Mufti Abu Layth Archive: history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib

Do Muslims whitewash their own historical heroes?

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Do Muslims whitewash their own historical heroes?

Yes, every community whitewashes its heroes, because history records what its writers deem accomplishments; a fairer test is what a figure's adversaries said, as with Salah al-Din or Jewish sources on Umar. Mufti Abu Layth says that of course everybody, Muslims included, whitewashes their historical figures.

Answer from 2 March 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #204 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (at 39:43)

Watch on YouTube at 39:43 · Open the segment

How did the Maliki school spread to North Africa and Spain?

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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. Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki school had spread in Imam Malik's lifetime all the way to the Iberian peninsula, through North Africa.

Answer from 16 February 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #202| Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:50:00)

A more recent answer on fiqh/maliki-school exists (19 April 2023): Why does the practice of Madinah matter more than a single hadith?

Watch on YouTube at 1:50:00 · Open the segment

What do you think of Imam al-Shatibi?

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What do you think of Imam al-Shatibi?

Mufti Abu Layth calls Imam al-Shatibi an absolute legend and the real founding father of maqasid, the objectives of the Sharia. Mufti Abu Layth says al-Shatibi really brought the objectives of the Sharia to life, so that everybody after him is indebted to him, and that he absolutely loves him for that.

Answer from 2 February 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #200| Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:17:17)

A more recent answer on fiqh/maliki-school exists (19 April 2023): Why does the practice of Madinah matter more than a single hadith?

Watch on YouTube at 1:17:49 · Open the segment

A risque proverb from al-Andalus: 'the nerves are connected'

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A risque proverb from al-Andalus: 'the nerves are connected'

A bawdy Andalusian proverb, 'the nerves are connected', shared by Mufti Abu Layth as a joke.

Answer from 19 January 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #198 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (at 3:09:50)

A more recent answer on arts/arabic-poetry-and-letters exists (22 February 2023): Did some Muslim scholars say homosexuality is not haram?

Watch on YouTube at 3:09:50 · Open the segment

What did Ibn Rushd say about women's abilities?

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What did Ibn Rushd say about women's abilities?

Mufti Abu Layth highlights Ibn Rushd's argument, 900 years ago, that women equal men in ability and that confining them to the home impoverished his cities.

Answer from 19 January 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #198 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:20:29)

A more recent answer on society/women-and-gender exists (10 March 2023): Who carried on Imam Malik's teaching after him?

Watch on YouTube at 2:20:29 · Open the segment

Why did Ibn Rushd fall from favour with the caliph?

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Why did Ibn Rushd fall from favour with the caliph?

Mufti Abu Layth relates two accounts of Ibn Rushd's fall, a remark on a storm and an insult to the caliph, and finds the first believable though unproven. Mufti Abu Layth says he is not sure the report that Ibn Rushd doubted the reality of a Quranic story is true, but that it is believable he said such things because his views were very philosophical.

Answer from 19 January 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #198 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:08:59)

A more recent answer on history/al-andalus-and-the-maghrib exists (2 March 2021): Do Muslims whitewash their own historical heroes?

Watch on YouTube at 2:08:59 · Open the segment

Who was Ibn Rushd (Averroes)?

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Who was Ibn Rushd (Averroes)?

Mufti Abu Layth presents Ibn Rushd as a Maliki judge, physician and the great commentator on Aristotle, honoured in Europe but exiled and neglected by Muslims. Mufti Abu Layth says it is a shame that Muslims ignored Ibn Rushd, since he was such a legend in philosophy.

Answer from 19 January 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #198 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (at 1:56:13)

A more recent answer on history/scholars-and-imams exists (10 December 2022): How did Abu Hanifa become a scholar after starting out as a merchant?

Watch on YouTube at 1:56:13 · Open the segment

Was it haram for Muslims to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque after the conquest?

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Was it haram for Muslims to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque after the conquest?

No, he says: it was the politics of conquest in medieval times, done by Muslims and Christians alike and neither encouraged nor prohibited by Islam, but it was not a good thing. The building later became a museum, and the argument now is only that it was once a mosque. Mufti Abu Layth says the medieval conversion of churches into mosques and of mosques into cathedrals was the politics of men, neither encouraged nor prohibited by Islam, so the original conversion of the Hagia Sophia was not haram but was not a good thing.

Answer from 16 July 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Why converting the Hagia Sophia to a mosque is a mistake | Mufti Abu Layth (at 7:58)

A more recent answer on society/current-events/middle-east-and-world exists (17 May 2021): What does Mufti Abu Layth think the solution for Kashmir is?

Watch on YouTube at 7:58 · Open the segment

Was it haram for the Ottomans to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque?

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

Was it haram for the Ottomans to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque?

The original conversion was not haram but the politics of conquest, practised by Muslims and Christians alike, and he does not think it was good. Mufti Abu Layth says the medieval conversion of churches into mosques was not haram but the politics of the time, though he does not think it was a good thing.

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

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth 173 (at 1:22:25)

A more recent answer on society/current-events/middle-east-and-world exists (17 May 2021): What does Mufti Abu Layth think the solution for Kashmir is?

Watch on YouTube at 1:22:25 · Open the segment

What did Ibn al-Arabi write about a classmate who was both bearded and breasted?

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

What did Ibn al-Arabi write about a classmate who was both bearded and breasted?

Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi recorded a classmate with a beard and breasts who came to al-Ghazali's lessons with two servant girls and whose nature puzzled him for years. Mufti Abu Layth reads this as an example of people in the past finding outlets with servants and slaves. Mufti Abu Layth says that in the past, it seems, people who were stuck, such as those who were homosexual or bisexual without an apparent outlet, and presumably khuntha too, found a loophole with servants and slaves.

Answer from 2 August 2019 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Why are homosexual activities forbidden? | Mufti Abu Layth (at 11:42)

A more recent answer on relationships/sexuality-and-orientation exists (22 February 2023): Is it okay for adults or children to change gender?

Watch on YouTube at 11:42 · Open the segment

Why does Mufti Abu Layth follow the Maliki school rather than the Hanafi?

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Why does Mufti Abu Layth follow the Maliki school rather than the Hanafi?

Mufti Abu Layth follows the Maliki school of Madinah because it is built on welfare and rooted in evidence and made the most sense to him. He says the Hanafi school, despite Abu Hanifa's greatness, has been hijacked into a controlling school. Mufti Abu Layth says he follows the Maliki school of Madinah because it is built upon welfare and rooted in evidence and made the most sense, and that the Hanafi school, though Abu Hanifa was a legend, has long been hijacked and become a controlling school that is the antithesis of its founder.

Answer from 22 March 2019 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Why did I Choose Maliki Fiqh? -Mufti Abu Layth (at 2:35)

A more recent answer on fiqh/maliki-school exists (19 April 2023): Why does the practice of Madinah matter more than a single hadith?

Watch on YouTube at 2:35 · Open the segment

Which hadith are used to justify killing apostates, and were the scholars who used them right?

Thu, 10 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Which hadith are used to justify killing apostates, and were the scholars who used them right?

Some scholars did rule that apostates be killed, and he says they were clearly wrong, products of a ruthless age; the time given to apostates in the reports makes sense only as time to withdraw from rebellion. Mufti Abu Layth says that scholars who ruled that apostates be executed unless they returned to Islam were clearly and categorically wrong, being products of an age that placed little value on human life.

Answer from 10 May 2018 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Apostasy has NO punishment in Islam: A Qur'an & Sunnah Analysis by Mufti Abu Layth (at 23:28)

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 23:28 · Open the segment

Do Maliki scholars accept good bid'ah?

Tue, 03 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Do Maliki scholars accept good bid'ah?

Both views exist: the early Maliki school rejected good bid'ah for centuries, but from around the 600s to 700s Hijri most Malikis accepted such practices while the books still list them as makruh. Mufti Abu Layth says that good bid'ah practices crept into the Maliki world around the 600s Hijri and, he would even say, became the majority practice by the 700s.

Answer from 3 March 2015 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Innovation in Islam? | Mufti Abu Layth alMaliki (at 23:47)

A more recent answer on fiqh/maliki-school exists (19 April 2023): Why does the practice of Madinah matter more than a single hadith?

Watch on YouTube at 23:47 · Open the segment

Why is al-Andalus so important to Muslims?

Wed, 02 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Why is al-Andalus so important to Muslims?

Al-Andalus was eight centuries of native Muslim civilisation in Europe, shaped by the Maliki school, and its rise and fall hold lessons for Muslims today. Mufti Abu Layth says he feels the Maliki madhhab was instrumental in the survival of al-Andalus.

Answer from 2 July 2014 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Insights to a personal journey: An interview with Mufti Abu Layth (at 12:53)

A more recent answer on fiqh/maliki-school exists (19 April 2023): Why does the practice of Madinah matter more than a single hadith?

Watch on YouTube at 12:53 · Open the segment