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USING INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) TO DISSEMINATE THE UNDERSTANDING OF ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE (FIQH) AND JURIDICAL OPINION (FATWA): A VIEW OF A TECHNOLOGIST

By: MUHD ROSYDI BIN MUHAMMAD Department of Information Systems Kulliyyah of Information and Communication Technology International Islamic University Malaysia MARJAN BINTI MUHAMMAD Faculty of Syari’ah and Judiciary Islamic University College Malaysia

INTRODUCTION Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a dynamic field that gives a great impact to the society. It drives many of today's innovations, offers enormous potential for further innovations and developments, and brings changes to social life in the coming decades. As we enter the new millennium, we experience one of the most essential revolutions in our lives – the transition to an Internet-based society. One of the major areas that is significantly affected by this silent revolution is the way we collect, process and disseminate information in this new and competitive environment. Malaysia for instance, has long acknowledged ICT as a powerful tool for participating in global markets, promoting political accountability, improving the delivery of basic services and enhancing local development opportunities. Moreover, ICT is believed to be able to accommodate and speed up our entry into the information-based environment. Such great efforts have been carried by many Muslim scholars, scientists and intellectuals in evaluating the impacts of ICT towards Islam, and at the same time initiating ways to promote Islamic knowledge and information through the using of ICT, particularly World Wide Web (WWW) technology. As a result of their efforts is the proliferation of Islamic sites on the Internet as well as software, some of which are devoted to Islamic education and propagation, while others being of more commercial or entertainment nature. The author finds out there are about 1,784,410 website that are directly and indirectly related to Islam.1 However, not all of these sites, which discuss issues relevant to Islam, present accurate and reliable information based on the true beliefs and practices of the Prophet (pbuh) and his companions. Thus, there is a need to increase the number of sites providing resources based on these authentic teachings. Since ICT is the global-focused technology, it is believed that it can be the most useful platform for Muslims to disseminate Islamic knowledge and information. Another 1

Search result of AltaVista responding to the keyword of “Islam” as of 21st February 2003. The author uses AltaVista search engine due to its fast response time, most up-to-date content and sorts the hits according to the level of importance of the information found.

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evidence of Muslim interest in ICT is the growing numbers of seminars, conferences, workshops discussed about the issue. For example in 1999, Islamic Internet Conference (MISIC'99) was held with the objective of utilizing the Internet to present and acquire knowledge on Islam, sharing information among Muslims all over the globe, as well as establishing personal and organizational networks. This event has become a yearly programme under the supervision of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and was renamed to "International Conference on Information Technology"2. In essence, supports from ICT will enable the Islamic knowledge to be effectively transmitted to the ummah. This paper attempts to shed light on how to utilize the advancement of ICT in order to disseminate the understanding of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and juridical opinions (fatwa). It will focus on several issues i.e. relationships between ICT and Islam, ICT applications, fiqh and fatwa in the digital era, current implementations of ICT in fiqh and fatwa and obstacles faced while implementing ICT in this field as well as several suggestions to improve it.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ICT AND ISLAM Information Technology (IT) is defined as "the use of computers and telecommunications for the processing and distribution of information in digital, audio, video and other forms".3 Based on this definition and the fact that Quran is neither a scientific text book nor a technological "how-to" manual, those who are unfamiliar with Islam might be questioning themselves about the relationship between IT and the book revealed more than 1400 years ago. Al-Quran is the book of knowledge and the main source of reference in Islam, which contains general principles applicable for all times and places. Islam – through 2

3

Yousif, Ahmad F., Information Technology in the 21st Century: An Islamic Perspective, Paper presented at the International Conference on Information System & Islam, 5 – 7 Nov 2001, ISI2001, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). ibid

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Quran – stresses the importance of seeking both divine and worldly knowledge from the very first revelation:

[‫]ﺍﻗﺮﺃ ﺑﺴﻢ ﺭﱢﺑﻚ ﺍﻟﺬﻱ ﺧﻠﻖ * ﺧﻠﻖ ﺍﻹﻧﺴﺎﻥ ﻣﻦ ﻋﻠ ٍﻖ‬ "Read in the name of your Lord who created * created man from a clot ….." 4 Muslims are encouraged to continuously seek and increase our knowledge as those who possess more knowledge will be highly respected in Islam as Allah says:

[‫]ﻗﻞ ﻫﻞ ﻳﺴﺘﻮﻱ ﺍﻟﺬﻳﻦ ﻳﻌﻠﻤﻮﻥ ﻭﺍﻟﺬﻳﻦ ﻻ ﻳﻌﻠﻤﻮﻥ‬ “Say: Are those who know equal to those who know not?" 5 Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in most of his hadith has indicated the importance of knowledge in our lives. In one of his famous hadith, he stated that acquiring all types of knowledge is made obligatory to all muslims.

- ‫))ﻃﻠﺐ ﺍﻟﻌﻠﻢ ﻓﺮﻳﻀﺔ ﻋﻠﻰ ﻛﻞ ﻣﺴﻠﻢ(( – ﺭﻭﺍﻩ ﺍﺑﻦ ﻣﺎﺟﻪ‬ “Seeking knowledge (‘ilm) is compulsory to all muslims” – Narrated by Ibn Maajah The Prophet (pbuh) and early Muslim scholars have possessed an exemplary model on how one should deal with the knowledge. They employed whatever means which were available at that time to access information, store, process and distribute their ideas and knowledge. As a result of their positive attitudes towards knowledge, Islam emerged as a great civilization for centuries. The Islamic tradition has categorized knowledge into two categories. The first category of knowledge is that rendered by Allah to man through revelation (wahyu). This knowledge is regarded as the highest form of knowledge and eventually is made 4 5

Quran 96: 1 -2 Quran 39: 9

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compulsory on every Muslim to learn, comprehend and implement. The second type of knowledge is that acquired by humans via rational inquiry based on experience and observation, which normally concern with worldly matter.6 This latter form of knowledge includes tanzur (observation), tadabbur (deliberation), tathakkur (recollection), tafakkur (consideration), tabassur (understanding) and ta’aqul (rationalization), all of which are mentioned in the Quran as mechanisms to gather knowledge. It is in the latter category lies the field of ICT. 7 In this respect, ICT is not an alien to Islam. In fact, the technology has been adopted and used – in a different way - by Muslim scholars in the early Islamic history. Hence, the usage of ICT to promote Islamic knowledge is merely not a big issue. Services and applications offered by the technology can be efficiently utilized in order to distribute and increase the level of understanding Islamic knowledge.

APPLICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES OFFERED BY ICT ICT offers various technologies that can be used by the humans in order to facilitate their routine activities. It is said that ICT will be changing the way we work, communicate, study, do business and other aspects of human life. One of the greatest benefits to be gained from the use of ICT is Internet. The Internet is defined as a worldwide connection of more than 72 millions computers that use Internet Protocol (IP) to communicate. More than 190 countries and territories around the world are similarly connected to the Internet, forming a worldwide telecommunications network. 8 People from all walks of life are using the Internet. According to Nua Internet Surveys9 as of September 2002, 605.60 million people were online worldwide. Out of these numbers, 6.31 million users were from Africa, 187.24 million were from Asia and the Pacific Rim,

6 7

8 9

Al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib, (1978), Islam and Secularism, Kuala Lumpur: ABIM, p. 74. Yousif, Ahmad F., Information Technology in the 21st Century: An Islamic Perspective, Paper presented at the International Conference on Information System & Islam, 5 – 7 Nov 2001, ISI2001, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). Hofstetter, Fred T., (2001), Internet Literacy, McGraw Hill, 2nd Ed., p. 2 Nua Internet Survey at http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/index.html

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190.91 million were from Europe, 5.12 were from Middle East, 182.67 million were from North America and 33.35 million were from Latin America. Figure 1 shows the tremendous growth of Internet technology globally. Looking to the promising situation, it is expected that most of human activities will be greatly influenced by this technology.

Figure 1: The Growth of Internet

Internet contains bundles of information that can be rapidly and easily accessed by the users. A wide range of information can be obtained from on-line resources which are pleasantly presented through the use of World Wide Web (WWW) technology. There are lots of Islamic sites have been developed with the purpose of providing and disseminating Islamic knowledge and information such as Al-Islam.Com (http://www.alislam.com), IslamiCity.Com (http://www.islamicity.com), Harf Information Technology (http://www.harf.com),

Islamweb.Net

(http://answering-islam.org), (http://talkislam.com),

Alim

Jannah.Com

(http://islamweb.net), (http://www.alim.org), (http://www.jannah.com),

Answering Talk

Islam Islam

IslamOnline.Net

(http://www.islamonline.net), IslamQA.Com (http://www.islam-qa.com) and many more. It becomes a new mechanism for Muslims all over the world to collect, exchange, share and spread information about Islam. Through the websites, Muslims are given on-line access to Quranic recitations and its’ translations, books of Hadith, books and problems

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of Islamic fiqh, fatwa and other numerous Islamic databases. Reflecting to this scenario, Sheikh Dr Yusof al-Qardhawi stated that Internet is a very important tool to distribute Islamic teachings and it can be a platform to unite Muslim community.10 In addition, according to Michael Boyd, “Muslims around the world are making a connection with their faith through the Net. There are websites through which they learn about their religion, as well as how to spread it”.11 Another prominent application offered by the ICT is electronic mail (e-mail). Email has revolutionized the way people communicate by enabling the users to electronically sending, receiving and reading messages. Compared to other forms of communication, it can save our precious time because we can only read e-mail when we intend to do so. Thus, e-mail does not interrupt our workday. When we travel, we can dial-up and read our e-mail using almost any telephone line anywhere in the world. We can even avoid the need for a phone line if our computer is equipped for wireless communications or if we have a cell phone that supports wireless e-mail. Together with the e-mail, Internet technology offers Listserv, Newsgroup and Web-based Forum. These applications will basically allow the Internet users to exchange and share information digitally. Hence, it will enable Muslim scholars located in different parts of the ummah to virtually gather in order to discuss, debate and solve problems as well

as

challenges

facing

the

ummah.

Harf

Information

Technology

(http://www.harf.com) for instance, provides a mailing list service and Al-Islam.Com (http://www.al-islam.com) provides on-line forum to users. This will allow the users to interact, share and seeking latest information over the web. Multimedia which encompasses animation, audio, video, graphic – both two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) is another one of the most complex and rapidly changing areas in ICT. It can be very entertaining, especially if we are equipped 10 11

Al-Qaradawi.Net at http://www.qaradawi.net Yousif, Ahmad F., Information Technology in the 21st Century: An Islamic Perspective, Paper presented at the International Conference on Information System & Islam, 5 – 7 Nov 2001, ISI2001, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).

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with high-end computers, all the necessary plug-ins installed and access to the Internet at a quiet time. Multimedia elements, if they are efficiently utilized can be useful tools to improve the approach on how we present and distribute information. Audio and video technologies are widely used by most of the websites in order to improve the way information are delivered, rather than presenting them in the text-based format. AlIslam.Com (http://www.al-islam.com), IslamiCity.Com (http://www.islamicity.com) and IslamOnline.Net (http://www.islamonline.net) are among the Islamic websites that enable the users to listen for the khutbah or lectures conveyed by prominent Muslim scholars. Moreover, virtual reality that involves 3D simulation of a real or imagined environment using computers is widely implemented mainly in critical areas such as engineering designs, medical research and imaging. It gives chance to users to “truly” view and experience the simulated situation. Displaying in a virtual reality setting, an object such as car can be viewed from various angles (top, bottom, right, left, side and so on). We can also “virtually” sit inside the car, and even have test-drive on the car. Virtual reality can be a useful technology to be adopted in developing certain Islamic application such as practice and training for hajj. Users can be “practically” trained on how to correctly perform hajj activities like tawaf, saei’ and getting into ihram garments. This can enhance their understanding on how to carry out Islamic practices. ICT also enables real-time communication among the users. For example, audio conferencing allows them to hear what people are saying into a microphone during a chat, while videoconferencing allows them to see the people as well. Since digital audio and video transmissions contain many more bits of information than textual communications, we need a faster connection to the Internet than is required for text-based chat. There is a lot of research and development being conducted on compressing audio and video in order to make them require less bandwidth. Hopefully some day in the future, as the technology continues to develop, everyone will be able to use audio and video without worrying about bandwidth limitations.

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The Internet is the richest source of information on the planet. According to Bergman’s BrightPlanet white paper on deep Web, there were more than 100,000 searchable databases containing nearly 550 billion documents in 2000 of which 95% were publicly available.12 Out of the number, there were more than 1,055,217 websites related to Islam. 13 The technology can facilitate students and scholars in conducting research where they can find out lots of information as well as what has been done in the area. While so much information is available online, however, finding accurate information as requested is not always easy. Therefore, search engines can be used to help the users to find out the most accurate information as they want to know. Currently, there are lots of effective search engines such Google (http://www.google.com), AltaVista

(http://www.altavista.com),

(http://www.yahoo.com), (http://www.webcrawler.com),

Excite

Lycos

(http://www.lycos.com),

(http://www.excite.com),

InfoSeek

(http://www.infoseek.com),

Yahoo!

WebCrawler DirectHit

(http://www.directhit.com) and many more. These search engines can be an effective mechanism to be utilized in order to obtain valuable information on Islam. Database system is among any other sophisticated application which is offered by this advent technology. It is simply a system that handles the process of centralizing the data, managing them efficiently and providing access to stored data. Database system is very useful nowadays especially in the situation where we have vast amount of knowledge and information to be properly managed. The current trend of database technology is putting information resources available on the WWW, which is known as Hypermedia Databases.14 Researchers now explore the role of hypermedia databases in the Web and the growing use of websites to access information stored in database system. The hypermedia database approach enables the users to access topics on the website in whatever order they wish. For example, from the web page of the U.S. National Oceanic

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BrightPlanet at http://www.brightplanet.com/deepcontent/tutorials/DeepWeb/deepwebwhitepaper.pdf Shaikh Mohd Saifuddeen Shaikh Mohd Salleh, (2000), Merombak dan Membentuk Imej Islam dengan Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi (ICT), an article in Memahami Islam Melalui Teknologi Maklumat & Komunikasi, Ed: Shaikh Mohd Saifuddeen Shaikh Mohd Salleh, p. 37-56, IKIM, Kuala Lumpur. 14 Loudan, K. C., Loudan, J. P., (2002), Management Information Systems: Managing The Digital Firm, 7th Ed., Prentice Hall, USA, p. 224. 13

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and Atmospheric Administration (http://www.nurp.noaaa.gov), one could link to other web pages that provide various forms of information on the related issue. Besides that, there is also an approach where internal database can be linked to the web. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov/enviro/) website allows its employees and the general public to access its Environfacts data warehouse. More and more organizations are using the web in order to provide an interface to internal databases. One of the advantages can be gained from using the web to access information from the internal databases is that, web browser software is extremely easy to use and requiring much less training that the database query tools. For business companies, it creates new efficiencies and opportunities for them while at the same time, providing their employees with integrated firm-wide views of information. Figure 2 shows the architecture on how the database technology can be linked to the WWW.

WEB SERVER HTML

INTERNET

APPLICATION SERVER

DBMS

DATABASE

WEB BROWSER

Figure 2: Linking Database to the Web

Among other Islamic websites that adopt this approach are Al-Islam.Com (http://www.al-islam.com) and IslamQA.Com (http://www.islam-qa.com). They are providing Islamic knowledge and information particularly, in the field of fiqh and fatwa by linking their databases to webs. It enables the users to search for the information using the easiest and most effective way. There are many more applications provided by the ICT, and Muslims should not only be a passive observer to the advent of this sophisticated technology. They have to become a major player as well as contributor to this technology, using and adapting

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whatever applications invented in order to enhance and accelerate the development process of Islamic ummah.

FIQH AND FATWA IN THE DIGITAL ERA Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) is a core division of Islamic disciplines that concern with various aspects, including worshipping ('ibadah), transactions (mu'amalah), inheritance (mirath), criminals (jinayah), judiciary (qada'), marriage (munakahat), international affairs (fiqh al-dawlah), politics (siyasah), etc. Having knowledge on fiqh can guide an individual to righteously perform all of his activities and routines as required by Islam. In this regard, Imam Abu Hanifah defines fiqh as “the ability of oneself to know what he must possess and what is required from him”.15 Considering the importance of fiqh in our life, we must ensure that the knowledge can be preached, and at the same time, reached by all levels of Islamic ummah. When there is stagnation in the use of fiqh, the dynamic aspect of Islam will tear and unity of the ummah will be stunned. As for the fatwa, it is really required in this current rapid changing environment in order to solve new problems that we might encounter. Since Islam does not provide a clear-cut hukm for all cases and problems, it has underlined some general guidelines, rules and methods on how to study, analyze, make ijtihad and finally issue any fatwa for the problems arise. For instance, there is no specific hukm of Internet, e-commerce, software piracy and other new emerging problems. Thus, people need clarifications from Muslim scholars and experts on how to deal with these ijtihadic matters. Notwithstanding the prolonged debates and discussions, Muslim scholars manage to scrutinize the problems and eventually come out with certain hukm. Hence, methodology adopted to spread information on this area needs to be strategically planned and initiated in order to make sure that all of the priceless resources 15

Dr. Wahbah Zuhaili, (1997), Al-Fiqh Al-Islami Wa Adillatuhu, Vol. 1, Darul Fikr, Beirut.

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of fiqh and valuable collection of fatwa can be appropriately managed and competently delivered to the society. All of the resources and information are commonly documented and compiled into books. Nevertheless, with the advancement of technology these sources are now accessible via internet and users can easily download and print out these materials freely without buying them in the market. For instance, Al-Islam.Com (http://www.al-islam.com) allows the Internet users to digitally read and even print out some prominent heritage books on fiqh and fatwa like Al-Fatawa Al-Fiqhiyyah Al-Kubra, Al-Fatawa Al-Hindiyyah, I‘lam al-Muwaqqi’in ‘an Rabbi al-‘Alamin, Al-Turuq AlHukmiyyah, Al-Ahkam Al-Sultaniyyah, Al-Mughni, Al-Furuuq, Al-Mawsu’ah AlFiqhiyyah and others. This can facilitate those who want to learn and get information from these books. In short, fiqh and fatwa are exploring a new track to reach their users, while the users are adopting a new approach – using ICT - on how to obtain and disseminate the information.

USING ICT IN UNDERSTANDING FIQH AND FATWA As said earlier, the advancement of ICT can be an efficient tool to disseminate knowledge and improve the level of understanding of fiqh and fatwa among Muslims. In analyzing the possibility to utilize ICT for the stipulated purpose, the author would like to have a look into various technologies which are applicable to be adopted in preaching the information on Islam.

(i)

WWW Technology WWW technology enables the users to conveniently obtain and display textual

information, recorded sounds or graphic images from variety of sources on the Internet. It allows information to be conveyed in the most efficient scheme. In this respect, a great number of Islamic websites have been developed with an objective to deliver information and knowledge on fiqh and fatwa by adopting the ICT applications.

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Al-Islam.Com,

(http://www.al-islam.com)

managed

by

Harf

Information

Technology, (http://www.harf.com) is one of the top Islamic websites. Figure 3 below show the displays of Al-Islam.Com main page.

Figure 3: Main Page of Al-Islam.Com

It provides useful information, discussions and highlights on almost all aspects of Islamic disciplines such as Quran, fiqh, usul fiqh, fatwa, qada’ and etc. Among the valuable resources of this website are the heritage books of fiqh that are available in the Encyclopedia of Islamic Jurisprudence software which amount to about 750,000 of printed pages with full analysis and studies. In order to ensure the credibility and quality of the information rendered on the page, they use morphological analysis technology – study of the morphemes of a language and how they are combined to make a word. The website can be displayed in several languages which are Arabic, English, Melayu, Indonesia, Dutch, French and Turkish, however, fiqh and fatwa pages come in Arabic. Figure 4 on the next indicates the display of fiqh and fatwa section of AlIslam.Com website.

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Figure 4: Fiqh and Fatwa Section

On this page, information on fiqh and fatwa can be electronically accessed. The main disadvantage of this section is that information is presented in Arabic. It can limit the access to those who understand Arabic only. It is suggested that information can be presented in various languages. Another beneficial website that actively works to confer information and knowledge on fatwa is IslamOnline.Net (http://www.islamonline.net). It is a bilingual – Arabic and English - website with universal messages and Islamic contents. Figure 5 indicates the page of Fatwa Bank.

Figure 5: Fatwa Bank in IslamOnline.Com

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In order to ensure that nothing on this site violates the fixed principles of Islamic law (Shar'ia), the scholars who expert in Quran, hadith, fiqh, politics, economics, sociology, technology, arts, and other fields are appointed as committee who are responsible to maintain the website. The committee is headed by Sheikh Dr Yusof AlQardhawi. IslamOnline.Net has a page named Fatwa Bank which stores information on fatwa in its database, and allows the users to retrieve their requested information using search engine. This is an example on how internal database can be linked to the Webpage as discussed in the previous section. Fatawa or solutions are given by the prominent Muslim scholars such as Abdul Kareem Zaidan, Abd Al-Majid Subh, Ahmad Sa’eed Hawwa, Dr. Taha Jabir Al-‘Alwani and many more. Users can interact with the website in order to obtain their requested fatwa. If the requested fatwa can not be found in the database, users can submit their questions to the scholars at “Ask The Scholar” page. The appointed scholars will respond to your problem in a short time. WWW technology opens opportunities for better way of communication and providing references to both Muslims and non-Muslims about Islam, its sciences, civilizations and nations. Another example of website that promotes fiqh and fatwa as its main objective is IslamWeb (http://islamweb.net) as shown in figure 6

Figure 6: Fatwa Center for IslamWeb

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At Islamweb, efforts made are very comprehensive and encompass all aspects of Islam such as Islamic belief (‘Aqidah), Qur'anic issues, hadith, Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), Prophet Muhammad's Noble Biography (sirah), methodology of da'wah, unique examples of Islamic ideal conduct, stories of new converts to Islam, and many other issues. Similarly to Fatwa Bank at IslamOnline.Com (http://www.islamonline.com), users can search for any fatwa from the IslamWeb’s database, and at the same time can compose and submit new problems to the site. Islam Q&A (http://www.islam-qa.com) aims to provide intelligent and authoritative responses to any question about Islam, whether it comes from a Muslim or a non-Muslim, and to help solving general and personal social problems. Responses are composed, prepared, approved, revised, edited, amended or annotated by Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid. It can be viewed in five languages which are Arabic, English, French, Japanese and Indonesia. Among the subject areas include Islamic fiqh and jurisprudence, Islamic history, Islamic social laws (including marriage, divorce, contracts, and inheritance), Islamic finance, basic tenets and ‘aqidah of the Islamic faith and tawhid, and Arabic grammar as it relates to the Quran and Islamic texts. An Islam Q&A database is organized by subject areas, containing common as well as previously asked questions. It is available for exploring, either by browsing the entire contents or specific subject areas, or by searching for specific keywords as denoted in figure 7.

Figure 7: Jurisprudence and Islamic Ruling Page at Islam Q&A

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There are also personal sites for Muslim scholars which enables them to put forward their ideas, opinions, lectures, khutbah and even fatwa. An example is the website of Sheikh Dr Yusof Al-Qardhawi at http://www.qaradawi.net as shown below in figure 8.

Figure 8: Fatwa and Hukm Page at Qaradawi.Net

It highlights on various current issues and problems faced by the Muslims all over the world like human cloning, dividend and interest, purchase of Israel's products, leadership of woman etc. It also has a page about fatwa and hukm which consists of many interesting problems and cases handled by Al-Qardhawi himself. In general, we find out that each of the Islamic websites provides e-mail, mailing list and newsgroup applications. This can enrich users’ choices to search, share and exchange the information and knowledge available via the Internet. Looking at the current trend where webpage is widely employed to transmit information, we have to ensure that a proper web development practice is applied while developing the Web. Among other aspects that need to be taken into consideration during the development process are:

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1. Informative: A good webpage author must try to anticipate the needs and interests of the users as much as possible. 2. The Three C’s Webpage Design: Focus on three main areas i.e. quality content, reader convenience and artistic composition. Good and informative content should be given utmost priority when developing a webpage. 3. Perfect the Webpage Before Installation: All webpages should be written, viewed and tested before being installed on a public server. This can avoid any error or mistake with the web, which might affect its performance. 4. Split the Sites into Multiple Pages: It allows webpage readers to refer to only portions of the site without referencing the entire site. It also becomes faster to download and it is usually better to have a lot of smaller pages rather than a few large ones. 5. Write Effective Webpage Title: We have to ensure that the titles must be short, accurate and descriptive. It is very important to enhance the web visibility on search engines. 6. Be Kind to “Back Door” Drop-ins: People can come into the websites through “back door”. Therefore, the back door drop-ins must be kept in mind and proper navigational tools should be set up so that readers can orient themselves from any where they enter the website. 7. Keep Download Times Short: Instead of putting large graphics at the top of your page, it is better to locate larger graphics at the bottom of the page. With a proper supervision and planning, it is expected that WWW technology will greatly contribute to the improvement of mechanisms used by Muslims to search, obtain, present, share, exchange and disseminate Islamic information and knowledge.

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(b)

Expert Systems The interest and excitement about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) over recent

years has entered the lexicon of mainstream computer science and the other critical areas such as engineering, science, medicine and etc. The technology can replicate the rational behaviour and performance of human experts. This scenario leads towards the development of expert systems that can really facilitate the human being. Muslims must grab the opportunity and apply this advanced and sophisticated technology in order to enhance the status Islam. The expert system is an advanced computer programme which can, at high level of competence, solve difficult problems requiring the use of expertise and experience; it accomplishes this by employing knowledge of the techniques, information, heuristics (rules of thumb) and problem solving processes that human experts use to solve such problem. Such a system may completely fulfill a function that normally requires human expertise, or it may play the role of an assistant to a human decision makers.16 The expert system also provides a way to store human knowledge, expertise and experience in computers that can be assumed as a “clone” of human experts. It emulates part of the human reasoning capabilities based on knowledge of expertise or specialist to solve any kind of problems.17 In reflection to an Islamic environment, expert systems can be developed to facilitate the development process of fiqh and fatwa. In this fast changing ambience, Muslims are surrounded or even bombarded with new problems and issues all the time. They can consult these built-in "software expert" for expert advice, opinions, recommendations or solutions. Hence, the system is expected to study, analyze and

16

Gero, J. S. and Stanton, R., (1988), Artificial Intelligence Developments and Applications: Edited Selection of Papers to the Australian Joint Artificial Intelligence Conference Sydney, Australia. 17 Ketata, C., Rockwell, M. C. and Riordan, D., (2000), Development of Expert System for Stream Sampling in Mineral Processing Plants, Artificial Intelligence of Engineering, 14, p. 191 – 197.

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process the problems, and produce solution (hukm). The task is not easy but there are large benefits that can be attained by Muslims if appropriate approach is taken. If many expert systems have been developed to mimic doctors, financial analysts, engineers, lawyers and geologists, why cannot an expert system imitate the expertise of the expounder of Islamic law (mufti), mujtahid, jurist (faqih), or Muslim judge (qadhi). In this context, cases-based reasoning (CBR), the descriptions of past experiences of human specialists represented as cases, are stored in a database for later retrieval when the user encounters a new case with similar parameters. The system searches for the stored cases with problem characteristics similar to the new one, finds the closest fit and applies the solutions of the old case to the new case. Successful solutions are tagged to the new case and both are stored together with the other cases in the knowledge base. While, the unsuccessful solutions are also appended to the case database along with explanations as to why the solutions did not work.18 Figure 9 below illustrates how CBR works. User describes the problem

System searches database for similar cases

Case database

System asks user additional questions to narrow search

System stores problem and successful solution in the database

System finds closest fit and retrieves solution System modifies the solution to better fit the problem

YES NO

Successful

Figure 9: Case-based Reasoning Model

18

Loudan, K. C., Loudan, J. P., (2002), Management Information Systems: Managing The Digital Firm, 7th Ed., Prentice Hall, USA, p. 390.

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Working on this approach will enable the hukm of fatawa to be digitally collected, managed and disseminated to the public. However, the development of the system needs a mutual cooperation from both parties – ulama and technologists. They have to work together and contribute their expertise in order to ensure the success of the system.

(c)

Software and Application Programmes A software is a computer programme – a set of commands or instructions that

aims to perform a certain task or computation. These commands are written in a language that the computer can understand. They instruct the computer exactly what to do. 19 Currently, there are a lot of Islamic softwares available online and in the market. Among other available beneficial software on fiqh are Jurisprudence of Transactions (muamalat), Jurisprudence of Inheritance (mirath), Encyclopedia of Islamic Jurisprudence and Jurisprudence of Prayer.20 Jurisprudence of Transactions (muamalat) software provides extensive resources, training, and discussions of seventeen major topics in the jurisprudence of transactions. Search ability gives users instant access to details by word, word root, and topic searches. Major topics considered include lease contracts, manufacturing, sales, advance payments, currency transactions, bills or exchange, partnerships, and others. The software offers references from various schools of law, including Fatawa Ibn Hajar, Al-Mabsut, and AlMudawwanah Al-Kubra. The program also provides examples of modern applications of fatawa authenticated by Islamic organization such as the Academy of Islamic Jurisprudence in Jeddah and the Faisal Islamic Bank. As beneficial as the Jurisprudence of Transactions (muamalat), software for Jurisprudence of Inheritance (mirath) constructs a 'tree' of inheritance for all heirs of an estate. After entering all names and the degrees of relationship, the program will 19

Sellapan, P., (1998), Information Technology in Business: A Guide to the Information Age, 2nd Ed, Times, Kuala Lumpur. 20 The Bazar’s page on IslamiCity.Com (http://www.islamicity.com/bazar/)

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automatically calculate each heir's share, and explain the rules of distribution that have been applied. The software will total up the value of an estate after entering all cash assets, equities, bonds and other shares, gold and ornaments, and other assets, and goods that will be inherited. Heirs' portions are automatically calculated and valued. In this respect, Muslim software developers have to be proactive in developing such Islamic-based software, which can really benefit the Islamic ummah.

OBSTACLES AND CHALLENGES IN THE ADOPTION OF ICT FOR FIQH AND FATWA The role of ICT is more pervasive nowadays than before. It has revolutionized the way we do things and the way things are done for us or to us in the last decades. The emergence of ICT has given many impacts and effects to our lives. For example, in the past, students used to hand-write their school assignments. Today, they type those on the computer and print them on the printer or even submit the assignments online using email. The ICT has impacted us to one degree or another, and it will continue to impact us even more in the future. Therefore, we have to facilitate and equip ourselves with related knowledge on this area so that we can give our contributions towards the betterment of the ummah. In light of the discussed topic, there are some obstacles faced by Muslims in their way to embrace ICT as a new tool to actively mobilize Islamic activities and tasks.

(a)

ICT Illiteracy One of the biggest challenges facing Muslims in utilizing ICT is the high rate of

illiteracy which presently exists in many Muslims countries. If the illiteracy rates cannot be improved, it will be very difficult to promote ICT among them. On average, Muslim scholars in the Islamic disciplines lack of computer literacy and expertise in ICT. Such 21

incompetency can impede their ability to access and effectively use the technology. Although the development of software programmes has eased access to information, many of them do not want or refuse to use the technology. Among the contributing factors to the scenario are the graduates of traditional religious disciplines tend to focus on memorizing of the Quran, hadith, fiqh and other disciplines, rather than understanding such knowledge. Thus, the traditional Islamic educational system which excessively focused on memorization and placed little emphasis on scientific and technological education has resulted to the failure of producing graduates who are capable of using ICT in their professional careers. In spite of the above, some efforts need to be initiated to overcome the problem faced by students in the Islamic disciplines. A cohesive and integrated curriculum at all educational level – primary, secondary, tertiary and university – must be constructed in order to produce a competent and professional individuals, students and workers. The curriculums need to be instilled with both Islamic values and technological knowledge to enable them living in a competitive environment.

(b)

Language Failure to master in the ICT standard of lingua franca, which is English, can also

serve as a barrier for accessing and utilizing the technology. While some technologies like fax, audio and video can be used in regardless of any language, other prominent technologies such as Internet and browser require some knowledge of English in order to benefit from the technology. We find out that the information provided by most of Islamic sites is presented in English. This can be a major restriction for the Muslim users to search for the information, which eventually resulted in frustration with the technology. In this regard, Munawar Anees stated that none of the major Muslim languages plays a

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major role in this huge knowledge machine. 21 Therefore, we need to come out with strategic planning on how to educate and improve English language proficiency among Muslims. An effort done by the Malaysian government to use English in Mathematics and Science subjects need to be positively viewed by all parties. It might probably be a stepping stone for the future comprehensive strategies to overcome the problem.

(c)

Lack of Financial Resources Some of the Muslim countries are among the poorest in the world. Even in those

countries which have high rates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), there is no even distribution of resources. The acquisition of hardware, software, development projects, training and maintenance requires an extensive outlay financial capital that simply exorbitant to many Islamic countries. Due to this, access to such technology is still very limited to these countries. The situation is aggravated with the lack of supports and facilities provided for telecommunication system and information technology infrastructures. In light of such predictions, Muslims countries in Asia and Africa will be the least likely of ICT beneficiaries. Alternatively, we can shift to the open source environment, which has recently got its momentum in constructing our systems. Open Source refers to the process of using a software and free redistribution of the source code. The basic idea behind the open source is that when programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software will evolve in term of reliability, functionality and security. The evolvement process takes place when people improve the software, adapt it to their environment and fix the bugs.22 This new approach can assist those debt-ridden countries to improve their information technology infrastructure at the minimal cost. In fact, the current trend shows 21

Yousif, Ahmad F., Information Technology in the 21st Century: An Islamic Perspective, Paper presented at the International Conference on Information System & Islam, 5 – 7 Nov 2001, ISI2001, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). 22 Open Source Initiatives OSI http://www.opensource.org

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that people tend to bring the concept of the open source into reality due to its cost effectiveness.

(d)

Cooperation and Collaboration Works Between Ulama and Technologist The success of such efforts can be measured through how far the cooperation and

collaboration works initiated between individuals, institutions and organizations are later be implemented. In essence, it requires a comprehensive involvement from all relevant parties. In adopting ICT to facilitate Islamic activities, it entails the collaboration works between religious experts and technologists. It seems that many Islamic institutions and organizations particularly in Malaysia such as Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) and Islamic Understanding Institute of Malaysia (IKIM) have been using ICT to facilitate their jobs and operate their transactions. However, the matter of cooperation and coordination among those Islamic institutions and technological-based organizations like Mimos Bhd (MIMOS), National ICT Security & Emergency Response Centre (NISER) and Malaysian Science and Technology Information Centre (MASTIC) can still be questioned. There should be some collaboration projects among these organizations in developing such systems which can enhance the quality of Islamic activities.

CONCLUSION The ICT does not operate in a vacuum. It is a part and parcel of the society. Thus, it affects the society in several dimensions – ethical, social and political. In light of the topic discussed in this paper, there are various applications offered by ICT that can be efficiently utilized in promoting Islamic teachings, particularly the areas of fiqh and fatwa. There is already a platform where the ICT is aggressively adopted in the areas. Thus, it is expected that Islam can benefit from such advanced technology.

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It is the responsibility of Muslims to use and master in this new technology, as well as to put their efforts to learn and comprehend Islamic teachings. As Muslims, we are responsible to preach and disseminate Islamic teachings. This process is in need for an updated and sophisticated tool so that it can meet the ever changing requirements of this turbulent environment. In fact, ICT is presently considered as a determinant factor for the success of one nation. Hence, Muslims need to equip themselves with the information and knowledge of this advent technology which acts as the most powerful strength and power. It will enable the Muslims to compete and survive in this competition. Allah (s.w.t) clearly encourages Muslims to furnish themselves with power and strength as He says in the Holy Quran:

[.. ‫]ﻭﺃﻋ ﱡﺪﻭﺍ ﻣﺎ ﺍﺳﺘﻄﻌﺘﻢ ﻣﻦ ﻗﻮ ٍﺓ‬ “And be prepared (equipped) yourself with all of your efforts in gaining strength …”23

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Quran 8: 60

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REFERENCES

BOOKS AND ARTICLES Al-Attas, Syed Muhammad Naquib, (1978), Islam and Secularism, Kuala Lumpur: ABIM Al-Zuhaili, Wahbah, (1997), Al-Fiqh Al-Islami Wa Adillatuhu, Vol. 1, Darul Fikr, Beirut. Gero, J. S. and Stanton, R., (1988), Artificial Intelligence Developments and Applications: Edited Selection of Papers to the Australian Joint Artificial Intelligence Conference Sydney, Australia. Hofstetter, Fred T., (2001), Internet Literacy, 2nd Ed., McGraw Hill, U.S.A. Ketata, C., Rockwell, M. C. and Riordan, D., (2000), Development of Expert System for Stream Sampling in Mineral Processing Plants, Artificial Intelligence of Engineering, 14, p. 191 – 197. Loudan, K. C., Loudan, J. P., (2002), Management Information Systems: Managing The Digital Firm, 7th Ed., Prentice Hall, U.S.A. Shaikh Mohd Saifuddeen Shaikh Mohd Salleh, (2000), Merombak dan Membentuk Imej Islam dengan Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi (ICT), an article in Memahami Islam Melalui Teknologi Maklumat & Komunikasi, Ed: Shaikh Mohd Saifuddeen Shaikh Mohd Salleh, p. 37-56, IKIM, Kuala Lumpur. Sellapan, P., (1998), Information Technology in Business: A Guide to the Information Age, 2nd Ed, Times, Kuala Lumpur.

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Yousif, Ahmad F., Information Technology in the 21st Century: An Islamic Perspective, Paper presented at the International Conference on Information System & Islam, 5 – 7 Nov 2001, ISI2001, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).

WEBSITES Alim (http://www.alim.org), Al-Islam.Com at http://www.al-islam.com Answering Islam at http://answering-islam.org) Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) at http://www.islam.gov.my Harf Information Technology at http://www.harf.com Jannah.Com at http://www.jannah.com Islamic Understanding Institute of Malaysia (IKIM) at http://www.ikim.gov.my IslamiCity.Com at http://www.islamicity.com IslamOnline.Net at http://www.islamonline.net IslamQA.Com at http://www.islam-qa.com Islamweb.Net at http://islamweb.net Malaysian Science and Technology http://www.mastic.gov.my

Information

Centre

(MASTIC)

National ICT Security and Emergency Response Centre at http://www.niser.org.my Nua Internet Survey at http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/index.html Open Source Initiative OSI at http://www.opensource.org Talk Islam at http://talkislam.com

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at