Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cc8bf7c57-77pjf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-11T22:12:46.480Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 21 - ‘According to the Qaul Muʿtamad it is Unlawful and Invalid’

The 2005 Majelis Ulama Indonesia Fatwā on Interreligious Marriage

from Part III - Legal Opinions (Fatwās)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2024

By
Mohamad Bekti Khudari Lantong
Edited by
Omar Anchassi  and
Robert Gleave
Omar Anchassi
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
Robert Gleave
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores a controversial 2005 legal opinion (fatwā) of the MUI—the Indonesian Ulama Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia) empowered by President Suharto in 1975 to serve as a semi-official religious authority—on the subject of interreligious marriage, and specifically, marriage to so-called ‘People of the Book.’ The MUI finds such marriages to be unlawful, based on the preponderance of harm over benefit therein. This is somewhat surprising given the general permissibility of such unions according to the four Sunnī schools. The logic of the arguments produced in favour of the prohibition are discussed, as well as the political and social contexts of the debate.

Keywords

MarriageInterreligious marriage‘People of the Book’ (Ahl al-Kitāb)IndonesiaAccepted view of the legal school (al-qawl al-muʿtamad)MUIMajelis Ulama IndonesiaSuhartoReformasi.
Type
Chapter
Information
Islamic Law in Context
A Primary Source Reader
 , pp. 223 - 233
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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.)

References

Primary Sources

Majelis Ulama Indonesia. Fatwā on Interreligious Marriage (1980), available at http://mui.or.id/wp-content/uploads/files/fatwa/05.-Perkawinan-Campuran.pdf.Google Scholar
Majelis Ulama Indonesia. Fatwā on Interreligious Marriage (2005), available at https://mui.or.id/wp-content/uploads/files/fatwa/38.-Perkawinan-Beda-Agama.pdf.Google Scholar
Yusuf Ali, Abdallah (trans.). The Holy Qur’an (London: Wordsworth Editions, 2000).Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Abdun Nasir, Mohamad. ‘Religion, Law, and Identity: Contending Authorities on Interfaith Marriage in Lombok, Indonesia’, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 31 (2019), 131–50.Google Scholar
Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Speaking in God’s Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women (Oxford: Oneworld, 2001).Google Scholar
Atho’ Mudzhar, M. Fatwa-fatwa Majelis Ulama Indonesia: Sebuah Studi tentang Pemikiran Hukum Islam di Indonesia 1975–1988 (Jakarta: INIS, 1993).Google Scholar
Atho’ Mudzhar, M. ‘Fatwās of the Council of Indonesian Ulama: A Study of Islamic Legal Thought in Indonesia, 1975–1988’, PhD thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1990.Google Scholar
Bowen, John. Islam, Law and Equality in Indonesia: An Anthropology of Public Reasoning (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feener, Michael. ‘Constructions of Religious Authority in Indonesian Islamism: “The Way and the Community” Reimagined’, in Islamic Legitimacy in a Plural Asia, ed. Reid, A. and Gilsenan, M. (London: Routledge, 2007), 139–53.Google Scholar
Feener, Michael. Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedmann, Yohanan. Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasyim, Syafiq. ‘Council of Indonesian Ulama (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, MUI) and its Role in the Shariatisation of Indonesia’, PhD thesis, Freie Universität Berlin, 2013.Google Scholar
Hooker, M. B. Indonesian Islam: Social Change through Contemporary Fatāwā (London: Allen & Unwin, 2003).Google Scholar
Ichwan, Moch Nur. ‘Menuju Islam Moderat Puritan: Majelis Ulama Indonesia dan Politik Ortodoksi Keagamaan’, in Conservative Turn: Islam Indonesia dalam Ancaman Fundamentalisme, ed. van Bruinessen, M. (Bandung: Mizan, 2014), 101–56.Google Scholar
Ichwan, Moch Nur. ‘Towards a Puritanical Moderate Islam: The Majelis Ulama Indonesia and the Politics of Religious Orthodoxy’, in Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam: Explaining the ‘Conservative’ Turn, ed. van Bruinessen, M. (Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2013), 60–104.Google Scholar
Ichwan, Moch Nur. ‘Ulamāʾ, State and Politics: Majelis Ulama Indonesia after Suharto’, Islamic Law and Society 12 (2005), 45–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koschorke, Judith. ‘Legal Pluralism in Indonesia: The Case of Interfaith Marriage Involving Muslims’, in Legal Pluralism in Muslim Contexts, ed. Oberauer, Norbert, Prief, Yvonne and Qubaja, Ulrike (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 199–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Majelis Ulama Indonesia. Himpunan Fatwa Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Jakarta: Dirjen Bimas Islam dan Penyelenggaraan Haji Depag RI, 2003).Google Scholar
Majelis Ulama Indonesia. Himpunan Keputusan dan Fatwa MUI (Jakarta: Sekretariat MUI Masjid Istiqlal, n.d.).Google Scholar
Muhamad, Nova Effenty. ‘Perkawinan Beda Agama: Studi terhadap Fatwa MUI Tahun 2005’, in Mozaik Kajian Islam di Indonesia, ed. Salim, Arhanuddin et al. (Jakarta: Pustaka Alvabet, 2018), 49–113.Google Scholar
Rosyid, Maskur. ‘Reading Fatwas of MUI: A Perspective of Maṣlaḥah Concept’, Syariah: Jurnal Hukum dan Pemikiran 19 (2019), 91–117.Google Scholar
Sirry, Mun’im. ‘Fatwas and their Controversy: The Case of the Council of Indonesian Ulama (MUI)’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 44 (2013), 100–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yasin, Raden. ‘The Fatwa of the Council of the Indonesian Ulama on Inter-Religious Marriage’, Journal de Jure 1 (2009), 1–19.Google Scholar
van Bruinessen, M. (ed.). Conservative Turn: Islam Indonesia dalam Ancaman Fundamentalisme (Bandung: Mizan, 2014) [Indonesian].Google Scholar
van Bruinessen, M. (ed.). Contemporary Developments in Indonesian Islam: Explaining the ‘Conservative’ Turn (Singapore: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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
×