Search

This paper theorizes the role of iftāʾ , the process of producing fatwas (Islamic legal opinions), on the formation of Muslim societies. I argue in this paper that iftāʾ is an ethical embedding mechanism that historically carried out this function through a set of discursive and nondiscursive relations. "Ethical embedding" signifies the situating of the various spheres of the social world into an ethical domain. As for iftāʾ s discursive relations, the historical manifestations of its procedures and the production of fatwas represented a discursive formation because they manifested a particular regularity in their discursive operations. As for their nondiscursive relations, fatwas position actions and practices within the Islamic moral field through a definite social process. Finally, these operations generate a social field of power that structures the relations between the individuals and institutions of iftāʾ and induces personal dispositions that facilitate the practice of the norms embedded in the fatwa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]