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Narrator criticism
59 segments in 32 recordings · 2018 to 2023 · 0 verified · 47 checked positions · hadith/authentication/narrator-criticism · Feed
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 19 Apr 2023
19 Apr 2023video
LatestWhy does the practice of Madinah matter more than a single hadith?
Mufti Abu Layth says the inherited practice of Madinah, like its adhan, outweighs an isolated report, since not every Sunnah was documented and narrators made honest mistakes; this is why he favours the school of Madinah.
machine5 min 15 s6:49on YouTube
Earlier answers · 58 · newest first
2023 · 1
6 Feb 2023video
Is Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza consistent in how he criticises hadith?
Not fully, says Mufti Abu Layth: Engineer Mirza's rational critique of others' hadith stops short of scrutinising how sahih hadith were authenticated. Mufti still calls him a legend and a much-needed voice.
machine8 min 28 s0:01on YouTube
2021 · 22
14 Mar 2021video
Did Yasir Qadhi himself say a hadith came into Islam from Jewish sources through Abu Hurayra?
Qadhi's clip endorses Ibn Kathir's view that the Gog and Magog report is defective and came from Israelite material through Abu Hurayra and Ka'b al-Ahbar. Mufti Abu Layth calls this hypocrisy, since Qadhi called the same claim about the Jesus reports preposterous.
machine2 min 37 s47:19on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth say the Bukhari chain for Jesus's descent is unreliable?
The first Bukhari chain leaves two narrators' names ambiguous, a practice al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar record of al-Bukhari, and passes through al-Zuhri, whom the critics describe as inserting his own words into reports and making mursal reports reach the Prophet.
machine9 min 18 s1:35:56on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
What problems does Mufti Abu Layth find in the Sahih Muslim chains for Jesus's return?
The second Bukhari chain passes through Qutayba, who once concealed a known forger in a chain, and the Sahih Muslim chains pass through narrators faulted for lax or inaccurate transmission from al-Zuhri, notably Yunus ibn Yazid, with al-Zuhri himself recurring in each.
machine5 min 16 s1:45:14on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Who are the problematic narrators in the Sahih Muslim reports on Jesus's return?
The Sahih Muslim chains include a narrator who suffered memory loss, a narrator who cannot be identified and could not have met Abu Hurayra, a major mudallis whose reports some critics discarded as fabrications, and Abu al-Zubayr, whom Abu Hatim did not consider reliable.
machine6 min 32 s1:50:30on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Is there a single hadith on Jesus's return with an unproblematic chain?
Every chain Mufti Abu Layth examined for the strongest reports in Bukhari and Muslim contains a criticised narrator, so Qadhi's claim that they leave no doubt fails; accepting a report because al-Bukhari included it, while ignoring critics who were his equals or seniors, is arbitrary.
machine5 min 13 s1:57:02on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Is the hadith of Aisha about Jesus and the Dajjal reliable?
The hadith of Aisha on Jesus's return rests on a lone transmitter, an undervalued narrator who dictated 41,000 reports from memory in Isbahan with a thousand errors, and whose version alone has the Dajjal emerging from the Jews of Isbahan, which Mufti Abu Layth finds suspicious.
machine5 min 09 s2:02:15on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
What does Mufti Abu Layth say about the Ibn Mas'ud hadith on the end of time and Jesus's return?
The Ibn Mas'ud report has unknown narrators, opens by noting the Christians' claim that Jesus will return, and ends with life regrowing from a seminal fluid sent from beneath the Throne, a detail Mufti Abu Layth calls preposterous and uses to argue that such reports can be questioned.
machine3 min 58 s2:07:24on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Who was the blind narrator of the return hadith who relied on his slave girl?
One transmitter of the return reports went blind, lost his memory and relied on his slave girl to check what he doubted; Mufti Abu Layth uses the case, with extended mockery, to argue that these hadith can be questioned.
machine2 min 36 s2:11:22on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Can the hadith on Jesus's return be questioned, and how many of them depend on Abu Hurayra?
Reports that go against reason can be questioned, and not one unquestionable hadith establishes the return: eighty percent of them come through Abu Hurayra alone, about half through one man, and the other companions cited are obscure. Mufti Abu Layth promises a continuing series, Disclosure with a big D.
machine3 min 48 s2:13:58on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Yasir Qadhi himself say a hadith came into Islam from Jewish lore?
Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi is inconsistent: he calls Israelite origins for the return preposterous, yet with Ibn Kathir firmly believes the Gog and Magog report came from Israelite lore through Abu Hurayra's circle.
machine3 min 03 s1:50:26on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the hadith in Bukhari about Jesus coming down reliable?
The first Bukhari chain is doubtful: al-Bukhari left two narrators unnamed, which he is known to have done deliberately, and the chain runs through al-Zuhri, who was known to insert his own words into hadith.
machine9 min 33 s2:38:55on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What is wrong with the other Bukhari and Muslim chains on Jesus's return?
The second Bukhari chain passes through Qutayba, who once concealed a forger, and al-Zuhri; the Sahih Muslim chains include Harmala, Yunus ibn Yazid and others the critics faulted.
machine5 min 42 s2:48:28on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are the Sahih Muslim reports about Jesus's return reliable?
Further Sahih Muslim chains contain a narrator with memory loss, an unidentifiable narrator who could not have met Abu Hurayra, Ibn Jurayj, whom he calls a major mudallis, and Abu al-Zubayr.
machine6 min 14 s2:54:10on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is there a single hadith on Jesus's return with a flawless chain?
Every chain he examined among the strongest Bukhari and Muslim reports, including that of al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an, has a criticised narrator, so Qadhi's 'no doubt' fails; preferring al-Bukhari over equal critics is arbitrary.
machine5 min 49 s3:00:24on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the hadith of Aisha about Jesus and the Dajjal reliable?
The Aisha report rests on one transmitter who dictated tens of thousands of hadith from memory in Isbahan, and only his version has the Dajjal emerge from the Jews of Isbahan, which Mufti Abu Layth finds suspicious.
machine4 min 29 s3:06:13on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does the Ibn Mas'ud hadith about the end of time say, and is it reliable?
The Ibn Mas'ud report has unknown narrators, opens by citing the Christians' claim that Jesus will return, and ends with life regrowing from a fluid sent from beneath the Throne, which Mufti Abu Layth calls preposterous.
machine4 min 05 s3:10:42on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Who was the blind narrator of the return hadith who relied on his slave girl?
One transmitter of the return reports went blind, lost his memory and relied on his slave girl to check his hadith, which Mufti Abu Layth says shows the state of some of these narrators.
machine3 min 02 s3:14:47on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can the hadith about Jesus's return be questioned?
No report on the return is beyond question: about eighty percent come through Abu Hurayra and about half through one narrator, none from Abu Bakr, Umar or Ali; the series will continue.
machine3 min 41 s3:17:49on YouTube
15 Feb 2021video
Why does Bukhari accept a narrator who praised Ali's killer while Shia narrators are rejected?
Mufti Abu Layth calls it a double standard that al-Bukhari accepts as trustworthy a narrator who praised Ibn Muljam for killing Ali, while reports from Imam Jafar and other Shia imams are rejected because of their source.
machine3 min 33 s0:00on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can al-Firabri, the transmitter of Sahih al-Bukhari, be trusted?
Mufti Abu Layth says al-Firabri deserves some suspicion: not evil, but not the great imam later generations made him.
machine3 min 07 s58:18on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How could hadith chains and texts have been standardised over time?
Mufti Abu Layth says editors who standardised variant chains and texts, as Ahmad Shakir did with Ibn Jurayj's version, erased how reports were really transmitted, and that this may have happened unnoticed in the classical collections.
machine7 min 50 s2:04:13on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How could Abu Hurayra narrate 5,000 hadith after only two years with the Prophet?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is implausible that Abu Hurayra narrated so much after about two years with the Prophet, that Umar restrained him, and that impossible reports such as the Ruqayya comb story should be rejected by Sunnis themselves.
machine9 min 15 s2:50:05on YouTube
2020 · 7
15 Nov 2020video
Are the hadith about the evil eye authentic?
No: he says the evil eye hadith rest on weak or criticised narrators and odd reports, and a belief so important would have come from many companions and the Quran. He calls them baseless.
machine12 min 11 s56:07on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are there other narrations of Aisha's age besides Bukhari's?
Mufti Abu Layth says every chain on Aisha's age was engineered, with Hisham as the common link and Iraqi narrators throughout.
machine5 min 56 s1:27:50on YouTube
9 Oct 2020video
If a reliable narrator reports from someone, does that make the source reliable?
Mufti Abu Layth reports from a classical text that a narrator transmitting from someone does not make that person reliable.
machine1 min 45 s4:13on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the hadith that Aisha was married at six authentic?
Mufti Abu Layth holds the hadith on Aisha's young age to be fabricated, since every transmitter is Iraqi, and says sectarian scholars defend it out of loyalty to their teachers.
machine5 min 44 s1:17:12on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How did hadith scholars know narrators who died a century earlier were reliable?
Mufti Abu Layth says later hadith critics never disclosed how they knew long-dead narrators were reliable, leaving gaps in an impressive system.
machine6 min 29 s2:13:00on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Where did the idea that Aisha was six or nine come from?
Mufti Abu Layth says the six-and-nine narration seems to originate with Aisha's nephew Urwa, countering rumours spread against her, and that every chain runs through him.
machine4 min 19 s54:44on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why did earlier scholars not see what reform-minded scholars see today?
Past scholars were great but fallible and bound by their time, like people in a smoke-filled room or marchers in a procession, while today we can see the whole history of ideas from the balcony. Mufti Abu Layth adds that the apostasy rule rests on one problematic narration from Ikrima in Bukhari.
machine3 min 57 s15:30on YouTube
2019 · 4
19 Sep 2019Responding to Refutations
Are the hadith about Aisha's young age authentic?
Mufti Abu Layth says every chain for Aisha's young age is flawed, resting on narrators accused of tadlis and all going back to Urwa. Those who defend them put al-Bukhari's sanctity above the Prophet's honour.
machine6 min 10 s6:57on 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
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
4 May 2019On Current Events
Is the hadith about women praying in the darkest part of the house authentic?
No: the chains run through unknown, abandoned or weak narrators, so the reports are fabricated or very weak and clash with the sahih hadith.
machine8 min 22 s23:22on YouTube
2018 · 24
17 Sep 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Is the chain of the hadith that the Prophet died of poison reliable?
Mufti Abu Layth finds the chains unacceptable: the Bukhari version runs through Yunus, whom early critics faulted for his memory, and through al-Zuhri, who does not state that he heard it, while the Abu Dawud version has a narrator criticised for mistakes.
machine3 min 23 s3:26on YouTube
1 Sep 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
What does Mufti Abu Layth say about the Bukhari report of the wolf and the cow that spoke?
The Bukhari report in which a wolf and a cow speak eloquent Arabic about purpose and the future is absurd, Mufti Abu Layth says, and the phrase radi Allahu anhuma placed in the Prophet's mouth is an anachronism from a later age.
machine3 min 55 s22:10on YouTube
30 Aug 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
Imam Bukhari's own practice: transmission by meaning, hidden names, a Khariji narrator
Imam Bukhari set a gold standard but did not always apply it: he transmitted by meaning, hid the names of problematic teachers and narrated from a Khariji who praised Ali's killer. Mufti Abu Layth's quarrel is not with Bukhari himself but with how the book is treated.
machine10 min 38 s47:51on YouTube
30 Aug 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
Who vouched for Farabri? Baji, Sam'ani and whether transmission implies reliability
Nobody who knew Farabri declared him reliable, and the attributions to al-Baji and al-Sam'ani cannot be found in their works. That scholars transmitted from him proves nothing, since transmission is not endorsement.
machine9 min 12 s1:16:51on YouTube
3 Aug 2018Responding to Refutations
Is there an authentic hadith that a wife may never refuse her husband sex?
Mufti Abu Layth says no version of the report that a wife cannot refuse her husband is free of criticism, since its chains run through al-A'mash and Qatada and carry hidden defects. He challenges his critics to produce one that cannot be faulted.
machine5 min 15 s3:50on YouTube
29 Jul 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Are the chains of the 'women lack intellect' hadith sound?
Not unquestionably: Mufti Abu Layth says every chain, in al-Bukhari, Muslim and elsewhere, has a weak or disputed link, too little to override the Quran.
machine9 min 13 s30:42on YouTube
8 Jul 2018Responding to Refutations
Do the angels curse a wife who refuses her husband in bed?
No: Mufti Abu Layth holds the hadith is weak, resting on narrators who practised tadlis, and clashes with the Quran's command to treat wives with kindness.
machine3 min 48 s3:12on YouTube
8 Jul 2018Responding to Refutations
Thanks for the correction, but the chain is still flawed
Mufti Abu Layth accepts that three forum quotes were misrepresented but says he never relied on them: his case rests on the narrator's tadlis, which his critics have not refuted.
machine5 min 34 s7:00on YouTube
8 Jul 2018Responding to Refutations
Was al-A'mash a reliable hadith narrator?
Mufti Abu Layth cites classical critics who say al-A'mash committed tadlis, sometimes hiding weak narrators, and made many mistakes. This does not mean every narration of his in Bukhari and Muslim is weak.
machine9 min 28 s4:25on 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
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Is the hadith about women wearing perfume being zaniya authentic?
Mufti Abu Layth says the report is not authentic: every version comes through one weak narrator, Thabit ibn Umara, from the obscure Ghunaym ibn Qays, and some early authorities stopped it at the companion.
machine7 min 53 s2:39on YouTube
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Is a woman's prayer rejected if she wears perfume to the mosque?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the report is a statement attributed to Abu Hurayra through unknown and weak narrators, not a hadith of the Prophet, and no one holds that such a prayer is invalid.
machine2 min 35 s23:40on 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
1 Apr 2018Islamic Eschatology
Why do almost all the hadith about Jesus returning come through Abu Hurayra?
Mufti Abu Layth does not believe the Prophet said the second-coming hadith: about eighty percent come through Abu Hurayra alone, who learned from the converts Ka'b al-Ahbar and Abdullah ibn Salam, and some of his reports appear elsewhere as Ka'b's words from the Torah. No such hadith comes from Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali or Uthman.
machine7 min 51 s10:26on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
What Imam Malik transmitted: no return of Jesus, Zuhri's reports, the pig passed in peace
Imam Malik's Muwatta contains no hadith of Jesus's return and has Jesus greeting a pig in peace; Mufti Abu Layth reads this as Malik rejecting Zuhri's reports, half of which carry the return narrative.
machine7 min 48 s58:03on YouTube
13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Zuhri's reports: Fatima's anger, the attempted suicide, and half the Jesus hadith
Scholars discard Zuhri's Fatima and suicide reports as his insertions but refuse to question the Jesus reports, half of which come through him with disconnected chains; Mufti Abu Layth calls this a double standard.
machine3 min 57 s1:37:20on YouTube
21 Feb 2018Responding to Refutations
How does he view the Salafi movement, and is hadith narrator criticism a divine science?
The Salafi movement began as a courageous rejection of tradition but, once established, became as dogmatic as what it opposed. Narrator criticism is a human science, so it is always open to revision and disagreement.
machine3 min 54 s10:29on YouTube
21 Feb 2018Responding to Refutations
Can a hadith narrated by Jabir alone be mutawatir?
No: mutawatir requires so many transmissions that a lie is impossible, which a report from Jabir alone cannot be, and he says the report is not even sahih. He defends following the critics who weakened the narrator rather than those who graded him reliable.
machine5 min 01 s19:41on YouTube
21 Feb 2018Responding to Refutations
Is the chain Hammad ibn Salama from Thabit from Anas for the crying-tree hadith sound?
Mufti Abu Layth argues it is not: critics report that Hammad ibn Salama's memory failed late in life, that Bukhari did not transmit from him, and that Thabit was not the most reliable transmitter from Anas, Qatada and Humayd al-Tawil being ranked above him.
machine6 min 33 s26:01on YouTube
21 Feb 2018Responding to Refutations
Are the Jabir chains for the crying-tree hadith through Isra'il, Abd al-Razzaq and Ibn Jurayj sound?
Mufti Abu Layth argues they are not: one chain rests on Isra'il, whom Yahya ibn Sa'id and Ibn al-Madini weakened, and an unknown narrator; the other on Abd al-Razzaq, criticised for errors from memory, and Ibn Jurayj, a mudallis whose 'akhbarani' referred to books rather than hearing.
machine5 min 13 s31:15on YouTube
21 Feb 2018Responding to Refutations
Did Ibn Ma'in consider Isma'il ibn Abi Uways and his family reliable?
Mufti Abu Layth says that although one transmitted opinion of Ibn Ma'in accepts him, Ibn Ma'in is also transmitted as counting the household of Abu Uways among the weak. He adds that Abu al-Zubayr was weakened by several critics, so none of the chains the critics brought is conclusive.
machine3 min 51 s36:28on YouTube
9 Feb 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Is the hadith of the crying tree trunk authentic?
No: Mufti Abu Layth finds weak narrators in each chain, including those in al-Bukhari, and says only the Quran is preserved in its entirety.
machine8 min 52 s7:38on YouTube