Silent Treatment as a Form of Neglect of Marital Obligations: A Legal Reconstruction Based on Mu’asyarah bi al-Ma’ruf and Maqasid al-Shari’ah

Abstract

Silent treatment in marriage refers to the cessation or restriction of communication with a spouse. It may function as a temporary pause to regulate emotions, but it may also become a harmful relational pattern when deliberately, repeatedly, or persistently used to punish or control a spouse. The legal problem concerns the need to distinguish a reasonable communication pause from conduct that conflicts with marital obligations and conduct potentially meeting the elements of a legal violation. This study reconstructs the normative assessment of silent treatment through mu’asyarah bi al-ma’ruf and maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah and examines its relevance to Indonesian positive law. It employs normative legal research with conceptual, statutory, and maqāṣid approaches. Primary legal materials include the Qur’an, relevant hadith, Indonesian marriage legislation, the Compilation of Islamic Law, and Law No. 23 of 2004 on the Elimination of Domestic Violence. A comparison with previous studies indicates that silent treatment has already been discussed in relation to marital ethics, al-hajr, and maqāṣid. Accordingly, this article does not claim to be the first study on the subject. Instead, it proposes a four-stage analytical framework connecting behavioral identification, assessment of marital obligations, evaluation of harm, and determination of legal qualification and proportionate response.