Research › Hadith studies
58 answers in 9 recordings, 2017 to 2025. 10 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.
· Can an ordinary Muslim reject a hadith that seems irrational?
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”
1:48:56TranscriptCite 2017-01-11-S15corrected
· Does the Quran say there are three or five daily prayers?
Mufti Abu Layth says he personally feels the Quran does not address how many daily prayers there are, and that the agreement of Sunnis, Shia and Ibadis on five prayers shows, in his understanding irrefutably, a proto-Sunnah living tradition that preceded the hadith books.
“demonstrate in my understanding irrefutably that they must have been some very clear proto source that was part of the early living tradition in early Islam”
2:31TranscriptCite 2019-07-24-S01corrected
· Why follow hadith if the Quran is complete?
Mufti Abu Layth says it makes absolute sense to him that the Prophet would have legislated in addition to the Quran and that this should be followed.
“it makes absolute sense to me to follow that the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would have legislated as well in addition to the Quran and to follow that”
1:45:25TranscriptCite 2020-07-14-S27corrected
· Does Edip Yuksel believe in praying five times a day?
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not buy rejecting all hadith, which he feels is the opposite extreme to hadith dogmatism.
“i don't buy the whole rejecting all hadith i feel it's the opposite extreme of you know you have hadith dogmatists”
0:38TranscriptCite 2020-08-28-S01corrected
· Should we throw away hadith altogether?
Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith tradition is a beautiful and unparalleled record of the Prophet that should be filtered for the reports that became corrupted, not thrown away.
“some infection crept in and it's our job to to to clean it but that's it i i don't say that you need to throw hadith away”
2:23:25TranscriptCite 2021-01-26b-S28corrected
· Will Allah judge someone who follows only the Quran by the Quran alone?
Mufti Abu Layth says that he personally finds it very arrogant for a human to presume who will go where in the afterlife, which only Allah knows.
“this is me personally i always find it very arrogant to to assume on these matters about who will go where in the afterlife”
3:13TranscriptCite 2021-10-25-S01corrected
· Did Muslims learn how to pray from hadith books?
Mufti Abu Layth says that, personally, he would say the practice of Islam has not reached us through hadith but through the living tradition.
“i personally you see i would say that the islam the practice of islam has not reached us through hadith it's reached us through the living tradition”
5:49TranscriptCite 2021-10-25-S02corrected
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think debates really yield results, since humiliating someone in an argument only makes them hate you more.
“if it's a debate i don't think these really uh yield results”
8:24TranscriptCite 2021-10-25-S03corrected
· What does the Mufti think of Quran-only Muslims?
Mufti Abu Layth says he feels that Quran-only Muslims have misunderstood, or not appreciated, the living tradition in its totality.
“i also feel that they've misunderstood the tradition and the living tradition”
0:40TranscriptCite 2021-11-20-S01corrected
· Why does Mufti Abu Layth see the Quran-only movement as a reaction of anger?
Mufti Abu Layth says he perceives the Quranist movement as a reaction of anger to hadith that are misused, an anger sometimes justified, and he holds that Aisha married in her late teens, that the hadith on killing the apostate is fabricated and its application was political, and that hadith are wrongly used to justify abuse and misogyny.
“I feel that the Quranist movement is really it's you know it's a kind of reaction with a lot of rage a lot of anger almost and negativity”
7:32TranscriptCite 2025-10-18-S04corrected
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
