Rethinking Financial Responsibility in Muslim Families: A Critical Analysis of Nafaqah in Classical and Contemporary Islamic Jurisprudence
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Abstract
Child custody (ḥaḍānah) in classical Islamic family law has traditionally emphasized parental eligibility, gender-based preferences, and hierarchical custodial rules. Although these doctrines provide legal guidance, their application may not adequately address children's safety, psychological development, emotional stability, and changing welfare needs. This study reconstructs ḥaḍānah by integrating maṣlaḥah with the best interests of the child as a child-centered normative framework. Using qualitative normative legal research, it applies conceptual and comparative approaches to classical jurisprudence, contemporary Islamic family law, and international child-rights principles. The analysis suggests that maṣlaḥah offers a substantive basis for reassessing rigid custodial preferences, while the best-interests principle supplies operational criteria for evaluating safety, emotional well-being, developmental needs, continuity of care, and social environments. Accordingly, the study proposes a custody model that prioritizes each caregiver's demonstrated ability to protect children's holistic welfare over parental gender or formal status. This approach seeks to reconcile Islamic legal objectives with contemporary child-rights standards without disregarding relevant jurisprudential foundations. Its contribution is a conceptual framework for more equitable, context-sensitive custody decisions that makes children's interests central to legal reasoning. As a normative proposal rather than an empirically tested model, its practical application requires careful assessment within specific judicial and institutional contexts.
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