JEDDAH: A former Shoura Council member and leading academic has come out in support of the Fatwa, or edict, by the country's Grand Mufti, that the doubling of traffic fines is a form of usury and should be forbidden. This is the view of Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Attram, a member of the teaching staff at the Faculty of Shariah at Imam Muhammad Islamic University, former member of the Shoura Council and Secretary General of the International Islamic Commission for Financing. He said the doubling of the fines is considered usury in terms of Islamic jurisprudence. He said the ruling of the Grand Mufti is based on ‘genuine principles' of jurisprudence. He said Islamic Shariah considers the traffic fine a debt. Therefore, doubling it over a period of time would be an accumulation of interest, which is not allowed. He added that “This issue or matter does not concern one person but (affects) the entire Kingdom.” He said this issue should be sent back to the permanent committee for Ifta and Religious Affairs, of the Board of Senior Ulema, because it is the only body officially responsible for Ifta in the Kingdom. He also urged all media organizations not to depend on a single jurisprudential opinion on this matter but to consider collective judgment. He said the Permanent Committee for Research is a reference body for several unresolved jurisprudential issues in the Islamic World. He said the committee includes a group of trustworthy scholars who are capable of resolving such issues. Earlier, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, the Grand Mufti and Chairman of the Board of Senior Ulema, ruled that the doubling of traffic fines is usury and was supported by Dr. Talal Bakri, a member of the Shoura Council, during a session Sunday. But Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Obeikan, the Adviser at the Royal Court, opposed the edict on the grounds that it was not based on a jurisprudential principle. Al-Obeikan was backed by Dr. Saleh Al-Sadlan, a professor of jurisprudence.
