Islamic Law and Society：The Practice Of Ifta' And Religious Institutions

This book places context at the core of the Islamic mechanism of ifta' to better understand the process of issuing fatwas in Muslim countries thus highlighting the gap between context and contemporaneity, on one hand, and the common perception of Islamic Law as frozen in time. The practice of ifta' 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 existing body of work related to the practice of ifta', 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 Dar al-Ifta', Turkey's Diyanet and America's FCNA) and their Islamic legal opinions (fatwas) 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 ifta' and its outputs, fatwas.

The work will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of Islamic Law, Middle Eastern Studies, Religion, and Politics.