How to give a Fatwa

Strength

After giving a verdict on Islamic jurisprudence Shafi’i said the following:

If problems confront me,
I unveil its truths for the inspection of people.
The tongue is like the spittle of an expensive camel,
And like the Yemeni sword.
And I am not from the dull and unoriginal-of-thought amongst man, I ask different people about events.
But I am, by the two small pieces of flesh,
A bringer of good and a remover of evil.

The Imam was first and foremost a Faqih, or a Islamic Law Jurist, and this poem encapsulates what his primary occupation entailed.
A verdict would have to be clear and concise so people could understand it. But at the same time it would have to have intellectual rigour and razor-sharp analysis of the problem as well as being able to draw upon a large bank of life experience gained from talking to people.
But above all, the delivering of a verdict was to become a “bringer of good and a remover of evil” and the Imam did this by using the two most important pieces of flesh in our entire bodies: the tongue and the heart.