The shifting moral universes of the Islamic Tradition of Iftā': A diachronic study of four Adab al-Fatwā Manuals

The importance of Islamic non-binding opinions, or fatwas, for scholarly research is now well-established. Perceiving the fatwa as a meeting point between legal theory and social practice — an understanding which is shared by many contemporary muftis — historians, legal scholars, and anthropologists have dressed a rich catalogue of the functions of fatwas in Muslim Societies. Although this literature is too extensive to be reviewed here, there appear to be four interrelated thematic levels: fatwas as legal tools; as social instruments; as political discourses; and as doctrinal-reform devices. As technical tools, fatwas were part of the litigation process, issued at the request of the qāḍ? (judge) and impacting court cases; fatwas were also cheaper and less conflictual alternatives to legal proceedings. They are thus not mere reflections of legal practice, but distinct contributions to the relationship between law and society. Fatwas routinely contributed to the social stability of Muslim communities by “providing formal administrative organization and informal networks for running the affairs of society.”1 They provided a sense of order and identity, circumscribing, in the elegant formulation of Skovgaard-Petersen, “the mental and moral universe of their day, always balancing around the boundaries of what is conceivable, legitimate and right.”2 Varying in time, place, and circumstance, as the stylized formula goes, fatwas were historically a privileged genre for the development of Islamic law, incorporating into the furū‘ (branches of fiqh) — or rejecting as bid‘a (innovation) — new and old (i.e., customary) social, economic and technological practices.3 As a form of knowledge central to Muslim societies, fatwas naturally generated power and control, permeating social relations at many levels.4 They articulated doctrinal and political struggles between competing factions through the notorious “fatwa wars,” one opinion creating the space in which a counter-fatwa contested the former's legitimacy. Fatwas intervened variously in political processes. Their use for condemning heterodox Muslims as apostates, largely responsible for the negative connotations the term evokes today, are contested practices that function in situations of social upheaval as formidable mechanisms of repression of specific groups, such as intellectuals or women.