Mufti Abu Layth Archive: hadith/quran-only-movement

How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:46:26)

Watch on YouTube at 2:46:26 · Open the segment

Does the Muwatta show that the Companions' practice had already changed by Malik's time?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Does 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.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:41:21)

Watch on YouTube at 2:42:52 · Open the segment

Why are two of the daily prayers recited silently when 17:110 says not to be silent?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:31:09)

Watch on YouTube at 2:31:09 · Open the segment

Why do Quranists reject the Islamic tradition as a whole?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why do Quranists reject the Islamic tradition as a whole?

The guest says Quranists differ in interpretation but agree that the Islamic tradition is riddled with errors, and that Mufti Abu Layth's BukhariGate work leads people to Quranism; Mufti says the guest's own prayer choices came from the tradition and objects to disrespect towards the people of the mosque.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:24:01)

Watch on YouTube at 2:26:38 · Open the segment

What is Mufti Abu Layth's case for keeping the Islamic scholarly tradition?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

What is Mufti Abu Layth's case for keeping the Islamic scholarly tradition?

The guest restates Mufti Abu Layth's view as relying on the tradition for a few hard verses and says the Quran's overall message has no such problems; Mufti says the 1,400-year tradition beginning with the Prophet's Sunnah is invaluable and discarding it is a disservice to Islam.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:18:51)

Watch on YouTube at 2:22:37 · Open the segment

Why did Mufti Abu Layth bring up 3:188 against the Quran-only position?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why did Mufti Abu Layth bring up 3:188 against the Quran-only position?

Mufti Abu Layth cited 3:188 because its apparent reading is harsher than the Prophet's explanation, showing that the reasoning of those who came before is valuable; the guest says he asked for the Prophet's book of explanations and was pointed back to the Quran.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:14:00)

Watch on YouTube at 2:14:00 · Open the segment

If most people love praise and are punished, how is God the most merciful?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If most people love praise and are punished, how is God the most merciful?

The guest says most people are mushrikun according to the Quran and that God is merciful in giving them messengers and exits, so those who refuse to reason deserve punishment; guidance follows the attributes God has set, not chance.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:10:46)

Watch on YouTube at 2:10:46 · Open the segment

Is it a sin to enjoy being praised?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Is it a sin to enjoy being praised?

The guest holds that 3:188 describes people buying into the worldly life, exulting in what they have and loving praise for what they have not done, and that such people are punished; pressed, he confirms that anyone with these traits faces punishment.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:04:39)

Watch on YouTube at 2:04:39 · Open the segment

Does 3:188 mean everyone who likes praise will be punished?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Does 3:188 mean everyone who likes praise will be punished?

The apparent reading of 3:188 threatens anyone who loves praise for what he has not done, which troubled the Companions until the Prophet explained it as concerning tyrants and the arrogant; the guest reads it as a warning listing traits a believer must shed.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:58:33)

Watch on YouTube at 1:58:33 · Open the segment

If reason helps us understand the Quran, does the reasoning of earlier scholars matter too?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If 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.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:55:37)

Watch on YouTube at 1:56:30 · Open the segment

Is the daytime ban on eating and intimacy in Ramadan stated in the Quran or inferred?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Is the daytime ban on eating and intimacy in Ramadan stated in the Quran or inferred?

The daytime prohibition of eating and intimacy in Ramadan comes from 2:187 by mafhum al-mukhalafa, an adverse inference Mufti Abu Layth accepts but which is not the explicit reading, so some verses need the tradition's explanation; the guest says each reader is rewarded according to his understanding.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:50:02)

Watch on YouTube at 1:50:43 · Open the segment

Can the Quran be used to call the Prophet the best of creation?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Can the Quran be used to call the Prophet the best of creation?

The guest says calling the Prophet the best of creation is an unprovable inference contradicted by verses and reports favouring Abraham; Mufti Abu Layth says the guest rejects inference for that title while relying on inference to say what breaks the fast.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:46:26)

Watch on YouTube at 1:47:07 · Open the segment

Does the Quran alone say what breaks the fast?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Does the Quran alone say what breaks the fast?

The guest says 2:187 shows that eating, drinking and intercourse break the fast by making them lawful at night; Mufti Abu Layth says the verse does not explicitly forbid them by day, so the Quran-only reader is inferring by reason rather than reporting what God said.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:42:01)

Watch on YouTube at 1:42:01 · Open the segment

Why does the guest's prayer have no fixed number of units, and what counts as wudu?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why does the guest's prayer have no fixed number of units, and what counts as wudu?

The guest's prayer is about duration and connection rather than numbers of units, with an imam supplying structure only in congregation; prostration, kneeling and standing are components without a set order, and wudu is as 5:6 describes it, without the tradition's additions.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:36:54)

Watch on YouTube at 1:36:54 · Open the segment

Does the Quranist prayer have any set structure?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Does the Quranist prayer have any set structure?

The guest's prayer has no set structure: it changes in the moment, may include hours of prostration or prostrating mid-recitation when a verse moves him, and its purpose per 29:45 is to restrain immorality; he says Quranists may also pray like Sunnis, minus words not from God.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:31:09)

Watch on YouTube at 1:31:46 · Open the segment

How do Muslims know how to pray if the Quran does not spell it out?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How do Muslims know how to pray if the Quran does not spell it out?

Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims know how to pray from an unbroken living tradition of more than 1,400 years, father to child, documented in the books of every century; the guest asks why God describes prayer in the Quran if it must be learned at the mosque, and why two prayers are silent when 17:110 forbids silence.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:26:18)

Watch on YouTube at 1:27:01 · Open the segment

How does a Quranist pray salah?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How does a Quranist pray salah?

The guest's prayer has no unit count: after wudu he seeks refuge, reads al-Fatiha by his own choice and a full chapter, then prostrates once with supplication, filling the prayer time as the moment dictates; in congregation the imam leads a single long prostration and prayers last up to an hour, three times a day.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:19:58)

Watch on YouTube at 1:19:58 · Open the segment

How do Quranists perform Hajj and apply Islam without the fiqh tradition?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How 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.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:17:13)

Watch on YouTube at 1:18:06 · Open the segment

Can 'light' in 5:15 refer to the Prophet, or only to guidance and the book?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Can 'light' in 5:15 refer to the Prophet, or only to guidance and the book?

Mufti Abu Layth says the primary readings of 'light' in 5:15 are guidance or the Prophet, as many mufassirun held, and that the guest's reading as the book is acceptable but may not negate the others; the guest says the word cannot refer to a human and that the mufassirun inserted the Prophet from presupposition.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:08:12)

Watch on YouTube at 1:08:12 · Open the segment

Is the 'light' that came with the clear book in 5:15 the Prophet or the Quran itself?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Is the 'light' that came with the clear book in 5:15 the Prophet or the Quran itself?

The guest reads the light of 5:15 as an aspect of the book itself, arguing from the pronoun in 5:16 and the conjunction in 33:7; Mufti Abu Layth presents the view of the mufassirun that the light is the Prophet and accepts the guest's reading as one interpretation while objecting that the others are not negated.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:01:24)

Watch on YouTube at 1:02:02 · Open the segment

Does 16:44 mean the Prophet explains the Quran, or that the Quran clarifies earlier scriptures?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Does 16:44 mean the Prophet explains the Quran, or that the Quran clarifies earlier scriptures?

Mufti Abu Layth reads 16:44 as showing the Prophet's role in explaining the revelation, as nearly every tafsir does; the guest says the verse is about the Quran clarifying earlier scriptures to the people of the book, and points to 5:15 as naming a single source.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 56:40)

Watch on YouTube at 57:24 · Open the segment

What is the 'wisdom' the Prophet teaches alongside the Book in 2:129?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

What is the 'wisdom' the Prophet teaches alongside the Book in 2:129?

The guest holds that the wisdom taught alongside the Book is the Quran's own application and is found in the Quran itself; Mufti Abu Layth says the primary reading of 2:129 is that the messenger teaches the Book and, separately, the wisdom, and himself purifies the people.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 50:49)

Watch on YouTube at 51:35 · Open the segment

Why did Mufti Abu Layth challenge hadith in BukhariGate, and can the Prophet be called the most beloved of creation?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why did Mufti Abu Layth challenge hadith in BukhariGate, and can the Prophet be called the most beloved of creation?

Mufti Abu Layth says his hadith criticism, including BukhariGate, was driven by reports that insult the Prophet, whose honour comes before Muslims' own; the guest says calling the Prophet the most beloved of creation is unprovable and a lie against God, and that the Quran favours Abraham, whom Muhammad is told to follow.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 43:36)

Watch on YouTube at 43:36 · Open the segment

Is the Prophet Muhammad the most beloved of creation and a mercy to the worlds?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Is the Prophet Muhammad the most beloved of creation and a mercy to the worlds?

The guest holds that God's sending of the messenger, not the Prophet himself, is the mercy, and that calling him the most beloved of creation is unprovable celebrity worship; Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet is a mercy for the worlds and that if some are more beloved than others one must be at the top.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 27:42)

Watch on YouTube at 27:42 · Open the segment

Do Quranists accept any Sunnah of the Prophet?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 22:29)

Watch on YouTube at 24:01 · Open the segment

Is the Quran-only position an argument from epistemology or from principle?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Is the Quran-only position an argument from epistemology or from principle?

The guest says the Quran-only position rests on principle, since God refers earlier communities only to their books, and is confirmed by epistemology, since hadith are contradictory and insulting; Quranists reject the religious authority of hadith, not history or narrations as such.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 15:38)

Watch on YouTube at 18:31 · Open the segment

Why does Mufti Abu Layth see the Quran-only movement as a reaction of anger?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why does Mufti Abu Layth see the Quran-only movement as a reaction of anger?

Mufti Abu Layth sees the Quran-only movement as a reaction of anger, sometimes justified, to hadith that are misused, such as the Bukhari report on Aisha's age, the report on killing apostates and reports used to justify abuse; the question is what Quranists actually mean by rejecting hadith. Mufti Abu Layth says he perceives the Quranist movement as a reaction of anger to hadith that are misused, an anger sometimes justified, and he holds that Aisha married in her late teens, that the hadith on killing the apostate is fabricated and its application was political, and that hadith are wrongly used to justify abuse and misogyny.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 7:32)

Watch on YouTube at 7:32 · Open the segment

How the dialogue came about: a guest who waited two hours at the last meetup

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How the dialogue came about: a guest who waited two hours at the last meetup

The guest waited two hours at the previous meetup, said his followers wanted a dialogue, and tonight Mufti Abu Layth wants to hear a Quranist make the case for the Quran-only position.

Answer from 18 October 2025 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Recording: Br Muhammad MFG | Quranist Only Belief - A Dialogue | MindTrap #82 - Mufti Abu Layth (at 4:52)

Watch on YouTube at 4:52 · Open the segment

What does the Mufti think of Quran-only Muslims?

Sat, 20 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What does the Mufti think of Quran-only Muslims?

Mufti Abu Layth commends Quranists' love for the Quran but feels they have misunderstood the living tradition. Most of the ummah, Hanafi and Maliki, were hadith relativists who put the sunnah before hadith. Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that Quran-only Muslims have misunderstood, or not appreciated, the living tradition in its totality.

Answer from 20 November 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Quranist/Quran-Only Muslims? Hadith Relativists Vs Hadith Absolutists | Mufti Abu Layth (at 0:00)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 0:00 · Open the segment

Should I debate Quranists?

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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. Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think debates really yield results, since humiliating someone in an argument only makes them hate you more.

Answer from 25 October 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Should We Debate Quranists? | Mufti Abu Layth (at 7:07)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 7:07 · Open the segment

Did Muslims learn how to pray from hadith books?

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Did Muslims learn how to pray from hadith books?

No: the practice of Islam reached us through the living tradition, taught from parent to child, not through hadith collections compiled two centuries later. Quranists are not one group, and many only doubt the accuracy of hadith. Mufti Abu Layth says that, personally, he would say the practice of Islam has not reached us through hadith but through the living tradition.

Answer from 25 October 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Should We Debate Quranists? | Mufti Abu Layth (at 4:30)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 4:30 · Open the segment

Will Allah judge someone who follows only the Quran by the Quran alone?

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Will Allah judge someone who follows only the Quran by the Quran alone?

Mufti Abu Layth will not speak on who is saved: he finds it arrogant for a human to presume where anyone ends up, since Allah's mercy encompasses everything. We should concern ourselves with our own path. Mufti Abu Layth says that he personally finds it very arrogant for a human to presume who will go where in the afterlife, which only Allah knows.

Answer from 25 October 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Should We Debate Quranists? | Mufti Abu Layth (at 0:00)

A more recent answer on belief/salvation-and-non-muslims exists (18 October 2025): If most people love praise and are punished, how is God the most merciful?

Watch on YouTube at 2:36 · Open the segment

Should we throw away hadith altogether?

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Should we throw away hadith altogether?

No: he says the hadith tradition is a beautiful, unparalleled record of the Prophet that should be filtered for corrupted reports, not discarded. Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith tradition is a beautiful and unparalleled record of the Prophet that should be filtered for the reports that became corrupted, not thrown away.

Answer from 26 January 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #199 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:22:31)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 2:22:31 · Open the segment

Does Edip Yuksel believe in praying five times a day?

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Does Edip Yuksel believe in praying five times a day?

Mufti Abu Layth thinks Edip Yuksel accepts the five prayers but not as the primary objective. Mufti calls rejecting all hadith the opposite extreme to hadith dogmatism, since all we know of early Islam comes through the living tradition. Mufti Abu Layth says he does not buy rejecting all hadith, which he feels is the opposite extreme to hadith dogmatism.

Answer from 28 August 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Dr Edip Yuksel & the Quran only methodology | Mufti Abu Layth (at 0:01)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 0:01 · Open the segment

Why follow hadith if the Quran is complete?

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Why follow hadith if the Quran is complete?

Mufti Abu Layth follows hadith because some of the hadith and Sunnah are clearly accurate and the Prophet legislated in addition to the Quran. Mufti Abu Layth says it makes absolute sense to him that the Prophet would have legislated in addition to the Quran and that this should be followed.

Answer from 14 July 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth 173 (at 1:44:49)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 1:44:49 · Open the segment

Does prayer have to be physical, or is remembering God enough?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Does prayer have to be physical, or is remembering God enough?

The guest is not against the physical form of prayer but says it is only an expression; the one necessary component of salat according to the Quran is conscious connection with God, so one may pray sitting or while travelling.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 2:42:40)

A more recent answer on fiqh/prayer exists (18 October 2025): Why are two of the daily prayers recited silently when 17:110 says not to be silent?

Watch on YouTube at 2:42:40 · Open the segment

What does the word salat mean in the Quran according to the Quran-only view?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

What does the word salat mean in the Quran according to the Quran-only view?

The guest defines salat from the Quran as solidarity rather than ritual: with God, which is remembrance and connection, and with people, which is the secular Friday gathering; the essence is dhikr, not physical form.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 2:38:46)

A more recent answer on fiqh/prayer exists (18 October 2025): Why are two of the daily prayers recited silently when 17:110 says not to be silent?

Watch on YouTube at 2:38:46 · Open the segment

If you reject all hadith, how do you know how to pray?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If you reject all hadith, how do you know how to pray?

The guest rejects every hadith collection, including Nahj al-Balagha, as a source of religion, and says the objection that the Quran does not detail the five prayers is a circular argument built on fabricated details.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 2:32:11)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 2:32:11 · Open the segment

What does Edip Yuksel think of Sam Gerrans?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

What does Edip Yuksel think of Sam Gerrans?

The guest respects Sam Gerrans as articulate but says his failure to see the number 19 leads him to invent arbitrary meanings for the initial letters, and that 19 is a divine test of one's bigotry.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 2:26:56)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 2:26:56 · Open the segment

Does the number 19 structure work in all the readings of the Quran?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Does the number 19 structure work in all the readings of the Quran?

The guest says the 19 structure is found in the Hafs reading, where it revealed two spelling errors and two added verses, and that the Warsh reading differs little; he also expresses regard for Ghulam Ahmad Parwez.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 2:21:49)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 2:21:49 · Open the segment

What is Mufti Abu Layth's own position on hadith compared with the Quran-only view?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

What is Mufti Abu Layth's own position on hadith compared with the Quran-only view?

Mufti Abu Layth is a Sunni who is critical of parts of the hadith literature without rejecting it wholesale, and he opposes labelling Quran-only Muslims as deviants or misguided.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 2:20:30)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 2:20:30 · Open the segment

Does khatam al-nabiyyin mean the last prophet or the best prophet?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Does khatam al-nabiyyin mean the last prophet or the best prophet?

The guest understands khatam al-nabiyyin as the last prophet, since the Quran addresses all people until the end of the world, and says the Quran gives the time of the end of the world.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 2:16:30)

A more recent answer on belief/prophethood-and-miracles exists (18 October 2025): Can the Quran be used to call the Prophet the best of creation?

Watch on YouTube at 2:16:30 · Open the segment

Why was Rashad Khalifa assassinated?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Why was Rashad Khalifa assassinated?

The guest says Rashad Khalifa was declared an apostate by a 1989 Madinah gathering under Ibn Baz and killed within a year by a group linked to al-Qaeda, and he lists coincidences of the number 19 around the murder, Y2K and the 9/11 attacks.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 1:56:52)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 1:56:52 · Open the segment

Did Rashad Khalifa claim to be a messenger of God?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Did Rashad Khalifa claim to be a messenger of God?

The guest says Rashad Khalifa did claim to be a messenger, not a prophet, commissioned to unveil the miracle of 19, and that the Quran calls Muhammad the last prophet rather than the last messenger. Khalifa held the last two verses of Surat al-Tawba to be interpolations.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 1:52:57)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 1:52:57 · Open the segment

Could the number 19 patterns in the Quran be a coincidence or a human habit?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Could the number 19 patterns in the Quran be a coincidence or a human habit?

The guest says the 19 structure cannot be chance or subconscious habit, that mathematicians cannot refute it, and that 19 appearing only in chapter 74 and being unveiled in 1974, nineteen times seventy-four lunar years later, is a prophecy.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 1:45:14)

A more recent answer on quran/hermeneutics exists (18 October 2025): Does 3:188 mean everyone who likes praise will be punished?

Watch on YouTube at 1:45:14 · Open the segment

How does the guest's number 19 differ from Bible numerics, and how does he read 74:29-31?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

How does the guest's number 19 differ from Bible numerics, and how does he read 74:29-31?

The guest says 19 is a test most people fail, distinguishes his system from Ivan Panin's Bible numerics, and retranslates 74:29-31 as describing a precise, obvious mathematical structure rather than scorching the skin in hell.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 1:38:44)

A more recent answer on quran/hermeneutics exists (18 October 2025): Does 3:188 mean everyone who likes praise will be punished?

Watch on YouTube at 1:38:44 · Open the segment

What numerical patterns does the guest find in the Quran's word counts?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

What numerical patterns does the guest find in the Quran's word counts?

The guest lists word-frequency symmetries in the Quran, such as dunya and akhirah 115 times each, month twelve times and day 365 times, and says the number 19 is a test that most people fail.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 1:33:33)

A more recent answer on quran/hermeneutics exists (18 October 2025): Does 3:188 mean everyone who likes praise will be punished?

Watch on YouTube at 1:33:33 · Open the segment

What is the miracle of the number 19 in the Quran?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

What is the miracle of the number 19 in the Quran?

The guest says the number 19 proves the Quran is God's word letter by letter and that Muslims otherwise have no objective evidence for its divine origin; he recounts a Turkish scholar insisting the bismillah has twenty-one letters rather than nineteen.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 1:26:59)

A more recent answer on quran/hermeneutics exists (18 October 2025): Does 3:188 mean everyone who likes praise will be punished?

Watch on YouTube at 1:26:59 · Open the segment

Does any hadith actually explain the Quran?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Does any hadith actually explain the Quran?

The guest challenges hadith followers to find a hadith that explains the Quran, says the Quran uses the word hadith negatively and sunnah only for God's law, and holds that descriptive reports are history, not religion.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 52:50)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 52:50 · Open the segment

Can hadith be sifted with criteria, or must the whole corpus be rejected?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Can hadith be sifted with criteria, or must the whole corpus be rejected?

Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's practice survives as a living tradition in fiqh and that he accepts a hadith only if it passes reason, the texts and the principles. The guest replies that narrators who fabricated a stoning verse forfeit all credibility, like a false witness in the Quran.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 48:57)

A more recent answer on hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning exists (18 October 2025): Is there a middle way between rejecting all hadith and accepting every hadith?

Watch on YouTube at 48:57 · Open the segment

Can Muslims do ijtihad from the Quran alone?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Can Muslims do ijtihad from the Quran alone?

Mufti Abu Layth agrees with the guest that making Islam Bukhari-centric is a problem, as his BukhariGate series argues. The guest says the Quran declares itself easy to understand and that whoever thinks it difficult or rejects its clear verses loses access to it.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 38:24)

A more recent answer on hadith/bukhari exists (18 October 2025): Why did Mufti Abu Layth challenge hadith in BukhariGate, and can the Prophet be called the most beloved of creation?

Watch on YouTube at 38:24 · Open the segment

Were the Prophet's judgements meant to bind Muslims after his death?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Were the Prophet's judgements meant to bind Muslims after his death?

The guest says the Prophet's authority as judge and leader was for his lifetime only, that his bay'ah was a reciprocal social contract in which women voted, and that his messengership ended once the Quran was delivered, so obeying the messenger cannot mean obeying Bukhari.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 31:53)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 31:53 · Open the segment

Does the guest think every hadith is fabricated?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Does the guest think every hadith is fabricated?

The guest says not every hadith is evil, but truth is mixed with falsehood and even genuine sayings cannot be a source of religion, since the Quran makes God the only source of law and limits the messenger's duty to delivery.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 27:59)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 27:59 · Open the segment

Was the hadith literature a conspiracy against the Quran?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Was the hadith literature a conspiracy against the Quran?

The guest says the hadith corpus is a deliberate conspiracy against the Quran by its enemies, including the Umayyads, and that reports such as the Banu Qurayza massacre and the killing of a woman critic were fabricated to justify later rulers' crimes.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 21:29)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 21:29 · Open the segment

Why did Edip Yuksel write a reformist translation of the Quran?

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Why did Edip Yuksel write a reformist translation of the Quran?

The guest describes translating the Quran with Rashad Khalifa and says the Sunni religion distorted the message, beginning with adding Muhammad's name to the shahada; he calls Sunni and Shia translations deliberate distortions and says the Quran was betrayed through hadith.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 12:57)

A more recent answer on hadith/quran-only-movement exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 12:57 · Open the segment

The guest's background: languages, translations, books, Beltways and a constitution for Turkey

Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The guest's background: languages, translations, books, Beltways and a constitution for Turkey

The guest describes his languages, his Turkish and English translations of the Quran, his books on the number 19, his unpaid religious work, his Beltways transit project, a proposed Netflix documentary and a draft constitution for Turkey.

Answer from 26 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: quoted view (stated in order to be discussed, not necessarily held)

Recording: Prof. Edip Yuksel | Rejecting Hadith, Rashad Khalifa & Realizing '19' | MindTrap with Mufti #27 (at 4:28)

A more recent answer on dialogue/guest-conversations exists (18 October 2025): How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?

Watch on YouTube at 4:28 · Open the segment

Does the Quran say there are three or five daily prayers?

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Does the Quran say there are three or five daily prayers?

The Quran does not spell out the number of prayers, but Sunnis, Shia and Ibadis all hold there are five, which Mufti Abu Layth takes as proof of an early living tradition that preceded the hadith books. The Shia combine the five rather than reducing them to three. Mufti Abu Layth says he personally feels the Quran does not address how many daily prayers there are, and that the agreement of Sunnis, Shia and Ibadis on five prayers shows, in his understanding irrefutably, a proto-Sunnah living tradition that preceded the hadith books.

Answer from 24 July 2019 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Does the Quran say how many Prayers? | Mufti Abu Layth (at 0:01)

A more recent answer on fiqh/prayer exists (18 October 2025): Why are two of the daily prayers recited silently when 17:110 says not to be silent?

Watch on YouTube at 0:01 · Open the segment

Can an ordinary Muslim reject a hadith that seems irrational?

Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Can an ordinary Muslim reject a hadith that seems irrational?

An ordinary Muslim should refer puzzling hadith to scholars rather than reject them, but may decline to act on a report that clearly clashes with Islam's universal teachings. Going through the hadith books one by one is not the duty of the unskilled. Mufti Abu Layth holds that ordinary Muslims should refer puzzling reports to scholars but may decline to act on a report that plainly clashes with Islam's universal teachings.

Answer from 11 January 2017 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Age of Aisha (ra)- Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:42:08)

A more recent answer on hadith/hadith-in-legal-reasoning exists (18 October 2025): Is there a middle way between rejecting all hadith and accepting every hadith?

Watch on YouTube at 1:42:08 · Open the segment