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.
115 answers in 42 recordings, 2016 to 2022. 81 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
2016answers checked positions2022
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 kahl in the verse means mature adulthood, which Jesus reached on earth as al-Razi states, and that the reading of the verse as a prophecy of his return originated with a scholar who died in the 280s AH and was unknown to the salaf.
“who said that this verse could refer to Jesus coming back India his second coming before him nobody said that this wasn't how they understood the Quran”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that fearing reason will lead people out of Islam betrays a lack of real belief that Islam is true, and that doubt which leads to a more certain understanding is legitimate, as Ibrahim's question and the hadith about his doubt show.
“if I say to you oh by using reason you're gonna end up leaving Islam well that just translates as okay so by trying to uncover truths you think I'll find certain truths which show that Islam isn't true”
Mufti Abu Layth says that Musa exposing the magicians' trickery, rather than outperforming their magic, sits better with his understanding.
“liars they have no connections with the gods that they speak of that they gods do not help them it is a lie that to me sits more right with my understanding”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that Nuh did not literally live for nine hundred and fifty years and that the Quran's use of two different words for year in 29:14, sana and 'am, is deliberate rather than mere rhetorical variation.
“no Ali Salaam did not live for a thousand years like what people think but if you look at this verse of the Quran”
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”
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”
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”
Mufti Abu Layth says that no verse of the Quran states that Ibrahim was thrown into the fire or that the table was sent down to the disciples, and that reading 2:260 as 'incline them towards you' is the literal wording, so these are readings of the text as it stands rather than reinterpretations, and calling those who hold them deviants is unacceptable.
“on a lot of these occasions people that are saying we are reinterpreting verses were actually just reading the verses as they are”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran applies to Jesus terms such as the Word of God and the Holy Spirit that it uses for no other prophet and that Muslims do not take literally, and suggests this Christian rhetoric may have been meant to build bridges with the Christian community.
“Christian rhetoric that is used in the Quran perhaps in a sense of building bridges between the Muslim and Christian communities”
Mufti Abu Layth says that no verse of the Quran states that Jesus's birth was a virgin birth, only implies it, that Muslim scholars have differed on the question, and that Mary, who was married, is never called the Virgin Mary in Islam.
“no verse in the Quran says that she had virgin birth a verse implies it does not say just as the table verse implies that the table may come down”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quranic account of Mary implies but does not state a virgin conception, that 66:12 is read literally by no Muslim so literal reading cannot be demanded everywhere, and that declaring deviant those scholars who hold Jesus had a natural birth is a huge stretch; he presents 6:85-87 and 6:101 as those scholars' arguments.
“no Muslim that I'm aware of generally believes that to be literal so yet yet you're saying that any other verse must always take every literal implication”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's verses on creation in stages, growth from the earth and the single self are reconcilable with evolution, which he calls a scientific fact established through genetics, that Hawwa is not named in the Quran, and that those who accept evolution should not be called deviants.
“if you don't want to accept evolution you don't have to although it is pretty much a scientific fact now through genetics that we are connected all of life on Earth is connected”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran uses Christian rhetoric about Jesus, such as the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, perhaps in order to build bridges between the Muslim and Christian communities.
“there's a lot of rhetoric being used when it comes to Jesus that was generally the kind of Christian rhetoric that is used in the Quran perhaps in a sense of building bridges between the Muslim and Christian communities”
Mufti Abu Layth says that no verse of the Quran directly says that Mary's was a virgin birth, though a verse implies it.
“that you do have that as a general belief that Muslims feel that Mary had a virgin birth although no verse in the Quran says that she had in birth a verse implies it does not say”
Mufti Abu Layth says that declaring those who read the Quran as not teaching a virgin birth deviant or no longer mainstream Muslims is a huge stretch, when the Quran itself does not actually say it.
“they've lost the plot they they no longer main three Muslims they no longer this they no longer that because they have this reading of the Quran when the Quran itself doesn't actually say that that's a huge stretch”
Mufti Abu Layth says the overwhelming majority of scholars held homosexual acts to be haram and he accepts that they are haram, while saying that the punishments scholars assigned varied between places and changed over time, that the people of Lut were destroyed primarily for rejecting their prophet, and that the ruling does not require hatred.
“most outright majority did say it's haram some did disagree so just being honest and being objective and transparent majority accepted it haram and we accept it's haram”
Mufti Abu Layth says that he feels earlier scholars overlooked that everything after Musa and his companion fell asleep at the rock happened in a vision.
“this is where a lot of I feel the scholars in the past for whatever reasons overlooked this the rest of everything that happens Happ happens whilst they were asleep it was a vision”
Mufti Abu Layth says some stories in the Quran suggest supernatural events without explicitly stating them.
“some of these stories have been mentioned in ways at times that suggest suggest I'm using the word here suggest they don't usually explicitly say so but they tend to suggest a very supernatural”
Mufti Abu Layth says that he feels earlier scholars overlooked that everything after Musa and his companion fell asleep at the rock happened in a vision.
“the rest of everything that happens happens whilst they were asleep it was a vision”
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”
Mufti Abu Layth says the story that Hajar ran seven times between Safa and Marwa was most likely invented later to give the ritual an Abrahamic link, while he believes the story of the Zamzam spring is most likely true.
“what I'm trying to say is that story seems to be manufactured”
Mufti Abu Layth says the earlier scriptures can be called corrupted if that means they were not preserved verbatim.
“so when we keep saying that the the other messages are corrupted it depends what you mean by that that from yes they weren't preserved verbatim so if that's what we mean by corrupted then yes that is true”
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”
Mufti Abu Layth says he does not think any Muslim really believes Adam lived in the paradise of the afterlife, because the afterlife has not happened yet.
“i don't think any muslim really believes he lived in the paradise of the afterlife because the afterlife hasn't happened yet that would just be dumb”
Mufti Abu Layth says he would be in line with the scholars who say Jesus was of natural birth.
“to make it coherent to me that makes sense that hmm you know i i'd be in line with those scholars that say well no you know that jesus was of natural birth”
Mufti Abu Layth says belief in the virgin birth spread among Muslims through the mass proliferation of the Christian narrative around Arabia.
“now what simply led to it is the mass proliferation of the christian myth that this had happened because the christians had this myth that was everywhere”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the command to sacrifice his son did not come from God, and that the Quran in Surah al-Saffat reports only that Ibrahim saw a dream which his son urged him to carry out.
“focusing on the question this commandment did not come from god okay now unfortunately it is widespread that it came from god”
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”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the words 'this was indeed the clear trial' in 37:106 do not say the trial came from God, that Allah never says he showed Ibrahim the dream, and that the ransom of the ram rescued the son and declared human sacrifice forbidden thereafter.
“allah is saying that you had a dream and you said you carried it out you were truthful to what you saw yeah allah does not say we showed you that dream”
Mufti Abu Layth says the traditional view that God commanded the sacrifice entered Islamic thought through Jewish and Judaeo-Christian narratives taken by early Muslims, and he cites the reading attributed to Ibn Abbas that Ibrahim saw something that suggested to him he had been commanded.
“you have to understand that a lot of our early islamic thought has been influenced by the israelites by jewish judeo-christian narratives that have been floating”
Mufti Abu Layth says the belief that God commanded Ibrahim to kill his son is absurd, sadistic and, upon true inspection, blasphemous, since the Quran never says God gave the command though it could have.
“this belief in and of itself upon true inspection is blasphemous but i understand the fact that most people just haven't questioned it”
Mufti Abu Layth says the scholars of the past discussed every subsidiary question of the sacrifice story without ever asking whether God would want a father to kill his son.
“uh nobody's discussing the fact that wait a minute god said kill your son i mean what to make me happy can somebody discuss this”
Mufti Abu Layth says that he does not accuse individual Muslims who hold the belief of blasphemy, since they repeat an inherited story without having thought about it.
“look this belief is blasphemous but i'm not saying to individual muslims you guys are blaspheming because i genuinely don't think that they've thought about it”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the absence of early sources for his reading is explained by early Muslims absorbing Israelite narratives and projecting a brutal environment onto God, that nothing established from the Prophet says God commanded the sacrifice, and that Allah's silence on the command's origin ends the debate.
“it's not from god and allah clearly did not say it was from him and he could have so that to me ends the debate”
Mufti Abu Layth says Jacob told his sons to split up at the gates to look out for them, not because of the evil eye, which makes no sense since they had already been to Egypt.
“split up because if you are gonna go then go like that because he's trying to obviously look out for them the evil eye makes no sense”
Mufti Abu Layth says the prophets are not in a competition, so saying Yusuf was especially handsome does not require insisting the Prophet Muhammad was more handsome.
“does it have to mean the prophet was also stronger you know doesn't it's not a competition so if you say yfam was incredibly you know the most uh you know so handsome”
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”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not state that Jesus spoke as a newborn, and that its reference to his speaking from the cradle as a boy points to the episode in Luke of the young Jesus arguing with the Temple priests.
“jesus it doesn't mention he's speaking as a baby that's just inferred by people he actually says that kefanu who was a boy”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not say how Jesus died, which does not mean he did not die, just as it does not say how Moses died.
“there are some things the quran does not highlight how did jesus die it doesn't highlight that okay it doesn't mean he didn't die but then the quran doesn't mention how moses died”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Israelites are highlighted in the Quran because around the Prophet's time in Arabia they were seen as the academics of the people of scripture.
“which is where the prophet would have been the israelites was seen as the kind of um you know like the academics of the people of scripture therefore they are highlighted quite a lot”
Mufti Abu Layth says that in the verse on speaking in the cradle and in maturity it is the people Jesus addresses, the child and the mature man, who are meant, not Jesus speaking at an older age.
“it's not jesus who's going to be speaking like that it's the people he will address he will address the child in the crib and he will address the old man or the mature man”
Mufti Abu Layth says it makes much more sense to read 43:61 as speaking of the Quran, since revelation ends with it, than of Jesus as a sign of the Hour.
“and that actually makes much more sense if you think about it that the entire revelation will now end makes a lot more sense than rather saying jesus is a sign for the hour”
Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's use of Jesus's words 'when you took me' for himself, in a report in Bukhari, shows that he understood the verse to mean Jesus had died.
“according to bukhari as saying that this that jesus had died because he is saying that oh what about my companions”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that 'he will speak to people in the cradle and in maturity' refers to those Jesus addresses, children and grown men, not to a return, that the first to read it as a return was al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl al-Bajali (d. 282 AH), a transmitter of strange reports, and that 'before his death' was recited as 'before their death' and read by commentators as referring to Jesus, the Prophet, the truth or Allah.
“it's not jesus who's going to be speaking like that it's the people he will address he will address the child in the crib and he will address the old man or the mature man”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that 43:61 means the Quran is knowledge of the Hour, as Hasan and others said, and that 5:75, 21:34 and 43:59 count against a second coming, since Jesus ate food and was subject to natural laws, no human before the Prophet was given eternal life, and Jesus is called an example for the children of Israel alone.
“notice that this is actually a verse to show that jesus will not be coming back”
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the verse 'I will give you death' and the dialogue of 5:116-118, in which Jesus says he does not know what his people did after he was taken, show that Jesus died and will not return, and that the Prophet's own use of the verse in a Bukhari report about his companions turning bad after him confirms this reading.
“this verse where allah says that i will give you death now note that this counts against the second coming because jesus has died”
Mufti Abu Layth says he holds that Adam was the father of humans with modern cognition and that the forbidden tree may have been a psychedelic plant that triggered the cognitive revolution, the Quran mentioning a tree rather than a fruit.
“adam alaihi salam i believe would have been the father of you know of of humans today with this modern cognitive explosion and having consciousness the way we do”
Mufti Abu Layth says the crime for which the people of Lut, like the other peoples in the stories of the prophets, were destroyed was their rejection of God, other behaviours mentioned being secondary signs of arrogance.
“it's not the reason that they met their doom it was because they denied god that's the same with every single prophet”
Mufti Abu Layth says he personally does not agree with the view, if he has understood it correctly, that Zakariya married Mary and was the father of Jesus.
“i mean i don't agree with that in personally if that is the view”
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.
