fatwa
Syllables: fat·wa/ˈfætwɑː/US/ˈfætwɑ/
fatwa noun: a formal legal decree, opinion, or ruling issued by a mufti or other Islamic judicial authority.
Noun
fatwa (plural fatwas or (rare) fatawa)
- A formal legal decree, opinion, or ruling issued by a mufti or other Islamic judicial authority.
- The website contains fatwas on points of Islamic law that arise in court cases.
- In 2015, one person was killed in Copenhagen at a meeting meant to mark the 25th anniversary of an Iranian fatwa against British writer Salman Rushdie, which Vilks attended.2021 October 4, Reuters, “Lars Vilks, Swedish cartoonist who depicted Mohammed, killed in car crash”, in CNN
- A decree issued by a mufti or other Islamic judicial authority that a person should be put to death, usually as punishment for committing apostasy or blasphemy.
- A formal decree or ruling, or statement, issued by an authority of a religion other than Islam.
- An emphatic decree or opinion, especially one which condemns or criticizes.
Verb
fatwa (third-person singular simple present fatwas, present participle fatwaing, simple past and past participle fatwaed or fatwa'd)
- To issue a fatwa (noun sense 1) against (someone); specifically (loosely, erroneous), a fatwa imposing a ban or a death sentence.
- Unlike many writers and artists, Chahine had not been fatwaed by the militants, but he felt threatened nevertheless.1999, Mary Anne Weaver, “Life in the Alleys”, in A Portrait of Egypt: A Journey through the World of Militant Islam, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 141
- One wonders why these terrorists are not fatwaed.2002, South Asia Politics, volume 1, New Delhi: Rashtriya Jagriti Sansthan, →OCLC, page 30, column 2
fatwa meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
fatwa in Hindi
- formal ruling issued by an Islamic judicial authority
- फ़तवा fatvā, फतवा phatvā
fatwa in Marathi
- formal ruling issued by an Islamic judicial authority
- फतवा phatvā
fatwa in Urdu
- formal ruling issued by an Islamic judicial authority
- فَتْویٰ fatvā
fatwa in Bengali
- formal ruling issued by an Islamic judicial authority
- ফতোয়া photōẇa
More languagesFewer languages
- fatwa in Pashto
- فتوى fetwā
- fatwa in Arabic
- فَتْوَى fatwā
- fatwa in Malay
- fatwa, petua
- fatwa in Indonesian
- fatwa
Examples of fatwa in a sentence
- 'I'm just beginning one,' says famously-fatwaed author of new novel [subtitle]2013 April 15, Katie Van Syckle, “Q&A: Salman Rushdie Talks ‘Midnight’s Children,’ Other Projects”, in Rolling Stone, New York, N.Y....
- He was fatwaed for linking facts and fiction in ways that the mullahs say they should not be linked.2015, Mohamed Gibril Sesay, “The Youth of Paradise”, in This Side of Nothingness […] (Sierra Leonean Writers Series), Freetown, Sierra...
Forms of fatwa
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | fatwas |
| alternative form | fetwa |
| alternative form | fetwah |
| alternative form | fatwah |
| alternative form | futwa |
| alternative form | futwah |
| plural (rare) | fatawa |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | fatwas |
| present participle | fatwaing |
| past participle | fatwaed |
| past | fatwaed |
| past participle | fatwa'd |
| past | fatwa'd |
Origin of fatwa
The noun is borrowed from Arabic فَتْوَى (fatwā, “formal legal opinion”), the verbal noun of أَفْتَى (ʔaftā, “to deliver a formal opinion”) (whence مُفْتٍ (muftin, “mufti”), the active participle of the same verb: see mufti). The forms fetwa, fetwah are derived from Italian fetfà (obsolete), and directly from its etymon Ottoman Turkish فتوی (fetva) (modern Turkish fetva), from Arabic فَتْوَى (fatwā): see above. Modern uses of noun sense 1.2 (“decree that a person should be put to death”) and the corresponding verb sense are probably influenced by the issuance of a fatwa on 14 February 1989 by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900 or 1902 – 1989), the Supreme Leader of Iran, calling for the British-American author Salman Rushdie (born 1947) and his publishers to be put to death for alleged blasphemy in his novel The Satanic Verses (1988). The plural form fatawa is borrowed from Arabic فَتَاوَى (fatāwā). The verb is derived from the noun.
Questions about fatwa
- What does fatwa mean?
- Fatwa means a formal legal decree, opinion, or ruling issued by a mufti or other Islamic judicial authority.
- What is fatwa in Hindi?
- Fatwa in Hindi is फ़तवा (fatvā), फतवा (phatvā). See Fatwa meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use fatwa in a sentence?
- 'I'm just beginning one,' says famously-fatwaed author of new novel [subtitle]
- What part of speech is fatwa?
- Fatwa can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce fatwa?
- Fatwa is pronounced /ˈfætwɑː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of fatwa?
- The plural of fatwa is fatwas.
Words near fatwa in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fatwa (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fatwa.wav.
Cite this entry: “fatwa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fatwa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.