Islamic Law and Public

Policy in Indonesia
Islamic State University Bandung
Faculty of Sharia and Law
Mohammad Fadel
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
July 1, 2024
Islamic Law Prior to Colonialism
• Fiqh was the basic law

• The state played a minor role

• Provided courts

• Punished criminals

• Collected taxes

• Sometimes fought wars

Institutions of Islamic Law
• Fatwa  interpretation of revelation (adilla sharʿiyya) by qualified scholars
(mujtahids); general, but non-enforceable, rules; legal change controlled by
mujtahids

• Hukm  decisions made by judges resolving legal and factual disputes between
specific parties; decision is binding if valid, even if controversial

• Tasarruf bi’l-imama  exercise of a power based on interpreting facts about the

world with the aim of achieving benefits and preventing harm (jalb al-masalih wa
darʾ al-mafasid)

• how much a father can afford to give his minor children or his divorced wife looking after
their children (nafaqat); organization of public institutions; regulatory laws of the market, etc.
Fatwa, Hukm and Tasarruf in Prophetic Law
• Fatwa or Tasarruf?

• Whoever reclaims wasteland becomes its owner (man ahya arda maytan fa-hiya
lahu)

• Whoever slays an enemy warrior in battle is entitled to the slain warrior’s

possessions (man qatala qatilan fa-lahu salabuhu)

• Fatwa or qada?

• Take (from your husband) what is reasonably sufficient to meet your needs and
those of your children (khudhī ma yakfiki wa waladaki bi’l-ma’ruf)
Islamic Law in the Context of Modernity
• Modernity produces radical changes in society

• Population growth: 8-10 million in Java in 1800  159 million today

• New modes of production, new division of labor, changes in family structure

• Necessity of economic growth, universal education constant innovation

Fiqh and Society – Then and Now
• Fiqh  ahkam taklīf and ahkam waḍʿ

• Legal judgments include the normative, the rule, and the empirical, the facts
necessary for the rule to be operative

• Traditional fiqh books incorporated lots of factual assumptions

• When facts change, the ruling must change, e.g., formula of talaq

• Muftis adjusted fatwas based on changing customs and social facts

• What happens when change is the rule, not stability?

Fiqh and Society – Then and Now
• With advent of modernity, change is too rapid and too radical for adjustments to be made by
individual muftis

• Management of change  collective obligation (fard kifaya)

• Cooperative performance of duty (‫ )التعاون على البر والتقوى‬rather than individual assumption of duty (‫)االلتزام‬

• Statutes versus fatwa

• In modernity, statutory law dominates judge-made/scholar-made law

• Statutes modify rules of fiqh

• Organizing cooperation; specifying necessity

Statutes in Islamic Law
• Statutes  tasarruf bi’l-imama, not fatwa

• Based on jalb al-maslaha wa darʾ al-mafsada

• Judgments of necessity/difficulty

• “measures taken for the sake of necessity are limited by the scope of the
necessity (al-darura tuqaa)”

• Can modern statutes represent “Islamic public policy”?

Relationship of Fiqh to Modern Statutory
Law
• Family law

• ‫وعلى المولود له رزقهن وكسوتهن بالمعروف ال تكلف نفس إال وسعها وال تضاَّر والدة بولدها وال مولود له بولده‬

• What does “maʿruf” mean?

• Does judge have discretion?

• Create model household budget? How to treat contribution of wife, both cash and in kind?

• Expense?
• Loan?
• Investment?
• Gift?
Relationship of Fiqh to Modern Statutory
Law
• Banking law

• ‫ وإن كان ذو عسرة فنظرة إلى ميسرة وأن تصدقوا خير لكم إن كنتم تعلمون‬. . . ‫يا أيها الذين آمنوا اتقوا هللا وذروا ما بقي من الربا إن كنتم مؤمنين‬

• Commercial (for-profit) sector banking (borrowers and owners seeking profit)

• Regulated for safety and soundness but no deposit insurance

• Central bank supervises commercial banks and sets overnight rate

• Loans to commercial, limited-liability entities  no risk of riba

• Investment banking: offering securities to the public

• Market making in securities (stocks and bonds)

• Robust bankruptcy laws

Relationship of Fiqh to Modern Statutory
Law
• Banking law

• ‫ وإن كان ذو عسرة فنظرة إلى‬. . . ‫يا أيها الذين آمنوا اتقوا هللا وذروا ما بقي من الربا إن كنتم مؤمنين‬
‫ميسرة وأن تصدقوا خير لكم إن كنتم تعلمون‬

• Cooperative banking (not-for-profit) sector (neither borrower nor depositor

seeks profit)

• owned by depositors; primarily for safe-keeping; interest only to cover costs & set by
regulation; costs and profits (if any) shared among depositors pro rata

• Consumer finance; housing finance; etc.

Relationship of Insurance Law to Fiqh
• Al-diya `ala al-`aqila

• The diya would be spread out among over a hundred of the defendant’s
kinsmen

• Maliki fiqh:

poor of tribe exempted; wealthier relatives expected to make larger contributions; bayt al-
mal residual insurer

• No tribes in modernity; mandatory public insurance schemes

Conclusion
• Modern conditions make most detailed fiqh rules impractical or
difficult to apply

• Modern statutory law can adapt general principles of fiqh to

contemporary conditions

• I gave two examples in family law and bank regulation, but could have
more examples, e.g., environmental law

• Statutes that develop fiqh principles are “Islamic Public Policy”