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TermAsh'ari
Cited in 28 segments across 17 recordings · 2017 to 2023 · term/term:ashari
Citing segments
Newest first. Each opens the whole segment, not a bare quote.
13 Feb 2023video
Why orthodoxy took hold, and who wrote the checklist
Orthodoxy offered clarity, but its checklist was written by men from their own school and position, not by Allah and his Messenger.
machine3 min 59 s30:09on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Did Yasir Qadhi say that majority scholarly opinion rests on socio-political factors?
In the clip Qadhi says correct opinion is independent of the names and number of scholars and that dominant positions rest on socio-political factors such as the Ghaznavids, the Hanbalis of Baghdad and the Seljuks. Mufti Abu Layth says this is exactly what modernists say and contradicts Qadhi's appeal to the giants on the return of Jesus.
machine3 min 57 s1:01:57on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the majority of scholars holding a view make it right?
Mufti Abu Layth shows Qadhi saying that majority opinion rests on socio-political factors and that numbers do not make a view right, against his own appeal to the giants on the second coming.
machine4 min 09 s2:05:05on 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
12 Jan 2021video
Why was Ibn Taymiyya put in prison?
Ibn Taymiyya made powerful enemies by declaring Muslims kafir, and Maliki judges finally jailed him over his fatwa, voiced by his student in Jerusalem, that one may not travel to visit the Prophet's grave. Mufti Abu Layth calls the view foolish but says no one should be punished for an opinion.
machine8 min 17 s0:00on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Are madrasas failing their students?
Mufti Abu Layth says the madrasa phenomenon is dysfunctional and dumbs students down though it supplies the raw materials; both say those who leave orthodox positions are ostracised, and the guest recommends a few years of traditional study combined with academic study.
machine5 min 25 s10:05on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why don't madrasas teach the Islamic philosophers and the Mu'tazila?
The guest says traditionalists value only a narrow sliver of Islam's diverse intellectual heritage, ignoring the philosophers, the early Qadariyya and Mu'tazila, Shia thinkers and modernists, and that he found answers on religion and science in Ibn Rushd.
machine3 min 58 s15:30on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
If blind following in faith is forbidden, why must I accept a school's creed without question?
Mufti Abu Layth finds it paradoxical that schools forbid blind following in faith but demand blind acceptance of their creeds; the guest says traditionalists use reason only to reach revelation and then discard it, whereas reason must stay in continuous use.
machine7 min 03 s24:25on 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
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Are the stories in the Quran meant to be literal history?
The guest argues, following Khalafallah and Ibn Rushd, that the Quran's stories are sacred literature and legend, using symbol and parable for theological ends rather than reporting literal history.
machine6 min 58 s1:02:23on 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
19 Aug 2020video
Can non-Muslims be saved according to Sunni scholars?
Mufti Abu Layth says broad views on salvation for non-Muslims and on hell, while not necessarily right, are all part of the Sunni tradition.
machine4 min 47 s0:03on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
What was al-Ash'ari's argument against the Mu'tazila about God always doing what is best?
Mufti Abu Layth tells the debate attributed to al-Ash'ari, in which a disbeliever asks why he was not allowed to die as a child, and says this is where the Mu'tazili view of a God bound to do the best crumbles.
machine2 min 34 s49:45on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Do Ash'aris and Maturidis believe the Arabic Quran is God's eternal speech?
In Ash'ari and Maturidi theology God's eternal speech is not Arabic sounds and letters; the Arabic Quran expresses it and is created.
machine5 min 51 s34:47on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do so many Muslims think God speaks Arabic if their scholars said otherwise?
Mufti Abu Layth says scholars' habit of not discussing this before ordinary people helped the public believe something different from their own scholars; the guest describes the popular Hanbali view that even the Mushaf is uncreated.
machine6 min 40 s40:15on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the Ash'ari view of God's speech really different from the Mu'tazili view?
The guest says the Ash'aris borrowed heavily from the Mu'tazila but differ on whether speech is sounds and letters or meaning; Mufti Abu Layth says sectarian politics produced ambiguous creeds.
machine4 min 07 s46:24on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How did Muslim theologians reconcile God being one with his many names and attributes?
The guest and host trace how the Mu'tazila, Hanbalis and Ash'aris reconciled God's oneness with his many names and attributes.
machine10 min 42 s1:10:57on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the Quran eternal, or was it created?
The guest says the Arabic Quran in the tablet is, on most views, pre-existent but created; only God's languageless speech is eternal for Ash'aris and Maturidis.
machine1 min 47 s1:36:51on YouTube
12 Dec 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Why does Mufti Abu Layth say Salafis cannot debate atheists without borrowing Ash'ari arguments?
Salafis argue from a standpoint that cannot hold its own against atheists, so Salafi-background debaters end up using Ash'ari and Maturidi arguments. The Hanbalis were literalists, not the theologians of the tradition.
machine1 min 19 s6:33on YouTube
5 Nov 2019Hadith Studies
What is the difference between the Ash'ari and Athari (Hanbali) creeds?
The core difference is that the Athari (Hanbali) creed attributes body parts to God and the Ash'ari creed does not. Mufti Abu Layth would broadly align himself with the Ash'aris, with reservations, and ranks the philosophers above all the theologians.
machine6 min 33 s0:00on YouTube
3 Nov 2019Responding to Refutations
Do most Sunnis consider Wahhabis and Salafis to be Sunni?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is ironic for a Wahhabi to expel others from Sunni Islam, since most Sunnis do not count Wahhabis as Sunni, while he himself is among the few who do.
machine3 min 04 s22:29on YouTube
20 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
What did Yasir Qadhi write in the leaked emails about the Quran's preservation and the theological schools?
In emails leaked by Dawah Man, Qadhi wrote that the letter-for-letter account of the Quran's preservation cannot stand and proposed discarding the theological schools to rethink kalam from scratch. Mufti Abu Layth reads this as a radical reinterpretation from the man now condemning them.
machine3 min 59 s24:51on YouTube
20 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
Are the Salafis themselves orthodox by their own standard?
The Salafis are themselves unorthodox: the orthodoxy of the ummah has been Ash'ari and the four schools of law, both of which they reject, so their appeal to orthodoxy against new interpretations is inconsistent.
machine2 min 37 s28:50on 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
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 Mar 2018Responding to Refutations
Is someone who denies a line of al-Tahawi's creed a kafir?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says this makes al-Tahawi rather than the Quran the standard, that Elmasry himself departs from al-Tahawi on several points, that Ash'ari creed does not make takfir of the people of the qibla, and that al-Tahawi wrote 250 years after the Prophet and is not an Ash'ari authority.
machine2 min 37 s2:36on 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