Islamic Studies Review

“To Collect Information, Not to Deduce Law”: Al-Biqāʿī’s (d. 1480) Argument for Interpreting the Quran with the Bible

2024-07-01T14:39:28+00:00

This paper investigates how premodern Muslim intellectuals understood and utilized Biblical materials in their written works. While some studies have highlighted Muslim use of the Bible for polemical and apologetic purposes, this study shows that medieval Muslim interaction with Biblical passages was not confined to those two approaches, illustrating the complexity of their engagement with the Bible. Taking the fifteenth-century Mamluk Quran commentator Burhān al-Dīn al-Biqāʿī (d. 1480) as a case study, this paper discusses how al-Biqāʿī sought to quote relevant Biblical passages to offer a more comprehensive narrative of figures and events mentioned only briefly in the Quran. Criticized by his contemporaries, al-Biqāʿī wrote his Apologia to defend his approaches. Analyzing al-Biqāʿī’s Apologia reveals the central argument that, for him, interpreting the Quran with the Bible is permissible for narrative and admonitory purposes but not for determining articles of faith and Islamic laws. In the end, he underscores the significant difference between taḥrīf (falsification) and naskh (abrogation), which should be appropriately understood in dealing with pre-Islamic revelation. Although he implied that certain Biblical passages were safe from textual falsification based on their conformity with the Quran, he supported the concept of abrogation, a widespread idea in medieval times across various religious traditions.

An Introduction to the Intellectual Biography of ʿAbd al-Shakūr from the Banten Sultanate

2024-07-01T14:39:29+00:00

ʿAbd al-Shakūr b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Bantanī was a prominent disciple of the renowned scholar Burhān al-Dīn Ibrāhīm b. Ḥasan al-Kūrānī. Despite his importance as a scholar and Sufi shaykh connected to the Shāṭṭārīyah order, ʿAbd al-Shakūr has received relatively little attention compared to other Jāwī students of al-Kūrānī. The research draws on a range of primary sources, including manuscripts copied by ʿAbd al-Shakūr himself or containing references to him, as well as secondary literature. Key findings include the establishment of ʿAbd al-Shakūr’s genealogical ties to the Banten royal family, his role as a scribe and disseminator of his teacher al-Kūrānī’s works, and his participation in the theological discourse of his time, particularly on the concept of waḥdat al-wujūd (the unity of existence). Additionally, the study explores ʿAbd al-Shakūr’s contribution to the spread of the Shāṭṭārīyah Sufi order in the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago, tracing its transmission from al-Kūrānī through ʿAbd al-Shakūr to his son ʿAbd al-Muḥyī al-Dīn and other disciples. The discovery of manuscripts documenting the Shāṭṭārīyah lineage in Jasinga, Bogor, and Mindanao in the Philippines, further highlights ʿAbd al-Shakūr’s significance as a pivotal figure in the dissemination of this Sufi tradition within the region.

Creating an Inheritor: Uniting al-Muhājir’s Migration Story Within the Spiritual Narrative Lineage of the Prophet & Ḥusayn’s Migration Stories

2024-07-18T03:47:56+00:00

Studies on hagiographies of the migrant founder of the Bāʿalawī Hadrami and its diaspora, Aḥmad b. ʿĪsā al-Muhājir tend to be critical of them as being too descriptive or fantastical and fabricated in nature thereby rendering them otiose as subjects of study in scholarly research. Through juxtaposing these hagiographies with that of two of the most important ancestors of al-Muhājir, the Prophet Muḥammad and Ḥusayn, this article argues that the hagiographies of al-Muhājir’s migration are purposefully aligned with the migration narratives of Muḥammad and Ḥusayn in order to cement him and his descendants, the Bāʿalawīs, as the legitimate inheritors of the Prophet and his grandson in a spiritual and genealogical chain. By carefully dismantling the elements present in these three narratives, this article stresses the need to look at history beyond its factual and descriptive utility but as a tool used to create and legitimize an ideological agenda.

Cultivating Hadhrami Memory: The Politics of Haul in a Malay-Speaking Hadhrami Sultanate in Indonesia

2024-08-02T02:55:34+00:00

This article identifies haul, an annual commemoration of the death of charismatic figures, in Indonesia as political. The politicization of haul has been accompanied by a proliferation of narratives promoting the history of Hadhrami diaspora while strengthening the relationship between local Hadhramis and the local statesmen. This qualitative research examines the use of haul in Pontianak to commemorate selected syarif aristocrats. Pontianak, founded in the mid-eighteenth century by a syarif statesman, has a long-standing Hadhrami memory. Data for this study were collected through literature review, interviews, observation, and archival research related to Kadriah Sultanate’s haul events. The findings suggest that haul reshapes memories of the Kadriah Sultanate and Hadhrami identity for pragmatic purposes in local politics. By examining this case study of a commemorative religious event in the non-Arab world, it is shown that the local Arab sultanate redefines Hadhrami ethnic identity as nationalist, locally rooted, and heroic. Public haul festivals thus become effective tools for syarif politicians to exert influence in the religious and political spheres.

Islamism, Blasphemy, and Public Order in Contemporary Indonesia

2024-07-18T03:49:03+00:00

Public order has remained a central focus of successive Indonesian governments since independence. Since President Soeharto’s political demise in 1998, blasphemy and associated religious vigilantism have, at times, posed a serious threat to public order. Using several recent case studies, this article addresses that issue and argues that, insofar as Islamist actors, opportunistic politicians, and a complicit judiciary are permitted to use religion to disrupt public order and persecute those espousing minority beliefs, constitutional guarantees of the rule of law, legal certainty and equality before the law, citizenship, and other fundamental liberal democratic rights, will continue to be undermined in contemporary Indonesia.

Islam and Citizenship in Indonesia: Democracy and the Quest for an Inclusive Public Ethics

2024-07-01T14:39:30+00:00

Islam and Citizenship in Indonesia: Democracy and the Quest for an Inclusive Public Ethics (Robert W. Hefner) London and New York: Routledge, 2024 https://doi.org/10.56529/isr.v2i2.211

Indonesian Manuscripts from the Islands of Java, Madura, Bali and Lombok

2024-10-16T04:18:08+00:00

Indonesian Manuscripts from the Islands of Java, Madura, Bali and Lombok (Dick van der Meij) Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2017, https://doi.org/10.56529/isr.v2i2.211

Beyond the Mosque: Diverse Spaces of Muslim Worship

2024-10-17T08:01:00+00:00

Beyond the Mosque: Diverse Spaces of Muslim Worship (Rizwan Mawani) UK: I.B. Tauris, 2019, https://doi.org/10.56529/isr.v2i2.211