Post-marital kafā’ah: reconstructing marital equality theory through maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah for redefining divorce legitimacy

Abstract

The concept of kafā'ah in Islamic law has traditionally been confined to premarital compatibility between prospective spouses, while the legality of divorce has generally been assessed through formal juridical grounds without adequately considering the continuity of substantive marital equality. This study aims to reconstruct kafā'ah into a Post-Marital Kafā'ah Theory grounded in Maqāṣid al-Sharī'ah as a framework for redefining divorce legality in Islamic family law. Using a normative-conceptual legal research design with statutory, conceptual, comparative, and Islamic legal philosophy approaches, the study argues that kafā'ah should function as a continuous principle of marital compatibility encompassing spiritual, moral, psychological, intellectual, social, and economic dimensions, together with the reciprocal fulfillment of spouses' rights and obligations. Persistent deterioration of these dimensions, resulting in the loss of maṣlaḥah and the failure to achieve the objectives of Maqāṣid al-Sharī'ah, may therefore constitute substantive grounds for divorce. The study's novelty lies in proposing the Post-Marital Kafā'ah Theory, which integrates kafā'ah, Maqāṣid al-Sharī'ah, and divorce law into a Maqāṣid-oriented paradigm for a more adaptive, progressive, and welfare-oriented Islamic family law.