Islamic Law and Society: The Practice of Iftā’ and Religious Institutions, Emine Enise Yakar (original) (raw)

In Islamic Law and Society: The Practice of Iftā' and Religious Institutions, Emine Enise Yakar explores critical aspects of the methodological pluralistic structure of fatwās in different societies and approaches of three fatwā institutions: Saudi Arabia's Dār al-Iftā' (The General Presidency of Scholarly Research and Ifta), Turkey's Diyanet (The General Presidency of Religious Affairs), and The Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) based in the USA. The book brings together diverse theoretical discussions and practical examples which offer a comparative analysis of contextual factors and the attitudes of scholars to provide solutions applicable to their relevant societies. The central theme of the book is to scrutinize the methodological diversities of the institutions, the contextual and dynamic complexities regarding the approaches of scholars living in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and North America, and the underlying influences of madhhab (school of law) affiliation, social values, cultural practices, and legal and political systems on the institutions' fatwās. Underscoring the role of fatwā institutions in the contemporary world, the book is composed of five detailed chapters. In the introductory part, Yakar provides an eloquent synopsis regarding the historical developments that took place in fatwā-writing, enlightens the readers regarding the selection criteria of these institutions, and mentions the idiosyncratic characters of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the USA from religio-legal perspectives. For the first three chapters, the author pursues a specific outline in which she respectively introduces the formational process of institutions, the hierarchical structure of fatwā boards, methodological approaches of the institutions, and divergent relationships between the scholars and governments in the mentioned countries. Since these chapters mainly provide descriptive information and theoretical structure, each chapter makes the reader conceptualize the contextual circumstances and realize the methodological diversity within the scope of Islamic law. For example, the fatwā of Dār al-Iftā' regarding alcohol and drugs evaluates the crime