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Public law and governance
89 segments in 39 recordings · 2015 to 2024 · 0 verified · 56 checked positions · fiqh/public-law-and-governance · Feed
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 29 Sep 2024
29 Sep 2024On Current Events
LatestIs someone who says something wrong about the Prophet guilty of blasphemy?
Not when there was no such intention: Mufti Abu Layth says Mufti Tariq Masood was clearly wrong, but he meant to praise the Prophet, so calling him a blasphemer is unacceptable.
machine4 min 34 s5:12on YouTube
Earlier answers · 88 · newest first
2021 · 16
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does China try to control who becomes the Dalai Lama?
The guest says China's attempt to control the Dalai Lama's reincarnation shows a state using religion, something he sees in pieces in Muslim countries and elsewhere.
machine5 min 11 s53:12on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestIs it obligatory for Muslims to establish a caliphate?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says there is no obligation to establish a caliphate, citing classical Maliki scholars and Akram Nadwi against the claim of consensus.
machine6 min 36 s54:24on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestDoes Mufti Abu Layth have any scholarly precedent for his views?
His views have respected precedents: al-Burzuli, a Maliki Shaykh al-Islam, held that punishments change with the age, and the subcontinent scholars he quotes were Ahl al-Hadith, not heretics. Not every untrue statement is a sin punished with hell.
machine3 min 50 s3:10:56on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was the murdered man in the story of the cow brought back to life?
The verse of the heifer does not say the dead man was revived; like 'in retaliation there is life', it refers to lives saved when a ritual of justice averted tribal war.
machine2 min 57 s3:33:04on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why did Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh leave Islam for a time?
Not doubt about the Quran: he feels the man was incentivised by the Makkans and rewarded for intelligence about Madinah, and he later returned to Islam and governed in Egypt.
machine3 min 53 s1:00:37on YouTube
22 Feb 2021video
Abdul Rahman Hassan's clip: the first Khariji, protest, and never criticising rulers
Mufti Abu Layth plays and mocks a clip in which Abdul Rahman Hassan presents protest against rulers as the mentality of the first Khariji, reading it as a defence of the Saudi rulers.
machine5 min 28 s0:02on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did the Prophet order a scribe killed for leaving Islam?
Not for apostasy, he says: the scribe was not executed, and the issue was treason, since he exposed Madinah's weak points to its enemies; apostasy laws were treason laws.
machine2 min 33 s1:11:59on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did the Prophet say he would kill the first Khariji's descendants?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet never said 'I will kill his lineage'; in the Bukhari report he stopped Umar from killing the man, so the clip misrepresents the Prophet to defend rulers.
machine10 min 37 s2:13:51on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are children held accountable in Islam for bullying or hurting others?
Children are accountable, he says, in a way suited to their age: the laws for them are lighter, but a child who harms another does not get a free pass.
machine1 min 49 s2:38:10on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does an Islamic judge always give the maximum punishment for theft?
Mufti Abu Layth says a qadi would weigh the circumstances, much as courts in England do today, and that this is how the Sharia would work; the hudud would be different now.
machine1 min 58 s2:39:59on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Clips: three critics' videos attacking Shabir Ally
Mufti Abu Layth plays and mocks videos in which three critics attack Shabir Ally's views, including his view on hudud.
machine11 min 43 s2:48:08on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Maliki scholars really allow fines instead of hudud punishments?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Maliki fatwa allowing punishment through wealth was the work of a major scholar and was practised as law for centuries, not a forgotten opinion.
machine10 min 26 s3:05:51on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What is wijada, and why does it matter for the hadith on killing apostates?
The guest says the apostasy hadith cannot justify killing, since its own wording is not followed and it reaches us only by wijada; Mufti Abu Layth blames the Salafi call for putting raw hadith in place of the madhhabs.
machine4 min 38 s1:06:26on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Did the early Hanafis hold that apostates should be killed?
The guest says the early Hanafi view, from Abu Hanifa and Zufar, is that apostasy itself carries no punishment and only an actual threat is punished; Mufti Abu Layth calls today's Hanafi blasphemy laws upside down.
machine1 min 55 s1:11:43on YouTube
12 Jan 2021video
Why was Ibn Taymiyya put in prison?
Ibn Taymiyya made powerful enemies by declaring Muslims kafir, and Maliki judges finally jailed him over his fatwa, voiced by his student in Jerusalem, that one may not travel to visit the Prophet's grave. Mufti Abu Layth calls the view foolish but says no one should be punished for an opinion.
machine8 min 17 s0:00on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does rightly guided caliph mean, and did Muawiya see Ali as one?
The term rashidun came later; he thinks Muawiya saw Ali as more pious but himself as the better ruler, and that piety and governing skill rarely coincide.
machine8 min 04 s1:57:34on YouTube
2020 · 34
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran treat every human life as sacred, even in war?
The guest says the Quran holds every human soul sacred, which classical exegetes on jihad missed; Mufti Abu Layth says Muslim scholarship must shift from outdated fiqh to ethics.
machine3 min 27 s1:52:45on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
How was Abu Bakr chosen as leader after the Prophet died?
Mufti Abu Layth rejects the idea that the companions knew leaders must come from Quraysh, and cites Umar's own words in Bukhari that Abu Bakr's hasty election must not be repeated and leaders should be chosen by shura.
machine4 min 20 s10:40on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
The Peshawar courtroom killing of an Ahmadi accused of blasphemy
Mufti Abu Layth condemns the Peshawar courtroom killing, says a claim to prophethood is not an insult to the Prophet, and blames the authorities for failing to prevent it.
machine11 min 26 s1:36:23on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does Abu Bakr's war on Musaylima justify killing someone who claims prophethood?
Mufti Abu Layth says Abu Bakr's wars were political and the Prophet never ordered Musaylima killed, so they cannot justify killing a claimant.
machine7 min 16 s1:47:49on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
What is the Hagia Sophia and what did Turkey decide about it?
Turkey's courts under Erdogan ruled that the Hagia Sophia be converted back into a mosque, prompting celebration and mockery of objectors online. The building was built by Justinian I as a cathedral, once the largest in the eastern Christian world.
machine2 min 43 s0:00on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Does Islam allow converting churches and other places of worship into mosques?
Islam never set out to convert other religions' holy sites: Umar left Jerusalem's churches alone, and Quran 22:40 counts monasteries, churches and synagogues among places where Allah's name is glorified and which He protects. The Hagia Sophia's conversion happened, but it was not what Islam encourages.
machine5 min 15 s2:43on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Was it haram for Muslims to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque after the conquest?
No, he says: it was the politics of conquest in medieval times, done by Muslims and Christians alike and neither encouraged nor prohibited by Islam, but it was not a good thing. The building later became a museum, and the argument now is only that it was once a mosque.
machine2 min 37 s7:58on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Is it wrong to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque?
Yes, he says: not as a matter of halal and haram, since Turkey may do what it wants with its property, but it is absolutely wrong and a great mistake, driven by the regime's bid to lead the Islamic world.
machine2 min 38 s10:35on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Were the Ottomans the representatives of Islam?
No, he says: the Ottoman Empire was a dynasty that happened to be Muslim, practised mandatory fratricide and styled its sultans 'Caesar of Rome', and never claimed to be a symbol of Islam. The romantic image is a later invention.
machine2 min 35 s13:13on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Does Istanbul need the Hagia Sophia as a mosque?
No: the Blue Mosque, with room for at least ten thousand, is a four-minute walk away and hundreds of Istanbul mosques already call the adhan, so the emotional reaction to hearing the adhan there is misplaced.
machine2 min 38 s15:48on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Can a waqf never be overturned, as the argument for the Hagia Sophia claims?
Mufti Abu Layth says the waqf argument fails because Abu Hanifa himself held that an endowment can be overturned, a view Hanafis abandon when it does not serve the powerful or the clergy. He calls the reconversion part of a rising right-wing fascism that includes Muslims.
machine3 min 58 s22:22on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
What happened with the Hagia Sophia?
Turkey's courts ruled that the Hagia Sophia, originally Justinian's cathedral, be turned back into a mosque, to celebration and mockery online.
machine3 min 47 s1:14:09on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Does Islam allow turning churches into mosques?
Islam never set out to convert other faiths' holy sites: Umar left Jerusalem's churches alone, and Quran 22:40 names them among places where Allah's name is glorified.
machine5 min 09 s1:17:16on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Was it haram for the Ottomans to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque?
The original conversion was not haram but the politics of conquest, practised by Muslims and Christians alike, and he does not think it was good.
machine2 min 35 s1:22:25on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Is it wrong to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque?
It is not haram, since Turkey may do as it likes with its property, but it is absolutely wrong and a great mistake, done for political standing.
machine2 min 33 s1:25:00on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Were the Ottomans representatives of Islam?
The Ottoman Empire was a dynasty that happened to be Muslim, never a symbol of Islam; the romantic image is a later invention.
machine2 min 33 s1:27:33on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Does Istanbul need the Hagia Sophia as a mosque?
There is no need: the Blue Mosque, holding ten thousand, is four minutes away and hundreds of mosques in Istanbul already call the adhan.
machine3 min 13 s1:30:06on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Can a mosque that was once a waqf never be anything else?
The waqf argument fails, he says, because Abu Hanifa held that an endowment can be overturned, a view Hanafis drop when it does not serve power.
machine3 min 13 s1:37:09on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Isn't the Prophet clearing the Kaaba of idols a precedent for the Hagia Sophia?
No: removing the idols from the Kaaba was about ending superstition, and cannot justify converting a museum in a secular country, which he calls a political stunt.
machine2 min 36 s1:47:58on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Was Sudan right to drop its alcohol and apostasy laws and end flogging?
Mufti Abu Layth welcomes Sudan's reforms: flogging today only damages Islam's message, FGM should be outlawed, and alcohol was never prohibited for non-Muslims.
machine2 min 28 s2:08:00on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is an Islamic economic system realistic or utopian?
The guest argues that Islam offers a complete welfare-minded social order; Mufti Abu Layth presses him on whether it is utopian.
machine6 min 28 s2:12:33on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Were the Prophet's judgements meant to bind Muslims after his death?
The guest says the Prophet's authority as judge and leader was for his lifetime only, that his bay'ah was a reciprocal social contract in which women voted, and that his messengership ended once the Quran was delivered, so obeying the messenger cannot mean obeying Bukhari.
machine6 min 31 s31:53on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Can hadith be sifted with criteria, or must the whole corpus be rejected?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet's practice survives as a living tradition in fiqh and that he accepts a hadith only if it passes reason, the texts and the principles. The guest replies that narrators who fabricated a stoning verse forfeit all credibility, like a false witness in the Quran.
machine3 min 53 s48:57on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How does the guest translate the verses on cutting off the thief's hand, jizya and polygamy?
The guest's translation renders the thief's punishment as cutting off the means, the tax on non-Muslims as war reparations, sa'ihat as women active in society, and polygamy as permitted only for widows with orphans in exigent circumstances.
machine3 min 58 s2:12:32on YouTube
19 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Was there ever a verse of stoning in the Quran, and does stoning still apply?
The guest says Umar's 'verse of rajm' refers to the muharaba verse 5:33, from which exemplary punishment including stoning derives, and that it still applies to extreme crimes under strict conditions. Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Prophet only condoned stoning from Jewish practice until the lashing verse, and that under Maliki scholars like al-Burzuli the hudud change with the age.
machine5 min 14 s1:31:11on YouTube
19 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Was Ibn Mas'ud's Quran different from the Quran we have?
No: the guest says the reports that Ibn Mas'ud rejected al-Fatiha or the last two surahs are wrongly ascribed to him, and the major companions vouched for the same Quran, the only traceable dispute being over the word 'qul'. Mufti Abu Layth also says he would not advocate cutting the hand today, since for him the hudud have already changed with the age.
machine3 min 57 s1:37:31on YouTube
1 Jun 2020video
Should a person accused of magic be killed?
Mufti Abu Layth says calls to kill the 'magician' show the sorry state of Muslims and why they are a laughing stock.
machine1 min 40 s8:54on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran prescribe stoning for adultery?
The Quran's penalty for adultery is flogging, not stoning, which the guest says entered Muslim law from hadith and is biblical in origin, so explaining Islam to the public must start from the Quran. Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees completely that the Quran must have primacy.
machine5 min 14 s7:38on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran prescribe a punishment for apostasy?
The Quran prescribes no worldly penalty for apostasy, only punishment in the hereafter, and 'there is no compulsion in religion' is stated as emphatically as the testimony of faith. Rightly representing the Quran is about pleasing Allah, not the kuffar.
machine2 min 37 s11:34on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Can hudud punishments such as stoning or hand-cutting change with the times?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that stoning was a pre-Quranic practice abrogated by the Quran and that the Sharia's punishments reflect their age, as Maliki scholars and the Ottomans applied. The guest agrees that the spirit of the law can require departing from its letter, as Umar did when he suspended hand-cutting in a famine.
machine6 min 33 s18:08on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How clearly was zakah defined in the Prophet's lifetime?
The guest says some salaf and Ibn Taymiyya counted taxes paid to the authorities as zakah; Mufti Abu Layth says zakah was not clearly defined in the Prophet's time and its later rules were a pragmatic tax decision.
machine5 min 08 s42:21on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Were the people who refused zakah after the Prophet's death apostates?
The guest says taxes that fund welfare can count as zakah, and that the refusers fought by Abu Bakr were rebels against the state rather than apostates; Mufti Abu Layth says he is inclined to that view.
machine7 min 47 s47:29on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Abu Hanifa hold that there is no hadd punishment for sodomy?
The guest says Abu Hanifa held there is no hadd for sodomy, that Salafis attack Hanafis for it, and that a Salafi mufti used the same view to shield one of their own scholars.
machine4 min 43 s2:28:54on YouTube
28 Feb 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
Should election campaigns only be publicly funded?
Mufti Abu Layth thinks there should be some regulation of election funding, though banning private funding outright would restrict liberties, so it is a tough question.
machine1 min 19 s33:27on YouTube
2019 · 4
21 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Closing: build bridges, talk to everyone, and an invitation to Daniel Haqiqatjou
Talk to everyone, including ex-Muslims, and hold dialogue where ideas differ. Mufti Abu Layth has invited Daniel Haqiqatjou to a dialogue on apostasy.
machine1 min18:17on YouTube
4 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Is capital punishment, including for apostasy, justified?
Mufti Abu Layth opposes capital punishment as absurd, killing to stop killing, and calls justifying death for apostasy as treason a stupid argument. He welcomes Mohammed Hijab's apparent move away from the classical ruling to kill apostates.
machine7 min 25 s29:52on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Who transmitted the hadith 'whoever changes his religion, kill him', and does the Quran punish apostasy?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran is ambivalent about those who leave Islam and that the call to kill apostates is nonsense; the report 'whoever changes his religion, kill him' in Bukhari rests solely on Ikrima, a Khariji whom Imam Malik and Ibn Umar distrusted. He introduces Abdullah Sameer's post as the subject he will answer.
machine5 min 07 s1:18on YouTube
8 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
What does the Quran say about kings in the story of Sheba?
The Queen's saying that kings ruin the towns they enter raises the question of what gives anyone the right to rule others.
machine2 min 34 s24:54on YouTube
2018 · 24
20 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Does Islam say homosexuals should be thrown off buildings or executed?
There is no sahih hadith in which the Prophet spoke about homosexuals, the reports of Ali ordering executions are not authentic in Mufti Abu Layth's view, and the early jurists disagreed, with the Hanafis holding it is not a hadd offence. The claim of a consensus that homosexual acts deserve death is false.
machine7 min 56 s0:00on YouTube
20 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Is homosexuality haram in Islam, and why were the people of Lut destroyed?
Mufti Abu Layth accepts the majority view that homosexual acts are haram, but says the punishments scholars assigned were variable public-order measures that changed over time, that the people of Lut were destroyed primarily for rejecting their prophet, and that the ruling does not require hatred of homosexual people.
machine4 min 50 s18:27on YouTube
3 Sep 2018Responding to Refutations
Reply to Abdullah al-Andalusi: the 'white saviour' and the caliphate
Mufti Abu Layth mocks Abdullah al-Andalusi's call to establish the caliphate as a 'white saviour complex', while praising converts who devoted themselves to study.
machine9 min 31 s0:00on YouTube
3 Sep 2018Responding to Refutations
Is the world today dar al-harb, the land of war?
Mufti Abu Layth rejects the teaching that the whole world is dar al-harb, saying it puts people one step from treating their neighbours as enemy combatants.
machine2 min 33 s9:31on YouTube
3 Sep 2018Responding to Refutations
Are the hadith about the khilafah authentic?
Mufti Abu Layth says every hadith about the khilafah is fabricated, since the notion did not exist in the Prophet's lifetime and the Companions did not know them.
machine2 min 38 s12:04on YouTube
3 Sep 2018Responding to Refutations
Did al-Ghazali say Muslims must establish a caliphate?
When al-Ghazali argued for a caliph he meant a king who keeps law and order, as opposed to anarchy, not a system to be set against democracy.
machine3 min 49 s14:42on YouTube
3 Sep 2018Responding to Refutations
Who should I listen to about political ideas in Islam?
Anyone speaking about ideas in Islam should at least be a scholar; he warns young people away from caliphate groups and points to Hamza Yusuf's lecture calling the caliphate a myth.
machine4 min 22 s18:31on YouTube
30 Aug 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
The first problem: Bukhari's semi-divine status above the Quran in practice
Sahih al-Bukhari has been given a semi-divine status that in practice places it on par with or above the Quran, which he rejects outright. The Quran always takes precedence, and Bukhari is a book like the other hadith collections.
machine5 min 17 s6:33on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Does Islam punish someone for leaving the faith?
Islam gives freedom of belief: the Quran says there is no compulsion in religion and leaves belief to choice, and neither the Quran nor the established Sunnah says an apostate must be killed.
machine5 min 16 s0:00on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Does the sanctity of life in Islam rule out killing apostates?
Life has conclusive sanctity in Islam, and preserving life and freedom of religion for everyone are among the aims of the shari'ah.
machine2 min 36 s5:16on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Why did some classical scholars rule that apostates be executed?
Where classical scholars ruled that apostates be executed, they were dealing with what would now be treason or armed rebellion in a very different world; those rulings do not apply today, and their prevalence then did not make them right.
machine3 min 57 s7:52on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did the Prophet ever execute anyone for leaving Islam?
The Prophet never executed anyone for disbelief or apostasy: he spared the hypocrite Abdullah ibn Ubayy, traded with Jews until his death, did not act against Ibn Sayyad and pardoned Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh.
machine3 min 53 s11:49on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Were apostates punished for disbelief or for fighting against Muslims?
The classical punishment targeted apostates who took up arms against the community, not disbelief itself: Umar preferred to restrain and persuade, al-Tahawi tied it to waging war, and the Hanafis exempted women because they were not combatants.
machine7 min 46 s15:42on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Which hadith are used to justify killing apostates, and were the scholars who used them right?
Some scholars did rule that apostates be killed, and he says they were clearly wrong, products of a ruthless age; the time given to apostates in the reports makes sense only as time to withdraw from rebellion.
machine2 min 38 s23:28on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
What is the context of the hadith 'whoever changes his religion, kill him'?
The report 'whoever changes his religion, kill him' clashes with the Quran, and in full it is Ikrima's account of Ali burning people alive and Ibn Abbas objecting that he should have executed them instead.
machine2 min 36 s26:06on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is Ikrima, the narrator of the apostasy hadith, reliable?
The main chains of 'whoever changes his religion, kill him' run through Ikrima, whom he describes as a Khariji, and whom Imam Malik and many early authorities rejected or called a liar.
machine6 min 34 s28:42on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is the chain of the apostasy hadith through Anas reliable?
The alternative chain of the apostasy hadith through Anas is also weak: it includes a narrator with Mu'tazili tendencies and Qatada, who is known for tadlis, and the report clashes with reason, the Quran and the Prophet's life.
machine3 min 58 s35:16on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Are the Abu Hurayra and Hamza al-Aslami narrations on apostasy authentic?
The other narrations used for killing apostates, from Abu Hurayra and Hamza al-Aslami, also have problems in their chains: rejected or unknown narrators and a known mudallis.
machine3 min 57 s39:14on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Why would an apostate deserve death, and what about the three days to repent?
An apostate cannot be killed for disbelief, since that would condemn every disbeliever, and the 'three days to return to Islam' is absurd: it coerces people into hypocrisy and belittles the Prophet's thirteen years of preaching.
machine5 min 14 s43:11on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Can a life be taken on the basis of a doubtful hadith?
There is no verse and no conclusively established hadith for killing apostates, and a life, whose sanctity is conclusive, cannot be taken on isolated reports that carry doubt; defending it while demanding religious freedom in the West is a double standard.
machine5 min 17 s48:25on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
How should Muslims treat people who leave Islam?
People who leave Islam should be left alone, since that is between them and God; those who misrepresent the Prophet bear blame for people's hatred, and the Prophet's way was gentleness, not coercion or a state.
machine6 min 35 s53:42on YouTube
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Would the Prophet really call a woman wearing perfume a fornicator?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says calling a woman a fornicator is the crime of qadhf under Quran 24:4, punished by the Malikis whatever the intention, and the Prophet was never obscene, so the report insults him.
machine9 min 15 s10:32on YouTube
5 Mar 2018On Love, Romance, and Relationships
Rapid-round replies: steroids, state control and prenuptial agreements
Steroids are a matter of legality rather than theology, prenuptial agreements are not legally binding in the UK, and Mufti Abu Layth says he is against state control and favours a hands-off approach to governing.
machine1 min 54 s22:06on YouTube
15 Feb 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Does a mufti have to be appointed by the government?
No. Being a mufti can be a salaried professional role, as in fatwa institutions, or a voluntary, freelance one.
machine41 s17:50on YouTube
2017 · 7
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
If a religious figure does something wrong, should people expose him online?
If a crime was committed it must be reported to the authorities, and vigilante justice is haram. If the act is only haram and not a crime, it is for Allah alone to judge, not for people online.
machine2 min 34 s10:30on YouTube
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Who has the right to tell other Muslims off for doing something haram?
Hisbah, commanding good and forbidding evil, is for legitimate authority and for qualified scholars, and only in matters that are clearly agreed upon. Imam Malik said one may advise but not argue or dispute.
machine2 min 37 s13:04on YouTube
14 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Can Islamic punishments like stoning and cutting off hands change with time?
Yes, in his understanding: the Sharia itself asks for punishments fitting the age, so today they would be replaced by penalties such as prison, following Maliki and other precedents.
machine5 min 03 s0:00on YouTube
9 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Are Muslims obliged to establish an Islamic state or khilafah?
The guest says religion is a personal matter between a person and God, and believers have no obligation to obtain a society or a state, though if they have power they must run it by God's command. Prophets such as Ibrahim and Isa, and Zakariya, Yahya and Maryam under Roman rule, never sought power and remain examples.
machine2 min 10 s0:00on YouTube
9 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Did the Prophet migrate to Madinah to set up a state, and when did the khilafah end?
The guest says the Prophet left Makkah because he was forced out, not to found a state, and the khilafah rashidah ended with Ali, after which Umayyads and Abbasids were kings in all but name. The Quranic promise of khilafah was for the first generation only, and the 1924 abolition ended a powerless kingship, not a khilafah.
machine3 min 01 s2:10on YouTube
9 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Why is the call to restore the khilafah dangerous for young Muslims?
Mufti Abu Layth says the nostalgic 'Bollywood version' of Islamic history, in which a perfect khilafah existed until 1924, is a fantasy, since the khilafah rashidah never went beyond Ali. Guilt-tripping young Muslims with it and with Dar al-Harb rhetoric breeds the extremist narrative and needs tackling.
machine3 min 38 s5:11on YouTube
9 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
If Muslims want a khilafah, why not first establish Islam in the countries they already have?
Mufti Abu Layth says those pushing a purely politicised Islam are, in his understanding, near the modern Khawarij and use the same evidences as ISIS. The guest says Muslims already have fifty countries, that Pakistanis who sought Nizam-e-Mustafa now want to leave, that khilafah groups cannot even unite, and that Allah does not give what people do not deserve.
machine3 min 40 s8:49on YouTube
2016 · 1
15 Mar 2016video
Apostasy: execution as divine policy, tribal loyalty and treason in wartime
The speakers present the execution of apostates as tied to wartime treason and tribal loyalty in early Arab society rather than to belief alone, and say the Quran should be the primary reference in the discussion.
machine5 min 19 s0:06on YouTube
2015 · 2
6 Apr 2015video
Is working with the government or Prevent a form of serving false gods?
No: he categorically rejects the view of some political groups that any association with the authorities is serving a false god, calling it unscholarly. He accepts that elements within the programmes, including counter-terrorism officers who he says worked against him, need reviewing.
machine3 min 57 s17:09on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Should Muslims deny that jihad exists in Islam to counter extremism?
No: he says denying jihad or reducing it to self-defence feeds extremists, who use it to call scholars sellouts. The answer is to reclaim traditional Islam and own the concept with its context and conditions.
machine3 min 55 s31:30on YouTube