ABSTRACT
Muslim law is a repertoire of precedents, cases and general principles, along with a body of well-developed hermeneutical techniques (AI-Azmeh 1996: 12). There is a kind of plurality of Muslim laws and customs. This is mainly due to three separate reasons. Firstly, there are the main four schools of law (madhhabs) and other sects which have slightly different views on certain non-fundamental practices of Islam; secondly, written law (high Islam) does not completely coincide with people's practices (custom, urf, adat); and thirdly, there are some differences between the state's Islam and folk Islam or local Islam. From a legal pluralist viewpoint, Muslim law is not only the law stated in the Muslim law books but also what Muslim people apply in everyday life. The legal system is diffuse, lacking coherence in codes and enforcement and entailing a multiplicity of authorities and sources of law (Gerber 1994: 180). Thus, different changes have come into existence in a variety of contexts, and this has caused an internal Muslim legal pluralism.
