Thursday 01/January/2026 – 08:33 PM
The Training Department of the Egyptian Fatwa House organized a scientific lecture for Prof. Dr. Salama Dawoud, President of Al-Azhar University, to a number of Indonesian students, entitled “Developing Fatwa Skills in Light of Contemporary Developments.”
President of Al-Azhar University: Isolating the Islamic sciences from each other is a contemporary scourge that contradicts the approach of advanced scholars
The President of Al-Azhar University stressed during the lecture that the fatwa is a great trust that has been carried throughout history by the scholars of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, who have dealt with calamities and emerging issues with disciplined diligence, based on the legal text, correct analogy, and accurate application of rulings to reality, pointing out that fatwas on contemporary issues represent an authentic field of legal diligence.
His Eminence stressed that the Arabic language represents a solid foundation for the making of fatwas, and that mastery of it is a necessary obligation for the mufti, as no science of Islam is complete without it, and the correct understanding of the legal texts cannot be achieved without it. He explained that the relationship between the language and the fatwa is an organic and inextricable relationship, citing the biographies of the great imams, led by Imam al-Shafi’i, who reached such a level of linguistic mastery that the scholars used his words in the language as much as they used his words in the language. Jurisprudence, warning against mediocrity in the language and ignorance of the ways of the Arabs, as the corruption of the tongue leads to the corruption of meaning, and then to the corruption of the fatwa, citing the sayings of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, the Companions, the Successors, and the Imams in explaining the danger of linguistic error and its impact on understanding the legal text.
The President of Al-Azhar University explained that isolating the Sharia sciences from each other is a contemporary scourge that contradicts the approach of the advanced scholars, who combined jurisprudence, hadith, interpretation, language, and doctrine into a single scientific structure, indicating that this knowledge integration is the correct way to form a mufti capable of understanding texts and issuing rulings on changing facts, stressing the danger of issuing fatwas without knowledge, and warning against returning to the unqualified who mislead people and make scholars foolish, inferring that Islamic law ordered the return. To the people of remembrance, and it is forbidden to speak about God without knowledge.
At the conclusion of the lecture, His Eminence advised the students to gain knowledge and piety, and to adhere to the right word, explaining that the right word is the opinion based on knowledge, argument, and proof, and that it is the basis of good conditions and the uprightness of society, citing the Almighty’s saying: “O you who have believed, fear God and speak an upright word (70) He will amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins.[الأحزاب: 70، 71]Stressing that good speech is surrounded by piety and good deeds and that it is the basis of good conditions and the uprightness of society.
