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.
13 answers in 9 recordings, 2018 to 2021. 11 with a checked position in his own words.
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
Thought Evolution
2018answers checked positions2021
Oldest first. A checked position shows what he holds, then the sentence he says, word for word from the transcript, with its moment. Years without one list the answers that have not been checked yet. Recordings not yet indexed may hold more.
Mufti Abu Layth holds that religion must make sense because the Quran calls to reason, and he calls people to the Quran and the Sunnah rather than to hadith as such, since hadith contain contradictions that must be sifted.
“to me religion must make sense because allowing the Quran calls us to reason I then call people in my understanding to the Quran and the Sunnah”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Muslims use reason to reject Hinduism and the Trinity, that a shared human intersubjectivity lets a healthy mind judge such claims absurd, and that the same standard of reason must be applied to Islam.
“the question here comes do we do we not have the responsibility then to apply those same standards to Islam”
Mufti Abu Layth says God is not unreasonable and would not give people reason to discover Him and then command what clashes with reason, and that reason, which Muslim scholars once called hikmah, has been ceded to atheists and scientists.
“it doesn't make sense that Allah would give us reason tell us to use it to discover him and then tell us to obey Him with things which clash with reason”
Mufti Abu Layth says that arguments for the Quran's truth which rest on the book asserting its own truth, its uniqueness, its eloquence, its lack of mistakes or its verses about rain and fruit are no stronger than a spiderweb, and that revelation can only be known to be true through reason.
“if that's what you're building your faith on that is weaker than a spiderweb as Allah says in the Quran”
Mufti Abu Layth says reason has its limitations but is the best that human beings have for any intersubjective dialogue.
“everybody with any reason recognizes that reason two has its limitations but it is the best that we as human beings have for in any uh inter-subjective dialogue”
Mufti Abu Layth says that while atheists have strong arguments on many things, overall their case collapses when it comes face to face with consciousness.
“i believe they have strong arguments on many things but overall it all collapses when it comes face to face with consciousness all of their arguments collapse”
Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali resolved his doubt by reliance on God, that science has since taken us far beyond his time, and that for him the existence of consciousness is the sign of God.
“to me the fact that god is out there is through consciousness the fact that we are conscious to me is that sign”
Mufti Abu Layth says the conscious mind is driven by curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge, and that the intelligibility of being, as seen in the coding of DNA, points to an intelligent creator.
“the intelligibility of being is a necessary proof to me for intelligent creation”
How many of these answers cite each (guest speech left out). Cited means named as evidence or discussed, not necessarily accepted: open the answers to see which.
