<![CDATA[This article looks at how the Hadhrami Arab community in the Dutch East Indies built Islamic legal responses to colonial citizenship across the 1914 to 1945 period. Using siyāsah syar‘iyyah as the main analytical framework, the study investigates the competing positions of Al-Rabithah al-Alawiyah and the Partai Arab Indonesia (PAI) in defining loyalty, homeland, and civic belonging. This research employs a historical-interpretative approach based on archival documents, colonial legal texts, organizational writings, newspapers, and relevant secondary literature. The findings show that being classified as Vreemde Oosterlingen pushed the Hadhramis toward two major legal-political responses. Al-Rabithah leaned into a transnational Muslim identity and ties to Hadhramaut as a way of holding onto religious autonomy under colonial rule. In contrast, PAI, led by the Peranakan Arab generation and represented by A. R. Baswedan, promoted integration into Indonesia as an Islamic and civic strategy for equality, security, and anti-colonial solidarity. This article adds to Islamic law and citizenship studies by showing that Hadhrami citizenship debates went beyond ethnic or political conflict, functioning instead as juridical negotiations over Islamic loyalty, public welfare, and national belonging.]]>
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