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Chapter 23 - ‘His Doctrine is Deviant’

The Majelis Ulama Indonesia Sampang Branch Fatwā on the Activities and Followers of the Shīʿī Preacher Tajul Muluk

from Part III - Legal Opinions (Fatwās)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2024

By
Mukhsin Achmad
Edited by
Omar Anchassi  and
Robert Gleave
Omar Anchassi
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
Robert Gleave
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

This chapter explores a 2012 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 Shīʿī preacher Tajul Muluk, operating in Sampang (East Java). The fatwā comments on the distinctive legal and theological doctrines of the Twelver Shīʿa generally, which are found wanting. The authors emphasise the collective probity of the Prophet’s Companions (ṣaḥāba), the illegitimacy of temporary marriage (mutʿa) and the legitimacy of tarāwīḥ prayer in Ramaḍān, among other issues, and cite a large number of premodern Sunnī theologians and jurists to argue that the Twelver Shīʿa are guilty of unbelief (kufr). They hold that Tajul Muluk must thus be prosecuted, not under the legal norms associated with apostasy (ridda) in the Islamic legal tradition, but with ‘blasphemy against Islam’ as defined in Indonesian state law.

Keywords

IndonesiaMUIMajelis Ulama IndonesiaTwelver ShīʿaTajul MulukSampangBlasphemyUnbelief (kufr)Apostasy (ridda)Temporary marriage (mutʿa)Friday prayer (jumuʿa)Companions (ṣaḥāba).
Type
Chapter
Information
Islamic Law in Context
A Primary Source Reader
 , pp. 245 - 260
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Primary Sources

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