The Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB or Diyanet) strives to cater to the religious affairs of millions in Türkiye and taps technology to that end.
The body’s fatwa hotline and website where people can ask questions on religious matters have been flooded with questions this year. Supervised by DİB’s High Board of Religious Affairs, the hotline and website answered some 836,000 questions so far this year. The queries also come in from abroad, particularly from Turkish expatriates in other countries and religious councils in Muslim countries in need of advice.
Fatwas, a ruling under Islamic law, help Muslims organize their day-to-day religious affairs, from the compatibility of their business practices with Islamic rules to marriage.
Professor Abdurrahman Haçkalı, who heads the board, says the Turkish nation has Islam “integrated into its cells” and the religion is the foundation of the social existence of the community. “This is why they ask so many questions,” he says. Haçkalı told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Sunday that each fatwa catered to a personal need and as a matter of fact, it was the board, not the public, which was guided by fatwas as they lead them to matters that needed to be addressed by religious authorities.
The fatwa hotline and website are staffed by experts from DİB, including “vaiz” or preachers serving across Türkiye. Haçkalı says that along with Turkish citizens living in Europe, they are also asked for advice by other fatwa institutions across the world, from South Africa to Kazakhstan.
In preparation for fatwas, Turkish religious authorities work with experts in different fields. “We sometimes need medical and economic knowledge to answer a question, so we cooperate with academics as well from universities and experts from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK). If a fatwa requires (a multi-disciplinary approach), we hold meetings with experts from other fields,” Haçkalı says.
The High Board of Religious Affairs is comprised of 16 members who are selected after a meticulous process, including two rounds of elections which brings down the number of some 200,000 candidates to 24 and later, to 12. Four other members are picked among veteran academics working in theology faculties in different universities across the country. Members of the board include experienced muftis as well as academics and long-serving Diyanet staff.
The board uses the Quran and sunnah (practices of Prophet Muhammad) as the basis for fatwas, along with common, agreed-upon principles of the Muslim community since the birth of Islam.
Haçkalı complains about fatwas being “distorted” by some media outlets and on social media. “Some fatwas are taken out of context and published with redactions (on media and social media) in a way that can lead to misunderstanding. Islamic literature has its own language and style and cannot be interpreted with contemporary terms,” he says.
