Tashwirul Afkar

The Epistemology of Gender Justice In Islamic Legal Discourse on FGM/C: Legitimacy, Authority, And The Reconstruction of Fiqh In KUPI

Firda Ainun Ula — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study aims to analyse the epistemology of gender justice in Islamic legal discourse on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) by highlighting the mechanisms through which religious legitimacy is produced, the role of socio-religious authority, and the reconstruction of fiqh from the perspective of the Indonesian Women Ulama Congress (KUPI). This study is significant because FGM/C in Indonesia persists not only as a socio-cultural practice, but is also frequently legitimised as a religious norm, despite its problematic textual basis and questionable medical benefit. The study employs a qualitative approach based on library research, with purposive data collection from primary documents, namely the outcomes of the KUPI II Religious Deliberation on P2GP without medical grounds, fiqh and hadith references used in debates on khifāḍ, and health regulations concerning female circumcision, supplemented by secondary data in the form of academic articles, books, and reports published by national and international institutions. The analysis is conducted through a thematic-critical reading that combines mapping the mechanisms of legitimacy, contextual hermeneutics, and normative evaluation grounded in maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah. The findings show that the legitimacy of FGM/C in Islamic legal discourse is sustained more by selective use of scriptural evidence, the normalisation of ‘urf, and the reinforcement of socio-religious authority than by any explicit and authoritative textual mandate. The study also finds that KUPI’s critical-transformative approach reconstructs fiqh by positioning maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah, contextual hermeneutics, and women’s lived experiences as epistemic foundations for assessing harm, thereby leading to the rejection of practices that are harmful and lack medical grounds. The implications of this study underline the importance of renewing methods of legal reasoning in fiqh, strengthening religious education from a protection-oriented perspective, and fostering synergy between religious authorities, healthcare services, and state policy in the prevention of FGM/C. The originality of this study lies in its shift of focus from debates on health or human rights to the epistemological question within Islamic law, while also positioning KUPI as a model for the reconstruction of fiqh grounded in gender justice and the protection of women’s bodily integrity.

Sufi Hermeneutics of Serat Dewa Ruci in the Age of Information Overload

Farida Rahmah, Eneng Malihatunnajiah — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study aims to reinterpret Serat Dewa Ruci as a symbolic-spiritual text that is relevant to understanding contemporary problems of digital literacy, particularly in situations of information overload, misinformation, and post-truth. The study is significant because scholarship on Serat Dewa Ruci, Islamic Sufism, and digital literacy has largely developed in separate directions, with few integrative readings that bring these three domains into a single analytical framework. This research employs a qualitative library-based approach, with Serat Dewa Ruci as the primary unit of analysis. Data were collected through documentary study of primary and secondary sources and were analysed using hermeneutic and semiotic approaches in order to interpret the text’s symbolic structure, spiritual meaning, and contextual relevance. The findings show that Bima’s journey is constructed as a symbolic progression from outward searching to inward disclosure, while his encounter with Dewa Ruci forms an epistemic discipline that emphasises humility, inward deepening, the ability to interpret signs, and ethical readiness in receiving truth. In the contemporary context, this symbolic structure has strong relevance for strengthening digital literacy, as it offers a model of knowledge grounded in caution, verification, clarity of interpretation, and ethical responsibility. The implication of this study is that digital literacy should be developed not merely as a technical competence, but also as a hermeneutic, ethical, and spiritual practice. The originality of this research lies in its effort to bring together Serat Dewa Ruci as a text of Javanese culture, Islamic Sufism as a spiritual-epistemic framework, and digital literacy as a contemporary problem of knowledge within a single integrative reading.

Reorienting Mining Policy In Indonesia From a Qur’anic and Maqāṣid Al-Sharī‘Ah Perspective Toward Social Justice and Ecological Sustainability

Muhamad Khabib Imdad, Ahmad Aqiel Azkiya — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article re-examines mining practices and policies in Indonesia through the lens of maqāṣid-based Qur’anic exegesis. Mining, as a strategic sector in national economic development, occupies a paradoxical position: on the one hand, it provides significant economic benefits for the state, but on the other, it generates potential harms such as ecological degradation, agrarian conflicts, and social injustice. Public debates, including those raised by Ulil Abshar Abdalla regarding the Islamic legal status of mining, demonstrate that the issue extends beyond economic and political concerns to religious-ethical dimensions. This study employs a qualitative approach using literature review, drawing on classical and contemporary tafsir, Islamic environmental jurisprudence, and mining policy documents. The findings reveal that, within the framework of maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah, mining is essentially mubāḥ (permissible) in itself, but may shift to harām li ghairihi (prohibited due to external causes) when it causes ecological damage and social inequality. The principles of lā ḍarar wa lā ḍirār and taṣarruf al-imām manūṭun bi al-maṣlaḥah emphasize that the state is religiously and ethically obliged to manage mining for the sake of public welfare, environmental sustainability, and social justice. Thus, maqāṣidi exegesis functions not only as a theological framework but also as an ethical-critical instrument to evaluate public policies and to propose more just and sustainable mining governance.

Pribumisasi Makna Al-Qur’an dalam Tafsir Vernakular: Analisis Hermeneutika Gadamer atas al-Ibrīz dan Raudatul ‘Irfān pada Horizon Jawa–Sunda

Wildan Rifqi Asyfia — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This study aims to identify, describe, and compare strategies of indigenizing interpretation (pribumisasi) in two vernacular Qur’anic commentaries (tafsir) from the Indonesian archipelago, namely al-Ibrīz li Ma‘rifati Tafsir al-Qur’an al-‘Azīz (Javanese horizon) and Raudatul ‘Irfān fi Ma‘rifat al-Qur’an (Sundanese horizon), with particular attention to how locality operates as a mechanism of understanding that mediates between the horizon of the text and the horizon of the reader. The research employs a qualitative-interpretive design grounded in textual analysis and hermeneutics, using documentation study and close reading of four units of analysis (J1: Q. an-Nūr [24]:27; J2: Q. al-Qaṣaṣ [28]:70; S1: Q. al-Baqarah [2]:217; S2: Q. al-‘Ankabūt [29]:41). Findings are analyzed through categorization across three comparable dimensions and operationalized through Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutical framework (the text–reader horizon relation, pre-understanding, tradition/authority, effective history, and the fusion of horizons). The results show that al-Ibrīz grounds meaning through the social-ethical diction kulo nuwun and the relational–hierarchical metaphor sowan, employing a dialogical-procedural pedagogical style, whereas Raudatul ‘Irfān foregrounds local calendrical diction (Hapit–Rayagung) and local fauna metaphors (lancah/ramat lancah), reinforced by descriptive elaborations of nature in an explanatory mode. In terms of implications, these findings underscore the need for follow-up actions in the domains of tafsir curricula (integrating Tafsir Nusantara as a hermeneutical case-study module), editorial standards (mandatory glossaries and paratexts for cultural terms), da‘wah/educational strategies (controlled use of local equivalents accompanied by explicit textual-meaning boundaries), and the digitalization of annotated editions to broaden cross-community access. The originality of this study lies in its comparison of two cultural horizons (Javanese–Sundanese) within a single analytical design using an equivalent-dimensional matrix, its deployment of Gadamer as an “analytical engine” to trace meaning-formation processes systematically through specific textual units, and its reading of indigenization as a communicative-interpretive strategy balanced by a critical reflection on the risks of dysfunction.

Re-reading Gender-Related Verses through Qira’at Variation: Semantic and Legal-Interpretive Implications in Surat al-Nisa’

Ulfatun Hasanah — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines how qira’at variation in selected gender-related verses of Surat al-Nisa’ shapes semantic expansion and legal-interpreive consequences in Qur’anic exegesis. The study is motivated by the persistence of monolithic readings of gender verses in contemporary Muslim discourse, particularly on issues such as polygamy, violence against women, household authority, and bodily contact in ritual contexts. Using a qualitative library research design, this article employs a Qur’anic exegesis approach with particular attention to thematic tafsir and qira’at analysis. The unit of analysis consists of variant readings in Q. al-Nisa’ 4:3, 4:19, 4:34, and 4:43. Primary data are drawn from the relevant Qur’anic verses, classical qira’at works, and tafsir literature, while secondary data are taken from scholarly studies on gender-related Qur’anic interpretation. The data are analyzed through comparative-textual and interpretive analysis. The study finds, first, that qira’at variation produces semantic expansion by opening broader lexical, relational, and ethical possibilities in gender-related verses. Second, these semantic differences generate distinct legal-interpreive consequences, including stricter readings of polygamy, broader protections against violence toward women, more reciprocal understandings of household responsibility, and plural ritual-legal rulings concerning bodily contact. Third, these findings support a re-reading of gender verses beyond a monolithic Hafs-based interpretive framework. This article argues that qira’at plurality should be treated not as a peripheral technical issue, but as an internal methodological resource for more dialogical, contextual, and textually grounded gender-sensitive Qur’anic interpretation.