The Ninety-nine laws of Perak : a study of Islamic and adat influence in the Malay society

Abstract

This dissertation studied one of the intellectual heritages of the Malay society in the corpus of law; the Ninety-nine Laws of Perak. Basically, this study analyzes the influence of Islam and adat in this set of laws and the nature of the interactions between the two. Instead of seeing those interactions as conflicting in nature and creating tension between them, this study points out that those interactions actually happened in a harmonious and tolerance manner. Despite all the shortcomings, traditional Malay society theoretically believed that it was adat which needed to be conformed by Islam and not vice versa. Hence, to achieve these aims, this study analyzed the Islamic elements in this set of laws such as the aspect of statesmanship, laws on qisas, hudud, marriage and divorce. As for the adat elements, first and foremost, this study highlighted that adat has been unanimously accepted by Muslim scholars since the16th century as a subsidiary source of laws in Islam. This was followed by analyzing the extent those adat elements such as laws on agriculture and transactions conformed to the guidelines provided to be accepted as source of laws. A key distinction of this study is that the existence of adat elements in traditional Malay laws did not make them “less” Islamic. Previous studies tend to put qisas and hudud as the benchmark for the traditional Malay laws to be accepted as “Islamic-based laws”. Yet, Islam is not only about qisas and hudud. It is also highlighted in this study that for a fair assessment of the traditional Malay laws, it is time for researchers to accept them as it is, instead of comparing them with the contemporary concept of laws. After all, these traditional Malay laws signify the intellectual legacy of the Malay society and their civilization.