Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T00:57:20.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Syariah in the State: The New Fiqh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2015

Get access

Summary

In the contemporary world of Islam we have by now become accustomed to the fact that the formal expression of syariah differs from region to region. In practice this means that we have to be specific as to place and time when answering the question, ‘What is syariah and how is it known?’ At the level of nations—Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, India, Malaysia and so on—we can give a specific reply to this question, but for the Islamic world as a whole there is no answer except at some almost meaningless level of generality. It is also possible to answer the question in terms of Western forms of law, that is, civil and common law reformulations which show, for example, that Malaysia and India have quite a lot in common whereas Malaysia and Indonesia do not, despite their similar languages and culture. In short, syariah in practice is various, not homogenous.

These comments should not be read as saying that the formal rules of positive law (fiqh) in the classical texts are no longer of any significance. It is easy to suppose this because of the nineteenth and twentieth-century state reformulations of ‘Islamic’ or ‘Muslim’ law, but it is wrong. Perhaps the best way of putting it is to say that the classical fiqh texts are fundamental but no longer primary on a dayto- day basis. This is not a paradox but, I believe, a plain assessment of fact.

The idea that fiqh is no longer important has come about because of the dominance of Western forms of law. However, as I argue below, that dominance is by no means uncontested. The main characteristic of state dominance is selection: the practice of taking from the classical (Arabic) legal thought that which is held to be appropriate for a particular state at a given time.

Type
Chapter
Information
Indonesian Syariah
Defining a National School of Islamic Law
, pp. 1 - 42
Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×