ETHICAL RESTRAINT THROUGH TASAWWUF: REIMAGINING MUSLIM YOUTH’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS DIGITAL PIRACY IN THE CONTEXT OF ISLAMIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ETHICS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJEPC.1164007Keywords:
Digital Piracy, Fiqh, Fatwa, Higher Education, Islamic Ethics, Intellectual Property, Muslim Youth Tasawwuf, Theory of Planned BehaviourAbstract
Digital piracy is a growing concern in the intellectual property (IP) landscape, particularly among university students, who often represent the largest demographic of digital content consumers. While legal and technical solutions have been implemented, ethical and spiritual interventions remain underutilized. This study examines the impact of Tasawwuf education, an Islamic discipline focused on spiritual purification and ethical self-governance, on shaping the attitudes of Muslim university students toward digital piracy. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the study extends the model by incorporating religious elements, such as al-Istiqāmah (steadfastness) and al-Sukūn (inner peace), derived from Tasawwuf Akhlāqi. A quantitative survey was conducted involving 93 Muslim students from public Malaysian universities. Results show that religiosity, when operationalised through Tasawwuf education, significantly predicts ethical awareness and behavioural restraint toward digital piracy. The findings suggest that integrating Tasawwuf-based moral pedagogy into formal Islamic education can contribute towards ethical IP conduct in the digital age. This paper recommends a fiqh-based ethical model for IP awareness among Muslim youth and calls for fatwa institutions and higher education bodies to incorporate spiritually anchored digital ethics into curricula and awareness campaigns.
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