"Ta’aruf", pious asceticism, and shared meaning-making in Islamic YouTube web series

Islamic web series have recently become a notable cultural phenomenon in Indonesia. Unlike mainstream Islamic films, most Islamic web series are created by Muslim youth communities and distributed freely on social media platforms such as YouTube, reflecting a more innovative, grassroots approach to exploring identity. The creators of Islamic web series have greater flexibility in crafting narratives that reflect the experiences of young urban Muslims. Their interactive engagement with audiences, both online and offline, facilitates the collective negotiation and preservation of religious values through digital media. One of the recurring themes in these series is ta’aruf, the Islamic practice of pre-marital acquaintance, which is frequently depicted as a contrast to the westernized dating culture. The ta’aruf process is characterized by its business-like nature, with young individuals exchanging CVs and conducting interviews about their marriage intentions in the presence of family members, seemingly undermining the significance of love as a fundamental aspect of marriage. However, the audiences of the web series do not accept it uncritically. They negotiate and adapt it to fit their own social contexts and experiences instead. This article explores how ta’aruf, as represented in Islamic web series, has become a site for participatory ethics and communal meaning-making about the social patterning of desire among Muslim youths. Through in-depth interviews with web series creators and audiences, plus textual analysis of supplementary materials such as books and anthologies, I argue that ta’aruf narratives in Islamic web series shape the discourse of contemporary public Islam by promoting the lifestyle of pious asceticism among young Muslims. It has become dynamic cultural commons that reflects the negotiation of piety and gender roles in contemporary Indonesia.