Add new comment

Nearly sixty prominent Islamic theological scholars and Shariah experts came together in Kuwait on February 18-20, 2013, for XI International Conference “Understanding the reality and elaborating theological decisions for important issues”, which is being actively discussed today in scholarly circles.

Ukrainian Muslims were represented by Mr.Seyran Arifov, a Crimean Tatar who is the chairman of the auditory commission of “Alraid”, master of Shariah. He came by invitation from the Kuwait Ministry for Islam and Wakf Affaires and the Organization “Center of Renewal and Instruction”.

The central subject disturbing theologians’ minds was issuing fatwas (Shariah-based conclusions on particular matters). According to Mr.Adel Al-Falah, Kuwait Deputy-Minister on Islam and Wakf Affairs, “Islamic theologians should be very careful and cautious when issuing a fatwa, especially for non-Muslim countries. He must scrutinize the realities of the society where an inquirer lives, so that his answer could contain not only a theological conclusion, but also its implementation mechanism applicable in daily life of an inquirer. Each theologian must think thoroughly and make analysis of what would be an outcome of his fatwa and if it offers the best solution for the raised problem”.

Islamic society is coming out of crisis

Mr.Seyran Arifov tells about his impressions: “Fatwas were the central subject in the conference. Indeed, there were reports related with narrower issues, like economics or banking. I believe that events like this enrich all the participants, and discussions of reports enable for more extensive and comprehensive investigations of each problem”.

The working language in the conference was Arab, and availability of an expert coming from indigenous peoples of Ukraine and capable to discuss sophisticated theological issues in this language is a good sign for the Ukrainian Muslim community.

Dr.Adel Al-Falah made it clear that the global Islamic community was quite capably moving out of crisis, striving for self-renewal, reconciliation with the past and the present, and for revival of the identity. “We are groping for the right path in this world of contradictory principles and interests, where various cultures, confessions and ideologies interact with each other, where some social phenomena occur just to please third parties, and another occur due to path dependency”.