A Study on the Limitation of Standard Fatwa in Islamic Countries with Sunni-jurisprudence-based Penal Systems

Abstract

Islamic countries have tried to match their legislation and legal system with the ideological and belief principles of their ruling political system. The ruling political systems in Islamic countries have taken various approaches when dealing with the issue of “adherence to a specific sect, narrative, or non-adherence to it”. Many Islamic countries (such as Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Malaysia, and Mauritania), despite taking a specific sect and narrative as a standard for their rules and regulation, trying not to go astray from the limits of a specific sect, when encountering international issues and observing social interests, have to some extent accepted the narratives of other sects. However, some countries have limited the right (the real sentence) to a specific sect of the Mazahib Arba’ah (The Four Sunni Schools) and provided some reasons to prove their claims. Among the most important reasons they provide is that they have limited the right (truth) to a specific school or schools. The present study, using a descriptive-analytical approach, tries to investigate the legal approach of Islamic countries in this regard, and after that, explain the reasons provided by the supporters of the limitation of standard fatwa to a specific school or schools, and then, criticize their reasoning.