Quality Control in Islamic Knowledge

Abdul Rahman al-Rashed writing in Asharq Alawsat:

Even the Egyptian Grand Mufti has become exasperated with the soaring number of fatwas (religious edicts) and the confusion surrounding them in the media. He has recently called for increased supervision and the appointment off a specialist body as the sole authority to issue these edicts. I see no future for his suggestion as fatwas increasingly resemble alternative medicine with its sorcerers and experts in a vast array of herbs and potions. The growth of the Internet meant such people can now run unlicensed clinics and pharmacies which sell everything from volcanic rocks to the latest untested products.

He raises a number of salient points but the most important relates to how consumers of religious knowledge can assess the quality of information (fatawa) that is being provided. In other words, how do we assess whether an individual is trustworthy and suitably qualified to be providing this sort of information?

In Imam Dhahabi’s Siyar a’lam al-Nubala he mentions the scholar as being similar to that of the khilafah: that is, there is a consensus of sorts amongst the people as to his or her position. There has long been a system of ijaza in which teachers give permission to their students to teach a particular book and therefore continue a chain of authorities from the author of the book to the student. Anybody seeking an opinion could see that a particular scholar had ijaza in various topics or consult other scholars and, based on that information, assess whether they would or could trust his or her opinion.

For a variety of reasons, such as the ease with which one can present themselves as a religious authority nowadays, such measures do not seem to be working. In response to this, we now find in many countries that there is a push to develop a government-endorsed licensing system for imams. The principle advocates of this idea have, for the most part, been Muslims; the reasoning being that such a system would prevent the ubiquitous ‘radical cleric’ appearing in the media, saying something silly, and causing untold damage to the entire Muslim community. On the other hand, it is also supposed that it would solve the problem of people of dubious qualification providing rulings on complex issues of fiqh. Despite this, there are good reasons to oppose the licensing of imams and Muslim scholars. For example, it reduces choice and is open to abuse and corruption by centering the power to issue a religious opinion with one authority.

In a sense, the debate around the licensing of Muslim religious figures largely mirrors the broader debate about licensure of professionals such as lawyers or doctors. That debate is well outside the scope of this site and I doubt that too many readers would be interested, but one could do far worse than to read chapter nine of Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom for a useful discussion of the matter. Friedman does conclude that rather than licensing, private certification is a better approach and goes a long way to solving the essential problem here: that given an absence of enough information, consumers cannot easily determine who should be trusted for knowledge or expertise. Certification is one means of providing that information to consumers.

As the media, Internet and other dynamics lead to a proliferation of religious opinions and figures of varying quality, perhaps it is time for Muslims to establish certification authorities. These authorities would establish their own standards, guidelines and tests and admit membership based on these criteria. A person that wishes to operate as a scholar or religious authority could then volunteer for examination by the authority and, if they pass, be awarded the right to denote themselves as certified. As these authorities would be entirely private, they could be established to represent all the doctrinal and jurisprudential tastes of the community; and could enforce codes of practice on their membership. One such requirement might be that all members publish their qualifications, whether traditional or university-based, and agree to submit a minimum number of papers to peer-reviewed journals or conferences each year.