The Role of Ulama in the Past and Present in the Development of Sharia and Islamic Law in Pahang

Abstract

The development of the spread of Islam and the practice of Sharia and Islamic law in the Malay Peninsula was greatly influenced by the efforts of past ulama. However, specific studies on the role of ulama in the state of Pahang are still limited particularly in relation to the spread and practice of Islamic law. This article analyses the role of ulama in the past and the present in the development of Sharia and Islamic law in the state of Pahang. The study uses a qualitative approach based on document analysis of historical sources, legal materials, and academic writings that discuss the process of Islamisation, scholarly networks, the relationship between ulama and the sultanate and the evolution of religious administrative institutions.
The findings show that ulama in the past functioned as disseminators of knowledge and Islamic preaching, pioneers of Islamic education, advisors to the sultan on religious and legal matters and contributors to the codification of law through the Hukum Kanun Pahang which was based on Sharia principles of the Shafi‘i school of thought. In the contemporary context, the role of ulama continues through the institutionalization of the positions of mufti and fatwa committees, the coordination of Sharia administration and state legislation, formal education, the preservation of the position of Islam within the framework of the state constitution and Islamic preaching integrated with social development. This article concludes that the transformation of the role of ulama from individual authority to a formal institutional structure does not weaken the continuity of their core functions as agents of knowledge, references in legal matters and guardians of the Sharia identity of the state.