Deconstruction of Maqāṣid al-Usrah in the Childfree Discourse: A Review of Contemporary Indonesian Islamic Family Law Philosophy

Abstract

Discourse on childfree choices among Indonesian Muslim families has largely been examined through fatwa commissions applying fiqh al-usrah, leaving the deeper philosophical architecture of maqāṣid al-usrah (the higher objectives of family law) analytically untouched. This gap matters because normative rulings alone cannot capture how demographic shifts challenge the very rationale underlying family-oriented Islamic jurisprudence. This article aims to deconstruct maqāṣid al-usrah as a philosophical construct and test its coherence against contemporary childfree discourse in Indonesia. Employing library research, the study combines a philosophical-hermeneutic reading of classical and contemporary family-fiqh texts with critical discourse analysis of childfree narratives circulating in Indonesian public and scholarly discourse. Sources were selected based on thematic relevance to family objectives, procreation, and demographic ethics, then analyzed through thematic and comparative techniques to trace conceptual tensions. The analysis reveals that maqāṣid al-usrah, conventionally anchored to procreation (nasl) as an almost fixed pillar, exhibits internal fluidity when confronted with childfree reasoning grounded in autonomy, ecological concern, and psychological well-being. The study proposes a reconstructed reading of maqāṣid al-usrah that accommodates plural family trajectories without abandoning its ethical core, offering a philosophical bridge between classical family jurisprudence and contemporary demographic realities, while acknowledging that empirical validation of lived experiences remains a task for future field-based inquiry.