The Maqasid of Hifz Al-Mal: An Islamic Economic Analysis of e-Court Implementation and Cost Efficiency in Divorce Cases

Abstrak

This study looks at how e-court technology is used in Indonesia’s religious courts through the lens of Islamic jurisprudence, focusing on the maqasid goal of hifz al-mal (protecting wealth). Using a quantitative, empirical design, we analyze 1,630 divorce cases handled by the Pengadilan Agama Batang in 2024 and compare costs between conventional hearings and e-court proceedings. The results show a substantial average cost drop of 69.83% with e-court, falling from IDR 737,258 to IDR 222,425. While time efficiency improves modestly by about 5.78%. Statistical tests (p < 0.001) validate the cost savings. We read these gains within the maqāṣid framework: safeguarding and using litigants’ assets efficiently aligns with core ideas in Islamic economics. The cost relief is visible across different socioeconomic groups, even if the distribution is not perfectly even. This paper adds to the growing discussion on Islamic digital governance by showing that e-court can advance Islamic economic objectives and can be viewed as a form of contemporary ijtihad, applying enduring principles to today’s technology. Taken together, the results suggest that digital reforms in Islamic legal institutions are a credible expression of Islamic welfare-economic thinking in a modern setting.