Female Genital Circumcision in Islam: A Study of Indonesian ‘Ulamā Council’s Fatwa on Female Genital Circumcision

By: E.Zaenal.Muttaqin

A. Introduction

Noted as a blueprint of life and arranged of all social order for its followers,[1] Islam derived its religious notion and conception from Qur’ān and Prophet Tradition (hadīth). Thus, it becomes so obvious that every Muslim must be in line with Islamic way. However the perception of both Qur’ān and hadīth among Muslims is different due to the variety of their cultural background and religious school (Hambalī, Syafi’ī, Malikī, and Hanafī). Thereof, the different perception resulted in different perceptions of some legal status like Female Genital Circumcision (FGC) for instance, though male circumcision is well accepted among Muslims. Nevertheless, the issue may become debatable either regionally or internationally due to the reasons of either to ban or to allow it, the contending arguments is showed in this matter. Notably, as the biggest Muslim country in the world, indeed Indonesia[2] also faced the same problem dealing with the notion of circumcision in female genital. Many researches dealing with female genital operation in Indonesia have been conducted since the colonial period up to recent days as well as Nicolas Gervaise, G.A Wilken, B.J.O Shriecke, Mesriani, Andree Feillard, Musyarofah and other Indonesians. The Indonesian context in this issue, however, reflects a different experience from what has been found in Africa that the custom is derived from the tradition and each tribe has a different method[3], even though there are Muslim tribes in Indonesia believe it as a tradition.

The Difference of Qur’anic Versions and Some Notable Comments

(E.Zaenal.Muttaqin: s0996726)

A. Introduction

As the holly book of Islam and its function as guidance for every Muslim, Qur’a>n plays an important role in daily life of Muslim. It is not only containing set of rules but also other aspects that directed Muslim to do everything that according to it though some verses (a>yah) tell explicitly and some allegorically which are need an interpretation.[1]

Qur’a>n transmitted by God (Allah) into Muhammad functioned as a last sequence and coupled the earlier holly books of Torah revealed to Moses,[2] Zabur (Psalm) to Dawud,[3] and Bible (injil) to Jesus.[4] Like those prophets, Muhammad was given the revelation orally and gradually in a period of time and transmitted it into different media to be preserved, after being given an a>yah or verse by God Muhammad directly dictated it to scribe to be written because he was illiterate (though it was disputed among scholars and will be discussed later), however the means to preserve those God words ranged into different ways especially during prophet life time, namely:[5]

1.     The prophet had the whole divine text from God from the beginning to the end and to be written by revelation scribe

2.     Many of the companions learned the whole text and every syllable

3.     All the illustrious companions without an exception had memories at least some portion of the holy Qur’a>n , for the simple reason it was obligatory for them to recite it during worship or prayer An estimate of the number of the illustrious Companions may be obtained from the fact that one hundred and forty thousands Companions had participated in the Last Pilgrimage performed by the Holy Prophet.

4.     A considerable number of literate companions kept a private record of the text of the Qur’a>n and satisfied themselves as to the purity of their record by reading it out to the prophet.

Those means continued until the idea of unification of Qur’anic codification from different version came up in the third caliph of khulafaurra>shidu>n Uthman Ibn ‘Affa>n[6] which became the final version (previously the first and the second caliph maintained the script or Mus}haf  called Mus}haf e-Siddiqi[7])  that lasted until recent span.

B. The Different Version of Qur’a>n

The spread of Qur’a>n and its script through Muhammad companions in difference regions made up diverse version, not only the form of writing but also its recitation, thus, observing the different kind of Qur’a>n can not be split up from the different of its recitation. Despite the codification was unified in one version that believed to be the common and authorize script from Muhammad, yet, like Hadith transmission method derived from Muhammad through his companions, the versions of Qur’a>n either its writing or recitation has also been transmitted through his companions until recent days. However many Muslim scholars acknowledge the 7 means of reciting Qur’a>n and their scripts.

These 7 versions of recittion (al-qira>’at as-sab’) have a similar transmitted version (riwa>yat) as we can find it in Hadith and those are have a different sound and script writing although the version from Abu Bakr ‘Asim is the common version throughout the globe, furthermore to comprehend the differences these are the other versions:

1.     Nafi’ from Medina (169 H/785 AD) the transmitter are Warsh and Qalun

2.     Ibn Kathir From Mecca (119 H/737 AD) the transmitter are al-Bazzi and Qunbul

3.     Abu ‘Amar al-’Ala from Damascus (153 H/770 AD) the transmitter are al-Durri and al-Surri

4.     Ibn ‘Amir from Basra (118 H/736 AD) the transmitter are Hisham and Abu Dakwa>n

5.     Hamzah from Kufah (156 H/772 AD) the transmitter are Khalaf and Khallad

6.     Al-Qisa’i from kufah (189 H/804 AD) the transmitter are al-Durri and Abu al-Harith

7.     Abu Bakr ‘Asim from kufah (158 H/778 AD) the transmitter are Hafs and Ibn ‘Ayyash

To examine and deepen the light different among them I will present here only the two popular versions from Abu Bakr ‘Asim (Hafs version) and Nafi’ (Warsh version).

The image showed below is al-Fa>tihah verses which Warsh version in the left and Hafs version in the right. [8]

The following image of Qur’a>n is in Hafs version within some underlined words and the red words in the right side are Warsh version that are being compared to the Hafs underlined words.[9]

The Brief Concept of Fatwa

The Concept of Fatwa

By: E.Zaenal.Muttaqin

The demise of prophet Muhammad marked as the end of direct consultative periode regarding Islamic law, then people later need to the certainty of law which is not explained or even cited in Qurán and Sunnah. This phenomenon emerged the concept of fatwa issued by Mufti or someone who could produce the law on something requested. Started as the individually managed, fatwa and mufti institutionalized as a state organization, as it was in Ottoman Empire, syi’i in Iran, mughal in india and so forth. In time constituted also the guidance of Mufti adabu al-mufti[1] which is later in cases altered by modern guidance of Mufti as it is distinct, the syari’a and fiqh as advanced instruction has been largely displaced by a spectrum of secular derived from western models.[2]

Fatwa etymologically derived from the fata means youth,[3] as well the term fatwa was used to cover the cases which are not covered by fiqh. The term Fatwa has a different meaning to judging; though in some extent both are similar, fatwa seems to be the informational and optional although some cases in the past proved compulsory,  in the other hand judging is creative and performative[4] in a specific dispute in a court. Moreover, the practices of institutionalized fatwa varied as it is Ottoman’s Syaikhul Islam, sadr al- sudur in mughal India, savavid in Iran, majlis maalim in Mamluk state, and so forth.  

Fatwa in another word also described by Emilie Tyan[5] as an opinion on a point of “law” as it is referring to the Islamic law since its appearance. Accordingly, in the contemporary era the essence of fatwa and the profession of it have fallen into disuse, still this argument is not merely occurred in entire Muslim countries. But in general since the western models had become a trending issue the general principle of fatwa had been changed.

At certain extent it could be summed up that fatwa is a religious authority issued by mufti in order to cover problems which are not explained in Qur’an and Sunnah. It started individually before institutionalized and later its treaties altered into a broad interpretation in recent era. Thereof there are questions presented here in order to strengthen the understanding of fatwa, namely:

1. How is the implementation of fatwa and its relevance in an ottoman empire as the way out of religious problem since the king ruled its institution?
2. As the modernity disseminated from western models, the Mufti treaties was altered gradually. What is the significance arose in the context of fatwa as an opinion on a point of law?
3. What are the roles and positions of independent fatwa organization such IOL (Islam online) which implemented the new management (niza idara al-jawda) issued by scholars and expert that seems to replace the adabul Mufti?
4. To what extent can we assert that the fatwa institution is comparable to the roman Jus Respondendi?
5. are there any relevance arguments regarding the possibility of women to become a mufti, but in contrary it is prohibited in becoming a judge as it is said in Emilie Tyan’s text?
6. since fatwa was attached into institutional court during Ottoman empire does the mufti can exchange their profession into a judge and in reverse, because according to adab al fatwa the eligibility of mufti is that similar to the eligibility of judge?
7. the fallen of ottoman empire changed the state into modern state, according to this circumstances how is the continuation of syaikhul Islam in Turkey recently and it relevance to the Indonesia’s MUI?
8. Why is that Fatwa in several cases such as Theology (ilm al-Kalam) and Quranic interpretation (Tafsir) are not allowed?
9. How if the regular muftis (other than Independent mufti) are issuing fatwa without doing any taqlid (adherence) on a reason that in some cases there are not any available source foundations to be followed as it is said that only Independent muftis are allowed to do ifta based on their own knowledge without taqlid.

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[1] Read more on: Abu umar wa Utsman Ibn As- Sholah Syahrazawi, Adaab Al-Fatwa, Maktabah al-khonji, Beirut, 1992

[2]K.Mas’ud, B.Messick and D.Powers, Muftis, Fatwas, and Islamic Legal Interpretation, in Islam Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas, Harvard University Press, 1996, p.26

[3]Khalid Mas’ud , Fatwa, in John L Esposito, The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, Oxford University Press, 1995, p.8

[4]Khalid Mas’ud, fatwa……Op.,Cit, p.10

[5]Tyan.E, Fatwa, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Brill Vol II, Leiden, 1965, p.866

The Use and Abuse of “Muslim Society”

The Use and Abuse of “Muslim Society”

A short resume

The growth of people in the sphere of modernity led to the variety of many societies to develop their own characteristic, such of this, is muslim societies as one of communal entities that makes different from other societies. Muslim society also could be referred to both geographically and particular culture, indeed muslim societies becomes a symbol and constructed society derived from the term of “islam society”. As like the general theories cited from Charles L. Harper that significant alteration of social structure and cultural patterns will lead to the social change,[1] in that way, also muslim societies keep their changing as it is process of what they perceived from cultural behavior. Thereof, here the main point of what should be contested in describing the anthropology of muslim societies is muslim itself and not Islam as the methodological concept. As Islam is delivering concepts such codes and other obligations that deal with the social and deity values. As muslim societies deal with these concepts in a diverse manner including politics, social, law, and many other.

On the term of that, therefore, muslim societies will always distinguish in practicing their ways into islam. Studying this society according to Bayat at least will concern with two main advantages, first: it always associated to western foreign policy. Second: could create such empirically and theoretically rich. In advance, observing muslim societies will be focused on many themes such as politics, law, public sphere, and many other.

The imperative point of the author in a glance is trying to introduce the term of “muslim” as a society with its distinct that describe themselves, since it is never monolithic and not religious by definition, the research on muslim society will be also different from the traditional field of methodology.

What Bayat concerned from this phenomenon must be relied on the study of social and historical concept like presented by Ernest Gellner. We found the core point that really attracts us why islam is so different when it come up into “society”. For instance, as known clearly Gellner’s study crumbled with institutional organization of ulama and many other formations of social structure in a very different pattern like he studied in Iran where political power distribution is decentralized and in the other hand he found a mirror image construction in the late ottoman empire.[2] consequently, in present time can be found accurately many muslim societies encounter the modernity emerged from western societies, such thing likely to be one of many other factors changed muslim societies pattern even internally. In case of what Bayat stated about the study of muslim societies is rather distinct from field of Islamic studies methodology is reasonably accepted based on what explained above

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[1] Harper, CL (1993). Exploring social change. Engelwood Cliffs: New Jersey p.4

[2] Zubaida, Sami (1998), ISIM News Letter: The Netherlands P.1

The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam “Talal Asad”

Reviewed by: Entol Zaenal Muttaqin

Many works had been developed to concern the muslim societies, indeed in a term of anthropology of islam, specially dealt with the question what is Islam? What is Muslim, and wahy there should be an anthropology of Islam?. To Asad, its is easy to come up with simple answer that the object of this matter (anthropology of Islam) must be Islam, but more than that, to conceptualize Islam is hard is not that simple. Many anthropologists had failed to conceptualize Islam, some of them found diversities in representing islam as an object of study. Yet, Asad mentioned the steps to extract the teoritical problem by mentioning Gellner’s work, namely the comparison between Christianity and Islam, although its seems contrast as Becker asserted, and the distinction berween orthodox and nonorthodox.

TERORISME DALAM KEDUDUKAN HUKUM INTERNASIONAL ISLAM (2)

A. Pendahuluan

Hubungan antara Negara-negara pada mulanya sudah ada sejak manusia itu sendiri mengenal peradaban dan layaknya hubungan antara individu-individu itu sendiri. Konsekuensi logis dari adanya hubungan tesebut tentunya melahirkan suatu tata aturan dan hukum yang melandasi hubungan tersebut.

Adalah hubungan internasioanl sebagai sebuah ilmu pengetahuan yang mengkaji mengenai hubungan tersebut lahir pada abad-abad baru, dan masih mengalami perkembangan. Hubungan internasional memiliki makna Internasional Publik recht(Belanda) Ius Intergentes(Jerman) International Law (Inggris) Droit International (Perancis)[1]. Secara lebih lengkap dapat dijabarkan bahwa hukum internasional adalah hukum dengan ketentuan ketentuan yang mengatur pergaulan antara Negara dalam rangka itu pula mengatur hubungan antaranya. Hal tersebut dimaksudkan untuk menjadikan hubungan diantara seluruh Negara di dunia menjadi aman dan saling menghargai kedaulatannya masing-masing.

Namun  jauh sebelum bangsa Eropa dan Amerika mengalami masa keemasan dan memformulasikan ilmu ini, ternyata peradaban muslim telah mengalaminya lebih dulu. Pencetus dan ahli hukum internasional De Grotius menyatakan bahwa sebenarnya hukum internasioanl telah ada sejak lahirnya manusia di dunia ini, namun sebagai ilmu pengetahuan hukum intenasional dilahirkan dari Islam yang bersumber dari Al-qur’an yang memuat prinsip-prinsip hukum internasional tersebut[2].

Hak-Hak Minoritas Dalam Negara Muslim

A. Pendahuluan

Masyarakat Islam sebagaimana kita ketahui adanya adalah masyarakat yang berdiri atas dasar dan sistematika hidup yang berbeda, yaitu merujuk kepada Al-qur’an dan hadits, Kemudian dari situ lahirlah sistem kenegaraan dan UU yang berbeda yang khusus mengatur hubungan antara sesama.

Berdasarkan hal tersebut akan didapat sebuah konklusi bahwa tidak serta merta Islam memusuhi golongan yang bukan muslim, karena hal tersebut tentunya akan bertentangan dengan norma dan asas yang terkandung di dalam ajaran Islam. Sebagaimana juga Islam memiliki konsep Hubungan Internasional yang menghargai hak-hak minoritas sebagai bagian dari warga Negara yang sama-sama memiliki hak dan kewajiban bersama. Hal ini pun telah ditegaskan oleh Al-qur’an dalam surat Al Mumtahanah ayat 8-9 :

لاَ يَنْهَاكُمُ اللَّهُ عَنِ الَّذِينَ لَمْ يُقَاتِلُوكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ وَلَمْ يُخْرِجُوكُم مِّن دِيَارِكُمْ أَن تَبَرُّوهُمْ وَتُقْسِطُوا إِلَيْهِمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ المُقْسِطِينَ

إِنَّمَا يَنْهَاكُمُ اللَّهُ عَنِ الَّذِينَ قَاتَلُوكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ وَأَخْرَجُوكُم مِّن دِيَارِكُمْ وَظَاهَرُوا عَلَى إِخْرَاجِكُمْ أَن تَوَلَّوْهُمْ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُمْ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ

Islamic International Law views on terrorism (part 1)

Many people recently do not realize accurately the root meaning of international law come up, not aimed to detach the western thought about the international law where people mostly referred nowadays; in point of fact Islamic faith had the role of international law far away before Grotius found the general principles of international law.

As briefly mentioned that Islamic law promoted many thought to be referred and explained to what happened recently. the 11/9 tragedy in USA led to the stereotype views by many people about Islam, specially when it referred to the term of Jihad as the holly war in case should legitimate the act of terrorism. Dealing with this minefield situation I shall explain the term of Jihad as the pure faith of Islamic teaching and the act of terrorism as the pure criminal act that not even related to the Islamic teaching and faith.

Jihad referred to the Arabic word “jahada” means deploying all power to achieve something, in terminological meaning Jihad also referred to the act of using all ability to do or to achieve something. Jihad in Islamic teaching not always performed through a war or battle, jihad in many ways transformed into a legal act and something good, effort to have a scholarship by learning hard, get a job by applying to many companies for instance are also considered as a Jihad.

In the other hand battle used in the last way as jihad, but that war which is called jihad never break the values of humanity and other rules. In addition, terrorism is the act that never allowed in Islamic world, terrorism would probably identified as “jarimah” in Islamic word means violation against the law and someone who performs this “jarima” should be prosecuted.

Unfortunately, rarely do many muslims realize and understand this pureness meaning, especially when one learns islam separately, besides many western people also never know the root of Islamic teaching specially when it talks about Jihad.

SISTEM PENGANGKATAN KEPALA NEGARA MENURUT ISLAM

A. Pendahuluan

Islam sebagai agama yang yniversal tentunya juga banyak membicarakan masalah yang berkaitan dengan kenegaraan, dan salah satunya adalah mengenai pengangkatan Kepala Negara atau Imam. Walaupun pada dasarnya praktek Kenegaraan dalam Islam hanyalah sebagai sebuah wacana saja, tetapi tidak berlebihan rasanya kalau kita menggali prinsip-prinsip tersebut sebagai sebuah wacana pengetahuan tentang bernegara.

Memang pada kenyataannya apa yang diutarakan diatas adalah benar, ternyata dapat dilihat dari praktek kenegaraan bahwa, apa yang dikatakan Al Mawardi, Ibn Taimiyah dan tokmoh lainnya adalah sebuah teori belaka. Sejak masa Kekhalifahan Islam berdiri raja bertindak sebagai penguasa mutlak dan memegang semua lini dalam Negara. Peran Ahl hal wal Aqdi pun tidak terlalu krusial dalam memainkan perannya, dan pengangkatan raja pun bersifat hirarkis adanya.

Tetapi mari kita lupakan dulu sejenak mengenai fenomena tersebut, dan perkenankan penulis untuk membahas segi pengangkatan raja sesuai dengan nilai Normatif yang banyak dikemukakan oleh pakar Negara Islam, walaupun sebenarnya sangat bertolak belakang dari kenyataan riil.

CORAK PEMIKIRAN FIQH AL-SYAUKANI DALAM TAFSIR FATH AL-QADIR: STUDI KRITIS TERHADAP KONSEP NIKAH MUT’AH

A. Latar Belakang Masalah

Al-Qur’an al-karim adalah kalam Allah yang diturunkan melalui Malaikat Jibril kepada penutup para Nabi dan Rasul, yaitu junjungan kita Nabi Muhammad SAW sebagai petunjuk (hidayah) bagi seluruh umat manusia. Kitab suci tersebut datang sebagai mu’jizat yang kekal dan dipergunakan oleh Islam untuk menentang orang-orang Arab yang tidak mampu menandingi kemu’jizatan yang dimilikinya, baik dalam segi susunan kata, gaya bahasa, maupun dalam segi keindahan-keindahan syari’at, filsafat, ilmu pengetahuan maupun perumpamaan-perumpamaan yang dikandungnya.[1]

Didalam kandungan ayat al-Qur’an tersebut juga berisi tidak hanya sya’ir-sya’ir yang indah saja, melainkan juga terdapat kaidah-kaidah hukum yang harus dijadikan panduan bagi umat Islam. Oleh karena itu, kandungan al-Qur’an yang dijadikan panutan tersebut banyak dikaji dan dibahas melalui ilmu fiqh dan tafsir, yaitu fiqh sebagai cabang ilmu yang mengkaji dan menyimpulkan hukum dengan apa yang terdapat pada nash Qur’an, sedangkan tafsir adalah cabang ilmu yang mengkaji makna dan maksud yang dikehendaki oleh Qur’an itu sendiri. Namun demikian, tafsir al-Qur’an yang diyakini sebagai upaya untuk memahami dan mengungkapkan isi serta prinsip ajaran Islam juga memiliki kecenderungan hubungannya dengan fiqh, yang kemudian al-Dzahabi menyebutnya sebagai tafsir fiqh.[2]