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

*Medieval conversions both ways: not haram, but not a good thing*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/20/
- Date: 2020-07-14 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth 173 (1:22:25–1:25:00)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6H5lYE4MN8&t=4945s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/

**Topics:** Public law and governance; Al-Andalus and the Maghrib; Middle East and the wider world

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** 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.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** 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.

**Evidence, his words at 1:23:42:** “if they did it in the past I'm not saying it was haram it wasn't I suppose they've kind of conquered and this is what they did I don't think it was a good thing” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6H5lYE4MN8&t=5022s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims and many others did convert places of worship, perhaps because these were the main buildings of their time and a natural choice for a new community's prayer hall. He notes that in Muslim Spain Christians turned mosques into cathedrals just as Muslims had turned churches into mosques, a back-and-forth law of the jungle in medieval times that Islam neither encouraged nor prohibited. So he does not say the original conversion was haram: it was the politics of conquest, like slavery, which he calls detestable but which everyone practised, and he does not think it was a good thing. He then explains that the Hagia Sophia remained a mosque for centuries until the Turkish nation-state made it a museum, and that the argument for reconversion rests on its once having been a mosque.

## Sources and names cited

- the reconversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:22:25–1:25:00)

[1:21:46] glorified in them so and synagogues Allah does not say and this is you know surah al-hajj this is speaking this is in Medina Allah is speaking about how Muslims should be because he goes on to say alladhina in McCann nouns they love who are these people these are those people who if we give them Dominion this is what they do but they would prevent such things tragedies from happening so Islam does not set out to convert holy sites to mosques it's never that's never

[1:22:24] been the goal of Islam but people Muslims have done that ok many not just Muslims many people have done that one may argue that one of the reasons they did that is because that these were the main buildings in their time so people built you know their places of worship as major buildings so whenever a new community came they saw that major building and they thought yeah that's you know that's a perfect choice to make it into a prayer facility since it's designed like that and you see that Muslims did that Christians did that in

[1:23:03] Muslim Spain they did that as well you know they turn many of the must shades but to be fair Muslims when they took over they turned the Christian things into Masjid they also when they took over turn the Muslim things into Christian cathedrals it seemed to be you know back and forth a kind of law of the jungle that took place in the medieval times it was neither it was not encouraged by Islam but it wasn't prohibited if it was just something that seems to have been the politics of men that they did so okay just to be clear on that so

[1:23:42] if they did it in the past I'm not saying it was haram it wasn't I suppose they've kind of conquered and this is what they did I don't think it was a good thing I don't think it's a good thing but I wouldn't say it was haram per se because it was their politics it was their kind of battles it was what they were doing you know everybody seemed to be like a a practice that people were doing like the way they took slaves I think that's a it was a detestable thing but the whole world was doing it Muslims were doing it Christians were doing everybody was doing it so it's like that now the

[1:24:20] question is that it did become a must see them for many centuries it remained a Masjid now when Turkey was set out as a separate state nation-state in the kind of decades that followed you see that this Hagia Sophia the aya sofya was turned into just a museum now the argument has come that we need to convert this back into a Masjid why because it was once upon a time a Masjid this is the crux of the argument that why should we turn this into mush it

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment a6H5lYE4MN8/s/20. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/a6h5lye4mn8/s/20/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.