Graduate Student, Institute of Islamic Studies
Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis), Muis Academy
Institute of Islamic Studies
Thesis Title: NON-MUSLIMS UNDER ISLAMIC LEGAL THOUGHT AND PRACTICES OF ACEH BETWEEN 17th – 18th CENTURIES
About
Seventeenth and eighteenth century Aceh invoked an “aura” unique to its nature; one that demands to be understood on its own terms. By imposing its “nature” (or its own aura) on others, colonial imperialism had only destroyed the beauty and aura of “natural things.” As Walter Benjamin (1935) once emphasized, “to pry an object from its shell, to destroy its aura, is the mark of a perception whose ‘sense of the universal equality of things’ has increased to such a degree that it extracts it even from a unique object by means of reproduction.” Although Benjamin was speaking of mass mechanical reproduction, this truism is never less so in European treatment of its “object”—Aceh’s social, political, cultural, and legal life—by burdening on others, in this case Aceh, European ‘sense of the universal equality of things’. Therefore, one of the objectives of my research is to study Aceh’s legal life from its “own shell”, and on its own terms, through its values and worldview. I ask the questions: what was the nature of Aceh’s legal system and practices? To what extent Islamic law and/or other sources fashioned its legal thought and practices. Here, I lay special emphasis on legal treatment of the “others” (the Non- Muslims). More importantly I will analyze Acehnese conception of and their relation with the “Others”. And because understanding the legal thought and practice cannot be
done independent of its social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts, I will preface the study by examining its social and cultural life, and importantly, the geo-political and economic importance of Aceh during the period of study.
