The team used netnography, a qualitative method that adapts ethnographic fieldwork to online communities, to observe how Sufi teachings circulate on the platform. Between November 2023 and February 2024, the researchers manually reviewed content from ten influential Sufism-focused TikTok accounts, selected through purposive sampling based on strict engagement thresholds: each account needed at least 10,000 followers, thousands of likes, between 10,000 and 3 million viewers, more than 1,000 shares and at least 100 comments. From these accounts, the team identified the five most-viewed videos each, producing a dataset of 50 videos. They also extracted the five most relevant and shared comments from every video, yielding 250 audience comments that were analysed thematically to understand how viewers interpreted what they watched.

The technical analysis revealed a striking asymmetry between what audiences watch and what they internalise. Philosophical Sufism, or tasawuf falsafi, which explores metaphysical questions about God, existence and the soul through intellectual contemplation and allegorical symbolism, dominated visibility: 58 percent of the most-viewed videos fell into this category, and 69 percent of those centred on the rationalisation of metaphysical matters such as longing for God and the nature of divine closeness. Ethical Sufism, or tasawuf akhlaqi, which emphasises moral behaviour and character development, accounted for the remaining 42 percent. Yet when the researchers examined the comment sections, the deepest personal transformations clustered around ethical content, suggesting that abstract, visually arresting material travels furthest through the platform’s recommendation systems while concrete, practice-oriented messages penetrate more deeply into viewers’ lives.

The authors interpret this split through the Elaboration Likelihood Model, a well-established framework in persuasion psychology that distinguishes between peripheral and central routes of information processing. Philosophical Sufism content, packaged with evocative visuals, music and atmospheric scenes, captures attention through the peripheral route, generating high exposure and shares without necessarily prompting deep cognitive engagement. Ethical Sufism, by contrast, delivers actionable moral guidance that viewers process through the central route, producing stronger interpretation and internalisation. The finding carries a broader implication for digital religion research: what gains prominence on an algorithmic platform does not necessarily correspond to what proves most meaningful for users, pointing to a layered process of religious mediation in which visibility and impact follow different logics.

The content itself draws on a rich multimedia toolkit rooted in Sufi tradition. The videos incorporate background music, instrumental passages, dhikr chants and shalawat, the devotional venerations of the Prophet Muhammad, echoing the classical practice of as-sama, or spiritual listening, through which Sufis have long used music to cultivate closeness to God. Visual elements include illustrations, quotations from canonical figures such as Jalaluddin Rumi and Imam Al-Ghazali, and the expressive gestures and facial expressions of contemporary preachers. Viewers cited four main reasons for engaging with the content: the reputation of the scholarly figure, the topic discussed, the style of delivery and the richness of the media features. Notably, although Indonesian scholars appeared more frequently among the referenced sources, videos featuring internationally recognised figures such as Rumi averaged roughly 2.5 million views compared with about 478,000 for videos featuring local scholars, a fivefold engagement gap that underscores the global pull of the tradition’s most famous names.

The study also mapped the content against the classical Sufi taxonomy of maqamat, the spiritual stages a seeker pursues, and ahwal, the spiritual states received as gifts. Ma’rifah, or experiential knowledge of God, was the most represented stage at 22.6 percent of coded content, followed by mahabbah, deep love, at 16.1 percent and tawakkal, trust in God, at 14.5 percent. Among the states viewers reported encountering, muqarabah, the feeling of closeness to God, dominated at 21.3 percent. Perhaps most telling was what was missing: taubah, or repentance, traditionally regarded as the essential first step of the Sufi path, appeared in only 4.8 percent of the content, while faqr, the ascetic embrace of poverty, was entirely absent. TikTok audiences, the data suggest, are drawn to advanced contemplative themes and skip the foundational, renunciatory stages that classical pedagogy treats as prerequisites.

The effects on viewers were measurable in their own words. Among the 250 analysed comments, 46 percent described increased self-awareness and moral self-improvement, with viewers reporting efforts to manage anger, cultivate patience and seek forgiveness, patterns the researchers link to the classical stage of taubah. Another 16 percent described an uplift in faith, with several commenters saying the algorithm had surfaced Sufi content unexpectedly and that they read the encounter as a divine reminder rather than a deliberate search. A further 26 percent of comments described sharia-oriented changes, including adopting modest dress and prioritising simplicity and health over the pursuit of wealth. The researchers treated these disclosures with unusual ethical care: because religious self-disclosure constitutes sensitive personal data under GDPR-style frameworks, all commenter quotations were rephrased into non-searchable indirect speech and decoupled from the accounts and videos that could identify them, while the ten public-facing creator accounts were cited openly in line with internet research ethics guidelines.

The findings also document a structural shift in how religious authority operates. Traditionally, a salik, or seeker, would study under a murshid, a spiritual mentor within a tariqa, or Sufi order, receiving instruction through direct, closed-door transmission. Knowledge such as ma’rifah was once considered a secret science taught privately in zawiyah, the Sufi lodges. TikTok has effectively democratised this hierarchy: anyone with an internet connection can now access a wide range of Sufi wisdom, and the study argues that religious authority on the platform is increasingly negotiated through visibility, relatability and audience interaction rather than anchored solely in institutional lineage. This decentralisation carries risks the authors acknowledge candidly. Not all circulating content comes from authentic sources, misinterpretation and distortion of traditional teachings are genuine dangers, and self-directed online learning could leave followers with less structured knowledge than previous generations acquired under mentorship.

There is also a sociological dimension to the phenomenon. The researchers frame TikTok-mediated Sufism as a response to what scholars of religion call the spiritual void, the sense of emptiness and alienation that accompanies modern urban life. Contemporary Sufi centres in large cities have already opened their doors to people of all theological backgrounds, offering meditation instruction and cultural events, and the platform extends that inclusivity further, drawing viewers who identify simply as ordinary Muslims with no tariqa affiliation at all. Where seekers once retreated to caves and forests for contemplation, users now create private spiritual moments with earphones and a smartphone, immersing themselves in guided reflection within their own rooms. Sufism, the study concludes, has shifted from an exclusive esoteric practice toward a form of mental therapy and everyday guidance, functioning as an internal navigation system for people who are materially successful yet spiritually restless.

The authors caution that their netnographic design, limited to 50 videos from ten accounts on a single platform, cannot support statistical generalisation, and they recommend comparative studies across Instagram, YouTube and other services, mixed-methods work on user motivations, and critical examination of simplification and commodification in algorithm-driven religious spaces. But the core message stands: TikTok is not merely a pipe through which Sufi teachings flow. Its algorithmic circulation, short-form format and multimodal features actively reshape how those teachings are produced, experienced and legitimised, making the platform a constitutive environment for religious meaning in the digital age. A tradition that once guarded its deepest knowledge behind closed doors has learned to speak in fifteen-second bursts, and millions are listening.

Subject of Research: The mediation and digital spread of Sufi values through TikTok short-form video content

Article Title: Sufi values on TikTok: Social media usage and its implications for the digital spread of Sufism

Article References: Wajdi, F., Fatimah, A. N., Effendi, M. R., & Amaliyah (2026). Sufi values on TikTok: Social media usage and its implications for the digital spread of Sufism. Heliyon, 12(15), Article e45518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2026.e45518

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2026.e45518

Keywords: Sufism, TikTok, digital religion, netnography, social media, Islamic spirituality, religious authority, short-form video, thematic analysis, maqamat and ahwal, ethical Sufism, philosophical Sufism