Integration of Maqasid al-Shariah in the Criminal Law Reform to Achieve Justice and Human Dignity

In this postmodern era, where the boundaries between local and global realities are increasingly indistinct, developing a contextual, ethical, and responsive criminal justice system has become a pressing need. This study seeks to present a model of criminal law reform grounded in maqāṣid al-sharīʿah that is more humane and just, focusing not only on the imposition of sanctions but also on the rehabilitation and restoration of offenders. The study adopts a normative-juridical design, employing a doctrinal analytical approach supported by relevant legal theories to provide a philosophical basis for assessing the application of maqāṣid al-sharīʿah in contemporary criminal law. The findings indicate that integrating maqāṣid al-sharīʿah into criminal law reform in Muslim-majority countries, including Indonesia, should not be regarded merely as symbolic mediation between religious law and human rights. Instead, it constitutes a transformative endeavor that requires epistemological resolve to reassess classical understandings of legal authority and the concept of justice. In the midst of globalization, which challenges the standing of religious law and calls for stronger protection of human dignity, maqāṣid function not as passive theological ideals but as active principles that oblige the law to safeguard life, intellect, freedom, and social welfare in concrete and verifiable ways. The effort to incorporate maqāṣid-based criminal law principles into modern legal systems in Muslim-majority contexts is not a short-term undertaking; it demands a shift from textualism to contextualism, from legalism to human-centered reasoning, and from conservatism to intellectual boldness.