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The ancient Near East and scripture
30 segments in 17 recordings · 2018 to 2021 · 0 verified · 19 checked positions · history/ancient-near-east-and-scripture · Feed
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 15 May 2021
15 May 2021video
LatestIs there archaeological evidence for David's kingdom, and how did Jerusalem become holy for Muslims?
Archaeology has not found the kingdoms of David and Solomon, and Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims should apply the same scrutiny to their own narrations, where early scholars differed over al-Aqsa and the first qibla and the Umayyads under Abd al-Malik promoted Jerusalem with fabricated hadith to rival Ibn al-Zubayr.
machine3 min 52 s20:57on YouTube
Earlier answers · 29 · newest first
2021 · 10
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
News clip: the Pharaohs' Golden Parade in Cairo, and the Amenhotep III theory
A news clip on the Pharaohs' Golden Parade in Cairo, with Mufti Abu Layth recalling his discussion of whether Amenhotep III may have been Sulayman.
machine4 min 23 s8:14on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Noah really live 950 years?
Noah's 950 years refers to an ancient counting system like those of the Sumerian king lists, signalled by the verse's unusual wording, not to ordinary years; he never said the Quran copied an error from the Bible.
machine4 min 30 s3:15:33on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did the parting of the sea have a natural explanation?
God acts through the laws of nature, so the parting of the sea can have a natural explanation such as a strong wind, and Moses exposed the magicians' tricks rather than outdoing them with magic.
machine6 min 23 s3:26:41on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was the Prophet Moses actually the pharaoh Akhenaten?
Mufti Abu Layth leans towards the theory that Moses was Akhenaten but says his research is ongoing and it is not established; he notes that the Levites bore Egyptian names.
machine2 min 29 s37:14on YouTube
2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did the early Muslims respect the Torah and Bible, and are they corrupted?
The Bible has changed in words, stories and translation, but Mufti Abu Layth says its core message is still valid and the Quran does not call it wholly corrupted.
machine6 min 42 s20:22on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is Prophet Shu'ayb the same as Jethro in the Bible?
At face value they seem to be the same person, since Moses goes to the priest of Midian in both accounts, but he says he has not researched it.
machine1 min 17 s45:11on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Do creation myths in other cultures share a source with the Islamic account?
Mufti Abu Layth feels the world's creation myths probably share a common origin, and suggests the name Adam predates Arabic and Hebrew, possibly from Sanskrit, though he is not sure.
machine3 min 58 s52:59on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What is the Ark of the Covenant in Islam?
The Quran mentions the Ark (tabut) without saying what was in it, Mufti Abu Layth says; one early Maliki linguist described the sakinah in a way that resembles the cherubim.
machine4 min 30 s1:06:12on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Who was Lilith in Jewish legend?
Mufti Abu Layth retells the Jewish legend of Lilith, Adam's first wife, who left him over equality and became a night demon.
machine7 min 07 s1:08:07on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the story of Lilith in the Bible?
No: the story comes from Jewish commentary on Genesis; the Bible only names Lilith vaguely in Isaiah as an evil spirit.
machine2 min 15 s1:14:18on YouTube
2020 · 10
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Should archaeology worry believers about the Quran's stories?
The guest, as a self-described Islamic modernist following Fazlur Rahman, says believers need not fear archaeology, since the Quran re-attributes Jesus' miracles to God for theological rather than historical ends.
machine3 min 12 s1:42:25on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Who was Dhul Qarnayn, and who are Gog and Magog?
Mufti Abu Layth identifies Dhul Qarnayn most likely with Cyrus the Great and reads Gog and Magog as havoc-wreaking forces, later the colonial powers; the guest says this already relies on ad hoc literary reinterpretation.
machine4 min 55 s2:01:55on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the Dhul Qarnayn story based on the legend of Alexander?
The guest says scholarship shows the Dhul Qarnayn story derives from a Byzantine Christian legend of Alexander walling in Gog and Magog, known to the Quran's first audience; Mufti Abu Layth asks why the Quran then tells it so ambiguously.
machine4 min 34 s2:06:50on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does the Quran tell the story of Dhul Qarnayn so briefly?
The guest says the Quran retells the known legend concisely to show the Prophet's knowledge from God, while stripping its Christian imperial ending; Mufti Abu Layth objects that its unusual wording is too vague for that.
machine5 min 40 s2:11:24on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What do the unusual words in the Dhul Qarnayn verses mean?
Mufti Abu Layth argues the wording of 18:83-90 is too vague to be a retelling of the Alexander legend; the guest says the Syriac subtext explains it and that without it the passage invites endless speculative readings, and they agree to differ.
machine8 min 39 s2:17:04on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Why did so many cultures believe in the evil eye?
Because people long believed the eye actively shot out rays, and the belief helped explain sudden illness and misfortune. He says the evil eye itself is nonsense.
machine10 min 48 s17:44on YouTube
28 Oct 2020video
Where did the idea of sacrificing a son come from in Ibrahim's time?
Human sacrifice to gods such as Moloch and Baal was a widespread practice of the ancient Near East, and the Bible's story of Jephthah sacrificing his daughter shows it. Mufti Abu Layth says this surrounding culture explains how such a dream could come to Ibrahim.
machine3 min 57 s3:58on YouTube
28 Oct 2020video
Why does the biblical tradition say God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Israelites adopted the name Yahweh, a Near Eastern war god from the household of El, and that god's brutal character carried over into their picture of God, making such a command plausible to them. For Muslims, he says, that is not the true image of Allah.
machine3 min 57 s17:12on YouTube
17 Oct 2020video
What were soma and haoma in the Hindu and Persian traditions?
Ancient traditions such as the Vedic soma and the Avestan haoma point to the same entheogenic experiences, which those cultures had no vocabulary to explain; soma is argued to be Amanita muscaria, which may explain the deification of cows and the drinking of their urine.
machine3 min 43 s18:24on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran say the Israelites were slaves in Egypt?
A chat question cites 26:22, where Moses says Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites; Mufti Abu Layth says historians describe them as outcast second-class citizens rather than slaves but grants the verse deserves a closer look.
machine2 min 32 s2:24:24on YouTube
2019 · 7
29 Dec 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Who is Uzair mentioned in the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth says the common reading of Uzair as Ezra does not really fit, since Jews never called Ezra the son of God.
machine5 min 45 s0:33on YouTube
29 Dec 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Could Uzair in the Quran be the Egyptian figure Osiris?
Mufti Abu Layth says it now appears to him that Uzair is Osiris, a divine hero of Egyptian mythology who shaped the culture the Israelites grew up in.
machine5 min 41 s5:45on YouTube
29 Dec 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Why did the Israelites ask Moses for an idol after leaving Egypt?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Israelites' request for an idol in 7:138 shows the Egyptian culture they carried, which explains them calling Osiris a son of God.
machine3 min 03 s11:26on YouTube
29 Dec 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Why did Moses carry a staff?
Mufti Abu Layth says Moses' staff partly reflects the Pharaonic culture he grew up in, and that keeping cultural practices is fine without affiliating with paganism.
machine4 min 55 s14:29on YouTube
17 Dec 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Did ancient civilisations have knowledge that was later lost?
Mufti Abu Layth finds convincing the view that advanced ancient civilisations were destroyed around the Younger Dryas and left knowledge seen in old maps and constellation-aligned sites. He believes the Nabataeans built on earlier sites at Petra and set up devotion sites aligned to its constellation.
machine3 min 55 s14:26on 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
23 Feb 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
What does it mean that Jesus spoke to people in the cradle and in old age?
Mufti Abu Layth says the verse means Jesus would relate to people of every age when he preached, not that he spoke as a baby; that story likely came from apocryphal infancy gospels.
machine3 min 37 s13:57on YouTube
2018 · 2
11 Aug 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Why do ancient texts say people lived for hundreds or thousands of years?
The enormous reigns in the Sumerian king lists reflect a different counting system, likely based on sixty, and the numbers shorten after the flood. Mufti Abu Layth believes the Old Testament's long lifespans were inherited from this Babylonian material.
machine5 min 16 s3:53on YouTube
11 Aug 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Why does the Quran call the ruler in Yusuf's story a king but Musa's a Pharaoh?
The thousand sana follow the counting of Nuh's own people and the fifty 'am are years as we count them. The Quran relates narratives in the terms of their own time, as when Yusuf's ruler is a king and Musa's is Pharaoh.
machine3 min 08 s9:09on YouTube