From Moral Anxiety to Legal Vulnerability: The Commodification of Religious Certainty in Online Nikah Siri Services in Cilacap, Indonesia

This study examines the commodification of religious authority that transforms moral anxiety surrounding unregistered marriage (nikah siri) into commercial services in Cilacap Regency, Central Java, and its implications for legal protection. Using a qualitative socio-legal approach, primary data were collected through in-depth WhatsApp interviews with five core informants (two service providers, one marriage officiant, and two service users of the Facebook account “Jasa Nikah Siri Cilacap”), supplemented by an interview with the head of a local Office of Religious Affairs (KUA) during September 2024–March 2025, alongside analysis of promotional materials and transaction messages. The findings reveal that service providers utilize anti-adultery narratives to operate a structured business featuring tiered fees, a 50% down payment, and instant wali hakim appointments without adequate tafahhus (background verification). Applying Carrette and King’s spiritual commodification theory and Jasser Auda’s systems-based Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah, the analysis demonstrates how religious authority becomes a purchasable feature, creating perceived religious certainty without corresponding formal legal protection. This arrangement potentially exposes wives and children to legal vulnerabilities concerning maintenance, inheritance, and civil status, although such harms were not documented among the informants. The study concludes that online nikah siri cannot be evaluated solely through jurisprudential validity but requires greater attention to its multidimensional legal consequences, stronger oversight of commercial marriage intermediaries, and improved access to official marriage registration.