Interestingly I read an article about stopping FGM in muslim countries. A suggested way was to create a fatwa in order to stop FGM and to then push foward the debate through religious leaders.

But what is a Fatwa? Here are three interpretations from some friends who are also suscribed to the blog:

1. Yes, Fatwa is in the Islamic Law a "parere" , an opinion, given by a religious law expert. Wikipedia has described it quite well. I think that could be imagined that he serves a similar position such as a Bishop, province "jugde" or in Germany "Richter", so a position with authority, but which depends mainly on its civil position in the big variety of Muslim countries: you need to know what are the sources of law in the particular country you are looking at.

There are three main sources of law in the Western world. They are
1. legislation (it includes constitution and statutes which are prepared by Parliament)
2. case law or decisions of the higher court
3. customary law or custom (that can be and is in many cases religious)

You need to know if in the country you are looking at Sharia is the only law source, part of law source or no law source at all.
In Turkey it has been eliminated as law source as well in Tunisia. But Tunisia for example has civil law courts and use only for personal status the Islamic law as basis and they apply it not through Muftis but through special sections of civil courts (therefore by under state control). Saudi-Arabia and Mauretania follow instead only Sharia.

Muslim countries who adopt
*Sharia (Islamic law), have also the
*Coran [word of God] and the
*Hadith [words of Mohammad]
as primary law sources, so they come before Sharia, which is their interpretation through the times. Like Wikipedia says there are then different law schools, divided into sunnites (mainstream Arab world, Indonesia?, Malaysia?) and shiites (Iran, a little bit in Iraq, Yemen, spread in minorities), which follow different interpretation patterns...it's getting much complicated..

In Western countries however: France has eliminated every religious law source, the famous "laicite' francaise". In Italy for example you can still marry in Church and it has civil value. The religious law component is regulated by the Concordat subscribed by Mussolini, mainly regards some civil rights and loads of money, as well similar in Germany, Austria, Poland, ... who have single contracts with the Vatican, for example concerning religious teaching in public schools, it is organized through teachers instructed by Vaticans own institutes.

So meanwhile the emission of a Fatwa can be quite easy, it is difficult to know its legal, political and customary incidence, it differs from country to country.

2. Fatwa as i understand,....

It is an edict, normally released by islamic religious mufti (plain language - those with sound knowledge of the religion)
When an issue can be solved by referring to quran and hadith, then all is well, but occasionally certain issues go beyond these religious parameters....then the qualified personal will have certain religious "prayer like" ijithad to find a solution.The solution will be fatwa.
Recently in malaysia, the religious council has declared fatwa on Yoga practices. It is said that it is not islamic for a muslim to practice Yoga.

But then, fatwa in not etched on stone, so differing view always arise and it is up to the individual to follow it or not. Some feel that fatwa is not more than legal opinion.
Not all fatwa is based on protecting the sanity of the religion,but on personal capacity of individual such as the fatwa on Salman Rushdie

It is still a good method to instill reverence to the religion.

3. Fatwa is the term for religious edict/opinion based on derivation from 3 main sources as follows:
1. the primary source which is the QUR'AN (in english KORAN)
2. secondary source which is the HADEETH and SUNNAH (essentially teachings of Prophet Muhammad) and finally;
3. consensus of Scholars.

For example take the issue of Cloning or Stem Cell. Muslims when confronted with moral issues of Cloning will first look at the primary source i.e KORAN, if cloning is not treated in the KORAN , they will then check the secondary source which is the HADEETH. Hadeeth is the sayings and practices of the Prophet while he was alive. If the secondary source i.e Hadeeth did not offer an answer to the problem. Scholars will then refer to the third source which is the CONSENSUS of past Scholars. Here Past scholars refers to the period after the death of Prophet Muhammad when society face challenges which were not encountered during the lifetime of the Prophet.

If the third source did not treat the issue of cloning as well then the present day scholars will come out with a position using all the three sources as a guide. Whatever position they come out with is then referred to as a FATWA. Hence Fatwa is a derived position based on the three main sources i.e. KORAN, HADEETH AND CONSENSUS.

I must add here that the secondary source HADEETH is composed of two parts referred to as HADEETH & SUNNAH. Hadeeth is the sayings of Prophet Muhammad while Sunna is actions of the Prophet (i.e. what the Prophet did or didn't do) while he was alive.


What do you guys think?