# Are Muslims who believe God commanded the sacrifice guilty of blasphemy?

*Not blaming the Muslims who hold the belief, and the 'assisted suicide' reply*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/yruc09ajkeq/s/8/
- Date: 2020-10-28 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: "God did NOT ask Abraham to sacrifice his son" | Mufti Abu Layth (23:45–25:03)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRuC09ajKEQ&t=1425s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/yruc09ajkeq/

**Topics:** Stories of the prophets; Sects, sectarianism and takfir

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** No: Mufti Abu Layth does not accuse individual Muslims of blasphemy, because they repeat a story they were raised with and have not examined it. He distinguishes this from agenda-driven claims about the Prophet, and ridicules the defence that God only asked Ibrahim to assist his son's suicide.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says that he does not accuse individual Muslims who hold the belief of blasphemy, since they repeat an inherited story without having thought about it.

**Evidence, his words at 23:45:** “look this belief is blasphemous but i'm not saying to individual muslims you guys are blaspheming because i genuinely don't think that they've thought about it” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRuC09ajKEQ&t=1425s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says that although he regards the belief as blasphemous he does not accuse individual Muslims of blaspheming, because he does not think they have thought about it: like him, they were raised with it. He contrasts this with people who say the Prophet bedded a child, which he calls clear blasphemy because they are pushing an agenda, whereas here old narrative stories are being repeated without reflection. He recounts a discussion in which someone defended the story by saying that God never told Ibrahim to murder his son, since the son agreed, but to assist him in suicide, which Mufti found absurd and funny.

## Sources and names cited

- Ibrahim

## Transcript (machine tier, 23:45–25:03)

[23:32] what to make me happy can somebody discuss this nothing nothing else all linguistic any grammatical or grammar done okay so we've concluded this chapter nothing more to discuss here ah right so i think look i'm not blaming muslims who believe in this or look this belief is blasphemous but i'm not saying to individual muslims you guys are blaspheming because i genuinely don't think that they've

[24:11] thought about it i think they've just been brought up without like the way i was brought up with this belief i never really thought about it so if somebody said to me oh you're blaspheming you unlike the other issues where people are saying things like the prophet beded a child that is clear blaspheming because they're just pushing the gender there but here these are old narrative stories that they've heard since they were kids and they're just regurgitating them without actually thinking over what they're saying but they just you know they're not really thinking what they're saying and if they think about the story they will

[24:51] then you know if they carry on like i got into a discussion with someone about it and they said yeah but what's wrong with it god said in fact he said to me no if you think about it god never said to him murder your son uh because the son agreed god said to him assist him in committing suicide oh god the euthanasia advocate [Laughter] i found that so funny

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment yRuC09ajKEQ/s/8. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/yruc09ajkeq/s/8/

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