al-Fatawa al-Kubra al-Fiqhiyya
- Author died
- 974 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktabah al-Islāmiyyah
Al-Fatawa al-Kubra al-Fiqhiyya (The Great Legal Fatwas) is a comprehensive collection of Shafi'i legal responsa delivered by the jurist Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (909–974 AH / 1504–1567 CE), compiled and arranged by his student Abd al-Qadir ibn Ahmad al-Fakihi (d. 982 AH / 1574 CE).
Background and Compilation
After Ibn Hajar al-Haytami settled permanently in Mecca, his scholarly reputation spread widely, drawing legal inquiries from scholars, judges, and laypersons across the Islamic world. Queries arrived from Egypt, Syria, Aleppo, the Kurdish regions, Iraq, Basra, Najd, al-Hasa, Bahrain, Yemen, Hadramawt, coastal territories, Persia, India, Sind, and Delhi, as well as from pilgrims visiting Mecca during the annual Hajj.
Recognizing the practical and doctrinal value of these rulings—particularly regarding novel legal problems lacking explicit precedent in earlier classical manuals—his student Abd al-Qadir al-Fakihi gathered these scattered responsa over an extended period. Al-Fakihi opened the work with an introductory biography of his teacher, detailing his lineage, early education at al-Azhar, teachers, and scholarly career.
Structure and Methodology
Al-Fakihi arranged the fatwas systematically according to the traditional chapter headings of Islamic jurisprudence (kutub al-fiqh), beginning with ritual purity and prayer and proceeding through commercial transactions, marriage, judicial procedures, and other legal domains.
To facilitate use for jurists and researchers, al-Fakihi adopted specific organizational principles:
- When a single query contained multiple questions spanning distinct legal fields, he generally separated each issue and placed it in its appropriate thematic chapter.
- When the arguments and rulings in multi-part inquiries were closely intertwined, he kept the entire exchange intact under the chapter most central to the predominant topic.
- Alongside concise answers, the collection integrates roughly fifty specialized legal treatises and monographs composed by Ibn Hajar on complex disputes that arose between him and his contemporaries.
Content and Scope
The rulings in the collection focus on deriving solutions within the framework of the Shafi'i school, examining textual transmissions (nuqul), resolving apparent contradictions among late authorities, and evaluating weightier opinions (tarjih). The work addresses everyday ritual and civic practices as well as contested social, economic, and doctrinal questions of the tenth century AH, such as the legal status of foodstuffs and stimulants like nutmeg, novel commercial arrangements, endowments, and matters of court procedure.
Editions
The work has been published in four volumes by several publishers, including al-Maktaba al-Islamiyya in Cairo, Dar al-Fikr, and Dar Sadir in Beirut. An edition prepared and edited by Abd al-Latif Abd al-Rahman was issued by Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya in Beirut in 1417 AH. In early prints, the legal collection of Shams al-Din al-Ramli was published in the margins alongside Ibn Hajar's work.
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