Research › Fiqh and daily practice
41 answers in 20 recordings, 2017 to 2023. 14 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 zina today the same issue it was in the past?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that much of the inherited social theory on relationships and marriage no longer matches today's circumstances and that ulama should re-analyse the context and offer suitable ijtihad.
“we are in a huge kind of crisis almost that a lot of our theory is outdated it doesn't match what we are facing today”
1:17TranscriptCite 2018-03-05b-S01corrected
· Why is it so hard for young Muslims to marry, and what are they supposed to do about desire?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that men of eighteen or nineteen are generally not ready for marriage yet have strong sexual needs, that the usual advice to fast and lower the gaze is inadequate, and that, unlike in the past, Islam today has no solution to offer to this problem, which scholarship should acknowledge.
“so this is a huge problem from a religious perspective because there is no solution Islam has zero solutions to offer today”
7:38TranscriptCite 2018-03-05b-S02corrected
· Does an exclusive boyfriend-girlfriend relationship count as a nikah?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that in the past marriage was simple, divorce was not stigmatised and other outlets were accepted, so earlier scholars never stressed this topic, whereas Muslims today have only a culturally dramatised and expensive nikah; he leaves the question whether an exclusive relationship amounts to nikah for the ulama to discuss.
“this is why they never stressed in the past on this topic what we have today is society has flipped things on its heads”
12:06TranscriptCite 2018-03-05b-S03corrected
· Why does Islam forbid homosexual activity?
Mufti Abu Layth says that Islam did not address homosexuality directly but outlawed all sexual activity outside marriage in order to build strong family units, so that homosexuality was prohibited as a by-product, and that there are no clear sahih hadith on it.
“homosexuality became outlawed as a byproduct the main thing what Islam was trying to do was set up a family unit that's in my understanding because there are no clear hadith to do with homosexuality at all”
2:32TranscriptCite 2019-08-02b-S01corrected
· How could men in early Islam have sex with their female slaves?
Mufti Abu Layth says that, in his understanding, one reason sexual relations with female slaves were condoned is that the society in which Islam was revealed had a very different mindset: its slavery resembled servitude rather than transatlantic slavery, and it drew no line between a slave's labour and sexual utility, a mindset that could not be changed at once.
“you couldn't change entire mindsets so this is one of the reasons I think that that that was condoned because they saw that they didn't have a delineating kind of factor to sex”
11:18TranscriptCite 2020-04-28-S02corrected
· Is it worse to use religion as a cover for wrongdoing?
Mufti Abu Layth says that if you are going to do something as a human being you should just do it and not use religion.
“my point is look if you're gonna do something as a human being you're gonna do it just if you're gonna do it just do it don't use religion”
6:20TranscriptCite 2020-06-01-S02corrected
· Does the Quran clearly forbid homosexuality?
Mufti Abu Layth says there is nothing in the Quran that explicitly prohibits homosexuality, though it may target it implicitly.
“it is true there is nothing in the quran that um explicitly prohibits just targets homosexuality explicitly so it it may implicitly”
1:20:42TranscriptCite 2021-01-12-S20corrected
· What can I do if I can't afford to marry but want to avoid zina?
Mufti Abu Layth says religion is failing people on this, not because it lacks the inbuilt mechanisms, but because scholars are not ready to have that conversation.
“this is why religion is failing people and I'm not saying religion doesn't have the inbuilt mechanisms to deal with it but Scholars ain't ready”
1:17:35TranscriptCite 2021-01-19-S19corrected
· If the hijab has become sexualised, should scholars still push it?
Mufti Abu Layth says he would argue that, under these circumstances of sexualisation, the hijab should not still be pushed forward by fatwas.
“So it's so in these circumstances should these things still be pushed forward by fatawa and you know the shar and I would argue that under those circumstances it shouldn't.”
1:24:54TranscriptCite 2021-02-02b-S14corrected
· Why did Imam Malik say nothing between spouses is haram and only pork is forbidden to eat?
Mufti Abu Layth says that imams such as Malik, in ruling that nothing sexual between spouses is haram and that no meat but pig is haram in itself, were not advocating those practices but defending the principle that no one may declare haram what Allah has not, since a scholar is not God.
“what imam malik was doing was he was defending the principle it's not about whether people do these things or not”
4:21TranscriptCite 2021-03-05-S02corrected
· Are disgusting sexual fetishes between spouses haram?
Mufti Abu Layth says that fetishes involving impurity, however disgusting, are not haram, since contact with impurity is unclean but not forbidden and only God declares something haram, and that what consenting spouses do in private is their own business.
“So my response which is still the same that these kinks or things like this as sickening as they may be to people doesn't make them haram.”
1:07:07TranscriptCite 2021-04-06-S11corrected
· Are many people's frustrations really about unmet sexual needs?
Mufti Abu Layth says unmet sexual needs underlie much unhappiness and bitterness, that Islam does not view sex negatively though institutionalised religion does, and that Freud's insights should be judged on their merits rather than on his character.
“i'm not saying islam sees it like this islam does not see sex negatively but institutionalized islam does”
2:46:34TranscriptCite 2021-04-13-S41corrected
· Why did scholars say a slave woman's awrah is the same as a man's?
Mufti Abu Layth says that, if one is honest, the way most scholars of the past dealt with slave girls was simply an issue of pragmatism, realism and, he supposes, sex.
“the crux is when it comes to the crux of the mata it was simply really if we're going to be honest it was just it was an issue of pragmatism realism and just i suppose sex”
2:30TranscriptCite 2021-05-09-S01corrected
· Did some Muslim scholars say homosexuality is not haram?
Mufti Abu Layth says that many scholars of Islam clearly had an appreciation for bisexuality, whether or not they practised it.
“many countless Scholars of Islam uh they they appreciated bisexuality”
18:27TranscriptCite 2023-02-22-S03corrected
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
