THE IMPACT OF THE SHAFI‘I SCHOOL IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF LAWS DURING THE REIGN OF SULTAN ZAINAL ABIDIN III IN TERENGGANU, MALAYSIA

Abstract

Sultan Zainal Abidin III was a Sultan who ruled over Terengganu in the early 20th century. He had established an Islamic government system that led to his reign being the most glorious in the recorded history of the Malay Peninsula. This article’s main objective is to identify the application of the Shafi‘i code in various aspects of law, especially in the Rules of Court, during his reign. The research found that the laws applied during his rule had many similarities with the Shafi‘i school of thought. The implementation of Rules of Court is seen to have been influenced by the ideas of major scholars of the Shafi‘i school such as al-Mawardi, al-Ansari, al-Sharbini and al-Ghazali. This shows that the implementation of laws in Terengganu had a strong basis and had organized procedures, indicative of a judicial system operating smoothly and fairly.