The Reconstruction of Adab Literacy as an Ethical Framework for Understanding Social Behavior in the Digital Era
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61455/sujiem.v4i02.664Keywords:
adab literacy, digital civility, ta'dib, digital ethics, modern social behaviorAbstract
Objective: This research aims to reconstruct adab literacy as a comprehensive ethical framework for understanding modern social behavior in the digital era, directly resolving contemporary conceptual distortions where husnul adab is reduced to superficial politeness and suul adab is simplistically labeled as social non-conformity without underlying moral reflection. Theoretical framework: Grounded in Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas’s concept of ta’dib, the framework integrates the recognition of proper order and knowledge with comparative theoretical perspectives from Lawrence Kohlberg’s moral development stages and Aristotle’s virtue ethics regarding continuous behavioral habituation and personal responsibility. Literature review: The study critically synthesizes foundational Islamic educational philosophy with modern empirical literature on character education, digital civility, social media literacy, cyberbullying mechanisms, and algorithmic interactions to effectively bridge classical normative ethics with contemporary digital communication practices and challenges. Methods: Utilizing a qualitative literature review approach with a conceptual research design, the methodology critically examines primary philosophical texts alongside secondary peer-reviewed journal articles, applying rigorous comparative synthesis and interpretive source validation to construct a logically coherent and integrated analytical framework. Results: Results reveal that adab literacy encompasses three structural domains: adab cognition (conceptual value understanding), adab evaluation (contextual moral judgment), and adab practice (behavioral actualization). Consequently, husnul adab is re-established as dignity-centered ethical behavior, whereas suul adab represents a fundamental failure of moral integrity. Implication: This research offers significant practical and theoretical implications for Islamic education, providing a clear conceptual blueprint for designing digital ethics curricula, enhancing critical moral reasoning among youth, and mitigating online polarization through structured, reflective ethical evaluation across diverse social platforms. Novelty: The study introduces conceptual novelty by transforming classical ta’dib into an operational, contextual literacy instrument for evaluating modern digital interactions objectively and ethically.
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