# Orthodoxy and power: adding to the checklist, ijma and cancel culture

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f_4jnua3arq/s/4/
- Date: 2023-02-13 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Birth Of Islamic Orthodoxy And Institutionalisation | Mufti Abu Layth (19:10–26:17)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_4jnUA3ARQ&t=1150s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f_4jnua3arq/

**Topics:** Orthodoxy and how Islam spread; Legal theory and method

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Once creed became a checklist, those in power could keep adding to it, as with ijma; everyone acts from power, even when sincere.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says everybody acts from power and that doing so does not mean one is disingenuous.

**Evidence, his words at 25:38:** “it's naive to assume that only people that are disingenuous Act from Power that that's incredibly that that that's totally not true everybody acts from Power and and doesn't mean you're disingenuous” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_4jnUA3ARQ&t=1538s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says that once a checklist exists, people in a position of power can keep adding items to exclude others, perhaps genuinely, but always bound up with power structures. He gives ijma as an example: a tool scholars arrived at by induction rather than something the Prophet taught, questioned by Ibn Hazm and others, which then becomes a checklist item so that questioning it puts one outside the main body. He compares this to cancel culture, recounting a clip of a US senator accused of transphobia for saying men cannot get pregnant and citing Dave Chappelle's remark that the trans community itself is usually understanding. He says this is an academic rather than a confessional or devotional discussion, and that everybody acts from power, which does not make them disingenuous.

## Sources and names cited

- ijma'
- al-Shafi'i
- Ibn Hazm [?]
- Dave Chappelle

## Transcript (machine tier, 19:10–26:17)

[18:31] see now that also you see the question is if you go back a hundred years that had an amorphosity it was amorphous it was like didn't have a set structure it it's like like a floating cloud okay now you fast forward 100 years and people could argue well there's a crystallinity you know where you have a substance that's amorphous and then um you the the crystallinity of it the crystalline structure is it's so the carbons are so tightly packed together they're all structured so

[19:10] people may say well okay there's this crystallinity to it now but the thing is there's also power because you see if I'm in the in group and I don't want you in the in-group then I add on a certain another checklist because now people are adding you know everybody once you've started it it's now people can they can keep adding well okay well to be a Sunni Muslim you also need this now you know anybody who does the or to be a Sunni Muslim you can never do this now

[19:49] so it's interesting now and people keep adding and the adding maybe they're doing it genuinely maybe you know I'm not saying they're disingenuous but what you can't take away is the human boundedness with power structures that when insan is in a position of power and you are arguing against there is always an element of you see you you what you're embedding in the structure so so foreign for example let's say I'll give you an example well okay okay not

[20:30] to expand too much but let's take a very brief look at the concept of HMR now this is not to debate the issue of each man that can be for another day but let's say this is a tool that Scholars have that they say well this is the consensus and consensus is uh it's it's a card that can that holds weight like let's say not to say it's a game but let's say if we're using that analogy we can use this to show that look why why are we doing this because we have ijima okay but the question when you look at Imam shafi's time when they're trying to discuss what are the tools to make Sharia they say well okay

[21:07] the tools to make sure they are are have to be proven from the Quran and Sunnah so basically either the Quran teaches you're the prophet taught you but the prophet never taught ishma because that wouldn't that would make sense so Prophet never taught each man that that's clear so you could say well but we the scholars they they deduce this oh sorry they induced this principle by looking at different things so they looked at things and they came out with this principle which is which is fine there's nothing wrong with that and okay that's great so the scholars came up with this for a

[21:47] preservation method sure now did some Scholars ever question this of course they did you know like IBN has them for example questions it other people question what type of each man who's each my age that family of the Prophet each man of all Muslims each month just you know there's all kinds of they may be absurd questions where people say so okay now you see so this is a tool that the scholars they induct by inductive reasoning they they kind of arrived at these now you see well somebody might say well

[22:26] I don't know you know I'm not so convinced so this is now on the checklist okay anybody who doesn't accept this is no longer part of the main body of Muslims we just add it on so it becomes like well okay well now I can't question that it's a bit like the cancel culture which is also about power see like if you look at the mega wokism today and it's it's going mad I just saw a clip today with some Senator and some woman was discussing something and and they're discussing the term about I think

[23:02] pregnancy and they say uh you know and she's asking him that oh do you and he I think he's asking her something about well you're saying uh persons or people capable of pregnancy and so he says I thought this issue was a women's issue you know are we not discussing women's rights and she says well you know it doesn't it's not just to women you know obviously women get pregnant some women don't get pregnant some let's say trans people some men some non-binary some pan Brian whatever she comes she mentions all these things so she says well all of

[23:40] these categories uh are capable of pregnancy so so she says do you so he says I I don't I don't understand like I I thought so she says oh don't you do you not believe that men can get pregnant so he says uh no and so she says oh so you by that very comment or inciting violence against uh transsexual transphobia and violence against these people and I think and he says where am I where am I doing I'm just asking he says I just said no I

[24:19] didn't know that and and and it's and you know this is so that's a whole different discussion and what's actually really interesting on all of this stuff on a side note is people keep bringing you know it's like Dave Chappelle said people keep bringing up these things and they bring up uh transphobic but really the trans Community themselves are usually not that they're usually very fine and very understanding of this and they're not the people causing this kind of um commotion they're not at all in fact Dave Chappelle on one of these things says look I get so many letters from the trans Community saying look um and you

[24:58] know we've I don't know who these people but you know they're not speaking on behalf of us so that's a different discussion in and of itself that why so but the point is this cancel culture it becomes another add-on thing because this power involved so oh if you don't do that you're automatically out of the in-group so this is really fascinating that how the birth of Orthodoxy takes place this is a very academic discussion so it's very separate from um a kind of confessional learning of Islam and even very separate from a devotional

[25:38] uh attitude of practicing Islam this is a very academic Pursuit that how Orthodoxy was born and you can't always separate the power structures from even if people you see because it's naive to assume that only people that are disingenuous Act from Power that that's incredibly that that that's totally not true everybody acts from Power and and doesn't mean you're disingenuous it just

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/4. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f_4jnua3arq/s/4/

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