Research › Fiqh and daily practice
26 answers in 11 recordings, 2014 to 2021. 13 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 a relationship between a leader and a follower automatically abuse?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that a consensual relationship between adults is not abuse merely because one party has status, and that abuse of power means coercion such as a boss demanding sexual acts from a worker to keep her job.
“this must be deemed abuse no it is not abuse it is not abuse women I'm sorry but I find it insulting”
23:33TranscriptCite 2017-09-29-S08corrected
· Can a woman travel without a mahram?
Mufti Abu Layth says that of course a woman can travel without a mahram, the ruling having been simply about safety.
“yes of course a woman can travel in Islam without a guardian I'm explaining that first of all so I'm gonna give you the ruling first of all of course she can and this ruling was simply about safety”
1:11TranscriptCite 2018-04-22-S01corrected
· Must a kidnapped woman have a mahram to escape?
Mufti Abu Layth says scholars of the past did not always think the way we do, but were thinking within their own environment.
“you've got to understand that they didn't always think the way we think we are thinking within our own environment they were thinking within their own environment”
14:26TranscriptCite 2018-04-22-S03corrected
· Is it haram for a woman to travel more than 48 miles alone?
Mufti Abu Layth says forbidding a woman to travel 48 miles is absurd and makes a mockery of the religion.
“know that final step that's gonna make it 48 miles that's one small step for a woman one giant leap this is absurd this is ridiculous this one is making mockery of the religion”
19:01TranscriptCite 2018-04-22-S04corrected
· Why did the Prophet say women should not travel without a mahram?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet was not setting boundaries to confine women in these hadith but was trying to safeguard them.
“these hadith were the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam not trying to set boundaries to confine women at all and anybody who thinks that anybody who thinks that has a poor”
23:01TranscriptCite 2018-04-22-S06corrected
· Did the Prophet foresee women travelling alone safely?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's prophecy to Adi ibn Hatim of a woman travelling alone from al-Hira to Makkah came true as stability came to the region.
“yet he says wallahi in my old age I saw the the hyena a woman coming from that place to Makkah on her own not fearing nobody except Allah but that much stability had come about in the region”
29:23TranscriptCite 2018-04-22-S07corrected
· What did the Maliki scholars say about women travelling with a safe group?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's calling two travellers devils was religious rhetoric used in that age to safeguard people in hostile territory.
“now you tell me why is the prophet calling two people traveling Devils this was religious rhetoric too kind that was used in the day and age to safeguard them because there was hostile territory”
34:29TranscriptCite 2018-04-22-S08corrected
· Is it safe and allowed for a woman to fly alone?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is absolutely fine for a woman to travel on her own, the key thing having been safety.
“so yes it is absolutely fine for a woman to travel on her own as and the key thing was all about safety”
37:04TranscriptCite 2018-04-22-S09corrected
· Is it haram for men and women to shake hands?
Mufti Abu Layth says that nothing in the Quran or Sunnah explicitly and clearly proves that shaking hands with the opposite gender is haram, and that the report preferring an iron rod in the head to touching a woman is not authentic as people would like and was understood by many ulama as a euphemism for sex.
“first of all these narrations are not authentic the way people would like them to be they're not”
1:57TranscriptCite 2018-05-04-S01corrected
· Should I refuse to shake hands with the opposite sex where it is the custom?
His own understanding is that one follows the convention of one's society: where people do not shake hands one does not, following the general ulama, but where it is the convention one may act on the fatwa of the scholars who permit it, since, as many ulama say, no clear verse or hadith makes it haram, and Muslims should choose their battles wisely.
“my own understanding is look you go with your conventions okay so if you're in a convention where people don't do this you you don't do this”
11:02TranscriptCite 2018-05-04-S04corrected
· Is it haram to kiss my wife in public?
Mufti Abu Layth says a greeting kiss on the cheek or forehead in public, such as those exchanged in the Gulf and seen in the Haram between men and their wives or mahram women, is not sexual and is no problem, whereas a passionate kiss in public would be.
“and personally stuff like that I think is no problem stuff like that okay”
1:50TranscriptCite 2019-12-12b-S01corrected
· Is the hadith about a woman breastfeeding the adult Salim authentic?
Mufti Abu Layth says the report that the Prophet told a woman to let the grown Salim drink her milk is fabricated, because it is ridiculous.
“allegedly the prophet said well why don't you let him drink your milk now he doesn't mention how to drink that milk and this hadith is fabricated anyway because it's ridiculous”
3:23:55TranscriptCite 2021-03-02-S43corrected
· Does a community gathering have to be gender segregated?
Mufti Abu Layth says adults do not need to be micromanaged and that the proposed get-together would not be gender segregated.
“look people are adults they don't need to be micromanaged do they of course it would be it wouldn't be gender segregated”
11:14TranscriptCite 2021-04-13-S02corrected
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
