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Recordings › Can we criticise the companions of the Prophet (s) | Mufti Abu Layth · 19 Sep 2019 › Segment 1 of 1

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Is it okay to criticise the companions of the Prophet?

malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas imaam imams prayer leader qiyas qiyaas muftis haraam forbidden shaytan shaitan shaytaan iblis iblees shayateen shayatin devil sura soorah surat suwar soora chapter sahabah sahabi sahabiyyah sahabiyat ahl al-sunnah ahl as-sunnah ahlus sunnah ahl al-sunna sunnis shiah shiite shi'i twelver ithna ashari sheikh shaikh sheik shuyukh shaykhs

Criticising the companions: two doorways, veneration or scrutiny of everyone

QuestionSource not recorded · questioner not identifiedAnswered 19 Sep 2019On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺSegment 1 of 1 in the recording2019-09-19-S01

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This segment0:00 to 13:28 · 13 min 28 sGeneral teaching

The answer in brief

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Mufti Abu Layth advises most people to view the companions with veneration, but says anyone who chooses critical, academic study must apply it to every companion, Ali included, rather than selectively.

In more detail

Mufti Abu Layth says that after an earlier video on the early political divide he was asked by someone who appreciated his perspective but felt he had tried to justify some of Mu'awiya's actions, and might unintentionally have put Ali in a negative light by quoting Imam Malik's statement that the best of people were Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Uthman, after which people are equal, and that those who sought rulership are not regarded like those who did not, without mentioning Ali's virtues. He answers that all the companions are amazing people and that Ali is undeniably among the greatest figures of Islam, and recalls an off-camera dialogue with Shia interlocutors about the probity ('adala) of the companions, mentioning in passing a Sunni-Shia debate that Shaykh Asrar Rashid [?] had agreed to. He describes two doorways, likened to the two pills of The Matrix: one of veneration, in which every companion is presented as almost angelic, the version told to children, and one of objective, academic study, in which the companions are seen as 'human, all too human', quarrelling, fighting and swearing. He says that whoever takes the critical doorway must scrutinise everyone, so one cannot single out Ali as protected while criticising Mu'awiya or Abu Hurayra; he told his Shia interlocutors that reports of a ruler having people killed or a village razed are not beyond belief to him, though he has not checked them. He personally advises people to take the venerating doorway, says academic study is a personal choice and not haram as long as it does not become abuse, and compares the polished picture to a film or the wrestling he watched as a child, enjoyed although known to be polished.

Question as read aloud · questioner not identified

In an earlier video you seemed to justify some of Mu'awiya's actions and, by quoting Imam Malik's ranking of Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman without mentioning Ali's virtues, may have put Ali in a negative light; can you shed some light on how we should look at the companions?

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  • Some terms in this segment are uncertain

Position stated

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Mufti Abu Layth says one may either venerate the companions or study them critically as fully human, that critical study must then apply equally to every companion including Ali, and that he personally advises people to take the venerating approach.

In his words

“the truth is that if you take this doorway everybody is gonna get scrutinized there's gonna be no exception”

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Transcript

machine0:00 to 13:28 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
0:00

these questions so I was asked since I've spoken about the whole the whole sunni-shia I think the early political divide I was asked a question about that just this week and I did say I will respond the question was that somebody said look they've watched my video one of my previous videos about how we out of the allow on and in it they said that they really they said they appreciate my perspective they obviously disagree with me and they said that look they feel that I had maybe tried to justify some

0:38

of the actions of my how we are of the Aloha on and that they felt that unintentionally they said that you know we're not saying you were doing this directly or you intended on business but I may have put Sedna Riley Road Elon in some negative light this is in the past this is probably two years ago it's one of my videos that is online on YouTube and they said that by quoting that I said I quoted Imam Malik by saying that when Imam Malik was asked who are the best of people and he said a worker and they said then who and he said Omar and they said then who then he said worst man and the person said then who and he

1:16

said after that everybody is equal and the person says what about Ali and he says well we don't consider those who saw this matter as in rulership like those who didn't now this is a statement of imam malik i wasn't but the person's point was you know you didn't quote any of the virtues of said gnarly this was the the point now they asked me if i could shed some thoughts on all of these so I wanted I said look I'll clarify certain things okay so I just want to begin by saying look that to me all companions are amazing people and

1:55

obviously said in a highly rhodiola one undeniably is one of the greatest figures in Islamic in Islam okay and amongst the Companions that is unquestionable but I want to make something clear and look this was in my you know when the what is it when I had a discussion with some of the Shia brothers I said as I said I Lee and and we did discuss and obviously there was a great interview totally loved it and after that we continued some of the discussion and I think that part was off-camera and you know you've obviously unfolded into more

2:34

of a discussion and somewhat of a not a debate but like a just a dialogue and we did discuss things like adalat of Sahaba do we consider the Sahaba to be all sahaba to be just and things like this which is usually a very contentious topic the same topic that I will beloved friend share a surah Rashid I had agreed to debate the xi'an and then as Maulana as what's-his-name horse man said to him in the phone conversation that was released that's hard on this you flopped

3:12

it Eve but okay we're side tracking me with side tracking but this discussion I did have this discussion with them as well and you see to me I have I would like to explain this to people okay I'm a realist okay I am a I I take things very really sticky uh uh you know I think I I try not to be kind of living some utopia right when it comes to speaking about the companions of the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and really Aloha

3:49

I see things as of - there's two doorways people that we can take we can walk through and I think generally this and this is it there there is no third as far as I'm concerned right now at this in this scenario so this to do is this - pills people what are the pills usually the the red one and and the blue one not that blue you know what it is people have a sick mind me

4:27

I'm straightforward it's the minds of humanity that have become polluted do a stop for people right so it's simply you've got two options in front of you right so one doorway one pill I can't remember what pill was for what in the matrix now so I'm just going to so you've got one door way people in which we just treat venerate these figures we just it's the kind of halo angelic kind of doorway you know we're walking through this doorway and everything is

5:05

all sweet you know this is bright light this harps playing in the background it's everything is just so cozy it's comfy smells of roses that is this doll hey people now I advice common people generally to walk through this doorway it's nice this one this is a this is a it's not realism it's I suppose there it's just pure

5:42

veneration you know you just every everybody's up there it's the halo effect there's a big halo on this door saying you know pious people this way no not pious really but just this one so right so if you go through this doorway everybody is just good you know we're gonna read about a companion and he's the best of people you know he's amazing he's like almost almost very angelic you know he's always great he's you know he's just he's just like a superhero almost like a superhero

6:22

you know they're amazing people and these are the kind of stories we're gonna tell our children we're gonna you know people are gonna kind of grow up on the kind of thing and this is a this is a nice two-way take it you know take it this one not this pill this one this one nice is like a trip just enjoy enjoy the ride enjoy the other doorway the other pill the blue pill see this doorway people is this one is where we're going to be really objective

7:01

there's no halo effect we're going to be real we're going to remove all blinkers we're going to be academic rather Wow what do we have here so here we want to look at everything in a very human this one that one had a halo on it this one has the quote of nature that human all too human you know this one this doorway

7:38

this it's not bright it's just real it's it's like the dull weather of the UK Cooper Oh sunny you know you can't you don't know when it's gonna start raining you don't know what the Sun could be out and suddenly starts raining right that's you know good yeah we've got no real I not loyal is on these doors ain't loyal so this door it's a very oh my god you know we're gonna go through here oh we're gonna see this this side of humans we're gonna see the bickering the

8:18

fighting we're gonna see all of this it could be excited no get me wrong could be exciting you know the the blue pill the blue pill can be quite helpful at times it can be very exciting so my so I've read online but it can have side effects people you know maybe if you OD on it either you can't get rid of the problem or you could have a heart attack

8:55

so the blue pill this one not too nice you know sometimes so now if you take this this door this pill people are all too human you're gonna see the real side you're gonna see these companions swearing you're gonna see them fighting you're gonna see them being human or too human now the problem is whichever door you take that is the only one you eat there's no switching halfway I mean you can switch but I mean what I'm trying to say is if you're going down that hallway

9:32

you've gone that poor connection right so if you've gone down this way you've gone down that way so what happens is some people they want to be very objective with the companions they want to take this but then they say we're going to criticize only selectively companions the truth is that if you take this doorway everybody is gonna get scrutinized there's gonna be no exception so when I had this conversation even with you know some

10:10

some of the our Savior brothers the Shia brothers I was very real I said look they said to me will you accept this about mahalia will you accept this about abu huraira will you accept i said i can accept it I can accept it you know I can accept these things that possibly I mean I don't know whether they did happen but it's not beyond belief for me that you know you're gonna say that out of power somebody had such-and-such killed or at this done or had this village razed to the ground right I can it's not unbelievable I mean I can I don't know whether it's true I haven't checked it out the actual reporting but it's not

10:49

beyond belief but the truth is if we're gonna go down that road you can't then just single out Satan I literally Allah on as like protected and the rest are all scrutinized everybody if you everybody's gonna get thrown under the bus so if you are prepared to walk down that road then you're gonna have to treat everybody as human all too human and everybody's bad sides are gonna come out so I advise people personally to take

11:25

this doorway this one very nice you know this one so I say take this one it's okay you know or if you want to be very academic and you want to be very objective and as a personal preference you want to study this then study it fine I mean I I think is up to you you know I'm not gonna say it's Jara I mean I mean some people would say if you start abusing people then that's Haram but okay but if you just want to learn about people where they went wrong or where they did things true but then everybody remember the filters have gone this

12:01

one's no filter there's no filter to make them look all nice everybody is just going to be lying stark you're gonna take a look and think well blood yell that wasn't pretty so that's what my answer is okay so I hope I've given shed some light I personally do advise people to take this route with everybody just you know that they've gone anyway you know and I accept the reality is actually probably that that human all too human but I still like this you know

12:39

it's this one is still nice you know it's like it's like when we sit back and watch a movie we know it ain't real but it's still entertaining it's still good you know it's like it's this is it's like when we were kids we used to watch dumb analogy now by the way but we used to watch I mean I used to be a major fan of WWF back in the days you know warrior and we all knew it's fake but it was still good and I'm not saying that this is fake but what I'm trying to say is that this is it is very nicely polished

13:17

over and that's okay you know it's it's not 100% but it's okay it's cut it's truthful but it's polished over

Paragraphs overlapping 0:00 to 13:28. 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 2019-09-19-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ahty-xxh79g/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7 
Mufti Abu Layth. (2019, September 19). Is it okay to criticise the companions of the Prophet? [Video, segment 2019-09-19-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ahty-xxh79g/s/1/
Chicago author-date 
Mufti Abu Layth. 2019. "Is it okay to criticise the companions of the Prophet?" Video, segment 2019-09-19-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 19, 2019. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ahty-xxh79g/s/1/
BibTeX 
@misc{abulayth-2019-09-19-S01,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Is it okay to criticise the companions of the Prophet?}},
  year = {2019},
  month = {9},
  date = {2019-09-19},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ahty-xxh79g/s/1/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/ahty-xxh79g/s/1/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2019-09-19-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}
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