During the formative classical period of Islamic jurisprudence, well-known scholars possessed not only the intellectual skills required for analytic reasoning, but also a broad general knowledge of the fields relevant to the cultural contexts in which they issued their edicts. A viable fatwa requires knowledge of the Shari ah as well as local customs, cultural realities, individual and communal implications, and related matters. The original juristic tradition was formulated and fixed during the first three Islamic centuries, a time of widespread sociopolitical turmoil. Of course, the jurists’ legal outlooks and thinking processes could not have escaped this reality. While Muslims of the prophetic and rashidun periods adhered closely to the authentic texts due to their sincerity, piety, prophetic training, and proximity to the revelation, the changing environment in which their descendants functioned gradually started to impact how the authentic texts were understood, interpreted, paraphrased, and implemented. Both the Muslim and the non-Muslim worlds have drastically changed since that time. The new geopolitical and scientific realities of our rapidly changing world demand a fresh look at some aspects of the established juristic tradition. The way forward involves a systematic fresh look at and reevaluation of the old fatwas, as well as the issuance of new ones with a maqasidi outlook that can deal successfully with today s ever-changing global realities. In this edited volume, papers on fatwa and ifta point to an approach that is both rooted in the Islamic legacy and committed to meeting the challenges of the modern world.
Zulfiqar Ali Shah received his BA and MA (Hons) in Comparative Religions from the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan and his PhD in Theology and Religious Studies from the University of Wales, UK. He has taught at the International Islamic University in Islamabad, the University of Wales in the UK, the University of North Florida and Cardinal Stritch University in the US. He is the former president of the Islamic Circle of North America, Shariah Scholars Association of North America, the current Executive Director and Secretary General of the Fiqh Council of North America and Religious Director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. He has authored many articles and books including "Anthropomorphic Depictions of God: The Concept of God in the Judaic, Christian and Islamic Traditions." His other ground-breaking books include "Islam and English Enlightenment: The Untold Story", "Islam and French Enlightenment" and "Islam and the Founding Fathers of America."
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