Reconstructing Social Media Ethics for Young Muslims Through Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas's Concept of Ta'dib
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Systematic Review
Abstract: Social media use among Muslim youth is often linked to misinformation, cyberbullying, and weakening shame (haya'). Islamic responses tend either to list prohibitions or to adapt secular digital-ethics frameworks, and the few studies that apply Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas's ta'dib to digital ethics remain largely at the level of values. This article asks why rule-based approaches fall short and how ta'dib can become an operational framework for social media ethics. It uses a qualitative systematic literature review with framework synthesis, drawing on al-Attas's primary works and a screened corpus of scholarly sources published between 2000 and 2026, coded through six-phase thematic analysis. Three findings emerge. First, speed, anonymity, and attention-driven design weaken the three conditions on which ta'dib depends: recognition of the proper order of things, exemplary models, and God-consciousness. Second, tabayyun, amanah, qawl sadid, and muraqabah operate as an ordered sequence of receiving, holding, expressing, and self-monitoring, each with observable indicators. Third, these principles can be implemented through a Ta'dib-Based Pedagogical Framework for Digital Ethics covering curriculum, pedagogy, teacher formation, institutional culture, and family-community partnership. The framework complements rather than replaces governance-oriented digital ethics. Its propositions remain to be tested empirically.
Authors: Marzuqi, Badrus Shalih, Tahir Iqbal Lone
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7224992898