Hoax from the Perspective of Islamic Legal Thought: Reactivating Qat‘i-Zanni in the Post-Truth Era
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The widespread dissemination of news in the Post-Truth era, relying on content and the speed of sharing without critically questioning its source or the transmitter, has an impact on subjective claims of truth that are prone to causing conflicts. This article discusses the issue of the spread of hoaxes in the Post-Truth era from an Islamic legal perspective. This study investigates the criteria by which news (al-khabar) is deemed true or false based on its source and transmitter. It highlights the importance of using qat‘i-zanni (definitive-presumptive) reasoning to assess the credibility of news sources and the quality of their transmitters as a procedure for analyzing the truthfulness of reported information. Through a combination of qualitative methods from Islamic legal literature and modern philosophy, the research finds that qat‘i-zanni reasoning can be used critically to determine the validity of information in the digital age. The conclusion suggests that all information shared in the Post-Truth era should be treated as presumptive, not definitive.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
‘Abd al-Rahman, Taha. Tajdid al-Manhaj fi Taqwim al-Turath. Beirut: Markaz Thaqafi, 2012.
Al-Shanqiti, Ahmad bin Mahmud ‘Abd al-Wahab. Khabar al-Wahid wa Hujjatuh. Madinah: al-Jami‘ah al-Islamiyyah, 2002.
Al-Amidi, Sayf al-Din. Al-Ihkam fi Usul al-Ahkam. Saudi Arabia: Dar Sami‘, 2003.
Al-Asnawi, Jamal al-Din. Nihayah al-Sul fi Sharh Minhaj al-Usul. Cairo: Alam al-Kutub, n.d.
Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad. “Qanun al-Ta’wil.” In Majmu‘ah Rasa’il Imam al-Ghazali. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab, n.d.
Al-Jawzi, ‘Abd al-Rahman bin ‘Ali. Kitab al-Mawdu‘at. Madinah: al-Nashir Muhammad ‘Abd al-Muhsin, 1992.
Al-Juwayni, Abu al-Ma‘ali. Al-Burhan fi Usul al-Fiqh. Cairo: Dar al-Wafa’, 2010.
Al-Juwayni, Abu al-Ma‘ali. Al-Waraqat. Saudi Arabia: Dar Sami‘, 1996.
Al-Khin, Muhammad Mu‘adh Mustafa. Al-Qat‘i wa al- Zanni fi al-Thubut wa al-Dalalah ‘ind al-Usuliyyin. Damascus: Dar Kalim, 2007.
Al-Na’im, Abdullah Ahmed. Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights and International Law. Cairo: American University, 2012.
Al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din. Al-Mahsul fi ‘Ilm al-Usul. Beirut: Mu’assasah al-Risalah, 2008.
Al-Shafi‘i, Muhammad bin Idris. Al-Risalah. Cairo: Dar al-Turath, 2005.
Al-Shirazi, Abu Ishaq. Al-Luma‘ fi Usul al-Fiqh. Beirut: Dar al-Kattani, 2013.
Al-Subki, Taj al-Din. Jam‘ al-Jawami‘ fi Usul al-Fiqh. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, n.d.
Al-Zarkashi, Badr al-Din. Al-Bahr al-Muhit fi Usul al-Fiqh. Cairo: Wizarah Awqaf wa al-Shu’un al-Islamiyyah, 1988.
Ali, Mohammad. “Fake-News Network Model: A Conceptual Framework for Strategic Communication to Deal with Fake News.” International Journal of Strategic Communication 16(1) (2022): 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2021.1988616
Allcott, Hunt & Gentzkow, M.. “Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 31(2) (2003): 211-236. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.31.2.211
Pratama, B., et al., “Legal Perspective of the Internet Hoax,” The 1st Workshop on Multimedia Education, Learning, Assessment and its Implementation in Game and Gamification WOMELA-GG, COMDEV 2018, Medan Indonesia, 26th January 2019, http://dx.doi.org/10.4108/eai.26-1-2019.2283207.
Baptista, João Pedro & Anabela Gradim. “Understanding Fake News Consumption: A Review.” Social Sciences 9(10) (2020): 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9100185
Bello, Abdulmajeed Hassan. “Islamic Law and Islamic Ethics: Interrogating the Relationship.” International Journal of Religions and Tradition 2(1) (2016): 9-18.
Belloir, Nicolas et. al., “Conceptual Characterization of Fake News: A Positioning Paper,” 16th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS’22), Barcelona, Spain, 2022: 1-8.
El Fadl, Khaled Abou. “Qur’anic Ethics and Islamic Law.” Journal of Islamic Ethics 1 (2017): 7-28. https://doi.org/10.1163/24685542-12340002
European Commission. A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Disinformation. Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union, 2018.
Hourani, George F.. “Ghazali on the Ethics of Action.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 96(1) (1976): 69–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/599890
Grieve, Jack & Woodfield, Helena. The Language of Fake News, 1st ed. Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Gupta, Manjul, et al.. “Fake News Believability: The Effects of Political Beliefs and Espoused Cultural Values.” Information & Management 60(2) (2023): 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2022.103745
Hanafi, Hassan. Min al-Nass ila al-Waqi‘. Cairo: Markaz al-Kutub, 2005.
Harsin, Jayson. “Post-Truth and Critical Communication.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Walsh, James P.. “Social Media and Moral Panics: Assessing the Effects of Technological Change on Societal Reaction.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 23(6) (2020): 840–859. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920912257
Johnston, David. “A Turn in the Epistemology and Hermeneutics of Twentieth Century Usul Al-Fiqh.” Islamic Law and Society 11(2) (2004): 233–282. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156851904323178764
Juditha, Christiany. “Interaksi Komunikasi Hoax di Media Sosial serta Antisipasinya.” Jurnal Pekommas 3(1) (2018): 31-44.
Kant, Immanuel. “Critique of Pure Reason.” In Basic Writing of Kant, ed. Allen W. Wood. New York: The Modern Library-Classic, 2001.
Khalaf, ‘Abd al-Wahhab. ‘Ilm Usul al-Fiqh. Cairo: Maktabah Da‘wah Islamiyyah, n.d.
Kholid, I Ketut Darma Laksana & I Nengah Sudipa. “The Hoax News Text on Social Media: A Critical Discourse Study.” International Journal of English Language Studies 3(10) (2021): 14–21. https://doi.org/10.32996/ijels.2021.3.10.3
Lynch, Jack. Deception and Detection in Eighteenth-Century Britain. New York: Routledge, 2016.
MacDougall, Curtis D. Hoaxes. New York: Dovar Publication, 1958.
Maragno, Lucas Martins Dias & Borba, José Alonso. “Conceptual Map of Fraud: Theoretical and Empirical Configuration of International Studies and Future Research Opportunities.” Journal of Education and Research in Accounting (REPeC) 11 (Special Edition) (2017): 41-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.17524/repec.v11i0.1665
Marlianingsih, Noni, Yumna Rasyid & Ninuk Lusyantie. “Online Media and Politics: Critical Discourse Analysis About Hoax News.” Advance in Social Science, Education, and Humanities Research (2020): 156-161. http://dx.doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201230.030
Munitz, Milton K.. Contemporary Analytic Philosophy. New York: Macmillian, 1981.
Olan, Femi, et al.. “Fake News on Social Media: the Impact on Society.” Information Systems Frontiers (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-022-10242-z
Opwis, Felicitas. Maslaha and the Purpose of the Law: Islamic Discourse on Legal Change from the 4th/10th to the 8th/14th Century. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Park, Keonyoung & Hyejoon Rim. “Click First!: The Effects of Instant Activism Via a Hoax on Social Media.” Social Media+Society 6(2) (2020): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120904706
Parrot, Justin, “Finding Truth in Age of Misinformation; Information Literacy in Islam,” Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, December 12, 2019: 1-19, https://yaqeeninstitute.org.my/read/paper/finding-truth-in-the-age-of-fake-news-information-literacy-in-islam
Fuller, Steve. “What can Philosophy Teach Us about the Post-Truth Condition.” Springer Nature Singapore (2018): 13-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8013-5_2
Quadri, Junaid. “Moral Habituation in the Law: Rethinking the Ethics of the Shari’a.” Islamic Law and Society 26 (2019): 191-226. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685195-00263P01
Rabb, Intisar A. & Sharon Tai. “Digital Islamic Law: Purpose and Prospect.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 50(1) (2018): 113-118. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743817000988
Rahayu, Wien Hesthi. “Decoding Hoax on the Issue of Religious Politicizations on Indonesia on New Media Era.” International Journal of Progressive Sciences and Technologies (IJPSAT) (2018): 112-116. http://dx.doi.org/10.52155/ijpsat.v7.1.350
Russell, Bertrand. An Inquiry Into Meaning and Truth. London: George Allen and Unwin LTD, 1941.
Salam, Aprinus. “The Hoax Phenomenon in Indonesian Society: Observing Anti-Diversity Memes Since 2014.” Humaniora 30 (2018): 315-324. https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.38891
Henri Septanto. “Pengaruh Hoax dan Ujaran Kebencian: Sebuah Cyber Crime dengan Teknologi Sederhana di Kehidupan Sosial Masyarakat,” Kalbis Scientia: Jurnal Sain dan Teknologi 5 (2018): 157-162.
Sousa-Silva, Rui. “Fighting the Fake: A Forensic Linguistic Analysis to Fake News Detection.” International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue Internationale de Sémiotique Juridique 35(6) (2022): 2409–2433. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-022-09901-w
Spera, Rebekah & David M. Pena-Guzman. “The Anatomy of a Philosophical Hoax: The Politics of Delegitimation in Contemporary Philosophy.” Metaphilosophy 50(1-2) (2019): 156-174. https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12343
Syahid, Al-Hasan. Nazariyyah al-Tajdid al-Usuli min al-Ishkal ila al-Tahrir. Saudi Arabia: Markaz Nama, 2012.
Tacchini, Eugenio, et al.. “Some Like It Hoax: Automated Fake News Detection in Social Networks.” In Technical Report UCSC-SOE-17-05, School of Engineering. Santa Cruz: University of California, 2017: 1-12. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1704.07506
Thaib, Erwin Jusuf, “Hoax in Social Media and its Threats to Islamic Moderation in Indonesia,” Proceeding of International Converence on Da’wa and Communication, 2020: 259-269, https://doi.org/10.15642/icondac.v2i1.386
The Editors of Lingua Franca. The Sokal Hoax: The Sham That Shook the Academy. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
Tukina & Marta Sanjaya. “Information Hoax in Political Years 2019: Learning and Challenges,” Proceeding, KNE Social Sciences: 3rd International Research Conference on Economics and Business, 2020: 424-438. https://doi.org/10.18502/kss.v4i7.6872
Utami, Pratiwi. “Hoax in Modern Politics: The Meaning of Hoax in Indonesian Politics and Democracy.” Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik 22(2) (2018): 85-97. https://doi.org/10.22146/jsp.34614
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigation. London: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
Zaluchu, Sonny Eli. “Dinamika Hoax, Post-Truth, dan Response Reader Criticism di Dalam Rekonstruksi Beragama.” Religio: Jurnal Studi-Studi Agama 10(1) (2020): 98-117. https://doi.org/10.15642/religio.v10i1.1310