Islamic Right for Women to Claim their Husband’s EPF Contribution according to Maqasid Sharia

Abstract

A wife has the right to claim the property jointly acquired (harta sepencarian) during the marriage period. Claims can be made during the marriage (polygamy), divorce, after death or apostasy. Among the property that is often claimed as property jointly acquired is the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) contribution money, although the claim is often rejected by the Shariah Court due to legal constraints, especially the EPF Act 1991 (Act 452). Hence, the question arises as to the position of the husband's EPF contribution; whether it can be claimed by the wife on the basis of the property or is there another basis? Hence, the objective of this article is to discuss the position of this claim, whether considered as 'wife's rights in accordance with Islamic law’ as opposed to 'property rights' in the Shariah Court. This qualitative study applied a content analysis approach for data collection and the analysis was presented descriptively. The results of the study found that the claim on the husband's EPF is more appropriate in the context of the 'claim of the wife's rights in accordance with Islamic law' than the 'claim of property rights' in the Shariah Court and in accordance with the maqasid syaria.