# If a mutawatir hadith has to be reinterpreted, what does that say about hadith transmission?

*Reading 'the people' as the idolaters, and why that undoes the airtight system*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/davfpkd1eco/s/2/
- Date: 2018-09-20 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: The War-Wager Hadith Paradox (Debunking Dogmatism) -Mufti Abu Layth (7:54–15:43)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAVFpkd1ECo&t=474s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/davfpkd1eco/

**Topics:** Mutawatir and certainty; Text criticism, reason and the Quran; Extremism, crime and justice

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says that because its defenders must reinterpret a report they call mutawatir, the transmission system itself is shown to be fallible rather than airtight.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says that when a report claimed to be mutawatir produces a meaning its own defenders must reinterpret as incomplete, this shows that the hadith transmission system is not airtight and cannot be treated as conclusive.

**Evidence, his words at 15:14:** “if the result is problematic the system is problematic if the system is sound the result must be sound which it isn't” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAVFpkd1ECo&t=914s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth steel-mans how al-Huwayni [?] and others resolve the problem: 'the people' in the report does not mean all mankind but the mushrikin, and the report is read alongside the separate hadith of Burayda [?], in which the Prophet told those he sent out to offer three options: to embrace Islam and join them, to remain where they are as Muslims, or to pay the jizya. He rejects this by rereading the wording in Sahih Muslim, which says to fight people until they believe, and says that amounts to coercion into the religion, which everyone agrees is not allowed. The paradox, he says, is that if a report claimed to be mutawatir, with seventeen companions and dozens of chains, yields a meaning its own defenders call incomplete or misleading, then the transmission system that was supposed to be airtight is shown to be lacking, like someone who builds an airtight container from the inside and suffocates. He says ISIS took the report as it stands, that most Muslims, Salafis included, do not, and that the system therefore cannot be conclusive. He likens the dogmatists to a monkey whose hand is trapped in a pot because it will not let go of the sweet it has grabbed.

## Sources and names cited

- report: i have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no god but allah (unresolved; Abu Hurayra, wording of Sahih Muslim, number not stated)
- report: present them three options embrace islam stay where you are as muslims or pay the jizya (unresolved; the hadith of Burayda, collection not stated)
- Burayda [?]
- Abu Ishaq al-Huwayni [?]
- Sahih Muslim
- mushrikin
- jizya
- mutawatir
- ISIS
- Salafi

## Transcript (machine tier, 7:54–15:43)

[7:38] paradox you see when you cement all these chains to bring this hadith you're showing that this procedure is airtight and now this is the chain you see this is the hadith but then the hadith that you end up with you can't accept so what these scholars start to say right okay so what wainy and other people say let me steel man their arguments for you they say right no not no no we don't say you can fight somebody because they say this hadith an ass here mankind doesn't

[8:16] mean all of mankind because it doesn't mean Muslims you can fight Muslims or hypocrites or mushrikeen or non-muslim it meant you for the mushrikeen all you fought the Kafar okay hmm okay so let's take that fine let's take let's take away knee oh these people's understanding that you're fighting the mushrikeen okay they say and then then then what it means is there's a hadith of bladder or the allahu on the the prophet he sent his companions and he sent marade and he sent these people these

[8:55] are the companions and what he said is that when you go to these people that's by the way this is not this hadith but that's a different hadith but he sent them and said when you go to these people present them these three that you can either embrace Islam if you accept that then come with us or you can stay where you are as Muslims or you can pay the jizya that these kind of three conditions were put forward to these people so they say fine that's what the hadith is talking about that you can so basically we're going to fight I can

[9:34] fight I've been commanded to fight them but in that hadith it applies but what no no no no no no no no let's read this hadith let's read this hadith this is in Sahih Muslim and this hadith remember is motivator according to them so the change that could not make a single mistake in its representation and it reads I have been commanded to fight people and last mankind until they testify and believe in Allah and they

[10:13] believe in me believe look fight them until they believe so there is coercion in entering the Deen even though these people everybody accepts there's no coercion in entering the Deen and they must believe in what I have brought and then their lives and blood and wealth is safeguarded from me now the problem is they say no but this content of this heavy no it doesn't what it means is that yes we will fight them but they have an option two pages yet you see and

[10:51] that is the paradox because what they've done is it's a person who is building an airtight container but what they've the only way to build it is from the inside and by doing it they self suffocate because the whole the paradox in this example people is that well if the net result which we have is that the Prophet saying I've been fortified I've been sent to fight mankind and the only way they must believe to save their lives if

[11:28] that net result is incomplete or insufficient in advocate lacking misrepresenting which they all agree it is then that shows that the preservation practice is also lacking you see and that's the paradox because since this was supposed to be remember it's insulin and necessary the 17 narrations in Muslims of Ahmed these 18 narrations these four narrations of more embody and four or more Muslim and it's motor water

[12:07] and the 17 companions and so this is supposed to be on look this is supposed to be so tight yet it's supposed to be bulletproof bomb-proof it's supposed to be a tight yet the result we have is something that people are saying no no Nastya doesn't mean mankind no it can't be mine everybody seems to accept that to take this hadith literally or not even literally take this hadith with what it means is unacceptable in fact

[12:45] that is exactly what Isis did you can't fold them they took this hadith literally not literally they just took the hadith it's not even about literally that is what they're these reads us most Muslims never accept this hadith including the salafiyyah including hélène including all these people do not take this hadith they say yes but the hadith can't mean that because we don't accept so if it lacks because you think if something was so airtight then surely what it preserved to have been a perfect preservation

[13:23] rather than saying no enas doesn't mean this this doesn't mean this no but that one hadith of breda or something is really what qualifies this whole motor water thing now you see and so what they did by solidifying all these chains they created a paradox because now all these chains and water worth their narrations ought to show well you ought to accept this and since that's faulty the paradox is that will so must the system be

[14:00] lacking the system must be inconclusive and not motivated and faulty and the only way you can let go of this is truly to also challenge that that is never conclusive it is like people the old tale of catching the monkey by leaving some you know some some kind of sweet so whatever the monkey was interested in in a part that the the monkey would kind of put his hand in and the only way is

[14:38] either and once it tries once it grabs the debate the hand can't come out of the pot but the only way could come out is to release but the monkey don't think like that and that's what we've got here with hadith dogmatism you see this is the perfect example to show the paradox that you've created such a the way the wall wager hadith paradox demonstrates

[15:14] that the system is is problematic as is the result because if the result is problematic the system is problematic if the system is sound the result must be sound which it isn't you see so with that people I present that to you it's a bit light you see they're stupefied because whatever if you ask them the result is like it's like the paradox people I don't know if you've come across the crocodile paradox but the cracker or the crocodile peridot is where the parent it's the mother has had in this in this

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment DAVFpkd1ECo/s/2. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/davfpkd1eco/s/2/

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