La fetua como producto y vector de la cultura jurídica islámica

Abstract

The fatwa is a legal opinion which a mufti (an acknowledged legal consultant) issues in response to a question (posed by an individual or an institution), in which he indicates and explains the prescriptions of the shari‘a applicable in the case at hand. It emerged in the early centuries of Islam in the absence of a legislative power and has played a fundamental role in the development and evolution of law to this day, because it adapts the law to specific realities and society’s changing needs. This article deals with the way fatwas work, their scope, the role-players involved, the requirements for fatwas to be exercised, the ways they have evolved up to today’s major expansion, compilations of fatwas, their greater legal transcendence and socio-historical impact, and their status in terms of political power and social pressures. Fatwas are determined by three types of variables: legal (due to the differences in each madhhab or school); spatial (due to different socio-cultural and political contexts) and temporal (because of changes in the socio-cultural and political environment).