Recordings › A Reply to Sheikh Yasir Qadhi - Mufti Abu Layth · 20 Oct 2018 › Segment 5 of 15
What did Yasir Qadhi write in the leaked emails about the Quran's preservation and the theological schools?
aqidah aqeedah aqida creed aqeeda aqaid shari'ah shariat sharee'ah muftis iman imaan eemaan eeman ilm al-kalam asharis ashaira asha'irah ashariyyah ash'arite maturidis maturidiyyah maturidite atharis atharism athariyyah koran quraan al-quran tabi'in tabieen tabi'i successors mecca makka mekka madinah madina al-madinah madeenah yathrib salafism wahhabi wahabi wahhabism dawat da'ee invitation umma ummat communityQadhi's own earlier words: the leaked emails on rethinking theology from scratch
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This segment24:51 to 28:50 · 3 min 59 sA view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenIn 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.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says that, to be fair, Qadhi later found his own path, criticises the Salafis, refuses the label, and is now considered a deviant by most of them, which Mufti commends. He recalls the episode a few years earlier in which Dawah Man released emails by Qadhi, during which Mufti supported Qadhi. He reads from those emails: that the preservation of the Quran cannot be the letter-for-letter narrative taught at Sunday-school level and must be interpreted in another manner; that faced with the problem there are two main paths, either to adopt one of the standard theological schools and force it by imaginative hermeneutics, or, Qadhi's own suggestion, to discard all the theological schools, Athari, Ash'ari and Maturidi, recognise that none is divine, start from scratch and rethink the entire notion of kalam, imagining oneself in the era of the tabi'un, unconcerned about being labelled Ash'ari or Mu'tazili since those man-made structures have been jettisoned. Mufti notes that the emails begin with Qadhi saying he is hesitant to verbalise his beliefs because they are still developing.
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This segment presents a view in order to discuss or respond to it. It is recorded as quoted, never as held, and no position is attributed from it.
Kind: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position heldTranscript
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This segment states a view in order to discuss it. It is recorded as a quoted view, not as a position held.
on YouTube and it's on you can buy the book a siege of Makkah so any so this is the backdrop to these figure heads or or an inspiration to share yourself adi share here sort of gauzy studied in medina university and drew great inspiration from these kind of people in his early days he my understanding is he was a hard cool Salafi and this is why the salafiyyah loved him back then that's where he grew his his kind of his claim to fame on the back of that movement later on he departed from that movement to be fair to him he started to kind of discover his own path and go about
things and he does criticize the Salafi a I think he refuses to call himself the Salafi and so things like this and I and I commend that and I you know applaud him for these things and most of the salafiyyah today consider him a deviant so that is that gives a huge that gives a huge kind of backdrop to Y would share here cell godly be saying these things because ultimately he's coming from that background and although a few years ago
Shari yes it'll kadhi was trying to shed some of this so I'd like to actually share with us now it's interesting that a few years ago they would say a kind of scandal now I say scandal I'm using that term lightly but there was a a kind of there was an issue with between Dawa man and he a self cardi I don't know if you guys remember it was a few years back and I was very supportive of Yasir Qadhi during that thing and and I commended his his approach like Dawa man had
released certain emails of Sharia cell called the expressing certain things to people trying to teach them and and in the he was saying things about doubting about radical new thought and that was my point that he you see like these were the words of chef yasser love cardi and this is only a few years ago he says that conclusion the preservation of the quran cannot then be a letter for letter tequila tequila narrative the latest call is verbalized and the muslim ummah is taught not just as the sunday school
level mind you rather the preservation must therefore be interpreted in another manner and then he has a lot of details on that he he then ends up by saying look this is what one person said the quran is the kalaam of allah so does it mean this does it mean this does it mean this he says here we are faced with quite a few paths to solve our problems I'll only mention the two main ones one we adopt one of the above standard theological schools and somehow force it to take our second theory this will require some imagination hermeneutics especially for the etheric read for the
humble ease he's a humble he's a Salafi in a PITA Oh - this is his suggestion chef's yourself Adi we discard all of these theological schools that is the Salafi they are three - Adi the Matuidi and understand that none of them are in fact divine and hence we cannot assume that they will all answer each and every problem hence we start from scratch and rethink through the entire notion of Kalam to facilitate this we might imagine ourselves in the Iria era of the turban oon so he's saying we put ourselves back in the picture of the self and we reinvent the wheel radically
reinterpret so that we are not impeded by fully fleshed-out theological boxes and allow our for press processes to think outside of the box we are no longer concerned with be with people labeling us a shoddy or Matta silly because we have now jettisoned these man-made structures okay this these are the words of shares of Adi himself I mean now he speaks about his crisis of faith and he begins this whole thing by saying at this stage I'm hesitant to fully
verbalize my beliefs not only because I'm not quite prepared to defend them now but also because they will be developing and I have been developing them this is beliefs for the last six to seven years these are the words of Shelia's Arkady himself speaking of himself in only the last few years and that was the time I was highly praising him now I for some reason he seems to have done a u-turn and become very dogmatic in the last few years 1 or 2 years definitely now right ok so let's take a look at this first point people
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Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2018-10-20-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7cylt19gx5k/s/5/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, October 20). What did Yasir Qadhi write in the leaked emails about the Quran's preservation and the theological schools? [Video, segment 2018-10-20-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7cylt19gx5k/s/5/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "What did Yasir Qadhi write in the leaked emails about the Quran's preservation and the theological schools?" Video, segment 2018-10-20-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded October 20, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7cylt19gx5k/s/5/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-10-20-S05, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{What did Yasir Qadhi write in the leaked emails about the Quran's preservation and the theological schools?}}, year = {2018}, month = {10}, date = {2018-10-20}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7cylt19gx5k/s/5/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7cylt19gx5k/s/5/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2018-10-20-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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