Early version. Transcripts and tags are labelled by accuracy tier. A position is shown only after two independent reviews have found it in his own words.
33 answers in 23 recordings, 2014 to 2025. 29 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
Thought Evolution
2014answers checked positions2025
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.
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”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the sound hadith on the beard reduce to three, each pairing the moustache with the beard and giving the reason of being different from non-Muslims, and that the command need not be read as obligatory, as other hadith show.
“now many people have interpreted this to mean that it is an obligatory command a mandatory command but we see quite differently from other Hadith”
Mufti Abu Layth says the opinion that trimming the beard below a fist's length is not haram is well founded in the tradition.
“this is something that is well found and established in our books and we have to recognize that the is well founded it is in our tradition it is unden denable”
Mufti Abu Layth says that from the earliest period many scholars, Imam Malik and the school of Madinah among them, treated hadith as relative to the wider principles of Islam and left reports with sound chains that they did not hold to be the sunnah.
“that was opposed heavily by countless Scholars who believe that the Hadith was always relative to the greater context to the greater picture and principles of Islam and that included the school of Medina namely Imam Malik”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim contain some reports that are not acceptable, and that a report should be judged by its content as well as its chain.
“it is undeniable that the books like sahkari and sah Muslim it is undeniable that they have unacceptable Hadith in them”
Mufti Abu Layth says he rejects the six-and-nine report with personal certainty and that doing so is a matter of consistency, not appeasement of the West.
“so I don't think this is a matter of sucking up I I believe this is a matter of consistency”
Mufti Abu Layth says the prominence of the six-and-nine report is a by-product of hadith absolutism and the later sanctification of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, not the view of the earliest Muslims.
“this view of popularizing these two books was a byproduct to that phenomenon of Hadith absolutism”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that ordinary Muslims should refer puzzling reports to scholars but may decline to act on a report that plainly clashes with Islam's universal teachings.
“where something is so obvious and as broad as daylight and it clashes with our our general Universal kind of Islamic teaching then that they do not need to act according to”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that reasoning with the content of hadith is not a modern approach but one practised by the companions and Imam Malik from the beginning.
“well I would like to say well this is not modern this is part of this”
Mufti Abu Layth says anyone may try to prove him wrong but must bring categorical evidence from the Quran and the Sunnah, and that quoting weak reports as the Prophet's words is attributing lies to him.
“you and any of anybody else out there is most welcome to prove concepts prove me wrong but bring me categorical evidences from the kitab it was sooner and prove your point”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the beard was the common custom of all Arabs including the disbelievers of Quraysh rather than something the Prophet introduced, that the 'be different from the Jews and Christians' wording is applied selectively since the same words command dyeing the hair and praying in shoes, and that the Prophet never once defined what the beard should look like.
“yet the wording is the same in all of them but we have selective application like we reject where the Prophet said it here and we accept it where he said it here so that's not consistency”
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”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that a hadith contradicting the overall message of the Quran must be set aside, as Imam Malik did, and that saying the Prophet died of poisoning insults Islam, God and the Prophet.
“We need to learn from the the examples of Im Malik Im Abu Hanifh that when a hadith comes that contradicts the overall message of the Quran you need to put it aside.”
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”
Mufti Abu Layth says hadith dogmatism, which lets reports override the Quran, does not work and that Muslims should return to the method taught by Imam Malik.
“this hadith dogmatism this hadith cancelling out or on perspective does not work and we need to really resort to the method taught to us by the likes of imam malik”
Mufti Abu Layth says he is not in favour of rejecting hadith in general, but follows Imam Malik in rejecting a report where it goes against the established tradition, reason, the principles of Islam or the Quran.
“I do agree with you I am not in favor of rejecting hadith in general”
Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that deep down Salafis struggle with Imam Malik, who is an unquestionable authority in hadith yet rejects hadith that go against certain practices.
“i feel that the selfies because they i think deep down the salafi struggle with imam malik”
Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik included in the Muwatta reports he did not practise, and infers from the only report about Jesus there, in which Jesus tells a pig to pass in peace, that Malik had a problem with the reports that Jesus will return and kill pigs.
“I infer from this that he is showing that we have a problem with the narrations that people are saying Jesus will come flag and he will kill pigs.”
Mufti Abu Layth says he knows of no teacher of al-Bukhari who declared Imam Malik a disbeliever, and that harsh statements against Malik came from a contemporary, Ibn Abi Dhi'b [?], over Malik not acting on some sahih hadith.
“there are some harsh statements that he said about imam malik but he was a contemporary”
Mufti Abu Layth holds the middle position of Imam Malik and Abu Hanifa that the Sunnah is what is followed and hadith only document it, so a report is accepted unless it contradicts reason, the Quran or the living tradition or uproots a principle of Islam, and that discarding the Sunnah is a disservice to faith.
“to discard the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam who is to Muslims the most beloved of creation is a disservice to I feel faith as a whole”
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.
