Negotiating Faraiḍ and Matrilineal Adat: Inheritance Practice, Women's Property Rights, and Legal Pluralism in a Coastal Muslim Community of North SumatraAHAN SOSIAL (TAGHAYYUR AL-AḤKĀM) DINAMIKA PERUBAHAN HUKUM AKIBAT PERUBAHAN ZAMAN STUDI KASUS FATWA KONTEMPORER DI INDONESIA

Abstract

Indonesia recognises three inheritance regimes, Islamic, customary (adat), and civil, whose coexistence produces recurring tensions in Muslim communities that maintain non-patrilineal kinship systems. This article examines the inheritance practice of the Sumando Ranah Nata community in Natal District, Mandailing Natal Regency, a coastal Muslim society with a matrilineal orientation in which daughters act as the principal heirs and custodians of family houses and land, while sons obtain a share only when property is sold or when daughters voluntarily release it. The study asks how this practice differs from the farāʾiḍ rules codified in the Compilation of Islamic Law, why community members continue to prefer it, and whether it can be reconciled with Islamic legal principles. It uses empirical juridical research combining interviews with family members, customary leaders, and village officials in three neighbourhoods, document analysis, and normative analysis of the Qur'an, the Compilation of Islamic Law, Supreme Court jurisprudence, and the literature on legal pluralism. The findings show that customary distribution rests on three logics: the preservation of family property within the female line, the protection of economically vulnerable women, and the priority of family harmony achieved through deliberation (musyawarah). Although the outcome departs from the fixed shares of farāʾiḍ, the process often operates through mechanisms recognised in Islamic law, namely consensual settlement (ṣulḥ), voluntary relinquishment (takhāruj), and gifts, and Article 183 of the Compilation expressly permits heirs to agree on a peaceful distribution once each knows their share. The article argues that the legitimacy of customary distribution therefore depends on informed consent: where sons and other heirs know their farāʾiḍ entitlements and freely agree, the practice can be accommodated; where consent is presumed or socially compelled, it conflicts with the rights guaranteed by the Qur'an. The study proposes an informed-consent model of inheritance settlement that combines farāʾiḍ calculation, deliberation, and written agreement as a bridge between customary values and Islamic law.