Emergency Marriage Practices Following Premarital Pregnancy and Their Implications for Family Structure: A Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah Analysis in Penujak Village

Abstract

Limited empirical understanding of emergency marriage following premarital pregnancy constrains knowledge of its implications for family structure in rural Muslim communities. This study examined the processes underlying emergency marriage, its implications for family structure, and its alignment with maqāṣid al-sharīʿah in Penujak Village, Central Lombok. A descriptive qualitative design involved 15 purposively selected couples. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis involving couples, family members, religious and community leaders, and marriage-service personnel. Analysis combined inductive thematic coding with deductive interpretation through the maqāṣid al-sharīʿah framework. Pregnancy emerged as a critical trigger that transformed private relationships into collective family concerns, accelerating family deliberation, community mediation, and marriage arrangements. Emergency marriage provided immediate social recognition, clarified parental responsibility, and was perceived as protecting the unborn child. However, postmarital experiences included psychological distress, economic unpreparedness, relational conflict, role adjustment, and complex family structures, indicating that marriage alone did not ensure sustained family welfare. The study concludes that maṣlaḥah in emergency marriage is conditional and process-oriented, requiring the integration of ḥifẓ al-nasl with ḥifẓ al-nafs, ḥifẓ al-ʿaql, and ḥifẓ al-māl. It proposes a two-stage conceptual model comprising immediate protective resolution and substantive family sustainability. The findings support premarital counseling, psychosocial support, economic preparation, child protection, and postmarital assistance, while identifying longitudinal and multisite research as necessary to evaluate the proposed model.