Al-ʿĀdah Muḥakkamah And The Dual Role Of Farmer’s Wives

An ʿUrf Ṣaḥīḥ Analysis Of Household Harmony In Dusun Kepoh, Lamongan

Abstract

The dual role of farmers’ wives has become a growing phenomenon in the agrarian community of Dusun Kepoh, Kacangan Village, Lamongan Regency. Wives not only carry out domestic responsibilities as household managers but also actively participate in agricultural activities such as planting (tandur), crop maintenance (sulam), and weeding (matun) to support the family economy. This condition creates social dynamics related to role distribution, family responsibilities, and household harmony from the perspective of Islamic law. This study aims to analyze the dual role of farmers’ wives from the perspective of Islamic law and its implications for household harmony in Dusun Kepoh. This research employed a qualitative method with a field research design and phenomenological approach. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation, then analyzed descriptively. The findings indicate that the dual role of farmers’ wives has become a socially accepted tradition and is viewed as a form of family cooperation in fulfilling economic needs. From the perspective of Islamic law, such practices are permissible as long as they do not neglect domestic responsibilities, maintain the rights and obligations of husband and wife, and remain consistent with Islamic principles. The dual role of wives also contributes positively to household harmony through communication, mutual cooperation, and shared responsibility within the family. This study shows that Islamic law can coexist harmoniously with the culture of agrarian communities while remaining within the framework of family welfare. The novelty of this research lies in its integration of the empirical dynamics of farming wives’ dual role amid agricultural modernization with the fiqh maxim Al-ʿĀdah Muḥakkamah as an analytical lens, an approach rarely applied in prior studies that tend to isolate sociological and normative analyses. Theoretically, the study contributes to the development of living-law discourse in Islamic family law by demonstrating how ʿurf ṣaḥīḥ can operate as a legitimate legal source for reconstructing household rights and obligations in agrarian settings.