Noor Aisha Abdul Rahman

Islamic religious teachers (asatizah) and scholars (ulama) play a significant role in providing spiritual leadership for the Singapore Malay/Muslim community. Lately, the group has been cast under the spotlight over a range of issues, from underperformance in the national examination, their ability to integrate into the broader society, exposure to radical and conservative ideas such as Salafism from the Middle East, and unemployment. Reaching for the Crescent examines a growing segment within the group, namely Islamic studies graduates, who obtained their degrees from universities in the Middle East and neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia. It identifies factors that condition the proliferation of Islamic studies graduates in Singapore, examine the dominant religious institutionsthey attend, the nature of Islamic education they received, and their challenges. It tackles the impact of their religious education on the spiritual life and well-being of the community. Based on qualitative and quantitative data collected, the book calls for a rethinking of a prevailing discourse of Arabization of Singapore Muslims and academic approaches that focus on madrasah education and Islam through the security lens.

This book is a study of conceptions of Malay adat laws by several prominent colonial writers and some continuities, whose works are generally acknowledged and long regarded as pioneering and authoritative expositions of the subject. Some of the central problems explored in this study are as follows: how are Malay adat laws understood and portrayed by the authors?, what are some of the problems raised and possible factors which influence their selection?, what are the unquestioned assumptions and sources which condition their perceptions?, to what extent can their ideas be considered as accurate portrayals of adat law and what implications do they have not only on the image of the laws but Malay society and culture generally. By addressing these problems, this book hopes to contribute to a more accurate and balanced understanding of Malay laws.