Research › Hadith studies › Authenticating hadith
66 answers in 36 recordings, 2018 to 2022. 55 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 he reject the hadith of the tree crying for the Prophet?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the religion is built on reason, so a Muslim must apply one set of standards: a report that a tree reasoned and cried cannot be accepted while the claims of other religions are rejected as absurd.
“you must have one set of standards and you must put Islam to that test as well then you are true in your faith”
6:24TranscriptCite 2018-02-21-S02corrected
· Why do the hadith about Safiyya's marriage contradict each other?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the narrations about Safiyya's marriage, almost all transmitted through Anas ibn Malik, conflict so heavily that none is reliable as it stands, though they contain truths distorted over a long chain of transmission by meaning.
“there is so much conflict and if there are what the hadith in call it there are is when narrations conflict so massively none of them are reliable”
12:11TranscriptCite 2018-02-21b-S04corrected
· Could the Prophet have married Safiyya right after Khaybar?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet cannot have married Safiyya at Khaybar, since as a widow she owed the Quranic waiting period of four months and ten days, and that the companions' belief that he had married her rested on Anas's assumption from seeing her veiled and a feast held.
“first of all it is impossible that the Prophet married her then imposter why you asked me right he posted no evidence right okay why is it impossible because it clearly goes against the Quran”
19:29TranscriptCite 2018-02-21b-S05corrected
· How should Muslims judge hadith that say the Prophet took Safiyya on the night of Khaybar?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that conflicting historical hadith must be weighed against the Quran and the Prophet's character, that the story of Safiyya taken on the night of Khaybar fails both tests and amounts to a lie against the Prophet, and that Muslims who relay it are degrading his honour.
“hadith sometimes they conflict especially on historical accounts because these things didn't get documented two generations later so when it's something very important like this you have to weigh it up against the teachings of the Quran”
35:22TranscriptCite 2018-02-21b-S10corrected
· The details of the Jesus hadith against the Quran: sword, judge, Jews, world peace
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the details in the hadith of Jesus's return, such as conversion by the sword, everyone becoming Muslim, the killing of the Jews and universal peace, contradict the Quran and the Prophet's life and mirror the gospels.
“face the sword that goes against the entire Quran that it goes against the entire life of the Prophet the Prophet never said that in his lifetime he never accepted people's Islam by force”
55:23TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S16corrected
· What about the Dajjal? Doesn't Jesus have to return to kill him?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Dajjal is definitely not a man: the reports are fabricated in meaning or defective, refer to the devil or at best to a future illusion, and the Dajjal is not mentioned in the Quran.
“in my understanding that the gel is definitely not a man 100% not a man he's in the hadith the hadith are either wrong and fabricated or Mis related”
1:09:30TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S18corrected
· The white minaret of Damascus: places that did not exist in the Prophet's time
Mufti Abu Layth says hadith placing Jesus's descent at a white minaret in Damascus are suspect because no such minaret existed in the Prophet's time and Damascus became central only after it became the Umayyad capital.
“the Muslims move the capital to Damascus the Muslim capital ends up as Damascus all of a sudden subhanAllah there's so many hadith about Damascus now”
1:15:55TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S19corrected
· Israiliyyat in hadith: man in God's image and creation on the Sabbath
Mufti Abu Layth says reports such as God creating man in his image and creating the soil on the Sabbath are Israiliyyat taken from Genesis, as Imam Malik and Ibn Taymiyya held, even when their chains are sound.
“it's just a verse out of the Bible I don't care if you say the Prophet said it it's the Prophet did not so this is this is these makes no sense this is just Christian doctrine”
1:18:31TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S20corrected
· Three conditions for accepting a hadith; Ibn Uthaymin and the Jassasa report
Mufti Abu Layth holds that a hadith is accepted only if it does not go against reason, does not contradict the Quran and established Sunnah, and does not uproot a principle of Islam, and that the hadith of Jesus's return fail these tests.
“when you start getting hadith that say Jesus will force people to become Muslim that's not acceptable that goes up roots it goes against the Quran the Sunna and the principles of Islam”
1:20:24TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S21corrected
· Summary of the case against a second coming; Ibn Hazm on hadith against reason
Mufti Abu Layth sums up that the reports of Jesus's return conflict with the Quran, the Sunnah and established principles, are single-transmitter reports rather than creed, contradict one another and echo Christian narratives, and that the Prophet did not mention Jesus when asked about faith or the signs of the hour.
“when we look at the details of these hadith we find them conflicting with the overall message of the Quran with the overall message of the Sunnah and with the established principles in Islam”
2:19:16TranscriptCite 2018-03-13-S38corrected
· Why would Jesus need to come back at all?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the reasons given for Jesus's return, killing the Dajjal who simply melts, killing the Jews, and killing pigs, conflict with each other and with Jesus's own message, and that a report in Malik has Jesus peaceful towards pigs.
“Jesus is a Jew by the way Jesus a Jewish you know it doesn't make any sense and Jesus spent his whole life speaking about love and compassion and turn the other cheek”
14:07TranscriptCite 2018-03-15-S06corrected
· What are the main problems with the hadith about Jesus returning?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the narrations of Jesus's return conflict with the Quran, the Sunnah and the established principles of Islam, are solitary reports that are not part of creed in the way people have made them, and contradict one another.
“when we look at the details of these hadith we find them conflicting with the overall message of the Quran with the overall message of the Sunnah and with the established principles in Islam”
15:42TranscriptCite 2018-03-15-S07corrected
· Is the second coming of Jesus proven by the Quran or by the fact that most Muslims believe it?
Mufti Abu Layth says the second coming of Jesus cannot be clearly proven from the Quran, that majority belief in it reflects childhood indoctrination rather than proof, and that the hadith on it have chain problems and contain details, such as Jesus forcing people to become Muslim, that clash with Islam.
“the issue here is that the details inside these hadith clash with Islam stuff like Jesus will force people to become Muslim”
4:27TranscriptCite 2018-04-01-S02corrected
· On what principles can a hadith in Bukhari be rejected, and may ordinary Muslims do so?
Mufti Abu Layth says that a hadith with a valid chain must still be rejected if it goes against reason, the established Quran and Sunnah, or the principles of Islam, that creed requires mutawatir reports according to the Hanafi and Maturidi majority, that lay people may suspend a hadith that troubles them while seeking guidance, and that the gecko hadith is made up.
“there you go that's my methodology and if any hadith clashes with these things it's unacceptable unacceptable”
20:00TranscriptCite 2018-04-01-S05corrected
· If I doubt one hadith in Bukhari, will I end up doubting the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth says that warning people that doubting one hadith leads to doubting the Quran is scare-mongering, since Bukhari and Muslim are not the word of God and the deen does not fall apart from questioning; he says that in his view Jesus is not going to come, while asking that the matter be treated as a difference of opinion rather than a sectarian one.
“by removing cobwebs the Deen is not gonna fall apart and I can guarantee you this Deen is not gonna fall apart”
25:03TranscriptCite 2018-04-01-S06corrected
· When should a hadith be rejected, and can a Muslim refuse a religious command that makes no sense?
Mufti Abu Layth holds, following Ibn al-Jawzi, that a hadith is accepted only if it does not contradict reason, the transmitted sources or an established principle of Islam, and that the companion who refused an order to jump into a fire shows reason rightly judging a religious command.
“at that time when he disobeyed him he didn't know that ruling he just reasoned that this what you're telling me to do clashes with reason doesn't make any sense”
1:12:56TranscriptCite 2018-04-09-S15corrected
· Did a tree really cry for the Prophet, and why does Mufti Abu Layth reject the hadith?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the report of the tree crying for the Prophet is not established, that its chains are problematic and it clashes with the principle that such things do not happen, and that Muslims cannot dismiss other religions' miracle stories as absurd while accepting their own.
“I said this is not established and I don't believe this to be sahi why because how can we hold things like stones and monkeys and elephants not doing these kind of things and hold that as absurd”
1:17:24TranscriptCite 2018-04-09-S17corrected
· Where the story came from: polemic, the poisoning report and the ajwa dates
Mufti Abu Layth says he believes the story of magic being done on the Prophet is definitely misconstrued.
“one understanding you've heard is that this is a misconstrued event I believe it definitely is misconstrued”
25:03TranscriptCite 2018-04-15b-S05corrected
· Would the Prophet really call a woman wearing perfume a fornicator?
Mufti Abu Layth says the report slanders the Prophet, since calling a woman a fornicator is qadhf punishable under the Quran and, for the Malikis, regardless of intention, and the Prophet was never obscene and would not have labelled women this way to deter them.
“this is the Prophet would never ever have said something like this this is a slander against the honor of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam right that he would speak about women in such a way”
15:38TranscriptCite 2018-05-04b-S03corrected
· 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
· What is the point of checking a hadith's chain of narrators?
Mufti Abu Layth says chain criticism was not a goal in itself but was only invented to know whether the content of a hadith was sound.
“chain criticism was not a goal in itself chain criticism was only this so we know the teaching of the Prophet was correct”
13:53TranscriptCite 2018-07-08b-S03corrected
· Did the Prophet say women lack intellect and faith?
Mufti Abu Layth says the report that women lack intellect and faith is inauthentic and falsely attributed to the Prophet.
“I'm going to read this hadith and demonstrate today that this hadith is inauthentic it is not true and I'll show the many problems with this attribution misattribution to the Prophet”
3:13TranscriptCite 2018-07-29-S01corrected
· Does the Quran say most people in hell are women?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran never makes a gender differentiation regarding the people of hell, so the report goes against it.
“speaking about people and and the afterlife and people damnation it never makes gender differentiation ever in the Koran right so this seems to be a new principle which is going up against the Quran”
9:43TranscriptCite 2018-07-29-S02corrected
· Why do the versions of the 'women in hell' hadith contradict each other?
Mufti Abu Layth says the narrations show turbulence, since the narrators could not say on which of the two Eids the address took place.
“the person narrating keeps saying I I can't even remember which one it was so some turbulence let's move on more turbulence”
14:48TranscriptCite 2018-07-29-S03corrected
· Do women really curse more than men, as the hadith says?
Mufti Abu Layth says the report contains a factual error, since men always outperform women in swearing in every culture.
“it is unquestionable in any culture that men always outperform women in swearing right so this is one important point that this is actually a factual error”
19:12TranscriptCite 2018-07-29-S04corrected
· Is not praying during menstruation a sign of weak faith?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is absurd to say women lack faith for not praying while menstruating, when the religion itself told them not to pray.
“do you not refrain from praying when you menstruating say yes I said well that's the lack of your faith wealthy irony here is that these rules have come to them from the religion so”
25:01TranscriptCite 2018-07-29-S05corrected
· How should Muslims decide which hadith to accept and which to reject?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the ummah must return to Imam Malik's method of accepting some hadith and rejecting others, accepting a report only if it does not clash with reason, the Quran, the corroborated Sunnah such as the practice of Madinah, or a principle of Islam.
“the reason I'm doing this is to show we need to return to the methodology that was taught to us by Imam Malik”
16:00TranscriptCite 2018-08-03-S04corrected
· What is the hadith about Abu Hurayra, the thief and Ayat al-Kursi?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Sahih al-Bukhari report of Abu Hurayra being taught Ayat al-Kursi by a thieving devil is fabricated or mis-transmitted, contradicts the Quran and Sunnah and disrespects Islam.
“fabricated or Mis transmitted hadith in salvo hari which is this one about a bull rider of the law unquote the devil and the devil taught him something ridiculous totally ridiculous I mean it completely contradicts the Quran and Sunnah”
0:00TranscriptCite 2018-08-12-S01corrected
· Did Abu Hurayra learn to recite Ayat al-Kursi at bedtime from a devil?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the report is blasphemous and a mockery of the deen, since it shows Abu Hurayra clumsy and disobedient, the Prophet failing to teach and tolerating theft from the treasury, and the devil teaching Islam, against Imam Malik's principle that everything of the deen was taught by the Prophet.
“what how blasphemous disrespectful is this hadith it shows Abu Huraira to be incredibly”
5:47TranscriptCite 2018-08-12-S02corrected
· 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
· Nonsensical Arabic in hadith 5492: the alcohol slaughtered by fish and sun
Mufti Abu Layth says the closing words of hadith 5492 are a syntactical error that the early scholars rightly crossed out, and that later commentators should admit the sentence is absurd instead of justifying it.
“the classical scholars like lacabisi and these great early maliki legends who were the early founders that had the manuscripts the kind of tertiary manuscripts they cross this out as a mistake because it makes no sense”
32:28TranscriptCite 2018-08-30-S06corrected
· Summing up: judge Bukhari like any other book; the deen comes through living practice
Mufti Abu Layth says Sahih al-Bukhari should be treated like any other hadith collection, with each report judged on its own merits by whether it contradicts reason, the Quran or an established principle, because the religion already reaches Muslims through the living tradition of practice.
“the quality of what we're getting from sahil bukhari is in my understanding just like any other hadith”
1:37:08TranscriptCite 2018-08-30-S15corrected
· Why does Mufti Abu Layth reject the Bukhari report of Sulayman and the hundred women?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report of Sulayman and the hundred women is absurd, puts a prophet in a bad light and portrays God as punishing a prophet with a disabled child, and that any report which clashes with reason, the Quran and the general understanding of Islam, or uproots an Islamic principle, is to be rejected.
“if a hadith fits in with with the conditions with reason if it fits in with it doesn't clash with the Quran and the general understanding of Islam and it doesn't approve Islamic principles we will accept it”
21:04TranscriptCite 2018-09-01-S06corrected
· What does Mufti Abu Layth say about the Bukhari report of the wolf and the cow that spoke?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Bukhari report of the talking wolf and cow is absurd, since animals do not grasp concepts such as purpose and future events, that its chain is poor, and that the phrase radi Allahu anhuma attributed to the Prophet is an anachronism from a later age.
“these words came much after like weave like muslims we use these words when we're gonna speak about the Companions”
24:52TranscriptCite 2018-09-01-S07corrected
· How can the same poison kill one companion at once and the Prophet three years later?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the poisoning story is internally contradictory, since the companion who ate the food died at once while the Prophet is said to have died from the same poison three years later.
“This is already a contradiction. The fact that dies from that poison, how can that poison take three years when Bishar has already died from it?”
9:09TranscriptCite 2018-09-17-S03corrected
· Does the hadith that the Prophet died of poison contradict the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth says the poisoning report clashes with the Quran's promise to protect the Prophet from the people and makes the Prophet's death resemble the punishment described in the Quran for one who forges revelation.
“Allah said in the Quran that that oh messenger of God that stand up with the message Allah will protect you and here evidently Allah has not then protected him”
10:35TranscriptCite 2018-09-17-S04corrected
· What is the war-wager hadith paradox?
Mufti Abu Layth says hadith dogmatists, loyal above all to the chain of transmission, have departed from the teaching of Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa not to abandon reason, and he holds that there is no compulsion at all in matters of religion.
“they disagree with people like me and many of the scholars that say that there's no compulsion at all in Islam”
6:23TranscriptCite 2018-09-20-S01corrected
· If a mutawatir hadith has to be reinterpreted, what does that say about hadith transmission?
Mufti Abu Layth says that when a report claimed to be mutawatir produces a meaning its own defenders must reinterpret as incomplete, this shows that the hadith transmission system is not airtight and cannot be treated as conclusive.
“if the result is problematic the system is problematic if the system is sound the result must be sound which it isn't”
15:14TranscriptCite 2018-09-20-S02corrected
· What evidence suggests Aisha was older than nine when she married?
Mufti Abu Layth says that the marriage narrative, the battle reports, Aisha's earlier engagement to Jubayr ibn Mut'im, her age at death and her memory of a verse revealed in Makkah all indicate that she was at least seventeen when the Prophet proposed.
“at that time when the Prophet approached her she was at least seventeen at least that's what the maths show”
13:33TranscriptCite 2018-11-30-S03corrected
· If some hadith are unreliable, doesn't that make the Quran unreliable too?
Mufti Abu Layth says those who argue that weakening hadith weakens the Quran have not truly understood how the Quran was transmitted.
“not truly understood how the Koran was transmitted okay these people who are saying this they have just been institutionalized”
2:35TranscriptCite 2019-09-28-S01corrected
· Is it Sunnah to drink camel urine as medicine?
Mufti Abu Layth says that one should not drink camel urine and calls the idea nonsense.
“can you drink camel's urine or should you drink it no you should not okay that is nonsense”
0:00TranscriptCite 2020-02-16-S01corrected
· How do I make sense of the hadith that the Prophet banned mut'ah?
Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith about mut'ah are very inconsistent and turbulent, seeming to contradict each other.
“the hadith about Mota are very inconsistent and they're very turbulent they seem to they seem to contradict each other”
1:01:01TranscriptCite 2020-07-14-S15corrected
· Is the hadith about conquering Constantinople authentic?
Mufti Abu Layth says it seems very plausible to him that the Prophet may have foretold the conquest of Constantinople, because it symbolised power in that region.
“I do feel that it may have had a a significant that the Prophet may have said it seems very plausible because not so much of because of it but more so”
1:46:40TranscriptCite 2020-07-14-S28corrected
· Did the Prophet really order Jews and Christians expelled from Arabia?
Mufti Abu Layth says he finds the hadith ordering the expulsion of the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula incredibly suspect and does not believe it is true.
“leave that this doesn't add up you see so i find this hadith incredibly suspect”
2:11:50TranscriptCite 2020-08-24-S30corrected
· Can a hadith be rejected because it goes against reason?
Mufti Abu Layth says reason is what immediately tells you whether a hadith is sahih or not.
“just so you are aware that reason is what immediately tells you whether the Hadith is sah or not”
3:37TranscriptCite 2020-10-09-S01corrected
· Are the hadith about the evil eye authentic?
Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith on the evil eye are baseless and all problematic.
“it was something that was necessary and we don't find it so the ahadith are baseless they're all problematic”
1:06:33TranscriptCite 2020-11-15-S08corrected
· Was the woman who refused the Prophet in Bukhari's divorce chapter his wife?
Mufti Abu Layth says that most scholars of Islam in the past who were invested in a particular field were institutionalised by it and did not critique it the way an outsider does, though a few thought out of the box.
“Those who were invested in a particular field were institutionalized by that field. They don't critique it the same way as somebody that's looking at it from outside of the box does.”
53:07TranscriptCite 2021-01-05-S12corrected
· Does Sahih al-Bukhari really say God dangled in front of the Prophet?
Mufti Abu Layth says that describing God as dangling in front of the Prophet, as in this hadith, is utterly unacceptable.
“this is utterly uh unacceptable and it is indicative and reflective of the greater problem with the the salafi creed”
2:07:10TranscriptCite 2021-01-12-S31corrected
· How do I find the true Sunnah in the hadith books?
Mufti Abu Layth says the true Sunnah does not clash with reason, does not go against the Quran and does not uproot an Islamic principle.
“it doesn't clash with [Music] reason doesn't go against the Quran it doesn't upro an Islamic principle”
1:33:58TranscriptCite 2021-01-19-S22corrected
· How could Abu Hurayra narrate 5,000 hadith after only two years with the Prophet?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is implausible that Abu Hurayra, who spent about two years with the Prophet, narrated some five thousand hadith, that false memories likely entered his reports, and that Sunnis should themselves reject reports that are factually impossible.
“i definitely think that a lot of you know there was a lot of um maybe false memories being transmitted and stuff like that”
2:50:19TranscriptCite 2021-01-26b-S34corrected
· What does the Ibn Mas'ud hadith about the end of time say, and is it reliable?
Mufti Abu Layth says one report begins with the statement that the Christians claim Jesus will come back, which shows the belief creeping in.
“there is this hadith of namaste begins by saying that the christians claim jesus will come back you see this belief creeping in”
3:11:09TranscriptCite 2021-03-02-S40corrected
· What does Mufti Abu Layth say about the Ibn Mas'ud hadith on the end of time and Jesus's return?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibn Mas'ud report of the return opens by noting the Christians' claim that Jesus will return, which shows the belief creeping in, has unidentifiable narrators in its chain, and ends with life regrowing from a seminal fluid sent from beneath the Throne, a detail he calls preposterous.
“ibn masawa begins by saying that the christians claim jesus will come back you see this belief creeping in”
2:07:40TranscriptCite 2021-03-14-S28corrected
· Did the Prophet really spy on a boy he thought was the Dajjal?
Mufti Abu Layth says the reports in which the Prophet spies on the child Ibn Sayyad suspecting him to be the Dajjal, and related reports in Sahih Muslim and Bukhari, are absurd and insulting to the Prophet's dignity, and that their contradictory accounts of the Dajjal's identity and location show they are not revelation.
“The prophet had an immensely dignified character. He didn't used to run around hiding behind trees, spying on children”
2:35:49TranscriptCite 2021-04-06-S26corrected
· What did the classical Maliki scholars say about the satanic verses story?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki scholars rightly rejected the satanic verses narrations as fabricated, and that even a sahih report contradicting the Quran would be rejected, let alone weak ones.
“this is why many of the ulama of islam oh sorry especially the malikiah very clearly made it very clear that look all of these things are utterly absurd they have no standing”
1:14:40TranscriptCite 2022-08-19-S15corrected
· What does the Quran say against the satanic verses story?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran itself rules out the satanic verses story, since it says the Prophet does not speak from desire and that Satan has no power over people beyond calling them, so he cannot speak in the Prophet's voice.
“shaytan does not have the power to be talking impersonating your voice this is what qadha yad mentions this is what ibn arabi mentions”
1:30:52TranscriptCite 2022-08-19-S17corrected
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
