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Does the use of metaphors in formulating questions, such as using "someone" instead of "I" or a pseudonym instead of a real name, affect the validity of the fatwa regarding the inquired issue?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The fatwa is not affected by mentioning the real name of the questioner or another name, as the religious discourse is all-encompassing, regardless of names. This is exemplified by what happened with Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) when he was too shy to ask the Prophet (peace be upon him) about madhiy (pre-seminal fluid) because of his daughter's position (as the Prophet's wife). So, he ordered Al-Miqdad to ask him, and the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave him a fatwa to wash his private parts and perform ablution. However, sometimes a change in the questioner's description leads to a change in the fatwa, just as the Prophet (peace be upon him) permitted intimacy for an old man who was fasting but forbade it for a young man. Similar to this is the issue of kissing for a fasting person, where some scholars permitted it for a young man and disliked it for an old man, and like the difference in Ibn Abbas's fatwa between two individuals regarding the repentance of an intentional killer.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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