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Education, madrasas and seminaries
40 segments in 23 recordings · 2014 to 2023 · 0 verified · 21 checked positions · society/education-and-madrasas · Feed
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Click a year to jump to itLatest answer · 10 Mar 2023
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
Earlier answers · 39 · newest first
2021 · 15
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
2020 · 15
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
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
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Should I give up my career plans to study full time at a madrasa?
Mufti Abu Layth would maybe not advise leaving a career for a madrasa: it offers structure and companionship but dumbs students down.
machine12 min 37 s54:07on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Can I learn Islam properly on my own alongside a degree?
Mufti Abu Layth advises keeping the career and studying Islam on the side; those at a madrasa must keep their critical faculties alive themselves.
machine6 min 36 s1:04:18on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
How common is sexual abuse in madrasas?
Mufti Abu Layth says abuse in madrasas is far more common outside the West and is often taken lightly; he would never send young boys to a madrasa in Pakistan.
machine8 min 53 s1:15:38on YouTube
4 Aug 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Don't madrasas expel students for sexual abuse?
Mufti Abu Layth says madrasas now respond to abuse claims more because they fear the police and the press than from conviction.
machine2 min 54 s1:30:51on 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
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
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
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
2019 · 1
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
2018 · 4
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
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 · 1
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
2016 · 1
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
2015 · 1
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
2014 · 1
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