Fatwa and the Making and Renewal of Islamic Law

"Examines the formation, history, and transformation of the Islamic legal discourse and institutions through the lens of a particular legal practice: the issuance of fatwas (legal opinions). Informed lay readers and scholars alike will gain from it an appreciation about the development of the Islamic legal system and its particular legal practices"--

Omer Awass is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at American Islamic College.

Introduction; 1. Fatwa in the prophetic and post-prophetic period; 2. Fatwa in the classical age; 3. Fatwa and the formation of Islamic legal doctrines and institutions; 4. The formation of an Islamic legal tradition and the formalization of Ift- within the legal schools; 5. Fatwa in the age of the preponderance of legal schools; 6. Colonialism, Islamic law, and the postcolonial Fatwa; Conclusion.