Recordings › Zina, Marriage and Relationships - Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki · 5 Mar 2018 › Segment 1 of 6
Is zina today the same issue it was in the past?
salat salaah namaz prayer salaat namaaz as-salah al-salah salawat aqidah aqeedah aqida theology aqeeda aqaid ijtihaad ijtehad independent reasoning muftis iman imaan eemaan eeman ulema ulamaa scholars nikah nikkah nikaah nikah nama nikahnama talaq talaaq triple talaq talak zinaa zinah fornication adulteryIs zina today what it was then? Outdated social theory and the marriage crisis
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This segment0:00 to 5:10 · 5 min 10 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenMuch of the inherited social theory on relationships and marriage no longer matches today's reality, and Mufti Abu Layth calls for ulama to re-examine the context with fresh ijtihad. He describes marriage today as costly and idealised, with divorce and polygamy stigmatised.
In more detail
The clip opens with Mufti Abu Layth calling it a very interesting question whether zina is really today what it was in the past, followed by some joking with the chat about creating a scandal. Returning to the point, he agrees that there is a problem today, not on the side of creed and faith but on the social and practical side of Islam, where much of the inherited theory no longer matches what people face, and says that he does not know the solution but would welcome an open and honest discussion by ulama prepared to re-analyse the context and offer suitable ijtihad. He then describes the difficulty of marriage as he sees it in the cases he deals with: getting into a relationship is hard, weddings cost as much as half a house, divorce is stigmatised, polygamy is disowned and looked down upon, and expectations are idealistic. He says people are confused between the pragmatic, functional marriages of their parents' generation and a hyper-romanticised Instagram culture that he does not think is real, which leaves people depressed and unsure when to marry.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedIs zina really today what it was back then?
- The question was reconstructed from Mufti Abu Layth's restatement; the questioner's own words are not in the recording
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth holds that much of the inherited social theory on relationships and marriage no longer matches today's circumstances and that ulama should re-analyse the context and offer suitable ijtihad.
“we are in a huge kind of crisis almost that a lot of our theory is outdated it doesn't match what we are facing today”
Category: method
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine0:00 to 5:10 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
I think that's a very interesting question Xena is it really today what it was back then [Music] you see I I agree with you Ibrahim right whoops cor saying yes haha oops is trying to create a scandal but I do appreciate that I do appreciate the kind of comments shukran shukran but this is going to scandalize me it's like what's that maker auto Salah character delay if I do anything becomes a scandal of
Carter a much more ham Baba so right coming back to to this this point I would well I agree with you that today we are in a problem huge parts of the Islamic not the Creed side not the faith side but the practice the social element side of Islam is in a huge whoops I'm only joking I'm only joking relax how is it gonna become a scandal so so
the thing is look we are in a huge kind of crisis almost that a lot of our theory is outdated it doesn't match what we are facing today that comes with the bulk of Islamic rulings and teachings not teach easy teachings could cover other aspects like things like beliefs and stuff like that I'm not talking about that I'm talking more about the kind of social side things like relationships today are
massively problematic and I don't know what the solution is but I would welcome a discussion an open honest transparent discussion by Allah ma where they are prepared to kind of have to reanalyze our context and come up with suitable HD hardened right so this is the this is the understanding fakers look in our day and age if we're going to face it look marriage it's it just
does it's such I mean it's become such a headache it's not these people are gonna think I'm just kind of venting here I'm be I'm just being honest with the kind of cases that I deal with that you see first of all to get into a relationship is so hard work marriages cost so much huge costs such a big dude such a big social event people you could either buy a house or get married nowadays that's like the cost that you're looking at now okay almost half a house to be fair now
then divorces are outcasted polygamy polygamy is kind of its kind of disowned and seen as kind of like really look down upon divorces are stigmatized then we've got like expectations that are kind of very idealistic of relationships like relationships with we're confused between a eastern and western like a traditional understanding where everything was pragmatic so it didn't matter you just got on with life like
let's say the generation of our parents it was never it's just about just getting on with life and functioning so they have that pragmatism so we're confused between that and an idealist a romanticism of which is emerging with the Instagram culture of you know I'm drinking coffee with BAE or I'm having a milkshake and and every day they were at this kind of dessert place so we're kind of you know this kind of culture where everything is just hyper like romantic sighs which isn't I don't think it's
real I mean I suppose is a guy probably you never understand romance anyway but that said that that said these things are not okay maybe for some people for some time it works but it's not real you know this kind of Instagram life is not a real life so the problem is that issues people getting depressed then they don't know how to kind of cope and then when do you get married like people say you know Enoch in our societies people would say oh do you like her why
do you just get married what kind of a recipe for disaster is that so people are like look at and then young younger people at least say somebody 18 19 getting married seriously humanity humanity gives a loss on people humanity gives charity doing some great work in the Midlands helping homeless people orphans so if you if you want to get involved in some charity work reach out connect like and donate in Charlotte right so look so now you've got all of
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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 2018-03-05b-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zs1rln2djss/s/1/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, March 5). Is zina today the same issue it was in the past? [Video, segment 2018-03-05b-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zs1rln2djss/s/1/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "Is zina today the same issue it was in the past?" Video, segment 2018-03-05b-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded March 5, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zs1rln2djss/s/1/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-03-05b-S01, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Is zina today the same issue it was in the past?}}, year = {2018}, month = {3}, date = {2018-03-05}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zs1rln2djss/s/1/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zs1rln2djss/s/1/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2018-03-05b-S01, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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