Reconstructing Social Media Ethics for Young Muslims Through Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas's Concept of Ta'dib

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.