Research › Fiqh and daily practice › Public law and governance
28 answers in 14 recordings, 2018 to 2024. 21 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 Islam punish someone for leaving the faith?
Mufti Abu Layth says Islam gives freedom of faith and condemns coercion, and that neither the Quran nor the established Sunnah says an apostate must be killed.
“an apostate must be killed that is not true an apostate is not killed in Islam”
1:15TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-S01corrected
· Does the sanctity of life in Islam rule out killing apostates?
Mufti Abu Layth says the sanctity of life is conclusive in Islam and that the preservation of life and freedom of religion for everyone are among the aims of the shari'ah.
“so these things we understand that the sanctity of life is cotton it is cut i ok the sanctity of life is conclusive”
5:44TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-S02corrected
· Why did some classical scholars rule that apostates be executed?
Mufti Abu Layth says that where classical scholars prescribed capital punishment they were addressing what would today be treason or rebellion in a very different world, that those rulings do not apply today, and that the whole world doing the same then does not make them right.
“any of these rulings today clearly do not apply many of these scholars have said today”
8:56TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-S03corrected
· Did the Prophet ever execute anyone for leaving Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet never executed anyone for disbelief or apostasy, pointing to his treatment of Abdullah ibn Ubayy, his dealings with Jews until his death, Ibn Sayyad and his pardon of Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh.
“according to that hadith which most of these people accept that person became an apostate did the Prophet instruct for him to be executed never”
14:06TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-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
· Which hadith are used to justify killing apostates, and were the scholars who used them right?
Mufti Abu Layth says that scholars who ruled that apostates be executed unless they returned to Islam were clearly and categorically wrong, being products of an age that placed little value on human life.
“but they got it wrong if they said that they were wrong clearly clearly and categorically”
24:58TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-S06corrected
· What is the context of the hadith 'whoever changes his religion, kill him'?
Mufti Abu Layth says the report 'whoever changes his religion, kill him' clashes with the absolute verse of the Quran on freedom of belief and must be read in its full context of Ali burning people alive and Ibn Abbas objecting.
“first of all this narration apart from it clashing with the absolute verse of the Quran let's read the full narration”
26:55TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-S07corrected
· Is the chain of the apostasy hadith through Anas reliable?
Mufti Abu Layth says the chain of the apostasy report through Anas is also problematic, because of a narrator with Mu'tazili tendencies and Qatada's known tadlis, and that the report clashes with reason, the Quran, the Prophet's life and the principles of Islam.
“the other thing is that it clearly clashes with all three it clashes with reason I slammed giving you freedom of belief a clashes with the established sources the Quran and the clear life of the Prophet”
38:35TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-S09corrected
· Why would an apostate deserve death, and what about the three days to repent?
Mufti Abu Layth says an apostate cannot be killed for disbelief, since that would make every disbeliever deserving of death, and that giving an apostate three days to return on pain of death is absurd, coerces hypocrisy and belittles the Prophet's thirteen years of preaching in Makkah.
“you are assuming that you can convert anybody back to faith within three days then in that case why do you go out and convert the world”
44:57TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-S11corrected
· Can a life be taken on the basis of a doubtful hadith?
Mufti Abu Layth says there is no verse and no conclusively established hadith for killing apostates, and that life, whose sanctity is conclusive, cannot be taken on the basis of isolated reports that carry doubt.
“there isn't a single verse in the Quran that would ever say this and in fact the Quran is against this message”
50:06TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-S12corrected
· How should Muslims treat people who leave Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth says that whether a person leaves Islam is between them and God and they should be left alone, and that those who have given a distorted image of the Prophet bear the blame for people's hatred of him.
“to judge the look if a person left Islam that's the that's between them and God leave them alone”
55:15TranscriptCite 2018-05-10-S13corrected
· The first problem: Bukhari's semi-divine status above the Quran in practice
Mufti Abu Layth says Sahih al-Bukhari has been given a de facto status on par with or above the Quran, which he rejects entirely: it is a book like the other hadith collections and the Quran always takes precedence over it.
“i will never ever accept that status that is more powerful than the quran or even on par with the quran or even just slightly below the quran that is nonsense”
10:07TranscriptCite 2018-08-30-S02corrected
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Quran is ambivalent towards those who leave Islam and prescribes no killing of apostates, and that the report 'whoever changes his religion, kill him' rests solely on Ikrima, a Khariji whom Imam Malik and companions distrusted.
“really the attitude of the Quran is one of ambivalence it doesn't really care although people act like oh my god kill the apostate kill the apostate that's all nonsense”
1:18TranscriptCite 2019-07-25-S01corrected
· Is capital punishment, including for apostasy, justified?
Mufti Abu Layth says he finds it ironic and absurd that, to stop people from killing, the state kills people.
“I find that so ironic that to stop people from killing people we kill people”
34:49TranscriptCite 2019-08-04-S06corrected
· Was Sudan right to drop its alcohol and apostasy laws and end flogging?
Mufti Abu Layth says flogging in this day and age is nothing but damaging to Allah, His Messenger and their message.
“this kind of thing in this day and age is nothing but just damaging to Allah and His Messenger okay and their message”
2:08:38TranscriptCite 2020-07-14-S36corrected
· The Peshawar courtroom killing of an Ahmadi accused of blasphemy
Mufti Abu Layth says that, although Muslims generally do not accept such beliefs, a person claiming to be a prophet is not automatically insulting the Prophet.
“Now obviously as Muslims generally we don't accept these beliefs but it doesn't mean if somebody says that that they are automatically insulting the prophet”
1:46:29TranscriptCite 2020-08-04-S21corrected
· Does Abu Bakr's war on Musaylima justify killing someone who claims prophethood?
Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Bakr's campaign against the tribes was a political decision.
“So the point was this was a political decision that Abu Bakr made”
1:50:16TranscriptCite 2020-08-04-S22corrected
· Why was Ibn Taymiyya put in prison?
Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Taymiyya was imprisoned over his fatwa that one may not travel to visit the Prophet, an opinion he calls foolish but says should not be punished, since people should not be persecuted over religious differences.
“although i disagree with locking people up and stuff like that and i i do feel his opinion is dumb but i don't feel you can punish them over it”
7:32TranscriptCite 2021-01-12b-S01corrected
· Did the Prophet order a scribe killed for leaving Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth says the apostasy laws of that time were in essence treason laws.
“so yes they did have laws of treason and i've explained this in the past that that is what our apostasy laws were in essence they were treason laws”
1:13:55TranscriptCite 2021-02-16-S20corrected
· Why did Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh leave Islam for a time?
Mufti Abu Layth says he feels the apostasy asked about was not a theological crisis but a case of being incentivised by the Makkans.
“he is rewarded generously for some of the intel that he provides and i feel that that was the situation it was just human all too human you know it wasn't a theological crisis”
1:01:16TranscriptCite 2021-03-02-S12corrected
· Is someone who says something wrong about the Prophet guilty of blasphemy?
Mufti Abu Layth says that when people make mistakes it does not mean they are blaspheming, even if the mistake is horrendous.
“when people make mistakes it does not mean that they are Blas feing even if they get it wrong even if it's horrendous that's not their intention”
6:28TranscriptCite 2024-09-29-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
