Optimizing the Role of Muslim Marriage Registrars (Penghulu) in Fostering Sakinah Families in Semarang Regency: An Islamic Family Law Perspective 16 7

Abstract

Marriage administration in Indonesia often emphasizes legal validity and registration, while marital stability depends on how legal norms are understood and practiced throughout family life. This gap raises a socio-legal problem concerning the capacity of the penghulu to connect Islamic family-law norms with the everyday realities of Muslim couples. This article examines the role of penghulu in fostering sakinah families in Semarang Regency and evaluates how that role can be institutionally strengthened. A qualitative socio-legal approach is employed by combining empirical materials on marriage guidance, counseling, consultation, and family practices with normative analysis of Islamic family law. The analysis shows that the penghulu performs administrative, educative, preventive, consultative, and exemplary functions, yet these roles remain constrained by limited time, facilities, human resources, professional capacity, and continuity of services after marriage. Effective family governance requires an integrated model linking premarital guidance, marriage administration, post-marital consultation, and professional referral. The article contributes to legal theory and socio-legal scholarship by conceptualizing the penghulu as a socio-legal actor who mediates between state regulation, Islamic normativity, and lived family realities. This model places legal effectiveness not only on formal compliance but also on institutional capacity to sustain legal consciousness, reciprocal responsibility, family protection, and maslahah