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Whence Cometh the Law? Dog Saliva in Kelantan, 1937

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

William R. Roff
William R. Roff
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Extract

Considerable interest is again being expressed, in the public domain as well asin the academy, in the processes of change-ideational and pragmatic-which seem to characterize Islamic societies; societies, that is to say, of thosewho regard themselves as muslim, acceptors of the revealed law or “way“ shari'a of God. This interest is not new, but it seems to present itself anew in each generation, partly perhaps because it is something that has concerned Muslims themselves for most of the fourteen centuries that have elapsed sincethe religion of islām was proclaimed afresh and finally, by the Prophet Muhammad, in 622. Muslims are of course not alone in being required to see life as ideally governed by an unchanging set of rules which must be understood and conformed to, for this much is true of many other systems of belief which rest upon transcendent authority. It is sometimes held, however, that of all such believers in transcendence, that is, in a transcendent moral law, Muslims have an especially hard time in bringing life as (and where, and under what other cultural constraints) it is led into conjunction with the enjoined ideal.

Type
Adapting Religion to Society Changed
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , April 1983 , pp. 323 - 338
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1983

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References

1 For general background, see Roff, William R., ed., Kelantan: Religion, Society and Politicsin a Malay State (Kuala Lumpur and London: Oxford University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

2 See Roff, , “The Origins and Early Years of the Malis Ugama,” in Kelantan, Roff, , ed., 101–52.Google Scholar

3 Nik Hasan, Nik Abdul Aziz b., Sejarah Pergerakan Ulama Kelantan (Kota Bharu: PustakaAman Press, 1977), 71.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., 45; and cf. al-Attas, Naguib, Some Aspects of Sufism as Understood and Practisedamong the Malays (Singapore: Malaysian Sociological Research Institute, 1963), 33.Google Scholar On theorder at this time, see Spencer Trimmingham, J., The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), 120–21;Google Scholar and Chatelier, A. Le, Les confreries Musulmanes du Hedjaz (Paris: E.Leroux, 1887), 96–97.Google Scholar

5 Part of the text is reproduced in Aziz, Abdul, Sejarah, 219;Google ScholarHurgronje'scomments on Ahmadappear in Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century (Leiden: Brill, 1931), 286–87.Google Scholar

6 Kelantan State Records, Pejabat Menteri (KPM) File 79/1917; and cf. KPM File 28/1922and Mahkamah (KM) File 14/1922, National Archives of Malaysia.

7 Trimmingham, , Sufi Orders, 114–15.Google Scholar

8 Wan Musa, Muhammad Salleh b., “Theological Debates: Wan Musa b. Haji Abdul Samadand His Family,” in Kelantan, Roff, , ed., 160.Google Scholar

9 See, e.g., the discussion in Ahmad, Aziz, Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan (London:Oxford University Press, 1967), 195–201.Google Scholar

10 For a spirited tenth-century defence of dogs from within the Islamic tradition, see Marzuban, Ibn, The Book of the Superiority of Dogs over Many of Those Who Wear Clothes, Smith, G. R. and Abdel Haleem, M. A. S., ed. and trans. (Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1978).Google Scholar On the question of differences between madzhab over dogs, see Ebied, R. Y. and Young, M. J. L., “An Unpublished Legal Work on a Difference between the Shafi'ites and Malikites,” Orientalia Loviensa Periodica, 8 (1977), 251–62;Google Scholar and cf. also Allen, M. J. S. and Smith, G. R.. “SomeNotes on Hunting Techniques and Practices in the Arabian Peninsula,” Arabian Studies, 2(1975), 114–15, and associated citations.Google Scholar

11 “Abstract of journal kept by Mr. C. F. Bozzolo …, ” October 1888 (printed copy inConf. Despatch, Governor, Straits Settlements, to Colonial Office (31 January 1889), ColonialOffice File 273/157, Public Records Office, London), 10.

12 Aziz, Abdul, Sejarah, 128–29;Google Scholar and cf. also Nik Hassan, Nik Abdul Aziz b., “Perbahasantentang Jilatan Anjing: Suatu Perhatian,” Jebat (Bangi), 9 (1978/1980), 175.Google Scholar

13 See, e.g., Roff, William R., The Origins of Malay Nationalism (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1965), 56ff.Google Scholar

14 This information is culled from a number of sources, some conflicting. Burhanuddin's latercareer—as Dr. Burhanuddin al-Hilmi, radical political activist and president of the Pan-MalayanIslamic Party—has distracted attention from his early life. A note on page 115 of Abbas Taha's Risalah on the dog question (see note 18, below) states that the publication was not able toinclude a separate risāla by Burhanuddin.

15 Al-Hikmah (Kota Bharu), 3:122 (14 january 1937), 10, has a brief descriptive account.

16 Ibid., 3:121 (7 january 1937), 20, describes him (in Malay) as “assistant secretary to the Council of Ulama” in Singapore.

17 On Atas Banggul and its significance, see Kessler, Clive S., Islam and Politics in a MalayState: Kelantan 1838–1969 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1978), 48–49.Google Scholar

18 Taha, Abbas, comp., Risalah Penting pada Mas'alah Jilat Anjing di-atas Empat-empalMadzhab (Singapore: Ahmadiah Press, 1937). Page 1 notes that proceeds of the first edition wereto go to the Madrasa al-Melayu al-Diniyya, Singapore, which had proposed its preparation.Google Scholar

19 Taha, Abbas, Risalah, 2.Google Scholar

20 Ibid., 10; cf., on this maxim, Schacht, Joseph, An Introduction to Islamic Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), 67.Google Scholar

21 Taha, Abbas, Risalah, 6.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., 7.

23 Ibid., 11.

24 Ibid., 20ff.

25 Ibid., 70ff.

26 Aziz, Abdul, Sejarah. 133.Google Scholar

27 Notis 45/1917, copy enclosed in KM File 218/1917.

28 Kuasa Kathi Besar, 20 April 1920, and Kuasa [Mufti], 6 March 1921, copies enclosed inKM File 71/1921.

29 Aziz, Abdul, Sejarah, 130.Google Scholar

30 The text of the request and of the resulting fatwä are given, in Arabic and in Malaytranslation, in Taha, Abbas, Risalah, 97–99;Google Scholar and a slightly different translation appeared in Al-Hikmah, 4:138 (6 May 1937), 10.

31 Wan Musa, Muhammad Salleh b., “Theological Debates,” 161.Google Scholar

32 A similar point emerges strongly from Ahmed's, Rafiuddin discussion of rural bahas (re-ligious disputations) in late nineteenth-century Bengal, in Contributions to South Asian Studies, Krishna, Gopal, ed. (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979), I, 92–94.Google Scholar On talfiq and relatedprocedures in the context of modernist disputation in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East, see, e.g., the references to the writings of Muhammad, 'Abduh and Rashīd Ridza in Albert Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), 152–53,236–37;Google Scholar and to those of al-Tahtāwī, Rifa'a and 'al-Kawakebl, Abd al-Rahman in al-Husry, Khaldun S., Three Reformers: A Study in Modern Arab Political Thought (Beirut: Khayats, 1966), 26, 62.Google Scholar

33 See, in this connection, Yengoyan, Aram A., “Cultural Forms and a Theory of Con-straints,” in The Imagination of Reality: Essays in Southeast Asian Coherence Systems, Becker, A. L. and Yengoyan, Aram A., eds. (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Co., 1981), esp.326–27.Google Scholar