Tripoli, March 15: Libya’s Grand Mufti and Head of the Supreme Council for Fatwa, Sheikh Sadeq Al-Ghariani, said on Wednesday that . . .[restrict]the Dar Al-Iftaa (Fatwa Office) would speak out on political and economic issues if felt compelled to do so.
He said that the office was there to provide help and advice for all Libyans and that it would not favor one over the other.
However, he pointed out that it was its religious duty is to show God’s ruling in all matters relating to politics, economy or prayer and pilgrimage.
Sheikh Ghariani, in his response to a question by about the real functions of the Dar Al-Iftaa said: “could it be expected of our office speak-out in matters relating to prayer and Fasting but not intervene in political or economic issues.
He pointed out that it would not acceptable to apply some Quranic teachings and leave others aside. This, he said, would be injustice and could not be done in a Muslim country.
The Grandi Mufti has been asked to judge on whether the country’s many Sufi shrines are permitted in Islam.
Last Friday, during the tense armed stand-off in Zliten after hundreds of Salafists arrived from all over the country intent on destroying the tomb of one of the country’s most celebrated Sufis, Sidi Abdul-Salam Al-Asmar al-Fituri, a committee of town elders from Zliten, Misrata, Khoms and Emsalata agreed to send a delegation to NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil to decide on the matter of the shrine.
He has since has asked three scholars under the supervision of Mufti of Libya, Sheikh Sadeq Al-Ghariani, to study the matter and to issue a definitive fatwa on the legality or illegality of demolishing such shrines.
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