A Maqāṣid-Based Evaluation Framework for Islamic Finance

Islamic finance has expanded globally, yet its normative distinctiveness remains contested because scholars often assess Sharīʿah compliance primarily through contractual form. This article examines how legal validity, substantive fairness, and verifiable outcomes can be integrated into a maqāṣid-based evaluation framework. Using a normative-conceptual approach, the study conducts a critical, integrative literature review drawing on targeted searches of Scopus and Web of Science, classical maqāṣid scholarship, regulatory standards, and selected Indonesian regulations. The analysis reconstructs maqāṣid as normative ends, wasāʾil as legally permissible means and institutional processes, and maʾālāt as consequences that must be assessed through appropriate evidence. This relationship generates three sequential evaluative layers: legal integrity as the initial threshold, substantive fairness as an assessment of implementation, and verifiable outcomes as the basis for assessing whether the stated maqāṣid have been achieved. Governance and accountability connect these layers through Sharīʿah supervision, disclosure, auditing, and corrective mechanisms. The framework follows a non-compensatory logic: positive outcomes cannot legitimise legally invalid transactions, while contractual validity alone cannot establish substantive justice or maqāṣid realisation. The study contributes an integrated evaluative architecture that links Islamic legal discipline with ethical assessment and outcome-based accountability, offering guidance for financial institutions, Sharīʿah supervisory boards, and regulators.