At the end of June, more than a hundred 'Ulama and Fuqaha (Muslim religious scholars and jurisprudents) from 44 Arab and Muslim countries met in Amman, Jordan to discuss issues central to Islam. The five-day 17th Islamic Fiqh Academy (IFA) Session held from June 24 to 28 of this year, dealt with the following issues: the prohibition on declaring any religious school in Islam as apostate (Kafir); Islamic radicalism; extremism and terrorism; the Muslim Diaspora; relationships with the international community; women's rights; and the Palestinian, Iraqi and Somali issues. At the end of the session, in a joint declaration, the participants called upon the 'Ulama around the world not to issue Fatwas (religious decrees) that lack religious origins and are driven from "imaginary interests" and not to declare any religious school in Islam an apostate.[1]
1 Khalf, al-Tahat and Abd al-Hakeem al-Qaralah, "'Ulama wa-Fuqaha yuhaddiruna min maghabati itlaq Fatawa la tastnidu li-asl shar'i" ("Muslim religious scholars warn from the results of issuing Fatwas without a religious root"), al-Ra'i (Amman), (June 29, 2006), p. 44; The Islamic Fiqh Academy (IFA) is a subsidiary organ of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), created by the Third Islamic Summit Conference held in Mecca (Saudi Arabia) in January 1981. It is based in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). According to the IFA, its members and experts are selected from among the best scholars and thinkers available in the Islamic world and Muslim minorities in non Muslim countries, in every field of knowledge (Islamic Fiqh, science, medicine, economy and culture, etc.), see, "The Islamic Fiqh Academy", IFA Website in Arabic, (July 1, 2006). 2 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, Ibid; See, Statement issued by the International Islamic Conference held in Amman in July 4-6, 2005 under the title: 'true Islam and its Role in Modern Society'. 3 Manar, Mu'awad, "'Ulama Majma' al-Fiqh yuharrimuna jami' a'mal al-'irhab wa-'ashkalihi wa-mumarasatihi" ("The Fiqh Academy's scholars forbidden all kind of terror acts"), al-Ghad (Amman), (June 29, 2006). 4 Mu'awad, Ibid. 5 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, Ibid; See, Statement issued by the International Islamic Conference held in Amman in July 4-6, 2005 under the title: 'true Islam and its Role in Modern Society'. 6 Ibid; Tariq, Dilwani, "Fuqaha: al-taqnin li-muwaajahat fawda al-'ifta'" ("Jurisprudents: legislation against the Fatwa's chaos"), IslamOnLine, (June 25, 2006); The literal meaning of the term "Ijtihad" is effort, i.e., the intellectual effort required to infer law from jurisprudence origins (Usul al-Fiqh) in order to identify Allah's will on earth, if it wasn't explicitly expressed in the Koran or in the Sunnah. At the beginning of the 10th century it seems that, post factum, nobody created new laws through this technique, and a general agreement (Ijma') was formed that the gate of Ijtihad was closed and it was replaced by the Taqlid (which accorded with the line of the four Sunni Schools of Jurisprudence: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali). One can interpret existing laws but can not create new laws from the jurisprudence origins. 7 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, Ibid. 8 Khalf, al-Tahat and Abd al-Hakeem al-Qaralah, "Mu'tamar al-fiqh al-Islami yuhaddiru min al-Fatwa al-munfaridah wa-yad'u li-dabt al-'ifta" ("The Islamic Fiqh conference warns from individual Fatwas and calls to restrain the Fatwas' issuing"), al-Ra'i (Amman), (June 29, 2006); Muhammad Abu Faris and three other parliament members of the Islamic Labour Front were arrested on June 11, 2006 after visiting Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's clan and family to express condolences on his death; see, "al-Hukumah ta'taqilu arba'ah min nuwab jabhat al-'amal" ("The government arrests four parliament members of the Labour Front"), al-Sabeel (Jordan), (June 13, 2006). 9 Mu'awad, Ibid. 10 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, "Muslim religious scholars warn from the results of issuing Fatwas without a religious root"; Mu'awad, Ibid. 11 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, Ibid; Mu'awad, Ibid. 12 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, Ibid; Mu'awad, Ibid. 13 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, "The Islamic Fiqh conference warns from individual Fatwas and calls to restrain the Fatwas' issuing". 14 Tariq, Dilwani, "Majma' al-Fiqh yad'u li-muhaarabat fikr al-takfir" ("The Fiqh Academy calls to fight the Takfir thought"), IslamOnLine, (June 24, 2006). 15 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, "Muslim religious scholars warn from the results of issuing Fatwas without a religious root". 16 Tariq, Dilwani, "Majma' al-Fiqh: Muslimu al-gharb 'Muwatinuna' wa-laysa 'Jaaliyah'" ("The Fiqh Academy: the western Muslims 'citizens' and not 'Diaspora'"), IslamOnLine, (June 27, 2006). 17 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, Ibid. 18 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, Ibid. 19 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, Ibid. 20 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, Ibid. 21 Dilwani, "Jurisprudents: legislation against the Fatwa's chaos"; See, also, Fahd, al-Ghariri, "al-Qawl bi-jawaz zawaj al-Muslimah min Masihi aw Yahudi munaqid li-ijma' al-Muslimin wa-al-Kitab wa-al-Sunnah" ("The saying which permit marriage of Muslim woman with Christian and Jewish man contradicts the Muslims' agreement and contradicts the Koran and the Sunnah"), al-Jazirah (Riyadh), (April 11, 2006). 22 al-Tahat and al-Qaralah, Ibid.