<![CDATA[Article 7 paragraph (3) of the Compilation of Islamic Law limits isbat nikah to five circumstances, and the explanation of the Religious Court Law links this authority to marriages that occurred before 1974. Practice in religious courts moves far from this boundary. This article examines how judges of the Jambi Religious Court Class I A screened applications for isbat nikah for post-1974 marriages submitted on grounds outside Article 7 paragraph (3). Qualitative research with this case approach analyzed two determinations in 2022, one granted and one rejected, interviews with two judges and the junior registrar of applications, court observations, and case data from 2019–2022. The results showed three things. First, the applicant's reasons are administrative and rights-based, such as marriage books, family cards, child birth certificates, and inheritances, and are entirely absorbed by the letter e. Second, the judge uses maslahah to justify the post-1974 marriage examination, not to assess the validity of the marriage itself; the final decision is still taken through testing the harmony, conditions, and prohibitions of marriage. Third, the real filter is the material validity and the absence of legal smuggling. In rejected cases, polygamy without permission is revealed through family cards and divorce certificates, not through witnesses. This article argues that the shift of the filter from reason to validity makes isbat effective in protecting rights, but its filtering of unlicensed polygamy depends on documentary traces that happen to be available. Therefore, the examination of the applicant's marital status needs to be strengthened by verification of population data and directed witness questions.]]>
