SARAWAK MUFTI OFFICE TO BE UPGRADED TO DEPARTMENT STATUS

-DEFINING FATWAS ALSO DETERMINES ON THE PERCEPTIONS, BELIEVES AND UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE FUTURE GENERATION ON RELATED ISSUES-

THE Sarawak Mufti Office will be ungraded into its own Department, complete with all the needed facilities to enable it to perform its duty swiftly and independably, especially on the reviewing and finalising any "fatwas" in Islam.

Making this announcement, Chief Minister Pehin Seri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud said that this adding that in principle, he purely agrees that the present Sarawak Mufti Office status should be upgraged into a Department of its own in order to spread a uniformed understanding of the Islamic fatwas accurately and systematically.

He said this in his speech at the one-day State Level Fatwa Seminar 1433H/2012M which jointly organised by the Sarawak Mufti Office and Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) at the Sarawak Islam Centre (SIC) near the heart of the city here earlier this morning.

Taib was responding to the call earlier made by the Assistant Minister (Islamic Affairs) in the Chief Minister's Office Datuk Haji Daud Haji Abdul Rahman in his welcoming speech at the same event on the possiblity of the Sarawak Mufti Office to be ungraded to Sarawak Mufti Department status.

"The (Sarawak) Mufti Offfice plays an important role in determining the true or closest true definition, principle and understanding of the fatwas on any certain Islamic issues which may arrise or questioned by the people in this State from time to time by standardizing and uniforming it."

"Even since the Prophet Muhammad SAW's time, fatwa had and always been "the order of Muslim Society" where all the Islamic scholars and those with Islamic knowledges would discuss to determine and define the best answers or understanding accordingly to the Islam teaching on any arrising disputes or difference of oppinions on any Islamic-related issues."

Reminding the Mufti Office that their responsibilities in determining the fatwas are huge burdens as it will also determine the believes of the future generation, Taib said that the beauty in Islam is that it allows changes and evolves, updating all the old fatwas to meet the needs and changing of time so long as it is not against its teaching.

"Therefore,  Mufti Office must also be prepare to accept the changes when defining the fatwas of the "do's and dont's" accordingly to the Islam teaching and apart from learning and depending on the Al-Quran as a guide to live according to the Islamic way, the Mufti Office is also urged to emphasize on education and knowledges," stressed Taib.

"As fatwas is a guide in our daily life, the Mufti Office must also take priority to prepare themselves with new knowledges, including the fields of economics, science, industries, technologies, finances and other decilpline to determine and define the right and accurate fatwas, should they arrised in the related matters in the near future."

He also pointed out that whatever outcome of any of the fatwas definitions they presently made would actually determine the on the perceptions, believes and undertandings of the future generations on the related issues.

Meanwhile, National Fatwa Committee (Islamic Affairs) Malaysia Chairman Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dato' Dr Abdul Shukor Haji Husin inhis welcoming speech earlier thanked the Chief Minister and the Sarawak Government for supporting the seminar to be in this State.

"The objective National Fatwa Committee which are officially appointed Royal King's Committee is to anaylize and review on any certain issues before determining the official fatwa on the matter from the views of Malaysia," he added.

Disclosing that up to date, a total of 580 fatwas had been reviewed and defined by his committee, Shukor also said that the National Fatwa Committee had also "evolves accordingly with the technology" had established its own on-line portal; e-fatwa and remarkably, up to Ferbuary 29th the portal had a total numbers of 63,639 visitors.

"The reviewed and defined fatwas are available in three languanges; Bahasa Melayu, English and Arab and most astonishingly, a majority of the visitors are from United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Mesir and other Western countries."

Emphasizing that fatwas reflects the Islamic intergrity of this country, Shukor also said that his committee had also agreed to go in the same direction with the 1Malasyia concept introduced by Prime Minster Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak with their own motto "1Malaysia 1Fatwa".

Taib who arrived at the venue with his with his wife Puan Seri Ragad Kurdi-Taib was greeted by State Legislative Assembly Speaker Datuk Amar Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar, Sarawak's Mufti Haji Kipli Haji Yassin with other distinguished invited guests.

 

This year's seminar with its theme "Fatwa Dijunjung Ummah Disanjung" was attended by more than 500 participants whom had came all around Sarawak and three separate papers touching on three issues are to presented and discuss during the seminar.

 -UnReportedNews™®