Introduction

Emerging chapters of contemporary fiqh, such as media fiqh, require, before jurisprudential exploration and scholarly responses, a precise articulation of their nature, headings, and network of issues so that researchers of this jurisprudential chapter can gain a correct understanding of it. Hojjat al-Islam Gholamreza Halvani, Deputy of Education at the Specialized Center for Islamic Culture and Art, in this exclusive note, elaborates on the essence, headings, and network of issues in media jurisprudence .

Media, as a tool for transmitting messages, has a long history in human life. Stone inscriptions, cave paintings, and stone and wooden statues from ancient times are all evidence of humanity’s efforts to find ways to convey messages to others. Although these efforts were initially not widespread due to the simplicity of human needs and were carried out with basic and rudimentary communication tools, as human social life advanced and the need for interaction with others grew, more complex methods and tools emerged. With the diversification and expansion of communication needs, media took on various forms and became an integral reality of human life. In the past, humans used sounds, signals, or specific movements for tasks such as confronting enemies or collective hunting. As humanity progressed and required cooperation and consultation with others, new arenas for communication opened up, necessitating more advanced tools and more effective means. Humans no longer needed collaboration and communication solely for obtaining food or repelling invaders; rather, for exercising governance, managing society, producing agricultural goods, constructing buildings, education, and other collective activities requiring cooperation and coordination, they needed communication tools such as language, writing, imagery, and so forth, which manifested in various forms in human collective life.

With advancements in human science and knowledge, these tools underwent fundamental changes and continued their evolutionary path with increasingly refined forms. Today, however, human collective life has taken on vast dimensions and diverse forms. This development has ushered media into a new phase of its existence, encompassing all aspects of human life. Diverse and extensive communication tools, capable of establishing connections at any moment, in any place, and with any number of audiences, while transmitting countless contents, news, and messages, have created a strong bond in a diverse and multifaceted world, transforming it into an interconnected global village.

However, fiqh, whose mission is to derive the Sharia rulings for the actions of those bound by religious obligations, is a practical science that must serve the daily lives of people. It cannot remain detached from this expanding reality of the modern world, which encompasses all aspects of the lives of those bound by religious duties, and continue its traditional existence. Rather, this science must, at every juncture of time and in parallel with changes in human life and, consequently, transformations in human behavior, enter newly opened arenas and strive to investigate and derive Sharia rulings to clarify the obligations of the religiously observant. It is clear that this significant task cannot be accomplished through a few incidental discussions scattered among other jurisprudential chapters. Given the aforementioned point and the importance of media in today’s world, it is essential to establish a separate chapter to examine media-related jurisprudential issues and investigate them independently. Therefore, at this juncture, we must speak of a new jurisprudential chapter called media fiqh and pursue discussions of this subject accordingly.

With this in mind, establishing a jurisprudential chapter, defining its scope and dimensions, and compiling and elaborating it, along with identifying subjects and issues, is a task that initially requires effort and endeavor. The person undertaking this task, in addition to mastering jurisprudential principles and possessing knowledge of usul al-fiqh, must have a suitable familiarity with the subject to conduct comprehensive jurisprudential research in the field and accurately derive its rulings. Thus, the first step in this regard is understanding and mastering the subject, while the next step is identifying the issues of this chapter and researching them, so that media fiqh is ultimately born, and its rulings find a specific place within the geography of fiqh.

In this note, in addition to a brief explanation regarding media and a general understanding of it, we will review the headings and topics of this jurisprudential chapter, the arrangement and classification of the issues raised within it, and then broadly examine the network of media fiqh issues and how the issues of each branch of this subject are organized and compiled.

To provide a list of what should be addressed in the chapter of media fiqh, we need to understand media, its elements, and its branches and types, and base our research on this foundation.

Explanation of Media

We defined media at the beginning of this note, stating that media is any tool, method, or means through which message transmission occurs. Additionally, media can be categorized into three branches: written media, such as books, newspapers, and magazines; auditory media, such as radio and podcasts; and audiovisual media, such as cinema and television. Furthermore, as explained regarding media, it consists of three fundamental elements: content or message, audience, and the communication platform.

Headings of Media Fiqh

Based on this explanation, media fiqh topics can generally be organized into two sections: message and tools. Since the message in media is divided into two types—news and content (concepts)—meaning that media sometimes plays a role in transmitting news and sometimes in conveying a concept, we consider these two aspects in the section related to the message and organize the topics accordingly.

In topics related to news, issues such as the truthfulness or falsehood of news, withholding news, rumors, spreading immorality, and similar matters that constitute the harms and risks of news are studied in the context of media. In issues related to content, matters such as corruption, innovation, misguidance, promotion of irreligion, and immodesty in the message are examined.

Additionally, in topics related to tools, we organize the discussion based on the three main branches of media into three sections: written media, auditory media, and audiovisual media. In the section on written media, topics such as respecting the sanctity of sacred names in this type of media, the handling or destruction of misguided books and writings, and reading or distributing misleading texts are addressed. In the section on auditory media, rulings related to women’s performances and speeches in media, their participation alongside men, listening to women’s voices, singing, and melodies are discussed. In issues related to audiovisual media, rulings concerning women’s presence and their collaboration with men, makeup, location and set design, and similar matters are examined.

Network of Media jurisprudence Issues

Today, compiling a network of issues is considered a fundamental and important step in jurisprudential research and investigation. In one definition, a network of issues refers to a set of issues derived from analyzing the various dimensions and relationships of a subject, and by addressing them, a comprehensive view of the subject can be obtained. The network of issues facilitates the systematic enumeration of issues in sciences and provides the necessary foundation for producing religious knowledge [1].

For this purpose, compiling a network of issues in media fiqh is essential, and any cohesive and comprehensive jurisprudential effort depends on this critical task.

As mentioned, media consists of types and branches: written media, auditory media, and audiovisual media. Each of these branches has numerous sub-branches and diverse types, such that we can name various media such as books, newspapers, radio, telephones, pulpits, cinema, television, the internet, and other communication media.

In compiling the network of issues for media fiqh, we pay attention to the aforementioned branches and types and first extract issues common to all types of media as general issues, such as issues related to the financial value of message transmission tools, their ownership, intellectual property of the message, issues related to inheritance, and similar matters. Then, we address the specific issues of each type and compile a cohesive network of issues for each, such as the network of issues for books, newspapers, cinema, and so forth.

In preparing the network of issues, several points must be considered:

1. Due to the close affinity of media with fields such as art and culture, care must be taken when formulating issues to avoid overlap between the issues of these categories. The various dimensions of a phenomenon, which is artistic on one hand and media-related on the other, should be considered in compiling the aforementioned network. Furthermore, questions raised about that phenomenon in media fiqh should be addressed with regard to its media aspect, while questions related to it in the fiqh of art should be raised with regard to its artistic aspect.
2. Since media is a specialized field, and a jurisprudential researcher may not be able to grasp all its dimensions and thus cannot gain a clear perspective on its issues, it is essential, while researching media and gaining a better understanding of it, to utilize the concerns and perspectives of media professionals and activists through methods such as interviews, discussions, brainstorming, and similar approaches, thereby enriching jurisprudential issues and directing them toward greater applicability.
3. As mentioned, in compiling the network of media fiqh issues, the issues of each section are examined and listed separately. However, since some types share significant similarities and, despite being formally categorized as separate in media classifications, they can be included under a single general heading in the compilation of issues without dedicating a separate section to each. For example, newspapers and magazines are considered two distinct branches of written media, but in the network of media fiqh issues, due to the aforementioned reason, they are discussed and examined under a single heading or number.

[1] Kazemi Moqaddam, Iman, The Theory of the Network of Issues: The First Step in the Model of Transformation in Human Sciences from a Methodological Perspective, Quarterly Journal of Human Sciences Research, p. 164, Issue 14, 1398 (2019).