Cairo -

The year 2022 has become the highest in the number of fatwas issued by the Egyptian Dar Al Iftaa in its history, as it answered more than one million and 563 thousand fatwa requests, with an estimated increase of about 200 thousand fatwas over the previous year.

Family issues topped the list of fatwas that Egyptians wanted to know about their legal rulings.

While the official fatwas varied between oral, telephone, written and electronic, family issues, especially those related to women, accounted for 63% of the total fatwas.

Extremism issues represented 12% of the fatwas, followed by issues of worship with 9%, then financial transactions with 7%.

For his part, the Mufti of Egypt, Shawky Allam, explained Dar Al-Ifta’s keenness to be a source of fatwa radiation worldwide, pointing to its efforts to train and qualify students and imams working in the field of fatwa to confront extremist and anomalous opinions, explaining that a number of fatwas issued this year dealt with a group Among the negative phenomena such as domestic violence, the rights of working women, and the rights and duties of the wife.

And Dar Al Iftaa announced, last October, the start of the full operation of the “Fatwa Pro” application, with the aim of communicating with English- and French-speaking Muslims, to serve as a helper for them in obtaining fatwas.

Before 2013, the number of fatwas did not exceed 500,000 fatwas annually, but the country witnessed a clear gradual increase in the demand for fatwas among Egyptians in recent years.

high position

In this context, Ramadan Khamis, Professor of Interpretation at Al-Azhar and Qatar Universities, says that the increase in the number of fatwas this year is due to the many problems and issues that appear in people's lives.

Khamis added - in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net - that the current era is an era of rapid movement in all aspects of economic, political and social life, and perhaps the period of the Corona pandemic generated many problems on multiple levels, which resulted in an increase in the number of fatwas.

The professor of interpretation believed that the Egyptians' turnout for the official fatwa is a clear indication of their religiosity, indicating that a person - in general - resorts to religion strongly when he feels the innate need for a pillar to rely on, stressing at the same time that the absence of scientific and religious symbols on the scene was a cause of a turn. Muslim to the official authority for the fatwa.

As for the multiplicity and diversity of fatwa sources in Egypt, Khamis counted it as a good matter in which there is ample and facilitation, explaining the need for the mufti to qualify with the conditions of the fatwa and verify the pillars of the mufti in order to be qualified to sign on behalf of the Lord of the Worlds.

Sheikh Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb (right) speaking during the International Fatwa Conference in Cairo in 2022 (Al-Jazeera)

Correction of fatwas

In turn, the Secretary of the Fatwa at Dar Al Iftaa, Khaled Omran, confirmed Dar Al Iftaa's interest in any question that comes to it from citizens, pointing out that it is the first fatwa authority in the country, as it is the first house for fatwas in history, according to him.

The Egyptian Dar Al Iftaa was established in 1895 by order of the ruler of Egypt at the time, Khedive Abbas Helmy.

Omran explained - in televised statements - Dar Al Iftaa's keenness to fight and correct false fatwas in order to avoid societal misinformation, pointing out that these fatwas are circulated quickly and widely through social media.

He added that the family in its various issues was the most important focus for respondents during the year 2022, especially issues of marriage, divorce, the relationship between husband and wife, and the relationship between children, indicating that the largest percentage of questions were received from women.

And about the strangest issues that the Egyptians asked for a fatwa regarding, the Secretary of the Fatwa said that the strangest issues related to real treason and the illusion of treason, as well as the legality of some electronic games, especially those that represent a threat to their lives.

Distrust

This increase in the number of fatwas issued by Dar Al Iftaa, this year and over recent years, contradicts an opinion poll conducted by the official religious institution itself, in August 2020, about the authority that Egyptians turn to in search of a fatwa.

Through its official Facebook page, Dar Al Iftaa gave Egyptians a choice between the Google search engine and the Dar Al Iftaa website, and the result was in favor of the first option, with about 70% of the participants in the survey.

By the end of 2020, Dar Al Iftaa issued a statement confirming the issuance of 1.3 million fatwas, an estimated increase of about 200,000 fatwas over the previous year, which is a huge number that contradicts Egyptians' lack of confidence in the official authority, as confirmed by the survey conducted in the same year.

At the beginning of 2020, the Egyptian Center for Media and Public Opinion Studies conducted a study on the extent to which Egyptians trust the fatwas issued by Dar Al Iftaa, and it showed that 46% of the study’s targets do not trust fatwas issued by Dar Al Iftaa in general, while 51% of those targeted in the study expressed their lack of confidence. Fatwas with a political aspect.

Controversy

Fatwas in Egypt are not limited to one side, as the Al-Azhar Foundation issues fatwas through the Council of Senior Scholars, the Fatwa Committee of Al-Azhar Mosque, the Islamic Research Academy, and the Al-Azhar International Center for Fatwa, as well as the jurisprudence of the sheikhs of the Ministry of Endowments, professors of jurisprudence and Sharia, and those belonging to religious groups, which it receives. Egyptians as fatwas they trust.

This diversity in the source of the fatwa results, accordingly, in a huge number of fatwas, some of which raise societal controversy, whether because of a disagreement about its absolute or what the fatwa itself is.

The year 2022 witnessed several controversial fatwas, such as the fatwa issued by the former head of the Salafist Nour Party, Younis Makhyoun, regarding the prohibition of watching football, stressing that it is a game that wastes time and life, and that people divert what is beneficial, considering the Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi an enemy of religion.

A professor of comparative jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, Ahmed Karima, also issued a fatwa that the marriage contract between a female who did not reach 18 years and a male who did not exceed 21 years is not legally valid, stressing the need for the spouses to have legal capacity.

And the fatwa of a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, Mahmoud Muhanna, sparked widespread controversy, when he issued a fatwa permissible to pray in the toilet for someone who had recently entered Islam and feared that his matter would be discovered.

Likewise, the Secretary of the Fatwa at the Dar Al Iftaa, Khaled Omran, issued a fatwa on the prohibition of donating genital organs after death to ensure that there is no mixing of lineages, and the professor of comparative jurisprudence, Saad Al-Din Al-Hilali, made statements about the absence of a religious text confirming the imposition of the veil on women.

Despite the status of the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, his fatwa on the need to apply the "right to hard work and endeavor" - to ensure the preservation of the wife's rights in her husband's wealth - sparked widespread societal controversy.