DETERMINANTS OF PUBLIC TRUST IN CONTEMPORARY FATWA INSTITUTIONS: A QUANTITATIVE MODEL BASED ON LEGITIMACY THEORY

Author: Iraq and Malaysia

Abstract

Public trust in fatwa institutions is a critical yet understudied dimension of Islamic governance, particularly in pluralistic Muslim-majority societies undergoing rapid modernisation. This study investigates the determinants of public trust in contemporary fatwa institutions by developing and empirically testing a quantitative model grounded in Legitimacy Theory. Drawing on a cross-sectional survey of 385 respondents from five Malaysian states, the study examines the predictive effects of four independent variables institutional transparency, scholarly competence, procedural justice, and societal relevance on public trust as the dependent variable. Data were analysed using multiple linear regression with SPSS Version 26.0. Findings reveal that all four determinants significantly predict public trust, with scholarly competence (β = 0.412, p < .001) and institutional transparency (β = 0.374, p < .001) emerging as the strongest predictors. The overall model explained 68.3% of the variance in public trust (R² = .683, F(4, 380) = 162.47, p < .001). The study advances fatwa scholarship by integrating Legitimacy Theory into the Islamic governance literature and offers practical recommendations for fatwa-issuing bodies seeking to strengthen public confidence and institutional authority in contemporary contexts.