Sources and names › Scholar › Abu Hanifa
ScholarAbu Hanifa
Cited in 97 segments across 52 recordings · 2014 to 2025 · scholar/scholar:abu-hanifa
Citing segments
Newest first. Each opens the whole segment, not a bare quote.
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIs there a middle way between rejecting all hadith and accepting every hadith?
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.
machine4 min 54 s10:44on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Do Quranists accept any Sunnah of the Prophet?
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.
machine5 min 13 s24:01on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
What is the difference between a hadith and the Sunnah in the Maliki school?
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.
machine5 min 01 s37:24on YouTube
13 Feb 2023video
LatestThe birth of orthodoxy: a nameless main body and the hadith project
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.
machine5 min 46 s0:00on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
LatestWho was Imam Abu Hanifa and where did he come from?
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.
machine6 min 36 s0:00on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
How did Abu Hanifa become a scholar after starting out as a merchant?
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.
machine6 min 29 s6:36on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
Why was Abu Hanifa criticised so much in his own time?
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.
machine3 min 56 s13:05on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
LatestWhy did Abu Hanifa allow things like praying in Persian?
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.
machine5 min 15 s17:01on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
Was Abu Hanifa involved in politics?
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.
machine2 min 36 s22:16on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
How did the Hanafi school develop from Abu Hanifa's teaching?
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.
machine3 min 56 s24:52on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
Did Abu Hanifa allow wudu with nabidh when there was no water?
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.
machine3 min 54 s28:48on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
LatestHow did Abu Hanifa solve the case of two brides sent to the wrong grooms?
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.
machine9 min 12 s32:42on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
How did Abu Hanifa die, and what was he known for among people?
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.
machine3 min 55 s41:54on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
What did Abu Hanifa do about his neighbour who drank and sang at night?
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.
machine10 min 35 s45:49on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
LatestWhat is the story of the woman who tricked Abu Hanifa into a marriage proposal?
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.
machine11 min 51 s56:24on YouTube
10 Dec 2022video
What did Abu Hanifa say about Imam Malik?
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.
machine2 min 27 s1:08:15on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Should loyalty to a scholar ever come before the honour of the Prophet?
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.
machine5 min 21 s1:47:24on YouTube
22 Dec 2021video
What do Sunni Muslims think of the twelve Shia imams?
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.
machine6 min 24 s0:00on YouTube
6 Oct 2021Malik Resources
Is there a sahih hadith on where to put my hands in salah?
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.
machine9 min 51 s0:00on YouTube
27 Apr 2021video
Does today's Hanafi madhhab reflect Imam Abu Hanifa?
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.
machine4 min 23 s0:00on YouTube
27 Apr 2021video
Can I pray while carrying my child?
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.
machine7 min 58 s4:23on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can I carry a child while I pray?
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.
machine12 min 45 s23:17on YouTube
5 Mar 2021video
What counts as khamr, and is a drink with very little alcohol haram?
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.
machine3 min 59 s0:00on YouTube
5 Mar 2021video
Why did Imam Malik say nothing between spouses is haram and only pork is forbidden to eat?
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.
machine5 min 04 s3:59on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does the Mufti think of liberal Islam?
Liberal and conservative are political labels about authority, he says, and they do not truly fit Islam, which never had a church-like hierarchy.
machine3 min 40 s33:30on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Do Ash'aris believe the Quran is created?
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.
machine2 min 34 s59:57on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Imam Ahmad really refuse to say the Quran is created?
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.
machine8 min 12 s1:02:31on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does the Mufti think of Shaykh Dedew, and did Imam Ahmad dislike Abu Hanifa?
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.
machine2 min 25 s2:24:25on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Abu Hanifa allow nabidh only as medicine?
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.
machine12 min 25 s2:47:32on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What counts as khamr, and is a drink with a little alcohol haram?
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.
machine6 min 09 s24:29on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What is Shaykh Atabek Shukurov working on, and why does he teach principles before rulings?
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.
machine3 min 40 s3:03on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIs growing a beard obligatory in the Hanafi school?
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.
machine5 min 45 s18:37on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does Shaykh Atabek want to restore the early Hanafi school?
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.
machine3 min 51 s46:49on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Was there a power struggle in the early Hanafi school?
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.
machine3 min 59 s51:13on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do Hanafis defend Sahih al-Bukhari when their school differs from it?
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.
machine7 min 38 s59:28on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Did the early Hanafis hold that apostates should be killed?
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.
machine1 min 55 s1:11:43on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Abu Hanifa allow drinks with a little alcohol?
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.
machine3 min 24 s1:13:24on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Who was Abu Hanifa's most trusted student?
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.
machine4 min 03 s1:16:23on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Abu Hanifa really write al-Fiqh al-Akbar?
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.
machine2 min 44 s1:20:26on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
When should I pray Isha in the UK summer when it never gets fully dark?
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.
machine4 min 08 s1:28:21on 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
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Isn't reason subjective, and is something good only because God commands it?
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.
machine4 min 16 s29:42on YouTube
6 Dec 2020video
Why don't Sunni imams like Malik and Abu Hanifa transmit from Imam Jafar al-Sadiq?
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.
machine6 min 35 s0:02on YouTube
6 Dec 2020video
Did Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa study under Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, and what did they learn from him?
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.
machine2 min 09 s6:37on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Was Yazid a kafir, and is it right to curse him?
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.
machine3 min 09 s56:51on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why did Imam Malik prefer the practice of Medina over hadith chains?
Mufti Abu Layth says the chain was once subordinate to the living tradition of Medina; al-Shafii's isnad project replaced regional trust with loyalty to the chain.
machine10 min 15 s2:04:25on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Do the Hanafis allow beer?
Mufti Abu Layth says the classical Hanafis restricted khamr to grape and date wine, and today's Deobandis do not reflect Abu Hanifa.
machine3 min 16 s2:23:48on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Can a waqf never be overturned, as the argument for the Hagia Sophia claims?
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.
machine3 min 58 s22:22on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Can a mosque that was once a waqf never be anything else?
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.
machine3 min 13 s1:37:09on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran abrogate its own verses?
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.
machine9 min 12 s59:27on YouTube
19 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How did the seven canonical readings of the Quran come about?
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.
machine5 min 16 s53:49on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do Muslims treat reason as the enemy of tradition?
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.
machine5 min 16 s28:36on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is a woman on her period ritually impure?
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.
machine6 min 36 s35:45on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How clearly was zakah defined in the Prophet's lifetime?
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.
machine5 min 08 s42:21on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is a marriage between a Muslim and a non-Muslim valid?
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.
machine5 min 13 s1:23:10on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Doesn't the Islamic teaching on modesty make pornography haram?
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.
machine6 min 14 s2:02:05on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Abu Hanifa hold that there is no hadd punishment for sodomy?
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.
machine4 min 43 s2:28:54on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How should someone approach studying Islam with an open mind?
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.
machine7 min 48 s2:54:03on YouTube
4 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Mohammed Hijab's liberalism lecture argues like a sectarian polemic
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.
machine6 min 24 s0:00on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Did Hasan and Husayn wear earrings?
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.
machine3 min 58 s13:00on YouTube
4 May 2019On Current Events
Have Muslims really kept women out of mosques for 1,400 years?
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.
machine6 min 22 s31:44on YouTube
22 Mar 2019The School of Madinah
Why does Mufti Abu Layth follow the Maliki school rather than the Hanafi?
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.
machine4 min 46 s2:35on YouTube
20 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Does Islam say homosexuals should be thrown off buildings or executed?
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.
machine7 min 56 s0:00on YouTube
20 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Is homosexuality haram in Islam, and why were the people of Lut destroyed?
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.
machine4 min 50 s18:27on YouTube
20 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
Is hadith the same as the sunnah, and is hadith certain knowledge?
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.
machine6 min 35 s1:13:18on YouTube
20 Sep 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
What is the war-wager hadith paradox?
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.
machine7 min 54 s0:00on YouTube
17 Sep 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Why should Muslims reject the hadith that the Prophet died of poison?
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.
machine6 min 04 s12:47on YouTube
30 Aug 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
Bukhari's persecution and why his book reaches us through one transmitter
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.
machine3 min 57 s58:29on YouTube
22 Apr 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Can a woman go on Hajj without a mahram?
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.
machine2 min 32 s9:31on YouTube
22 Apr 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Is it haram for a woman to travel more than 48 miles alone?
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.
machine3 min 53 s15:45on YouTube
20 Apr 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Was Abu Hanifa considered a deviant by the scholars of his time?
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.
machine3 min 57 s0:00on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why did religious scholars end up explaining things like illness and the mind?
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.
machine3 min 55 s3:52on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Magic in the Quran: Musa and Pharaoh's magicians, an illusion
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.
machine5 min 10 s10:13on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why great scholars accepted it: sectarian turf war with the Mu'tazila
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.
machine10 min 12 s30:12on YouTube
1 Apr 2018Islamic Eschatology
Does it matter that the second coming of Jesus is the majority opinion and Mufti Abu Layth's view a minority one?
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.
machine5 min 13 s5:13on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Calling to the Quran and Sunnah, not hadith; the winged horse on national television
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.
machine3 min 51 s25:32on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Three conditions for accepting a hadith; Ibn Uthaymin and the Jassasa report
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.
machine2 min 38 s1:20:19on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Summary of the case against a second coming; Ibn Hazm on hadith against reason
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.
machine2 min 39 s2:19:16on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Stop calling Bukhari the most authentic book after the Quran; fiqh preserved the living Sunnah
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.
machine3 min 59 s2:21:55on YouTube
28 Feb 2018Responding to Refutations
What do the classical Maliki books say about witnesses in a marriage?
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.
machine9 min 11 s9:00on YouTube
9 Feb 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Is every hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari authentic?
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.
machine3 min 08 s4:30on YouTube
2 Jan 2018Responding to Refutations
Is the Quran created or uncreated? Why he calls the debate absurd
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.
machine6 min 35 s3:56on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why did Muslim scholars of the past accept the idea of jinn possession?
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.
machine5 min 14 s53:21on 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.
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6 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Should scholars give fatwas based on minority opinions if it makes life easier?
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.
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6 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Is choosing the easier scholarly opinion just following my desires?
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.
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17 May 2017Ramadan Q&A Fast & Fiqhious
Should Muslims in the UK follow Saudi Arabia for moon sighting?
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.
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21 Dec 2016video
Where will the answers to Muslims' problems today come from?
From Muslims themselves: as Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak said, legends will be born to carry the deen, and Allah sends revivers in every generation.
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21 Dec 2016video
Abu Hanifa and Sufyan al-Thawri on the swapped brides of Kufa
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.
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21 Dec 2016video
How can I help someone stop drinking without pushing them away?
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.
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6 Apr 2015video
Is Mufti Abu Layth a modernist?
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.
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7 Mar 2015video
How did Abu Hanifa deal with his drunkard neighbour?
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.
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3 Mar 2015video
What did Imam Malik say about bid'ah?
Imam Malik rejected any 'good' bid'ah and called innovations misguidance, yet he often ruled a given innovation only discouraged (makruh), not haram.
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3 Mar 2015video
Is making group dua after every salah a bid'ah?
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.
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9 May 2014video
Must a young woman cover her face because of fitnah?
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.
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12 Mar 2014video
Do I have to stick to one madhhab, or can I question its positions?
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.
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12 Mar 2014video
If the madhhabs differ so much, how can they all be valid?
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.
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