Harmonizing Islamic Law and National Law in Indonesia: Legal Pluralism, Maqāṣid al-sharī’ah, and the Pursuit of Substantive Justice

Abstract

The relationship between Islamic law and national law in Indonesia cannot be adequately explained through a binary opposition between religious norms and state law. It is better understood as a continuing process of negotiation within a legally plural, constitutionally regulated, and socially diverse order. This article re-examines the prospects for harmonizing Islamic law and national law by integrating legal pluralism, maqāṣid al-sharī’ah, and theories of responsive and progressive law. Using normative legal research with statutory, conceptual, historical, and comparative approaches, the study examines constitutional provisions, legislation, selected judicial developments, and recent socio-legal scholarship on the incorporation of Islamic norms into Indonesian law. The analysis demonstrates that harmonization should not mean the formalization of Islamic law as a uniform state code, nor the marginalization of religious norms from national legal development. Rather, it should operate as a constitutional process of translating normatively legitimate Islamic values—especially justice, public benefit, equality, dignity, and protection of life, intellect, family, and property—into rules that are compatible with Pancasila, constitutional rights, and democratic lawmaking. The article further argues that effective harmonization requires simultaneous attention to legal substance, institutional structure, and legal culture. Recent developments in Aceh illustrate both the possibilities and limits of legal pluralism, particularly when regional Islamic regulations interact with national legislation and human-rights guarantees. The article proposes a dialogical and maqāṣid-oriented model of harmonization aimed at substantive justice rather than merely formal regulatory consistency.