Khazanah Journal of Religion and Technology
The Khazanah Journal of Religion and Technology is dedicated to advancing the understanding of the complex relationship between religion and technology. The journal aims to serve as a platform for publishing original research that explores the intersection of these two domains, focusing on recent and contemporary media and technology. The journal welcomes empirical research that investigates how religious ideas and practices are communicated, studied, represented, enforced, and countered through various technological means. This includes but is not limited to the examination of religion in films, social media, games, websites, applications, and television. We invite researchers to contribute studies that shed light on the diverse aspects of the interaction between religion and technology. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to The role of technology in religious communication, Exploring how religious communities and individuals utilize technology to disseminate religious messages, engage with believers, and foster virtual religious experiences. Digital religious practices and rituals, Investigating the emergence and impact of online religious practices, virtual religious communities, and digital rituals. Religion and social media, Examining the influence of social media platforms on religious discourse, religious identity formation, and religious movements. Religious representation in media and popular culture: Analyzing the portrayal of religion, religious figures, and religious narratives in films, television shows, video games, and other forms of media. Ethical implications of religious technology, Addressing ethical considerations and challenges arising from the integration of technology into religious practices, such as data privacy, digital surveillance, and the preservation of religious authenticity. Technological innovations in religious institutions, Investigating how religious institutions adopt and adapt to new technologies, including the development of religious websites, applications, virtual reality experiences, and interactive installations. While the journal encourages research from diverse religious traditions, literary genres, and geographic areas, the emphasis remains on contemporary and recent phenomena in the realm of religion and technology. Theological writings, however, fall outside the scope of the journal and are not typically accepted for publication. The Khazanah Journal of Religion and Technology seeks to foster interdisciplinary scholarship, encouraging contributions from researchers in fields such as religious studies, media studies, communication studies, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and computer science. The journal aims to contribute to the social-scientific conversation and promote a nuanced understanding of the dynamic relationship between religion and technology in todays digital age.
Articles
35 Documents
Digital Hindu Influencers and Contemporary Spiritual Discourse
Aiswarya S Nair
Khazanah Journal of Religion and Technology Vol. 4 No. 1 (2026): June
Publisher : Asosiasi Khazanah Cendekia
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DOI: 10.66948/kjrt.41.47
With the proliferation of cheap internet, smartphones, and government-funded digital initiatives, social media platforms have emerged as powerful areas for disseminating ideological as well as religious content. Hindu spiritual leaders, like Sadhguru, Devdutt Pattanaik, and Gaur Gopal Das, have capitalized on these platforms to propagate the Hindu philosophy in a renewed form, which intertwines self-help narratives and spiritual discourse. These “Hindu” influencers claim to democratize spiritual knowledge and offer accessible wisdom, but their digital presence simultaneously raises critical concerns regarding the commercialization of faith, algorithmic amplification of ideology, and the erasure of caste, gender, and class inequalities. This paper examines how these digital religious figures utilize social media to cultivate charismatic authority, build unidirectional relationships, and monetize spiritual content. It debriefs the implications of such trends for pluralism, religious identity, and public discourse in India. Furthermore, the study draws parallels with digital influencers in Christianity and Islam to locate Hindu digital spirituality within a global paradigm of online religious transformation. The paper also examines how digital Hinduism marginalizes embodied and erotic ways of knowing, especially those rooted in Bhakti and female devotion, in favour of sanitized spiritual performances.
Evaluation of DistilBERT and BiLSTM Models for the Development of Islamic Chatbots Based on Tag Classification
Muhammad Rizki Al-Fathir;
Muhammad Saifurridwani 'Ijazi;
Nabila Lailatanzila;
Nirwan Rasyid Ridlo;
Riza Anwar Fadil
Khazanah Journal of Religion and Technology Vol. 4 No. 1 (2026): June
Publisher : Asosiasi Khazanah Cendekia
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DOI: 10.66948/kjrt.41.51
This study evaluates the performance of DistilBERT and Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) models for intent classification in Islamic chatbots, with the main challenge being a highly imbalanced dataset containing 2,031 unique intents. Following the CRISP-DM methodology, the DistilBERT model was fine-tuned using Focal Loss to address class imbalance, while the BiLSTM model was built from scratch with a standard loss function. The evaluation results demonstrated the absolute superiority of DistilBERT, achieving an accuracy of 65.15%, far surpassing BiLSTM, which achieved only 34.50% due to severe overfitting. Although the final model sizes of both were similar, DistilBERT training proved to be significantly more efficient. These findings demonstrate that a Transformer-based architecture combined with an appropriate strategy, such as Focal Loss, is a much more robust and effective solution for large-scale, imbalanced text classification in specific domains. The practical feasibility of this approach was validated through its successful implementation in a publicly accessible, functional chatbot prototype.
Tajweed Pattern Analysis in the 30th Juz of Qur’an Using the Apriori Algorithm
Nazwa Revalina Azzahra Djuarsah;
Marisah Lofiana;
Mochammad Khaerul Ilman;
Rizki Surya Gani;
Gallung Marwan Haqiqi Hafidz
Khazanah Journal of Religion and Technology Vol. 4 No. 1 (2026): June
Publisher : Asosiasi Khazanah Cendekia
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DOI: 10.66948/kjrt.41.54
Tajweed knowledge plays an important role in maintaining the integrity and beauty of the recitation of the Qur'an. However, tajweed learning is often conventional and less data-driven. This study aims to analyze the pattern of the emergence of tajweed rules in the 30th Juz of the Qur'an using the Apriori algorithm, a data mining method capable of efficiently identifying associations between items. The dataset used consists of 564 verses, which are classified into 22 categories of tajweed rules based on manual analysis from trusted sources. Through the process of data transformation and the application of Apriori, several significant patterns of the emergence of tajweed rules were obtained. The Mad Thobii rule is the most dominant with the highest support value of 79.96%. The combination of patterns with the highest confidence value was found in the (Ghunnah) → (Mad Thobii) rule at 83.11%, indicating a strong relationship between the two rules. These findings are expected to provide new insights in data-based tajweed learning and become a reference in the development of interactive media for learning the Qur'an. In the future, this research can be expanded to encompass the entire Quran and other association algorithms, such as FP-Growth, can be applied to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of tajweed pattern analysis. This research represents an initial step toward utilizing data to strengthen adaptive and relevant religious learning.
Digitized Presence: Refracted Spiritual Realities in Contemporary Nigeria
Ndidi Justice Gbule;
Patrick Eluke
Khazanah Journal of Religion and Technology Vol. 4 No. 1 (2026): June
Publisher : Asosiasi Khazanah Cendekia
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DOI: 10.66948/kjrt.41.49
Presence has often been tied to physical proximity. In contemporary Nigerian Christianity, however, this assumption is increasingly difficult to sustain. This paper argues that digital mediation does not simply extend worship into virtual space; it reconfigures what counts as spiritual presence in the first place. Existing scholarship tends to treat media as channels of transmission or as sites of hybrid practice. While useful, such approaches do not go far enough. They leave largely unexamined the question of how presence itself is being reconstituted. Drawing on interpretive engagement with livestream services, WhatsApp prayer exchanges, and social media devotional practices, the paper develops the concept of refracted spiritual presence. The argument is that digital platforms do not merely carry religious content; they reshape the conditions under which presence is recognized, experienced, and authorized. In this setting, participation no longer depends on co-location. Acts such as typing “Amen,” sharing prayer messages, or joining a livestream become part of a wider field of mediated yet effective religious practice. At the same time, this transformation is not without tension. The increased circulation of spiritual content raises questions about commodification, visibility, and the shifting grounds of authority. What emerges is not the disappearance of presence, but its redistribution across interfaces, interactions, and everyday digital routines.
Hadith Topic Modeling Based on Theme Similarity with the BERTopic Algorithm
Irma Dwiyanti;
Gevira Zahra Shofa;
Muhammad Alfiyan Nurwahibulloh Rohayana;
Muhammad Ahsani Taqwim;
Idfa Billati Hiya Ahsan
Khazanah Journal of Religion and Technology Vol. 4 No. 1 (2026): June
Publisher : Asosiasi Khazanah Cendekia
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DOI: 10.66948/kjrt.41.53
This study aims to develop a hadith topic modeling system based on thematic similarity using the BERTopic algorithm to support more structured and efficient Islamic studies. The research method uses a data exploration-based approach with the BERTopic algorithm that combines BERT semantic representation, UMAP dimensionality reduction, and HDBSCAN clustering. The dataset used is sourced from Kaggle containing thousands of hadith texts in English from various books, which are processed through the stages of data pre-processing, embedding transformation, and evaluation using topic coherence metrics and interactive visualization. The results show that BERTopic successfully identified 292 topics with clear visualization through the Intertopic Distance Map and Topic Similarity Heatmap; however, approximately 55.4% of documents are categorized as outliers due to high semantic variation and limited context. Despite the challenges in handling outlier documents, this study proves that BERTopic is effective in clustering hadith based on thematic similarity and producing semantically coherent topics. The resulting model can be the basis for the development of a hadith recommendation system, classification of da'wah content, and a theme-based religious learning curriculum, as well as opening up opportunities for the application of NLP technology in Islamic studies more broadly.