# Did Abraham really cut up birds that came back to life?

*Abraham and the birds: nurturing and affinity, not chopping and reviving*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zz85auzek5w/s/33/
- Date: 2021-04-06 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #209 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (3:19:16–3:26:41)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ85AUzeK5w&t=11956s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zz85auzek5w/

**Topics:** Stories of the prophets; How to read the Quran; Prophethood and miracles

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** In the verse of Abraham and the birds he reads a symbol: birds nurtured by Abraham come to him from afar, a sign of the soul's affinity to God, rather than birds cut up and revived.

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says the critics do not tackle his argument on the verse of Abraham and the birds. He says the verb in the verse means to call birds towards oneself with a sound, and that the reading 'cut them' relies on a borrowed foreign word, in Syriac or Abyssinian, which even if accepted leaves 'towards you' unexplained. He asks why, if Abraham asked how God gives life to the dead, God would point him to birds rather than to a dead person, and why one who had already, on their reading, survived the fire and seen other miracles needed more; he notes the Quran says only that a fire was lit and God saved him. His reading is symbolic: Abraham nurtures birds, the image of freedom, which then fly to him from afar out of affinity, a sign that souls have a far greater affinity to God, a message for all people in every age, whereas a story of chopped-up birds revived offers nothing to practise. He plays the critics' mocking of this reading and says they still do not address his points.

## Sources and names cited

- Ibrahim (Abraham)
- Quran 2:260 (Abraham and the four birds): https://quran.com/2/260

## Transcript (machine tier, 3:19:16–3:26:41)

[3:18:50] Quran copied. Let's the truth is the nature of the Quran whenever speaking about Jesus is often vague and ambiguous. Is he what many people have understood here is [laughter] [gasps] Allah tells Ibraimis and they bring this part as well about Abraham and they find it obviously very uh difficult to believe.

[3:19:16] So you see, and the interesting thing is they don't even tackle my arguments because I mention in that and I've got a whole clip that did uh about the birds and Abraham and you can see it on YouTube and I go into much detail and I mention look at the verse. Why? How do you explain that then? They say well because sur does mean to do that sound like that sound that they do to lure birds in.

[3:19:46] And why is Allah saying towards you? What does that mean then? And they say no sur do you know what they say? They say surant chop the head off. And it doesn't mean this in Arabic but sur in a different language. I've I I mentioned it in the video whether it was Syriak or from Abbiscinian but in a certain language meant to cut and Arabic here decided to borrow that but okay as bizarre far-fetched as that sounds let's say that's the case why say cut them towards you what what's this

[3:20:24] towards you then and the actual verb meant to to this surah to this whole kind of this sorry this whole sound and that's why it's used in the Quran as well about the Israelites that they had this when they're trying to create this calf it has this sound now why this is the actual Arabic verb but you're saying no here this Arabic verb doesn't mean what it means here it means reference to this foreign word which is then aribizing and replacing this meaning and even if it means that why has Allah said towards you, they don't even tackle it.

[3:21:03] Why not tackle my actual points? Why say that's so dummy? That's so dumb. Why would Allah, he's saying that how do you bring the dead back to life? And why would Allah show him this? Why wouldn't Allah just bring the dead to life? Then in that case, why didn't Allah just bring a dead person to life? He's not asking why, how do you bring dead birds back?

[3:21:26] He's saying toilmo, how do you bring back the dead people to life? Why is God telling him to find birds? I mean, look, if you get a worm and you cut a worm in half, in some cases, they can actually wiggle off as two separate worms. Yeah. Like, well, that's not a human being. Doesn't work like a worm.

[3:21:48] So what if Abraham is asking about human beings which is the plural for humans why is God telling him oh go get birds because that's not an appropriate why doesn't God say look yeah let's go to a graveyard right okay that's a dead person I brought him back to life so Allah showing Ibraimisam that look the way these the way you see these birds that that are so free.

[3:22:17] This is obviously it was in its allegory it was symbolic but it also had great meaning that the birds represent utter freedom that man has always longed for to soar in the skies. They're almost uncatchable. But yet with this affinity when you called them because you nurtured them, they came to you from a distance.

[3:22:39] And the souls have a much greater affinity to God. But yet they, you know, they completely miss it. Oh, he's a miracle and he chop the bird's head off and he and then you bring the birds. This is how God But then look, if that's the case, what how does that benefit us? Because that to us is just a story then and we don't have a lesson to take away from that because birds ain't going to come to life for us.

[3:23:07] How you know because we have that question. Oh, why should we believe? Oh, well too late. God ain't going to tell you. He told Abraham 4,000 years ago. Well, we weren't around 4,000 years ago. Oh, yeah. But well, just tough. I mean, so according to that version, God decided to tell one person uh Abraham who was already a prophet, which you know in all as far as evidence goes is is really meaningless because a prophet already believes in God.

[3:23:42] Hence, he's a prophet. He's already seen mir according to them, Abraham had already been burnt and saved by a fire, right? because I've mentioned that the fire didn't burn him cuz he wasn't thrown in the fire. It doesn't mention that he got thrown in the fire in the Quran. That's an assumption. It just mentions they lit a fire, but it says, "But God saved him." But according to them, he's already been burnt but saved. I mean, is that not miracle enough? I mean, what more do you want as a miracle for, you know, you've been saved whilst you're inside fire, you're you're alive, then you're saved from Nimrod's army, then you get away, and then all these other miracles, you know, you have a child

[3:24:19] when you can't have a child, and then uh you build a Kaa and you do all these things, and then you still say, you know, oh, uh, I want to see how how do you bring dead to life and then God says, you know what, go get some birds and chop them up. I mean to me the message of affinity is a message that stands and resonates with all of mankind for all time that you can even see it in your daytoday lives.

[3:24:50] And in that in in that that bond that you have with other creation with these creatures that you know this this this creature that can't speak this creature that can't communicate with you right can grow such an affinity to you that it would comprom that it would kind of reneg on its own freedom and flock to you.

[3:25:19] Do you see in that a sign of the divine? That is a message for all of humanity to say, "Well, Abraham just chopped up some birds and God miraculously brought them back to him and they were tweeting and and to me then that's just a story. You can't really do anything with that. You can't practice that. You can't kind of go chopping up birds. They're not going to come back to life for you." But yeah, so why not tackle my actual thing what I said in my clip.

[3:25:48] This is my point. They don't do that. They just straw man. But they say my arguments are so easy to defeat, but they never tackle them. Let's [laughter] keep coming back, you know, to to see Allah bringing the dead something to life. Yeah. Okay. So, so basically he's ordered, Ibraim is ordered to nurture the birds, to train them.

[3:26:15] Yeah. Just take pets to put them on the mountains and then to do this and then they come to him unbelievable. That's it, man. That's it. Unbelievable. Ah, you're unbelievable. I mean, seriously, like, why not just tackle my point? But okay. You know, that's what I do all the time. You know, when I'm when I'm pissed off at people, you know, I just freaking I I like summon things from the Sky, you know, when I'm upset. It's not it does like a wall.

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment zZ85AUzeK5w/s/33. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zz85auzek5w/s/33/

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