Fatwa as a Knowledge Construct: An Epistemological Framework for Assessing Its Validity

Fatwas play a role in guiding Muslim responses to emerging social, economic, and technological issues. However, their authority should not be assessed solely through normative religious legitimacy; it also depends on the epistemological quality of the knowledge they produce. This study examines fatwas as constructions of Islamic legal knowledge and develops an integrative framework for evaluating their epistemological validity. Employing a qualitative-philosophical approach through library research, it analyses classical and contemporary works on uṣūl al-fiqh, Islamic legal reasoning, epistemology, and theories of knowledge validity. The analysis focuses on the integration of revealed sources—the Qur’an, Hadith, ijmāʿ, and qiyās—with empirical knowledge relevant to contemporary contexts, supported by istinbāṭ al-aḥkām, maqāṣid al-sharīʿah, and rational, interdisciplinary ijtihād. The study proposes four principal criteria for examining fatwa validity: consistency, coherence, correspondence, and argumentative accountability. These criteria assess conformity with Islamic legal principles, logical soundness, empirical accuracy, and methodological transparency. The framework positions fatwas as normative, rational, systematic, and contextually responsive products of Islamic legal knowledge that remain open to academic examination.