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Draft:Changing the Fatwa of a Mujtahid

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Changing the Fatwa of a Mujtahid refers to the issuance of a new and different fatwa by a Mujtahid. This issue is discussed under names such as "ʿudūl ʿan l-fatwā" (reversal of fatwa), "tabaddul raʾy al-mujtahid" (change of the mujtahid's opinion), and "naqḍ al-fatwā bi-l-fatwā" (revocation of a fatwa by another fatwa) in works of Usul al-Fiqh (Principles of Jurisprudence) within the topic of "Ijza'" (sufficiency), and in works of fiqh under the discussions related to Ijtihad and Taqlid.

If a mujtahid's fatwa changes, his followers (muqallidūn) must act according to the new fatwa. However, there is disagreement regarding the validity of acts performed based on the first fatwa. According to some, acts performed based on the first fatwa, whether in accordance with caution or against it, are valid and do not need to be repeated (iʿāda) or made up (qaḍāʾ) based on the new fatwa. Others have said that those acts are invalid and must be repeated or made up.

It is said that the change in a mujtahid's fatwa is sometimes due to a change in his approach to religious data and the evidence he has used to arrive at a religious ruling, and sometimes due to changes in custom ('urf), time and place conditions, and the evolution of people's needs.

Concept and Status

Changing a fatwa means that a Mujtahid changes his fatwa on a subject and issues a fatwa different from his previous opinion.[1] For example, a mujtahid initially issues a fatwa that reciting a full Sura in Prayer is not obligatory, but later issues a fatwa that reciting a full Sura in prayer is obligatory.[2]

Changing a fatwa is discussed under names such as "ʿudūl ʿan al-fatwā" (reversal of fatwa), "tabaddul raʾy al-mujtahid" (change of the mujtahid's opinion), and "naqḍ al-fatwā bi-l-fatwā" (revocation of a fatwa by another fatwa) in works of Usul al-Fiqh within the topic of "Ijza'" (sufficiency), and in works of Fiqh in discussions related to Ijtihad and Taqlid.[3]

Acts Performed Based on the Previous Fatwa

According to jurists, the Mujtahid and his followers must act according to the new fatwa, but there is disagreement regarding the validity of acts performed based on the first fatwa.[4] However, it is said that if the first fatwa was based on caution, the acts performed are valid, but if the first fatwa was contrary to caution, there is a difference of opinion on whether the acts performed based on it are valid or not.[5]

Three general views have been presented on this issue by Shi'a jurists:

  1. Sayyid Abd al-A'la Sabziwari (d. 1414/1993) and Ja'far Subhani (b. 1308 Sh/1929), Shi'a Marja', hold that if a mujtahid's fatwa changes, the acts he and his followers performed based on the previous fatwa are valid, whether that fatwa was in accordance with caution or contrary to it.[6] Sabziwari states that this is the view of all early jurists.[7] It is also said that this view is more consistent with the general approach of the easy and lenient Shari'a. In other words, if acts performed in the past based on the previous fatwa are not valid, it causes "al-ʿusr wa l-ḥaraj" (extreme hardship), which is negated in Islam according to the Rule of No Hardship.[8]
  2. It is said that a group believes that in any case, whether the first fatwa was in accordance with caution or not, the acts performed based on it are invalid.[9] As Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim has reported, al-Allama al-Hilli, a Shi'a jurist and theologian of the 8th/14th century, claimed consensus on this view and held that Shi'a jurists agree that past acts performed based on the previous fatwa are invalid and must be performed again.[10]
  3. Akhund Khurasani[11] and Imam Khomeini[12] believe that if the basis of the mujtahid's first fatwa was a rational proof or a Shar'i evidence (amāra sharʿiyya) such as a single report, and then it becomes known that this fatwa was incorrect, it is obligatory for the mujtahid and his followers to repeat or make up the acts they performed in the past based on that fatwa. However, if the basis of the first fatwa was Practical Principles (al-uṣūl al-ʿamaliyya), there is no need to repeat or make up those acts.[13]

Causes of Fatwa Change

It is said that the change in a mujtahid's fatwa is sometimes due to a change in his approach to religious information and data, and the evidence he has used to arrive at a religious ruling;[14] such that sometimes a mujtahid bases his fatwa on a hadith, and later the weakness of that hadith in terms of chain of transmission or indication becomes apparent to him, or conversely, a hadith that was previously weak in his view appears reliable to him, and based on it, he arrives at a fatwa contrary to his previous fatwa.[15]

Changing a fatwa is also sometimes due to changes in custom ('urf), time and place conditions, the evolution of people's needs, etc.[16]

Necessity of Announcing and Acting on the New Fatwa

According to Sayyid Muhammad Kazim Tabataba'i Yazdi, the author of the fatwa book al-Urwa al-wuthqa, if a mujtahid's fatwa changes, if the previous fatwa was based on caution, it is not obligatory for him to announce the new fatwa to his followers. However, if the previous fatwa was not based on caution, it is necessary for him to announce his new fatwa to his followers.[17]

Tabataba'i Yazdi also believes that if someone tells another person the fatwa of a mujtahid, and then the fatwa of that mujtahid changes, it is not obligatory for the narrator of the fatwa to announce the change of fatwa to that person.[18]

According to the fatwa of Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani, a Shi'a Marja', a person can act according to what is written in the mujtahid's manual of Islamic law (Risālah) until he is certain that the mujtahid's fatwa has changed, and if he considers it possible that the fatwa has changed, investigation is not necessary.[19]

Examples of Fatwa Changes by Jurists

Examples of fatwa changes include:

  • Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim (d. 1390/1970) initially accepted the opinion on the impurity of the People of the Book in the book Mustamsak al-urwa,[20] but later reversed this view and issued a fatwa on their inherent purity (tahāra).[21]
  • Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayyad (b. 1309 Sh/1930), a Shi'a Marja' in Najaf, declared in his fatwa the age of puberty for girls to be the completion of 13 lunar years, whereas he had previously issued a fatwa on the completion of 9 lunar years for the age of puberty for girls.[22]
  • Imam Khomeini (d. 1368 Sh/1989) in his initial fatwa considered playing Chess forbidden, whether with betting or without betting,[23] and then by changing this fatwa, he held that if it is established by custom ('urf) that chess is not a gambling instrument and is a type of mental sport, playing it without betting is permissible and Halal.[24]

Notes

  1. ↑ Subḥānī, Al-Mabsūṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 4, p. 643.
  2. ↑ Subḥānī, Al-Mabsūṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 4, p. 643.
  3. ↑ See: Ākhūnd Khurāsānī, Kifāyat al-uṣūl, pp. 470-471; Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, Al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 1, p. 59; Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, Takmilat al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 2, p. 27; Subḥānī, Al-Mabsūṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 4, p. 643.
  4. ↑ Ākhūnd Khurāsānī, Kifāyat al-uṣūl, p. 470; Muẓaffar, Uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 1, p. 233; Subḥānī, Al-Mabsūṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 4, p. 643.
  5. ↑ Subḥānī, Al-Mabsūṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 4, pp. 643-644.
  6. ↑ Sabziwārī, Muhadhdhab al-aḥkām, vol. 1, p. 93; Subḥānī, Al-Mabsūṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 4, p. 646.
  7. ↑ Sabziwārī, Muhadhdhab al-aḥkām, vol. 1, p. 93.
  8. ↑ Subḥānī, Al-Mabsūṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 4, p. 646; Makārim Shīrāzī, Anwār al-uṣūl, vol. 1, p. 335.
  9. ↑ Subḥānī, Al-Mabsūṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 4, p. 644.
  10. ↑ Ḥakīm, Mustamsak al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 1, p. 81.
  11. ↑ Ākhūnd Khurāsānī, Kifāyat al-uṣūl, pp. 470-471.
  12. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Al-Ijtihād wa l-taqlīd, pp. 135-136.
  13. ↑ Subḥānī, al-Mabsūṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh, vol. 4, p. 645.
  14. ↑ Qaraḍāwī, Mūjibāt taghayyur al-fatwā, p. 75.
  15. ↑ Qaraḍāwī, Mūjibāt taghayyur al-fatwā, p. 75.
  16. ↑ Sayfī Māzandarānī, Al-Madkhal ilā daqāʾiq al-buḥūth, p. 67; Qaraḍāwī, Mūjibāt taghayyur al-fatwā, pp. 39-40.
  17. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, Al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 1, p. 59.
  18. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, Al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 1, p. 48.
  19. ↑ Sīstānī, "Taqlīd".
  20. ↑ Ḥakīm, Mustamsak al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā, vol. 1, pp. 374-376.
  21. ↑ Jannātī, Ṭahārat al-kitābī fī fatwā l-Sayyid al-Ḥakīm, pp. 22-23.
  22. ↑ "Fatwā-yi jadīd-i Ḥaḍrat-i Āyatullāh Fayyāḍ dar-bāra-yi sinn-i taklīf-i dukhtarān", Shafaqna.
  23. ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Taḥrīr al-wasīla, vol. 1, p. 471.
  24. ↑ Uṣūlī & Banī Hāshimī Khumaynī, Risāla-yi tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil, vol. 2, p. 932.

References

  • “Fatwā-yi jadīd-i Ḥaḍrat-i Āyatullāh Fayyāḍ dar-bāra-yi sinn-i taklīf-i dukhtarān: 13 sāl-i qamarī yā burūz-i ʿalāʾim-i bulūgh pīsh az ān”. Shafaqna, May 21, 2021. Accessed May 9, 2025.
  • Ākhūnd Khurāsānī, Muḥammad Kāẓim. Kifāyat al-uṣūl. Qom: Muʾassasat Āl al-Bayt, n.d.
  • Ḥakīm, Sayyid Muḥsin al-. Mustamsak al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 4th ed., 1391 AH.
  • Imām Khumaynī, Sayyid Rūḥ Allāh. Al-Ijtihād wa l-taqlīd. Tehran: Muʾassasa-yi Tanẓīm wa Nashr-i Āthār-i Imām Khumaynī, 2nd ed., 1426 AH.
  • Imām Khumaynī, Sayyid Rūḥ Allāh. Taḥrīr al-wasīla. Tehran: Muʾassasa-yi Tanẓīm wa Nashr-i Āthār-i Imām Khumaynī, n.d.
  • Jannātī, Muḥammad Ibrāhīm. Ṭahārat al-kitābī fī fatwā l-Sayyid al-Ḥakīm. Najaf: Maṭbaʿat al-Qaḍāʾ, 1390 AH.
  • Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Anwār al-uṣūl. Qom: Madrasat al-Imām ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, 1428 AH.
  • Muẓaffar, Muḥammad Riḍā. Uṣūl al-fiqh. Qom: Daftar-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, 1370 Sh.
  • Qaraḍāwī, Yūsuf al-. Mūjibāt taghayyur al-fatwā fī ʿaṣrinā. n.p.: Al-Ittiḥād al-ʿĀlamī li-ʿUlamāʾ al-Muslimīn, 2007.
  • Sabziwārī, Sayyid ʿAbd al-Aʿlā. Muhadhdhab al-aḥkām. Qom: Dār al-Tafsīr, n.d.
  • Sayfī Māzandarānī, ʿAlī Akbar. Al-Madkhal ilā daqāʾiq al-buḥūth. Qom: Muʾassasat Būstān-i Kitāb, 1st ed., 1441 AH.
  • Sīstānī, Sayyid ʿAlī al-Ḥusaynī al-. “Taqlīd”. Website of Sayyid Ali Sistani. Accessed May 11, 2025.
  • Subḥānī, Jaʿfar. Al-Mabsūṭ fī uṣūl al-fiqh. Qom: Muʾassasat al-Imām al-Ṣādiq, 1st ed., 1432 AH.
  • Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, Sayyid Muḥammad Kāẓim. Al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā. Qom: Muʾassasat al-Nashr al-Islāmī, 1417 AH.
  • Ṭabāṭabāʾī Yazdī, Sayyid Muḥammad Kāẓim. Takmilat al-ʿUrwat al-wuthqā. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Ḥaydarī, 1378 Sh.
  • Uṣūlī, Iḥsān, and Muḥammad Ḥasan Banī Hāshimī Khumaynī. Risāla-yi tawḍīḥ al-masāʾil (Imām Khumaynī wa sāyir-i marājiʿ). Qom: Jāmiʿa-yi Mudarrisīn-i Ḥawza-yi ʿIlmiyya-yi Qum, n.d.
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