Islamic Law and Society: The Practice of Iftā’ and Religious Institutions

By Emine Enise Yakar

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: May 31, 2023

ISBN: 9781032103808

This book places context at the core of the Islamic mechanism of iftā’ to better understand the process of issuing fatwās in Muslim and non-Muslim countries, thus highlighting the connection between context and contemporaneity, on one hand, and the adaptable perception of Islamic law, on the other.

The practice of iftā’ is one of the most important mechanisms of Islamic law that keeps Islamic thought about ethical and legal issues in harmony with the demands, exigencies and developments of time. This book builds upon the existing body of work related to the practice of iftā’, but takes the discussion beyond the current debates with the intent of unveiling the interaction between Islamic legal methodologies and different environmental contexts. The book specifically addresses the three institutions (Saudi Arabia’s Dār al-Iftā’, Turkey’s Diyanet and America’s FCNA) and their Islamic legal opinions (fatwās) in a comparative framework. This demonstrates the existence of complex and diverse ideas around similar issues within contemporary Islamic legal opinions that is further complicated by the influence of international, social, political, cultural and ideological contexts. The book thus unveils a more complicated range of interactive constituents in the process of the practice of iftā’ and its outputs, fatwās.

The work will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of Islamic law, Middle Eastern studies, religion and politics.

Table of Contents:

• Chapter 1: General Presidency of Scholarly Research and Iftā’ (Dār Al- Iftā’) In Saudi Arabia
• Chapter 2: Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) In Turkey
• Chapter 3: The Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) In America
• Chapter 4: A General Comparison Related to Madhhab Affiliation and Social Values
• Chapter 5: A General Comparison from The Point of Legal and Political Systems

About the Author:

Emine Enise Yakar completed her BA in the Faculty of Theology, Ankara University, Turkey, in 2010. She received her MA and PhD from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, the University of Exeter, UK, in 2014 and 2018, respectively. She is specifically interested in the interaction between Islamic legal methodologies and social context to provide insight into the flexible, practicable and applicable dimensions of Islamic law in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Islamic law at Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Turkey.

Source: Routledge