Recordings › The Role Of Reason In Religion - Mufti Abu Layth · 9 Apr 2018 › Segment 4 of 19
Is blind faith (taqlid) in creed acceptable in Islam?
aqidah aqeedah aqida aqeeda aqaid madhhab madhab mazhab madhahib mazahib madhaahib taqleed muqallid muftis hukm ahkam hukum hukam ahkaam haraam forbidden imaan eemaan eeman kalam ilm al-kalam kalaam 'ayn al-ayn evil eye 'alim aalim ulama ulema ulamaa ummah umma ummat as-salamu alaykum assalamu alaikum assalamualaikum salaam salaams salam alaykum wa alaykum as-salam peace greeting ibadah ibada ibaadah ibadatNazar and taqlid in creed: knowing rather than believing, and the two levels of faith
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This segment15:54 to 23:41 · 7 min 47 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenThe theologians held that blind-following in creed is haram and that faith must rest on reasoning; later scholars tolerated inherited faith as a lower level while holding that Islam aspires to faith that knows God to be one.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says the Islamic ruling is what theology calls nazar, the duty to contemplate and reason in order to have knowledge, since the Quran's first commandment to mankind is to know that there is no god but Allah, not merely to say it. He explains taqlid, which an audience member helps him define, as being led blindly, from the word for a leash, though without a degrading connotation when one follows a school of law. He reports that most scholars, especially the theologians who wrote the creeds, held that taqlid in matters of faith is haram and that such faith is invalid, which would mean most Muslims are not Muslims by that standard, since few reason their way to God. An audience member asks whether this was different before religious education became diluted; Mufti answers that in his view most people have always gone with the flow and that real thinkers are a minority. He reports that one author overstated the case by saying all theologians held this, while others such as al-Safarini [?], al-Shawkani and al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam [?] split faith into two levels: a tolerated level for those who are Muslim because they were born Muslim, and a richer level, which Islam aspires to, where one actually knows Allah to be one. The distinction, he says, is between knowing Islam to be true and merely thinking it true because one was told, and knowing requires comparing, contrasting and asking why Hinduism or the Arabs' idols could not be true.
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Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's command to know that there is no god but Allah requires reasoning and comparison rather than mere assertion, and he presents the theologians' view that blind-following in creed is impermissible alongside later scholars' distinction between a tolerated and a richer level of faith.
“so to know it you have to compare you have to contrast you have to think well why can't that be true why can't Hinduism be true”
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need to ask the Hindu what do you mean about an elephant guard or a monkey guard or this God or you know the rat guard or the snake God what does this mean or the fire God it doesn't make any sense but when it comes to us do we not have to put Islam to the same criteria of reason do we not have to because is it not all about truth isn't that what this was all about right now we're gonna put that aside i'ma tell you the Islamic ruling the Islamic ruling actually is we call this another in theology okay no Thorazine I know like you see another
but in theology means something else it means the that you have to another wall modify that you have to kind of contemplate ponder and reason over something to have an awareness or knowledge or so do we have to do this with Allah because Allah says Allah moon anahulu ilaha illa llah that no this was the first commandment that is to people as a whole know that Allah is one not just that say he's one but know it knowledge that that
those people who believed well yeah I let muna and now hop and they knew that it was the truth so to know something we have to put it to this test we have to kind of think about now the scholars most of the scholars said that this was necessary for somebody to become Muslim so this is this this next parts gonna be a bit of a shock so go I might as well hub I say for this most scholars shockingly Oh interestingly that if you
see tuck lead what does that lead mean talk lead lead yet mockolate okay see brother is telling me I know Arabic [Laughter] saying why shall give you the definition I'll just give you another variant of that form I like it I like it I like it it's good so so to clear this to kind of like be blindly led and followed as in you just follow without ever like I just I just do because somebody told me to do it that's it and it comes from the it comes from
acquired integrated understanding of where the colada will you put like a strap in the neck and lead the leash kind of thing and you with the animals just take them along so it comes from that although it doesn't have it doesn't carry that kind of degraded connotation to be fear just want to be fear doesn't like when you say I do took I I do tuck lead of a particular method it doesn't mean like you're like a like a dog or something following it along the ma that's not true but it comes from that route so okay luckily this is just blind just follow now the cleanup either is
actually in faith most scholars especially the theologians say it's actually Haram and that that Iman is invalid now that's a bit of a shock because that means most Muslims are not Muslims according to the theologians because they have to do would you another well Martha they have to themselves come to reason and realize that there is no god but but just more so most Muslims probably don't do that I mean maybe maybe they do but I mean I I don't think at the beginning of Islam they do that maybe at some point in their lives they do that but they don't
for Islam to be valid they have to do that right away technically speaking by the theologian we're doing theologian speak right now so they say you know people who write this Creed and the dogma and RT then this is what they say yet before the kind of dilution of sector education Islamic education where science is Imperial Venice style in the same place would that not be the case of though if the personal community that they for that course of education is it only because the fact we live in this world we must you know I don't think I mean do you just appealing to reason and common
sense do you think most people do that say no I don't think most people do that if like I think most people just always go with the flow most people and I think that's like a thinking people you see when I say thinking I mean a real thinking I don't just mean the capacity to think but I mean like people who are like thinkers that's always a minority of mankind there are like pure thinkers most people just always just follow and they do think I'm not saying that they're dumb but they just they're not usually like philosophers most people are not like gonna philosophize about stuff and so I don't think your average person when you reach a certain age says
well you know all this logical fallacy and let me see can this really be God or this doesn't mean I'm with you but I'm just I'm just telling you what theologians speak is some of the old my so to the extent that people you will get Obama's offer us some money in his book hotel adela says that all he says all of the theologian said that bit of a black but I mean you know fair enough he's trying to get his point across he's trying to say all the theologian Jimmy automatically mean said it's Haram to do to clean and that a man is not acceptable but that's not really the
case most of them to be faded other scholars disagreed safari knee show Connie is adenine Abdus Salam other scholar said now look listen let's split this up into two this is tolerated because let's face it most Muslims in the world are just Muslims because they born Muslim so let's not be harsh they said let's just roll with it we accept the Islam tolerates this kind of Islam but it aspires to the the more richer form of Islam where you actually know a lot to be one so the distinction here is do you know Islam to be true or
do you just think it's true because it's been you've been told it's true like I've just been told by people Islam is true fine artists I roll with that all I actually believe Islam to like I actually know it to be true like I've thought it myself so that's that the kind of richer version to aspire to so they've kind of split it into two and that's you know being fear really now so just to to kind of clarify the these things this is I'm giving you a kind of backdrop to why reason is so important even according to the scholars
they were like well no Islam can't even be valid or discount even Allah begins by addressing mankind with the first commandment as a Alamo and now let you know that there's only one God I don't just say know it so to know it you have to compare you have to contrast you have to think well why can't that be true why can't Hinduism be true why can't this be true why can't the idols okay for the Arabs it wasn't Hindu but it was similar they had their big idol worship why can't these idols be true all right this doesn't add up oh I see it doesn't to make judgment and think especially based on practical
facts and they could do that by like you said or somebody said that look that's create we made these tattoos if there was so many gods then why don't they clash and you know these kind of things people thought about them an experience as well so okay so I want to just kind of get that out there put that across now I want to come to this point that how do we know Islam to be true we use reason but then why is it see this is obvious so far what I'm saying is so obvious isn't it this is like I'm not
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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 2018-04-09-S04, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/4/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, April 9). Is blind faith (taqlid) in creed acceptable in Islam? [Video, segment 2018-04-09-S04, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/4/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "Is blind faith (taqlid) in creed acceptable in Islam?" Video, segment 2018-04-09-S04, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded April 9, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/4/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-04-09-S04, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Is blind faith (taqlid) in creed acceptable in Islam?}}, year = {2018}, month = {4}, date = {2018-04-09}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/4/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/4/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2018-04-09-S04, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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