Topics › Quran and tafsir › Stories of the prophets
Stories of the prophets
115 segments in 42 recordings · 2016 to 2022 · 0 verified · 81 checked positions · quran/stories-of-the-prophets · Feed
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 19 Feb 2022
19 Feb 2022video
LatestWhat do you think of the rational readings of the Quran on the Marvelous Quran channel?
Mufti Abu Layth welcomes his fresh, reason-based approach to the Quran but does not agree with some readings he understood from him, such as Zakariya being the father of Jesus.
machine6 min 59 s0:00on YouTube
Earlier answers · 114 · newest first
2022 · 1
19 Jan 2022video
LatestWhere do Neanderthals fit in the Islamic story of Adam?
Islam is not a science manual and says nothing directly about them, but he says the Quran hints that other hominins came before Adam, who was the final 'successor' in that line.
machine8 min 16 s0:39on YouTube
2021 · 37
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestAre there answers to the hardest ethical questions about stories in the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth says he has answered every hard question on his 2016 list, such as the killing of the boy in Moses' story, by research true to the text, and others can build on it.
machine7 min 49 s40:01on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are the stories in the Quran true but not historical, like the story of Adam?
Mufti Abu Layth says Adam was the father of humans with modern cognition, and that the tree, which the Quran never calls a fruit or apple, may have been a psychedelic plant that sparked the cognitive revolution.
machine2 min 36 s47:50on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What was the real crime of the people of Lut?
Mufti Abu Layth says the people of Lut were destroyed for rejecting God, as in every prophet's story, with their other behaviour secondary.
machine1 min 19 s2:42:28on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was Adam a real person?
Yes: Mufti Abu Layth believes Adam was a literal person, the father of the cognitive revolution, though he accepts some read him as a metaphor.
machine2 min 38 s3:06:04on 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 Abraham really cut up birds that came back to life?
In the verse of Abraham and the birds he reads a symbol: birds nurtured by Abraham come to him from afar, a sign of the soul's affinity to God, rather than birds cut up and revived.
machine7 min 25 s3:19:16on 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
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
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was Solomon's hudhud really a bird?
The hudhud is addressed in Arabic forms used only for humans, so Mufti Abu Layth reads it as a person, perhaps an agent of Solomon's intelligence service, and he rejects a reading that makes a prophet steal a throne.
machine4 min 27 s3:36:01on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Jesus survive the crucifixion?
Mufti Abu Layth reads the cradle verse as the priests' indignation at being debated by a boy, and says Jesus was taken down from the cross alive after a few hours, which he finds more plausible than a substitute transformed to look like him.
machine4 min 38 s3:40:28on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Which Quranic verses does Yasir Qadhi say point to the return of Jesus?
Qadhi's clip cites three or four Quranic phrases, Jesus speaking in maturity, the People of the Book believing before his death, and Jesus as a sign of the Hour, and concedes they only strongly suggest a return. Mufti Abu Layth interjects that the sign of the Hour would then have come two thousand years ago.
machine7 min 48 s2:46on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Does 'he will speak to people in maturity' or 'before his death' prove that Jesus will return?
The verse about Jesus speaking in the cradle and in maturity concerns those he addresses, children and grown men, and the first to read it as a return was al-Husayn ibn al-Fadl, who died in 282 AH and transmitted strange reports. 'Before his death' was recited by Ubayy and Ibn Abbas as 'before their death' and read by commentators as referring to Jesus, the Prophet, the truth or Allah.
machine5 min 14 s1:20:13on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
Which Quranic verses count against Jesus returning?
Mufti Abu Layth reads 43:61 as the Quran being knowledge of the Hour, as Hasan and others said, and cites 5:75, 21:34 and 43:59 against a return: Jesus ate food and was subject to natural laws, no human before the Prophet was given eternal life, and Jesus is called an example for the children of Israel alone.
machine5 min 14 s1:25:27on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
LatestDoes the Quran say Jesus died, and how did the Prophet understand the verse 'when you took me'?
The verse 'I will give you death' and Jesus's words in 5:117 that he does not know what his people did after he was taken show, in Mufti Abu Layth's reading, that Jesus died; the Prophet himself, in a Bukhari report, applies the same verse to his own absence from his companions, confirming the reading.
machine5 min 15 s1:30:41on 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 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Which Quranic verses does Yasir Qadhi say point to Jesus coming back?
In the clip Qadhi says three verses strongly suggest Jesus's return; Mufti Abu Layth mocks the readings and says the return is not in the Quran.
machine7 min 27 s1:06:29on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the verse about Jesus speaking 'in maturity' mean he will come back?
Neither verse proves a return: 'in the cradle and in maturity' refers to the people Jesus addresses, the return reading began with a late transmitter of strange reports, and 'before his death' has several readings.
machine4 min 53 s2:23:16on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Which verses of the Quran count against Jesus coming back?
43:61 refers to the Quran as knowledge of the Hour, not to Jesus; 5:75, 21:34 and 43:59, which Qadhi does not mention, count against a return.
machine5 min 50 s2:28:09on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran say that Jesus died?
'I will give you death' and Jesus's words at the Judgement show that he died, and the Prophet applied those words to himself in a Bukhari report, which settles the reading.
machine4 min 56 s2:33:59on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran really say Jesus had no father?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran's elliptical text leaves readers to fill gaps, and that 3:59 on Jesus and Adam allows many readings; he does not believe in the virgin birth.
machine5 min 38 s27:52on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran say Jesus was raised up alive?
Mufti Abu Layth refers viewers to his detailed videos and says the Quran does not say how Jesus died, which does not mean he did not die, just as it is silent on Moses' death.
machine1 min 16 s1:10:43on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does the Quran focus so much on the Israelites?
Most peoples had prophets, he says; the Israelites are highlighted because in the Prophet's Arabia they were seen as the scholars of the people of scripture.
machine1 min 46 s1:21:32on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was Adam's garden on earth or in heaven?
Yes: the story of Adam took place on earth, he says; he was not beamed down from paradise.
machine39 s2:30:31on YouTube
2 Feb 2021video
Did Ibn Ashur believe Jesus died?
Mufti Abu Layth shows that Ibn Ashur read 'inni mutawaffika' as real death, cited Imam Malik for it, and took texts calling Jesus alive as an honorific life like that of martyrs.
machine5 min 20 s8:00on YouTube
2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does the raven in the story of Cain and Abel mean?
Mufti Abu Layth reads the Cain and Abel verses as allowing more than one grammatical reading, and takes God to be the one teaching Cain.
machine8 min 43 s1:48:21on YouTube
2 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Cain invent burial after watching the raven?
Cain did not invent burial, Mufti Abu Layth says; a raven mourning its dead shamed him into burying his brother.
machine13 min 04 s1:57:04on 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
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was docetism about someone else being crucified in Jesus's place?
No: he says docetism was a debate over whether Jesus was truly human, and that the Quran says the crucifixion only appeared to succeed, not that a look-alike was crucified.
machine10 min 31 s2:31:42on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Jesus really speak as a newborn baby in the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not state that Jesus spoke as a newborn, and that the cradle verse points to the episode in Luke of the boy Jesus arguing with the Temple priests.
machine2 min 39 s2:47:26on 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
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can I say Prophet Yusuf was more handsome than Prophet Muhammad?
Praising Yusuf's beauty takes nothing from the Prophet Muhammad, Mufti Abu Layth says; the prophets are not in a competition.
machine2 min 22 s2:35:33on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why did Moses have to strike the sea with his staff for it to part?
The sea did not part instantly but over a long while, Mufti Abu Layth says; striking it showed the Israelites the way would be through it.
machine1 min 51 s2:43:20on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Ibn Ashur say Jesus was raised alive and will return?
Mufti Abu Layth says a preacher's post misquotes the tafsir it cites, which takes the verse to mean Jesus really died and leaves how he was raised open to interpretation.
machine12 min 53 s2:45:11on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
A preacher's 'discoveries': Gog and Magog in Kyrgyzstan and Noah's ark at al-Judi
Mockery of a preacher's claims to have located Gog and Magog in Kyrgyzstan and Noah's ark in Turkey.
machine9 min 21 s3:02:00on 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
Was Christianity still a true religion until Muhammad's first revelation?
Mufti Abu Layth reframes the question: Jesus was sent to the Israelites, not the Arabs, and monotheists existed in Arabia before the Prophet.
machine1 min 20 s2:13:43on YouTube
2020 · 28
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does God's morality change over time?
The guest says universal morality does not change, only ritual law: the Quran corrects the biblical conquest narrative by implying the Israelites inherited Egypt rather than slaughtering another people.
machine2 min 11 s47:41on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Are the stories in the Quran meant to be literal history?
The guest argues, following Khalafallah and Ibn Rushd, that the Quran's stories are sacred literature and legend, using symbol and parable for theological ends rather than reporting literal history.
machine6 min 58 s1:02:23on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran speak in symbols and metaphors?
Mufti Abu Layth agrees with Ibn Rushd that the Quran speaks in symbols and that scripture is a kind of art, but asks whether the guest thinks the prophets and their stories are fictitious.
machine2 min 48 s1:13:07on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does the Quran tell the same story in different ways?
The guest says the Quran's stories are set in sacred, not historical, time and follow archetypes that speak to the Prophet's own circumstances, which is why the same story, such as Lot's or the golden calf, is told differently.
machine4 min 29 s1:20:23on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Jesus really speak in the cradle, and did the earlier prophets exist?
The guest says historians can be confident that Muhammad and Jesus existed but less so of earlier figures, and that the Quran's Jesus stories, such as speaking in the cradle, are dramatised; Mufti Abu Layth says no clear verse says Jesus spoke in the cradle.
machine5 min 37 s1:24:52on YouTube
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
Is the story of Adam in the Quran a myth?
The guest reads the Adam story as sacred myth whose point is human dignity, improving on the Babylonian and biblical accounts by removing original sin and blame of the woman; Mufti Abu Layth holds the figures and events were real but told to appeal to listeners.
machine7 min 08 s1:45:37on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran actually say the miracles happened?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran often never states that a miracle occurred, as with the table for Jesus, and that the prophets were real though later assumptions colour them; the guest says the Quran rearticulates the discourses of its milieu.
machine5 min 43 s1:56:12on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does the Quran give so little detail about some prophets?
The guest says the brief, repeated stories are archetypes recalled to console the Prophet, which audiences already knew; Mufti Abu Layth argues that following an archetype does not show a story was invented.
machine7 min 25 s2:25:43on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Does Surah Yusuf prove the evil eye is real?
No: Jacob told his sons to use different gates for their safety and to avoid drawing attention, not because of the evil eye. They had already been to Egypt, so the evil eye reading makes no sense.
machine11 min 39 s44:28on YouTube
28 Oct 2020video
Did God really command Ibrahim to sacrifice his son?
No: in Mufti Abu Layth's reading the command did not come from God, and the Quran in Surah al-Saffat only reports that Ibrahim saw a dream and that his son urged him to act on it. The notion of sacrificing a son is traced to the culture of the ancient Near East.
machine3 min 58 s0:00on 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
Does the Quran say the sacrifice of Ibrahim's son was a test from God?
The verses say Ibrahim was truthful to his vision and that this was a clear trial, but never that God sent the dream or the trial. In Mufti Abu Layth's reading the ransom of a ram rescued the son and ended human sacrifice.
machine4 min7:55on YouTube
28 Oct 2020video
Why did most commentators say God commanded the sacrifice?
Ibn Abbas is reported to have read Ibrahim's words as 'I think I have been commanded', and some commentators say the relief itself was the test. Mufti Abu Layth attributes the common view to early Muslims absorbing Jewish narratives.
machine2 min 39 s11:55on YouTube
28 Oct 2020video
Is it wrong to believe that God asked Ibrahim to kill his son?
Mufti Abu Layth says the belief is absurd and, on inspection, blasphemous, because it has God asking a father to murder his child for his pleasure and then stopping him, like a mock execution. The Quran never says God told Ibrahim to sacrifice, though it could have.
machine2 min 38 s14:34on YouTube
28 Oct 2020video
Did the classical scholars ever question whether God would command Ibrahim to kill his son?
Mufti Abu Layth says earlier scholars debated the side issues, such as rulings coming through dreams or abrogation before an act, but none asked whether God would want a father to kill his son. He satirises the discussions as all grammar and no elephant in the room.
machine2 min 36 s21:09on YouTube
28 Oct 2020video
Are Muslims who believe God commanded the sacrifice guilty of blasphemy?
No: Mufti Abu Layth does not accuse individual Muslims of blasphemy, because they repeat a story they were raised with and have not examined it. He distinguishes this from agenda-driven claims about the Prophet, and ridicules the defence that God only asked Ibrahim to assist his son's suicide.
machine1 min 18 s23:45on YouTube
28 Oct 2020video
If God never commanded the sacrifice, why do the early sources all say he did?
Mufti Abu Layth agrees that no primary sources support his reading and explains it by early Muslims absorbing Israelite material, by the brutal environment of the age being projected onto God, and by the absence of anything from the Prophet saying God commanded it. He repeats that a God who stages a mock execution of a child is unacceptable, and that Allah never says the command was his.
machine4 min 55 s26:22on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Was Jesus born without a father according to the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth leans to the scholars who hold Jesus had a natural birth, arguing that the verse refuting God having a child only works if every human is born of two parents.
machine6 min 11 s13:38on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Why do most Muslims believe in the virgin birth?
Mufti Abu Layth says the belief spread through the dominance of the Christian narrative across the empires surrounding Arabia.
machine1 min 50 s19:49on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Does evolution contradict the Quran's account of Adam?
No: he says evolution does not clash with Islam, reading 23:12-14 as Adam passing through a womb and Adam as the first human with full consciousness.
machine9 min 37 s21:39on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Does the Quran say Adam was made from clay or from a drop of sperm?
Taking 23:12-14 entirely literally leaves one stuck, since the same insan made from clay is then a drop of sperm; the clay may refer to something like DNA.
machine4 min 24 s50:36on YouTube
13 Oct 2020video
Why doesn't the Quran clearly deny the virgin birth?
To build bridges with the Christians: the Quran used their terms and left room for their belief without affirming it, compromising only not on the Trinity.
machine2 min 31 s55:00on YouTube
22 Sep 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was Adam's garden of Eden on earth?
Mufti Abu Layth says Adam lived on earth: jannah simply means garden, and Adam's Eden was somewhere in this world.
machine3 min 16 s28:36on YouTube
22 Sep 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Doesn't the Quran say Adam was created in heaven?
Mufti Abu Layth says Adam's garden was in this world, since the paradise of the afterlife has not happened yet, and the Quran speaks of placing him on the earth.
machine3 min 13 s41:20on 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
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why were the Israelites told to sacrifice a heifer, and what does it teach about religious detail?
The heifer was commanded to break the Israelites' lingering reverence for their Egyptian masters' cow worship, and the rabbis' frivolous questions about it exemplify the clerical obsession with detail. Mufti Abu Layth agrees and recalls arguing the same.
machine2 min 40 s2:36:06on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Was Jesus born of a virgin, and how could a jinn father a child?
Mufti Abu Layth says he has recently become inclined to the view of Abdul Karim Athari and Tamanna Imadi that Jesus was born naturally, since the Quran never explicitly states a virgin birth and 6:101 argues from the absence of a companion. The guest sets that controversy aside and says a jinn, being a different species, could not impregnate a woman.
machine3 min 56 s1:25:40on YouTube
2019 · 22
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
3 Nov 2019Responding to Refutations
Does the Quran say Jesus was born of a virgin?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not explicitly state a virgin birth, citing recent scholars who read Mary's glad tidings like those given to Ibrahim and Zakariyya.
machine5 min 03 s28:07on YouTube
18 Oct 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Mufti Menk?
Mixed: Menk fills a real demand for simple, uplifting stories and is likeable and funny, but Mufti Abu Layth says such preachers spread inauthentic stories and cement false beliefs, and he suspects Menk is less strict than he portrays himself.
machine9 min 15 s0:02on YouTube
14 Sep 2019video
How do I answer Christians who say the Quran could be corrupted like the Bible?
Earlier revelation was not like the Quran: the Quran is a recitation meant to be preserved word for word, while the Torah was a message and laws and the Injil was the good news Jesus preached.
machine8 min 16 s0:39on YouTube
14 Sep 2019video
Is the Bible corrupted?
Yes, if corrupted means not preserved word for word, since they were never meant to be a recitation; but the general message of Jesus was most likely kept.
machine3 min 04 s8:17on YouTube
8 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is the story of Hajar running seven times between Safa and Marwa true?
Mufti Abu Layth thinks the story of Hajar running seven times between Safa and Marwa was most likely added later to give the ritual an Abrahamic link, though he believes the Zamzam story is true. The Quran mentions Safa and Marwa only as a remembrance of God, without linking them to Hajar or Abraham.
machine9 min 08 s15:38on YouTube
23 Feb 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did Jesus really speak as a baby in the cradle?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran does not say Jesus spoke as a baby; the Maryam passage most likely refers to Jesus at twelve debating the priests in the Temple, as in Luke.
machine13 min 55 s1:15on 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
14 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Who was al-Khidr and why is he called the green one?
Al-Khidr is a figure of Islamic literature and folk belief whose name means the green one, said to be because the ground turned green where he sat. Earlier scholars preferred the pronunciation al-Khadir.
machine2 min 35 s0:00on YouTube
14 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
What happened between Musa and al-Khidr in Surat al-Kahf?
Musa and his companion travel to the meeting of two seas, meet a servant of Allah who damages a ship, kills a boy and repairs a wall, and is rebuked by Musa each time. Al-Bukhari's hadith adds the detail that Musa had claimed to be the most knowledgeable of people.
machine5 min 47 s2:35on YouTube
14 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Was the story of Musa and al-Khidr a dream?
Mufti Abu Layth reads everything after Musa and his companion fell asleep at the rock as a vision, which explains its strange details. Scholars who read it literally struggled to explain them.
machine5 min 40 s8:22on YouTube
14 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is al-Khidr a prophet, and is he still alive?
Classical scholars disagreed on whether al-Khidr was a prophet or a saint, and many held he is still alive while others denied it. Mufti Abu Layth likens the stories of his appearances to saint legends in other religions.
machine8 min 46 s14:02on YouTube
14 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is al-Khidr a real person who is still alive?
No: he reads al-Khidr as part of a vision shown to Musa, whose three events mirrored Musa's own life and mission. The boy was not really killed, and al-Khidr does not roam the earth.
machine6 min 19 s22:48on YouTube
8 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
How should Muslims read the stories in the Quran?
Quranic stories can be read as narrative and for lessons, but where they suggest the supernatural we must ask how to read them, unlike myths we never take as real.
machine9 min 32 s1:57on YouTube
8 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Does the Quran criticise the Queen of Sheba for ruling over men?
No: the Quran portrays her as a woman of great power over male ministers and never rebukes her for it.
machine2 min 32 s15:58on YouTube
8 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Was the hoopoe in the story of Sulayman really a bird?
Probably not, in his reading: the Arabic used of it is used only for humans, so the tafsir that it was one of Sulayman's intelligence agents makes sense.
machine6 min 24 s18:30on 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
8 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did a jinn really bring the Queen of Sheba's throne to Sulayman?
Mufti Abu Layth doubts it: following Athari's tafsir, the 'jinn' here were a division of Sulayman's forces, one of three branches of his state.
machine6 min 26 s27:28on YouTube
8 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did Prophet Sulayman steal the Queen of Sheba's throne?
No: he reads the story as Sulayman having a grander replica made from a detailed description, since prophets do not steal thrones.
machine6 min 57 s33:54on YouTube
8 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
What happened when the Queen of Sheba came to Sulayman?
She was shown a throne grander than hers in a mere waiting room and humbled, then became Muslim; her uncovering her legs on the glass floor was no obscenity.
machine4 min 18 s40:51on YouTube
8 Jan 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did Jesus really speak as a baby in the cradle?
Mufti Abu Layth reads it as Jesus aged about twelve debating the Temple elders, as in the Gospel of Luke, which fits the history better than a speaking baby.
machine10 min 10 s45:09on YouTube
2018 · 25
24 Dec 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
The story of Musa and the servant of Allah in Surah al-Kahf and al-Bukhari
Mufti Abu Layth outlines the story of Musa and the servant of Allah from Surah al-Kahf 18:60 onwards and its fuller telling in al-Bukhari's hadith 4725.
machine5 min 30 s0:01on YouTube
24 Dec 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did the journey of Musa and Khidr really happen, or was it a vision?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that everything after Musa and Joshua slept at the rock happened in a vision, which explains the story's strange shifts.
machine5 min 51 s5:31on YouTube
24 Dec 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Why did Khidr kill the boy in Surah al-Kahf?
Mufti Abu Layth reads the ship, the boy and the wall as a vision mirroring Musa's mission; no child was really killed, since God would never allow that.
machine5 min 18 s11:22on 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
6 Dec 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Does the Quran support human evolution?
Mufti Abu Layth reads several verses as arguing for evolution and says Eve is not named in the Quran. No one has to accept evolution, but those who do should not be called heretics.
machine9 min 49 s0:00on YouTube
10 Nov 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Did Adam come from Neanderthals?
No: Neanderthals were cousins of Homo sapiens, not ancestors. He believes Adam was the father of the cognitive revolution about 70,000 years ago.
machine7 min 10 s0:01on YouTube
25 Oct 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Why does the Quran call Jesus the Word of God and mention the Holy Spirit with him?
The Quran uses terms of Jesus that it uses of no other prophet, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, which Muslims do not take literally. He suggests this Christian rhetoric was perhaps meant to build bridges with Christians.
machine6 min 28 s0:05on YouTube
25 Oct 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Does the Quran actually say Mary had a virgin birth?
No verse of the Quran directly says Jesus was born of a virgin; a verse implies it, and Muslims have differed on it. Mary was married, is never called the Virgin Mary in Islam, and most likely did not remain a virgin all her life.
machine5 min 10 s6:33on YouTube
25 Oct 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
What verses do Muslims use to argue Jesus had a natural birth with a father?
The Quran implies a virgin conception but never states it, and the scholars who held Jesus had a father argue from 6:85-87 and 6:101. People may believe either, but calling those scholars deviant is a huge stretch.
machine8 min 40 s11:43on YouTube
20 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
Does the Quran say Ibrahim was thrown into the fire, or that the table was sent down to Jesus's disciples?
No verse of the Quran says that Ibrahim was thrown into the fire or that the table came down to the disciples, and 'incline them towards you' is the literal wording of 2:260. These are readings of the text as it stands, and calling those who hold them deviants is unacceptable.
machine11 min 44 s31:27on YouTube
20 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
Why does the Quran call Jesus the Word of God and speak of the Holy Spirit?
The Quran applies to Jesus terms it uses of no other prophet, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, which Muslims do not read literally. Mufti Abu Layth suggests this Christian rhetoric may have been meant to build bridges with Christians.
machine6 min 36 s43:11on YouTube
20 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
Does the Quran say Jesus was born of a virgin?
No verse of the Quran states that Jesus's birth was a virgin birth, only implies it, and Muslim scholars have differed on it. Mary is never called the Virgin Mary in Islam; she was married, and some scholars held that she conceived naturally.
machine5 min 11 s49:47on YouTube
20 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
Which verses are used to argue that Jesus had a father, and does the Quran rule it out?
The Quranic account of Mary implies a virgin conception but does not state it, and 66:12 is not read literally by anyone, so demanding literal reading everywhere is inconsistent. The scholars who held Jesus had a father argue from 6:85-87 and 6:101, and calling them deviants is a huge stretch.
machine7 min 51 s54:58on YouTube
20 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
Is evolution compatible with the Quran?
The Quran's verses on creation in stages, growth from the earth, the single self and the couple of 7:189 are reconcilable with evolution, which Mufti Abu Layth calls a scientific fact established through genetics. Hawwa is not named in the Quran, and those who accept evolution should not be called deviants.
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1 Sep 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
Why does Mufti Abu Layth reject the Bukhari report of Sulayman and the hundred women?
The report of Sulayman going to a hundred women in one night is absurd and disrespects a prophet, and its moral that God punished him with a disabled child paints a troubling picture of God. A report that clashes with reason, the Quran or Islamic principles goes out of the window.
machine3 min 55 s18:15on YouTube
1 Sep 2018BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
What does the Bukhari report that Shaytan touches every newborn except Mary and Jesus mean?
The Bukhari report that Shaytan touches every newborn except Mary and Jesus makes even the Prophet Muhammad subject to the devil's touch while exempting the two figures of Christian doctrine, which Mufti Abu Layth presents as a Christian idea in the collection.
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11 Aug 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did the Prophet Nuh really live for 950 years?
Nuh did not literally live 950 years, Mufti Abu Layth says. The verse's use of two different words for year, sana and 'am, is deliberate and not just rhetorical variation.
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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.
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26 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is it possible for Prophet Yunus to have survived inside a whale?
Highly unlikely but not impossible: the Quran describes no superhuman feat, only that he was swallowed and thrown out very sick.
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20 Apr 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did Musa's staff really turn into a snake?
No: Mufti Abu Layth holds the staff was described as moving as though it were a snake, while the magicians' sticks moved by a chemical trick.
machine6 min 15 s0:01on YouTube
20 Apr 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did Musa beat Pharaoh's magicians with stronger magic?
No: Mufti Abu Layth prefers the reading that Musa's staff exposed the magicians' trickery, since out-doing their magic would only teach that might is right.
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15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Magic in the Quran: Musa and Pharaoh's magicians, an illusion
In the Quran the magic of Pharaoh's magicians was only an illusion; Musa's fear was a natural human reaction, not proof that the magic was real.
machine5 min 10 s10:13on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Will using reason make me lose my faith?
No, Mufti Abu Layth says: fearing that reason leads out of Islam betrays a lack of belief that Islam is true, and doubt that leads to a more certain understanding is legitimate, as Ibrahim's request to see how Allah revives the dead shows.
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15 Mar 2018Responding to Refutations
Does the verse about Jesus speaking as a kahl prove he will return?
No: kahl means mature adulthood from about thirty or forty, and al-Razi says Jesus reached that age on earth. The reading of the verse as the second coming first appeared with a scholar who died in the 280s AH, not among the salaf.
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2016 · 1
15 Mar 2016video
Ritualisation of the deen and the angels' question about Adam: can believers ask?
The deen has been ritualised so that scholarly conclusions cannot be questioned, while the angels' question to Allah about creating Adam is read as a model that believers may ask questions.
machine5 min 12 s23:55on YouTube