Between Sacredness and Entertainment: Exploring the Intentionality of Consuming Islamic Content on Tiktok

Abstract

This article discusses the consumption patterns of digital Islamic preaching content among the younger generation by emphasizing two main aspects: intentionality and religious meaning. Through a descriptive qualitative approach, this study explores the practice of scrolling and interacting with Islamic preaching content on social media, involving five respondents aged 20–28 years who actively use the TikTok platform. The findings show that the consumption of Islamic preaching content is more often incidental, that is, it appears unintentionally in the daily scrolling activity that has become part of their digital habitus. Within Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework, this activity reflects a social disposition formed from the digital cultural environment, rather than from planned spiritual awareness. Furthermore, this study found that da'wah content is not always interpreted as a means of spiritual transformation, but rather as a form of symbolic consumption. The act of liking, saving, or watching short da'wah is often intended to strengthen religious identity symbolically, without having to be accompanied by changes in religious behavior. Digital da'wah has thus experienced a shift in function: from sacred practice to representation of identity in the entertainment landscape and attention economy. This conclusion emphasizes the importance of reading the dynamics of digital religiosity in a more contextual and interdisciplinary manner, especially in contemporary Islamic studies.