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Recordings › On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ › From the Mind of a Mufti

What is meant by Shirk? What is the idea behind praying to the Prophet ﷺ? | Mufti Abu Layth

muftis riba ribaa sood usury shirq mushrik mushrikin polytheism jahannam jahanam jahannum

video · 3:25 · 3,600 views · 10 Aug 2019 · Open on YouTube

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Transcript

machineauto-transcribed, may contain errors · source: youtube auto · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
0:01

right is East errata upon the Prophet silk right look there's two things here that need to be separated one is what do we mean by are we trying to choke somebody out of Islam I'm not in that game of trying to choke people out of Islam and I don't believe Islam is in that of trying to choke people out so people doing whatever they doing I don't believe in trying to scare people away from Islam I don't believe in trying to

0:39

tell people you're no longer Muslim and things like this okay so that's not that doesn't interest me okay no me importa okay does not bother me or concern me okay however if we're going to be analytical and just look at this concept of praying to the Prophet then in all honesty is this not just a return to the gods of old and by gods I mean with a small G not a capital G right so human

1:16

beings have long struggled with the concept of one supreme transcendent deity as did the Arabs of Ages they they struggled with that because that transcendent God is too distant he's not interested in us why should I you know what does that God want with us you understand just like as I gave the example as in Hinduism Brahman Brahman is the Almighty the great Altima but

1:56

Brahman also referred to as Bhagwan but Bhagwan can also refer to other deities as well is so transcendent that Brahman doesn't care you can't connect with Brahman so you connect with lesser deities who can connect you with the ultimate deity now this was the problem that the Arabs of Hejaz had and the prophet's journey of prophethood with them was trying to bridge the gap between the impersonal and the personal

2:35

God and he did and people did embrace the message of Islam and I feel that's such a difficult mission for all humans to just bridge that gap it's we would itself it will take a lifetime and we will still struggle so and this is just a fine example and you'll see will people if they won't resort to gods and and deities and demigods and statues then they'll just resort to Saints you know it's the same you know it's you

3:13

know you can call it whatever you like he'll jizya Samora Machel [Laughter]

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Cite this recording

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Mufti Abu Layth Archive, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/mchzono5_py/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7 
Mufti Abu Layth. (2019, August 10). What is meant by Shirk? What is the idea behind praying to the Prophet ﷺ? | Mufti Abu Layth [Video, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/mchzono5_py/
Chicago author-date 
Mufti Abu Layth. 2019. "What is meant by Shirk? What is the idea behind praying to the Prophet ﷺ? | Mufti Abu Layth." Video, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded August 10, 2019. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/mchzono5_py/
BibTeX 
@misc{abulayth-MCHzonO5-PY,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{What is meant by Shirk? What is the idea behind praying to the Prophet ﷺ? | Mufti Abu Layth}},
  year = {2019},
  month = {8},
  date = {2019-08-10},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/mchzono5_py/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/mchzono5_py/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}