From Mecca to Cairo: Changing Influences on Fatwas in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates how exposure to al Azhar led over time to the complete transformation of the methodology adopted by independent ulama and state religious platforms to issue fatwas in Southeast Asia. It examines the mainstreaming of Salafi methodology — inspired by the work of Muhammad Abduh — in place of the taqlīd of the traditional Shafi'i School in Southeast Asia for the issuing of fatwas. A number of factors, including the establishment of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, led to a shift to al Azhar as opposed to Mecca being the base for Southeast Asian Muslim scholars. By comparing Southeast Asia fatwas of the early twentieth century against those issued in the 1970s, the chapter shows how the transition from Mecca to Cairo led to the mainstreaming of Salafi methodology.

Al-Bantānī and the Interpretation of Ṣifāt verses in Marāḥ Labīd

“…Wahhabism has become one of the major controversial topics among Southeast Asian Muslims since 'Abd al-'Azīz ibn Sa'ūd took over Mecca and Medina in 1924. Discussions on the Wahhabis and their tenet are bitterly contested in every village in Malaya (Shiozaki 2015). Concerns about the sect's inclusion prompted Indonesian scholars to form the Committee of Hijaz in 1926 to ask Ibn Sa'ūd to allow the freedom of following traditional school [madhhab] in the Haramain (Gunawan 2017).…”