Sources and names › Person › Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan
PersonMu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan
Cited in 18 segments across 11 recordings · 2017 to 2021 · person/person:muawiya-ibn-abi-sufyan
Citing segments
Newest first. Each opens the whole segment, not a bare quote.
13 Feb 2021video
What do you think of Mu'awiya?
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.
machine1 min 56 s0:00on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does rightly guided caliph mean, and did Muawiya see Ali as one?
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.
machine8 min 04 s1:57:34on YouTube
10 Dec 2020video
Was the Quran always fixed word for word, or was it flexible at first?
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.
machine8 min 51 s19:43on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Where did the rivalry between Banu Umayya and Banu Hashim come from?
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.
machine4 min 15 s6:25on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Why did Uthman appoint his relatives as governors?
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.
machine6 min 33 s15:00on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Why did the Muslims fight each other at Siffin?
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.
machine2 min 45 s21:33on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Why did Hasan ibn Ali give up the caliphate to Muawiya?
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.
machine3 min 22 s24:18on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Was Muawiya a good ruler?
Under Muawiya there was stability, expansion and economic growth, helped by Sasanid revenue methods, but Banu Umayya's hold on power was cemented.
machine2 min 03 s27:40on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Why did Muawiya make Yazid his heir?
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.
machine2 min 21 s29:43on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth admire Muawiya?
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.
machine3 min 07 s32:04on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
What kind of ruler was Yazid?
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.
machine5 min 40 s35:11on YouTube
22 Sep 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does Robert Hoyland's In God's Path say about how Islam spread?
Mufti Abu Layth recommends Hoyland's In God's Path as fair and well researched, and agrees that Islam's ability to integrate other peoples explains its rapid spread.
machine12 min 07 s1:24:50on YouTube
9 Jun 2020video
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Hasan Farhan al-Maliki?
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.
machine2 min 24 s0:00on YouTube
28 Feb 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
What did Mufti Abu Layth think of Mu'awiya?
Mufti Abu Layth highly respects Mu'awiya as a great figure and an astute statesman, while acknowledging the Companions' disagreements.
machine1 min 32 s34:46on YouTube
19 Sep 2019On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Is it okay to criticise the companions of the Prophet?
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.
machine13 min 28 s1:19on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is Ikrima, the narrator of the apostasy hadith, reliable?
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.
machine6 min 34 s28:42on YouTube
9 Feb 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Is it blasphemy to say some companions exaggerated out of love for the Prophet?
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.
machine2 min 11 s16:30on YouTube
9 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Did the Prophet migrate to Madinah to set up a state, and when did the khilafah end?
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.
machine3 min 01 s2:10on YouTube