Mufti Abu Layth Archive: history/subcontinent

What was Salman Rushdie's family background?

2022-08-19T00:00:00Z

What was Salman Rushdie's family background?

Mufti Abu Layth describes Rushdie's privileged Muslim family in Bombay, a father who took the name Rushdie from Ibn Rushd, and an English boarding-school education shaped by admiration for the British ruling class.

Answer from 19 August 2022 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Salman Rushdie & The Satanic Verses | Mufti Abu Layth (at 9:18)

Watch on YouTube at 9:18 · Open the segment

Does Islam teach us to show affection?

2021-02-16T00:00:00Z

Does Islam teach us to show affection?

There are countless hadith on showing compassion and affection, he says, but he cannot follow the question about Raja Dahir. Mufti Abu Layth says there are countless hadith about showing shafaqa, compassion and affection.

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 2:26:50)

A more recent answer on wellbeing/character-and-virtue exists (29 September 2024): Spread love, and take account of the damage our words have done

Watch on YouTube at 2:26:50 · Open the segment

How do people react when a scholar from Uzbekistan challenges subcontinent scholars?

2021-01-29T00:00:00Z

How do people react when a scholar from Uzbekistan challenges subcontinent scholars?

Mufti Abu Layth says UK Islam comes almost wholly from Indo-Pakistani and Saudi culture; the guest says challenging subcontinent scholars from Uzbekistan draws harsh reactions, but open-minded people keep him going.

Answer from 29 January 2021 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Shaykh Atabek Shukurov | Mortgages, Madhabs & Molvi-ism | MindTrap 48 | Mufti Abu Layth (at 13:06)

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 15:01 · Open the segment

What do you think of Shah Wali Allah?

2020-07-14T00:00:00Z

What do you think of Shah Wali Allah?

Mufti Abu Layth calls Shah Wali Allah an amazing scholar, ahead of his time, who revived hadith studies and wrote on the objectives of the Sharia without using the word maqasid. Mufti Abu Layth says Shah Wali Allah was an amazing individual, ahead of the curve, who reinvigorated hadith studies.

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

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth 173 (at 30:50)

A more recent answer on fiqh/legal-theory exists (18 October 2025): If reason helps us understand the Quran, does the reasoning of earlier scholars matter too?

Watch on YouTube at 31:30 · Open the segment

Which reading of the Quran reached India, Malaysia and Indonesia, and why?

2020-06-19T00:00:00Z

Which reading of the Quran reached India, Malaysia and Indonesia, and why?

The common reading, later called the reading of Hafs, reached the subcontinent and the Far East through the masses, while the other readings took root only where scholars arrived first. Mufti Abu Layth sums up: the Quran is preserved as the qira'a al-'amma of the Prophet's final recitation, and Hafs coincides with it because he made no choices of his own.

Answer from 19 June 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

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

Recording: Dr. Shehzad Saleem | the Preservation of the Quran & the Problem of Qira'at | MindTrap with Mufti#26 (at 1:46:43)

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 1:46:43 · Open the segment

Where did Shaykh Kashif Khan study, and what is the difference between Salafi and Ahl al-Hadith?

2020-04-19T00:00:00Z

Where did Shaykh Kashif Khan study, and what is the difference between Salafi and Ahl al-Hadith?

The guest studied with Salafi scholars in Pakistan, mostly privately; he says Madinah graduates prefer the name Salafi and the Pakistani Ahl al-Hadith prefer Ahl al-Hadith.

Answer from 19 April 2020 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

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

Recording: Shaykh Kashif Khan | Policing thought, Pornography & Pandora's box | MindTrap with Mufti #15 (at 3:16)

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 3:16 · Open the segment

Why are Indo-Pak Muslims adopting Gulf Arab culture?

2019-12-19T00:00:00Z

Why are Indo-Pak Muslims adopting Gulf Arab culture?

Mufti Abu Layth dislikes the push to Arabise Indo-Pak Islam, from Gulf dress to saying Allah Hafiz, feeling it is political and that culture should be natural, not imposed. Mufti Abu Layth says he personally does not like the Arabisation of Indo-Pak Muslims, feeling that things should be natural and not imposed.

Answer from 19 December 2019 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Arabization of Indo-Pak Islam | Mufti Abu Layth (at 0:00)

A more recent answer on history/subcontinent exists (19 August 2022): What was Salman Rushdie's family background?

Watch on YouTube at 0:00 · Open the segment

Is growing a beard compulsory in Islam?

2019-12-17T00:00:00Z

Is growing a beard compulsory in Islam?

Growing a beard was an ancient Arab custom shared by Muslims and their opponents, not an Islamic requirement in itself. The command to grow it is worded like commands to dye the hair and pray in shoes that nobody treats as obligatory, and no sahih hadith says how to grow it. Mufti Abu Layth says the beard was an ancient Arab custom shared by the Prophet's opponents, that the command to grow it and differ from the Jews and Christians is worded like commands to dye the hair and pray in shoes that nobody treats as obligatory, and that no sahih hadith says how to grow it.

Answer from 17 December 2019 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: The Beard in Islam & Arab Culture | Mufti Abu Layth (at 0:00)

A more recent answer on hadith/sunnah-versus-hadith exists (18 October 2025): Does the Muwatta show that the Companions' practice had already changed by Malik's time?

Watch on YouTube at 0:00 · Open the segment

How did Shaykh al-Yaqoubi become so influential in the UK?

2019-08-21T00:00:00Z

How did Shaykh al-Yaqoubi become so influential in the UK?

After his earlier UK hosts parted with him, al-Yaqoubi found a devoted following in the Barelvi community of the Midlands and the north, learnt to avoid praising Deobandi scholars, and rose to prominence, wealth and power on its back.

Answer from 21 August 2019 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: A Reply to Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi on Sahih Al-Bukhari| Mufti Abu layth (at 6:36)

A more recent answer on dialogue/views-on-contemporary-scholars exists (22 February 2023): Should scholars publicly condemn a scholar said to have joined in a libation ritual?

Watch on YouTube at 6:36 · Open the segment

Why do so many maulanas think the way they do?

2018-02-15T00:00:00Z

Why do so many maulanas think the way they do?

Many maulanas grow up mocked, alienated and insecure, are trained in material irrelevant to the real world, and are then made leaders young, and that past shapes their decisions. He says he is shedding light, not disparaging them. Mufti Abu Layth says one would be naive to think that the past of young maulanas, who hardly interact with women, does not influence their decisions when women come to them with questions.

Answer from 15 February 2018 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: The Maulana/Madrassa crisis & Why my views appear to be different? - Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki (at 5:38)

A more recent answer on history/subcontinent exists (19 August 2022): What was Salman Rushdie's family background?

Watch on YouTube at 5:38 · Open the segment

Why don't most scholars say what Mufti Abu Layth says?

2018-02-15T00:00:00Z

Why don't most scholars say what Mufti Abu Layth says?

Scholars who are articulate leaders able to meet the challenges of the time usually become so in spite of the madrasa system, which does not teach these skills or, in some places, critical thinking. Mufti Abu Layth says that scholars who turn out articulate, charismatic and able to meet the challenges of the time usually do so in spite of having gone through the madrasa system, not because of it.

Answer from 15 February 2018 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: The Maulana/Madrassa crisis & Why my views appear to be different? - Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki (at 0:00)

A more recent answer on history/subcontinent exists (19 August 2022): What was Salman Rushdie's family background?

Watch on YouTube at 0:38 · Open the segment

If Muslims want a khilafah, why not first establish Islam in the countries they already have?

2017-09-09T00:00:00Z

If Muslims want a khilafah, why not first establish Islam in the countries they already have?

Mufti Abu Layth says those pushing a purely politicised Islam are, in his understanding, near the modern Khawarij and use the same evidences as ISIS. The guest says Muslims already have fifty countries, that Pakistanis who sought Nizam-e-Mustafa now want to leave, that khilafah groups cannot even unite, and that Allah does not give what people do not deserve.

Answer from 9 September 2017 · auto-transcribed, may contain errors

Kind: general teaching

Recording: Should Muslims Establish Khilafah - Shaykh Akram Nadwi & Mufti Abu Layth (at 8:49)

A more recent answer on belief/sectarianism-and-takfir exists (22 February 2023): Should Sunnis preach to Shia Muslims about what they get wrong?

Watch on YouTube at 8:49 · Open the segment