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Current events and society
391 segments in 105 recordings · 2014 to 2025 · 0 verified · 210 checked positions · society
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 18 Oct 2025
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestWhy do Quranists reject the Islamic tradition as a whole?
The guest says Quranists differ in interpretation but agree that the Islamic tradition is riddled with errors, and that Mufti Abu Layth's BukhariGate work leads people to Quranism; Mufti says the guest's own prayer choices came from the tradition and objects to disrespect towards the people of the mosque.
machine7 min 08 s2:26:38on YouTube
Earlier answers · 390 · newest first
2025 · 1
18 Oct 2025MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How should Muslims engage people with very different views of the religion?
Those with very different views still come from love for the religion, and the only way forward is dialogue and humanising one another; the guest says the Quran is the only thing that can unite Shia and Sunni, and both sign off warmly.
machine2 min 58 s2:46:26on YouTube
2024 · 4
29 Sep 2024On Current Events
LatestMufti Tariq Masood's remark on scribal errors, and Islam as a deen of mercy
Mufti Abu Layth says there are no mistakes in the Quran's script, but Islam is a deen of mercy, so Mufti Tariq Masood's error should not bring calls for his death.
machine5 min 09 s0:03on YouTube
29 Sep 2024On Current Events
LatestIs someone who says something wrong about the Prophet guilty of blasphemy?
Not when there was no such intention: Mufti Abu Layth says Mufti Tariq Masood was clearly wrong, but he meant to praise the Prophet, so calling him a blasphemer is unacceptable.
machine4 min 34 s5:12on YouTube
29 Sep 2024On Current Events
LatestHow scholars' rhetoric fed Pakistan's blasphemy killings, in Mufti Abu Layth's view
Mufti Abu Layth says scholars who long told the public to kill blasphemers, Mufti Tariq Masood once among them, helped build the culture now threatening him, and must teach mercy for everyone.
machine5 min 05 s9:46on YouTube
29 Sep 2024On Current Events
LatestSpread love, and take account of the damage our words have done
Mufti Abu Layth says this deen is one of love and hope, and everyone, himself included, must reckon with the harm their words may have done.
machine1 min 30 s20:58on YouTube
2023 · 11
9 May 2023video
LatestI'm a new Muslim and my faith has crashed after the first high. What should I do?
Mufti Abu Layth says the first energy of faith always burns out, so the aim is to learn and live the faith while it lasts; at its core Islam is justice and kindness.
machine6 min 18 s2:31on YouTube
9 May 2023video
Was the Prophet harsh with people?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet was soft and attentive with people and came from mercy, unlike harsh dawah that puts others down.
machine3 min 46 s6:18on YouTube
9 May 2023video
LatestWhy do religious debates make people so defensive?
Mufti Abu Layth says debates rarely change minds and feed the ego, so he prefers conversations where people can disagree.
machine6 min 24 s15:07on YouTube
9 May 2023video
LatestHow do I stop worrying about the ups and downs of my faith?
Mufti Abu Layth tells the convert not to worry about turbulence in faith, which is part of the journey; faith often shows its worth later as a bedrock in hard times.
machine3 min 20 s19:33on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
LatestIs studying religious knowledge better than voluntary prayer?
Imam Malik taught that devotion to learning is not lesser than voluntary worship, the paths to God being many, and Mufti Abu Layth urges not underestimating it.
machine4 min 19 s42:25on YouTube
10 Mar 2023video
LatestWho carried on Imam Malik's teaching after him?
His daughter, who had memorised his hadith and taught his classes after him, while his sons showed little interest.
machine4 min 12 s1:02:17on YouTube
22 Feb 2023video
Should Muslims tell gay people what the Quran says about homosexuality?
Mufti Abu Layth says Americans are overwhelmingly not Muslim, so speaking on issues there means speaking to non-Muslim norms rather than preaching the Quran to them.
machine5 min 45 s10:48on YouTube
22 Feb 2023video
LatestIs there an LGBTQ push in media and schools?
Mufti Abu Layth agrees there is a disproportionate LGBTQ push in media and objects to sexualising young children, calling it hypocritical that polygamy cannot be described the same way.
machine4 min 27 s20:23on YouTube
22 Feb 2023video
LatestShould Sunnis preach to Shia Muslims about what they get wrong?
Mufti Abu Layth says no: it only leads to sectarian fighting. Answer people who come asking, but Sunni-Shia debating does no good.
machine2 min 34 s36:24on YouTube
22 Feb 2023video
Is it my duty as a Muslim to preach to others?
Mufti Abu Layth says Muslims have a duty to be an example, not a duty to preach; turning religion into preaching information makes people judgmental.
machine2 min 25 s38:19on YouTube
22 Feb 2023video
What should Muslims focus on in confusing times?
Mufti Abu Layth says the best thing is to focus on yourself and be an example of light, inviting and welcoming people rather than condemning them.
machine2 min 35 s40:43on YouTube
2022 · 13
19 Aug 2022video
Does Islam allow attacking Salman Rushdie?
No: he condemns the attack on Salman Rushdie as cowardly and contrary to Islam, saying ideas must be answered with speech and that the attack only demonised Islam and revived Rushdie's fame.
machine5 min 16 s0:01on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
What does the Mufti think of Salman Rushdie as a person?
Mufti Abu Layth says he personally finds Rushdie's personality abhorrent and senses a strong negativity from him, and that he researched him in order to be fair.
machine4 min 01 s5:17on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestWhat was Salman Rushdie's family background?
Mufti Abu Layth describes Rushdie's privileged Muslim family in Bombay, a father who took the name Rushdie from Ibn Rushd, and an English boarding-school education shaped by admiration for the British ruling class.
machine6 min 32 s9:18on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestWhat made Salman Rushdie so hostile to Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth suggests that Rushdie's hostility to Islam is rooted in an unresolved resentment of his father, who embraced his Muslim identity and moved to Pakistan.
machine9 min 13 s15:50on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestIdentity, Midnight's Children, the fatwa and the years in hiding
Mufti Abu Layth says Rushdie's lack of a secure identity runs through his books, and recounts Midnight's Children, Khomeini's fatwa and the years in hiding before turning to The Satanic Verses.
machine2 min 38 s25:03on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Is there a difference between criticising Islam and insulting it?
Yes: he says everyone may criticise a religion they do not believe in, even if it offends, but that this is not a right to insult, and no society allows speech without limits.
machine5 min 16 s27:41on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
What is The Satanic Verses actually about?
Mufti Abu Layth summarises the novel's plot, including the Mahound episode and the brothel whose women bear the names of the Prophet's wives, and says this part, though short, shows the book's hostility to Islam.
machine9 min 11 s32:57on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Is The Satanic Verses a critique of Islam or an insult?
Mufti Abu Layth says the novel is an insult rather than a critique, since it makes no argument and only portrays the Prophet and his wives offensively.
machine2 min 40 s42:08on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Why did Salman Rushdie write The Satanic Verses?
In his personal opinion, Rushdie wrote the novel chiefly as defiance of his father, did not expect the backlash, and has since been abandoned even by the left he championed.
machine7 min 56 s44:48on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestShould all religions be free to compete without state backing?
Mufti Abu Layth agrees religion should not be forced on anyone and that people may criticise it freely, but says criticism with an objective is different from insults meant only to hurt.
machine1 min 19 s55:22on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestWhat does holding on to bitterness do to a person?
After jokes about Rushdie's marriages, he says bitterness consumes the person who carries it and hurts those around them, and prays for such hearts to be healed.
machine3 min 56 s56:41on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Recap: the novel, insult versus critique, and the false story summarised
Mufti Abu Layth recaps that Rushdie's novel was an insult rather than a critique and that the satanic verses story is a fabrication rejected by al-Tabari, Ibn Khuzayma and Qadi Iyad, recommending al-Shifa and al-Albani's book.
machine6 min 09 s1:52:45on YouTube
8 Jan 2022video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth say he wronged Dawah Man?
Mufti Abu Layth says he wronged Dawah Man by picking on him repeatedly although Dawah Man never publicly criticised him, breaking his own rule, and he wishes him well despite their differences.
machine4 min 05 s0:00on YouTube
2021 · 105
29 Nov 2021video
LatestIs it wrong to joke about people who are seriously ill with covid?
Do not make fun of people who are ill with covid: it is a roll of the dice, as a neighbour's sudden death showed, and it should make us grateful.
machine5 min 17 s0:14on YouTube
25 Oct 2021video
Should I debate Quranists?
No: arguing never changes anyone's mind and only breeds hatred, so give your view if asked and see Quranists with compassion. He finds their case weaker than they think, since fiqh was built on the living tradition, not on hadith.
machine5 min 45 s7:07on YouTube
18 May 2021video
LatestStatement on the break-in at Mufti Abu Layth's home
Mufti Abu Layth describes masked men breaking into his home and terrifying his family, and asks whether this is the character Islam teaches.
machine1 min 21 s0:08on YouTube
18 May 2021video
Response to accusations over Palestine remarks and claims he is not Muslim
Mufti Abu Layth says he has always supported Palestine and only argued for safe passage for its people, that 'exile' was a slip of the tongue, and that those calling him a non-Muslim and invading his home are not following Islam.
machine7 min 38 s1:29on YouTube
17 May 2021video
LatestAre Bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf to blame for the UAE's deal with Israel?
No, in Mufti Abu Layth's view: the UAE's ruler does not take direction from scholars, Bin Bayyah is said to have disliked the treaty while deferring to the ruler's decision, and Hamza Yusuf had nothing to do with it. He opens with condolences for the losses in Gaza.
machine3 min 58 s1:22on YouTube
17 May 2021video
Has the UAE's recognition of Israel brought any peace?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says two weeks of bombardment followed the deal, so it is not a solution. He calls Israel a terrorist state at the state level, with war crimes documented by the UN and academics such as Chomsky and Finkelstein, and stresses this is not antisemitism.
machine3 min 57 s4:00on YouTube
17 May 2021video
What does Mufti Abu Layth think should happen to the Palestinians in Gaza?
Since Israel is here to stay and a two-state solution will not happen, Mufti Abu Layth proposes relocating the Palestinians of Gaza and the blockaded areas across the Arab world with compensation, housing and education, spread out rather than in ghettos. He says Muslims guilt-trip Palestinians into staying and Arab states value them as a buffer zone.
machine5 min 17 s7:57on YouTube
17 May 2021video
Is Jerusalem really a holy city in Islam?
In Mufti Abu Layth's view Jerusalem was never that sacred in Islam: its glorification began with Abd al-Malik's Dome of the Rock as a rival to Makkah, and he holds that al-Aqsa, 'the farthest' mosque, was in the heavens. Even if holy, it is bricks and mortar, and life comes before buildings.
machine2 min 37 s13:14on YouTube
17 May 2021video
Should Palestinians stay and defend the holy land at the cost of their lives?
No, in Mufti Abu Layth's view: life comes before place, a Muslim's honour outweighs the Kaaba rebuilt seven times, and the whole earth is a place of prayer. He says the war is lost and that those who insist Palestinians stay would stop caring about them once they were safe elsewhere.
machine2 min 39 s15:51on YouTube
17 May 2021video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth compare the Palestinian situation to facing a knife?
His escrima teacher's rule was to run from a knife and fight only when running is impossible, and he applies it to an enemy that will not back down. He repeats that the UAE deal has brought nothing and that Bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf should not be blamed for it.
machine3 min 57 s18:30on YouTube
17 May 2021video
LatestWhat does Mufti Abu Layth think the solution for Kashmir is?
Independence for at least part of Kashmir, such as the valley, from both India and Pakistan, with buffers so Pakistan is not exposed, though he does not expect it to happen. Kashmir differs from Gaza in being a militarised zone rather than a bombarded prison, and India would not pay to relocate anyone.
machine2 min 41 s22:27on YouTube
15 May 2021video
What are the layers behind the Palestinian crisis of May 2021?
The crisis has an occupation layer, which Mufti Abu Layth calls clear oppression and a crime against humanity, and a political layer: Gulf normalisation with Israel, Netanyahu's domestic insecurity and fear politics, and Arab neighbours' interest in a Palestinian buffer zone.
machine6 min 33 s1:20on YouTube
15 May 2021video
LatestWhat can ordinary people do about the Palestinian crisis, and do social-media posts help?
Global outcry and boycotts are necessary even though Israel ignores them and acts with impunity, but Instagram posts make no difference to the crisis, which is not caused by lack of awareness, so Muslims should not guilt-trip one another.
machine5 min 15 s6:34on YouTube
15 May 2021video
LatestDo protests help Palestine, and was blocking the roads in Birmingham justified?
Protests put slow pressure on politicians who can only request, and blocking Birmingham's roads at rush hour was a disservice to the Palestinian cause: it broke the law, harmed civilians and turned sentiment against Palestine.
machine2 min 37 s11:49on YouTube
15 May 2021video
What solutions are possible for Palestine?
Israel is here to stay, so the realistic options are a two-state solution, naturalising Palestinians within Israel, or relocation, for which al-Albani gave a fatwa of hijrah, compared to evacuating a house whose fire cannot be put out.
machine3 min 53 s14:26on YouTube
15 May 2021video
Is the Gaza conflict a war or a genocide, and who is egging Palestinians on?
Mufti Abu Layth calls the conflict a genocide rather than a war and says urging Palestinians towards martyrdom from the comfort of one's home is armchair cowardice, driven by Arab buffer-zone interests and a religious-centre mentality.
machine2 min 38 s18:19on YouTube
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
15 May 2021video
What can people realistically do for Palestine, and is migration an option?
Politics runs through every side of the crisis, and ordinary people are largely helpless beyond pressuring MPs, boycotts and dua; Mufti Abu Layth says no land is worth a genocide and that the Prophet taught migration where an assessment calls for it, or else meaningful negotiation.
machine6 min 19 s27:26on YouTube
9 May 2021video
Did scholars let slave women uncover more than free women?
Mufti Abu Layth says the scholars dropped their concern for modesty when it came to slave women, and calls the claim that nobody would desire them nonsense. He thinks slave women probably wore working clothes, with arms and lower legs uncovered, rather than walking about topless.
machine4 min 58 s7:04on YouTube
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What does Lupe Fiasco's name Wasalu mean, and how was he raised?
The guest says he has never confirmed what his name Wasalu means; Mufti Abu Layth suggests the Arabic 'to connect'. Born to convert parents, he says he was born Muslim.
machine3 min 38 s3:14on YouTube
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How does the Chinese state deal with religion?
The guest describes Chinese paper offerings burned for the dead, a government crackdown on their modern forms, and the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign as examples of the state managing religion.
machine8 min 59 s44:07on YouTube
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does China try to control who becomes the Dalai Lama?
The guest says China's attempt to control the Dalai Lama's reincarnation shows a state using religion, something he sees in pieces in Muslim countries and elsewhere.
machine5 min 11 s53:12on YouTube
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Can a Muslim work in the music industry and keep their faith?
The guest says religion should be judged apart from the actions of its followers in any industry; Mufti Abu Layth says relatable poetry and music inspire people more than being told to go to the mosque.
machine7 min 48 s1:02:56on YouTube
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestDid everyone at the time of the Prophet accept Islam without questions?
The guest says early Muslims, including poets, had real critiques; Mufti Abu Layth says the deen should complement life rather than complicate it.
machine5 min 51 s1:10:04on YouTube
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is humanity becoming more or less moral?
The guest says morality is remade daily, with no overall rise or fall and no consistent definition; Mufti Abu Layth says he agrees.
machine5 min 13 s1:24:22on YouTube
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What inspired Lupe Fiasco's song Words I Never Said?
The guest says 'Words I Never Said' was his attempt, at the height of his fame, to speak truth to power about wealth disparity and militarism.
machine2 min 37 s1:48:51on YouTube
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How did Lupe Fiasco discover Mufti Abu Layth?
The guest says he found Mufti Abu Layth while looking for alternatives to the Salafi content that dominates Muslim YouTube, and values his different point of view.
machine3 min 10 s1:55:15on YouTube
26 Apr 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How is Lupe Fiasco finding Ramadan during Covid?
The guest says Ramadan has been easy, though he misses the mosque and tarawih after staying away during Covid to protect older worshippers.
machine1 min 56 s2:05:24on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How has the internet changed who gets to speak about Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth says the internet let him reach people without the backing of mosques or organisations, which would never have given him a platform.
machine3 min 57 s36:04on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestWhy are some clerics so hostile to Mufti Abu Layth?
Mufti Abu Layth says clerics who oppose him see in his approach the end of their institutional religion, and calls their reaction its final pangs.
machine3 min 58 s51:44on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Will traditional religious institutions survive if they do not adapt?
Mufti Abu Layth predicts that institutions refusing to adapt, such as many Deobandi madrasas, will fossilise, while Barelvis who modernised their style stay approachable.
machine2 min 39 s1:01:00on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Do I need a religious authority to own my faith?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says Islam has no papacy, the deen belongs to everyone equally, and no one can throw you out of it.
machine1 min 19 s1:06:16on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do some religious people dislike laughter?
Mufti Abu Layth says humour lets ordinary people see absurdity and question authority, which is why institutional religion dislikes it and why reports against laughter were fabricated.
machine3 min 58 s1:10:13on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is Mufti Abu Layth against Salafis?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says he has no problem with anyone being Salafi; his objection is to cult-like dogmatism in any group.
machine4 min 14 s1:18:09on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why is Salafi content so dominant online?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Najdi dawah is a small puritan movement kept alive by oil money, which dominates Islamic content online only because it invested early in Q&A websites.
machine3 min 58 s1:28:55on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How should I deal with online hate preachers?
Mufti Abu Layth says critics who use him for views, especially hate preachers, should be mocked and blocked, and that their obsession harms them more than him.
machine6 min 35 s1:32:53on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can critics cancel an independent preacher?
Mufti Abu Layth says efforts to cancel him cannot work, because he is independent and speaks to the silent majority of ordinary Muslims, not his critics' followers.
machine3 min 56 s1:42:05on YouTube
13 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Will religious dogmatism ever disappear?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says dogmatism is built into institutional religion and will survive, so his aim is to keep the voice of reason alive as a choice.
machine1 min 19 s1:51:19on 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
Can I carry a child while I pray?
Mufti Abu Layth says one may carry a child while praying and that Hanafi rulings such as the three-movement rule, or that laughing or reading something breaks the prayer, are made up. He sees the campaign against the preacher who showed this as sectarian jealousy.
machine12 min 45 s23:17on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestDid the Prophet say a wife should prostrate to her husband?
The report is not authentic: it was probably put into circulation to support the family hierarchy of a patriarchal society. The report urging violent jealousy over female relatives is likewise fabricated.
machine4 min 55 s51:13on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why are some clerics so harsh in their rulings on women?
Mufti Abu Layth says harsh rulings from some clergy, especially towards women, come from sexual deprivation and a closed madrasa culture, and that love and a normal life soften people.
machine8 min 44 s1:12:51on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestWhat does Mufti Abu Layth think of France banning the hijab for girls under 18?
If France has banned headscarves for girls under 18, he says it is an abhorrent breach of basic rights that he strongly condemns. He also opposes pressuring girls to wear it: it should be their genuine choice.
machine7 min 20 s1:21:35on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the age of consent in France really 13?
Mufti Abu Layth doubts the claim that France's age of consent is thirteen, and distinguishes laws on relationships between teenagers of similar age from an adult engaging with a child.
machine2 min 17 s1:28:55on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How was Mufti Abu Layth's video on Aisha's age received?
Mufti Abu Layth is proud of the video: many people, especially women, told him it brought them back to Islam, while most clergy resent it because questioning the inherited ruling threatens their authority and livelihood.
machine8 min 09 s1:42:34on YouTube
6 Apr 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Where can I learn the Maliki school in English?
Mufti Abu Layth suggests the translations of Aisha Bewley, Hamza Yusuf's recorded lessons on a basic Maliki text, Shaykh Ali Laraki's translation, and teachers such as Abdalhaqq Bewley.
machine2 min 47 s1:50:03on YouTube
14 Mar 2021video
What has Yasir Qadhi said about challenging the giants of the Islamic tradition?
A clip circulated by a critic shows Qadhi saying that even the giants' views should not matter to a true researcher and that scholarship has become regurgitation. Mufti Abu Layth notes that the critic accuses Qadhi of exactly what Qadhi accuses Mufti of.
machine3 min 58 s57:59on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Without colonialism and the Mongols, would the Muslim world have had its own enlightenment?
Yes: he thinks Muslims left to themselves would have pioneered the enlightenment, but Europe's head start in industrialisation, used to subdue the Muslim world, provoked a reactionary rejection instead.
machine3 min 43 s25:06on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Has Yasir Qadhi said that the views of great scholars should not bind a researcher?
Mufti Abu Layth plays a clip of Qadhi urging researchers to break from inherited scholarship, and notes that the critic sharing it accuses Qadhi of the modernism Qadhi charges others with.
machine3 min 16 s2:01:49on YouTube
2 Mar 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is Mohammed Hijab breaking away from the Salafis?
Mufti Abu Layth thinks Hijab's point against the fatwa is fair, though his language was crude and not Mufti's style, and welcomes what he sees as Hijab outgrowing Salafism.
machine6 min 20 s3:27:30on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does the Mufti think of Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia?
His impression is that Malaysians and Indonesians have absorbed Islam naturally into daily life, though he feels extremism has risen there in the last fifteen years.
machine1 min 06 s23:34on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does the Mufti think of liberal Islam?
Liberal and conservative are political labels about authority, he says, and they do not truly fit Islam, which never had a church-like hierarchy.
machine3 min 40 s33:30on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does the Mufti think of Fethullah Gulen?
Mufti Abu Layth says he knows little about Gulen beyond his influential network of schools with an Islamic ethos, and will read up on him.
machine1 min 09 s59:27on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why is quoting science to defend hadith like camel urine risky?
Mufti Abu Layth says Hijab cannot yet leave his Salafi audience, and that using science to prove absurd claims usually backfires, as with camel-urine research and earlier polemics.
machine5 min 47 s1:32:50on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What is Birmingham really like for Muslims?
Mufti Abu Layth defends Birmingham but calls drugs a cancer in its Muslim community, and says cannabis should be legalised and regulated.
machine6 min 13 s1:29:06on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why does Birmingham have so many different Muslim sects?
Mufti Abu Layth says Birmingham's many strong sects cancel each other out, which he thinks is a good thing compared with towns one sect dominates.
machine2 min 47 s1:35:19on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestWhat accent does Mufti Abu Layth have?
Mufti Abu Layth says he has no set accent, and that in Britain one can usually hear a caller's ethnicity in the texture of their voice.
machine3 min 14 s1:38:06on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why is Pakistan so full of religious extremism?
Mufti Abu Layth says religious militancy in Pakistan was boosted by the CIA-backed Afghan jihad against the Soviets and is still mass-produced by madrasa networks.
machine8 min 16 s1:55:56on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What was Mufti Abu Layth's madrasa in Pakistan like?
Mufti Abu Layth says his madrasa's head was not hot-headed, and that Barelvi radicalism is recent while militancy has long existed in parts of the Deobandi world.
machine5 min 07 s2:05:32on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Who is right in India's farmers' protests?
Mufti Abu Layth stands with India's protesting farmers, saying laws affecting them must not be imposed without their consent.
machine13 min 02 s2:20:56on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does Islam say about the red pill movement?
Mufti Abu Layth says hating on women, or men, is ridiculous, though he grants some red pill points about how society treats the sexes.
machine11 min 34 s2:38:52on YouTube
9 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is Mufti Abu Layth a feminist?
Mufti Abu Layth says he would like to think he is a feminist, though feminists seem not to like him.
machine2 min 36 s2:45:32on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What is Shaykh Atabek Shukurov working on, and why does he teach principles before rulings?
The guest says his main work is separating inherited culture from religion and teaching principles before detailed rulings, alongside a college of traditional medicine and writing books.
machine3 min 40 s3:03on YouTube
29 Jan 2021MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How did Shaykh Atabek Shukurov become a scholar?
The guest traces his path from a Soviet childhood through Karachi and Saudi Arabia to eight years in Syria, where he learned to compare inherited cultures with the classical texts.
machine6 min 49 s6:17on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
A clip on parent titles for LGBTQIA+ families, and gender-neutral language
Mufti Abu Layth plays and reacts to a clip on alternative parent titles in LGBTQIA+ families and comments on gender-neutral language, saying people forget humans are part of nature.
machine3 min 56 s7:07on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was Covid-19 made in a lab?
Mufti Abu Layth says he believes Covid-19 came out of a laboratory and was engineered, pointing to reports that it spares children and relies on cholesterol.
machine5 min 18 s11:03on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Covid-19 come from the Wuhan lab?
Mufti Abu Layth denies spreading conspiracy theories but says Covid-19 escaped from the Wuhan laboratory, in his view by accident rather than design, after being engineered there.
machine2 min 36 s18:58on 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
Will the Mufti open an academy to train muftis?
No: he says founding an institution drains one's life and takes away the freedom to think and speak, and that online teaching and books reach more people.
machine5 min 15 s30:45on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
At what age should children start learning about Islam, and what should they learn?
Keep early religious education basic and natural, such as reading the Quran, the prayer and the stories of the prophets, with deeper study when children are older; he admits it depends on the child.
machine3 min 55 s36:00on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestCan a woman be an imam and lead the prayer?
Yes: a woman can be an imam and her leading the prayer is valid, though whether it works in practice depends on her society accepting it.
machine2 min 38 s50:21on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can a woman become a mufti?
Yes: anyone, a woman included, can become a mufti, but must persevere through often dogmatic institutions, in a field he says is neglected and lacks support.
machine9 min 13 s56:57on YouTube
26 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How should I deal with the misogynistic things some scholars wrote about women?
Do not let contemporary misogynists hijack your Islam, and read past scholars' views on women as reflections of their own age, which do not confine Islam.
machine9 min 15 s1:06:10on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Clip: Matt Hancock pressed on voting against free school meals
A clip of Matt Hancock pressed on voting against free school meals, which Mufti Abu Layth calls the unconscionable neglect of this government.
machine3 min 10 s15:09on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why are British politicians so bad at interviews?
Mufti Abu Layth says the English are not bad at interviews: Boris Johnson is very intelligent and plays up his clumsiness, and the elite grew richer in the pandemic.
machine2 min 30 s18:19on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What do you think of the Muslim community in Birmingham?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Muslim scene everywhere is suffering, and the youth do not listen to scholars because the scholars are irrelevant and outdated.
machine4 min 16 s25:37on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
A debater, Saqib Shaami's crew and a conference on the finality of prophethood
Mufti Abu Layth recalls a debater facing down Saqib Shaami's entourage when it disrupted a finality-of-prophethood conference in Birmingham.
machine5 min 41 s56:57on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it halal to perform music or dance at concerts for a living?
Dance is not haram in itself, Mufti Abu Layth says, but Muslim cultures look down on it as a profession, especially for women, so propriety should be kept in mind.
machine6 min 24 s1:11:22on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why is it so hard to find real, honest people?
Mufti Abu Layth says nobody fully knows anyone, social media feeds an endless search for someone better, and the appalling conduct of some Muslim men pushes women into hardline feminism.
machine7 min 32 s1:25:08on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why don't you open an Islamic academy?
Mufti Abu Layth will not open an academy because he feels institutions consume their founders and religion is a hard market to sustain one in.
machine3 min 08 s1:35:18on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Has Zaytuna College limited what Hamza Yusuf can say?
Mufti Abu Layth says Hamza Yusuf's rise was remarkable but that Zaytuna now constrains him, so he avoids anything controversial; Mufti prefers his own freedom.
machine6 min 20 s1:37:44on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
'Danny Boy's' Telegram post calling female academics 'snarling witches'
Mufti Abu Layth mocks a commentator's post calling female Islamic Studies academics 'snarling witches', and says men who block women's education are insecure.
machine7 min 04 s1:49:09on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why did Ibn Rushd fall from favour with the caliph?
Mufti Abu Layth relates two accounts of Ibn Rushd's fall, a remark on a storm and an insult to the caliph, and finds the first believable though unproven.
machine7 min 38 s2:08:59on YouTube
19 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What did Ibn Rushd say about women's abilities?
Mufti Abu Layth highlights Ibn Rushd's argument, 900 years ago, that women equal men in ability and that confining them to the home impoverished his cities.
machine6 min 55 s2:20:29on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
The storming of the US Capitol and Trump's 'go home, we love you' video
Clips of the Capitol riot and Trump's 'go home, we love you' video, with Mufti Abu Layth's mocking commentary.
machine5 min 33 s7:56on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Not just Trump: why he sees the Capitol riot as reflective of the United States
Mufti Abu Layth sees the Capitol riot as a symptom of the United States as a whole, not just of Trump, pointing to school shootings, inequality and race relations.
machine8 min 08 s13:29on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is America really as wild as you say?
Mufti Abu Layth says he was not dissing the US, but that it is a paradox: great wealth and innovation alongside poverty, no free health care and routine school shootings.
machine4 min 09 s23:16on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
LatestChat round: Trump's Twitter ban, Surah Ya Sin in the morning, and banter
Light chat: he is unsure how he feels about Trump's Twitter ban and says reciting Ya Sin each morning is not a sunnah.
machine4 min 21 s25:46on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Has Islam become more polarised between puritans and liberals?
Yes, he says Islam is far more polarised today than historically, but he is optimistic it is a fever through which a more natural Islam can return.
machine4 min 10 s35:37on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Do I have to be in a state of purity to say verses of the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth says religion should be natural, not ritualistic: the menstrual state is not impure, and revelation came to the Prophet while in bed with Aisha.
machine5 min 14 s39:18on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What do you think of Harun Yahya and his books?
Mufti Abu Layth says Harun Yahya's scientific-miracles books spread a lot of wrong information, and mocks the 1,000-year sentence given to Adnan Oktar.
machine8 min 06 s51:30on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Should I study at Dar al-Mustafa in Yemen or at al-Azhar?
Mufti Abu Layth would not go to Yemen now because it is unstable; al-Azhar is still an option, and short stints abroad after local study may be best.
machine3 min 41 s1:24:32on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can a woman lead the prayer or give the khutbah?
Yes, he says a woman may lead the prayer, give the adhan or the khutbah; it is not invalid, it is just generally not done.
machine3 min 05 s1:35:21on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What do you think of a particular online activist?
Mufti Abu Layth warns that anyone who says Muslims need to take over the world should set alarm bells ringing.
machine3 min 12 s2:19:51on YouTube
12 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What does Islamic law say about the harms of social media?
Mufti Abu Layth agrees fiqh is out of sync with problems like social media's harms and needs updating.
machine1 min 17 s2:51:22on YouTube
8 Jan 2021video
Rumours that Mufti Abu Layth is behind a social media preacher
Mufti Abu Layth dismisses as a crazy conspiracy theory the claim that he, Yasir Qadhi or Mohammed Hijab is behind a social media preacher he likes.
machine3 min0:02on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Opening: sound check, Covid recovery, a spoof of the lockdown announcement
Housekeeping: Mufti Abu Layth reports on his Covid recovery, plays a spoof of the UK lockdown announcement and mocks the vaccine promises.
machine8 min 12 s0:10on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the great reset or a depopulation plot real?
No: he does not believe in a great reset or depopulation plot by governments, though some individuals may wish for such a thing.
machine2 min 12 s14:02on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can we call coronavirus the UK virus?
No: the virus did not originate in the UK, which only has a mutation; he believes it came from the Wuhan lab, though not on purpose.
machine4 min 06 s20:22on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it haram for a mother to kiss her child on the lips?
There is nothing haram in a mother kissing her child; he says the haram lies in the perverted comments, and the Prophet kissed his grandsons.
machine6 min 32 s26:01on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How can we stop Salafi ideas from dominating how people see Islam?
Denounce every preacher of hatred, Shia or Salafi, and spread a reasoned narrative; he feels the Salafi dawah is already losing ground.
machine6 min 25 s54:50on YouTube
5 Jan 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
If miracles don't break nature's laws, what is the point of miracles?
Belief does not need supernatural miracles; private belief in them is fine, but preaching them as standard Islam damages Islam.
machine3 min 02 s1:29:58on YouTube
5 Jan 2021video
Is the niqab required, and is it right to make women take it off?
The face veil has no basis in the Quran and Sunnah, being the opinion of some later scholars. Forcing a woman to remove it is still wrong; one may only advise.
machine6 min 31 s0:19on YouTube
5 Jan 2021video
Why do some women feel they must wear the niqab?
Mufti Abu Layth blames men rather than women: men convince women they need the niqab by making them fear hell, sometimes out of insecurity. He calls the extreme mindsets this produces worrying.
machine4 min6:31on YouTube
4 Jan 2021video
Why are Salafi scholars now saying masturbation is not a sin after years of calling it haram?
Mufti Abu Layth says these scholars owe an apology to the Muslims they guilt-tripped for decades, since Ibn Hazm's and the Hanbali view were known to them all along and nothing new has come to light. He attributes the reversal to imams saying what the public expects until they feel they can say otherwise.
machine6 min 02 s6:38on YouTube
2020 · 129
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why did a medical doctor choose to study religion at Harvard?
The guest describes training as a physician and then turning to Arabic and Islamic studies at Berkeley and Harvard, where he is now a PhD candidate in the study of religion, despite his family's initial unease.
machine3 min 33 s0:04on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it better to study Islam at a madrasa or at a Western university?
The guest says he chose the critical academic study of Islam over al-Azhar, considering it superior, though he took two years of al-Azhar's online programme and recommends combining traditional and academic study.
machine3 min 07 s3:37on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Should I go to Madinah University or a madrasa to study Islam?
The guest advises open-minded, critical thinkers against a traditional madrasa, which he says selects, programmes and isolates its students from current scholarship, citing his own rejection by Madinah University.
machine3 min 21 s6:44on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Are madrasas failing their students?
Mufti Abu Layth says the madrasa phenomenon is dysfunctional and dumbs students down though it supplies the raw materials; both say those who leave orthodox positions are ostracised, and the guest recommends a few years of traditional study combined with academic study.
machine5 min 25 s10:05on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does traditional orthodoxy lead to extremism?
The guest says today's orthodoxy promotes reactionary conservatism that can mutate into groups like the Taliban and ISIS, and proposes reviving the philosophers, Mu'tazila and modernists; Mufti Abu Layth agrees some non-violent groups create a springboard for extremism.
machine3 min 11 s19:28on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Where does morality come from if not from God?
The guest says a theist can ground moral realism in God while an atheist who relies on evolution alone cannot, and that traditionalist debaters exploit opponents who know little philosophy.
machine5 min 49 s34:45on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
Why do popular preachers promote belief in jinn possession?
Mufti Abu Layth will answer Omar Suleiman's clip as a prime example of preachers promoting superstition; he says they appease the market that buys their commodity.
machine2 min 39 s0:02on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
Is the jinn exorcism and ruqya industry a fraud?
The ruqya industry is largely a fraud drenched in abuse; the Mu'tazila, who rejected possession, were never afflicted, and al-Jahiz already recorded a practitioner using a possession claim to explain away a lost virginity.
machine6 min 37 s43:12on YouTube
29 Oct 2020video
How should Muslims respond to cartoons of the Prophet?
Ignore them: people have the right to criticise religion, and the cartoons are drawn to provoke a reaction.
machine1 min 54 s0:01on YouTube
29 Oct 2020video
Does Islam justify killing someone for showing cartoons of the Prophet?
No: the killing was barbaric and unacceptable in Islam, and the teacher was within his rights, though being killed does not automatically make him a state hero.
machine3 min 17 s1:55on YouTube
29 Oct 2020video
Was it right for the French government to display the cartoons?
No: individuals and satirists may draw them, but a government represents all its citizens, including Muslims, and Macron's move was poorly managed and provocative.
machine3 min 54 s5:12on YouTube
29 Oct 2020video
Do I have to boycott French products?
No: boycotting is a personal choice and understandable, and state-level boycotts make sense, but Muslims who do not boycott should not be guilt-tripped.
machine4 min 32 s9:06on YouTube
29 Oct 2020video
Light-hearted replies to viewers about what to boycott
Jokes about what to boycott; Mufti Abu Layth doubts Mohammed Hijab would come on to debate.
machine1 min 37 s13:38on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Who do you think will win the US election?
Mufti Abu Layth has a scary feeling that Trump will win again but says it would not be the end of the world; he cannot understand Americans' resistance to free health care.
machine3 min 57 s43:24on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do imams in the West wear 'Islamic' robes?
Mufti Abu Layth says there was never an Islamic clothing; clerical dress came centuries later as a symbol of status that distances scholars from people.
machine6 min 38 s1:21:12on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why is Khabib such a hero to Muslims?
Mufti Abu Layth calls Khabib a phenomenon and admires him for openly wearing his Islam, while saying he took McGregor's hype too personally.
machine9 min 34 s1:41:57on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Should Muslims boycott France over the cartoons?
Mufti Abu Layth condemns the killing outright but says Macron was wrong to project the cartoons; boycotts are understandable but no one should be guilt-tripped.
machine14 min 09 s1:53:33on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Was it right to slap someone for insulting Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth condemns the assault outright, but says provocative critics should be wary and take precautions, since some will not be as civil.
machine9 min 28 s2:09:41on YouTube
27 Oct 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can a non-Muslim descendant of the Prophet claim sharif status?
Mufti Abu Layth says sharif status is a political institution rather than something Islam brought, and descendants of the Prophet can be non-Muslims.
machine3 min 45 s2:28:40on YouTube
20 Oct 2020video
Why do preachers attack views in public that they tolerate in private?
Most preachers are controlled by the crowd that follows them: the same figures who are friendly off camera attack Mufti Abu Layth on camera because their followers expect it. Al-Farabri likewise took an opportunity that brought fame, which does not oblige others to be blind.
machine3 min 56 s6:37on YouTube
20 Oct 2020video
Why do scholars avoid showing unity across Barelvi, Deobandi and Salafi lines?
Scholars from different sects who met privately refused even a group photo, saying their followers were not mature enough to see it. Mufti Abu Layth says this shows preachers feeding their followers' expectations out of fear of being disowned.
machine2 min 34 s10:33on YouTube
12 Oct 2020video
Is the preacher Muhammad ibn Munir actually a qualified mufti?
Mufti Abu Layth says Mufti Munir turned out not to be a certified mufti, the title being a nickname, but seems a cool, funny and charismatic person he would like to host.
machine4 min 23 s0:00on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it OK for Quran teachers to beat students?
Beating students is categorically haram; he says even a classical manual for teachers forbade forceful discipline of children.
machine5 min 08 s42:20on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it a problem that Muslim scholars today have no secular education?
Mufti Abu Layth agrees secular education matters but says it is no cure for obsession, and holds that other people being gay does not make anyone gay.
machine7 min 23 s1:03:21on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Doesn't Aisha's marriage age justify child marriage?
Paedophilia is unacceptable; he says defending the Prophet by comparing him to kings who married children is no defence and, in his view, blasphemous.
machine6 min 28 s1:10:44on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How should Muslims react when someone tears or burns the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth says tearing the Quran harms nothing in Islam and Muslims should never be enraged by it, while he condemns it and urges everyone to respect religious symbols.
machine8 min 13 s1:27:21on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is it right to attack critics of Islam personally?
Mufti Abu Layth says Mohammed Hijab bears some responsibility for provoking the Quran-tearing, and urges Muslims to attack arguments, not people and their families.
machine5 min 36 s1:35:34on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Are Abdullah bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf to blame for the UAE-Israel deal?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is unfair to blame Abdullah bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf for the UAE-Israel deal, since the UAE's ruler does not care what scholars think.
machine4 min 30 s1:41:10on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Will the UAE-Israel deal bring peace to Palestine?
Mufti Abu Layth says the UAE deal is not a solution, since it has brought no peace while Israel, acting as a terrorist state, keeps bombing Gaza.
machine3 min 36 s1:45:40on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What is the solution for the Palestinians in Gaza?
Mufti Abu Layth accepts Israel is here to stay and, seeing no two-state solution, argues for Gaza's Palestinians to be relocated with compensation across the Arab world.
machine5 min 13 s1:49:16on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is al-Aqsa really in Jerusalem?
Mufti Abu Layth says Jerusalem was not originally so sacred in Islam and that, in his understanding, al-Aqsa refers to a place in the heavens.
machine2 min 37 s1:54:29on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Is defending the holy land worth Palestinian lives?
Mufti Abu Layth says human life comes before any holy place and that Muslims must accept the fight against Israel is lost.
machine6 min 27 s1:57:06on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What is the solution to the Kashmir conflict?
Ideally, he says, Kashmir, or at least part of it such as the valley, should become independent of both India and Pakistan.
machine3 min 16 s2:03:33on YouTube
24 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
The critic he nicknames Gangu Teli and his Twitter meltdown
Mufti Abu Layth's account of a critic's Twitter attacks on him and of who the critic is.
machine4 min 27 s2:35:13on YouTube
19 Aug 2020Responding to Refutations
Introduction: the Quran-preservation debacle and a leaked 2016 email
Mufti Abu Layth introduces a commentary on who leaked a private 2016 email of Yasir Qadhi on the Quran's preservation, an episode he calls a cataclysmic debacle.
machine2 min 34 s0:00on YouTube
19 Aug 2020Responding to Refutations
Who leaked the emails: the missing link revealed
After years of uncertainty over who leaked Yasir Qadhi's email, Mufti Abu Layth says it has transpired that Farid was behind the leak.
machine2 min 37 s2:34on YouTube
19 Aug 2020Responding to Refutations
Ismail Patel's published exchange: the apology and the 'academic' consulted
Ismail Patel published his email exchange with Farid, in which Farid apologises for the leak and says he had consulted Abdul Rahman Hassan as an academic.
machine3 min 35 s5:11on YouTube
19 Aug 2020Responding to Refutations
What did the leak of Yasir Qadhi's emails on the Quran's preservation lead to?
The leak of Yasir Qadhi's emails set off a fitna in which people doubted or left Islam, and Yasir Qadhi's own explanation made it worse. Being clever and well-read does not make someone an academic.
machine3 min 07 s8:46on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
What is the Hagia Sophia and what did Turkey decide about it?
Turkey's courts under Erdogan ruled that the Hagia Sophia be converted back into a mosque, prompting celebration and mockery of objectors online. The building was built by Justinian I as a cathedral, once the largest in the eastern Christian world.
machine2 min 43 s0:00on 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
16 Jul 2020video
Was it haram for Muslims to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque after the conquest?
No, he says: it was the politics of conquest in medieval times, done by Muslims and Christians alike and neither encouraged nor prohibited by Islam, but it was not a good thing. The building later became a museum, and the argument now is only that it was once a mosque.
machine2 min 37 s7:58on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Is it wrong to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque?
Yes, he says: not as a matter of halal and haram, since Turkey may do what it wants with its property, but it is absolutely wrong and a great mistake, driven by the regime's bid to lead the Islamic world.
machine2 min 38 s10:35on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Were the Ottomans the representatives of Islam?
No, he says: the Ottoman Empire was a dynasty that happened to be Muslim, practised mandatory fratricide and styled its sultans 'Caesar of Rome', and never claimed to be a symbol of Islam. The romantic image is a later invention.
machine2 min 35 s13:13on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Does Istanbul need the Hagia Sophia as a mosque?
No: the Blue Mosque, with room for at least ten thousand, is a four-minute walk away and hundreds of Istanbul mosques already call the adhan, so the emotional reaction to hearing the adhan there is misplaced.
machine2 min 38 s15:48on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
If Muslims can reconvert the Hagia Sophia, can Israel or India reconvert mosques too?
By the 'might is right' logic used to justify the reconversion, he says, Israel could turn al-Aqsa into the Temple of Solomon and India's Hindu majority could turn mosques into temples, so Muslims who celebrate cannot then complain. Leave the building be.
machine3 min 56 s18:26on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Can a waqf never be overturned, as the argument for the Hagia Sophia claims?
Mufti Abu Layth says the waqf argument fails because Abu Hanifa himself held that an endowment can be overturned, a view Hanafis abandon when it does not serve the powerful or the clergy. He calls the reconversion part of a rising right-wing fascism that includes Muslims.
machine3 min 58 s22:22on YouTube
16 Jul 2020video
Should Pakistan allow a Hindu temple to be built in Islamabad?
Yes, he says: Pakistan is a nation-state of equal citizens, not a khilafah, and Muslims who demand tolerance abroad while opposing a temple at home have become bigots. The Quran itself says Allah's name is glorified in other faiths' places of worship.
machine4 min 08 s26:20on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
The week's chatter: a podcast plug, Kanye West for president and a viral video
Light chatter about the week's news and viral videos before the questions begin.
machine7 min 10 s9:53on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
What do you think of the Wayfair trafficking rumours and Epstein?
Mufti Abu Layth suspects Epstein was blackmailing powerful figures and was protected by the CIA in return for that leverage; the Wayfair rumours he cannot confirm but hopes are investigated.
machine6 min 59 s24:29on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
What happened with the Hagia Sophia?
Turkey's courts ruled that the Hagia Sophia, originally Justinian's cathedral, be turned back into a mosque, to celebration and mockery online.
machine3 min 47 s1:14:09on 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
14 Jul 2020live stream
Was it haram for the Ottomans to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque?
The original conversion was not haram but the politics of conquest, practised by Muslims and Christians alike, and he does not think it was good.
machine2 min 35 s1:22:25on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Is it wrong to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque?
It is not haram, since Turkey may do as it likes with its property, but it is absolutely wrong and a great mistake, done for political standing.
machine2 min 33 s1:25:00on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Were the Ottomans representatives of Islam?
The Ottoman Empire was a dynasty that happened to be Muslim, never a symbol of Islam; the romantic image is a later invention.
machine2 min 33 s1:27:33on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Does Istanbul need the Hagia Sophia as a mosque?
There is no need: the Blue Mosque, holding ten thousand, is four minutes away and hundreds of mosques in Istanbul already call the adhan.
machine3 min 13 s1:30:06on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
If Turkey can reconvert the Hagia Sophia, can Israel or India reconvert mosques too?
By the 'might is right' logic behind the reconversion, Israel could reclaim al-Aqsa and India's Hindus the Babri Masjid, so Muslims who celebrate cannot then complain.
machine3 min 50 s1:33:19on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Can a mosque that was once a waqf never be anything else?
The waqf argument fails, he says, because Abu Hanifa held that an endowment can be overturned, a view Hanafis drop when it does not serve power.
machine3 min 13 s1:37:09on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Should Pakistan allow a Hindu temple in Islamabad?
Mufti Abu Layth supports the Islamabad temple: Pakistan is a nation-state of equal citizens, and Muslims who demand tolerance abroad but deny it at home are bigots.
machine4 min 27 s1:40:22on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Are there Sharia courts in the UK?
There are no Sharia courts in the UK, only Sharia councils dealing with religious marriages and divorces.
machine39 s1:47:19on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Isn't the Prophet clearing the Kaaba of idols a precedent for the Hagia Sophia?
No: removing the idols from the Kaaba was about ending superstition, and cannot justify converting a museum in a secular country, which he calls a political stunt.
machine2 min 36 s1:47:58on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Was Sudan right to drop its alcohol and apostasy laws and end flogging?
Mufti Abu Layth welcomes Sudan's reforms: flogging today only damages Islam's message, FGM should be outlawed, and alcohol was never prohibited for non-Muslims.
machine2 min 28 s2:08:00on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
What are the allegations against the Quran reciter on Twitter?
Mufti Abu Layth shows the allegations circulating on Twitter against a well-known Quran reciter, says he cannot tell whether they are true, and says criminal claims should go to the police.
machine5 min 02 s2:12:50on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Should Muslims expose the private lives of religious figures?
What consenting adults do privately is their business, but abuse must be reported through proper channels; and do not meet anyone, even a famous reciter, in a car park.
machine3 min 03 s2:17:52on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
How do some imams use religion to exploit young women?
Imams who use religion to sell girls a fantasy of a pious relationship are despicable; girls should wake up from such fantasies and crimes should be reported.
machine6 min 20 s2:20:55on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
A viral clip of a preacher who rarely leaves home because of women
Mufti Abu Layth shows a viral clip of a preacher who says he avoids going out because of women, calls him sincere in his way, and jokes about the clip.
machine5 min 19 s2:27:15on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is America losing its place in the world?
The guest argues that America is in an internal crisis and has lost the soft power of alliances and credibility that matters more than military strength.
machine4 min 30 s22:55on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do so many people admire Trump's style?
Mufti Abu Layth condemns Trump and his views but admits a grudging admiration for his impunity; the guest ties Trump's rise to Fox News and a politics of fear.
machine5 min 48 s27:25on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Are mosques in America at risk from far-right anger?
The guest warns that rising white supremacist anger in the US, fed by scapegoating and Fox News, means every mosque now needs security.
machine3 min33:13on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Will people's better judgement win out over hatred?
Mufti Abu Layth is optimistic: he sees better judgement prevailing over time, especially among the young.
machine2 min 34 s36:13on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
What does defunding the police mean in practice?
The guest describes police in his area withdrawing after criticism and a country too polarised for real conversation.
machine2 min 32 s38:47on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why is America so polarised?
The guest argues that demographic fear and the hollowing out of the middle class by big corporations are driving American polarisation.
machine5 min 09 s41:19on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Will AI destroy jobs or create new ones?
Mufti Abu Layth suggests AI also creates new industries; the guest agrees but says automation will take labour jobs first for the sake of profit.
machine3 min 49 s46:28on 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
Is humanity better off today than ever before?
Mufti Abu Layth argues that humanity lives in unmatched prosperity built on trust in the future; the guest doubts people have become any less greedy.
machine5 min 44 s52:47on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Have nuclear weapons made the world more peaceful?
Mufti Abu Layth argues that nuclear deterrence has ironically kept the peace; the guest fears what the people holding the weapons might do.
machine3 min 53 s58:31on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the world getting better or worse?
Mufti Abu Layth sees humanity heading in a more positive than negative direction; the guest says the loan-based Western economy will bust.
machine3 min 14 s1:05:36on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Are people basically good, or is the system the problem?
Mufti Abu Layth sees goodness in people despite immorality; the guest says the problem is a system run by corporations, not individuals.
machine3 min 54 s1:08:50on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How did Iqbal see Western civilisation?
The guest sets out Iqbal's two-layer view of the West; Mufti Abu Layth says the prophets' message was simply to reconnect creation with the Creator.
machine3 min 49 s1:12:44on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is Western culture uniquely shallow?
Mufti Abu Layth says the pull of glitter and the thirst for knowledge are human, not Western, and that people now seek meaning more than ever.
machine4 min 33 s1:16:33on 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
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Can the bank take my whole house if I default near the end of my mortgage?
Mufti Abu Layth says that, in UK practice, mortgage lenders are far more lenient with defaulters than landlords, and asks to discuss riba as a concept.
machine4 min 32 s1:26:11on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Should Pakistan allow a Hindu temple to be built in Islamabad?
Mufti Abu Layth thinks building a temple for Pakistani Hindus is a kind gesture and that Muslims have no reason to feel insecure about it.
machine3 min 12 s2:22:50on YouTube
10 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Was it right for Turkey to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a mosque?
Mufti Abu Layth would not issue a fatwa against praying in the Hagia Sophia, but says Muslims should stop being insecure and be comfortable in their skin.
machine1 min 56 s2:25:24on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Who is Dr Khalil Andani and how did he come to study Islam academically?
The guest describes leaving a career in accountancy to study Islamic studies at Harvard, where he finished a PhD and now teaches religion at a US college.
machine3 min 47 s3:01on YouTube
2 Jul 2020video
Is it wrong for a hijabi YouTuber to take off her hijab?
Removing the hijab is her own choice and her own business, Mufti Abu Layth says; he adds that some scholars hold hijab is not obligatory and that he finds their argument stronger.
machine2 min 36 s0:01on YouTube
2 Jul 2020video
Why are people angry at a hijabi influencer who removed her hijab if it is her choice?
The problem is not the hijab but duplicity: Mufti Abu Layth says building fame and income on a religious image one does not believe in is a double life that inevitably collapses, and he advises against living fake lifestyles.
machine5 min 55 s2:37on YouTube
29 Jun 2020video
Is alcohol under forty percent permissible, as a Pakistani mufti reportedly said?
Mufti Abu Layth says he cannot tell what the mufti meant: forty percent strength would be ridiculous, a diluted drink might rest on the Hanafi view on nabidh, and the cigarette analogy made no sense to him. He wants to hear the mufti's explanation before judging.
machine4 min 40 s1:13on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Opening: introducing Edip Yuksel, who refuses titles and insists all are equal
The guest rejects titles such as professor, saying that in religion, philosophy and politics only the words count, not the name or rank of the person speaking.
machine3 min 53 s0:35on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
The guest's background: languages, translations, books, Beltways and a constitution for Turkey
The guest describes his languages, his Turkish and English translations of the Quran, his books on the number 19, his unpaid religious work, his Beltways transit project, a proposed Netflix documentary and a draft constitution for Turkey.
machine8 min 29 s4:28on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does the Quran ban slavery, and what does 'what your right hand possesses' mean?
The guest says the Quran abolishes slavery as the greatest crime, since owning a slave is to claim to be a rabb like Pharaoh, and that what the right hand possesses means contractual marriage. Mufti Abu Layth holds that slavery is abrogated through trajectory hermeneutics rather than by an explicit ban.
machine10 min 29 s1:08:39on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why was Rashad Khalifa assassinated?
The guest says Rashad Khalifa was declared an apostate by a 1989 Madinah gathering under Ibn Baz and killed within a year by a group linked to al-Qaeda, and he lists coincidences of the number 19 around the murder, Y2K and the 9/11 attacks.
machine5 min 12 s1:56:52on 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
Closing: how to reach the guest, conferences, peace with Sunnis and Shias, and parliamentary speeches
The guest invites contact through his website and proposes Zoom sessions and conferences with Sunni and Shia scholars, saying he debates fiercely but bears no animosity and defends anyone's rights; he points viewers to his parliamentary speeches and his refutation of ISIS.
machine3 min 56 s2:45:14on YouTube
26 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Should social media companies be allowed to censor people as the new public square?
The guest says Twitter suspended him at the Turkish government's instance and that corporations now controlling the virtual public square should be regulated and bound by due process; Mufti Abu Layth agrees the question is a fascinating one.
machine3 min 55 s2:49:10on YouTube
19 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Where does the claim that the Quran is preserved to the very dot come from?
Mufti Abu Layth says the slogan that the Quran is preserved to the very dot is not traditional but a creed cemented in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when religious people entrenched themselves in fundamentalism against modernity and colonialism. Early Muslims were comfortable with a Quran that was preserved while allowing variation.
machine3 min 29 s1:21:11on YouTube
19 Jun 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the guest's approach to the Quran's history just confirmation bias?
The guest says his questions came from the Muslim sources themselves, not from Western scholars, who have merely extracted the same data from Muslim books. Muslims must answer such questions rather than snub them, since the Quran is a book for all mankind.
machine2 min 37 s1:24:40on YouTube
17 Jun 2020video
How did Mohammed Hijab react after his interview with Yasir Qadhi backfired?
According to Mufti Abu Layth, Hijab posted that Yasir Qadhi 'will be refuted' once the mob turned, which Mufti attributes to a wish for popularity. Mufti says he would never backstab a guest in that way.
machine3 min 51 s2:36on YouTube
17 Jun 2020video
Why does he say the backlash against Yasir Qadhi is his own doing?
Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi and Hijab built the refutation culture that has now turned on them, and that a shaykh who calls Halloween, Christmas greetings, music and the beard too controversial should not open with the preservation of the Quran.
machine3 min 57 s6:27on YouTube
17 Jun 2020video
What should Yasir Qadhi have said about the preservation of the Quran?
Mufti Abu Layth says the mistake was raising the problem in public without any answer: Qadhi should have given some answer, such as saying plainly that the Quran would come out the same as it is today. The fallout, he says, is Qadhi's own fault.
machine6 min 24 s10:24on YouTube
17 Jun 2020video
What does he think will happen to Yasir Qadhi and Mohammed Hijab after this controversy?
Mufti Abu Layth predicts Qadhi must choose between owning his view and losing followers, and that Hijab will face a similar crisis within a decade because their claimed certainties are unsustainable. He says he is glad he never pandered to a crowd that would turn on him.
machine2 min 21 s16:48on YouTube
29 May 2020video
Was the arrest of Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza justified?
No: Mufti Abu Layth calls the arrest unacceptable and the product of jealousy and sectarianism, praising Engineer Mirza as an open-minded scholar.
machine3 min 07 s0:00on YouTube
28 Apr 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
Is slavery haram in Islam, and did Muslim scholars ban it before the UN?
Slavery is categorically haram today, and Maliki scholars issued fatwas forbidding it long before the UN; Mufti Abu Layth explains this through trajectory hermeneutics. Concubines were female slaves, not wives.
machine2 min 37 s0:00on YouTube
28 Apr 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
How could men in early Islam have sex with their female slaves?
Sexual relations with female slaves were condoned because the society Islam was revealed in had a very different mindset: its slavery resembled servitude rather than transatlantic slavery, and it drew no line between a slave's labour and sexual utility, so the practice could not be changed at once.
machine9 min 11 s3:55on YouTube
28 Apr 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
Why did Islam not abolish slavery outright?
Islam did not abolish slavery outright because the collective consciousness of the age could not yet see it as wrong, but it encouraged emancipation as a route to that change. Slavery was always wrong, and Mufti Abu Layth says Jonathan Brown's three axioms rest on a shallow analysis.
machine9 min 23 s11:48on YouTube
28 Apr 2020video
The backlash to Maulana Tariq Jamil's dua on media, modesty and the pandemic, and the clip
Mufti Abu Layth sets out the controversy over Maulana Tariq Jamil's dua, in which he criticised media lies and spoke of modesty, reads critics who called it misogynistic, and plays the clip.
machine5 min 59 s0:00on YouTube
28 Apr 2020video
Did Maulana Tariq Jamil blame women for the coronavirus?
Mufti Abu Layth did not feel Tariq Jamil was blaming women for the pandemic; he heard a call to self-examination in a calamity. Despite disagreements, he supports him as a caring voice for unity and reflection.
machine3 min 53 s5:59on YouTube
28 Apr 2020video
Is it wrong to preach modesty to society?
There is nothing wrong with a message about modesty: like avoiding profanity in front of children, social propriety has a place even when one disagrees on details. Tariq Jamil's apology, he says, was big of him.
machine2 min 20 s9:52on YouTube
22 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Have Muslims moved towards giving the Quran primacy over hadith?
The guest says the ummah has split: a traditional strand that in practice lets hadith override the Quran, and a growing body of thinking lay Muslims who already see the Quran as primary. Some scholars agree but are trapped in traditional discourse or silenced by dangerous circumstances.
machine3 min 56 s3:44on YouTube
19 Apr 2020video
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab?
On balance Mufti Abu Layth places Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the negative: a puritan dogmatist who demolished tombs, killed pilgrims and inspired the Salafi movement, which he feels did more harm than good and is a springboard for extremism. He adds that the movement also revived hadith and challenged blind following and superstition.
machine3 min 29 s0:00on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why did clerics in Pakistan insist on reopening mosques during the coronavirus lockdown?
The guest says the clerics privately regard the coronavirus as a conspiracy and turned mosque closures into a religious issue that the authorities were reluctant to confront.
machine2 min 33 s17:39on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Do religious scholars lose their independence when they depend on donations?
The guest refuses to earn from religion because dependence on a group or donors forces scholars to say what their audience wants; Mufti Abu Layth says denominational dependency cripples independent thinking.
machine5 min 05 s20:12on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Can women be stopped from going to the mosque because of fitnah?
The guest says there is no evidence for keeping women from the mosque beyond fear of fitnah, since even harassment in the Prophet's time did not lead to a ban; Mufti Abu Layth cites Malik's report of men and women making wudu together.
machine6 min 31 s29:14on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Do some muftis use lenient rulings for themselves but give strict ones to others?
The guest says some muftis take concessions such as the Ahl al-Hadith view on triple talaq for themselves while giving people harsh rulings, citing an account about a mufti in his neighbourhood.
machine2 min 37 s1:04:24on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does a triple talaq count as one divorce or three?
The guest says triple talaq drives many to the Ahl al-Hadith view that it counts as one, while some Ahl al-Hadith scholars privately hold it counts as three but will not publish this for fear of controversy.
machine5 min 46 s1:13:31on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why do people react so strongly when a scholar challenges established views?
The guest says people feel threatened when their views are challenged, and that independence from groups and donors is what lets a scholar research and speak honestly.
machine3 min 53 s1:19:17on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why talk publicly about permissive opinions if it might encourage people?
The guest says knowledge cannot be hidden in the internet age and that people lose trust when scholars conceal it, so it is better to tell them the recorded opinions.
machine5 min 14 s2:23:40on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Abu Hanifa hold that there is no hadd punishment for sodomy?
The guest says Abu Hanifa held there is no hadd for sodomy, that Salafis attack Hanafis for it, and that a Salafi mufti used the same view to shield one of their own scholars.
machine4 min 43 s2:28:54on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does making people feel guilty about pornography make things worse?
Mufti Abu Layth says telling people simply not to watch pornography is unrealistic and that guilt-tripping over what is not categorically haram may add to depression; the guest likens past bans on television and the internet.
machine3 min 57 s2:41:14on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does watching porn fuel sex trafficking?
Mufti Abu Layth says saying pornography is not categorically haram is not condoning abuses in the industry and does not in itself aid the market; the guest says people should be told its harms and follow the majority who forbid it.
machine8 min 52 s2:46:28on YouTube
19 Apr 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How should someone approach studying Islam with an open mind?
The guest urges viewers to study sincerely, without bias or partisanship, across all books; Mufti Abu Layth says the transparency of the early scholars is badly needed today.
machine7 min 48 s2:54:03on YouTube
7 Apr 2020video
Message to critics: criticise truthfully, not with lies
Mufti Abu Layth believes in Allah and His Messenger but rejects folkloric, medieval readings of Islam. He asks critics to attack his real views, not lies.
machine3 min 13 s12:46on YouTube
6 Apr 2020video
What was in the letter attacking Shaykh al-Yaqoubi, and who sent it?
A Bradford-based board wrote to Shaykh al-Yaqoubi demanding he declare Shia, Deobandi and Salafi figures kafir and condemn The Study Quran and Hamza Yusuf, which Mufti Abu Layth calls a sectarian bullying session. He recognised only two signatories and was surprised to see Pir Saqib Shaami's name.
machine5 min 14 s2:37on YouTube
31 Mar 2020video
The caller from Canada: trolling, the word Qadiani, and pictures of Mirza
Mufti Abu Layth recounts telling a caller that the trolling did not suit him and asking whether he believed Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet, then mocks pictures of Mirza on screen.
machine5 min 15 s4:01on YouTube
30 Mar 2020video
Should we recite Sahih al-Bukhari to protect ourselves from the coronavirus?
No: reciting Sahih al-Bukhari is not the way to tackle the coronavirus, and the Quran itself is not a medical cure; people can simply make du'a.
machine11 min3:43on YouTube
22 Mar 2020On Current Events
Abdul Raheem Limbada and the dream of the coronavirus as a man
Mufti Abu Layth mocks a preacher's account of a dream in which the coronavirus appeared as a man sent to punish, calling it nonsense that people are preaching and sharing.
machine10 min 12 s0:01on YouTube
3 Mar 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
What does the Mufti think of Shaykh Ramadan al-Buti?
Mufti Abu Layth regards al-Buti as a great scholar of his time whose books, especially Ma'a al-Nas, he benefited from. He says it is a shame al-Buti got caught up in Syrian politics.
machine1 min 24 s0:00on YouTube
28 Feb 2020From the Mind of a Mufti
Should election campaigns only be publicly funded?
Mufti Abu Layth thinks there should be some regulation of election funding, though banning private funding outright would restrict liberties, so it is a tough question.
machine1 min 19 s33:27on YouTube
17 Jan 2020Responding to Refutations
Reaction to Daniel Haqiqatjou's post about Mufti Menk writing 'Almighty' instead of 'Allah'
Mufti Abu Layth mocks Daniel Haqiqatjou's complaint that Mufti Menk tweets 'Almighty' rather than 'Allah' as petty, says Haqiqatjou is not trained in the Sharia, and says he is driven by hostility to the left rather than scholarship.
machine5 min 05 s0:00on YouTube
17 Jan 2020Responding to Refutations
Is it a Sunnah for women to pray in a wardrobe or the innermost room?
The claim that women praying in a wardrobe is a Sunnah rests on a weak, indeed false, hadith that is not a saying of the Prophet. Mufti Abu Layth sees the following of such claims as dogma and herd mentality.
machine2 min 24 s5:05on YouTube
2019 · 41
19 Dec 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Why are Indo-Pak Muslims adopting Gulf Arab culture?
Mufti Abu Layth dislikes the push to Arabise Indo-Pak Islam, from Gulf dress to saying Allah Hafiz, feeling it is political and that culture should be natural, not imposed.
machine5 min 34 s0:00on YouTube
12 Dec 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Mohammed Hijab's aggressive debating style?
Mohammed Hijab is intelligent, articulate and shows maturity of thought, but deliberately shouting at and dominating opponents on the claim that Allah commands harshness towards those who challenge Islam is, if that is what he meant, nonsensical and unacceptable.
machine2 min 38 s0:02on YouTube
3 Nov 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Can a husband or father force a woman to wear hijab?
Forcing women to cover their hair is categorically wrong in Mufti Abu Layth's view and does greater harm. He attributes the pressure to men's insecurity about women and to guilt imposed through fatwas that curse men whose wives do not cover, both of which he calls wrong.
machine5 min 13 s11:49on YouTube
3 Nov 2019Responding to Refutations
Did the Salafi movement play a part in producing modern extremism?
Mufti Abu Layth says Salafis now oppose terrorism but their movement helped produce it, from the 1970s Salafi group to the 1979 Kaaba seizure, and that Qadhi's teachers belonged to that past.
machine6 min 20 s40:39on 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
19 Sep 2019Responding to Refutations
Islamic institutes, preachers' depth of learning, and passionate converts
Mufti Abu Layth says the preacher was, he believes, referring to the Yaqeen Institute, and that if this is what they promote they need to revisit themselves. He says he respects and applauds Omar Suleiman's social justice work and protests for discriminated communities, but says such preachers have not really studied Islam in depth or qualified through a formal institute, are put on a pedestal by the institution and must then cement it, and were mostly very Wahhabi-inclined at one point. He says Asadullah al-Andalusi [?] once held ridiculous views about killing ex-Muslims and apostates, which he thinks he has since turned away from. He applauds converts for a step he thinks few born Muslims would take, mentioning Hamza Yusuf as one who studied deeply and to whom many are indebted, while noting that some converts with turbulent backgrounds embrace Islam as a cause.
machine3 min 15 s13:07on YouTube
19 Sep 2019Responding to Refutations
Converts who start teaching at once, with lines of Urdu poetry
Mufti Abu Layth continues that some people, as soon as they embrace Islam, start teaching it to others. He recites Urdu and Persian verses, poorly captured in the transcript, on a road that does not lead to a destination and on taking two or three steps without completing a journey, and on embracing even those who are not one's own. He says he has never claimed piety, and cites the Quranic rebuke of those who consider their becoming Muslim a favour. He says it bothers him when he sees this, and that it is not exclusive to converts, as many born Muslims tread the same path.
machine2 min 58 s16:22on YouTube
18 Sep 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
If obscene lyrics make music haram, what about the classical Arabic poetry taught in madrasas?
Classical Arabic poetry taught in every major madrasa, from Abu Nuwas to the Hamasa and Imru' al-Qais, is as full of violence, alcohol and sex as rap lyrics, so condemning rap on religious grounds is a double standard. Parents may set their own rules for their children without attributing them to God.
machine11 min 32 s36:43on YouTube
21 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
5Pillars' coverage of Mufti Abu Layth and its article claiming he denies the afterlife
Mufti Abu Layth reacts to a 5Pillars article claiming he does not believe in the afterlife, which drew on a clip of him calling the Quran's afterlife imagery symbolic. He says no press is bad press and that he has addressed the issue in many videos.
machine2 min 38 s0:00on YouTube
21 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
How should I deal with religious circles that pressure me into beliefs?
Leave the judgmental bubble of religious circles and be true to your faith and yourself rather than letting people bully you into beliefs. He cites a shaykh attacked for calling for updated thinking and Usama Canon's regret at having deprived himself for fear of what others said.
machine6 min 31 s9:10on YouTube
21 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Did the Prophet teach a formal creed of what Muslims must believe?
The Prophet taught faith, not a creed: beyond a handful of beliefs no hadith prescribes what to believe, and for 150 years the salaf up to Imam Malik wrote down no dogma. Policing people's ideas is the antithesis of Islam, so think for yourself.
machine2 min 36 s15:41on YouTube
21 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Closing: build bridges, talk to everyone, and an invitation to Daniel Haqiqatjou
Talk to everyone, including ex-Muslims, and hold dialogue where ideas differ. Mufti Abu Layth has invited Daniel Haqiqatjou to a dialogue on apostasy.
machine1 min18:17on YouTube
21 Aug 2019BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi?
Mufti Abu Layth likes al-Yaqoubi as one of the more level-headed and knowledgeable pirs, from a family of scholars, though he has only seen his generic talks. He recalls meeting him in Damascus two decades ago as an ordinary, respected academic with no entourage.
machine4 min 01 s2:35on YouTube
21 Aug 2019BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
How did Shaykh al-Yaqoubi become so influential in the UK?
After his earlier UK hosts parted with him, al-Yaqoubi found a devoted following in the Barelvi community of the Midlands and the north, learnt to avoid praising Deobandi scholars, and rose to prominence, wealth and power on its back.
machine3 min 57 s6:36on YouTube
21 Aug 2019BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
Does Mufti Abu Layth regard Sufi tariqahs led by pirs as cults?
Mufti Abu Layth says all such tariqahs are in essence cults, though al-Yaqoubi's is a better and less harmful one than the usual exploitative pir. The SKT charity boycott, he says, shows how much power such shaykhs now wield.
machine2 min 36 s10:33on YouTube
21 Aug 2019BukhariGate: Issues with Sahih al-Bukhari
Is al-Yaqoubi's edition of Sahih al-Bukhari really the most authentic copy on earth?
No special claim can rest on being based on the Sultaniyya, Mufti Abu Layth says, since every copy of Bukhari is. He sees the advertising as business, which he does not mind in itself, but calls the tactics problematic.
machine3 min 55 s20:54on YouTube
14 Aug 2019On Current Events
Supporting women's rights while rejecting hostility to masculinity
Mufti Abu Layth backs women's rights and condemns abuse, but rejects what he sees as a campaign against masculinity, while accepting men who are naturally soft.
machine6 min 32 s5:11on YouTube
4 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Mohammed Hijab's liberalism lecture argues like a sectarian polemic
Mufti Abu Layth turns to a university lecture by Mohammed Hijab on liberalism, which people had sent him and which claimed liberalism is baseless. He says the lecture seemed aimed at a Muslim audience and that, since Mohammed Hijab is intelligent, he is unsure whether he has not grasped the concept or is deliberately arguing to win points, but calls it a very poor job. He explains that the lecture argues against liberalism the way Muslims conduct sectarian debates: finding a figure the opponent supposedly reveres, such as Abu Hanifa, Ibn Taymiyya, Imam Malik or a Shia ayatollah, and quoting him to corner the opponent through compelling authority. He says this tactic makes no sense outside religion, where people do not feel bound by allegiance to such figures.
machine6 min 24 s0:00on YouTube
4 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
What is liberalism, and do liberals have to follow John Locke?
Liberalism is essentially a stance against authoritarianism, not allegiance to historical philosophers. Agreeing with Locke on one point does not make anyone a Christian or bind them to his whole philosophy.
machine6 min 19 s6:24on YouTube
4 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Should Muslims campaign against LGBTQ people, and is homosexuality unnatural?
Muslims should leave LGBTQ people alone, since fighting them will only deface Islam. Calling homosexuality unnatural is inaccurate, as it is widely found in nature, unlike incest.
machine6 min 19 s12:43on YouTube
4 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Ethics evolve: slavery, human agency and the genetic fallacy
Mufti Abu Layth argues that if ethics do not develop over time and only seventh-century ethics count, one would have to say slavery is fine, since the Quran acknowledged its ubiquity without abolishing it at the time, which he calls ridiculous. He says people hold liberal attitudes without having read Locke or Rousseau, being capable agents, not automatons. By the lecture's logic, he says, everything in Islam first championed by others would belong to them, as Socrates and Plato spoke of God and the soul first, which he calls an infantilising theory. He gives his own opposition to capital punishment, shared by most people in Europe, as an example of a view held without allegiance to Rousseau, Locke, Bentham or Bertrand Russell.
machine5 min 06 s24:46on YouTube
4 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
Is capital punishment, including for apostasy, justified?
Mufti Abu Layth opposes capital punishment as absurd, killing to stop killing, and calls justifying death for apostasy as treason a stupid argument. He welcomes Mohammed Hijab's apparent move away from the classical ruling to kill apostates.
machine7 min 25 s29:52on YouTube
4 Aug 2019From the Mind of a Mufti
'Islam gave these rights first' and blinding people with jargon
Mufti Abu Layth addresses the lecture's point that Islam gave rights such as voting 1,400 years before the suffragettes, saying that is fine to mention but people alive in 2019 will ask why Muslim rulings are still backward today, so it is nothing to gloat about. He criticises dropping philosophical names and terms that impress those who do not know them but make Muslims look weaker to those who do, as some did in arguments for God, and parodies such jargon. He says a real discussion would define liberalism and admit that some fascist versions of it exist and can be dangerous, but that liberalism is an attitude against imposed authority, not a separate religion. He concludes that the lecture was a straw man resting on Locke, Hobbes and Kant, and hopes Mohammed Hijab might reflect on it.
machine6 min 08 s37:17on YouTube
1 Aug 2019On Current Events
Introducing the controversy over a famous Instagram 'couple goals' pair
Mufti Abu Layth introduces the social media controversy around a famous Muslim Instagram couple accused of living double lives.
machine4 min 26 s0:00on YouTube
1 Aug 2019On Current Events
Why is it harmful when religious influencers present a fake perfect life?
Mufti Abu Layth says their private lives were their own business, and that the harm lay in preaching standards they could not live by and selling an unattainable ideal of marriage in God's name.
machine6 min 19 s4:26on YouTube
1 Aug 2019On Current Events
Is it right to condemn people for being in a polygamous marriage?
Mufti Abu Layth says polygamy is a personal choice Islam allows, so people should not hate on others for it, though nobody has to practise it.
machine8 min 49 s21:29on YouTube
1 Aug 2019On Current Events
Do you need to appear perfectly pious to be a good Muslim?
No one needs to pretend to be pious; being genuinely human makes the deen more workable, while sanctimonious fake preaching drives people from faith.
machine6 min 07 s25:17on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
How should Muslims respond to an ex-Muslim who criticises the Quran?
Attack the argument, not the person: Mufti Abu Layth says a genuine seeker deserves respect, that the claim itself is false, and that Muslims who call the Prophet a mercy to the world must show it in how they respond.
machine1 min 19 s5:07on YouTube
25 Jul 2019Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is forcing your wife to have sex a sin in Islam?
Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says coercive sex with one's wife is haram, and that Muslims who deny this create the problem. He cites Imam Malik's saying that what set right the first of this umma will set right its last, meaning the independence to challenge inherited readings shaped by medieval patriarchy.
machine3 min 51 s32:36on YouTube
10 May 2019video
I converted to Islam but my husband didn't. Do I have to leave him?
No: he agrees with scholars such as Abdullah bin Bayyah that a convert wife may stay with her non-Muslim husband, and vice versa. Telling converts to leave their spouses is home-wrecking.
machine5 min 09 s1:18on YouTube
10 May 2019video
Do converts have to redo their marriage after becoming Muslim?
No: a non-Muslim marriage valid by its own rules is valid in Islam, and converts were never asked to repeat their nikah. The Prophet's daughter Zaynab and her husband are an example.
machine6 min 28 s8:57on YouTube
10 May 2019video
As a convert, should I try to convert my spouse or family?
No need: Imam Malik said Islam should not be pressed on a convert's husband, since he knows what Islam is. Speaking about Islam is fine, but obsessing over converting people is not.
machine3 min 49 s36:59on YouTube
4 May 2019On Current Events
Daniel Haqiqatjou's post that praying in a closet is a Sunnah for women
Daniel Haqiqatjou's post claimed that a woman praying in a closet revives a Sunnah and that this is better for her than praying in the Prophet's mosque.
machine5 min 33 s0:00on YouTube
4 May 2019On Current Events
Does a hadith tell women to pray in a closet?
No: the word makhda' means an inner sleeping chamber, not a closet, and such rooms were dark only because houses had no lamps.
machine3 min 53 s5:33on YouTube
4 May 2019On Current Events
Is it better for women to pray at home than in the mosque?
No: sahih hadith show women regularly praying in the Prophet's mosque, the Prophet forbade stopping them, and Umar and Ali provided imams for them.
machine8 min 09 s15:11on YouTube
4 May 2019On Current Events
Is the hadith about women praying in the darkest part of the house authentic?
No: the chains run through unknown, abandoned or weak narrators, so the reports are fabricated or very weak and clash with the sahih hadith.
machine8 min 22 s23:22on YouTube
4 May 2019On Current Events
Have Muslims really kept women out of mosques for 1,400 years?
No: women prayed in mosques from the Prophet's time on and classical scholars held many such views, so the '1,400 years' claim fails; Mufti Abu Layth doubts Haqiqatjou's scholarly training.
machine6 min 22 s31:44on YouTube
4 May 2019On Current Events
Is Islam meant to be applied the same rigid way everywhere?
No: Islam was revealed to a tiny population but came for all mankind, so it is flexible enough to take in every people's backgrounds and needs.
machine3 min 03 s38:06on YouTube
15 Jan 2019Responding to Refutations
Backdrop: trolling by Ahmadis and the video that prompted the reply
The reply was prompted by an Ahmadi video claiming Mufti Abu Layth borrowed his views from them, followed by days of online trolling. Mufti says he opposes persecution of Ahmadis but will respond.
machine6 min 33 s0:00on YouTube
15 Jan 2019Responding to Refutations
Final thoughts: mental health, persecution, free speech and the victim card
Mufti Abu Layth condemns any persecution of Ahmadis but says criticising their beliefs is free speech, not persecution, and that not calling them Muslims does not amount to persecuting them.
machine5 min 16 s35:37on 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
2018 · 34
24 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Who won the David Wood versus Mohammed Hijab debate on Tawhid and the Trinity?
Mufti Abu Layth calls the Wood versus Hijab debate on Tawhid and the Trinity monumental and worth watching, and says Mohammed Hijab clearly won. He introduces David Wood as an evangelical, anti-Islam preacher who has debated many Muslims.
machine2 min 38 s0:00on YouTube
24 Dec 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Was Hijab right to show David Wood no respect in the debate?
Hijab's aggressive, loud and condescending manner, which he justified by Wood's record of bigotry, was used by non-Muslim commenters as ammunition and made Muslims look rowdy, while Wood stayed composed. Mufti Abu Layth sees it as damned if you do, damned if you don't.
machine6 min 31 s21:22on YouTube
20 Oct 2018Responding to Refutations
What is Yasir Qadhi's background, and where does the Salafi movement come from?
Qadhi's arguments stem from a hard-line Salafi formation, and Wahhabism in Mufti Abu Layth's account is a doctrine of literalism hostile to reason founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, whom he calls a deviant for permitting the killing and enslavement of Muslims. He traces the Salafi scholars of the 1970s to the movement behind the 1979 seizure of Mecca.
machine10 min 29 s14:22on YouTube
20 Sep 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
If a mutawatir hadith has to be reinterpreted, what does that say about hadith transmission?
Mufti Abu Layth says that because its defenders must reinterpret a report they call mutawatir, the transmission system itself is shown to be fallible rather than airtight.
machine7 min 49 s7:54on YouTube
3 Sep 2018Responding to Refutations
Reply to Abdullah al-Andalusi: the 'white saviour' and the caliphate
Mufti Abu Layth mocks Abdullah al-Andalusi's call to establish the caliphate as a 'white saviour complex', while praising converts who devoted themselves to study.
machine9 min 31 s0:00on YouTube
3 Sep 2018Responding to Refutations
Is the world today dar al-harb, the land of war?
Mufti Abu Layth rejects the teaching that the whole world is dar al-harb, saying it puts people one step from treating their neighbours as enemy combatants.
machine2 min 33 s9:31on YouTube
3 Sep 2018Responding to Refutations
Who should I listen to about political ideas in Islam?
Anyone speaking about ideas in Islam should at least be a scholar; he warns young people away from caliphate groups and points to Hamza Yusuf's lecture calling the caliphate a myth.
machine4 min 22 s18:31on YouTube
29 Jul 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Did the Prophet say women lack intellect and faith?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the report, though in al-Bukhari, is a false attribution to the Prophet, and that he once took it as a joke but now holds it inauthentic.
machine6 min 30 s0:00on YouTube
29 Jul 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Does the Quran say most people in hell are women?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the Quran speaks of mankind as a whole, all created weak, and never divides the people of hell by gender, so the report clashes with it.
machine6 min 23 s6:30on YouTube
29 Jul 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Is not praying during menstruation a sign of weak faith?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says women refrain from prayer during menstruation because the religion told them to, so calling it a lack of faith is absurd and the report is a misattribution.
machine6 min 58 s23:44on YouTube
21 Jul 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Do any Sunni scholars say mut'ah is not haram?
A recent Moroccan Maliki scholar argues in a book that mut'ah is not haram; Mufti Abu Layth calls the 'marry me your daughter' retort in his debate with a Salafi immature.
machine2 min 42 s3:15on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Why did some classical scholars rule that apostates be executed?
Where classical scholars ruled that apostates be executed, they were dealing with what would now be treason or armed rebellion in a very different world; those rulings do not apply today, and their prevalence then did not make them right.
machine3 min 57 s7:52on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Why would an apostate deserve death, and what about the three days to repent?
An apostate cannot be killed for disbelief, since that would condemn every disbeliever, and the 'three days to return to Islam' is absurd: it coerces people into hypocrisy and belittles the Prophet's thirteen years of preaching.
machine5 min 14 s43:11on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Can a life be taken on the basis of a doubtful hadith?
There is no verse and no conclusively established hadith for killing apostates, and a life, whose sanctity is conclusive, cannot be taken on isolated reports that carry doubt; defending it while demanding religious freedom in the West is a double standard.
machine5 min 17 s48:25on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
How should Muslims treat people who leave Islam?
People who leave Islam should be left alone, since that is between them and God; those who misrepresent the Prophet bear blame for people's hatred, and the Prophet's way was gentleness, not coercion or a state.
machine6 min 35 s53:42on YouTube
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Should I refuse to shake hands with the opposite sex where it is the custom?
Follow the convention you are in: where people do not shake hands, do not; where they do, you may act on the fatwa of the scholars who permit it, since no clear verse or hadith forbids it. Losing citizenship over a handshake was not a battle worth choosing.
machine3 min 16 s9:10on YouTube
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Doesn't the hadith of Zaynab forbid women from wearing perfume to the mosque?
The report only tells women not to wear perfume to the late Isha, sometimes Zaynab alone, so Mufti Abu Layth reads it as a specific instruction, not a general ban.
machine3 min 53 s19:47on YouTube
4 May 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Is a woman's prayer rejected if she wears perfume to the mosque?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the report is a statement attributed to Abu Hurayra through unknown and weak narrators, not a hadith of the Prophet, and no one holds that such a prayer is invalid.
machine2 min 35 s23:40on YouTube
22 Apr 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Can a woman travel without a mahram?
Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says a woman can travel without a mahram, since the ruling was about safety. The reports behind it disagree on how long a journey they mean.
machine9 min 31 s1:12on YouTube
22 Apr 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Is it haram for a woman to travel more than 48 miles alone?
No: Mufti Abu Layth calls the 48-mile rule absurd, a later Hanafi hardening of Abu Hanifa's three-day limit, which was itself meant to ease things for women.
machine3 min 53 s15:45on YouTube
22 Apr 2018Clarifying False Hadith Which Insult Islam
Is it safe and allowed for a woman to fly alone?
Yes: Mufti Abu Layth says a woman may travel alone, including by air, since the ruling was always about safety, and rejects the claim that only a husband can protect her.
machine3 min 07 s35:07on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why does it matter whether people believe in jinn possession?
Because the belief brings mockery on Islam and sustains an industry of abuse, with beatings, sexual violence and extortion, including a house gifted to a practitioner as a 'cure'. Mufti Abu Layth says Islam will bear the blame and future generations will treat it as mythology.
machine2 min 39 s34:00on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Is jinn possession just a difference of opinion among scholars?
Mufti Abu Layth refuses to treat it that way: although scholars from Fakhr al-Din al-Razi to Shaltut, Ibn Ashur and al-Shawkani rejected possession while Ibn Taymiyya affirmed it, this is not a harmless fiqh difference like raising the hands in prayer, because the belief drives abuse and exploitation and brings ridicule on Islam.
machine2 min 07 s1:05:31on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Exploitation by 'babas', and the solution: proper help and mental health
Magic healers exploit desperate people; seek real help from your network or professionals, and communities should take mental health seriously.
machine5 min 06 s46:15on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
How do we know the Quran is the word of God, if not by reason?
Arguments that the Quran is true because it says so, is unlike other books, is eloquent or flawless, or speaks of rain and fruit are no stronger than a spiderweb, Mufti Abu Layth says; without reason one only believes Islam is true because one was told.
machine7 min 48 s28:45on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
LatestDoes Islam stand the test of reason, and why should Muslims not fear examining it?
Mufti Abu Layth says he has certainty that Islam has stood the test of reason as well as time, that the hadith of the grave condemns faith that merely repeats what people say, and that Muslims must take reason back rather than shy away.
machine5 min 14 s36:33on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Was Zakir Naik right to dismiss evolution as 'just a theory'?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says Naik's mocking reply to an ex-Muslim did Islam a disservice, and that in science a theory can be an established fact, as with gravity, not merely a hypothesis.
machine3 min 52 s41:47on YouTube
5 Mar 2018On Love, Romance, and Relationships
Is zina today the same issue it was in the past?
Much of the inherited social theory on relationships and marriage no longer matches today's reality, and Mufti Abu Layth calls for ulama to re-examine the context with fresh ijtihad. He describes marriage today as costly and idealised, with divorce and polygamy stigmatised.
machine5 min 10 s1:18on YouTube
5 Mar 2018On Love, Romance, and Relationships
Why is it so hard for young Muslims to marry, and what are they supposed to do about desire?
Men of eighteen or nineteen are generally not ready for marriage but have strong sexual needs, and Mufti Abu Layth says current religious teaching offers no real solution. He calls advice to fast and lower the gaze inadequate and asks scholars to acknowledge the problem.
machine5 min 15 s5:10on YouTube
5 Mar 2018On Love, Romance, and Relationships
What should a couple agree before marriage about registering and money?
Have an open conversation before marriage about registration and finances, and if the marriage is not registered the woman should keep her own work, income and property. Saying a woman may not work is cultural and backward, not Islam.
machine3 min 56 s18:10on YouTube
21 Feb 2018On the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Did the Prophet take Safiyya the night her husband was killed, as the Tommy Robinson clip claims?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says the story conceded by the Muslim debater is false and that, as described, it would be rape, so conceding it and arguing over the word is indefensible. Muslims who have not studied Islamic history should not debate these subjects.
machine5 min 12 s0:00on YouTube
15 Feb 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Why don't most scholars say what Mufti Abu Layth says?
Scholars who are articulate leaders able to meet the challenges of the time usually become so in spite of the madrasa system, which does not teach these skills or, in some places, critical thinking.
machine5 min 38 s0:38on YouTube
15 Feb 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Why do so many maulanas think the way they do?
Many maulanas grow up mocked, alienated and insecure, are trained in material irrelevant to the real world, and are then made leaders young, and that past shapes their decisions. He says he is shedding light, not disparaging them.
machine9 min 38 s5:38on YouTube
15 Feb 2018From the Mind of a Mufti
Is it worth studying at a madrasa?
The madrasa is an excellent place if you bring critical thinking to it, and dogmatising if you do not; studying with several denominations, as he did, helps you see the good and the bad in each.
machine2 min 34 s15:16on YouTube
2017 · 25
19 Oct 2017video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth say riba has become a symbol rather than something people understand?
Riba has become a symbol of Islam that many hold important without understanding it, because religion for many people is a matter of visible symbols. What people know is that Allah declared war on riba and destroys it while increasing charity.
machine3 min 27 s2:04on YouTube
19 Oct 2017video
Are mortgages and bank loans the riba forbidden in the Quran?
Mortgages and bank loans are not the riba forbidden in the Quran, which addressed a tyrannical loan-shark culture. Today's borrower is the one giving more, not taking, and is protected by a legal framework of cooperation, debt management and bankruptcy.
machine7 min 59 s21:46on YouTube
19 Oct 2017video
How was the economy of the Prophet's time different from today's?
The Quranic prohibition came in an economy of finite gold, where wealth could only grow by taking it from others. Money, which Mufti Abu Layth calls humanity's greatest invented story, was later dematerialised into paper, changing everything.
machine7 min 14 s29:45on YouTube
19 Oct 2017video
How did Adam Smith and industrialisation change attitudes to greed and lending?
Adam Smith's idea of the pursuit of self-interest and the industrial-era promise of a better tomorrow changed a mindset in which greed was simply evil and nobody would lend. These are ingredients of the modern economy the Quran did not address.
machine4 min 40 s36:59on YouTube
19 Oct 2017video
How can a bank lend out more money than it has?
Banks lending out far more than they hold, though it can be abused, is what allows communities to flourish. Money today is created out of nothing, but spending it enriches others.
machine5 min 44 s42:32on YouTube
19 Oct 2017video
Are student loans, car finance and mortgages haram?
Mortgages, student loans, car finance and other bank loans are not haram in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding, though nobody is obliged to take them. He encourages Muslims in the West to invest in property, while leaving renting or Islamic mortgages to personal choice.
machine3 min 25 s56:42on YouTube
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
What happened with Nouman Ali Khan and Mahira Khan online?
Two online campaigns in the same week, against Nouman Ali Khan over allegations and against the actress Mahira Khan over a photograph, show the same Muslim attitude to responding, which Mufti Abu Layth sets out to examine.
machine2 min 39 s0:00on YouTube
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Was it wrong to publish the allegations against Nouman Ali Khan?
Releasing ambiguous allegations of abuse against Nouman Ali Khan, later said to concern flirtatious messages, was clear-cut haram and character assassination in Mufti Abu Layth's view. He calls the handling despicable and contrary to the Prophet's message.
machine3 min 57 s2:39on YouTube
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
What arguments were used to justify exposing Nouman Ali Khan?
The campaign rested on three claims: a duty to forbid evil, greater accountability for leaders, and the idea that any relationship involving a person of status is abuse. Mufti Abu Layth presents these as the views he is about to answer.
machine3 min 54 s6:36on YouTube
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Is it Islamic to name and shame someone for a sin?
Naming and shaming a person for a sin is a modern tabloid practice with no basis in the Prophet's example, who addressed wrongdoing without naming anyone. Those acting as haram police are mostly unqualified, and Mufti Abu Layth notes they ignore rulings that apply to themselves.
machine3 min 56 s15:41on YouTube
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Should religious leaders be held to a higher standard than everyone else?
The claim that leaders deserve greater scrutiny is a modern Western ethic that its proponents apply selectively, in Mufti Abu Layth's view, while a hadith tells Muslims to overlook the slips of people of standing. Workplace rules on relationships are corporate productivity ethics, not religion.
machine3 min 56 s19:37on YouTube
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Is a relationship between a leader and a follower automatically abuse?
A consensual relationship between adults is not abuse just because one has status, and Mufti Abu Layth calls the contrary claim insulting to women. Abuse of power is coercion, such as a boss demanding sexual acts to keep a job; Khadijah's marriage to the Prophet who worked for her is his first counter-example.
machine2 min 37 s23:33on YouTube
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Why does it matter that the word 'abuse' was used about Nouman Ali Khan?
Calling flirtatious messages abuse misuses a word people understand to mean molestation or rape, in Mufti Abu Layth's view, and it was used to destroy a man who made the Quran relevant in English. He calls the campaign coordinated, driven by ulterior motives, and an act of Judas.
machine3 min 54 s32:43on YouTube
29 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Do Muslims online have the right to demand evidence about a scholar's private life?
The public is not a court and has no jurisdiction to demand or weigh evidence about someone's private life, which everyone has a right to. Mufti Abu Layth says those attacking Nouman Ali Khan cannot fill his place when the next generation needs answers about the Quran.
machine3 min 54 s36:37on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why does the guest warn women never to go to exorcists?
Exorcists exploit women: the guest recounts a girl coached to feign possession to hide her lost virginity, and says many women have been made pregnant by such men in India and on a large scale in Britain. Every illness has a cure that must be sought by proper effort.
machine3 min 56 s34:55on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
What harm does belief in jinn possession do?
Belief in possession sustains beatings, sexual violence, exploitation and the extraction of money and even houses, and because it is dressed as Islam, Islam will be dismissed as mythology by the coming generation. Neurosis and psychosis are introduced as the frame for the psychological cases.
machine2 min 39 s1:24:46on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why are so many 'possessed' people in the community women?
Dissociative disorders that look like possession occur mostly among women with histories of trauma, excessive control, pressured or forced marriages and childhood beatings. The psyche breaks down under such treatment just as the body reacts to injury.
machine2 min 37 s1:45:48on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why not treat jinn possession as just a difference of opinion among scholars?
Because it is not a harmless difference like raising the hands in prayer: belief in possession underwrites mass exploitation, a multi-million pound industry and ridicule of Islam and its Prophet. Al-Razi, al-Maraghi, Ibn Ashur and al-Shawkani are among those who denied it, and the abuse must end.
machine1 min 55 s1:56:14on YouTube
9 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Why is the call to restore the khilafah dangerous for young Muslims?
Mufti Abu Layth says the nostalgic 'Bollywood version' of Islamic history, in which a perfect khilafah existed until 1924, is a fantasy, since the khilafah rashidah never went beyond Ali. Guilt-tripping young Muslims with it and with Dar al-Harb rhetoric breeds the extremist narrative and needs tackling.
machine3 min 38 s5:11on YouTube
6 Sep 2017From the Mind of a Mufti
Is it wrong to choose the easier opinion in Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth says choosing what is easier is the nature of Islam, citing hadith that the Prophet always chose the easier of two options. Islam came to connect people with God, not to make secondary details the main issue.
machine2 min 40 s5:27on YouTube
2 Apr 2017video
Do women pray differently from men in the Maliki school?
No: the Maliki school makes no distinction in principle between men's and women's salah. Some scholars only advise that a woman be mindful of modesty in ruku' and sujud.
machine1 min 56 s34:34on YouTube
11 Jan 2017Mothers of the Believers: The Wives of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ
Mufti Abu Layth's credentials and course of study
Mufti Abu Layth studied in Damascus and Pakistan, completed the full Islamic sciences course with hadith and ifta authorisations, and holds degrees in psychology and education.
machine6 min 32 s1:18on YouTube
11 Jan 2017Mothers of the Believers: The Wives of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ
Why is Aisha's age only being questioned now, and is it just to appease the West?
The age was treated as an issue historically through rulings against marrying girls incapable of marriage, and it is prominent now because Islam faces more scrutiny. Mufti Abu Layth rejects the report with certainty and calls the appeasement charge preposterous.
machine10 min 25 s1:18:33on YouTube
11 Jan 2017Mothers of the Believers: The Wives of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ
If ethics change over time, how can today's ethics judge the Prophet's marriage?
Base ethics such as the wrongness of harm do not change, and the issue is consent, which a minor cannot give. Mufti Abu Layth does not believe people will ever come to accept otherwise.
machine2 min 39 s1:35:34on YouTube
11 Jan 2017Mothers of the Believers: The Wives of the Blessed Prophet ﷺ
If Aisha's age is a problem, aren't polygamy and the Prophet's wars problems too?
Polygamy and the Prophet's wars are not irrational and differ from marrying a child, where consent is impossible. Mufti Abu Layth says the Prophet remains a perfect role model and that he does not accept Aisha was that age.
machine5 min 12 s1:55:11on YouTube
2016 · 7
21 Dec 2016video
Is Islam still relevant in today's confusing times?
Yes: the Prophet foretold confusing trials like layers of night, but Islam is for every time and place and has spread against the greatest odds.
machine3 min 53 s8:12on YouTube
21 Dec 2016video
Why do so many young Muslims feel confused or embarrassed about Islam today?
Negative media portrayal, extremism, postmodern questions, doubts about rulings, culture and racism all weigh on young Muslims, and Mufti Abu Layth asks what the answer is.
machine8 min 07 s12:05on YouTube
21 Dec 2016video
Where will the answers to Muslims' problems today come from?
From Muslims themselves: as Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak said, legends will be born to carry the deen, and Allah sends revivers in every generation.
machine11 min 46 s20:12on YouTube
21 Dec 2016video
How can young Muslims be made interested in their faith?
Learn some Arabic and get to know the scholars as the fascinating, humorous people they were, presenting the deen as appealingly as it truly is.
machine5 min 09 s40:05on YouTube
21 Dec 2016video
Is it wrong to watch Bollywood films and TV series?
Mufti Abu Layth does not see films and TV as a priority issue: entertainment is human, as poetry was for the companions, so focus on adding good rather than pushing people away.
machine7 min 36 s56:03on YouTube
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.
machine1 min 22 s5:25on YouTube
15 Mar 2016video
Western human rights, unquestioned presuppositions and the labels liberal and conservative
Both speakers say Muslims should question their own presuppositions and scrutinise Western values rather than dismiss or adopt them wholesale. One objects that Western moral markers shift every decade; the other that labels like liberal and conservative replace argument.
machine7 min 50 s6:55on YouTube
2015 · 15
27 Dec 2015video
Can I say Merry Christmas to non-Muslims?
Yes, saying Merry Christmas is permissible: old rulings against it came from a very different world, and in the UK Christmas is largely a winter festivity. Those who prefer another greeting may use it without feeling pressured.
machine3 min 20 s0:00on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Why was Mufti Abu Layth sent to prison?
Mufti Abu Layth was charged with aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office after contacting a police officer to arrange mediation for a friend whose children were missing, and served about seven weeks of a six-month sentence. He says he did nothing wrong and was treated unfairly for refusing to testify against the officer.
machine2 min 38 s0:10on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
What was Mufti Abu Layth's time in prison like?
Contrary to expectation it went well, and he is grateful for the insight it gave him into people from all walks of life whom he would never otherwise have met.
machine2 min 35 s2:48on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Should Muslims engage with the Prevent programme?
No, not at this stage: he says Prevent began with good objectives but has become toxic and lost its purpose, as a former Met Chief Superintendent said, so engagement is now counterproductive. Tackling radicalisation itself remains a duty of Muslims.
machine2 min 37 s5:23on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
What did Mufti Abu Layth actually do as a Prevent mentor?
Mufti Abu Layth met, only with their consent, people the council or police had flagged, offered to discuss Islam with them and helped clear up misunderstandings; most were not radicals. There were no covert operations, and he says spying on Muslims would be haram.
machine9 min 09 s8:00on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Is working with the government or Prevent a form of serving false gods?
No: he categorically rejects the view of some political groups that any association with the authorities is serving a false god, calling it unscholarly. He accepts that elements within the programmes, including counter-terrorism officers who he says worked against him, need reviewing.
machine3 min 57 s17:09on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Did Mufti Abu Layth call a Birmingham school the Trojan Horse school?
Mufti Abu Layth says the quote was aimed at the police, not the school: he was asking why counter-terrorism officers shared confidential data about him with a school they themselves were calling a Trojan Horse school. He was not validating the allegations but questioning the officers' sincerity.
machine5 min 13 s21:06on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Why did some Islamophobic journalists defend Mufti Abu Layth?
Mufti Abu Layth says it was mutual interest, not support: those concerned with the school highlighted his criticism of the counter-terrorism officers. Being shared by someone does not make them a friend, and most of them would disagree with most of what he says.
machine1 min 17 s26:19on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
What does Mufti Abu Layth think of ISIS?
ISIS is a ruthless takfiri threat to everyone, Muslims most of all, and he signed the first British fatwa against it. He rejects collective guilt for Muslims and says Western foreign policy and the Iraq prisons helped create it.
machine3 min 54 s27:36on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Should Muslims deny that jihad exists in Islam to counter extremism?
No: he says denying jihad or reducing it to self-defence feeds extremists, who use it to call scholars sellouts. The answer is to reclaim traditional Islam and own the concept with its context and conditions.
machine3 min 55 s31:30on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Is extremism among Muslims really on the rise?
In one sense yes, since groups like ISIS did not exist in this form two decades ago, but he says the far greater rise is in Muslims awakening to traditional Islam, with some bad elements awoken alongside it.
machine3 min 56 s35:25on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Is Mufti Abu Layth a modernist?
No: he follows the school of Madinah and Imam Malik, teaches thousand-year-old texts and holds chains back to the Prophet, and calls boycotting classical thought a heresy. Looking modern in dress, he says, is not modernism, and Abu Hanifa too was criticised for his dress.
machine5 min 11 s39:21on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
Why is Islamophobia rising?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is rising as a reaction to the worldwide awakening of Muslims to their faith, because people fear what they do not understand, and because of scaremongering and a few fools who misportray Islam.
machine2 min 38 s44:32on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
How should Muslims respond to Islamophobia?
Begin with yourself: learn properly, since much Islamophobia is fed by Muslims saying things they do not understand, keep links with the ulama, and work on communicating the right ideas in the right words.
machine2 min 36 s47:10on YouTube
6 Apr 2015video
What does Mufti Abu Layth plan to do next?
Continue teaching and counselling, start some form of voluntary work in prisons for people abandoned by society, and pursue international projects once travel restrictions after his release allow.
machine2 min 29 s55:04on YouTube
2014 · 5
2 Jul 2014video
How did Mufti Abu Layth become a mufti?
It was not planned: an interest in Arabic and the Quran grew step by step, taking him from self-study to Syria and then Pakistan, where he trained as a mufti.
machine6 min 16 s0:11on YouTube
2 Jul 2014video
Is difference of opinion in Islam a mercy?
Yes, definitely: difference of opinion is a mercy and a message of tolerance. He also calls social media vital for da'wah.
machine36 s18:32on YouTube
9 May 2014video
Must a young woman cover her face because of fitnah?
The speakers disagree: one holds the books require covering where there is fitnah from young women, the other that such a rule would swallow the Prophet's own practice.
machine5 min 01 s6:30on YouTube
9 May 2014video
Can a woman go out of the house without a need?
One speaker holds women went out only for need; the other that hadith and Maliki texts show women in public and travelling, with no text forbidding going out.
machine5 min 12 s22:26on YouTube
9 May 2014video
Is it haram for a woman to go out for a walk?
One speaker says nothing makes it haram for a woman to go for a walk and challenges the other to produce a Maliki fatwa forbidding it; the other asks whether fatwa must follow the madhhab's protocols.
machine10 min 42 s27:38on YouTube