Research › History and the Prophet's life
30 answers in 17 recordings, 2018 to 2021. 19 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 do ancient texts say people lived for hundreds or thousands of years?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the enormous reigns in the Sumerian king lists reflect a different counting system and that the long lifespans in the Old Testament were inherited from this Babylonian material.
“this is what I believe that people in the old testament some of the Jews had inherited in their time when they were in Babylon and these other kingdoms”
8:17TranscriptCite 2018-08-11-S02corrected
· Why does the Quran call the ruler in Yusuf's story a king but Musa's a Pharaoh?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that in Quran 29:14 the thousand sana follow the counting of Nuh's own people while the fifty 'am are years as we count them, and that the Quran relates narratives in the terms of their own time, as when the ruler in Yusuf's story is called a king and not a pharaoh.
“when allah addresses certain narratives in the quran at times he reflects the reality which they were upon”
10:50TranscriptCite 2018-08-11-S03corrected
· What does it mean that Jesus spoke to people in the cradle and in old age?
Mufti Abu Layth says the verse means that Jesus, when he preached, would have such wisdom that he could relate to people of every age, from the very young to the old.
“what that means is that Jesus when he will preach that he will have such wisdom”
14:31TranscriptCite 2019-02-23-S02corrected
· Have men historically worn earrings, or is it a recent fashion?
Mufti Abu Layth says that men across the ancient world, from Assyria and Egypt to Persia, India and Europe, wore earrings for thousands of years, often as a mark of nobility or soldiery, and that their restriction to women in Europe came from the church.
“the church prohibited men from wearing earrings now so you see the church influenced it starts to say that no these things should be restricted to women”
8:59TranscriptCite 2019-07-24b-S02corrected
· Did ancient civilisations have knowledge that was later lost?
Mufti Abu Layth says he finds convincing the view that advanced ancient civilisations with knowledge of the globe were destroyed around the Younger Dryas, and that neither the Nabataeans nor the pharaohs built Petra or the pyramids from scratch but built on earlier structures.
“I don't believe the Nabataeans built Petra neither do I believe the pharaohs built the pyramids from scratch I feel that they built upon previous structures”
17:11TranscriptCite 2019-12-17-S05corrected
· Who is Uzair mentioned in the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth says the interpretation of Uzair as Ezra does not really fit the bill and can only be a forced fit.
“this interpretation of it being Ezra doesn't really fit the bill I mean you can you can do a force fit”
3:47TranscriptCite 2019-12-29-S01corrected
· Could Uzair in the Quran be the Egyptian figure Osiris?
Mufti Abu Layth says that, having revisited the question, it appears Uzair in the verse is Osiris of Egyptian mythology rather than Ezra.
“and it appears people that it is not Ezra who's a volatile yahuda was a turning table that was a is the son of God Jose is Osiris the Egyptian myth”
5:45TranscriptCite 2019-12-29-S02corrected
· Why did the Israelites ask Moses for an idol after leaving Egypt?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Israelites emerging from Egypt carried a huge cultural baggage.
“this was the Israelites as they were emerging from Egypt they had a huge baggage a huge culture”
12:37TranscriptCite 2019-12-29-S03corrected
· Why did Moses carry a staff?
Mufti Abu Layth says he thinks part of Moses' staff was the culture of the Pharaohs he grew up in, where the pine-cone staff symbolised Osiris.
“I actually think part of this stick thing was the culture in which Moses grew up with the Pharaohs see the Pharaohs this stick and especially the pine cone staff was symbolic of Osiris”
15:45TranscriptCite 2019-12-29-S04corrected
· What were soma and haoma in the Hindu and Persian traditions?
Mufti Abu Layth says ancient traditions such as the Vedic soma and the Avestan haoma record the same entheogenic experiences without a vocabulary for them, and that if soma was Amanita muscaria this explains the Hindu drinking of cow urine and the deification of the animals.
“many ancient traditions had these kind of things and you can see how because they didn't have a culture to explain it”
19:04TranscriptCite 2020-10-17-S05corrected
· Where did the idea of sacrificing a son come from in Ibrahim's time?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Ibrahim's dream of sacrificing his son is explained by the surrounding Near Eastern culture of human sacrifice working on the subconscious, not by a command from God.
“it's like if you're part of a culture you even if it's not your original culture but you see that this is what people do and sometimes it can play on your mind”
7:36TranscriptCite 2020-10-28-S02corrected
· Why does the biblical tradition say God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Israelite picture of God inherited the brutal character of the war god Yahweh, which made a command to sacrifice a son plausible to them, and that this is not the true image of Allah.
“so yahweh is not allah he's not god and allah keeps reminding us he is so this is not the true image of god”
20:17TranscriptCite 2020-10-28-S06corrected
· Why did so many cultures believe in the evil eye?
Mufti Abu Layth says the evil eye is nonsense and does not have a reality.
“obviously the evil eye is nonsense it's bs it does not it doesn't have a reality”
26:02TranscriptCite 2020-11-15-S04corrected
· Is the story of Lilith in the Bible?
Mufti Abu Layth says the exact story of Lilith is not in the Bible but in the mythology surrounding Genesis, though her name appears in the book of Isaiah.
“So the exact story of Lilith is more mentioned in the kind of uh mythology surrounding Genesis.”
1:14:48TranscriptCite 2021-01-05-S16corrected
· What is the Ark of the Covenant in Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran briefly mentions the Ark of the Covenant but it is not clear what the things in it were.
“there's a brief in mention of uh this kind of Arc of the Covenant in the Quran but it's not clear what these things are”
1:06:12TranscriptCite 2021-01-19-S17corrected
· Do creation myths in other cultures share a source with the Islamic account?
Mufti Abu Layth says many cultures' creation myths seem to share a common origin, and that the name Adam is not of Arabic origin and may be older, possibly Sanskrit, though he is not certain.
“one thing i don't buy that adam has arabic roots it's just later on it's made to match arabic roots but it's not an arabic word”
54:08TranscriptCite 2021-01-26b-S14corrected
· Did the early Muslims respect the Torah and Bible, and are they corrupted?
Mufti Abu Layth says that in much of the Bible words, stories and translations would have changed, but its message would still be very much valid.
“so much of it that would have happened but the message would still be very much valid that's my take on all of this”
25:38TranscriptCite 2021-02-02b-S04corrected
· Was the Prophet Moses actually the pharaoh Akhenaten?
Mufti Abu Layth says he is inclined towards the theory that Moses was Akhenaten, though his research is still ongoing and he cannot say it as a fact.
“do check that out i go into it i am inclined towards the the theory that moses is was a canarton”
37:14TranscriptCite 2021-03-02-S07corrected
· Is there archaeological evidence for David's kingdom, and how did Jerusalem become holy for Muslims?
Mufti Abu Layth says archaeology has not substantiated the kingdoms of David and Solomon, that early Muslim scholars differed over whether al-Masjid al-Aqsa was in Jerusalem or the heavens and whether the night journey was a vision, and that the Umayyads under Abd al-Malik fabricated hadith to promote Jerusalem against Ibn al-Zubayr in Makkah.
“the truth is it was abdul malik and it was the umayyad caliphate that did a huge amount of jerusalem propaganda to rival abdullah zubair in mecca and they fabricated a hell of a lot of hadith”
23:50TranscriptCite 2021-05-15-S06corrected
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
