The development of fatwa on house of worship in Hanafi school : study on changes, dynamics, and justifications

Abstract

This thesis seeks to reveal the development of fiqh rule regarding non-Muslim houses of worship, which is a sensitive object in the history of Muslim societies across the periods. This thesis has two main objectives they are 1) to portray how Hanafi jurists' opinions on non-Muslim houses of worship undergo change and continuity among them along with the influencing factors by taking objects across time and place, and 2) to reveal how several modern Muslim countries, especially countries with the majority of Hanafi madhab adherents, determine their attitude between implementing Islamic law or accommodating the needs of non-Muslims. By employing a literature study using a sociolegal approach that combines legal analysis and sociological perspectives, this thesis proposed an argument that the intellectual pattern and framework of the Hanafi School, which tends to use rationality, often interplay and negotiate intricately with socio-political conditions so that the existence of a fiqh rule on the house of worship occasionally becomes erratic between sticking to norms by prohibiting them or being more open by giving permission but with certain conditions.