Research › Fiqh and daily practice › Money and finance
31 answers in 7 recordings, 2017 to 2021. 16 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.
· Why does Mufti Abu Layth say riba has become a symbol rather than something people understand?
Mufti Abu Layth says that religion for many people is a matter of visible symbols, and that riba has become one such symbol of Islam, held to be incredibly important by people who may not understand what it is.
“So riba has become one of those things that is symbolic. That it is seen to many people to be an important aspect of Islam.”
4:27TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S02corrected
· What was the riba of the jahiliyyah that the Quran condemned?
Mufti Abu Layth describes the riba of the jahiliyyah as a tyrannical loan-shark practice in which compounding demands on a debtor who could not repay could end in killing, torture and the enslavement of his family.
“Ribal jahiliyyah is the riba that it's a kind of inc- a tyrant like a very uh draconian highly oppressive loan shark kind of riba.”
6:30TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S03corrected
· What is riba al-fadl and what does the hadith on gold, silver, wheat, barley, dates and salt say?
Mufti Abu Layth says the six-commodities hadith, taken as it stands, would make any purchase on credit impossible, and that the scholars by a kind of consensus exempted gold and silver from it while keeping the other four goods.
“Now the Hadith actually includes gold and silver too. Which would mean it's impossible impossible to buy anything on credit anything.”
12:46TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S04corrected
· Does the Quran forbid every kind of excess when it forbids riba?
Mufti Abu Layth says the definite article in the Quran's prohibition of riba refers to a particular kind of riba already known to its hearers, not to every excess, since riba simply means excess and most excesses are agreed not to be haram.
“Because riba simply means an excess. And everybody agrees that not all excesses are haram in fact most excesses are not haram.”
14:16TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S05corrected
· Did the scholars ever agree on what counts as riba?
Mufti Abu Layth says there has never been agreement or clarity among the scholars on what riba applies to, and that none of the senior scholars he has asked has given a satisfying explanation of why delaying one side of a barter between different goods is riba.
“I've never come across a kind of thirst-quenching explanation on why uh bartering the delaying of one of the kind of product is riba.”
18:43TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S06corrected
· Are mortgages and bank loans the riba forbidden in the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that mortgages and bank loans are not the riba forbidden in the Quran, which was declared war on because of a tyrannical loan-shark culture unlike today's regulated banking, in which the borrower gives back more out of necessity and is legally protected.
“Are these things riba? These things are not riba in the Quranic sense, in my understanding.”
22:11TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S07corrected
· How was the economy of the Prophet's time different from today's?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran was revealed in an economy of finite money, in which wealth could only grow by taking it from others, and that this changed entirely when money was dematerialised into paper a few hundred years ago.
“When the Quran was revealed in 7th century Arabia money was finite.”
33:05TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S08corrected
· How did Adam Smith and industrialisation change attitudes to greed and lending?
Mufti Abu Layth says that before Adam Smith's promotion of the pursuit of self-interest greed was seen simply as evil, as it was when the Quran condemned riba, and that industrialisation brought a new promise of a better tomorrow, before which people would not lend money.
“So, when the Quran was condemning riba in the time of the Arabs of 7th century Arabia greed was just seen as an evil thing. But everything changes in the 18th century.”
37:43TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S09corrected
· How can a bank lend out more money than it has?
Mufti Abu Layth says that banks being authorised to lend far more money than they hold, although it can be done irresponsibly, is what allowed communities and societies to flourish.
“Now, people might see this as a bad thing. But, it allowed the community and societies to flourish.”
42:12TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S10corrected
· Why did the Quran declare war on riba?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran declared war on riba because of the tyranny of a loan-shark culture in a world of finite money, and that modern bank lending, whose only similarity is that more is repaid than taken, is nothing like it.
“And that's why Allah declares war on it. Because of the tyranny that was happening. That is nothing like banks saying,”
50:20TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S11corrected
· Is an Islamic mortgage any different from a conventional mortgage?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that conventional mortgages and bank loans are not the riba the Quran condemns, and that so-called Islamic mortgages are the same thing under another name, a play on words of the loophole kind the Maliki school has never liked.
“To me, a conventional mortgage and Islamic mortgage or whatever mortgage are all the same in my understanding.”
53:14TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S12corrected
· Are student loans, car finance and mortgages haram?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that mortgages, student loans, car finance and other bank loans are not haram, though nobody is obliged to take them, and offers as his own thought, which viewers may discard, that Muslims living as minorities in the West should invest in property and build assets.
“Okay? I do not believe them to be haram based on all of these elements.”
58:36TranscriptCite 2017-10-19-S13corrected
· Is it halal to buy bad loans and foreclose on people's homes?
Mufti Abu Layth says he is against exploiting people who lack money by throwing them out of their homes.
“I don't think it's fair to just kind of exploit people because they don't have money and to kind of chuck them out of their homes”
30:52TranscriptCite 2020-02-28-S08corrected
· Why isn't bank interest riba?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not address interest today as riba.
“the quran does not address interest today to be ripper the question isn't why don't i think this interest is very bad”
15:56TranscriptCite 2020-08-24-S04corrected
· Is Sharia-compliant investing really different from normal investing?
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not believe the modern interest system is the riba of the Quran, and that mortgages are permissible.
“So I don't believe that this is the ribba of the Quran. Mortgages are permissible.”
1:04:25TranscriptCite 2020-10-27-S09corrected
· Can I take a mortgage, and can I urinate standing up?
Mufti Abu Layth says that, in his understanding, the riba of the Quran refers to loan-sharking and not to regular bank interest.
“my understanding is that ribba is not ribba of the Quran is referring to loan sharky. It is not referring to regular interest that that takes place in the banks.”
38:14TranscriptCite 2021-01-05-S10corrected
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
