On Thursday, 28 Shaban 1443H corresponding to 31 March 2022G, His Excellency Prof. Koutoub Moustapha Sano, Secretary General of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA), chaired the thirty-fourth periodic meeting of division heads, at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in Jeddah.

At the beginning of the meeting, His Excellency the Secretary General welcomed the heads of divisions, thanking them for their regular attendance at these important periodic meetings that discuss the new issues of the Academy , in addition to following up on the implemented activities and programs. In addition, His Excellency spoke about the joint event held in cooperation between the Academy and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, entitled “Islamic Philanthropy and its Impact: Sustainable Partnerships and Practical Solutions”. The event marked the launch of the annual UNHCR report on Islamic charitable work. The report highlighted the impact of zakat and alms contributions received by UNHCR’s Refugee Zakat Fund on the lives of thousands of refugees and internally displaced families during 2021. The Academy had an active role in the achievements made in the field of Islamic charitable work during the past year for UNHCR through fatwas that support work mechanisms of the Zakat Fund for Refugees, by permitting the distribution of zakat or part of it to refugees to meet the humanitarian needs of refugees and internally displaced people in the region and the world, as one of the most needy groups in order to advance the human being and preserve their dignity.

The meeting discussed the items of decisions issued by the previous meeting, and several new decisions were issued, the most important of which are:

• Preparing a study on holding a symposium on organizing Islamic charitable work and issues (immigration, asylum and displacement) to issue an Academy resolution to that effect.
• Upload the opening and closing speeches of the old sessions and symposiums to the Academy’s website.
• Translating the biographies of the Academy’s members that were prepared for the bulletin into English and French.
• Collect an appropriate number of research submitted to the Academy sessions on important current topics in order to edit them, in preparation for printing and publishing them within the publications of the Academy.