Does a fatwa (scholarly legal ruling) change with the change of time?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you. This is Abu 'Abd from Jeddah. He asks: Does time and the passage of time have an effect on a fatwa?
Answer:
A fatwa does not differ. A fatwa based on evidence does not differ across times. However, if the fatwa is based on independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) and there is no clear evidence for it, but rather it is an attempt by the mufti (scholar who issues fatwas) to apply his reasoning to hit upon the evidence, and then it becomes clear to him afterward, and he learns more than he did before, then he changes the fatwa and returns to the stronger position and the correct one. Yes.
May Allah reward you. This is Abu 'Abd from Jeddah. He asks: Does time and the passage of time have an effect on a fatwa?
Answer:
A fatwa does not differ. A fatwa based on evidence does not differ across times. However, if the fatwa is based on independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) and there is no clear evidence for it, but rather it is an attempt by the mufti (scholar who issues fatwas) to apply his reasoning to hit upon the evidence, and then it becomes clear to him afterward, and he learns more than he did before, then he changes the fatwa and returns to the stronger position and the correct one. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، هل الفتوى تتغير بتغير الزمان؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.