Sources and names › Scholar › Imam Malik
ScholarImam Malik
Cited in 205 segments across 90 recordings · 2014 to 2025 · scholar/scholar:imam-malik
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
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestHow do Quranists perform Hajj and apply Islam without the fiqh tradition?
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.
machine2 min 45 s1:18:06on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIf reason helps us understand the Quran, does the reasoning of earlier scholars matter too?
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.
machine2 min 56 s1:56:30on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why are two of the daily prayers recited silently when 17:110 says not to be silent?
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.
machine10 min 12 s2:31:09on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestDoes the Muwatta show that the Companions' practice had already changed by Malik's time?
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.
machine5 min 05 s2:42:52on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?
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.
machine2 min 58 s2:46:26on YouTube
19 Apr 2023video
LatestDid Imam Malik reject the hadith he did not act on?
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.
machine6 min 48 s0:01on YouTube
19 Apr 2023video
LatestWhy does the practice of Madinah matter more than a single hadith?
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.
machine5 min 15 s6:49on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
Who was Imam Malik and where did he come from?
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.
machine5 min 36 s1:06on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
LatestCan a pregnancy last for years, as was said of Imam Malik's birth?
No: reports of years-long pregnancies are best explained by phantom pregnancies followed by real conception, not dismissed as lies or taken literally.
machine7 min 07 s6:54on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
LatestIs it haram for men to wear earrings?
Early imams including Malik wore earrings as boys; Malik disliked golden earrings for boys because of the gold, not the earring.
machine4 min 57 s13:23on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
LatestHow did Imam Malik come to study religion?
His mother gently steered him from singing to study, and that choice made him one of the most influential figures in Islamic history.
machine4 min 32 s17:40on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
What did Imam Malik's teachers teach him about hadith and Sunnah?
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.
machine1 min 15 s22:12on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
Was Imam Malik an ascetic?
No: Imam Malik was a wealthy merchant who enjoyed fine clothes and daily meat, unlike the ascetic tradition, and was criticised for it.
machine2 min 34 s23:27on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
LatestIs the Muwatta of Imam Malik more authentic than Sahih al-Bukhari?
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.
machine5 min 01 s26:01on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
Why did Imam Malik sometimes reject authentic hadith?
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.
machine6 min 22 s31:02on 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
10 Mar 2023video
LatestIs studying religious knowledge better than voluntary prayer?
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.
machine4 min 19 s42:25on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
Why did Imam Malik never leave Madinah?
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.
machine3 min 14 s46:44on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
LatestWhy was Imam Malik flogged?
Malik was flogged for refusing to stop transmitting that a coerced divorce is invalid, which undercut forced oaths of allegiance to the Abbasids.
machine7 min 29 s49:58on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
Can we ever be completely certain about religious answers?
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.
machine4 min 50 s57:27on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
LatestWho carried on Imam Malik's teaching after him?
His daughter, who had memorised his hadith and taught his classes after him, while his sons showed little interest.
machine4 min 12 s1:02:17on YouTube
22 Feb 2023video
Will gay people around us make Muslims gay?
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.
machine3 min 51 s24:50on 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
13 Feb 2023video
Apophatic definition: the early main body defined by what it was not
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.
machine5 min 03 s5:46on YouTube
13 Feb 2023video
The created Quran controversy and the birth of a creedal checklist
In his research, orthodoxy began with the created-Quran controversy, which gave rise to the language of divine attributes and to growing creedal checklists.
machine8 min 21 s10:49on 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
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
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
19 Mar 2022video
Is mut'ah (temporary marriage) haram for Sunni Muslims?
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.
machine9 min 02 s0:00on 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
25 Oct 2021video
Should I debate Quranists?
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.
machine5 min 45 s7:07on 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
19 Apr 2021video
Why do Mufti Abu Layth's critics defend Bukhari reports that demean the Prophet?
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.
machine8 min 01 s0:04on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did one of al-Bukhari's teachers call Imam Malik a disbeliever?
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.
machine2 min 37 s2:33:20on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of al-Shaybani's critique of the Madinan school?
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.
machine3 min 56 s3:02:08on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it wrong for a Muslim to want to make money?
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.
machine13 min 08 s3:08:42on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Mufti Abu Layth say incest is natural, and is homosexuality unnatural?
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.
machine9 min 32 s56:10on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are insects haram to eat in the Maliki school?
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.
machine10 min 04 s1:52:50on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does Yasir Qadhi argue about Malikis and the return of Jesus?
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.
machine4 min 20 s2:13:03on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Imam Malik believe Jesus will return?
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.
machine7 min 42 s2:17:23on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does the Muwatta contain hadith that Imam Malik did not follow?
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.
machine5 min 49 s2:25:05on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does Mufti Abu Layth say it is not a huge claim that Imam Malik denied the second coming?
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.
machine8 min 12 s2:58:36on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
LatestWho does Yasir Qadhi say first denied the return of Jesus, and what is the Ahmadiyya connection?
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.
machine6 min 35 s15:50on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Is distinguishing the Sunnah from hadith a modernist invention?
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.
machine3 min 59 s26:18on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth say the Bukhari chain for Jesus's descent is unreliable?
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.
machine9 min 18 s1:35:56on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Who are the problematic narrators in the Sahih Muslim reports on Jesus's return?
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.
machine6 min 32 s1:50:30on 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
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are the hadith about Jesus's return mutawatir, as Yasir Qadhi claims?
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.
machine5 min 44 s1:13:56on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was Muhammad Abduh the first Muslim to deny the return of Jesus?
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.
machine6 min 28 s1:19:40on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is distinguishing the Sunnah from hadith a modernist invention?
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.
machine4 min 32 s1:29:15on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the hadith in Bukhari about Jesus coming down reliable?
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.
machine9 min 33 s2:38:55on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are the Sahih Muslim reports about Jesus's return reliable?
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.
machine6 min 14 s2:54:10on 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
How did the Maliki school spread to North Africa and Spain?
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.
machine1 min 49 s1:50:00on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is playing chess haram?
No, chess is not haram, he says; Imam Malik discouraged it as a waste of life but never called it haram.
machine1 min 16 s1:51:49on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are children held accountable in Islam for bullying or hurting others?
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.
machine1 min 49 s2:38:10on 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
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is pork the only meat that is haram in the Maliki school?
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.
machine4 min 24 s29:59on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it wrong in Islam to want to be rich?
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.
machine10 min 52 s1:44:53on YouTube
2 Feb 2021video
Did Ibn Ashur believe Jesus died?
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.
machine5 min 20 s8:00on 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
What is wijada, and why does it matter for the hadith on killing apostates?
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.
machine4 min 38 s1:06:26on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did the debate with Dr Abdullah Abdul Majid answer the BukhariGate challenge?
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.
machine5 min 14 s1:16:45on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
If a hadith is also in other books besides Bukhari, does that confirm it?
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.
machine7 min 51 s1:56:22on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Ibn Ashur say Jesus was raised alive and will return?
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.
machine12 min 53 s2:45:11on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do you call yourself a Maliki?
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.
machine5 min 05 s1:41:27on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIf you deny the evil eye, why do you cite scholars who believed in it?
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.
machine3 min 50 s1:47:10on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIf I sleep late and wake up at asr, can I pray the missed prayers together then?
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.
machine1 min 53 s8:45on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Which hadith book is the most authentic?
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.
machine3 min 01 s17:21on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can I take a mortgage, and can I urinate standing up?
Bank interest is not the Quran's riba in his understanding, and urinating standing up is fine, with care over splashing.
machine3 min 42 s37:40on 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
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did early Muslims really not count Ali as the fourth rightly guided caliph?
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.
machine8 min 09 s2:05:48on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is anal intercourse with my wife haram?
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.
machine7 min 28 s2:23:10on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did the Prophet fall in love with Zaynab bint Jahsh?
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.
machine7 min2:38:27on 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
10 Dec 2020video
Can we substitute words of the Quran today as the companions did?
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.
machine6 min 25 s28:34on 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
15 Nov 2020video
Are the hadith about the evil eye authentic?
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.
machine12 min 11 s56:07on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is Sharia-compliant investing really different from normal investing?
Mufti Abu Layth says ethical investing is fine, but interest loopholes are absurd: bank interest is not Quranic riba and mortgages are permissible.
machine9 min 53 s1:00:41on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Imam Malik say that Jesus died?
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.
machine11 min 07 s3:03:26on YouTube
21 Oct 2020video
Why criticise Sahih al-Bukhari but not Imam Malik's Muwatta?
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.
machine1 min 20 s0:03on 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
22 Sep 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Forms of intoxication, and a word on the latest Mind Trap
Mufti Abu Layth says intoxication can mean power or knowledge as well as alcohol, and recommends the latest Mind Trap episode.
machine3 min 04 s24:54on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Doesn't the practice of Medina show that music is haram?
Not necessarily: Malik disliked music by temperament, but Medina after the Prophet was known for its musical instruments.
machine1 min 18 s28:39on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it a problem that Muslim scholars today have no secular education?
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.
machine7 min 23 s1:03:21on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
If Muslims focus too much on the beard, what deserves more focus?
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.
machine3 min 02 s2:18:44on YouTube
23 Aug 2020video
Why do Salafis ignore Imam Malik's Muwatta?
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.
machine1 min 25 s0:00on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it haram to sit at a table where people are drinking alcohol?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is not a sin to sit at a table where alcohol is served; the hadith was part of a gradual move away from alcohol.
machine3 min 36 s16:58on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it okay to celebrate the Mawlid?
Mufti Abu Layth says people may celebrate the Mawlid if they wish, though he does not, but road-blocking processions are a nuisance he condemns.
machine1 min 50 s46:21on 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
How did hadith scholars know narrators who died a century earlier were reliable?
Mufti Abu Layth says later hadith critics never disclosed how they knew long-dead narrators were reliable, leaving gaps in an impressive system.
machine6 min 29 s2:13:00on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Can I wear perfume that contains alcohol?
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.
machine1 min 56 s1:50:34on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Were the companions allowed to change words of the Quran, and was that only a temporary concession?
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.
machine6 min 54 s1:03:43on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Where do anthropomorphic ideas of God in Islam come from?
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.
machine4 min 41 s1:24:04on YouTube
19 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What was the qira'a al-'amma, and why does Morocco recite a different reading?
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.
machine5 min 14 s48:32on 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
19 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Isn't it too convenient that the one preserved reading is exactly the Hafs Quran we have?
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.
machine5 min 12 s1:18:35on 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
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is questioning Aisha's age just an attempt to please non-Muslims?
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.
machine6 min 30 s49:19on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What does the Quran mean by 'what your right hands possess', and did the Prophet have a concubine?
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.
machine7 min 13 s1:42:42on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Can women be stopped from going to the mosque because of fitnah?
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.
machine6 min 31 s29:14on 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
Did classical scholars permit masturbation, and for women too?
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.
machine5 min 16 s1:51:38on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why talk publicly about permissive opinions if it might encourage people?
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.
machine5 min 14 s2:23:40on YouTube
3 Nov 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Does the Quran actually tell women to cover their hair, or only their chest?
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.
machine9 min 06 s0:04on 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
19 Sep 2019Responding to Refutations
Are the hadith about Aisha's young age authentic?
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.
machine6 min 10 s6:57on YouTube
18 Sep 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Which scholars held that music is permissible, and what did Imam Malik's school say?
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.
machine7 min 50 s2:41on YouTube
18 Sep 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Why is everything permissible by default in Islamic law unless proven haram?
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.
machine6 min 35 s30:08on YouTube
21 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Did the Prophet teach a formal creed of what Muslims must believe?
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.
machine2 min 36 s15:41on 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
2 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Why does Islam forbid homosexual activity?
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.
machine5 min 11 s0:01on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Who transmitted the hadith 'whoever changes his religion, kill him', and does the Quran punish apostasy?
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.
machine5 min 07 s1:18on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did Imam Malik allow marriage to be consummated with a girl who was not yet nubile?
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.
machine2 min 39 s27:19on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is forcing your wife to have sex a sin in Islam?
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.
machine3 min 51 s32:36on 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
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Did early Sunni hadith scholars such as Sufyan ibn Uyayna wear earrings?
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.
machine2 min 35 s16:58on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Did Imam Malik wear an earring?
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.
machine2 min 39 s19:33on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
What did Imam Malik and the Maliki jurists say about boys wearing earrings?
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.
machine5 min 13 s22:12on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Is a man wearing an earring imitating women or harmful?
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.
machine3 min 57 s27:25on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Can reports from Shia sources about Hasan and Husayn be trusted?
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.
machine5 min 16 s31:22on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Is it haram for a man to wear an earring?
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.
machine2 min 22 s36:38on YouTube
10 May 2019video
Which verses forbid or allow marrying non-Muslims?
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.
machine6 min 53 s20:24on YouTube
10 May 2019video
Did any early scholars allow marrying Zoroastrians or idol worshippers?
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.
machine5 min 46 s27:17on YouTube
10 May 2019video
As a convert, should I try to convert my spouse or family?
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.
machine3 min 49 s36:59on YouTube
4 May 2019On Current Events
Is it better for women to pray at home than in the mosque?
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.
machine8 min 09 s15:11on 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
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 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
When is a hadith set aside, and is rejecting hadith acceptable?
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.
machine2 min 39 s1:23:42on 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
20 Sep 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Why does hadith dogmatism fail, according to the war-wager paradox?
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.
machine3 min 46 s15:43on YouTube
17 Sep 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Is the chain of the hadith that the Prophet died of poison reliable?
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.
machine3 min 23 s3:26on 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
1 Sep 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
What is BukhariGate and why does Mufti Abu Layth say Sahih al-Bukhari is not reliable?
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.
machine5 min 10 s0:00on YouTube
30 Aug 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
Backdrop to BukhariGate: a widespread debate, his training, and transparency
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.
machine6 min 32 s0:01on YouTube
30 Aug 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
Who vouched for Farabri? Baji, Sam'ani and whether transmission implies reliability
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.
machine9 min 12 s1:16:51on YouTube
12 Aug 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Did Abu Hurayra learn to recite Ayat al-Kursi at bedtime from a devil?
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.
machine2 min 37 s5:14on YouTube
3 Aug 2018Responding to Refutations
How should Muslims decide which hadith to accept and which to reject?
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.
machine3 min 26 s15:35on 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
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Would the Prophet really call a woman wearing perfume a fornicator?
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.
machine9 min 15 s10:32on 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
What did the Maliki scholars say about women travelling with a safe group?
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.
machine4 min 28 s30:39on YouTube
20 Apr 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did Musa beat Pharaoh's magicians with stronger magic?
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.
machine7 min 16 s6:16on 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
Where the story came from: polemic, the poisoning report and the ajwa dates
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.
machine5 min 09 s25:03on 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
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Does Ali's saying about wiping the socks prove that religion is not based on reason?
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.
machine3 min 56 s1:01:20on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
If reason judges religion, whose reason counts, and what about rituals?
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.
machine2 min 38 s1:14:24on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
If Mufti Abu Layth admires Qadi Iyad, must he accept everything in al-Shifa?
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.
machine3 min 57 s1:19:39on YouTube
1 Apr 2018Islamic Eschatology
Why do almost all the hadith about Jesus returning come through Abu Hurayra?
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.
machine7 min 51 s10:26on YouTube
15 Mar 2018Responding to Refutations
Why would Jesus need to come back at all?
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.
machine2 min 40 s13:02on 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
What Imam Malik transmitted: no return of Jesus, Zuhri's reports, the pig passed in peace
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.
machine7 min 48 s58:03on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Israiliyyat in hadith: man in God's image and creation on the Sabbath
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.
machine2 min 38 s1:17:41on 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
Why hadith, not the Quran or fiqh, was corrupted: Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, Zuhri and forged chains
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.
machine6 min 34 s1:26:52on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Zuhri's reports: Fatima's anger, the attempted suicide, and half the Jesus hadith
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.
machine3 min 57 s1:37:20on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Give glad tidings, make things easy: the hadith behind his approach; do not intimidate
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.
machine3 min 56 s1:43:54on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Why would Jesus need to come back at all?
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.
machine3 min 55 s2:16:41on 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
5 Mar 2018Quick Fiqh!
Is it haram for men to wear earrings?
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.
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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.
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21 Feb 2018Responding to Refutations
Does the Maliki school distinguish between hadith and Sunnah, and did Imam Malik ever reject a hadith?
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.
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21 Feb 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Who was Safiyya and why did the Muslims march on Khaybar?
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.
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13 Feb 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Is the evil eye real in Islam?
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.
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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.
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9 Feb 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Are some hadith about the Prophet actually blasphemous?
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.
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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.
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2 Jan 2018Responding to Refutations
Music: the hadith on singing and hypocrisy, and scholars who permitted music
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.
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29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Who has the right to tell other Muslims off for doing something haram?
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.
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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
LatestShould I pray 8 or 20 rak'ahs of tarawih?
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.
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2 Apr 2017video
Demonstration of the Maliki salah from takbir to salam
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.
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2 Apr 2017video
Demonstration of sujud al-sahw before and after the salam, and cancellation
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.
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11 Jan 2017Mothers of the Believers: The Wives of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ
Premise two: hadith absolutism versus hadith relativism
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.
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11 Jan 2017Mothers of the Believers: The Wives of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ
The reports: Hisham's Iraqi transmission, Madinan silence and Asma's age
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.
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11 Jan 2017Mothers of the Believers: The Wives of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ
The ramifications: jurists on marrying a minor, and the conclusion
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.
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11 Jan 2017Mothers of the Believers: The Wives of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ
Why is the report that Aisha was six and nine so much better known than the others?
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.
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11 Jan 2017Mothers of the Believers: The Wives of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ
Is judging hadith by their content a modern invention of jurists rather than hadith scholars?
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.
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11 Jan 2017Mothers of the Believers: The Wives of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ
Why did jurists like Imam Malik let a father marry off his young daughter without her consent?
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.
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21 Dec 2016video
Should religious Muslims focus on avoiding sin or on doing good?
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.
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5 May 2015video
Is a short back and sides or faded haircut haram?
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.
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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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6 Apr 2015video
Why is Islamophobia rising?
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.
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6 Apr 2015video
LatestWhat is Mufti Abu Layth currently teaching?
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.
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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
Should I avoid practices that people call good bid'ah?
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.
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2 Jul 2014video
Why did Mufti Abu Layth choose the Maliki madhhab?
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.
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9 May 2014video
Did Imam Malik allow a woman to show her face to her husband's friends?
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.
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9 May 2014video
Is Imam Malik's own fatwa the Maliki madhhab?
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.
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9 May 2014video
Is it haram for a woman to go out for a walk?
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.
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12 Apr 2014video
Is it haram to trim my beard shorter than a fist's length?
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.
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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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12 Mar 2014video
How should I choose which madhhab to follow?
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.
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