Panel: UNDERSTANDING GEN Z'S APPROACH TO RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY



487.4 - FROM DIGITAL PULPITS TO MOSQUES: UNDERSTANDING THE TRANSITION OF RELIGIOUS INQUIRIES AND AUTHORITY AMONGST PAKISTANI METROPOLITAN GEN-Z

AUTHORS:
Azam Z. (Forman Christian College University Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. ~ Lahore ~ Pakistan)
Text:
During the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims globally exhibit stronger inclination towards their faith-based practices and religiosity in general, my inbox started to pop-up with multiple links to Instagram reels and Tik-Tok videos sent by my students, with queries pertinent to highly nuanced religious practices rooted in Islamic jurisprudence. The videos appeared to be mostly discrediting what's usually taught in their classrooms over the stretch of 16 weeks. I wanted to divert some of these questions to the local on-campus Imam, but the students persisted that I provide them with some online podcasts/ bite size 'khutba' (Muslim Friday sermon)/ reels/ AI based 'Muslim chatbots' etc. as it's a prompt and convenient way for them to have their questions answered, the demand left me bewildered. For the past seven years I have been teaching 120-130 students in each semester, presenting gradual but remarkable evolution of problematized human inquiry that have been invigorated by the digital boom that Gen-Z was born with. This research aims to explore how Pakistani Gen-Z navigates through religious and spiritual inquiries in this digital age, what are the various aspects of their online religious engagement and what are the challenges faced by the traditional religious authorities amidst this paradigm shift. It would also briefly touch upon the subject of religious individuation and evolving spiritual and religious needs of Gen-Z.