Can Siyasah Nusantara become a Reference for International Studies of Islamic Law?

Abstract

The study of Siyasah is constantly centered on the cultural and political perspective of Middle East. But for Indonesia, a country in Southeast Asia located between the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean with a major population of Moslem Believers, siyasah is aggregated into preexisting cultural ethics in Nusantara. The Quranic ayah representing the position of a moslem as a subject of law; Rahmatan Lil Alamin ( ? ? ??? ? ?? ? ??? ??? ? ( ?said to be the equivalent of Memayu Hayuning Bawana (embelishing the world), an anthropocosmic philosophy of Javanesse people. This reflects not only the principle of Individuals, but also on a formal systematic level. As Java alone accounted to be reigned by Islamic Kingdom for five centuries, from the start of The Kingdom of Demak in 1475 to the end of The Kingdom of Mataram in 1755, which proves Indonesia has a deep history to its take on realizing Islamic civilization. Islamic values absorbed in the cultural code of Javanesse people are a unique combination of cultural and religious values meld together to manifest a system of governance in the practice of these Islamic Kingdoms. This characteristic differentiates Nusantaran Islamic Kingdom to other Islamic Kingdom in other parts of The World. Yet the research on this matter are scarce to none, even on institutional level the study of Siyasah is dominated by Middle East Perspectives. Therefore, this research looked into the challenges and difficulties in this field, and highlighting the importance of the Studies of Siyasah Nusantara to rediscover our national identity and as an effort to be acknowledged as an original field in Islamic Law Studies