DEVELOPING AN ISLAMIC EPISTEMOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATING DIGITAL RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY AND KNOWLEDGE CREDIBILITY IN CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM SOCIETIES: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

The rapid migration of Islamic religious discourse to digital platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, podcasts and AI-driven chatbots has fragmented traditional structures of religious authority and complicated how Muslims judge the credibility of religious knowledge. Existing studies on digital religion largely describe the shifting landscape of online preachers and audiences, but rarely offer an evaluative framework grounded in the Islamic intellectual tradition itself. This study addresses that gap by developing an Islamic epistemological framework for evaluating digital religious authority and knowledge credibility. Adopting a qualitative exploratory design, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with nine purposively selected participants comprising Islamic scholars, academics in Islamic studies, digital da'wah practitioners, a mufti office officer and university students in Malaysia. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis assisted by NVivo. Five major themes emerged: (1) sanad and scholarly lineage as the anchor of authority; (2) 'adalah and moral integrity of the digital preacher; (3) methodological soundness (manhaj) and textual fidelity; (4) the influence of algorithms, popularity and the attention economy on perceived credibility; and (5) tabayyun and community-based verification as epistemic safeguards. Building on these themes and on classical concepts of 'ilm, sanad, 'adalah, dabt and tabayyun, the study proposes the Digital Islamic Epistemic Credibility Framework (DIECF), a five-dimensional model that integrates source legitimacy, character integrity, methodological rigour, contextual awareness and verification practice. The framework offers practical guidance for religious authorities, educators, platform regulators and lay Muslims in navigating religious knowledge online, and contributes theoretically by bridging classical Islamic epistemology with contemporary digital religion scholarship.