This article examines the role of Arabic in constructing pseudo-religious authority through the dissemination of pseudo-hadiths within narratives of nationalism and work ethic in digital society. The study employs a qualitative approach using Critical Discourse Analysis and hadith takhrij methods. Data were collected from social media posts, digital religious posters, online sermons, and popular hadith quotations circulating across various digital platforms. The findings reveal that Arabic functions as a source of symbolic authority that enhances the religious legitimacy of a message, even when the hadith employed lacks authentic status. Pseudo-hadiths are utilized to reinforce religious-nationalist narratives and Islamic work ethics through visual, symbolic, and emotional strategies supported by social media algorithms. The transformation of digital religious authority has made the acceptance of hadith more dependent on popularity and symbolic representation than on scholarly verification. These findings highlight the importance of hadith literacy and digital literacy in addressing the reproduction of pseudo-religious authority in the digital age.
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