MUI Fatwa Commission: Use of Decile System for Social Assistance Permissible in Islam, Provided...
The Vice Chairman of the Fatwa Commission of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Prof KH Shofiyullah Muzammil, has assessed that the use of a decile system in the distribution of subsidies and social assistance (bansos) is permissible from the perspective of Islamic law.
According to him, deciles can be categorised as an administrative innovation oriented towards the public good.
“In Islamic law, deciles fall into the category of beneficial administrative innovation (mashlahah mursalah) which is permissible as long as there is no religious text prohibiting it,” said Kiai Shofiyullah when contacted by Republika.co.id in Jakarta on Sunday (16/8/2026).
He explained that the decile system can actually serve as an instrument to ensure that government assistance is delivered in a targeted and equitable manner.
If the targeted distribution of assistance can only be achieved through the decile system, he said, then the application of that system becomes part of the obligation to realise that objective.
“In fact, if the targeted and equitable distribution of assistance can only be achieved through deciles, then the ruling on creating deciles is the same as the ruling on distributing assistance in a targeted and equitable manner,” he stated.
He then quoted the Islamic legal maxim, “maa laa yatimmul waajibu illa bihi fahuwa waajib”, which means that if an obligation cannot be perfectly fulfilled except through a certain means, then that means also becomes obligatory.
Kiai Shofiyullah added that the practice of collecting data on the population for the purposes of service and distribution also has a basis in Islamic history.
The Prophet Muhammad SAW, he said, once asked his companions to record the names of people who had embraced Islam.
“The Prophet also once asked his companions to record the people who had embraced Islam, ‘uktubu li man talafadza bil islam minan nas’,” he said, quoting a hadith narrated by Bukhari.