Rehabilitating the Shari'a: Ahmad Ibrahim and Reformation of Laws in Southeast Asia

Since the 1960s, the shari'a has been equated with belligerent calls for the establishment of Islamic states. One effect of such “global shari'a‐phobia” is the growth of alarmist coverage of Islamic penal law (hudud). Indonesia and Malaysia, which jointly form the home of the largest Muslim population in the world, has witnessed constitutionalization, nationalization, and localization of the shari'a amidst fierce resistance by secular forces. This article examines the ideas of one active Southeast Asian participant in discussions over the shari'a ‐ the late Ahmad Ibrahim (1916‐1999). A legal practitioner, scholar, and social activist, he lived through the key phases of shari'a activism in the Muslim world. In this article, I argue that Ahmad Ibrahim sought to rehabilitate the shari'a, that is, he viewed the shari'a as a legal and ethical code needing of a thorough reinterpretation and repositioning in order to make it applicable for all citizens in modern nation‐states. Rehabilitating the shari'a entailed underlining three modalities of reforms: historicization, amplification, and harmonization.