Early version. Transcripts and tags are labelled by accuracy tier. A position is shown only after two independent reviews have found it in his own words.
The principles named in his answers, ordered by how many different topics they reach: a question about method rather than content. Where a checked position rests on one, his sentence is quoted.
Indexed so far: 259 of 1,859 recordings (1,904 answers, 2014 to 2025). Anything below may change as the rest are indexed. Limits of the data
Principles are tagged by a machine and named in the tagger's words; a principle with one topic may be a one-off.
Mufti Abu Layth holds the middle position of Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa that the Sunnah is what is followed and hadith only document it, so a report is accepted unless it contradicts reason, the Quran or the living tradition or uproots a principle of Islam, and that discarding the Sunnah is a disservice to faith.
“to discard the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam who is to Muslims the most beloved of creation is a disservice to I feel faith as a whole”
Mufti Abu Layth says a qadi's judgement would be not unlike how the courts work in England today, and that is how the Sharia would work, more or less.
“yes he would take into consideration the circumstances it would be very it would be not different from how the courts work let's say in england today that would be how the sharia would work i mean more or less”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki scholars rightly rejected the satanic verses narrations as fabricated, and that even a sahih report contradicting the Quran would be rejected, let alone weak ones.
“this is why many of the ulama of islam oh sorry especially the malikiah very clearly made it very clear that look all of these things are utterly absurd they have no standing”
Mufti Abu Layth holds the middle position of Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa that the Sunnah is what is followed and hadith only document it, so a report is accepted unless it contradicts reason, the Quran or the living tradition or uproots a principle of Islam, and that discarding the Sunnah is a disservice to faith.
“to discard the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam who is to Muslims the most beloved of creation is a disservice to I feel faith as a whole”
Mufti Abu Layth says the scholars who called music haram gave their reasons but need not be followed blindly, since not all scholars said so and many challenged it from the Prophet's time on.
“we don't have to blindly follow them do you blindly follow all the scholars so then why are you blindly following these”
Mufti Abu Layth says things are halal by default and declaring something haram is a heavy task, and that a teacher should present rulings as his own understanding of what God wants, acknowledging that he could be wrong.
“i don't make things halal things are halal by default i say that making something haram is so such a difficult task”
Mufti Abu Layth says a qadi's judgement would be not unlike how the courts work in England today, and that is how the Sharia would work, more or less.
“yes he would take into consideration the circumstances it would be very it would be not different from how the courts work let's say in england today that would be how the sharia would work i mean more or less”
Mufti Abu Layth says reason necessarily comes first because scripture can only be understood through human interpretation, and that hadith dogmatism took shape in the era of Ibn Taymiyya and revived under colonialism, when attacks on religion amid instability pushed people towards fundamentalism.
“all perception and sensation is based on the human interpreting it it's based on interpretation so whether you like it or not you are already interpreting something”
Mufti Abu Layth says the claims that the Prophet was sexually impotent, married a nine-year-old or became clumsy under a spell are untrue and an attack on the Prophet's honour, that he has shown the reports on the marriage to have problems in their chains, and that those who affirm such claims are themselves being blasphemous.
“of course is wrong because it's not true it's an attack on the honor of the Prophet what is wrong with you”
Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims should apply to their own tradition the critical standards they apply to other faiths, noting that Sahih al-Bukhari rests on one transmitter whom no one vouched for for about 150 years.
“but then when it comes to islam we completely just put blinkers on our eyes”
Mufti Abu Layth holds, as he says many Malikis of the school of Madinah did, that everything is conclusively permissible by default, because Allah created everything for us and pardoned what He was silent about, and that this certainty can be removed only by certainty, so when he calls something halal he is not making it so.
“that by default everything is conclusively permissible Allah has ordained everything to be permissible he says in the Quran”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that there is no sahih hadith prohibiting music, citing al-Shawkani, Ibn Hazm, Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi and al-Fakihani, and that since only Allah and His Messenger are authorities in religion, anyone refuting him must bring a sahih hadith.
“there isn't a single sahi hadith that you can bring in this pub Allah at least bring me a sahi hadith”
Mufti Abu Layth says hadith grading is not settled by a majority, so that he is entitled to follow the hadith critic who weakened a narrator rather than those who graded him reliable.
“why should I go with majority why I mean why is this a democracy all of a sudden”
Mufti Abu Layth says justifying the reconversion by the Muslim majority's legal power is the principle of Thrasymachus that might is right, and that by the same logic Israel could convert al-Aqsa into the Temple of Solomon and India's Hindu majority could convert mosques into temples, so Muslims cannot then complain.
“if you want to abide by this fair enough but don't come crying tomorrow when masjid al-aqsa because it's under israeli control is then converted back to the temple of solomon”
Mufti Abu Layth says that fetishes involving impurity, however disgusting, are not haram, since contact with impurity is unclean but not forbidden and only God declares something haram, and that what consenting spouses do in private is their own business.
“So my response which is still the same that these kinks or things like this as sickening as they may be to people doesn't make them haram.”
Mufti Abu Layth says the sunnah is distinct from hadith and reaches Muslims through the living tradition of fiqh, that hadith are khabar ahad and so cannot found beliefs according to the Ash'ari and Maturidi orthodoxy, and that the Hanafi and Maliki schools reject solitary reports that contradict reason or their principles.
“we don't know how to pray because of Hadees we know how to pray because of the living tradition of Islam”
Mufti Abu Layth says he personally does not like the Arabisation of Indo-Pak Muslims, feeling that things should be natural and not imposed.
“I feel that there's a lot of politics at play that's all I personally don't like that kind I think that things should be natural you shouldn't try to impose things”
Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding music is not forbidden, since nothing in Islam is at once conclusive, sahih and explicit in prohibiting it, the Bukhari hadith speaks of entertainment rather than music, and the texts that name music are not authentic.
“the word doesn't actually say music it actually says entertainment but you seen that this the leave of interpretation going on and all the texts actually say music are not authentic”
