# Language embeds power: 'inconvenience' versus 'hardship' in tayammum

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f_4jnua3arq/s/5/
- Date: 2023-02-13 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Birth Of Islamic Orthodoxy And Institutionalisation | Mufti Abu Layth (26:17–30:09)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_4jnUA3ARQ&t=1577s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f_4jnua3arq/

**Topics:** Legal theory and method; Purification

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The words scholars choose, such as 'inconvenience' or 'hardship', already decide the ruling, embedding power even when used sincerely.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says that the moment we deploy words we embed power structures, maybe subconsciously.

**Evidence, his words at 28:50:** “the moment we deploy words we are agents of power we select words maybe subconsciously but we embed power structures by the use of words” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_4jnUA3ARQ&t=1730s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth gives the example of dispensations such as tayammum in place of wudu for someone who is ill. He says that if the Hanafis, whom he describes as strict here, write that wudu cannot be replaced by tayammum for a simple inconvenience such as a cold, while the Malikis, more relaxed, write that it can be for a hardship such as a cold, the choice of word has already decided the outcome. He says that the moment we deploy words we are agents of power and embed power structures, perhaps subconsciously, even when sincere.

## Sources and names cited

- rukhsah (dispensation)
- tayammum
- wudu
- Hanafi school
- Maliki school

## Transcript (machine tier, 26:17–30:09)

[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

[26:17] has to add an element of neutrality to it that's all so and a good example is like this like let's say um foreign let's say we wanted to and this is going to go into another discussion um let's say we wanted to discuss dispensations in Islam like things that you're allowed to do let's say by default you like let's say you had to do but you don't need to do wudu because you're ill or you're so you can do tmum or there's something you've got an

[26:56] injury or there's something now you see or it could be something else let's say you need to shorten the pre or there was something totally different you needed to whatever it was whatever the thing but you needed a Rosa now the question is well you see language when I say to you that oh this is um you know like oh that's an inconvenience to to do you see language is loaded

[27:33] so imagine I said well wudu must be done and cannot be substituted by them simply by inconvenience oh so this is a hanafi clear hanifi I know the malikis are much more relaxed on substituting will do with Timon but let's say the hanafi is a very strict so they say well Voodoo cannot be substituted by team mom by simply inconvenience so you see but the question here is that when you say inconvenience you've already rigged the game because inconvenience is already a

[28:13] subjective opinion so now I say well what's an inconvenience okay so there may be some very trivial things that maybe people agree on but it's a subjective so one person's inconvenience maybe another person's nightmare Maybe let's say a person has a cold this is a nightmare I'm I'm not doing with all so well that's just a little inconvenience the other person this is a catastrophe you know I can't work I can't do this [Music]

[28:50] oh you see the moment we deploy words like the moment we deploy words we are agents of power we select words maybe subconsciously but we embed power structures by the use of words so when I say so imagine I didn't say that now like imagine the malachia were writing the same thing so they so let's say the hanifi was writing this and they said well wudu cannot be substituted by team mum because of simple inconveniences

[29:30] now let's say the ma I.E a cold let's say the malikis were right there we say well wudu can be substituted by tiamman due to hardships I.E occult [Laughter] power of the word see you embed a power structure the game is rigged you see because you you already Define the outcome so this is the issue with and you could do this genuinely you could do this you know

[30:08] you could be mockless but you are embedding power elements in the equation the moment you speak the moment you said something so when people become a the so the strength of having an Orthodoxy was people were saying well we've got structure now first we had this amorphosity you know we don't know what um what did they believe I don't know you know what did uh they what did the taba ain't exactly believe about certain things we just don't know they never spoke about it okay that's all nebulous and you know it's it's kind of

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment F_4jnUA3ARQ/s/5. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/f_4jnua3arq/s/5/

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