Recordings › Jinn: Myth and Reality in Islam by Mufti Abu Layth · 15 Apr 2018 › Segment 2 of 17
Why did religious scholars end up explaining things like illness and the mind?
imaam imams prayer leader muftis ash'ari ashaira asha'irah ashariyyah ash'arite koran quraan al-quran ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat as-salaf salaf al-salih salaf us-salih al-salaf early generations ulamaa deen al-din ad-deen ad-dinWhy the ulama answered everything: the learned class explaining atoms, the seat of the intellect and the world
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This segment3:52 to 7:47 · 3 min 55 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenBecause for most of history the ulama were the only educated class, so people brought them every unexplained question, from the divisibility of atoms to whether the intellect sits in the heart or the brain. They answered with the knowledge of their day, which is the background to the possession belief.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says that historically the most learned people in any society were its religious scholars: monks in Christianity, Brahmins in Hinduism, the ulama in Islam, where every Muslim was at least to read the Quran. Most people were farmers with simple lives, and only the ulama studied mathematics, philosophy, history, poetry and other religions before teaching or becoming judges; one did not meet a shopkeeper who was also a researcher. So the ulama were asked worldly questions and answered with the resources they had. He gives examples: debates between al-Baqillani [?], the Ash'aris and other mutakallimun on whether an atom, the indivisible part, can be further divided, and long discussions about where the aql resides, in the heart or the brain. Many of the salaf placed it in the heart, citing the Quran's language of hearts that understand, while Abu Hanifa held it was in the brain and was disagreed with, others following Greek ideas of humours and fluids. He says these were not religious questions but human ones brought to the only learned people available, and that this must be kept in mind when asking where the confusion about possession came from.
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Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says that the ulama were historically the only learned class and so were asked to explain worldly phenomena with the knowledge of their time, which is the backdrop against which the belief in possession took shape.
“the ulema are using the resources to come up with answers these are not necessarily religious questions these are just worldly human questions”
Category: historical claim
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine3:52 to 7:47 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
so easily inexplicable and you have to remember that the backdrop to all of this is coming from a single point and that is human beings trying to explain what's going on around them you see we have to remember that historically the most learned people in any society were the scholars were the religious scholars of any religion so in Christianity the monks were the people who could read and write in Hinduism the Brahmins in Islam the ulama
but in Islam there is this thing that all Muslims should read the Quran so there was literacy to that level but the most people if you think about it historically were just farmers most of society was always just farmers this worked lived on a farm their entire life then you had city small versions of cities not like today's and and people generally speaking you know they had trade and they did their things but lives were relatively simple people who learnt stuff who studied mathematics who studied trigonometry who studied philosophy history of the world poetry
who studied belief who studied other religions who study this was just the Olimar who dedicated a huge portion of their lives to learning and then usually went on to teach or become judges and things like this your normal you know in the past you wouldn't go to buy something from a shop and the guy happens to be you know for hobby he happens to be a researcher on mathematics or he happens to be somebody who's deeply read on history you this doesn't didn't happen ever it was not like I mean I don't mean as a totally somebody who was an expert and then did a job like but this was not the norm at
all so let's say you had a llama in the past speaking about atoms can an atom an atom actually linguistically means something that can't be divided any further so you had people like avocado broccolini or debating with other ulema of the Asha era and other Mitaka limine can and can they be al juice already lay the dessert can they be an atom oh is that further reducible think about it why warum and they arguing this they're going on time after time after time do you think today all um I wouldn't do that but why would it you have detailed
discussions on where is the Apple where is the artal in the past many oh allah ma what is it in the de ma in the brain many of them I said no luckily in the demo why why are they bringing these questions to the all about who else should they take him to people say you know you have Arkell you have cognition we're is it people said well hmm so the ulema are using the resources to come up with answers these are not necessarily religious questions these are just worldly human questions
but they so the olam are saying oh but Allah say is you know I love earth either you know we gave you hearts I feel at afternoon don't you think hmm the flood the heart is where Akalis in mama behind it so you get quotes from many of the self saying the heart is with our Calise Imam Abu Hanifa actually said that the math is with alcohol was but many people disagreed with him back then they believed that the mark like Greek philosophy just had these humors in it these kind of fluids and gases which kind of just influence your temperament why is this important to
understand that people were coming with normal whatever problems asking these people to explain them and they had took they were trying to come up with some answer to help these people right so that is because we need to keep that in mind when we're dealing with this so why are the ulama where's this confusion coming from within Islam certain verses had historically been debated verses in the Quran Allah speaks about a very popular verse that when Allah speaks about those people who take
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Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2018-04-15-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/s/2/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, April 15). Why did religious scholars end up explaining things like illness and the mind? [Video, segment 2018-04-15-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/s/2/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "Why did religious scholars end up explaining things like illness and the mind?" Video, segment 2018-04-15-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded April 15, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/s/2/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-04-15-S02, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Why did religious scholars end up explaining things like illness and the mind?}}, year = {2018}, month = {4}, date = {2018-04-15}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/s/2/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/s/2/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2018-04-15-S02, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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