Islamic law-based knowledge management framework for divorce mediation in religious courts

Abstract

This study develops a conceptual knowledge management framework informed by Islamic law to support divorce mediation in Indonesian Religious Courts. It employs qualitative secondary analysis of dissertation findings from five Class IB Religious Courts within the jurisdiction of the Padang Religious High Court, aggregate mediation data for 2020–2024, and literature on knowledge management, organizational learning, digital transformation, and AI governance. Of 18,033 registered divorce cases, 3,065 (17.00%) were recorded as undergoing mediation. Among these mediated cases, 1,504 (49.07%) were unsuccessful, 485 (15.82%) were fully successful, 894 (29.17%) were partially successful, 68 (2.22%) were not conducted, and 114 (3.72%) remained in progress. The findings highlight the need to strengthen knowledge documentation, mediator learning, institutional knowledge sharing, and responsible digital knowledge use. In response, the article proposes six components of the Islamic law-informed knowledge management framework for religious Courts (IKM-RC): knowledge identification and creation; knowledge capture and codification; validation and digital repository; knowledge sharing and organizational learning; AI-assisted knowledge utilization; and evaluation and continuous improvement. The framework integrates sulh and maqasid al-shari'ah as normative orientations, alongside confidentiality, source traceability, accountability, and human oversight. IKM-RC is a conceptual proposal rather than a validated intervention; expert review, prototype development, and empirical evaluation are required before its practical effectiveness can be assessed.