Recordings › On the David Wood and Muhammad Hijab Debate: Reflections & Review -Mufti Abu Layth · 24 Dec 2018 › Segment 6 of 9
If Muslims accept miracles that defy reason, can they still object that the Trinity is irrational?
imaam imams prayer leader shafei shafiite shafi'i school muftis jahannam jahanam jahannum koran quraan al-quran hijaab hejab hijabi du'a duas duaas supplicationReason must go all the way: miracles, anthropomorphism, and winning versus truth in debate
Play from 15:14
The video loads from YouTube only when you press play. Click a time in the transcript to seek.
Watch this part
Open on YouTube at 15:14The player starts at 15:14, the beginning of this part.
This segment15:14 to 17:38 · 2 min 24 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenMuslims must hold the Quran to be in line with reason, because accepting miracles that make no sense removes any ground for objecting that three cannot equal one; consistency is all or nothing. Hijab denied that Muslims ever held anthropomorphic beliefs, but some did, though Mufti Abu Layth does not share them.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says this illustrates a point he stresses especially in this day and age: Muslims must hold the Quran to be in line with the voice of reason, otherwise arguments like Hijab's do not stand. Had Wood articulated it better, he says, the point would have been very hard to answer: if one accepts miracles that make no sense, then one cannot object that three equalling one makes no sense, since the card of making sense has gone out of the window; it is all or nothing, and saying that ten or twenty percent need not make sense while the rest must is arbitrary. He notes that Wood also raised the anthropomorphic beliefs some Muslims have held, that God has body parts, and says that to be fair there have been Muslims who believed that. He understands that the purpose of a debate is to win, quoting the saying attributed to Imam al-Shafi'i [?], of whose authenticity he is unsure, that he debated praying the truth would appear on his opponent's tongue, and says that nowadays it is all drama and about winning; so Hijab dismissed these objections by saying Muslims have never said such things, when in fact some Muslims have, although Mufti does not agree with them.
- Some terms in this segment are uncertain
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Muslims must believe the Quran to be in line with the voice of reason, since accepting miracles that make no sense would leave no ground to object that three cannot equal one, and he says that some Muslims did hold anthropomorphic beliefs about God, which he does not share.
“I feel especially in this day and age that Muslims we do believe in the Quran to be in line with the voice of reason otherwise these arguments don't actually stand”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine15:14 to 17:38 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
that are counter reason hmm which would lead back to a point that I do stress on so many occasions that it is so important I feel especially in this day and age that Muslims we do believe in the Quran to be in line with the voice of reason otherwise these arguments don't actually stand you see because if somebody had articulated that a bit better it would have been very difficult to answer to because if you yourself are accepting you'd asked about miracles if you
yourself are accepting miracles which make no sense then the question would be that well 3 equaling 1 3 equating to 1 doesn't make sense either but who cares since we're in it you know since the making sense card has kind of gone out the window who cares anyway I saw it's an you know an all-or-nothing either everything must make sense or fine it's just arbitrary you know 10 percent doesn't make sense in 90 percent does or 20 percent dozen and 80 percent does it's arbitrary so I think these are some things worth thinking about he does present dr.
would say these things about like anthropomorphic kind of believes that some Muslims have had like they believed God was like he had body parts and stuff like this and and to be fair they have been Muslims that have believed like that but I understand that in the debate you see the whole purpose of a debate is to kind of win there's no two ways about it you know this all this this this whole thing that you know like Imam Shafi'i allegedly once said I debate somebody and I make duaa that may the truth be manifest on his tongue you know may may
he win well either I'm not sure if Imam Shafi he really said the hell if he did maybe in his day and age nowadays it's all drama titta sort it up right this it's all about winning so I understand that Muhammad hijab you know would and it's you know he would do what fair enough just because the main point is to win and you know so he did dismiss a lot of these things and saying that these there is no such thing Muslims have never said stuff like this but Muslims have said unfortunately not that we agree with
them I don't agree with those Muslims that say things like that as you know these kind of body parts or these kind of things and but they have been unfortunately Muslims that have said things like that so there was a bit of kind of there were some occasions where he was saying things dr. wood was putting objections in saying some Muslims have said this this and he Muhammad he jab did kind of just say no that's not true at all whereas in a few of those occasions it was actually true that but it's not may not be true of all people the other
Paragraphs overlapping 15:14 to 17:38. 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 2018-12-24b-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gyrfzzzca8g/s/6/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, December 24). If Muslims accept miracles that defy reason, can they still object that the Trinity is irrational? [Video, segment 2018-12-24b-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gyrfzzzca8g/s/6/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "If Muslims accept miracles that defy reason, can they still object that the Trinity is irrational?" Video, segment 2018-12-24b-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded December 24, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gyrfzzzca8g/s/6/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-12-24b-S06, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{If Muslims accept miracles that defy reason, can they still object that the Trinity is irrational?}}, year = {2018}, month = {12}, date = {2018-12-24}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gyrfzzzca8g/s/6/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gyrfzzzca8g/s/6/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2018-12-24b-S06, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
Something wrong here?
Tell us what is wrong and it will be checked against the recording. Nothing changes until a person has reviewed it.
Sending a note needs JavaScript, which is off or unavailable in this browser. Nothing has been sent.
No name, email address or account is asked for or stored, and the inbox does not store your IP address. For rate limiting it keeps an unreadable fingerprint of your connection for 48 hours, and our database provider's own logs record connections as every website's do. Only your note, its kind, the page and the moment in the recording are kept, for review.