How is the digital age reshaping our knowledge of deen? Today, it is increasingly common to query a search engine for a quick fiqh answer than to seek counsel from a scholar.

Yahya Birt analyzes this trend, and examines the differences between the Google and Wikipedia approach to Islamic knowledge. Which approach will pave the way for the future? Will these trends threaten the traditional process of sacred learning?

The nature of the mass media has changed for good. Whereas it used to be hierarchical, elitist, linear and declarative, it is becoming individualised, demotic, non-linear, and interactive. In the age of print, television and to a lesser extent radio, there used to be an editorial process and a relatively high economic cost to media exposure, but, in the digital age, samizdat multimedia has become the norm and not the exception. Anyone can now publish and project their views globally. They can claim to speak for Islam, issue a “fatwa”, proffer advice, and provide counselling or spiritual guidance. Religious leaders struggle too to project any measure of decorum or scholarly expertise in religious debate in the new media, for it is difficult to be both player and referee in the same game.