Fatwa

The Phenomenon of Fatwa in Kurdistan Under the Effect of Diversity of Sources and Mufti’s Personal Mood

Ahmed Mahmoud Ahmed, Ibrahim Abdulrahman Mohammed

This research studies the phenomenon of fatwa in the Kurdistan Region, and specifically goes deeply on focusing on the diversity of its sources and the influence of the person’s mood who issues the fatwa, in order to analyze the deviation caused by incompliance with Shari'ah procedures. A fatwa is defined as a Shari'ah opinion issued by an expert in Sharia in response to a religious question matter, even though making researches and exploring shows that some of these Muftis follow their own desire, political and cultural affiliation rather than Shari'ah evidences, they lay under the influence of material interests or social customs. The study also shows that the weakness of the doctrinal preparation and the interest of the path leads to issuing of inaccurate fatwas that lead to religious misguidance, distort the image of Islam and terminates social stability. Through the descriptive analytical method, the study criticizes the rush of issuing contemporary fatwas, compared to the serenity of the ancients, in addition of claiming that the mufti must be well-informed in Shari'ah sciences, fair, and able to consider time and place, also the study shows that issuing Fatwa is a great responsibility and needs equitability to guarantee trust and confidence, it also advocates compliance with Shari'ah procedures in order to achieve the public interest and prevent affliction and division of the society. The nature of the research requires to be divided into an entry, two sections and a conclusion, the entry is dedicated to define essential keywords that have been used throughout the study, in addition of adherence to be rhetoric and avoidance of unnecessary extended contexts. The first part discusses the procedures and criteria necessary for issuing fatwas with considering time and place. The second part is devoted to explaining the cases and events that have occurred in the Kurdistan Region without taking the principles and points mentioned in the first part into that consideration. Finally, the study has reached several conclusions and recommendations in order to improve the process of issuing fatwa in the region.