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Dress and appearance
52 segments in 29 recordings · 2014 to 2023 · 0 verified · 39 checked positions · fiqh/dress-and-appearance · Feed
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 10 Mar 2023
10 Mar 2023video
LatestIs it haram for men to wear earrings?
Early imams including Malik wore earrings as boys; Malik disliked golden earrings for boys because of the gold, not the earring.
machine4 min 57 s13:23on YouTube
Earlier answers · 51 · newest first
2021 · 8
10 Mar 2021video
Reply to Mufti Mangera on ear piercing: who defines normal and decent?
A played clip of Mufti Mangera allowing one or two ear piercings as 'normal' among decent people but not higher ones, which Mufti Abu Layth mocks for leaving undefined who decides what is normal.
machine3 min 40 s0:00on YouTube
10 Mar 2021video
Reply to Mufti Mangera: does the ban on muthla forbid piercing?
The clip cites the ban on muthla (mutilation) against piercing; Mufti Abu Layth explains that muthla means disfiguring bodies, especially of the dead, and mocks applying it to ear piercing.
machine3 min 57 s3:40on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
A mufti's clip on ear piercing: 'decency', 'manipulation' and muthla
Mufti Abu Layth mocks a mufti's argument that piercing beyond the earlobe is abnormal and amounts to muthla, saying muthla means disfiguring a body, not piercing it.
machine7 min 45 s1:53:05on YouTube
2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can men wear gold?
Men can wear gold, in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding; the Prophet discouraged it because Medina needed to stay on a war footing.
machine2 min 56 s16:35on YouTube
2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How can God be timeless and still perceive time?
Linear time is our perspective, Mufti Abu Layth says, not necessarily how God sees events; he also says tattoos are not haram for men.
machine2 min2:48:56on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIs growing a beard obligatory in the Hanafi school?
The guest says Hanafi principles act as a constitution before which everyone is equal, and that by them keeping the beard is mubah, not wajib as subcontinent scholars concluded.
machine5 min 45 s18:37on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does a bald woman have to wear hijab?
Mufti Abu Layth gives no ruling: he jokes about the wording and muses on hair loss in women and men.
machine1 min 07 s24:30on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Will I go to hell for not shaving my pubic hair?
Nobody goes to hell for not shaving pubic hair, Mufti Abu Layth says; it is a matter of hygiene, which religion tied to reward and closeness to God.
machine3 min 34 s1:03:44on YouTube
2020 · 9
9 Dec 2020video
Is it haram for men to wear necklaces, rings or earrings?
Mufti Abu Layth disagrees with Yasir Qadhi that men's jewellery is effeminate, saying men have always worn it and Western executives are no benchmark for Islamic etiquette.
machine8 min 38 s1:15on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Mufti Abu Layth's chat round: Sunni and Maliki, beards and quick answers
Quick answers: Mufti Abu Layth says he is Sunni and Maliki, and that the din is not in the beard.
machine2 min 06 s1:10:06on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does God really care whether I have a beard?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Sharia exists to preserve life and order, and that picturing God as obsessed with beards shrinks God into a child throwing tantrums.
machine6 min 28 s1:12:12on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do imams in the West wear 'Islamic' robes?
Mufti Abu Layth says there was never an Islamic clothing; clerical dress came centuries later as a symbol of status that distances scholars from people.
machine6 min 38 s1:21:12on YouTube
1 Oct 2020video
Are tattoos haram, and can I work as a tattoo artist?
Some Maliki scholars held tattoos permissible on the body, forbidding them only on the face because of harm, and being a tattoo artist is not haram by default.
machine8 min 17 s2:01on YouTube
22 Sep 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is a skin fade haircut haram?
Mufti Abu Layth says hairstyles are fine and rejects Dawah Man's claim that a zero-blade fade is haram, asking why God would be obsessed with hair.
machine8 min 07 s2:16:07on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
If Muslims focus too much on the beard, what deserves more focus?
Mufti Abu Layth answers by mocking the focus on beards and shaved moustaches, quoting al-Mutanabbi that such an ummah has become a laughing stock.
machine3 min 02 s2:18:44on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Is wearing my hijab turban-style allowed?
Yes, he says a turban-style covering is fine, because covering the hair is not clearly proven from the Quran or Sunnah; the emphasis was on modesty.
machine6 min 48 s17:43on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
What parts of the body count as 'awrah for men and women?
Mufti Abu Layth follows the school of Madinah: the core 'awrah is the private parts (for women, from below the navel to the thighs), and uncovering the rest in prayer does not invalidate it.
machine5 min 02 s34:01on YouTube
2019 · 12
17 Dec 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Is growing a beard compulsory in Islam?
Growing a beard was an ancient Arab custom shared by Muslims and their opponents, not an Islamic requirement in itself. The command to grow it is worded like commands to dye the hair and pray in shoes that nobody treats as obligatory, and no sahih hadith says how to grow it.
machine7 min 50 s0:00on YouTube
17 Sep 2019Quick Fiqh!
Is it a sin to pee standing up?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is not a sin at all; scholars only disliked it because the loose clothing of the past made splashes likely.
machine5 min 58 s1:18on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Can men wear earrings in Islam?
Yes, men may wear earrings according to Islam. Mufti Abu Layth sets out to show, through history and the practice of the Salaf, that the idea that earrings are effeminate is a misconception.
machine2 min 37 s0:00on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Have men historically worn earrings, or is it a recent fashion?
Men have worn earrings for thousands of years, in Assyria, Egypt, among the Israelites, in Persia, India and Europe, usually as a mark of nobility or soldiery. Only the European church restricted them to women, which is why defiant groups such as pirates kept wearing them.
machine7 min 45 s2:37on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Did men and boys wear earrings in the time of the Prophet and the early Muslims?
In the Prophet's society and among the Salaf boys commonly wore earrings, and many considered it sunnah for a boy. Later Sunni clergy prohibited the practice, perhaps influenced by the Christian church, while the Shia kept it alive.
machine2 min 38 s10:22on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Did Hasan and Husayn wear earrings?
Ibn Abbas lists piercing the ear among seven sunnahs for a newborn boy, and Hasan and Husayn had their ears pierced and wore earrings, Husayn wearing two. The reports come through Imam Jafar al-Sadiq's chain and an eyewitness account from Karbala.
machine3 min 58 s13:00on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Did early Sunni hadith scholars such as Sufyan ibn Uyayna wear earrings?
Yes: the Musnad of Abu Ya'la records a hadith student wearing two earrings, and al-Dhahabi's Siyar A'lam al-Nubala describes the young Sufyan ibn Uyayna sitting in Amr ibn Dinar's hadith class with an earring in his ear.
machine2 min 35 s16:58on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Did Imam Malik wear an earring?
Yes: his teacher's biography of Imam Malik records that Malik, while still a youth studying with Rabi'a, had an earring in his ear, and another Maliki work on the hadith of the Mudawwana says the same.
machine2 min 39 s19:33on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
What did Imam Malik and the Maliki jurists say about boys wearing earrings?
Malik preferred that boys not wear gold earrings, which Ibn Rushd explains as a ruling about gold rather than earrings, and Maliki theft rulings by al-Lakhmi and Ibn Abi Zayd treat an earring stolen from a boy as an ordinary case. Mufti Abu Layth concludes that boys wearing earrings was common and not seen as feminine.
machine5 min 13 s22:12on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Is a man wearing an earring imitating women or harmful?
No: Qadi Khan of the Hanafis allowed boys' earrings since the jahiliyya practice went uncriticised by the Prophet, the harm argument cannot permit piercing for girls and forbid it for boys, and history shows men wearing earrings. Men wearing kohl shows that what is 'effeminate' is a cultural matter.
machine3 min 57 s27:25on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Can reports from Shia sources about Hasan and Husayn be trusted?
Mufti Abu Layth accepts the reports as factual, saying the Shia had no reason to invent earrings for their own Imams, and calls it hypocrisy that Sunnis accept Imran ibn Hittan, a Khariji who praised Ali's killer, as a narrator in Sahih al-Bukhari while rejecting anything from Imam Jafar al-Sadiq.
machine5 min 16 s31:22on YouTube
24 Jul 2019Quick Fiqh!
Is it haram for a man to wear an earring?
No: men's earrings are permissible, with the precedent of Hasan, Husayn, Imam Malik and Sufyan ibn Uyayna, and the later scholars who opposed them were likely influenced by outside traditions. Mufti Abu Layth accepts that others may call it haram but says the evidence speaks for itself.
machine2 min 22 s36:38on YouTube
2018 · 10
10 Jul 2018Quick Fiqh!
Is it haram for men to wear gold or silk?
In Mufti Abu Layth's view the prohibition of gold and silk for men is a matter of dislike (karaha), not a categorical haram, since many Companions wore both all their lives and the Prophet's aim was to keep people focused in hard times. He notes the popular opinion is that it is haram and says nobody has to follow his understanding.
machine15 min 13 s0:00on YouTube
12 Jun 2018Quick Fiqh!
Do I have to grow a beard?
The beard was the custom of all Arabs, not something the Prophet introduced, and the 'be different from the Jews and Christians' wording is applied selectively, since the same words command dyeing hair and praying in shoes. The Prophet never defined what a beard should look like, and scholars disagree whether the command was binding.
machine4 min 34 s0:00on YouTube
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Is there a hadith that says a woman who wears perfume outside is a zaniya?
The report, transmitted only from Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and found in al-Nasa'i, Abu Dawud, Ahmad and al-Tirmidhi, says a woman who passes people while wearing perfume is a fornicator.
machine2 min 39 s0:00on YouTube
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Doesn't the hadith of Zaynab forbid women from wearing perfume to the mosque?
The report only tells women not to wear perfume to the late Isha, sometimes Zaynab alone, so Mufti Abu Layth reads it as a specific instruction, not a general ban.
machine3 min 53 s19:47on YouTube
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Can women wear perfume when they go out?
Yes, women may wear perfume when they go out; Mufti Abu Layth says people should smell good and be presentable, and the slanderous reports must not be attributed to the Prophet.
machine1 min 48 s27:34on YouTube
3 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Are tattoos haram in Islam?
Tattoos are permissible in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding, though he notes most scholars held them haram and some Malikis only makruh. He reads the prohibition in its historical context of branding slaves and cattle rather than beautification.
machine10 min 31 s0:00on YouTube
8 Mar 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Why do you dress in a t-shirt and joke around while teaching Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth dresses and acts the same on and off screen so that nobody meets a different person in real life. Putting on a pious appearance for the camera would be a double standard and would create cognitive dissonance in viewers.
machine7 min 47 s0:00on YouTube
5 Mar 2018Quick Fiqh!
Are tattoos haram?
Small tattoos for beautification are not haram, at most discouraged. Tattoos that disfigure, such as gang face tattoos, he considers haram.
machine55 s0:00on YouTube
5 Mar 2018Quick Fiqh!
Is it haram for men to wear earrings?
It is not haram for men to wear earrings, though it is not the general custom. Boys wore them in the early period, and Imam Malik objected only to gold, not to the earring.
machine1 min 06 s0:00on YouTube
2 Jan 2018Responding to Refutations
Shaving the beard: Qadi Iyad's view and the demand for one hadith
The view that shaving the beard is not haram is presented as Qadi Iyad's, and Mufti Abu Layth challenges the critic to produce a hadith teaching how to keep a beard. He adds that truth is not decided by the number of scholars holding a view.
machine3 min 53 s10:31on YouTube
2017 · 4
2 Apr 2017video
Can I pray in a t-shirt or vest, or in clothes with a picture on them?
Yes, as long as the 'awrah is covered: no special dress is needed, and pictures on clothes or in the room do not invalidate the prayer. One should not deliberately dress down for salah.
machine2 min 26 s41:27on YouTube
2 Apr 2017video
Can I pray with my trousers below my ankles, or in tight jeans?
Yes: trousers below the ankle or tight trousers do not affect the salah. Mufti Abu Layth does not consider trousers below the ankle forbidden, since the old ruling rested on arrogance.
machine2 min 03 s43:53on YouTube
2 Apr 2017video
Do men need to cover their head to pray, and can I pray in shorts?
No: covering the head is custom and convention, not a sunnah of salah, so praying bareheaded is fine and not makruh. Long shorts are fine if they cover the 'awrah.
machine1 min 39 s45:56on YouTube
2 Apr 2017video
Is my prayer valid if my trousers slip and part of my backside shows for a moment in sujud?
Yes, the prayer is still valid: a momentary exposure of the extended 'awrah in sujud does not invalidate it, though one should dress more modestly. The core 'awrah may never be exposed.
machine2 min 41 s47:35on YouTube
2015 · 2
5 May 2015video
Is a short back and sides or faded haircut haram?
A short back and sides, or hair of unequal lengths, is permissible and does not fall under the hadith forbidding qaza'. Shaving patches and leaving others (qaza') is at most disliked, not haram, in the view he presents, unless done to disfigure or to imitate a religious practice.
machine15 min 52 s1:20on YouTube
20 Mar 2015video
Do I have to wear my trousers above my ankles?
No: for men, wearing the garment below the ankles is not haram unless it is done out of arrogance, in which case the hadith apply; otherwise it is at most makruh. In today's societies covering the ankles is normal and carries no arrogance, so insisting on it misses the purpose of the ruling.
machine12 min 57 s1:18on YouTube
2014 · 6
2 Jul 2014video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth not dress like a traditional mufti?
The attacks do not bother him much: he holds his appearance permissible and wants to be a role model for Muslims who cannot relate to the traditional look.
machine2 min 59 s19:08on YouTube
2 Jul 2014video
Does Islam require a particular dress or beard style for scholars?
No: respect the difference of opinion. Many esteemed Maliki scholars were clean-shaven or wore suits, and the din mandates no uniform.
machine2 min 36 s22:13on YouTube
12 Apr 2014video
Can I trim my beard short or to a goatee, below a fist's length?
Trimming the beard from the sides, to a goatee or to less than a fist's length is permissible and not haram, though a difference of opinion exists and others may follow it. Mufti Abu Layth's aim is to show that this opinion has a long and continuing place in the tradition.
machine3 min 57 s1:22on YouTube
12 Apr 2014video
Which scholars have allowed trimming or shaving the beard?
Maliki and other classical jurists held that trimming or even shaving the beard is at most makruh, not haram, and many modern scholars across the schools have given the same fatwa or kept trimmed, goateed or clean-shaven beards themselves. Mufti Abu Layth presents this to show the opinion's long standing, not to deny the other view.
machine5 min 15 s4:01on YouTube
12 Apr 2014video
What do the sound hadith about the beard actually say?
Only three hadith on the beard have undisputed chains, and each pairs trimming the moustache with the beard and gives the reason of differing from the Jews and Christians, the Majus or the mushrikin. Many read this as an obligatory command, but Mufti Abu Layth says other hadith show otherwise.
machine4 min 02 s9:16on YouTube
12 Apr 2014video
Is it haram to trim my beard shorter than a fist's length?
Trimming the beard below a fist is not haram according to many great scholars, a well-founded view in the tradition, though others may follow stricter opinions.
machine12 min 48 s0:04on YouTube