Reconceptualising Fatwa Authority: An Institutional Governance Framework through a Comparative Study of Indonesia and Malaysia

Abstract

Fatwa authority is increasingly exercised through institutions situated at the intersection of Islamic jurisprudence, state regulation, organisational governance, and public religious life. Although existing scholarship has examined the legal status, centralisation, state integration, and social effects of fatwas, less attention has been given to how these dimensions interact to constitute and sustain institutional authority. This article reconceptualises fatwa authority as an institutional outcome rather than an attribute derived solely from juristic expertise or formal legal recognition. Employing normative legal research and comparative institutional analysis, it examines Indonesia and Malaysia as contrasting institutional configurations through constitutional and statutory provisions, institutional regulations, official fatwa materials, judicial and regulatory documents, and relevant scholarly literature. The analysis identifies six interrelated dimensions: legal foundation, institutional mandate, governance structure, scholarly authority, public legitimacy, and adaptive capacity. The findings demonstrate that neither state integration nor institutional autonomy alone adequately explains the durability and practical influence of fatwa authority. Rather, authority emerges through the interaction of legal anchoring, organisational governance, epistemic credibility, social recognition, and institutional responsiveness. On this basis, the article develops the Institutional Fatwa Governance Framework (IFGF) as a multidimensional model for examining how fatwa institutions acquire, exercise, legitimise, and sustain authority amid changing legal and social conditions. The framework advances Islamic legal studies by shifting attention from the formal status of fatwas to the institutional processes through which Islamic legal authority is organised and reproduced. Beyond Indonesia and Malaysia, IFGF provides a transferable basis for analysing the institutional governance of Islamic legal authority across contemporary Muslim legal orders.