PENYIMPANGAN MAKNA ISTILAH LARAS KEAGAMAAN ISLAM DI MEDIA SOSIAL: PERSPEKTIF SEMANTIK DAN IMPLIKASI TERHADAP LITERASI AGAMA

MEANING DEVIATION IN ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS REGISTER TERMINOLOGY ON SOCIAL MEDIA: A SEMANTIC PERSPECTIVE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR RELIGIOUS LITERACY

Abstract

Perkembangan pesat media sosial telah menjadikannya medium utama penyebaran maklumat keagamaan dalam kalangan masyarakat Islam di Malaysia. Namun, fenomena ini turut memperlihatkan kecenderungan yang membimbangkan, iaitu penggunaan istilah laras agama Islam secara tidak tepat mengikut konteks sehingga menyimpang daripada makna asal yang diiktiraf dalam tradisi keilmuan Islam. Penyimpangan ini berpotensi menggugat kefahaman akidah, merendahkan adab ilmu, dan menghakis integriti wacana keagamaan digital. Kajian ini bertujuan mengenal pasti istilah-istilah agama Islam yang kerap disalahgunakan di media sosial, membandingkan perbezaan antara makna asal dengan makna dalam penggunaan semasa, serta menilai implikasi linguistik dan keagamaan akibat penyimpangan tersebut. Kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif berpandukan analisis semantik-pragmatik terhadap korpus data yang diekstrak daripada dua platform media sosial utama, iaitu Facebook dan X (Twitter). Enam istilah laras keagamaan dipilih berdasarkan kekerapan dan taburan penggunaannya dalam konteks semasa, iaitu ‘khilaf’, ‘fitnah’, ‘bidʿah’, ‘zalim’, ‘redha’ dan ‘takdir’. Makna asal setiap istilah dirujuk secara sistematik daripada kamus Arab Arab Almaany.com (اﻟﻤﻌﺎﻧﻲ), Kamus Dewan Perdana bagi memastikan ketepatan dan keabsahan sumber ilmiah yang digunakan sebagai asas perbandingan. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan wujudnya tiga bentuk penyimpangan makna yang signifikan dalam penggunaan istilah-istilah tersebut di media sosial, iaitu penyempitan makna (semantic narrowing), peluasan makna (semantic broadening) dan peralihan makna (semantic shift). Penyimpangan makna yang ditemui bukan sahaja menimbulkan kekeliruan semantik dalam kalangan pengguna media sosial, malah berpotensi menjejaskan integriti wacana keilmuan Islam dan menghakis adab perbincangan agama dalam ruang digital. Fenomena ini mencerminkan jurang literasi bahasa agama yang perlu ditangani secara sistematik dan berautoriti. Kajian ini mencadangkan pemantapan literasi bahasa keagamaan dalam platform digital melalui penyediaan garis panduan penggunaan istilah yang tepat, berautoriti dan beretika, selaras dengan tuntutan tradisi ilmu Islam dan keperluan komunikasi semasa. Langkah ini perlu dilaksanakan sebagai suatu keperluan komunikasi dalam masyarakat semasa bagi memastikan kelangsungan wacana keagamaan yang bertepatan, beretika dan berwibawa pada era digital.

The rapid expansion of social media has transformed it into the primary medium for disseminating religious information among Muslim communities in Malaysia. However, this phenomenon has simultaneously revealed a concerning trend — the contextually imprecise use of Islamic religious register terms, to the extent that such usage deviates from the original meanings recognised within the Islamic scholarly tradition. These deviations carry the potential to undermine doctrinal understanding, diminish the etiquette of knowledge (adab al-ilm), and erode the integrity of digital religious discourse. This study aims to identify Islamic religious terms that are frequently misused on social media, compare the differences between their original meanings and their contemporary usage, and assess the linguistic and religious implications arising from such deviations. A qualitative approach guided by semantic-pragmatic analysis was employed on a corpus of data extracted from two major social media platforms: Facebook and X (Twitter). Six Islamic religious terms were selected based on their frequency and distribution of use in contemporary contexts, which are ‘khilaf’, ‘fitnah’, ‘bidʿah’, ‘redha’ , ‘zalim’, and ‘takdir’. The original meaning of each term was systematically referenced from the Arabic-Arabic dictionary, Almaany.com (اﻟﻤﻌﺎﻧﻲ), the Arabic-Malay Dictionary (2022), and the al-Miftah dictionary, to ensure the accuracy and scholarly validity of the sources used as a basis for comparison. The findings reveal three significant forms of semantic deviation in the use of these terms on social media, namely semantic narrowing (penyempitan makna), semantic broadening (peluasan makna), and semantic shift (peralihan makna). The semantic deviations identified not only generate semantic confusion among social media users, but also risk compromising the integrity of Islamic scholarly discourse and eroding the etiquette of religious discussion in digital spaces. This phenomenon reflects a gap in religious language literacy that must be addressed in a systematic and authoritative manner. The study recommends strengthening religious language literacy on digital platforms through the development of guidelines for accurate, authoritative, and ethical use of terminology, in alignment with the demands of the Islamic scholarly tradition and contemporary communicative needs. Such measures should be implemented as a communicative imperative within contemporary society, to ensure the continuity of religious discourse that is accurate, ethical, and credible in the digital era.