Qanun or Fiqh of Aceh

Dr Nurjannah Ismail,⁴⁴ a leading woman intellectual who is a lecturer at IAIN Ar-Raniry, often warns her audiences in many of her speeches that it is important for people to understand the difference between sharia and Qanun.

If ‘syari’at’ is criticised for causing discrimination against women and violation of human rights, this criticism has come from someone who does not understand the different between sharia and Qanun.

She contends that what many Acehnese have been arguing about and criticising in Aceh is not syari’at, She argued that while sharia is a divine law based on the Qur’an and Hadith, the Qanun are the ‘Fiqh of Aceh’,⁴⁵ a product of Acehnese Ulama’s interpretation of Islamic scriptures that is then used by politicians. She contends that if there has been a negative impact of the implementation of Islamic law, it should not be seen to be because of sharia or Islam, but because something may have gone wrong in the process of interpreting sharia. Since it is a product of human interpretation it is possible that these Qanun still do not meet the needs of the Acehnese. She added that the Qanun are formed after a series of processes involving various individuals and institutions, who have different religious understandings and political concerns.

During my conversation with her,⁴⁶ Dr Ismail said that she has become increasingly worried by the fact that public discourse has moved towards criticizing sharia and Islam, which according to her is ‘sacred’. She was afraid that this kind of accusation against sharia or Islam will lead to unfair assessments, as people will judge and blame Islam as the cause of the problem, or say that it is sharia that has caused women’s oppression and discrimination. She pointed out to the fact that foreigners often ‘jump in easily’ to conclude that sharia is indeed the source of women’s subjugation and oppression.

While Islam is a revealed religion its laws, while an integral part of religion and indeed fundamental to its expression, are also concerned with the humanly practical and the strictly temporal.

Professor Alyasa Abubakar, the former Chairman of the Office of Islamic Sharia, argued that much of both the criticism and support that has been given to the implementation of Islamic law derives from people’s own understandings of sharia, and the critiques may thus appear because people lack common understanding on this issue. He agrees with the point that people need to differentiate between sharia, Fiqh and Qanun. He said what people have been criticizing is Fiqh, in this case, the Qanun. He argued that this lack of knowledge has led to further misunderstanding of sharia, and the ruining of the name of Islam as a religion.

These two Acehnese intellectuals, affiliated with IAIN Ar-Raniry, the State Institute of Islamic Studies, argue that Islamic law cannot merely be associated with forms of punishment, seen as violating international norms of human rights. Rather, Islamic law is a set of regulations that includes aspects of education, economics, social issues and various other things introduced in the Qur’an and Hadith. Since the Qanun is a product of current interpretations made by the Ulama, Professor Abubakar contends that there are possibilities for the Qanun to be reformed, based on new interpretations, if that is what the people of Aceh want. Qanun in Aceh is created neither on the basis of experience of Saudi Arabia, Sudan or Iran, nor following the Anglo-Saxon legal system but is implemented under the framework of Indonesia’s legal system (Abubakar 2006, 196).

Professor Abubakar may be the only individual in Aceh aside from the officials of the WH who has been the victim of regular attack and criticism, and who is confronted by Acehnese and non-Acehnese with different views on the implementation of Islamic law. During my interview in his office, he said, people who still doubt the implementation of Islamic law in Aceh need to understand the history of Aceh (interview, Banda Aceh, 30 January 2008). According to him, ever since Aceh became part of Indonesia, various social organizations in Aceh have been calling on Jakarta to allow Aceh to implement Islamic law.⁴⁷

Professor Abubakar accepts the fact that during the course of the implementation of the Qanun, there have been weaknesses and mistakes. He admits that there are problems in the way Qanun are being drafted, enacted and implemented. He also understands that there have been cases where the WH has treated the Acehnese inappropriately. He argues, however, that these incidents should be seen as part of the bigger process of Aceh’s transition from conflict, and its post-tsunami reconstruction as well. He acknowledges that his institution faced serious problems that directly affect the process of implementation. He points to a lack of both the financial and human resources necessary to support his institution to promote a just and non-discriminatory implementation of Islamic law. As long as issues faced by the institution are not adequately addressed, he is worried that the implementation will create problems in society. Thus, he contends that the institutional capacity of all the government institutions that are directly responsible for the implementation of Islamic law need to be improved.

What has happened in the recent years following the implementation of Islamic law in Aceh mirrors what Bowen (1993, 27) has demonstrated in his anthropological work in Gayo, in the central part of Aceh. From the period of 1928 to 1942, Islam, according to Bowen, emerged as a ‘scholarly and universalistic’ topic, as it became ‘transparent’ and ‘subject to public scrutiny’. He observes that the community from lay people to scholars began to discuss Islam, debating it in public sermons in the mosques, or during coffee time in the local village shops. He also notes that women began to take part in informal discussions in women’s study groups. Following Bowen’s argument, I see similar developments occurring more broadly in Aceh since the introduction of Islamic law in 1999. Islam has become subject to wider public discussion among Acehnese. Many Acehnese begin to learn the teachings of Islam in more detail and debate them to better understand their religion.