BECOMING BETTER MUSLIMS: Religious Authority and Ethical Improvement in Aceh, Indonesia

David Kloos goes beyond the usual approach to Aceh and Islam by looking into how the making of individual religiosity intersects with the state's installment of shari'a law, village structures of leadership, and the religious authority of scholars. Kloos argues that becoming better Muslims in post-conflict, post-tsunami Aceh not only involves both the pursuit of individual piety and one's perception of sinfulness and repentance as a personal project, but also takes into consideration how the state's implementation of shari'a law seeps into public awareness of what is morally acceptable and abominable. In this chapter, Kloos shows how ethical development as a process within the social and political context of Aceh takes place among ordinary Muslims as a result of exposure to Islam's scriptural rules and the practical traditions embedded in adat.