http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1033/feature.htm
27 January - 2 February 2011
Issue No. 1033
Features
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875
'chaos of fatwas'?
Over 400,000 religious rulings, or fatwas, are now issued each year in Egypt,
but does this prove Egypt is a truly religious society, asks Omnia El-Desouki
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Click to view caption
illustration: Yara Qassem
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International media reports routinely describe Egypt as a "conservative
religious society", and it is true that the Dar Al-Iftaa at Al-Azhar in Cairo
now issues some 465,000 fatwas -- or religious edicts -- a year, either
verbally or in written form via SMS or e-mail. However, some religious scholars
believe that this huge number of religious rulings may not demonstrate that
Egyptian society is conservative. In fact, they say, there are reasons to
believe the opposite.
For Muslims in Egypt and around the world, fatwas are a bridge between the
principles of Islam and modern life. People ask religious scholars who have
studied the Quran, the teachings of the Prophet Mohamed and the relevant
jurisprudence for guidance to help them meet the needs of the contemporary
world.
However, the increase in the number of fatwas issued and the rise in the number
of people professing religious habits have raised questions about the
motivation behind at least some of those demanding guidance. Are they looking
for a way of dealing with the difficulties of daily life?
One indication of contemporary religious habits can be had by observing
people's behaviour when visiting the Sayeda Zeinab or Sayeda Nafisa mosques, or
when they visit other mosques dedicated to God's righteous. People congregate
at the mosques in order to pray for intercession, asking those to whom the
mosques are dedicated to mediate between them and God and to help them overcome
their hardships.
"She is the granddaughter of the Prophet. God will listen to our prayers for
her sake," said one woman who visits the Sayeda Zeinab Mosque in Cairo on a
weekly basis in order to pray and seek help. Thousands of other men and women
go to other mosques dedicated to the grandchildren of the Prophet Mohamed,
sometimes mosques where these figures are believed to be buried.
"Some people go in order to find moral or psychological security, while others
are looking for a refuge from the increasing problems of daily life. There may
also be others who are joining a bandwagon," commented Madiha El-Safti, a
sociology professor at the American University in Cairo.
According to reports from the Dar Al-Iftaa, in the past scholars of Islam used
to gain prominence by issuing fatwas characterised by their objectivity and
integrity, but in 2010 many fatwas dealt with issues that are being debated in
the media, such as whether or not one should find out the sex of an unborn
child, what attitude to take towards suicide bombings and the use of drugs.
"The recent increase in fatwas and the increase of religious habits that are
not properly Islamic have nothing to do with being a good Muslim," said scholar
Sheikh Saber Talaab. Some people may even be using Islam as a way of
legitimating their actions, some religious scholars say, acting in an
ostensibly religious way without in fact being aware of the rulings of Islam or
of how to be a proper Muslim.
"One example is praying to God through the Prophet's grandchildren, when the
correct way would be to pray to God directly. Instead of appealing to the
grandchildren of the Prophet, people should learn from them and implement their
example in their own lives," Talaab said. "Some people have become shallowly
religiously, perhaps because they have become too aware of their own
difficulties."
However, the misuse of religion can also have more serious consequences,
particularly when individuals are tempted to carry out violent or criminal acts
in the name of Islam. "There is a lot of violence in the world," said Sheikh
Mahmoud Ashour, a member of the Islamic Research Centre at Al-Azhar, and there
are people who may use religion wrongly, perhaps even as a tool to deceive
others.
Over recent decades, there have been terrorist attacks throughout the world
blamed on Islamist militants who have followed beliefs linked to fatwas issued
by Muslim clerics. In order to help resolve this situation, Egypt's grand
mufti, Ali Gomaa, has issued a warning against what he called the "chaos of
fatwas" being offered on satellite TV channels, otherwise known as "satellite
fatwas".
Any fatwa, Gomaa said, should be in line with Islamic teachings and could in no
case depend on personal whims. However, the situation needed to be properly
regulated, and "this will not take place until we go back to having a proper
fatwa body and jurisprudence boards," Gomaa said in a lecture delivered in
Khartoum last week.
There is no regulation of the television programmes that issue religious
guidance in the form of fatwas, but according to some sheikhs interviewed, some
of the shows are hosted by scholars trained at Al-Azhar, while others are
hosted by people who lack a proper knowledge of Islam.
"People have in some cases not been properly taught religion at school, which
means that they are not able critically to understand any given fatwa. As a
result, they may be unable to tell a correct from an incorrect opinion, and
they may opt for shallow religiosity instead of true religious feeling," Ashour
said.
Safti explains such religiosity by adding that there has been a "disruption in
social values over recent years, and this has led people to seek ever-greater
numbers of fatwas in the hope of receiving guidance. However, not all these
fatwas are accurately based, and there has been a lot of distortion."
Egypt, of course, has always been a profoundly religious country, even in
ancient times when the ancient Egyptians built their civilisation on religion
and spirituality. Egyptians today are profoundly spiritual and religious
people, and religious scholars believe that this is something that people
should build on. However, they also warn against listening to the siren calls
of false religion, instead of attending to the true core and principles of
religion.
"It may be that people should reduce their thirst for fatwas and instead start
acting for the betterment of future generations," Talaab said.
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Controversial religious edicts
2003
Yemeni Sheikh Abdel-Maguid Al-Zein issued a fatwa (religious edict) to
facilitate marriages in the form of "Zawag Friend", ie young dating couples get
officially married while studying and living with their parents.
2004
Qatar-based Egyptian Islamic scholar Sheikh Youssef El-Qaradawi, who heads the
European Council on Fatwa and Research, has finally cleared up the controversy
surrounding his recent fatwa, which appeared to allow the killing of US
civilians in Iraq, while condemning -- at the same time -- the abduction of
innocent journalists and the mutilation of dead bodies as blasphemous.
El-Qaradawi, a scholar known both for his strong stance against the 9/11
attacks (when he also urged Muslims worldwide to donate blood to help the
victims) and his anti-terrorist writings, explained to the press in Doha that
"Islam only allows killing those engaged in combat, and definitely not
civilians." But, for El-Qaradawi, whether there are actually "any innocent US
civilians in Iraq" remains an open question.
2005
A fatwa was issued by Al-Azhar allowing people suffering from "limited mental
handicap" to marry and have children. The fatwa came as a response to a
question posed by Mohamed Salah, head of the "Last Wahdak" (You Are Not Alone)
Foundation for the handicapped. "I sent a question to the Mufti Ali Gomaa and
two months later I received the response," explained Salah, which was that "the
mentally handicapped can indeed marry."
Another controversial fatwa issued in 2005 was right after the Israeli
withdrawal from Gaza, when the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mohamed Sayed Tantawi was
quick to rule that normalisation with Israel was religiously acceptable. "Islam
does not prohibit normalisation with other countries, especially Israel, as
long as this normalisation is in non-religious domains and serves some worldly
interests," Tantawi told a gathering at a festival held to mark the national
day of Sharqiya governorate.
In reaction to the fatwa, Prominent Palestinian Islamic scholar Sheikh Hamed
Al-Beitawi, who is also head of the Palestinian Scholars League, was quick to
denounce the fatwa on the grounds that it "greatly serves the Israeli
occupation, which is unacceptable in Islam," and urged the grand imam to
retract it.
2006
Sheikh Gamal El-Banna ruled that smoking does not break the Ramadan fast ---- a
fatwa that proved extremely controversial -- stating that he believed smoking
to be makrouh (undesirable if not haram, or prohibited) due to its adverse
effects on health, and that he himself is not a smoker, he explained that,
since it involves no liquid or solid entering the body, smoking does not break
the fast, prompting the official fatwa-issuing body, Dar Al-Iftaa, to issue a
declaration to the contrary, reasserting orthodox beliefs.
2007
Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, issued a fatwa, in which
he appeared to call for the flogging of those found guilty of libel. They
should, he said, be lashed 80 times, his reference being a passage in the Quran
which, as his critics have pointed out, refers explicitly to those impugning
the reputation of a virtuous woman. The fatwa gained notoriety since it
followed the prison sentences passed against seven journalists found guilty of
libelling senior members of the National Democratic Party, foremost among them
President Hosni Mubarak and his 43-year-old son Gamal.
Al-Azhar scholar, Ezzat Atia, issued a fatwa claiming that if a female employee
wanted to sit alone with her male co-worker, she should breast-feed him five
times to the full so that he becomes like her son, thus they can sit together
alone in the office.
2010
The first event to raise concern about the content of the religious channels
came in the form of a fatwa issued by Sheikh Mohamed Hassan, which allowed
people to do as they see fit with antiquities or other items found on their
property and to destroy statues or images in their possession or found on their
land, since these could be considered haram, or forbidden, in Islam. However,
in an interview with the television channel Al-Jazeera, Hassan appeared to go
back on his original ruling, saying that it did not take proper account of its
possible effects. Antiquities are a legacy entrusted to humanity as a whole,
Hassan said. That being so, they could not belong to individuals alone, and
anyone finding antiquities on land he owned should deliver them to the state.
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