MUI’s Environmental Fatwa on Waste Disposal: An Epistemological Study of Islamic Environmental Ijtihad and Its Alignment with Indonesian Environmental Law

This study examines the epistemological construction of the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI) fatwa prohibiting waste disposal into rivers, lakes, and seas, and its relevance to Indonesian positive environmental law. Using normative legal research with conceptual and philosophical approaches, the study analyzes primary legal sources, including the fatwa, environmental legislation, and Islamic jurisprudential texts. The findings show that the fatwa represents an integrative environmental ijtihad combining Qur’anic principles, Prophetic traditions, juristic maxims, and maq??id al-shar?‘ah. It reflects an epistemological shift toward context-sensitive and sustainability-oriented Islamic legal reasoning. The study also reveals strong normative convergence between the fatwa and Indonesian environmental laws, particularly Law No. 32 of 2009 and Law No. 18 of 2008. Positioned as religious soft law, the fatwa strengthens environmental legal culture and complements state regulatory mechanisms through moral legitimacy.