خواتین ِاسلام کا بہ طور مفتی و فقیہ کردار: ایک جائزہ

ROLE OF MUSLIM WOMEN AS MUFTI AND JURIST: AN OVERVIEW

Abstract

This study examines the significant yet often overlooked role of women in Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh) , Fatwa and Ijtihad. The research highlights how early female scholars, particularly Hazrat Aisha (RA), contributed through legal verdicts, critical reasoning, and scholarly debates. In the era of the Tabi‘in, figures such as Umrah bint Abdul Rahman, Hafsah bint Sireen, and Umm al-Darda further advanced jurisprudential thought and transmitted Hadith with deep legal insights. Later centuries also witnessed women like Princess Rubaiyah and “Sitt al-Fuqaha” who established institutions and played vital roles in education and law. In the modern age, scholars like Fatima Mernissi and Dr. Aisha Abdul Rahman (Bint al-Shati) linked classical scholarship with contemporary social and intellectual challenges. The findings reveal that women were not secondary participants but active jurists whose contributions sustained and expanded the relevance of Islamic law. This research fills a scholarly gap by systematically documenting women’s intellectual role in shaping Islamic jurisprudence across different eras. This research, recommend that the participation of women in existing jurisprudential and ijtihad institutions should be ensured at the institutional level, the academic work of female jurists and researchers be included in the curriculum and research projects, separate or joint research cells should be established for women in Islamic universities and jurisprudential academies, which provide ijtihad insights on contemporary issues, the academic voice of women should be widely disseminated through modern media and technology so that the guidance of the Ummah can be more comprehensive, the jurisprudential and ijtihad services of female scholars should be included in the Islamic curriculum so that the new generation is aware of their academic role, and special courses on jurisprudence and ijtihad should be included for women in madrasas and universities.