What is the Fatwa?

[wwolverine]

Is the Fatwa issued in one country applicable to all other muslim countries? Who is the authority to issue the Fatwas?

 

[Sam_777]

As (name removed by moderator) said there is no central authority for that, each cleric can issue his own Fatwa.

Now if that cleric is a member of the official Islamic committee of a particular country, then his Fatwa would be imposed on the people of that particular country, and if that country has a weight in the Islamic country (like Saudi Arabia and Egypt) then other countries could follow it.

 

[Contarini]

Is the Fatwa issued in one country applicable to all other muslim countries? Who is the authority to issue the Fatwas?

In Sunni Islam, any scholar of the Qur’an may issue a Fatwa, but only the disciples of that scholar are bound to obey it. Obviously the more prestigious the scholar, the more people will listen. So Osama Bin Laden’s fatwas are going to be obeyed by a fairly small (though still very scary) number of people, while the fatwas of the sheikhs from Al-Azhar in Cairo (I mention this because among other things the chief sheikh of Al-Azhar condemned Osama bin Laden) will gain much wider respect.

In Shi’ite Islam it’s a bit different, because authority is more centralized. But there are several different Shi’ite groups. So again, the fatwa of Khomeini against Rushdie would be binding only on Twelver Shi’ites who acknowledged Khomeini’s authority.

To clarify exactly what a fatwa is: it’s a ruling saying that a particular thing is commanded, permissible, discouraged, forbidden, etc., by the standards of Islamic law.

Edwin

 

[Sam_777]

So Osama Bin Laden’s fatwas are going to be obeyed by a fairly small (though still very scary) number of people,

I think you are mistaken here, most if not all the people here in Arabian Peninsula listen to him in their hearts but they can’t do anything because of their governments, I think the same thing applies for other Muslims in other countries, this guy represents a 100% devoted Muslim (fully implementing the Islamic law).

 

[Contarini]

I think you are mistaken here, most if not all the people here in Arabian Peninsula listen to him in their hearts but they can’t do anything because of their governments, I think the same thing applies for other Muslims in other countries, this guy represents a 100% devoted Muslim (fully implementing the Islamic law).

But aren’t there lots of those? Why is Bin Laden special? Because he puts his own life on the line?

I certainly have to defer to your authority on what people in the Arabian Peninsula think, although of course you can’t read the hearts of all your fellow Arabians!

Also, your peninsula is the heart of Wahhabism, which many Muslims would argue is a fundamentalist distortion of Islam fundamentally at odds with central Islamic tradition, particularly its mystical aspects.

People talk a lot of nonsense about Islam “needing a Reformation.” You guys had one two hundred years ago, and we’re all suffering the results now!

Edwin

 

[manualman]

Islamic Clerical jurisdictions do not necessarily correspond with national boundaries.

Greg Mortenson (the guy that SHOULD have won the 2009 Nobel peace prize) illustrates this well in ‘Three Cups of Tea’ when Pakistani Village elders write to Iranian Shi’ite clerics to overrule a local mullah’s hostile opinion of his work.

 

[Sam_777]

But aren’t there lots of those? Why is Bin Laden special?

Because he is implementing Islam 100%, that is why Muslims from different nationalities have listen to his 1998 fatwa and then did the 911 attack.

 

[Contarini]

Because he is implementing Islam 100%

His version of it.

But he’s contradicting some hadiths (and the general consensus of Islamic law) about how war should be conducted, isn’t he?

Certainly Muhammad Sayyid al-Tantawy, imam of al-Azhar in Cairo in 2001, thought that bin Laden was violating Islamic law. Are you suggesting that he didn’t “implement Islam 100%”?

I’m certainly not disputing your claim that the folks you know in Saudi Arabia are sympathetic to bin Laden. But Saudi Arabia is Wahhabi. A mainstream Sunni institution like al-Azhar is surely more representative of Islamic tradition as a whole.

The Wahhabis claim that they are just “implementing Islam 100%” (indeed, they insist that there is no such thing as a “Wahhabi,” just a true Muslim). But I hope you will pardon me for being skeptical about this claim. We have these kinds of folks in Christianity too. They insist very loudly that they are just “following the Bible,” when it’s obvious to the rest of us (well, except for some atheists who find it convenient to believe their pretensions) that they are following their own culturally specific interpretation of the Bible.

Edwin

Edwin