The Algorithmic Living Hadith: Prophetic Traditions, Digital Authority, and Muslim Youth Piety in Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14421/livinghadis.2026.7745Keywords:
Living Hadith; Algorithmic Living Hadith; Social Media; Digital Religious Authority; Muslim Youth PietyAbstract
Studies of living hadith have largely emphasized local rituals and community-based religious practice, leaving the role of platform algorithms, digital authority, and audience participation in shaping hadith transmission underexplored. This article addresses that gap by examining how hadith is lived through algorithmic mediation among young Indonesian Muslims. Using a qualitative approach based on netnography of hadith-based content on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, the study investigates: (1) how the form and circulation of hadith transform within algorithmic media; (2) how religious authority is negotiated among digital preachers, da'wah influencers, and audiences; and (3) how young Muslims receive, negotiate, and practice hadith encountered on social media. Findings show hadith undergoing an epistemic shift into concise, visual, emotionally resonant content whose visibility algorithms shape more than chains of transmission do. Religious authority becomes increasingly distributed, negotiated through communicative closeness and engagement metrics, at times in tension with sanad-based legitimacy. This mediation shapes youth piety through improved worship, hijrah, and everyday moral conduct, while exposing hadith to the risk of decontextualization. The article proposes algorithmic living hadith as a framework that extends living hadith studies into the digital-algorithmic space, contributing to digital religion scholarship by positioning algorithms as active mediators of religious meaning.
References
Akmaliah, W. (2020). 13 The Rise of Cool Ustadz: Preaching, Subcultures and the Pemuda Hijrah Movement. In The New Santri (pp. 239–257). ISEAS Publishing. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1355/9789814881487-015/html?lang=en
al-Suyūṭī, J. al-Dīn. (1994). Tadrib al-Rāwī fī Syarḥ Taqrīb al-Nawāwī. Maktabah al-Kauṡar.
Alfi, I., Basit, A., Halwati, U., & Malik, A. (2025). The Transformation Of Religious Practices Of Digital Ummah In The Age Of Algorithms. Al-Qalam : Journal of Religious and Sociocultural, 31(2), 331–345. https://doi.org/10.31969/alq.v31i2.1702
Amin, Z. S., Erawati, D., & Wahid, M. I. (2025). Tradisi Barzanji dan Manakib Sebagai Basis Solidaritas Sosial: Studi Etnografi Migran Demak di Kecamatan Kurun, Kalimantan Tengah. Journal of Islamic Studies and Humanities, 10(1). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.21580/jish.v10i1.28880
Anderson, J. W., & Dale F., E. (2003). New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere.
Assagaf, J. (2022). Historiografi Hadis: Analis Embrio, Pemetaan, dan Perkembangannya. Substantia: Jurnal Ilmu-Ilmu Ushuluddin, 24(1).
Azami, M. M. (2020). Hadis Nabawi dan Sejarah Kodifikasinya (A. M. Ya’qub, Trans.). Pustaka Firdaus.
Brown, J. A. C. (2007). Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Oneworld Academic. https://turan-edu.uz/media/books/2024/05/27/Brown_Jonathan_A_C_Hadith_Muhammads_Lega.pdf
Bucher, T. (2017). The algorithmic imaginary: Exploring the ordinary affects of Facebook algorithms. Information, Communication & Society, 20(1), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1154086
Campbell, H. (2007). Who’s Got the Power? Religious Authority and the Internet. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(3), 1043–1062. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00362.x
Campbell, H. A. (n.d.). Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority. Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved July 10, 2026, from https://www.routledge.com/Digital-Creatives-and-the-Rethinking-of-Religious-Authority/Campbell/p/book/9781138370975
Campbell, H. A. (2010). Religious Authority and the Blogosphere. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(2), 251–276. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01519.x
Campbell, H. A. (Ed.). (2012). Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203084861
Campbell, H. A., & Evolvi, G. (2020). Contextualizing current digital religion research on emerging technologies. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.149
Cheong, P. H., Huang, S., & Poon, J. P. H. (2011). Religious Communication and Epistemic Authority of Leaders in Wired Faith Organizations. Journal of Communication, 61(5), 938–958. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01579.x
Cinelli, M., De Francisci Morales, G., Galeazzi, A., Quattrociocchi, W., & Starnini, M. (2021). The echo chamber effect on social media. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(9), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023301118
Cotter, K. (2019). Playing the visibility game: How digital influencers and algorithms negotiate influence on Instagram. New Media & Society, 21(4), 895–913. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818815684
DeVito, M. A. (2017). From Editors to Algorithms: A values-based approach to understanding story selection in the Facebook news feed. Digital Journalism, 5(6), 753–773. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2016.1178592
Fauzi, M. L., & Pribadi, Y. (2024). Muslim Youth Between Pragmatism, Islamic Concern, And Social Piety: Ulumuna, 28(2), 798–824. https://doi.org/10.20414/ujis.v28i2.877
Fawzi, M., Ross, B., & Magdy, W. (2025). Fabricating Holiness: Characterizing Religious Misinformation Circulators on Arabic Social Media (arXiv:2508.07845). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2508.07845
Genette, G. (with Internet Archive). (1997). Paratexts: Thresholds of interpretation. Cambridge ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press. http://archive.org/details/paratextsthresho0000gene
Gillespie, T. (2014). The Relevance of Algorithms. In T. Gillespie, P. J. Boczkowski, & K. A. Foot (Eds.), Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society (p. 0). The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262525374.003.0009
Haitami, A. A., & Sastra, H. M. (2025). Living Hadis di Era Digital: Konsistensi Keberagamaan dan Adaptasi Media dalam Praktik Tradisi Kenabian Jama’ah Tabligh. Journal of Hadith Studies, 8(2), 150–165. https://doi.org/10.32506/johs.v8i2-05
Hannan, A., & Mursyidi, A. F. (2023). Social Media and the Fragmentation of Religious Authority among Muslims in Contemporary Indonesia. Digital Muslim Review, 1(2), 84–104. https://doi.org/10.32678/dmr.v1i2.10
Haq, D. D., & Kirana, Z. C. (2022). Pembentukan Karakter Religius Santri di Pondok Pesantren Fathul Ulum Kwagean Kediri melalui Kegiatan Mujahadah. Jurnal Kependidikan Islam, 12(2).
Hew, W. W. (2018). The Art Of Dakwah: Social Media, Visual Persuasion and The Islamist Propagation of Felix Siauw. Indonesia and the Malay World, 46(134), 61–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2018.1416757
Hjarvard, S. (2008). The mediatization of religion: A theory of the media as agents of religious change. Nordic Journal of Media Studies, 6, 9–26. https://doi.org/10.1386/nl.6.1.9_1
Ihsan, M. F., & Ashshiddieqi, M. N. (2024). Historiografi Kajian Living Hadis di Indonesia. Journal of Hadith Studies, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.32506/johs.v7i1-04
Istianah. (2020). Era Disrupsi dan Pengaruhnya terhadap Perkembangan Hadis di Media Sosial. Riwayah: Jurnal Studi Hadis, 6(1).
’Itr, N. al-Dīn. (1979). Manhaj al-Naqd fī ’Ūlūm al-Ḥadīṡ. Dār al-Fikr.
Kemp, S. (2025, November 5). Digital 2026: Indonesia [Global Digital Insights]. DataReportal. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2026-indonesia
Kitchin, R. (2017). Thinking critically about and researching algorithms. Information, Communication & Society, 20(1), 14–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1154087
Latib, M. S. A. (2025). Digital Transformation in Hadith Studies (A Comparative Analysis of Hadith Databases and Classical Transmission Methods). TAMMAT (Journal Of Critical Hadith Studies), 3(1). https://ejournal.uinsgd.ac.id/index.php/tammat/article/view/1847
Luthfia, A. D., & Yanuri, Y. R. (2024). Nurturing Piety: The Interplay of New Media, Youth Muslim and Commodification: (Hanan Attaki’s Sharing Time Study Case). Islam Realitas: Journal of Islamic and Social Studies, 10(2), 213–225. https://doi.org/10.30983/islam_realitas.v10i2.8618
Mahmood, S. (2005). Politics of piety: The Islamic revival and the feminist subject (Paperback reissue). Princeton University Press.
Marfu’ah, A. F. (2023). Studi Living Hadis Tradisi Sedekah Bumi sebagai Tanda Rasa Syukur di Desa Genengmulyo. IAIN Kudus.
Morgan, D. (2023). CHAPTER ONE THE PRACTICE OF VISUAL PIETY. In D. Morgan (Ed.), Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images (pp. 21–58). University of California Press. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520923133-005/html?lang=en
Mudin, M. (2019). Islam virtual: Diskursus Hadis, Otoritas, dan Dinamika Keberislaman di Media Sosial (N. Afifah, Ed.). Bildung Nusantara.
Musolin, M., & Mukhtar, N. (2023). Living Hadis Berjama’ah Shalat Empat Puluh Hari pada Masyarakat Desa Salam Kecamatan Gebang Kabupaten Purworejo. Al-Bayan: Jurnal Ilmu al-Qur’an Dan Hadist, 6(1).
Muthohirin, N. (2025). Faith in the Digital Age: The Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism and the Plurality of Young Muslims’ Piety on Social Media. Islamica: Jurnal Studi Keislaman, 19(2), 199–233. https://doi.org/10.15642/islamica.2025.19.2.199-233
Muzakki, M. A. (2025). Operationalizing Hadith in Digital Ta’aruf: A Living Hadith Study of TikTok @taarufmenikah | Ishlah: Jurnal Ilmu Ushuluddin, Adab dan Dakwah. Ishlah: Jurnal Ilmu Ushuluddin, 7(2), 351–366.
Nisa, E. F. (2018a). Creative and Lucrative Daʿwa: The Visual Culture of Instagram amongst Female Muslim Youth in Indonesia. Asiascape: Digital Asia, 5(1–2), 68–99. https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-12340085
Nisa, E. F. (2018b). Social media and the birth of an Islamic social movement: ODOJ (One Day One Juz) in contemporary Indonesia. Indonesia and the Malay World, 46(134), 24–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2017.1416758
Nurfitroh, A., Murtini, N. B., & Abdullah, A. F. L. (2025). The Digital Religious Narratives: Psychological Analysis of al-Najā’ib (Heavenly Conveyances) Hadith in @Alqariomarali Instagram Account. Jurnal Living Hadis, 10(2). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.14421/livinghadis.2025.6993
Qudsy, S. Z., Abdullah, I., Jubba, H., Prasojo, Z. H., & Tanadi Taufik, E. (2023). The making of living ḥadīth: A new direction of ḥadīth studies in Indonesia. Culture and Religion an Interdisiplinary Journal, 23(4), 353–372. https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2024.2336461
Qudsy, S. Z., & Dewi, S. K. (2018). Living Hadis: Praktik, Resepsi, Teks, dan Transmisi. Q Media.
Rafiq, A. (2021). The Living Qur’an: Its Text and Practice in the Function of the Scripture. Jurnal Studi Ilmu-Ilmu Al-Qur’an Dan Hadis, 22(2). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.14421/qh.2021.2202-10
Rizkiy, M. I. (2025). Bridging the Methodological Gap: Emic and Etic Paradigms in Evolving the Living Hadith Studies. Jurnal Living Hadis, 10(2), 139–160. https://doi.org/10.14421/livinghadis.2025.6578
van Dijck, J., Poell, T., & de Waal, M. (2018). The Platform Society. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190889760.001.0001
Völcker, M. (2020). Paratexts on a social network site and their relevance in the production of meaning—Results of a qualitative investigation of Twitter-Feeds. PLoS ONE, 15(9), e0238765. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238765
Zaid, B., Fedtke, J., Shin, D. D., El Kadoussi, A., & Ibahrine, M. (2022). Digital Islam and Muslim Millennials: How Social Media Influencers Reimagine Religious Authority and Islamic Practices. Religions, 13(4), 335. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13040335
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Nur Annisa Istifarin, Syamsudin Syamsudin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
- Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
