Married but Apart: Silent Divorce in Muslim Households from the Perspective of Maqasid al-Shari'ah and Indonesian Marriage Law
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61159/y7m9xz98Keywords:
Silent Divorce; Nushūz; Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah; Indonesian Marriage Law; Family Resilience.Abstract
Silent divorce refers to a marital condition in which spouses remain legally married and continue to live under the same roof, while their emotional bond, communication, and family functions have broken down. This condition is increasingly reported in contemporary households, including Muslim families, yet it remains largely invisible in Islamic family law because the marriage is formally intact. This study aims to analyse silent divorce from the perspective of Islamic law by examining its characteristics and contributing factors, assessing it against maq??id al-shar??ah and Indonesian marriage legislation, and proposing measures to prevent and resolve it. As the study relies on secondary doctrinal and empirical literature rather than primary fieldwork, these measures are presented as normative propositions for future empirical testing rather than as established findings. The study employs normative legal research with statute and conceptual approaches, drawing on the Qur'an, hadith, Law No. 1 of 1974 on Marriage as amended by Law No. 16 of 2019, the Compilation of Islamic Law, and recent peer-reviewed literature. The findings show that silent divorce develops gradually through declining communication, growing emotional distance, and prolonged estrangement, driven by communicative, socioeconomic, technological, and spiritual factors. Although it does not dissolve the marriage, silent divorce threatens all five essential objectives of the sharia, namely the protection of religion, life, intellect, progeny, and property, and it amounts to a persistent failure to fulfil the reciprocal rights and duties of spouses under the Marriage Law. The study proposes a maq??id-based family resilience model that integrates religious, communicative, legal, mediative, economic, and digital measures.
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