Between Texts, Data and Power: The Socio-Legal Dynamics of Fatwa Transformation in the Indonesian Ulema Council (1975–2024)

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of Islamic legal thought in Indonesia as reflected in the fatwas issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, MUI) across domains of religious worship, science, and technology. While Islamic law is conventionally understood as a textual product of scriptural interpretation, in practice it has undergone substantial revision through sustained engagement with scientific developments and shifting socio-political conditions. Prior scholarship has tended to treat the normative, empirical, and political dimensions of this process as discrete analytical objects, leaving their mutual entanglements underexamined. This article identifies the patterns through which MUI fatwas have changed over time and explains how the interplay among textual hermeneutics, institutional authority, modern science, and state policy has driven those changes. Drawing on a qualitative library-based methodology, the study analyses nine fatwas issued between 1975 and 2024 on four thematic clusters—vasectomy, meningitis vaccination, qibla determination, and lunar calendar calculation—through the lens of the sociology of knowledge. The findings reveal three distinct trajectories of transformation: the relaxation of previously absolute rulings, the outright revocation of earlier fatwas, and the incremental refinement of legal norms. These shifts were propelled by new empirical evidence (including advances in vasectomy reversal, the availability of halal vaccines, and developments in computational astronomy), social demands (public health imperatives and pressures for religious calendrical unity), and political factors (accommodation of state policy priorities). The article concludes that MUI fatwas are best understood not as the unmediated outcomes of normative ijtihād but as socially situated constructs that emerge from the negotiation of religious authority, scientific legitimacy, and political interest.