Research › Fiqh and daily practice
76 answers in 39 recordings, 2014 to 2022. 45 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.
· Do I have to follow a madhhab?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that following a madhhab is a practical necessity for anyone who wants a sound understanding of the deen, as a language is for learning anything, and not a legislated obligation whose neglect is sinful.
“it literally is inconceivable for for anybody to have a sound understanding of the de that has not taken a medium that has not taken a particular School of Law”
3:53TranscriptCite 2014-03-12-S01corrected
· Do I have to stick to one madhhab, or can I question its positions?
Mufti Abu Layth says a student should adopt one school of law as the basis for developing their understanding and may, at a later stage as their knowledge grows, analyse and evaluate some of its positions.
“a person must adopt a particular basis through which they will develop their understanding of this them and as they continue to acquire knowledge and develop themselves then at a later stage they may choose to analyze and evaluate”
5:13TranscriptCite 2014-03-12-S02corrected
· If the madhhabs differ so much, how can they all be valid?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the schools of law are all valid in essence, differing in application under the one constitution of the Quran and Sunnah, and that a difference between an imam and a hadith must be framed as hadith against hadith, never as the imam's fatwa against the Prophet's words.
“it is the Hadith that these imams and these Scholars have relied upon which may be matched against the Hadith that you are quoting and then the interpretations may be assessed”
7:47TranscriptCite 2014-03-12-S03corrected
· How should I choose which madhhab to follow?
Mufti Abu Layth says that to him personally all madhhabs are in essence upon the truth, but asks what could be greater than the school transmitted in Madinah, later known as the school of Imam Malik.
“to me personally all mhbs are as has been clearly documented in essence upon the H however what could be greater than the school or the perspective upon the de which was transmitted in Madina itself”
12:44TranscriptCite 2014-03-12-S04corrected
· Can I trim my beard short or to a goatee, below a fist's length?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that trimming the beard from the sides, to a goatee or to less than a fist's length is permissible and not haram, while recognising a valid difference of opinion that others may follow.
“so first of all I'd like to say that this is permissible this is not Haram okay I do recognize that there is a difference of opinion amongst the”
1:25TranscriptCite 2014-04-12-S01corrected
· Which scholars have allowed trimming or shaving the beard?
Mufti Abu Layth says that the view that trimming or even shaving the beard is at most makruh and not haram has been held by Maliki and other classical jurists and by many modern scholars, some of whom were themselves trimmed, goateed or clean-shaven.
“many of these have all written very clearly that it is not Haram to trim or even shave but especially to trim right down the beard they've not considered it haram”
5:51TranscriptCite 2014-04-12-S02corrected
· Why did Mufti Abu Layth choose the Maliki madhhab?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki madhhab emphasises keeping things natural, as a theme running throughout the school.
“the Maliki m is really big on keeping things natural and you'll see this as a as almost like an U an underpinning theme that goes right throughout the”
8:21TranscriptCite 2014-07-02-S02corrected
· Is difference of opinion in Islam a mercy?
Mufti Abu Layth says difference in Islam is definitely a mercy and a message of tolerance and acceptance.
“difference in Islam is is definitely a mercy and anybody I cannot understand anybody that would wish to contradict that message”
18:32TranscriptCite 2014-07-02-S05corrected
· Is making group dua after every salah a bid'ah?
Mufti Abu Layth says that making dua together in congregation after every prayer is categorically not from the Sunnah.
“for everybody after Salah to make a dying congregation not this action as an example if I was to use as an example is categorically not from the Sun”
9:38TranscriptCite 2015-03-03-S03corrected
· How did Abu Hanifa deal with his drunkard neighbour?
Mufti Abu Layth says that good character carries a message further than one can imagine, as Abu Hanifa's gesture towards his drunkard neighbour shows.
“good character people it takes people it takes messages so far that you can't imagine beyond your imagination”
4:30TranscriptCite 2015-03-07-S01corrected
· Should I pray 8 or 20 rak'ahs of tarawih?
Mufti Abu Layth says he would go with and promote the understanding that tarawih has no set number, with eight, the least the Prophet prayed, as the base and anything above it valid.
“I would actually go with that understanding and promote it that we know that the least amount the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam prayed was eight. So, you have that base kind of number. And anything above that is is valid,”
4:01TranscriptCite 2017-05-17c-S01corrected
· 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
· Shawkani against claimed consensus: music, following a madhhab, four wives, raf' al-yadayn
Mufti Abu Layth says Shawkani's claim that the return of Jesus is mutawatir cannot bind when Shawkani himself rejected claimed consensuses on music, following a madhhab and marrying more than four wives, and those who cite him ignore him elsewhere.
“so this point is look you yourselves don't agree with show Connie show Connie himself goes against all”
1:55:17TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S30corrected
· Everyone picks and chooses: later scholars on mawlid, shrines, hadra and the Jesus hadith
Mufti Abu Layth says everyone, Salafis included, picks and chooses between early and later scholars, so rejecting the Jesus hadith on the authority of later scholars is no different from what others do.
“so why is it that all of a sudden it's okay to go against the majority if it's for you but if somebody else goes against the majority then they must be deviants”
1:59:51TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S31corrected
· Stop calling Bukhari the most authentic book after the Quran; fiqh preserved the living Sunnah
Mufti Abu Layth says Sahih al-Bukhari should not be called the most authentic book after the Quran: it is an excellent effort whose reports are still sifted, while fiqh and the madhhabs preserved the Sunnah in living form.
“let's stop saying these things of Buhari is the most sound book after the Quran well lucky I do not like these kind of statements upset me”
2:22:50TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S39corrected
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”
8:56TranscriptCite 2018-04-01-S03corrected
· If reason judges religion, whose reason counts, and what about rituals?
Mufti Abu Layth says that the concept of ritual rather than its details must accord with reason, that the shared judgement of a healthy mind is the standard of reason, and that following the Maliki school does not make one a cult member, since Malik taught that everyone's words may be rejected except the Messenger's.
“the concept of ritual is what you make sense of as to the actual rituals it's fine”
1:14:51TranscriptCite 2018-04-09-S16corrected
· Was Abu Hanifa considered a deviant by the scholars of his time?
Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa was considered a deviant by many scholars of his time and that the Hanafi school became dominant because his student Abu Yusuf, as chief judge, appointed only Hanafi judges, so that its rise rested on power rather than evidence.
“now you tell me is that based on studies is that based on evidences is that based on objectivity or is it based on power positions is based on power positions”
2:36TranscriptCite 2018-04-20b-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
· Were apostates punished for disbelief or for fighting against Muslims?
Mufti Abu Layth argues that the practice of giving an apostate the chance to return, and the Hanafi exemption of the female apostate, show that the classical punishment was aimed at armed rebellion against the community rather than at disbelief.
“because they saw them as part of this insurgency this part of this rebellion against the Muslim state of the past that's why they said the female apostate would not be harmed”
20:30TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-S05corrected
· Are the Salafis themselves orthodox by their own standard?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Salafis are themselves unorthodox, since the orthodoxy of the ummah has been Ash'ari in belief and the four schools in law, both of which they reject, so their appeal to orthodoxy against new interpretations of verses is inconsistent.
“the seller fees themselves are unorthodox by going against the orthodoxy of this Ummah the seller fees reject methods they do not follow any of the four traditional schools of thought”
30:04TranscriptCite 2018-10-20-S06corrected
· What is fiqh, and is it the same as Shari'ah?
Mufti Abu Layth says fiqh is our understanding of what is expected of us towards God and towards people, partly synonymous with Shari'ah, a word people tend to reserve for the legal side.
“it's our understanding of what is kind of expected from us okay towards God or towards people”
1:11TranscriptCite 2019-03-22-S01corrected
· Why does Mufti Abu Layth follow the Maliki school rather than the Hanafi?
Mufti Abu Layth says he follows the Maliki school of Madinah because it is built upon welfare and rooted in evidence and made the most sense, and that the Hanafi school, though Abu Hanifa was a legend, has long been hijacked and become a controlling school that is the antithesis of its founder.
“the Maliki method is known as the school of Medina it is the most awesome school of law there ever is because it is built upon welfare and firmly rooted in evidence”
3:39TranscriptCite 2019-03-22-S02corrected
· Is a man wearing an earring imitating women or harmful?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the objections to men's earrings fail: if piercing is permitted for girls the harm argument cannot forbid it for boys, the imitation-of-women claim ignores thousands of years of men wearing earrings, and men wearing kohl shows that what counts as effeminate is a cultural matter.
“if you can do it for girls then you should be able to do for guys it makes no difference the ruling is the same”
30:26TranscriptCite 2019-07-24b-S08corrected
· Can a mosque that was once a waqf never be anything else?
Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa himself held that a waqf is not perpetual and can be overturned.
“he says that yes you can donate the benefits of something but it will always remain you know you can always overturn”
1:37:47TranscriptCite 2020-07-14-S25corrected
· Can a waqf never be overturned, as the argument for the Hagia Sophia claims?
Mufti Abu Layth says the reconversion is part of a rising right-wing fascism that includes Muslims, and that the waqf argument fails because Abu Hanifa himself held that an endowment can be overturned, a view Hanafis abandon when it does not serve the powerful or the clergy.
“he says that yes you can donate the benefits of something but it will always remain uh you know you can always overturn it”
23:31TranscriptCite 2020-07-16-S08corrected
Mufti Abu Layth says the Deobandi school, for example, is not really a reflection of Imam Abu Hanifa at all.
“Like the Diabundi school for example isn't really a reflection of Imam Abu Hanifh at all.”
2:25:25TranscriptCite 2020-08-04-S28corrected
· If I sleep late and wake up at asr, can I pray the missed prayers together then?
Mufti Abu Layth says that if someone who sleeps late wakes up at asr time, that is when they pray, as the hadith says: when you wake up, pray.
“If that's when you wake up, that's when you wake up. You know, when you, as the hadith says, when you wake up, then pray.”
8:45TranscriptCite 2021-01-05-S02corrected
Mufti Abu Layth says that in Islam everything in the sea is halal, according to the school of Medina.
“so in islam everything in the sea is halal okay that's according to the school of medina”
45:58TranscriptCite 2021-01-12-S10corrected
· What counts as khamr, and is a drink with a little alcohol haram?
Mufti Abu Layth says that in Quranic terminology khamr was just wine.
“in the quranic terminology hammer was just wine other drinks that came about are the kind of beers that were around”
25:05TranscriptCite 2021-02-09-S04corrected
· Can I blindly follow scholars in matters of belief?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is forbidden, by the consensus of the scholars, to blindly follow others in matters of belief.
“this is adida 101 right it's not even one of you it is haram by isma of ulama of islam to blindly follow in just believing in one god”
9:29TranscriptCite 2021-02-14-S02corrected
· What counts as khamr, and is a drink with very little alcohol haram?
Mufti Abu Layth says that in Quranic usage khamr is wine, that other drinks are haram when they intoxicate in a similar way, and that drinks with alcohol so weak that an average consumption does not intoxicate are not haram, which is the ruling Abu Hanifa defended.
“of that drink would not intoxicate you then in that case they were not haram so if it was a small percentage um you know one two percent”
1:16TranscriptCite 2021-03-05-S01corrected
· Can I carry a child while I pray?
Mufti Abu Layth says that one may carry a child while praying and that Hanafi rulings such as the invalidation of prayer by three consecutive movements, by laughing or by mentally processing information are made up.
“Obviously, needless to say, all these things are made up and don't mean anything. You can do it all in salah.”
30:29TranscriptCite 2021-04-06-S06corrected
· What does Mufti Abu Layth think of al-Shaybani's critique of the Madinan school?
Mufti Abu Layth says al-Shaybani's book against the people of Madinah failed from its title, since Islam was lived and taught in Madinah and captured by Imam Malik, whose school tries to preserve the practice of Madinah.
“his what i saw as was just an arrogant attempt to respond to imam malik”
3:02:11TranscriptCite 2021-04-13-S45corrected
· Does today's Hanafi madhhab reflect Imam Abu Hanifa?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Hanafi madhhab as it is today is like a Frankenstein compared to what Imam Abu Hanifa was.
“the math hub itself is it's like a completely it's a it's a different it's like a frankenstein uh to what imam of hanifa was”
1:57TranscriptCite 2021-04-27-S01corrected
· Can I pray while carrying my child?
Mufti Abu Layth says rulings such as prayer breaking after three consecutive movements are made up.
“if you do more than three consecutive movements in salah your salah breaks obviously needless to say all these things are made up”
6:20TranscriptCite 2021-04-27-S02corrected
· Is mut'ah (temporary marriage) haram for Sunni Muslims?
Mufti Abu Layth says mut'ah is one of those matters where, if you follow those who say it is haram, it is haram for you, and that it is not something to fight over.
“it's one of those things that if you follow those that say it's haram then it's haram if you don't you don't”
3:19TranscriptCite 2022-03-19-S01corrected
· How did Abu Hanifa become a scholar after starting out as a merchant?
Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa concretised the school of reason in Kufa and was a legendary voice of reason whose story is inspiring.
“he concretizes this school which becomes known as the school of reason and he was a legendary voice for the voice of reason honestly a legend and it's so inspiring”
12:11TranscriptCite 2022-12-10-S02corrected
· Why was Abu Hanifa criticised so much in his own time?
Mufti Abu Layth says the hostility Sufyan al-Thawri often showed towards Abu Hanifa was not a good thing, and that he has never read Abu Hanifa being venomous about others.
“sophiana thori who's a great Imam but he often hated on Imam which wasn't really you know a good thing to be honest”
15:22TranscriptCite 2022-12-10-S03corrected
· Why did Abu Hanifa allow things like praying in Persian?
Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Hanifa's legal stratagems, such as allowing prayer in Persian, were meant to create ease and welcome people rather than to change Islam, and that this spirit is the one needed today.
“he wasn't trying to say change Islam he was trying to make it easy for them”
21:03TranscriptCite 2022-12-10-S04corrected
· How did the Hanafi school develop from Abu Hanifa's teaching?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Hanafi madhhab, over the generations, lost the spirit Abu Hanifa brought, became radically institutionalised and focused on the letter of the law, declaring most things haram, contrary to his concern to create ease.
“I feel that his method kind of along the way as the generations went by they lost our spirit and and the more centuries that went by became radically kind of institutionalized”
27:29TranscriptCite 2022-12-10-S06corrected
· How did Abu Hanifa die, and what was he known for among people?
Mufti Abu Layth says the feature that most made Abu Hanifa's legacy glow and won people's hearts was his compassion and generosity towards students, teachers and people in need.
“the thing about Imam one of that that really stands out was his compassion for people you know this is what really won the heart of so many people around him was his compassion”
42:15TranscriptCite 2022-12-10-S09corrected
· What did Abu Hanifa do about his neighbour who drank and sang at night?
Mufti Abu Layth draws from the story of Abu Hanifa's drunkard neighbour that doing kindness to people conquers their hearts.
“but you know that you you do kindness to people it conquers the hearts this person was so he had like an existential profound moment”
54:43TranscriptCite 2022-12-10-S10corrected
· What did Abu Hanifa say about Imam Malik?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Hanafi madhhab became very restrictive and controlling, especially in the last two or three centuries, whereas other schools such as the Maliki kept their freedoms.
“the mother did become quite regimental of especially in the latter centuries you know the last maybe two through 200 300 years whereas some of the other meth have still kept their freedoms”
1:09:37TranscriptCite 2022-12-10-S12corrected
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
