Exploring the Lived Meaning of Maslahah in the Judicial Decision-Making of Indonesian Sharia Economic Court Judges

Abstract

The interpretation of maslahah (public interest) has long been a central theme in Islamic jurisprudence, serving as a moral and legal foundation for achieving justice and social welfare. Within the field of Sharia Economic Law, however, the experiential and interpretative dimensions of maslahah in judicial practice remain underexplored, particularly in how judges internalize and apply it in modern economic disputes. Despite extensive normative and doctrinal analyses, little is known about how Sharia judges experience and give meaning to maslahah as a lived ethical and spiritual process in their professional reasoning. Here we show, through a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, that judges’ understanding of maslahah extends beyond textual jurisprudence and emerges as a lived moral consciousness that integrates faith, ethics, and social responsibility. This study involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews with twelve Sharia Economic Court judges across Indonesia, selected purposively to capture diverse experiential backgrounds. Data were analyzed using a multi-stage thematic procedure, including initial coding, horizonalization, clustering of significant statements, and synthesis of essential meanings. Using in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Sharia judges across Indonesia, data were analyzed thematically to uncover layers of experiential meaning embedded in their decision-making. The findings reveal that judges perceive maslahah as a spiritual-ethical framework that guides moral reflection, balances textual authority with contextual realities, and transforms adjudication into an act of worship. This study contributes to a richer understanding of maqasid al-shariah by reframing it as a dynamic, human-centered process rather than a static legal doctrine. The results highlight the importance of incorporating reflective and ethical awareness in judicial training to strengthen integrity and spiritual accountability within Islamic legal practice.