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.
Research › Belief and theology › End times and the Day of Judgement
The second coming of Jesus
95 answers in 16 recordings, 2018 to 2021. 59 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 says the hadith of Jibril defines faith and the signs of the hour without mentioning the return of Jesus or the Dajjal, and he agrees that Muslims should stop obsessing about the end times.
“the Prophet said I don't know and then when gibreel said what are the signs he didn't say that there's gonna be at the jail and Jesus and stuff like this he didn't say that”
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”
Mufti Abu Layth says the second coming is perhaps the second most important Christian belief, on which Christianity rose, and that the hadith's picture of Jesus returning as a judge matches the New Testament.
“this belief guys about the second coming of Jesus is so important in Christianity it is perhaps the second most important belief in Christianity it is on the back of this belief that Christianity rose”
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not accept the hadith of Jesus's descent because they clash with the Quran and with other hadith, not because of any misunderstanding of the Arabic yanzilu.
“no it's not that I don't understand the word yinz Luffy come it's that I don't accept these are these because they clash with the Quran and with other hadith”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the details in the hadith of Jesus's return, such as conversion by the sword, everyone becoming Muslim, the killing of the Jews and universal peace, contradict the Quran and the Prophet's life and mirror the gospels.
“face the sword that goes against the entire Quran that it goes against the entire life of the Prophet the Prophet never said that in his lifetime he never accepted people's Islam by force”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Imam Malik deliberately left the hadith of Jesus's return out of the Muwatta, transmitting only a fraction of al-Zuhri's reports, and that Malik's refusal to accept isolated hadith blindly is the approach to follow.
“is this a coincidence that Imam Malik doesn't bring any hadith to do with Jesus coming back but then he brings this hadith to show that Jesus said to the pig that go with peace”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Dajjal is definitely not a man: the reports are fabricated in meaning or defective, refer to the devil or at best to a future illusion, and the Dajjal is not mentioned in the Quran.
“in my understanding that the gel is definitely not a man 100% not a man he's in the hadith the hadith are either wrong and fabricated or Mis related”
Mufti Abu Layth says hadith placing Jesus's descent at a white minaret in Damascus are suspect because no such minaret existed in the Prophet's time and Damascus became central only after it became the Umayyad capital.
“the Muslims move the capital to Damascus the Muslim capital ends up as Damascus all of a sudden subhanAllah there's so many hadith about Damascus now”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that there is no consensus on what consensus is, that ijma began as collective assurance rather than a source of Sharia, and that accepting only one's own mutawatir while rejecting others' is inconsistent.
“secondly there is no consensus on what consensus it's absurd there is no this is one of those myths”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the belief in Jesus's return has had no impact on the faith of anyone who died until today, so it cannot be a core part of Islam.
“whether they believed Jesus was gonna come or not it hadn't zero impact on their lives because Jesus hasn't come up until today”
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”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that kahl in 3:46 means mature manhood from about thirty or forty, which Jesus reached on earth as al-Razi said, and that reading the verse as a second coming began only with al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali in the third century.
“you are a complete man and many Olimar said that begins at 30 some said it begins at 40 it doesn't matter it's not a set age it's like saying middle aged”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that 4:159 refers to each Christian believing at death, following Ibn Abbas, Mujahid and Ubayy's plural reading, and that 43:61 says Jesus is knowledge of the hour, not a sign, so neither verse establishes a return.
“so the true understanding here was that upon death they will realize that this was not the truth”
Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims seem to try hard to invent a reason for Jesus to return, and that the tasks the reports give him contradict the love and compassion of his life.
“so it seems that Muslims are almost trying really hard to make up a reason for why Jesus has to come back because oh he has to kill the Jews”
Mufti Abu Layth sums up that the reports of Jesus's return conflict with the Quran, the Sunnah and established principles, are single-transmitter reports rather than creed, contradict one another and echo Christian narratives, and that the Prophet did not mention Jesus when asked about faith or the signs of the hour.
“when we look at the details of these hadith we find them conflicting with the overall message of the Quran with the overall message of the Sunnah and with the established principles in Islam”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that kahl in the verse means mature adulthood, which Jesus reached on earth as al-Razi states, and that the reading of the verse as a prophecy of his return originated with a scholar who died in the 280s AH and was unknown to the salaf.
“who said that this verse could refer to Jesus coming back India his second coming before him nobody said that this wasn't how they understood the Quran”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that 'before his death' in 4:159 refers to the death of each Christian, not to Jesus, following Ibn Abbas, Mujahid and al-Dahhak and the plural reading of Ubayy ibn Ka'b, and that the second-coming reading makes no sense of the Christians who have already died.
“so the true understanding here was that upon death they will realize that this was not the truth”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that 43:61 does not state that Jesus is the sign of the hour, that the critics contradict themselves by invoking mutawatir and consensus claims they reject elsewhere, and that the second-coming narrative reads exactly from the Gospels.
“I wanted people to understand where I'm coming from why I feel this is because it reads exactly from the Gospels”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the reasons given for Jesus's return, killing the Dajjal who simply melts, killing the Jews, and killing pigs, conflict with each other and with Jesus's own message, and that a report in Malik has Jesus peaceful towards pigs.
“Jesus is a Jew by the way Jesus a Jewish you know it doesn't make any sense and Jesus spent his whole life speaking about love and compassion and turn the other cheek”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the narrations of Jesus's return conflict with the Quran, the Sunnah and the established principles of Islam, are solitary reports that are not part of creed in the way people have made them, and contradict one another.
“when we look at the details of these hadith we find them conflicting with the overall message of the Quran with the overall message of the Sunnah and with the established principles in Islam”
Mufti Abu Layth says the second coming of Jesus cannot be clearly proven from the Quran, that majority belief in it reflects childhood indoctrination rather than proof, and that the hadith on it have chain problems and contain details, such as Jesus forcing people to become Muslim, that clash with Islam.
“the issue here is that the details inside these hadith clash with Islam stuff like Jesus will force people to become Muslim”
Mufti Abu Layth says that if the details of the second-coming hadith are metaphors then the whole account could be one, and that which opinion counts as majority or minority is decided later by power and politics rather than by contemporaries, as the case of Abu Hanifa shows.
“this minority majority is deemed by later people it's not deemed by the people at the time because this is a power position”
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe the Prophet said the hadith about Jesus coming back, since almost eighty percent of them come through Abu Hurayra alone, who learned from Ka'b al-Ahbar and Abdullah ibn Salam, some of his reports appear elsewhere as Ka'b's words from the Torah, and none comes from Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali or Uthman.
“I don't believe the Prophet said these things about Jesus coming back I honestly don't”
Mufti Abu Layth says that warning people that doubting one hadith leads to doubting the Quran is scare-mongering, since Bukhari and Muslim are not the word of God and the deen does not fall apart from questioning; he says that in his view Jesus is not going to come, while asking that the matter be treated as a difference of opinion rather than a sectarian one.
“by removing cobwebs the Deen is not gonna fall apart and I can guarantee you this Deen is not gonna fall apart”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Dajjal as an Antichrist figure is a myth that does not exist in Islam, that the hadith linking the Dajjal with the second coming of Jesus and the Mahdi are unacceptable because a God who tested people with a miracle-working devil child would be unreasonable and clash with al-Rahman and al-Rahim, and that the Dajjal reports refer either to Shaytan or, on his tentative reading, to an age in which the virtual becomes indistinguishable from the real.
“I've told people before that gel as the Antichrist is a myth does not exist in Islam”
Mufti Abu Layth says that in Ibn Ashur's words the Quran does not deal with the second coming when it counts out the blessings of Jesus, rather than saying nothing in the Quran opposes it.
“the quran does not encounter this argument doesn't when it's counting out the blessings of jesus”
Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith of Jesus descending as a judge on earth was made up from Christian belief taken from the Bible.
“which is the verse out of the bible by the way and it's christian belief and that's how this hadith was made up through abu hurairah and through those people who mixed it up”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not say how Jesus died, which does not mean he did not die, just as it does not say how Moses died.
“there are some things the quran does not highlight how did jesus die it doesn't highlight that okay it doesn't mean he didn't die but then the quran doesn't mention how moses died”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not strongly suggest a second coming of Jesus, contrary to Qadhi's claim.
“these were some of the key things that below it has made that the response would be academic clearly wasn't the quran strongly suggests the second coming it doesn't”
Mufti Abu Layth says that in the verse on speaking in the cradle and in maturity it is the people Jesus addresses, the child and the mature man, who are meant, not Jesus speaking at an older age.
“it's not jesus who's going to be speaking like that it's the people he will address he will address the child in the crib and he will address the old man or the mature man”
Mufti Abu Layth says it makes much more sense to read 43:61 as speaking of the Quran, since revelation ends with it, than of Jesus as a sign of the Hour.
“and that actually makes much more sense if you think about it that the entire revelation will now end makes a lot more sense than rather saying jesus is a sign for the hour”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's use of Jesus's words 'when you took me' for himself, in a report in Bukhari, shows that he understood the verse to mean Jesus had died.
“according to bukhari as saying that this that jesus had died because he is saying that oh what about my companions”
Mufti Abu Layth says Qutayba heard a fabricated hadith from a known forger, dropped him and presented it as heard from al-Layth, which puts at least a question mark over him.
“there was a famous forger who quraiba sits with he hears this hadith from laith he doesn't hear it he hears khalid he drops him and himself presents it as though he heard it from leith”
Mufti Abu Layth says one narrator from Abu Hurayra in a Sahih Muslim chain for the return transmits no other hadith and is a ghost who does not exist.
“he doesn't transmit any other hadith and what's shocking is he doesn't exist this guy is a is a ghost right there are the attacks that transmit from abu hurairah”
Mufti Abu Layth says every single chain he examined among the strongest reports in Bukhari and Muslim has a problem in it.
“where he said this is it doesn't leave there's no doubt how is there no doubt all of these chains are problematic single chain has had a problem in it”
Mufti Abu Layth says eighty percent of the hadith on Jesus's return come through Abu Hurayra alone.
“you know eighty percent of these entire hadith are just through abu hurairah just through him and almost 50 percent of the entire narration is just through one man”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Qadhi's claims fail: the Quran does not suggest a second coming, none of the hundred narrations is sound, Ibn Hazm recorded Muslim disagreement on the return nine centuries ago, major creed works omit it, and the Maliki authorities Qadhi cites held the reports to carry doubt rather than to be mutawatir.
“the quran strongly suggests the second coming uh it doesn't there are four verses show this to be true i'm afraid not these leave no doubt uh that's utter nonsense hundred narrations not a single one sound”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that 'he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity' refers to those Jesus addresses, children and grown men, not to a return, that the first to read it as a return was al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali (d. 282 AH), a transmitter of strange reports, and that 'before his death' was recited as 'before their death' and read by commentators as referring to Jesus, the Prophet, the truth or Allah.
“it's not jesus who's going to be speaking like that it's the people he will address he will address the child in the crib and he will address the old man or the mature man”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that 43:61 means the Quran is knowledge of the Hour, as Hasan and others said, and that 5:75, 21:34 and 43:59 count against a second coming, since Jesus ate food and was subject to natural laws, no human before the Prophet was given eternal life, and Jesus is called an example for the children of Israel alone.
“notice that this is actually a verse to show that jesus will not be coming back”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the verse 'I will give you death' and the dialogue of 5:116-118, in which Jesus says he does not know what his people did after he was taken, show that Jesus died and will not return, and that the Prophet's own use of the verse in a Bukhari report about his companions turning bad after him confirms this reading.
“this verse where allah says that i will give you death now note that this counts against the second coming because jesus has died”
Mufti Abu Layth says the first Bukhari chain for Jesus's descent is unreliable because al-Bukhari left the names of Ishaq and Salih ambiguous, which he says al-Bukhari did on purpose with teachers' names so as to deceive readers, as al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar record, and because al-Zuhri was known to insert his own words into reports and to make mursal reports reach the Prophet.
“buhari actually is known on several occasions to do to to kind of make names ambiguous so as to deceive his readers”
Mufti Abu Layth says the second Bukhari chain passes through Qutayba, who once concealed a known forger in a chain and presented the report as heard from al-Layth, and that the Sahih Muslim chains pass through Yunus ibn Yazid and other narrators whose transmission from al-Zuhri the critics faulted, with al-Zuhri recurring in each.
“there was a famous forger who quraiba sits with he hears this hadith from laith uh he doesn't hear it he hears khalid he drops him and himself presents it as though he heard it from leith”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Sahih Muslim chains for Jesus's return include a narrator who suffered memory loss, a narrator who cannot be identified and could not have met Abu Hurayra, a major mudallis whose reports some critics discarded as fabrications, and Abu al-Zubayr, whom Abu Hatim did not consider reliable.
“years before his death he suffered huge memory loss and possibly dementia and this is why he becomes unreliable and he's in this chain”
Mufti Abu Layth says every chain he examined for the strongest reports of Jesus's return in Bukhari and Muslim has a criticised narrator, so Qadhi's claim that they leave no doubt fails, and that accepting a report because al-Bukhari included it while ignoring critics who were his equals or seniors is arbitrary.
“all of these chains are problematic every single chain has had a problem in it”
Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith of Aisha on Jesus's return rests on a lone transmitter, an undervalued narrator who dictated some forty-one thousand reports from memory in Isbahan with at least a thousand errors and whose version alone has the Dajjal emerging from the Jews of Isbahan, which he finds suspicious.
“he's the only person to have ever said that and that's where he was massively undervalued now you tell me is that not suspicious”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibn Mas'ud report of the return opens by noting the Christians' claim that Jesus will return, which shows the belief creeping in, has unidentifiable narrators in its chain, and ends with life regrowing from a seminal fluid sent from beneath the Throne, a detail he calls preposterous.
“ibn masawa begins by saying that the christians claim jesus will come back you see this belief creeping in”
Mufti Abu Layth says a transmitter of the return reports, Yazid, went blind, lost his memory and relied on his slave girl to check what he doubted, which shows the state of some of those transmitting these hadith and why they can be questioned.
“he became blind later on in life and his memory naturally got weak fakhana yesterday so how would he know what is going on he would get his slave girl to he would ask her whatever he was doubtful about”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that reports which go against reason may be questioned, that eighty percent of the hadith on Jesus's return come through Abu Hurayra alone and about half through one man, and that the other companions cited are obscure, so no unquestionable hadith establishes the return.
“bring me one unquestionable hadith just one to prove this that there's no question about anything in its chain”
Mufti Abu Layth says there is a statement from Imam Malik that Jesus died, that Malik never taught the second coming in his fatwas or the Muwatta, and that transmitting a report is not endorsing it, so it is not a huge claim that Malik did not hold the belief.
“He never teaches you that, oh, I'm telling you that you should or that we should believe in the second coming of Jesus.”
Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik included in the Muwatta reports he did not practise, and infers from the only report about Jesus there, in which Jesus tells a pig to pass in peace, that Malik had a problem with the reports that Jesus will return and kill pigs.
“I infer from this that he is showing that we have a problem with the narrations that people are saying Jesus will come flag and he will kill pigs.”
Mufti Abu Layth says it is not a huge claim that Imam Malik did not believe in the second coming, given his statement that Jesus died, the contents of the Muwatta and his fatwas, and that the reports of the one-eyed Dajjal and of the Prophet spying on Ibn Sayyad insult the Prophet's dignity.
“I find that insulting and blasphemous to the honor and dignity of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam to attribute this stuff to him.”
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