The establishment of a minimum marriage age in Indonesia through Law No. 16 of 2019, which sets the minimum age at 19 years for both men and women, remains a subject of debate within Islamic normative discourse due to the absence of an explicit numerical age requirement in the Qur’an. Previous studies have tended to approach the issue of marriage age either as a socio-legal problem or through maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah-based justifications, yet they have not provided a systematic reconstruction of uṣūl al-fiqh that integrates textual analysis with cross-madhhab legal theory. As a result, the relationship between contemporary legislation and classical Islamic legal reasoning remains fragmented. This article addresses this gap by examining QS. al-Nisāʾ [4]: 6 through the framework of tafsīr al-aḥkām and the uṣūliyyah methodology of Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī within the broader context of classical Islamic legal discourse. Employing a library-based qualitative approach, the article analyzes key uṣūlī principles to reconstruct legal reasoning concerning marital capacity in Islamic law. The findings demonstrate that the Qur’anic emphasis on rushd alongside bulūgh indicates that marital capacity cannot be reduced solely to biological maturity. The absence of a numerical age threshold reflects a form of normative openness that allows for juridical specification according to social context. Accordingly, the legal age of 19 may be understood as a legitimate form of takhṣīṣ or taqyīd grounded in maṣlaḥah mursalah and aligned with the objectives of Islamic law. This article offers a methodological reconstruction showing that age-based legislation is not an external normative imposition upon Islamic tradition, but rather a continuation of classical uṣūliyyah reasoning. By bridging al-Subkī’s methodological framework with inter-madhhab discourse, it proposes a coherent model for harmonizing the principles of Islamic law with modern socio-legal realities.
Contemporary Islamic family law faces growing tensions between the protection of individual rights and the preservation of social obligations amid the expansion of liberal individualism and changing family structures. Although numerous studies have examined ḥadīth al-aḥkām from textual and socio-legal perspectives, limited attention has been given to how different Islamic madhhabs derive legal rulings from these traditions to address contemporary family issues. This study analyses the comparative legal reasoning of the four major Sunni madhhabs regarding the balance between individual rights and collective responsibilities in Islamic family law. Employing qualitative library research, it combines thematic (mawḍū‘ī) analysis of selected ḥadīth al-aḥkām from the Kutub al-Sittah with comparative madhhab analysis based on the uṣūl al-fiqh methodologies of the Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī madhhabs. The findings indicate that while all madhhabs regard the family as the primary institution for safeguarding justice and social welfare, they differ in defining the scope of individual autonomy, legal authority, and reciprocal obligations according to their respective juristic methodologies. These differences represent methodological diversity rather than normative contradiction and provide flexible legal responses to contemporary family challenges. This study contributes to comparative madhhab scholarship by demonstrating the continuing relevance of classical juristic reasoning in the reform and development of contemporary Islamic family law.
The Indonesian controversy over Salam Lintas Agama (SLA), intensified by the 2024 Ijtima` Ulama fatwa declaring Muslim participation in multi-religious greeting formulae impermissible, is commonly read either as a sociological problem of tolerance or as a settled doctrinal question. Existing scholarship has not adequately examined SLA as a contemporary masʾalah fiqhiyyah ijtihādiyyah whose legal evaluation depends on its takyīf (juristic characterization), whether positioned as `ibādah, mu`āmalah, or taḥiyyah ijtimā`iyyah, and on the uṣūlī methods used across competing schools. This article addresses that gap. Employing a qualitative study of the SLA controversy as a national discourse, this research draws on in-depth interviews with key informants purposively sampled across several Indonesian locations (Jakarta, Bandung, Tana Toraja, and Papua) to capture maximum variation in actor positions, triangulated with classical fiqh literature, the 2019 MUI Jawa Timur taushiyah, and the 2024 fatwa. Three complementary lenses structure the analysis: Social Identity Theory maps boundary-work activated by SLA; Hayden’s antagonistic tolerance characterizes its public-space dynamics; and Maqāṣid al-Sunnah reading of the prophetic ḥadīth on greeting provides the normative interpretive frame. Findings show that SLA is classified as `ibādah when foregrounded as a doctrinal speech-act invoking divine attributes, and as mu`āmalah/taḥiyyah ijtimā`iyyah when foregrounded as civic recognition; the shift is governed by niyyah, `urf, maṣlaḥah, and sadd al-żarāʾi`. The article contributes to comparative madhhab scholarship by demonstrating that the SLA dispute is fundamentally a methodological disagreement among fiqh schools. Respectful silence (ṣamt al-tawaqqur), universal greetings (taḥiyyah kulliyyah), and communicative clarification emerge as Maqāṣid-consonant pathways honoring both doctrinal integrity and civic coexistence.
This study examines masculine dominance in the dating practices of Muslim university students in Makassar, Indonesia, and analyses its dissonance with Islamic ethics through maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah. Unlike previous studies focusing primarily on reproductive health or psychological impacts, this research integrates Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic violence with three Islamic ethical principles: ‘adālah (justice), ḥifẓ al-‘irḍ (preservation of honour), and mu‘āmalah (ethical social interaction). Using a qualitative socio-legal approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 24 purposively selected students (12 females and 12 males, aged 18–24) from four universities in Makassar, 120 hours of participant observation, and analysis of Islamic legal documents. Data were analysed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña, complemented by a maqāṣid-based framework. The findings identify four forms of masculine dominance: decision-making control, economic dependence, sexual pressure through emotional coercion, and psychological control. These practices produce normative, value, and role-based dissonance with Islamic ethics. Normative dissonance concerns khalwah and ikhtilāṭ; value dissonance reflects tensions between individualistic romantic relationships and sakīnah; while role dissonance stems from interpreting qiwāmah as domination rather than responsible leadership. Modernisation, limited maqāṣid literacy, and local constructions of masculinity associated with siri’ contribute to this dissonance. The study proposes an integrated socio-legal framework linking symbolic domination with maqāṣid-based evaluation and recommends gender-just Islamic literacy and stronger institutional protection for students experiencing dating violence.
Tafsīr aḥkām (the systematic exegesis of legal verses in the Qur'an), is one of the most dynamic strands of Islamic scholarly discourse in Indonesia. Yet no study has comprehensively mapped this research landscape across nationally accredited journals indexed in SINTA 1 and 2. The present study addresses that gap by constructing a systematic research map of tafsīr aḥkām publications in SINTA 1 and 2 journals between 2019 and 2025. Guided by the PRISMA 2020 protocol, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) screened 847 initial records through multi-stage selection and yielded a final corpus of 267 articles with substantial inter-rater reliability (Cohen's κ = 0.84). The analysis identified five primary thematic clusters, namely family and marriage law (28.5%), Islamic economics and finance (24.3%), criminal law and jināyah (18.7%), gender relations and women's rights (17.2%), and environmental fiqh and contemporary issues (11.3%). The maqāṣid al-sharīʿah approach has accelerated markedly in the post-COVID-19 period (2021–2025), while institutional output remains concentrated in five universities that together account for roughly 74% of the corpus. Six critical research gaps emerge from the analysis, namely the scarcity of cross-madhhab comparative work, critical hermeneutics, ethnographic enquiry, engagement with disruptive technologies, systematic Islamic eco-theology, and scient metric mapping. The resulting research map provides a foundational resource for advancing the theoretical and empirical frontiers of the field.
