# What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf?

*Thoughts on Shaykh Hamza Yusuf: an icon and inspiration, with reservations about his manner and views*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bpbif_hakgq/s/1/
- Date: 2020-11-05 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Thoughts on Shaykh Hamza Yusuf | Mufti Abu Layth (0:00–5:54)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPBiF_hAKgQ&t=0s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bpbif_hakgq/

**Topics:** Views on contemporary scholars; The Mufti and the channel

**Question as asked:** What is your opinion on Shaykh Hamza Yusuf?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth loves Hamza Yusuf as an icon for Western Muslims and a key inspiration for his own studies, while disagreeing with his neo-traditionalist views. He adds second-hand reports that his personal manner can seem unwelcoming, and says their personalities would probably not match.

## Longer summary

A viewer in the chat asks Mufti Abu Layth's opinion of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf. He answers that he loves him and is an absolute fan: Hamza Yusuf is an icon, a pioneer and monumental for Western Muslims, and a hero to him in that sense. He then distinguishes the icon from the person, saying that on a personality level he suspects they would not get on if they spent time together, since he himself is a loud extrovert given to jokes and banter whereas Hamza Yusuf seems very introverted and quiet, with what he calls, not wishing to be rude, a nerd-like personality. He says that from what he has heard Hamza Yusuf's interactions with people are sometimes not welcoming and can come across as rude, giving the example of an acquaintance who was refused a selfie, and, after a viewer's remark to the contrary, a second-hand account of a retreat costing a few thousand pounds at which Hamza Yusuf delivered his lectures but did not mingle or eat with students as the other teachers did, offering each a single four-minute slot; he allows that this may have changed in recent years. He adds that he disagrees with Hamza Yusuf's views, which he finds at times neo-traditionalist, and does not think Hamza Yusuf would agree with many of his. He closes by saying that he will always love him and have a soft spot for him because he was one of the key inspirations for his own decision to study the Islamic sciences.

## Sources and names cited

- Hamza Yusuf
- neo-traditionalism

## Transcript (machine tier, 0:00–5:54)

[0:00] um somebody said what is your opinion abdullah patel is asking what is my opinion on sheikh hamza yusuf i love sheikh hamza yusuf i'm an absolute fan of sheikh hamza yusuf but you know sheikh hamza yusuf is many things i suppose in some way every person one could say multiple atheism sounds let me replay but sheikh hamza yusuf is an icon he's a pioneer of certain things he's

[0:37] a you know he's he's monumental for western muslims and to me he's like a hero in that sense but then does that mean i now then there's hamza yusuf as a person you know his personality his kind of i don't know his interactions with people his views his personal views his now i in some things like i um i i may not like i think hamza yusuf's personality personally would be one that as a person

[1:16] i mean if i it's different if i was just speaking to him as a one-off or something i would obviously behave [Laughter] but he's the kind of person if i've regularly hung out with let's say i think we wouldn't really like that personality i don't think i would like it at all because i you know i'm very kind of like loud and i'm an extrovert and very everything's about you know there's so many jokes and banter and going on in our kind of circles and he doesn't seem anything like that he seems very introvert very quiet very almost um you know like uh

[1:55] i don't know like very i don't want to be say be rude but almost like a like a a nerd-like personality and but i i feel that he as you see that's as on a personality level and i feel that his interactions with people sometimes are not very uh from what i've heard isn't very welcoming like he and i don't know whether that's a social etiquette or his how he is as a person i've heard that sometimes he can come off rude to people he can come off um you know if you ask him something be like no you know like i know my friend met him i mean i've met him as well but my friend met him uh when we were brought and he said he

[2:35] said oh sure i love you you know i love your stuff do you mind if i take a a quick selfie and they were just he was just in a uh just on his own in some restaurant or a mall somewhere and and he said no no no no no you can't take a selfie with me and things like this and and i just you know like that kind of example i'm just giving like i think that as a personality he may have a strange a kind of quote you know quirky kind of like a personality so i disagree with that and even his views i find them very kind of like sometimes neo-traditionalist

[3:13] so i don't think he would agree with a lot of my views at all but i still love him as a person somebody said he loves having his picture taken okay but i think with people i don't know this was the experience of my friend even many other people that i know when they've met him on a personal basis maybe he's changed that in recent years but it was for several years this was a big deal like i know people that personally told me that they spent thousands of pounds go just to go on a rifle because hamza youssef is going to be there and you know it's like imagine i had a course which charged

[3:51] thousands of pounds and people are going there because i'm gonna be there and they want to chill with me i mean i would make a bit of an effort to at least on that week or whatever to kind of hang out with people but no you know and and people were quite disappointed this is an example i'm just giving and this is from somebody who personally paid all those thousands of pounds and went there and he said and they gave them something they said that he only did his lectures he did and then he would never mingle with the rest of the crowd and he would never even eat lunch with them he would always eat separately but the other teachers would they would eat with the

[4:29] visitors with the with the students but he wouldn't and he wouldn't stay in the same level he wouldn't um just be seen and he definitely wouldn't hang out and what they did is in the whole week or two weeks that they were there he had one day set aside where he gave a slot to each student and the slot was literally a four-minute slot that you to come in and you had four minutes to speak to him and and like this person said to me i don't even know what to say in four minutes i've only paid a few

[5:09] thousand pounds to go there i think it cost like two three thousand pounds to go and it was like i only went to see him and then it's like i only had like four minutes like what do i say in four minutes four minutes can we can we do something [Laughter] but i do love him for me he will always be an icon because he initially inspired me right so um i for that will always love him uh you know i will always have a soft spot for sheikh hamza yusuf because when i went off to study the islamic sciences he was the key one of the key

[5:48] inspirations for me so yeah

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment BPBiF_hAKgQ/s/1. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bpbif_hakgq/s/1/

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