jurist who reaches the correct ruling has had a hukm in the mind of God unveiled to him. Mufti says he would personally agree that it is part of the Quran's dynamic nature to keep meaning different things to different people over time, as people draw inspirations from verses that earlier readers did not see.", "summary_short": "The guest says that for Shi'is, Sufis and arguably jurists some form of revelatory inspiration continues; Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran will always continue to mean different things to different people over time.", "answer_start": 1198, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "belief/sufism", "dialogue/sunni-shia-dialogue"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:imamah", "label": "Imamate"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wali", "label": "awliya (friends of God)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rumi", "label": "Jalal al-Din Rumi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:jami", "label": "Jami"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:mathnawi", "label": "Mathnawi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahy", "label": "wahy"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hukm", "label": "hukm"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/5/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/6", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S06", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 6, "start": 1356, "end": 1678, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "What does Kitab mean in the Quran? Divine writing, not a book", "question_plain": "Does 'Kitab' in the Quran mean a book?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about the term al-Kitab. The guest says its consistent meaning in the Quran is not 'book' but divine writing or prescription, covering the record of God's knowledge and his commands; Mufti says he likes that translation and agrees that Kitab cannot mean book, since the Quran was not a book while it was being revealed, citing 'it has been prescribed for you to fast' and the verse criticising those who put the scripture onto parchments. The guest adds that the Quran rejects the Meccans' demand for a Kitab on paper, and distinguishes al-Kitab al-Mubin, God's record containing his knowledge, from the Arabic Quran in which it was sent down, as in Surah Yusuf and Surah 43. He says later Muslims quickly conflated the two, as seen across the tafsir tradition; Mufti notes the early debate over whether the Arabic manifestation is identical to God's communication.", "summary_short": "Kitab in the Quran means divine writing or prescription rather than a physical book; the guest distinguishes the heavenly Kitab Mubin from the Arabic Quran, and Mufti Abu Layth agrees Kitab cannot mean book.", "answer_start": 1356, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/arabic-language"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-kitab", "label": "al-Kitab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:al-kitab-al-mubin", "label": "al-Kitab al-Mubin"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:183", "label": "Quran 2:183"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:91", "label": "Quran 6:91 [?] (making the scripture into parchments)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:7", "label": "Quran 6:7 [?] (a writing on paper)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:1-2", "label": "Quran 12:1-2 [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:43:2-4", "label": "Quran 43:2-4 [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tafsir", "label": "tafsir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/6/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/7", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S07", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 7, "start": 1678, "end": 2033, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Kitab Allah and the Mushaf: the hadith 'the book of Allah suffices us'", "question_plain": "Is the 'Book of Allah' the same thing as the written Quran?", "summary": "The guest says that in the tafsir tradition, after the Mushaf was compiled, the term Kitab Allah became associated with it, at first as a symbol invoking its presence. Mufti Abu Layth raises the hadith in Bukhari in which the dying Prophet asks for something to write on and Umar says the book of Allah suffices, when there was no book at that stage. The guest asks whether the hadith dates to Umar, says that in the Quran itself Kitab Allah is never equated with the Quran but means God's decree, as in the twelve months and blood relations verses, and calls the claim that the Arabic recitations exclusively are the Kitab Allah an interpretation, since the Prophet's teaching of the Kitab and hikmah is distinct from reciting the verses. He argues that the tafsir tradition projected the earthly Mushaf into heaven, so that the guarded tablet holds the Arabic text and revelation is just its transport, which he calls a downsizing of the transcendent Kitab, though he allows that this is an academic debate.", "summary_short": "The guest argues that equating Kitab Allah with the Mushaf is a later interpretation that downsized the Quran's concept of a transcendent divine writing.", "answer_start": 1678, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kitab-allah", "label": "Kitab Allah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mushaf", "label": "Mushaf"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:32434dc9", "label": "report: the book of allah is sufficient for us (unresolved; cited as in Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:9:36", "label": "Quran 9:36 (twelve months in the Kitab of Allah)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:33:6", "label": "Quran 33:6 [?] (blood relations in the Kitab of Allah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hikmah", "label": "hikmah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:lawh-mahfuz", "label": "al-Lawh al-Mahfuz (the guarded tablet)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mufassirun", "label": "mufassirun"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/7/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/8", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S08", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 8, "start": 2033, "end": 2384, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Kalam Allah in Ash'ari and Maturidi theology: is the Arabic Quran created?", "question_plain": "Do Ash'aris and Maturidis believe the Arabic Quran is God's eternal speech?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites al-Baqillani and others describing the Arabic Quran as a hikaya or ibara, an expression of the meaning that is with God, since finite Arabic cannot capture the infinite. The guest says the Kalam tradition, unlike the tafsir tradition, treated the Quran as an oral phenomenon and spoke of a transcendent Kalam Allah, which for Ash'aris and Maturidis is not in Arabic and not sounds and letters; Mufti describes this as the distinction between kalam nafsi and kalam lafzi. The guest explains that the eternal attribute of speech contains command, prohibition and information, that God created the sounds and letters expressing it, whether in Gabriel, the tablet or the Prophet, and that the Prophet experienced it through the recitation. He concludes that for Ash'aris and Maturidis the Arabic Quran, its verses, surahs, sounds and letters, is created, so they do not believe God speaks Arabic.", "summary_short": "In Ash'ari and Maturidi theology God's eternal speech is not Arabic sounds and letters; the Arabic Quran expresses it and is created.", "answer_start": 2087, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baqillani", "label": "al-Baqillani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-allah", "label": "Kalam Allah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-nafsi", "label": "kalam nafsi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-lafzi", "label": "kalam lafzi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-farabi", "label": "al-Farabi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril (Gabriel)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/8/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/9", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S09", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 9, "start": 2384, "end": 2784, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Why do Muslims believe God speaks Arabic? Elites, commoners and the Hanbalis", "question_plain": "Why do so many Muslims think God speaks Arabic if their scholars said otherwise?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks why the belief that God speaks Arabic is so widespread, noting that al-Bajuri's commentary on Jawharat al-Tawhid lists views on how revelation was created and says not to discuss this before the common people, and he says he feels this played a huge role in the public believing something different from their own scholars. The guest says the distinction between elite and common people runs through every Muslim discipline, partly from an infantilisation of ordinary people, and that eleventh-century reports say most of the masses held the popular Hanbali view that the Arabic Quran, even the Mushaf, is uncreated and eternal. He says Ash'aris and Maturidis make an ontological distinction while holding that the Arabic Quran is a mysterious access point to God's speech, whereas more sophisticated Hanbalis such as Abu Ya'la add negations, saying God's speech has no sequence. Mufti says the Hanbalis, today's Salafis, tell people not to do kalam while still answering theological questions, which in his experience is a contradiction; the guest replies that there are different kinds of Hanbalis.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says scholars' habit of not discussing this before ordinary people helped the public believe something different from their own scholars; the guest describes the popular Hanbali view that even the Mushaf is uncreated.", "answer_start": 2415, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bajuri", "label": "al-Bajuri"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:jawharat-al-tawhid", "label": "Jawharat al-Tawhid"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yala-al-farra", "label": "Abu Ya'la"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam", "label": "kalam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/9/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/10", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S10", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 10, "start": 2784, "end": 3031, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is the Ash'ari view just the Mu'tazili view rebranded?", "question_plain": "Is the Ash'ari view of God's speech really different from the Mu'tazili view?", "summary": "The guest frames the issue behind the current controversy: what the relation is between God's speech and the Arabic Quran, and whether its revelatory form is oral or written, adding that if its function is to put people in touch with God's speech, a little alteration may not affect that, which bears on what preservation means. Mufti Abu Layth says he feels sectarian politics has played a huge role in producing ambiguous teachings and creeds, and recounts an Ash'ari scholar telling him that their view is in essence what the Mu'tazila said, rebranded. The guest says Ash'aris and Maturidis clearly borrowed method and concepts from the Mu'tazila, who preceded them by a century or more and in whose theology al-Ash'ari was trained, under al-Jubba'i. He gives one key difference: for the Mu'tazila God's speech is sounds and letters, whereas for Ash'aris speech is the meaning expressed through them, so the primary debate is the nature of speech, not whether it is created.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Ash'aris borrowed heavily from the Mu'tazila but differ on whether speech is sounds and letters or meaning; Mufti Abu Layth says sectarian politics produced ambiguous creeds.", "answer_start": 2784, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-hasan-al-ashari", "label": "Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ali-al-jubbai", "label": "Abu Ali al-Jubba'i"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/10/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/11", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S11", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 11, "start": 3031, "end": 3153, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is Arabic eternal? Grammarians, Gabriel and the language of revelation", "question_plain": "Is Arabic an eternal, divine language?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says some grammarians, naming one he is unsure of [?] and Abu Ali al-Farisi, went so far as to say that because the Quran is divine Arabic must be eternal and the language God always spoke with the angels, whereas Arabic developed only a few centuries before the Prophet. The guest adds a report attributed to Ibn Abbas, which he doubts goes back to him, that Gabriel received every prophet's message in Arabic and translated it, found in al-Suyuti's Itqan and also in al-Zarkashi. Mufti says al-Baqillani and others held that revelation is a meaning that became Hebrew when given to Moses and Arabic when given to the Prophet, and the guest agrees that for Ash'aris and Maturidis it takes the form of a language depending on where Gabriel takes it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth rejects grammarians' claim that Arabic is eternal; both describe the Ash'ari view that revelation takes the language of its audience.", "answer_start": 3031, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term", "possible_quoted_view"], "topics": ["quran/arabic-language", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-ali-al-farisi", "label": "Abu Ali al-Farisi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:55aff8f5", "label": "report: jibril was given the message of every prophet in arabic and translated it (unresolved; attributed to Ibn Abbas)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-suyuti", "label": "al-Suyuti"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-itqan-fi-ulum-al-quran", "label": "al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Quran"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zarkashi", "label": "al-Zarkashi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baqillani", "label": "al-Baqillani"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril (Gabriel)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/11/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/12", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S12", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 12, "start": 3153, "end": 3450, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "What is wahy? Non-verbal inspiration and the ruh", "question_plain": "Was revelation words dictated by Gabriel, or inspiration the Prophet put into words?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth cites the report that revelation came to the Prophet like a ringing sound with no mention of Gabriel, and says he finds himself in line with those who say revelation is expressed within the Prophet rather than in the mind of Gabriel. The guest says that in his scholarly view wahy in the Quran is not verbal communication but non-verbal divine inspiration, given also to bees and the heavens, and to Noah and Moses as inner guidance such as 'build the ark under our wahy'. He says the Quran associates the Prophet's wahy with the ruh, al-Ruh al-Amin, which it names Jibril only once or twice and never calls an angel, and that the later picture of Gabriel as a winged creature flying between heaven and earth is not the Quranic ruh. Citing Surah 42:51-52, he concludes that the Prophet was responsible for verbalising or translating wahy into Arabic.", "summary_short": "The guest argues that Quranic wahy is non-verbal inspiration through the ruh which the Prophet put into Arabic; Mufti Abu Layth says he finds himself with those who hold revelation was expressed within the Prophet.", "answer_start": 3187, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahy", "label": "wahy"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh", "label": "ruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh-al-amin", "label": "al-Ruh al-Amin"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jibril", "label": "Jibril (Gabriel)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:21f74544", "label": "report: revelation comes to me like the ringing of a bell (unresolved)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:16:68", "label": "Quran 16:68 [?] (wahy to the bee)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:11:37", "label": "Quran 11:37 [?] (build the ark under our wahy)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:42:51-52", "label": "Quran 42:51-52"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/12/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/13", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S13", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 13, "start": 3450, "end": 3788, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The first revelation in the cave: Waraqa, the namus and 'iqra'", "question_plain": "How reliable is the story of the first revelation in the cave?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the idea resonates, since he has generally understood ruh as consciousness, and notes that in the popular account of the first revelation Khadijah's learned Christian relative calls what the Prophet met the namus, not Jibril. The guest says namus means law, describing the content of what happened rather than the entity, and says the whole story of the Prophet shocked in the cave comes from al-Zuhri, an Umayyad-era storyteller to whom he gives little historical weight, adding that Ibn Ishaq's version has Gabriel bring the verse written down. Mufti says he would take the whole description with a pinch of salt, but notes that the written version at least fits the reply 'I am not one who reads'; the guest mentions variants such as 'what shall I recite?'. The guest cites a reading by an Israeli scholar, captioned as Yuval Rubin [?], that the verse means 'recite the name of your Lord', a meditative practice the Prophet was already doing in the cave, which Mufti calls fascinating.", "summary_short": "The guest doubts the historicity of the cave story, attributing it to al-Zuhri; Mufti Abu Layth says he would take the whole description with a pinch of salt.", "answer_start": 3450, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruh", "label": "ruh"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khadijah", "label": "Khadijah"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:waraqa-ibn-nawfal", "label": "Waraqa ibn Nawfal (not named on air)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:namus", "label": "namus"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:fa416e9b", "label": "report: this is the namus that was sent down to musa (unresolved)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ishaq", "label": "Ibn Ishaq"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:96:1", "label": "Quran 96:1"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:uri-rubin", "label": "Uri Rubin [?] (captioned 'Yuval Rubin')"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/13/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/14", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S14", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 14, "start": 3788, "end": 4202, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The dynamic Quran: the seven ahruf, substituting words, rukhsah or default?", "question_plain": "Were the companions allowed to change words of the Quran, and was that only a temporary concession?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says seeing the Quran as a dynamic meaning makes it easier to understand that people substituted similar words. The guest says many Muslims and academics take a fixed view of the Quran, but since the recitation is only a gateway to the divine speech there is theologically no problem with the seven ahruf or with the Prophet allowing multi-form recitations and substitution of divine names; he thinks the ahruf hadith is early, sees no reason it would be forged in Malik's time, and agrees with Yasin Dutton that there is no single original text or recitation. Mufti says scholars such as Ibn Abd al-Barr report that Malik, al-Shafi'i and others held that the companions substituted words, and that some, including Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, called this a rukhsah that lapsed with them. He says he would rather hold that this dynamism was inherent, the actual nature of the Quran rather than a rukhsah or azimah, comparing readings to isotopes of which one stabilises and predominates, as the reading of Hafs from Asim did.", "summary_short": "The guest argues the Prophet allowed multiple oral forms of the Quran; Mufti Abu Layth says this dynamism was the Quran's inherent nature, not a temporary concession.", "answer_start": 3823, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/preservation-and-qiraat", "hadith/individual-hadith-explained"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahruf", "label": "ahruf"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:37807dc3", "label": "report: the quran was revealed in seven ahruf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasin-dutton", "label": "Yasin Dutton"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-al-arabi", "label": "Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rukhsah", "label": "rukhsah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:azimah", "label": "azimah"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hafs", "label": "Hafs"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asim-ibn-abi-al-najud", "label": "Asim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/14/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/15", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S15", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 15, "start": 4202, "end": 4844, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The essence and attributes of God: Mu'tazili, Hanbali and Ash'ari answers", "question_plain": "How did Muslim theologians reconcile God being one with his many names and attributes?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks about the debate, from Ahmad ibn Hanbal and the Mu'tazila to the Ash'aris, over God's essence. The guest says the Quran names God with many names while insisting he is uniquely one, so theologians had to reconcile unity and multiplicity, a problem some link to debates with Christians over the Trinity; for the Mu'tazila the names describe one essence. Mufti asks why multiple names should imply multiplicity, and the guest says the meanings differ, as knowledge and mercy do, so the Hanbalis held that the distinctions hold in God, while the Ash'aris attached multiple attributes to the one essence. Mufti says he feels the debate partly arose from problems such as how God could be sustaining before there was a creation, leading the Ash'aris to say the attributes are neither him nor other than him; the guest says the Mu'tazila treated most names as temporal acts and the Ash'aris and Maturidis took a middle path with seven essential attributes, which Mufti says they struggle to justify for sight and hearing.", "summary_short": "The guest and host trace how the Mu'tazila, Hanbalis and Ash'aris reconciled God's oneness with his many names and attributes.", "answer_start": 4257, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/god-and-attributes", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sifat", "label": "sifat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:trinity", "label": "Trinity"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/15/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/16", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S16", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 16, "start": 4844, "end": 5044, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "A God with parts? Mufti Abu Layth on Hanbali and Salafi anthropomorphism", "question_plain": "Do Salafis believe God has a body?", "summary": "The guest says that the Hanbali, Ash'ari and even Maturidi views leave a God with parts, which the Avicennan philosophers and the Isma'ilis attacked, since a God composed of essence plus attributes would be an effect of those parts. Mufti Abu Layth says that, whether or not parts imply createdness, the Hanbalis and modern-day Salafis, though they do not use the word, clearly believe God has body parts, such as hands, eyes and a leg, adding the caveat that they are not like ours. He argues this projects man onto God, even a deformed human being that people would mock, and that the caveat comes too late because people cannot be told about a hand or foot and not picture it. He says he is not surprised people struggle with the Hanbali description of God in the twenty-first century.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says Hanbalis and modern Salafis in effect believe God has body parts and so project a human image onto God; the guest notes philosophers and Isma'ilis objected that attributes give God parts.", "answer_start": 4903, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/god-and-attributes", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ismaili", "label": "Isma'ili"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-sina", "label": "Ibn Sina (Avicenna)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tajsim", "label": "tajsim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/16/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/17", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S17", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 17, "start": 5044, "end": 5325, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Anthropomorphism, 'created in his image', and the names of God as relations", "question_plain": "Where do anthropomorphic ideas of God in Islam come from?", "summary": "The guest says struggling with anthropomorphic ideas of God is not only a Hanbali or Muslim problem, recalling a survey in which Americans described God as a white person. Mufti Abu Layth says he feels much of the anthropomorphic textual side of the debate was perhaps inherited from the Judeo-Christian tradition, such as Genesis on man created in God's image, which is presented as a hadith although Imam Malik rejected it. The guest says Sufi, Avicennan and Isma'ili thinkers avoided the problem through negative theology: they held that the divine names are analogical at best and describe not God's essence but relationships between God and creatures, so that God's one power manifests as many powers in creation, which Mufti says makes a huge amount of sense. Mufti mentions the debate over whether the names of God are tawqifi, such as whether God may be called Jawad.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth suggests anthropomorphic texts were partly inherited from the Judeo-Christian tradition; the guest describes the Sufi, philosophical and Isma'ili view that God's names describe relations, not his essence.", "answer_start": 5044, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/god-and-attributes", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:b0a8648b", "label": "report: allah created adam in his image"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ismaili", "label": "Isma'ili"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sufi", "label": "Sufi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-sina", "label": "Ibn Sina (Avicenna)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tawqifi", "label": "tawqifi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:asma-allah", "label": "the names of God"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/17/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/18", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S18", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 18, "start": 5325, "end": 5590, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Viewer questions begin; the guest's connection drops", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the floor to viewers' questions, thanks those sending super chats and, responding to a comment that non-Muslims were supporting him, says the Prophet was a mercy to everyone and one should not discriminate between Muslims and non-Muslims. He reads a comment on the Hanbali and Ash'ari views without finding a question in it. The guest's connection freezes and Mufti calls him again; once he is back, Mufti relays viewers' jokes and a comment that their approach is called liberal and modern, to which the guest says he is unclear what is being called that and Mufti says they are quoting traditional scholars.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth opens viewer questions and reconnects the guest after his connection drops.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/18/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/19", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S19", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 19, "start": 5590, "end": 5702, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is love an attribute of God? Sufi and Kalam traditions", "question_plain": "Is love one of God's attributes in Islam?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether love not being a fundamental attribute of God played a role in historical discussions between Islam and Christianity. Mufti Abu Layth notes that God is said to love certain people, but that love is not listed as an attribute. The guest says it depends on the tradition: in the Sufi tradition of Ibn Arabi, Rumi and others the meaning of Rahman is loving compassion, and some mystics said God's very essence is rahmah, whereas the Kalam tradition hardly speaks of it, which is why Sufis criticised the theologians as dry. He says he has not researched its role in Christian-Muslim relations, notes the modern Christian polemic that the God of Islam is not loving, and rejects generalised statements because there is more than one Islam.", "summary_short": "The guest says Sufi traditions understand God's mercy as love even though Kalam rarely speaks of it, and rejects the polemic that the God of Islam is not loving.", "answer_start": 5617, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/god-and-attributes", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "belief/sufism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-arabi", "label": "Ibn Arabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rumi", "label": "Rumi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rahmah", "label": "rahmah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam", "label": "kalam"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/19/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/20", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S20", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 20, "start": 5702, "end": 5811, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why would the Quran be on a tablet if it was not a book?", "question_plain": "If the Quran wasn't a book, why is it on a heavenly tablet?", "summary": "A chat question asks why the Quran would be on a tablet if it was not originally a book or text. The guest says only one verse refers to the tablet, and it speaks of 'a glorious Quran', an indefinite recitation, in a guarded tablet, not the Arabic Quran as such. He says none of the Quran's references to a heavenly archetype suggest an Arabic text, and that its Arabisation is the result of a process the Quran calls tafsil, which happens for the audience, not in heaven. Mufti Abu Layth adds narrations that the Quran was revealed as one revelation and then distributed over twenty-two years.", "summary_short": "The guest says the one verse on the guarded tablet refers to 'a recitation', not an Arabic text, and that the Quran became Arabic for its audience.", "answer_start": 5702, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/preservation-and-qiraat"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:85:21-22", "label": "Quran 85:21-22"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:lawh-mahfuz", "label": "al-Lawh al-Mahfuz (the guarded tablet)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:41:3", "label": "Quran 41:3 [?] (fussilat ayatuhu)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tafsil", "label": "tafsil"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/20/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/21", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S21", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 21, "start": 5811, "end": 5918, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does the Quran have a beginning, or has it always existed?", "question_plain": "Is the Quran eternal, or was it created?", "summary": "A chat question asks whether the Quran has a beginning or has always existed. The guest says many mufassirun and some theologians held that God created the Arabic Quran in the tablet before the world, so that it is pre-existent but still created, while for Ash'aris and Maturidis God's eternal speech has no language and is pure meaning, a different concept. He says the Mu'tazila also held the Quran was in a tablet but always created, and that the popular idea of an eternal Quran in an eternal tablet makes no sense by most Muslim theological standards, since a tablet is a bodily thing.", "summary_short": "The guest says the Arabic Quran in the tablet is, on most views, pre-existent but created; only God's languageless speech is eternal for Ash'aris and Maturidis.", "answer_start": 5811, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kalam-allah", "label": "Kalam Allah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mufassirun", "label": "mufassirun"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ashari", "label": "Ash'ari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maturidi", "label": "Maturidi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutazila", "label": "Mu'tazila"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:lawh-mahfuz", "label": "al-Lawh al-Mahfuz (the guarded tablet)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/21/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/22", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S22", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 22, "start": 5918, "end": 6008, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "'Allah loves not the disbelievers': is God's love selective?", "question_plain": "Does God not love non-believers?", "summary": "A chat question raises the verse saying Allah does not love the disbeliever. The guest says a literalistic reading would make God preferential in his love, but since the Quran calls God al-Rahman and says his mercy embraces all things, a more holistic reading is that those activities block the love of God from reaching a person, as a way of saying 'do not do those things'. Mufti Abu Layth adds that many Ash'aris and Sunnis have explained it in that way.", "summary_short": "The guest reads the verse as saying that certain deeds block God's love from reaching a person, not that God's love is selective.", "answer_start": 5918, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir/contested-verses", "belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:32", "label": "Quran 3:32 [?] (Allah does not love the disbelievers)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:rahmah", "label": "rahmah"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/22/"}, {"id": "xznXIYp0B5s/s/23", "short_id": "2020-07-03-S23", "recording": "xznXIYp0B5s", "n": 23, "start": 6008, "end": 6103, "date": "20200703", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: where to find the guest, and sign-off", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth asks where viewers can find the guest, who mentions his YouTube channel, his website in his own name, an Academia profile and his email. Mufti thanks Dr Khalil Andani, hopes to have him back, and signs off asking viewers to follow his own channels and the guest's, with a link in the description.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping: the guest says where to find him and Mufti Abu Layth signs off.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:khalil-andani", "label": "Dr Khalil Andani (guest)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/xznXIYp0B5s/s/23/"}, {"id": "y-JDMojFGnU/s/1", "short_id": "2023-05-26-S01", "recording": "y-JDMojFGnU", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 289, "date": "20230526", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A funeral address: death as a reminder, and the janazah as a du'a", "question_plain": "What is the funeral prayer and what do you say in it?", "summary": "The speaker says death is the ultimate reminder, citing the verses that God created death and life to test who is best in deeds and that every soul shall taste death. He describes the deceased's nine months of illness as a lesson of strength in the face of death, quotes a classical Arabic eulogy that a person's passing was the collapse of a building, and relates a hadith that the dead seek news of their living relatives and pray for them. He explains that the janazah is in essence a du'a, citing the hadith to make the du'a sincere for the deceased, and says many ulama hold that any du'a may be said, in any language, across the four takbirs. He closes with the verses addressed to the soul at peace, which the scholars say refer to the time of death.", "summary_short": "The funeral prayer is in essence a sincere du'a for the deceased; many scholars allow any du'a, in any language, across its four takbirs.", "answer_start": 194, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/funerals-and-burial", "wellbeing/death-and-mortality", "wellbeing/grief"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:67:2", "label": "Quran 67:2 (He created death and life to test which of you is best in deeds)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:185", "label": "Quran 3:185 (every soul shall taste death)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:89:27-30", "label": "Quran 89:27-30 (O soul at peace, return to your Lord)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:janazah", "label": "janazah (funeral prayer)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "du'a"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:43b7f583", "label": "report: idha sallaytum ala al-mayyit fa-akhlisu lahu al-dua (as recited by the speaker; collection not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6214b4e1", "label": "report: the dead seek news of their living relatives and pray for them (unresolved)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the janazah is in essence a du'a for the deceased.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "The janazah is really in essence a dua. The hadith of the prophet is either salatum ala al-mayyit fa akhlisu lahu dua.", "start": 194}}, "url": "/r/y-JDMojFGnU/s/1/"}, {"id": "yFeJ-QkS-kM/s/1", "short_id": "2018-12-20-S01", "recording": "yFeJ-QkS-kM", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 476, "date": "20181220", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Does Islam require killing homosexuals? The hadith, the Ali reports and the early jurists", "question_plain": "Does Islam say homosexuals should be thrown off buildings or executed?", "summary": "Prompted by a message about a debate in Denmark and by a viral clip of a teacher at an Islamic school in the UK saying homosexuals should be thrown off a cliff, Mufti Abu Layth says the claim that Islam requires throwing homosexuals off buildings is nonsense and that those who say such things damage Islam. He says the Prophet never spoke about homosexuals: every hadith on the subject, including the report in Abu Dawud about whoever does the act of the people of Lut, is weak, and there is not a single sahih report. He objects in passing to the literature calling homosexuals 'Luti' after a prophet. He turns to the five differing reports that Ali ordered such people executed, beheaded, thrown from a height or burned, says he does not believe any of them to be authentic, and adds that if they were accepted they should be read against Ali's struggle with the Khawarij, whom he compares to ISIS, so that they may concern particular culprits from that group rather than homosexuality in general. He then surveys the jurists: Imam Malik is transmitted as saying 'I have heard it said' that they ought to be stoned like those guilty of zina, which Mufti reads as dismissive; al-Shafi'i and others treated the act under the ruling of zina; Ibrahim [?], al-Hakam [?] and Abu Hanifa held it cannot be a hadd because Islam never legislated it, so a ruler may impose a discretionary punishment for public indecency but not capital punishment. He calls the claim of a consensus that anyone who commits homosexual acts deserves death nonsense, and reads Ibn Taymiyya's student Ibn al-Qayyim describing the act as the greatest crime after disbelief and arguably greater than murder, a statement Mufti calls seriously misplaced.", "summary_short": "There is no sahih hadith in which the Prophet spoke about homosexuals, the reports of Ali ordering executions are not authentic in Mufti Abu Layth's view, and the early jurists disagreed, with the Hanafis holding it is not a hadd offence. The claim of a consensus that homosexual acts deserve death is false.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "hadith/authentication"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:9bbc1d36", "label": "report: whoever does the action of the people of lut (unresolved; Abu Dawud, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:79be7eb2", "label": "report: ali said execute them chop the head off throw them off a cliff burn them (unresolved; five differing narrations)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sunan-abi-dawud", "label": "Sunan Abi Dawud"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:isis", "label": "ISIS"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibrahim-al-nakhai", "label": "Ibrahim al-Nakha'i [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-hakam", "label": "al-Hakam [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-qayyim", "label": "Ibn al-Qayyim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zina", "label": "zina"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijma", "label": "ijma'"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:luti", "label": "Luti (the term used for homosexuals in the literature)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is no sahih hadith in which the Prophet spoke about homosexuals, that he does not believe the reports of Ali ordering executions to be authentic, and that the claim of a consensus that anyone who commits homosexual acts deserves death is false, since the jurists disagreed and the Hanafis held it is not a hadd.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "now people have started to say that there is ijma that these people have anybody who commits homosexuality deserves death this is what they're saying that is nonsense that is nonsense", "start": 324}}, "url": "/r/yFeJ-QkS-kM/s/1/"}, {"id": "yFeJ-QkS-kM/s/2", "short_id": "2018-12-20-S02", "recording": "yFeJ-QkS-kM", "n": 2, "start": 476, "end": 1107, "date": "20181220", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Scholars and caliphs of the Abbasid era known for homosexuality: the qadi of Basra and Ibn Dawud", "question_plain": "Were there Muslim scholars and caliphs in history known to be homosexual?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says, while stressing that he does not agree with them, that there have been great scholars who held homosexuality to be fine. He describes a judge he identifies as the supreme judge of Basra, Yahya ibn Aktham [?], a hadith scholar and jurist, contemporary and friend of Imam Ahmad until a late falling-out, and a favourite of the caliph al-Ma'mun until a dispute in the caliph's last months over the created Quran. He reports that this judge was openly homosexual and argued for it from the Quran, reading 'wealth and sons are the adornment of this life' and 'made pleasing to men is the love of desires, women and sons' as referring to boys alongside women. He says the caliph al-Amin was known for the same and al-Ma'mun for both, that some ulama hold these to be lies attributed to the judge while al-Dhahabi and others transmit them as well known, and recounts a poem about al-Amin's attachment to his slave Kawthar [?] and his wazir, the rise in the price of eunuch slaves in that period, and al-Ma'mun teasing the judge with a poet's lines about a judge who punishes the adulterer but sees no punishment for the one who commits the act of Lut. He then describes Muhammad, the son of Dawud al-Zahiri, as an openly homosexual scholar who wrote a book for the youth he loved, Muhammad ibn Jami al-Saydalani [?], also known as Ibn Zukhruf [?], and tells the anecdote of the youth covering his face with a towel so that Ibn Dawud [?] would be the first to see his beauty. The segment closes with laughter and an Urdu couplet about love as a means of destruction.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reports, without endorsing their views, that several celebrated Abbasid-era figures were known for homosexuality, including a chief judge of Basra who argued for it from the Quran, the caliphs al-Amin and al-Ma'mun, and Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Zahiri. He cites al-Dhahabi and the poetry of the period as his sources.", "answer_start": 476, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/umayyads-and-abbasids", "relationships/sexuality-and-orientation"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yahya-ibn-aktham", "label": "Yahya ibn Aktham [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-mamun", "label": "al-Ma'mun"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:al-amin", "label": "al-Amin"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:harun-al-rashid", "label": "Harun al-Rashid"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:kawthar", "label": "Kawthar, slave of al-Amin [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:46", "label": "Quran 18:46 (wealth and sons are the adornment of this life) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:14", "label": "Quran 3:14 (made pleasing to men is the love of desires, women and sons)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-dhahabi", "label": "al-Dhahabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:dawud-al-zahiri", "label": "Dawud al-Zahiri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-dawud-al-zahiri", "label": "Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Zahiri"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:kitab-al-zahra", "label": "Kitab al-Zahra [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-ibn-jami-al-saydalani", "label": "Muhammad ibn Jami al-Saydalani (Ibn Zukhruf) [?]"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:mihna", "label": "the dispute over the created Quran (mihna)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/yFeJ-QkS-kM/s/2/"}, {"id": "yFeJ-QkS-kM/s/3", "short_id": "2018-12-20-S03", "recording": "yFeJ-QkS-kM", "n": 3, "start": 1107, "end": 1397, "date": "20181220", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why he recounts this: Malik's tolerance, punishments that changed, and the crime of Lut's people", "question_plain": "Is homosexuality haram in Islam, and why were the people of Lut destroyed?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says his purpose in recounting these figures, and Ibn Hazm's Tawq al-Hamama which he says is full of such material, is to burst a bubble rather than upset people: nobody is telling anyone to become gay, and Muslims need not be insecure about their sexuality. He recalls quoting Imam Malik in the Mudawwana, asked whether Muslims should intervene against a people who married their own mothers, sisters and daughters, answering that if that is their deen, their way of life, it should be left alone, since Allah teaches tolerance even of those who reject Him. He says that saying homosexuals should be thrown off cliffs is stupid and lies about the Prophet and Allah: in the past certain scholars classed the act as zina or as public obscenity, the punishments varied between places and changed over time, some equating it with zina and Abu Hanifa holding it less than zina, and he cites a scholar he names as al-Burzuli [?] six centuries ago saying the hudud change to reflect their age, referring to his own video on that subject. To the question why Allah punished the people of Lut so severely, he answers that although the verses speak of homosexual acts and arguably of rape, their primary crime was rejecting and tormenting their prophet and trying to break in and rape his guests, just as the people of Madyan were destroyed for rejecting Shu'ayb rather than for cheating customers; attributing the destruction to one act alone is an inference, not something Allah says. He closes by saying that the overwhelming majority of scholars held the act to be haram and that he accepts it is haram, while some scholars disagreed, and that this does not require hatred or statements of that kind.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth accepts the majority view that homosexual acts are haram, but says the punishments scholars assigned were variable public-order measures that changed over time, that the people of Lut were destroyed primarily for rejecting their prophet, and that the ruling does not require hatred of homosexual people.", "answer_start": 1107, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tawq-al-hamama", "label": "Tawq al-Hamama"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-burzuli", "label": "al-Burzuli [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zina", "label": "zina"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudud", "label": "hudud (prescribed punishments)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deen", "label": "deen"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hudud-change-with-the-age", "label": "punishments change to reflect their age (attributed to al-Burzuli) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the overwhelming majority of scholars held homosexual acts to be haram and he accepts that they are haram, while saying that the punishments scholars assigned varied between places and changed over time, that the people of Lut were destroyed primarily for rejecting their prophet, and that the ruling does not require hatred.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "most outright majority did say it's haram some did disagree so just being honest and being objective and transparent majority accepted it haram and we accept it's haram", "start": 1351}}, "url": "/r/yFeJ-QkS-kM/s/3/"}, {"id": "yJGrP8cVk-M/s/1", "short_id": "2019-12-12b-S01", "recording": "yJGrP8cVk-M", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 304, "date": "20191212", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is kissing one's wife in public haram? Greeting kisses in the Gulf and the Haram", "question_plain": "Is it haram to kiss my wife in public?", "summary": "Taking quick questions near the end of a live session, Mufti Abu Layth reads a chat question about kissing one's wife in public and jokes that the questioner did not say whose wife. He says this has been debated: in the Gulf countries people greet each other with kisses on the cheeks or the forehead, and men are seen in the Haram in Makkah kissing their wives or other mahram women on the cheek or forehead, which some have objected to as haram in the house of God. He says he personally thinks this is no problem, since a greeting kiss of that kind is not seen by Islamic standards as sexual or sensual but as affectionate and welcoming, whereas a passionate kiss in public would be a problem. He jokes that the same greeting is given to men as well, so that brotherly love (agape) seems to turn into eros, and answers a follow-up in the chat about what a French kiss is with a joke. The transcript of this clip is poor in places.", "summary_short": "A greeting kiss on the cheek or forehead in public, as is common in the Gulf and seen in the Haram, is no problem because it is affectionate rather than sensual. A passionate kiss in public would be a problem.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/gender-interaction", "relationships/marriage"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mahram", "label": "mahram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:masjid-al-haram", "label": "al-Masjid al-Haram (the Haram in Makkah)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says a greeting kiss on the cheek or forehead in public, such as those exchanged in the Gulf and seen in the Haram between men and their wives or mahram women, is not sexual and is no problem, whereas a passionate kiss in public would be.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "and personally stuff like that I think is no problem stuff like that okay", "start": 110}}, "url": "/r/yJGrP8cVk-M/s/1/"}, {"id": "yRuC09ajKEQ/s/1", "short_id": "2020-10-28-S01", "recording": "yRuC09ajKEQ", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 238, "date": "20201028", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Did God command Ibrahim to sacrifice his son? The account in Surah al-Saffat", "question_plain": "Did God really command Ibrahim to sacrifice his son?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces the widespread story of Ibrahim's attempted sacrifice of his son, whether Ishaq or Ismail, and asks whether Islam holds that the command came from God. He states at the outset that in his view the command did not come from God, that the contrary belief is widespread, and that he will first look at the Quran alone before turning to the Judaeo-Christian tradition. He reads the passage in Surah al-Saffat in which Ibrahim tells his son that he sees in a dream that he is sacrificing him, noting that the Quran does not name the child, and describes Ibrahim as disturbed and confused by what he has seen. He observes that Ibrahim shares the assumption that prophets receive revelation in dreams, asks the son what he thinks, and the son convinces him that the dream is a command to be carried out. He then asks where this notion came from, saying it was not unique to Ibrahim but belonged to the whole region of Canaan and ancient Mesopotamia.", "summary_short": "No: in Mufti Abu Layth's reading the command did not come from God, and the Quran in Surah al-Saffat only reports that Ibrahim saw a dream and that his son urged him to act on it. The notion of sacrificing a son is traced to the culture of the ancient Near East.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ismail", "label": "Ismail"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ishaq", "label": "Ishaq"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:37:102", "label": "Quran 37:102 (my son, I see in a dream that I am sacrificing you)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruya", "label": "ru'ya (dream vision)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the command to sacrifice his son did not come from God, and that the Quran in Surah al-Saffat reports only that Ibrahim saw a dream which his son urged him to carry out.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "focusing on the question this commandment did not come from god okay now unfortunately it is widespread that it came from god", "start": 36}}, "url": "/r/yRuC09ajKEQ/s/1/"}, {"id": "yRuC09ajKEQ/s/2", "short_id": "2020-10-28-S02", "recording": "yRuC09ajKEQ", "n": 2, "start": 238, "end": 475, "date": "20201028", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Human sacrifice as a widespread practice of the ancient Near East: Moloch, Baal and Jephthah", "question_plain": "Where did the idea of sacrificing a son come from in Ibrahim's time?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth shows a paper and an essay on human sacrifice to make the point that it was a widespread practice across Canaan and ancient Mesopotamia and carried on for centuries, with offerings made to particular gods. He mentions Moloch, whose name he says shares a root with the Arabic malik, and Baal as gods to whom sacrifices were ritually made. He turns to the Bible, which he says records other such incidents, and retells the story of Jephthah, who vows that if granted victory he will sacrifice the first person he sees on his return, and then sacrifices his own daughter when she runs out to meet him; he thinks the account is in Judges and says Jeremiah also mentions sacrifice. He concludes that these practices, including the sacrifice of the firstborn, give the context of Ibrahim's time: living within such a culture, even one not his own, can play on the subconscious and manifest in dreams, which is how he explains Ibrahim's dream.", "summary_short": "Human sacrifice to gods such as Moloch and Baal was a widespread practice of the ancient Near East, and the Bible's story of Jephthah sacrificing his daughter shows it. Mufti Abu Layth says this surrounding culture explains how such a dream could come to Ibrahim.", "answer_start": 238, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jephthah", "label": "Jephthah"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:book-of-judges", "label": "Book of Judges [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:book-of-jeremiah", "label": "Book of Jeremiah [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that Ibrahim's dream of sacrificing his son is explained by the surrounding Near Eastern culture of human sacrifice working on the subconscious, not by a command from God.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "it's like if you're part of a culture you even if it's not your original culture but you see that this is what people do and sometimes it can play on your mind", "start": 456}}, "url": "/r/yRuC09ajKEQ/s/2/"}, {"id": "yRuC09ajKEQ/s/3", "short_id": "2020-10-28-S03", "recording": "yRuC09ajKEQ", "n": 3, "start": 475, "end": 715, "date": "20201028", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Back to the verses: 'you were truthful to the vision', the testing calamity and the ransom", "question_plain": "Does the Quran say the sacrifice of Ibrahim's son was a test from God?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth returns to the verses. He notes that the Quran depicts the sacrifice with a knife, whereas biblical versions are confused between fire and knife, and describes Ibrahim laying his son out before Allah calls to him, not with a physical voice. He reads Allah's words that Ibrahim had been truthful to the vision he saw, and stresses that Allah does not say 'we showed you that dream'. He rejects the reading that Ibrahim was being praised for piety, saying instead that Ibrahim was a good man whom Allah rewarded by saving him from the calamity of killing his own son. On the words 'this was indeed the clear trial' in verse 106, he says people assume that a trial must come from God, but Allah does not say it was from him: the 'this' is that Ibrahim saw a dream and felt he had to act on it, which was a testing calamity for people. He explains the ransom as rescuing the son to be sacrificed, with a ram offered instead, and as a declaration that nobody should conduct human sacrifices again. He then brings up Tafsir al-Sam'ani to show what the commentators say.", "summary_short": "The verses say Ibrahim was truthful to his vision and that this was a clear trial, but never that God sent the dream or the trial. In Mufti Abu Layth's reading the ransom of a ram rescued the son and ended human sacrifice.", "answer_start": 475, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/tafsir", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:37:103-107", "label": "Quran 37:103-107 (O Ibrahim, you have fulfilled the vision; this was indeed the clear trial; we ransomed him with a great sacrifice)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:tafsir-al-samani", "label": "Tafsir al-Sam'ani"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bala", "label": "bala (trial)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the words 'this was indeed the clear trial' in 37:106 do not say the trial came from God, that Allah never says he showed Ibrahim the dream, and that the ransom of the ram rescued the son and declared human sacrifice forbidden thereafter.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "allah is saying that you had a dream and you said you carried it out you were truthful to what you saw yeah allah does not say we showed you that dream", "start": 532}}, "url": "/r/yRuC09ajKEQ/s/3/"}, {"id": "yRuC09ajKEQ/s/4", "short_id": "2020-10-28-S04", "recording": "yRuC09ajKEQ", "n": 4, "start": 715, "end": 874, "date": "20201028", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Abbas on 'I think I have been commanded', the relief as the test, and the Israiliyyat", "question_plain": "Why did most commentators say God commanded the sacrifice?", "summary": "Reading from the commentaries, Mufti Abu Layth says that 'I have been commanded' is one understanding, but that Ibn Abbas is reported to have read Ibrahim's words as 'I saw something in a dream which gave me to understand that I have been commanded', that is, something that suggested a command rather than a command itself. He brings up a second commentary, which he names indistinctly, and reads that the trial could be the test as commonly understood, or that the relief Ibrahim received was itself very testing, because he realised he could have murdered his own son. He then asks why people historically said otherwise and answers that much early Islamic thought was influenced by Jewish and Judaeo-Christian narratives, since early Muslims took material from Jewish scribes for whom this was simply what had happened with Abraham.", "summary_short": "Ibn Abbas is reported to have read Ibrahim's words as 'I think I have been commanded', and some commentators say the relief itself was the test. Mufti Abu Layth attributes the common view to early Muslims absorbing Jewish narratives.", "answer_start": 715, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "hadith/false-and-fabricated"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-muharrar-al-wajiz", "label": "al-Muharrar al-Wajiz of Ibn Atiyya [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:israiliyyat", "label": "Israiliyyat"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the traditional view that God commanded the sacrifice entered Islamic thought through Jewish and Judaeo-Christian narratives taken by early Muslims, and he cites the reading attributed to Ibn Abbas that Ibrahim saw something that suggested to him he had been commanded.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "you have to understand that a lot of our early islamic thought has been influenced by the israelites by jewish judeo-christian narratives that have been floating", "start": 835}}, "url": "/r/yRuC09ajKEQ/s/4/"}, {"id": "yRuC09ajKEQ/s/5", "short_id": "2020-10-28-S05", "recording": "yRuC09ajKEQ", "n": 5, "start": 874, "end": 1032, "date": "20201028", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Quran never says God told him: why Mufti Abu Layth calls the belief absurd and sadistic", "question_plain": "Is it wrong to believe that God asked Ibrahim to kill his son?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Bible has God telling Abraham to sacrifice, but the Quran never does, although Allah could easily have said 'we told him to sacrifice and found him true to his word, so we told him to stop'. He acknowledges that most Muslims were raised with this belief but says that, examined honestly, it is an absurdity: it has God asking a father to murder his child because it will make him happy, which he calls beyond rationality and sadistic. To the reply that God stopped him first, he compares a mock execution, which he says psychological studies show to be among the most traumatising experiences. He says that upon true inspection the belief is blasphemous, while stressing that most people have not questioned it: they heard it as children, repeat it as a trial that God resolved, and never ask what it actually claims, which he spells out as God taking pleasure in telling a father to slit his son's throat and then to kill a sheep instead.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the belief is absurd and, on inspection, blasphemous, because it has God asking a father to murder his child for his pleasure and then stopping him, like a mock execution. The Quran never says God told Ibrahim to sacrifice, though it could have.", "answer_start": 874, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/god-and-attributes", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "belief/reason-and-revelation"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:bible", "label": "the Bible"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the belief that God commanded Ibrahim to kill his son is absurd, sadistic and, upon true inspection, blasphemous, since the Quran never says God gave the command though it could have.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "this belief in and of itself upon true inspection is blasphemous but i understand the fact that most people just haven't questioned it", "start": 982}}, "url": "/r/yRuC09ajKEQ/s/5/"}, {"id": "yRuC09ajKEQ/s/6", "short_id": "2020-10-28-S06", "recording": "yRuC09ajKEQ", "n": 6, "start": 1032, "end": 1269, "date": "20201028", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why the Jewish tradition accepted it: Yahweh the war god and the baggage a name carries", "question_plain": "Why does the biblical tradition say God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son?", "summary": "After repeating that such a command does not fit a God of majesty, Mufti Abu Layth asks why the Jewish people went this way. He says that when the Israelites came to worship one God the name they chose was Yahweh, which he says was already the name of a god in the Middle East: El was another name, and Yahweh belonged to El's household of gods as the god of war, with a consort. He says he does not object to borrowing a name as such, since words evolve, but that it carries baggage, and illustrates with the Vikings: had they become monotheists and called God Odin, part of Odin's warlike character would have spilled into the new narrative. So the brutal, vengeful, exterminating character of the war god carried over into Israelite monotheism, and for them it made sense that Yahweh could ask this of Abraham. For Muslims, he says, Yahweh is not Allah and this is not the true image of God, and to say God wanted a man to slit his son's throat for his pleasure is never acceptable, though he understands that many Muslims believe it because they were raised on Judaeo-Christian stories.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Israelites adopted the name Yahweh, a Near Eastern war god from the household of El, and that god's brutal character carried over into their picture of God, making such a command plausible to them. For Muslims, he says, that is not the true image of Allah.", "answer_start": 1032, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "belief/god-and-attributes", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yahweh", "label": "Yahweh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:el", "label": "El (Canaanite deity name)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Israelite picture of God inherited the brutal character of the war god Yahweh, which made a command to sacrifice a son plausible to them, and that this is not the true image of Allah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "so yahweh is not allah he's not god and allah keeps reminding us he is so this is not the true image of god", "start": 1217}}, "url": "/r/yRuC09ajKEQ/s/6/"}, {"id": "yRuC09ajKEQ/s/7", "short_id": "2020-10-28-S07", "recording": "yRuC09ajKEQ", "n": 7, "start": 1269, "end": 1425, "date": "20201028", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The scholars of the past debated every side issue but not the elephant in the room", "question_plain": "Did the classical scholars ever question whether God would command Ibrahim to kill his son?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he too grew up with the belief and only questioned it on reflection. He observes that the scholars of the past discussed everything around the story: whether the dream was a vision, whether God can command something and abrogate it before it is carried out, whether rulings can come through dreams or at night. He satirises the discussion as a meeting that covers every linguistic and grammatical point, down to whether the animal was a ram and which word is used for it, while nobody raises what he calls the elephant in the room, that God supposedly wanted a father to kill his son for his own pleasure. He says none of them discuss that and the chapter is concluded as if there were nothing more to say.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says earlier scholars debated the side issues, such as rulings coming through dreams or abrogation before an act, but none asked whether God would want a father to kill his son. He satirises the discussions as all grammar and no elephant in the room.", "answer_start": 1269, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:naskh", "label": "naskh (abrogation)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ruya", "label": "ru'ya (dream vision)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the scholars of the past discussed every subsidiary question of the sacrifice story without ever asking whether God would want a father to kill his son.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "uh nobody's discussing the fact that wait a minute god said kill your son i mean what to make me happy can somebody discuss this", "start": 1374}}, "url": "/r/yRuC09ajKEQ/s/7/"}, {"id": "yRuC09ajKEQ/s/8", "short_id": "2020-10-28-S08", "recording": "yRuC09ajKEQ", "n": 8, "start": 1425, "end": 1503, "date": "20201028", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Not blaming the Muslims who hold the belief, and the 'assisted suicide' reply", "question_plain": "Are Muslims who believe God commanded the sacrifice guilty of blasphemy?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that although he regards the belief as blasphemous he does not accuse individual Muslims of blaspheming, because he does not think they have thought about it: like him, they were raised with it. He contrasts this with people who say the Prophet bedded a child, which he calls clear blasphemy because they are pushing an agenda, whereas here old narrative stories are being repeated without reflection. He recounts a discussion in which someone defended the story by saying that God never told Ibrahim to murder his son, since the son agreed, but to assist him in suicide, which Mufti found absurd and funny.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth does not accuse individual Muslims of blasphemy, because they repeat a story they were raised with and have not examined it. He distinguishes this from agenda-driven claims about the Prophet, and ridicules the defence that God only asked Ibrahim to assist his son's suicide.", "answer_start": 1425, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that he does not accuse individual Muslims who hold the belief of blasphemy, since they repeat an inherited story without having thought about it.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "look this belief is blasphemous but i'm not saying to individual muslims you guys are blaspheming because i genuinely don't think that they've thought about it", "start": 1425}}, "url": "/r/yRuC09ajKEQ/s/8/"}, {"id": "yRuC09ajKEQ/s/9", "short_id": "2020-10-28-S09", "recording": "yRuC09ajKEQ", "n": 9, "start": 1503, "end": 1798, "date": "20201028", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Why do no primary sources support this reading? The era, the moral of the story, and the mock execution", "question_plain": "If God never commanded the sacrifice, why do the early sources all say he did?", "summary": "After a joke about the 'assisted suicide' defence, Mufti Abu Layth says the story's moral was what people needed, so they took the moral and ran with it without contemplating the details. A viewer in the chat says the argument logically checks out but asks why there is no body of primary sources resonating with this view. Mufti agrees that there is none and explains: the material early Muslims digested came from Israelite sources, for whom it made sense that Yahweh, like Baal and the other gods, asked for a sacrifice and then stopped it as a test of willpower; some Muslims accepted it on the grounds that God did not let Ibrahim carry it out; and there is nothing established from the Prophet, who gave the Quran and could easily have said God commanded it. He adds that the environment 1300 years ago was so brutal that such a test seemed acceptable, people being products of their environment who project its harshness onto God, and that in more affluent modern times people have revisited their understanding of God and stripped away such accretions. To a second viewer who offers the moral that God asks whether we are willing to sacrifice what is most beloved, he replies that this is the moral Muslims went with, but that broken down it has God setting up a mock execution and asking a father to murder his child, which God would never do; even a willing father would be damaged by it. He closes by saying Allah clearly did not say it was from him, which to him ends the debate.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth agrees that no primary sources support his reading and explains it by early Muslims absorbing Israelite material, by the brutal environment of the age being projected onto God, and by the absence of anything from the Prophet saying God commanded it. He repeats that a God who stages a mock execution of a child is unacceptable, and that Allah never says the command was his.", "answer_start": 1582, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics", "belief/god-and-attributes"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:israiliyyat", "label": "Israiliyyat"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:yahweh", "label": "Yahweh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth holds that the absence of early sources for his reading is explained by early Muslims absorbing Israelite narratives and projecting a brutal environment onto God, that nothing established from the Prophet says God commanded the sacrifice, and that Allah's silence on the command's origin ends the debate.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "it's not from god and allah clearly did not say it was from him and he could have so that to me ends the debate", "start": 1763}}, "url": "/r/yRuC09ajKEQ/s/9/"}, {"id": "yZrVPdcKjxQ/s/1", "short_id": "2021-01-04-S01", "recording": "yZrVPdcKjxQ", "n": 1, "start": 2, "end": 240, "date": "20210104", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Yasir Qadhi's answer on masturbation: the three positions, Ibn Abbas and Ibn Hazm", "question_plain": "Is masturbation haram in Islam?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the 'masala segment' by recalling that the previous week they discussed a recent trend among the Salafis, when Zakir Naik announced a change of view on the matter [?], and says that no sooner had they spoken about it than another figure followed; he then plays a clip of Yasir Qadhi answering the question whether self-stimulation, or masturbation, is permissible or sinful. In the clip Qadhi says the majority of scholars and of the madhhabs view masturbation as haram, basing this on Allah forbidding all sexual activity except with one's spouse and on the verse praising those who guard their private parts except from their spouses or right-hand possessions, but that some scholars of the past considered it makruh [?] and others mubah, so there are three primary positions; one of these allows it so that a person avoids the greater sin of zina, and the same ruling is stated for a woman who fears falling into zina. Qadhi cites reports from the Sahaba and Tabi'un, including a young man who told Ibn Abbas that he was unmarried and stimulated himself, to whom Ibn Abbas replied that what he was doing was better than zina, though marrying a slave girl would be better still, and says Ibn Hazm has an entire section on it and holds that it is allowed to touch one's organ even with the left hand. Qadhi adds that self-stimulation is nevertheless not natural or the norm despite what psychologists say, that the default sense of shame and regret shows this, that one should seek marriage and make dua for it, and that although he believes there is no sin in the act, it is better not to do it.", "summary_short": "In the clip Yasir Qadhi says the majority hold masturbation to be haram, but that others held it makruh or permissible, citing Ibn Abbas's reply to a young man and Ibn Hazm, and that he believes there is no sin in it although it is better avoided. This is Qadhi's view played for discussion, not Mufti Abu Layth's own statement.", "answer_start": 82, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zakir-naik", "label": "Zakir Naik"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:23:5-6", "label": "Quran 23:5-6 (those who guard their private parts except from their spouses or right-hand possessions; also 70:29-30)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:0ae0c8a8", "label": "report: a young man came to ibn abbas and said he stimulates himself and ibn abbas said what you are doing is better than zina but marrying a slave girl is better than what you are doing"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zina", "label": "zina"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mubah", "label": "mubah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/yZrVPdcKjxQ/s/1/"}, {"id": "yZrVPdcKjxQ/s/2", "short_id": "2021-01-04-S02", "recording": "yZrVPdcKjxQ", "n": 2, "start": 240, "end": 398, "date": "20210104", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Reaction to the clip: Qadhi joins Zakir Naik in calling it not haram, with jokes about 'the nobility'", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The segment opens with the final words of the clip, in which Qadhi says the default is that it is makruh [?] and better avoided, quoting Ibn Hazm that it is not among the noble deeds. Mufti Abu Layth then remarks that no sooner had they spoken about Zakir Naik than Yasir Qadhi did a question-and-answer session on intimacy and, as he puts it, 'he too' came out to say it is not haram or a sin but merely not from the nobility of deeds. He jokes about the mention of the left hand, asking whether left-handers like himself have been taken into consideration and feigning relief that they have not been left out, and mocks the phrase about nobility with a quip that the nobility do not stimulate themselves but have maids to do it. He observes that even Shaykh Yasir has now come out and said this is not haram, and says this comes back to a point he wants to make, before being briefly distracted by something on screen that turns out to be a song.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth notes that Yasir Qadhi, like Zakir Naik before him, now says masturbation is not haram but merely not a noble deed, and jokes about left-handers and 'the nobility'.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "fiqh/sexual-ethics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zakir-naik", "label": "Zakir Naik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:makruh", "label": "makruh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/yZrVPdcKjxQ/s/2/"}, {"id": "yZrVPdcKjxQ/s/3", "short_id": "2021-01-04-S03", "recording": "yZrVPdcKjxQ", "n": 3, "start": 398, "end": 760, "date": "20210104", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Decades of guilt-tripping and no apology: the reversal of Salafi scholars on masturbation", "question_plain": "Why are Salafi scholars now saying masturbation is not a sin after years of calling it haram?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says his issue is that these preachers have for decades guilt-tripped many Muslims over this act, telling them they were burdened with sin, would be punished in the hellfire and would ruin their relationships, while, he suspects, many of them secretly believed it was permissible. He asks how the sudden announcement that it is not a sin is justified to those who suffered, whether revelation came down overnight or the temperature of hell went down, and notes that the same circles accuse him of spreading corrupting rulings while now saying the same themselves. He says they should at least come out and apologise to the Muslims they may have misinformed over the years, since Qadhi is quoting Ibn Hazm, whom Mufti says he himself quoted years ago, and the Hanbali view of permissibility, both of which they knew long ago; no new information has reached them, only the realisation that they can now say it publicly. He calls this the two-faced hypocrisy of these circles: behind closed doors most of these imams do not believe half of what they preach, but say what they think the public expects, which reinforces the public's expectation in a vicious circle. He jokes that since Zakir Naik and others have had this 'revelation' he wondered why wahi was coming to all these ex-Salafis, before realising he was already ahead of the curve and they are catching up, and says he is not fixated on Qadhi but objects to people being made to feel guilty for so long only to be told it is merely not noble. He wraps up saying that more and more Salafi scholars are coming out with these glad tidings, which gives him something to rejoice about.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says these scholars owe an apology to the Muslims they guilt-tripped for decades, since Ibn Hazm's and the Hanbali view were known to them all along and nothing new has come to light. He attributes the reversal to imams saying what the public expects until they feel they can say otherwise.", "answer_start": 398, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "fiqh/sexual-ethics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:zakir-naik", "label": "Zakir Naik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanbali", "label": "Hanbali school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salafi", "label": "Salafi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wahi", "label": "wahi (revelation)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/yZrVPdcKjxQ/s/3/"}, {"id": "yy74XfRo_E4/s/1", "short_id": "2019-01-14-S01", "recording": "yy74XfRo_E4", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 155, "date": "20190114", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Who is al-Khidr? His names according to Mulla Ali al-Qari", "question_plain": "Who was al-Khidr and why is he called the green one?", "summary": "After some joking about how the name is pronounced, Mufti Abu Layth says people have asked him about al-Khidr and introduces a book on him by Mulla Ali al-Qari, whom he calls a great Hanafi scholar of a few centuries ago. He describes al-Khidr as a character in Islamic literature and especially in Islamic folk belief. He says earlier scholars preferred the pronunciation al-Khadir while al-Khidr is more popular now, and that al-Qari gives his actual name as Balya [?] with a kunya he does not recognise. He explains that Khidr means the green one, said to be because the ground where he sat turned green, or because he carried something green.", "summary_short": "Al-Khidr is a figure of Islamic literature and folk belief whose name means the green one, said to be because the ground turned green where he sat. Earlier scholars preferred the pronunciation al-Khadir.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "belief/unseen-beings"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:khidr", "label": "al-Khidr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:mulla-ali-al-qari", "label": "Mulla Ali al-Qari"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-hadhar-fi-amr-al-khadir", "label": "al-Qari's treatise on al-Khidr [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/yy74XfRo_E4/s/1/"}, {"id": "yy74XfRo_E4/s/2", "short_id": "2019-01-14-S02", "recording": "yy74XfRo_E4", "n": 2, "start": 155, "end": 502, "date": "20190114", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Musa and al-Khidr in Surat al-Kahf and the hadith in al-Bukhari", "question_plain": "What happened between Musa and al-Khidr in Surat al-Kahf?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to Surat al-Kahf from verse 60, where Musa and his young companion, named Yusha (Joshua) in the hadith, set off to reach the meeting of the two seas, lose their fish, and find a servant of Allah given special knowledge. He retells how this servant warns Musa he will not be patient, then damages a ship, kills a boy and repairs a wall, each time reprimanding Musa for objecting, before explaining that he acted by God's command. He then reads the fuller account in Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Tafsir, hadith 4725: Sa'id ibn Jubayr tells Ibn Abbas that Nawf al-Bikali, a storyteller, claimed this was a different Musa, and Ibn Abbas calls him a liar, citing Ubayy ibn Ka'b from the Prophet. In that hadith Musa says he is the most knowledgeable of people, is told of a servant more knowledgeable at the meeting of the two seas, takes a fish, and with Yusha reaches a large rock, where they lay their heads down to sleep.", "summary_short": "Musa and his companion travel to the meeting of two seas, meet a servant of Allah who damages a ship, kills a boy and repairs a wall, and is rebuked by Musa each time. Al-Bukhari's hadith adds the detail that Musa had claimed to be the most knowledgeable of people.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "quran/tafsir"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:60-82", "label": "Quran 18:60-82 (Musa and the servant of Allah)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khidr", "label": "al-Khidr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusha-ibn-nun", "label": "Yusha ibn Nun (Joshua)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:bukhari:4725", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari 4725 (Musa and al-Khidr, Book of Tafsir)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:said-ibn-jubayr", "label": "Sa'id ibn Jubayr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nawf-al-bikali", "label": "Nawf al-Bikali"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ubayy-ibn-kab", "label": "Ubayy ibn Ka'b"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/yy74XfRo_E4/s/2/"}, {"id": "yy74XfRo_E4/s/3", "short_id": "2019-01-14-S03", "recording": "yy74XfRo_E4", "n": 3, "start": 502, "end": 842, "date": "20190114", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The journey happened in a vision after Musa fell asleep", "question_plain": "Was the story of Musa and al-Khidr a dream?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that a point overlooked by earlier scholars is that Musa and Yusha lay down to sleep at the rock, and that everything after that happened in a dream or vision from which they never emerged. He reads the strange behaviour of the fish, the water standing around its path, the ground turning green where al-Khidr sat, and their sudden appearance on a boat as signs of a vision. He notes that the salaf asked why the people on the boat let al-Khidr damage it, and that some, such as Abu al-Aliya [?], said he was invisible to them. He then retells the killing of the boy, the repair of the wall in the inhospitable village, Musa's suggestion that they should have charged for the work, their parting, and al-Khidr's explanations of the boy, the ship and the king who seized every ship. He says the scholars who took the story literally got stuck explaining it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads everything after Musa and his companion fell asleep at the rock as a vision, which explains its strange details. Scholars who read it literally struggled to explain them.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "quran/hermeneutics", "belief/dreams-and-visions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusha-ibn-nun", "label": "Yusha ibn Nun (Joshua)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:khidr", "label": "al-Khidr"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:60-82", "label": "Quran 18:60-82 (Musa and the servant of Allah)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-al-aliya", "label": "Abu al-Aliya [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:salaf", "label": "salaf"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that he feels earlier scholars overlooked that everything after Musa and his companion fell asleep at the rock happened in a vision.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the rest of everything that happens happens whilst they were asleep it was a vision", "start": 502}}, "url": "/r/yy74XfRo_E4/s/3/"}, {"id": "yy74XfRo_E4/s/4", "short_id": "2019-01-14-S04", "recording": "yy74XfRo_E4", "n": 4, "start": 842, "end": 1368, "date": "20190114", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Classical debates on al-Khidr: prophet or saint, alive or dead", "question_plain": "Is al-Khidr a prophet, and is he still alive?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth surveys the classical debates that followed from a literal reading. Some, such as Ibn al-Jawzi and Ibn Ishaq, held al-Khidr was a prophet not sent to a people, since he acted on God's command; al-Baghawi [?] reported that most scholars said he was not a prophet, and others, such as al-Qushayri [?] in his Risala, called him a wali. Al-Nawawi said the majority held he is still alive, and Ibn al-Salah agreed, with stories that he will join the Mahdi and Jesus, that he and Ilyas meet every year at Hajj, or that he drank the water of life; the Sufi Abd al-Razzaq al-Kashani held he was a symbol rather than a real person. Others, including Ibrahim al-Harbi [?], Ibn al-Jawzi and Ibn Kathir, denied he is alive, citing Quran 21:34, and al-Bukhari is said to have cited the hadith that no one alive that night would be alive in a hundred years. Mufti describes stories of al-Khidr consoling the companions, in al-Mustadrak, and appearing on battlefields, as reported from Ibn al-Mubarak, comparing them to Christian sightings of St George and Hindu avatars as folk belief common to all religions.", "summary_short": "Classical scholars disagreed on whether al-Khidr was a prophet or a saint, and many held he is still alive while others denied it. Mufti Abu Layth likens the stories of his appearances to saint legends in other religions.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "belief/unseen-beings/magic-evil-eye-and-superstition", "belief/sufism"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:khidr", "label": "al-Khidr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jawzi", "label": "Ibn al-Jawzi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ishaq", "label": "Ibn Ishaq"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-baghawi", "label": "al-Baghawi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-qushayri", "label": "al-Qushayri [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wali", "label": "wali (saint)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-nawawi", "label": "al-Nawawi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-salah", "label": "Ibn al-Salah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ilyas", "label": "Ilyas (Elijah)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abd-al-razzaq-al-kashani", "label": "Abd al-Razzaq al-Kashani"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-ghazali", "label": "al-Ghazali"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibrahim-al-harbi", "label": "Ibrahim al-Harbi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-kathir", "label": "Ibn Kathir [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:21:34", "label": "Quran 21:34 (we gave no human before you eternal life)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "Imam al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:5f1d2c6c", "label": "report: no one alive on earth tonight will be alive a hundred years from now"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mustadrak", "label": "al-Mustadrak (al-Hakim)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdullah-ibn-al-mubarak", "label": "Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:saint-george", "label": "St George"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/yy74XfRo_E4/s/4/"}, {"id": "yy74XfRo_E4/s/5", "short_id": "2019-01-14-S05", "recording": "yy74XfRo_E4", "n": 5, "start": 1368, "end": 1747, "date": "20190114", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "A symbolic reading: the three events mirror Musa's own mission", "question_plain": "Is al-Khidr a real person who is still alive?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that objectively there is no such figure as al-Khidr in the folk sense: it was all a vision shown to Musa to reinforce his mission. The damaged ship stands for the Israelites, damaged for generations, whom Musa had to lead out of calamity towards a hidden good. The killing of the boy did not happen in reality, since God would never allow a child to be murdered for a greater good; it addressed Musa's own accidental killing of an Egyptian, which led to his flight and the unfolding of his prophethood. The wall rebuilt for an ungrateful village reflects Musa's frustration with the Israelites, as when they made the golden calf, and shows him that the orphans' hidden treasure would become the kingdom of Dawud and Sulayman, which he did not live to see. He concludes that al-Khidr was part of that vision, not a real person roaming the earth, unless the term is used symbolically.", "summary_short": "No: he reads al-Khidr as part of a vision shown to Musa, whose three events mirrored Musa's own life and mission. The boy was not really killed, and al-Khidr does not roam the earth.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "quran/hermeneutics", "belief/dreams-and-visions"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:khidr", "label": "al-Khidr"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:firawn", "label": "Pharaoh"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:golden-calf", "label": "the golden calf of the Israelites"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:dawud", "label": "Dawud (David)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says al-Khidr was part of Musa's vision and not actually a real person who roams among us.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "he was part of that vision he was not actually a real person and he's not actually somebody who roams around amongst us", "start": 1668}}, "url": "/r/yy74XfRo_E4/s/5/"}, {"id": "yy74XfRo_E4/s/6", "short_id": "2019-01-14-S06", "recording": "yy74XfRo_E4", "n": 6, "start": 1747, "end": 1839, "date": "20190114", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: removing the cobwebs of folklore, and sign-off", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth wraps up the session, inviting viewers to send allegations made against prophets for him to respond to. He says Muslims have a duty to respond, should never be insecure about their faith and should remove the cobwebs of folklore, superstition and mythology. He closes with praise of Allah, blessings on the Prophet and a request to like and subscribe.", "summary_short": "Sign-off: Muslims should be confident in their faith and clear away folklore and superstition.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/yy74XfRo_E4/s/6/"}, {"id": "z06drwxqxGE/s/1", "short_id": "2020-12-09-S01", "recording": "z06drwxqxGE", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 518, "date": "20201209", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Mufti Abu Layth on Yasir Qadhi's answer on men wearing necklaces and rings", "question_plain": "Is it haram for men to wear necklaces, rings or earrings?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a snippet in which Yasir Qadhi, asked about fade haircuts and chains and rings for men, says he will not call them haram but that men wearing jewellery such as necklaces and earrings opens a door better kept shut because it is still somewhat effeminate. Mufti reports that Yasir Qadhi goes on to say men's necklaces are masculine in North Africa but '50/50' in America, and mocks the claim, asking how a necklace is more effeminate than the robe, kohl and sandals worn by many religious men. Mufti says men have worn necklaces, earrings and bracelets for thousands of years, and argues the Quran's image of men in paradise wearing gold bracelets only makes sense if men could relate to it. Mufti then objects to Yasir Qadhi's point that CEOs and politicians do not wear earrings, asking why upper-middle-class Western propriety should become the benchmark of Islamic etiquette when non-Muslims' views are dismissed elsewhere, and calls this a double standard.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth disagrees with Yasir Qadhi that men's jewellery is effeminate, saying men have always worn it and Western executives are no benchmark for Islamic etiquette.", "answer_start": 75, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["fiqh/dress-and-appearance/jewellery-gold-and-silk", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "relationships/masculinity-and-gender-roles"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:jay-smith", "label": "Jay Smith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kohl", "label": "kohl"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adab", "label": "adab (etiquette)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": null, "url": "/r/z06drwxqxGE/s/1/"}, {"id": "z6Ay73O7Dug/s/1", "short_id": "2021-10-06-S01", "recording": "z6Ay73O7Dug", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 591, "date": "20211006", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Sunnah versus hadith, with sadl (hands at the sides in salah) as the case study", "question_plain": "Is there a sahih hadith on where to put my hands in salah?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says hadith is an important historical record in Sunni Islam but never on the level of the Quran, and that Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa distinguished early on between hadith, a historical document, and sunnah, the practice, so that not every hadith is a sunnah and not every sunnah was documented; he gives the Hanafi example of tarawih as twenty rak'at in congregation, held to be sunnah from the practice of Umar even without a hadith. For the Maliki side he takes sadl, praying with the hands at the sides, which he says was the practice of Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, of Sa'id [?] the student of Ibn Abbas, of Hasan al-Basri and of Imam Malik, was transmitted from Ali (though that narration is challenged) and in the school of Imam Ahmad, and is also the practice of the Shia and of the early Khawarij, three separate branches that agree on it. He reports a theory he has heard from scholars, including Hamza Yusuf, that the Umayyads suppressed sadl because it was the practice of the Shia and the Prophet's family, and says he is not sure how strong that argument is, though the evidence shows sadl was common in Umayyad times and is alive today only in the Maliki school. He says there is not a single sahih hadith on where to place the hands: the closest, in Sahih al-Bukhari, says only 'we were commanded', and the narrator Isma'il [?] adds that he thinks it goes back to the Prophet, which shows doubt; a Mauritanian scholar [?] wrote a book showing every report on holding the hands to be weak. He concludes that the placing of the hands cannot have been the purpose of prayer or the Prophet would have emphasised it, notes a Maliki transmission that folding has no set manner, and cites Ibn Abd al-Barr in al-Kafi [?] that one may fold or do sadl, so that sadl is a sunnah of the school of Madinah without a hadith; he criticises guilt-tripping people over how they hold their hands.", "summary_short": "There is no sahih hadith fixing where the hands go in salah; sadl, praying with the hands at the sides, is a sunnah of the school of Madinah without a hadith. Not every hadith is sunnah and not every sunnah was recorded in a hadith.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "fiqh/prayer", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:tarawih", "label": "tarawih"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sadl", "label": "sadl (arms hanging)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qabd", "label": "qabd (folding the arms)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:said-ibn-al-musayyib", "label": "Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:said-ibn-jubayr", "label": "Sa'id ibn Jubayr [?] (the student of Ibn Abbas)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ali-ibn-abi-talib", "label": "Ali ibn Abi Talib"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hasan-al-basri", "label": "Hasan al-Basri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khawarij", "label": "Khawarij"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:umayyads", "label": "the Umayyads"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:ced425d4", "label": "report: we were commanded to place our right hands over our left hands in prayer (unresolved; Sahih al-Bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ismail-ibn-abi-uways", "label": "Isma'il [?] (narrator in the chain)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-kafi-fi-fiqh-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "al-Kafi fi Fiqh Ahl al-Madinah [?] (Ibn Abd al-Barr)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is not a single sahih hadith establishing where the hands are placed in prayer, that sadl is a sunnah of the school of Madinah without a hadith, and that people should not be guilt-tripped over how they hold their hands.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "really as astonishing as this may seem there isn't a single sahih hadith to prove where to place the hands in prayer", "start": 349}}, "url": "/r/z6Ay73O7Dug/s/1/"}, {"id": "zN1-WlBys2I/s/1", "short_id": "2018-04-20b-S01", "recording": "zN1-WlBys2I", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 237, "date": "20180420", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abu Hanifa deemed a deviant in his time, and how the Hanafi school rose through power", "question_plain": "Was Abu Hanifa considered a deviant by the scholars of his time?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads a quote someone sent him: Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud al-Sijistani [?], son of Abu Dawud, asked his students what they would say of a matter on which Malik, al-Shafi'i, al-Awza'i [?], al-Hasan ibn Salih [?], Sufyan al-Thawri and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, each with his companions, had all agreed; when they said nothing could be sounder, he told them that all of these had agreed on the misguidance of Abu Hanifa. He then quotes Ibn al-Jarud [?], as brought by Ibn Abd al-Barr, listing Abu Hanifa in a book on rejected and weak transmitters, saying most of his hadith were error and that there was disagreement about whether his Islam was valid. Mufti says that in his own time Abu Hanifa was deemed an absolute deviant, that Imam Malik respected him but found his ways unacceptable, as did the other scholars. He argues that the Hanafi school became acceptable and then the most powerful because Abu Hanifa lived in Iraq, the seat of the caliphate, and although he refused the post of chief judge, his student Abu Yusuf accepted it and appointed only Hanafi judges, so its rise rested on power rather than evidence or objectivity. He compares this with Iran, which he says was largely Shafi'i until about four or five hundred years ago and became Shia through the politics of its Shah.", "summary_short": "Many leading scholars of Abu Hanifa's time considered him misguided. His school rose to dominance because his student Abu Yusuf became chief judge and appointed only Hanafis, which Mufti Abu Layth says shows that power, not evidence, often decides which views prevail.", "answer_start": 0, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "history/scholars-and-imams"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-bakr-ibn-abi-dawud", "label": "Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud al-Sijistani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-dawud", "label": "Abu Dawud"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shafii", "label": "al-Shafi'i"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-awzai", "label": "al-Awza'i [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-hasan-ibn-salih", "label": "al-Hasan ibn Salih [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sufyan-al-thawri", "label": "Sufyan al-Thawri"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-al-jarud", "label": "Ibn al-Jarud [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abd-al-barr", "label": "Ibn Abd al-Barr"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yusuf", "label": "Abu Yusuf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shafii", "label": "Shafi'i school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa was considered a deviant by many scholars of his time and that the Hanafi school became dominant because his student Abu Yusuf, as chief judge, appointed only Hanafi judges, so that its rise rested on power rather than evidence.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "now you tell me is that based on studies is that based on evidences is that based on objectivity or is it based on power positions is based on power positions", "start": 156}}, "url": "/r/zN1-WlBys2I/s/1/"}, {"id": "zN1-WlBys2I/s/2", "short_id": "2018-04-20b-S02", "recording": "zN1-WlBys2I", "n": 2, "start": 237, "end": 350, "date": "20180420", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Disagreeing with respect: a conversation across very different positions", "question_plain": "Can people with very different religious views still talk with respect?", "summary": "Finishing the comparison with Iran, Mufti Abu Layth says that in religion things are seldom based on pure objectivity and usually on power. He then turns to a recent conversation he describes as amazing, with a person who wrote a Facebook post about him and took criticism for it; he recounts, laughing, that someone told that person Mufti has a psychology degree and was manipulating him, and says people give him too much credit. He says the conversation mattered because the other person held a very different position from his, yet they could sit, talk with respect, enjoy each other's company and part feeling it had been worthwhile despite disagreeing on many things. He calls this the kind of manners Muslims need to return to and links it to the verse describing the Prophet as being of great character.", "summary_short": "People who disagree on many things can still sit together, talk with respect and enjoy each other's company, and Mufti Abu Layth says this is the conduct Muslims need to return to, in line with the Prophet's great character.", "answer_start": 237, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["wellbeing/character-and-virtue", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:68:4", "label": "Quran 68:4 (you are of a great character)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adab", "label": "adab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that people holding very different positions can and should sit together, talk with respect and enjoy each other's company, and that this is the conduct Muslims need to return to, in keeping with the Prophet's great character.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "and yet you can sit and talk with respect and you can enjoy each other's company walk away thinking you know what that was a solid kind of sitting even though we disagree on so many things", "start": 308}}, "url": "/r/zN1-WlBys2I/s/2/"}, {"id": "zOTvTgdUMV8/s/1", "short_id": "2019-01-08-S01", "recording": "zOTvTgdUMV8", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 572, "date": "20190108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "How to engage with Quranic stories, and the myths of Prometheus and Manu", "question_plain": "How should Muslims read the stories in the Quran?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will use the story of the throne of the Queen of Sheba to discuss how to engage with stories in the Quran, after brushing off a caller on Facebook. He says storytelling is a uniquely human art, and that reading Quranic stories such as Yusuf's as narrative and drawing lessons from them is something he advises. He says some stories suggest, without explicitly saying, supernatural powers and events, and asks how to respond. He retells the Greek myth of Prometheus, who fashions man and steals fire for him, and Pandora's box, noting the parallel with Adam and the fruit, and the Hindu story of Manu and Vishnu as a growing fish, ending with a flood like Noah's. He says people read such stories as myths with lessons, not as reality.", "summary_short": "Quranic stories can be read as narrative and for lessons, but where they suggest the supernatural we must ask how to read them, unlike myths we never take as real.", "answer_start": 117, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas/narrative-and-story"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:12:3", "label": "Quran 12:3 (We relate to you the best of stories)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:yusuf", "label": "Yusuf (Joseph)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:prometheus", "label": "Prometheus (Greek myth)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:pandora", "label": "Pandora (Greek myth)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zeus", "label": "Zeus (Greek myth)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:vishnu", "label": "Vishnu (Hindu tradition)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:manu", "label": "Manu (Hindu tradition)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:puranas", "label": "the Puranas [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says some stories in the Quran suggest supernatural events without explicitly stating them.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "some of these stories have been mentioned in ways at times that suggest suggest I'm using the word here suggest they don't usually explicitly say so but they tend to suggest a very supernatural", "start": 230}}, "url": "/r/zOTvTgdUMV8/s/1/"}, {"id": "zOTvTgdUMV8/s/2", "short_id": "2019-01-08-S02", "recording": "zOTvTgdUMV8", "n": 2, "start": 572, "end": 958, "date": "20190108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why reading the stories as supernatural forces us to ditch reason", "question_plain": "If God can do anything, why not take the miracles in Quranic stories literally?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many Muslims accept reality but suspend it for certain stories, saying for example that Jesus could speak as a baby because God gave him special powers. He says this approach does not correlate with reality and, once one zooms out, everything falls to pieces: by the same logic one could accept the Trinity or Greek and Hindu myths, since God could have done anything. He says reason is either all in or out, that God's laws of nature do not change, citing the verse that one will find no change in God's way, and gives the example of gravity. He says he does believe Adam, Abraham and Noah were real people, and likens the right approach to a detective who distrusts a case that is too convenient.", "summary_short": "Reading the stories as suspensions of natural law means ditching reason, which leaves no ground to reject any myth; reason must be all in, though the prophets were real people.", "answer_start": 572, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/hermeneutics", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:trinity", "label": "the Trinity"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:35:43", "label": "Quran 35:43 (you will never find any change in the way of God) [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:adam", "label": "Adam"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says reason is either all in or out, and one cannot follow it only ninety per cent of the time.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "reason is either all in or or it's out it doesn't happen like you can't say you know what I'll follow reason 90% of the time", "start": 765}}, "url": "/r/zOTvTgdUMV8/s/2/"}, {"id": "zOTvTgdUMV8/s/3", "short_id": "2019-01-08-S03", "recording": "zOTvTgdUMV8", "n": 3, "start": 958, "end": 1110, "date": "20190108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Queen of Sheba: a powerful woman the Quran does not rebuke", "question_plain": "Does the Quran criticise the Queen of Sheba for ruling over men?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth begins the story of the throne of the Queen of Sheba, noting that the Quran does not name her and Muslim sources call her Bilqis. He says the Quran portrays her as a woman of immense power over an administration of men and does not rebuke her for that power, which he calls a lesson to take from the story. He reads the hudhud's report that it found a woman ruling them who had been given everything and a mighty throne, and says Sulayman held one of the most powerful kingdoms of his time, with gold arriving from Ophir, a region still unidentified.", "summary_short": "No: the Quran portrays her as a woman of great power over male ministers and never rebukes her for it.", "answer_start": 958, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "society/women-and-gender"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:queen-of-sheba", "label": "the Queen of Sheba"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:23", "label": "Quran 27:23 (I found a woman ruling over them, given of everything, with a mighty throne)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudhud", "label": "hudhud (hoopoe)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not rebuke the Queen of Sheba in any sense for her power over an administration of men.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "the Quran does not rebuke her in any sense for that power this is an interesting lesson to be taken from that story", "start": 993}}, "url": "/r/zOTvTgdUMV8/s/3/"}, {"id": "zOTvTgdUMV8/s/4", "short_id": "2019-01-08-S04", "recording": "zOTvTgdUMV8", "n": 4, "start": 1110, "end": 1494, "date": "20190108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Was the hudhud a bird or one of Sulayman's intelligence agents?", "question_plain": "Was the hoopoe in the story of Sulayman really a bird?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Sulayman's missing the tayr can mean a bird or a unit, and that the verb and plurals used of the hudhud, such as the absent ones, the truthful and the liars, are used only for human beings in Arabic. He says the threat to slaughter him led many to think it was a bird, but calls it figurative. He cites Maulana Abdul Karim Athari [?] in his tafsir, with some Syrian scholars, that the hudhud was one of a branch of Sulayman's people equivalent to a modern intelligence service. He argues that taking it as a bird means crediting an animal with the ability to analyse kingdoms, recognise sun worship as misguidance and lie, which no animal has, and says the human reading makes sense when one zooms out.", "summary_short": "Probably not, in his reading: the Arabic used of it is used only for humans, so the tafsir that it was one of Sulayman's intelligence agents makes sense.", "answer_start": 1110, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term", "low_audio_confidence"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics", "quran/arabic-language"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hudhud", "label": "hudhud (hoopoe)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Maulana Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:urwat-al-wuthqa", "label": "Tafsir Urwat al-Wuthqa [?] (Abdul Karim Athari)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:20-21", "label": "Quran 27:20-21 (why do I not see the hudhud; I will punish or slaughter him)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:22-24", "label": "Quran 27:22-24 (the hudhud's report from Saba)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:27", "label": "Quran 27:27 (we will see whether you are truthful or among the liars)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the reading of the hudhud as one of Sulayman's intelligence agents makes sense given the verbs used, which refer to human beings.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "he stuffs the image stuff see it is something that does make sense given the kind of constant verbs that are used referring to human beings", "start": 1226}}, "url": "/r/zOTvTgdUMV8/s/4/"}, {"id": "zOTvTgdUMV8/s/5", "short_id": "2019-01-08-S05", "recording": "zOTvTgdUMV8", "n": 5, "start": 1494, "end": 1648, "date": "20190108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "'Kings ruin a town when they enter it': the verse and political philosophy", "question_plain": "What does the Quran say about kings in the story of Sheba?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Sulayman wrote to the Queen of Sheba, who consulted her people, and that they offered to fight. He says he always found her reply fascinating, that kings who enter a town ruin it and humble its people, because it opens a discussion of political philosophy: what gives one human being the right to rule another and where kingship came from. He says God, king and money have been the three things that set humanity on its journey of unification, and that one day some person assumed the right to subjugate others and it became a human legacy. He then turns to the Queen setting out with a delegation.", "summary_short": "The Queen's saying that kings ruin the towns they enter raises the question of what gives anyone the right to rule others.", "answer_start": 1494, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:queen-of-sheba", "label": "the Queen of Sheba"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:34", "label": "Quran 27:34 (kings, when they enter a town, ruin it)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says kingship began when some person one day assumed the right to subjugate others, and it became a human legacy.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "right to sub subjugate and you guys on my subjects some person just assumed that one day and it became a human legacy", "start": 1608}}, "url": "/r/zOTvTgdUMV8/s/5/"}, {"id": "zOTvTgdUMV8/s/6", "short_id": "2019-01-08-S06", "recording": "zOTvTgdUMV8", "n": 6, "start": 1648, "end": 2034, "date": "20190108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Who can bring her throne? The 'ifrit and the jinn as a division of Sulayman's forces", "question_plain": "Did a jinn really bring the Queen of Sheba's throne to Sulayman?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads Sulayman's question as to who would bring him her throne before her delegation arrived, likening the fame of her throne to the Mughal Peacock Throne. He says those who 'zoom in' read the 'ifrit from the jinn as a mystical demon, which in his understanding does not make much sense. He cites Abdul Karim Athari [?] and others that jinn here means a group of people, comparing the verse that Iblis was of the jinn, which many mufassirun read as meaning only something veiled. He relates Athari's [?] reading that Sulayman's forces were divided into three, an intelligence service, his manpower or human army, and a supreme internal unit, comparing the CIA, police and FBI in America and MI6, MI5 and the National Crime Agency in the UK.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth doubts it: following Athari's tafsir, the 'jinn' here were a division of Sulayman's forces, one of three branches of his state.", "answer_start": 1648, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "belief/unseen-beings", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:queen-of-sheba", "label": "the Queen of Sheba"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Maulana Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:urwat-al-wuthqa", "label": "Tafsir Urwat al-Wuthqa [?] (Abdul Karim Athari)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jinn", "label": "jinn"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ifrit", "label": "'ifrit"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:38-39", "label": "Quran 27:38-39 (which of you will bring me her throne; an 'ifrit of the jinn said I will)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:18:50", "label": "Quran 18:50 (Iblis was of the jinn)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shaytan", "label": "Iblis (Shaytan)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:peacock-throne", "label": "the Mughal Peacock Throne"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the reading that a demon from the jinn would bring the throne does not, in his understanding, make much sense.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "is out one see that in my understanding doesn't make much sense and I'll tell you why in a moment because we are zooming out", "start": 1804}}, "url": "/r/zOTvTgdUMV8/s/6/"}, {"id": "zOTvTgdUMV8/s/7", "short_id": "2019-01-08-S07", "recording": "zOTvTgdUMV8", "n": 7, "start": 2034, "end": 2451, "date": "20190108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Bringing the throne: a replica made from a description, not theft", "question_plain": "Did Prophet Sulayman steal the Queen of Sheba's throne?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says taking 'bring me her throne' literally means a prophet ordering his people to steal another kingdom's throne to impress her, which he calls a problem when one zooms out. He reads it as a request to make a throne like hers, and says the capable man offered to do it before Sulayman rose from his royal sitting. He reads the one with knowledge of the Book as someone with a detailed written description of the throne, as the Peacock Throne had been described to the British, citing Abdul Karim Athari's [?] tafsir, and takes 'before your glance returns' as figurative. On Sulayman's order to alter the throne, he prefers the reading that it be made even more glorious so that she would be humbled, over the reading that a stolen throne be disguised, and says the claim that a prophet stole thrones is to him a blasphemous allegation.", "summary_short": "No: he reads the story as Sulayman having a grander replica made from a detailed description, since prophets do not steal thrones.", "answer_start": 2034, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:queen-of-sheba", "label": "the Queen of Sheba"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Maulana Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:urwat-al-wuthqa", "label": "Tafsir Urwat al-Wuthqa [?] (Abdul Karim Athari)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:40", "label": "Quran 27:40 (one with knowledge of the Book: before your glance returns)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:41", "label": "Quran 27:41 (disguise her throne)"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:peacock-throne", "label": "the Mughal Peacock Throne"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it does not befit prophets to steal thrones.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "i've said before it doesn't befit prophets to steal Thrones okay to me that's a blasphemous allegation", "start": 2377}}, "url": "/r/zOTvTgdUMV8/s/7/"}, {"id": "zOTvTgdUMV8/s/8", "short_id": "2019-01-08-S08", "recording": "zOTvTgdUMV8", "n": 8, "start": 2451, "end": 2709, "date": "20190108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Her arrival: 'is your throne like this?' and the floor of glass", "question_plain": "What happened when the Queen of Sheba came to Sulayman?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that on arriving the Queen of Sheba was received in a waiting area and asked whether her throne was like this. He calls the plain reading dull and prefers a diplomatic hint: this is only where guests sit, and is yours like it? Her answer, that it was as though it were the same, shows she was humbled that a throne surpassing her landmark one stood in a waiting room. He describes her entering the palace, thinking the glass floor was water and lifting her dress, then becoming Muslim, and says the stories add that she married Sulayman. On those troubled that she uncovered her lower legs, he says that if it were an obscenity it would not be stated in the Quran nor happen before a prophet.", "summary_short": "She was shown a throne grander than hers in a mere waiting room and humbled, then became Muslim; her uncovering her legs on the glass floor was no obscenity.", "answer_start": 2451, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:queen-of-sheba", "label": "the Queen of Sheba"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:42", "label": "Quran 27:42 (is your throne like this? it is as though it were)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:27:44", "label": "Quran 27:44 (enter the palace; she thought it a pool and uncovered her shins)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if the Queen of Sheba uncovering her lower legs had been an obscenity, it would not be stated in the Quran.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "obviously if it was an obscenity then it won't be stated in the Quran and it wouldn't be happening in front of prophets", "start": 2670}}, "url": "/r/zOTvTgdUMV8/s/8/"}, {"id": "zOTvTgdUMV8/s/9", "short_id": "2019-01-08-S09", "recording": "zOTvTgdUMV8", "n": 9, "start": 2709, "end": 3319, "date": "20190108", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Jesus 'in the cradle': a boy debating the elders in the Temple", "question_plain": "Did Jesus really speak as a baby in the cradle?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he advises taking a holistic picture of Quranic stories, and turns to Jesus in the cradle. He says the Quran never states Jesus was a baby when Mary brought him, that the verb can mean bringing him on a mount, and that her people did not accuse her of adultery in her lifetime. He relates the flight to Egypt from Herod and the account in the Gospel of Luke of Jesus at about twelve, lost for three days and found in the Temple debating the elders. Following Abdul Karim Athari's [?] tafsir, he reads the elders' retort as 'how can we speak to a mere child', with Jesus's words about kindness to his mother fitting her distress, and charity aimed at priests making money from the people. He argues a speaking baby would have convinced some Jews and an accused Mary would have been stoned, says belief in a magic carpet or flying cloud for Sulayman does not add up either, and says Muslims lack scholars of critical reasoning.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads it as Jesus aged about twelve debating the Temple elders, as in the Gospel of Luke, which fits the history better than a speaking baby.", "answer_start": 2709, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "quran/hermeneutics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:maryam", "label": "Maryam (Mary)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:19:27-33", "label": "Quran 19:27-33 (Mary brings him to her people; how can we speak to one in the cradle)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:9:92", "label": "Quran 9:92 (those who came to you to be carried, i.e. given mounts)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-luke", "label": "Gospel of Luke"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:herod-the-great", "label": "Herod the Great"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Maulana Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:urwat-al-wuthqa", "label": "Tafsir Urwat al-Wuthqa [?] (Abdul Karim Athari)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the interpretation that Jesus was a boy debating the Temple elders fits with reality better than a speaking baby.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "to me that interpretation fits with the reality fits with you see when we zoom out it still fits", "start": 3014}}, "url": "/r/zOTvTgdUMV8/s/9/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/1", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S01", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 1, "start": 32, "end": 494, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Opening: sound check, a critic's reaction video, the Peak District and the latest MindTrap", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth opens the stream with a sound check, jokes about starting late and keeping his critics waiting, and greets viewers on YouTube and Facebook. He notes that a critic has made a forty-minute reaction video about him and says he will talk about it later. He mentions a trip to the Peak District, missing the gym, and the gyms reopening the following week, adding that one can work out after the fast in Ramadan. He then recommends his latest MindTrap conversation with Professor Adis Duderija [?], on gender and gendered discourse in the faith: whether the Quran takes a gendered outlook, distorted interpretations by Salafi and other groups, an egalitarian approach between men and women, the Sharia and process theology.", "summary_short": "Housekeeping before the questions: a sound check, a note that a critic's reaction video will be discussed later, and a recommendation of the MindTrap episode on gender with Professor Adis Duderija.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:adis-duderija", "label": "Adis Duderija [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/1/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/2", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S02", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 2, "start": 494, "end": 757, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "News clip: the Pharaohs' Golden Parade in Cairo, and the Amenhotep III theory", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth plays a news report on the procession of twenty-two royal mummies, among them Ramesses II and Queen Nefertari, from Cairo's Egyptian Museum to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, describing the security operation, the dignitaries including the head of UNESCO, and the claims of some that an ancient curse lay behind recent disasters such as the Suez Canal blockage. He remarks on the pharaohs appearing on the streets again thousands of years after their deaths. He recalls that the previous week he discussed whether Amenhotep III may have been Sulayman, says several people contacted him about the theory, and calls it food for thought. A short musical interlude follows.", "summary_short": "A news clip on the Pharaohs' Golden Parade in Cairo, with Mufti Abu Layth recalling his discussion of whether Amenhotep III may have been Sulayman.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:pharaohs-golden-parade-2021", "label": "the Pharaohs' Golden Parade (Cairo, 2021)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ramesses-ii", "label": "Ramesses II"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:amenhotep-iii", "label": "Amenhotep III"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/2/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/3", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S03", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 3, "start": 757, "end": 1176, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "An Urdu poem of living on after the beloved", "question_plain": null, "summary": "To lighten the mood Mufti Abu Layth reads an Urdu poem by a poet who writes under a pen name made by rearranging the letters of his name. He explains its lines: that life after the beloved is no more than a pulse that beats and a breath that flows, a show put on for the world's sake, and that each night consoles the speaker that this is the last night to bear. He draws out the line that the speaker may have lost to life but life has not yet lost to death, which he reads as despair underlined with hope, and contrasts it with the more hopeful image elsewhere in Urdu poetry that the evening of sorrow is long but is only an evening. He says poetry can offer a kind of solace.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads and explains an Urdu poem on living on after the beloved, a mix of despair and hope.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["arts/urdu-poetry"], "entities": [], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/3/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/4", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S04", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 4, "start": 1176, "end": 1271, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Preview of tonight's continued response to Yasir Qadhi", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth previews the continuation of his response to Yasir Qadhi, which he calls 'Disclosure with a big D'. He says he will look at Qadhi's claim that one cannot be a Maliki and hold the views in question, and at the claim that admitting anything crept into Islam would rip out its foundations, and will build on that with the Mahdi. He adds that he will show further hadith about the Dajjal which he calls nonsensical, irrational and in many cases insulting, as with the report he discussed before.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth previews the second part of his reply to Yasir Qadhi, on the Maliki school, beliefs that crept into Islam, the Mahdi and the Dajjal reports.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/4/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/5", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S05", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 5, "start": 1271, "end": 1397, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is forex trading halal? Referred to earlier videos; inherited fiqh is out of date", "question_plain": "Is forex trading halal or haram?", "summary": "A viewer asks whether trading in forex is halal or haram. Mufti Abu Layth refers to his detailed videos, including those on Dogecoin and on the battle between hedge funds and Reddit traders, rather than answering in full. He says inherited fiqh is badly out of sync, missing what he compares to hundreds of updates, so that much of it cannot be operationalised and its teaching has become largely ritual. He adds that many jurists of the past closed it off by declaring that no one after them may make new rulings.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth refers the question to his earlier videos and says inherited fiqh is so out of date that much of it can no longer be applied.", "answer_start": 1271, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/finance", "fiqh/legal-theory"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:reddit-hedge-fund-battle-2021", "label": "the Wall Street battle between hedge funds and Reddit traders (2021)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fiqh", "label": "fiqh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says inherited fiqh is so out of date that much of it cannot be applied and its teaching has become largely ritual, partly because past jurists closed it to later rulings.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "FK for the most part is pretty much redundant. You know it's its teaching has become simply ritual in nature", "start": 1318}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/5/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/6", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S06", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 6, "start": 1397, "end": 2162, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Hanafi rigidity: carrying a child in prayer and the campaign against a preacher", "question_plain": "Can I carry a child while I pray?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the Hanafi school is the most notorious for locking its rulings, and recounts a recent campaign of what he calls sectarian venom against a popular preacher, whose name the transcript does not render clearly, who had received death threats. The pretext, he says, was a video in which the preacher prays carrying a child and cites the hadith that the Prophet prayed carrying a child, against the Hanafi rule that more than three consecutive movements invalidate the prayer; critics insisted on the Hanafi position as fixed by Ibn Abidin [?], and also attacked the preacher for a children's programme in which he appears as a teddy bear and for his long hair. Along the way he lists other Hanafi rulings he calls odd, that laughing in prayer breaks wudu and that mentally processing meaningful information breaks the prayer, and says all such rulings are made up and that one may do these things in prayer, as the Malikis never accepted them. He says the school as it stands is very different from Abu Hanifa himself, praises Shaykh Atabek [?] as a breath of fresh air among Hanafis, helped by coming from outside the countries that dominate Islamic discourse, and attributes the attacks to jealousy at the preacher's following.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says one may carry a child while praying and that Hanafi rulings such as the three-movement rule, or that laughing or reading something breaks the prayer, are made up. He sees the campaign against the preacher who showed this as sectarian jealousy.", "answer_start": 1397, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/madhhabs-and-following/hanafi-school", "fiqh/prayer/conditions-and-validity", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-hanifa", "label": "Abu Hanifa"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yusuf", "label": "Abu Yusuf"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-abidin", "label": "Ibn Abidin [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:atabek-shukurov-nasafi", "label": "Shaykh Atabek [?]"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c0b608bd", "label": "report: the prophet prayed carrying a child (unresolved)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:barelvi", "label": "Barelvi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that one may carry a child while praying and that Hanafi rulings such as the invalidation of prayer by three consecutive movements, by laughing or by mentally processing information are made up.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "Obviously, needless to say, all these things are made up and don't mean anything. You can do it all in salah.", "start": 1829}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/6/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/7", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S07", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 7, "start": 2162, "end": 2550, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Jealousy, entitlement and the critics who resent his following", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many critics act out of jealousy: in their minds they are cleverer and more deserving than whoever has what they want, and he says such feelings of entitlement are why they are deprived. He says people resent that he has a following although he has no sect or denomination behind him, speaks openly, says when he thinks something is not haram and wears an earring and a necklace. He turns to the critic who made the reaction video, quoting parts of it about the people who share, subscribe and donate to Mufti, and says such hostility makes his day. He jokes, when told people demand to know how he earns money, that he is a film critic.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says much of the hostility he receives comes from jealousy and a sense of entitlement among critics who resent his following.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/7/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/8", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S08", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 8, "start": 2550, "end": 2994, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Perfume reviews: his top two fragrances", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to perfumes and presents what he calls his joint number one fragrances, the Creed Aventus and Parfums de Marly Layton [?], and describes Layton's notes: a fruity opening of mandarin and lavender, soft floral middle notes and base notes of vanilla, soft woods, cardamom and patchouli. He says it is masculine rather than flowery and conquers but with love, and responds to viewers' comments and requests for reviews. He mentions Maison Francis Kurkdjian's Baccarat Rouge as brilliant for women and compares the silver and gold editions of Gentle Fluidity [?], which use the same ingredients in different proportions, saying the gold is warm and sensual while the silver is not value for money.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reviews perfumes and names Creed Aventus and Layton as his joint favourites.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/8/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/9", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S09", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 9, "start": 2994, "end": 3289, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Would the Prophet have ordered wives to prostrate to husbands? Not authentic", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet say a wife should prostrate to her husband?", "summary": "After a last note on perfume, Mufti Abu Layth reads a question asking whether it is true that, if it were permissible, the Prophet would have ordered wives to prostrate to their husbands, and whether the hadith is authentic. He answers that it is not authentic and suggests people relayed it as a hadith to teach obedience within the hierarchical family of a patriarchal age, which does not mean the Prophet endorsed that order, pointing to his MindTrap discussion with Professor Adis Duderija [?]. He compares the subcontinent custom of telling a bride that she leaves her husband's home only in a coffin, found among Hindus and Muslims alike, as an example of how cultural teachings become religionised and then attributed to the Prophet. He says the same is true of the report used to promote aggressive, violent jealousy over female relatives, which he calls entirely fabricated to validate tribal norms.", "summary_short": "The report is not authentic: it was probably put into circulation to support the family hierarchy of a patriarchal society. The report urging violent jealousy over female relatives is likewise fabricated.", "answer_start": 3073, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-women", "society/women-and-gender", "relationships/marriage"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:47be092d", "label": "report: if i were to order anyone to prostrate to another i would order the wife to prostrate to her husband (called not authentic)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:8a99943b", "label": "report: the dayyuth who has no protective jealousy over his women (called fabricated [?])"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:adis-duderija", "label": "Adis Duderija [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:sujud", "label": "sujud"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the report that the Prophet would have ordered wives to prostrate to their husbands is not authentic and was probably circulated to support the family hierarchy of a patriarchal society, and that the report urging violent jealousy over female relatives is likewise fabricated.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "no this hadith isn't authentic but um I feel that people may have", "start": 3044}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/9/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/10", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S10", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 10, "start": 3289, "end": 3861, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Misquoted on incest: what he said about homosexuality, nature and Imam Malik", "question_plain": "Did Mufti Abu Layth say incest is natural, and is homosexuality unnatural?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth passes over several chat items briefly, asking what is meant by anti-natalism and referring a question on Jesus making birds to an earlier video. He then says his critics cannot decide whether his arguments are too weak to bother with or must be distorted, and that a screenshot circulating online splices his comments to claim he says incest is natural, which he says he has never said. He explains what he did say: that although most scholars consider homosexuality haram, the claim that it is unnatural is not scientifically supported, since it occurs in almost every species though it is not the dominant practice, and statements about nature belong to science rather than religion; one may still say it is haram as a belief. Separately he had cited Imam Malik in the Mudawwana, asked whether people on the outskirts of Madinah who married their own sisters, mothers and daughters should be forcibly stopped, answering that it was their way of life and not to interfere, to argue that it is not one's place to intervene in others' lifestyles. He says he took the observation about nature from The Third Chimpanzee, and asks critics to tackle his actual arguments.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth never said incest is natural. He says that calling homosexuality unnatural is not scientific because it occurs in most species, though one may still hold it haram, and that he cited Imam Malik only for not interfering in other people's way of life.", "answer_start": 3370, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["relationships/sexuality-and-orientation", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-third-chimpanzee", "label": "The Third Chimpanzee"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he never said incest is natural; he said that calling homosexuality unnatural is not scientifically accurate because it occurs in most species, while one may still hold it haram, and he cited Imam Malik's ruling not to interfere in other people's way of life.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "So to say the statement that homosexuality is not natural, it's not scientifically accurate and it's not a it's not to to make statements about nature is not the realm of religion.", "start": 3590}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/10/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/11", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S11", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 11, "start": 3861, "end": 4371, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Are sexual fetishes involving impurity haram? Disgusting is not the same as forbidden", "question_plain": "Are disgusting sexual fetishes between spouses haram?", "summary": "Taking up a chat question about fetishes, Mufti Abu Layth first states the general rule, which he attributes to a teacher of Imam Malik and says is the understanding of the school of Madinah: what a consenting couple do behind closed doors is their business. He recalls that the question of fetishes involving urine or excrement was discussed some years earlier after press reports of allegations in the Tariq Ramadan case, whose details and outcome he says he does not remember. His answer then and now is that such acts, however disgusting to most people, are not haram: the fiqh books treat contact with impurity as unclean, not forbidden, and calling something haram means saying God will punish it with hellfire, which disgust alone does not establish; he gives the example of mucus. He says many clergy are sexually suppressed and treat ordinary intimacy as disgusting, citing a statement in Hanafi books that looking at one's wife's private parts causes blindness and anecdotes of men afraid to look at their wives, and says he does not declare things haram that God has not.", "summary_short": "Such fetishes are not haram, however disgusting most people find them: contact with impurity is unclean but not forbidden, and what a consenting couple do in private is their own business. Nobody is obliged to do them.", "answer_start": 3861, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["question_reconstructed", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/sexual-ethics", "relationships/marriage/intimacy", "fiqh/purification"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:tariq-ramadan", "label": "Tariq Ramadan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:haram", "label": "haram"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:only-allah-declares-haram", "label": "no one may declare haram what Allah has not declared haram"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:tablighi-jamaat", "label": "Tablighi Jamaat [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that fetishes involving impurity, however disgusting, are not haram, since contact with impurity is unclean but not forbidden and only God declares something haram, and that what consenting spouses do in private is their own business.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "So my response which is still the same that these kinks or things like this as sickening as they may be to people doesn't make them haram.", "start": 4027}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/11/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/12", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S12", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 12, "start": 4371, "end": 4895, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Why some clergy issue harsh rulings: deprivation, madrasa culture and the softening effect of love", "question_plain": "Why are some clerics so harsh in their rulings on women?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says many clergy are sexually deprived and frustrated, which he links to their anger, rarely smiling and harsh rulings. He recounts that at a madrasa where he studied, the head said pupils' heads were shaved so that embarrassment would keep them from going out and meeting girls, and argues that this left them insecure and confined to the madrasa world, where he alleges some went on to abuse other pupils before becoming imams who preach. He says that when a young woman approaches such a scholar, they lash out with harsh fatwas on nail polish, hair, piercings and the head covering; he adds that most Muslim women do not wear hijab, that the head covering was not originally called hijab and that he finds no clear evidence for it in the Quran, referring to his video. He tells of a harsh manager at a former workplace who became relaxed and kind after falling in love, and says love softens people. He dismisses a hostile chat comment as typical of people who think they are on God's side.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says harsh rulings from some clergy, especially towards women, come from sexual deprivation and a closed madrasa culture, and that love and a normal life soften people.", "answer_start": 4371, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/cults-and-religious-abuse", "society/education-and-madrasas", "fiqh/hijab-and-niqab"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:fatwa", "label": "fatwa"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that many clergy issue harsh rulings, especially towards women, out of sexual deprivation and frustration, and that their rulings would change if they lived normal lives.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "other", "evidence": {"quote": "if these moolas had access to, if they lived a normal life and had normal, healthy sexual relationships and enjoyed life, you'd see the rulings would start radically changing.", "start": 4573}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/12/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/13", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S13", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 13, "start": 4895, "end": 5335, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "France: mandatory stunning and a reported headscarf ban for girls under 18", "question_plain": "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of France banning the hijab for girls under 18?", "summary": "Asked to speak about recent French legislation, Mufti Abu Layth says France seems to be taking right-wing, almost Orwellian approaches, and mentions legislation on mandatory stunning of animals, possibly only chickens. He says he was shocked to read that France has legislated that no girl under eighteen may wear the headscarf, with fines and a bar on women in headscarves accompanying school trips, but cautions that media can misreport and that the exact legislation must first be checked. If true, he says, it is abhorrent, clashes with basic human rights, and he strongly condemns it, warning France that it is setting itself on a collision course with its own citizens. He adds that he is not a fan of making young girls wear a head covering, which can be inculturation but in some cases sexualises them, that he finds no proof in the Quran or Sunnah mandating it, and that pressuring or emotionally blackmailing daughters to wear it is wrong; it must be a genuine choice either way.", "summary_short": "If France has banned headscarves for girls under 18, he says it is an abhorrent breach of basic rights that he strongly condemns. He also opposes pressuring girls to wear it: it should be their genuine choice.", "answer_start": 4895, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/hijab-and-niqab", "society/current-events", "fiqh/food"], "entities": [{"type": "event", "id": "event:france-headscarf-ban-for-minors-2021", "label": "the reported French move to ban headscarves for girls under 18 (2021)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hijab", "label": "hijab"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhabiha", "label": "dhabiha (ritual slaughter)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that if France has banned the headscarf for girls under eighteen it is an abhorrent breach of basic human rights that he strongly condemns, while he also opposes pressuring girls to wear it and holds that it should be a genuine choice.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I find that really shocking and abhorrent and so in clash with the basic fundamental human rights that are a cornerstone of modern civilization.", "start": 5015}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/13/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/14", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S14", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 14, "start": 5335, "end": 5472, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Follow-ups on France: relations with Muslims and the age of consent", "question_plain": "Is the age of consent in France really 13?", "summary": "A viewer comments that France has had strange relations with Muslims since the Middle Ages; Mufti Abu Layth says he does not know about the Middle Ages but agrees for the colonial period. To a claim that the age of consent in France is thirteen he says he does not think so and believes it may be fifteen. He says the UK and, he believes, most European countries have what he calls a Romeo and Juliet clause, under which a sexual relationship between teenagers of similar age is treated differently and often not prosecuted, which he distinguishes from an adult engaging with a child. He then thanks a viewer who mentions a book describing France as a stealth Christian country.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth doubts the claim that France's age of consent is thirteen, and distinguishes laws on relationships between teenagers of similar age from an adult engaging with a child.", "answer_start": 5335, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["society/current-events"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/14/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/15", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S15", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 15, "start": 5472, "end": 5656, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Quick chat items: critics seeking attention, a claim about Foucault, steroids and a joke question", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when people can only get attention by speaking about him, it says a lot about them. To a chat claim about Michel Foucault he says he knows Foucault's theories from psychology but nothing about the claim. He refers a question on steroids to his existing videos. He then mocks the priorities behind a joke question about whether an item of underwear is a cultural practice or revealed religion.", "summary_short": "Brief replies to chat: attention-seeking critics, a claim about Foucault he cannot comment on, steroids referred to earlier videos, and a joke question.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:michel-foucault", "label": "Michel Foucault"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/15/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/16", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S16", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 16, "start": 5656, "end": 5740, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Is it haram to believe the universe is never-ending?", "question_plain": "Is it haram to believe the universe will never end?", "summary": "Asked whether it is haram to believe that the universe is never-ending, Mufti Abu Layth says no, depending on what is meant. He says creation once brought into existence will in one way remain forever: however people picture the afterlife, as souls, consciousness or rivers and trees, they picture it as eternal, and it is still creation, other than God. So in that sense it is never-ending.", "summary_short": "It is not haram: creation, including the afterlife, once brought into being remains forever in some form while still being other than God.", "answer_start": 5656, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/afterlife", "arts/science-and-the-universe"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is not haram to believe the universe is never-ending, depending on what is meant, since creation once brought into existence, including the afterlife, remains forever in some form while still being other than God.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Um, no. I mean, it depends what people mean by that because in some way life now that or I suppose creation once put into existence will forever ultimately remain in one way.", "start": 5669}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/16/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/17", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S17", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 17, "start": 5740, "end": 6114, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "How often does he change his views? Growth as the hallmark of intelligence", "question_plain": "How often does Mufti Abu Layth change his views, and is that a weakness?", "summary": "Asked how often he changes his views, Mufti Abu Layth says it depends on when information comes: if evidence is compelling it would be ignorant to refuse it out of stubbornness, and he inclines to whatever stands out as factual. He says critics who mock him for having changed his opinion have it backwards, since viewing things differently as one grows is the hallmark of intelligence. He describes the scholars whose views are fixed by twenty-five as an existence not worth having, says he sees himself at twenty-five as immature and expects to see his present self the same way in ten years, and advises viewers to investigate and develop their own views, comparing it with changing tastes in music, art or film. Asked about getting Lupe Fiasco on MindTrap, he says the rapper agreed the previous year but he postponed because of technical problems and then did not follow up, and that he will.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth changes his views when evidence is compelling and says developing one's opinions over life is a sign of intelligence, not weakness. He advises viewers to do the same.", "answer_start": 5740, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "wellbeing/character-and-virtue"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:lupe-fiasco", "label": "Lupe Fiasco"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:black-lives-matter-protests-2020", "label": "the Black Lives Matter protests (2020)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": true, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that when compelling evidence comes he changes his view, that developing one's opinions over life is a hallmark of intelligence, and he advises everyone to investigate and do the same.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I've changed views and opinions where I found counter evidence. I've investigated uh topics and research them. And I advise you all to do the same.", "start": 5971}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/17/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/18", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S18", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 18, "start": 6114, "end": 6603, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "The impact of his video on Aisha's age: women who returned, clergy who resent it", "question_plain": "How was Mufti Abu Layth's video on Aisha's age received?", "summary": "Asked how his video on Aisha's age has affected Muslims and whether it brought backlash, Mufti Abu Layth says it is one of the accomplishments he is proudest of. He says the response from ordinary Muslims has been overwhelming: many people, particularly women, who had become separated from the faith because of such teachings attributed to God and His Messenger, and who had quietly withdrawn rather than face abuse, contacted him to say it was a lifeline back to Islam. He says most clergy reacted with insecurity or hostility, not because they personally want to defend the topic, but because they may not question what their superiors and Bukhari hand down, and would lose their livelihood and circles if they did; he compares them to a doctor bound to protocol who cannot preach his own theories. He then thanks a viewer who mentions someone else doing similar work and invites them to send it.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth is proud of the video: many people, especially women, told him it brought them back to Islam, while most clergy resent it because questioning the inherited ruling threatens their authority and livelihood.", "answer_start": 6154, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "society/cults-and-religious-abuse"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/18/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/19", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S19", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 19, "start": 6603, "end": 6770, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Learning the Maliki school in English: translators, teachers and texts", "question_plain": "Where can I learn the Maliki school in English?", "summary": "Asked for a good source to learn the Maliki school in English, Mufti Abu Layth says Aisha Bewley translated several books, once available on a website he is unsure still exists. He says Hamza Yusuf recorded a foundational Maliki text, which he believes was al-Murshid al-Mu'in [?], with a Mauritanian shaykh on some twenty cassettes that he studied as a teenager, that Shaykh Ali Laraki [?] has translated some Maliki material, and that a few people teach it in the UK, among them Abdalhaqq Bewley, Aisha Bewley's husband. He says Malikis are usually people who think out of the box, though some, like other clergy, are only about control, and names Hamza Maqbool as a Maliki whose teaching he says is no different from that of an average Hanafi Deobandi.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth suggests the translations of Aisha Bewley, Hamza Yusuf's recorded lessons on a basic Maliki text, Shaykh Ali Laraki's translation, and teachers such as Abdalhaqq Bewley.", "answer_start": 6603, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school", "society/education-and-madrasas/how-to-study-islam"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:aisha-bewley", "label": "Aisha Bewley"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-yusuf", "label": "Hamza Yusuf"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-murshid-al-muin", "label": "al-Murshid al-Mu'in [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ali-laraki", "label": "Ali Laraki [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdalhaqq-bewley", "label": "Abdalhaqq Bewley"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:hamza-maqbool", "label": "Hamza Maqbool"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deobandi", "label": "Deobandi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/19/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/20", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S20", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 20, "start": 6770, "end": 7374, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Are insects haram in the Maliki school? A reported fatwa and the Maliki view of food", "question_plain": "Are insects haram to eat in the Maliki school?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says some Malikis are very harsh, and describes a reply attributed to Shaykh Rami Nsour [?], which he hopes was misreported, on whether a sweet coloured with an insect extract is permitted, saying insects should not be eaten in the Maliki school because one cannot know whether a Muslim killed them or whether they were ritually slaughtered. He says that in the Maliki school almost everything is halal to eat, from birds to sea creatures, except pork and what was sacrificed to other than God, and that carrion is avoided for a secondary reason of health, citing the verse that says nothing revealed is forbidden to eat except carrion, pork and what was offered to other than God. Animals people do not usually eat, such as lions, wolves, elephants or insects, may be disliked by custom but are not haram, so someone who swallows an insect has eaten nothing haram. He says ritual slaughter applies only to domesticated livestock such as sheep, goats, cattle, camels and poultry, while other creatures are simply hunted, and mocks the idea of slaughtering an insect. In the middle he thanks viewers for super chats and messages of support.", "summary_short": "Insects are not haram in the Maliki school: almost everything is halal except pork and what is sacrificed to other than God. Ritual slaughter applies only to domesticated livestock, not insects.", "answer_start": 6770, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/food", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:rami-nsour", "label": "Rami Nsour [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:6:145", "label": "Quran 6:145 (I do not find in what was revealed to me anything forbidden to eat except ...)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhabiha", "label": "dhabiha (ritual slaughter)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that in the Maliki school almost everything is halal to eat except pork and what is sacrificed to other than God, that carrion is avoided for health, that insects are not haram, and that ritual slaughter applies only to domesticated livestock.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "ruling", "evidence": {"quote": "So similarly, people generally don't eat insects. But insects are not haram. Okay, that doesn't make it haram.", "start": 6980}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/20/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/21", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S21", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 21, "start": 7374, "end": 7823, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Before Ramadan: nourishing the soul through Quran, dua, charity, poetry and music", "question_plain": "How can I nourish my soul this Ramadan?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he will hold one more session before Ramadan, will not do Monday nights during it but will still hold Q&As and stream Arabic lessons. Asked by some to speak about Ramadan, he says he dislikes the word spirituality because it has been hijacked, and prefers Dr Joseph Lumbard's rendering of taqwa as reverence, meaning a bond between a person and God, which he says fasting is for. What nourishes that bond includes reading even a few lines of Quran a day rather than giving up on a juz a day, personal dua, which a hadith calls the marrow of worship, and charity. He adds that, generally and not only in Ramadan, learning, poetry, art and meaningful, often instrumental, music can strengthen a person inwardly, whereas praying a hundred voluntary prayers would not strengthen him personally, though it may help others. He mentions that The Cosmic Serpent describes shamans connecting to consciousness through sound, compares Sufi dhikr, and says God transcends such limitations.", "summary_short": "To deepen the bond with God, read even a little Quran daily, make personal dua and give charity; learning, poetry, art and meaningful music can also strengthen a person inwardly, not only more voluntary prayer.", "answer_start": 7436, "questioner": "self", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting", "fiqh/entertainment/music", "belief/spiritual-experience-and-psychedelics"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:joseph-lumbard", "label": "Joseph Lumbard"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:taqwa", "label": "taqwa"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dua", "label": "dua"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:c538564d", "label": "report: dua is the marrow of worship (unresolved)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:nafl", "label": "nafl (voluntary prayer)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:the-cosmic-serpent", "label": "The Cosmic Serpent"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dhikr", "label": "dhikr"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says that what nourishes the soul includes reading even a little Quran daily, personal dua and charity, and more generally learning, poetry, art or meaningful music, whatever strengthens a person inwardly, adding that for him personally many voluntary prayers would not do so.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "things which strengthen your inner core and it it could be it could be learning it could be poetry it could be art it could be music I I'm being very serious", "start": 7623}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/21/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/22", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S22", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 22, "start": 7823, "end": 7983, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does Allah love everybody? Hating actions, not creatures, and the pig", "question_plain": "Does Allah love everybody?", "summary": "Asked whether Allah loves everybody, Mufti Abu Layth says he feels He does: Allah loves His creation and does not despise it, though there is free will, and what He teaches He detests are harmful actions and those who commit them. He says pork being forbidden does not mean God hates pigs; the ruling came down in the Jewish scripture and was inherited by the Islamic tradition, most likely for hygiene, since undercooked pork is still a common cause of food poisoning. He questions narrations of Jesus killing pigs on this basis, and jokes about those who deny evolution yet would have pigs simply appear one day to be hated.", "summary_short": "Allah loves His creation and detests harmful actions, not creatures. Pork being forbidden, most likely for hygiene, does not mean God hates pigs.", "answer_start": 7823, "questioner": "chat", "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/god-and-attributes", "fiqh/food"], "entities": [{"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:fbb17a0e", "label": "report: isa will descend break the cross and kill the pigs"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Allah loves His creation and detests harmful actions rather than creatures, so pork being forbidden, most likely for reasons of hygiene, does not mean God hates pigs.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "Allah loves his creation. Why doesn't he? But there is free will. Um Allah does not despise his creation like that.", "start": 7823}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/22/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/23", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S23", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 23, "start": 7983, "end": 8243, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Yasir Qadhi's clip: mutawatir reports of Jesus' return and 'how can anyone claim to be Maliki'", "question_plain": "What does Yasir Qadhi argue about Malikis and the return of Jesus?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth returns to Yasir Qadhi and plays a clip in which Qadhi says there are mutawatir hadith on the return of Jesus, that it became a standard motif in dozens of works of Sunni theology, and asks how anyone can claim allegiance to the Maliki school and deny the return when the great Maliki scholars affirmed it, calling the claim that Imam Malik did not hold it a huge one. In the clip Qadhi says only philosophers and those who believe in no religion deny it, associates the denial with the school of Muhammad Abduh, which he describes as sceptical of miracles, of the signs of the Day of Judgment and of hadith, and calls the matter a criterion between belief and disbelief. Mufti frames this as the next part of his series and lists the points he will answer: that one cannot be Maliki and deny the return, that it is a huge claim that Imam Malik did not believe it, and that hadith cannot be questioned.", "summary_short": "Yasir Qadhi argues in the clip that the return of Jesus is established by mutawatir hadith and affirmed by the great Maliki scholars, so a Maliki cannot deny it. Mufti Abu Layth sets out the points he will answer.", "answer_start": 7983, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "fiqh/maliki-school"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mutawatir", "label": "mutawatir"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/23/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/24", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S24", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 24, "start": 8243, "end": 8705, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Did Imam Malik believe in the second coming? Assumption, the Mudawwana and transmission", "question_plain": "Did Imam Malik believe Jesus will return?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi's statement that only one person ever said Jesus died omits that the person is Imam Malik, whose statement that Jesus died a natural death on earth is transmitted in the Maliki sources. He argues that attributing the second coming to Malik because nothing says otherwise is not how claims are made, comparing it to assuming someone of Galileo's age held the heliocentric model: one only knows what a person actually said. He says the Mudawwana, with some thirty to thirty-five thousand of Malik's fatwas on belief and practice, never once teaches belief in Jesus' return. As for Malik transmitting hadith, he says transmission is not endorsement, like a retweet; one narration of the return attributed to Malik is outside the Muwatta, and towards the end of his life Malik stopped transmitting from al-Zuhri, the key transmitter of the second-coming reports, and kept thousands of narrations locked in a chest because much of it did not add up.", "summary_short": "There is a statement from Imam Malik that Jesus died, and Malik never taught the second coming in his fatwas or the Muwatta, so it is no huge claim that he did not hold it. Transmitting a report is not endorsing it.", "answer_start": 8243, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:al-mudawwana", "label": "al-Mudawwana"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-zuhri", "label": "Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:galileo-galilei", "label": "Galileo"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nicolaus-copernicus", "label": "Copernicus"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says there is a statement from Imam Malik that Jesus died, that Malik never taught the second coming in his fatwas or the Muwatta, and that transmitting a report is not endorsing it, so it is not a huge claim that Malik did not hold the belief.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "He never teaches you that, oh, I'm telling you that you should or that we should believe in the second coming of Jesus.", "start": 8479}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/24/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/25", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S25", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 25, "start": 8705, "end": 9054, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reports in the Muwatta that Malik did not follow, and Jesus telling a pig to pass in peace", "question_plain": "Why does the Muwatta contain hadith that Imam Malik did not follow?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik brings hadith in the Muwatta that he openly does not follow: of the report that a dog's saliva is impure he says he does not know what it is about, since the Quran permits hunting dogs. Sometimes he does not comment, as with the report of Abu Hurayra that the Prophet forbade every carnivorous animal and predatory bird, though the Maliki school, as in Khalil [?] and the practice of Madinah, holds almost all animals halal; Mufti says Malik leaves a clue that its narrators are all Iraqis, and asks how a dietary rule could be known in Iraq and not in Madinah where the Prophet lived and died. He says Malik brings no hadith at all about the second coming, and the only report about Jesus in the Muwatta describes his kindness to a pig, telling it to pass in peace, which Mufti infers was included to counter the reports that Jesus will return and kill pigs. He concedes that this is an inference, but says attributing the belief to Malik because others held it is equally arbitrary.", "summary_short": "Malik included in the Muwatta reports he did not practise, and the only report about Jesus there shows him telling a pig to pass in peace. Mufti Abu Layth reads this as a sign Malik rejected the reports that Jesus will return to kill pigs.", "answer_start": 8705, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/maliki-school/muwatta-and-mudawwana", "hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:07d42a1a", "label": "report: the dog licking the vessel and malik said we do not know its reality"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:19b3f804", "label": "report: the prophet forbade every carnivorous animal with fangs and every predatory bird (abu hurayra, in the muwatta, unresolved)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:abu-hurayra", "label": "Abu Hurayra"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:mukhtasar-khalil", "label": "Mukhtasar Khalil [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "the practice of the people of Madinah"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:24232b79", "label": "report: jesus passed a pig and said pass by in peace"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:fbb17a0e", "label": "report: isa will descend break the cross and kill the pigs"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik included in the Muwatta reports he did not practise, and infers from the only report about Jesus there, in which Jesus tells a pig to pass in peace, that Malik had a problem with the reports that Jesus will return and kill pigs.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "I infer from this that he is showing that we have a problem with the narrations that people are saying Jesus will come flag and he will kill pigs.", "start": 8948}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/25/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/26", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S26", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 26, "start": 9054, "end": 9810, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Sayyad and the Dajjal reports: spying, swelling and contradictory locations", "question_plain": "Did the Prophet really spy on a boy he thought was the Dajjal?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth links the return of Jesus to the Dajjal and goes through reports he finds insulting. In one, which he says is in Sahih Muslim with a variant in Bukhari, the Prophet, suspecting the boy Ibn Sayyad of being the Dajjal, hides behind palm trees to overhear him, until the boy's mother warns him and the Prophet says that had she not, they would have found out; Mufti says this is not how a prophet with revelation and a dignified character behaved. He describes a Sahih Muslim report in which, as he tells it, Umar angers Ibn Sayyad, who swells until he fills the street, and another in which the Prophet tests the boy by hiding Surat al-Dukhan in his mind and Ibn Sayyad answers 'dukh'. He sets these against reports that the Dajjal cannot enter Madinah, that he was a chained giant on an island met by Tamim al-Dari, which Mufti calls fabricated, and that he will come from the east, from Iraq, from Isfahan or perhaps from Yemen, and asks how revelation can give so many different answers. He then turns to Qadhi's claim that admitting anything crept into Islam would rip out its foundations.", "summary_short": "The Ibn Sayyad and Dajjal reports are absurd and insult the Prophet's dignity, and their contradictory accounts of who and where the Dajjal is show they are not revelation.", "answer_start": 9054, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "hadith/false-and-fabricated/about-the-prophet", "hadith/authentication/text-criticism-and-reason"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-sayyad", "label": "Ibn Sayyad"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:3e965d16", "label": "report: the prophet hid behind palm trees to overhear ibn sayyad and his mother warned him (sahih muslim with a variant in bukhari, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:f6cdbddf", "label": "report: ibn sayyad swelled with anger until he filled the street (sahih muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:246187ac", "label": "report: the prophet tested ibn sayyad with a hidden word and he answered dukh"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:a6bf32eb", "label": "report: the dajjal cannot enter madinah (unresolved)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:706285e0", "label": "report: tamim al-dari the island and the jassasa"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:tamim-al-dari", "label": "Tamim al-Dari"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:2741e4cd", "label": "report: the dajjal emerges from the jews of isbahan (aisha)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:umar-ibn-al-khattab", "label": "Umar ibn al-Khattab"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the reports in which the Prophet spies on the child Ibn Sayyad suspecting him to be the Dajjal, and related reports in Sahih Muslim and Bukhari, are absurd and insulting to the Prophet's dignity, and that their contradictory accounts of the Dajjal's identity and location show they are not revelation.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "The prophet had an immensely dignified character. He didn't used to run around hiding behind trees, spying on children", "start": 9349}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/26/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/27", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S27", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 27, "start": 9810, "end": 10290, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The Mahdi: a belief from early Shia politics, and Ibn Ashur, the Maliki giant", "question_plain": "Where does the belief in the Mahdi come from?", "summary": "After a brief technical hitch, Mufti Abu Layth takes the Mahdi as another belief equally endorsed by the same scholars. He says he finds it disrespectful to the Prophet, who was himself the rightly guided saviour of the community, and asks what the Mahdi is supposed to do when fighting the Dajjal and establishing the kingdom of God are assigned to Jesus, which he says implies the Prophet was not enough. He says the belief crept into Sunni Islam from early Shia politics: al-Mukhtar promoted Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya as the saviour before they fell out, later figures such as Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya [?] were cast in the role, and the Mahdi hadith are descriptions of such people fabricated at the time. He introduces Ibn Ashur, whom he calls an indirect teacher, mentions that a senior shaykh in that line, whose name the transcript does not render clearly, received him warmly and gave him an ijazah, and shows a timeline of Ibn Ashur's career as Maliki judge and mufti, Shaykh al-Islam of the Malikis and Grand Shaykh of al-Zaytuna.", "summary_short": "The Mahdi belief is disrespectful to the Prophet, who was the rightly guided saviour, and entered Sunni Islam from early Shia political movements; the Mahdi hadith describe figures of that time.", "answer_start": 9810, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "hadith/false-and-fabricated", "history/modern-reformers-and-movements"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:shia", "label": "Shia"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:mukhtar-al-thaqafi", "label": "al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-ibn-al-hanafiyya", "label": "Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:muhammad-al-nafs-al-zakiyya", "label": "Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:al-zaytuna", "label": "al-Zaytuna"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ijazah", "label": "ijazah (authorisation to teach, with a chain)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says the belief in a Mahdi is disrespectful to the Prophet, who was the rightly guided saviour, and that it entered Sunni Islam from early Shia political movements, the Mahdi hadith being fabricated descriptions of figures of that time.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "I find this concept disrespectful to the prophet because there the rightly guided person for this um was the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam", "start": 9883}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/27/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/28", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S28", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 28, "start": 10290, "end": 10716, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Ibn Ashur: the signs of the Hour are information, not creed; Imam Ahmad on the malahim", "question_plain": "Are the signs of the Hour part of Islamic creed?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth reads from Ibn Ashur, who says faith returns to three things, creed, actions and etiquette, and that beliefs about the Mahdi and the signs of the end of time, including the coming of Jesus and the sun rising from the west, fall under none of them but are Islamic information for academic pursuit. As Mufti presents it, Ibn Ashur says people mistakenly placed them under creed because they are not actions, that only the Quran reaches the level of certainty, and that such reports, the Mahdi among them, crept into Sunni Islam from weak and unacceptable hadith. He then cites Imam Ahmad's statement that three things have no foundation, the maghazi, the tafsir attributed to the early generations and the malahim, the apocalyptic battles, while noting that some say Ahmad meant something else. He concludes that one can not only be a Maliki and hold this but be Shaykh al-Islam of the Malikis, and briefly recalls the report of a fluid from beneath the Throne that he discussed previously; a part of Qadhi's clip is replayed.", "summary_short": "One can be a Maliki and doubt these reports: Ibn Ashur, Shaykh al-Islam of the Malikis, classed the signs of the Hour as information rather than creed, and Imam Ahmad said the malahim reports have no foundation.", "answer_start": 10290, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/eschatology/dajjal-mahdi-and-signs", "belief/creed-and-kalam-schools", "dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:aqidah", "label": "aqidah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:mahdi", "label": "Mahdi"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ahmad-ibn-hanbal", "label": "Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:68599178", "label": "report: three things have no basis the maghazi the tafsir and the malahim (imam ahmad)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:6271346a", "label": "report: ibn masud the christians claim jesus will return and after the destruction allah sends down a fluid from beneath the throne like the sperm of men from which they grow"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/28/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/29", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S29", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 29, "start": 10716, "end": 11208, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Summing up the reply to Qadhi: the one-eyed Dajjal, an invitation, and Iqbal", "question_plain": "Why does Mufti Abu Layth say it is not a huge claim that Imam Malik denied the second coming?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth sums up why it is not a huge claim that Imam Malik did not believe in the second coming: Malik transmitted that Jesus died, removed such narrations from his book, brought only a report that clashes with Jesus killing pigs, and never taught the belief in over thirty-five thousand answers. He says Ibn Ashur, whom he considers an indirect teacher, was Shaykh al-Islam of the Malikis, and finds insulting the report that people should know their Lord is not one-eyed so as not to mistake the Dajjal for God, along with the reports of spying on Ibn Sayyad, his swelling, the island and the conflicting places of emergence. He invites Qadhi onto MindTrap for a meaningful dialogue in which each can question the other. He says that many in the last century denied the second coming, naming Allama Iqbal, at whose request, he says, a Maulana [?] wrote a book refuting it, and says critics avoid attacking Iqbal because of his standing in Pakistan. He brushes aside a joke question before moving on.", "summary_short": "Malik's record and Ibn Ashur's standing show a Maliki can deny the second coming, and the Dajjal reports insult the Prophet. He invites Qadhi to a dialogue on MindTrap.", "answer_start": 10716, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics/yasir-qadhi", "belief/eschatology/second-coming-of-jesus", "history/modern-reformers-and-movements"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:yasir-qadhi", "label": "Yasir Qadhi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:266d2083", "label": "report: know that your lord is not one-eyed (on the dajjal, unresolved)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-sayyad", "label": "Ibn Sayyad"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:tamim-al-dari", "label": "Tamim al-Dari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-iqbal", "label": "Allama Muhammad Iqbal"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ubaydullah-sindhi", "label": "Ubaydullah Sindhi [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-abduh", "label": "Muhammad Abduh"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:dajjal", "label": "Dajjal"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says it is not a huge claim that Imam Malik did not believe in the second coming, given his statement that Jesus died, the contents of the Muwatta and his fatwas, and that the reports of the one-eyed Dajjal and of the Prophet spying on Ibn Sayyad insult the Prophet's dignity.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "I find that insulting and blasphemous to the honor and dignity of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam to attribute this stuff to him.", "start": 10861}}, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/29/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/30", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S30", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 30, "start": 11208, "end": 11456, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "A critic's reaction video: the Wahhabi jibe and the setup", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth turns to the critic's reaction video, made with a second presenter, which he says cuts and pastes his opinions out of context and misrepresents them. He plays parts of it in which the critic calls him a Wahhabi, and responds with jokes about Wahhabis as 'wobblers', saying Wahhabis hate being called Wahhabi and mocking Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. He says he will comment on only a few points, briefly.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth introduces a critic's reaction video that he says distorts his views, and trades jokes about the label Wahhabi.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir/salafism-and-wahhabism"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:muhammad-ibn-abd-al-wahhab", "label": "Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/30/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/31", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S31", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 31, "start": 11456, "end": 11686, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Reply to the critic: lying, and the precedents of al-Burzuli and subcontinent hadith scholars", "question_plain": "Does Mufti Abu Layth have any scholarly precedent for his views?", "summary": "On lying, Mufti Abu Layth says he has a full video, and that believing every statement that does not match reality means God must burn a person in hell is foolish, giving the example of saying one is drinking Pepsi when drinking water. He says the critics cannot decide whether he invents his views or has precedents whom they then call heretics, and that the scholar they treat as unknown, Abu al-Qasim al-Burzuli [?], was the Shaykh al-Islam of the Malikis some six or seven hundred years ago, whom Mufti introduced to them, and who held that punishments change with the age, a fatwa he says later scholars endorsed and rulers applied. He says Ibn Ashur is no deviant, and that the subcontinent scholars he quotes, such as Abdul Karim [?], were Salafi hadith scholars of the Ahl al-Hadith tradition, in the circle of Sanaullah Amritsari [?], not Malikis, called heretics only for using the voice of reason.", "summary_short": "His views have respected precedents: al-Burzuli, a Maliki Shaykh al-Islam, held that punishments change with the age, and the subcontinent scholars he quotes were Ahl al-Hadith, not heretics. Not every untrue statement is a sin punished with hell.", "answer_start": 11456, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments", "fiqh/speech-and-everyday-conduct"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-burzuli", "label": "al-Burzuli [?]"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hudud-change-with-the-age", "label": "punishments change with the age"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-ashur", "label": "Ibn Ashur"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abdul-karim-athari", "label": "Abdul Karim Athari [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:sanaullah-amritsari", "label": "Sanaullah Amritsari [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:ahl-al-hadith", "label": "Ahl al-Hadith"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zindiq", "label": "zindiq"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/31/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/32", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S32", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 32, "start": 11686, "end": 11956, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Noah's 950 years: ancient counting systems, not a copied error", "question_plain": "Did Noah really live 950 years?", "summary": "The critics' clip says Mufti Abu Layth claims the Old Testament got Noah's age wrong and the Quran copied it; Mufti says they twist his argument. He says he argued that the Quran's wording, a thousand years less fifty, using two different words for year in the same verse, is out of the ordinary and refers to very ancient calendars rather than contemporary years. He points to the Sumerian king lists, which counted reigns in thousands and hundreds of years with a system based on sixty, from which he says we inherit 360, and says the Old Testament contains remnants of such systems in the ages of certain kings and ancient figures, not Noah, giving them as examples of the inheritance. He says he is not even aware of the Bible giving Noah 950 years in the way they claim, and asks them to steel-man his arguments rather than straw-man them.", "summary_short": "Noah's 950 years refers to an ancient counting system like those of the Sumerian king lists, signalled by the verse's unusual wording, not to ordinary years; he never said the Quran copied an error from the Bible.", "answer_start": 11733, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:29:14", "label": "Quran 29:14 (a thousand years less fifty)"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:sumerians", "label": "the Sumerians"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:old-testament", "label": "the Old Testament"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/32/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/33", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S33", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 33, "start": 11956, "end": 12401, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Abraham and the birds: nurturing and affinity, not chopping and reviving", "question_plain": "Did Abraham really cut up birds that came back to life?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the critics do not tackle his argument on the verse of Abraham and the birds. He says the verb in the verse means to call birds towards oneself with a sound, and that the reading 'cut them' relies on a borrowed foreign word, in Syriac or Abyssinian, which even if accepted leaves 'towards you' unexplained. He asks why, if Abraham asked how God gives life to the dead, God would point him to birds rather than to a dead person, and why one who had already, on their reading, survived the fire and seen other miracles needed more; he notes the Quran says only that a fire was lit and God saved him. His reading is symbolic: Abraham nurtures birds, the image of freedom, which then fly to him from afar out of affinity, a sign that souls have a far greater affinity to God, a message for all people in every age, whereas a story of chopped-up birds revived offers nothing to practise. He plays the critics' mocking of this reading and says they still do not address his points.", "summary_short": "In the verse of Abraham and the birds he reads a symbol: birds nurtured by Abraham come to him from afar, a sign of the soul's affinity to God, rather than birds cut up and revived.", "answer_start": 11956, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:ibrahim", "label": "Ibrahim (Abraham)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:260", "label": "Quran 2:260 (Abraham and the four birds)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/33/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/34", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S34", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 34, "start": 12401, "end": 12784, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Miracles within nature: the parting of the sea and Moses and the magicians", "question_plain": "Did the parting of the sea have a natural explanation?", "summary": "The critics object to his view that miracles such as the parting of the sea could have a natural explanation; Mufti Abu Layth says God is behind such events but acts through the laws of nature, citing the report in which the Prophet questioned the cross-pollination of palms, the crop failed, and he told people to keep to their methods. He says almost all the detail of the Exodus comes from the Bible, where the Lord drives the sea back with a wind blowing all night, and that several researchers place the crossing at the Gulf of Aqaba, where strong winds are reported to push the water back. On Moses and the magicians, he says he argued that the magicians used tricks such as mercury to make their sticks move, that Moses exposed their magic, and that turning his staff into a snake would only have been topping magic with magic. He adds that he finds some strength in the theory that Moses was Akhenaten, in which case the staff was the royal sceptre with its serpent emblem, showing his rightful authority.", "summary_short": "God acts through the laws of nature, so the parting of the sea can have a natural explanation such as a strong wind, and Moses exposed the magicians' tricks rather than outdoing them with magic.", "answer_start": 12401, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d97230ae", "label": "report: the prophet questioned the cross pollination of palms the crop failed and he told them to keep to their methods (unresolved)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:book-of-exodus", "label": "the Book of Exodus"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:akhenaten", "label": "Akhenaten"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/34/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/35", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S35", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 35, "start": 12784, "end": 12961, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The heifer of the Israelites and 'in retaliation there is life'", "question_plain": "Was the murdered man in the story of the cow brought back to life?", "summary": "Skimming further points, Mufti Abu Layth takes the verse of the heifer: he says it does not state that the dead man was brought back to life, though God says this is how He gives life. He links it to the verse saying that in retaliation there is life, explained as lives saved because executing a murderer prevented tribal bloodshed, adding that later Maliki scholars such as al-Burzuli held that capital punishment changed with the age. In the same way, he says, when the tribes of Israel found a dead body and were about to fight, a ritual resolved the matter, and that ritual is recorded in Jewish literature, which the critics do not engage.", "summary_short": "The verse of the heifer does not say the dead man was revived; like 'in retaliation there is life', it refers to lives saved when a ritual of justice averted tribal war.", "answer_start": 12784, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/moses", "quran/hermeneutics", "fiqh/public-law-and-governance/hudud-and-punishments"], "entities": [{"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:73", "label": "Quran 2:73 (thus Allah gives life to the dead)"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:179", "label": "Quran 2:179 (in retaliation there is life for you)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qisas", "label": "qisas (retaliation)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-burzuli", "label": "al-Burzuli [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/35/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/36", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S36", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 36, "start": 12961, "end": 13228, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The hudhud and Solomon: a human agent, and the throne of Sheba", "question_plain": "Was Solomon's hudhud really a bird?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says the critics cut and paste his discussion of the hudhud. He says the verses address the hudhud with plurals and pronouns that Arabic uses only for human beings, that Solomon threatens to slaughter it unless it explains itself, and asks how a bird has such cognition and accountability; so it was a person, possibly part of what he calls Solomon's intelligence service bringing word of neighbouring kingdoms, a view he notes some scholars have also mentioned. On the bringing of the Queen of Sheba's throne, he asks whether prophets would steal thrones and says an alternative reading makes sense. He objects that the critics dismiss a scholar he cites, author of a nine-volume tafsir and works on hadith, as some random person, and says agreeing with his view does not make a lifelong scholar a hidden heretic.", "summary_short": "The hudhud is addressed in Arabic forms used only for humans, so Mufti Abu Layth reads it as a person, perhaps an agent of Solomon's intelligence service, and he rejects a reading that makes a prophet steal a throne.", "answer_start": 12961, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "quran/hermeneutics", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:sulayman", "label": "Sulayman (Solomon)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hudhud", "label": "hudhud (hoopoe)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:queen-of-sheba", "label": "the Queen of Sheba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:zindiq", "label": "zindiq"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/36/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/37", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S37", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 37, "start": 13228, "end": 13506, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Jesus: speaking 'in the cradle' and surviving the cross", "question_plain": "Did Jesus survive the crucifixion?", "summary": "The critics mock his reading of the verse in which the priests ask how they can speak to a boy; Mufti Abu Layth says he argued that the high priests of Jerusalem found it dishonouring to be debated and bested by a boy, and referred to the Gospel of Luke. They also laugh at his view that Jesus was put on the cross and taken down alive: because of the Sabbath he was there only a few hours when crucifixion normally took about three days, and the Roman soldiers, by the biblical account, checked him with a spear and took him down. Mufti contrasts this with the view he says they hold, that a Roman soldier, or Judas, was transformed to look exactly like Jesus and crucified while Jesus was raised to the sky, and asks why they find that less strange. He then turns to the critic's remarks about people who donate to him.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth reads the cradle verse as the priests' indignation at being debated by a boy, and says Jesus was taken down from the cross alive after a few hours, which he finds more plausible than a substitute transformed to look like him.", "answer_start": 13228, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets/jesus", "dialogue/christians-and-other-faiths", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:isa", "label": "Isa (Jesus)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:gospel-of-luke", "label": "Gospel of Luke"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:judas-iscariot", "label": "Judas Iscariot"}, {"type": "org", "id": "org:roman-empire", "label": "Roman Empire"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/37/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/38", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S38", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 38, "start": 13506, "end": 13970, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "other", "title": "Donors, deathbed remarks and 'no hatred': an invitation to the critic", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth mocks the critic's suggestion that he must be paying people to send super chats, joking with viewers about paying them back. Responding to a remark in the video about pulling the cord on his deathbed, he says that while he dislikes such people for what they do and their cult-like mentality, he has no hatred for them, and that God has given him a life he does not believe he deserves. He replays the critic's Wahhabi jibe with more jokes about wobbling, offers to send the critic a gift, and invites him onto MindTrap for a dialogue in which each asks the other questions, saying that if refuting him is so easy it would make the critic's career.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says he dislikes his critics' conduct but has no hatred for them, and invites the critic to a dialogue on MindTrap.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "wellbeing/anger-and-forgiveness"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:wahhabi", "label": "Wahhabi"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/38/"}, {"id": "zZ85AUzeK5w/s/39", "short_id": "2021-04-06-S39", "recording": "zZ85AUzeK5w", "n": 39, "start": 13970, "end": 14312, "date": "20210406", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Closing: super chats, a session before Ramadan, and a revolution of hearts and minds", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth begins to wrap up, thanking viewers for super chats and responding to comments about his critics. He says there will be one more session before Ramadan, which will cover some Ramadan rulings, and that Instagram is the best place to send questions, and asks viewers to like, subscribe and share. He says a revolution has already begun that will be won in the hearts and minds of the younger generation, for an understanding of the faith based on reason, compassion and love rather than casting people out of Islam and into hell. He ends with a clip from the critic and music.", "summary_short": "Closing remarks: one more session before Ramadan, questions via Instagram, and a call for a faith of reason, compassion and love.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zZ85AUzeK5w/s/39/"}, {"id": "z__38zt8FlQ/s/1", "short_id": "2020-04-07-S01", "recording": "z__38zt8FlQ", "n": 1, "start": 0, "end": 79, "date": "20200407", "tier": "machine", "kind": "announcement", "title": "Instructions to moderators: block haters, not provocative questions", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth tells his moderators to block only people who are hating, swearing or trolling, not those asking genuine questions even if they seem provocative. He says his policy is that anyone can ask him anything about Islam, that many viewers are non-Muslim, ex-Muslim or agnostic, and that he does not expect them to behave like Muslims towards Islamic symbols. He then says he wants to give an important message that he would like shared.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth asks moderators to block only haters and trolls, since anyone may ask him anything about Islam.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": null, "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": [], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/z__38zt8FlQ/s/1/"}, {"id": "z__38zt8FlQ/s/2", "short_id": "2020-04-07-S02", "recording": "z__38zt8FlQ", "n": 2, "start": 79, "end": 499, "date": "20200407", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Misrepresented: the question whether prophets' bodies decay in the grave", "question_plain": "Do the prophets' bodies decay in the grave?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth recounts a recent encounter with a man who was hurt by what he had been told Mufti teaches. He says people may disagree with, refute or mock his opinions, but some preachers, among whom he names Asrar Rashid [?], lie about his views and then refute the lies, claiming he advocates insulting the Prophet. As an example he says a clip in which he read out a non-Muslim's question, whether the prophets' bodies are preserved in their graves or decay, was circulated as if the question were his own teaching. He explains that in that clip he set out two approaches: a devotional one which out of reverence ascribes nothing of decay to the prophets, and a factual one which stresses that the prophets were human, aged, ate and needed oxygen, and asks whether they remain like other humans after death. He says he noted that the majority of Muslims probably take the devotional approach, and that calling this disrespect for the Prophet is a lie.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth did not teach that the prophets' bodies decay: he read out a question and described a devotional and a factual approach, noting most Muslims take the devotional one. He says critics who present it as disrespect to the Prophet are lying.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "belief/prophethood-and-miracles", "belief/sectarianism-and-takfir"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:asrar-rashid", "label": "Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?]"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:nuh", "label": "Nuh (Noah)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/z__38zt8FlQ/s/2/"}, {"id": "z__38zt8FlQ/s/3", "short_id": "2020-04-07-S03", "recording": "z__38zt8FlQ", "n": 3, "start": 499, "end": 766, "date": "20200407", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "His record of defending the Prophet's honour against disrespectful narrations", "question_plain": "Does the Mufti teach disrespect for the Prophet?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says sectarian preachers use such distortions to call him a kafir and stir up people's sentiments, which he says is why the youth are fed up with the mullahs. He lists positions he says he has taken in defence of the Prophet: that the Prophet did not marry a child; rejecting the narrations that magic made him clumsy and impotent, that Musa ran naked, that he took Safiyya as wife right after her husband was killed without waiting for her 'iddah, that he lusted after Zaynab, and the report in al-Bukhari that he told a woman to give herself to him. He says those who accuse him did not take these stances. He rejects the claim that he is a closet atheist, saying that if he were one he would announce it and does not care what people think of him.", "summary_short": "No: he says he has repeatedly defended the Prophet, denying that he married a child and rejecting narrations he finds insulting. Those accusing him took none of these stances.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["history/sirah/defending-the-prophet", "history/sirah/age-of-aisha", "dialogue/responses-to-critics"], "entities": [{"type": "person", "id": "person:aisha", "label": "Aisha"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e92689a3", "label": "report: magic was done on the prophet and he became impotent"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:e592ec95", "label": "report: musa ran naked so that people could see he had no hernia"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:musa", "label": "Musa (Moses)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:safiyya-bint-huyayy", "label": "Safiyya bint Huyayy"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:battle-of-khaybar", "label": "Battle of Khaybar [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:iddah", "label": "'iddah (waiting period)"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:zaynab-bint-jahsh", "label": "Zaynab bint Jahsh"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:d574a07a", "label": "report: the prophet said to the woman give yourself to me"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-al-bukhari", "label": "Sahih al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kafir", "label": "kafir"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he has stood up for years and said that the Prophet did not marry a child.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "historical", "evidence": {"quote": "for years i've stood up and said that the Prophet did not marry a child", "start": 537}}, "url": "/r/z__38zt8FlQ/s/3/"}, {"id": "z__38zt8FlQ/s/4", "short_id": "2020-04-07-S04", "recording": "z__38zt8FlQ", "n": 4, "start": 766, "end": 959, "date": "20200407", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Message to critics: criticise truthfully, not with lies", "question_plain": null, "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says he believes in Allah and His Messenger but does not accept what he calls twisted, folkloric and medievalist interpretations of Islam, which he feels are not compatible with this day and age, nor presentations of Islam as barbaric and anti-rights. He says that by the end of the conversation the man he met was respectful and said he agreed with much of what Mufti said. He challenges anyone to show a Muslim who became an atheist because of him, saying he can show people who left Islam and came back through his teaching. He says he will keep his humour and his counter-cultural opinions, and asks critics at least to be truthful in what they attribute to him, since much of his mission has been to defend the honour of the Prophet.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth believes in Allah and His Messenger but rejects folkloric, medieval readings of Islam. He asks critics to attack his real views, not lies.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["dialogue/responses-to-critics", "dialogue/the-mufti-and-the-channel", "society/islam-and-modernity"], "entities": [], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he does not accept folkloric, medievalist interpretations of Islam, which he feels are not compatible with this day and age.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "teaching", "evidence": {"quote": "your folkloric and maybe kind of medievalist kind of veneers that you give Islam I don't accept I don't feel that it's compatible with this day and age", "start": 766}}, "url": "/r/z__38zt8FlQ/s/4/"}, {"id": "zbyA7rqfyRU/s/1", "short_id": "2016-03-15-S01", "recording": "zbyA7rqfyRU", "n": 1, "start": 6, "end": 325, "date": "20160315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Apostasy: execution as divine policy, tribal loyalty and treason in wartime", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The recording opens mid-conversation with one speaker reporting a view, attributed to others, that apostates should be executed wherever found as the fulfilment of a divine sunnah, so that it is the policy of Allah towards the rebellious rather than a foreign policy of Islam; he adds that some contemporary speakers say the punishment applied only to that time. He summarises an author in America [?] who argues from the Quran that apostasy began as a strategy to create doubt, citing the verse in which the Jews propose to believe and then leave in order to unsettle the Muslims [?], so that threats were made to counter it. The other speaker, apparently the guest [?], adds that tribal identity was supreme in Arab society, that the Muslims had replaced it with a new loyalty, and that in the middle of an ongoing war leaving the community was a declaration of joining the other side, an act of treason, comparing it to renouncing citizenship in peacetime versus wartime in international law. The speakers say that those who leave are nonetheless answerable to Allah, criticise Islamic studies discourse for making the Quran a tertiary reference, and one calls illogical the reading that there is no compulsion only until one enters Islam [?]. The segment ends as one speaker begins to describe an argument he had with a scholar.", "summary_short": "The speakers present the execution of apostates as tied to wartime treason and tribal loyalty in early Arab society rather than to belief alone, and say the Quran should be the primary reference in the discussion.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/public-law-and-governance", "history/orthodoxy-and-how-islam-spread", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:3:72", "label": "Quran 3:72 (believe at the start of the day and disbelieve at its end) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:256", "label": "Quran 2:256 (no compulsion in religion) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zbyA7rqfyRU/s/1/"}, {"id": "zbyA7rqfyRU/s/2", "short_id": "2016-03-15-S02", "recording": "zbyA7rqfyRU", "n": 2, "start": 325, "end": 407, "date": "20160315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "The verse on men having a degree over women, read in its passage", "question_plain": null, "summary": "One speaker, apparently the guest [?], recounts a discussion with a scholar about the reading that men have a degree over women. He argues the verse does not support it: the phrase comes as the eleventh pronoun in a passage about women during their waiting period and the disadvantage they are at, so pulling from it a general claim that men rank above women ignores the structure of the text. He asks how this reading became the common one and says the textual structure is clear. The transcript has a short gap after this paragraph; the exchange continues in the next segment.", "summary_short": "The verse about a degree over women is read by one speaker as concerning women in their waiting period, not a general ranking of men above women.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/tafsir", "society/women-and-gender", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:228", "label": "Quran 2:228 (men have a degree over them) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zbyA7rqfyRU/s/2/"}, {"id": "zbyA7rqfyRU/s/3", "short_id": "2016-03-15-S03", "recording": "zbyA7rqfyRU", "n": 3, "start": 415, "end": 885, "date": "20160315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Western human rights, unquestioned presuppositions and the labels liberal and conservative", "question_plain": null, "summary": "The segment opens with the end of the exchange on the verse about a degree over women: the first speaker objects to thirty pages of commentary about women's nature being used to reinforce a supposition before the primary text is given justice, and reports being told that his reading exists but the vast majority held otherwise. The other speaker replies, as he says he kept saying in that discussion, that earlier scholars tried their best for their own age and read the text through what was then normal, and that today there is a heightened cry for freedoms which affects everyone; he adds that some Muslims reject anything because the West has said it, as when he spoke of human freedoms and was told Islam has its own understanding of human rights. The first speaker, apparently the guest [?], says the problem is internal first: he performs wudu in an order he has never looked up, and most believers and even imams build on unquestioned presuppositions; after fourteen years of studying the Quran he cannot enter a surah with presuppositions and must ask critical questions even when they sound bad, which he calls genuine scholarship. He says the same scrutiny must be applied to the West, between the extreme that the tradition is perfect and the extreme that the West has better values, and objects that the Western human rights discourse shifts its markers every ten years, citing drug legalisation, the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, talk of polygamy and other demands, and earlier exposure of children to sexual content. The other speaker agrees that morals shift and says his point was to use the Western cry for freedoms as a point of reflection rather than embracing it wholesale; he adds that he dislikes the labels liberal and conservative, which are used to dismiss a point rather than argue it, notes that the Prophet chose ease when faced with two options, and says that applied to the Companions such labels would make some of them look liberal, which leads into the example of riba.", "summary_short": "Both speakers say Muslims should question their own presuppositions and scrutinise Western values rather than dismiss or adopt them wholesale. One objects that Western moral markers shift every decade; the other that labels like liberal and conservative replace argument.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence", "possible_quoted_view", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["society/islam-and-modernity", "fiqh/legal-theory", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:228", "label": "Quran 2:228 (men have a degree over them) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:wudu", "label": "wudu"}, {"type": "event", "id": "event:us-supreme-court-same-sex-marriage-ruling-2015", "label": "US Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage (2015)"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zbyA7rqfyRU/s/3/"}, {"id": "zbyA7rqfyRU/s/4", "short_id": "2016-03-15-S04", "recording": "zbyA7rqfyRU", "n": 4, "start": 885, "end": 1043, "date": "20160315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Riba and Ibn Abbas: his disagreement on riba and his combining of prayers", "question_plain": null, "summary": "One speaker, apparently Mufti Abu Layth [?], sketches how riba is broken down, as an increase in an exchange such as two kilos of dates for one, or a delay in which something is taken later, with an exception made for money, and says Ibn Abbas held that riba was only in the delayed transaction, disagreeing with the vast majority: exchanging one kilo of wheat for two on the spot would be fine as long as there was no delay. He says Ibn Abbas disagreed on many other matters, including salah, and recounts a report in Sahih Muslim in which Ibn Abbas was giving a speech, the time for a prayer passed, someone stood up to object, and he carried on, then combined the prayers and said the Prophet had combined without fear and without travel, adding that he did not want his address cut short. The speaker says this is the student of the Prophet, not just anybody, and that by the standard of today's labels people would dismiss him. The segment ends as he turns this into a point about method.", "summary_short": "Ibn Abbas is reported as holding that riba lies only in delayed exchange and as combining prayers without travel or fear, which one speaker uses to show that labelling a view easy or liberal is not an argument.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence", "possible_quoted_view"], "topics": ["fiqh/finance", "history/companions", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "person", "id": "person:ibn-abbas", "label": "Ibn Abbas"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:riba", "label": "riba"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:jam", "label": "jam (combining prayers)"}, {"type": "hadith", "id": "hadith:fp:93966072", "label": "report: ibn abbas combined the prayers and said the prophet combined without fear or travel (unresolved; Sahih Muslim, number not stated)"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:sahih-muslim", "label": "Sahih Muslim"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zbyA7rqfyRU/s/4/"}, {"id": "zbyA7rqfyRU/s/5", "short_id": "2016-03-15-S05", "recording": "zbyA7rqfyRU", "n": 5, "start": 1043, "end": 1435, "date": "20160315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Is morality innate? Language acquisition, divine command, and insecurity in faith", "question_plain": null, "summary": "One speaker concludes the previous point: the discourse should ask what the Quran, the Sunnah and the Companions held, looking at the comprehensive picture rather than dismissing a view with a label. He then says the Quran insists that man is a moral being, and draws an analogy with the debate over whether babies pick up language or are pre-wired for it, describing research on migrant communities whose pidgin was turned into a creole by their children, on deaf and blind children, and the idea of a universal grammar, a raw base structure one is built for; he believes a comparable base of moral sense is what the Quran speaks of. He contrasts two traditional theological positions, that the intellect can always discern right and wrong and that everything is divine command so that nothing is wrong except because it is forbidden, and the other speaker says this discussion is distant from the Quranic text, asking where the figure who regretted a killing learnt that it was wrong [?]. One speaker says he definitely believes in innate morality at a base level, apart from the intricacies of the shari'ah, and that Muslims should listen to non-Muslim thinkers who speak sense, as the early Muslims of the golden era embraced foreign knowledge while distancing what clashed with Islam and did not become insecure. He ties this back to apostasy: wanting to kill the one who questions is a way of consolidating one's own faith, which should instead be solid and not depend on others' validation. He adds that the Quran speaks mostly of other prophets, whose legacies form a consistent river of which the Prophet is the culmination, and that much current discourse goes upstream against their concern for humanity.", "summary_short": "The speakers hold that the Quran treats humans as having an innate moral sense, compared to an innate capacity for language, and say faith should not depend on silencing those who question it.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence", "possible_quoted_view", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["belief/reason-and-revelation", "arts/philosophy-and-ideas", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zbyA7rqfyRU/s/5/"}, {"id": "zbyA7rqfyRU/s/6", "short_id": "2016-03-15-S06", "recording": "zbyA7rqfyRU", "n": 6, "start": 1435, "end": 1747, "date": "20160315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Ritualisation of the deen and the angels' question about Adam: can believers ask?", "question_plain": null, "summary": "One speaker, apparently the guest [?], says there has been an immense ritualisation of the deen that has fossilised: once a scholar reaches a conclusion it is set in stone and questioning it is treated as questioning the religion, even though scholars are free to disagree. He says he began his lectures on Surah al-Baqarah to stir the boat and reached the story of Adam and the angels, which he calls unique even against the biblical narrative. He describes the angels, creatures of absolute obedience, asking what sounds like a critical, even defiant question when Allah announces He will create a khalifah [?], a question that in Pakistan or a madrasa would earn a slap. He reads it not as the angels offering themselves as an alternative but as them saying they do not understand and mean no disrespect, and Allah eventually explains. His point is that if angels can question Allah directly, a believer should be able to question what is presented to him, and he asks why entering Islam is thought to end questioning. He says he has become convinced that one of the Quran's primary functions is to train the believer how to think rather than glorify knowledge, and cites a prophet asking how Allah brings the dead to life [?]. The other speaker agrees that faith is something else, a contentment, and raises the related subject of creation before Adam.", "summary_short": "The deen has been ritualised so that scholarly conclusions cannot be questioned, while the angels' question to Allah about creating Adam is read as a model that believers may ask questions.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/stories-of-the-prophets", "belief/reason-and-revelation", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:30", "label": "Quran 2:30 (the angels ask about the khalifah) [?]"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:2:260", "label": "Quran 2:260 (show me how You give life to the dead) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:khalifah", "label": "khalifah [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:deen", "label": "deen"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zbyA7rqfyRU/s/6/"}, {"id": "zbyA7rqfyRU/s/7", "short_id": "2016-03-15-S07", "recording": "zbyA7rqfyRU", "n": 7, "start": 1747, "end": 1976, "date": "20160315", "tier": "machine", "kind": "discussion", "title": "Creation before Adam: Neanderthals, bashar and insan, and the formation of man", "question_plain": null, "summary": "One speaker, apparently Mufti Abu Layth [?], raises the question of creation before Adam given the hominins such as Neanderthals that have been found, and mentions a book by an Egyptian scholar who has died [?] on the story of Genesis that distinguishes bashar from insan, the first insan being Adam, while verses about creating from clay describe bashar. He says he has told people there are only two ways to read the fossil findings: either humanity took a massive dip after an intelligent Adam and re-emerged with intelligence hundreds of thousands of years later, or those creations preceded Adam; he says Adam's creation would be a miracle either way and the earlier creation does not defy understanding. He cites the same author's reading of the verse that Allah created you and then gave you form [?] as referring to formation over time rather than a single creation. The other speaker says this makes sense, and the first says he does not have a verdict either way and that what interests him is the reaction such discussions provoke. The recording cuts off mid-sentence.", "summary_short": "Creation before Adam is discussed through a distinction between bashar and insan and two ways of reading the fossil record. The speaker raising it says he has no verdict either way.", "answer_start": null, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host", "guest"], "flags": ["guest_overlap", "low_audio_confidence", "uncertain_term"], "topics": ["quran/quran-and-science", "history/human-origins", "dialogue/guest-conversations"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:nouman-ali-khan", "label": "Nouman Ali Khan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:bashar", "label": "bashar"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:insan", "label": "insan"}, {"type": "quran", "id": "quran:7:11", "label": "Quran 7:11 (We created you, then gave you form) [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zbyA7rqfyRU/s/7/"}, {"id": "zkklciv1TK8/s/1", "short_id": "2023-04-19-S01", "recording": "zkklciv1TK8", "n": 1, "start": 1, "end": 409, "date": "20230419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "Imam Malik's hadith relativism: transmitting a hadith without acting on it", "question_plain": "Did Imam Malik reject the hadith he did not act on?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth says that we do not reject hadith but treat them with relativism, as Imam Malik does in the Muwatta, which he says several hadith authorities, especially Maliki ones such as Qadi Iyad [?], call the most authentic book after the Quran, and whose golden chain al-Bukhari himself called the most authentic. Mufti says Imam Malik sometimes brings a hadith through that chain and then says that in Madinah it is not acted upon, which only someone of his standing could do. He relates that al-Bukhari, wanting to criticise a narrator, held back because Imam Malik had transmitted from him. Giving what he calls his own thoughts, Mufti advises anyone choosing an imam for a broad methodology to look to legends like Imam Malik, from the time of the salaf, rather than later scholars such as Ibn Taymiyya [?], whose names he says will come up problematically in the discussion of the Satanic Verses. He says Imam Malik respects the tradition by including such hadith in his book while teaching, by example, that many hadith outside it are likewise not acted upon.", "summary_short": "No: Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik respected such hadith by recording them in the Muwatta while noting that Madinah did not act on them, a model of hadith relativism he recommends following.", "answer_start": 1, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning", "fiqh/maliki-school/muwatta-and-mudawwana", "history/scholars-and-imams/imam-malik"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "book", "id": "book:muwatta", "label": "al-Muwatta"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-bukhari", "label": "al-Bukhari"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:qadi-iyad", "label": "Qadi Iyad [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:silsilat-al-dhahab", "label": "silsilat al-dhahab (the golden chain)"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-taymiyya", "label": "Ibn Taymiyya [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:gharaniq", "label": "the Satanic Verses incident (gharaniq)"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:hadith-relativism", "label": "hadith relativism"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says, as his own thought, that someone choosing an imam to guide them in a broad methodology should look to legends like Imam Malik.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "you're going to see these names come up again in a very problematic way look to Legends like Imam Malik they were in the time of the salaf", "start": 217}}, "url": "/r/zkklciv1TK8/s/1/"}, {"id": "zkklciv1TK8/s/2", "short_id": "2023-04-19-S02", "recording": "zkklciv1TK8", "n": 2, "start": 409, "end": 724, "date": "20230419", "tier": "machine", "kind": "lesson", "title": "The practice of Madinah: Abu Yusuf, the adhan, and Imam Malik's admitted mistake", "question_plain": "Why does the practice of Madinah matter more than a single hadith?", "summary": "Mufti Abu Layth relates that Abu Yusuf questioned the adhan of the people of Madinah, which has Allahu Akbar twice rather than four times, as Malikis in Morocco still do, sarcastically suggesting the people of Madinah did not know their own adhan. Imam Malik replied that something may have happened on a journey or on a single day without their knowledge, but what was announced in the streets of Madinah five times a day, learned by children from their fathers in unbroken succession, is the adhan being heard now. Mufti calls this practice of the people of Madinah a gold mine, and explains that there will be hadith and Sunnah with some overlap, but not every Sunnah was documented and not everything documented was Sunnah, and people made mistakes along the way. He relates that Imam Malik said he was misled by a narrator's excessive prayer in the mosque into recording from him something the Prophet did not say, which Mufti says teaches that errors are not always out of malice. He says this is why he so favours the method of the school of Madinah.", "summary_short": "Mufti Abu Layth says the inherited practice of Madinah, like its adhan, outweighs an isolated report, since not every Sunnah was documented and narrators made honest mistakes; this is why he favours the school of Madinah.", "answer_start": 409, "questioner": null, "statement_kind": "general_teaching", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": [], "topics": ["hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith", "fiqh/maliki-school", "hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism"], "entities": [{"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:imam-malik", "label": "Imam Malik"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:abu-yusuf", "label": "Abu Yusuf"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:adhan", "label": "adhan"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:amal-ahl-al-madinah", "label": "the practice of the people of Madinah"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:maliki", "label": "Maliki"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:sunnah-versus-hadith", "label": "distinction between sunnah and hadith"}, {"type": "principle", "id": "principle:living-tradition-as-source", "label": "the living tradition as a source"}], "latest": true, "superseded": false, "position": {"text": "Mufti Abu Layth says he greatly favours the method of the school of Madinah.", "tier": "corrected", "category": "methodological", "evidence": {"quote": "there's so much volumes can be written on how this is why I so favor them the method of the school of matina", "start": 702}}, "url": "/r/zkklciv1TK8/s/2/"}, {"id": "zlXm19MtE2A/s/1", "short_id": "2017-05-17c-S01", "recording": "zlXm19MtE2A", "n": 1, "start": 5, "end": 324, "date": "20170517", "tier": "machine", "kind": "question", "title": "Does masturbation invalidate the fast? The majority and minority views", "question_plain": "Does masturbation break my fast?", "summary": "An audience member asks whether masturbation invalidates the fast. Mufti Abu Layth first makes the question precise: speaking from a male perspective, what is meant is whether ejaculation, rather than mere touching, breaks the fast, though he agrees to take it in its complete sense. He says there is a difference of opinion. The main transmitted understanding is that it does invalidate the fast; since no verse or hadith speaks of masturbation specifically, those scholars reason from sexual interaction, placing it with intercourse, which everyone agrees breaks the fast, rather than with a wet dream, which everyone agrees does not, because the act is conscious, wilful and done for desire, so that it incurs at least qada [?] and at most kaffarah [?] as well. A minority places it with the wet dream, arguing that without a clear text of the Quran or Sunnah one cannot say it invalidates the fast; he recalls Ibn Hazm [?] among them, several Hanafis holding a known but non-fatwa position within the Hanafi school, and he thinks al-Shawkani [?] and al-Albani [?] argued the same, whether or not they approved of the act. He closes by saying the matter is not absolutely clear-cut, but the majority hold that it does invalidate the fast.", "summary_short": "Scholars differ: the majority hold that masturbation with ejaculation breaks the fast, by analogy with intercourse, while a minority including Ibn Hazm and some Hanafis hold that it does not, since no text says so. Mufti Abu Layth presents both views without committing to one.", "answer_start": 50, "questioner": "audience", "statement_kind": "quoted_view", "speakers": ["host"], "flags": ["uncertain_term"], "topics": ["fiqh/fasting/what-breaks-the-fast", "fiqh/sexual-ethics"], "entities": [{"type": "term", "id": "term:sawm", "label": "sawm (fasting)"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:qada", "label": "qada (making up a missed fast) [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:kaffarah", "label": "kaffarah (expiation) [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:ibn-hazm", "label": "Ibn Hazm [?]"}, {"type": "term", "id": "term:hanafi", "label": "Hanafi school"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-shawkani", "label": "al-Shawkani [?]"}, {"type": "scholar", "id": "scholar:al-albani", "label": "al-Albani [?]"}], "latest": false, "superseded": false, "position": null, "url": "/r/zlXm19MtE2A/s/1/"}]