Could sharia law be implemented under the nation-state legal system? Since the last century this question has attracted many scholars, including Muslim intellectuals, who have provided either affirmative or negative answers (Taji-Farouki 1996; Brown 1997; Vikør 2000; Zubaida 2003; An-Na'im 2008; Hallaq 2009). Unlike these authors, who have only published their ideas about the position of sharia law and its application in the era of contemporary nation-states, Al Yasa Abubakar, professor of sharia law at Ar-Raniry Islamic University in Banda Aceh, has been enthusiastically endeavouring both to write about it and to bring sharia law into the legal system of the state.

Having trained in Islamic jurisprudence in Cairo, Abubakar has a great interest in classical Islamic legal interpretation. Yet, interestingly, his legal views do not necessarily reflect the obsolete interpretation of Islamic injunctions. In fact, he embraces modern legal views that ponder social and historical contexts for the implementation of sharia laws in particular local settings (Bowen 2008). Professor Abubakar is one among the few key actors in Aceh who are closely involved in drafting sharia law and making it a reality. In his capacity as chief of the Provincial Office of Islamic Sharia for ten years (2000–10), Abubakar not only managed to initiate a number of Islamic legislations into Aceh's regional regulations, but also empowered the position of the religious court (Syar'iyah Court) of Aceh in Indonesia's legal system.

In Indonesia, a nation-state whose majority population is Muslim, two separate legal national sovereignties co-exist: one emanating from the state and the other from religion (Hallaq 2004). Abubakar is fully aware that classical sharia law and the law of the nation-state are separate systems, but this does not mean that they are mutually exclusive.