The Administrative Court selected July 9, for the first sitting of the case. Ghurāb had filed a report at the Council of State for a fatwá after his request got rejected by the Azhar's Fatwá Committee and the Ifta House. Ghurāb considered that not to issue a fatwá is contrary to the principles of due process and Islamic law that the fatwá-issuing organizations are bound by, and is shirking their duty to the public: a crime which they need to be held accountable for.

Ghurāb stressed that there is no obvious need for the vacillation over issuing this fatwá, as the subject is clear and straightforward, and he saw the failure of the the Azhar Fatwá Committee and the Ifta House to issue a fatwá as “bring[ing] us back again to the atmosphere of the old regime, when they imposed restrictions for political reasons on the fatwás that these organizations could issue, [restrictions] which everyone rejected.” (Husayn ‘Umrān, al-Misrīyūn, May 18, p. 5). Read original text in Arabic.