Digital Marriage Contract and Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah
Rethinking Ittihād al-Majlis (Unity of Session) in Indonesian Islamic Family Law
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24252/shautuna.v7i3.67933Keywords:
Digital Marriage Contract, Ittihad al-Majlis (Unity of Session), Maqasid al-Shari‘ah, Islamic Family LawAbstract
Digital transformation has extended into marriage practices, generating digital marriage contracts and raising a fundamental jurisprudential question concerning ittihād al-majlis (unity of session) in determining the validity of ‘aqd al-nikāḥ (marriage contract). The central problem concerns the regulatory gap between the conditional recognition of online marriage in contemporary Islamic legal discourse and the Indonesian legal framework governing marriage and its registration. The 2021 Ijtima Ulama of the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI) recognizes online marriage subject to requirements concerning ittihād al-majlis (unity of session), ittishāl (continuity of the contractual exchange), real-time audio-visual connection, identity verification, and official registration. This study aims to examine the validity of digital marriage contracts through maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah (objectives of Islamic law), particularly al-ḍarūriyyāt al-khams (the five essential protections), and to formulate an operational legal framework within Indonesian Islamic family law. Employing doctrinal legal research supported by a PRISMA-based systematic literature review, the study analyzes 37 selected legal and scholarly documents published between 2015 and 2025. The findings demonstrate that digital marriage contracts are conditionally compatible with maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah when technological mediation preserves valid consent, reliable identity, continuous ījāb-qabūl (offer and acceptance), valid witnessing, protection of lineage, and legal certainty. The study further reconceptualizes ittihād al-majlis as functional unity of the contractual session rather than mere physical co-presence, providing a maqāṣid-based framework for assessing and regulating digital marriage contracts in Indonesian Islamic family law.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Ghina Mufidah, Mirwan Sudarmawan Rifai, Rifki Ahmad Fahrezi, Andi Muh. Fitrah Al-Fikri, Muhammad Rendiyan Basir
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