Fatwa: Reality and the publicity
Practice of pronouncing a fatwa seems to be in vogue these days irrespective of whether it is logical or illogical, genuine or forged. Some clerics have invariably been using the tool for even petty issues that don’t even warrant a reply. Many who authoritatively talk about it, at times, seem to be unaware about the real meaning of the term, and such misrepresentation of the events lead to confusion and misapprehension.
The first and foremost thing to understand is the fact that fatwa is not by definition a declaration of war against someone. Rather it is a legal Islamic verdict, issued by some expert cleric (mufti) to resolve various specific issues.
The term fatwa can well be compared to the legal rulings of a court; in addition to it is an optional decree, an individual is free to respect it or ignore it. It is a secular verdict and never binds the people to follow it.
However, the basic question arising due to the present scenario of events is, “What does fatwa mean?”
Literally, the word fatwa is related with two of the Arabic words, “Atfa” and “Yastafti”, which respectively mean, “giving an opinion” and “to ask for an opinion” thus fatwa basically means “an opinion”.
Apart from this linguistic meaning, there also is a religious context associated with this term – whenever a Muslim seeks an Islamic answer to some questions then the given answer (by the proficient religious clerics) is known as fatwa.
These fatwas are given on the basis of the religious knowledge and evidence; and not on the personal opinions, because a fatwa has to be authentic and correct rather than a random thought, to get regarded as a religious ruling.
Moreover, a few basic rules are there for the clerics to become an authority over fatwa, they should have proficiency in the knowledge of Qur’an, they should possess an understanding of the reasons behind the revelation of the Qur’anic verses and their rulings, awareness of all the Hadith (the words of Prophet Mohammad) pertaining to a particular ruling as well as understanding of the conditions of application (of that Hadith) too. Lastly, a cleric should be familiar with the legal verdicts issued by the precedent scholars pertaining to similar issues.
The second contemplation is about the ways of issuing any fatwa; according to Islamic practices, there are four ways of extracting any fatwa – Quran, Sunnah(anything that Prophet Mohammad said or did), consent of the scholars from the earlier generations and lastly the logical reasoning of the present day scholars.
The fourth method is called “Ijtihad” and it is the last way out. When no previous rulings and evidences are found, then only the religious scholars provide answer to any particular case, there they try to be true and honest in their opinions. However, the Mufti (scholar) has to follow certain rules to meet the standards of Ijtihad, as he should be accomplished enough to understand the rulings of different clerics and examine their evidences, and proficient enough to take a decision based upon the strength and weaknesses of the evidences.
Some people are trying to cash in on the word fatwa. They find it real easy to articulate words in the name of fatwa and then get noticed or famed. Principally ,the fatwas issued by the persons other than the recognised, well experienced, trained (in Islamic Law) and practised religious clerics, do not have any authority and such statements can’t be taken as the rulings. The fatwas issued by an unqualified and unauthorized individuals, are forbidden.
Sometimes scholars differ in their opinions and methodologies about a same case, this difference of opinions result in more than one fatwa for the same issue. Such differences are about minor issues only, because about the major issues, almost all the schools of clerics agree with each other.
Thus it can be said that a fatwa is not something to create hype about but a simple decree stating about a decision on an issue and media should portray it in perspective. Dr Sadaf Fareed The writer is an academician.