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Reason and revelation
83 segments in 32 recordings · 2016 to 2025 · 0 verified · 63 checked positions · belief/reason-and-revelation · Feed
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 18 Oct 2025
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIf reason helps us understand the Quran, does the reasoning of earlier scholars matter too?
Both agree reason is essential to understanding revelation; Mufti Abu Layth adds that by the same logic the reasoning of the Prophet, the Companions and the scholars before us is a valuable reservoir, not his reason alone, and the guest demands the Prophet's own explanation.
machine2 min 56 s1:56:30on YouTube
Earlier answers · 82 · newest first
2025 · 1
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why did Mufti Abu Layth bring up 3:188 against the Quran-only position?
Mufti Abu Layth cited 3:188 because its apparent reading is harsher than the Prophet's explanation, showing that the reasoning of those who came before is valuable; the guest says he asked for the Prophet's book of explanations and was pointed back to the Quran.
machine4 min 51 s2:14:00on YouTube
2023 · 1
10 Mar 2023video
Can we ever be completely certain about religious answers?
Only God is certain; every answer we hold is limited by our own understanding and that of those we learned from, a humility Imam Malik modelled.
machine4 min 50 s57:27on YouTube
2021 · 14
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it normal for faith to keep changing over a lifetime?
Mufti Abu Layth says faith is a lifelong journey and iman an organic process, not a fixed mould to be fitted onto everyone.
machine1 min 18 s42:17on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Should my faith make me happy?
Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says faith should make you happy, not hateful or bitter, because Islam is meant to complement daily life.
machine2 min 38 s29:29on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Should Muslims judge their own sources by the standards they apply to other religions?
Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims should hold their own sources to the standard they use for others, giving the example of Bukhari resting on one unvouched-for transmitter.
machine2 min 38 s33:26on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Will religious dogmatism ever disappear?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says dogmatism is built into institutional religion and will survive, so his aim is to keep the voice of reason alive as a choice.
machine1 min 19 s1:51:19on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
When should reason take priority over religious texts?
Reason always comes first, Mufti Abu Layth says, because every reading of scripture is already an interpretation; hadith dogmatism grew from Ibn Taymiyya's era and revived under colonialism.
machine9 min 07 s2:09:48on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What did Ibn Rushd mean by the 'double truth' of religion and philosophy?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is not 'double truth', but he agrees fully with Ibn Rushd that the sharia is built for ordinary people while the gifted can find its deeper meanings.
machine6 min 31 s2:35:57on YouTube
15 Mar 2021video
Does using reason in Islam make someone a Mu'tazili?
The Mu'tazila were defined by doctrines about sin and God's obligations, not by reason; the Sunni distrust of reason was a later reaction to losing debates. Calling someone Mu'tazili for using reason is a tactic to avoid debate.
machine7 min 07 s6:58on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Do those who deny Jesus's return reject the unseen, as Yasir Qadhi claims?
Mufti Abu Layth rejects Qadhi's charge that deniers of the return refuse the unseen: belief itself concerns the unseen God, and Mufti is preoccupied with consciousness, which science cannot explain and which he understands to be non-local. Qadhi's clip names Mufti among the heretics.
machine3 min 53 s22:25on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Do people who deny Jesus's return reject the unseen?
Mufti Abu Layth rejects Qadhi's charge that deniers of the return reject the unseen: belief itself is in the unseen God, and he is himself preoccupied with consciousness, which science cannot explain.
machine3 min 07 s1:26:08on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Were the Mu'tazila really defined by their use of reason?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Mu'tazila were defined by doctrines like a sinner leaving Islam and God being duty-bound, not by reason; the Sunni rejection of reason came later as a reaction.
machine7 min 02 s51:46on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was al-Ghazali against science and philosophy?
Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali was not against reason at first, but after a crisis of faith he turned to ascetic mysticism, and through later Sufism this indirectly harmed the voice of reason.
machine12 min 41 s34:23on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How did Ibn Rushd answer al-Ghazali's attack on the philosophers?
Mufti Abu Layth explains that Ibn Rushd answered al-Ghazali by showing that what he refuted was mostly neoplatonism, not Aristotle.
machine3 min 52 s2:16:37on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How does Ibn Rushd compare to other critical-minded scholars?
Ibn Rushd is the most philosophical and most inclined to reason of the critical-minded scholars, Mufti Abu Layth says, and steadier in temperament than one he calls quick to takfir.
machine3 min 13 s2:27:24on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do clever preachers stay stuck in dogmatism?
Mufti Abu Layth says knowing a lot is not the same as reasoning well; much of the dogmatist scene relies on rote learning, and Zakir Naik has done Islam real damage.
machine6 min 55 s1:51:38on YouTube
2020 · 19
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
If blind following in faith is forbidden, why must I accept a school's creed without question?
Mufti Abu Layth finds it paradoxical that schools forbid blind following in faith but demand blind acceptance of their creeds; the guest says traditionalists use reason only to reach revelation and then discard it, whereas reason must stay in continuous use.
machine7 min 03 s24:25on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Isn't reason subjective, and is something good only because God commands it?
The guest says the Ash'ari voluntarist view of ethics is the real relativism and argues for universal moral values grounded in God's nature; Mufti Abu Layth calls the Ash'ari denial of inherent good and bad nonsense.
machine4 min 16 s29:42on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
If we all recognise harm, why do people still do terrible things?
Mufti Abu Layth says empathy can be overridden by instincts such as power, and that a shared consciousness shapes the moral feel of an age; he notes the Quran commands justice without defining it, which the guest links to the Mu'tazila.
machine4 min 26 s53:58on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Can I accept evolution and still take the Quran's stories as true?
The guest calls for reading the Quran wholesale as sacred literature, accepting evolution as scientific fact while holding that religion's symbolic truths, not science, ground human rights and meaning.
machine3 min 46 s1:09:21on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
Can there be a balanced view on whether jinn possess people?
A supernatural claim cannot be balanced; possession is either real or not. If disobedience, missing prayer and riba invited possession, most of the globe would be possessed.
machine5 min 15 s6:34on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
What would jinn gain by possessing people, and what follows if they could?
If jinn could possess people or take any form, nothing in Islam could be trusted and no one would be responsible for their crimes; Mufti Abu Layth notes that only Muslims who believe in possession seem to be afflicted.
machine5 min 16 s11:49on YouTube
28 Oct 2020video
Is it wrong to believe that God asked Ibrahim to kill his son?
Mufti Abu Layth says the belief is absurd and, on inspection, blasphemous, because it has God asking a father to murder his child for his pleasure and then stopping him, like a mock execution. The Quran never says God told Ibrahim to sacrifice, though it could have.
machine2 min 38 s14:34on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do you believe in God and that the Quran is from God?
Mufti Abu Layth says consciousness points to the transcendent divine, and that among world religions only Islam passes the test of reason for him.
machine1 min 17 s2:51:27on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth hold views that most scholars disagree with?
Mufti Abu Layth takes his beliefs from the Quran in the light of reason, since God calls people to faith through reason, and tests whether a belief is coherent as a whole.
machine3 min 49 s0:45on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Was Iblis condemned for using his reason?
No: Iblis was condemned for arrogance and stubbornness, not reason, and much of what people picture about angels is imagination filling in the Quran's outline.
machine3 min 12 s4:34on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth not believe Jesus will return?
What collapsed the belief for him was its incoherence: a this-worldly event so spectacular must have a purpose, and the answers given raise hundreds more questions.
machine4 min 32 s7:08on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Does questioning religion with reason destroy faith?
Not for him: he says he has put every matter of the deen to his reason and his faith stood the test, though he does not ask others to do the same.
machine1 min 58 s11:40on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
If God made the laws of nature, can He break them?
God is not stuck with the laws of nature; He created them by choice and keeps to them, just as He keeps His promises about salvation.
machine6 min 04 s31:16on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Why do some Muslims struggle to accept that Adam might have had parents?
Mufti Abu Layth says nothing in Islam falls apart if Adam had parents, so the resistance must come from something other than Islam, and God keeping His own rules is no limitation.
machine7 min 30 s43:06on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
If human reason is limited, why rely on it in religion?
Reason has limits, but it is the best tool humans have for any shared dialogue, and a God who calls people through reason would not then demand belief in the irrational.
machine7 min 02 s57:31on YouTube
9 Oct 2020video
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, and that an early classical text on hadith says so.
machine4 min 12 s0:01on YouTube
22 Sep 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What do you think of the Mu'tazila?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Mu'tazila were an extinct, extremist yet rationalist sect, and mocks calling anyone who uses reason a Mu'tazili.
machine6 min 47 s2:06:56on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is using reason to interpret Islam just preferring my own intellect over revelation?
The intellect alone is not a reliable guide, but an intellect guided by the Quran is tamed and becomes the right tool for understanding revelation. The word aql itself means the tether that keeps a camel from straying, and the Quran praises its use.
machine2 min 37 s25:59on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do Muslims treat reason as the enemy of tradition?
Historically the Ahl al-Hadith defeated the Ahl al-Ra'y, which preserved the tradition but left reason demonised; today reason and tradition must work together. Mufti Abu Layth says asking whether one prefers reason to revelation is a false framing, since the real choice is between one understanding of the Quran and another.
machine5 min 16 s28:36on YouTube
2019 · 9
3 Nov 2019Responding to Refutations
Who were the Mu'tazila and what did they believe?
The Mu'tazila were an extinct early sect who held that a sinning Muslim is neither believer nor kafir; Mufti Abu Layth says later theologians' defensive reaction left some Muslims thinking the intellect is bad, which he calls the dumbest idea.
machine2 min 34 s25:33on YouTube
3 Nov 2019Responding to Refutations
Is it inconsistent to reinterpret Gog and Magog by geography but not other beliefs by science?
Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi calls him a heretic for revisiting interpretations on grounds of science and reason, yet revisits Gog and Magog on grounds of geography with his own teacher's precedent, which he calls hypocrisy.
machine7 min 29 s33:10on YouTube
3 Nov 2019Responding to Refutations
Can old interpretations of the Quran be revisited, and what role does reason play?
Mufti Abu Layth says long-standing interpretations that are not the Quran's clear expression may be revisited and that reason has primacy, but one must not condemn others for doing what one does oneself.
machine1 min 47 s46:59on YouTube
18 Sep 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Is listening to music haram?
In Mufti Abu Layth's understanding music is not forbidden, because no text is at once conclusive, sahih and explicit: the Bukhari hadith speaks of entertainment, not music, and the texts naming music are not authentic. People find this hard to accept because they come to religion expecting it to oppose entertainment and desire.
machine5 min 16 s10:31on YouTube
18 Sep 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Why do people assume music must be haram before looking at any evidence?
People come to Islam with a prior picture of what religion must be, which includes sacrifice, suffering and asceticism and excludes entertainment, and this backdrop rather than the texts drives their judgement that music is haram. Even with no hadith against it, music would be forbidden on that basis.
machine7 min 54 s52:08on YouTube
18 Sep 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Why is celibacy praised despite a hadith against it while music is condemned without one?
A sahih hadith condemns the vow never to marry, yet unmarried scholars are praised in books like Abu Ghudda's, because celibacy fits the picture of religion as self-denial; music, which fits the opposite picture, is condemned although no clear sahih hadith names it. The default law remains that everything is permissible unless proven otherwise.
machine6 min 30 s1:00:02on YouTube
21 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Did the Prophet teach a formal creed of what Muslims must believe?
The Prophet taught faith, not a creed: beyond a handful of beliefs no hadith prescribes what to believe, and for 150 years the salaf up to Imam Malik wrote down no dogma. Policing people's ideas is the antithesis of Islam, so think for yourself.
machine2 min 36 s15:41on YouTube
4 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Can people be moral without religion?
Yes: humans know that killing is wrong without scripture, which came to reinforce it, and secular European societies have reached ethics without God. He strongly disagrees with deriding that.
machine5 min 44 s19:02on YouTube
8 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
If God can do anything, why not take the miracles in Quranic stories literally?
Reading the stories as suspensions of natural law means ditching reason, which leaves no ground to reject any myth; reason must be all in, though the prophets were real people.
machine6 min 26 s9:32on YouTube
2018 · 32
24 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Did the topic of Tawhid versus the Trinity favour the Muslim side, and how well prepared was Hijab?
Tawhid appeals to reason while the Trinity is held by Christians as a supra-rational truth, so the topic itself favoured Hijab. Even so, Mufti Abu Layth was impressed by Hijab's thorough biblical research and impromptu quotation of the Bible, while Wood seemed unprepared.
machine2 min 37 s2:38on YouTube
24 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
What was Hijab's main argument against the Trinity, and did Wood answer it?
Hijab's central argument was that the Trinitarian creed defined at Nicaea in 325 cannot be shown in any earlier Christian source, which Mufti Abu Layth calls precise and well researched and which Wood failed to answer sufficiently. Wood seemed shaky and unprepared, and the debate leaned less on reason than it could have.
machine3 min 56 s5:15on YouTube
24 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Do Muslims accept doctrines as irrational as the Trinity, such as the uncreated Quran?
Wood's real challenge was that Muslims who mock the Trinity as irrational themselves accept doctrines such as the uncreated Quran and attributes that are 'neither God nor other than God'. Mufti Abu Layth says this was a genuinely tough point that Hijab did not fully answer, but Wood put it so badly that few noticed.
machine3 min 58 s11:16on YouTube
24 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
If Muslims accept miracles that defy reason, can they still object that the Trinity is irrational?
Muslims must hold the Quran to be in line with reason, because accepting miracles that make no sense removes any ground for objecting that three cannot equal one; consistency is all or nothing. Hijab denied that Muslims ever held anthropomorphic beliefs, but some did, though Mufti Abu Layth does not share them.
machine2 min 24 s15:14on YouTube
24 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Did the Prophet teach a creed about God's attributes, and when did the Muslim creed emerge?
The Prophet taught faith, not a formal creed; the Muslim creed emerged two to three hundred years later, and its doctrine of attributes 'neither God nor other than God' is, in Mufti Abu Layth's view, irrational and unfounded in the Quran and Sunnah. Ordinary Muslims do not know this material, which is why Wood's objections did not land.
machine3 min 44 s17:38on YouTube
24 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
What should Muslims learn from the Wood versus Hijab debate?
Thorough knowledge wins debates, Muslims must raise their adab, and they must be consistent: if the laws of nature do not matter for miracles, then there is no ground to say three cannot equal one. Clips about camel urine or suspended laws of nature send a confusing message.
machine3 min 47 s27:53on YouTube
23 Apr 2018video
Who is Mufti Abu Layth's message aimed at?
His message is for the majority of Muslims who do not practise or feel Islam cannot stand up to reason, to show them that it can.
machine3 min 57 s0:00on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Does jinn possession exist in Islam?
Not as popularly pictured, Mufti Abu Layth holds: the idea of demons taking over a body and causing illness and insanity does not survive the Quran, the authentic Sunnah and reason. He asks what the jinn would even gain by it and sets out to trace where the belief comes from.
machine3 min 52 s0:00on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why did religious scholars end up explaining things like illness and the mind?
Because for most of history the ulama were the only educated class, so people brought them every unexplained question, from the divisibility of atoms to whether the intellect sits in the heart or the brain. They answered with the knowledge of their day, which is the background to the possession belief.
machine3 min 55 s3:52on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Should I believe something just because people say the Quran or hadith say so?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran itself appeals to reason, asking people to look, reflect and ponder, and condemns following forefathers blindly, so claims like possession must be tested against reason through the Quran. Someone reading the Quran without a cultural inheritance would never derive possession from it.
machine2 min 35 s19:34on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why do only believers in jinn possession seem to experience it?
Mufti Abu Layth says personal and family anecdotes are used to defend possession while the same Muslims dismiss Hindu miracles or Christian doctrine by reasoning against them, applying reason to everyone's claims but their own. He cites a study finding the brain's rational centre quietens during one's own religious experience.
machine3 min 58 s24:48on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
How do we know mental illness is not really jinn possession?
Mufti Abu Layth answers that an explanation which fits everything, like a child told that cyborgs cause all events, is not thereby true; the jinn have become the Muslim catch-all. Such belief is what Basil Mitchell's parable of the partisan describes, a faith no evidence can shake.
machine5 min 14 s28:46on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
What is the 'jinn of the gaps'?
It is Mufti Abu Layth's name for blaming the jinn for anything not yet understood, as atheists accuse believers of a god of the gaps. He lists conditions such as Capgras delusion, hemispatial neglect, aphantasia and foreign accent syndrome that have or will have natural explanations but would once have been called possession.
machine6 min 34 s48:28on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
What does reason mean in religion, and what does the Quran say about it?
Reason is the ability of a healthy mind to think and make judgements based on practical facts, broader than formal logic; Mufti Abu Layth takes the Surah al-Hajj verse that the hearts, not the eyes, are blind as the backdrop of the talk.
machine5 min 13 s0:00on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Why do Muslims need reason if they already have the Quran and Sunnah?
Mufti Abu Layth asks why reason matters once Islam has reached us, hears audience suggestions, and says the most important answer still lies before all of them, in the prequel he is about to give.
machine4 min 07 s5:13on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
How do Muslims know Islam is true and other religions are not?
Muslims reject Hinduism and the Trinity by reason, relying on a shared human intersubjectivity that judges by practical facts; Mufti Abu Layth says the same standard of reason must therefore be applied to Islam.
machine6 min 34 s9:20on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Is blind faith (taqlid) in creed acceptable in Islam?
The theologians held that blind-following in creed is haram and that faith must rest on reasoning; later scholars tolerated inherited faith as a lower level while holding that Islam aspires to faith that knows God to be one.
machine7 min 47 s15:54on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Why are so many Muslims and scholars opposed to using reason in religion?
Opposition to reason comes from insecurity, Mufti Abu Layth says; God is not unreasonable and would not give people reason and then command what clashes with it, and Muslims have ceded reason, once called hikmah, to atheists and scientists.
machine5 min 04 s23:41on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
How do we know the Quran is the word of God, if not by reason?
Arguments that the Quran is true because it says so, is unlike other books, is eloquent or flawless, or speaks of rain and fruit are no stronger than a spiderweb, Mufti Abu Layth says; without reason one only believes Islam is true because one was told.
machine7 min 48 s28:45on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
LatestDoes Islam stand the test of reason, and why should Muslims not fear examining it?
Mufti Abu Layth says he has certainty that Islam has stood the test of reason as well as time, that the hadith of the grave condemns faith that merely repeats what people say, and that Muslims must take reason back rather than shy away.
machine5 min 14 s36:33on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Why did Muslims become hostile to reason?
Mufti Abu Layth traces Muslim hostility to reason to the centuries-long sectarian conflict with the Mu'tazila, in which the mainstream answered the Mu'tazila's use of reason by disparaging reason itself and defending absurd narrations.
machine6 min 35 s49:33on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
How did the Golden Age backlash and the clergy contribute to Muslim hostility to reason?
The philosophy and reason promoted in the Golden Age provoked a reaction that dumbed reason down, and institutionalised clergy found 'who said the deen is supposed to make sense' a useful tool of control.
machine2 min 36 s56:08on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Will using reason make me lose my faith?
No, Mufti Abu Layth says: fearing that reason leads out of Islam betrays a lack of belief that Islam is true, and doubt that leads to a more certain understanding is legitimate, as Ibrahim's request to see how Allah revives the dead shows.
machine2 min 36 s58:44on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Does Ali's saying about wiping the socks prove that religion is not based on reason?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the 'if the deen were by opinion' wording has a weak chain and is absent from several versions, that Malik's Muwatta records wiping both sides of the khuff, and that rituals are practices rather than claims against reason.
machine3 min 56 s1:01:20on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Do miracles in the Quran break the laws of nature?
No, in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding: Allah does not break the laws He set, so every event called a miracle in the Quran has an explanation within nature, as fish falling from the sky does; abandoning reason would make every religion's claims equally valid.
machine3 min 56 s1:05:16on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
When should a hadith be rejected, and can a Muslim refuse a religious command that makes no sense?
A hadith is accepted only if it does not contradict reason, the transmitted sources or an established principle, as Ibn al-Jawzi wrote; the companion who refused an order to jump into a fire shows reason rightly judging a command.
machine5 min 12 s1:09:12on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
If reason judges religion, whose reason counts, and what about rituals?
The concept of ritual must make sense, not every detail; the shared judgement of a healthy mind is the standard; and, by Malik's rule that only the Messenger's words are beyond rejection, following a school is not belonging to a cult.
machine2 min 38 s1:14:24on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Should loyalty to Sahih al-Bukhari outweigh how a report presents the Prophet?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says loyalty belongs to the Prophet, not to al-Bukhari, and cites the age-of-Aisha report, which he holds untrue and disrespectful since Arabs of the time did not marry girls that young, as an example of what must be re-examined.
machine2 min 31 s1:23:36on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Two camps of religion: tribal mythology versus religion that must make sense
Religion is approached either as tribal custom with a mythology of superheroes, or as something that must make sense; Mufti Abu Layth says he is speaking only to the second group.
machine5 min 12 s20:20on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Calling to the Quran and Sunnah, not hadith; the winged horse on national television
Mufti Abu Layth calls people to the Quran and Sunnah rather than to hadith as such, since hadith must be sifted; the Dawkins and Mehdi Hasan exchange shows why religion must withstand reason.
machine3 min 51 s25:32on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
A belief that changed nothing for the dead; the hadith on his teacher's wall
The belief in Jesus's return has had zero impact on anyone who died until today, so it cannot be a core part of faith; Mufti Abu Layth introduces the hadith that shaped his approach.
machine2 min 37 s1:41:17on YouTube
21 Feb 2018Responding to Refutations
Why does he reject the hadith of the tree crying for the Prophet?
The religion is built on reason, so one standard must apply to all religions: a tree that reasons and cries cannot be accepted while other faiths' claims are called absurd. He also urged his critics to reject the demeaning reports about the Prophet, which they instead affirmed.
machine3 min 56 s5:12on YouTube
2017 · 4
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why did Muslim scholars of the past accept the idea of jinn possession?
Scholars of the past were the only learned people and were asked to explain everything, from the divisibility of atoms to where the intellect sits, so they explained strange behaviour with the best knowledge they had. That is the backdrop to the confusion over possession, not a proof of it.
machine5 min 14 s53:21on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Does the hadith that Shaytan flows in a person's blood prove possession?
No: the Prophet said it to two men who saw him with his wife Safiyya, about human suspicion, and nobody present was possessed. The Quran itself appeals to reason and proof, so possession must be tested by reason, which someone reading the Quran without cultural baggage would never find in it.
machine6 min 32 s1:09:02on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
People I know have seen jinn possession; does that not prove it?
Anecdotal experience is no proof: Muslims dismiss other faiths' miracle claims by reason while refusing to reason about their own, and possession afflicts only those who believe in it. A brain study found the prefrontal cortex shutting down during people's own religious experiences.
machine3 min 54 s1:15:34on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
How do we know mental illnesses are not really jinn possessions?
A theory that explains everything, like a child's cyborg conspiracy, is not thereby true, and 'the jinn' is such a theory for Muslims. Like Basil Mitchell's partisan who rationalises everything the stranger does, this is non-propositional faith that no evidence can reach.
machine5 min 18 s1:19:28on YouTube
2016 · 2
15 Mar 2016video
Is morality innate? Language acquisition, divine command, and insecurity in faith
The speakers hold that the Quran treats humans as having an innate moral sense, compared to an innate capacity for language, and say faith should not depend on silencing those who question it.
machine6 min 32 s17:23on YouTube
15 Mar 2016video
Ritualisation of the deen and the angels' question about Adam: can believers ask?
The deen has been ritualised so that scholarly conclusions cannot be questioned, while the angels' question to Allah about creating Adam is read as a model that believers may ask questions.
machine5 min 12 s23:55on YouTube