Islam and Society in Minangkabau and in the Middle East: Comparative Reflections

Abstract

The Minangkabau people, who comprise the great majority of the inhabitants of the province of West Sumatra, have presented many puzzles for those who study their society. For a student of the Islamic world, perhaps the chief puzzle is: How can a people apparently justly reputed as the most pious Muslims in Indonesia, large numbers of whom pray with some regularity, build ever-growing numbers of mosques, and come closer to keeping the Ramadan fast than most Indonesian Muslims, retain so many elements of a long-lived matrilineal system in face of the patrilineal nature both of Islamic law and of the custom of most Muslim peoples? In none of my readings have I found a direct statement of what seem to me to be essential points that help answer this question: First, there has never been a successful attempt to apply many key features of Islamic law in Minangkabau notably those laws that would encroach on the matrilineal system, such as laws of inheritance, property, and child custody in case of divorce. This is true despite frequent statements which I and others heard even from Minangkabau scholars and lawyers, that today Islamic law is applied, or largely applied, in the inheritance of non-communal property.1 These statements are no doubt believed, and are based both on a sincere desire to be a good Muslim and on the fact that the inheritance of private (self-acquired)

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