Sharia for Capital? Negotiating Religious Authority in Indonesia's Islamic Economy

Abstract

This article examines shifts in the configuration of religious authority within Indonesia’s contemporary Islamic economy through the Critical Discourse Analysis framework developed by Norman Fairclough. By analyzing fatwas issued by the National Sharia Council of the Indonesian Council of Ulamā (DSN MUI), the study demonstrates that fatwas now operate as discursive arenas in which religious norms, state rationalities, and market interests intersect. Within the context of expanding sharia financialization, the ulamā appear as key actors in conferring legitimacy on financial instruments, regulatory policies, and economic development agendas. The analysis shows how maqāṣid al-sharīʿah is rearticulated in technocratic language, alongside the fragmentation of religious authority following the emergence of new actors such as sharia consultants, fintech platforms, and halal market intermediaries. These dynamics do not fully eliminate tension. Ethical caution, semantic ambiguity, and practices of delayed legitimation signal the persistence of discursive resistance within fatwas themselves, sustaining their function as spaces of contestation. By approaching fatwas as fields of negotiation rather than instruments of stabilization, this article contributes to Islamic economic studies through an emphasis on power relations, discursive production, and the possibility of slow resistance within institutionalized religious authority.