Views concerning the position of Islamic law in the country raised recently by a group of Muslims attracted debate and discussion among many. It touches a few issues related to the administration of Islamic law and its position vis-à-vis the civil law and the constitution.
Among the issues raised is nature of Islamic law. The argument that was put forward is that since Islamic law is the result of human interpretation of the divine revelation, the law is, therefore, not divine. It is, on the other hand, influenced by human subjective reasoning which is not absolute and subjected to error and differences in opinion.
Because of its human nature, the interpretation of Islamic law must also not monopolized by only one group of people. It must be opened to the views and scrutiny of many people based on the spirit of ijtihad and freedom of speech Islam.
The underlying concern of the proponents of this idea is the tendency among those who uphold the Islamic law as purely divine to become extreme and intolerance especially in pushing and arguing for the Islamic law to be fully implemented. Some fail to look at the contextual needs and obstacles before trying to implement the laws. As a result, the implementation of Islamic law sometimes may not bring true justice to the people despite the fact that the spirit of Islamic law itself which is to guarantee justice and the betterment of mankind.
While some of the points in the argument have a valid practical basis especially against the strict interpretation of religion which causes confusions and injustices in the society, some other premises need critical evaluation.
First, it is quite obvious that the interpretation of divine sources of Islamic law is carried out by human being. Nevertheless, it does not make Islamic law as purely human product. This is because, unlike the civil law which is built solely from human rational and intellectual process, the Islamic law is based on the Qur’an, the divine speech of God which to the Muslim is absolute in nature.
Secondly, this divine speech is revealed in a clear language and beyond any crookedness. Although there are verses which are categorized as ambiguous verses, the majority are clear verses (muhkamat). Verses which are related to legal matters (ayat ahkam) are categorized under the clear verses. Hence, although it is done by human being, the interpretation may not deviate far from the meaning intended by the revelation.
Third, even in cases where interpretation is needed due to the ambiguity of the meaning of the verses, still, according to the science of the Qur’an, the best way to interpret the verse is to compare it with another divine source, which is other verse of the Qur’an (tafsir al-Qur’an bil-Qur’an). This is to maintain the understanding not to be so distance from the spirit of the whole Qur’an.
Having said that, it is equally important to stress that the clarity of the source does not indicate that there is no room for dissenting views in interpreting Islamic law. Differences in opinion mainly take place within the subsidiary or the secondary aspects of the law especially when the sources namely the Qur’an and hadiths (sayings of the Prophet) do not provide definite and specific solutions to the problems. It is in this respect that ijtihad and fatwa are needed where human interpretation in terms of comparing the new cases with the principle from the main sources (qiyas) plays a big role. And as far as this intellectual process is concerned, all the views are regarded true as long as they based on proper proofs and arguments. It is in this respect that the existence many legal schools (madhhab) in Islam is more appreciated.
The problem of the interpretation of the Qur’an took place when the narrow minded and extreme group with self interest were trying to explain the meaning of some verses to suit their own interest. As a result, they have deviated from the original meaning intended by the divine revelation and created their own understanding of the Qur’an. But in these cases their interpretation will be easily recognized and rejected by the majority as in the case of a number of deviated teachings in the Muslim community either in the past or present.
On the other hand, the true interpretation of the Qur’an is preserved through the moderate interpreters who had presented a reasonable elaboration of the legal verses out of which proper Islamic law had been built. These interpretations were accepted by the majority of Muslim scholars and were regarded as authoritative by the community of Muslim scholars.
The danger of regarding the Islamic law as not divine is that it will open the flood gate where the interpretation of the Qur’an will be done by anybody without having proper knowledge which are necessary for this important task. This ultimately will lead to the rejection of authority in the understanding of the Qur’an. Just as we are very much concerned with the interpretation of Islamic law by the extreme radical groups who create injustices in the community, we are also worry about those who tried to comment on the Islamic law without sufficient fundamental knowledge of the source of religion.