Recordings › Monday Nights with Mufti #197 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth · 12 Jan 2021 › Segment 8 of 43
Has Islam become more polarised between puritans and liberals?
hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith imaam imams prayer leader fatwah fatawa fatwaa fataawa legal opinion muftis iman imaan eemaan eeman salafi salafism wahhabi wahabi wahhabism 'alim aalim shaykh shaikh sheik shuyukh shaykhs da'wah dawat da'ee invitation in sha allah inshallah insha'allah in shaa allah inshaa allah salam as-salamu alaykum assalamu alaikum assalamualaikum salaam salaams salam alaykum wa alaykum as-salam greeting al-din ad-deen ad-din religionIs Islam today polarised between puritans and liberals?
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This segment35:08 to 39:18 · 4 min 10 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenYes, he says Islam is far more polarised today than historically, but he is optimistic it is a fever through which a more natural Islam can return.
In more detail
A chat question asks whether Islam in the post-modern era has become more polarised between puritans and liberals. Mufti Abu Layth says definitely: he feels Islam has become massively polarised in the modern age, much more than historically, because old problems are being faced in a modern way. He gives the example of fatwas: once fatwas are treated like hadith, changing a fatwa of a scholar such as Abu Yusuf for a new age is portrayed as pitting a person against the Prophet. He says more and more people are fed up with literal, dogmatist and folklore Islam, some drifting away and some re-evaluating, while a vocal minority have become extra puritan. He says he is still very optimistic, comparing the situation to a fever in which the body tries to heal itself, and sees an opportunity to reconnect with a purer, natural understanding of Islam as a deen of ease.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedDo you believe that Islam in the post-modern era has become more polarized between the puritans and the liberals?
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says he feels Islam has become massively polarized in the modern age, in many ways much more than historically.
“islam has become massively polarized in this modern age in many ways much more than it has historically”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine35:08 to 39:18 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
wow but you can get sometimes some selfies who don't uh mention much of the selfie thing as much they kind of like keep it uh keep it underground so that's been my impression with abu isa but i could be wrong because i've not been so exposed to a lot of his stuff are we allowed to wear earring at a a i mean okay i mean if you're gonna add the alcoholics anonymous then you know i think we've got bigger problems to deal with
than the earring but cello i have that as your 13th step to to remove the earring but work your way up there let's take some questions people yeah mufti do you believe that islam in the post-modern era has become more polarized between the puritans and the liberals definitely definitely i feel that um
islam has become massively polarized in this modern age in many ways much more than it has historically we are facing you see we are facing new challenges with old problems but it's because the way we're facing them is modern the whole problem is modern if that makes sense so
like you see it's a bit like this thick thing i mentioned with the with the salafis and the wahhabis you see one of the problems when you dislodge ferg you see is fatwas i give a fatwa another sheikh gives a fatwa now 100 years later you may revisit that fatwa say it doesn't really make sense today i'm going to change it now one of the problems with taking fatwas as just simple hadith
is you see changing them becomes a problem because you're now pitting the person as opposed to saying well this is the fatwa of imam abu yusuf you know well today it's the 21st century the day and age has changed so let's change it you now miss portraying it in a way that you're pitting the person against the prophet and you see it's it's a new kind of problem so but that's something i'll get into at another time but yeah i feel that what's happening
is more and more people are getting fed up with this literal dogmatist islam many people are unfortunately questioning the faith many people are not content with folklore islam um and they're just kind of either some are just drifting away from islam or some are then maybe finding peace in other understandings they're reevaluating islam on the other hand you've got a certain minority of people who are very vociferous very loud and they have become extra puritans
you know it's like dawa man saying don't even look at the innovator yeah don't don't even yet [Laughter] don't even look at the innovator you know we it is a difficult um platform but hey i'm i'm still very optimistic
i feel that sometimes you see it's like a fever it's in many ways reflective of the body trying to heal itself even though there's discomfort and i feel that this is an opportunity to reconnect to a pure a purer more more pristine natural understanding of islam sha allah insha allah a deen which is of ease seriously let me let me you know
Paragraphs overlapping 35:08 to 39:18. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2021-01-12-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/8/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2021, January 12). Has Islam become more polarised between puritans and liberals? [Video, segment 2021-01-12-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/8/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2021. "Has Islam become more polarised between puritans and liberals?" Video, segment 2021-01-12-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded January 12, 2021. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/8/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2021-01-12-S08, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Has Islam become more polarised between puritans and liberals?}}, year = {2021}, month = {1}, date = {2021-01-12}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/8/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/8/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2021-01-12-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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