From Turāth to Digital Knowledge: Islamic Intellectual Traditions and the Future of Religious Learning

Firdah Nailil Karimah; Ahmad Luthvan Habiburrahman; Warda Mardiana Tambunan; Jesimawati Jesimawati

Authors

Firdah Nailil Karimah Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Bangil
Ahmad Luthvan Habiburrahman Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Bangil
Warda Mardiana Tambunan Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau
Jesimawati Jesimawati Institut Ilmu Al-Qur’an (IIQ) Jakarta

Keywords:

turāth, digital islamic knowledge, religious learning, islamic education, artificial intelligence

Abstract

The study responds to the problem that Islamic knowledge is now accessed through digital libraries, online courses, social media platforms, mobile applications, searchable databases, and artificial intelligence-assisted tools, yet the epistemic and pedagogical consequences of this shift remain insufficiently theorized. Using a qualitative conceptual-interpretive design, the article combines conceptual analysis, hermeneutic textual interpretation, digital content analysis, and comparative media analysis of publicly accessible Islamic learning materials, digital platforms, and relevant scholarly literature. The findings show four main transformations. First, digital platforms re-mediate turāth into searchable, modular, and platform-dependent knowledge infrastructures. Second, digital learning environments reshape the classical relationship between text, teacher, learner, and institution by redistributing pedagogical authority across platforms, applications, learners, and digital publics. Third, digital Islamic knowledge expands access while also producing epistemic risks, including fragmentation, simplification, decontextualization, and weakened interpretive depth. Fourth, artificial intelligence-assisted religious learning raises future-oriented questions about source transparency, scholarly supervision, privacy, accountability, and ethical governance. The article contributes theoretically by integrating Islamic intellectual history, Islamic education, digital religion, mediatization theory, platform studies, and artificial intelligence ethics into a framework for understanding the future of religious learning. It argues that digital Islamic learning must be governed in ways that expand access while preserving the depth, plurality, discipline, and ethical responsibility of turāth.

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