The sanbod-aanname (idjaab kaboel) in Atjeh — the Muslim-derived offer-and-acceptance (idjaab kaboel) formula formally incorporated into the Atjehnese land-pledging and land-sale transactions — is the adat-law institution by which the Arabic-Muslim legal formula of offer (idjaab) and acceptance (kaboel) is inserted, as a formal element, into the Atjehnese adatrechtelijk land transactions, without thereby the Indonesian character of the land transaction being altered. The institution is cited by B. ter Haar BzN in Beginselen en Stelsel van het Adatrecht (first ed. 1939; 4th ed. 1950) as a typical example of the local coloring that adat-law transactions receive in particular legal circles — and as an Atjehnese instance of the wider Indonesian pattern by which Muslim legal forms are absorbed into, and made to serve, the indigenous adat-law transactions.
The idjaab kaboel in Atjehnese land-pledging
Ter Haar introduces the sanbod-aanname in his account of the grondverpanding (land-pledging) — the pledging of land as security for a debt, the most common land-transaction in practically every legal circle. The grondverpanding has, Ter Haar writes, “in practisch elken rechtskring zeer veel voorkomende transaktie; overal heeft zij natuurlijk haar lokale kleur, haar eigenaardigheden, die samenhangen met het sociale complex, het bizondere stelsel van elken kring” — in practically every legal circle a very common transaction; everywhere it has naturally its local color, its peculiarities, that connect with the social complex, the particular system of each circle. “Zo zal men, om enige voorbeelden te noemen, in Atjeh de aan den islaam ontleende sanbod-en-aanname (idjaab kaboel) formeel in de transaktie (in de akte daarvan) vinden opgenomen” — thus one will, to name some examples, in Atjeh find the Muslim-derived sanbod-en-aanname (idjaab kaboel) formally incorporated into the transaction (in the deed thereof).
The idjaab kaboel — the Arabic ijāb qabūl — is the offer-and-acceptance formula that, in Muslim law, is the constitutive act of the contract: the offer (idjaab) made by one party and the acceptance (kaboel) made by the other, in sacramental words, in the presence of at least two witnesses. In Atjeh, Ter Haar records, this Muslim formula is formally incorporated into the deed of the land-pledging — so that the Atjehnese land-pledge, though an adatrechtelijk transaction, bears the formal mark of the Muslim contract.
The idjaab kaboel in Atjehnese land-sale
The sanbod-aanname is noted again, in Ter Haar’s account, in connection with the grondverkoop (land-sale). “Bizonderheden (de genoemde idjaab kaboel in Atjeh, zonder dat daardoor aan het indonesisch karakter van den grondverkoop wordt getornd; de adat-gevallen in Minangkabau enzovoorts) doen zich niet alleen bij grondverpanding, doch evenzeer bij grondverkoop voor” — peculiarities (the aforementioned idjaab kaboel in Atjeh, without thereby the Indonesian character of the land-sale being infringed; the adat-cases in Minangkabau and so forth) present themselves not only in land-pledging, but equally in land-sale.
The key qualification — “zonder dat daardoor aan het indonesisch karakter van den grondverkoop wordt getornd” (without thereby the Indonesian character of the land-sale being infringed) — is Ter Haar’s explicit doctrinal judgment that the incorporation of the Muslim idjaab kaboel into the Atjehnese land-sale does not alter the Indonesian (adatrechtelijk) character of the transaction. The Muslim formula is, in this account, a formal element absorbed into the adat-law transaction — a local coloring — but it does not make the transaction a Muslim-law transaction. The judgment is an instance of Ter Haar’s broader position on the relationship of adatrecht and Islam: the Muslim legal forms may be received into the adatrecht, but the adatrecht retains its Indonesian character.
The idjaab kaboel and the Muslim marriage
The idjaab kaboel is, in Muslim law, the constitutive formula not only of the contract but also of the marriage — the offer and acceptance spoken in sacramental words in the presence of at least two witnesses, by which the Muslim marriage is concluded. Ter Haar treats the Muslim marriage formula in his account of the Islamic influence on Indonesian marriage law, where he notes that “de islamitische huwelijkssluiting is een kontrakt tussen bruidegom en vertegenwoordiger (wali) van de bruid, in bijzijn van ten minste twee getuigen, waarbij in sakramentele woorden het aanbod en de aanname (idjaab kaboel) worden uitgesproken” — the Islamic marriage-conclusion is a contract between bridegroom and the representative (wali) of the bride, in the presence of at least two witnesses, in which the offer and the acceptance (idjaab kaboel) are spoken in sacramental words. The idjaab kaboel of the Atjehnese land-transaction is thus the same formula that constitutes the Muslim marriage, transferred to the domain of land-law — a transfer that illustrates the reach of the Muslim legal forms into the Atjehnese adatrecht.
Significance
For AcehWiki, the sanbod-aanname (idjaab kaboel) in Atjeh is significant as the Atjehnese institution by which the Muslim offer-and-acceptance formula is formally incorporated into the adatrechtelijk land-pledging and land-sale — and as a key example in Ter Haar’s systematic account of the local coloring of Indonesian land-transactions. The institution illustrates the interplay of adatrecht and Islam in the Atjehnese land-law: the Muslim idjaab kaboel is received into the adat-law transaction as a formal element, but the Indonesian character of the transaction is, in Ter Haar’s doctrinal judgment, not thereby altered. The institution complements the corpus’s existing entries on the Atjehnese adatrecht and on the relationship of adat and Islam in Atjeh, and it furnishes the doctrinal-legal characterisation of the Atjehnese idjaab kaboel within the colonial legal science of the late Netherlands Indies.
See Also
- Beginselen en Stelsel van het Adatrecht (Ter Haar, 4th ed. 1950)
- B. ter Haar BzN
- adat
- Atjeh adatrecht (Ter Haar account)
- Djinamée (Atjehnese marriage gift)
- Wang pemasoeqan (Atjeh)
- Peungklēh (Atjehnese trousseau)
- Hikum
- gampong
- Uleebalang
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- Snouck Hurgronje’s De Atjehers (1893-94)
- Acheh
- 1939
- 1950
Source
Beginselen en Stelsel van het Adatrecht, door Mr. B. ter Haar Bzn. Vierde ongewijzigde druk. Groningen, Djakarta: J. B. Wolters, 1950. Pp. 98, 100.