Research › Belief and theology
50 answers in 27 recordings, 2018 to 2025. 28 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.
· Does he believe in miracles?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that miracles exist on a spectrum but that no miracle ever defied God's own laws: rare events can happen, but they always have a cause and a means through nature and the laws of physics, whether or not it is known.
“I believe that yes miracles is there like a spectrum okay so miracles did exist but what do miracles mean I don't believe there was ever a miracle that defies God's laws”
8:59TranscriptCite 2018-02-21-S03corrected
· Is it acceptable to criticise a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari?
Mufti Abu Layth says that criticising reports in Sahih al-Bukhari cannot make a person a deviant when al-Albani rejected around a dozen of them, and that the salaf understood the Quran's miracles in several ways, miracles always having causes within God's law of nature.
“criticized several hadith in Bukhari probably just close to a dozen or so and clasp them as weak and rejected them”
14:23TranscriptCite 2018-02-21-S05corrected
· Do miracles in the Quran break the laws of nature?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Allah never breaks the laws He set in nature, so everything called a miracle in the Quran has an explanation within those laws even if not yet known, and that abandoning reason would make every religion's claims equally valid.
“Allah will never break the laws of the natural world so in my understanding everything you call a miracle in the Quran has an explanation”
1:07:06TranscriptCite 2018-04-09-S14corrected
· Did a tree really cry for the Prophet, and why does Mufti Abu Layth reject the hadith?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the report of the tree crying for the Prophet is not established, that its chains are problematic and it clashes with the principle that such things do not happen, and that Muslims cannot dismiss other religions' miracle stories as absurd while accepting their own.
“I said this is not established and I don't believe this to be sahi why because how can we hold things like stones and monkeys and elephants not doing these kind of things and hold that as absurd”
1:17:24TranscriptCite 2018-04-09-S17corrected
· Why do only believers in jinn possession seem to experience it?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Muslims apply reason to dismiss other religions' miracles and doctrines but switch it off for possession once a belief has been Islamised, relying instead on anecdotal experiences that only ever afflict believers.
“you'll never resort to reason but to discount and discredit other religions immediately the voice of reason is called up”
26:54TranscriptCite 2018-04-15-S07corrected
· Did Musa's staff really turn into a snake?
Mufti Abu Layth says that in his understanding the staff of Musa was not an actual snake but was described as though it were one.
“now in my understanding that it was not a snake okay when he threw the thing it was not a snake but it was described as though it was a snake”
1:17TranscriptCite 2018-04-20-S01corrected
· Did Musa beat Pharaoh's magicians with stronger magic?
Mufti Abu Layth says that Musa exposing the magicians' trickery, rather than outperforming their magic, sits better with his understanding.
“liars they have no connections with the gods that they speak of that they gods do not help them it is a lie that to me sits more right with my understanding”
11:19TranscriptCite 2018-04-20-S02corrected
· What should Muslims learn from the Wood versus Hijab debate?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Muslims must be consistent in following the voice of reason, because if they say the laws of nature do not matter when it comes to miracles they lose any ground for saying that three cannot equal one, and that Muslims also need to raise their adab in debate.
“what we can't do is have irrational beliefs ourselves and then condemn other people for irrational beliefs like we must be consistent”
29:31TranscriptCite 2018-12-24b-S09corrected
· If God can do anything, why not take the miracles in Quranic stories literally?
Mufti Abu Layth says reason is either all in or out, and one cannot follow it only ninety per cent of the time.
“reason is either all in or or it's out it doesn't happen like you can't say you know what I'll follow reason 90% of the time”
12:45TranscriptCite 2019-01-08-S02corrected
· Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's developing claims: reformer, messiah, prophet, Krishna
Mufti Abu Layth says the claim that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad never claimed prophethood is a half-truth, since his early writings disclaim it but from 1891 onward he claimed to be the promised messiah, then a prophet, then Krishna.
“he did not claim to be a prophet some people will say this to you and and they will quote you his books right now the interesting thing is that's partially true that's a half truth”
14:35TranscriptCite 2019-01-15-S03corrected
· Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's unfulfilled prophecies, the mubahala oaths and his death
Mufti Abu Layth says Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's prophecies about his lifespan, his marriages, a further son and his place of death were not fulfilled, and that he died of cholera and bowel illness.
“i'll tell you about some of the uh prophecies he made that weren't for foot i mean obviously they weren't fulfilled”
28:37TranscriptCite 2019-01-15-S05corrected
· If God knew earlier scriptures would change, why not send the Quran first?
Mufti Abu Layth says that, as far as Muslims are concerned, Jesus came only for the Israelites and not for mankind.
“you have to remember Jesus came just for the Israelites he didn't come for mankind like as far as Muslims are concerned”
11:21TranscriptCite 2019-09-14-S03corrected
· Did the Prophet really split the moon in half?
Mufti Abu Layth says the moon was not split and that the verse of the Quran on the moon splitting has nothing to do with that alleged event.
“I have explained that there is no the moon was not split okay this and then the verse of the Quran earth and has nothing to do with that alleged phenomenon”
0:39TranscriptCite 2019-10-18b-S01corrected
· What was the purpose of God sending Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as a prophet?
God sends a prophet with a purpose, as with Jesus, Moses, David and Muhammad, and no such purpose or achievement can be shown for Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who lived and died under British colonial rule without liberating even Qadian.
“he never brought that to an end and you can't say he liberated the world you can't even say he liberated a part of kadian”
12:39TranscriptCite 2020-03-31-S04corrected
· What was Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's prophecy about Muhammadi Begum and did it come true?
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's claimed revelation that Muhammadi Begum's husband would die within a year or two if she were married to anyone but him was not fulfilled, since the husband lived on and the couple had children.
“she husband didn't die lived on they had children lived a normal happy life”
19:19TranscriptCite 2020-03-31-S05corrected
· Do people with schizophrenia have real religious insight?
Mufti Abu Layth says there could be an overlap between certain disorders and high religiosity, both linked with high temporal-lobe activity, but that it would be a correlation, not a causative demonstration.
“I think there could be an overlap, but there it's not, you know, it's not a causitative demonstration.”
2:52:56TranscriptCite 2020-10-27-S29corrected
· Did God really command Ibrahim to sacrifice his son?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the command to sacrifice his son did not come from God, and that the Quran in Surah al-Saffat reports only that Ibrahim saw a dream which his son urged him to carry out.
“focusing on the question this commandment did not come from god okay now unfortunately it is widespread that it came from god”
0:36TranscriptCite 2020-10-28-S01corrected
Mufti Abu Layth says God does not break his laws of nature, because they are his laws.
“Now, I have explained that God does not break his laws of nature because they are his laws. Why would he tell us to go and learn from nature?”
1:19:13TranscriptCite 2021-01-05-S17corrected
· Is the Quran a miracle that proves Islam to everyone?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran is miraculous in the emotions and experiences it creates subjectively, but cannot be called a universal miracle that makes everyone who hears it Muslim.
“I said look the Quran is miraculous in the emotions and the experiences it creates subjectively but you can't say this is a universal you can't say well look anybody who hears the Quran will become Muslim”
1:27:28TranscriptCite 2021-01-05-S18corrected
· If miracles don't break nature's laws, what is the point of miracles?
Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims may privately believe in supernatural miracle stories, though he does not think they are correct; his only problem is when they are preached as standard Islam.
“I will say that I don't believe they're correct but I'm not going to try to force you or strongarm you. My only problem is when you preach them as standard Islam”
1:32:09TranscriptCite 2021-01-05-S19corrected
· Why can't there be any prophets after Muhammad?
Mufti Abu Layth says the statement that the Prophet's son Ibrahim would have been a prophet had he lived is, if true, hyperbole.
“would have been a prophet if true is simply an a kind of hype it's hyperbole it's a hyperbolic statement”
1:07:32TranscriptCite 2021-01-12-S16corrected
· Why would God stop sending revelation?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet did not say revelation per se ends, but that revelation in its formal manner as a religion ends.
“the prophet didn't say that revelation per se ends but revelation in its um formal manner as a religion ends”
1:14:59TranscriptCite 2021-01-12-S18corrected
· Could Socrates or the Buddha have been prophets?
Mufti Abu Layth says he believes figures such as the Buddha and Socrates could have been prophets, though we just don't know.
“i believe socrates could have been a prophet in fact his whole thing is quite prophetic uh confucius could have been um i don't what i'm saying is that we just don't know”
1:50:22TranscriptCite 2021-01-12-S29corrected
· Can I say Prophet Yusuf was more handsome than Prophet Muhammad?
Mufti Abu Layth says the prophets are not in a competition, so saying Yusuf was especially handsome does not require insisting the Prophet Muhammad was more handsome.
“does it have to mean the prophet was also stronger you know doesn't it's not a competition so if you say yfam was incredibly you know the most uh you know so handsome”
2:36:10TranscriptCite 2021-01-19-S34corrected
· Did the companions really see the angel Jibril as a man?
Mufti Abu Layth says that when the Prophet sees Jibril it is in a trance-like state, a vision the Prophet is having alone.
“when the prophet sees jibril it's in this trance-like state people are not seeing it it's it's a vision that the prophet is having alone”
1:10:12TranscriptCite 2021-02-09-S14corrected
· Why does the Quran focus so much on the Israelites?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Israelites are highlighted in the Quran because around the Prophet's time in Arabia they were seen as the academics of the people of scripture.
“which is where the prophet would have been the israelites was seen as the kind of um you know like the academics of the people of scripture therefore they are highlighted quite a lot”
1:22:12TranscriptCite 2021-02-16-S25corrected
· Did all prophets after Abraham come from his family?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran nowhere says that prophets came only from Abraham's line.
“you see it doesn't say in the quran that prophets were only from abraham's line doesn't say that anyway in the quran”
1:46:51TranscriptCite 2021-02-16-S32corrected
· Can the revelation of the Quran be explained without the supernatural?
Mufti Abu Layth says he is not saying the Prophet was making the words of the Quran, but that the words were manifesting to him.
“i do say i'm not saying that the prophets was making the words for it but the words were manifesting to him”
44:10TranscriptCite 2021-03-02-S09corrected
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
