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Indonesian syariah : defining a national school of Islamic law -- Contents -- Tables, Figures and Appendices -- Preface: Indonesian Syariah: A Work in Progress -- Acknowledgments -- Materials, Dates and Spelling -- Glossary -- 1. Syariah in the State: The New Fiqh -- 2. Syariah Philosophies: From God to Man and Back Again? -- 3. Learning Syariah: The National and Regional Curricula -- 4. The Public Transmission of Syariah: The Friday Sermon -- 5. Syariah in the Bureaucracy: The Department of Religion and the Hajj -- 6. Syariah Values in the Regions: A New Ijtihad for a 'Sick' Society -- 7. Epilogue: Syariah on the Edge -- References -- Index.

The Southeast Asian materials show that the sharī'ah's providing various pathways (through time and place) for individual Muslims to follow when doing their duty to God, which is fidelity to Revealed Truth. There are many paths and it is pointless to insist upon an historical 'purist' mono-legacy, however attractive this might appear theoretically. The realities of life (economics, social structure, alternative philosophies, and so on) dictate otherwise. Local sharī'ahs adapt realities to Revelation irrespective of whether sources of legislation or forms of government are Muslim or non-Muslim this was never an issue in Southeast Asia. The localized sharī'ahs were achieved via an acceptance of legal pluralism and hybridization of laws. The result is that Revealed obligations are phrased in local terms, change over time is allowed for, and the end result is a truly original and unique set of 'Southeast Asian' sharī'ahs.DOI:10.15408/sdi.v20i2.387

By the late nineteenth century British control over Burma had been firmly established and by 1893 a comprehensive legal system for its population put in place. The guiding principle of the judicial and legislative system was that each racial or religious group had the right to its own law in matters of religion and custom. Thus, Burmese "Buddhist law" for the Burmese, "Mohammadan law" for Muslims and Hindu law for the Hindus. In addition, the customary laws of other ethnic groups were also recognized.