The word · Law & life
فَتْوى
Fatwa
A scholar's answer to a specific question: advice, not a court judgement.
Also written · Fatwah · Fetva · Fatawa · Fataawa · Fatwas · Mufti · Iftaa · Ifta · Mustafti · religious ruling · legal opinion · religious verdict · ruling
The meaning
What Fatwa means in Islam
The one who gives it is a mufti and the one who asks is a mustafti. A fatwa compels nobody, it can differ from another qualified scholar's fatwa without either being wrong, and a good one depends closely on the asker's circumstances, which is why lifting someone else's fatwa off the internet can mislead you badly. A judge's ruling is the opposite: binding, and it settles the case for everyone in it.
Evidence · Editorial · Our own summary, drawn from the sources named
Read beside it
Rooms that name it
Words that sit beside it
- QadiA judge in an Islamic court, whose ruling binds, unlike a mufti's opinion.قاضٍ
- IjtihadThe disciplined effort of a qualified scholar to derive a ruling from the sources.اِجْتِهاد
- TaqlidFollowing a qualified scholar's ruling without knowing the underlying evidence yourself.تَقْليد
- IkhtilafScholarly disagreement, which classical Islam treated as normal rather than as a crisis.اِخْتِلاف
More from Law & life
- 'AqdA contract: a binding agreement formed by an offer and its acceptance.عَقْد
- DiyahBlood money: compensation paid to a victim's family for a killing or an injury.دِيَة
- HijabThe covering a Muslim woman wears in public, most often a headscarf with modest clothing.حِجاب
- MahramA relative you may never marry, and before whom the rules of covering are relaxed.مَحْرَم
- MustahabbRecommended: rewarded if done, with no blame for leaving it.مُسْتَحَبّ
- RukhsahA concession: permission to do the easier thing when a recognised excuse applies.رُخْصة