Research › Belief and theology
21 answers in 12 recordings, 2020 to 2021. 19 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.
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think DMT is haram.
“things like DMT may be the hidden cheats in this world a gateway into the realm of consciousness I'm very intrigued by these things I don't think they're Haram”
0:38TranscriptCite 2020-01-14-S01corrected
· Are psychedelics like DMT haram in Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not feel psychedelics are haram.
“reality so i'm a huge advocate of that i don't feel it's haram and yes it does alter certain your states of mind”
36:44TranscriptCite 2020-08-24-S10corrected
· Are psychedelics haram in Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that psychedelics are not haram because they are not intoxicants in the way alcohol is but entheogens that connect a person with God and expand consciousness.
“that they're not haram. They are not an intoxicant. Okay? They do not intoxicate the brain in the way alcohol does or anything like that.”
0:39TranscriptCite 2020-10-17-S01corrected
· How does Mufti Abu Layth explain what psychedelics do to consciousness?
Mufti Abu Layth says ordinary human consciousness has access to only a small part of what exists, as the eye sees only a sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum, and that the other layers of consciousness are there but we do not normally have access to them.
“Now, in a similar way, consciousness works the same. That the consciousness is there, but we just don't have access to that layer of consciousness.”
6:55TranscriptCite 2020-10-17-S02corrected
· Did the Sufi saints have psychedelic experiences without knowing it?
Mufti Abu Layth says many of the great Muslim mystics, including Junayd, al-Hallaj and Ibn Arabi, most likely had psychedelic experiences without knowing it, in the way that initiates at Eleusis and people eating ergotised grain did.
“I actually feel that many of the great mystics of Islam were upon like they many of them were, if you want to use the term, tripping. many of them were. They probably just did not know it.”
7:26TranscriptCite 2020-10-17-S03corrected
· Did Rumi use harmala seed and a DMT-containing reed flute?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is very likely that Rumi had psychedelic experiences, pointing to Mathnawi passages that mention the harmala seed, an MAO inhibitor, and to Rumi's constant addressing of his ney, a flute made from a reed that contains DMT.
“So I actually do feel that you see this is something that it's very likely that he would have had this psychedelic experience uh just like many other people”
17:10TranscriptCite 2020-10-17-S04corrected
· What were soma and haoma in the Hindu and Persian traditions?
Mufti Abu Layth says ancient traditions such as the Vedic soma and the Avestan haoma record the same entheogenic experiences without a vocabulary for them, and that if soma was Amanita muscaria this explains the Hindu drinking of cow urine and the deification of the animals.
“many ancient traditions had these kind of things and you can see how because they didn't have a culture to explain it”
19:04TranscriptCite 2020-10-17-S05corrected
· What is the hadith of the night of the jinn, and was it a psychoactive experience?
Mufti Abu Layth says that the Tirmidhi report of Ibn Mas'ud's night of the jinn, if true, most likely describes a psychoactive experience connected with the nabidh he carried, and that the report praising the harmala seed, though not authentic, shows that such a narrative existed in early Muslim society.
“This if anything would have been a kind of most likely would have been a psychoactive experience uh that would have had and he explains that I had with me this particular drink.”
29:29TranscriptCite 2020-10-17-S06corrected
· Does the verse of light describe an expanded state of consciousness?
Mufti Abu Layth says the parable of light in 24:35 is an approximation that resonates with people whose consciousness has expanded, and that entheogenic experience was part and parcel of the Islamic tradition without having a name.
“What I'm trying to show is that I feel that this has been part and parcel of the tradition but it's just it didn't have a name.”
35:01TranscriptCite 2020-10-17-S07corrected
· Does the Quran or Sunnah say anything against psychedelics?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that nothing in the Quran or Sunnah forbids psychedelics, that Allah could have forbidden these natural substances had he wished, and that they are non-addictive and therapeutic, unlike alcohol, which causes deaths yet is not banned.
“if Allah wanted to make them haram he could have made them haram they they are part of nature”
36:01TranscriptCite 2020-10-17-S08corrected
· Are jinn just archetypes in our unconscious mind?
Mufti Abu Layth says he thinks the jinn are things that exist in a dimension of consciousness that we generally do not have access to.
“I think that these are the things that exist in a dimension of consciousness that we generally don't have access to”
1:34:17TranscriptCite 2020-10-27-S15corrected
· Are near-death experiences real or just chemicals in the brain?
Mufti Abu Layth says he definitely feels near-death experiences are valid portals and not just chemicals in the brain.
“NDEs near-death experiences I definitely feel these are valid portals. These are not just”
26:48TranscriptCite 2021-02-02b-S05corrected
· Is the Quran's verse about the stupor of death talking about DMT?
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think the verse is talking about DMT specifically, but that the DMT death experience could also relate to it.
“do i think it's talking about dmt i don't think it's talking about dmt specifically but could i feel that the dmt death experience could also relate to that verse of course”
1:01:30TranscriptCite 2021-02-09-S12corrected
· Is it haram to use a sensory deprivation tank or meditation to hallucinate?
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think setting oneself up to hallucinate through sensory deprivation tanks or meditation is haram.
“i don't think these things are haram if that's what you're asking do i feel this is haram no no um it isn't haram”
1:28:29TranscriptCite 2021-02-09-S17corrected
· Are DMT and magic mushrooms haram?
Mufti Abu Layth says DMT is definitely not haram, nor is psilocybin, though these are issues of legality.
“so that is the understanding as to dmt that is definitely not haram um neither is psilocybin and stuff like that mushrooms but these things are issues of legality”
3:08:23TranscriptCite 2021-02-16-S54corrected
· 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 can I nourish my soul this Ramadan?
Mufti Abu Layth says that what nourishes the soul includes reading even a little Quran daily, personal dua and charity, and more generally learning, poetry, art or meaningful music, whatever strengthens a person inwardly, adding that for him personally many voluntary prayers would not do so.
“things which strengthen your inner core and it it could be it could be learning it could be poetry it could be art it could be music I I'm being very serious”
2:07:03TranscriptCite 2021-04-06-S21corrected
· Are the stories in the Quran true but not historical, like the story of Adam?
Mufti Abu Layth says he holds that Adam was the father of humans with modern cognition and that the forbidden tree may have been a psychedelic plant that triggered the cognitive revolution, the Quran mentioning a tree rather than a fruit.
“adam alaihi salam i believe would have been the father of you know of of humans today with this modern cognitive explosion and having consciousness the way we do”
49:11TranscriptCite 2021-04-13-S12corrected
· Is a DMT ego death the same as the Sufi idea of fana?
Mufti Abu Layth says he believes the ego death reported with 5-MeO-DMT is what great scholars like Ibn Arabi meant by fana fillah.
“i believe this is what the great scholars like ibn arabi meant when they said fanafilla the ego death”
0:00TranscriptCite 2021-08-30-S01corrected
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
