Fatwa has received recent research attention, especially from the point of view of sociology, in terms of studying certain fatwas related to muftis at a specific point in time, in order to examine these fatwas, and the extent to which social and political reality affects them, or the impact of their fatwas on society and its political, social and religious aspects.

This motivated me to write before about the sociology of fatwa and the need for it, and before it the need for the sociology of jurisprudence itself, and the sociology of fatwa can be studied through the study of fatwas of scholars who had a work in the humanities, or wide knowledge of them, and the extent to which they mixed and benefited from these sciences in their jurisprudence studies, and their fatwas.

Sections of the fatwa:

The fatwa can be divided into 3 sections:

First: Legislative Opinion

It was issued from the street, either inspired by the Holy Qur'an or in the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), in response to a question, or to a statement that came down during the era of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and it became a general law, which is what was mentioned in most of the questions answered by the Holy Qur'an and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and this type of fatwa was interrupted by the interruption of revelation.

Second: Jurisprudential Fatwa

It is what is revealed by a jurist from among the jurists, without asking anyone, but when he branches out to the branches, or assumes a specific issue.

Third: Partial Fatwa

Be an answer to a question in a particular incident by downloading the total jurisprudence on the partial position. This type of fatwa is most often used, although it is also called a jurisprudential fatwa.

Partial fatwas are divided into two types:

  • A special fatwa that relates to a matter that concerns a human being, or a small group of people, such as a question about an individual act performed by a person, individual worship, or behavior related to the person alone.
  • A general fatwa is one that concerns the general public, or a large category of people, according to the Fatwa Department.

In terms of the body issuing it, the fatwa is divided into:

  • Individual fatwa: It is issued by an individual, to whom the question is asked, and he answers it.
  • Collective fatwa: "The question and issue are directed or presented to a committee, body, academy, institution, symposium, or jurisprudential conference, and it is studied and answered." One researcher defined it as: "fatwas issued in the name of a group of Sharia specialists, after they have deliberated opinions about them."

Iftaa Sections

Just as the fatwa is divided into sections, so is the fatwa itself or the person issuing the fatwa as an institution divided into sections, there is the official fatwa, and a researcher calls it a functional fatwa, and there is a civil or popular fatwa.

As for the official fatwa, it is the fatwa that follows the state or authority, in terms of subordination to the administration and functional organization, whether its fatwa is independent of the system, or subordinate to it, where appointment or dismissal is made based on the authority's decision.

As for the popular fatwa, or independent, it is the body that gives fatwas to the people without an official mandate from the authority, but with a legitimate mandate that deserves it with its qualifications in the fatwa and the people's confidence in its fatwa.

There is no correlation between the fact that the mufti is officially subordinate to the authority, as there may be a scholar in a position who does not deviate from what the authority says, or asks of him. He may be a scholar interested in issuing fatwas and not in an official position, but he is subordinate to the authority, looking for its satisfaction in everything that comes from him, this is what he called the "jurist of power."

He may be in the official position, but he does not issue a fatwa and only says what agrees with his jurisprudential conviction, he walks behind the evidence wherever he goes follow him, as well as the jurist who is not in an official position, and a fatwa in relation to the nation and society in line with his jurisprudential opinion, this and his predecessor is the jurist of the nation, not the jurist of power, and this is what we have seen in more than one model in the muftis, so we find the official mufti and next to him the popular mufti, both of whom are jurists of the nation, as in the model of the Abbasid Hanafi Mahdi, who is the official mufti, His contemporary, Muhammad Alish al-Maliki, is the mufti of Malikiyah, not an official mufti. In it, one of the researchers wrote a nice letter entitled "Between the world of the sect and the world of the state."

There are some projects that did not come to light, were for senior people of humanities and legal sciences, including a work that he had worked on for a period of counselor Tariq Al-Bishri, may God have mercy on him, where he worked on studying some important jurisprudential books for some senior imams, especially Ibn al-Qayyim in his books "Judgmental Methods", and "Informing the signatories about the Lord of the Worlds"

The relationship of the fatwa to the study of society

Fatwa books are of great importance, in terms of their use as a reference for answering people's individual and collective questions, and in terms of their relationship to public affairs, especially public or collective fatwas related to society and the nation.

Many books of fatwas have spread, carried out by great jurists diligent, whether their diligence within the doctrine, or their general ijtihad, and they are called books of fatwas, or books of calamities, according to the names of countries for them, most of the people of the Islamic East call them fatwas, and most of the people of the Islamic Maghreb call the books of fatwas books calamities, according to the name of the Maliki school of thought so.

The importance of books of fatwas and calamities is as follows:

First: The vitality of Islamic jurisprudence

Fatwas books show the vitality of Islamic jurisprudence in treating issues that affect people's lives, which made one contemporary jurist describe the fatwa as mobile jurisprudence, indicating that jurisprudence is divided into two parts: fixed jurisprudence, which is recorded in books of doctrinal and comparative jurisprudence. As for the fatwa, it is the moving jurisprudence, because it is renewed and changing, despite its dependence on the sources of legislation, but the download on this reality in which the fatwa descends, and the role of the jurist and his work in it, gives it vitality and renewal.

And because the books of calamities and jurisprudential fatwas are the juice of 3 elements: "text, reason, and renewed reality, and therefore they differ from the books of traditional jurisprudence deduced the provisions of their approved assets without the impact of reality, or the impact of time, and disciplined to the chapters of jurisprudence adopted in authorship and customary in the arrangement."

Second: Fatwas and historical documentation books for society:

These books are historical records and documents that benefit the researcher in the state of the nation in all its aspects: political, social, economic, cultural, and religious, as they give a picture of the lifestyle at the time of the fatwa, in terms of people's lives as respondents, and the intellectual lifestyle in terms of the mufti's answer.

There is a debate among historians: are the books of fatwas and calamities documents and references to history or not? Some refused to adopt them as historical documents, because some questions and answers are sometimes hypothetical, and my opinion is that they are suitable as historical documents, in the real part of them, which expresses cases that start from societal questions, even if they carry a personal question.

Also, the hypothetical questions in themselves are a document and evidence of the level of people's thinking, and the level of thinking of the muftis, in terms of their aspirations, and in terms of their visions for the future, and shows the level of thinking in society at the time, which does not apply to all fatwas, but to some of them, in what is considered in the section of virtual jurisprudence, while the rest of the people's questions are undoubtedly based on the reality of my life lived by the questioner and the mufti.

Ibn Arduun's fatwa was that a woman who shares her husband's effort at work, she is a partner with him as much as the percentage of partnership, whether by money or effort, and that upon the death of the husband - before the distribution of the estate - the wife is given her right to seek with the husband, and then the rest of the estate is distributed according to the legitimate shares.

Third: Our nation is not devoid of a public sphere

These books clearly show that our nation is not devoid of a public sphere, whether it exercises its rights, whether this field is weak or strong, depending on the stage and situation in which the nation is living.

Fourth: Fatwas Books Contribute to the Development and Renewal of Jurisprudence

Fatwas books contribute to the development and renewal of jurisprudence, both in terms of its well-known chapters, which classify its books according to its well-known classification, and introduce fatwas and new calamities to be placed in their jurisprudential place, and thus contribute to this renewal, and among these sections is what is related to political jurisprudence with all its components and titles, whether through books of doctrinal jurisprudence, books of legitimate politics, royal rulings, and books of judicial literature.

Contemporary Studies on Fatwa and Society:

There is a leap in the world of research in the fatwa recently, which seemed to pay attention to it well, whether in the Arab Maghreb, or the Arab Mashreq, although the Arab Maghreb receives the largest share so far, we saw Dr. Omar Benmeera's thesis entitled "Calamities and Society", in which the researcher was able to study the history of the Badia in the Middle Maghreb, and monitored through it the economic situation, but the state of water and wells, and the resources available at the time.

There are other studies on Ibn Rushd and his fatwas, and fatwas Ibn Ardun on toil and seeking, which expresses a societal vision intertwined with him jurisprudential vision, as the fatwa of Ibn Ardhoun that the woman who shares the effort of her husband in the work, she is a partner with him as much as the proportion of partnership, whether money, or effort, and that when the husband dies - before the distribution of the estate - the wife is given her right to seek with the husband, and then the rest of the estate is distributed according to the legitimate shares, and the scholars went up to him to discuss it, when they saw the women of the Badia Indeed, they go out early in the morning to the fields with their husband to work, and only return in the evening, they descended on his opinion.

In Egypt, a study by Dr. Fatima Hafez, her doctoral thesis, entitled "Fatwa and Modernity", was recently published, in which she analyzed the fatwas of the official Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abbasid al-Mahdi al-Hanafi, and Sheikh Muhammad Alish al-Maliki, and discussed in her thesis the relationship of the fatwas of these two jurists to political and social developments in the Egyptian country at the time.

There is a letter by a Westerner on muftis and Dar al-Iftaa, entitled "The Islam of the Egyptian State", by Jacob Scu Fgard Peterson, which is rich in discussion and documents about official and popular fatwas in Egypt, although not without observations and accusations, like every human action.

Fatwas of humanities

Some researchers have been interested in an important space in jurisprudence studies in terms of the relationship of contemporary jurists who combined the study of jurisprudence and law, or other human studies, such as philosophy, sociology, psychology, economics, and others. An important study was issued on "The Impact of the Khedivial School of Law on the Development of Jurisprudence Studies" by Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Tajin, for which an important additional introduction was written by Counselor Tariq Al-Bishri, in which he explained the importance of this type of studies, and that it met the desire and urgent need he has for a long time to address this space.

Although the study has been interested in talking about the efforts of the school, but there is also an important aspect that has not been addressed, which is the impact of the study of these jurists of law and the judiciary, in their treatment of jurisprudential issues and the way of writing, many of them have mixed in their writing by writing deep jurisprudential writings in the manner and classification of the people of law, which needs to be singled out with an area of studies and research.

There are some projects that did not come to light, were for senior people of the humanities and legal sciences, including a work that he had worked on for a period of counselor Tariq Al-Bishri, may God have mercy on him, as he worked on studying some important jurisprudential books of some senior imams, especially Ibn al-Qayyim in his books "Judgmental Methods" and "Informing the signatories about the Lord of the Worlds", and talking about his choices in them, and why he chose them, with the mentality of the human sage, and linking them to his historical legal mentality.

It is the same as what he worked on for the period of Dr. Zaki Najib Mahmoud, and he was in the last days of his life working on writing a work on the greatness of Islamic jurisprudence, and aspects of this greatness, from the vision and view of a great scientist in philosophy, and linking it to the philosophy of legislation, and contemporary thought, and we do not know about the fate of these works anything.

Fatwas overlooked by researchers

Despite the effort exerted in studying the books of ancient and contemporary fatwas, there are spaces that many researchers in the sociology of fatwas did not pay attention to, which are muftis who had a relationship and work in the humanities, whether in terms of teaching, or in terms of academic and scientific interest, and they are famous figures, but they were not famous for working with fatwa, and they were known to work in Islamic and humanitarian thought.

Among the most prominent of those who have written and published fatwas is the late Grand Imam Sheikh Abdul Halim Mahmoud, may God have mercy on him, and it was issued in two large parts, by Dar Al-Maaref, and was written by his son, Dr. Manea Abdel Halim Mahmoud, and it seems that they were not issued in the life of the Sheikh, and these fatwas dealt with most sections of Islamic jurisprudence, and the affairs of life and politics.

There are fatwas in 4 parts by Prof. Dr. Muhammad Al-Bahi, a man who combined several things, he was a minister, he was the director of Al-Azhar University, he received a doctorate degree from Germany, and he has a wide knowledge of Western thought, which makes his fatwas - such as the fatwas of Abdel Halim Mahmoud - important in their study, and to what extent he linked the humanities and fatwa.

Away from those who collected their fatwas in independent books - who have knowledge of the humanities - there are also official Egyptian muftis who have fatwas, such as the Sheikh of Al-Azhar and the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Hassan Maamoun, a graduate of the Sorbonne, and has a number of important fatwas related to society, domestic and international politics, and societal issues, although within the framework of people's questions addressed to the Egyptian Dar al-Iftaa, but when you stand on them, and reflect on what is stated in them, we will find an important helper in this field, from a figure such as Sheikh Mamoun, who combined Sharia sciences and humanities, whose impact is evident in many of his fatwas, many of which were collected in the Egyptian Dar al-Iftaa series: "Islamic Fatwas". Which is what we address in our upcoming articles hopefully.