Powers, David S.

A fatwā is a legal opinion issued by an expert Muslim jurist in response to a request from a layman, judge, or ruler. The response, although not binding, has persuasive authority. The person who poses the question is the mustaftī and the request itself is called the istiftāʾ ; t…

Appeal denotes both the right to question the validity of a judicial decision and the protocols for its reversal. Scholarly consensus for much of the twentieth century held that the decision (ḥukm) of a qāḍī is final and irrevocable, that a judge may not change his mind once he …

Adoption (al-tabannī) , literally “making someone a son or daughter,” is the act of establishing a man or woman as parent to one who is not his or her natural child. Adoption practices are found in many human societies, and the roots of the institution can be traced back to the …