Modern Piety and Religious Revivalism: Unfolding the Role of Social Media in Transforming Dawah Practices in Pakistan

Abstract

This research article focuses on the Tablighi Jamaat and its relationship with emerging technologies and social media. While much has been written about the Islamic movement—its ideology, history, and role in contemporary Muslim societies—the role of social media in the propagation of its revivalist message has largely remained unexplored in academia until now. Based on Participant observation method and the Mediatization theory, this study examines the emerging relationship between new media and revivalist Islam in contemporary Pakistan. The study argues that although the Tablighi movement has not established any official newspaper, television channel, or online website, its younger activists actively use a variety of social media platforms to spread the message of revivalist Islam in wider society. Numerous YouTube channels and Facebook groups regularly share Tablighi-related content in Pakistan. This indicates that despite the conservative nature of the Tablighi activists, the digitalization of modern society has had a significant impact on the missionary movement. Although the Tablighi Movement con­tinues to rely primarily on face-to-face methods of dawah, recent advancements in digital media have given rise to a new phenomenon, which I term the ‘Digitalization of Tabligh’ and the ‘Dawatization of Digital Media.’ University-educated youth belonging to Ge­neration Z have played a significant role in linking digital media with Islamic revivalist movements in Pakistan. This expanding practice of digital da‘wah and tabligh is also evi­dent across numerous Muslim-majority societies.