In Arabic, the plural of fatwa is fatawa.
In his 2007 article, Barrak Alzaid defines and further describes a fatwa as follows:
"The fatwa (is) an
interpretation of the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammed's teachings, has
the potential to define everyday practices and modes of being for that
religious leader's followers.
"Although any Muslim can technically follow
any fatwa, the norms and practices of their particular community will determine whether they carry it out."
Black and Nadirsyah write:
"Simply stated, a fatwa is a legal opinion issued by an Islamic law specialist on a specific issue."
But then, later, they propose:
"A fatwa is a non-binding legal opinion or ruling given by a recognised Islamic legal specialist....
"A small number of countries do give fatwas legal force, making them binding when gazetted and published.... In some Muslim countries, such as
Bangladesh, it is an offence to issue an unauthorised fatwa....
"Collections of fatwas have been established by leadings jurists and at major
centres of Islamic scholarship, notably AI-Azhar University in Egypt and the
Council of Fiqh in Mecca.
"Fatwas are to be issued only by leading Islamic scholars
because the ruling or opinion given is to be arrived at through deep understanding
and thorough knowledge of the Shari'a, drawing on the sources of Islamic law,
namely the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, the opinions of the jurists of the
four Sunni schools of law (madhabs) and by applying the methodology of Islamic
jurisprudence (fiqh).
"As Islam has no centralised, international priestly hierarchy,
there is no uniform method for determining who can issue a valid fatwa, nor is there
one definitive academic qualification on which a Mufti or Ayatollah's standing
rests."
There is a misconception that a fatwa is strictly an order to kill specified individual(s) but the truth of it is that fatwas are issued on all sorts of question, such as whether or not an autopsy is permissible under Muslim law.
The following fatwas which have been reported on in recent years:
- "Fatwas prohibiting
women from studying at tertiary institutions;
- "Osama bin Laden jointly published a fatwa with Ayman al-Zawahiri and others
decreeing the killing of Americans and their allies (in 1998).
- "The decree that the Bamiyan Buddhist statutes in Afghanistan be
destroyed;
- "Fatwas ... such as the ban on beauty pageants in a
Malaysian state;
- "Saudi Arabia's ban on Pokemon games.
- "Fatwas from Islamic Muftis and organisations condemning acts of
terrorism, such as the 2005 bombings in central London.
- "The 2006 publication of
cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-
Posten resulted in a shaft of fatwas condemning this act, with the most significant
being a collective fatwa issued under the name of the World Islamic Scholars. A
total of 38 prominent Islamic Muftis, jurists and scholars jointly issued the fatwa,
which ruled the publication to be an entirely unacceptable crime of aggression that
has violated the highest sanctities of the Muslim people and called on the Danish
government and Danes to apologise, condemn and bring an end to this attack. It
also called on Muslims to exercise self-restraint and not engage in violent
retribution."1
REFERENCES:
- Alzaid, Barrak, Fatwas and fags: Violence and the Discursive Production of Abject Bodies, 19 JGL 617 (2010; and NOTE 1)
- Black, Ann; Hosen, Nadirsyah, Fatwas - Their Role in Contemporary Secular Australia, 18 Griffith L. Rev. 405 (2009)