ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how Indonesia's Islamic jurists (ulama) have responded to corporate zakat as a new religious obligation in Islam and constituted Islamic law in Indonesia. It analyzes the ulama's opinions to understand their methods and arguments in advancing their opinions and what this says about Indonesia's Islamic authority. The Council of Indonesian Ulama's role is emphasized because of the expansion and subsequent institutionalization of its formal role in the state system for administering Islamic legal tradition. Given the extensive design, does it expand its authority into other Islamic law fields, and if so, why and how does it do that? In exercising and maintaining its status as the most authoritative institution in fatwā production, Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) continues expanding its authority by enabling its Fatwā Commission like a legislature, which will further review the Ijtima Ulama resolutions before promulgating them as a fatwā. Therefore, some resolutions that do not pass the review are not promulgated as a fatwā, such as the corporate zakat obligation in Islamic law. MUI adopts this measure to increase the efficacy of its fatāwā by polishing the collective ijtihād resolutions of Ijtima Ulama, which are assumed to represent all ulama in Indonesia.
