The Impact of the Fatwa on the Soul

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Summarized Fatawaa

What is the ruling on someone who eats or drinks thinking that the night is still present, then realizes that dawn has broken?

Whoever eats or drinks thinking that the night is still present, then later discovers that dawn has broken, must refrain from eating and drinking for the rest of the day out of respect for the sacred month. However, they must make up that day after Ramadan, and there is no sin upon them.

Does the Obligatory Ritual Bath (Ghusl) Suffice in Place of Ablution (Wuḍūʾ)?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

The more prudent course is to perform ablution (wuḍūʾ) after the ritual bath (ghusl), so as to exit the difference of scholarly opinion and because the sufficiency of the ritual bath in place of ablution is contingent upon a number of conditions and requirements being met. And Allah the Almighty knows best.

Which takes precedence: the 'aqīqah or the uḍḥiyyah?

All praise is due to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon our Master, the Messenger of Allah.

The 'aqīqah is an act of worship through which a servant draws closer to Allah the Almighty in gratitude for the blessing of a newborn child. It is a confirmed Sunnah for those who are financially capable, and Allah does not burden any soul beyond what it can bear.

However, the uḍḥiyyah takes precedence, as it is a confirmed Sunnah established from the Prophet ﷺ through stronger and more numerous narrations — indeed, the Ḥanafī scholars hold it to be obligatory. Furthermore, its time is narrow and limited, expiring with the passing of the days of Eid, whereas the 'aqīqah may be delayed until one becomes financially capable of performing it.

And Allah Almighty knows best.

A pious man proposed to me and my father was hesitant in this regard because he is black, am I sinful if I accepted his proposal?

If the suitor is pious, color isn`t a drawback. However, try talking to your father kindly, so that he approves of your marriage with contentment, and that is better for you.

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The Impact of the Fatwa on the Soul

Author : Researcher Abdulrahman Abu Yabes

Date Added : 03-11-2026

The Impact of the Fatwa on the Soul

A fatwa is not a passing remark that a mufti lets fall without any effect on the heart, soul, and state of the one who asks (for the fatwa). As an exposition of the Sharīʿah ruling, it casts its shadow over the questioner’s soul, heart, and even spirit. For this reason, scholars from early times have stressed the gravity of issuing fatwas. They insisted that the mufti must know the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Arabic language. They also required him to understand people’s circumstances, customs, ways of thinking, and inner lives, so that his fatwa fits the reality in which they live.

Imam al-Nawawī (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “Issuing fatwas is a matter of great gravity and high standing, and of abundant merit. The mufti is an heir of the Prophets (peace and blessings be upon them) and fulfills a communal obligation (farḍ kifāyah), yet he is liable to error. This is why it was said: the mufti signs on behalf of Allah the Exalted.” [1]

The fatwa is a two-way encounter between mufti and questioner. Through it, the mufti can reach the depths of the questioner’s soul, discern the ailments it suffers, and recognize what correction or refinement it needs and what ruling suits it.

Nor should we overlook the fatwa’s role in bringing reassurance and calm to those who ask. When it comes from qualified and recognized scholars, it resolves many psychological difficulties that trouble people, such as depression, guilt, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and scruples about ritual purity (waswasat al-ṭahārah).

The Sunnah contains many ḥadīths that speak of the effect a fatwa has on the soul. One example is the report of Wābiṣah ibn Maʿbad al-Asadī, who said: “I came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he said: ‘Have you come to ask about righteousness and sin?’ I said: ‘Yes.’ He said: ‘Consult your heart. Righteousness is that with which the soul is at ease and the heart is at peace. Sin is that which stirs in the soul and wavers in the chest, even if people give you their opinions, and give them again.’” [2]

The states that come over the heart as a Muslim receives a fatwa give him signs about the course he is about to take.

The words “sin is what stirs in your soul and you dislike people finding out about it” mean that sin is whatever leaves a feeling of unease in the heart. This is a principle one may hold to in telling sin from righteousness: sin is what rankles in the breast and what its owner would not want others to learn of. [3]

A Muslim receiving a fatwa makes himself a scale by which to weigh what it produces in him. If it brings calm and reassurance, he proceeds. If it brings confusion and unrest, he holds back.

Al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “The meaning is that when a matter is unclear to the traveler on the path, and he cannot tell which of the two categories it belongs to, he should reflect on it if he is qualified for independent reasoning (ijtihād), or ask those who are qualified if he is a follower (muqallid). If he finds what calms his soul, settles his heart, and opens his chest, let him take it and choose it for himself. Otherwise, let him leave it and take what carries no doubt or misgiving.” [4]

Consider how the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) guided a questioner who was perplexed by certain matters of his religion: he directed him to look at what the ruling brings about in the heart in the way of openness, and in the soul in the way of tranquility. Consider, too, the close tie this draws between the fatwa and the human soul.

The rulings of Islam, with their ease, their glad tidings, and their lifting of hardship, lead the soul to receive them with openness and reassurance. This is all the more true when we add an explanation of the wisdom and objectives behind them. Then the soul grows more settled and more convinced that these rulings came only from One who is All-Wise and All-Aware, and only for the good of the human being and the preservation of his five necessities: religion, life, lineage, property, and intellect.

A full awareness of the questioner’s inner state makes the fatwa more disciplined, more precise, and closer to human needs. It lets him feel Allah’s mercy and the ease He has granted His servants, and that feeling leads a person to embrace this religion with love and conviction. Neglecting the questioner’s inner state, by contrast, can produce many problems and grave consequences. It can burden people with the very hardship the noble Sharīʿah came to lift, and drive many away from observing the rulings of Islam. Some, we seek refuge in Allah, may even break away from the religion and abandon its rulings under the weight of harsh fatwas that rest on no sound scholarly method.

The authentic ḥadīth narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim [5] tells of a man who killed ninety-nine people. When he asked whether he could repent, someone ruled that there was no repentance for him. This drove him to despair and hopelessness, and he killed one more to make a hundred. But when he asked a more knowledgeable person, and explained his state of mind, he received an answer that gave him hope of salvation and was told to leave his surroundings for a righteous environment. This changed the man’s conduct, filling him with hope and joy in Allah’s mercy. He set out for a righteous village to worship Allah with its people, but died on the way, and the angels of mercy took his soul.

From another angle, a disciplined institutional fatwa protects the believer’s soul from the distraction, bewilderment, and unrest caused by anomalous fatwas that unqualified people issue on screens and social media.

A modern Muslim moving between social media platforms is bound to meet both the worthy and the worthless among the fatwas circulating there. This may leave him confused, anxious, and unsettled, or even without trust in anyone, so long as he has no reliable authority from which to receive a sound fatwa.

A disciplined fatwa also helps to restrain and refine the self. The human soul by nature inclines toward comfort, ease, and desire, and dislikes obligation and commitment. At times, it resorts to subterfuge, or bends rulings in its own favor. Institutional fatwas, grounded in scholarship, restrain the soul from such practices and leave no room for manipulation or evasion.

For all these reasons, whoever undertakes to issue fatwas must understand the hidden workings of the soul and know its faults and ailments, so that his fatwa suits the one who asks.

It behooves us as a society to make the fatwa a measure by which we set our souls right, and a shield that protects them from illness, from confusion and unrest, and from laxity and unruliness.

Finally, the fatwa, as a fence that guards the soul from what harms it, is an important pillar of mental health in the modern age, and one that must not be overlooked.

And the last of our prayer is that all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

________________________________________

Footnotes

[1] Al-Nawawī, Abū Zakariyyā Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf. Ādāb al-Fatwā wa’l-Muftī wa’l-Mustaftī. Edited by Bassām ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Jābī. Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1st ed., p. 13.

[2] Narrated by Aḥmad, 29/533, and al-Dārimī, 3/1649.

[3] Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd, Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Qushayrī. Sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyyah fī al-Aḥādīth al-Ṣaḥīḥah al-Nabawiyyah. Muʾassasat al-Rayyān, 2003, 6th ed., p. 94.

[4] Al-Qārī, ʿAlī ibn Sulṭān Muḥammad, Abū al-Ḥasan Nūr al-Dīn al-Mullā al-Harawī. Mirqāt al-Mafātīḥ Sharḥ Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 2002, 1st ed., vol. 5, p. 1900.

[5] Narrated by al-Bukhārī, 4/174, and Muslim, 4/2118.

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Summarized Fatawaa

Is it permissible for a husband to stop his wife from visiting her family?

A husband shouldn`t stop his wife from visiting her family, and it is disliked for him to do so because such an act makes them harbor feelings of hatred against him.

What are the valid excuses for abstaining from congregational prayer in the mosque?

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our Master, the Messenger of Allah.

Concessions (Rukhsah) are granted to abstain from congregational prayer in the mosque due to general excuses, such as: rain that causes hardship in going out, strong winds at night, heavy mud that cannot be traversed without the risk of soiling oneself, hot winds, and extreme heat or cold. There are also specific individual excuses, such as: illness that makes walking as difficult as walking in the rain, severe drowsiness, evident hunger or thirst, the suppression of bodily wastes (urine, stool, or gas), and fear for one's life, limb, physical faculty, wealth, or honor, among other valid excuses. And Allah the Exalted knows best.

What is the ruling on offering a sheep as a sacrifice (Udhiyah) if its fat-tail is sound, except that when it was young, the tip of its fat-tail was cut so that it would grow larger? And what is the ruling in case of doubt regarding the amount that was cut?

In the Name of Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon our Master, the Messenger of Allah.

Cutting a minor, insignificant portion from the tip of an animal's fat-tail (al-alyah) to encourage it to grow larger is not considered a defect, and it does not prevent the animal from being valid for sacrifice (Udhiyah).

It is stated in Tuhfat al-Muhtaj (Vol.9/P.352): "There is some scholarly deliberation regarding the common practice of cutting the tip of the fat-tail so that it grows larger. It could potentially be likened to a partial cut of the ear—supported by the jurists' general rule: 'even if it is a small amount.' On the other hand, if it is an exceptionally minor cut, it might have no effect on validity. This is explicitly clarified by the juristic exception to the general rule, which states that cutting a tiny piece from a large limb causes no harm. This latter view is more well-founded.

Furthermore, I found that some scholars investigated this matter and concluded: 'It should not affect validity if a custom-sanctioned portion of its fat-tail is removed during its youth to make it grow larger and look better, just as castrating a male animal causes no harm.' However, applying this unconditionally contradicts the established texts of the jurists, as understood from what I have laid out; thus, the restriction I specified is what must be relied upon."

Similarly, it is mentioned in Nihayat al-Muhtaj (8/135): "If a small piece is cut from the fat-tail to help it grow larger, the most well-founded view is that the sacrifice remains valid, as was given in a formal legal verdict (Fatwa) by my father [Shihab al-Din al-Ramli], may Allah be pleased with him. This is proven by the jurists' maxim: 'The loss of a tiny piece from a large limb causes no harm.'"

In cases where there is doubt as to whether the portion cut was large or small, the animal is still deemed valid for sacrifice. It is noted in Hashiyat al-Shubramallisi ‘ala Nihayat al-Muhtaj (Vol.8/P.135):

"This matter requires careful consideration, but the closer and more correct view is that it is valid. This is because soundness is the default state for the animal from which the piece was cut, and it aligns with what usually occurs—namely, that the part removed to help the fat-tail grow larger is naturally very small." And Allah the Almighty Knows Best.

A woman made a wig for herself from her own [previously shed] hair, which she wears on her head after having lost her hair [due to hair loss]. Is this permissible?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Since the hair belongs to the woman herself, the wig can be removed during the obligatory ghusl (ritual bathing), and part of the head can still be wiped during wuḍū' (ablution), there is no sharī‘ah objection to making this wig — provided she does not appear wearing it in front of non-maḥram men (Any males outside a woman's immediate family whom she is permitted to marry under Islamic law), since it is not permissible for them to look at a woman's detached hair.

It is stated in Rawḍat aṭ-Ṭālibīn wa ‘Umdat al-Muftīn: "Whatever it is not permissible to look at while still attached [to the body] — such as the male genitalia, a free woman's forearm, the hair of her head, and a man's pubic hair, and similar matters — it remains unlawful to look at even after it has been detached [from the body], according to the more correct position (al-aṣaḥḥ)." And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.