Interdiction of the Shameless Mufti in Juristic Tradition and Its Application in Contemporary Reality: A Juristic and Maqasadic Study

الحجر على المفتي الماجن في التراث الفقهي وتطبيقه في الواقع المعاصر: دراسة فقهية مقاصدية

Abstract

Issuance of religious verdict (fatwā) has been approved divinely and is also a Prophetic function. It is a heavy responsibility that requires total trustworthiness. Establishing this religious verdict should not be done except by qualified people. Despite that, in the recent decades, chaos has been occurring in giving religious verdicts all over the world, as this has become a global phenomenon. This is because most of those who have recently produced religious verdicts have not considered the eligibility or requirements needed before doing so. They proceed with this task in different forms, such as media channels, webs, posts and booklets, which has led to contradictions in fatwa, confusion and dispute among Muslims, coupled with the societal instability. Considering the danger of giving religious verdicts by unqualified people, the classical jurists issued a fatwa for interdiction of these unqualified people by preventing them from their action and cancelling their verdicts, in order to save the public from their danger. This situation has led to the appearance of a terminology known as “interdiction of the shameless mufti”. This study aims at defining the shameless mufti and describing the Shari`ah ruling and reason for his interdiction, who should interdict him and how this rule could be implemented in our contemporary life. This research adopts both the inductive and analytical approaches.