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Recordings › Monday Nights with Mufti #204 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth · 2 Mar 2021 › Segment 5 of 45

Without colonialism and the Mongols, would the Muslim world have had its own enlightenment?

muftis koran quraan al-quran surah sura soorah surat suwar soora ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat

Without the Mongols and colonisation, would Muslims have had an enlightenment?

QuestionLive chat · questioner not identifiedAnswered 2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth Segment 5 of 45 in the recording2021-03-02-S05

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This segment24:26 to 28:09 · 3 min 43 sGeneral teaching

The answer in brief

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Yes: he thinks Muslims left to themselves would have pioneered the enlightenment, but Europe's head start in industrialisation, used to subdue the Muslim world, provoked a reactionary rejection instead.

In more detail

A chat question asks whether, but for the misfortunes of the Reconquista, the Mongol invasion, the Black Death and colonisation, the Muslim world would have undergone a secular enlightenment or revolution. After a remark about YouTube adverts, Mufti Abu Layth answers that it would have: he thinks that, left to their own devices, Muslims would have been the pioneers of enlightenment. What stopped Muslim progress, he says, was a reactionary bravado: Europe beat the Muslim world to industrialisation, and Muslims then denounced the goal as sour grapes. He adds that other civilisations had beaten Muslims to ideas before and Muslims had built on them, but this time Europe not only won the race but used its lead to beat up the Muslim world. He then passes over a few chat remarks, saying he has already answered a question about the Quran's challenge to produce a chapter like it.

Question as read aloud · questioner not identified
If it was not for the misfortunes of the Muslim world, the Reconquista, the Mongol invasion, the Black Death and colonisation, would the Muslim world have undergone a secular enlightenment or revolution?

Position stated

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Mufti Abu Layth says he thinks that, left to their own devices, Muslims would have been the pioneers of enlightenment.

In his words

“because you see i think muslims would have if left to our own devices we would have been the pioneers of enlightenment”

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Category: historical claim

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Kind: general teaching

Transcript

machine24:26 to 28:09 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary

and we fight and you know muslims kill each other and yeah and i just find it all weird and then on the other side people you see they they sometimes will you know elevate said ali radhiland that he could never have either he's all he's superhuman you know that they will say he can never make a mistake he could never do this if anybody questions any of his judgments they are a hypocrite they are this they are that and i think that's equally or wrong it's just it's just the reverse type of bullying that's the same thing it's just trying to say well

you know you can't i think people should just have their own preferences and people other people shouldn't try to control other people if somebody wants to believe something great somebody wants to not believe it you know it's up to them cool mufti if it was not for the misfortunes of the muslim world reconquista mongol invasion black death colonization would the muslim world would undergo a secular enlightenment or revolution i see saras love much love for the uh

somebody just said who gets the youtube ad oh people you gotta bear with it with the ads man i don't know you know i don't with the skinny kid crying you have my sympathies people you have my sympathies all right so do i think i see saracen the muslim world would have undergone a um yeah 100 i think what kind of stopped the muslim

progression was a reactionary bravado where because you see i think muslims would have if left to our own devices we would have been the pioneers of enlightenment all right well he believed that but what happened is with the industrial age europe beat the muslim world to it so almost in an in a uh you know dramatization of sour

grapes muslim will the muslim will for the most part seem to have then denounced that goal as sour grapes as in like who wants that anyway i remember anyway [Laughter] so i think you know had of uh you see it wasn't just europe beating the muslim world it wasn't just that because in the past other civilizations had beat muslims to ideas but muslims had then just

kind of bounced off their ideas and continued the problem was not only did they beat the muslim world to enlightenment and industrialization they then with that beat up the muslim world this was the problem you see one it was that the other person had won in this little mini race but then not only had they won they'd come back and slapped you in the face and did a bit more than just a slap

mother mother fathers fathers ah mother fathers mother fathers mom dads huh so this is what was happening people right now there is a quran verse that states you can never produce a chapter like it yep i have answered that michael says we love you i love you too yeah the incident uh what's going on

Paragraphs overlapping 24:26 to 28:09. 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 2021-03-02-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/b1ooltqtptw/s/5/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7

Mufti Abu Layth. (2021, March 2). Without colonialism and the Mongols, would the Muslim world have had its own enlightenment? [Video, segment 2021-03-02-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/b1ooltqtptw/s/5/

Chicago author-date

Mufti Abu Layth. 2021. "Without colonialism and the Mongols, would the Muslim world have had its own enlightenment?" Video, segment 2021-03-02-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded March 2, 2021. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/b1ooltqtptw/s/5/

BibTeX

@misc{abulayth-2021-03-02-S05,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Without colonialism and the Mongols, would the Muslim world have had its own enlightenment?}},
  year = {2021},
  month = {3},
  date = {2021-03-02},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/b1ooltqtptw/s/5/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/b1ooltqtptw/s/5/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2021-03-02-S05, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}

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