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The companions
34 segments in 22 recordings · 2016 to 2021 · 0 verified · 29 checked positions · history/companions · Feed
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 2 Mar 2021
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestWas Ali born inside the Kaaba?
It may have happened but is uncertain, and most likely means the homes of Banu Hashim attached to the Kaaba rather than the cube itself; Ali's greatness does not depend on it.
machine6 min 27 s16:03on YouTube
Earlier answers · 33 · newest first
2021 · 8
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Do I have to believe Umar and Uthman were better than Ali?
No: preferring one close companion over another is a personal preference, and he calls arguing over the ranking childish; treating Ali as infallible is equally wrong.
machine2 min 37 s21:49on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestDo Muslims whitewash their own historical heroes?
Yes, every community whitewashes its heroes, because history records what its writers deem accomplishments; a fairer test is what a figure's adversaries said, as with Salah al-Din or Jewish sources on Umar.
machine3 min 49 s39:43on 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
13 Feb 2021video
What do you think of Mu'awiya?
Mufti Abu Layth highly respects Mu'awiya as a great figure and admires his statesmanship, citing a story of his generosity to a woman who favoured Ali.
machine1 min 56 s0:00on 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.
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12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the hadith 'if there were a prophet after me it would be Umar' authentic?
Mufti Abu Layth says the hadith is a fabrication, made up to glorify Umar; one may revere Umar and still disagree with his opinions.
machine5 min 26 s2:56:34on 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
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did early Muslims really not count Ali as the fourth rightly guided caliph?
Ali is a hero of Islam and preferring him is a personal matter, but he rejects the story of Umar burning Fatima's door and urges moving on.
machine8 min 09 s2:05:48on YouTube
2020 · 9
16 Oct 2020video
Why did Uthman appoint his relatives as governors?
In Mufti Abu Layth's assessment, Uthman lacked Umar's iron fist for an empire that had doubled, so he relied on his own Umayyad relatives as governors, reviving the old clan rivalry.
machine6 min 33 s15:00on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Why did Hasan ibn Ali give up the caliphate to Muawiya?
Mufti Abu Layth feels Hasan was the wisest of Ali's family, a diplomat who opposed fighting at Siffin and handed power to Muawiya for peace, fulfilling the hadith on reconciling two factions.
machine3 min 22 s24:18on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth admire Muawiya?
Mufti Abu Layth admires Muawiya for knowing how to handle people, saying ruling is a matter of political skill rather than piety, and that Umar's era was the exception.
machine3 min 07 s32:04on YouTube
16 Oct 2020video
Why did Husayn go to Kufa when he was warned not to?
Mufti Abu Layth says Husayn was invited by thousands in Kufa but warned by his relatives and Ibn Abbas, who urged Yemen instead, while Ibn al-Zubayr resisted Yazid from Makkah.
machine4 min 19 s40:51on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Was Aisha Abu Bakr's sister rather than his daughter?
No, she was definitely Abu Bakr's daughter; her being in her twenties during the Prophet's lifetime fits her personality, not her being fifty.
machine3 min 04 s1:04:13on YouTube
9 Jun 2020video
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Hasan Farhan al-Maliki?
Mufti Abu Layth admires Hasan Farhan al-Maliki's open-minded rejection of folkloric Islam but disagrees with his dismissive, Shia-inclined stance on companions such as Mu'awiya.
machine2 min 24 s0:00on YouTube
28 Feb 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
Why might Abu Bakr have refused Fatima's claim so quickly?
Mufti Abu Layth speculates, stressing it is only speculation, that the size of the claim at a time of crisis may have led Abu Bakr to refuse it at once.
machine3 min 14 s25:05on YouTube
28 Feb 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
Was Abu Bakr wrong to refuse Fatima Fadak?
Not in his view: Abu Bakr was right that Fadak was public fay', while Fatima was right that prophets can be inherited from, so both were right from different angles.
machine2 min 33 s28:19on YouTube
28 Feb 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
What did Mufti Abu Layth think of Mu'awiya?
Mufti Abu Layth highly respects Mu'awiya as a great figure and an astute statesman, while acknowledging the Companions' disagreements.
machine1 min 32 s34:46on YouTube
2019 · 8
31 Dec 2019On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Were the angels at Badr actually Persian knights?
Mufti Abu Layth finds the theory that Persian knights summoned by Salman al-Farisi were taken for angels at Badr interesting but most likely untrue, and harmless even if true.
machine7 min 24 s7:42on YouTube
19 Sep 2019On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Is it okay to criticise the companions of the Prophet?
Mufti Abu Layth advises most people to view the companions with veneration, but says anyone who chooses critical, academic study must apply it to every companion, Ali included, rather than selectively.
machine13 min 28 s1:19on 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
10 May 2019video
Did any early scholars allow marrying Zoroastrians or idol worshippers?
Yes: some companions and early scholars allowed relations with Zoroastrian and even idol-worshipping women. Same-faith marriage was stressed because early Islam needed stable Muslim families, and it remains strongly encouraged.
machine5 min 46 s27:17on YouTube
4 May 2019On Current Events
Musaylima, Sajah and the poem that shows what makhda' means
Musaylima's poem to the false prophetess Sajah uses makhda' for a bedchamber, showing the word never meant a cupboard.
machine5 min 45 s9:26on YouTube
1 Mar 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did the companions ever read or understand the Quran differently from each other?
Muslims already accept that the Quran was revealed with fluidity: the Prophet approved different recitations, and the tradition openly records companions such as Ibn Mas'ud holding mistaken views about what was part of the Quran and pronouncing letters by their tribal dialect. None of this is a shock to Muslims.
machine3 min 54 s13:02on YouTube
1 Mar 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
How did Uthman standardise the Quran, and does that explain the Sana'a text?
Uthman locked in one reading in an undotted script that still allowed the known variant readings, so the lower text is either a person's mistaken note or, less likely, a reading not locked in at that time. Mufti Abu Layth prefers the first, as simple human error from memory.
machine3 min 56 s24:43on YouTube
2018 · 5
1 Sep 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
What is the Bukhari deathbed report in which the companions ask whether the Prophet is delirious?
The Bukhari deathbed report in which the companions dispute and ask whether the Prophet is speaking deliriously portrays the companions badly and is not true, Mufti Abu Layth says, and Sunnis hand the Shia a weapon by accepting it.
machine2 min 37 s15:38on YouTube
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
What evidence do scholars use to allow men and women to shake hands?
Scholars who permit it cite 'do not frighten people away', the verse on returning greetings, Abu Musa having a woman comb his hair on Hajj, and the Sahih report that Umm Haram combed the Prophet's hair and let him nap at her house. The Umm Haram report is one scholars struggled with.
machine2 min 37 s6:33on 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 Feb 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Viral claims that Mufti Abu Layth insulted the companions
Mufti Abu Layth explains that he called the crying-tree reports unestablished, and only suggested that, if accepted, some companions exaggerated out of love; that is not blasphemy.
machine4 min 30 s0:00on YouTube
9 Feb 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Is it blasphemy to say some companions exaggerated out of love for the Prophet?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says suggesting that companions may have exaggerated out of love is not blasphemy, noting he alone defended Mu'awiya when he was abused online.
machine2 min 11 s16:30on YouTube
2017 · 2
19 Oct 2017video
Is an Islamic mortgage any different from a conventional mortgage?
Mortgages and bank loans today are not the riba the Quran condemns, in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding. Islamic mortgages are the same thing under another name, a loophole the Maliki school has never liked, as Umar said of the jizya renamed a gift.
machine4 min 57 s53:15on YouTube
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Is it wrong to be attracted to someone because of their status or position?
Attraction to status and relationships between people who work closely together are natural, not abuse, and Islam leaves consensual relationships to the people involved. Mufti Abu Layth cites Hasan ibn Ali, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba and Ibn Hazm as figures whose private lives did not disqualify them.
machine3 min 57 s26:10on YouTube
2016 · 1
15 Mar 2016video
Riba and Ibn Abbas: his disagreement on riba and his combining of prayers
Ibn Abbas is reported as holding that riba lies only in delayed exchange and as combining prayers without travel or fear, which one speaker uses to show that labelling a view easy or liberal is not an argument.
machine2 min 38 s14:45on YouTube