The Concept and Criteria of Justice in the Hikayat Pahang

Abstract

As a part of the Malay Islamic civilization and intellectual tradition, Malay Muslim historiography serves as an important source for the Malay conceptual understanding of history. This includes the concept and criteria of justice. To date, no study has analyzed the concept and criteria of justice in the Hikayat Pahang, even though it is an important Malay Muslim text that illustrates the conceptual understanding of a twentieth-century Malay Muslim author. This article aims to analyze the concept and criteria of justice in the Hikayat Pahang by applying the method of textual analysis to its contents. The findings reveal that the author understood the didactic nature of history as seen in the narrations, which reflect the levels of personal justice (attitudes, skills, and duties of the just ruler), collective justice (criteria of prosperity and decline of the state), and divine justice (principle of tawhid and the concept of history as a divine plan). These criteria illustrate that the concept and criteria of justice in the Hikayat Pahang are not only limited to the secular and worldly aspects, but also include the spiritual aspects as well. Therefore, it reflects the worldview of Islam and the influences of the local traditions.