June 20, 2013
The week's top five must-sees,
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The week's top five must-sees,
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Description
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is the technical term for the legal judgment or learned interpretation that a qualified jurist or mufti can give on issues pertaining to the Islamic law. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā is called, in that respect, a Mufti, i.e. an issuer of fatwā, from the verb أَفْتَى 'aftā = "he gave a formal legal opinion on". This is not necessarily a formal position since most Muslims argue that anyone trained in Islamic law may give an opinion on its teachings. If a fatwā does not break new ground, then it is simply called a ruling.
An analogy might be made to the issue of legal opinions from courts in common-law systems. Fatwās generally contain the details of the scholar's reasoning, typically in response to a particular case, and are considered binding precedent by those Muslims who have bound themselves to that scholar, including future muftis; mere rulings can be compared to memorandum opinions. The primary difference between common-law opinions and fatwās, however, is that fatwās are not universally binding; as sharia law is not universally consistent and Islam is very non-hierarchical in structure, fatwās do not carry the sort of weight that secular common-law opinions do.
(via Freebase)
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![Yemeni protestors, scholars denounce state clerics' fatwa [Al Jazeera, Qatar]](/images/image_cache/base-312000/312163/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=81b7ae01fe0ece2329e1cd5118a61b21 "Defected army soldiers stand on a military vehicle as they escort anti-governement protestors during a demonstration demanding the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa October 2, 2011: REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi")
![Yemeni youth insist they will remain peaceful as Saleh's clerics issue fatwa against protests [Dubai TV, UAE]](/images/image_cache/base-312000/312153/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=5a04373c4075efff87d16e83a50beb2a)
