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Tafsir and verse study
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 18 Oct 2025
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestWhat is the 'wisdom' the Prophet teaches alongside the Book in 2:129?
The guest holds that the wisdom taught alongside the Book is the Quran's own application and is found in the Quran itself; Mufti Abu Layth says the primary reading of 2:129 is that the messenger teaches the Book and, separately, the wisdom, and himself purifies the people.
machine5 min 51 s51:35on YouTube
Earlier answers · 97 · newest first
2025 · 7
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestDoes 16:44 mean the Prophet explains the Quran, or that the Quran clarifies earlier scriptures?
Mufti Abu Layth reads 16:44 as showing the Prophet's role in explaining the revelation, as nearly every tafsir does; the guest says the verse is about the Quran clarifying earlier scriptures to the people of the book, and points to 5:15 as naming a single source.
machine4 min 44 s57:24on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the 'light' that came with the clear book in 5:15 the Prophet or the Quran itself?
The guest reads the light of 5:15 as an aspect of the book itself, arguing from the pronoun in 5:16 and the conjunction in 33:7; Mufti Abu Layth presents the view of the mufassirun that the light is the Prophet and accepts the guest's reading as one interpretation while objecting that the others are not negated.
machine6 min 48 s1:02:02on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Can 'light' in 5:15 refer to the Prophet, or only to guidance and the book?
Mufti Abu Layth says the primary readings of 'light' in 5:15 are guidance or the Prophet, as many mufassirun held, and that the guest's reading as the book is acceptable but may not negate the others; the guest says the word cannot refer to a human and that the mufassirun inserted the Prophet from presupposition.
machine9 min 01 s1:08:12on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does 3:188 mean everyone who likes praise will be punished?
The apparent reading of 3:188 threatens anyone who loves praise for what he has not done, which troubled the Companions until the Prophet explained it as concerning tyrants and the arrogant; the guest reads it as a warning listing traits a believer must shed.
machine6 min 06 s1:58:33on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it a sin to enjoy being praised?
The guest holds that 3:188 describes people buying into the worldly life, exulting in what they have and loving praise for what they have not done, and that such people are punished; pressed, he confirms that anyone with these traits faces punishment.
machine6 min 07 s2:04:39on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why did Mufti Abu Layth bring up 3:188 against the Quran-only position?
Mufti Abu Layth cited 3:188 because its apparent reading is harsher than the Prophet's explanation, showing that the reasoning of those who came before is valuable; the guest says he asked for the Prophet's book of explanations and was pointed back to the Quran.
machine4 min 51 s2:14:00on YouTube
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why are two of the daily prayers recited silently when 17:110 says not to be silent?
The silent prayers come from the living tradition Malik described, handed down from the Companions' descendants; Mufti Abu Layth reads 17:110 as being about crying out to Allah, neither in despair nor in silence, rather than the five prayers, citing 8:35 where 'prayer' means whistling and clapping.
machine10 min 12 s2:31:09on YouTube
2022 · 2
19 Aug 2022video
LatestWhat are the satanic verses in Islamic history?
Mufti Abu Layth explains that the Prophet's recitation of Surah al-Najm and the prostration of everyone present are documented, but that the added story of him praising the three goddesses is false.
machine8 min 45 s1:00:37on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestIs Quran 22:52 about the satanic verses incident?
No: he rejects the link to 22:52, noting that Surah al-Hajj is Madinan, that the Prophet refused the Makkans' offers of compromise, and that the Quran calls the idols mere stone.
machine5 min 18 s1:09:22on YouTube
2021 · 13
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
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
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why didn't the Prophet explain every verse of the Quran himself?
Leaving the Quran undefined was a blessing, he says: a fixed tafsir would have restricted it, while leaving it to each age's understanding gives it timelessness.
machine3 min 12 s25:17on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Does Quran 33:40 mean the Prophet's descendants cannot rule?
Mufti Abu Layth says 33:40 simply states that the Prophet is not the father of their men but the seal of the prophets; it is not a proof that his descendants may not rule.
machine1 min 17 s1:15:00on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestWhy does Surah al-Kafirun say 'ma' (what) instead of 'man' (who) for God?
Mufti Abu Layth thinks ma is used because it qualifies how God is perceived, since the Meccans also worshipped Allah through others, though he says this is his own understanding.
machine4 min 07 s1:18:37on YouTube
2 Feb 2021video
Did Ibn Ashur say Muslims must believe Jesus was raised alive?
Mufti Abu Layth shows that Ibn Ashur, quoted in Shadee Elmasry's post, held only that Jesus was not killed or crucified and was raised and saved, leaving how it happened open to interpretation.
machine8 min6:15on 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
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does the Quran seem focused on men, and why are two women witnesses needed?
The Quran asks for two women witnesses only for debt contracts, because a lone woman was easier to intimidate, not because women are lesser; otherwise one woman equals one man, and the masculine address reflects historically patriarchal societies.
machine9 min 11 s21:34on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
If the Prophet couldn't forbid what Allah allowed, how can scholars issue fatwas?
The verse rebukes the Prophet for forbidding himself something permissible to please others, not for legislating; things are permissible by default, so declaring something haram is a weighty step.
machine3 min 59 s41:12on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Who is Surah al-Munafiqun about?
Mufti Abu Layth says that, though the verses are general, Surah al-Munafiqun referred at the time to the hypocrites of Medina.
machine1 min 16 s50:06on YouTube
2020 · 35
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
21 Nov 2020video
Does the riba verse prove that jinn can possess people?
The riba verse 2:275 uses the image of being struck by the devil as a frame of reference the Arabs knew, like the heads of devils in 37:65; it does not establish possession.
machine3 min 53 s17:05on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
If a jinn could possess me, how could I be blamed for anything?
Satan's own words in 14:22, that he had no power over people and only invited them, rule out possession: if the devil could physically prevent prayer or cause harm, people could not be blamed and responsibility would collapse.
machine5 min 16 s20:58on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Does the Quran mention the evil eye?
No: the Quran mentions envy (hasad) but never the evil eye, and the verse about eyes making the Prophet slip is a metaphor for hateful stares, as Ibn Ashur and others explain.
machine6 min 43 s2:41on YouTube
15 Nov 2020video
Confirmation bias: reading the evil eye into the Quran
Mufti Abu Layth says that people came to Islam already believing the evil eye was science and, through confirmation bias, found it in verses that do not mention it, such as the verse about eyes almost making the Prophet slip, even though many exegetes did not read it that way. He recommends the Urdu tafsir of Abdul Karim Athari, whom he describes as coming from a small, unusually reason-based circle within the Ahl-e-Hadith of India, and says Athari also reads the verse as the disbelievers staring as though to trip the Prophet, before calling him insane.
machine3 min 22 s41:06on 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
15 Nov 2020video
Is Surat al-Falaq about protection from the evil eye?
No: it seeks refuge from the harm envious people act out and from the superstitious culture around magic, not from an evil eye. The Quran's silence on the evil eye is, to him, a sign of its truth.
machine3 min 53 s1:08:18on 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
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
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does 'justice' mean in the Quran's verse on marrying more than one wife?
Mufti Abu Layth says the verse requires equal treatment of wives as the benchmark, accepting human shortfalls, and does not rule polygamy out.
machine9 min 51 s50:22on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Who were the Bedouin Arabs criticised in Surah al-Tawbah?
Mufti Abu Layth says the a'rab of Surah al-Tawbah were semi-nomadic raiding tribes not under settled rule, some of whom joined only as a power play.
machine6 min 11 s2:22:11on YouTube
17 Oct 2020video
Does the verse of light describe an expanded state of consciousness?
The verse of light, 24:35, is an approximation that resonates with those whose consciousness has expanded, and entheogenic experience was part and parcel of the tradition without having a name.
machine6 min 13 s29:48on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was the ifk in Surat al-Nur really about Aisha?
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Quran's ifk verses were revealed about rumours concerning Mariya, though he believes an earlier incident with Aisha also happened.
machine6 min 09 s2:26:25on 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
14 Jul 2020live stream
What do Illiyyin and Sijjin mean in the Quran?
They refer to a record or place of the righteous and the wicked; he takes afterlife imagery as symbolic and promises more next week.
machine2 min 32 s39:04on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Is al-Zamakhshari's tafsir al-Kashshaf worth reading?
Mufti Abu Layth praises al-Kashshaf as linguistically overwhelming and al-Zamakhshari as a legend, while noting the Mu'tazili oddities in it; the Mu'tazila were great scholars, often over-demonised.
machine4 min 24 s45:21on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Why does the Quran talk about something as small as the Prophet's dinner guests?
They are not trivial: the verse teaches that small transgressions like imposing on people matter, and such etiquettes build a healthy society.
machine6 min 51 s1:06:38on 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
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran predict that modern industrial society will collapse?
The guest reads Quran 10:24 as a warning that oil-based modern life will collapse; Mufti Abu Layth expects human knowledge to find new energy.
machine2 min 30 s50:17on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran say every city will be destroyed before Judgement Day?
The guest reads Quran 17:58 as a sign that humanity is headed for trouble; Mufti Abu Layth points to verses of blessing and God's lack of need to punish.
machine3 min 12 s1:02:24on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What is the main theme of Surah al-Kahf?
Mufti Abu Layth agrees consumerism is destructive and reads Surah al-Kahf as also being about identity and belonging.
machine3 min 14 s1:21:06on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does God not love non-believers?
The guest reads the verse as saying that certain deeds block God's love from reaching a person, not that God's love is selective.
machine1 min 30 s1:38:38on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How does the guest's number 19 differ from Bible numerics, and how does he read 74:29-31?
The guest says 19 is a test most people fail, distinguishes his system from Ivan Panin's Bible numerics, and retranslates 74:29-31 as describing a precise, obvious mathematical structure rather than scorching the skin in hell.
machine6 min 30 s1:38:44on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestDoes the Quran allow a husband to hit his wife?
The guest reads 4:34 as telling a persistently flirting wife to leave rather than as permission to beat, and says four words in the verse were mistranslated to create male authority. Mufti Abu Layth says the statement that men provide is descriptive, not prescriptive.
machine7 min 49 s2:04:43on 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
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is al-kitab the same book given to every prophet?
The guest says owning a slave is shirk, that kawthar means abundance rather than a pool, and that al-kitab is the one divine law sent to every prophet, whose goal, peacemaking, is secular while iman is distinct.
machine2 min 37 s2:29:34on 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
19 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Where do the variant readings of the Quran come from?
The guest says the Quran was revealed chronologically and then recompiled in a new divine order, as 75:16-19 describes; remnants of the earlier recitation kept by the companions are the biggest source of the qira'at. The final order was fixed when the Prophet revised the Quran twice with Jibril in his last Ramadan.
machine3 min 57 s24:57on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does Surat al-Falaq confirm that black magic is real?
The verse about those who blow on knots does not establish that magic is effective: the guest says it asks protection from the fear such practices create, and Mufti Abu Layth says the surah names things not harmful in themselves but the superstitions attached to them. The question whether Islam is feudal went unanswered.
machine2 min 38 s1:40:04on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What does the Quran mean by 'what your right hands possess', and did the Prophet have a concubine?
The guest reads the Quran's 'right-hand possessions' as a category of wife who was not free, since 4:25 speaks of marrying slave girls, and thinks Mariya al-Qibtiyya may have been a wife misunderstood as a concubine. Mufti Abu Layth says Mariya was a wife, as he has taught, and that under trajectory hermeneutics slavery would have become haram.
machine7 min 13 s1:42:42on YouTube
28 Feb 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
What was Fadak and why did it matter?
Fadak was fertile land near Khaybar that came to the Prophet as fay', without war, and he used its produce for travellers, his household and public needs.
machine5 min 42 s4:33on YouTube
2019 · 21
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
12 Dec 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Does the Quran forbid Muslims from being friends with non-Muslims who challenge Islam?
The verse about not loving those who oppose Allah was revealed when tribes were confederating to attack the Muslims and concerns loyalty to them, not friendship with non-Muslims. Permission to marry Christians and Jews shows love and friendship with non-Muslims are allowed.
machine3 min 53 s2:40on YouTube
3 Nov 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Does the Quran actually tell women to cover their hair, or only their chest?
There is nothing explicit in the Quran or Sunnah about covering the head; the verse of al-Nur tells women to cover the jayb (the chest opening) with the khimar they already wore, and whether the khimar itself is obligatory or circumstantial is an open question. Covering the hair became the settled teaching within a generation of the companions.
machine9 min 06 s0:04on YouTube
18 Oct 2019Hadith Studies
Did the Prophet really split the moon in half?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the moon was not split; the companions described what they perceived, most likely a lunar eclipse, and Quran 54:1 is about the end of the world.
machine2 min 15 s0:40on YouTube
11 Oct 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Is a prayer mark on the forehead a sign of piety in Islam?
A burn mark on the forehead from prostration has nothing to do with Islam and is not a sign of piety. The verse about the believers' mark on their faces refers to a glow of commitment, and an early report rebukes a man who bore such a mark.
machine4 min 09 s0:01on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
What is the iddah after divorce and why does the Quran require it?
The iddah is a waiting period of one to three cycles after a divorce which establishes whether the woman is pregnant and prevents suspicion and conflict, and during it she keeps the right to stay in the home. Mufti Abu Layth reads this as the opening of the passage the objector quotes from.
machine3 min 54 s6:26on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
What does the Quran say about how a divorce should end and about a divorced woman's future?
At the end of the iddah the couple must either reconcile or part with kindness before witnesses, and Mufti Abu Layth reads the promise that God makes a way out and provides from unexpected places as reassurance to the vulnerable party that she need not accept oppression for shelter. The objector, he says, skips all of this.
machine5 min 13 s10:20on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
What does Quran 65:4 say about the waiting period for women whose periods have stopped?
Women who have despaired of menstruation wait three months, a rule Mufti Abu Layth reads as addressed to men who are unsure whether a woman has reached the menopause, so that pregnancy can be excluded; the pregnant wait until childbirth.
machine2 min 36 s15:33on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Does 'those who have not menstruated' in Quran 65:4 refer to little girls?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the phrase refers to women whose cycles are absent through illness or irregularity, as Abu Hayyan, Ibn Ashur, al-Samarqandi, Abu al-Su'ud and Ibn Atiyya read it. Al-Tha'labi records that the verse was revealed about a man who divorced his wife during her menses.
machine3 min 57 s18:09on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did classical scholars really say Quran 65:4 includes little girls?
Yes, some did: Mufti Abu Layth concedes that commentators such as Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi wrote that the phrase can include little girls, which he condemns as a mistake. He says their saying so is not the Quran saying so, and the evidence lies in how the passage opens.
machine2 min 37 s22:06on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Does the word 'women' in Surah al-Talaq rule out children?
Yes: the passage opens with nisa, women, a word never used of a six- or seven-year-old, just as boys are never called rijal, and the verses go on to envisage pregnancy, which nobody would expect of a child.
machine2 min 36 s24:43on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did Imam Malik allow marriage to be consummated with a girl who was not yet nubile?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik's fatwa was clear that sexual relations with a wife are haram unless she is nubile. Scholars who read 65:4 to include girls were men influenced by the patriarchy of their age and were wrong, while others such as Ibn Ashur, al-Samarqandi, Abu Hayyan and al-Alusi did not read it so.
machine2 min 39 s27:19on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
How does the rule that a clear verse overrides an ambiguous one apply to Quran 65:4?
By a principle of usul the ambiguous phrase 'those who have not menstruated' is read in the light of the clear opening term women, which cancels any reading that includes girls. The Quran could have said fatayat but addressed them as nisa.
machine2 min 38 s29:58on YouTube
8 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Did the Prophet restore the original rituals of Ibrahim at the Kaaba?
No: nothing was in Makkah when Ibrahim arrived, and although he and Ismail built the house of remembrance, Safa and Marwa are never linked to him. The Quran presents them only as symbols for remembering God, so there is no point guessing at older origins.
machine1 min 56 s24:46on YouTube
10 May 2019video
Does Quran 60:10 mean a marriage to a non-Muslim is automatically void?
No: Umar divorced his non-Muslim wives after the verse came down, which shows their marriages had been valid. The verse on the emigrant women was specific to the Hudaybiyya context.
machine3 min 56 s33:03on 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
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
2018 · 15
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
29 May 2018Islamic Eschatology
What does the Quran say about the beast of the earth?
Mufti Abu Layth reads 27:80-84 as moving from the grave to the Day of Judgment, with the creature of verse 82 set within that sequence.
machine3 min 10 s3:55on YouTube
29 May 2018Islamic Eschatology
Does Ibn Ashur say the beast comes before the Day of Judgment?
Mufti Abu Layth reads Ibn Ashur as treating the time from the world's end to the resurrection as one realm, not as placing the beast before the Day of Judgment.
machine4 min 31 s10:59on YouTube
29 May 2018Islamic Eschatology
Ibn Ashur: the creature speaks to the deniers at the gathering
In Ibn Ashur's reading, as Mufti Abu Layth presents it, the creature speaks at the gathering on the Day of Judgment to shame the Quraysh who denied the Prophet.
machine3 min 55 s15:30on 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.
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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
Does the Quran's riba verse prove that Satan can possess people?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the verse is imagery, read by the commentators as describing how riba-takers rise on the Day of Judgement or as a picture of consuming greed, and the Quran uses such images, like the zaqqum tree's heads of devils, because humans have imagination.
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15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
If jinn do not possess people, what is ruqya for?
The Quran is a cure for what is in the hearts, meaning disbelief and superstition, not a medical treatment. Ruqya and the du'as taught against omens are a scaffolding that steadies a person's faith until it can stand on its own, because the mind clings to ritual.
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15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Harut and Marut, and how magic 'splits' people
Harut and Marut may have been two pious men taken for angels who taught skills that looked like magic; the doll-and-needles idea of magic is not from the Quran or Sunnah.
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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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15 Mar 2018Responding to Refutations
Does 'before his death' in Quran 4:159 refer to the return of Jesus?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says early authorities including Ibn Abbas, Mujahid and al-Dahhak read the pronoun as the Christian who realises the truth at death, and Ubayy ibn Ka'b's recitation has 'before their death'. Referring it to Jesus's return would exclude every Christian who died over two thousand years.
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13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Verse 3:46 and the meaning of kahl: al-Razi and the origin of the second-coming reading
Kahl in 3:46 means mature manhood, which al-Razi says Jesus reached on earth; the reading of the verse as a second coming began only in the late third century with al-Bajali.
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13 Mar 2018Islamic Eschatology
Verses 4:159 and 43:61: 'before his death' and 'knowledge of the hour'
Neither 4:159 nor 43:61 establishes a return: the early exegetes read 4:159 of each Christian at death, Ubayy's reading is plural, and 43:61 says knowledge, not sign.
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13 Feb 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Did someone really do magic on the Prophet?
No: he calls the report of magic on the Prophet falsely attributed and an affront to his honour, and says the Quls were revealed years earlier in Makkah.
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2017 · 3
19 Oct 2017video
Does the Quran forbid every kind of excess when it forbids riba?
The definite article in 'Allah forbade riba' points to a specific known kind of riba, not every excess, since most excesses are not haram. Umar wished the Prophet had explained riba, and Ibn Abbas held there was no riba except in delay.
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19 Oct 2017video
Why did the Quran declare war on riba?
The Quran declared war on riba because of the tyranny of a loan-shark culture in a world of finite money, which modern banking does not resemble. The only similarity is that more is repaid than taken, which banks explain by inflation and motivation.
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20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Does the Quran's verse about the touch of Shaytan prove that jinn possess people?
No: the riba verse describes how usurers will rise on the Day of Judgement or pictures their greed, and the image of Shaytan's touch is drawn from human imagination, like the tree of Jahannam whose fruit is 'like the heads of devils'. It is a misused verse, not a proof.
machine3 min 56 s58:35on YouTube
2016 · 1
15 Mar 2016video
The verse on men having a degree over women, read in its passage
The verse about a degree over women is read by one speaker as concerning women in their waiting period, not a general ranking of men above women.
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