This book provides an interesting anthropological investigation of Muslim ethics in Aceh, Indonesia. It argues that individual Muslims have significant agency for ethical improvement by navigating, negotiating and (re-)appropriating the injunctions imposed by the state and religious authorities. It opposes an essentialised view which perceives Acehnese Muslims as simply pious and fanatical.
The book is in line with a trend in the anthropology of Islam which assesses religious experience and personal piety as a form of agency. The distinction of this book lies in its concerns with the ‘doubt, ambivalence, indifference, and self-perceived religious negligence’ that constitute an inextricable part of Muslim ethical formation and life trajectory, which make discernments of failure ethically fruitful (p. 2). This book serves as an alternative to studies of Islam which pay great attention to religious activism, politics and violence. In contrast to such studies, this book is concerned with the inner world of Islam, which is perceived as ‘a driver of religious change’ (p. 14).
Kloos employs the concept of agency to substantiate his argument on religious agency and ethical improvement in Aceh. The notion of religious agency focuses ‘less on the question of what shape, or shapes, Islam takes in any given place, and more on the question of how people of different backgrounds try to make the best of their lives’ (p. 5). He goes on to explain that religious agency refers to ‘a particular mode of ethical action’ which is reflexive and conscious. He believes that this agency ‘is a conscious, reflexive ethical mode that allows individual believers to frame their religious practices and experiences in terms of a personal process of ethical improvement’, and that the process of ethical improvement is ‘essentially contingent, fragmented, personal, future-oriented, and inter-subjectively constituted' (pp. 11–12).
In the context of Aceh, this religious agency is observable from the phenomena in which individual Muslims respond to the ‘management of Islam by state’ and religious authorities, by opposing or by incorporating themselves into this project. The notion of agency is believed to be significant in unravelling the dynamic interplays among individuals, state actors and religious authorities, or in other words, between normative forces of authority and the individual agency of ordinary Muslims.
The book is divided into five main chapters. Chapter 1 provides a historical overview of religious life in Aceh, with particular attention to the late colonial period, and specifically addresses the construction of Aceh as ‘a meaningful social, cultural and political space’. Chapter 2 deals with the impact of state and religious orthodoxy on the religious life of ordinary Acehnese Muslims from the Indonesian independence until the early New Order. It specifically addresses the ways in which ‘Islamic norms produced, reproduced, strengthened, changed, or discarded as reformist ulama and political leaders worked to make Aceh into a more properly Islamic society’ (p. 54).
The ethnographic parts of the book lie in chapters 3, 4 and 5. These three chapters constitute the most important parts of the book. Chapter 3 provides an interesting picture of the changing relationship between the leaders of Dayah Darul Hidayah and the people of Jurong, most specifically with regard to generational dynamics. Young Acehnese and older people differ in some ways in their respective responses to the traditionalist ulama who play a role as agents of the state. Chapter 4 focuses on religious dynamics and contestation within a family, specifically in response to one member of the family in the case study who adopts a revivalist viewpoint. This chapter highlights the ‘flexibility of many ordinary Muslims as they engage with the claims and appeals of normative Islam’ (p. 105).
The main argument of this book is presented in chapter 5. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation, the author is able to delve into the everyday lives of Muslims in Aceh, and how they exercise their agency, most notably in response to the issue of sinning, repentance and ethical improvement. Kloos argues that ‘the process of becoming a better Muslim is lifelong, often unpredictable, and full of obstacles and challenges’.
One point which is not elaborated in this book, is the kind of religious authority and Islamic normativity which has become a reference for ordinary Muslims in Aceh. The contestations and negotiations of ordinary Muslims with regard to Islamic reformism are not only rooted in their personal inclination and choices, but also inspired by other types and sources of Islamic normativity, most notably the canon of akhlaq (Islamic ethics) and tasawwuf (Islamic mysticism), which in some ways differ from the Islamic orthodoxy which has been laid down by the reformist Muslims. Be that as it may, this work could serve as a model of studying the religious life of ordinary Muslims in Southeast Asia and beyond. This work is important for students and scholars of Islam, most specifically the anthropology of Muslim ethics.
