Islam, Ambiguity, and (In)Tolerance: Perspectives from Southeast Asia

Abstract This introductory article builds on recent historical and anthropological scholarship that highlights the centrality of ambiguity in Islam and how Muslims navigate their religious life. It brings together insights from the anthropology of Islam and Islamic Studies, as well as classic work on Southeast-Asian cosmologies and concepts of power, to develop new insights into Islam’s possible relations to ambiguity and tolerance. Extending this inquiry to historical and contemporary Southeast Asia, it argues that ambiguity remains a vital, albeit overlooked and undertheorized, dimension of Islamic life in the region. It further contends that any account of (in)tolerance of ambiguity must attend to localized understandings of tolerance grounded in Southeast Asian cosmologies. Drawing on the contributions to this special issue, this introduction traces the layered and hierarchical entanglements between Islamic and pre-Islamic traditions, revealing how these relationships continue to shape Muslim approaches to ambiguity across historical and contemporary contexts.