fatwa

noun

fat·​wa ˈfət-wə How to pronounce fatwa (audio)
ˈfät-wä
: a legal opinion or decree handed down by an Islamic religious leader

Examples of fatwa in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web This was much like the fatwa issued by Iran’s ayatollah on Salman Rushdie. Jordan Castro, Harper's Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024 The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini accused the author of blasphemy over the book and in 1989 issued a fatwa against Rushdie, calling for his death. Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 18 Aug. 2022 Even though the current Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, effectively renewed the fatwa against him in 2017, the edict seemed to have lost its power. David Remnick, The New Yorker, 28 Aug. 2022 Advertisement Less than a year after the original fatwa, Rushdie tried to get some of the heat off himself. Carlos De Loera, Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2023 Rushdie, the target of a decades-old fatwa by the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death, was stabbed in the neck, stomach, chest, hand and right eye. Carolyn Thompson, BostonGlobe.com, 29 July 2023 While the Iranian government sought to distance itself from the fatwa in 1998 by pledging not to seek to carry it out, its position on the issue has been ambiguous over the years. Lauren Kent, CNN, 16 May 2023 Khomeini’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1989 was not just targeted at a British novelist far away; it was meant to stifle emerging dissent, particularly in religious circles, after the humiliating end of the Iran-Iraq War the previous year. Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar, Foreign Affairs, 12 Oct. 2022 Across social media, writers expressed concern for Rushdie’s health, but an instinctual solidarity with him and the sense—so strong at the time of the fatwa—that his fate spoke to all of us as members of a liberal society did not materialize. Russell Jacoby, Harper's Magazine, 16 Feb. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fatwa.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Arabic fatwā

First Known Use

circa 1889, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of fatwa was circa 1889

Dictionary Entries Near fatwa

Cite this Entry

“Fatwa.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fatwa. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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