Research › Belief and theology
53 answers in 28 recordings, 2018 to 2023. 33 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
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.
· Is the Quran created or uncreated? Why he calls the debate absurd
The debate over whether the Quran is created or uncreated is absurd and without meaningful outcome: the Companions never discussed it, and it arose as a political dispute over the caliphs' authority in the time of al-Ma'mun.
“the question is is the Quran created uncreated and I said that this the whole discussion is absurd which I stand by today and I say it's absurd”
3:56TranscriptCite 2018-01-02-S02corrected
· A Christian belief that crept into Islam; creed cannot be blind-followed
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the belief in Jesus's return is not Islamic because it contradicts the main teachings of the Quran, the principles of Islam and the Prophet's life and message.
“that is my my belief on this matter that this is not an Islamic thing why because it contradicts against I believe the main teachings of the Quran and it contradicts the main principles of Islam”
37:15TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S11corrected
· Ibn Ashur, al-Shatibi and Ibn Khaldun on the Mahdi: a discussion within Islam
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Mahdi and the return of Jesus are matters of Islamic information open to discussion within Islam, not creed, as Ibn Ashur and al-Sha'rawi held.
“my whole thing of putting this out there is to say look people this is a discussion within Islam”
2:02:24TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S32corrected
· The Creed of Tahawi is not the Quran; Ash'aris do not make takfir of ahl al-qiblah
Mufti Abu Layth says the Creed of al-Tahawi was written some 250 years after the Prophet and objects to treating the denial of a line of it as unbelief.
“he's writing this almost at least over 250 years after the Prophet why is he such a great Hojo love a sudden you know we don't accept him in anything else”
2:07:31TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S34corrected
· Is blind faith (taqlid) in creed acceptable in Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's command to know that there is no god but Allah requires reasoning and comparison rather than mere assertion, and he presents the theologians' view that blind-following in creed is impermissible alongside later scholars' distinction between a tolerated and a richer level of faith.
“so to know it you have to compare you have to contrast you have to think well why can't that be true why can't Hinduism be true”
22:49TranscriptCite 2018-04-09-S04corrected
· Why did Muslims become hostile to reason?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Muslim aversion to reason grew out of the sectarian cold war with the Mu'tazila, when the mainstream reacted to the Mu'tazila's use of reason by disparaging reason itself and defending absurd narrations as a method of control.
“as a method of control for these people a whole genre of irrationality was recreated and re-engineered to kind of keep these people at bay”
54:53TranscriptCite 2018-04-09-S10corrected
· Why did religious scholars end up explaining things like illness and the mind?
Mufti Abu Layth says that the ulama were historically the only learned class and so were asked to explain worldly phenomena with the knowledge of their time, which is the backdrop against which the belief in possession took shape.
“the ulema are using the resources to come up with answers these are not necessarily religious questions these are just worldly human questions”
6:17TranscriptCite 2018-04-15-S02corrected
· Bukhari's persecution and why his book reaches us through one transmitter
Mufti Abu Layth says Bukhari's persecution by the Hanafis and the Hanbali literalists in his last years is why his book reaches us through a single transmitter, and that the same two groups now insist it reaches us with certainty.
“the book doesn't reach us with certainty because of the suffering inflicted on him by the hanafi's and the humblings”
1:01:17TranscriptCite 2018-08-30-S10corrected
· Are the Salafis themselves orthodox by their own standard?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafis are themselves unorthodox, since the orthodoxy of the ummah has been Ash'ari in belief and the four schools in law, both of which they reject, so their appeal to orthodoxy against new interpretations of verses is inconsistent.
“the seller fees themselves are unorthodox by going against the orthodoxy of this Ummah the seller fees reject methods they do not follow any of the four traditional schools of thought”
30:04TranscriptCite 2018-10-20-S06corrected
· Did the Prophet teach a creed about God's attributes, and when did the Muslim creed emerge?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet came to teach faith rather than creed, that the Muslim formal creed emerged two to three hundred years after him, and that the doctrine of divine attributes that are neither God nor other than God is irrational and not based in the Quran and Sunnah.
“I always make a distinction between our teeth and Iman the Creed and faith that the Prophet came to teach faith not to teach Creed because with Creed it's always institutionalized”
18:14TranscriptCite 2018-12-24b-S07corrected
· Did the Prophet teach a formal creed of what Muslims must believe?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet never taught a creed beyond a handful of beliefs, that the salaf up to Imam Malik never taught or wrote down dogma for over a hundred and fifty years, and that forcing faith and policing people's ideas is the antithesis of what Islam came with.
“this kind of policing people's ideas this is the antithesis of what Islam came with this this theme was born free people yet today they've locked it in Chains”
15:55TranscriptCite 2019-08-21-S04corrected
· Who were the Mu'tazila and what did they believe?
Mufti Abu Layth says that the belief of some Muslims that the intellect is bad is the dumbest thing anybody could say.
“it created a problem which we're still dealing with today that some Muslims believed think that maybe the intellect is bad which is the dumbest the dumbest thing anybody could say”
27:28TranscriptCite 2019-11-03b-S07corrected
· What is the difference between the Ash'ari and Athari (Hanbali) creeds?
Mufti Abu Layth dismisses the Athari (Hanbali) creed, which he says attributes body parts to God, says he would broadly align himself with the Ash'ari school while disagreeing with it on certain points, and ranks the philosophers above all the theologians.
“broadly speaking I would align myself with a shoddy even though I would disagree on certain things that they say”
3:47TranscriptCite 2019-11-05-S01corrected
· Is al-wala wal-bara, loving and hating for the sake of Allah, part of Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth says the doctrine of loving and hating for the sake of God, al-wala wal-bara, does not exist in the tradition but is a Wahhabi innovation written about only by Saudi, Gulf and Wahhabi scholars, and that the Quranic bara'a means detachment of association rather than hatred.
“for the sake of God is it's an innovation in Islam and it is nothing but kind of selfie stroke Wahhabi propaganda”
10:18TranscriptCite 2019-12-12-S04corrected
· Is al-Zamakhshari's tafsir al-Kashshaf worth reading?
Mufti Abu Layth says some scholars over-demonise the Mu'tazila, who were in their own right great and intelligent scholars of Islam, though some of their views were a bit warped.
“I think sometimes some scholars just over demonize them it's not that's not really fear they were in their own right legends you know they they were really intelligent really great scholars of Islam”
47:09TranscriptCite 2020-07-14-S10corrected
· What was al-Ash'ari's argument against the Mu'tazila about God always doing what is best?
Mufti Abu Layth says the paradox in the debate attributed to al-Ash'ari is where the Mu'tazili view that God is bound to act by a fixed rule crumbles.
“in the afterlife and it and this kind of paradox is where the Methuselah kind of thing crumbles”
51:39TranscriptCite 2020-07-14-S11corrected
· Who were the Murji'a and why do Salafis talk about them so much?
Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Taymiyya suffered from a lot of mental health issues.
“but he you have to understand he was he suffered from a lot of mental health issues”
1:22:15TranscriptCite 2020-09-22-S15corrected
· What do you think of the Mu'tazila?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Mu'tazila were an ancient sect that has not existed for something like six or seven hundred years.
“they don't really exist they haven't existed for something like six seven hundred years if not more they've been non-existent they were an extremist sect”
2:06:56TranscriptCite 2020-09-22-S21corrected
· Would the Mufti debate a Salafi scholar on aqidah?
Mufti Abu Layth says he guarantees that no Salafi scholar can clearly prove from the Quran alone that the Salafi aqidah, as they preach it, is valid and a must.
“i guarantee you they won't be able to prove their ah either from the quran quran only”
1:25TranscriptCite 2020-11-17-S01corrected
· Was the Quran always fixed word for word, or was it flexible at first?
Mufti Abu Layth says he finds himself in line with the view that the Arabic Quran came into being in the mind of the Prophet, revealed to him and not invented by him.
“i find myself in line with that latter that is in the mind of the prophet”
23:27TranscriptCite 2020-12-10-S04corrected
· Can I blindly follow scholars in matters of belief?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is forbidden, by the consensus of the scholars, to blindly follow others in matters of belief.
“this is adida 101 right it's not even one of you it is haram by isma of ulama of islam to blindly follow in just believing in one god”
9:29TranscriptCite 2021-02-14-S02corrected
· Why isn't the Mufti a Mu'tazili?
Mufti Abu Layth says mut'ah had nothing to do with being a Shia, and that tying it to them was a propaganda campaign.
“this was just a propaganda compe campaign muta had nothing to do with being a shia shia was about who gets to rule”
50:32TranscriptCite 2021-02-16-S14corrected
· Were the Mu'tazila really defined by their use of reason?
Mufti Abu Layth says what split the Mu'tazila off was nothing to do with reason, but doctrines such as a sinner no longer being a Muslim and God being duty-bound to reward good.
“therefore there has to be that god is duty bound to recompense and so these issues are what split them off it was nothing to do with reason nothing to do with oh they were rationalists”
53:01TranscriptCite 2021-02-16-S15corrected
· Do Ash'aris believe the Quran is created?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Ash'aris believe the Quran was created but, embarrassed by it, hide the wording behind terms the public would not understand.
“ashadis believe that now but i've mentioned this before you see what they do is they're embarrassed of it so they hide the wording and replace it with words that the common public wouldn't understand”
59:57TranscriptCite 2021-02-16-S17corrected
· Did Imam Ahmad really refuse to say the Quran is created?
Mufti Abu Layth says that, to be honest, the account that Imam Ahmad said the Quran was created to please the caliph and was let off is not hard to believe, since saying so to save one's life would not be haram.
“he said yes the quran is created to please the caliph and then got let off and to be honest with you this is not hard to believe because it wouldn't be haram to do that”
1:07:40TranscriptCite 2021-02-16-S18corrected
· An invitation to MindTrap on aqidah and Bukhari, and an open challenge to Salafi imams
Mufti Abu Layth says his challenge is that Salafi imams will not be able to prove their aqidah from the Quran or Sunnah alone.
“any salafi Imam on the rakida that we can have a discussion they have to be able to prove there are either just from the Quran or Sunnah and Mike challenge is that they won't be able to”
12:03TranscriptCite 2021-02-22-S03corrected
· Is separating hadith from the Sunnah a Hanafi and Maliki principle?
Mufti Abu Layth says that distinguishing hadith from the Sunnah is the usul of the Hanafi and Maliki madhhabs.
“this is the usual of the hanafi matab and the maliki method that we do tafriq hadith sunnah”
2:18:13TranscriptCite 2021-03-02-S31corrected
Mufti Abu Layth holds that distinguishing hadith from the Sunnah is the usul of the Hanafi and Maliki schools rather than an innovation of Abduh, that Qadhi applies to Gog and Magog the reasoning he condemns in others, and that Salafi kalam rests on fabrications such as chains to companions debating whether the Quran is created, a debate that arose only around 190 to 210 AH.
“this is the usual of the hanafi madhyab and the maliki method that we do tafriq al hadith sunnah unlike the shepherd's”
1:15:01TranscriptCite 2021-03-14-S19corrected
· Does using reason in Islam make someone a Mu'tazili?
Mufti Abu Layth says Sunnis started to say that the deen is not built on intellect only as a reaction, to get back at their opponents in debate, and that later generations inherited this narrative.
“sunnis tried to say oh but the deen isn't built on intellect and they started to pump this narrative just to get back at them it was all a reaction that's all it was and later subsequent generations just inherited”
9:34TranscriptCite 2021-03-15-S03corrected
· The birth of orthodoxy: a nameless main body and the hadith project
Mufti Abu Layth says the name Ahl al-Sunnah did not exist until over two hundred years after the Prophet.
“this name Allah Sunnah didn't exist for until over you know decades over 200 years after the prophet”
1:57TranscriptCite 2023-02-13-S01corrected
· Apophatic definition: the early main body defined by what it was not
Mufti Abu Layth says that in the time of the salaf the main body of Muslims was identified by contrast with outgroups, with no checklist of what to believe.
“there is no checklist to believe there is only the in-group is identified in contrast to the elk group”
8:14TranscriptCite 2023-02-13-S02corrected
· The created Quran controversy and the birth of a creedal checklist
Mufti Abu Layth says that in his research he feels orthodoxy originates with the question of the creation of the Quran.
“in my research I feel this originates the birth of this is with the Hulk the creation of the Quran Masala”
10:49TranscriptCite 2023-02-13-S03corrected
· Why orthodoxy took hold, and who wrote the checklist
Mufti Abu Layth says the creedal list was taught not by Allah and his Messenger but by men, who wrote from their own perspective.
“hasn't been taught to you by Allah and his messenger it's been taught by men righteous men you know inshallah but the thing is they're still men”
31:27TranscriptCite 2023-02-13-S06corrected
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.
These answers state a view in order to discuss it, often to reject it. They are never read as his position.
Cite a statement by its id: Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment id, with the date and the address of its page. Citation formats
