Recordings › Thoughts on Mufti Menk | Mufti Abu Layth · 18 Oct 2019 › Segment 1 of 1
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Mufti Menk?
aqidah aqeedah aqida theology aqeeda aqaid sahih saheeh sahih hadith saheeh hadith sound hadith muftis haraam forbidden jahannam jahanam jahannum koran quraan al-quran sura soorah surat suwar soora chapter ulama ulema ulamaa ma sha allah masha allah mashaa allah taqwa taqwaa muttaqi god-consciousness deen al-din ad-deen ad-dinThoughts on Mufti Menk: folkloric stories, a real demand, and the stern persona
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This segment0:02 to 9:17 · 9 min 15 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenMixed: Menk fills a real demand for simple, uplifting stories and is likeable and funny, but Mufti Abu Layth says such preachers spread inauthentic stories and cement false beliefs, and he suspects Menk is less strict than he portrays himself.
In more detail
Asked from the chat what he thinks of Mufti Menk and whether he knows him, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not know him personally and that his thoughts are ambivalent. His impression is that Menk tells innocent, folkloric stories in short clips, has a grandfatherly persona, and gives people a boost, and that there is a real need for this. He says he himself could not tell such stories because many of them are not authentic: a made-up story about a saint carries a moral and does no harm, but stories about prophets are taken as creed, and most of the stories told about prophets are, he says, probably made up. He says preachers like Menk fill a void, since the masses want folklore and an ascetic-looking figure in a Saudi scarf with a long beard, which sells, and he tells an anecdote from one of his teachers about a Pakistani holy man reading a face-cream advertisement as the Quran. He adds that Menk does not act like a simpleton, is funny and relaxed, and that he likes that about him. His problem with all preachers of that genre is that in filling the void they cement false beliefs and spread them: he recalls hearing a Menk lecture insist that the Quran says the whole world was flooded in the time of Nuh, which he says is untrue, as it was a regional flood and the Quran does not say that, and because such clips go viral the preacher bears responsibility. He also disagrees with Menk's sometimes stern, strict interpretation of Islam; his personal thinking, which he says could be wrong, is that Menk is nowhere near as strict as he portrays himself and probably does not believe about half of what he preaches, such as that birthdays are haram, but must echo his crowd, which he says is true of most scholars. He closes by saying he is sure Menk is a great person whom he would love to meet and chat with.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedWhat are your thoughts on Mufti Menk? Do you know him?
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Not yet double-checkedA summary of the view expressed is published here only after a second, independent review has found the sentence in the transcript where he says it. Until then, the transcript and the recording speak for themselves.
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Marga etaf says do you know what are your thoughts on Mufti mink do you know him [Music] right I'm I don't actually know most he meant personally or anything obviously I know of him what are my thoughts on Mufti mink you see I think they were ambivalent they're kind of like mix I think on one hand I feel that you see mostly mink generally my impression of him is he he he just tells kind of like I don't know if I could say innocent but let's
say for now innocent stories just kind of nice folkloric kind of stories which are in short clips and to the masses he has a very here's a persona that that fits if I can say that I mean the profile kind of fits he has this very I mean he's not he's not that old he's doesn't seem old at all but I've heard people say about him he has very almost like a grandfatherly kind of persona I don't mean he's that old does it but that kind
of persona that somebody I've read this on a few comments about him oh that he has and people when they want to have a little boost they watched some of his clips and he'll just say a nice story about I don't know some the prophets or he'll tell these kind of things and and my impression is that's what he does and there's obviously a need for that so somebody like me I wouldn't be able to really tell those kind of stories because you see the problem with a lot of these stories is they're not authentic so this
one big problem it's not because a lot of what you're telling is just made up so you see somebody like me I'm too self-critical to do something like that about prophets and things like that maybe you know I could tell a story about a person and even if it turned out not to be true for example let's say we're telling a story about a Scylla and it turned out that the story wasn't true to me there's no big deal you know this is a moral in the story there's a lesson and you know whoever wants to take you can take you whoever doesn't doesn't to me the problem with saying that about
profits is people then take it as doctrine they take it as Creed they take it as though it's the Quran you understand and so so Mufti mint does a lot of that he tells a lot of stories and a lot of these stories that he he would tell other preachers tell are actually made up and inauthentic in fact most of the stories to do with prophets are probably made up so on the plus side I feel that people like musty mint they feel a void they are there because there is a need there is a demand people want
folklore people want to be able to go into YouTube and watch a clip of somebody that looks not like me for example but rather than you know rather than having they want somebody who's gonna have like Adenauer saudi scarf on he's gonna have a very long beard flowing he's gonna have a very much more of an a monastic kind of like a monk like a very ascetic almost or what they would call pious I mean pious what does piety mean piety is not how you dress
but they would call that oh maybe that's pious you know this person a hermit like look people like that they are cells in religion honestly you cells massively sells like hotcakes people you know being very ascetic like being almost distant from the dunya people love that though the masses crave that stuff you know it's like I've told this story one of our teachers he said oh there's
the speed Baba in Pakistan and and there was and he was saying in this gathering that masha'Allah have you seen these billboards that they were advertising tip you know there's a cream in Pakistan like I think it's a facial cream and it's called Tibet snow they call it Tibbits no that's the name of the cream yeah so obviously they've written it in order to so it start like that Tibet and in order to they don't write vowing you just meant to guess what he would says and he said snow so see moon Wow you
know like that snow so he says this guy looks at the post and says masha'Allah yeah they cool you know look at this you can read up but you know to put the surah of the Quran - but Theodore Avila have the but he says you get it up but so no like listen so no listen to the but so people are like masha'Allah you know ya boo boo zoo boo zoo donkey sadeghi mashallah you know he's so removed from this world that in
everything he sees the Quran raha saat kita you know it's like this is what but this stuff sells you know if you want to if you want to really fly in that market then this is how you gotta be you gotta act all kind of naive and dumb and you gotta make these kinda like a simpleton so a lot of these preachers although coming back to Mufti mink I don't think mostly mink acts like a simple term I think he does he's quite funny sometimes and he can be kind of chill out chilled out and I think that's really good so
those are the plus side I think I really I do like that about Mufti main that thing that he's he'll crack jokes he'll try to be funny he'll try to tell stories and things like this the problem that that I have with all preachers not just mostly men of that genre is in this void in filling this void they also help concrete concrete eyes this kind of false beliefs they push them out and they cement them these stories and they further spread these stories so I
remember hearing something I remember walking into a shop and somebody had a lecture of Mufti mink on and he was talking about the flood of Noah and he was and he was he's getting passionate and you saying well and the whole world was drowned in water and don't listen to these people because Allah says in the Quran the whole world was flooded with water so we know this and but that's not true and neither does Allah sing or and the whole world was flooded with water there's this was just a regional flood but you see when you're going to so passionately preach this and then tell people look it's in the Quran then
you're partially responsible for that kind of thinking that kind of then permeates the Muslim crowds because your clips are viral so you have that responsibility that's so that's where I disagree with people like Mufti monka I also disagree with him he pushes sometimes a very stern a very kind of strict interpretation of Islam and I think he has to do that my personal thinking is that multi monkeys isn't a strict no where near as strict as he portrays himself so I think in 50% of what mostly man probably preaches he
probably doesn't believe this I've got no obviously this is just my thinking I could be wrong but I don't think he believes in about 50% Oh probably what he preaches but but that's not he's not exclusive in that you'll be surprised most the scholars are like that so he might say to people birthdays are Haram but himself he might not believe that I don't think he personally believes that but he will say things like this because he's got to speak in accord as he must echo the sentiments of that crowd so yeah so that's my thoughts on people like that but generally I've now I think you know I'm sure he's a
great person I would love to meet meet him sit and have a chat with him and things like this love to do that but yeah let's see let's see cool what else is
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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 2019-10-18-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/azjbapbsjdo/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2019, October 18). What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Mufti Menk? [Video, segment 2019-10-18-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/azjbapbsjdo/s/1/
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Mufti Abu Layth. 2019. "What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Mufti Menk?" Video, segment 2019-10-18-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded October 18, 2019. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/azjbapbsjdo/s/1/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2019-10-18-S01, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Mufti Menk?}}, year = {2019}, month = {10}, date = {2019-10-18}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/azjbapbsjdo/s/1/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/azjbapbsjdo/s/1/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2019-10-18-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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