Contesting the Meaning of Jihad Hadith: Text, Religious Discourse, and Social Practice in Contemporary Indonesian Islam

Abstract

Jihad is frequently reduced in digital public discourse to military action and religious violence, thereby contributing to Islamophobia and social instability, even though the hadith corpus associates jihad with diverse forms of ethical, spiritual, social, political, and defensive struggle. Previous studies have extensively examined the theological meanings of jihad and its appropriation by extremist movements; however, limited attention has been given to how the authority of jihad hadiths is discursively produced, reproduced, and contested within contemporary digital social practices. This study analyzes the discursive construction of jihad hadiths in Indonesia using Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework, encompassing text, discursive practice, and social practice, based on data drawn from online media. The findings demonstrate that the meaning of jihad hadiths is not static but constitutes a dynamic arena of discursive contestation. Mainstream civic Muslim actors, particularly Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, recontextualize jihad narratives to legitimize humanitarian action, social transformation, constitutional advocacy, and peace, whereas militant-jihadist actors selectively reproduce the same religious repertoire to legitimize violence and armed struggle. The study further demonstrates that the authority of hadith in the contemporary digital public sphere is shaped not solely by classical evaluations of transmission (sanad), but also by processes of textual selection, intertextuality, institutional appropriation, circulation, and relations of power. Theoretically, this article contributes to contemporary hadith studies by positioning interpretation as an arena of contestation over religious authority and legitimate social action, thereby bringing hadith studies into closer dialogue with critical discourse analysis.