Paradigm Shifts in Islamic Law and Governance: From Formalism to Justice, Ethical Politics, Contextual Fiqh, and Dialogical Authority

Hasan Bisri — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Contemporary Muslim societies are experiencing profound transformations that challenge the adequacy of traditional approaches to Islamic law and governance. This study examines four interconnected paradigm shifts that increasingly shape contemporary Islamic thought: the movement from legal formalism to justice-oriented jurisprudence, from the ideal of the Islamic state to ethical politics, from normative fiqh to contextual fiqh, and from hierarchical authority to dialogical authority. Employing a qualitative meta-synthesis design, the study systematically analyzes 138 scholarly works published between 2000 and 2026 and synthesizes their theoretical and empirical insights through thematic analysis. The findings reveal that these transformations are not isolated developments but mutually reinforcing dimensions of a broader intellectual reorientation within contemporary Islamic discourse. Justice emerges as the normative foundation of legal interpretation, ethical politics as its institutional expression, contextual fiqh as its methodological framework, and dialogical authority as its epistemological basis. Together, these shifts reflect growing efforts to reconcile fidelity to Islamic tradition with the demands of pluralism, democratic participation, human dignity, and social change. The study proposes an integrated framework for understanding contemporary Islamic legal and governance reform and argues that the future vitality of Islamic thought depends not on preserving inherited forms, but on realizing the ethical objectives that those forms were originally intended to serve.

Practicing Social Media Fiqh: Motives and Forms of Digital Activism among Santri in Advocating Marginalized Communities and Environmental Issues

Husni Husni, Nisa Nurjanah — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The rapid mediatization of Islam has shifted religious authority from traditional physical pulpits to digital screens, prompting traditional santri (boarding school students) to engage as active digital agents. This qualitative case study investigates how students at Pondok Pesantren Darussalam Ciamis, West Java, negotiate and practice digital activism on social media to advocate for marginalized communities and environmental issues. Drawing on in-depth interviews and field observations, we find that santri activism is driven by profound empathy and a holistic theological synthesis that merges personal piety with social responsibility. The students employ diverse creative forms, including short educational videos, visual infographics, respectful narrative storytelling, and online-to-offline community mobilization. In navigating the ethical hazards of the online attention economy, they practice a lived social media fiqh by deliberately slowing down to apply tabayyun (verification) and prioritizing maslahah (public benefit) over algorithmic reach, while actively preserving human dignity (ḥifẓ al-ʿirḍ) to avoid exploitative representations. Ultimately, this study contributes to bridging the empirical deficit in digital religion studies by demonstrating how traditional jurisprudence operates on the ground, establishing a hybrid framework of "Digital Fiqh Governance" as an ethical compass for contemporary digital spaces.

Religious Studies: An International Journal

Paradigm Shifts in Islamic Law and Governance: From Formalism to Justice, Ethical Politics, Contextual Fiqh, and Dialogical Authority

Practicing Social Media Fiqh: Motives and Forms of Digital Activism among Santri in Advocating Marginalized Communities and Environmental Issues