FEMINISM. This article examines the feminism, or more precisely feminisms, Muslim women have created as independent agents to redefine their own lives as women, countering patriarchal hegemony and striving for more egalitarian gender arrangements in families, communities, and nations in the modern era. In the second half of the nineteenth century some Muslim women began
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FEDERATION OF ISLAMIC ASSOCIATIONS. Formed through the efforts of firstgeneration American-born Muslims, mostly of Syrian and Lebanese origin, the Federation of Islamic Associations was created as a corporate body to help maintain ties between scattered Muslim communities. Abdullah Igram of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a World War II veteran, was instrumental in bringing together Muslims from
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FEDERATION NATIONALE DES MUSULMANS DE FRANCE. Founded on 3o November 1985 “to act officially for the Muslims in France and to protect them,” the Federation Nationale des Musulmans de France (FNMF) is governed by the Law on Associations of 1901. It shares its registered office in Paris with the French branch of the Muslim World
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FATWA. [To describe the role of fatwa as an instrument of religious law this entry comprises three articles. Concepts of Fatwa Process and Function Modern Usage The first article provides a general overview, with attention to variations in meaning of the term: the second describes how fatwas are generated and produced; and the third considers
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FATIMID DYNASTY. The institutional embodiment of the Isma’iliyah, a Shi’i sects that anise from the disputed succession to Ja’far al-Sadiq (c 700-756 ), the sixth imam imam of mainstream Shiism (the Imamiyah), was called the Fatimid dynasty. Al-Sadiq’s son and designated successor, Isma’il, had predeceased him, and some Shi ‘is took Isma’il’s son, Muhammad, as
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FATHY, HASSAN (1900-1989) more properly Hasan Fath-1, Egyptian architect, teacher, philosopher, and reformer. Born in Alexandria, Hassan Fathy pursued a prolific architectural career for more than a half century as a lonely reformer whose success was only evident toward the end of his life and after it. His reformist agenda was systematically opposed to official
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MUHAMMAD `ALLAL AL FASI (19o6-1973), Moroccan intellectual, historian, legal scholar, teacher, poet, and political leader, a founder of the Is-tiqlal Party. Son of the mufti of Fez, al-Fasi was born into a prominent religious and literary family claiming descent from Arabia through Andalusian Spain. He studied Islamic law at al-Qarawiyin University. In the late 1920s
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ISMA’IL RAJI AL-FARUQI(1921-1986), Islamic scholar and activist. Born in Jaffa, Palestine, Fqrugi received an education that made him trilingual (Arabic, French, and English) and provided him with multicultural intellectual sources that informed his life and thought. He studied at the mosque school, attended a French Catholic school, College des Freres (St. Joseph) in Palestine, and
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FARD AL-KIFAYAH. In Muslim legal doctrine the fard al-kifayah (lit., “duty of the sufficiency”) defines a communal responsibility. According to this doctrine, within a community of Muslims, if some religious obligation belonging to the category of fard al-kifayah is not fulfilled, the whole have collectively sinned. If a sufficient number of the community undertake the
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