5 - Submission to Allah? The Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (II) 1993

Summary

Introduction

Almost thirty years ago Clive Kessler, in commenting on Islam in Kelantan, said:

It is, for example, a standard contention of quasisociological Muslim apologetics that alcohol and gambling are prohibited, not as worldly pleasures that must be renounced for salvation, but on pragmatic grounds: to minimise dissension and foster social harmony. But while the presumed consequence of observing these injunctions may be social, their justification is not. These prohibitions are enjoined by Allah because they are deemed socially beneficial, yet they are observed (and their observation is rewarded) because they are enjoined by Allah. A duty imposed upon the individual by his divine origins, conformity to such obligations is owed not within society to others, but to an extramundane creator. The fundamental relationship of the good society as envisaged by Islam is that of the individual inspired to good by his submission to Allah, to whom, more than to any other individuals, he is bound by meticulously defined rights and duties.

This passage has led me to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code (II) of 1993 because it is a perfect focus for the issues raised by Kessler. In a very real sense, the Code is an attempt to translate an individual's obligations to God into a social duty enforced by the state and thus make manifest Revelation in the temporal world of the twentieth century. The Code is the formal structure, chosen by the Kelantan government, through which the dictates of Revealed obligation can be implemented — made “real” in Muslim society. Here is the first real difficulty; there is no necessary connection, causal or otherwise, between Revelation and a Code. Indeed, they are quite distinct and separate conceptions of obligation. This is true in theory but, as we all know, the past 200 years have seen selections from the Syariah (Muslim law) restated in European forms. The state, with its authority, selects whatever passages from Syariah it deems appropriate, simplifies, and reformulates them into the language and legal concepts felt to be appropriate to the time and place.