Iftā’ and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West

In his review of Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth’s Gods and Humans in Islamic Thought: Abdul-Jabbār, Ibn Sīna and al-Ghazāli (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006), Sajjad Rizvi (2008) identifies three paths proposed by three influential medieval thinkers as characterizing the interconnected nature of intellectual inqu...

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Autor principal: Saheed Ahmad Rufai
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Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 2016
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:0f4c14418a9f4fe59951679863b3097d2021-12-02T19:22:39ZIftā’ and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West10.35632/ajis.v33i4.9442690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/0f4c14418a9f4fe59951679863b3097d2016-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/944https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 In his review of Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth’s Gods and Humans in Islamic Thought: Abdul-Jabbār, Ibn Sīna and al-Ghazāli (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006), Sajjad Rizvi (2008) identifies three paths proposed by three influential medieval thinkers as characterizing the interconnected nature of intellectual inquiry in Islam: Abd al-Jabbar (d. 1025), regarded as representing the kalām tradition, Ibn Sina (d. 1037) of the philosophical orientation, and al-Ghazali (d. 1111) of the Sufi tradition. If Rizvi had accurately added the juridical or jurisprudential dimension to Elkaisy-Friemuth’s perspective, his review would have panoramically captured the essence of Islam’s intellectual tradition. The elegant book under review, Iftā and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West, edited by Zulfiqar Ali Shah, has taken care of that major omission in what may be described as a virtually all-encompassing look at emerging concerns in iftā’ (formulating a fatwa) and fatwa (issuing a fatwa). The book features an introduction by the editor and eight chapters by scholars in the various foci of the subject covered. The introduction situates the book’s subject in a historical context and exposes its indebtedness to the seminar convened during July 2011 by the International Institute of Islamic Thought’s (IIIT) Summer Institute for Scholars, which addressed this topic. The editor attributes the emergence of consensus on the chaotic nature of the contemporary processes of both iftā’ and fatwa to the seminar. He then identifies the intellectual skills required for analytical reasoning, as well as the broad general knowledge of the fields relevant to the cultural contexts of their verdicts, as the strength that characterized the excellent performance of scholars in fatwa formulation and issuance from the rise of the Abbasids in 750 to the fall of Andalusia in 1492. Conversely, contemporary knowledge is fragmented into specializations and sub-specializations, all of which can hardly be mastered by one scholar or group of scholars. The editor, who engages critically with various issues and concerns involved in the contemporary formulation and issuance of fatwa, also provides a brief description of each chapter’s subject. However, the word al-fiqh al-istidlālī (demonstrative fiqh) is wrongly rendered as fiqh alistighlālī (p. 10) ... Saheed Ahmad RufaiInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 33, Iss 4 (2016)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Saheed Ahmad Rufai
Iftā’ and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West
description In his review of Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth’s Gods and Humans in Islamic Thought: Abdul-Jabbār, Ibn Sīna and al-Ghazāli (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006), Sajjad Rizvi (2008) identifies three paths proposed by three influential medieval thinkers as characterizing the interconnected nature of intellectual inquiry in Islam: Abd al-Jabbar (d. 1025), regarded as representing the kalām tradition, Ibn Sina (d. 1037) of the philosophical orientation, and al-Ghazali (d. 1111) of the Sufi tradition. If Rizvi had accurately added the juridical or jurisprudential dimension to Elkaisy-Friemuth’s perspective, his review would have panoramically captured the essence of Islam’s intellectual tradition. The elegant book under review, Iftā and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West, edited by Zulfiqar Ali Shah, has taken care of that major omission in what may be described as a virtually all-encompassing look at emerging concerns in iftā’ (formulating a fatwa) and fatwa (issuing a fatwa). The book features an introduction by the editor and eight chapters by scholars in the various foci of the subject covered. The introduction situates the book’s subject in a historical context and exposes its indebtedness to the seminar convened during July 2011 by the International Institute of Islamic Thought’s (IIIT) Summer Institute for Scholars, which addressed this topic. The editor attributes the emergence of consensus on the chaotic nature of the contemporary processes of both iftā’ and fatwa to the seminar. He then identifies the intellectual skills required for analytical reasoning, as well as the broad general knowledge of the fields relevant to the cultural contexts of their verdicts, as the strength that characterized the excellent performance of scholars in fatwa formulation and issuance from the rise of the Abbasids in 750 to the fall of Andalusia in 1492. Conversely, contemporary knowledge is fragmented into specializations and sub-specializations, all of which can hardly be mastered by one scholar or group of scholars. The editor, who engages critically with various issues and concerns involved in the contemporary formulation and issuance of fatwa, also provides a brief description of each chapter’s subject. However, the word al-fiqh al-istidlālī (demonstrative fiqh) is wrongly rendered as fiqh alistighlālī (p. 10) ...
format article
author Saheed Ahmad Rufai
author_facet Saheed Ahmad Rufai
author_sort Saheed Ahmad Rufai
title Iftā’ and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West
title_short Iftā’ and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West
title_full Iftā’ and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West
title_fullStr Iftā’ and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West
title_full_unstemmed Iftā’ and Fatwa in the Muslim World and the West
title_sort iftā’ and fatwa in the muslim world and the west
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 2016
url https://doaj.org/article/0f4c14418a9f4fe59951679863b3097d
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