In this chapter I examine four regional syariah law texts that collectively illustrate a new stream of independent judgment (ijtihad) in Indonesian syariah. They are the Aceh Qanun, the South Sulawesi draft syariah code, the West Sumatra regional regulations and the MMI draft criminal code. The appearance of such texts over the past few years raises questions about the relationship of the new codes with Pancasila, the current laws and regulations of the state, and the Constitution. The texts also provide insights into the new forms syariah might take in the Indonesian state.

All four texts reflect the syariah values of their proponents, so a preliminary word on what these values are may be in order. Chapter 4 on the public transmission of syariah suggested that these values are based on the Qur’ān and include an affirmation of Islam, orthopraxy, public propriety and the maintenance of core values in a time of unprecedented social and political change. In the texts examined here, these values are distilled into forms ready for adoption by regional governments. These regional expressions of syariah values now inform the debate on a national school of legal thinking (mazhab) on syariah. However, this raises its own problem: of how such widely differing interpretations of syariah values can be integrated into a national mazhab and, indeed, whether they should be integrated at all.

Contemporary debate on the new syariah codes focuses on three issues in particular. The first concerns the extent to which the first principle of Pancasila— belief in one God—can be made to accommodate the imposition of syariah values in the wider community. The proponents of the new codes argue that they are justified because they express the essential nature of belief in one God and are, therefore, merely practical manifestations of it. This argument is commonly extended further to claim that the mass of Indonesians agree with the new texts because they defend a general social morality to which all citizens—regardless of religion—subscribe.