by C. M. NAIM
But what about the person who started it all, the questioner, and his struggle to frame the question? He wished to know if the woman’s salary was “Halal or Haram or Prohibited.” Three categories, clearly labeled. The response, however, used a fourth word, “unlawful,” without explaining how it differed from the earlier three. (Goes to show the Deoband muftis are as sloppy in their own tradition as in English.) The messenger then made the situation worse by replacing the muftis’ one word with his own two: “…it is “haram” and illegal according to the Sharia for a family to accept a woman’s earnings.” Are “unlawful,” “illegal,” and “haram” synonymous in Islamic legal discourse?
The last sentence in the fatwa, “Allah (Subhana Wa Ta’ala) Knows Best,” was entirely erased—perhaps because it was considered trite. Most Muslims, however, would say that the customary closure is a confession of the fatwa-giver’s own fallibility, as opposed to Allah’s unique infallibility. In practical terms, it has always meant that the questioner was free to go to other muftis and obtain a response more appropriate to his precise circumstances. That is why there is no single, all-encompassing, totally binding tome of fatwas even after fourteen centuries of Islam.
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