Reconstructing Divine Authority in Indonesian Islamic Law: A Critical-Maqāṣid Epistemology and the Reinterpretation of Wasiat Wājibah for Non-Muslim Heirs

Abstrak

This article examines the reconstruction of divine authority in Indonesian Islamic law through a critical-maqāṣid epistemology that integrates Derridean deconstruction and Foucauldian power/knowledge analysis. Departing from conventional approaches that treat divine authority as a fixed and ahistorical attribute of legal texts, this study argues that claims of authority in Islamic law are discursively produced and institutionally negotiated within specific socio-political contexts. Focusing on Indonesia, the article analyses how fatwā institutions and Religious Courts mediate legal authority amid legal pluralism and growing demands for substantive justice. The study applies this epistemological framework to the reinterpretation of wasiat wājibah (obligatory bequest) for non-Muslim heirs, a jurisprudential development that reflects Indonesia’s distinctive engagement with Islamic law in a plural society. Through qualitative textual analysis and genealogical inquiry, the article demonstrates how deconstruction exposes rigid binaries such as divine versus human authority and text versus context while maqāṣid al-sharīʿah provides a normative compass for ethical reconstruction oriented toward justice (ʿadl), welfare (maṣlaḥah), and human dignity (karāmah). The findings suggest that Indonesian Islamic legal practice, particularly judicial innovation in inheritance law, exemplifies a dynamic and context-sensitive negotiation between doctrinal fidelity and social reality. By framing Islamic law as an evolving ethical discourse rather than a static divine command, this study contributes theoretically to the philosophy of Islamic law and empirically to the understanding of contemporary Islamic legal reform in Indonesia. The article offers implications for fatwā formulation, judicial reasoning, and broader debates on Islamic law, pluralism, and governance in Southeast Asia.